Light cut through the windows of the motel room and I groggily opened my eyes. Derek slept on one side and twilight on the other. I let out a soft moan and woke up to the morning light. I looked over to a digital clock on the nightstand which said 12:36. It was half pat noon and the sun was high up in the sky. I moaned and started to shake both twilight and Derek.
"Hey...Hey!" I said lazily shaking them. They both moaned and slowly started waking up. "Wake up you two...its noon... We've got things to do."
"Ugh...five more minutes..." Said Derek.
"Mmmm...Crimson, come back to bed..." Said twilight making a bit confused. That was an odd thing to just blurt out, but looking at her face I could see that she was still asleep, she must have said something in her dreams. Although I'm a bit uneasy about the fact that she wants me to come back to bed with her...though, recently, I'm beginning to see twilights true feelings. Ugh, this whole thing is a wreck and I know it, there no way that all of this is going to end well, the most I can hope for is that I can make amends for everything.
"HEY!" I shouted practically shoving the both of them right off the bed. "Wake up already." Shoving them like I did, they both shot to life and twilight seemed a bit startled to be immediately woken from her dream.
"Ah...what?" She said looking around confused. "Oh...I forgot." She said looking around and then at her own body. She stared at herself with hollow eyes, and I could see it, so I snapped her out of it.
"Hey..." I said touching her shoulder a little and standing up.
"C'mon... We don't have time to waste..." I said. "Both of you...let's go."
"Were not even going to wash up or anything?" Said Derek rubbing his eyes.
"C'mon...we're so close." I said. "We have to push through...when were this close we can't just give up."
"How do you even know that the portal is where you think it is?" Asked Derek. "And even then... How do you know we won't just get spit out into another world...? What if there end up being hundreds of worlds before we even get to this place."
"I didn't want to admit it...but he's right..." Said twilight. "Crimson, I've been starting to question your reasoning lately." She said nervously.
"What do you mean question me?" I asked slightly offended by the remark and showing it too.
"Well...you used to be a really humble guy... But now... You seem a lot angrier than you used to be. I remember a few years back, you used to be a really nice guy, after you finally got rid of that demon... You used to be so kind... But...now it's like you're back to the way you are." She said.
"Twilight...I know I'm right." I said trying my best to convince them. "I don't know how to explain it... But I just know. It's like he's telling me where to go... He wants me to find him..."
"I know but..."
"It's not about rainbow dash anymore..." I said snapping at twilight and cutting her off. "It's about me...I'm the one he wants, not her..." She looked at me with hollow eyes and the atmosphere in the room grew quiet and awkward. I started to calm down after snapping at her and let out a sigh. "Twilight...trust me... I promise."
"Okay crimson..." She said looking at me. "I'll trust you...one last time." She said staring straight into my soul. "We should go...and we should be quick too." She said.
"Wait...were not even going to eat anything?" Asked Derek.
"We can stop at someplace and grab something to go." I said. "C'mon... According to the map we got, there an army base posted not too far from here that can let us past the border. From there my hometown isn't too far. If we hurry we could make it to my home by tomorrow.
So we headed out, on the last leg of our journey. We stopped at a convenience store and grabbed something quick to eat as well as a few things for us to take with us. The only thing that I brought with us is money, and a backpack which I had put in a bunch of food supplies. I mostly bought energy drinks and a bunch of bags of chips or other long lasting foods. Once we got our supplies we tried looking for somebody to take us to the base, but there wasn't anybody who would. So we made our own way there. As we made our way there we could see large walls that encircled the whole state or Arizona. Having to walk there wasn't one of the better solutions because it took us a few hours before I could see the barbed wire fences and a military checkpoint just up ahead.
"You three...stop!" Shouted one of the guards at the front gate when we got too close, well...more like when he spotted us a few meters away from the gate. "Put your hands up in the air..." He said pointing his gun at the three of us. We did what he asked and raised our arms. Two other guards came out from an outpost between the gates which acted as a passing point for cars and trucks to pass through with clearance. The two other soldiers walked over with their guns pointed at us and the first soldier came over. They surrounded us and twilight looked a bit nervous.
"You there...drop the bag." Said one of them pointing a gun at me. I did as he asked and dropped the bag on the ground. He opened it up and started riffling through it.
"What are you doing here...?" Asked the guard as the other two frisked the three of us.
"We've got military clearance...let us through." I said.
"It better be some pretty damn good clearance." Said one of the guards.
"My cards in my wallet." I said. "Left front pocket." One of the guards reached into my pocket and pulled out my wallet. He opened it up and took out the clearance card. He looked over it and his eyes widened.
"C-commander Alex Wesson, black ops, and navy seals specialty unit, alpha team..." He said reading the card. "F-five star clearance..." He said looking at me. He wasn't some normal grunt, I could tell because his uniform was a little more colorful than the other two. He knew what I was now...and he instantly started regretting pointing a gun at me.
"Five star clearance...is that supposed to be good?" Asked one of the grunts.
"Idiot..." Said the soldier punching him in the arm. "He could nuke this entire town and get away scot free." He said he immediately went into a salute position. The other two copied him and saluted. I grabbed my bag and my wallet and looked at them.
"This is always my favorite part..." Said Derek.
"Who's in charge of this military outpost?" I asked them.
"General Greene..." Said one of the soldiers.
"Take me to him..." I said.
"Yes sir!" He said. "You... Inform the general..." He said pointing to one of the soldiers who gave a quick salute before sprinting off into the base. "Follow me sir!" He said turning around and walking off. We followed right behind him and he took us into the base. Once we were inside it wasn't much different from area fifty one...but with less technology. It had a barracks, a mess hall, training grounds and. firing range with an armory. There were soldiers wearing their casual gear and walking around and looking at us. We made our way and stopped right at a door. Before the soldier we were following could knock there was a loud shouting coming from behind the door.
"WHAT!" Shouted a voice. "What the hell are black ops doing here!?" He asked surprisingly.
"Sir, I don't know sir!" Said a soldier on the other end. The soldier we followed knocked on the door and there was another shouting on the other end as he opened the door into the command room.
"WHAT IS IT SOLDIER?!" Shouted the voice, which I'm guessing is the General.
"Uhm...Alex Wesson...sir..." He said as I walked in past him with twilight and Derek behind me. I looked around the room and it was a fully fledged command center. There was a 3D map of Arizona in the center of the room and a lot of computers and monitoring equipment. Then I looked at the general. An older man with a well decorated uniform. He wore a general's hat which covered his thin white hair and he had a thick white mustache and beard combo. He had a nasty looking scar running cross his left cheek; it looks like he was grazed by. Bullet or something... Well, probably a little more than grazed.
"This?!...this is black ops... You look more like tourists." He said obviously very angry. His face was a faint red and he had a win pulsing on his forehead. It was kinda funny, but I didn't feel like laughing.
"Evening general..." I said.
"What is black ops doing here?" He asked. "There's nothing going wrong on the end."
"Oh...I don't care about that stuff." I said looking around some more.
"Y-you don't?" Asked one of the soldiers under his breath, but I could hear.
"No... I don't really." I said looking t him which surprised him greatly. "I need to pass through into the wasteland..."
"There isn't a gate here...you'll have to look somewhere else." Said the general acting more calmly now and putting his hands behind his back. It was at that moment that I knew he was lying. People's moods don't just change instantly like that, Lu's I could see the 3D map on the table which was just a holographic projection of the surrounding area. Above the base we were ate there was a box that said. "Gate B Military Base."
"You sure about that...?" I asked. "There isn't a gate at the Gate three military base..." I said smiling and blatantly making it obvious that I was reading the text on the map. "You're absolutely sure?"
"Well... We can't open the gate anyway...there was an accident on the other end and now the controls are jammed...we've had technicians working on it for some time, but little progress he been made."
"Take me to the gate..." I said. This time I knew he was telling the truth.
"Fine...take them there." He said to another soldier. The soldier obeyed and took us to the gate. The gate was ultimately a large set of thick metal doors in the wall. He walked us over and there was a girl there who was wearing a greasy jumpsuit and goggles with a tool belt full of deadly looking tools. She wiped the sweat from her brow and looked over at us.
"Hey!" She shouted walking over. "Andy...who the hell are these clowns...?"
"Ah...uhm, Sarah...this is Alex Wesson... And...Uh, friends... They're black ops." He said nervously. She looked at me and I looked at her and smiled. She looked at us judgmentally and gave me a glare.
"Hello..." I said. "Are you by any chance the mechanic working on the gate?" I asked.
"Yeah...and so?" She said.
"Can you bring me up to speed on the progress and condition of the gate?" I asked. She kept giving me a bad look but then shrugged.
"Sure...follow me." She said.
"You two stay here..." I said to twilight and Derek as I followed Sarah to a technician's panel that was open by the gate. Around it were multiple tools and supplies scattered around the ground.
"One of those mutated freaks on the other end wrecked the console pretty badly trying to get after one of our scouting teams." She said. "Some of those freaks out there like to explode when they get all fussy like that."
"They explode?" I said.
"Yep... Big time too... This one practically punched a hole right through the wall." She said. "They had to fix it up and replace the whole panel. I did the replacements myself and it should be good as new, but it doesn't work. As you can see I've stripped the layer of wall here right up to the door mechanism right here trying to see if there was anything that was frazzled... But I couldn't find anything." She said.
"Hmm..." I said looking at the wall. It was stripped down and there were wires and metal braces running up to the door mechanism which was a larger turning piston. I looked around it and looked up the wall. I saw a few wires that ran up to the higher part of the door but the wall hadn't been stripped away in this place. As I looked up, towards the top I noticed there was a barely noticeable crack in the wall.
"Hmm...What about up there...?" I asked pointing to the upper half of the door.
"Oh, there's no way anything could be wrong up there." She said. These things have an very tight explosion radius, but it's one hell of a bang when they pop... There no way it could have reached up there; we even checked that and replaced all of the damaged wall...which I stops here." She said pointing to one part of the wall that was obviously fresh.
"Hmm...Get me a ladder and a hammer." I said. "I just wanna see something."
"You better not hurt anything..." She said. "This door is my baby and I look after her." She said.
"Don't worry...I'm just checking." I said. "If I'm wrong, I'll re plaster the wall myself." I said walking over to a ladder leaning up against the wall. I moved it over under the crack and looked around.
"Here...use this..." She said giving up and handing me a hammer from her belt. The thing was like a freaking mini sledgehammer. "If your gonna bust stuff up... Use this."
"Alrighty then..." I said making my way up the ladder. I climbed up and up and stopped when I was right in front of the crack. My suspicion from before was correct. I had felt a magical presence from behind this crack, an now that I'm here I can feel it even more, it's only slight, but if can still feel it. I raised my hand and hit the wall with the hammer and pieces of it broke away. To my surprise once chunks of the wall fell away, they didn't reveal wires...but a face. Seeing the face nearly made me freak and fall off the ladder, but I kept my composure. It was a warped face, melted skin, hollow eyes; it looked like a skull covered in a layer of burnt skin. It eyes glowed a eerie purple; it was definitely infused with magic. I hammered away more and saw that despite being severed from the body, the head was still alive. I t growled at me and moaned. I could see that it had been chewing on some of the wires, the ones it could reach that it. I brought my hand forward and when I got close it tried biting me, but since it can only move its jaw, it couldn't turn to bite my hand. "I found your problem..."
"No shit?"Said Sarah seeming kinda surprised.
"Hey...what's going on here?" Asked a guy with slick blonde hair and the same jumpsuit walking up to Sarah. He must be a mechanic too.
"Our little friend in the black ops says he figured out our door problems." She said. They both shared a little laugh and I reached my hand in and grabbed the head and pulled it out of the wall. The head tried biting me over and over, but was powerless to do so.
"Here catch..." I said tossing it down at Sarah.
"Huh?" She said as she caught the head in her hands. She looked at it with a confused look and it growled at her. She let out a girly scream and threw the head. It fell to the ground and kept growling. "What the hell?!" She shouted. I couldn't help but start laughing a little as I climbed down the ladder.
"How the hell did that get up there anyway?" I asked pointing up to the hole. "I thought you said these things explode or something."
"Well...these mutant freaks have bones as hard a steel... So when it exploded it could have launched the head into the wall." Said the other mechanic.
"He was chewing on some wires up there...I figure that's your problem." I said.
"A few wires? Child's play, I'll have that fixed in a matter of minutes..." Said Sarah. "John grab my welder..." Sarah yelled. I assumed john was the other mechanic who wasn't more than five feet from her when she yelled at him. He ran off and grabbed an arch welder and ran back to her. She took it, and placed her goggles over her eyes, which were tinted, and climbed up the ladder to begin working.
"Ew...what the heck is that?" Said twilight walking over and standing next to the head on the ground which gurgled and tried to bite her. The other mechanic walked over and grabbed the head off the ground with his big leather gloves.
"I'll go throw this thing in the incinerator..." He said walking off. Sarah had already started ascending the ladder with a blow torch and mask and began to weld the wires together. I walked back over and joined Derek and twilight.
"They should be done soon." I said to them. Derek gave me a satisfied look, but twilight gave me a different look. The expression on her face was very discerning and reminded me of what she had said earlier... Making me feel slightly uneasy.
"What's going on out here?" Asked a familiar voice as the base general began storming out into the courtyard where we all stood.
Ah...general!" Said the other engineer returning from a small building and going into a salute. Sarah had noticed and hopped down from the ladder and saluted as well.
"Sir...we've found the solution to the door mechanism..." She said obediently.
"Well it's about god damn time." He said. "So...how'd you find it out?"
"Well...sir, it was...uhm... Our guest who figured it out." She said. I smiled at the general who glared at me and then sighed.
"I just got off the phone with Area 51 and they talked up one hell of a storm. They had a lot to say about our guest and his friends here...and apparently, and I hate to admit this, he doesn't even need permission to pass through this gate, his card checks out, he's got five star clearance." He said.
"Well I'll be damned..." Said the second engineer.
"The doors fixed now, anyway... We can open it whenever."
"Alright... It's most likely best if we head off ASAP." I said looking back to twilight and Derek for a look of agreement which I got from both of them.
"That's probably best..." Said twilight.
"Right...let's get these doors open." Said Sarah walking over to the control panel for the doors. She hit a couple of butting and there was a metal grinding noise that cut through the air. The large metal doors started opening up but only just slightly. Guard kept their rifles targeted on the door just in case something tried getting through. We walked up the door and looked through. "Good luck...you'll need it." Said Sarah as we started to make our way through. Once we were on the other side the doors closed behind us and came to a grinding halt and then there was silence. They were probably happy to see us go. I looked around and I started to get a good feel for the landscape before we started heading out.
The landscape was torn. There were patches of dried up plants and some fresh stuff that was trying to grow over the landscape. There were places where there were tree's that had been burnt down, uprooted, or destroyed. Some charred trees still loomed over everything. The landscape was an amber color, like sand, like a dry desert. The large wall fell below the landscape as it traveled the horizon. There was a road that we were standing on which was cracked and broken, it lead to a town which looked destroyed and burnt. Across the whole wasteland not a single moving thing could be seen. A brisk wind blew through the air and sent a chill down my spine. The whole place was a wasteland, full of nothingness.
"Should we have come here unarmed?" Asked Derek.
"We're not completely unarmed..." I said holding up my hand and a sparkling sword of light formed in my hand and I gripped it tight. "We've got magic...nobody will see...it should be fine."
"Oh yeah...that's right..." Said twilight holding her hands up which then glowed and flickered with purple energy. Derek did the same and the energy in his hands was blue.
"So where are we going?" Asked Derek.
"A small town not far from here..." I said.
"That one?" Asked twilight pointing to the small town in the distance.
"No...It's past that... Not too far from the city." I said. "We should cover as much ground as we can and find some kind of safe place to rest for the night."
"They did say there were mutants out in the wastes." Said twilight. "But I can't see any."
"They might like dark places, or travel in packs...or something. I don't know..." I said. "We'll learn as we go...that's what we've been doing." I said.
"True...c'mon, we should go... We've been burning too much daylight." Said Derek. So with that we started to head out. We followed the road and started making our way towards the destroyed town. The sun was high up in the sky and the air was thick. Walking around I could tell that there was definitely magic radiating from the ground and everything. It was like everything was soaked in radiation, but instead it's magic. We began growing closer to the town and just ahead was a sign for the town. It read "Welcome To: Whitinsville".
"Have you ever been here?" Asked Derek.
"Not often enough..." I said. "Haven't visited enough, or recently enough to really remember everything about the town. I do know that if we keep following route 120 we'll eventually we'll make it to Middleton."
"Is that the town you lived in?" Asked twilight.
"Yeah..." Is aid giving her a stern answer? We approached the town and we soon found ourselves walking past destroyed cars and burnt down homes. The paint of the houses was chipped away, windows were shattered and curtains torn. Dead grass covered the ground and rotted and burnt trees loomed over the cracked ground. A worn bike rested against the side of a house with an equally worn helmet hanging from the handlebars. It was an overwhelming reminder that even kids, children, even newborn infants were caught in something horrible like this, and an even more overwhelming thought occurred... It was all my fault. I tried not to think about it, but it was true. I was the first one to walk through that gate, and when I did it melted down. I tried thinking whether or not it would have melted down if somebody else went in, or if it was just me.
Suddenly though, a brief signal inside my head caused me to immediately stop thinking. I only noticed it for a second but when I tried focusing on it I finally managed to pinpoint it. I felt a magical presence, inside of a house to our left. It was a yellow house with two broken cars in the driveway. I stopped immediately at the front of the house and focused trying to get a more accurate sense of where it was. Twilight and Derek had been talking but both stopped not too long after I did when they noticed I was no longer following right behind them. They both walked over as I continued focusing. There was more than just a single presence, there were several, I could count at least five...but there could be more.
"What is it Alex?" Asked twilight.
"I can sense several presences inside. I held up my sword ready to fight and the white blade glistened in the sun. I kept it held tightly in my hand and started to slowly make my way up to the front door of the building. "You two stay here...I'll check it out." I said motioning my hand, telling them to stop.
"Be careful." Said twilight. I walked up to the door and placed my ear to it. I could hear rustling and the clanging of metal on the other side of the door. I slowly reached for the doorknob to open it up. I placed my hand on the knob and a sudden volt of electricity jumped from the knob to me' chocking my whole left hand. I yelped in pain and jumped back shaking my hand in the air letting the nerves settle from the shock. Then, suddenly something came from the other side of the door, something I didn't expect... A voice.
"You damn raiders stay away you hear?" Said a man's voice from the other side. He was trying to be aggressive, but his voice was trembling, he was afraid. "We've got guns... I'm not afraid to blow you all away."
"Raiders...?" I said softly to myself. Now that I think about it, something like that might be possible. Gangs of people greedy enough to form groups and attack innocents and hoard supplies just to survive...it makes sense. "We're not raiders, we're military..." I said.
"Even worse...you're just gonna drag us away and do freaky experiments on us." Said the voice on the other side.
"What? No... We're not that kind of military... We don't want to hurt you..." I said.
"Alex..." Said twilight stealing my attention. "It's getting dark." She said. I looked up and it was indeed starting to get dark as the sun was beginning to set over the large walls on the horizon.
"It's getting dark..." I said banging on the door getting their attention. "Can we take refuge here for the night?" I asked.
"No...There's no room. And there's not enough food." Said the man. "I don't care what you is, but you better get out before it gets dark and them mutant freaks go prowling the roads." He said.
"C'mon... We better go..." I said turning back and forgetting about the people in the house. I made my way across the street and twilight and Derek followed. I quickly rushed over to the house across the street and tried the door...locked. I figured that these things must like dark places, so I was worried that they might be in a house like this, but if it's locked then that probably means there aren't any inside, unless there were people in there before...I still need to be cautious. I lifted up my foot and kicked the door in. The door broke open and hit the wall as it violently swung open. I held my sword in front of me and stayed alert, though I couldn't feel any presences.
"Are we taking refuge here?" Asked twilight.
"Yeah...keep a look out for anything." I said.
"I hope there aren't any of those things in here..." She's aid staying close behind me, I held up my left hand and a ball of incandescent light began to glow in my palm. I looked around and the ball of light illuminated the house well. The house was dusty, and old furniture sat covered in a grey layer. Everything was deadly silent, and the windows were boarded up. That made it apparent that somebody must have been in here after the fallout.
"Hello?!" I called out into the house. Once we were all in I close the door, placed the ball of light in front of us, letting it float in the air, and started blocking the broken door. There was a large cabinet next to the doorway which I moved into place right in front of the door. Twilight went left into the kitchen and Derek went right, into the living room. And I went upstairs. As I started making my way up the stairs a sudden smell began to fill the air, it was a terrible odor. It didn't take me long to realize what that smell was, it was the smell if death. I focused harder but there weren't any presences. As I walked up into the top floor I followed the smell into a large bedroom across the hall. I walked in and found the cause of the smell.
In the large room, right across from a dust covered bed and end table, was a large window, still open, which overlooked the whole road, it was a rather grand view. Just under the window, slumped up against the wall, was a decomposing corpse of a man. I held my ball of light in my hands and knelt down beside him, the smell was atrocious, but I had grown used to it by now. He seemed like a middle aged man, and from looking at his body, it didn't seem like he was attacked or shot or anything. He probably died of starvation then. Next to him was a scoped rifle, it was an MSR, bolt action... And with it a box of bullets. He must have been defending something here. There's probably a story to all of this, and I wish I knew it, but just looking at his body isn't going to tell me much. I figured that the rifle might make a better weapon than the sword. So I picked it up and held it in my hands. It had been such a long time since I've used a weapon like this, it felt...natural, like I haven't forgotten a thing. I ejected the clip...full. There were three boxes of heavy caliber shells next to him, each was full. He never fired a single shot from the rifle.
The clip of this gun holds seven shots; the boxes of bullets have three mags worth of bullets each. Three boxes, times three, times seven, is forty nine...forty nine shots. On the man were two extra clips...both full. Forty nine plus fourteen is sixty one...sixty one shots. I took the rifle and slung it over my shoulder and took the boxes of ammo and put them in an easy open bag in my backpack. I put the two extra mags in my pockets and knelt down again by the man. My examination of him was quick, but then I saw something else. In his right hand was a handgun. I grabbed it from his hand and ejected the clip. Almost full... There was only a single bullet missing. I didn't even need to check the side of his skull to know what happened here. It's strange that there isn't any blood on the walls. That leaves a few questions.
"Hey Alex...did you find anything?" Asked twilight shouting from down the stairs. I heard a few footsteps and then they stopped for a moment. "Oh god, what is that smell?" Said twilight down the hall.
"That's the smell of death..." I could hear Derek say. "Alex...how many?"
"Just one... A man... Shot himself in the head." I said standing up and looking down at the body. I made the sign of the cross and turned to head out the door. "He did leave us with some nice things though." I said walking out and turning the corner to go down the stairs. It didn't take long for Derek to notice the rifle strung over my back.
"Is it well loaded?" He asked as I joined him and twilight on the first floor.
"Fully..." I said. "Plus two extra clips, and three boxes of ammo...he never fired a single shot from this gun." I said reaching into my hand and pulling out the handgun. "But, there's a bullet missing from this one."
"Oh..." Said Derek. I know twilight doesn't know much about guns and such, but even she could understand the situation, you could see it on her face. "Here...I'll take that, maybe there's some ammo or other guns around the house."
"We should probably use weapons other than magic and swords... Since there are survivors in this place, it might be a bit better.
"I found these in the kitchen... They're flashlights...right?" Asked twilight holding up two flashlights. I was a bit surprised she found those.
"Thanks twi... These will be of use..." I said grabbing one and making sure it worked. I hit the switch and the flashlight flicked on. "Let's search the house for anything useful..." I said. "If we split up we can cover some more ground." I said. "It's not a big house so it shouldn't take long.
"There's a doorway to a cellar in the kitchen... But... I'm too scared to go down it." Said twilight.
"Hmm... There should be some useful weapons down there." I said. "Alright...you two search up here, and I'll look downstairs and bring up whatever I can find." I said. "The upstairs smells horrible and chances are there might not be much up there. And out of respect for the dead, we shouldn't go up there anyway."
"Sounds good." Said Derek.
"Alright... Where's the basement?" I asked.
"Over here..." Said twilight leading my into the kitchen. There was a door on the wall which was slightly ajar. I opened it up and looked down into the cellar. The door opened up into a trail of tiaras which sunk into complete darkness after only the second step. I'm certain that the electricity doesn't work, so I shone my light down and started making my way down the stairs. The stairs were just flimsy wooden planks. I kept the door open and made my way down. I walked around slowly making sure I don't fall or step on something. Luckily there's no strange noises or smells coming from the basement, so I think it's clear. I stepped onto the cold concrete ground of the basement and started shining my flashlight around.
From what I could see there was nothing but a bunch of boxes, and piles of wood. There were told too like table saws, jointers, band saws, drill presses, it was a complete woodworking shop. Lots of planks sprawled over the place with an it compressor in the corner net to a pile of wood. Boxes littered the floor and to the right was a bunch if exorcise equipment, bench press station, dumbbells, barbells, kettle bells... All kinds of equipment. Across from the equipment was a large cabinet which nearly reached the ceiling. I walked over and looked at it, it looks like a gun cabinet, and it could be where the rifle and pistol came from. I noticed that there was a lock lying sprawled on the ground at the foot of the cabinet, meaning it use to be locket. I opened it up and shine my gun inside. It was seemingly empty. Against the wall of the cabinet were hooks and outlines where weapons went. There was the outline of the rifle and the pistol next to it. But there was another outline, but no gun to fill the space.
It looked to be a shotgun, though I can't tell which kind room the looks of it, probably a more modern one like a KSG or a SPAS12. I noticed a metal bar running across the top just bellow a smaller compartment up above. There was an army uniform hanging from the metal bar. Whoever lived here must have served, it would explain the firearms in his house, though I doubt he would have the classification to handle plasma weaponry like I used to. I ignored the uniform and took a look at the top shelf. It was just a little higher than me and it was hard to see what was up there. I looked around and found a sturdy looking box and put it in position. I got up on the box and looked to find even more ammo. Two boxes of rounds for that pistol as well as a second clip, empty. One box was half empty. The other was completely unopened. I put the ammo in my bag and the clip in my pocket. I got down off the box and looked down to see a metal drawer that slides out from underneath the cabinet. Might be more ammo.
As I slid open the drawer I could hear the clanging of metal and plastic inside telling me that it was full of stuff, sounded like boxes of ammo. I opened it up and shined my flashlight inside and searched. The drawer was; in fact, full of more bullets, but they were 12 gauge shotgun shells. Seeing as how there's no shotgun I was questioning whether or not I should bother with them. I figured that I should take them anyway, since they aren't heavy at all, they might come in handy later on. Also inside the drawer, to my surprise, were a couple of standard issue military hand grenades, two vicious looking combat knives, flash bangs, and sets of tools which looked like they would be used to break into a house...or torture somebody... whichever. I took one of the knives, still in its sheath, and hooked the sheath onto my belt, just in case my gun should fail me, or an enemy gets too close. I was questioning whether or not I should take the grenades and flash bangs, but I figured that would probably cause both trouble and noise... So I decided against it.
Also inside of the drawer was a muzzle, a silencer. I picked it up and figured it would be useful, until I shone my light on it and noticed it had been cracked and chipped from years of use. No wonder it wasn't on the rifle to begin with. Using a broken silencer is not only ineffective but also dangerous. I put the muzzle back and left the gun cabinet as it was and walked over to the workshop area. The whole place was covered in sawdust and smelt of lumber. I looked around and saw that the wall in front of me was holding all kinds of different tools and... Possible weapons. I shone my light at the wall and looked around. There were many kinds of power tools, like drills and handsaws, which were out of the question. Lots of squares, rulers, tape measures, mallets, hammers, and saws. Things like says and hammers wouldn't work too well. Since these things are supposed to have really thought bones blunt weapons won't work well. They might work against some of the more, unfriendly, survivors that we meet, but the chances that those people have guns is pretty high... So probably not.
I kept looking around but there wasn't much, just hand saws, hammers, and measuring tools. There were plenty of industrial class machines down here used for woodworking, but those don't make for good weapons. As I looked around I started to admit to myself that there most likely aren't any weapons down here. If I could figure out where that shotgun was, that could be a real plus. A shotgun would be a huge advantage against any of the mutated people out there who probably rely on hand to hand combat. A shotgun would be a devastation weapon, my only question is; where could it have possibly gone? There were tons of cardboard or plastic storage boxes lying around, but if don't think I'll find much of anything useful going through those, but I might as well give it a try. So I started going through the boxes, only opening them up just to check what was inside. There's a good chance that I'm missing something because it's so dark and my light is limited. It wasn't long until I realized how stupid I was being. I let out a sigh and cast a ball of light in my hand which illuminated the whole room.
I stopped to reflect on my stupidity for a moment before getting back to rummaging through boxes. I was having a hard time finding anything useful. They were mostly full of old memories or clothes. Some had books stored in them which had been damaged by flooding by the looks of them. Other boxes had a bunch of old DVD's and video games with their respective consoles. Some boxes had pictures and old papers; others had decorations for Christmas or Halloween. I went through the boxes, but there was nothing. But I realized, going through these boxes that this doesn't really seem like all of the stuff a military guy living alone would have. He must have had a family, a wife and kid probably judging from some of the magazines in one box. Magazines like people, or even more specifically, woman's health, and all of the video games look like they belong to a kid, or possibly old ones of the dad, or a grown up kids old collection. Whoever used to live here with the man upstairs probably was smart and ran off with that shotgun I've been looking for, unfortunately for them they forgot ammunition which I currently have in my bag. It makes me wonder if they made it far, if they're still alive.
Seeing that there isn't much left here I decided to go back up the stairs. As I Mae my way up I snapped my fingers causing the orb of light to disperse and I walked up into the kitchen. It was a little silent; I didn't see twilight or Derek anywhere. It was now very dark and hard to see. I flicked my flashlight on and looked around for them. It didn't take me long to see them both in the living room standing by one of the boarded up windows. The curtains were parted and they were both staring out of a sizable gap in the boards.
"Did you guys find anything?" I asked softly. I got their attention and twilight gave me a fearful look. "What?"
"Alex...come look." Said Derek motioning me over. I didn't know what he wanted to show me, I didn't know what was so interesting outside, but I walked over anyway and took Derek's spot at the window and looked through. When I looked through I could see the outside world, illuminated by moonlight. Moving through the streets I could see lazy and skinny figures fumbling through the streets. They were the mutants. Their skin burned with magical energy and they would occasionally let out a man or a howl as they marched through the streets. It looked like they were heading towards one place, with a common purpose. I was fearful for a minute that it might be this house, or possibly the one across the street with the others inside, but I settled down when I realized that they didn't even pay attention to either house.
"How long have they been there?" I asked.
"Not long..." Said twilight. "They started fumbling out of the neighboring houses and started marching through the street like this."
"I think they might be heading towards the wall." Said Derek.
"That's a reasonable suggestion." I said. "We should be quiet...lay low." I said. "If we stay quiet, and keep the lights off then I'm sure they won't bother us." I said. Just as I did a light suddenly shot up across the street. There was bright light coming from a window in the house across the street where the other survivors were. The. Another window lit up, and one after another... Bright lights. I don't know how they're making those lights, there's no power...unless. I listened closely and across the street I could hear a rumbling and a growling, it was a generator. The lights blaring through the window cast over the ground. I was worried for a moment that they would attract all of the attention, but then I noticed something curious. Any of the mutants that were caught in that light immediately dashed out of the light with their bodies smoking and sizzling. The others following completely ignored the light, like it was poison.
"Look...they must be allergic to light or something." Said twilight.
"That's great..." I said in a sarcastic manner as I noticed something dire. "But right now the people across the street are pushing the mutants right towards us." I said as I noticed that they were starting to drift into the lawn of the house we were in, getting closer and closer to the door, but still moving forward.
"Crap...quickly...do something." Said Derek. I snapped my fingers and created several shining balls of light that appeared in front of all the windows hinting light through the cracks of the boarded up windows, which didn't help much, but the light shone through and immediately warded off the mutants. Soon they were all back in the middle of the street running past the area between the houses. They were covering themselves with their arms and hands as they ran like they were trying to keep dry from the rain or something.
"Good..." Said twilight letting out a sigh of relief. "So long as the lights stay there we should be fine...right?" She asked looking for somebody to reassure her.
"We should be... Still, it might help if we stay alert though... Why don't we get some rest?" I suggested.
"Yeah...that sounds good." Said Derek. He and twilight both found a place in the living room to sleep. Twilight slept on a couch and Derek rested on a reclining chair. He reclined in the chair and went to sleep, as well as twilight who didn't take long to doze off. I sat against the wall, gun in my hands, keeping watch. I told them I would sleep, and I probably might, but I might have a hard time doing so. I was always like this; I was always unable to sleep in these kinds of situations. Even when I was serving I almost never slept when I was in my trench or foxhole, and sometimes it even saved my life or somebody else's. It's not because I was afraid, or nervous, but because my body would refuse to calm down. My body naturally stays alert when the enemy is near. And I'm getting that feeling now, staying on guard, my head filled with every possibility. They might break through the front door, or crash through a window or wall or something. Even though most of them were unlikely I still felt good about playing out the scenarios in my head.
From the way that they so hastily avoided any contact with the lights I figured that they wouldn't dare approach the house. Still I kept on guard, staying alert. But as my mind started to grow restless, and my muscles tired, I started to slowly days off. I reassured myself that nothing would happen just to get some sleep. My eyelids grew heavy and soon I found it difficult to even keep them open at all. Still I heard the sounds around me, but soon those were drowned out and suddenly, and without even realizing it, I had fallen asleep. I was having a pleasant dream, about being back home, with rainbow dash, and everything was happy and peaceful. It made the real world seem like some kind of nightmare.
Not that there's much of a difference between the two...
-Authors Note: The end is Nigh... this is one of the last few installments of the second book of crimsons tales. there's a few more, then the final chapter with the fight at the end. then we get a small cliffhanger (just a small one *hint hint* *wink wink*) which will depict the next book of the series and how its going to play out. ive changed things up a bit with how i want the next book to go, so whatever you know, or whatever ive told you about the next story...disregard that info. so i hope you enjoyed this chapter, be sure to leave a review and message me for any kinds of information or if you want to share ideas. ill be posting the next one tomorrow.
-Stay Shady~