End Boss

by Bryan Nyaude

  “Den, are you still alive?” Dalla asked from the com link.

  “Yeah, somehow, I made it in one piece,” I responded as I sat down, taking a break.

  My legs and arms felt numb, like I had been sat on by a giant terror beast. I felt so tired and hungry, it was gruesome, easy to lie down and sleep. That last explosion had taken everything I had—so fighting at this state was futile. Another loud ominous explosion erupted, the ground trembling violently beneath my weary feet. Things were getting intense with each passing second. Seriously, I was way in over my head. Probably best to make a hasty retreat and wait out the battle.

  “No, you can’t,” that tiny voice in my conscience spoke. “You have come too far to run away now.”

  Crap, that was true. A part of me believed there was something I could still do to end this war, once and for all. It was a chance I had to take; too much was at stake here. If the resistance lost, then earth was next. I couldn’t let that happen, not while I was still alive.

  “You really went overboard on this one,” I said, speaking to Rick through the com link. “I would have been blown to ashes, if I hadn’t seen it coming.”

  “Oh, shut up,” Rick growled back, without hesitation in his voice. “It was your plan, so don’t blame me if it didn’t go the way you intended.”

  True, if there was anyone to blame it was me; I just never imagined it would work this well.

  “Can you guys pick me up from there?” I asked, trying to figure out their location. If our com link line was working this well, then it meant they were close by and within range.

  “Sorry, Den,” Dalla responded back. It was clear that it was a hopeless situation. “You are too far underground and the building is collapsing under, making it hard to descend down there. You have to come to us, somehow.”

  Great! Could things get any worse? I thought of earth and everything being destroyed if what Kristin said was true. How could I possibly stand by and let that happen? Something had to be done to stop that from happening. I picked up my weapons and began to move slowly amongst the rubble, seeking to find my way out. It looked like the entire infrastructure had become unstable because it was shaking randomly as I walked by. Without warning, the roof began to crack all around me like something was crawling above ground. This was not my day, was it? I began to run as fast as I could, ignoring the cruel pain, hoping to find a way up and escape. So far, it looked like all the exits had been sealed off by the explosion, which only made things worse for me. Before the left side of the roof completely collapsed, I jumped onto a broken rail and held on with one arm, while the other clutched onto the weapons bag. One of the guns fell out along with a few grenades, as I struggled to hang on. The more I struggled to climb up, the more the rail bent towards the ground.

  Darn! I stopped moving to think carefully. What could I do? Any sudden movements and I would take a nasty fall. It looked like this was it for real. Maybe, I was going to get fortunate again and somehow survive this mess. The building shook again unruly and one of the blocks broke off, descending down towards my location. It was smashing everything in its path as it fell uncontrollably to the bottom section.

  “Just not my day, is it?” I screamed and began to climb up the rail.

  The weapons bag fell to the ground and I ignored it completely. This was a fight for survival. What good would a bag of weapons do for me if I was dead? With fate on my side, I managed to grab onto something solid before the rail gave out and fell down to the bottomless ground. It appeared bottomless, but I doubted it so much. It was just a few thousand feet deep below, at the most.

  “Oh what am I saying?” I shook my head, awakening myself back to reality.

  There was a rogue building block that was going to crash me within a matter of seconds. I believed that was more important now than anything. As l looked around to see anything I could use to escape, I noticed something—just a bit above me. It was a small tunnel, the size of a drainage pipe. Could I make a break for it and reach it in time? Oh well, there was no other option at this point for me to consider. I began climbing without hesitation, trying to make it up the tunnel before the block fell on top of me. It was a very difficult task, considering I was injured and really out of time.

  “Den, can you hear us?” Rick said through the com link.

  “Now is not the time, Rick,” I replied rudely, out of patience.

  Even one second was precious to me, as I was at a point between life and death again. I don’t know how many more of these encounters I could take. Hopefully, this would be one of the last ones for me. Just as I touched the edge of the tunnel, I pushed myself up with all my might and reached in for the tunnel. Phew! I thought it was over and I had escaped, but I was wrong. Somehow my right foot was scraped narrowly as the large object swooshed past me. It ached terribly like all the mast cells in my body were releasing histamine at the same time, producing inflammation. I wanted to cry, but it was not very manly-like to cry because of a bruised leg. I heard a loud thump as the block smashed on the ground, followed by an earsplitting rumbling, which kept vibrating for a few more seconds.

  “Well, when you make time, I want to tell you something,” Rick hissed at me, in a loud pitched voice. “The outer roof is about to collapse anytime now, and the whole building is going to fall.”

  “Thanks, Rick, for the great news,” I rattled back at him.

  More good news to celebrate, I really didn’t mean that, but I just wanted to scream out for a second and get all this fury out. My leg was hurt and I was in no condition to keep moving, let alone fight. All I needed was at least an hour of rest. But even that came as a difficult choice at the moment, considering where I was. I was responsible for causing all this destruction—so I owed it to myself to try and fix this mess. Unexpectedly, a beeping sound echoed from my heat sensing system. I noticed one of the scanners had picked up some heat signals, radiating from a few yards ahead of me. This was promising; they looked human enough from what the scanners emitted. Ignoring my pain, I crept towards it slowly through the small tunnel. I had no idea what I was thinking, but I felt hopeful. My search was finally coming to an end, or at least I thought. The tunnel ended close to an open shaft that led down. I stopped and looked down carefully. It was too quiet, nothing out of the ordinary. No guards stationed around, thankfully. I waltzed down undetected and searched persistently through the compartments. Someone coughed loudly, definitely a good sign. The cough came from the compartment on the west side of the floor. I walked quickly to it and stopped. A large hunk of metal was blocking the door, making it hard to open from the inside. Prying it away, I opened the hatch seal and walked in quietly. There was some sort of magnetic beam rendering the armor useless. I immediately felt it the moment I entered the room; however, the effects were not as bad, since I was not on the other side, with the other prisoners.

  “Who are you?” one of the men asked, and I recognized him immediately. “Are you here to finish us off? Just get it over and done with already, instead of locking us up in here.”

  It was Corporal Stain, the leading officer in my squad, and one of the experts in Metaphysics. Great! It looked like I had finally found everyone and they were all okay, for the most part.

  “It’s me, Den,” I said and took off my helmet for them to see my face. “Surprised, aren’t you, that I’m still alive?”

  “No way,” the captain commented and his eyes widened, “Peter told us you went rogue and almost killed one of your colleagues. He said he had no choice, but to blast you to ashes.” Typical! That was so like Peter to say something like that. Under different circumstances, I would have died instantly, but I survived.

  “In your faces, everybody,” the lieutenant laughed at them, pointing his fingers at everyone. “I bet on the rookie, and guess what, he survived. Now you owe me money and I intend to collect it soon or none of us are going home.”

  “Oh, shut up, Jack,” the captain sighed, completely annoyed.

  So typical, I would
have been mad, at first, if this was before that unusual dream. Now, just seeing them all in one piece, meant the world to me. My eyes shifted involuntary and suddenly I was staring at Janet, awkwardly. She looked surprised and her eyes almost seemed to glow with a magnificent radiance. Something I hadn’t felt over the years crept in. Did I still have any feelings for her? The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was just my imagination. I had left the past behind me, but still, I felt a bit of relief seeing her alive. “Look away, don’t let her charm affect you.”

  I moved around and scanned the locks sealing them in. Wait! There was someone missing from the group, but I just couldn’t pinpoint who. It was the man who I despised the most, the man who had almost killed me. Where was that arrogant buffoon?

  “Where is Peter?” I asked them as I got closer to the holding cell. A feeling of rage and anger swelled inside of me, but I didn’t let my emotions take over.

  “Let’s just say he is no longer one of us,” the captain said and looked down with a look of betrayal.

  What did he mean? Was Peter dead or something? So much for my sweet revenge.

  “Peter went over to the enemy’s side,” Corporal Stain said, with a voice so low it sounded almost remorseful. “He gave the enemy all our intel and data we gathered from the past few centuries. In other words, he gave us up for invasion.”

  “The enemy knows about our plans and intends to act hastily,” the captain intervened, standing up. “But don’t worry, I sent an SOS signal to earth. Hopefully, reinforcements will come soon.”

  No, I clenched my fist tightly shocked. I knew Peter was a conniving two time, dirty weasel, but not a traitor. He wouldn’t do something this terrible, would he? What did he have to gain by switching over to the other side? There had to be an explanation and the only way to get answers was to find him first. First things first!

  “Save the chat for later,” I said and began looking for the controls. “We have to get out of this place, this building is about to collapse.”

  The trembling had stopped; I could still hear and feel small tremors beneath our feet, alongside with the echoes of battle above us. I glanced down slightly, looking for the release kill switch. Darn, I couldn’t read the controls. They were written in the ancient Rasian language, which had become extinct in the present day earth. Time was critical, and I was a desperate man.

  “Everybody, stand back,” I yelled and smashed the controls with my right hand.

  Sparks rained everywhere, followed by a sudden system failure in the entire compartment. It went dark for a few seconds and then zap—emergency power came on. All of my companions’ armors became functional again, allowing them full access to their offense and defense system.

  “Thanks, Den,” the captain said with a smile and stood up. He put back his head gear and walked towards me. “Everyone get up and follow Den out of this place.”

  Good, it seemed everyone was here except for Peter and two more that were still unaccounted for. Just what was going on here? Why did Peter betray his planet? I wanted to know, but time was not my ally. At any time, the building could plummet. We had to escape somehow before that happened.

  “Dalla, I found them and got everyone out, meet us at the south exit,” I said through the com link. My eyes shifted left and right, scanning to find a safe passage out.

  All of my bearings were off; I had no idea where I was. I paused briefly and typed in some encrypted instructions into my navigational system. Once I was done, I repositioned my com map and began to lead the way towards the south exit. It was the closest to our spot. We had to risk it and go towards it. By my understanding, most of the exits had been blocked by debris falling from the roof; however, there were still some tunnels at the south exit that were not as affected by the explosion.

  “Through here,” I said, showing everyone a tunnel that looked the safe.

  “You are joking, right?” the lieutenant said from his com link that seemed to work now. “We can’t all fit into that tiny little space at the same time. What if the tunnel collapses above us?”

  Too negative, I never thought there was something even the lieutenant feared, and now—I was wrong. He seemed to have a fear of small spaces, just by what he said to me before.

  “Man up,” the captain commented and went first, followed by Stain and two others.

  I went next and the rest followed in a line. He was right, the tunnel was a bit crowded and very small, but for now, it was the only way. We kept going through more series of tunnels and the lieutenant kept complaining every time we passed through them. It was a bit annoying because his comments kept making everyone nervous, especially me of all people. He had the wildest imagination, and in each of them, a different scenario played out, in which it never ended good for all of us.

  “Shut up for crying out loud,” the captain ordered him every five minutes and he never did. I hated imagining being stuck with him in those holding cells for more than a week. Yep! That was indeed a terrifying thought to imagine. Suddenly, the building began to tilt like it was almost falling backwards.

  “We have to power up the flight systems, because we might have to destroy our way out of here” the captain said as he switched his armor to manual control. His suit let out a small bleep that faded quickly into silence. “Darn! Our suits are still not at full power. It looks like we are on our own for now.”

  Great! That was just perfect; it was the last thing I wanted to hear in this dire situation. If their armor were not functional, it was going to be bad if we came across terror beasts or soldiers from this kingdom. But I was okay since my armor ran on an external energy source. Probably best if I took the lead. I chose not to at the last minute, didn’t want to have the “chain of command” talk with the captain. The captain slowed down and halted, close to the other mouth of the tunnel. We all exited and stood next to each other, glancing cautiously around. It was blocked with debris and we couldn’t turn back now because there was no time left.

  “Great plan, genius, so now what,” Stain said and folded his arms in disappointment.

  “Shut up,” I snapped back at him in frustration. “I don’t hear you coming up with one.”

  “Okay, everyone, just calm down for a sec,” the captain said and went to observe the south exit. “I have something that might work, I was saving it in case we needed to escape, and now is a good time as ever to use it.”

  He put his hand into his armor and pulled out what looked like one of those exploding pellets. Oh no! The nightmare from the explosions came to haunt me again. If that was what I think it was, then we were in trouble. Something that dangerous was definitely not the right choice to use at this distance. The blast radius was too wide and powerful for our shields.

  “I know what you are thinking, Rookie, but we don’t have a choice,” the captain said to me and threw the pellet underneath the rubble of the exit. “Everybody, duck now.”

  Oh no! The captain was an idiot; his irrational move was going to get us all killed. Before we could even hide for cover, the pellet exploded and blasted away everything in close range to ashes. The building trembled uncontrollably as it could no longer support its weight, leaning towards our only exit. Large rubbles were falling dangerously towards us, threatening to crash all of us.

  “Run for the exit,” I yelled, pointing to the way out that had opened, thanks to the explosion. There wasn’t enough time, the building was coming down on us. Everyone began to run as fast as they could, and we all made it out with minor injuries. I looked back and saw the building collapse into the tunnels beneath. A few seconds too short, and it would have been us going down with it.

  “We can see you guys,” Dalla said through the com link as a ship hovered above us.

  It was the ship we had used before we all got separated. Finally things were starting to look bright again for once. No, it was still not the right moment to celebrate. The cargo ship descended next to us, opening its large hatch doors. Someone came to greet us; it wa
s Rick

  “Get in,” he waved towards us quickly. Rick helped the rest of the crew get into the compartments that were still free. It looked like they had gotten the supplies we needed and were ready to head back at any moment.

  “How did you guys get these materials?” I asked them curiously—I doubted they bought this equipment or got them for free.

  “Don’t ask,” Dalla said and went to the controls to plot the coordinates back to the main ship. Right! Why did I even bother? I mean, by now, I knew their personality types and a little bit about their character enough to know that they stole this equipment during this ruckus.

  “You guys, head back, I have something I need to do?” I said and went into the armory, to pick up some weapons.

  “Are you stupid or something?” Rick howled at me. He stopped me, halfway, before I could exit with a hand to the shoulder.

  It was obvious that he thought I had lost my mind or something, and in some sense, I had. But something deep inside me was pushing me to go back—a mild and deep sensation of responsibility, unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I shrugged his hand away and proceeded towards the exit hatch door. Deep in my thoughts, I decided nothing was going to stop me. Besides, I had to see Peter and confront him about his betrayal. Something had pushed him towards his madness. I had to know what it was exactly.

  “At least take this with you,” Rick threw what looked like a rechargeable power battery into my hands.

  I examined it out of pure curiosity. It was so light and looked so fragile. I tried my best not to hold it too tight. There was something Rick was not telling me, but I just couldn’t tell exactly what it was to be exact. In the corner of my eye, I saw the huge End Boss armor system staked slightly in the corner. Our last resort, if things ever got too dangerous. The thought of using it made my body tremble terribly. Thousands of cities burned to the ground when a lunatic used this armor, a few centuries ago. Not something I wanted repeated at all cost.