by Jason Keizer
Walking down the stairs, Jessica says, “Don't be so modest. Everyone knows your stories. Like the one about what you did in Lexington.”
James, with a bit of confusion in his voice, asks, “What do you mean?”
He quickly gets cut off by Henry, “Hey stop dilly-dallying around with all this talking. We have shit to do you know. Let’s save the talking for back in Serra, yeah?”
Jessica loudly sighs into her mic, “Fine. We will put it away for now,” as she continues down the stairs.
Henry and the Captain stop a few feet from the edge of the roof, facing the silos. Henry puts out a hand and says, “I’ll set the charge before you toss it.”
Captain Hammer digs into his cargo pocket and pulls out the charge and C4. He holds them for a second before dropping them in Henry’s hand.
As Henry pushes the charge into the C4 he says, “I hope you can really throw this thing that far. That’s almost fifty meters away.” He hands it back to the Captain.
As the Captain takes a small step back and prepares to throw, he gloats, “Just watch this… Rodgers.”
He swings his arm forward and releases the C4. As it flies through the air, over the radio James exclaims, “That’s what I’m talking about, Green Bay all day.”
The C4 hits right before the silos then bounces right in between two of them. “See, I told you,” Captain Hammer says. He continues, “Damn right Green Bay all day. But don’t think that makes us any closer.”
James appeals, “You say that now. But we have a long drive or walk ahead of us for that to change.”
TWENTY SIX
Everyone except for James is sitting in the conference room. On the table sits several bags and cans of food. Captain Hammer grabs a can of chili. He pops the top open and starts to eat. Across from him, Oliver says, “Once we are done eating, we can all get our gear and head downstairs.”
Captain Hammer nods his head. “Is HE going to join us?”
Over the headset, James replies, “No. I am trying to get a message out to anyone that is either in, or has contact with Serra. Plus, I thought it best I sit out a bit so we can all keep our calm.”
Next to the Captain is Henry, eating an expired energy bar. He says into his headset, “You good on food down there?”
James just answers, “Yup.”
At the end of the table, nearest the screen, Jessica asks, “James, you mind if I ask a couple questions?”
He answers, “How about when we get back, we can all get together, my treat, and you guys can ask all the questions you want. I’m pretty sure you all have some with everything that has happened. Right now I would just like to concentrate on getting us all home safe. Sound good?”
Jessica nods her head to herself. “Yeah, that works for me.”
Everyone in the conference room falls silent as they continue to eat. They stare at the Baron, who is still on the screen, staring right back at them, almost as if he can see them through the screen.
A couple minutes later, over the headset, with a couple loud bangs, James yells, “Stupid piece, bang, of shit.” Bang. “Why the fuck,” bang, “won’t you,” bang, “turn back on?”
Another couple loud bangs come through on the headsets, then an excited James says, “Oh shit. I think I got it to work. I’m gonna send a quick broadcast before it breaks again. Muting.” The headsets fall silent again.
“You think he actually is getting through to someone?” asks Henry.
Oliver shrugs his shoulders. “Beats me. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it. I tried to look at it, but maybe a little kick to the side is what it needed.”
Captain Hammer nods his head at the screen. “Maybe he did get through to something. Look, that thing is moving.”
Everyone turns and looks at the screen to see the Baron slowly walking to the end of the train, leaving a small trail of smoke from his cigar behind him. He jumps off the back of the train and walks out of view from the camera.
A couple of seconds later, James gets back on the headset, and says, “I think I got through. Sent a broadcast on all channels. So we should hopefully be good.”
Jessica smiles and says, “Awesome. If you got it up and running, maybe we can get a message back.”
James replies, “Yeah, that would be nice. I’ll sit down here and keep an eye on… Hold on.”
Oliver sits forward in his chair and asks, “Is someone coming through? James?”
James yells, “Oh shit. Stop.” James lets out a small shriek before saying, “Never mind, pretty sure I just broke it for good.
Oliver shakes his head. “What did you do?”
James answers, “I don’t know. I was just sitting here waiting to see if someone would reply, then some smoke came from under the buttons, and then it kinda just made a small fire and shut down.”
Captain Hammer shakes his head. “Well, I think you got through to someone. That Baron guy just left.”
He puts his can of food down and stands up. “Well, I think that means we should probably do the same. Everyone, hurry up and finish, then get your stuff and head downstairs.”
Henry tosses his wrapper on the floor and stands up. “Yup, already on it. I’ll run ahead first and make sure everything is ready. I’ll meet you all down there.” He turns and walks out of the room.
James drops his bags on the first step, next to Henry's bag and the door marked B4. He opens the door and steps into the doorway. In the middle of the floor area is Henry, who is kneeling next to two flipped over desks.
“So, you think those two desks will do the trick?” James asks.
Henry taps his foot as he stares at the desks. “I hope so. It should help divert some of the blast energy back down into the floor. I don't want to put too much on it cause then shit will just fly everywhere and could start a fire before we want it to start.”
He stands up and walks follows James into the hallway. Footsteps start to get louder as the rest of the team makes their way down to them. Henry asks James, “You ready?”
James nods his head and leans over the railing. He looks up and sees three hands sliding down the railing a few floors up. “Hey, brace yourselves. We are gonna get this started.”
“Fire in the hole,” yells Henry.
BOOM!
A blast shakes and echoes up through the stairwell. They wait a couple of seconds before Henry yells up to the others, “All clear.”
He looks over at James and asks, “You sure you want to go down first?” James nods his head as he opens the door.
Dust and smoke blow into the stairwell as James makes his way on the floor. In just a few steps he becomes almost invisible.
From inside the smoke, James says, “Of course I am. What kind of leader would I be if I didn't go in first? Plus, it might build a little bit of trust with those two.”
Henry swings his arms to waft out the dust in front of him. Oliver, Captain Hammer, and Jessica step onto the landing and drop their bags.
“Follow me and stay close,” Henry says as he walks into the room.
A fire extinguisher goes off as they make their way through the settling dust and smoke. James sends a blast of white powder, smothering the fire as the flames die out. He sets the fire extinguisher down and looks at the team.
He points to a hole in the floor and says, “Yup. That'll do. Since you are the biggest one here, think you can fit through that Hammer? Just in case we can’t open the door?”
The Captain looks down at a small hole in the floor. Pieces of concrete and metal surround the roughly four-foot diameter hole. He turns his gaze over to James and says, “Yeah, I think I can manage.”
James kicks a couple pieces of concrete down the hole and puts a finger to his lips, telling everyone to be quiet. As the pieces hit the floor beneath them, everyone stands quietly, waiting for any noise besides that of the debris. Nothing.
James puts his finger down and says, “Ok then, I'll drop down and see if I can turn some lights on or something. Just keep
watch from up here for a few.”
He pulls out his flashlight and bends down over the hole. He shines the light around, turns it off, and puts it back into his pocket. “Well, it looks good so far,” he says as he drops to sit on the floor, dangling his legs into the hole.
He grabs hold of the other side and slides down until he is hanging. He looks down and let’s go, falling to the floor beneath him.
“Oh shit,” he says as he hits the ground and rolls to the side, disappearing from the light and into the darkness of the floor below.
“James, you ok?” Jessica asks as everyone leans forward over the hole, peering down into the darkness.
“Yeah, I’m...” James says and quickly stops as he sees two white eyes peering at him. In an instant, they run towards him. From above, the team sees an Arctic move into the light. It stops at the edge of where the light from above and the darkness below meet.
James, standing face to face with the Arctic, him in the shadows, it in the light, stops breathing. Slowly, he moves his left hand towards his holster. The Arctic doesn't move as it stares directly into James' eyes, inches from his face.
Quickly, it turns its head upwards to the light from the hole. The brightness of the light reflecting off its eyes makes them look like frozen mirrors. As it sees the people above it, it crouches down. It leaps up, trying to reach the ceiling to pull itself up to the team.
Henry pulls out his pistol from his belt and tries to bring it forward. His arm gets stopped by Oliver, who says, “We don't know where James is. I don't want it to shoot through and hit him.”
As Henry goes to put his pistol back, the Arctic crouches down again. Just as it tries to make another jump, a hatchet dashes into the light and swings down. As the Arctic starts its jump, feet just lifting off the ground, it is met with a hatchet, hitting it just above the nose.
Its momentum tries to keep its jump in motion, as a small grunt comes from James as he forcefully slams it to the ground, head first. Its legs fly up as the smack and crunch of its head echoes, followed by a small metallic ding. Slowly, its legs give in to gravity and fall to the floor.
James steps into the light, straddling the Arctic beneath him. He rips his hatchet from its skull and looks up to the hole in the ceiling. “Well, that was crazy. Pretty sure this is the only one down here. Looking around, I don't see anymore, I think.”
He grabs his flashlight and turns it on. “I'm gonna go find the lights and see if I can open that door. So just give me a couple minutes.”
James walks out of the circle of light and back into the darkness of the floor, following the light from his flashlight.
On B4, Captain Hammer leans back from over the hole, until resting on his ankles. The others join him.
“That was weird. Why the hell didn't it make any noise? Not even that loud scream they do,” he says to everyone.
Oliver shakes his head. “Beats me. We can check it out a little when we get down there.”
Beneath them, a loud click echoes through the hole as the lights turn on. “Hey, I got the door, can someone be so kind as to bring my bag down with them, please? Careful, it's kinda heavy and has shit that's fragile in it.”
Henry sticks his head down the hole. “Yeah, we can bring it down. I'll make sure no one breaks your last bottle of booze on the way down either.”
“Thank you, good sir.”
Everyone except for Henry gets up and starts to walk to the door. “Hey, someone wanna to give me a quick hand with placing these last charges. Didn't want them up just in case they went off from this blast,” Henry says to the group as he pulls out a small block of C4 from his pocket.
Captain Hammer turns around. “Yeah, I'll give you a hand.”
He stops for a second and watches Henry pull out the other three blocks of C4 from his cargo pockets. “Really? You just walk around with those things in your pocket?”
Henry nods with a smile. “Yeah, not like they will just go off. Trust me, bro. I'm a professional.” He extends his hand, with two blocks in it, to the Captain. The Captain takes them and looks around the room.
The Captain asks, “Where you want me to put these?” The door to the stairwell closes as Jessica and Oliver pass by it.
Henry points at a pillar near the communications console and then to one near the men's restroom. “I put a red mark on where you should place it. Just find a roll of tape and put them up. Everything else is set.”
Jessica and Oliver pick up their bags. Oliver grabs James' bag and tries to lift it. “Yup. That's not gonna happen. One of the others can take care of it.”
Jessica starts to walk down the stairs with Oliver a couple steps behind her. As they make it to the landing and turn before the last set of steps, the door to B5 clicks and slightly opens. James pushes it open the rest of the way by the time they make it there.
“You gotta see this place. Definitely has some things we can use,” James says as he turns around and walks back onto B5, Jessica and Oliver right behind him.
TWENTY SEVEN
As they walk onto the new floor, Oliver and Jessica look around. The central area is wide open, with a few desks in the center and only a few doors line the walls. One door sits on the right side. The wall almost extends to the end of the floor plan, but is cut off by a large open area at the far end. To the left is a small booth, a security booth, followed by three doors, about 20 feet apart from each other. The door at the far left is broken open, shards of glass reflect off the ceiling lights. All the way at the end, in the center of the floor, is a large open area that looks to be a road leading out.
Oliver takes a few steps forward, drops his bag and rifle, grabs his nose, and says, “Oh man, that smells.”
James turns to Oliver. “Yeah, there are a couple mangled bodies on the floor. They look pretty old, but the smell still lingers a bit.”
Oliver points to the roadway at the end of the floor. “Well, at least we might have a way out.”
James lets out a small laugh and sarcastically says, “And you thought I wasn't gonna be able to get us out of here.”
Oliver and Jessica both unclip their rifles from their bags and toss their slings over their shoulders. Their rifles swing across their chests, barrel pointing to the floor.
James grabs a small pouch from his pocket and pulls out a few earplugs. “These are for your ears, not your noses,” he says as he hands two to Oliver and then to Jessica.
As they put them in Jessica asks, “Doesn't that smell bother you?”
James gives a small shake of his head. “It smells like the cage pits I was in with the Skullniks. You get used to it.” He grabs his pistol. “I'll kick and pull rear. Oliver, you take point. Jessica, you get to be the meat in this sammich.”
Jessica smirks at James and grabs her rifle, lifting it in front of her and bringing its butt to her shoulder. “Just don't tell Henry. He might get jealous of you two having some new meat in your sammiches.”
Oliver brings his rifle up. “Yeah, maybe. But sometimes you just want a leaner meat.”
Jessica gives him a small shoulder bump as James lifts his pistol in front of him. They line up right behind each other, stacked up, and make their way to the single door on the right side of the floor. Oliver and Jessica move to the side opposite of the door handle, where the hinges are.
James stops and stays to the side by the door handle. As they all get set, Jessica leans forward a little, pressing up against Oliver and signaling she is ready. Oliver then gives James a small nod.
James moves from against the wall and turns to the door. He puts his left foot back and swings it forward. With all of his might, the sole of his boot slams into the door, breaking it open. By the time the door slams against the wall, James gets out of the way of Oliver and Jessica, who are already barreling through the doorway. He turns back around and follows behind Jessica.
“Short hall,” Oliver yells out to the people behind him.
He side-steps to the right and walks most of the w
ay down the corridor, to just before he gets to a pair of doors across from each other. James steps out from behind Jessica and walks up to the door in front of Oliver. He looks at Oliver and nods once, a second time, a third time, and turns the door handle. The door slowly swings open.
Oliver and Jessica take a second to see if anything will come out, before moving into the room. As they enter, James gets behind them. Oliver walks forward towards the corner in front of him. He swings to the left a little, just enough to scan past the center of the back wall, and goes back to the corner. A few feet before reaching the corner, he stops and turns to face the center of the room.
When Oliver moves forward, Jessica turns left, following the wall to just before a desk sitting at the end, and turns right. As she makes her way to the far corner, she scans to just past the center of the back wall, making sure her aim never crosses over Oliver.
James steps into the room right behind Jessica. He turns left with her but stops after a couple of steps. He quickly turns and faces the center of the room, bringing his weapon down as his aim passes across Jessica. He scans the room, but no enemies are present.
“Clear,” says James.
James looks around the room and sees different weapon racks, a desk with binders and a couple boxes on it, and a couple broken open ammo crates. “Well, this looks good. They left us some shit at least. But, we can search it later. Stack up.”
The team moves to the doorway, in the same order they came in. Once again, James steps to the side and walks past them. He presses his back against the wall next to the closed door across from Oliver. He grabs the knob and nods. After the third nod, he opens the door.
Oliver quickly walks inside. After a couple of steps in, he stops at a range station in front of him. Jessica turns right, makes it to the wall, turns left, and stops at another range station. James stops in the doorway.
“Well, look at this shit. They have a built-in range,” says James.
Behind him, he hears Captain Hammer yell something about his bag.
“Hey, you two need to see this,” James yells out into the hallway.