Red Waters

by Charles Rye

  "They're friends and fellow survivors what about you two?" Caliphar answered, looking between Royena and Sif.

  "We're survivalists, this airbase is our home. We can chat about this later, right now we've got soldiers to worry about and Royena and I have an advantage in the dark and rain," Sif explained.

  They all gathered back to back so they could survey every visible point of entry to the airbase.

  Zxeron began to growl viciously as he stared off in the direction of the chain-link fence that surrounded the base's main entrance.

  Everyone immediately turned around to face the entrance, spotting a squad of soldiers charging through the gate, armed with military issued AK-47s.

  "This should be fun," Royena grinned, winking at Sif.

  Caliphar, Aurelia, Soraf, Zandrem, Koriphus and Roy stood their ground as the soldiers got closer, easily spotting the commanding officer by the special modifications that had been made to his gun since the man only had his right hand.

  "Stand down and no harm will come to you, choose to fight and you will die without dignity," the man spoke in a rough voice as he gazed upon the small group of what he considered abominations.

  "I choose none of the above," Aurelia remarked sarcastically as she raised her gun, aiming it at the man.

  "Same here," Caliphar interjected, aiming his gun at the man's crotch.

  "Fine, I'll choose for you‚"

  He was cut short of finishing his reply as he was suddenly struck in the throat by an arrow fired from Royena's crossbow, killing him instantaneously.

  Aurelia and Caliphar began firing rounds at the remaining soldiers, watching as each one dropped to the ground like a domino effect.

  Zxeron charged a soldier who had attempted to take Royena by surprise, pinning the man against the tarmac as his jaw snapped shut around his neck, snapping it effortlessly.

  Royena's face paled from shock and surprise as Zxeron turned from his kill to stare at her, a look of concern in his eyes.

  "They're all dead, we're in the clear. For now," Soraf said reassuringly as she joined the others who had gathered around Royena and Zxeron, looking down at the dead soldier lying in a puddle of rain mixed with his own blood.

  "I think you owe Zxeron a thank you for saving your hide," Koriphus spoke up, glancing at Royena who still seemed to be in shock from the experience.

  Nodding, she reached down and gave Zxeron a gentle pat on the head.

  "Thanks for that," She said quietly as Zxeron nuzzled her hand.

  "What are we going to do about camp for the night?" Aurelia asked, glancing around at the others.

  "You can stay with us, we've got plenty of room and you can stock up on supplies before setting off in the morning," Sif offered.

  Blueprints

  "That sounds great, I don't think this storm will be letting up soon and we need a place to rest," Aurelia responded, nodding to Sif.

  "Great, bring your bus into that hangar over there. We'll spend the night in there," Sif continued, looking up at Caliphar.

  "Royena, go open the hangar so they can park their bus," She added glancing sideways at her friend.

  Royena gave a quick nod and ran off to do as Sif had instructed.

  Caliphar quickly ran onto the bus and turned over the engine, shifting it into drive as he watched Royena open the hangar doors.

  "Holy shit‚" Caliphar blurted aloud as he glanced up, seeing an old NH-90 covered with a raggedy tarp.

  Soraf and the others turned to face the hangar, all staring in awe at the old helicopter hidden by the old tarp.

  Caliphar slowly drove the bus into the hangar, parking beside the helicopter before killing the engine and getting out, running up to it.

  "Why do you still have this thing under a tarp?" He questioned, looking sideways at Sif.

  "Don't have any use for it; it's busted up pretty badly. And neither Royena nor myself know how to patch it up," She said admittedly with a shrug.

  Caliphar grabbed a hold of the tarp and pulled it to the ground, revealing the helicopter.

  It definitely had some obvious wear and tear, there was severe damage to the propeller and the tail, and the cockpit windows looked like they had been smashed in.

  "Anything you can tell me about it?" Caliphar asked wandering around to look at all the damage.

  "Not much to be truthful, it's probably been here longer than we have. This whole airbase has been abandoned for years now and this helo's been out of commission for possibly longer than that, considering how damaged it looks,"

  "Whatever smashed in the windows like that was probably from its last mission and from the old blood stains on some of the broken glass, looks like its pilot was killed," Sif explained as she watched him walk around the aircraft.

  "This is a two-seater; two pilots have to control this helo‚" He said suddenly looking at her.

  Sif looked at him, a look of confusion upon her face.

  "That blood can't only be from one pilot, whatever this helo's last mission was; both of its pilots were killed. Something with more power than a NH-90 must have taken it down," Caliphar said.

  "Any chance you might have tools and supplies I could use?" He asked a look of eagerness upon his face.

  "Yeah, there's a storage lock-up in this hangar. Royena and I have had to use most of its supplies to patch up some stuff around here, so I imagine you'll find what you seek," Sif replied, gesturing towards the far end of the hangar.

  Caliphar glanced in the direction she was gesturing and spotted a rusted metal door at the other side of the hangar, nodding to her he ran off across the hangar.

  "Where's he going?" Aurelia questioned glancing up at Sif, who was still standing beside the old helo.

  "He asked if we had any tools and supplies, I told him about the supply room," Sif answered, crossing her arms over her chest.

  "We'll know any minute now when he finds it," She chuckled, glancing at Aurelia.

  "Whoa! It's like helicopter nirvana in here!"

  Soraf, Roy, Koriphus and the others whipped their heads in the direction of where Caliphar's screams came from.

  "He found the supply room," Royena giggled, coming to stand by Sif.

  "Yeah, he found the supply room," Sif laughed.

  "Well it's going to be a while till he comes out, so let's get you folks something to eat," Royena said looking at the others.

  "We actually have food, it was going to be our breakfast but those jets brought us here. Koriphus and Caliphar snagged a Destroyer, we were hoping to make a fire and cook it," Soraf explained turning to face Royena.

  Royena and Sif both made a look of disgust at Soraf at the mention of cooked Destroyer.

  "Let Royena show you our supply room and I'll get rid of the Destroyer," Sif replied, her expression turning to normal.

  Royena gestured for them to all follow her past the helicopter and to the other end of the hangar; they reached another metal door, following Royena through it.

  They soon found themselves in a circular room filled with piles of boxes, some stacked to the ceiling, some with labels and some without.

  "What are all these?" Roy asked, raising an eyebrow at Sif.

  "MREs," She replied simply.

  "What the heck are MREs?" Soraf asked obvious confusion in her voice.

  "MRE stands for Meals Ready to Eat. Troops use them,"

  "And they have the requirements to feed a soldier for a whole day, very good and nutritious" Sif explained.

  "But don't worry, we have other food supplies too and a small fire-pit to cook it with," She quickly added with a smile.

  "Help yourselves," She said leaning against the door.

  Aurelia and Soraf quickly went for a particular pile of boxes with labels that said "Beverages" and "Sweets" on them.

  Koriphus went for a box labeled "MREs" and quickly opened it to find it filled with labeled packages, he snatched up a couple of them and cradled them in his arms.

  Roy picked out some stuff from a boxed
labeled "Breakfast" and used his prehensile tail to pick up the fire-pit by its handle.

  "We're ready," Aurelia and Soraf said simultaneously, their arms packed full of packed sweets and bottled beverages.

  "Let's go get you set up and see how your friend's doing in the other supply room," Sif chuckled as she led them all back out to their bus.

  Royena was waiting for them, leaning against the bus doors smiling when she saw them all walking out of the food supply room.

  "I see you've got yourselves settled with some treats," She chuckled.

  They all made a small circle on the ground beside the bus, the fire-pit in the middle of them and their selections piled next to them.

  Aurelia and Soraf sat together and opened a bottle of beer each, clinking their bottles together in a gesture of cheers before both taking long swigs.

  "What's going on here?" Caliphar asked, returning from the supply room carried down with an assortment of tools.

  "Having a proper meal," Aurelia said cheerfully before chugging the other half of her beer.

  "I can see that," He chuckled, watching her.

  "Join us, you can work on that old hunk of metal later," Royena insisted, patting the ground between her and Zxeron, who had his chin resting in her lap.

  "I could use some real food and a few drinks," He smiled, joining their circle.

  "Here, these are really good," Aurelia giggled passing him a bottle of beer.

  He accepted the bottle and popped off the top before chugging half the bottle, licking the taste off his lips.

  "Damn, this is good. What is it?" He said glancing at Royena.

  "Most of the labels were torn off when we found this place but an old box of it was labeled Shiner something‚" She replied, shrugging.

  "So, how come you two chose this place? Somewhere like this, we figured it'd be crawling with those soldiers," Soraf asked, glancing at Sif and Royena.

  "Well when we came across it, it was literally crawling with soldiers but after having traveled for weeks, slaughtering countless Destroyers and losing our last strand of sanity, we took out as many soldiers as we could,"

  "Being out-numbered we took refuge in some nearby ruins for the night and came back the next day to take out the rest of them. We later found out they were surveying this place to turn it into some sort of sub-base for something bizarre,"

  "After finding their plans we were glad they were dead and none of them tried to come back for this place," Royena explained with a grim expression at the memory.

  "Do you still have the plans?" Aurelia asked quickly.

  "Yeah, they had them with the original blueprints for this airbase," Royena answered looking at Aurelia.

  "Where do you keep them?"

  "In the lock-up, I'll show you," She said standing to her feet, Zxeron immediately stood with her and followed as she led Aurelia to the lock-up.

  They reached the lock-up room and Royena led Aurelia inside, Zxeron quickly following them inside.

  "The plans we found after wiping out the soldiers were originally in the control tower but we moved them in here to keep them safe, in case any soldiers ever decided to come back and try to get them," Royena explained as she opened up a vault built into the wall.

  Aurelia peered into the vault and saw the blueprints with a stack of manila folders full of various papers, some had notes attached to them with paper clips and a few had the clich√© Top Secret stamped across them.

  She gathered up what she could along with the blueprints and hurriedly ran back out to the others, Royena and Zxeron on her heel.

  "Soraf, remember that construction site Koriphus led us to?" Aurelia asked breathlessly.

  "Yeah, Caliphar set fire to it to 'hide' the evidence we had been there," Soraf replied, giving Caliphar a sideways glance.

  "I don't think those soldiers were there to scout recruits; they seemed pretty keen to protect that guard station,"

  "Okay, what's your point?" Soraf asked looking back up at her.

  "My point is we've got to go back there. Tonight,"

  "Wait what do you mean we have to go back?" Caliphar interjected, looking up at Aurelia.

  "These!" She exclaimed holding up the blueprints and manila folders in her arms.

  "I still don't get what this about, why do we have to go back to that particular place just because of a bunch of folders and the blueprints of this airbase?" Soraf questioned.

  "Yeah, that place is pretty much a pile of ash by now after we left it," Koriphus interrupted.

  "What's the one thing that can't burn in a fire?"

  Caliphar and Soraf shared a look before both turning to stare at Aurelia, realizing what she was referring to.

  "I don't understand why you want to go now, its pouring down out there still and there's no telling how many Destroyers there are between us and that site," Koriphus interjected.

  "If we don't go now and find some kind of safe in that guard station, someone could have gotten to it already to get what those soldiers were guarding," Aurelia practically exclaimed at him.

  "We'll help, if there are Destroyers out there you'll need back-up and we've got something that's a bit faster at killing those mutts than a couple of guns," Royena grinned wide.

  "What's that?" Aurelia asked looking sideways at Royena.

  Sif went over to something covered by a tarp and pulled it off with a flourish, revealing a military Jeep she and Royena had made a few modifications to and sitting in the back was an open crate filled with grenades.

  "That," Caliphar said in amusement.

  "Great, let's get going then!" Aurelia shouted excitedly as the others all hurried onto the bus with her, she took the driver's seat and revved the engine.

  Royena and Sif jumped into their Jeep and hit a button on a remote control that opened the hangar doors.

  "Go ahead of us! We've got your asses!" Royena hollered to Aurelia.

  Aurelia floored it and sped out through the hangar doors and along the slick tarmac, the bus' tires squealing against it as they raced past the entrance gate.

  Royena and Sif close behind them in their Jeep, rain pouring down on the open-top vehicle.

  Finders Keepers

  Aurelia drove on into the darkness and pouring rain, guided along the road only by the bus' high- beams.

  Caliphar sat across from her, the manila folders in his lap as he flipped through them, reading bits and pieces about what he understood to be some kind of secret organization.

  "None of this makes any sense; it just seems to be a whole bunch of gibberish about a secret organization over and over again. There doesn't seem to be any real information in here, and if it there is I certainly can't make it out," He said with apparent frustration.

  "Well secret organization usually doesn't mean good news, so there's got to be something in those files," Aurelia replied as she concentrated on the road ahead of her.

  "Hey, I think I might've found something," Koriphus announced from his seat behind Caliphar.

  "What is it?"

  "These blueprints are the originals, right?"

  "Yeah, that's what Royena said,"

  "Well there's a place that's completely separate from the airbase itself, but it looks like it's connected by a series of tunnels," Koriphus continued, holding the blueprints over the back of Caliphar' seat to show him.

  "That's good, right? But I didn't see any sort of tunnels or anything that indicated a separate section of the airbase‚"

  "Because the tunnels are underground, they're beneath the airbase and they lead directly from the hangar we were in to this separate section," Koriphus said matter-of-factly.

  "So there's an underground base?" Aurelia questioned glancing at Koriphus in the rear-view mirror.

  "Yep, directly under the tarmac from the looks of it,"

  "Think that's why the soldiers were surveying that airbase? They found these blueprints and found the underground base,"

  "It's possible," Koriphus said catching Aurelia's eye
in the mirror.

  "Guess we'll find out once we reach that guard station," Aurelia shrugged.

  The bus suddenly swerved off the road, throwing everyone against the right side.

  Aurelia struggled to straighten the bus but her efforts proved pointless as the bus continued to swerve off the road.