Red Waters

by Charles Rye

  "I can hopefully assume you got a Jeep nearby," Caliphar said looking at Sif.

  "Yeah, Royena and Zandrem are keeping it guarded, just follow me up this dune," Sif replied gesturing for them to follow her.

  They climbed their way up the dune and soon spotted Zandrem and Royena sitting in the back of a Jeep by a No Trespassing sign.

  "Exactly how did you find us?" Aurelia asked as they reached the Jeep.

  "Well after we found your Jeep we were jumped by a soldier but Sif took care of him," Royena began.

  "Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck‚" Aurelia exclaimed suddenly.

  "What's wrong?" Zandrem asked looking at Aurelia.

  "Sif got us out of there too soon and we didn't rescue Zxeron, we have to go back," Aurelia explained.

  "Are you insane?" Vorenzar burst at Aurelia.

  "I was insane enough to come rescue your sorry ass, so yes I am going back to rescue Zxeron,"

  "Who is coming with me?" Aurelia responded looking at everyone.

  "You know I'm going back to kill more of those soldier dicks," Caliphar replied with a grin.

  "Anybody else want to come with us?" Aurelia asked with a raised eyebrow.

  "I'm in," Royena said hopping out the back of the Jeep.

  "Should just take the three of us to free Zxeron, you all wait here in case we need backup," Aurelia said as Royena joined her and Caliphar.

  "Take this just in case," Sif said handing Aurelia a walkie-talkie.

  "Thanks, this will be helpful," Aurelia replied taking it.

  "Be careful and watch your asses down there, those soldiers are probably pissed off as hell you just killed some of them," Sif said.

  Aurelia, Caliphar and Royena slid down the dune towards the exit hatch.

  Caliphar opened the hatch and climbed down through the opening.

  "All clear!" He shouted up at the girls, giving them two thumbs up.

  Aurelia climbed down next and hooked the walkie-talkie Sif had given her to her belt loop.

  "Come on down Royena, coast is clear for now,"

  "Ready to do this?" Aurelia asked as Royena made her way down the ladder.

  Royena and Caliphar both nodded in agreement as they both cocked their guns.

  "Let's go kill some soldier dicks and rescue Zxeron," Aurelia smirked cocking her gun.

  The hallway they were in was very dimly lit, which actually gave them an advantage.

  "We're looking for a lock up room numbered nine-twenty nine, make sure to kill every bastard between here and that room,"

  "And if necessary, anyone in that room," Aurelia whispered as they slowly made their way along the hall.

  "Caliphar, twelve o'clock and go for a head-shot,"

  Caliphar quickly spotted a soldier at his twelve o'clock position and raised his gun, firing a bullet straight into the left side of the soldier's head, instantly dropping him.

  As they passed the now dead soldier, Royena noticed he had on body armor.

  "How'd you know to tell Caliphar to take a head-shot?" Royena inquired.

  "Just seemed more satisfying, why?" Aurelia responded.

  "That soldier has on body armor, a regular shot would have just pissed him off," Royena answered.

  "Then I guess I made the right call,"

  "Two o'clock in that doorway, Aurelia," Caliphar called.

  Aurelia took aim and pulled the trigger, hitting the soldier directly in the chest.

  "Room six thirty-eight, we can't be too far now," She called back.

  "Guys, doesn't it seem a little odd there aren't as many soldiers down here?" Royena pointed out.

  "Yeah, this place should be crawling with those bastards after we escaped," Caliphar added.

  "We can worry about that after we find Zxeron and get our asses out of here, again," Aurelia said in response.

  Search and rescue part 2

  The walkie-talkie clipped onto Sif's belt started crackling; she reached for it and unclipped it.

  "Yeah?" She answered holding it up to her mouth.

  "There are hardly any soldiers down here, you guys seen any on the surface?" Aurelia's voice echoed through the speaker.

  "We haven't spotted any since you guys went down there, but we'll keep an eye out for them," Sif replied.

  "Are you any closer to finding Zxeron?" She added quickly.

  "This is a really long hall and we're not even halfway down it," Aurelia's voice answered.

  "Be careful," Sif responded.

  "We are," Aurelia's voice replied before killing the walkie-talkie.

  "Okay guys, we're on the look out for any soldiers," Sif announced to the others.

  Zandrem, Soraf and Vorenzar all turned and looked at her.

  "You're joking, right?" Vorenzar muttered.

  "Why the fuck would I joke about soldiers?" Sif remarked sarcastically.

  "There's guns in the Jeep, grab what you can and watch every direction possible,"

  "We're out in the open and its still night, we have the advantage," She added grabbing her gun from the back of the Jeep.

  The others all grabbed guns from the Jeep as well and began surveying their surroundings.

  The half full moon hanging high above gave off enough light to allow seeing up to half a mile all around them.

  Sif glanced down at the ground, noticing movement beneath the sand traveling towards her.

  "Gotta be fucking kidding‚" She muttered as she trained her gun at whatever was under the sand.

  However, as soon as she aimed her gun, whatever was traveling towards her changed directions and began moving towards Zandrem.

  "Son of a bitch‚"

  "Everyone on the Jeep, now!" She shouted, suddenly firing a burst of bullets at the moving sand.

  Zandrem and Vorenzar didn't hesitate and quickly climbed into the back of the Jeep with Sif.

  "What the fuck is going on?" Zandrem asked looking up at Sif.

  "Destroyers that have watched the Tremors movies one too many fucking times if you ask me," Sif replied watching the ground around the Jeep.

  "What are you talking about?" Zandrem and Vorenzar both chimed in with confused looks.

  "Am I the only one who owned a TV before the damned apocalypse?" Sif muttered under her breath as she rolled her eyes.

  More movement beneath the sand caught their attention, causing them all to train their guns at the ground.

  "I got one over here!" Zandrem called as she stepped over to the other side of the Jeep, her eyes following something moving under the sand.

  "Me too!" Vorenzar announced as she trained her gun on something moving back and forth near the front of the Jeep.

  "Sons of bitches got us surrounded‚" Sif growled, her own gun trained on movement near the back of the Jeep.

  "Is this some weird hunting tactic?" Zandrem questioned, glancing over her shoulder at the others.

  "They're probably trying to confuse us but to be honest it's only pissing me off‚" Sif responded.

  "Koriphus would be a big help right now, he could use his electric powers to send a shockwave underground and blast these ugly mutts sky-high," She added.

  "Well Koriphus isn't here, he's dealing with his own Destroyer right now so we have to deal with these," Zandrem replied.

  "A little less talking from you two and a little more shooting would be nice," Vorenzar interrupted stepping in between Sif and Zandrem.

  "You're one to talk, I seem to recall you being the one to get us into this mess in the first place," Soraf spoke up, loading ammo into her gun.

  Zandrem and Sif both turned and stared at Vorenzar.

  "Down!" Soraf shouted quickly raising her gun.

  Sif and Zandrem suddenly pushed Vorenzar down just as Soraf fired a bullet into the chest of the Destroyer that jumped over the Jeep.

  Its body came to land on its side as it died of blood loss from the bullet wound.

  "You can thank me later if we survive this," Soraf said looking down at Vorenzar.

  Sif and Zand
rem got up, straightening their clothes.

  Vorenzar slowly got up and dusted herself off, looking at Soraf with an annoyed expression.

  "Let's just hope the others return soon so we can get the heck out of here," Sif said, reloading her gun.

  "Are we any closer to the right room?" Caliphar asked as he pulled his knife out from the back of the soldier he had just killed with a deadly stab to the spinal cord.

  Aurelia glanced up at the door the soldier had been guarding and read the number on it.

  "We're two rooms away‚ Let's hurry!" She responded watching Caliphar wipe blood off the blade onto his pants.

  "Gladly, the faster we get out of here the better," Royena said as she and Caliphar followed Aurelia down the hall.

  They eventually came to a door with the number nine twenty-nine labeled across it, it had a small barred window in the middle.

  Aurelia peered in through the window and spotted a doZandrem large cages, along with two doZandrem people inside the room.

  "This is going to suck‚" She muttered, glancing at Caliphar and Royena.

  "What's the matter?" Caliphar asked her.

  "There's a doZandrem Destroyers in there and at least two doZandrem people, mostly scientists and soldiers," Aurelia replied looking up at him.

  "Fighting them all isn't going to be easy," Royena remarked.

  "But it'll be so much fun," Caliphar responded grinning at both girls.

  "Would you like the honor of busting the door in, Caliphar?" Aurelia asked looking at him, smiling.

  "Yes please," He smiled widely.

  Royena and Aurelia stepped back away from the door, giving Caliphar room to bust it down.

  Caliphar flipped his gun and rammed the butt against the door handle, breaking it off as it fell to the floor with a clatter.

  He then turned around and kicked the door wide open, damaging its hinges.

  Everybody inside the room all froze from shock and turned to stare at Caliphar, Aurelia and Royena standing in the doorway armed with their arms.

  The soldiers quickly drew their guns and trained them on the intruders.

  "Don't even bother," Caliphar laughed looking up at the soldiers, aiming his gun at them.

  Aurelia and Royena stepped up on either side of Caliphar and aimed their guns at the soldiers.

  "I've had a really bad night in this miserable Hell hole, so I'm very irritable right now," Aurelia announced with a snarl.

  "This is a quarantine room, leave now or else," spoke a man wearing a long black lab coat over a uniform, a medical mask covering his nose and mouth.

  Aurelia looked around at the cages and noticed they were encased in glass with ventilation holes an inch wide on top of them; she then glanced up at the man in the black lab coat and noticed it had a radioactive symbol on the breast pocket.

  "What the fuck kind of quarantine?" She demanded.

  "None of your business," the man in the lab coat replied.

  Growling angrily, Aurelia aimed her gun at the man and fired a bullet into his calf, which caused blood to run down the leg of his pants.

  "I will make it my goddamned business, asshole," She announced as she pointed the barrel at the man's crotch.

  "Now tell me why this is a quarantine room," She spoke in a calmer tone, cocking her gun to show she wasn't fucking around.

  "These creatures all have extremely high amounts of radiation still in their systems, it is our job to cure them before exposing them to outside air," the man quickly explained out of fear of being shot again.

  "What about that one, what's wrong with it?" Aurelia asked spotting a cage labeled 'Non-Quarantine' in the far corner of the room.

  "I was told that one was rogue and un-trainable, we've been ordered to remove his chip and to give him a new one. His current one has somehow malfunctioned,"

  "He's coming with us and if any of you try to stop us, we will kill you," Aurelia responded as she began to approach the cage containing Zxeron.

  A soldier closest to the man Aurelia had just shot stepped in between them and raised his weapon at her defensively.

  Aurelia aimed her gun and growled fiercely, baring her fangs.

  "Are you fucking deaf, I told you not to try anything!" She snapped, firing a round at the soldier's feet.

  "Caliphar, go get Zxeron and shoot any of these assholes if they try to stop you,"

  Nodding, Caliphar walked past several soldiers and scientists to the cage containing Zxeron.

  "Drop your weapons!" Aurelia shouted loudly, waving around her gun at the other armed soldiers.

  Reluctantly, the soldiers all dropped their guns to the floor and put up their arms in surrender.

  "Good little bitches," Aurelia snorted as she watched Caliphar release Zxeron from his cage before returning to where Royena was still standing near the door.

  "We cannot let you get away," a soldier spoke staring at the three of them.

  "I'm sorry, but that's not really an option," Aurelia replied with a smirk.

  "You've already proven your incompetence so many times in one night alone; I think it's fair to say you won't be stopping us at all,"

  "Especially when I do this‚" Aurelia grinned, suddenly hitting the emergency button on the wall beside the door.

  "Now!" She yelled, running out the door.

  Caliphar, Royena and Zxeron quickly following as Aurelia slammed the door shut and put all her weight against it, peering in through the window.

  Blood curdling screams echoed from the room as loud angry growls came from the Destroyers that were released from their cages.

  "Come on Aurelia, we have to get out of here before more soldiers show up!" Caliphar shouted suddenly grabbing Aurelia's hand before running back up the hallway.

  As soon as they reached the way they had come, they climbed back up the ladder through the hatch and crawled out into the sand.

  Royena shut the hatch and locked it behind them.

  Caliphar and Aurelia were lying in the sand beside each other, both panting heavily from having to run through the long hallway.

  Aurelia glanced up at Caliphar and slowly opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, she was interrupted by the sound of a Jeep engine as Sif and the others came racing across the dune to where they were.

  "Let's get back to the hangar," Sif said as Soraf, Zandrem and Vorenzar helped Aurelia, Royena, Caliphar and Zxeron into the back of the Jeep.

  Sif sped off through the desert, racing across sand dunes and over jagged rocks.

  Eros

  "Are they back yet?!" Koriphus shouted up the stairs leading into the underground base.

  "Not yet!" Norenia shouted back from her place at the top of the stairs.

  "I figured they would have been back by now, what could be taking them so long?" Koriphus responded looking up at her.

  "They could have run into some soldiers or Destroyer, or both," Norenia continued, perching on the top stair.

  "Where's Roy at?"

  "He's working on that old helicopter, I think," Norenia replied scrunching up her nose.

  Norenia's ears perked up at the sudden sound of a Jeep engine echoing through the hangar.

  "They're back!" She exclaimed excitedly jumping to her feet.

  Sif drove the Jeep into the hangar, parking beside the bus before turning the engine off.

  Zandrem jumped out of the Jeep and closed the hangar door.

  "Where did you guys disappear to? Koriphus has been asking about you all for the past two hours now‚" Norenia said looking up at Aurelia and Caliphar as they climbed out of the Jeep.

  "Thanks to Vorenzar, we got jumped by some soldier dicks and had to escape their underground bunker‚ Soraf, Sif and Zandrem had to fend off Destroyers while we rescued Zxeron,"

  "We were lucky to get out of there alive thanks to the fact I was able to release a bunch of unstable Destroyers on the soldiers and scientists trying to keep us from getting Zxeron back," Aurelia explained rubbing the back of her neck, lett
ing out a sigh.