Mission Proceeding Not as Planned

“You just blocked off the only exit!”, Kelly yells at me as she finally releases all her pent up anger and fear, “We’re probably gonna die in here now!”

I look at the ceiling and notice an air vent as I speak, “We’ll make it out of here.”, I say oddly jovially as I point and move towards the vent.

“Why are you so chipper?”, The mouse of a girl glowers at me as I move a small step ladder to the vent.

“Why would I be chipper? This is a life or death situation.”, I respond genuinely confused where her question was coming from.

“You’re smiling.”, She answers, “Plus since it’s so dire, that’s why I’m so confused!” I put a hand to my mouth, I was smiling, strange. I clear my throat as I return my face to a more neutral expression. I begin to remove the screws from the vent as the banging against the door becomes louder and more intense, those horrors were definitely getting more excited.

“We’ll get out of here and use this vent to get into the room next door.”, I blather as I formulate a plan as I am explaining it.

“No damn way am I gonna crawl through a vent.”, Kelly retorts, just letting all her pent up anger out still.

“It’s either that or die.”, I bluntly respond as I open the vent to us. “Now get in there. I’ll be right behind.”, I quickly add as I hop down from the step ladder and grab my spear. Instead of saying anything Kelly just huffs at me as she steps up and into the vent. I notice the bind I made around the door handle begins to loosen before I quickly follow Kelly into the vent.

I look forward noticing the curve of Kelly’s behind which was surprisingly round for her small frame. Before I can become lost to any urges, I am jolted back to reality by a loud crashing sound which I can only assume is our assailants breaking the door open.

“Holy shit.”, Kelly quietly exclaims in fear and surprise at the sound.

“Just keep moving.”, I say trying to mask my surprise and fear as well. She does not move, and in annoyance, I grab her ankles and push her forward. “Get moving.”, I annoyingly state as she slides across the metal.

“Ow!”, The smaller girl exclaims. “That hurts.”, she grumbles at me as she begins to move again.

We hop out of the vent into a large room filled with various weapons, it appears we landed in what I could only assume would be a marauder’s wet dream.

“How many armories are there in this place?”, Kelly annoyingly inquires. “There’s one on the first floor too.”, She adds to answer the question I was about to ask. Before we could continue, we hear gun fire from the other side of the door.

I open the door and see Jose standing and firing at the creatures. As he finally stops firing I grab his arm and drag him into the armory as he yelps in surprise.

“What the fuck!?”, Jose exclaims as he points his gun at me before realizing it is Kelly and I. “Good thing I have trigger discipline.”, He says as he lowers his firearm and I close the door behind him. He looks around the dark room and whistles in awe at the arsenal before he speaks again, “This is some impressive stuff.” He grabs a strange looking rifle with a very large grin, poorly hiding his giddiness if he was trying to even do that.

“What is that?”, I ask the jovial officer as I point at the weapon in his hands.

“A rarity.”, He answers as he begins to remove the flashlight attachment from his pistol and attaching it to the much larger weapon. “An assault laser.”, He says with the joy of a boy getting the chance to play with a new toy.

“Not important!”, Kelly interrupts our conversation, “What are we gonna do!?”. Jose and I look at our pint sized companion with looks of surprise.

“Ingrid”, Jose says as his demeanor stiffens like a hunter stalking his prey. “Open the door and I’ll handle the rest.” I walk up to the door and grab the handle. I look at Jose and we both give each other a nod before I open the door.

The svelte man steps out the door once again and holds the trigger of his assault laser. The beam of the large rifle remains steady and quickly slices and cauterizes the abominations into scorching corpses.

“I love this thing.”, The chief chuckles in joy as he steps over the still smoking corpses. Wordless, Kelly and I follow behind our giddy ally.

-- -- --

We stand before a door, it was different than the others on this floor not only because it was ajar but because I could sense the mystical power emanating from it. Strange, I thought it would have some kind of magical defense over the door but there was nothing of the sort I could sense.

“Well this is ominous.”, Kelly mutters as if we could not hear her.

“Yeah.”, Jose agrees with the medic.

Before the others can continue or plan something I force the door open fully, surprisingly easily and step into the dark room.

“So you’re the ones.”, A rasping voice says as the lights in the room turn on. An odd thing since the rest of the rooms had no light. “I would greet you properly.”, The voice continues, the owner of the voice now being visible. An abomination sitting at a table is the best way to describe it. Appearing as a normal man in an old world military dress uniform but part of his face was merely his skull. “I am Major Edward Cooper.”, The abhorrence introduces itself with some kind of odd gesture as it stands to its feet, raising its hand to its forehead and moving it quickly away before returning the hand to its side.

“Chief security officer Jose Benterro of New Yuma.”, Jose answers as he lowers his weapon perhaps to put the thing at ease, a foolish decision.

“I see.”, The abomination sighs. “So the world fell then.”, It lowers its head as if it looked resigned about something. This thing has been around since before the fallout, of course the world it would know no longer exists but life always finds a way and is still alive unlike this thing.

“Medic Kelly Lawson.”, The mousy girl introduces herself. The creature looks at the medic, its eyes filled with, sorrow? “This is Ingrid.”, Kelly introduces me as well, a meaningless gesture, however I glare at Kelly to let her know I did not want this thing to know my name.

“Fascinating.”, The thing meets my steely gaze as it speaks. “A fellow mage.”, It continues as it raises its arms in joy. “I tried to save these people as best I could.”, It tells us as it puts a hand on the bone of its face as it continues with a frown, “As the nukes fell I powered this device to save who I could. It appears that even with sacrificing part of myself I could only save so few.” Kelly lets a loud gasp escape her lips.

“Jesus.”, Jose mutters. None of this matters ultimately, what is done is done. Even this damnable device could not truly stop the destructive nature of man.

“I’m very happy I can finally have a conversation. I haven’t had one...”, The abomination speaks seeming to have a complete personality shift and putting a finger to his chin with confusion in his one eye, “I don’t even remember how long!” It turns its back to us and rests a hand on the device, “At first we were fine.” It changes the subject back to its original point, “That is, until we ran out of food. The folks here didn’t die, they all started to change like they are now.”, It says with feigned sorrow, clearly trying to lower our guards by grabbing at our heartstrings.

I have had enough. As the thing continues to rant about whatever it is it could to lure us into false security I shut my eyes as I grab hold of the flashlight I was given and take a deep breath of the oppressive stagnant air. I could sense the energy from the batteries in the device. I focus my mind on the electricity surging from the batteries giving energy to the entire object. Everything seemingly goes silent as I flick the flashlight on using it as a path for the electricity to flow.

I open my eyes to the sight of the blue bolt of lightning shooting out of the flashlight, surging through the abomination and striking the accursed object behind it. The sight would have been something to behold if not for but a moment later the deafening clap of thunder threw me across the room, ramming my back into a wall.

The ringing in my ears was nearly overtaking but the pain in my left arm was somehow even worse. My vision blurs before I can check my arm. The last thing I see is my own vomit on me.