Chapter 04

Waking up the next morning. He stares into the morning sky, the little sky that he can see from the position he is in. Laying there he just thinks of what’s transpired in the past couple of days. Other than the fact that he may no longer be at war with the non-humans he realizes he has gotten no other information and is still in the dark about everything.

Hearing a rustle to his right he immediately rolls to his left and brings his knife up to a crouching position, ready to fight.

“Morning” The woman says, putting her hand on her knives.

[NOT HUMAN]

[THIEF]

[IDIOT]

[Bitch]

Putting his blade away “Sorry” he scoffs “How far are we to the next base?”

Putting out the fire “Half a day away.”

She walks over to his pack and grabs another ration pack and the last of the water

[3 half ration packs]

[No Water]

Gritting his teeth he doesn’t say anything and lets her take it. As there is only half a day till base it should be fine he guesses. Grabbing some food as well they both sit opposite each other. Far away enough that if either of them drew a knife, the other would be able to react in time. Eating in silence neither of them say anything nor make any unexpected movements.

[Half ration pack remaining]

“We should get going” he says after finishing his meal.

Standing up to leave she makes no reply and just heads off. Obviously expecting him to follow without complaint.

“Hey!” he shouts after her “WHAT ABOUT RECON!”

Receiving no reply he fills in the fire pit as best he can and throws little leaves and plants over where he and she slept. Spending only 30 seconds doing so, he knows that it’s horrible and wouldn’t even fool the dumbest of soldiers.

*idiot* he thinks again leaving the campsite against his will to chase after the woman.

Catching up to her he finds out that she isn’t moving really fast. Going at a relaxed pace she doesn’t even look for cover as she moves. Staying in the open and following the easiest path she is exposed to everyone and doesn’t seem to care.

“What are you doing?” he asks her, following from afar and sticking to cover.

Again she doesn’t reply but instead gives a look of “Are you stupid” as a reply and moves on.

*Idiot* he thinks again and chooses to follow her slow pace from cover. From another point of view and to those who could actually notice him, it would look like he were stalking her. At times though she would stop moving and look around. At times like these he would just wait for a while then throw a rock or stick at her feet to make her move on.

Unknown to him though, the only reason she stopped and looked around was due to the fact that she could not find him, his backpack and clothes kept changing colour and his movements were always silent. Keeping track of where he was, is a near impossible task.

After hours of this repetitive pattern she stops at a cliff overlooking a wide open flat piece of green land. Sitting there she waits and does nothing. Still doing nothing when he threw objects at her.

Realizing that she was not going to be moving anymore he makes his appearing, seemingly rising from out of nowhere, he stands up from the bushes to approach her.

“What are you doing?”

“Waiting”

“For what?”

“Sunset”

“Why”

“You can’t get in till sunset”

“Then why are we out in the open.”

“Why not?”

“We need to get to cover”

“There’s no point”

“What do you mean there’s no point”

Sighing the woman stops replying to the questions and just lays on her back, staring up at the sky. Not knowing what he could do, he just stands there dumbstruck at what she’s doing for a while before doing choosing to lay down and wait alongside her.

As the sun moves from the middle of the sky until almost hitting the horizon, they both watch the clouds roll.

“You’re crying again” she states.

“Am I?” he raises his fingers to his face. “Sorry” he snuffs back

“Why are you crying?”

“Forget it” he replies. Not wanting to tell her that just looking at the clouds was a thing he and his unit never had the time to do.

“Are you really Zulu?” she asks standing up and stretching.

Eyeing her body as she stretches, he doesn’t reply and just checks her out before forcing his eyes away when he notices what he’s doing “Is it so hard to believe?”

“Ha” she replies tying his rope to a tree “we’ll see soon enough” she states jumping over the edge of the cliff with his rope in hand and disappearing from his view.

Looking down from the cliff he watches as she safely jumps of the cliffs face multiple times to hit the floor. Then he proceeds to use the rope to follow her down. Upon reaching the ground he turns to see the woman already at the centre of the open ground. Perfectly open for a sniper to kill, but she does not seem to worry.

Knowing that she is heading to base he follows her out to the open ground.

“What now”

“Give it a few seconds.”

Staring at the sky they both watch the sun slowly drop over the horizon, they both watch and wait as the light slowly dims down to complete darkness.

[Night Vision Activated]

His world turns green.

*PSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH*

All around them parts of the ground pops up by a centimetre. The woman goes down to one of these and lifts it up. What comes up is a rectangular pillar. About one metre high, 20cm across and 30 cm wide. The woman Sticks her hand into a slot and a hologram appears.

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=middle width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][pc]

Her Name: aileD

Her Image: (Picture of her naked)

Her Birthdate: XXXX\80\02

Her unit: 01 ahplA

[/pc][/col][/box]

Then she falls and nothing more. The pillar goes back down into the ground. And she is nowhere to be seen.

Stunned at what just happened he doesn’t actually move for a few seconds but just looks down at the ground she disappeared on. Soon enough he moves to the same position, lifts up the pillar and sticks his hand in.

*Ouch*

[WARNING. Blood being drawn]

A hologram appears the same way as before after his fingers get pricked.

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=middle width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][pc]

Name: ERROR

Image: ERROR

Birthdate: ERROR

Unit: Zulu

[/pc][/col][/box]

The man raises an eyebrow at the mention of Zulu; the platform makes a sound, but does not drop. He tries to take his hand out but is unable to.

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=middle width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][pc]

Name: ERROR

Image: ERROR

Birthdate: ERROR

Unit: ****

[/pc][/col][/box]

The hologram corrects itself and then the ground gives way, releasing his hand he falls for a spilt second before his feet get clamped down to the ground and is pulled all the way beneath ground level. Moving down extremely fast he trusts that he’ll be okay and repeats that in his head a couple of times.

When it stops he drops to his knee.

[Night Vision De-activated]

“Thought you were killed.” The woman states as she watches him on his knee

“That was going too fast.”

“You’ll get use to it.”

“Come on” she states jumping onto the back of a vehicle.

[NOT HUMAN]

[HUMAN]

[NOT HUMAN]

[NOT HUMAN]

[HUMAN]

*Miniaturize labels*

[Labels Miniaturized confirmed]

Looking around a bit before following he notices that he has fallen into some kind of underground hanger, kilometres wide with people both human and not all around. Hanger 86 is painted in big letter all across the ground, walls and ceiling. Staring at the vehicle he sees that it has no wheels, no doors, no ceiling and no driver. Just seats on a flat hovering board.

“Are you going to follow me or what?” she states annoyed at having to wait.

“Sorry” he replies moving up to take a seat opposite of her.

With the vehicle in motion they pass through gigantic hall ways big enough for planes on the larger side to go through. Neither of them really speak though, and he catches her with her hand over one of her knives again. Realizing that since last night she has had a hand over a knife whenever he got close. Even when they were laying down, she had one hand close to one.

“This is why there are no animals above?” he asks breaking the silence, wanting to ease her just a bit.

“Animals avoid the place above, yes”

“What would have happened if it failed to recognise me?”

Looking at him as if he was a weird person she replies casually “You would have lost a hand. Then if you were to proceed to try and get in you would have been blown to pieces.”

“I see…Where are we headed?”

“Head Quarters”

Going through more places. They both stop talking again. The place is well populated, and everyone seems to be in military uniform. Everyone seems to be at ease, which was new to him. Everyone except her. The woman seating opposite of him was tense. He couldn’t tell whether she was nervous of angry though, her hand always on her knife. He just watched her and she never looked at him, always looking behind the vehicle at those they past. It was easy for him to just lose track of time watching her.

“We are here” She says knocking him out of his though as they both get of the vehicle.

Heading through a human sized doorway, the room they enter is bustling with activity, maps are spread all across the walls, and hologram projects are almost everywhere, each table was in use and papers were constantly being passed around; each person was involved in some form of argument or discussion.

Neither of them interacted with any of them, but instead walked straight to the man in the far back watching a monitor. He was old with grey moustache and hair. Burned marks ran across his face and he seems to be using an artificial left arm.

“How’d your mission go Delia” the man asks when we approach him.

“It succeeded, but the team is lost.”

“That’s a shame…Who is he” he states scribbling something down in his pad.

Moving her hand to her knife “Someone from”

“General!” a man shouts from across the room making us both turn our backs to see him.

“What is it?”

“Sir. A Zulu is on base!” he shouts over the noise of the room.

Making every conversation, every argument die.

“Show me” the general replies and receives a hologram on his desk.

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=middle width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][pc]

Name: ERROR

Image: ERROR

Birthdate: ERROR

Unit: Zulu

[/pc][/col][/box]

Whispers spread across the room.

“Silence” the general mummers out, making everyone shut up. “Does anyone know where he or she is?”

“I do” the woman states

“Where then” the general replies

“He” she points to him “Is from Zulu”

The sounds of weapons being drawn immediately occur. Each man and woman, each officer bring their weapon forward, knives out, some form of pistol forward, all at the ready and pointing at him.

“Stand down!” the general shouts.

And the weapons get pointed to the ground, but still ready to fire.

“What brings you here” the general ask him.

“The want of information.”

“We will give you what you need…”he states with no emotion in his voice “Delia assist him in what he needs”

“Sir?” she replies in an upset tone

“Quiet” he puts her down “What was your last mission?”

[Shadow Mist]

“Shadow Mist” he replies.

Searching through his pad. “That was a long time ago.” The general says “Long before that incident”

Hearing this everyone is put ease. But they still have their weapons drawn.

“Here are your current living details, come back tomorrow, I’m sure you are tired for the day.”

Taking the piece of paper being handed to him “Thank you” he replies moving back down a path cleared out for him to exit to room.

“Wait outside for a while” the Woman says just as he exits.

Exiting the door he waits for a while. Wondering why everyone was so tense at his arrival. True enough, half of the people in there were non-human, but even those who were human had drawn their weapons on him.

*What’s happened?* he questions himself

[No data]

*Woooosh*

The door opens and the woman exits the room.

“What do I call you?” she asks

Thinking about it for a bit. Seeing as he is the last one left.

“Zulu” he replies

Looking at him for a while she replies.

“I’m Delia, Follow me”