Chapter 32 - At The Eastern Base [Part 2]

Approaching the safety line that has yet to move outwards, Zulu attracts a lot of attention as he walks past others to reach it, but is left well enough alone and unhindered.

‘Why’d you let her order you?’

“It was not an order,” Zulu answers out loud and attracts even more attention to himself, “It was a request and the request had proper reason behind it.”

‘You were making everyone nervous.’

“That I was.” He replies and sees Matthew jog a few metres in front to speak with those few in charge at the front line.

‘But you made it seem like she had control over you!’

“It doesn’t matter,” he answers her, “she knows she does not.” Stopping next to Matthew and those he is talking to.

“Never thought I’ll see a Zulu.” one of the two in charge comments putting up a front of complete ease.

“If you’re with us I guess we can start pushing the line.” The second says, again hiding his uneasiness.

“We’re not here to push the line out,” Zulu corrects them.

“The pit,” Matthew tells them with a sense of dread, “let’s hope the monsters cleared it out.”

“Lets,” the two of them say at the same time with a small nod, then the first sighs whilst scratching his neck, “Guess we’ll wait till we get further orders, would’ve liked to get back at those things whilst we had the chance.”

Turning the safety switch off on his rifle, “Sergeant.” He calls Matthew ranks with a hint of annoyance.

“Right,” Matthew nods towards Zulu and looks at the two, “I’ll catch up with you guys later.” moving off, leading the way for Zulu who follows two steps behind.

‘You still could’ve left in a different manner!’

“Drop it,” he tells Ten.

“Who are you talking to?” Matthew asks giving into his curiosity.

‘You know, I could just lead the way.’

“Eyes front Sergeant,” Zulu doesn’t answer him, “We’re no longer in the safety zone.”

“We’re barely fifty metres from the line,” spreading his arms open to demonstrate the emptiness amongst the collapsed buildings and cracked pavement, “But yes,” holding his shotgun so that he is ready to fire, “You’re right,” he looks back forward and walks quickly but with caution at the same time, getting off the centre of the pathway and staying near the broken walls.

‘He’s going so slowly!’

“Fast enough.” Zulu replies, maintaining the two step distance from Matthew

“Seriously though,” Matthew asks without looking back, “Who are you talking to?”

“Nobody.” He answers after a short moment, making it obvious to Matthew that he should stop asking and will probably never know.

‘Still, why did he volunteer? I had the impression that he disliked you.’

Stepping over rubble that leads through a once present building, “Sergeant, why’d you volunteer to help me?” Zulu asks as it too peaked his interest.

“Mat,” Matthew says, “Or Matthew, you can call me that, and I didn’t exactly volunteer.”

“I see Sergeant,” Zulu nods once, “the Major ordered it.”

Accepting the fact that he was going to only be called by rank, “Kind of, she told me to get out of the building,” smiling a bit, “I didn’t belong there…and going to the front to follow others when I could follow you wasn’t as appealing.”

‘He…likes battle’

Rounding a corner Matthew fires one round of his shotgun and yells, “CONTACT!” with a grin.

“A war junkie,” Zulu sighs with a shake of his head.

“What was that?!” Matthew shouts over the sound of him firing another shot.

Stepping forward to close the two step distance between himself and Matthew, Zulu kicks him in the back of his knees, making Matthew collapse to the ground, saving him by a hairs breath as four needle like projectile implant themselves in the wall he was standing in front of.

Dropping down and pulling the back of his shirt, Zulu yanks him with him as he jumps a good 4 metres backwards to cover.

“I lead now.” He tells him with a voice that demanded it and gave no other choice but to follow, turning him over at the same time so that Matthew can see him clearly.

Slightly confused as falling and being pulled back took barely second, Matthew nods slowly, regaining his awareness he scrunches his eyebrows annoyed but grateful at the same time.

“How far are we?” Zulu asks.

‘We’re practically there already, just past that flaming vehicle’

“We’re there,” peeking out of cover, “it’s those stairs that lead downwards” Matthew says.

“Alright,” staying crouched, “Stay behind and provide supporting fire.”

“Will do Zulu.” He frowns.

Taking a breath of air, but choosing not to change to his hyper active state, Zulu bolts out of cover and fires his clip empty before sliding to a halt behind a flaming vehicle for cover.

Reloading his clip that takes him 4 seconds to complete, “They’re pulling back!” Matthew shouts moving ahead and steering well clear of the flaming cover.

“Sergeant!” Zulu shouts seeing him move ahead of himself but gets no response as he fires another shot and stays behind cover that is ahead of himself.

Looking out from behind the Flaming vehicle, Zulu spots a wall of tri-legs protecting a group of six-arms who in turn are protecting one that’s carrying a creature he cannot see.

Opening fire upon another group of tri-legs rapidly approaching, “What are they carrying?” he asks out loud.

‘I don’t know’

“Sargent!” he calls out seeing that that group had no intention of fighting, as he pushes on to meet with him while the last of the approaching tri-legs drop to the ground.

“I,” Matthew starts to say but stops as both he and Zulu see that the monsters were looking towards them but not reacting towards them, even though they were less than fifty metres away.

“Hold your fire.” Zulu states grabbing a hold of Matthew’s shotgun to physically prevent him from doing anything. “They’re going to back away.”

“How do you know that?” Matthew tries to wrestle his shotgun out of his hand but fails.

“Because,” He sees the six-arms argue with one another, “They seem to have gotten what they came for.”

A bear like creature suddenly appears out of the stairs that lead down into the ground, standing two heads taller than any of the six-arms, it roars a soundless roar and those around it step back, immediately going quiet they all turn around move off with haste.

“What is that?” Zulu asks as it turns around and snarls with red blood dripping from its mouth before turning back and leaving.

‘I don’t know’

“I don’t know,” Still trying to wrestle his shotgun out of Zulu’s one hand, “but we need to stop them!”

“You don’t know?” he watches the creature walk upright away

Name: Not yet classified

Known as: White bear

Facts: Never seen in combat.

“I’ve never seen it before.” Giving up on releasing Zulu’s grip upon his shotgun, “but we need to stop them.”

“Yes, let’s engage with an unknown hostile” Zulu replies with a sense of sarcasm then says with a serious tone, “They are leaving and we will wait.”

“They are leaving with their objective,” Matthew emphasise

“Their objective is not my objective.” Letting go of Matthew’s shotgun, “If you want to stop them, go right ahead, alone.”

Looking back to the monsters on the move, “Fine,” he sighs admitting to himself that there was no way to stop them.

“Good,” seeing that the creatures were well clear, “let’s move.” Zulu steps out of cover and walks with weapon at the ready, just in case something unexpected were to happen.

Reaching to the top of the stairs, “Isn’t this place an earthquake prone area?” he asks looking down the many, many steps that lead to a broken through door.

“It is,” Matthew replies looking down there as well.

“I don’t understand the need for a base to be located here,” Walking down the stairs he pauses and looks up behind him, “you’re not coming?”

“No,” Matthew shakes his head at the top of the stairs, “I’ll wait up here.”

“No,” Rubbing his eyebrows with his free hand, “You will go back to the safe zone, you will not disobey this order.”

Shifting his stance a bit, “I will.” He answers

Squinting his eyes, “You will.” Zulu says with a slight sense of distrust before walking down the remaining stairs.

‘I’ve removed him from the possible temporary operations unit member list’

“Thank you,” Zulu says with appreciation, a war junkie was never good thing to have on your team.

Entering past the broken doors which lay upon the ground, the room’s lights were blinking on and off, making it difficult to see. Blood of varies colours lay upon the ground, pieces of tables and chairs stood scattered across the wide room.

Night Vision Activated

Walking past it all he comes to a terminal on the far side of the room, embedded into the wall and next to another passage way with the door broken through.

‘Plug me into that.’ Ten says reappearing as now he was alone, ‘I can’t reach it through the main network…there’s an Air Gap’

Leaning the rifle he holds against the wall, he grabs the wires from his headset and bring it to the terminal, allowing them to dig their way in.

“So,” Zulu says as he sees numbers and symbols flash across his eye piece, “What is this place?”

‘It’s designated as Facility Zero-Two-Five’ Ten voices, ‘Subject number One to Hundred are located here, were located here.’ pausing a moment as she looks for more information, ‘There are no descriptions of any kind.’ she concludes with annoyance

Tilting his head left Zulu peeks past the broken doorway and looks down the long corridor, seeing it clearly with a green tint in one eye whilst the other saw darkness and light altering back and forth, due to the lights continuous flicker. Destroyed doors that lined the corridor could be seen to have been broken into, red blood were smeared across everywhere but no physical body remained present.

“How far did the creatures penetrate?” he ask picking up his rifle as if expecting something to happen, even though he knows that he is very much alone.

‘Fourth floor,’ Ten answers, ‘All subjects from this to that floor have escaped or have been terminated.’

Showing the layout of this underground place 5 levels can be seen to be present, starting at the place he stands there is one passage that travels for 20 metres, leading to another room seeming to be the same size as the one he is currently in. That leading down one level to another perfectly identical one with another passage leading back along the way the previous one came, but just one floor below. This pattern continuing onwards to end at the last level.

“All security measures have been destroyed I assume?” turning on the flashlight attached to all models of the rifle he holds.

‘Almost all,’ Ten hovers next to the terminal, looking at the screen despite the fact that she does not need to.

“Turn them all off.” He tells her

‘No.’ Answers back without pause.

Opening and closing his mouth, Zulu stops his first reaction going off and instead asks calmly, “Why?”

‘There are people upon the fifth level, along with 20 subjects till in their cells.’ Turning around to see him, ‘They are in the cells for a reason, I don’t think turning off the security measures are a good idea.’

Finding no fault in her logic, “Then do you know why they are there?”

Shaking her head, ‘As I said, there are no descriptions of any kind.’

“Turn the lights of then, the flickering is a pain to see.”

‘Done!’ the lights on all floors go out.

Grabbing the wires attached to the terminal, Zulu puts them back into his head gear and points his rifle with the torchlight down the corridor, prioritizing light over to his left than his right.

Stepping through the doorway a putrid stench fills his noise, “What is that smell?” he coughs continuously before taking a step back out and finds there to be no smell in room.

Breathing normally, “Ten?” he asks.

‘There is no data or description of any kind!’ ten says with full annoyance at not knowing, ‘Best I can guess is that it’s the subjects that escaped or died?’

“It smells worse than a rotting corpse,” Zulu takes long deep breaths as he flashes his light over the room, hoping to find a gas mask.

‘There are no masks,’ Ten comments concluding his unsuccessful search.

“At times like this I wish I had one of Zags masks with me.” He sighs in disappointment.

‘You do.’ Ten says sitting on his shoulder and looking downcast, ‘Well you don’t but there is one at home…The one she use to use.’

After a moment of silence, “Well then,” He points his flashlight back down the corridor, again keeping the light heavily upon his left, “I’ll just dash through.” He concludes slightly dissatisfied that he wouldn’t be inspecting each of the cells, as each cell was small.

Being only five levels and each corridor being twenty metres long whilst having twenty cells, each cell couldn’t be any larger than two metres each, barely enough space to stay in. It didn’t follow the regulated prison conventions, well the prison conventions he knew of.

Dashing through the corridor then going down the steps in each room and dashing through another corridor, Zulu finds that each corridor and room to be exactly the same and equally destroyed, each room and corridor equally bloody, despite the amount of blood present no bodies could ever be found.

All this was seen up until the last room upon the fourth floor. Here the doors that lead to the fifth floor had yet to be broken through, though dents and cut marks could easily be seen present.

‘It looks as if they ran out of time,’ Ten comments examining the markings, ‘Given another ten minutes I think they would have broken through.’

“Well,” Zulu puts his rifle down and takes the wires out of his head gear, “You think you’ll be able to open it for me?”

Floating around the door as Zulu lets his wires dig into the circuitry of the door, ‘No, I can’t,’ Ten tells him, surprising Zulu, ‘The doors too bent and damaged, it’s physically impossible for it to open the way it should.’

Putting his wires away, “So I’ll have to break through.” Zulu runs his hands over the damage door, feeling the dents already made, “these feel like they were down with a hand.”

‘Or a paw,’ Ten corrects him, ‘the White bear like creature probably did this.’

“Almost as strong as I am I guess?” he asks, trying to compare.

‘Maybe,’ Ten says, ‘you can’t tell until you fight it.’

“Well then,” Zulu finds where he should continue the work of the white bear, “I guess I should get started.”

‘You could just cut your way through,’ Ten says floating sideways left and right.

Smiling at the fact that he did not think of that, “True” he pulls out his orange katana.

Planting one foot against the door to make it easier to cut, Zulu slowly pushes his blade into it and see it start to glow red. Pushing it all the way through until the hilt of the sword touches the door Zulu removes his foot from the door and proceeds to draw a perfect vertical ellipse before taking the sword out and letting it dematerialize.

‘There are people behind the door,’ Ten warns as Zulu as she disappears and he places his left shoulder against the cut piece.

“Right,” he says as he starts to push and hear the sound of metal screeching against metal before the ultimate sound of heavy metal falling free and hitting the ground. Giving way to light being shine upon his face.

“Hold your fire!” a man with a headgear that looked like his shouts immediately upon seeing a person and not a monster.

Picking up his rifle Zulu steps through and looks towards the man.

Name: No Data

Birthdate: No Data

Station: No Data

Aeternus

“Who are you?” the man asks with caution as Zulu approaches him.

“Who are you?” Zulu ask the man in return.

“I,” the man pauses, “am no one.”

“Then,” Zulu copies his pause perfectly, “I too am no one.”

Nodding the man formulates an idea of who Zulu is, “I assume you’re from another Facility,” the man waves his hand and the sound of weapons being put away emits throughout the room, “Is it just you?”

‘He thinks you’re his equal’

Not responding to Ten, “What is the situation here…” He ask lingering on the last word, trying to get a name out of the man.

With a face holding a bit of confusion, “We’ve lost eighty subjects and been periodically moving from room to room, sealing each door as another was destroyed.” Looking at the door Zulu just came through, “Did you come from advance weapons?”

Tilting his head forward slightly, to give the impression that he is answering the question, “What about the last twenty?” he asks the man.

Visually relaxing he raises a hand, “Were you the one that turned off the lights?” the man asks not answering

Stying silent for a moment “The flickering made it impossible to see properly upon the upper levels,” Zulu answers and makes up a reasonable excuse.

“Well,” the man scratches his neck, “Could you turn them back on? I’ve been trying to get it working, but whatever you did knocked it right out.”

Grabbing his wires from his head gear, he inserts them into the terminal next to the door he just came from.

Night Vision De-Activated

“There you go,” putting the wires away as the lights come on, “So about the last twenty?”

“They are still locked up in their cells, safe.” Motioning his hand at the corridor that held them, “Would you like to see them?” he ask

“I would,” Zulu replies.

“Very well,” the man moves with ease towards the terminal next to the corridor and opens the door, “Could you leave your weapon here though, don’t need to give the subjects any ideas.”

‘Don’t do it’

Shaking his head, “I don’t think I can,” Zulu answers, “I can’t leave it unattended.”

Squinting, “Advance weapons,” the man replies, “Stay well away from the cells then.”

Nodding at that, Zulu advances past the doorway into the corridor and is pleasantly surprised that there was no smell.

Hearing the sound of buttons being pressed whilst seeing the door shut and lock behind him with only himself and the man in the corridor, “What are you doing?” Zulu asks him.

“Just a precaution.” The man turns back and starts walking down the corridor with Zulu, “I assume you want to see our grand prize and not these here.”

Looking through the glass doors as he walks past them, “That I do.” Zulu answers as he tries to see through the murky coloured fog that clouds the human like figures, but fails to do so.

“The gas in each cell are routinely changed every ten minutes,” The man says as he sees Zulu looking at them, “Each gas possesses a horrid smell, so horrid in fact that it cripples them, we change it every ten minutes so that the subjects never get use to them.” He says with a hint of pride.

“How long do they generally last?” Zulu asks, hiding his disdain at their situations.

“Generally,” the man pauses as he thinks, “a month or two, but our grand prize.” The man smiles an unpleasant smile, “It’s lasted for more than a year.”

“A Year!” Zulu lets out a bit of fake amazement, “It must be a spectacular creature.”

Letting his unpleasant smile spread out larger, “It truly is,” the man starts typing into another terminal, opening the door to the last room.

Stepping through the door and out of the corridor, Zulu finds that this room is different. Thought the dimensions are exactly the same as all the others in the centre of the room stood on gigantic cylinder with the insides clouded with murky fog.

Hearing the door shut and lock, he sees the man move to a terminal right in front and operate it.

“This one had a twin when we captured it,” the man says as the fog slowly starts to fade, “But the twin escaped whilst this one played a distraction,” Sounding tired, “We had just captured it a few days ago, but after today, it’s no longer with us.”

‘Good thing too’

With the fog cleared away, a person hanged naked, her arms chined to the ceiling whilst her legs chained to the ground.

“It looks almost human,” the man laughs, “Doesn’t it.”

Nodding slowly, “It doesn’t.” Zulu replies taking a step closer only to feel the man place his hand upon his chest.

“Your weapon,” the man demands, “You’re too close.”

Sighing, Zulu just hands him the rifle he holds and steps past him.

The woman had green hair, something any person would think was dyed. Her skin being ghostly pale, she breathed short and haggard breathes, looking weak but alive. If it were not for that one black leathery wings that sprouted out of her right shoulder blade and her eyes that seemed to glow gold, she would have looked completely human.

“Was her wing always like that?” Zulu asks not quite sure.

“Oh no,” the man replies, “Its left now resides in another Facility.”

Staying quiet a moment as he looks into the eyes of this creature, “Do you ever wonder if what you’re doing is right?” he asks finding that her eyes were well and truly alive, holding hatred despite the fact that she has been hanging there for more than a year.

“Of course it is,” the man answers without hesitation, “Without what we do we would know nothing about these amazing creatures.”

“Then tell me,” Zulu starts to walk around the chamber, “What is it that you’ve found out?”

“Well,” the man says and moves along with Zulu, out of his vision, “For starters these creatures understands everything we say.”

“So they are not stupid.” Zulu says, “But we already know that by the weapons they use.”

“Yes,” the man responds, “But did you know that they speak on a frequency too high for us to hear, and in their own language as well!”

Nodding but staying quiet, Zulu stops in front of the creature again, “Do you ever release them?” he asks and hears no reply, not turning away from the creature, “Do you ever release them?” he asks again.

‘Watch out!’

Zulu feels a stab from a needle with fluids flowing into him, immediately causing him to flinch and strike behind him with his right elbow, knocking the man that injected him.

Unknown compound entering system

Grabbing the needle still in his neck he pulls it out and stumbles back against the glass with blurry vision, “What did you just do?” he asks looking at the needle now in his hands.

“There is no facility in charged of Advance weaponry,” the says wiping blood from his lips, “You are an escaped subject.”

Unknown compound being gathered

Gaining his normal vision back but still feeling a little bit numb, “Stand down now,” Zulu states with a hint of anger, “I am no subject.”

“You are not human.” The man says calmly. “I’ve analysed you” tapping his headgear that covered his left eye, “You are not human.” Standing up. “In a few seconds you will pass out,” touching the chamber that the creature with one wing hanged in, “And I’ll be able to play with you too.”

Unknown compound being expulsed

Feeling the blue coloured drug that had been injected into him coming out of the injected area he feels normal again but pretends to weaken, “You will regret it.” Zulu pretends to fall unconscious.

Laughing, “I will not,” the man approaches Zulu and grabs him by the collar.

With his collar being grabbed, Zulu opens his eyes with blood red as their colour. Knocking the man’s hands away Zulu grabs him by the neck, in turn standing and holds the man in the air by it.

“Impossible!” the man gurgles out as he struggles to breath. “Who are you?!”

“I am not a subject,” Zulu slams the man into the ground, making him cough out blood onto Zulu face, “My Unit is Zulu.”

Stunned amazement fills the man’s eyes as he hears the word Zulu, before being replaced with one full of panic, “No!” the man screams with fear, “You don’t exist!” the man screams and screams in fright and horror.

Knocking the man out to silence him Zulu leaves the man on the ground and looks towards the chamber, the creature in it having a curious expression upon her face.

‘What are you going to do with him?’ Ten says reappearing now and repeatedly stomping the man’s face.

Wiping the blood from his own, “What do you think?” he answers her moving towards the terminal that controlled the chamber.

A/N

WHAT IS AN AIR GAP?

An air gap or air wall is a network security measure, also known as air gapping, employed on one or more computers to ensure that a secure computer network is physically isolated from unsecured networks, such as the public Internet or an unsecured local area network. [Grabbed from Wikipedia]

As Always, Thank you for reading and I hope you all enjoyed it ^.^ro