Chapter 47 Hopeless

I watch the creature, half man half spider thru the binoculars in half disbelief. Something like that can exist? I point and hand the binoculars to Eddie, who in turn whispers “what the fuck.....” He then hands me the binoculars back which I hand to Ki'Diera for her to look.

“I have never seen a beast like that before” She says slowly looking intently at it.

“I have no idea what that is” I say trying to think of it, most of all the creatures I recognized were somehow related to the MMO's I played.

We move back behind a house for cover. “So what now?” Eddie asks “getting thru those webs and those creatures, I do not know gunny.......”

“Yeah I think we will have to give this up for now. Even if there are survivors here, we have to prioritize , get back to the school and finish that job first before we start on another.” I say with a gloomy look.

“I would say the people here are lost”, Ki'Diera says bluntly.

“I will not agree to that, but there is nothing we can do about it right now.” I say “ If there is one there are more for sure.”

As we get up to leave, I feel a prick in my neck.

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I awaken, my head is groggy. I sit up and it is dark with a faint purplish glow coming from stones in the walls in here, the smell is musky and damp. The ground is solid granite. I look around, Ki'Diera and Eddie are still out cold next to me. I look around some more and see we are in a large cavernous space, made out of rock.

I get up and see a door, I go to it and it is made of out metal. I feel it and it is cold to the touch, there is no lock or door handle on it. I look back into the cavern and see various blankets and bedding stuff laying around but no people, just Eddie, Ki'Diera and myself.

I go to awaken them and they slowly begin to stir. Ki'Diera wakes with a sudden jump, gets up looking at her surroundings, then checks and finds her weapons gone. Then looks at me with a questioning look.

“I did not detect anything before this happened” I say to her as I think back, I had my detection on and felt no one or creature close by within 61 meter of us.

I try to use detection now, but something is inhibiting it. I can not even detect Eddie or Ki'Diera who are right next to me.

“I can not enhance my body, something is suppressing my mana.” she says slowly.

“Where the fuck are we?” Eddie asks looking around slowly observing the walls around us.

Just then the door open and two tall, slender looking males enter, Silver hair, lean arms, sharp noses and

pointed ears that rose slightly above their heads, their skin was darkened and they had menacing expressions on their faces. I inspect them.

Drow Level 90

Drow? Are you shitting me? I had heard of the Drow in my online game days, they were the opposite of elves, their evil counter parts, living underground in caves. Then it hit me, then that must have been a Drider. I heard about them vaguely, but the spider body is what made me remember. If these guys are anything like the stories we are in big trouble.

As they stand there on either side of the door, people start walking in with down faces, defeated looks in their eyes. As the last entered I counted 53 people. The Drow then exit the cavern and close the door. Everyone goes to their bedding and lays down, exhausted. I move to one man who has a big build who is laying on his side.

“Hey, can we talk?” I ask of him.

He turns and looks at me, his eyes show a hopelessness in them, “what do you want?”

“Where are we? And what is going on” I ask of him

“I am too tired, you will find out in the morning, not that you can tell in this place.....” he says turning back around.

No one would talk to us, all were seemingly beyond hope., had given up. I spy a man in uniform and try a different approach, “Soldier give me your SITREP(1) now!” I order him.

“uhh sure sarge.....umm we were captured a week ago, been forced to dig tunnels since, Some tried to escape, but were captured then killed in front of us, they were simply beheaded right there” he says and points towards the doorway. “they left the bodies over night with us and in the mornings we had to drag them with us and bury them ourselves”.

“Private do you know their numbers, weapons, and abilities?” I ask looking closer to his uniform and see his rank, Private first class. His name tag showed Clements.

“Why sarge? You are not planning to escape are you? You will only be captured and killed sarge, I can not witness another death like that sarge!” he pleads.

“Just give me the info Private, that is an order!” I demand of him.

“Ye...yes Sarge, it varies to be honest, some have swords, others have bows and they can hit a target between the eyes on the move too. Some have those large spear looking things, the scary ones are the spider looking guys. And the females, they are just cruel, They seem to take delight in torture and killing for no reason Sarge. One girl was just cut in half for no reason sarge, right in half!” He says shuddering. “ and the female just began to laugh hysterically.”

"Do you know what the tunnels are for you that you are digging?" I ask.

“No Sarge, we just dig and dig every day from morning to night.” he replies still shuddering.

“Are there any more people in here like us?” I ask some more.

“There used to be a lot more sarge, but we are all that is left.” he says his eyes looking away now.

“Thank you soldier, that will be all.” I say to him and move away to Eddie and Ki'Diera then I explain it to them what I was told.

“So what now gunny?” Eddie Asks.

“We get out of here” I say to him with a smile.

“Scott how do you plan to do that, when others have already tried and failed?” Ki'Diera asks now.

“None of them had what we had princess, my inventory full of weapons” I smile at her.

Then both of them blinked at me and smiles began to creep across their faces and both nodded.

“First thing we need to do is get these people motivated, I do not want to wait till morning to find out what is in store for us, or worse be made a torture toy for one of those females.” I say with a grim look.

“That is not going to be easy gunny, considering their condition and what they have witnessed so far.” Eddie says looking at the people around him.

“From what he told me we got till morning to prepare and then break out. So we have several hours to motivate them all.” I say looking a the people as well.

I begin to break out the weapons, hand the unknown sword I had to Ki'Diera,”Scott this is an amazing gift!” she says examining the sword her eyes lit up in amazement.

“Huh? You can identify it?” I ask

“Yes it is called Soul Reaper.” She says grinning, ”not only does it cut a creature, but it rips at their soul as well.”

“Can you check this ring for me please?” I get the ring out and hand it to her, she examines it and gasps at it.

“Scott this is a priceless ring, it is a regeneration ring. I have only heard of them in stories.” she says while looking at it in awe, then reluctantly hands it back to me.

“What does it do?” Eddie asks.

“The ring can bring you back from the dead, or even regrows limbs, or so I have been told, it regenerates your body and your mind.” She says still staring at the ring.

“Here you keep it then, it will keep you safe.” I say to her, handing her the priceless ring. She looks at me in confusion at fist then a big smile crosses her face and she jumps at me giving me a kiss, a kiss I have not felt from her before.

“Ahem! Do you think now is the time for that sort of thing?” Eddie asks interrupting us.

We break apart and I get weapons out of inventory and hand Eddie a M27 automatic rifle and a M32 Grenade launcher and some grenades, plus night vision goggles, as the lighting is bad in here. Ki'Diera says she can see fine in here and had no need for the goggles, she is examining the sword and already put on the ring, when she tries to take the ring off again, “umm Scott it will not come off anymore.”

“Sigh I guess it is now bound to you” I say thinking it over, as the same happened with my crown.

I move to Private Clements and nudge him. “Soldier I have mission for you!”

He turns to look at me, ”Sarge really it is......how, how did you get weapons in here?” he asks staring in disbelief at the M27 in front of him.

“Do not worry about that, I have lots of weapons, can you handle some grenades?” I ask

He nods, hope is returning to his eyes now, the soldier is re-appearing in him.

“Do you know the way out of here, if we get out those doors?” I ask of him

He nods,” yea sarge, it is not far”

We circulate among the rest of the people handing them weapons and one by one they stare blankly at first at the rifles in their hands, then slowly hope begins to rise in their eyes when they look around and see others examining their rifles and whispering in excitement to one another.

14 soldiers were in here and had gathered in a group with Ki'Diera and Eddie, talking. The big man I first spoke to among them. After handing out rifles to everyone even the civilians I move to the group.

"Sorry sarge, I did not realize....” he begins looking down.

“No worries soldier, we will get out of here.”, I say reassuringly and he nods with a weak smile, but the hopelessness was gone.

I go over the plan and everyone listens, Private First Class Clements, would lead with Ki'diera, also 6 of the soldiers would be with him to add suppression fire. I told the civilians under no circumstances, unless I told them to, were they to fire. If things got really bad then they could join in. The remaining 7 soldiers , Eddie and myself would cover the rear, I would lay C4 as we go with detonators attached.

I placed 10 bricks of C4 in my various pockets, and detonators in my left side pocket. I put the remote in my top right pocket.

After going over the plan several times we finally sat in wait. Everyone getting nervous and anxious now. This was an all or nothing plan,. We would all get out or we would all die. Everyone had the resolve to get out, now that they were armed, even the civilians had great hope in their eyes. It Seemed my leadership skill was breaking them out of their fog.

As morning approached , the door finally swings open and we opened fire at the two Drow entering,

“Grenades!” I called out and 1 flash bang grenade went left out the doorway and one flash bang flew right.

The explosions blasted our ears even tho we had them covered.

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(1) SITREP = Situation Report

Authors Note: When they plundered the armory, there were various grenades and ammo, was not going to list it all, but implied they have them as I said with "....and more."