The metallic ladder squeals as Andrea slides down, lightly gripping the sides with her bare feet and palms. Her feet softly thud on the ground as she reaches the concrete. She was going down the ladder too fast and stumbled backward as she landed, but quickly caught her balance, turned around on her heels and sprinted for the first door on her left with panic in her eyes.

As Andrea swung the door open with a reckless shove, there was a loud thump from the other side of the massive wooden door and a yelp from Echo, “Oww! What the hell was that for?”

Without looking entirely into the room and not seeing her son on the other side, Andrea reaches around the door and grabs Echo by the wrist with a vice grip that nearly crushes his arm, “Run for the panic room! Now!”

As Echo swings around the thick wooden door on light feet, he screams, “There’s a tornado already!? Oh shit!”

Andrea screams over her shoulder as she drags Echo down the corridor, “Don’t think! Just run!”

Both of them dash for the panic room at the end of the hallway with Echo stumbling all the way. The thick metal door was still wide open, and Vikta was at the desk in the back of the room. Vikta currently had his back turned away from them and was busy working on something shrouded by his thick physique. The only light coming down the corridor was from the monitors on the desk in front of Vikta.

When Andrea and Echo were nearing the panic room, all of the monitors inside abruptly turned off, including the camera feeds and weather monitor. The power had been efficiently cut to the entire building, and everything was shrouded in darkness. No light was able to penetrate the underground shelter from above. Vikta grumbled under his breath as he searched for the electric lantern that was nearby in the dark room. Finding the electric lantern, Vikta pressed a button on one side of the lantern and placed it on the table, bringing light back to the room which then spilled out into the hallway. The small lamp added a soft light blue hue to the room, but all the other lights remained off as Andrea and Echo finally reached the room with staggered breaths.

Vikta looks over his shoulder as Andrea and Echo enter but keeps his focus on what he’s working on at the desk. He looks back down at his project before calling out, “Andrea. I need your help with installing the EBON mat.”

Andrea continues dragging Echo by the wrist until they are entirely in the room. She turns swiftly, and a few tears stream down from her face. Breathing heavily, Andrea places her hands on Echo’s shoulders and says, “There isn’t much time to explain. What I’m about to say isn’t going to make any sense… Many people are going to die tonight, but it’s necessary…”

Vikta growls and slams his fist on the table, sending a few minuscule metallic spheres rolling off of the table. The spheres send a sharp ringing sound across the floor as they bounce. Vikta bellows in a deep undertone, “This isn’t the time for that, Andrea! They will be down here any moment!”

Echo’s brows furrow as he leans to one side and says over Andrea’s shoulder, “Wait… What’s going on?”

Andrea scowls over her shoulder at Vikta, reaches up to Echo’s cheek, and moves his face back over to look at her again. She strokes Echo’s cheeks with her palm before dropping her hand down to his shoulder again. Andrea looks down at the ground, and her voice carries through the air with a tinge of guilt, “We have obligations to some very powerful people, hun. We’ve protected you from the truth for a long time. I promise to tell you everything as soon as this is over. Okay?”

Echo vigorously nods his head as Vikta pleads, “Andrea! I need your help! Please!”

Andrea swiftly guides Echo into a corner of the panic room and forces him to sit down on the cold concrete. As Andrea jogs out of the room, Echo finally notices what Vikta was working on at the desk. Two huge black assault rifles, knives, and tools lay upon the surface surrounded by hundreds of thick, shiny spheres.

The design of the rifles are unlike anything Echo has seen before. The thick cylindrical barrel has a coil of metal wrapped around it. Surrounding the barrel coil is thick black plastic with multiple attachments such as a flashlight and scope. On one side of the weapon sits a rectangular battery pack with clips to hold it in place. The coil on the barrel is attached to the battery pack by thick cables wrapped in rubber. The battery pack looks as if it can be easily removed and replaced. There is no clip on the underside of the weapon, but there is a trigger and grip.

The back of the rifles have round bulbous stocks, but they also have a rubber stock extension to make holding it against the shoulder more comfortable. There is a large sphere installed within the stock made of ballistic plexiglass. On top is a cap that can be popped off of the sphere and has a small string to keep it attached to the weapon, so it does not get lost. The sphere is surrounded by black plastic arranged in a web design but still allows vision into the sphere. Inside of the plexiglass sphere sits hundreds of the same tiny metallic balls that are on the desk.

Echo gawks at the unfamiliar sight and slowly asks, “Dad? What are you doing?”

Vikta stops moving and freezes in place. The hairs on his body stand up, and he clenches his teeth. He stares down at the weapons with a frustrated appearance. However, he looks more afraid than angry. Without moving his head, he continues working on putting more metallic balls into the spherical container on one of the weapons.

As Vikta grabs a handful of the spheres, he says flatly, “These are buckyballs.”

Vikta’s expression goes neutral as he forces himself to relax. Vikta then drops his handful of buckyballs into the spherical container on the rifle before continuing, “Buckyballs are made from a titanium carbide alloy that is highly reactive to electromagnetic currents. This means that these titanium carbide slugs can be moved using fields of magnetism such as a current from a Gauss Coil. The coils on this Gauss Rifle move an electric current towards the end of the barrel, effectively creating a forward moving field of magnetism that requires no moving parts except for the ammunition. The best part about a buckyball is that they’re reusable. You can pick them up after firing and use them again and again… Over and over.”

Echo’s expression at this point was perplexed, “Why are you telling me this? I don’t understand.”

Vikta huffed as he dropped another handful of titanium carbide buckyballs into the gauss rifle, “In case I get dropped by gunfire, then I need you to know how to use this weapon. It’s going to be a war down here very soon, son. If you run out of ammunition, then grab a handful of slugs off of the floor and use them again. Doesn’t matter how much blood is on them. They’ll still work every time.”

Echo went from confused to hysterically terrified at hearing those last few sentences. He started to shiver as he yelled, “Dad!? What the hell!? I’m not killing anyone!”

Vikta sighs as he turns and walks over to the scared young man sitting in the corner, “You don’t have much of a choice if you want to get off of this planet alive. These people want to capture us and torture us for information that we can’t give them. There is so much more that you need to know, but there isn’t time. You have to fight back tonight. If you get out of this alive without us, then find Felix. He’s the only one that you can trust. Get off this planet as soon as you can. You are no longer safe here. If they catch you, they’ll torture you. Never let them capture you. Run and hide. You can’t fight them all.”

Vikta jabs a finger into the chest of his confused son to further establish the importance of his statement. Andrea dashes back into the room and hurriedly throws a few items to the floor. In the pile of objects is a rolled up black mat, two leather jackets, and two pairs of fresh work boots. Andrea had already changed out her hoodie for a brown leather jacket and had her shoes on as well.

Vikta turns around upon hearing the stuff hit the floor and leans down to grab two leather jackets out of the pile and hands one over to Echo, “Wear this. They are likely using stun slugs so they can capture us alive. This leather will protect you from the electric shock.”

Echo hesitated and just sat there staring down at the leather jacket in his hands. Its material was smooth to the touch on the outside, but the inside had a padded cotton threading that felt warm and inviting.

Vikta said, “Move quickly, Echo. We have only moments before we’re attacked.”

Echo snapped his attention up to Vikta and quickly put on the jacket. Vikta sat on the floor as Echo reached over to pull on his boots. As they busied themselves with their shoes, Andrea grabbed the black mat and began unrolling it. To Echo’s surprise, the mat became clear as it was flattened out on the floor. The mat was in the shape of a giant rectangle, big enough to fit over a doorway. On the side facing down to the floor was a black tape which became suddenly visible and outlined the heavy rectangular mat.

Echo asked Andrea, “What is that thing? I’ve never seen anything go from deep black to clear like that.”

Andrea flips over the mat, and it becomes jet black on this side. As the mat thudded on the ground, Andrea began to remove the almost unseen black tape from the perimeter of the mat. As she worked, she said, “This is an Electromagnetic Ballistics and Ordinance Net. Also, known as an E-B-O-N Mat or EBON. It will allow us to see the enemy without them being able to see us. From our side, we can see everything out there, but they can’t see us in here. The EBON effectively shrouds us from thermal and night vision. Anything past ultraviolet and infrared on the visible spectrum gets blocked. It should also theoretically protect us from radiation, small arms fire, and shrapnel. Hun, can you hand me the knife on the table?”

As Vikta finished getting his first boot on, he reached over while still on the floor and plucked the knife off of the table. As Vikta handed the knife over to Andrea, she continued, “This should protect us from anything they throw at us for some time.”

Andrea grunted as she cut two small square holes halfway along the width of the rectangular mat. When she finished, Andrea turned to ask Echo, “Can you help me put this mat in the doorway? It should fit perfectly. We have to hurry before the glue hardens.”

Echo got up from his corner in the room after he finished getting his boots on and rushed over to Andrea. As Andrea grabbed one side of the mat from underneath, Echo went for the other side and they both lifted. Andrea shambled over to the doorway with the mat in her arms and pushed the large metal door fully open with her foot. They both heft the EBON mat into the large door frame. The mat fits in the doorway as if it was meant to be there, sliding into place with ease. The mat sticks to the concrete structure instantly as it adheres to the wall with its sticky black surface covered in glue. The two square holes that Andrea had cut earlier was large enough to fit your arm through. Echo could not see into the corridor of the shelter. Complete darkness filled the corridor doorway except where light streamed through the two holes in the mat from the lantern on the desk.