Doomsday

Chapter 9

"Hey Eli, I don't exactly know how to control one of those..."

My ear piece cackled and I heard Eli's voice.

"It's easy, just copy what everyone else is doing and if you need help I'll be right in front of you."

I stepped onto the platform and rested my arms on the flat poles which I guess wouldn't be a pole since it's flat but whatever. The little green button at the end had on written above it so I pressed it. There was a slight whirring sound as mine and everyone else's helipods started up.

I was wondering how exactly we were supposed to fly out of here when there was a roof on the building when I heard a loud creaking noise. I looked up and the roof was actually opening up outward like a double door. It stopped with a boom and the team started lifting off.

Since I didn't know how to fly my helipod, I waited till everyone was already out of the building in the air. With my left hand I pressed the one joystick forward and my helipod rose off the ground. I pulled it back and the ground rushed at me. I frantically shoved it forward and zoomed up and out of the building, almost hitting several other helipods in the process. I pulled the joystick back slowly until I was hovering safely in the air.

I moved my right joystick forward and I went forward, backwards to go backwards, and left and right to go the respective directions. Easy enough. Left joystick for up and down, right joystick for the four directions.

"Move out and stay behind me."

We formed into a diamond formation and I found myself at the very back. As we ascended higher I finally could see the entire compound in respective. It was a giant oval. We left the oval behind and I looked back. In large black letters on the outside of the wall was written QUARANTINE ZONE.

What? I would have to ask my mom about that later.

Our fortress, as mom had called it, took up about half of the town. I could see some people in the rest of the town and they seemed to be carrying about normal business. As we passed over the trees I could see a town off in the distance. Smoke was rising from various places and as we got closer I could see that it was one of the towns that had been partly destroyed from the nuclear war.

Rubble covered half the town and the remaining half looked very unstable. There was an eerie silence and not a person was in sight as we descended on the outskirts. Once on the ground everyone stepped off their helipod and after they were off it rose into the air about fifteen feet.

"Eli—"

"Press the yellow button, Lance."

I did as she said and my helipod rose in the air as well.

"Why are we supposed to do that?"

"We can't have them get destroyed or we would have to walk back which is not something you would want believe me."

"Oh..."

"Split into the groups now and lets start the sweeping. I want each group to have a leader who will check in with me every thirty minutes. We have three hours for this mission and the time starts now."

The display in my helmet immediately started counting down from three hours. Eli waved me over and I saw Mocha and Charlie heading her way too. At least I was pretty sure it was them. It was kind of hard to tell who was who with everyone having matching black outfits. The only one I was sure about was Eli because of the bow on the back of her outfit.

I noticed she also had a small computer tablet attached to her wrist that she held up for us to see. It said to stay together and that we would start on the right side with Cherry Street. I nodded and we followed Eli to the street.

There were mostly houses on this street which all seemed to be deserted and a gas station was at the end. We knocked on a few houses and no one answered. Nothing was out of place, but no one was around.

We continued down the streets methodically looking for any sign of people or mutes. I was starting to have an uneasy feeling about this. The groups had checked in three times already and it was getting close to the time when they needed to check in again.

The clock on my display read 1:01:56. Only an hour left. We had covered most of the town and still had the train station and a post office to check around.

"Squadron Four, report. This is group one and all is clear."

We had split into seven groups with each one assigned a number so everyone could check in easily.

"This is group two, all clear."

"Group three, all clear."

"Group four, clear."

"Group five, all clear."

There was nothing but static and a long pause.

"Group six, report," Eli called.

Still nothing. Eli flipped open her computer and furiously typed.

"All groups head to the train station, I'm putting a destination point on the maps now."

A black dot appeared on the map on my helmet's display dashed black line appeared from where I was to the black dot showing the fastest route there.

"Group seven, report."

"Group seven here, we at the post office. We just spotted a mute."

"Group seven, hold your position, we're coming to you. Have you seen group six?"

"Last we saw they were heading to the train station."

"All groups head to the train station. Now."

Eli took off with Michael, Charlie, and I following close behind. We were just a few streets over from the train station so in no time at all we arrived at the post office which was a block away. We bolted inside and were greeted by group seven aiming guns at us.

"Group seven, stand down."

They sheepishly lowered the guns.

"Sorry, Squad Captain, we thought you were a hostile."

"Where was the mute spotted?"

"It's right there."

I gazed at the direction he was pointing and got my first glimpse of a mute. It looked like a cross between a tiger and a pit bull. It was brown with a few black stripes and it was beefier than a regular tiger. It had razor sharp teeth that looked a foot long and were busily tearing apart a body. I recognized the body as one of our team. A helmet was lying nearby and after I looked closer I couldn't spot a head. It had been chewed off.

The tiger lifted its head and sniffed the air. It let out a roar and two more tigers appeared from around the corner of the train station. They too sniffed the air and turned their heads right at us and stared with piercing red eyes. Then they started to advance.

"Three hostiles located. I've pinned them on the map."

Three red dots appeared on my display's map and I saw that the other groups had started to arrive. The tigers stopped about thirty feet from the post office and there was a long pause as if no one was sure who would make the first move.

A shot rang out and a tiger shrieked as the bullet tore through it's front leg. The tigers split into three directions, the injured one seemed to be recovering fast and headed straight for our group. Unluckily for it.

"Now!" Eli shouted.

She sprang from our hiding place into the street drawing back her bow. Shots rang out and I knew the other teams were putting their weapons to good use. I grabbed my gun and aimed for the tiger's forehead. Michael and Charlie stood beside both aiming for the tiger.

I stared at my empty hand. The gun was gone. I looked over at Michael and Charlie and their guns were gone as well. Looking up to the top of the train station I thought I saw a figure. I blinked and the figure disappeared. I must have been seeing things.

Eli's bow hadn't been touched and she now took careful aim and let the arrow fly straight for the tiger's heart. The tiger leaped out of the way, snatching the arrow in it's mouth. Eli held out her hand and her glove pulsed the soft blue color.

I could see the arrow move a little in the tiger's mouth but it didn't budge from his clenched jaw. Eli snapped open her computer and typed furiously for a few seconds and quickly closed it. She held out her hand again and her glove pulsed a brighter blue.

The tiger suddenly let go of the arrow. It was suddenly flying point first at Eli's chest. Time slowed again and I knew what I had to do. I stepped over and snatched the arrow from the air. Everything went to normal. The tiger roared and I handed the arrow to a shocked Eli.

Two of my knives came out of their spots and I advanced on the tiger. It roared again circling me while Michael, Charlie, and Eli stood nearby watching.

"Lance, what are you doing?"

I grinned even though I knew they couldn't see me.

"Taking care of a hostile."

Time slowed again as the tiger leaped at me I drove my knife into its belly and sliced outward. Time went back to normal and the tiger fell to the ground bleeding profusely. It soon breathed its last.

"This is group one, two hostiles have been taken care of. We have two injured and-we-we lost group six."

"This is group four, we found everyone. They were taking refuge in the train station."

"Group four, tell everyone that the threat has been neutralized, they can return to their homes. All groups head back to the helipods, our job here is done."

I turned to head back to the helipods but Eli pulled me back. She pointed to her computer screen. I need to talk to you later. I nodded and she let go of my arm. The display's clock read 16:12. Just a little over fifteen minutes to get back to the helipods.

It took us just about that long to get back and after Eli pressed a few keys, the helipods descended to us. We stepped on and the two injured men had to be strapped in.

"What's going to happen to the empty helipods and how are the injured guys going to get home?" I questioned Eli.

She didn't answer me and instead pressed a few more keys. The two helipods that held the injured guys, rose in the air and headed in the direction of the fortress. Eli took her helipod into the air and we followed after her. Once we were about 100 feet in the air, Eli pressed some more keys and I saw the helipods that we had left, explode. That answered my question.

We flew back in silence and upon arrival I noticed that the injured guys had already been taken to the medical building. Eli must have put them on some sort of autopilot.

"Gear down," Eli called leaving the building.

As I changed out my combat gear I kept thinking back to the mission. Had I really seen someone? What had happened to our weapons? I stowed my gear in the top drawer of my dresser and headed to the cafe.

One thing was sure, I was hungry. It was after all, mid-afternoon.

It seemed as though all the rest of squadron four had the same idea as me. Thankfully the cooks had saved us some food knowing that we would get back late. Michael, Charlie, and I sat down at the far table.

"So Lance, wanna tell us your secret?"

"My secret?" I asked confused.

"Yeah, like how in the world you stopped an arrow that was going super fast at Eli's heart and killed one of the strongest mutes singlehanded?"

I wasn't quite sure what to say. I couldn't tell them about being special. Something just seemed wrong about telling anyone about that.

"Okay, so I lied about having not taken lessons before "

"Lessons? What?" Charlie asked with a strange look on his face.

"You know, hand-to-hand stuff. I actually have taken a ton of lessons before. Graduated top of my class!"

The seemed satisfied with my answer and we soon were engrossed in our food. Eli burst in the room and her eyes scanned the crowd. I forgot about our little meeting. At least she didn't tell me a specific time to meet her.

"I got to go guys. See ya later."

I ran to Eli who had her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes at me. Man she must like to roll her eyes or something.

"Let's go," she said her voice filled with annoyance.

She led me to the training grounds and to the spot where I had first met her. She glanced around as if making sure we were alone.

"Okay, so first off, how did you stop that arrow?"

"I've actually taken lessons before, I just didn't tell anyone," I lied again.

"Right...."

"It's true!"

"What happened to the guns," she asked quietly.

"I don't know. Why are you asking me?"

"You're different."

What did she mean by that?

"Lance?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you," she said looking at me with a smile.

I stared at her hazel eyes, "Your welcome."

Slowly our faces inched closer together. Our lips were almost touching—

"Eli!"

We jerked back from each other and I turned to see the General. An angry looking General.

"Eli, you haven't reported yet. You know I expect you of all people to report as soon as you get back."

He raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"Sorry, dad."

Wait, did she say dad?

I looked at the two and I suddenly saw how similar they looked. The same hazel eyes, the same jaw line, and the same hair colour. I was amazed I hadn't noticed before but that would explain why Eli was in charge of the mission.

"Shall we go?"

His face clearly showed that it wasn't a question. I'm glad I'm not his son. Eli left with her dad—I mean General, and I headed to my room. It had been a long day and I needed some sleep. I was almost there when my mom stopped me.

"Hey! How did the mission go?"

"Great. Well, we lost some people, but it was pretty good. I killed a mutant tiger."

Her eyes widened in amazement.

"A mutant tiger? That's one of the strongest mutes!"

"I know, that's what Charlie said."

Suddenly I remembered something.

"Hey, mom, how come we encountered some tigers out here?"

"Yes, sometimes the scientists test on some more exotic animals to see what might happen. They must have broken out."

"Oh, well, I'm kind of tired so I think I'll go to bed early."

"Okay, I just wanted to tell you something."

"What?"

"General says that the facility that you were in has been bombed. No one knows who did it or if anyone came out alive. He says that there isn't any hope of rescuing the girl now."

My heart sank. Lea couldn't have just been killed. I would have to have some proof of that.

"Thanks mom, I think I'll go to bed now."

She looked at me sadly and nodded.

"See you tomorrow."

"Okay."

"Goodnight!"

"Goodnight, mom."

I made my way to my room and after brushing my teeth, I laid down on my bed. I hadn't realized how truly exhausted I was until I laid down. My whole body ached and I hoped that we wouldn't have another mission for a long time. Since I was so tired I fell asleep fast, wondering what tomorrow would bring.