The Matriarch

Chapter 11 Back up

“Your commanding officer seems to be quite the reliable man.” Chris could not remove his eyes from the man who was in charge of them.

With every order that he makes and every word he says, every soldier in their platoon seems to respect and follow without any hesitations.

They were currently jogging along the wide, concrete pathway that seemed to stretch out further, having only dim tunnel lights that were so far apart from each other, making it hard to see what was in front of them.

“Who, the sergeant, sir?” Oliver asks with a smile, as he did not understand much of the question, being busy with breathing to keep up with the group.

“Yes,” was Chris’s only answer since he too was struggling with the platoon.

Thankfully, the sergeant would take a look at them every once in a while. Noticing this, the man slowed down the pace of their group to make sure that they were all together and not too far off from each other.

“He definitely is, sir, Sergeant Raynald Sanchez’s men consider him a hero, after all, he managed to save a lot of them during the incident in the city, I heard he didn’t leave any man behind.” Oliver’s nodded, his eyes showed wonder, amazement, and admiration as he turned to the said man.

“That’s reassuring, though I don’t understand why he’s so determined to pass the chain of command over to me.” Up until now it still bothered him that the man kept insisting that he took over their platoon, though he politely declined two times already.

“Oh, that’s quite easy, sir. Sergeant Sanchez is a man who goes by the book, and since it’s only proper that the highest-ranking officer be given that power, he thinks he’s going out of line.” Oliver laughs it off, understanding the reason for the misunderstanding.

“Well, I’m kind of against that in this kind of situation, especially since I can see how capable he is,” he clarifies, knowing that he will just end up causing trouble he does agree to it.

He just then tried to run faster to at least get a bit closer to the platoon, they were almost at the back of the group when he could not help but stop.

Chris felt his skin crawl, along with the sudden shiver that ran through his spine. The assuring sounds that he was hearing a while ago had disappeared and were now replaced by an ominous and dreadful feeling that seem to come from what was in front of them. He ended up swallowing hard when all of a sudden he heard muffled screams, what seemed to be explosions, and some screeching sounds.

It was only then that he noticed that something was off within the testing grounds, they were taking too long and the place seemed abandoned and too quiet though other people went ahead of them a while ago, and when he checked his watch, he had found out that they had been running for almost half an hour.

“Sir?” Oliver called out when he noticed that Chris was being left out.

This prompted the whole platoon to be put on a halt as everyone looked back to see Chris standing frozen in his tracks, staring blankly.

Everyone started looking at one another, some were smirking, others seemed wary, the sergeant was quick to run back to him.

“Sir, do you wish to take a break?” sergeant Sanchez asks while inspecting him.

It was only then that Chris managed to snap from that sudden trance, he looked at all the people around them and ended up flustered from the embarrassment of having everyone's attention.

“Uhm, no, sergeant,” he tries to calmly say, but then a sudden wave of panic and fear struck him, making him tremble when he felt his head throbbing from the sudden wail that seems to have come from the end of the tunnel.

Chris ended up grabbing his head as he felt the sudden struck of pain, along with several murky visions that kept popping inside his head from the loud, screechy sound.

“Is there a problem, sir?” Sergeant Sanchez was now squatting to try to take a look at his face as he was now facing the ground while bending down.

Chris looked at the man with wide eyes, seeing as he did not seem to be bothered by the noises around them. “Doesn’t anybody hear that?” he asks, immediately looking at the other who too was oblivious to the sounds.

“Hear what sir?” Oliver was now standing beside him, also trying to see what was going on.

The two soldiers were quick to react, not wanting to take chances when a power user was acting like that. Sergeant Sanchez quickly gave a signal to everyone to be alert and on the lookout as all of them began moving to the side of the tunnel, scattering with quick yet silent footsteps.

“Rodrigo, move!” the man orders one of the soldiers who immediately nodded before moving on ahead.

Everyone was now vigilant, observing their back and front for any signs of a possible problem.

Same as before, they were only given either a knife or sword to use during the test besides food rations for the whole journey within the tunnels.

“Sir, your orders?” Sergeant Sanchez asks as he gave a salute when Chris was finally able to catch his breath and stand straight again.

“Sergeant, are you familiar with the proceedings of this test?” He asks somewhat being trouble by the things that he was now noticing.

“Yes sir,” the man said with a straight face.

“Didn’t you notice that we’ve been running for almost thirty minutes,” he continued looking around the single pathway that they were traversing.

“Yes sir,” the man once again answered still not flinching nor being concerned.

“Don’t you think that doesn’t make sense?” Chris could not help but frown as the man seemed unbothered by that.

“I don’t understand sir.” That was when the sergeants’ eyes finally showed an ounce of urgency and worry.

Chris looked in front of them, they could no longer see the soldier that had gone ahead as the path curved to a turn. He then turned to the sergeant once again who was attentively waiting for what he had to say.

He took in a deep breath as it seemed that none of them noticed anything. “If I remember correctly, each of the five tunnels leads to a single space where we are bound to meet the others, once there, we will once again choose entrances that have specifically designed tests and during this time there should be someone giving out orders or assisting us via a speaker, but I haven’t seen any of that nor any camera at all since we began moving.” He started pointing out several things that should have been within a part of the said tunnel.

“I heard they made some adjustments within the tunnel, sir, as they had already mentioned a while ago,” sergeant Sanchez reminded him, thinking that he would have forgotten the announcement and orders that were given to them since he was late.

“I know, though I haven’t seen any signs of renovation, plus, if I remember correctly, we should have reached the second phase of the test fifteen minutes ago, so how come this path seem to stretch out even further,” he points out something that had started bothering him the moment he notices how long they were taking to reach the end of the passageway.

“Sir, this may be part of the remodeling, as I have heard they added endurance and another kind of test within these tunnels,” Sergeant quickly stated still trying to make out the things that he noticed.

“Yes, sir, I think so too, the army is capable of building this in a span of a few weeks, especially with the technology and people that we have down here,” Oliver quickly intervened wanting to save his face.

But Chris could not help the feeling of dread that was creeping all over him, along with the strange procedure that they were undergoing. “Then where are the cameras and speakers? What’s the point of this whole test if they aren’t able to monitor any of us?” he burst out in frustration as he could not shake off the feeling that he was having.

“Sir, If I may…” The sergeant was now raising his hand to try and calm him down.

But he was unable to continue when they heard a sudden noise that came in front of them. They didn’t manage to make it out, but it seem to have echoed.

“What was that?” Oliver frowned looking at where the sound had come from.

Everyone was suddenly alert, knives out, and were in a crouching position. The tension was immediately felt by everyone as footsteps could now be heard coming their way. It didn’t take long before a shadow was seen moving before the figure of a person running towards them finally appeared.

“It's Rodrigo,” one of the soldiers' states upon recognizing the man who was rushing back.

He seemed to be in haste, sweating as he was lost for air while his feet tried to keep his speed up.

“What’s wrong with him?” Oliver frowned noticing the frantic look on the man’s face.

“Ru...Run, It's them, it's them!” the soldier kept shouting as he sped past his comrades.

The sergeant was quick to grab hold of the pale, restless, and panting soldier. “Private!” he shouted as he tightened his hold on the man’s collar.

“It's them, it's them,” Rodrigo kept shouting with wide teary eyes.

“Se-Sergeant,” the other soldiers began to speak out loud as they all started slowly backing away.

From where the man came a large shadow also emerge, It didn’t take long before the creature was full wolfish form was seen, trotting its way along the pathway, head bent down as its tongue was out from panting like a dog.

All of the soldiers immediately panic, some even fell down and began shaking in fear of the huge wolf-like beast that was headed towards them.

“Everyone, back!” Sergeant Sanchez quickly ordered making everyone run.

Yet Chris was unable to move in place as he frowned at the familiar beast who was moving at a brisk and relax pace, seemingly unaware of them.

“Sir Chris!” Oliver called out when he noticed Chris still standing there like a statue. He immediately ran back to grab the man.

The sergeant was quick to notice this and also quickly came to help. “Special officer!” he shouts helping the private grab unto Chris.

The two men were carrying him side by side as they tried to run back to where they came from. It was then that the wolf-like beast’s ears pointed upward, its fangs showed, and finally reacted to what was happening as it dashed towards the panicking soldiers.

Within seconds the beast was able to reach them, jumping to one side of the tunnel in a zig-zag motion to cut them off. Many of the soldiers fell to the floor as the monster bared its fangs, growling at the men who were surrounding it. Its eyes were fixated on Oliver and Sergeant Sanchez who was still holding on to Chris.

The sergeant, though panting did not break eye contact with the beast, he even went as far as raising his knife to it to prepare for an attack.

The wolf-like creature did not like this at all, as it quickly pounce with its mouth wide open showing the huge large fangs that were as long as the man’s arms.

The sergeant did not back away, letting out a loud war cry as he charge for one last stand against the beast.

“Stop!” Chris’s voice echoed.

The wolf-like beast froze in place, its drool dripping down its mouth as it was already halfway on the sergeant's arm. Sergeant Sanchez's knife on the other hand had already managed to connect to the beast but it just slid from the hard, scale-like fur.

The sergeant's breathing was fast and erratic when he noticed that the creature did not dare to bite off his hand, yet its eyes still had this rage and fearsomeness as it gaze at him. Everyone was in awe as the man was able to slowly back away, all the while the creature remained in place, like a frozen statue.

Though his mouth was trembling, Chris could not help but test his theory as he was able to order the creature with just his words

“Sit,” he tried to say as loud and authoritative as he can, though his teeth ended up grinding.

Everyone’s eyes nearly popped out as the huge beast quickly obliged, it turned from a menacing, dangerous monster into a sort of slobbering huge mutt that even let out its tongue as it gave out puppy dog eyes while looking at Chris.

“What in the name of hell.” The sergeant's jaw dropped unable to believe what he was seeing.

Oliver’s ended up with a giddy grin on his face as his eyes turned round with amazement while watching Chris walk towards the huge wolf-like beast.

“Down,” he ordered making the beast put its head on the ground, whining like a very subservient dog.

Even Chris could not believe what was happening but there was this tickling sensation in his chest as he began caressing the creature's snout.

“Good boy,” he smiles, chuckling at it when he saw the beast wag its tail.

‘Queen’ the beast’s voice echoed within Chris’s mind as the beast look at him with sheer joy and adoration.