- Sdrawkcab Eman
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Wow, it's been a long time since my last chapter. But, here it is at last!
****Chapter 10: It's About Time!****
"WAKE UP!"
I woke up with a start. I couldn't have been sleeping very long. I was still tired, and very groggy. My commanding elite was standing in the middle of the small room, gazing at everyone. The other six grunts in the room were awake now, also, although it looked like they were half asleep. I slowly sat up, rubbing my eyes. I could hear the rustling of the other grunts either sitting or standing up out of their beds. After I sat for a few seconds, I slowly stood up. I looked around the room and saw that about half of the other grunts were already standing, and the rest were sitting.
The commanding elite's face seemed to be looking more annoyed as the grunts took their time to stand up. "Stand up NOW!" the elite yelled. Everybody stood up immediately then. A few of the grunts looked startled, and a few of them looked scared. "Follow me," the elite said, calmly. He turned and started walking towards the open door. We all followed him. All of the grunts formed a line and walked single file as we followed the elite.
Melip was walking in front of me. Pel came running up from behind, moved into the spot in the line that was right behind me. The elite led us into the room with the tables on one side, the hallway at one end and the door at the other. It was the room that I had seen myself laying in.
The elite walked over to a pile of seven masks and air tanks. They were the same ones that we were wearing before. The elite picked one up out of the pile, and walked over to one of the grunts in my squad. "From this point on, you will have your own mask and methane tank," the elite explained, while he was fastening the mask and tank to one of the grunts. "Your identification can be found on your mask and tank, and later, your armour." The elite went back over to the pile of tanks and masks and picked up another one. He repeated the process until everybody, including myself, had an air tank and a mask. I was the last one to get them.
"Follow me," the elite instructed once again. Everybody followed him, as he walked towards the door at one end. The door led into a small room, with gray walls, and a strange support in the centre of it. Once everyone was through, the door closed, and I heard the sound of air moving. After a few seconds, the other door opened, revealing one of the hallways with the purple walls.
The sound in the hallway was deafening. I could hear what seemed like every noise possible echoing through the hallways. Some of the noises were from grunts, and some of them were from elites. I couldn't tell what most of the noises were though, but they sounded like other creatures. I wondered if the elites had forced them to leave their homes, too. The elite led us through one hallway after another. All of them looked identical, and they seemed to twist and turn forever.
"I'm worried about what's been happening to you," Pel said in a loud whisper.
"Don't worry," I said, defensively.
"DON'T WORRY!?" Pel screamed back. "You've been passing out and having visions of this that are actually happening in real life! How could nobody worry about that?"
"Didn't you say last night that you thought I was just having dreams?" I replied, mockingly.
"Yeah, I did think that. But what about ‘Don't let them put that in your head, they didn't'"
"On the ceiling, right," I interrupted. "I'm the one that reminded you, remember?" My voice was getting louder.
"You two! QUIET!" the commanding elite shouted from in front of my squad. Both Pel and I instantly quieted down.
My squad's walk continued. It seemed to drag on forever. We seemed to have gone through thousands of doors and hallways. All of them shared the purple and blue colours, and none of them seemed to contain any distinctive markings whatsoever. I tried to shift most of my weight away from my left foot, which was drenched in a dull pain.
Melip sidestepped slightly to his right, then slowed down until he was standing beside me. "If that is a real place you've been going to," he started, "maybe you can bring somebody else with you."
I turned and stared at Melip. I could see Pel's eyes focussing on him, also. His face looked bewildered, and I noticed that mine did, too. I closed my eyes and quickly shook my head, trying to stop myself from staring at Melip.
Before anyone could think of some kind of response for Melip's thought, our elite stopped walking and approached a door that was lit in red. The red light indicated that the door was locked. I wondered why the elite stopped us there, but the door's lights switched to green before I could think of a reason. The door swished open, revealing a small room with chairs along one side, and another door lit in red on the right wall.
Two elites were standing near the door, talking. One of them was leaning on the wall. "It's about time! How long have we been waiting for these implants?"
"Too long," the other elite answered. "20 days since the last shipment got here, and 17 days since they said they were sending more!" Both of the elites sounded annoyed.
"Grunts, sit down on a chair," our elite instructed as he advanced into the room. He neared the other door, and just before he reached it the lights turned green and the door slid open.
My squad and I progressed into the room, and we each selected a chair and sat down on it. Just after I sat down, Melip and Pel sat to my left.
I just sat for a while and looked throughout the room. The two elites that were standing near the door had stopped talking, and were gazing in my squad's direction. Judging by the expression on their faces, something big was about to happen. I started to feel nervous. I was hoping that feeling would have left me alone after I was settled in here, but either that hadn't happened, or I wasn't settled in yet.
I turned to face Pel and Melip after a while. I was just about to open my mouth to speak, but I was interrupted by our commanding elite reemerging through the door.
"Everything is ready in there now," he informed us. "You'll be called in one by one to be prepared for your training." The elite was holding something in his right hand. He raised it in front of his face. It was rectangular, white, and about the same size as his hand. After looking over this object, the elite lowered it again and called out, "Melip!"
Melip jumped, then stood up quickly. That was the first time I had heard an elite call a grunt by their own name. Melip walked towards our commanding elite, and through the open door. One of the other elites followed them, and the door closed behind them. The remaining elite faced the door and walked backwards, until he was right in front if us.
After a few minutes, I heard Melip release a short scream from inside. Moments later, the door opened and he reappeared from the room. He walked over to Pel, and looked directly at him. "They say you next," he said, stupidly. "They put thing in my head. It help my fear."
Pel looked left and right, hesitantly. While Pel was looking at me, I mouthed the words "Idiot, remember?" and pointed at Melip. He nodded. He stood up, slowly, and walked towards the door that Melip had disappeared and reappeared from. I needed to get everyone out of there, and fast.
I had no time to think. I saw that the elite that was still in this room had one of those unusual weapons in his hand. I grabbed onto it and I pulled. The weapon slipped out of the unexpecting elite's hand. The elite turned around and glared at me. I pointed the weapon at the elite's head, and squeezed the centre of it where the elite had been holding it. I jumped as the bursts of blue flew from the end of it and slammed into the elite's face. After a few seconds the elite fell over with a loud, roaring scream. He was dead. I loosened my grip on the weapon, and it stopped. I hesitated, then ran back through the door, into the hallway.
I ran down the hallway. Every so often I glanced behind me. I heard the other two elite's yelling from the room. The door opened, and an elite zoomed out of it. He looked away from me first, then glanced in my direction.
"Get him!" the elite yelled. I ducked behind the corner in the hallway. I heard the elite's weapon, and the blue bursts whooshed by me. I leaned out from behind the wall and shot at the elite. The elite shot back at me, and I ducked back behind the corner. I kept my arm and the weapon aimed around the corner. I heard the elite fall over, and his weapon landed and bounced on the floor.
I stopped shooting, and I peered back around the corner. Another elite was running towards me. He saw me and he shot at me. I whipped my head back around the corner, and I aimed the weapon at the elite, and squeezed it. More blue zoomed out of it, and hopefully towards the elite. I felt a sharp burning, pain in my hand. I screamed and dropped the strange weapon. I fell over, and landed in the hallway's intersection. I could see the elite standing in front of me. He aimed his unusual weapon at me.
I cringed as I heard one of those weapons fire, but it wasn't the elite's. The elite screamed and fell over. The falling body revealed Pel standing on the other side of him, holding one of the strange weapons.