The LoST 14

The Lone Shadow Templar

14: A Whole New World

Rick took a long drag of his cigarette and winced as he exhaled a stream of grey into the cold dark atmosphere. He glanced down the black corridor with his night vision goggles, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. The assault rifle dangled limply by his side; it had not seen action in ages.

“Hey how was the social last night?” Rick asked his partner Mark.

“It was boring, full of the Executor droning on and on. Dominion this, Dominion that, ya know?” Mark replied wryly.

“Figures…” Rick scoffed and took in another breath of smoke. “I’m glad I didn’t show up then.”

“You ditched?” Mark scoffed and turned to look at Rick. His eyes were piercing white amidst the greenery of the night vision goggles.

“Yea, my girlfriend and I got wild while your mind was being blown at the dinner.” Rick chuckled, then continued, “Speaking of mindblowing, did I mention what a fine piece of ass she is?”

“Yea Rick,” Mark rolled his eyes, “All the f***ing time.”

“Speaking of mindblowing…” A woman’s voice suddenly whispered right next to Rick’s ear. He whipped around, his hand reaching down for his rifle, and came face to face with a set of stunningly emerald eyes. A split second later, his vision turned black permanently.

I released my finger from the trigger and lowered my suppressed submachine gun. The guards were lying on the ground, a bullet hole each in the temple. Wolfe shuffled up and unshouldered a coil of rope, handing it to me. “Here.”

I looked at him with a puzzled look. Without taking my eyes off of him, I reached out and pressed a button. The elevator dinged and the steel double doors slid open invitingly. A faint hint of classical music met my ears. His eyes shifted from me to the door, then back to me, and then shouldered the rope. We stepped into the elevator and the doors slowly slid shut, leaving the two dead guards at peace in the dark.

“What did you need the rope for?” I asked with a slight smile spreading my lips.

“Don’t worry about it,” Wolfe replied quickly, not looking down at me.

The little compartment shot down the shaft with almost no noise. I watched the floors flash by one by one. Soon, we started to slow down at floor 42. We must have been deep underground by now.

As we stopped, a pair of voices floated through the cracks in the door. There were two guards standing on the opposite side of the threshold, wondering why the top floor’s guards had come down to visit. The doors dinged open.

“Why the hell are you guys…” Both pairs of eyes widened in horror as I quickly implanted two bullets into their brains. Their bodies whipped around and crumpled against the wall, leaving a smear of blood as they slid to the ground.

I heard Wolfe swear quietly in amazement behind me as I stepped out of the elevator.

“Alrighty,” Pyrk’s voice piped up again, “Now the chamber where they’re holding the sphere is directly to the east.”

We veered right and proceeded quietly down the hallway. At the end, we came across a large titanium door. Wolfe moved up and inserted his USB. The lock’s computer monitor chimed online and a green access granted invited us in. Behind the door, the sounds of large mechanical machinery whirred into action and the thick doors groaned open. I peeked into the chamber and in the direct center was a small platform that housed the pale green sphere. It seemed to be floating atop an anti-gravity device.

“Too easy…” Wolfe grinned and stepped into the room. I followed but suddenly stopped. Reaching forward, I pulled Wolfe back by the collar, choking him.

“What?!” Wolfe coughed as he massaged his throat.

I pointed down at the floor. His eyes followed the path my index finger made. The metal floor around the sphere was slightly raised from the surrounding.

“Ah the ol’ pressurized floor alarms,” Pyrk said through the communicator, “Nice move Nat. Anyways, Wolfe, plug your hardware into the control panel towards the back. Our program should make short work of the defensive system.”

“Roger that,” Wolfe replied and started to circle around to the back. I turned back towards the entrance and aimed my weapon down into the blackness. It was too quiet.

Wolfe’s fingers clacked away at the keyboard and then whispered to me, “Alrighty, we’re good.” I looked back and he gave me a thumbs up.

“Cover the door,” I instructed and stepped onto the pressurized floor panels.

All of a sudden, the entire building was engulfed in a resonating alarm. My head whipped around towards Wolfe in shock as he stood by the computer with his mouth agape. “What…”

Then, gunfire reverberated through the once empty corridor. A flurry of men had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, their assault rifles all trained into the room, directly at my back. I took a deep breath and sprinted forward towards the sphere. As bullets screamed past me, I made a final leap and my outstretched fingers grabbed the sphere just as the floor around me splintered and cracked.

“Wolfe, get down!” I screamed as I landed in a roll behind the platform. Bullets ricocheted off of the steel block. I held the sphere under my arm like a basketball and fired blindly behind me. Ahead of me, Wolfe was crouching behind the computer panel, letting loose a stream of white hot lead.

I felt a bullet just barely graze my left ear and impact the wall in front of me in a shower of sparks. Ducking down instinctively, I unpinned a frag grenade and tossed it behind me. The explosion seemed to rock the entire building; I felt the shockwave rattle my bones.

“Guys… ge… you gotta… he…”

“What!?” I screamed into the communicator, “Pyrk I can’t hear you!”

The communicator fizzed out, emitting only a loud static. Swearing loudly, I threw off the earpiece and looked up at Wolfe. He emptied his clip into the darkness and then jumped down to me. “We gotta get outa here!” he yelled over the cacophony of bullets.

“No sh**!” I yelled back. My bones were still jarring from the grenade; I felt as if my entire body was vibrating.

Then I realized it; my entire body was indeed vibrating. The once faintly green sphere was now swirling in a deep red cloud. My eyes were fixated upon it, as if hypnotized. All of a sudden, the world started to stretch out of focus and I felt as if I were falling. I reached out something to grab onto and felt Wolfe’s arm and pulled him along. The chamber swirled into the dark red cloud and the both of us fell indefinitely.

We landed with a thud and I felt myself drift into unconsciousness.

The ground was cool around my fingers. My fingers raked across the ground; I dropped a fistful of lush grass on my chest. Opening my eyes, I found myself staring at a clear blue sky. Blinking a few times, I propped myself up with my elbows and looked around. Out in the distance was an old fashioned windmill, its cloth blades spinning slowly. I felt a gentle breeze ruffle my hair. Turning to look behind me, I saw the outline of a castle built of stone, its banners fluttering high in the afternoon air.

“Wolfe…” I shook his arm. He had landed right next to me face down. “Wolfe get up.”

“Mmmph… five more minutes dude…” He mumbled and shifted his body to make himself more comfortable.

“Wolfe get your lazy ass up,” I smacked him on the back of his head. He groaned and rolled over onto his back. His eyes slowly opened, then dilated in shock.

“What the…” he whispered to himself. “Where are we?”

As if fate were listening to our question, I immediately noticed a wooden street sign… though there were no roads around us. I stood up and focused on the words.

“What’s it say, Nat?” Wolfe asked as he rubbed his head.

“To the south…” I read, and then looked in that direction, “Lumbridge…”