• CHAPTER 4: Black Cloister

    The pilot slightly tilts his head to the right and tries to talk over the chopper engine.
    “We’re here, I’m landing the chopper as closest to the destination point as possible.” Said the pilot. Mak nodded and everyone immediately grabs their assault rifles from below their seats. Quickly loading their weapons, Mak loads his while looking at everyone else. Making sure no one is left unprepared. He then faces Fenix, Fenix faces Shinryu. They stared at each other for a moment in a steady face, prepared for the worst and hoping for the best. The chopper begins to slightly shake. Mak and Fenix looks out the window and could see the sands on the land. Quickly looking around, the hole is no where to be seen.
    “This will be the first time I see this damn hole.” Said Shinryu.
    “I think this is all our first time.” Mak said without taking his eyes off the window. The chopper shakes again in more of an increased movement.
    “Hang on, its gonna be quite bumpy, fellas.” Said the pilot with a country accent.
    “This your first time flying or something?” Fenix said.
    “No sir, there seems to be some kind of disruptive signal causing the chopper to freak out a bit. Don’t worry, she’s stubborn.”
    “She..?”
    “I call my baby, Susan.” Everyone was silent for a moment. Mak starts to laugh tapping on his leg.
    “…Susan… You must love this chopper then…” Fenix continues.
    “Had her for a year in a half now, son. Got to give her a name.” Said the pilot. With careful driving, the chopper safely lands on the surface of Olton. “The hole is straight forward where I’m facing.” Mak nodded in a serious manner, opening the sliding door, he yells.
    “LET’S FIND SOREAN!!” He jumps out the chopper and along follows the rest of the group holding their rifles with both their hands. Fenix and Shinryu stood beside Mak as they all quickly ran towards this mysterious hole they know so little about. Their steps onto the sand left multiple foot prints as they continue running without stopping. Looking closer ahead, Mak and the others could see this hole, it appears to be a cavern hole surrounded by trees. Mak decreased his running speed and then stopped in front of this black dark hole, spreading his left hand out, commanding the others to immediately stop. Fenix and Shinryu stopped beside him. Mak dropped his arm to his side still carrying his Rifle on his right hand. Shinryu slightly takes a step closer to the hole. Mak faces him quickly.
    “Shin.” Mak calls in a strict tone. Shinryu bends down and takes an item from the ground. He then turns around and shows Mak. Mak takes a step forward and saw it was a bullet. Mak turns to face Fenix.
    “A bullet…” Fenix said. Mak faces the hole again.
    “Those are our bullets. Sorean’s group must’ve been fighting an enemy.” Mak said.
    “There are several bullets on the ground.” Shinryu said. “They fired a lot of their guns.”
    “Alright let’s move slowly.” Mak said. “Keep your hands on your weapons tightly, guys.”
    “Damn man,” said one of the Warriors behind Fenix. “This is kinda freaking me out.” Mak quickly turns to face him.
    “This your first mission or something?!”
    “First mission going into some dark a** hole where we have no idea what’s inside.” Mak faces ahead.
    “I don’t care what’s in there.” Said Mak. “A friend of mines is in there. I’m gonna find him. Now let’s move.” He said walking ahead. Fenix and Shinryu follows beside him as the other Warriors in the group follows as well. They entered the cavern and saw that there was a light illuminating the darkness. All of them raised their weapons and walked slower towards this light. Mak was ahead of all of them and therefore closer than anyone else to this light. He gripped onto his weapon tightly, so far, nothing is to be seen near this light. Looking at the ground, he saw that there was a small military outside flash light connected by a wire. The wire seems to come from ahead and then from the entrance to the cavern.
    “Outside lamp.” Said Fenix. “Standard issue Alliance technology.”
    “Heh, Sorean was smart.” Mak said in a chuckle. “Let’s keep going.” He said as he continues his walk deeper into this cavern. It only seems to be going further downward into the ground. On Mak’s left ear headset, The Sarge comes in contact with him.
    “Report.” He said.
    “Nothing so far sir,” Mak said in a low tone, trying to keep as quiet as possible and looking only forward with his weapon. “We found nothing but bullets on the ground entrance of this hole but no bodies. Guns were obviously fired.”
    “Alright. Trek carefully. Keep me posted and contact me as SOON as you have communications if you lost it deeper in this Tunnel.”
    “Yes sir.” Ended the call. Ahead was another small illumination. Mak slightly increases his movement speed towards this light.
    “Eyes open.” Announced Fenix. Shinryu looks to his right and noticed the wall of this cavern was something more than just ordinary rock. They all then stopped in front of the light lamp. Mak faces ahead and saw from afar, another light.
    “They must’ve made it pretty deep in this tunnel.” Fenix said. Mak nodded.
    “Hell yeah.”
    “That’s good.”
    “Hey what material is this?” Asked Shinryu. Everyone else faces him. Fenix steps forward, also staring into the glittery rocky wall.
    “Looks like pure rock to me.” Fenix replied.
    “Nah.” Shinryu said shaking his head. Mak turns to face ahead towards the next light again. Still listening to their conversation. “This is something more than a rock.” He Said knocking on the wall. There was no sound from the knock. He knocked harder, but there was no sound. Fenix’s eyes widely opened. “Material makes noise if another comes in contact with it in a certain velocity.” Continues Shinryu. “I’m knocking on this thing pretty roughly and I still hear no sound from it.”
    “Meh, I kinda don’t care about that right now.” Mak said. “Lets just keep moving.” They all kept up with his speed, staying next to one another and carefully walking on the unknown ground they are now walking on. Proceeding to this third light deep in this tunnel, Mak sees something ahead on the ground. Mak stops sharply. Fenix and the others also sees something ahead. Very quietly in a low tone, Mak leaned over to Fenix.
    “Hold position”. He then faces Shinryu and points to another Warrior beside him. “Stay close to me.” Shinryu and the extra warrior nodded, aiming their weapons towards this unknown object. Mak carefully continues to walk and held onto his sword considering he’ll be in close range contact. Then, he lets his grip on his sword loose as he saw it was another Warrior from the Alliance on the ground.
    “s**t.” He said, running towards the body. Everyone else then follows quickly. Mak stopped in front of the body dropping his gun on the ground beside him. His body was covered in blood by the bullet wounds all over his chest. “Bullet wounds. He’s been shot several times.” Mak said. Fenix tapped on Mak’s right shoulder without facing him. Mak looks up at Fenix and notices he was pointing ahead where the next light was located. However, upon facing this direction, Mak saw he was not pointing at the light, but at another body on the ground. Mak takes his gun again and slowly stands up. Seeing that there are several bodies now and not just another. “How the..?” Mak went towards the several other bodies on the ground along followed the rest. Inspecting on their bodies, they all carried the same wounds as the first.
    “They were all shot too.” Shinryu said.
    “This enemy is gonna pay…” Mak said. He faces ahead where the next light is. “Everyone keep up with me quietly.” Mak held onto his weapon tightly and ran quietly taking careful steps on the ground. Everyone else follows while Shinryu and Fenix were still beside him. Mak breathes heavier with the weight of the weapon encumbering him, exhausts his body along with the sword still attach to him. Upon arriving onto the next light, suddenly they heard a gunfire from behind. Everyone immediately stopped and turned around. Mak quickly ran to the back between the Warriors and saw a member on the ground still holding his weapon. Next to him was another Warrior from their group. Blood was spreading on the ground from his head.
    “What the hell happened?!!!” Mak yells at the Warrior on the ground.
    “Gah…. Sh….” He tried to speak as though his tongue was cut off. Mak bend down to observe the corpse, at that moment without Mak realizing it, the Warrior struggled but raised his weapon, aiming directly at Mak.
    “MAK!” Shinryu shouts, however another gun fired echoed across the cave. Mak raised his head with his eyes wide opened and saw this Warrior dropped on the ground in front of him. He turned and saw Fenix aiming his weapon with the smoke being released from his barrel.
    “He tried to… Shoot you.” Fenix said in a confused tone. Mak faces the other corpse that is not in front of him.
    “Shoot me..?” Mak asked himself in a low tone.
    “Something is wrong here…” Another Warrior from the group said.
    “Gaaahhhhh!!!!!!!” Another yell from within the group, everyone had spread apart from each other and saw another Warrior holding his head with his right hand. Mak stood up facing this member. Suddenly, he as well aims his weapon at Fenix. Fenix quickly aims and pulls the trigger directly into his chest, the body drops backwards on the ground. Fenix lowered his weapon afterwards, losing the strength to shoot his own team members.
    Mak faces Fenix in pure confusion, empty of words. They stood in the same position for a moment. Mak looks at every other member of the group. Everyone else were quickly turning heads in paranoia.
    “The hell just happened?!” Fenix shouted. Suddenly another gunfire was echoed across the entire cave. Then another right after that. Everyone raised their weapons, Fenix, Mak and Shinryu stood along side each other facing the other members of the team. What they saw was almost unexplainable. Repetitive gun firing, members of the group were dropping on the ground one by one as they heard the loud sound of the assault rifles being shot amongst themselves.
    “STOP!!” Mak tries to yell over their screams of agony. Unexpectedly, Shinryu drops on the ground as well. Quickly, Mak and Fenix helps him up.
    “Aaa….” He yells holding his head with both his hands.
    “NO! Damn what the hell is this?!?!” Mak yells again. Then, into the core of his brain, a loud screeching noise suddenly ringed into his head. Mak drops on the ground, hearing Fenix call his name. Mak yells under the pain that was in his head. Something was calling his name over and over again. A low pitched voice. Mak shuts his eyes for a moment and flashbacks of his past emerged from his mind. Again, he hears Fenix calling his name, trying to help Mak back on his feet, he fails and also drops on the ground on one knee. Fenix grunts painfully as he also heard something loud pinched into his head. Mak desperately stands up on his legs while still shutting his eyes.
    “Damn……” Mak shouts. “Damn…!!” He shouted again. “DAMN!!!!” More of his past starts to appear in his mind.
    -Memory-
    “Oye.” A voice calls Mak. Mak turns to his left in a grin.
    “Pft, yeah yeah, I know the routine, cuz.”
    “That’s not what I was referring to but alright…” Mak shakes his head as he held up his sword in front of him.
    “Ah stop being so emo. I got this.”
    “How is am I being so emo, exactly…?” Mak runs forward ignoring him, charging his way towards another member of the Alliance. The warrior prepares himself also raising his sword. Mak makes the first swing vertically towards him, before he knew it, it was clashed against his opponents blade. Both of them struggling over brute force, Mak shoves him back and thrusts forward. Before he was able to pierce his armor, the trainee warrior moves aside immediately following with his elbow coming down towards Mak’s back head. In rapid movement, Mak manages to swing and stop his sword in front of the trainee’s neck. The trainee slightly shakes as he stares into the blade directly under his chin. “Gotta be a little faster.” He said in a smile. At that moment, the pain in his head was decreasing. He opens his eyes and the visions disappeared. In front of him, he saw Fenix getting up from the ground. Shinryu also stands up from the ground, all still under pain, they could see they were still stable.
    “Mak!” Shinryu calls painfully.
    “Yeah… I’m here…” Mak responds. Noticing there were no more sounds, they all faced the same direction and saw their comrades on the ground. Bullets everywhere and blood on all their armors.
    Mak stood silent, unable to speak for what they now see in front of them. Mak slowly walks forward still holding onto his gun along with his sword on his side hip.
    “MAK!” Fenix shouts. “We have to go back!”
    “NO!” He shouts without facing Fenix. “I’m gonna find him whether you’re coming or not. There was a reason why we didn’t go insane.” Fenix shook his head looking down. Shinryu breathes heavily from what he just experienced. “I’m not going back until I complete this damn mission.”
    “This isn’t right…” Fenix said.
    “I know…”
    “What the heck are we going to tell Sarge..?” Said Shinryu.
    “The truth…” Fenix responded. “I’m contacting him right now.” As he activates the communication ear phone, he heard static.
    “We’re too deep…” Mak said in a low tone. Fenix sighs. “We’re going to have to go back in order to contact him. But I’m not doing that right now…” He said walking ahead. Shinryu faces Fenix, then walks ahead, following Mak. Having no choice, Fenix as well follows along. Entering deeper into this cavern hole.