Awakening: Prodigy

18: Into the Dark

POV Seth

Hope took up position in the rear seat. She surveilled the yawning darkness beyond through the small scope of her gun. "All clear!" She confirmed.

Seth was first through. He crouched in the darkness and moved to the rear of the vehicle. Seth did a quick sweep of the area with his energy rifle, shining his light into the darkness, catching nothing but wide-open space and support pillars in his sights. The absence of additional lights was a good sign that the enemy wasn't nearby. Darkness would work to their advantage.

He returned his light to his starting position, and this time moved with cautious, intentional movements as he took in the details, searching for a way to the main floor. He and Hope had trained all year on syncing their movements in anticipation of the last game, when darkness was most likely to play a strategic role in the scenario. Light and scope moved in unison.

To his left was a cement wall with a large, yellow, stenciled B1 indicating their floor. At least the main floor wasn't too much of a climb once they found some stairs. He ran the light along to the length of the wall until both light and wall disappeared into the darkness.

Ahead were the fractured remains of a barrier and a short, automated booth. A spike barrier had bits of metal and rubber caught in its teeth, suggesting that the car had punctured its tires and smashed into the small machine when it lost control of its desperate escape.

"All clear!" Hope confirmed a second time. His team filed out behind him.

He moved along the wall, passed the ruined machine, his line of sight slipping into the void beyond his light. There was nothing to see. Just vast emptiness.

He swept his light back to the wall he and his squad followed. Nothing but the dizzying eternity of rows of cement blocks. No doors. No signage.

He swept the light back to the garage, catching sight of a sprinkling of vehicles. He hadn't seen them in his previous sweep. But here they were, clear as day, the same model on repeat in a few different spots. Must have been a popular model back in the day.

He kept his squad moving along the wall. Eventually, they'd find the stairs, a door, something...

When his light swept back to the garage, the car nearest him was no longer grey, but a light powder blue. A trick of the light, Seth told himself. He couldn't explain how he had missed the other vehicles. The formerly near empty garage had grown crowded with a multitude of makes and models. Despite Seth's skull pounding with warning, he justified that people of the age preferred to park in clusters deeper in the parking garage, closer to the building's entrance. It was a good sign, wasn't it?

He said nothing to his team. They felt Seth was crumbling under the weight of his responsibilities. He didn't want to worry them. He didn't want to prove them right.

The cement wall that had gone on for an eternity a moment prior had turned to join the security booth, blocking his progress forward.

No one remarked on the oddness. Seth buried the anomaly as yet another detail he had failed to observe.

A series of bright yellow, four-foot-tall pillars blocked a small single vehicle access route, leading deeper into the parking area. They reminded Seth of soldiers standing guard, only these were seized in a permanent up-right position, never to be relieved of duty.

Seth pushed past the yellow soldiers and opened the door to the booth. Thinking back on it, he had no reason to check it. The stairwell leading to the main floor was likely just beyond the security station.

All twelve squad members cramped into the small space; ducking below the window panes to avoid being seen despite the pitch black of the area. There was little room to move.
Seth checked the perimeter readout, noting that the yellow marker had followed them into the garage. There was no going back.