Stealth Specialist || Simon Riley

Debrief

"So, what the fuck was chasing me?" I ask, pulling a seat out at the dining room table back at our base. Price already sits at one of the seats, shuffling through a stack of papers before him on the table. 

I look around at the others, but nobody seems to have an answer. König and Soap stare at the ground, clearly deep in thought. Ghost paces behind Price in the small kitchen. His hands are rested on his hips as he moves. Gaz and Keegan sit quietly across the table from me, hands folded on the table's surface. 

"My best guess is some kind of drone?" Price says, questioning his own idea. 

"It wasn't faster than you, so I doubt it was any kind of tech. It was moving at the pace of a person." König says. 

"I didn't see anyone, though. And I didn't hear anything. I was running from nothing."

"I understand that, but there was definitely some kind of signal following. Maybe it's some frequency that their equipment gives off," König tries to reason.

"We don't know. We won't know. Not until we learn more about this group," Price interrupts our debate. "Let's just go through everything from the beginning. Every detail." He looks to me, waiting to hear about my experience.

"Dark forest. Desolate. Didn't see anything in the forest at all within the area we travelled through. Nothing but frozen trees and rocks. The building itself was much larger in person than I was expecting. I'm sure Keegan can attest..." I look to him across the table.

"I didn't do a wrap-around, so I don't know the true size of it, but yes, it looked much larger than we were hoping for," Keegan says, his voice showcasing his own exhaustion.

"No lights on in the interior that I could see until the first truck of men showed up. Only minimal lighting outside. Didn't see any security cameras, which I felt was odd," I continue on my recounting. Price watches me as I speak, trying to envision it himself. 

"The first truck that came was definitely a military-grade vehicle. Looked armored. I counted nine men exiting that vehicle before moving inside the plant. They wore light grey and white uniforms, and only a few of them carried large guns. I couldn't see exactly what kind of weapon, but it looked like some kind of large rifle from afar.

"As the men went inside, more and more lights inside the facility turned on. I believe it was around 6 am when they showed up. I didn't see any use of the south-side door, only west-side door was used from what I saw.

"Approximately ten minutes after they entered the plant, I began hearing the booming sounds. It sounded like they were doing small-scale explosions in, like, a mining operation or something. The ground shook with each one, and I'm pretty sure the booms were getting louder as time passed, but I'm not entirely sure. That's when I started to feel adrenaline, so that might not be accurate.

"Once I started to leave, more vehicles started arriving. Not sure how many more vehicles showed up, but I do know a ton of men started pouring out of the trucks as they rounded the building."

They all watch me as I recall my experience. All but the pacing lieutenant, focused only on his boots constantly moving. 

"Then, the helicopter showed up and that thing began chasing me through the woods." I finish that sentence with a tone of finality. I wish the mission itself had some kind of finality to it. 

Even as I sit still in this chair, I can feel how wobbly and weak my legs have become. Never once have I pushed myself that far physically. Never once have I sprinted at my absolute maximum speed for longer than a minute or two. I've definitely run and jogged for long periods of time, but never like this.