The Swan's Song.

Chapter 36

I think I'm gonna try for Sunday night postings. It gives me the weekend to write while I'm not in a patrol car for once.

XXX

"Hey, I'm stuck in this building, you morons." Growled Swan into his comms.

Angrily, he waited for a reply which didn't come, and as he approached the gate, he grabbed it and tried to lift it.

Even with the added strength of his metal appendages, it didn't budge. Swan gave up after a short while and picked his Cetme back up.

Another faint but echoing cry from the stair case brought him back to the edge. There wasn't anybody standing at the bottom of the staircase now. A different call tore him away from the edge of the stairs once more, and he turned to see multiple Furled Fist soldiers coming towards him from the other side of the gate.

"There he is!"

"Get him!"

"Tranq's are ready! Med on standby!"

Swan moved to the gate, raising his rifle instinctually and firing through it. He felled one Furled Fist soldier, causing the others to retreat for cover.

Looking at the sides and near where it came down from the ceiling, Swan was able to eye a sort of raising mechanism for the right side of the gate.

In order to slow down the soldiers, he fired at the mechanism in hopes that it would slow down the soldiers from getting to him as well as buying more time for him to look for an alternate escape route.

After all, it wouldn't make sense for the structure to have only one entry and exit. That wouldn't be up to OSHA fire safety standards.

"I cannot fucking believe myself." Thought Swan. If OSHA was the governing body which would save his ass from hostile capture because they needed two safe exits and entries...

Going back to the edge of the stairs, he looked back down into the dim red light to see that the figure was gone once more.

With the sounds of Furled Fist fodder behind him coming back into the hallway, Swan started down the steps with a purpose, but not fast enough that he would miss details that might make themselves apparent.

"They've left you behind. You wear their clothing, play their games, and follow their orders... and they leave you behind."

A deep and gruff voice seemed to resonate from the walls as he walked down the staircase, and from seemingly nowhere, a projected view of Sako Squad boarding a Pave Low appeared on the wall next to him.

"They've left already. Didn't even wait."

"Whisked away without even glancing back. You were expendable to them, as you always had been."

Swan paused, noting that when Echo and Izzy stepped on the helicopter, it lifted almost immediately.

Swan continued his pace down the stairs. The projection followed and so did the voice. He glanced at the projection and watched as the gate came down while Izzy and Echo bolted without so much as a glance back.

"And now, you're stuck here with us and with no way out. I assume it's not your most wanted outcome."

By now, the red light was beginning to overtake the dim white, and Swan glanced around as his black APG uniform, minus their patches of course, was bathed in red as he slowly descended.

His Cetme's muzzle followed wherever his head looked, and he tucked the stock under his armpit. A reticle appeared in his glasses, being nothing more than a small yellow circle for where his muzzle was pointing.