When Forever Ends (Part 1: A Game of Chess)

XIV

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F o u r t e e n

Erin reacted quickly, lashing out with her outstretched hands and wrenching the gun from the soldier's grip. She then whacked him on the forehead with the butt of the weapon and he crumpled to the ground in a heap.

The other men lowered their weapons and stared at her in surprise, then charged at her.

Erin calmly stepped back and let them trip over their comrades, smacking each one of them with the gun as well.

Then she noticed us staring. "Help much?" she asked.

"Uhhh..." I replied, too stunned to give a real answer.

"Behind you!" she shouted, blasting away a couple more soldiers with one of their own weapons.

Shocked into movement, I stumbled forward and almost fell on the heap of unconscious bodies. I looked at their military-style helmets, tan camouflaged suits, and interesting face paint. "Looks like someone's building an army," I commented.

"And I think I know who." Erin lifted one man's helmet and examined the symbol on the front. It was the outline of an old-fashioned gas mask.

She didn't tell us what that symbol meant, but instead turned back to face the tunneler. "Hmm, I wonder if the back is shielded as well," she muttered.

She then faced us. "I think we need to get behind it. Sofie, Will, stay here and keep its attention. Maya, Ryan, follow me!" She raced off into a side hallway, Maya and I close behind.

After a few meters, Erin turned right and we found ourselves sprinting down a hallway that ran parallel to the larger one.

Maybe this is how those soldiers got behind us, I thought.

We passed a doorway leading into what looked like a movie theater and I wasted a few precious seconds to see what was playing.

It was a movie I was unfamiliar with. On the screen, an elderly man with white hair and a black suit spoke to an offscreen character.

"Some people aren't looking for anything logical, like money, Mr. Wayne," he said. "Some people," he paused, "just want to watch the world burn."

"Come on!" Maya tugged urgently on my sleeve. I looked around and realized that Erin had gone on without us. I abandoned the movie and we hurried to catch up.

Finally, we turned right again and charged out into the main hallway, right into the midst of a dozen more soldiers.

As Erin started whacking soldiers like crazy, I noticed something I hadn't before. The soldiers looked like regular people! Underneath the helmets and camouflage suits and face paint, they were ordinary citizens! I recognized Mr. Fazoole, a man who used to live a few houses down from mine before he inexplicably disappeared.

Except for two tiny things, I would have hesitated to attack them. One of those two things was that they were attacking us without a second thought. The other was that their eyes were filled with a darkness so black, it seemed to suck some of the light out of the hallway, as if they were miniature black holes.

Mr. Fazoole sneered at me before stamping down hard on my foot; Erin had already taken his weapon. These people were obviously not themselves. I slammed the rim of my shield onto the tip of his boot in reply and he howled like a caged animal, hopping around on one foot before Maya knocked him unconscious.

In a couple of minutes, every one of the soldiers was on the floor. We turned to face the tunneler, whose attention was still fixed on Sofie and Will. In the time it had taken us to defeat the soldiers, it had made alarming progress down the hallway. It was just turning a corner in pursuit of my friends when Maya, Erin and I caught up with it.

I leaped onto a ledge on the back of it and peered up onto the top of the vehicle. Two more soldiers rode side by side behind a round metal trapdoor. Erin and Maya jumped up beside me, and I made some quick hand signals, holding up two fingers and pointing to the top of the tunneler. Two men up there.

Erin reached up and climbed onto the top as quietly as she could.

Not quietly enough.

The two men turned to face her and she grabbed one's face and shoved him off of the vehicle. The other, she kicked in the stomach, sending him flying over the front, landing on the floor directly in the path of one of the huge treads. The tunneler went over a slight bump and we didn't look back to avoid seeing what had become of the poor man.

I lifted open the hatch and revealed the man driving the tunneler.

"Mind if we hitch a ride?" I shouted, bringing the butt of one of the captured weapons crashing down into the driver's head.

He slumped immediately and his foot jammed down the pedal, making the vehicle lurch forward into high gear.

I climbed over the front of the tunneler, waving and shouting to Sofie and Will to let them know that we had seized the tank. Sofie saw me and flattened Will and herself against the wall as the vehicle trundled past, then they sprinted to catch up and haul themselves onto the back.

"Well, what now?" I had to shout to be heard over the clatter of the treads.

"We need to shut this thing down!" Erin shouted back as the tank continued to speed up, heading downhill now.

"Too bad we left our emergency bags back at the command room," Sofie said.

"What?" Will yelled. "I can't hear you!"

"I said, too bad we left our emergency bags back at the command room!" she raised her voice. "Some of the stuff in there might be useful right about now!"

"Guys!" I interrupted. "Up ahead!"

The tunneler leveled out and charged onto one of the glass bridges leading into the underground city.

"How can the glass hold the weight of this tank?" Sofie wondered.

"It can't," Maya replied. "Look!" she pointed over the side of the vehicle to the bridge beneath us. With each second, small cracks appeared and grew larger, covering the bridge in a web of cracks.

"We're gonna drop!" Will shouted, just as the glass gave way and shattered into thousands of tiny shards which went flying in every direction.

We braced ourselves as the tank fell, taking us with it. Luckily, there was a tall building directly under us, and we landed on its roof with a thud. Unluckily, the building was also wider at the top than the bottom and the framework of the building was struggling to hold it upright. The heavy vehicle landing on the top was too much for the structure and it began to fall, leaning towards another tall building. The two smashed together and the other building fell. It was a domino effect as building after building fell and smashed into others. The noise was tremendous, and dust filled the air, making it hard to breathe. The vehicle hit the ground and stopped spinning its treads wildly. All around us, towers toppled into the streets and tore each other into piles of rubble. When the destruction had ceased, almost half the underground city had been destroyed. Before us was a large hole in the cave wall, leading to a long tunnel about the size of the tunneler. It was obvious that this was where the enemies had come from.

But what drew our attention was what was spilling out of the tunnel. Millions and millions of people, all dressed in military uniforms and eyes filled with the blackness. They poured out and surrounded us, holding us at gunpoint.

We had no choice, but to surrender.