The Resistance

Chapter 5

Rachel was facing her worst nightmare. She had come here to hang out with her friends. Not even in her wildest imagination did she expect to be locked inside the complex as a hostage. She almost broke down when they separated Lucy, Mike and George from her. She had to use all her will power to stop herself from weeping. She decided not to look vulnerable.

Then there was Jason. He went alone into the restroom. She desperately wanted to know if he was alright. She kept praying with her eyes closed. But her eyes fluttered open when she heard a soldier assaulting a business man in an Armani suit.

She was horrified as she saw the soldier bludgeon the poor man without mercy. He knocked him aside and conversed with another soldier. Even though it was audible she couldn't comprehend the thick Arabic accent. Although, his accent seemed unnatural.

She was already terrified when suddenly an explosion occurred. Watching an explosion in a movie was far from actually experiencing it.

The explosion occurred behind her. A huge ball of fire rose up in the hall accompanied by a cracking sound. The ballistic glass she was resting on cracked due to the impact and several shards blew holes in the glass. She heard a "whoosh" sound as a shard narrowly missed her. Panic gripped her. Then the heat of the explosion reached her. It was like standing in front of a bonfire but the heat was way more threatening. The vibrations rattled her bones and she heard some screams as the shards hit. Then the whole ballistic glass wall collapsed and jagged pieces of glass rained on her. She didn't notice them cause minor cuts on her skin as she stood stunned by the explosion. The heat died down but the fire remained. Waves of fire threateningly lashed around. One of the soldiers had the brains to bring the fire extinguisher and blow out the fire.

There were several causalities around. Around half a dozen people writhed in pain and she could see crimson stains on their dressess. A couple of soldiers standing near the entrance were also hurt. She felt like crying. She was badly shaken by the unfortunate chain of events. She felt a drop of tear escape.

Then one of the soldiers, A-37, who was collapsed, stopped playing dead.

***

Angelo de Loire was one of the four soldiers who were checking the arcade in the third floor. Suddenly they hear chaos and an explosion from the aisle. They were about to rush there and help but they received a command by the leader to maintain their positions.

Then they saw two people making a dash to the mirror maze- A soldier half walking and half dragged by a blonde female. They ran into the mirror maze and that's when they received the strategic plan from the leader.

Since they didn't have five soldiers there, they had to settle for two-two. Two soldiers stay in defence outside the entrance while the other two went offensive inside. Luckily they had a spy there so they had access to grenades.

Angelo went in along with Shaun, the spy. The mirror maze is a long room with panels of plain mirrors arranged in such a way that no matter where you look you will find an image of yours staring at you. When looked from above it looks like a silver bee hive. There is only exit which is opened by an employee after a certain period of time. So basically there is no way out unless the employee thinks you have enjoyed enough and opens a door which leads into the arcade. But on this day the door was locked. They made sure of it.

So naturally they saw around eight figures running in different directions due to the reflections. Angelo de Loire grinned inside his helmet and whispered "Time for BOOM BOOM!"

That's when he clicked the detonater of the grenade he snatched from Boyles and tossed it into the maze. The explosion rattled the room and send shards of glass flying everywhere. The fireball engulfed a small portion of the room while the titanium shards smashed the glass panels to bits. The huge fireball leapt into the ceiling and the whole room seemed to vibrate. Then he noticed that the glasses around him and was stunned. In every direction he could see fire dancing and lashing around. Everywhere he looked he could find fire. This view was beautiful to look at in a movie but quite nerve-racking in real life. Angelo was scared that he was engulfed in fire too but the next second it vanished. By the time the fire died down, half of the maze's panels were broken.

The couple looked very terrified and the woman kept screaming as they hurtled through the remaining section of the maze straight towards the emergency exit. They were staggering and crashing into glass every few seconds. He pursued them, gunning down the glass panels with his Tavor rifle. He noticed that they were moving towards the emergency exit. Nothing escapes the leader, Angelo thought. 

He smashed through the maze and pinned them down just as they were about to hurtle themselves through the fire exit.

With a satisfied grin he whispered to himself "Job well done"

That is precisely when he noticed that something was wrong. Then to his utter surprise he noticed that the blonde woman had doubled over with pain.

The real reason that he had been able to catch them was because their movements had almost become a limp walk. He couldn't understand why. Then he saw something coming out of the blonde girl's mouth....something which looked like foam.

***

The leader received the message. He was quite relieved. He had suppressed the small rebellion. He leaned back in his chair and checked the profile of A-37. His real name was Abul-Bak-Sahara, a Pakistani soldier. He stared at Sahara's photo in his profile picture. Then he received another message from Vladimir- the second floor commander, who had come up into the mirror maze through the emergency exit. "Sir! The blonde girl and the soldier are dead or in serious condition. They have vomited terribly and are unconscious right now."

The leader was absolutely stunned. Then he thought to himself, they must be some suicide squad who would rather die than disclose information. They must have inserted some kind of shell inside their tooth which detonated and released a poison.

He smiled. He said to no one in particular, "Never mind the death. It couldn't be controlled. I have won." He stared vacantly into the stationary crimson dot labelled A-37 in the mirror maze of floor-3

***

At that precise moment, in another restroom on the third floor, Jason said to Rachel with a huge grin on his face, "I have won round one."

____

Hey guys, I hope this has got you curious. This will be explained in the next chapter. If you liked this chapter please leave a vote and stay tuned for updates.