Gear Crash

Chapter 19

"This place is giving me an evil vibe. It's like the trees are gonna like, murder my entire family." Simon was sitting in the back of a camo-colored jeep, drinking a can of orange soda. "Figures the Scourge would set up camp here. He looked around. They were deep in the middle of the woods in the middle of the night. Tall evergreen trees surrounded them, menacingly towering over their relatively small vehicle.

"Sophia's tracker shows she's somewhere around here. If we keep driving, we should find her somewhere around here." Kyle raised a pair of binoculars to his head. He pointed them into the clearing they were coming close to. In the round lenses, he saw a small metal square bolted to the ground near the roots of a tree. He stopped the Jeep, then went outside to examine the square. "It's probably covering something. Simon, get the crowbar from the back of the truck." 

"Yes sir, whatever you say sir, need me to polish your shoes sir?" Kyle sighed.

"Just get the damn crowbar." Simon put down his orange soda and went around to the back of the truck. He opened it to reveal stacks of the highest military weapons, hand grenades, and... oh right, crowbar. "Hey, Kyle! Guess what Kyle!"

"What." 

"DUCK!" Simon chucked a hand grenade straight into the clearing, and Kyle barely had time to leap out of the way when it exploded, effectively removing not only the small metal square, but most of the surrounding ground and plant life.

"You realize you probably just alerted every single enemy in the nearby vicinity to our presence, right?" Kyle said, irritated, as he stood up brushing off the dust from his shirt.

"Well, it did serve one other purpose." Simon went over to the gaping hole in the ground and looked down it. "Come over here dude." Kyle walked over next to Simon and stared into the hole. There were a massive assortment of scattered robot parts, strewn across the floor, all shattered by Simon's grenade blast. "I told you it was a trap. The second we went down there, we'd be eaten alive or something by those things." Kyle smiled. 

"Well, maybe you're not as dumb as you look." Simon looked up, grinning, and then frowned. 

"Wait, hold on a second, what are you implying there?" But Kyle had already climbed down into the hole. Simon followed, slightly miffed.

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"Wow, it is dark down here." Simon exclaimed. He pulled out a tactical flashlight from his backpack. "This should help."

"Don't" warned Kyle. "We turn that on and anything down there will instantly spot us. Use these night vision goggles instead." Kyle handed a pair to Simon, then put one on himself.

"WOAH. These things are cool. It's like they give you vision, but..."

"If you say 'in the night' I will kick you." Simon pouted,

"You're no fun." They finally reached a small opening in the tunnel, just big enough for them to fully stand up in. Kyle looked around. He was surrounded by the tunnel walls, and it looked like it was the end of the tunnel. He knocked on the wall. 

"Dude, do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Simon asked.

"The walls are hollow. Hand me the hand drill. And no grenades, or you'll kill us all." Simon pulled the drill out of his backpack and put it to the wall.

"Here goes nothing." he said. As he was drilling the wall, Kyle took out Sophia's tracker. They were very close to her, only about half a mile away. We're coming for you, he thought. Simon finished drilling through the wall, and he slipped the drill back into his backpack. 

"Be careful." Kyle said. "You never know what could be behind that."

"Careful is my middle name" said Simon cheerfully. He stepped back as far as the tight space would let him, then slammed into the wall with his shoulder. It gave way, letting the two boys jump through. They tumbled into a turquoise-colored well-lit chamber. Simon ripped off his night vision goggles. "What is this place..." He breathed. 

Kyle walked up to a column and examined it. "Pure amazonite. Impressive. Looks like the Scourge is pretty loaded." He put his hand on it. Suddenly, the entire chamber began rumbling. Simon whipped his head around, searching for enemies.

"Welcome to your penultimate test." A disembodied voice bellowed. "Defeat this, and you may face me."

"WHAT KIND OF GOD OF WAR SHIT IS THIS!" Simon screamed. The chamber ceiling opened up, and a giant beast dropped down. It was coated head to toe in scales, and had two massive ram horns on the top of it's head. It roared to reveal a set of razor-sharp teeth.

Kyle strapped on his suit. "My scanner doesn't register this thing as a real creature. It has to be some kind of hologram or robot." Simon slammed an electricity-based jammer onto the ground. The lights flickered, then went out. Kyle's suit fizzled, then went into auxiliary power mode. The beast, however, didn't stop leaping towards them. It smashed its fist into the ground, and barely missed Simon.

"WELL IT'S OBVIOUSLY NOT, SO LET'S FRY THIS THING THEN MOVE ON." Simon screamed louder.

"Well since you asked so politely" Kyle muttered. He switched his weapon to incinerate, and shot three pulse beams straight at the creature. They bounced off his chest, and Kyle barely dodged them. "It didn't work!" He called. "Look out!" The beast jumped forward, and with one fell swoop, picked up Kyle. He held him up to his mouth, prepared to bite his head off. Kyle shut his eyes. Suddenly, there was a loud clicking noise, and the beast froze. Kyle opened one eye. Simon stood behind them, holding a machine pistol in one hand.

"Twenty devastator bullets can't be ignored by anything, hologram or not." He said, grinning. The beast collapsed onto the floor, dead. Kyle, panting, climbed out of it's massive hand.

"Well done. Are you ready for your final challenge?" The voice said.

"WHAT DID YOU DO WITH SOPHIA?" Kyle demanded.

The Scourge walked out from behind a pole, accompanied by a cloaked figure. He smiled.

"She's been here this entire time, young man." The figure removed her cloak to reveal curly black hair and a red fedora.

"You bastard." Kyle growled. He fired an incinerator shot straight between the Scourge's eyes. Sophia jumped in between, and blocked it with her sword. He stared at her. Her eyes were completely blank, void of any emotion or feeling.

"Now then, are you ready to face your fears?" The Scourge said with a grin.