I dart around the corner, my pistol raised and ready to fire. The hallway doesn't change. Dull, metallic walls surround me and there's the occasional flickering led light above providing a dim, gloomy luminescence. Every footfall sends shock waves up my exhausted body and all I want to do is collapse and have just a few seconds of rest, but nevertheless, I keep going. I'm here for a reason, and it's imperative that I only leave once I've collected what is waiting for me. Just as I'm rounding the sixth corner a dark figure appears ahead of me. Not moving, just standing there. They appear to be hooded, a long cloak hiding their identity. As I approach I call out.
"Show yourself! Take off your hood! I'm armed!" they remain still, and for a moment I swear I see their shadow flicker out of existence. It's impossible of course, and I'm obviously imagining it, but it still spooks me.
"You are afraid of me," a low, accented half whisper sounds from the stranger. The statement almost sounds like a question, or rather, an unexpected realisation that sends chills down my spine.
"No. No, I'm not. I wish to see your face." I try to use an authoritative tone, but my voice quivers at the word 'face' and I know my eyes must be wide and frantic.
"I can help you. I know vat you vant."
"I want to see your face. SHOW YOURSELF!!!" I almost scream the last part, and it feels as though the walls echo my outburst in soft murmurs.
"Let me help you, you do not need to shee my fashe for me to help you, child. I know vat you're here for, and I know vere it is. I can show you," okay, what? How could this... thing know what I'm here for? I shake my head - it doesn't matter. All that matters right here and right now is getting away from this creature in my path. With a hardened resolve, I correct my aim so that my gun is pointed right at the obstruction's head and fire. The gunshot is deafening in the eerie silence and it leaves a ringing in my ears, but the auditory shock of it isn't nearly as stupefying as what my eyes are witnessing. Right in front of me, the figure's arm snaps up quicker than naturally possible and opens its hand as if to stop the bullet. Impossibly, the bullet halts to a stop right it front of the stranger's palm. They wrap their fist around it and squeeze, and when they let go, mere ashes float from their grasp and waft gracefully to the floor.
Completely dumbfounded, I freeze and it feels as if all the oxygen has been sucked from my lungs and the room. My body seemingly paralysed, I simply stare at the stranger, who stares right back, their stance somehow radiating peril. As quickly as it occurred however, the effects of my confoundment reverse and I snap back into action. Once again I re-aim and fire, not one shot, but I hold down the trigger until I've emptied my entire magazine and then I turn and run. My footsteps violently pound the floor, my legs pumping so hard I can barely feel their movements.
Two rights and a left, then another right, and three lefts. I keep a steady pace as I retrace my steps to the exit, hoping against hope that I remember each turn correctly. The complex is like a huge metal maze with a roof, thus being almost impossible to navigate. In minutes that feel like hours, I finally reach the haphazardly exploded hole in the wall leading out to where the trapdoor I climbed down from is. I quickly peek over my shoulder and find that (unless this unusual creature could turn invisible) my pursuer had vanished at some point. Where to, I'm not sure, but I'm too exhausted to try and come up with a scenario for his mysterious disappearance.
I carefully creep out the hole in the wall and walk straight ahead to where the ladder should be waiting. The dim, flickering lights illuminate absolutely nothing in the small, confined room but I know exactly where it should be. I feel along the walls until I find the ladder and start to climb up it. The security measures that whoever built this compound went to is unbelievable. As if the desolate location in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean on a volcanic island only accessible by a six day boat trip wasn't enough, the concealed entrance is at the base of an ordinary tree that takes a 12 hour hike to get to where you have you type a code into a keypad disguised as bark and then go down a trapdoor to the little room I'm in now with two armed guards in it (though they weren't very sharp if the two of them couldn't stop a teenager with a small Beretta). Plus there was supposed to be some sort of eye sensor to let you get through to the main corridor, but I just blew up the door.
All that effort, just to be stopped by some supernatural being that can stop bullets with their hand. My boss is seriously going to kill me when I get back. 'You had one job!' he'll say, 'All I asked is for you to break in, grab the file, and bring it to me!' If only it was that simple! David had a way of making things sound a lot easier than they actually were. Breaking in was hard enough, I didn't even know where the stupid file was! All he said was that somewhere inside the headquarters compound there was a hidden folder with a whole heap of 'classified papers' inside, and that he needed his best agent to find them. I might have appreciated the compliment if the mission wasn't so vague. He could at least have told me which direction to head to find them. It's too late now anyways, he'll just have to get a better agent to find it.
Once I'm all the way up the ladder, I flip open the trapdoor and begin my 3 kilometre walk back to the helipad.
