Choices

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen: Too Many Lost

"Give em hell, turn their heads. Gonna live life 'til we're dead. Give me scars, give me pain. Then they'll say to me, there goes the fighter." - Gym Class Heroes: The Fighter

-

 Gravel softly crunches under our boots as we trek across the orange rock. We are as silent as we possibly can be as we don't want to alert anyone working for the terrorists. A few agents watch along the tops of the rocky walls for any snipers or guards. Our guns are loaded and ready for any spontaneous attack.

 We make our way towards the suspected entrance of the terrorist base. I signal for Team Blue to advance forward towards the entrance. An agent walks up and knocks on the bumpy surface. He presses his ear up against it. He motions for the sunburst to be placed on the door. We take a few steps away and turn our backs to the explosive. The device detonates a few seconds later. The disguised stone door hisses as it has been pushed out of its niche.

 I motion for Team Blue to advance into the opening. I signal for half of the team to take the passageway that goes to the right and for the other half to take the one to the left. Tony's team will take the straight corridor in the middle that leads to the control room. Four snipers stay outside with their scopes trained on the entrance.

 Not a word is spoken between my five group members are we walk down towards the stone corridors. A single light bulb hangs in intervals down the corridor, poorly illuminating the space. We believe that the compound is in a circular layout; the control room is in the middle of the base with the hallway circling it. From this circular passageway, other hallway branch off from it. We do not know what is down these other hallways, but we have an opportunity to find out. My team follows me as we turn.

 "Oh my gosh," I whisper to myself as I see bloodied and beaten bodies in rooms that much resemble cells. I vaguely recognize S.H.I.E.L.D. uniforms on the slumped corpses. My stomach turns violently as the sight this. Blood stains all parts of their bodies. Only a few have identifiable puncture wounds from either being stabbed or shot, but most only have signs of being beat and mistreated. The smell of deceased bodies is overwhelming.

 "Search every cell for any survivors," My voice is strained as I command orders, "Find Hawkeye and Alex."

 The agents search through the four cells in this hallway. Every person is dead. I push a few bodies over so I can see their faces. Little light from the corridor shines into the chambers. I shine a light on each of the bodies' faces. I need to know if Alex is one of these nonliving persons. To my relief, I don't recognize a single agent.

 "Let's move out," I direct as soon as we have checked every cell.

 We begin walking towards the next hallways. We're rounding the curve when I hold up my hand to stop everyone. I strain to listen as I can hear nothing. Lucis scans for any infrared signature but nothing shows up. The only thing around us is walls of cool stone.        

 Something isn't right.

 There is no way a terrorist base affiliated with alien criminals is just sitting here unarmed and unprotected. It was hard enough to believe we just blew open the door and walked in, but now we are halfway through the compound and haven't run into any living one? If it wasn't for the cells of dead soldiers, I wouldn't even believe we were in the right place. The other half of Team Blue hasn't seen anything but dead bodies either. There is too much rock in between Tony and me to communicate. We weren't accounting for so much rock to block our signals. It is suspiciously calm for storming a hostiles' base. There's only one explanation for our unmet entry.