Chapter 4 -"The long journey"
I look around at the seven people that surround me. We're all new recruits and on our first mission, except for the driver, heading to another dome to deliver supplies; Dome 13, I think. Anyway, I'm really nervous; I'm going to be working with them for the rest of my life, however short it may be, and first impressions are everything. Here it goes.
The man sitting next to me is wearing a mandatory black bio hazard suit. From what I can tell, it looks like he's got dark brown hair, a nicely trimmed goatee, and thick eye brows but that's all I can see past his fogged up gas mask.
"Hi, my name's James," I say to the guy sitting next to me, breaking the awkward silence that lingers in the armored jeep.
"Mine's Pete, nice to meet you.” The awkward silence returns as I think of something else to say
"Weird ain't it, being dead 'n all?"
"Yeah, it sure is."
We spent hours talking until finally we'd arrived at Dome 13, but for once, I felt happy; I'd made a friend and things were looking up. The safety procedures that we were having to take took longer than the actual journey, which might have been a bore if it wasn't for the company, and the knowledge that I was getting paid to do this. What was there to buy in an advanced apocalyptic society?
Our jeep pulls up in the middle of a dark narrow street. The walls are covered in a dripping oily substance and the only light is seeping down from the dome's outer shield along with electronic sparks. On the left side of the street is a series of garages, which don't look so secure, but I guess the guards on the roof, in the buildings on the right, and small outpost at the end of the street make up for the facility's crappy build.
A loud humming sound appears as the door on the left side of the jeep opens, letting in a refreshing petroleum smell. God at least some things don't change. We all step out of the jeep, except for the driver and begin unloading the supplies.
To be honest I'm really happy with my job choice so far. It doesn't require me to work too much, I get to visit new places, and the pays pretty good. So in conclusion, I could have chosen worse.
"Hey, James right? I'm Tracy and this is Pandora."
Tracy has long red hair, small facial features, and a couple of freckles which define her. Now Pandora is almost her opposite, she has small facial features, no freckles, and short black hair, making her appear rather Goth-like.
"Hi," Pandora says with an awkward wave.
"Figured if we're going to be working together, we might as well get to know each other," she says as everyone including myself unloads boxes into a storage facility to my left.
"Well yeah, my name is James, but I don't think we should talk now. Probably on the way back to the Dome 23 though" I say as I wave my eye's towards the driver, our superior, currently giving us an evil stare, telling me to stop talking, and carry on working.
I drop a box of supplies onto the pile which is quickly growing, and a rumbling sound soon follows echoing down the narrow street. All work comes to a halt as we are compelled to step out of the storage room and see what's going on. A jeep like ours is driving in our direction. But by the look of it, and the expression on our drivers face, this clearly Isn't good news.
"Hey Pete, what's going on?" I say curiously
"I have no idea." He says as the jeep draws closer.
Tension begins to grow, and only one person appears to know what's approaching, driving fear through the best of us especially as our superior draws his weapon along with the guards surrounding us. Just what are they afraid of?
It's scary not knowing what's about to happen, but I guess it would be lot worse if it was an ice cream van driving in our direction with the creepy tune an all.
I unclip my side arm and prepare for the worst as there jeep stops just meters from us with it's beaming headlights still on.
A strange looking man with long brown hair steps out of the jeep and into an oily puddle, while dressed in some odd metallic clothing.
"Hello again Jack, we've got to stop meeting like this," he says in a surprisingly calm tone.
"I would if I could" our driver mumbles.
"Oh and you've got yourself a new team, have you told them what happened to the last one?"
"urrr,rrm... weeell" Our driver stutters but is almost instantly interrupted.
"Judging by the look on their faces, I'd guess not."
"Just who are you, and what do you want?" says a man to my left demandingly, Chris I think.
"Oh I'm sorry, where are my manners? Oh wait, here they are," he says playfully before pulling out a pistol. He smiles and a flash of light zooms out of the pistol and straight in to Chris blasting off his leg. The gust of wind it creates almost blows me off of my feet. Blood splatters across the walls and floor and some of it blinds me. As I rub his blood out of my eyes, one of the guards falls from above. I quickly move forward to see if he's okay, rolling him on to his back. The guards hands are tightly clutched around his blood gushing throat, so I step back knowing that there nothing that I can do and because that scary guy is staring at me, and I really don't want to be the center of attention with him shooting people.
"Does anyone want to ask that question again but perhaps in a nicer manner?" He says, still smiling while Chris rolls around on the floor screaming in agonizing pain.
We all stand there, motionless, as he stares at each one of us.
"Really? No one? Okay then, let me get down to business."
"All you have to do is load those nicely stacked boxes in to the jeep and I'll let you go, simple as, right?"
He carry's on just standing there, staring at each one of us, waiting.
"You," he shouted, pointing in my direction.
Oh god he's looking at me, what should I do, oh I know. I point at my chest just to make sure.
"Yes you."
Oh crap he's talking to me.
"Yee-sss" I quietly stutter.
"Does that sound simple to you?"
I hesitate, and unsurely say "Yeah."
"Okay then, get to work."
I let out of a silent scream of joy as my guess was correct.
I turn around and start walking back in to the storage room. As I turn, I notice a hand dangling down from above, just assuring me that every one that was making this place "safe" is dead
Their leader skips back towards a wall and watches us work, loading the supplies, which are for the people, into his jeep.
Everyone instantly follows and begins to work, this is while Chris bleeds out on the floor.
