Time of Crisis

Chapter 8

It was time for humanity to strike back and take back what is rightfully ours. We no longer going to be forced out of our homes by some inhumane being.
   The general yelled as loud as she could, "Battle stations!" Everybody around scrambled. Some people went outside and some manned the radios. The general gathered the most important people around the table, being Jennifer, Michael, Lasky, and last but not least myself. She pulled up the map pointing to where we were. "We're here but we need to go all the way to where this thing first appeared." We were at the corner of the map and where we needed to go just so happened to be in the middle of the map. I could tell this was going to be difficult from almost any approach.
Lasky spoke without permission slamming his fist violently into the table, "This is a suicide mission! We'll never make it that far! Especially with how low our supplies are!"
The general snickered to herself and shook her head, "We won't be going. They'll be going." She pointed to me, Jennifer, and Michael. Jennifer looked at me concerned and I looked at the general completely flabbergasted. This was an even worse idea! I wasn't going to go fight some unknown thing without any back-up or knowledge about it!
I chimed in with my opinion in the matter, "I'm not going to go fight whatever is out there without my usual weapons or with your freak show friend over here!" I pointed to Michael. I had no idea if this guy was even able to put up a fight or if he was trust worthy.
The general shot me a look, "We will supply you with what we can but this isn't a choice for you three. If you don't attack now, this thing will take over the entire country at this rate." She was probably right I had only been dead a day I think but apparently all of New York City has been taken over in that time frame. Meaning, whatever took over was seriously powerful in some way.
I looked to Jennifer, we did have no choice. She was as unsure as me. But I brought myself to say what they wanted to hear, "Fine, we'll do it."
The general manically smiled. Clearly delighted we said yes. "Follow me." She walked over to the stairs and then down them. She hooked a right into a dark room before turning on the lights. Laying on the table on the far side of the room were three ear pieces with mics attached. And next to one of the pieces was two desert eagles. Four magazines along side them. The ear pieces were different colors for everybody. Mine was black, Jennifer's was red, and Michael's was blue. I put mine on and the others proceeded to do the same.
The general leaned against the doorway, "Those are for us to communicate with you guys. We'll be trying to guide you in the right direction. The guns are for you, Crosby. Michael doesn't need any weapons." She avoided mentioning Jennifer like she didn't know her name or something. I grabbed the guns and loaded them, holding one in each hand.
After a while we left the complex and walked towards the center of this crisis occurring, since they didn't want me driving my super loud car. We had to be super stealthy and hide in the shadows and go through back alleys to avoid being seen. Then we came across a big issue after an hour or so of sneaking around. There was a giant circular flattened area for miles in front of us. We would for sure be spotted as soon as we walked onto it.
I held my hand up to the ear piece pressing the small button turning on the mic, "There's a open area in front of us with no way around. Should we continue forward?"
Out of nowhere footsteps came from my left. I looked and saw nothing. I turned to see if it was Jennifer or Michael but they were to my right. I turned off the ear piece and when I did I heard the general responding but I had more important things going on now. I put one gun in my jacket keeping the other out which was loaded. I peered around the corner of the building we were outside in the alleyway. I turned around was walking over to Michael and Jennifer when out of nowhere I heard what sounded like something landing behind me. I saw Jennifer jump almost and get into a fighting stance and Michael... well.... he started hovering and had like this red energy gathering around his fists. His eyes went red too. I had no clue what was up with him to be honest. I turned around gun drawn to three dudes in the alleyway. One was in front of the other two. There was an older guy in front and the other two were way younger. The old guy gave me a weird vibe. And he looked very familiar but I didn't know why. Maybe it was because his super pale skin tone. He had on a blue wizard like robe with a white outline. He had super dark blue eyes almost straying toward purple in color. He had black hair similar to mine but it was greasy and mangled looking. Anyways there was a guy in an extremely sick black robe with a red outline that had like an upwards facing collar at the neck, he was normal skin tone wise unlike the first guy. He had brown hair that was slick and went to one side. He had dark brown eyes. And he was tall but not as tall as the big dude in front who was the tallest of the three of them. The third dude was black but not a super dark shade. He was the most casual dressed of the three, he had on a navy blue t-shirt and black and gray basketballs shorts. He had short black hair that curled upwards and dark brown eyes like the second guy. And I think he also had on Yeezys. The Yeezys guy was ripped. He was a walking pile of muscles but wasn't nearly as tall as Michael. I don't get why he was with the other two. The other two were slim but also rough around the edges. They all started coming closer fast.
   I yelled aiming my gun straight at the first guys head, "Who the hell are you guys!?" I didn't get a response but the guy in front flicked his wrist to the right towards the wall. And I kid you not, the gun flew out of my hands into the wall. I went to reach for my second gun but my arm was stopped mid air by some unseen force and I couldn't move it no matter how I tried. Jennifer tried to rush forwards towards them but was stopped abruptly too a few feet in front of me. Michael flew upwards and tried dive bombing at them but he was stopped too somehow only a few feet away from them. This made no sense.
   The first guy smiled to himself shaking his head chuckling. "We'd just like to talk Crosby."
    I tried to move my body but was unable to. "Answer my question! Who are you?" I looked him in the eyes. I realized how dead inside he looked.
   He looked up at Michael. Then at up and down at Jennifer. Then at me. "Well to start, I'm Cornelius Vanderburg." Then he shifted to his left where the other guy wearing the robe was, "He's Lukas and he can become invisible and also read minds."
   Lukas turned to the last dude, "We call him Thickle due to his huge muscles and ability to be thick skulled." Cornelius shot him a look clearly saying to shut up. I began to think these guys were evil. Lukas went up to Cornelius's ear and whispered something.
   Cornelius sighed and rolled his eyes walking right up to me with the other two following close behind. "We aren't evil you idiot. We're here to help actually. I can't be evil if I've been watching you since the instance you were born, Crosby." I had no idea how or why he knew my name which I found honestly super creepy. He held out his hand for a hand shake and the force made me shake his hand somehow. "I know the other two are Jennifer and Michael. But anyways, since we all know each other I think we should formulate a plan to get through the obstacle ahead of us."