Patient Zero

Chapter Three

They arrived at what seemed to be a military base, at least, that's what met the eye of Samuel Loft. But what his eyes saw and what he suspected it to be were two completely different things. The helicopter landed on a landing pad with a loud thud. The pilot climbed down first, then helped agent Langley down. They both took one of Samuels scrawny arms and lowered him down. He inched himself onto his tip toes and took a look around, it looked like an average normal looking military fort. With tanks and military jeeps and buff men working on stuff and training with the occasional buff woman thrown into the mix. "Pretty cool huh?" Agent Langley said looking around, "Well let's get you inside." Samuel lowered himself down from his tip toes and followed the agent.

There was an elevator that went all the way underground 20 stories! The awkward elevator music played in the back ground as they traveled underground. Samuel noticed agent Langley didn't press any of the 20 buttons, she lifted a small flap that Samuel wouldn't have even known was there if she hadn't lifted it and spoke quietly into it. A wave of fear rushed over Samuel, he panicked. The elevator came to a sudden stop. But the doors didn't ding open. Agent Langley looked around confused, "We can't be there yet...?" She looked at Samuel who held out his hands and looked very concentrated on the elevator.

"You're going to use me aren't you?" Samuel murmured almost to himself.

Agent Langley tried to sound very confident when she spoke, though she knew it wouldn't help, "I honestly don't know." That part wasn't actually a lie. She had no idea what they were going to do with him, the only information she was given was that there was a war against an unknown country and that they needed reinforcements. Or in this case, they needed Samuel. Their secret weapon. And he keeps proving himself more powerful by the minute.

"A war." Samuel said to himself.

Agent Langley hated that he could read her mind, "I-I'm afraid so."

Samuels concentration on the elevator never faltered, "Promise me I'll be safe."

Agent Langley paused.

"Promise me you'll protect me?" Samuel said more as a command than a question.

"I-I promise I will do everything in my power to protect you." She said, "Now please we really need to get going."

The pilot who was standing awkwardly in the corner of the elevator piped up, "Please!" Samuel relaxed, but as soon as he did, the elevator shook, there were several loud eruptions, and suddenly they were hurtling down the elevator shaft, gaining velocity with every second!

"Stop this madness!" The pilot shrieked.

Agent Langley and the pilot both looked at Samuel pleadingly.

"It's not me!" Samuel shouted over the chaos.

"What?!" Agent Langley shouted.

"Can't you stop it?!" The pilot shouted.

Samuel spread his arms out and concentrated again. The lights flickered out, Samuel yelled in pain, trying to stop the elevator was draining his energy quickly, and it didn't feel good.

Agent Langley yelled, "We're gonna hit the floor in a few seconds! Anytime now kid!"

Samuels knees hit the floor and he raised his hands, clamped his eyes shut and shouted in agony. The elevator jerked to a sudden stop, sending everyone to the ground, other than Samuel who was already on his knees.

Samuel let his arms flop down to his sides and a gasped heavily.

Agent Langley stood up and brushed her suit off as the elevator doors dinged open and the music stopped. She looked at her watch, "We're three minutes early, but let's not waste time, come along Samuel."

Samuel stood up trembling and followed Agent Langley down a long hallway with doors everywhere. "What was that?!" Samuel asked, shocked that agent Langley didn't seemed to be giving the loud eruptions and elevator hurdling them to their deaths a seconds thought.

Agent Langley regarded the question, "Probably some sort of grenade training gone wrong, that knocked the elevator loose." She said that like it was no big deal. Samuel was about to question her logic, but decided against it.

The hallway seemed to never end, and with all of the doors everywhere, Samuel could see how someone could get lost down here. Agent Langley went all the way down the end of the hallway, only Samuel following, the pilot went into one of the first doors they past, as if eager to get away from them. Or more likely, eager to get away from Samuel. Agent Langley pushed open the double doors and Samuel was relieved, until he saw that on the other side of the double doors were spiral stairs leading so far down that Samuel couldn't see the bottom. Agent Langley had quite the head start on Samuel so he scurried down the stairs as quickly as he could.

After what seemed like hours of climbing down the stairs, Samuel finally saw Agent Langley turn into a door, then peek her head out, "Hurry up, slow poke."

Samuel gasped for air. He wasn't exactly a fit specimen, he wasn't fat, he just wasn't really in shape. After being in a hospital where the main source of exercise you ever get is walking to the bathroom and down the hall a little ways to get blood tests, not to mention they usually put him on a rolling bed to go get blood tests, he wasn't exactly athlete of the year.

Samuel put his hands on the edges of the doorway. Trying to catch his breath.

"Geez kid, having a heart attack?" Asked an unfamiliar voice.

Samuel looked up at the mystery speaker. He saw an old man in a wheel chair with white hair that looked like it would crumble to dust any second, pale wrinkled skin that...also looked like it might crumple to dust any second, and old fashioned round glasses that made his eyes look huge.

Samuel shook his head as he tried to catch his breath.

The old man shrugged it off and his eyes widened a bit when he nodded, "Well do you know why you're here?" His voice shaky like an old man, but a strange old man. Not like an old fragile voice, but more like the voice of a weird old man.

Samuel took a shaky breath and half sat half fell into the nearest chair. "All I know is there's a war, and you think that I can help you win it."

The old man nodded, "Very good."

Samuel was confused, "Well, who's the war against? And who are you?"

The old man looked down, causing his glasses to fall to bottom of his nose, and started fiddling with gears and wires on his desk. He pressed his glasses back up to their normal position, "Where are my manners, my name is Herbert, Herbert Gothke that is."

Samuel nodded, "Samuel Loft," he said shaking the old mans hand. "And about the war, who exactly is it that we're up against?"

Herbert and agent Langley exchanged nervous looks. Herbert sat down his wires and gears and looked Samuel straight in the eyes, "That's the thing Sammy, do you mind if I call you Sammy?"

Samuel shrugged, "I guess not."

"Good, well then Sammy, the funny thing is, we have no idea. They seem far more advanced than we are and we aren't sure, exactly, what exactly it is we're up against..."

~~~~~~~~~~

~S.S.