Epicenter (WIP)

I

The wind rushes past, blurring my vision. Explosions and tracer fire scatter about me. I glance at my altimeter. 2000 feet. I grab my rip cord and yank it as hard as I can. A parachute unfurls above my and my body jerks as the canvas catches the wind. A nearby explosion rocks me back and forth. I look up to se a plane break into two pieces and start tumbling toward earth. It squelches firmly into a pile of mud, overturning a large backhoe. I fall faster, nearing the ground. I grimace as a large ball of plasma is hurled my way, puncturing my chute. The holes widen, and I fall even faster. I brace for impact, hoping that I will land in one of the many lakes below. No such luck. I slam hard into the loose dirt. The jarring impact knocks the wind straight out of my lungs. I lay there, stunned, for a couple of seconds until a blurry figure appeared over me.

It slowly comes into focus. It's my friend, Richard. He stretches out a hand, and I take it. He pulls me to my feet. I look around me. The ground is covered in bits of shrapnel and broken glass. Richard and I hide behind an upended truck and peer around the side. It's a slaughter. There are just too many mirages.

They crawl over the wreckage, eliminating all obstacles. Mirages teleport away from bullets and they decimate everything with their plasma. I watch as one advances on a small group of soldiers, cowering up against a stack of rubble. It lashes out, forming a long strand of pure blue energy. I fire my gun, trying to distract it. It quickly jerks it's head towards me and slowly approaches. I try to hide, but it's too late. The mirage grows some bubbling liquid plasma in it's mouth, preparing to spit. As soon as it starts ejecting the plasma, I dodge to the side, grabbing a sharp piece of partially shredded metal I have been eyeing. I slam it into the creature, lodging it in it's midsection. The mirage screeches in agony, doubling over with pain. I grab Richard and pull him out of his hiding place. We sprint away from the injured mirage. I dive into a pond, grasp my miniature oxygen tank, and put it in my mouth. A small hole at the bottom of the pond emerges from the murk. I swim down and slither into the gap. After several seconds, of cramped paddling, I splash down onto a wet stone floor. I rip my oxygen tank out of my mouth and look up, hoping to see Richard coming after me. He splatters onto the rough floor. Getting up, he looks up at the water being held by a force field.

"How is that...?" He trails off.

"It's a force field," I say.

"I can see that," he replies, "But how did you know to come here? Did you know about this...tunnel thing?"

"Obviously I did, otherwise I wouldn't have come here," This isn't technically true, I have heard rumors about a network of tunnels, but it's sheer luck that there is a hole. I gesture down the tunnel, and we start trudging into the darkness. I strike a flare, the light revealing a shimmer in the air ahead. The precursor to a mirage appearing. I sprint towards the shimmer, jump through it, and dash around the corner, flattening myself against the wall.

Richard comes around the corner, panting, and joins me, stretching along the wall. I hear the telltale sound of the mirage appearing. This sound is hard to describe, a little like the sound of a DVD player starting up. It growls slightly, a sign that it senses us. I activate my comm implant and message Richard. I tell him to be ready for hand-to-hand (really hand to tentacle) combat. I unsheath my knife, readying for the worst. It never came. A grunt and a splattering sound come from the direction of the mirage. I peer around the corner to see a woman standing over the corpse of a mirage.

"Adelaide Bostwick," I groan. She is a decorated officer, having killed many mirages with her bare hands. Nobody likes her, since she is very high and mighty. She also has an air of complete control all the time that I find very annoying. She yanks her knife out of the mirages throat and kicks it aside.

"You welcome," She walks up to me.

"I could have handled it," I interject.

"Admit it. You were screwed without me," Her saying this makes me hate her even more.

I come out from my hiding place. "How did you get here?"

"I get around," If she says anything more like this, I swear I will shoot her.

"Shut up," I say.

Richard emerges from from behind the wall. "You know, Adelaide, you may be a decorated officer, but that doesn't give you the authority to insult us,"

"Actually, it does," She retorts.

I storm down the tunnel, trying to get as far away from Adelaide as I can. Suddenly, a deformed mirage head appears out of the darkness. It's face is covered in scars and holes. I remember something I read in a book a while ago; never fight the scarred ones, they are the survivors. This is good advice in this scenario, so I slowly back away. Once I am several feet away, I turn and run. The mirage launches itself at me, so I turn, knife arm outstretched. The knife sticks firmly in the mirage's chest. It writhed around for a moment, but soon was dead. I jogged back to Adelaide and Richard, warning them that there may be more.

Adelaide leads Richard and I to a strange, hovering vehicle with three seats. She tells us to mount it, so I do. Richard follows suit. Adelaide sits in front.

"Hold on," She states.

The bike, as I call it, flies forward, and I do hold on. The tunnel becomes a whirl of wind and grey stone. I scream at her, asking where we are going, but the wind is too loud. Careening around, a corner, the bike slows down and eventually parks in a cramped capsule obviously meant to hold just the bike, without riders. We clamber down from the seats, nauseated and disoriented. Adelaide gestures for Richard and I to enter a door set in the wall. We do as asked.

Inside, a man is waiting with a translucent tablet.

He walks up to me. "Welcome to bootcamp."