Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The heavy thud from the small unit’s booted feet resounded from the black topped street of the deserted town.  The group of soldiers encircled Casey in their travels, each holding their weapons with safeguarded composures.  Everything appeared desolate to her as they passed the vacant cars and darkened houses.  Her town may have been busy once, but she doubt it would ever return to the way things use to be.

Casey couldn’t stop herself from looking over her shoulder, an uneasy feeling of dread lingering within her.  What if those creatures attacked?  She had faith in her own abilities to fend for herself when it came down to it, but she wasn’t sure how to fend herself against a monster like that.  And without a firearm she felt even more useless to the squad around her.  She didn’t like the thought of being protected.  That wasn’t her style.  Survey and assess the situation at hand.  And if at all possible do the cleanup herself.  That was always her motto and she wasn’t about to lose it now.

She turned her gaze to her right quickly after seeing a shadow pass over head to the street before them.  Letting out a breath of relief at the sight of a flock of birds overhead, she gave herself a mental shake.  Chill will you?  Not everything is going to be one of those things…

She jumped at the hand placed to her shoulder.  Her gaze fell to MED now at her left side.  “You can relax a bit, okay?  The 10s don’t come out in the sunlight.”

“I wonder why that is?”  She questioned feeling herself relax if only a little.

“According to some reports we’ve found, these creatures have a severe sensitivity to UV rays the sun gives off, which works greatly in our favor.  Of course we still find the occasional cluster in the larger buildings we’ve been searching, but nothing we haven’t been able to handle and hopefully it stays that way.”

Casey nearly stopped as something processed through her baffled mind.  “Did you say reports?”

“That’s right.”  MED replied with an affirmative nod.  “Our base was originally a research facility doing all kinds of experiments and testing on their subjects.”  He looked to her and though she couldn’t see his features passed the tinted face guard, she could tell by his tone that what they have found bothered him immensely.  “We’ve found all kinds of reports from the ones who have started all of this s**t and they were quite thorough with their work.”

Casey’s gaze fell to the ground watching her booted feet as she walked across the black topped street.  Did that mean the facility was close to town since they were walking to it?  How could it be so close yet no one ever knew of its existence?  Her brows narrowed as her thoughts pressed on.  Where could it be?  How close is it?

Her gaze fell to Nick at her left side.  “Where is this hideout anyway?”  Biting her bottom lip, she waited for the answer.  She knew MED would have told her, but for some strange reason she needed to hear the answer from Nick.  Could it be that deep down, she knew where they were headed?  This strange inkling within her told her she knew the answer.

“Where everything began.”  He looked to her briefly before continuing.  “The place where we first were separated.”

Casey blinked hard.  She was right.  The mine.  That place where those b******s had come and taken Nick away from her.  Deep inside, she could feel her guilt emerge from within for not being able to find him.  When he was so close to home…and though it pained her to know the truth, she still wanted to know more.  She needed to know what had happened to him…and to the others with him.

She felt herself swallow, her mouth going dry.  “What exactly happened to you Nick?”  She looked around the group, noting how the others seemed to be listening.  “To all of you…what took place there?”

Nick took in a deep breath, thinking of how to put his thoughts into words.  “I, we, do not know everything that has taken place in that facility.  What we do know so far from what we have been able to gather, is there were ten projects being observed.  We were project 9.”  He paused for a moment as they rounded a house, cutting through the yard into the wooded area behind.  The same path the two had taken as children.  “Everyone of us were experimented on with different types of drugs.  As children, we were given dietary supplements or so the doctors had told us, to give us an extra boost in mental capabilities for learning.  We were all given subjects to choose from and the ones that peeked our interest, is what was drilled into us day after day until we could recite everything we knew off the tops of our heads.”

The small group had made it to the woods, having to change formation to fit comfortably within the pathway.  Side by side; two in a group.  The area was still well lit with sunlight, so Casey believed they were safe for the time being, she thought vaguely through Nick’s words.  “Eventually, we were physically trained with some more dietary supplements and shots being administered throughout our training sessions.  Lastly, after that we were trained on how to use our weapons through live sessions.”

“Live?”  She questioned.  “You didn’t have to fight each other, did you?”

“No.  No one from Project 9 was forced to fight one another.  No, we had to fight against Project 10.”

“Project 10?”

MED nudged her arm slightly.  “You know them better as those creatures.  The 10s.”

“What?”  She looked from MED to Nick.  “Is that true? They created things like that in the facility?”

“Apparently.  Nick said gripping his dagger’s hilt more securely.  “As we said, we do not know much more about the other Projects taken place.  Just that the higher the number, the more dangerous the project.”  She could almost hear a smirk in his tone.  “In one file we did find, we were being tested to see if we would be considered Project 10 material.”

Casey felt herself tense as she looked the group over.  Could they really be considered that powerful?

“We were the elite out of the countless men, boys, that were taken.  The best of the best.”

“What happened to the others?”

“Whoever got a reaction to the meds given to us were immediately taken from our quarters.  All of the others died in combat against the one-on-one fight with a 10.”

Casey stopped short.  “That’s horrible!”

The rest stopped as well.  “And that’s just our story.”  SCOPE spoke up from in front of her.  

“We have no idea of any of the projects going on.”  TECH chipped in.

 “Seems we were the only human subjects in the facility though.”  MED added.

“How do you know that?”  She questioned.  “I thought you didn’t know about the other projects?”

“We found that out after we broke free and took over that facility.”  AUTO said arrogantly, crossing his arms before his chest, allowing his assault rifle to hang from the strap draped across his right shoulder to his left hip.

“Don’t sound too proud of yourself AUTO.”  Nick said callously.  “We lost a good man in that raid not to mention that is how these things escaped in the first place.”

Casey stepped toward him.  “You let them out?”

“No, not us.”  LINGO said.  “After we started the rebellion, a scientist released the creatures to the outside word in hopes to save his work.”  He shook his head.  “Stupid b*****d was killed by one of those things himself.”

“If we had known what was to happen, we would have waited to make the attack during the day.”  Nick said.  “TECH tried hacking through systems to broadcast a warning to everyone but by the time we made it here it was already too late since it was after midnight. The majority of the townsfolk were sleeping.”  He shook his head.  “So many people had died…so much blood was spilt.”

Casey thought back to her father.  His home was untouched…and he had left that memo for her and her sister.  She smiled meekly.  “Not everyone was asleep.”  Her gaze fell to Nick as she told them of what she found upon her arrival.  Her smile broadened.  “I can only hope he had gotten your message and escaped.  And if he had done that, then there has to be others.”

The group looked to one another in silent hope.  Though it may be far fetch, there could still be a chance of some townsfolk surviving.  “All right,” Nick began after looking to the sky.  “We still have some daylight left so let’s hurry back to base.”

With silent nods, everyone began their even pace along the trail once more.  Casey smiled, looking to Nick briefly out the corner of her eye.  Though he didn’t want to admit it, he had become this group’s leader, intentionally or not.

And she felt safer knowing that.