Chapter 10

Chapter 10

When Casey stirred awake the next morning, something felt strange to her.  She resided in one of the spare rooms of the facility that Nick had taken her to after their late supper.  

It was a small room, a dull yellow in color.  From the entrance point of view, there was a door to the left leading to the bathroom.  A small twin sized bed set with its side right up against the wall was a step down from the bathroom door.  Two steps away from that was a four drawer oak dresser with miscellaneous junk scattered over top and a large mirror hanging behind it. Directly across from the door at the head of the bed was a large window stretching out the length of the tiny room.  A makeshift scenery could be seen of a landscape under a night sky, then changing to that of a brilliant summer morning.  She believed that was the scientist way of making things seem more “realistic”, like there really was a world out there, and not just solid rock.

 At the time, nothing seemed strange when she crawled into bed.  She spent most of her night lying awake, her mind running through her events of the day, the possibilities of what she was seeing to be real or some sort of dream…that was the last thought she remembered before opening her eyes once more, the feeling of something in the room with her; watching her as she “slept”.

Now she remained facing the wall, her back to the room.  She felt anxious at not being able to see the rest of the room, afraid to make any sudden movements for she did not know what was behind her.  The fingers of her left hand touched the warm metal of the handgun beneath her pillow.  Gently she edged her fingers closer, sliding them over the butt of the gun, her pointer finger finding its place around the trigger.  She took a deep breath through her nose, trying to stifle the sound, not wanting to alert whatever was in her room that had not been there the night before.

Without another moment of hesitation, Casey pulled the gun from beneath her pillow and turned, positioning her legs beneath her in a sitting position as she pointed her gun’s nozzle to her intruder…

And sighed, lowering her gun at the sight of Nick before her, a duffle bag in hand.  He smirked, not the least bit concerned about the gun that had been pointed to his face.  “Are you always so hostile when you wake?”

“Do you always watch people as they sleep?” She questioned, throwing the covers from her before swinging her legs over the side of the bed.  “What do you want anyway?”  

Lifting the duffle bag slightly, he stepped forward, placing it onto her lap.  “In there is the uniform you will be wearing.  The materials that is made from works well against those creatures’ attacks.”  He stepped back, looking over her attire she still wore from the previous day.  “It’ll be better than what you are wearing now at least.”

“Thanks.”  Her gaze fell to the bag for a moment before placing her handgun onto the bed and grasped the straps.  Gradually she stood to her feet, heading for the bathroom to change, leaving the door slightly ajar, and flicked on the light.  “So what are the plans for today?” 

The sound of the bag unzipping came from the room.  “First things first, we scout the grocery store to stock up on supplies.”  Rustling now sounded as she began to dress.  Nick stepped toward the bed picking up the handgun, looking over it thoroughly.  “Then the usual checks.”

“Which are?”

“Security checks over town.  With how many creatures there are now, we believe there must be some kind of nest.  But since it is hazardous for us to be out at night we are limited to our daytime searches.”  He looked to the bathroom door, raising a brow as Casey stepped out, surprised at how fitting her uniform was.  “Our…main objective is to take out this nest.”

The uniform Casey wore was much like the rest of the unit’s.  Everything was form fitting for ease of motion and to decrease the chances of loose clothing getting caught on surrounding objects.  It was black in color with a long sleeved jacket and pocketed vest placed over top.  Strapped around her waist was a holster for her pistol; a line of clips full of ammo was strapped to the left side on her belt.  Her slacks were padded; the bottoms stopping at the tops of her booted feet.

“A little snug.”  She muttered to herself as she pulled down on her vest.  She headed for the mirror, grabbing what looked to be twine from the dresser and began to tie back her hair.  “Makes sense.  You can’t very well stop these creatures if more are being created.”  She pulled the twine taunt admiring how well she had done when something in the mirror caught her eye.  “Nick!”  Turning to his bewildered expression, Casey raised a brow.  “Did you,” she came closer, eyeing him closely, “were you just looking at my a*s, Nick?”

“Well, I uh,” he began somewhat flustered before throwing his hands up in defeat, “Well, come on. What do you expect?”  He left his hands fall back to his sides.  “I am a man that has spent one of the better parts of my life in captivity with other males.”  He crossed his arms over his chest.  “Do you have any idea what that can do to a guy?”

Casey let an enticing smile cross her lips as she stepped towards him.  “Well, Nicky, right now you need to be keeping your eyes on other things at the moment.”  Taking the gun from his hand, she slid it within its holster and turned from him with a laugh. “After all this is over maybe you will get a prize for all your efforts.”

Nick watched her walk away from him out into the hall, dumbfounded by her words, not entirely sure of her meaning.  “Wait? What?”  He followed her.  “Casey, what did you-“  

He stopped abruptly seeing her a little ways down the hall with the same alluring smile.  “As long as we make it out of this alive, you will find out.”

She turned away from him and continued her smooth pace down the hall.  Her face felt incredibly warm as she thought about what she had said to him.  In all honesty, she wasn’t sure why she had said what she did.  It wasn’t that she necessarily regretted it either…but now was not the time to think about such things.  She would just have to address the matter more when she had the time to think about it. 

* * *

Once reunited in the main hall, everyone gave their equipment and weapons another look over to make sure everything was in working condition and fully loaded.  This was a typical procedure at the beginning of every recon mission, to be fully prepared in case the mission would go awry.  Each person had their splashguards already pulled down covering their faces with the tinted plastic.  Everyone was rearing to go.  They only had to wait for TECH to complete his perimeter checks.

Casey held her pistol firmly in her hand to her side, absently-mindedly tapping the nozzle against her leg, the quiet thuds sounding rhythmically as the metal tapped against the soft padding of her pants as she watched TECH.  She glanced back to Nick seeing he was in a half circle with the other men, undoubtedly going over the agenda for the day, before she looked back to TECH.  Her curiosity was getting the best of her as she watched him closely.  Last time she witnessed the system checks, he had finished them in under a minute, but now, he seemed to be taking his time.  She wanted to know what exactly had caught his attention.

Coming to a stop behind TECH, she leaned over his right shoulder, pulling up her faceguard for a better look at the screen.  “Is something the matter?”

He jumped a little, startled by the sound of her voice so close to his ear.  Clearing his throat, he gave her nervous glances from the corner of his eye.  “Not really…” he said calmly then pointed towards his screen.  “I happened to come across this folder during my first look through the system, but it had been encoded in a format I hadn‘t seen before.”  His hand lowered, down to his laptop where he pointed to the screen then.  “It took me some time but I was able to create a program of my own to break the coding.  I started the program last night but it’s not quite finished.”  He cracked his knuckles before continuing with the security checks.  “It’s the only folder on the terminal I was unable to open.”

Casey backed away crossing her arms over her chest, intrigued.  “I wonder what’s inside there that they had to keep it locked up?”

He shrugged his left shoulder as he completed the checks.  “Who knows?  Could be a number of things like, banking numbers, shipping details, or just documents on failed projects they wanted to keep in case they decided to reopen one and try again.”

Casey didn’t want to think about that option.  If these sickos considered their project 10 as a successful experiment, she didn’t even want to think of how an unsuccessful one would have turned out.

“Everything ok here?”  Nick questioned now beside her, his gaze set to the screen before him.

TECH hit a few more keys on the panel before unhooking the laptop from the terminal.  “Everything’s up to code MELEE.”

Her brows narrowed as Nick nodded.  “Good, join the others; they’ll tell you today’s objectives.”

“Right.”  TECH answered with a compliant nod before standing, placing the laptop in its case slung over his shoulder then headed towards the group.

Nick turned to Casey, noting she was watching him thoughtfully.  “Is there something on your mind?”  

“Well, yeah.”  She began shifting her weight to her left leg, pointing to the screen.  “Aren’t you interested in what he was up to?”

Nick stared at her blankly.  “I’m assuming it was his job.”

Her hand lowered to her side.  “That’s it?  You mean to tell me you didn’t notice his checks over the facility were a lot longer than usual?”

“Look, Casey,” He stepped towards her, placing a hand to her shoulder, squeezing gently, “I’ve known these men for a good seven years.  We trained together, fought together.  They are like my brothers.”  He smiled.  “I trust every one of them with my life, so I have no reason to question their every move.  If it is something important, I am sure he will let us all know when the time comes.”

Feeling comforted by his words, she returned his smile.  “I understand.”  And she truly did.  These men before her had to live with one another, for better or worse, for some time.   They were bound to learn things about one another, to learn to trust one another. The bond that they all shared, it had to be strong.

She felt a twinge of envy of their relationship.  She hadn’t thought that he would have found others to bare his misery.  Guilt soon swept over her for feeling that way.  She was glad he had found others to console in.  It was her childish feeling of wanting to be the only one he could talk to about everything he went through.

Her feelings must have shown on her face because Nick gave her shoulder another gentle squeeze.  “Don’t worry Casey.  No one will ever be able to take your place in my heart.”  He lowered his hand and walked passed her, saying, “You were the one that kept me going.”

She could feel her face flush and immediately pulled down her faceguard, hoping it would hide her reddened cheeks from the others as she rejoined the group.  Her mind was racing.  He couldn’t have meant what he said to come out how it sounded.  Surely, he was thinking of others before her.  There were his grandparents after all... 

Her steps slowed when she thought about Nick‘s past.  All he had before he was taken away was his grandparents.  And his grandfather was a mean son-of-a b***h, which was the main reason they would adventure their hometown…so he wouldn’t have to go home and possibly suffer another beating for whatever reason his grandfather believed to justify his actions.

She couldn’t believe she had forgotten that. Maybe what he said just now.  Maybe it was true.

“Alright,” Nick’s voice disrupted her thoughts, “everyone is aware of the day’s objectives.  Let’s head out.”  He turned to Casey as everyone else headed towards the elevators.  “I want you to stay close to me.”

Casey felt her heartbeat quicken.  “W-what?”  She questioned clearing her throat.

“I’m not sure how well you are in firing a weapon so I want you to stay close to me in case something happens out there.”

Casey took in a deep breath, releasing it slowly.  “You have nothing to worry about.”  She said sternly before brushing passed him to catch up to the others.  “I’m an ace-marksman.”  She tsked, seeing the elevator’s doors close shut.  Now she was beginning to get a little ticked off. Did they really need to take both elevators?  They couldn’t wait just a second longer for them to catch up?  Seriously…

Nick followed her.  “Is that so?”  He said with a smile.  “I’d like to see how much you have grown since we’ve last met.”

The two reached the elevators, waiting for one of them to descend back down.  “What are you trying to say?”  She looked to him, crossing her arms over her chest, her pistol still held within her grasp.

“Nothing really.”  He said giving her a side wards glance.  “Just that your bark was usually worse than your bite.”

Casey hit his left bicep hard with her forearm, immediately crossing her arms again, turning away from him.  “Don’t compare me to a dog.”

“It was a figure of speech.”  He said still smiling.

The doors to the first elevator slid open, revealing the empty room.  They stepped through and Nick pressed the first button.

Casey grinned, her mood improving.  “Don’t forget when we were younger,” she looked to him, “you did what I said.”

The doors slid shut, before beginning its slow trudge back to the facility’s entrance.  Nick snickered, and then turned to her.  “Casey, I just want you to be careful.  That’s all.”

“Don’t worry.”  She said, her voice smooth.  “I’ll be able to handle myself.”  She looked back to the doors.  “But if it makes you feel better I’ll stay close, if just to watch your back.” 

Nick laughed again.  “Alright, it’s a plan.”