Chapter 2 - the discovery

The room Keith was in had multiple computer screens and a plethora of unusual buttons for them. The floor was made of glass making it easier to monitor the lower floor. Fixated on his screens, he stopped paying attention to his guests.

The guests were all reluctant to comply with the instructions because of how sudden everything was. All, except for Nick who rushed to get 2 rifles and 8 bullet magazines (only 6 could fit in his pockets). After seeing him rush, Frank followed suit, then so did Jarell. After a brief calculated pause, Ryan casually walked to Keith without going up the stairs and asked:

"Do you have a moment?"

"Not now! I have to keep track of what's going on outside! We could get raided at any moment! So, go and arm yourself!" Shouted Keith still panicking.

"I understand how you feel, we are all uncertain about the current situation. This is precisely why we should calm down and talk things through."

"There's no time for pointless talking! We're not on a fucking podcast! Don't you understand what's going?! Go arm yourself, already! We are under attack!"

"You're only assuming we are, Keith. In the first place, arming myself would be pointless since I have no experience with any weapon. This is precisely why I..."

"Someone help this nagger out!" cutted him the hysterical man, dismissing him to move on to what he believed to be the highest priority at the moment.

Nick rushed towards Ryan and gave him one of his rifles, keeping 7 of his 8 magazines.

"I'll help you out, man! Tell me all you know about AR-15s."

Ryan switched from a poker face to his usual polite smile while shaking his head slightly, then replied:

"Thank you for being so kind and so willing to help out, pal."

"You're welcome! Now, tell me all you know about AR-15s."

Ryan was thrown off slightly by Nick's odd sense of determination but then he thought to himself:

'I'll play along with this farce for a bit. Regular people tend to act irrationally when under a lot of emotional stress. It will only be a matter of time until they calm down or get distracted. I'll just seize the moment as soon as it presents itself.'

"Well, I know they require bullets to shoot, that they are deadlier than handguns and that they can be loud enough to permanently damage your hearing." Said Ryan following it with a brief forced friendly laughter.

"You're right about all of that. But, do you know how to change its magazine, shoot with it, disassemble it and reassemble it? You know... The basics."

"I'm aware that you pull the trigger to shoot but that's it."

"If you want to die like a fucking idiot that is! What about loading the chamber and removing the safety mode first?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, pal. You know that I am a novice, so why the cocky attitude?"

"First thing first, press the button on the right side of the AR next to the magazine."

Ryan followed the instruction. Then the magazine fell off. The gentleman was slightly embarrassed, but he quickly picked up the magazine without overthinking things. As soon as he was about to put it back in place, Nick yelled furiously:

"Why the fuck did you do that?! You just made this longer than it should have been! God I hate boomers!"

"This is not a proportional response, you. I appreciate your helping hand, but I will not cooperate unless you act like a civilized human being."

Normally, Nick would have talked back, but the mix of the swift push back and the fact that he appreciated his previous work, made him take a calmer approach.

"Ok" he replied awkwardly then paused uncomfortably. "I have a name you know? I'm Nick."

He then promptly resumed his tutoring until he got to the part about the safety selector:

"Now this is the best part! When you're not using your AR, leave it on safe mode. When you want to shoot precisely, go for semi-automatic. That is also the mode you're supposed to use most of the time. Now, for the best part, automatic mode. Using this mode in military warfare is considered taboo because it is more destructive and less precise. This means that you would hit civilians more often, which is pretty based if you ask me. Use this when there's a shit ton of enemies in front of you! Also, there's 2 other problems with this mode. 1, it can harm the AR if you use it too much without letting it cool off a bit. 2, it uses your ammo much faster than before. Now let's get to the disassembly part!"

"It's not necessary right now, retard. We need to be on alert." said Frank from a distance

"What the fuck is your problem?! Who do you think you are?! You damn gook!" replied Nick releasing some his pent up anger from the insults he received without getting the chance to reply.

Frank just stared at him, laughed and walked away. Ignoring the slur about his Korean heritage.

This only made Nick angrier. He then loaded his rifle and simed it at Frank in a perfect shooting stance.

"You think you're somehow better than me?! I'll fucking kill you, you fucking gook!"

Everyone looked at Nick in shock. But then, someone seized the opportunity he has been waiting for.

"Nick, calm down, right now. What you just did is a federal criminal. I hope you only acted like this because of the situation we're in and will never do anything this appalling ever again. We would have no choice but to ensure our lives aren't at risk, if I happen to wrong." said Ryan in menacingly calm manner.

"...I'm sorry." Said Nick lowering his weapon while only staring at Ryan like an obedient dog.

"Please forgive him, everyone. Please understand that this is an unprecedented situation that has never occurred throughout human history. The unknown is frightening, it can make anyone show the worst in themselves. But no matter how frightening the unknown can be, humans have dealt with it countless times in the past through cooperation and reason. Let's take the approach that has worked for millennia. Let's all calm down, not just Nick, and take the proven approach. No matter what we are facing, I don't see why we can't discuss thing while also taking the necessary precautions. Let's talk things through." continued the political activist.

"Will you stop it already?! We're not in the middle of a tea party! I lost many friends in Iraq within a split second, damn it! All that matters in fantastical situations is focus! Everyone stay on alert! We're facing alien fucking technology!" replied Keith furiously.

"I understand your point Keith, but planning and information sharing are both critical in unprecedented events such as this one. Let's just talk about the methods of defense available here, Keith. We need to know all the options available to us!" continued Mr. Taylor.

"What if they're listening?! If they do we would be doomed! I don't want to say anything about the defenses here just because of that. Got it? Now, let's all be on alert and please trust me, everyone." replied Keith still loudly but in a less agitated tone than before.

"Wouldn't we be done for anyways if they can listen to us at any moment? I mean... Anyone with more advanced technology would destroy us easily. We don't live in a Hollywood movie where we can defeat aliens with modern technology." Questioned Jarell genuinely.

"If you want to die without a fight, go for it! I'll fight until my dying breath using everything I can. If I can make they're lives even slightly more tiring, I'm fine with that!" Replied Keith getting more agitated.

"So, who's with me?" continued Keith trying to rally everyone behind him.

Frank squinted and frowned slightly from Keith's answer and said: "Thanks for the weapons, but Mr.Taylor is clearly the voice of reason here."

"Calm down, we don't need needless conflicts right now. Keith is also right. His approach just wasn't organized enough and too reliant on himself." said Mr. Taylor addressing everyone outside the tower. "Please Keith, at least share anything you're comfortable with. We need to able to defend ourselves as best as possible should anything happen to you." he continued appealing to Keith's reasoning.

After taking a deep breath, Keith answered calmy: "There's 3 monitoring rooms, one is the one I'm using, another is the one you saw after the security checkpoint and the last is the last door of the weapons storage." he then raised his voice to make sure anyone could here his speech: "I also have multiple traps including an automatic turret that shoots anything that moves. I would never dream of taking on us without getting decimated on the spot!"

"Thank you, Keith. I think that splitting up to also take a look at the current situation outside would be ideal for now, don't you think?" said Ryan triumphantly addressing everyone.

"Makes sense to me." answered Frank, nodding his head in agreement.

"Same here." said Jarell.

"I definitely want to check out a monitoring room." said Nick forcing his enthusiasm. He still felt guilt and shame from the way he acted earlier, but only because of Ryan's speech.

"Sure, but stay on alert! You can die in a split second! At least only look at the screens with someone else is on alert while you're at it!" ordered Keith with a forced angry tone.

Frank and Jarell went to the security room at the end of the weapons storage while Nick and Ryan went to the one at the security checkpoint.

13 minutes later, they all noticed what looked like a 10 meters tall faceless bear calmly approaching their base. It had jaws for a face and its teeth and claws were razor sharp, making it an obvious apex predator. This creature clearly didn't arrive randomly, it was headed directly towards the base. This was strange considering it didn't even have eyes or ears.

Keith didn't take any chances. He immediately pressed a button to take care of the situation. A turret came out of the ground 2 meters away from their base while facing what looked like a bear. Then, the turret started firing 4 shots of 12mm bullets per second.

The poor beast never stood a chance. All it could do was only roar in agony while a barrage of bullets pierced its flesh. The beast crumbled after only 9 seconds.

Keith didn't want to take any chances, so he let the turret fire for another 10 seconds. Then he retracted the turret back into the ground.

While this was just a slightly larger bear for the turret, for the "kommando"s this was a discovery that challenged everything they ever knew.

This was no longer the world they used to know.