7 First Encounter
A colonel came traipsing into the training room, where John and his squad were, as they were in the middle of a practice drill with paintball guns. Alongside the colonel was a short black-haired fellow, with a lieutenant patch on.
"Listen up" declared the colonel.
Everyone stopped mid drill and rushed over to stand at attention, saluting their superiors.
The colonel acknowledged their gesture and continued walking on. He directed everybody to a chamber off to the side of the training section. As they all followed in behind, they spotted a green chalkboard on one position, and in the middle of the area was a group of desks. Everybody found a spot and sat down as the colonel went up to the chalkboard and started to scribble and draw information upon its surface. As he finished jotting down the assortment of chicken scratch and shapes, the colonel began to disclose to everybody.
"We have a mission for you. We have intelligence stating that there is a major stronghold here for these... things, in the middle here." He had his right pointer finger marking a picture he made using a cluster of boxes and circles dispersed across the board.
He went on, "We have a few survivors that are in critical need of rescuing. We need your team to go in through the north and rally up these survivors. Lieutenant Dan Baker will be your commanding officer here. I'm not going to say this will be easy, but as of now you're some of the best we have. Any questions?"
Sean blurted out. "One question. What the fuck are these things, anyway? No one has any info on them."
Everybody else was searching around in agreement.
The colonel glanced at him with a scowl and explained, "We honestly don't know, all we can tell you is they're not from here and that they're extremely fast. Not to mention... Damn near impossible to kill."
He paused, drew in a breather and continued. "And they only seem to want to kill every single human on earth. We haven't had many wounded survivors. Whatever the fuck these things are, they're brutal and don't take prisoners. The only information I can give you, is about the rolling looking things, which are being called rollers. They seem to be the easiest to kill and the most abundant."
The colonel took criticism of everybody's expressions that were pasted upon their faces, as he told them all of this, Studying their reactions and proceeded on. "The other two are much harder to kill, but seem to be less abundant. The bug like things that appear to be made of light. Are fast and hard to kill, and appear to be next on the rank, but they have been killed. Now the third kind. They look to be a ghost-like creature, they're fast, strong, and damn near impossible to kill. We believe them to be the ranking ones....." He paused, let out a sigh and extended. "Try to avoid these at all costs.... I'm sorry I wish I had more Intel on these, but we're all in the dark here. Now anymore questions?"
Everybody looked around to each other in distaste and again started to sway their heads.
"Rally up, you leave at o- eight hundred," The colonel barked.
The lieutenant did not mention a word as he departed out with the colonel.
John stood up and instructed everybody to fall out. One by one, they recessed from the place and began to walk through the practice field to another room. Not a word had been spoken between them. Inside that vicinity they undertook to put their gear on and get prepared. Everyone took note that John was on edge. His demeanor reflected that he had a lot on his plate in that very moment.
***
O- eight hundred approached, they all moved to load up inside what looked like armored matte black old Lincoln continentals. John and his friends piled up in the second car in the line. Where John took up the driver's seat, and he began to groan as he cranked the behemoth to life, the tone of a slight whistling noise, and the feeling of the vibration had him in a frenzy of delight.
"What the hell are these? I've never seen cars like this. I don't know if I trust this." He read up to the windshield as he was reporting this. A hologram appeared on the windshield, displaying critical information such as the miles per hour, gas supply and a two dimension view of the vehicle.
The first car drove forward to the massive metal door up ahead. John put his car in drive, gave it some gas, and acknowledged the power from the engine as it lunged him forward and pulled up behind the other car. Supported by the third car driving up behind them. On a loudspeaker up forwards, a man's voice started speaking.
"We're going to open the doors. We need you to get out of here as soon as possible. Use your GPS to get to the target and radio back when you're back. Ok go"!
The large door swayed open in a burst, and the initial car revved up and sped out, chirping tires the whole extent. John understood what was going on and pursued after. He gunned his car's accelerator. Felt himself being lobbed back into his seat, as he rushed out. Not taking long to catch up to the other automobile. He peered at his speed, and saw that it was reading "137 mph (220.48 km/h)".
"Wow, these are fast," he excitedly shouted out loud to Sean and Greag, as they zoomed down a dusty road into the sunlight.
***
Having been driving for roughly an hour, a signal came surging up on the interior of everybody's helmets, and on the car's windshield. Displaying the message, "object inbound" supported by a radar looking thing flashing. It showed everyone's positions as blue specks and several random red dots moving rapidly toward their positions. Over the radio the Lieutenant shouted to them.
"We have inbound. Follow my direction, passengers open those windows and shoot at anything you see."
The initial car started driving all over, zigzagging across the highway. Instinctual John commenced to do the same, followed by the last car. The things on their radars moved in and showed off to the sides of the vehicles. Everyone could perceive them moving underneath the ground, as if they were fast-moving drills.
Gun fire was being let off from all vehicles at the objects. The creatures began changing orientations. One turned in right next to the tail vehicle. The guards let off a volley of bullets at it. But to no luck. The creature changed its direction, as another one came from the opposite angle and smashed straight into the side of the car. POW. The car's traction broke off from the pavement and skidded sideways. As the initial two cars reacted and swiveled around to support. Suddenly one thing from under the ground stopped moving, and hopped out of the earth, landing next to the battered car. The soldiers attempted to get out of the danger zone, once they realized a huge armadillo looking thing, with metal plates covering it. Everyone glared at it to see bright-green eyes and drool spewing from its mouth. It stood easily eight feet above the tallest soldier.
It remained there staring at them and charged in. Bashing into the car, blundering upon the vehicle with its huge arms and stomping down onto the guerrillas with it's massive man-sized feet before they could escape. Squashing them like exploding pumpkins. .
As it shredded apart the automobile, the Lieutenant shouted out over the transmission, the terror clear in his tone.
"Get the fuck out of here. They're gone."
Both vehicles turned back around and rushed off. Everyone rocked with worry. Their eyes scanned in all angles on patrol. The soldiers holding on to their guns at the ready. Seeing the creature as it receded from their view while they hurried off.
