After their first time in the training centre for the groups who get to ascend the floors, it took the group a full five days to recover before they entered it again. During that rest period however, the men gathered to discuss more strategy, allowing them to develop better methods in case of different ambush and direct confrontation scenarios. They had tried out each of these formations in each subsequent visit to the training centre.
On top of the training, they did for their formations, they sparred often, with Gerry getting the most support during these sessions. The other four men would often give Gerry points while they tried to relate it to their own weapons, although Gerry always seemed uncomfortable with a sword. On multiple occasions the group would suggest Gerry switch to a different weapon, yet Gerry was adamant about utilizing a sword as his weapon of choice.
The other four men gave up quickly on getting Gerry to change tools as the day of their ascent quickly approached. One day turned into three, three days turned into a week, a week turned into two and then the time finally came. The constant training, they partook in allowed each of them to become more familiar with each other’s fighting styles. Lance even commented on how little he now had to help them out which surprised everyone as he was often the groups biggest critic.
The day finally arrived a week after the groups last training session. They had decided to meet at the training centre which is where the ticket had said for them to wait. Lance and Bill were the last of the group to arrive at six in the morning. Both young men were still half asleep as they dragged themselves to the centre’s entrance with bags in hand. Having reached the Gerry, Martin and Nathan who were all seated in front of the building’s entrance, they pooled their bags together to the side.
“The two youngsters are still sleepy,” Martin roared as he laughed. The other two men laughed alongside Martin.
“Shut up Martin, I usually only wake up half an hour before this time, you three are just strange,” Lance said still sleepily. Despite his dreary state, he still stood erect with a straight spine, with his muscles able to be seen through his tightly fitted clothes. Bill just rubbed his eyes having not paid attention to the conversation that had started. He looked over to his side and saw people staring at them as Lance, Nathan, Martin, and Gerry continued conversing amongst themselves.
He saw that many of them had cameras out, some with just their phone camera and others with professional grade cameras. Many of them were being kept away from the building entrance by police officers stationed at certain strategic positions and held back by police tape, which the group surprisingly obeyed the makeshift barrier between themselves and the building.
“Why do we have people taking photos of us?” Bill asked as he gestured to the crowd that was still gathering at the tape. The group now looked to where Bill pointed to.
“Oh, they found out that we were meeting up here?” Nathan said slightly concerned.
“It makes sense though, groups who go up are basically celebrities if they come back,” Gerry said a little smug as he waved to the cameras. This action seemed to cause more cameras to shoot this image of someone who was about to go a whole new world.
“They’ll either use these images for tonight’s news to showcase a new private group going up the floors or they’ll wait until we have returned,” Lance said with an annoyed expression.
“Although knowing what they usually show on the news, it’ll be used tonight.” He added.
A small sigh came out from Nathan’s mouth, with an exasperated look.
“They always like to see who is going up the floors, people want to know what its like and who is being sent up,” Nathan said with disappointment in his voice.
Only a few minutes after the group had all gathered the receptionist that they had seen the first time they came to the training centre.
“I’m sorry about the distraction, by law they are allowed to know the groups that ascend the floors, Private or government sponsored either way,” the women said.
“Anyhow, your bus has arrived, please get on board and we will deal with your bags,” she added just as a bus had arrived while they were preoccupied. Three men clothed in black suits also came up to the group and started to usher them into the bus, which doors had now opened in front of the group.
Having been almost pushed onto the bus, the five men each took a seat to themselves. The only baggage they still had on them were oddly shaped, most likely to house their weapons. Each of the men took a seat near a window with two seats for themselves. Lance put his legs up on the extra seat with his back leant against the window. Bill looked out the window to see the group of men grabbed their bags and put them underneath the bus, in a small compartment that had only just been opened.
As they waited for their luggage to be packed into the bus, the five got comfortable in their positions but were interrupted as a different woman to the receptionist came onto the bus. Confused, four of the five men stood up. The woman had dark brown hair, with matching eyes, she was dressed in a formal suit with a red tie which stood out from her white undershirt and the jet-black blazer and pants she wore.
“Miss Adeline, it’s good to see you again,” Bill said as he gave her a slight bow. Adeline had bowed back before she began to speak.
“As it is you Bill, I can see you have assembled a good team.” She said as she took a closer look at each member. Has she met the eyes of everyone she seemed to skip over Lance which he didn’t seem to notice or did not care either way.
“I assume you know what you are looking for?” She continued. Gerry nodded along with Bill.
“Yeah, we are looking for that stash of kuthendium.” Gerry said.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“What is it going to be used for?”
“Structure corp is looking to build some more buildings around the portals to the upper levels, so we need the strength of that material to make sure nothing that comes from those portals to do much damage,” Adeline said.
“The company also wanted to give you this storage device for the material, we need a lot, so you are going to need this,” She added as she handed Bill a large cylindrical device. The cylinder was about a metre long in length, with each face on the end being as large as the average hand.
Bill inspected the device before he asked, “What does this do?”
“It’s a device that will adjust itself based on how much material you need, it also is a self-contained weightless environment so you will be able to fit a lot of material in,” Adeline responded.
“Seems a bit large, couldn’t it be smaller?” Bill asked.
“That was as small as they could make it, it’s a fifth-generation prototype model so the developers may be able to make it smaller in future iterations.” Adeline replied. “Anyhow, use this to collect the kuthendium to bring back, you’ll have four months to return with the materials which should be sufficient.”
Bill nodded at Adeline before he sat back down where he placed the large cylindrical device on the seat beside him.
“Have a safe trip boys, the bus will now leave for the designated portal,” Adeline said before she left the vehicle. As she left a man dressed head to toe in military gear walked into the bus and immediately sat at the driver’s seat. The windows of the bus then darkened which restricted the light that came into the bus. As the bus darkened from the lack of natural light, lights slowly turned on keeping the light in the bus around the same amount as if the windows had never been shut.
“Please stay seated, this is a long trip. We are now heading to our destination.” A voice over the loudspeaker said. Lance had a look over to the driver but did not see the driver talk. He frowned but remained seated, as he put himself into a comfortable position once again. The rest of the group had the same idea as they all settled into their seats. Bill and Gerry put headphones into their ears which synced up to their phones to play some music, while Nathan and Martin did the same, they instead started watching videos on their phones.
The bus then slowly began its course towards the portal location which none of the group knew and they would not get to know as they could no longer see outside the bus windows. Even looking out to the front of the bus to the front windscreen which had also been darkened. Lance looked at the driver again to see that he was wearing sunglasses which brought a confused expression on his face. However, despite the evidence that the group could not see where they were going, the driver did not seem to have this problem, or at least lance hoped that he did not.
As seconds turned into minutes, and minutes into hours everyone began to get sleepy and one by one dozed off as they allowed the bus to continue along their route.
***
The five men now exited the bus, despite having rested on the bus ride, they all complained about still being tired. Having checked their phones for the time, it now was three o’clock in the afternoon. After being seated on a bus for eight hours, Lance stretched his limbs out which caused the others to do the same. A man waited for the five to exit the bus with their bags that had been put at his feet.
Exiting the bus, the group of men found themselves in a large garage that seemed like it could be used to house multiple vehicles such as aeroplanes, tanks and other heavy-duty vehicles and yet now only held the bus they had arrived in. Across the garage and behind the man that stood if front of the group, many machines lay dormant in use, but a few people dressed in military gear stood nearby.
“Martin Crane, Nathan Abioye, Lance Hong, Bill Ahuja and Gerry Smith. Group one, nine, five. Welcome.” The man said as he looked over the group one by one. A cold and uncaring expression. His clothing seemed to be that of a more casual military gear but the straightness of his posture and the way his gaze seemed to look down on the five of them made it feel like he was in full military gear with the highest position.
“You are the seventeenth group to be given the opportunity to go up the floors that is employed by a private entity, while you are here you will be briefed on information that all must know before ascending the floors along with a re-establishment of what your contract states with your respective corporate entity, please know that this information will not be repeated, so note books will be handed to you if you feel the need to write this information down.” The man continued to say in an authoritative tone. One of the men who stood back at the machines on the other side of the garage had come to the man who spoke and stood beside him with notebooks in hand.
“Please hand in your phones as well once you receive a notebook, this is not optional.” The man added as the other uniformed man went up to each of the group members and handed them a small notebook with a pencil attached and collected each of their phones. Lance was little hesitant about handing his phone over but did so.
“Despite not being military, you will refer to me as sergeant Bluewell, Now follow me,” the sergeant said as he gestured for the five men to follow with a wave of his hand. He walked towards the machines that sat along the back wall compared to where the sergeant stood. Each of the men picked up their respective bags with Lance gesturing to Bill to take his, while he took the device they had been given by Adeline and his own weapon. Sergeant Bluewell stopped right in front of the machine and mechanically turned around before he spoke again.
“Place your belongings into this machine here, no questions either please.” The sergeant said as he now gestured to the machine. Now up close to it Lance and the others could see the machine in clearer detail. It contained a conveyer belt similar to that at airports, but instead of it flowing through the entire machine and coming out the other side, there was no clear exit for the luggage.
Hesitantly, they all put their bags one by one on the conveyer belt and allowed their bags to be taken away into the machine. To the side of the machine was a screen that the personnel that were still stationed there investigated. Sergeant Bluewell motioned for the group to follow him through a door which was a bit further on from the machine on the other side of the machine. As they walked towards and through the door, they saw the machine was much larger than they all had though as it stretched all the way to the wall which connected to the wall which connected the garage to the room beyond the door they walked through.
Once they passed through the door, the conveyer belt that usually would come out of the machine now came out of the wall. Each man grabbed their bags which seemed much lighter and smaller than before. Lance then stepped right up to the sergeant and said with frustration in his voice,
“What did you do to our bags?”
The sergeant just stared back at Lance who was not much taller than him.
“Sit down boy, we just modified your bags so they would be easier to carry with you on your journey,” The sergeant said, his annoyed look did not leave him. Lance could only scowl at him but did not do anything else to displease the sergeant.
Inside this new room they saw a window that looked out upon a large open area which seemed to be another twelve stories down. The walls were lined will ladders and balconies which housed many armed guards. Another smaller window could be seen near the bottom of the bit which was positioned next to a door directly on the ground floor. In the centre of the open area was a round portal, its shape was somewhere near a sphere and a circle, but also neither. It gave off a greenish red coloured glow along with a sense of uneasiness. It was not lost on the group of men who would soon enter that portal, that at one-point monsters had come out of that type of portal to harm all of humanity.