Nakoma and Chip look on in horror as everyone cheers for the woman called Rebecca. Rebecca giggles as she looks all around her basking in the cheers for her. Brian stands next to Nakoma as he still holds his face from the blood dripping out of him. Nakoma turns toward Brian as he gave Nakoma a sarcastic smug as if he was saying "I told you so" with just his expression. Chip slowly walks back behind Nakoma as he was frightened by the whole ordeal. Rebecca snapped her fingers twice as she looks toward her guard. The man quickly slings his weapon over his shoulder and drags the dead soldier's body by his feet.
The dead soldier left a trail of blood onto the rusting steel floor of the boiler room. His face still in that ghostly frozen shocked expression as his face was slowly being cut from the sharp metals sticking out of the floor. His eyes seemed to follow Nakoma's eyes, even though she knew he was dead. The guard reached to a furnace that had a powerful blaze inside as he opens the latch to the furnace. He slowly lifted up the soldier as the massive amounts of blood leaked from his head wound. He sat him up on the edge of the entrance to the furnace until the dead soldier was sitting upright. The blood now slowly starting to form a small puddle just below him. The guard takes a step back as he was charging up for a kick. He then kicks the dead soldier on the chest sending him flying deep into the furnace. The ravaging flames quickly engulfed him as his skin was quickly becoming charred. The guard closed the furnace as its loud hinges and lock echoed the room.
Nakoma looks up at the large tube that connected the furnace as it snaked along the ceiling. It connected to the other main lines and exited to a large smokestack. Making the furnace unnoticeable to the rest of the world. Rebecca walks toward Nakoma as everyone surrounds Rebecca, waiting for her next response.
"This is a perfect opportunity for you miss pretty face. We're heading outside the wire now. If you can show me that you at least have the guts to fight for what you believe in, then I'll give you the supplies you requested for. Are you still willing to accept? Or are too squeamish to fight?"
She looks at Rebecca with a cold stare, trying not to be intimidated by this petite woman,
"I'll fight then. I'll prove to you that I keep my word. I don't want to see the people of California suffer anymore... I do have a question though..."
"And what might that be?" As she folded her arms and gave her a raised eyebrow look.
"Why... why did you kill him? He was begging for his life. He gave you what you wanted, so why did you kill him. What even was the purpose for killing him?"
She scoffs at Nakoma and is directly face to face to her as she squints at Nakoma.
"Because I felt like it. I love killing these soldiers. It doesn't matter to me if they have families or loved ones. They sided with the wrong people and sealed their fates the moment they donned that uniform. You honestly think I give two shits about these soldiers when they beg for their lives? You seen it yourself in the camp, the firing squads, the beatings, the poor inhumane living spaces they fucking call a shelter. You realize that these soldiers are the elites of Jackson's army. The ones most loyal to him. Death squads, mass populace control, all in which they kill innocent people. Those innocent people also had families and loved ones. Do they not matter then, is that it?"
"That's not what I meant, I-"
"Of course you don't because you don't know the fucking reality of how the real world works." She prods Nakoma's chest hard with her finger.
"I will kill and continue to kill anyone aligned to his cause. I don't care who it is. This is the fight we swore to continue until his downfall. So are you going coming with us or not? If not, then I suggest you shut the fuck up and go back to that little shithole of a shack in camp."
Rebecca walks away as she puts her finger in her mouth and whistles loudly. She twirls her finger in a circular motion above her head, signaling everyone to mount up in their vehicles. Everyone quickly rushed as they prepared to leave the camp. Nakoma looked at her with so much frustration it felt like her head was going to explode. She turns to Chip and kneels down in front of him.
"Listen, I need you to stay here until I come back, okay?"
"What!? You can't leave me with these people, they're psychotic!"
"It's better down here then up in the camp; I'll be back soon okay. What about you Brian, what are you going to do now?"
He sits down on the floor and rest as his back leans against a small wooden crate.
"I might as well relax down here for a bit. Can't exactly walk around with a bloody face now, can I?"
Nakoma looks at him with a pity look as she reaches her hand out for a handshake. He looks at her very confused as he reaches out as well.
"I thank you though... for helping us out. It really means a lot to us."
"Yeah, yeah don't get all sappy over this. Just... do what you got to do and get out of here, okay?"
He looks away trying not to look at Nakoma as his face is flushed with embarrassment. She softly smiles as she walks towards the vehicles that Rebecca was about to get in. She looks at Nakoma as she scoffs at her.
"So you really are coming with us then. Not afraid to get your hair wet?"
"I'm not afraid, I told you I would do anything to help these people and get my friends back."
"Sure whatever, just get in the damn truck already."
Nakoma opens the door of the back passenger of the truck as two other men sat in the back as well. She hesitantly got in as the two stared at her. It was a tight fit with all the gear and weapons they had. After everyone was prepared and geared up Rebecca stepped inside the front passenger and knocked on the side of her door to signal the driver to take off. The man turned his key as the trucked roared aggressively, vibrating the whole truck. They were in the lead of the convoy as five other vehicles followed behind them. The drove off into the large tunnel system. It was strange and unusual. The tunnel had many pipes and wiring all across the ceiling. There were no lights or any signs of life. The only thing that illuminated the tunnel was the bright lights of their truck. The tunnel system was massive, Nakoma didn't know how long they were driving. The tunnel seemed to stretch for miles on end.
After nearly thirty minutes of driving in total pitch-black darkness, they drove pass a green light that hung from the ceiling. The light was so low and dim that it didn't even shine the surrounding area. only just enough to just see the green low dimmed light. As soon as they passed the low light the driver pushed a button on a weird remote hanging from his sun visor. Suddenly a horizontal line of bright light appeared right in front of their eyes. Nakoma sat upright to look closer at the appearing light. The line was getting bigger and bigger until it was a fully large square of light. She squinted her eyes as they drove through the bright veil of light. It was a ramp for the vehicles to ride up to the surface. The ramp leads out onto an abandoned factory building that was secretly connected to the other factory back at the camp.
The whole place looks as if it was about to fall apart. They drove out through the side of the building that had a large hole and a dirt road that led outside. Nakoma couldn't believe that there was a secret entrance to the camp. She couldn't believe how Jackson's soldiers never knew about this hidden entrance before at all. The last car made it out of the ramp and closed the tunnel system. Its large gears and hydraulics hissed and hummed as the ramp closed behind them. They drove onto the highway as they headed east to Victorville. The highway to Victorville was a little livelier than the road to black valley. There were more abandon cars that were torched and fused to the ground. Tents and makeshifts homes were sprawled randomly across parts of the highway on the sides. Though they did not block the path of their convoy.
Rebecca turned to the driver as she gave out her palm, waiting for the man to give her something. The driver reached to his side and pulled out a pistol and several few magazines. Rebecca grabbed them and handed them to Nakoma.
"Take these and try not to shoot recklessly. Do you at least know how to fire a gun?"
"Yeah I know the basics of it."
"Hmpf, let's see how you can really handle it then when it comes down to it then."
Rebecca snapped her fingers and pointed at the radio. The driver lifted the middle glove compartment and pulled out a weird looking usb stick. He places it in the slot for the usb port and turns the dial for the radio up. Rebecca looks out the window as she rests her cheek on her hand. The radio loudly blasts music in the car as some of the speakers were right next to Nakoma's ear. The music that plays was an old prewar song called "I hate everything about you" by Three Days Grace. Nakoma was fascinated by this type of music. It's as if the situation around her felt captivated by the song, almost feeling as if the song was playing exactly for her. It was confusing for her.
Just then they notice a single armored car in front of them. It was a soldier vehicle for Jackson, it didn't seem like they spotted them yet even though they were not that far behind them. Rebecca radios one of the cars to deal with the car in front of them. One man yells into the radio as he happily agrees. A buggy car with no doors and two long exhausts behind it sped up with intense speed in front of their vehicle taking the lead. One man climbs out the back of the buggy as he connects a clip to the rails, so he doesn't fall off. The next thing he pulls out is an RPG-7 and aims at the armored truck. A large plume of smoke launches out the back of the rocket as it hits the side of the truck. The soldiers truck swerves and flips instantaneously. It rolled so fast and so aggressive even one of the soldiers flew out the window and fell out of the highway.
The convoy stopped as Rebecca quickly got out of the truck. Nakoma joined as well as the others while some stayed in their cars providing cover for them. A large hole was blown into the side of the vehicle as several men stood inside torn and thrashed inside. Rebecca reached into the hole and took the weapons from them, stripping them of their ammo.
A man inside hanging upside down still being held from his seat belt barely mutter the few words he could string up.
"...help...me..."
Rebecca smiled softly and agreed to his plea. She places her weapon against his temple, the man doesn't even react. He only slowly blinks at her as his breathing was slow and heavy. She pulls the trigger and blood splatters the interior of the truck. She tucks in her pistol and whistles for everyone to mount up again. Nakoma is now feeling depressed seeing all this happen to helpless people. But she pushes on forward, all for the sake of her friends. After an hour of driving through ruined towns and empty deserts, they finally made it to the city of Victorville. All the buildings around them were small no large than two story buildings. A lot of the buildings were in pretty good condition then the ones that were literally falling apart. Only difference was structural integrity, everything else the buildings were old and filthy and tagged with spray paint with many unique artworks.
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They followed the street signs and looked on a map for the location as the address was on the dead soldiers ID tag. They finally reach their destination keeping a safe distance as Rebecca looked at the building with binoculars. She can see the building in pristine condition as guards with roadblocks filled the parking lot guarding the main entrance. She looks towards the rooftops as there were no soldiers posted on the roof. Only patrols around the building and the barricaded checkpoint at the main entranced of the building. She turns the knob on the radio and a loud static nose can be heard.
"Everyone, turn to frequency twelve."
Everyone yelled copy as the switch over to a safe secure coms channel. She pulls out a small toughbook laptop device and started typing. It was very thick, and it looked heavy. She then connects the laptop to a small device that looked like a mini satellite dish. She places it on the dashboard as the little led light turned red and blinking.
"hey what is that?" As Nakoma leaned forward close to Rebecca to look at the device better.
"This, little girl, is a jammer array. Soon as we're close to the building, all communications for backup and support will be cut off. So we won't have to deal with any reinforcements messing up our job."
Nakoma nodded as if she understood what she even meant. Rebecca turned her radio on again to the frequency as she spoke to her fellow rebels.
"Alright men listen up, we believe they are carrying a large stash of weapons inside the complex. We go in, split up into are groups and search the whole place top to bottom I want this whole place stripped apart piece by piece until you find something. If this turns out to be a bust, at least we get to kill some soldiers along the way. Everyone ready!!!"
"YES MA'AM"
"YES MA'AM"
"YES MA'AM
"YES MA'AM"
"YES MA'AM"
"Antonio, it's time, tip of the spear. You know what to do."
"Yes ma'am! With pleasure!"
One of the vehicles of their convoy was a large semi-truck that was extremely heavily fortified. It had a large cone shape battering ram able to push away cars or ram into buildings. It was basically a giant fast moving tank that was impenetrable. He drove and took point as he was accelerating putting his foot all the way down. He started to blast music onto the large speakers that were attached to the roof of the semi. It blasted so loud that anyone in a two mile radius could hear it, he even set it up to play it through their coms as well. The song that was playing through was called "Trooper" by Iron Maiden. Everyone drove right behind the semi as the semi was going straight to the entrance of the building. It was hurtling towards the entrance at a hundred miles per hour. The guards at the check point saw this behemoth coming at them as they opened fire on the semi. The rounds they fired off at the beast only bounced off doing no damage at all. The guards noticed this and jumped out of the way. The semi ran through the several small concrete barricades with ease. Before he rammed into the building, he yelled to the top of his lungs into the coms, "FOR REBECCA!!!"
Some of the soldiers who were near the front of the entrance did not had time to react and were instantly crushed from the semi. The giant truck busted through the main entrance collapsing the pavilion that was just in front of the building. The semi's weight and speed made it like a giant iron missile. It went straight through the double glass sliding doors. It crushed the lobby area killing anyone who was in the path. It tore all the way through the building until it came to a complete halt as it crashed into the elevators stopping the behemoth. The guards outside were in shock as they looked at the giant hole it plowed through not paying attention to the other drivers.
The other cars spread out running over the distracted soldiers. The faces Nakoma saw inside the car look as if they were hungry, and smiling. They stopped just in front of the destroyed entranced. Rebeccas guards finished off the remaining soldiers that were left outside. Streak marks of blood were smeared across the floor. Body parts of limbs were scattered everywhere. Nakoma even saw the face of a woman that was smushed like a grape on the floor. It made her nauseas, but she kept on pushing through. Rebeccas guards in the semi were surprisingly unhurt with the amount of damaged they cause. Rebecca helped them up on their feet as they thanked her and regained their composure.
The group split up as each of them took different floors. Nakoma's group took the stair way down to the basement level. She can hear the gunfire and bullets all being dispensed from each of the floor. It was pure chaos all around through the coms channel. After walking down several flights of stairs they made their way to the bottom floor. It was a long hallway with clean white walls. It was unusual how clean it was. There wasn't a single trace of dirt other than the boot prints they were leaving behind. In front of them was a large silver mechanic door with a pin pad and keycard swiper. Rebecca pushed everyone out of the way and pulled the ID of the dead soldier she took from. The pad blinked red until it quickly flashed green. The door unlatched and slid open. They quickly entered the doorway as it suddenly closed behind them.
A large amount of smoke came out of the vents super quickly startling them as they aimed their guns at the ceiling. It was a decontamination chamber as it was cleaning them from bacteria from the outside world. Nakoma covered her face as she being blasted from the smoke directly. After a few moments the doors finally opened. Standing just a few feet in front of them was a man in a white lab coat reading on a clipboard. He looked up from his clipboard as he was frozen in shock seeing the armed dirty posse. Nakoma stared at him with confusion as well until Rebecca walked forward and aimed her pistol at the man. The man's eyes open widely as his mouth open slightly in shock. Rebecca discharged her weapon as it struck the man in his chest. Two other people came out of the room hearing what the noise was.
It was two women in the same white lab coat as what the man was wearing. The guard on Rebeccas left came forward and unloaded a few rounds at them. The twitched aggressively as the bullets landed directly on their chest and face. The group walked down the corridors firing on all the scientists in lab coats they saw. Nakoma walks with the group as she holds her pistol in a weaver stance position. She feels terrible as these people aren't even fighting back. They come to an intersection hallway as a reception desk sits in the corner. A guard with a security outfit tries to pull his firearm out but Nakoma unleashes a few bullets to the chest and one to the head. Rebecca looks towards Nakoma and only nods in approval.
Rebecca kicks open a double door that was being held by some scientist as they tumbled back to the floor. She aimed her pistol and delivered them insanely accurate headshots. A man was screaming as he jumped onto Nakoma's back. Rebecca aimed but couldn't get a shot. After a moment of struggle Nakoma finally put the man on the floor and unloaded the magazine out of pure fear. The man was wearing a white hazmat suit with a gas mask. Nakoma was breathing heavily in fear as she looked up at Rebecca. All Rebecca gave was a smug smirk.
They walked down the hallways and were disgusted at what they were seeing. A giant room of tables with dissection equipment laid out. Human corpses cut open with their intestines out in sample containers. One subject had their whole back exposed open showing their whole spine and shoulder blades.
"What the fuck is going on here? I thought we were looking for weapons. This is some sick shit we walked into!"
Said a guard as he aimed his weapon at the bodies as if they were about to come to life. Rebecca looks at the bodies with pure horror, she has never seen anything like this before.
"I feel like I know what this is for..." As Nakoma said as she slowly walks to a table with a child's chest cavity perfectly cut open. She looks in horror as her eyes tear up in despair.
"What the fuck do you mean you know!?" As Rebecca said with anger in her tone.
"Guys... there's more fucked up shit over here..."
As the guard open the door to another hallway with test chambers on either side of the hallways. Inside each of the test chambers were people in white clothing with numbers on their backs. Their face was frozen in an agonizing pose. Their eyes blood red with no hint of white in their eyes. Their eyes were leaking blood as well as their mouth, ears, and a mix of bloody vomit everywhere on the floor. They heard something drop at the end of the hallway as they aimed their weapons. They quickly entered the last room that was down the hall. Inside were three people in hazmat suits and a woman scientist in her lab coat with blue gloves that were covered in blood.
"Take them to the tables."
As Rebecca said to her guards with anger and hatred in her voice. One of her men punched the scientist woman in the gut with his gun and dragged her by her hair as she cried and screamed. The others with the gas masks were beaten and dragged by their arms in the large area where the dissections were happening. As they all gathered in the large open area, Rebecca aimed her gun at the woman's stomach at shot at her. She cried in pain as she grabbed her stomach in pure agony.
"Tell me! What are you all doing here!"
"ARGH! FUCK YOU, YOU CRAZY BITCH YOU SHOT ME!"
Rebbeca then shoots her again, this time in her thigh. The woman screams in agony again.
"FUCK-FUCK, ALRIGHT I'LL TALK... JUST STOP SHOOTING AT ME. ON THE DESK... MY RESEARCH PAPERS ARE ON IT...!"
The guard hands her the papers that were on a small table filled with documentation reports of the tests they were doing. All horrifying how the human body reacts to some biochemical weapon they were using. How the subjects body reacted with the chemicals and how it affected their respiratory system. All sick inhumane testing. The guard also gave Rebecca a small laptop that was on the scientist's desk. She opened it and found video files on the subjects within the test chamber.
Test Subject 56: Male
"Let me out of here!!! Let me out!!! Please!!! I didn't do anything, I swear!!!"
*Green gas slowly enters the test chamber *
"Oh fuck!!! Oh no!!! Please stop I beg you!!!"
*The man begins to cough aggressively immediately*
"I- arg! Stop I'm- Im inno- ARG-cent"
*The man begins to cough to the point of dry heaving*
*The man kneels down on all fours as he begins to projectile vomit blood*
*The projectile vomiting continues without slowing down for several minutes*
*His eyes began to turn liquid red as it also leaks blood*
*The man is scratching his face to the point of self-mutilation trying to breathe*
*After several minutes the man ceases movement and perishes to the toxin gas*
*Video end*
Nakoma, Rebecca and the rest look at the tape in complete horror on what they had just seen. Rebecca aims her gun at them but doesn't shoot. She ponders a moment and has a better idea for them. She orders the men to lock them in the test chamber with the door slightly ajar. They tossed them in as they begged them not to kill them. Rebecca places one of the chemicals that was on the testing area and spilled it right in front of the door.
"Grab all the paper and evidence you can manage do not leave anything behind. After that, burn this whole fucking place to the ground."
They nodded and grabbed every file they could. She radios everyone to poor gasoline or anything they can find to set the building ablaze. They agreed without hesitation or questioning. After several minutes of going back and forth and placing evidence back in their vehicles, Rebecca went to the basement level floor again to look at the remaining scientists locked in the chamber. The chemical had spilled into their unit so far it actually filled the area space. The woman was pale from the amount of blood loss she had. She looked at Rebecca as she gritted her teeth in anger. She waved her hand goodbye and smiled at them.
"I hope you have fun burning..."
She takes a huge puff of her cigarette and flicks it into the test chamber. The room quickly ignites, and everyone screamed in pure pain. They flailed around screaming, banging on the door to be released. The entire laboratory soon became engulfed by the flames. The semi left out of the ruble as the entire building soon became engulfed with flames. They drove off back onto the highway as Nakoma turns around to see the smoke rising in the distance. A large explosion can be seen as a giant fireball forming as a large mushroom cloud forms. Their cars shake violently from the shockwave of the explosion.
"Hey little girl, you said you might know what this thing is... what the fuck is this thing...?"
Nakoma looks at Rebecca with so much worry,
"It's the gas that I told you about. The terrible weapon that Jackson is working on for some reason."
Rebecca looks at all the papers they had collected and reads all the testing data they had recorded on the poor innocent civilians. She looks at the cover page of one of the documents that had an unusual logo on it with the words in bold in the center of the bottom page.
MONTOX RESEARCH
D.O.D