TUNNEL HATE

I hate tunnels. Absolutely hate them, Mark groused to himself. The tunnel was less than a meter wide and not even a meter high. Mark felt like he had been crawling forever through the small dark space. “I absolutely hate tunnels.”

“What’s that?” Jenfle asked. Jenfle, the medic from team PepMotion, was right behind him as they crawled through the tunnel.

As he crawled, Mark checked his intercom settings. Yup, left it on, dammit. I need to stop being a careless noob. “Just remembering that I hate enclosed spaces, Jenfle. Really hate them.”

“Roger that, Mark.” There were two more grumbles of agreement- everybody hated tunnels. Sunrise Yellow from Team Crayons and Corporal Kleene, an NPC were the other two members of the team. Team MindBendz had a KIA, so an NPC, a non-player character was inserted to help them out the squad. On the plus side, it was an extra body with a gun. On the down side, initiative and intelligence were hit and miss. Some of the AIs were amazing and some were just cannon fodder. Nobody was sure just where Kleene would end up. When Mark had looked at Kleene’s properties he noticed something weird- Kleene didn’t have a first name. Sunrise Yellow said that was a real bad sign.

The crawl continued.

There was a very iffy communications signal with the surface. Sometimes the systems sync’d up and sometimes there was no communication with Angie and the people above. I suppose it doesn’t matter much, Mark thought, they have their mission and we have ours. Mark looked at the mini-map. The crawl was coming to an end. Soon they would reach the mechanical room.

The tunnel continued, but a very short branch went into the mechanical room. According to Captain Bukowski’s map, the tunnel would start to narrow and become impassible. That wasn’t their problem, this was their exit grill. Mark looked through the grill. Of course its a grill, it would be too simple to have a door or an opening or.... Behind him Jenfle crawled up and squeezed in beside him, she just barely fit. There was no room for Sunrise Yellow and Kleene the NPC guarded the rear.

Jenfle sighed. In the room down below was a guy. That guy was sitting on the floor, happy as could be as he sang along to some music. In front of him was something mechanical. He had clearly taken in apart and was messing with the parts.

“He’s not going anywhere soon,” Mark observed.

“Nope.”

I don’t see a gun, Mark thought, he might just be a guy. Kill him or not?

Down below the guy paused to stretch his neck. Quickly he was back to work. “I’d rather not kill him, “ Mark said quietly.

“So what’s the play?” Sunshine Yellow asked. “How do we get there from here without him sounding an alarm?” Sunshine Yellow paused. “Are you sure you don’t want to kill him?”

A few minutes later, SunshineYellow braced himself in the tunnel as best he could. Kleene was behind him as an additional backstop. Jenfle and Mark were tensed- coiled up like springs.

“Three, two, one, go!” When Mark hit go, the pair pushed off of Sunshione Yellow and burst through the grate. The flimsy aluminum grate went flying across the mechanical room. Jenfle crashed into the mechanic and sent them both rolling. Mark just crashed into the floor. He swore and swore again and then a few more times as he got to his feet. He was careful to keep his voice low, or at least tried to keep it low. From Sunshine Yelllow above there was laughter. Mark glared upward as he wiped a few drops of blood from his face. In front of him, Jenfle had a wicked looking knife at the mechanic’s throat. Understandably, the mechanic looked terrified.

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It took a minute to get Sunshine Yellow and Kleene down. “Faster to dive, but safer this way,” Sunshine said as he climbed down a ladder. Mark had found the ladder in the corner.

Jenfle had spent her time interrogating the mechanic. “He’s just some guy,” Jenfle reported, “but he knows stuff.” She smiled. “Go right out the door, not left, and there’s a staircase we can take up. This guy says its faster than going the long way to the left.”

If he’s just some poor guy…

Jenfle answered as if she could read his thoughts and where they were going. “I trust him. Why would he lie?” Nobody spoke for a few seconds. “I say we try his way. If we get there faster we can get in on more of the action. And I really need some X-P.” In the tunnel, Jenfle had complained about Flanni, her team leader, hogging the experience points.

“Sure, why not,” Mark said. SunshineYellow and Kleene nodded. “I’ll run point. Jenfle, keep close. We’ll get you somebody to shoot at. Sunshine, you keep our friend real close. Kleene watch our butts.”

“Roger that,” Sunshine answered. Kleene nodded. Jenfle smiled.

The team lined up by the closed door. Next to the door, Mark had his back against the wall. He was careful not to lean on the buttons- there was a small panel right next to the door. Slowly he pulled the door partially open. Mark didn’t hear anything. He opened the door a little more, then a quick peek left and right. Nothing, time to go before something can happen.

Mark slipped out into the corridor. Cement walls. Painted. Lights in the ceiling every so often. This wasn’t a slipshod cobble together job.

Jenfle slipped out after him. Slowly they advanced down the hallway to the right. A second later, Sunshine came out and immediately looked to the left. He always liked to check everything for himself. He gestured to the mechanic to come out.

Suddenly, the mechanic slapped the buttons on the panel next to the door and charged into SunshineYellow. Mark and Jenfle spun around surprised by the noise of the collision, of the mechanics yell as he body checked SunshineYellow and they were very surprised at the alarm klaxon blaring.

Mark swore, again. Jenfle didn't hesitate. The mechanic was sprinting down the hallway away from her. It was too slow for how close they were. Three quick shots and three bright blood splatters blossomed on the mechanic’s back.

“Can you shut that off?” Mark yelled. He could kinda see Kleene hitting buttons on the panel. Seconds later, the noise shut off.

Sunshine Yellow was checking the body for loot. “Not much,” Sunshine Yellow said, “Except for this.” He held up a pistol.

Didn’t she search him? How the hell did they let him hide a gun and sound the alarm? Do I have to check everything? These are pro players, I’m the FNG.

“Let’s go,” Mark commanded. “But we’ll go the way we originally planned.” Mark took four fast steps before he stopped.

He started to twitch and shake. “Wha….wha...what is happening?” His head was shaking left and right. His shoulders shrugged uncontrollably.

“What the hell?” the rest of the team stared at him.

“Was he shot?”

“Didn’t hear anything. Trap?”

“Don’t know.”

“Looks like he’s getting electrocuted,” Kleene chimed in.

Jenfle sudden lashed out and hit Mark. The helpless convulsing man fell over. The spasms didn’t stop.

What the hell! Mark wanted to yell or say something but he couldn’t. The pain, it was a million shocks all over. He could see his hit points. He took damage from Jenfle hitting him, but he wasn’t taking damage from the convulsions. Not losing hit points didn’t make it feel any better. Damn it hurts, it hurts, it hurts. He couldn’t stop spassing. He couldn’t do anything except feel. Mark didn’t want to feel anymore.

“What do we do?” Jenfle asked.

“We could shoot him,” Kleene offered. Jenfle and Sunshine turned to stare at him. Kleene shrugged, “put him out of his misery?”