The night drifted by rather quickly. I can say that was some of the best rest I had received in my entire life. I thought about Kaldea all night, though I’m sure that the feeling wasn’t mutual. It became even more apparent this had not been the case when we all met back up in the morning for the mission briefing. She didn’t even look at me. It was embarrassing. I felt ashamed.
“Everyone all set? “ Ochigi asked everyone. He had been sporting his gear. He wore a thick hoodie zipped all the way up with a skull cap hugging tightly to his head. Diane had been wearing a rather large fluffed up winter suit. It was clearly the warmest piece of attire out in the field at the moment. It was needed to protect the baby from the blistering winds.
“Looks like it. “ I said back to Ochigi, fixing my bright orange winter jacket. There was a hoodie underneath it. I was wearing a black skull cap, with black winter cargo pants, and combat boots. All of it was given to me by the PEC personnel. Kaldea was geared up with the same type of attire I had been but the female equivalent. On top of that, her attire had been all cherry red in color.
“All set. My unit and I are ready for departure. “ The red-haired beauty would say. Kaldea’s unit had been all composed of females. All of them looked ready and willing to kill at a moment’s notice… Why the hell did we need killers like this accompanying us?
Before long we set off, heading off into the deep winter wasteland in search of… whatever the hell they had been searching for. After an hour of driving over the icy terrain, we made our way towards the destination Ochigi had placed on the map. Diane got out first, and then Kaldea and her unit drove up behind us in their separate vehicle.
“There it is. “ Ochigi said to me, pointing from a distance.
“Jesus Christ… “I said staring up at the mountain in front of us. The mountain towered so highly that it's peak damn near split the clouds. I couldn’t explain it, but when we got close to the place it made my skin crawl. It made me feel small; smaller than humanly possible. I know that doesn’t make much sense, but bear with me. I guess what made it all worse, was when I turned over to Kaldea. She had this… look in her eye. That same inhuman expression she’d been giving me last night before we had sex just twelve hours ago. But this time, it was worse. It was chilling. Focused…
“Two of you stay on Diane at all times. She’s pregnant. If even a hair on her head gets touched? Then you deal with me personally. I won’t accept any error, like the last mission I brought you lot on. Do you understand me? “ Kaldea said as she paced back and forth in front of her ‘men’ each of the females would’ve given her a salute soon after, shuffling their legs together in unison so that it made a loud CLAP as their leather boots smacked into each other. “ Sir yes, Sir! “They all belted in unison. Ochigi would’ve handed me some climbing gear, a medic pack, and a flare gun. I glanced over all of the tossed into the backpack before turning my attention back towards him.
“So what’s the flare gun for? “ I said to the scientist who turned to me after pulling a backpack of similar design over his shoulder as well. “Hm? Well, we are going inside of an old, unidentified, mountain. We've attempted to explore this place multiple times, but it’s so dark in there. And the first time? We got lost. Flare guns produce light. If we can see, we won’t get lost. “Ochigi reassured after patting me on the shoulder. He made his way inside with Kaldea’s unit behind him. “ Alright Jon, don’t be nervous. We’ve done this a million times. “ Diane said to me in attempts to put me at ease. It didn’t work. Soon after she had given me a hug then proceeded to make her way inside after everyone. Two of Kaldea’s guards stuck to either of her sides like glue.
“Nervous? Me? Naw, never. “ I boasted to Diane, my eyes glanced over my shoulder to see Kaldea staring right at me. Her once large ominous eyes had been traded for slanted vicious ones. She scowled at me, my god. It looked as if she almost wanted to kill me with that intense expression on her face. It sent… chills down my spine.
“Let’s go.“ The red-headed beauty said while passing me by, shifting like a slithering snake as she navigated her way inside the mountain as well.
The insides of the mountain had been littered with old glyphs. From texts that I didn’t even think existed. I studied the markings and placed my gloved hands over the grooves. There were in the surface. “What kind of language is this? “ I questioned looking over at Ochigi.
“We're not sure yet. We’ve been trying to decipher it all, but, well... Nothing in our database has any information on it. “Ochigi said to me, placing a cigarette in his mouth. He lit it. “Diane’s always been good with foreign text encryption. But even she’s been having a rough time with it lately.“ Ochigi said after taking a hard drag of the cancer stick.
We made our way inside and at first, it seemed like time had been moving rather quickly. That was until that third-hour mark struck. And then another hour passed. Another, and another. We kept walking. And walking... It seemed like it was endless.
“Who in the hell made the structure of this cave. Its… it seems like it goes on forever. Do you think it leads up towards the top of the mountain?“ I said to Diane.
“ The natives call it ‘The Stairway to god ‘ they even say that just by being in here it grants people special power,“ Diane said back to me. I chuckled, the warmth of my breath froze in icy puffs of white as the cool air passed my lips.
“Powers? C’mon, really? You don’t really believe in shit like that, do you?“ I said stuffing my hands into the depths of my pockets.
“Only a fool wouldn’t believe the unknown,“ Kaldea said gripping tightly to her SMG that hung lightly around her waist.
“Yeah, but stuff like that isn’t real.“ I countered back at the red-haired she-warrior. She paused and the air around me became even more frigid than realistically possible.
“Just a few years ago. This man created a cure for the common cold. And you want to tell me what you think is possible or not?“ Her tone was harsh. I didn’t understand her hostility towards me. But it was starting to piss me off.
More hours passed. Time was moving slowly. We even made camp on the inside of the cave so Diane could rest for a few hours. Then, we were up and at it again. Ochigi and I had been behind the pack now as Diane, Kaldea and her unit were in front by at least 6 feet. Ochigi looked over at me, nudging me on the arm to get my attention.
“So, how it’d go with Kal last night? “ Ochigi said in reference to me and Kaldea’s sexual escapade just the night before.
“Well, I don’t kiss and tell so. “ I said looking down.
“So there was kissing, that all? “ He said placing his hands behind his back.
“You know I’m trying to figure out why you’re so interested in my sex life,“ I spoke in annoyance and Ochigi laughed.
“Look, man. Diane told me how you and your dad helped her out. You know, cleaning the place up for free until she got her funds together and all. She looks at you like family. I just, well, I’m just trying to bond with you. We are the only guys out here you know. “
I nodded my head. He was right after all. I was just so distrusting of others sometimes. It really made it hard for me to open up. “My bad man. Its… it’s really nothing personal. I just, I get really skeptical about people sometimes. Growing up in the city, it can make you into kind of a hardass. “ I said looking towards the right of me. I stopped in my tracks.
“The hell's that? “ I said cracking a glow stick from within my backpack and holding it up against the wall. Ochigi walked up towards the very thing I was looking at. Sliding his fingers across the surface of the wall, he stared at the tribal paintings along the interior of the cave. The images depicted a large group of people. All of them had aura’s drawn around there bodies with their hands held up high. There had to be at least 60 or so men and women with auras around them. Each of the figures held their hands up with a large golden sphere above their heads. Below these aura coated people were thousands of gray smaller figures.
“They look like… gods. Almost. “ I said to Ochigi. He seemed dumbfounded.
“These… these weren’t here the last time we were here.“ Ochigi said looking over at me with a confused expression on his face. He paused, turning around to examine the other wall behind him. Snatching my glow stick from my grasp, he rose his hand up towards the paintings on the other side.
The images on the opposite showed these aura’d figures going to war with creatures adorned with horns on their heads. Then a wave of water consumed both the horned creatures and the aura colored ones. Finally, a black figure was shown devouring both the horned and aura coated figures. It… sent such a heavy chill down my spine. I vomited.
“Jon, are you alright? “ Ochigi said squatting down next to me.
“ Ye-yeah… it just. Looking at all of that, it just made me feel like my stomach was coiled up for a second there.“ Ochigi nodded. “ Look, something doesn’t feel right… I think we should--“ Before he could finish his sentence Diane’s scream echoed throughout the depths of the cave!
“Diane! “ Ochigi said as he shouted at the top of his lungs, rushing down into the dark depths of the cave. I watched him at first in a daze. Before long my legs started to move as well. I followed behind him, keeping up as best as I could until finally, we stopped.
“Down here! “ Kaldea shouted as she signaled to us from below. A steep drop was beneath Ochigi and I. It was an icy path that doubled into a slippery slope. Below had been Kaldea, her unit, and Diane. They seemed to be safe and sound, but what had been in front them struck terror in my bones.
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