Camping Ch. 4

 

Joon staggered down the steps, pressing himself against the wall as the squad surged up. They were all business, weapons bristling, but Joon wasn't sure he liked their odds, given his recent experiences. The soldier with him, who had gone out to find the missing sentries, was bloodied and needed medical help.  

The leader of the squad accosted him on the way down.

"Report," he demanded. Irritating. 

"You've got multiple contacts out there. Stop them or they'll breach the camper." He allowed himself some satisfaction as he sensed the other's irritation now. He added a smile to the mix. "Oh, and we have one down. Careful- they're fast." 

The other moved on and soon Joon entered the Operations center, which was as busy as it normally was. The Gate was still humming, which was alarming, but they apparently hadn't found a way to shut it down yet. Was it going to open again and spew forth more chaos?  

Maia caught his eye as he passed. He grinned at her tiredly- at least he wasn't covered in blood, like the other guy- and then he passed into the rest of the complex, heading for the command group. Stella looked at him with concern as he entered. 

"Are you okay" she asked. 

Wow, she was concerned. 

"I'l be alright. One of my companions was not so fortunate..."

He could see that she was berating herself inwardly. 

"I should have sent more than two up with you." He was shocked when she hugged him. 

"Alright, let's get to it." She turned on her commpiece. "Alpha leader, report."

Her commpiece crackled in response. "...have engaged. Multiple contacts... two down already. Air support from drone assets imminent..."

"Oh, good," said Mallory. "With drones we can see."

They could hear gunfire and men screaming, and the howling of the whatever they were out there. Sasquatches, for lack of a better descriptor. One of the technicians brought over a tablet with a drone feed, but the image was grainy. 

"Fall back, fall ba..." the comm feed quit for a second, then came back. "There are too many, falling back to the camper. Need reinforcements. They're... coming out of the woods... too many. We..."

The comm link went dead. 

Stella swore. 

"Mallory, send another unit. I want security upped around the complex. Go to yellow alert."

"Roger."

It occurred to Joon that maybe a lockdown was in order, but he held his words. 

"Joon," she turned to him. "Get to the ops center, check on the Gate, and prepare for a lockdown. We may have to get the eggheads out and secure the assets."

Joon hurried to obey just as the whole complex shook. 

The ops center was reporting red alert. 

"The Gate is open. Repeat. The Gate is open."

"Joon," Stella began. 

"I'm on it," he yelled. 

Stella's comm came back to life. 

"The contacts have entered the compex. The contacts have..."

Static.