Fragment by Paul G Swanson (me reader .txt) 📕

from me, and then continued. "The base."
From what he told me the place had seven floors. First there was the security so dedicated it got to have and entire floor to itself. It was so over estimated that there was very little security elsewhere. To use the elevator I would need retinal scan, a hand scan, voice recognition, and a key card.
Second floor served as a barracks, home to around some two hundred men. Third floor was somewhat more of a concern for me, it was the lab. This was the floor they are developing this poison I heard about from the boss man. I would need to set a C4 charge here, as well as set a small EMP to destroy all the electronics and the data they would be housing.
The fourth floor is mostly made up of storage. The fifth floor is where I might find some blueprints for this giant ballistic missile that I'm supposed to blow up. The sixth and seventh floor is where I will find the missile being assembled.
"Don't worry to much about security cameras," I knew he felt stupid saying that after all the training we had gone through to always vigilant about them, "They went extremely thin with them, plus almost all of the monitoring stations are ignored."
"Who has the key card for the elevator?" I asked assuming that I would have kick someone's ass to get it, and he tossed what looked like a see through credit card, save for the thin bar code running down one side, at me.
"That's all you'll need. There is an air vent that runs from the back of this cave to the roof inside the elevator. Just slide the card." He got up and walked to the back of the cave bent over and pulled up a small square piece of metal. Soil slid off the plate revealing how badly rusted it had become in the current atmosphere. "Though it's more of a one way mine shaft." I went over and examined the hole. After putting my head over the void I found out that it was indeed an air tunnel. It blew my hair almost straight up.
"That's some gust of wind." I drew my head back and yanked out a plastic green flare, cracked it, held it over the hole until the chemicals inside it became luminescent, and dropped it. The flare dropped almost forty feet and then continued east. "More heights." I said followed by a discontent sigh.
"What don't like heights?"
"Not really, but I'll deal with it." He laughed and slapped me on my back. "So how am I getting down there, got a rope?"
"You could always jump."
"You are joking, right?" I could tell by his expression that he was.
"Oh, don't worry I have a rope for you here. Well its sort of a rope." He pulled out of his pocket something that resembled fishing line only that is was even thinner and more invisible to the eye. "Its very strong and extremely lightweight." He tossed me the spool of thread. "There's sixty feet for you. Its been tested at three hundred pounds."
"Where did you get this from?"
"Believe it or not, these guys developed it. I was snooping for info when I swiped it." He glanced at his watch, "Well, its that time." He jumped his feet and ran out the side of the waterfall after waving goodbye to me.
I looked at the display on my wrist, six thirty. "Didn't he say I was early? Oh well. Guess we dawdled on certain things." I walked back over the square hole in the ground. In the wall above it was a spot perfect to use as a hook for the rope. I tied it off to the rock and then to myself. Sighing again I jumped in.
It looked like forty feet but it was actually only about twenty. I hit the bottom and rolled to a stop. My flare was very bright down here. The walls reflected the light cast from my flare.
"Adin."
"Yes, Seth?"
"Please amplify my vision while down here."
"It will take about thirty seconds. To take full effect."
"Thank you." The shaft became visible to me very quickly; it was almost like someone was playing with the mood dial on someone's lights. Being able to see the path I ran in the only direction I could. I would just have to rely on Signus' information.
It wasn't long until I came to a metal frame. After stepping around I could see the elevator shaft he was talking about. Unfortunately the elevator was below me and I would have to get down there, making as little noise as possible. The framework of the shaft crisscrossed in X's.
At least that simplifies things. I made my way down too the elevator and opened the hatch on the ceiling. I dropped in and swiped my card.
I was anxious to get this over with. I pushed the third button and felt the elevator begin its descent. I drew my tranquilizer gun just in case I may need it. I also unsheathed my blade. The doors ding and then open.
"Hi again, Seth." Signus was standing there aiming a can of Chloroform at me.
"Signus.What are you doing?" Three soldiers were running up the hall behind him. They stopped and aimed their rifle directly at me. Typical.
I heard the hiss of the aerosol can and felt myself fall as I heard his maniacal voice give the answer.
"I want the AI."
I struggled to remain conscious but the drugs overwhelmed me.
"And then the next thing I knew I had woken up on an operating table with these holes in my head, and Signus standing beside me screaming as the AI took over his brain. I passed out again and then next thing I knew I was back home in some hospital with the news that my family had been murdered."

"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Of course you are. I'm tired though, I've been narrating for almost three hours now." Seth pushed himself away from the table and left the room knowing full well that he'd have more nightmares about those moments he had simply cut short. After all, he had left out the part about the way Signus jealously mocked him and spoke of how AAOA refused to let him have an AI.. He had also left out the part about how Adin seized Signus body and used it as a marionette. He had also left out the part about the programs corruption and the details of how it slaughtered his family.
As he walked to his room he touched the scars on the left side of his face feeling filled with grief.

* * *

The ships door hissed and opened knocking another section of the wall out. Tio watched as the dust from the debris dissipated. The moment the doorway was clear he ran out and stood onto of a road cracked with weeds that were illuminated in a dim twilight. Scanning the buildings around him, he saw how each building had fallen into disrepair. Shops signs had fallen off and laid crooked on their respective perches.
A few cars that had altogether been abandoned, sat rusted and overcome by vines. Looking left he saw the path they had taken.
The landing gear had ripped a diagonal trench into the road that lead to the ruins of the restaurant the ship was currently sitting inside.
He sat down and heard all the sounds, lapping waves and screaming birds echoed all around. The scenery had radically changed since the last he was here, almost eleven years ago.
"Funny it looked brighter from up there." Psylix had followed him and was now standing just behind him.
"Yeah, but it'll get brighter later on. You'll see." Sarah told him as she too touched the ground. "After all, this is Florida. Was this a building?" She asked noticing the walls. Small bits of rubble rolled off of the remaining walls.
"Man, that moron. Always showing off." Psylix took a deep breath, "Wow, the air is really clean, not at all like the colonies"
"First thing I noticed." She said taking a breath herself, "The air here used to be so dirty. It's really come around without human presence."
Somie crept out and gasped when he saw all the colors in the sky. Somie's ears shifted directions taking in all the sounds around them. The sky had brightened a little and now a soft sunrise had lit the sky on fire. "Seth and Haschel won't come out. They said something about grown men running home with tails between their legs. I don't quite get it." He shielded his eyes, "Why when they could see something like this, why, would they hide?"
"Somie." Moumoru climbed out and sat down on the steps, "They are afraid that if they come out they won't be able to go back. It had to have been hard leaving the only home they had ever know once. Just imagine how hard it would be to leave twice." He grinned to himself, "Returning home.to a planet, how heroic, how very epic this sounds!" He laughed when he saw the ruined building they sat in and laughed. "Oops. Guess I missed my target a little bit."
A flock of small birds had landed on the power lines that they had just barely missed. Tio glanced up at them and smiled. "I'm home."
"It's strange not having a dome above us." Remarked Sarah as she looked up with her eyes shielded from the sunlight. "It's South East from here."
"What Exactly are we looking for?" Asked Psylix
"A Hospital." Tio answered quickly. "It's where he did all his research. It was the only place he felt comfortable enough to do his research. He wanted to use it to help people, I suppose he figured what better way to help them then be around the sick and injured all the time." He paused then added, "Most of the time I didn't even see him because he was always there."
"Well let's roll. No time like the present, eh?" Psylix told them and began walking in the designated direction. It was only about thirty minutes before they saw it coming up in the distance behind a small residential zone.
They stopped at the end of the parking lot and looked across at the building. On the roof they could see gigantic satellite dishes. The building had obviously been redesigned for research purposes once everyone had been evacuated. Sarah had made a mental note of how different it looked from the last