Day 294 - The War Corp. - Chapter 3.2 (1072 Words)

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THE WAR CORP.

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 3.2

Through the doorway at the end of the fire wall corridor there was a wide open and well lit space, one that rose higher than the ceilings of the drop ship and the corridor that led to this wide space. It was hard to see all the way across the space, as there were walls and doorways in between the entry point and the exit, which was well lit and beaming at them some distance away.

This was an obstacle course of some nature, and the assumption had to be that it would be deadly and deceptive. A number of different ways to reach the other side presented themselves, some riding high above and some going into a kind of sublevel below the level of the doorway and into darkness.  There were also doors that led to sections made from boxes that were randomly interspersed across the room, and no clear path directly to the other side.

Each door had a number on it, and when the recruits scanned it directly, the NINE would give them the clue that these numbers were the maximum occupancy for recruits. If they were to take a particular path then they would be limited to how many could go down each road.

This was going to force them to split the team, and take different ways to the same end. There were five doors and now sixteen recruits including him, so there were options open to him for distributing the groups. Liam’s priorities were somewhat out of tune with the team and he could not think of a good approach that would address what he saw as the major problem with splitting the team.

Once he had chosen a door, he was blind to the actions of the team.  He had no control over the choice of who would live or die, and that was what he wanted, that was what he needed. That was what set him apart from the others, he had three deaths up his sleeve and he wanted to use them most effectively.

What he had to do was appoint squads and send them to the luck of the draw, whatever it was on the other side of the doorways and whatever traps the Gauntlet had for them.

He looked at the doorways one last time, he could effectively split the team into three groups and send five recruits at a time into three different paths and then if they were canny, which the team was quickly becoming, then they could potentially lose one recruit per set, which would be the remaining three allowed, but then that would leave him no leeway for the obstacles to follow. There would be more than these, he was sure of it.

The team was broken into three groups of five, Brodie, Sharpe and Morris each taking four recruits apiece and that was only Liam left standing. There were two doors with fives on them and one with six, but his plan was still to send five through it. It was a maximum occupancy, not the minimum to enter. Instead he would take a road alone, the one that looked the safest was undoubtedly the worst and it stood to reason that the one looking the most dangerous should be the easiest to traverse.

They could potentially all be equally vicious and impossible to complete without a loss, but it was a chance he had to take in some form to complete the Gauntlet objective, so he was happy to risk himself, by himself.

The dark doorway that was set in the floor was the most ominous looking and he left it to the Squad leader to pick the path they wanted to take between them, then he just walked away and down the black square to meet whatever fate the Gauntlet had for him.

It was pitch black and he could not see anything at all in the complete absence of light once the door closed behind him.

Liam walked on in the pitch black and made no attempt to feel his way or to try and find any kind of advantage, the adjustment to low light that he got in the corridor did not happen in here, there was no light to adjust to, it was completely cut off from all external sources.

His foot brushed something and it moved under the motion of his leg. The thing, whatever it was moved and was alive, it scooted away from his position and made a curious little noise that sounded confused or put out by the intrusion. Liam took a few more steps and encountered more of the same creatures in there with him, each time they made a startled noise and moved aside, as he picked his way through them as much as possible in the complete darkness.

He stopped and tried to pick one of the creatures up, feeling for its girth and weight as he tried to lift it. It struggled and wriggled in his grasp before it broke free and ran away.

Liam could not tell what kind of thing it was, and despite the intrusion he was making into their habitat it did not attack or seem to care that he was there. Liam was disappointed, he expected more from the Gauntlet.  The floor must have been littered with these beings; he started moving them aside with every step and as the floor began to rise and he moved up hill the thickness of them increased. Each step was moved from a lateral position and swept forward rather than raised and placed downwards, wading more than stepping.

Eventually he reached the end of the under floor section when a wall presented itself. The creatures were still layered on thick and they became a hindrance as he tried to feel his way along the wall to find a door. He moved back and forwards across the wall looking for the exit but found nothing, possibly because of the animals that crowded the space so completely.

Frustration overtook him on the third pass and he picked up a creature and before it could get out of his grip he threw it angrily in the opposite direction of the wall, sending it sailing into the dark air unseen.

The creature yelped like it had been attacked, and an odd growling sound rumbled in response from the floor. The rumble grew to a growl