In a flying car, a man sat on the passenger seat, sleeping with his hand resting on the armrest. His head rested on his right palm, wiggling here and there.
The lights from the city shone through the tinted windows into the eyes of the man as he made a fist out of annoyance.
He shielded it with his left hand while clutching his jaw.
"Hey! Go higher, man. I can't sleep properly with these lights getting in my eyes, the 'GEAR' surgery is hurting my back." He said to the driver as he got into a more comfortable position to sleep.
The car elevated in the sky enough to see birds. But suddenly, the driver pushed the boosters, and in a few seconds, the car vanished in thin air. As the car reached the destination of the passenger, the driver stopped the car.
An elderly man, wearing a white shirt and black bowtie, had slicked-back hair that was completely white, said,
"Sir Arkam, we have reached the place. Please wake up."As he turned around, he saw that his master was still asleep. Raising his right eyebrow out of annoyance, he said,
"Young master, as the master said, 'Never sleep during a mission or important work; it hinders clear thinking.'
However, I allowed this because your last mission had prevented you from sleeping. But now it was time to wake up." He turned to the wheel side to see the digital clock on the back of it.
The young man said, "10 minutes more, Mom," with a sarcastic smirk.
The driver narrowed his eyes at the sarcastic remark and voiced a command, "Call the master," to the car while wearing a 'got you' smile.
The young man suddenly sat up properly and groaned, "Come on! Old man. I was just trying to get some rest.
And why are you calling Father?" He cleaned the drool from earlier sleep, got out of the car, and fixed his overcoat. And said,
"Why bring me here when an AI could handle it?" He looked at the driver with curious eyes as he continued,
"At your age, why are you still doing this?" Smirking a bit, he ended with,
"It's time to retire, man. I know you have savings and investments, so it's time to let go."
The old driver chuckled a bit and said, "Good luck, young master." And dropped Arkam in front of an old abandoned bunker in the middle of the forest. As the car moved far away and slowly vanished into the air,
In the misty forest, as the air sounded like a stream through leaves, and the soil smelled like the first rain of the season, and as the shoes sank into the land because of the moisture, a lone silhouette in all black—overcoat, shirt, trousers, shoes, and belt, with his black hair parted unevenly, about seventy-thirty.
He turned his head throughout the forest, searching for something, looked right-left, and above, but he saw nothing. Then slowly, his attention went to the bunker.
Arkam sighed and thought,
"Why were they still leaving these bunkers and ruins of the past untouched? Destroy them already, fucking war memories. Well, survival was the hardest." The nose wrinkled and dusted away his clothes in frustration.
He couldn't do anything about it. Arkam took a deep breath, as he touched the back of his right ear with a determined look and said, "Officer Arkam, code name 0078-1, was online for the mission."
He waited for a reply for a few seconds, but there was dead silence. As he took another deep breath, and suddenly—
A voice said, with a high pitch, "Finally! Officer, how long did it take you to go online?"
Worried and frustrated, as the voice waited for a reply, Arkam said nothing. He scanned the dark forest, eyes searching for something.
The voice sighed and said,
"Okay, there will be a drone coming your way in a few seconds. Connect with it, and it will provide information about the mission."
The voice said,
"Good luck, Officer Arkam, alpha1-2-5-5-18 out." The voice went silent.
Some seconds later, A slow-drifting robot came from the sky, slowly declined, and stopped in front of Arkam's face. The drone was white and cylindrical, almost palm-sized, with a curved screen in the middle.
Two eyes on the screen, above the screen, a lens.
It asked in a robotic whir for the code to connect, and Arkam said, "1-3-9G, now connect and give the fucking info of the mission."
"This is an inspection mission. There are EMP[Electromagnetic Pulse] jammers here. Try to rely on the white(drone)." White in robotic whir gave the info. His eyes twitched as he expressed frustration at the process that was going on.
The nexus drive at the back of his neck connected to the drone. More info about the mission was sent to him.
Arkam thought about the mission. The sound of cracked branches and leaves came as he walked calmly toward the entrance of the bunker.
Arkam saw a keypad lock on the right of the big rusty door. He tried to use the keypad to enter the passcode, click, but the keypad didn't work. The big doors were covered with moss, and plants and vines were all over the bunker entrance.
"Time and nature didn't go easy on you, huh? But I can't go inside because of this stupid old door," He thought, while he kicked the door.
Suddenly, he got an idea. As Arkam reached into the secret pocket of his coat, He got a small specs case and opened it; he pulled out the specs and wore clear specs with a square black frame.
As Arkam wore them, he tapped on the right of the frame and said, "Protocol 2 online, connect code 1-3-9G." The specs powered on and replied, "Connect is secure," in a ladylike voice.
A text appeared on the left side of the specs, "The connection is completed to control the drone." white closed the distance from Arkam, while slowly drifting like water in the process.
Arkam, in a deep voice, said, "Manipulate the door to open." As he read the report of the bunker from the specs.
The robot, levitated and transformed to open its backside, two small wires came out from the back as it got close to the keypad, opened it, and inserted both wires. It took a few seconds as the keypad had scratches and a broken screen. which showed text, and a broken robotic voice said,
'Correct code, entry allowed."
As the rusty door moved slowly, vines snapped like fragile threads, dust swept away the past, revealing scars and a "number 4-G." The area had been shrouded in a thick mist of dust. Arkam backed off.
He pulled a black handkerchief to cover his mouth and nose.
The door opened with a metallic scraping that screamed, creaking like loud cries, and a whir echoed through the dense, dark forest.
Now revealed, the door hid nothing but tense dark; a void, far denser than the dark that forest showed, silence that screamed. Mute that whispered, Nothing but dread.
Arkam tweaked as he looked at 'nothing.' As his eyes narrowed, he folded the handkerchief and put it in his pocket. Arkam turned around to see where the white was, as he dusted off his clothes and cleaned his specs.
Arkam tapped on the left side of the frame of the specs and ordered, "Explore the bunker, detect any life form.
And make a map, and send it to me." The white went first inside, as it scanned the area, he activated night vision and entered the bunker.
As he stepped into absolute darkness, with shrunken eyes and heavy breaths, his footsteps echoed, slowly fading into 'nothing'.
Into a dark, underground structure, a silhouette slowly walked as he scanned the area. Arkam's paranoia grew, and he saw the map displayed on the left side of the specs, thinking, "This place was bigger than I thought."
The echoes of his steps grew louder. As he ventured deeper into the abyss, he looked at the ceiling,
"Higher than a normal bunker," he thought.
The further Arkam went, the more lost he became. Suddenly, A message popped up on the specs:
"Detection of life, four individuals, at the second level, the storage room."
He stopped, his eyes widened, and a finger twitched. The shock accelerated Arkam's thought process.
"Four individuals," he muttered.
"On the second level, how long will it take me to get there?" The map opened in the specs to answer his question.
"51 minutes," he murmured. As his eyes narrowed, he commanded, "Make the calculation, if I use NKP [Neno-kinetic-Prosthesis] GEAR to reach there."
The AI calculated and displayed numerous numerical variables and factors. But the message on the left specs read, "13 minutes if GEAR is used."
"Well, better than nothing," he muttered.
An intricate pattern formed in his skin across his shoulder blades, glowing with a blue tint.
They transformed into nano-tech, creating two hinged rods that protruded from his back, extending down to his legs and draping over his trousers.
They attached to his knees and ankles, allowing for free movement.
The shoes were enhanced with an additional layer of nano-tech. A black, matted GEAR enveloped the trousers,
connecting to the knees, ankles, and the entire shoe, pulsating with blue veins that showed energy surging through it.
He started running and turned to the left. As he sped up, energy began to release. He moved so quickly that the naked eye couldn't even see him.
He ran straight and saw a barricade that closed the entry to the second level. The energy glowed from his shoe and was released as he jumped over the barricade.
He landed on the other side, stopped as he saw a door, his gaze rising, muttering, 'second level.'