chapter 11: Infiltration

Today is my second day without any sleep. I stayed up when we stopped to sleep last night. I feel bad because Josh and Raymir worry about me, but the closer I get to the base, the more restless I become. Almost like I'm running on rage.

We were walking down a street when we noticed smoke billowing into the sky from a nearby factory. We went to cut through an alley to get there quickly but there was a wall blocking our way. We looked up and saw a guard tower, confirming that we had made it to the base. We went along the buildings looking for an entrance until we found a garage with three or four doors to enter through with a few guards on top.

"What are you doing here?" He yelled. "We're with you. We were ambushed by some survivors. We are the only ones left." He had a conversation with someone out of our site then turned back to us. "Come on in, we'll have doc look at ya." He said, pulling a lever. The door in front of us slowly began opening and we went in when it reached the top. Soon after we walked in, the door slammed down behind us.

I looked around the room we were in and saw impressive looking vehicles. There was a money transporting truck with a scoop on the front with spikes in it. There were people welding large metal sheets on a pickup truck in clothes that could be considered rags. They were obviously slaves. "Poor sod's" I thought walking by them. There were more doors in the back of the building but they were propped open to easily get through. As we walked out into a back street and man walked towards us and told us where the doctor was. We thanked him and went on our way. Josh nudged me on the arm as we did.

"Nice job Xander, you didn't shoot him in the face this time." Raymir and him chuckled and I punched him in the arm. He grunted and chuckled more as he rubbed it.

We eventually reached an apartment building with a large sign that said Doc. Sean's butcher shop. I chuckled at the name and pushed the door open, walking in. As I looked in certain rooms I saw more slaves with major injuries. One had a piece of rebar stuck through his arm. Another was obviously dead, laying completely still on his bed not breathing. The name outside started making sense.

I went up the stairs and found people with less serious injuries. Cuts, broken bones, all those kinds of things. In the second room we found doctor Sean himself, talking with a patient. "Hey doc, we need a checkup." I called to him. He turned and got a scared look on his face. "Yes sir, j-just follow me upstairs." He walked out of the patient's room and up the stairs. We followed up the stairs and he was running around, getting things ready. It made me feel bad how stressed he seemed so I stepped in.

"Hey Doc, take your time. We're in any rush." He looked at me in disbelief and nodded, slowly getting back to work. "Y-yes sir..." I took off my helmet and sat down on a nearby sofa, Josh and Raymir following. Soon the doctor was done was called us up. "Who are you three? I've never seen you around here." he said while inspecting my body. "We're new here. We only joined a few days ago in a separate base." He looked up at me and smiled. "You've only got some cuts and bumps. You'll be fine." I nodded and went back to the couch next to Josh as Raymir went up.

While he inspected Raymir he sparked up the conversion again. "So what are your names?" Josh responded this time. "I'm Josh, this is Xander, and that's Raymir." He nodded and stopped and looked at Raymir's neck. "You have a lot of bruising around your neck, what happened?" Raymir stuttered and came up with an excuse. "One of them tried to strangle me until Xander stabbed him in the neck."

Sean nodded and stood up straight. "You'll be fine. You should be fine, just be careful." Raymir shook his hand and he called Josh over but he refused.

"I'm fine. I checked myself out." Sean nodded again and got a nervous face. "Y-yes sir. Have a nice day." Sean waved and walked downstairs back.

We looked at each other and walked down the stairs and out of the building. We walked past a parking lot with a few cars in it with slaves taking them apart. I looked down at one who was taking a break. He noticed and panicked, getting back to work quickly. I looked away and began walking with my friends again.

We rounded another corner into an actual street, showing us truly how big this place was. We were at the edge and looking down the street I'd say it went down about 13 streets down until the street split. The place was massive for only being around for a month.

In all honesty, we were lost so we walked into the next building we saw. We opened the door to the factory and looked around. There were slaves next to giant presses that metal went into and was cut into beams. All the other thugs had their guns out making sure they were working. We split up and all went to look around.

I walked down a set of stairs and went down a hallway large with furnaces lined against the wall with dirty slaves shoveling cole into them. As I turned a corner I found a very malnourished slave on the ground, holding his stomach and groaning. I sighed and pulled on him. "Come on lad, you gotta get up." I told him. A few moments later a thug rounded the corner and saw the situation. He got a rage-filled look on his face and pulled out a pistol. "That's it! You don't work, you die!" Soon after he fired his gun, shooting him in the head.

Blood splattered everywhere, including on me, onto my face. I let out a sob as I wiped it off and stood up, walking off briskly. Me and my friends met up at a fence blocking off a stairwell with a sign above it that said "no slaves". We pushed it open and walked up a metal staircase.