A gaze into the past intermission Edward (3)

"Jeremy and Mia were murdered. While I was in my house a whole group of armed intruders tried to break in and kill me. I went to pick up my granddaughter and tried bringing her to the military base but we were blocked by a bunch of black cars. I turned and now some of them are following us. Where are you and the guys right now?"

"We are in base prepping for a scheduled deployment. We'll come for you right now, is there anywhere you can hide until we get there?"

"I doubt that I'll be able to reach the city before I hit another blocked road so I'm thinking of using the emergency teleporter to enter a dungeon and bunker down there."

"You're crazy! You can't bring a child into a dungeon. Also, we can't use the teleporter here since it's under maintenance so we'd have to come there too."

"I have little choice. You know where we'll be waiting. Hurry!"

I end the call and pocket my phone. Aisha stares at me in distaste since I made a call while driving but these are special circumstances.

Still driving in the wrong direction I take the exit that leads to the emergency teleporter built by the military. We stop before the old building that is completely empty. Without the necessary codes to activate everything no one can make use of this anyway.

Unfortunately, the lockdown sequence of the teleporter takes too long so the guys following us will surely catch up and enter the dungeon after us.

I pull Aisha into the building and we enter the teleporter after I have typed in several codes. The dungeon I choose is a simple cave type that has not been mapped out. Here's hoping our pursuers will take a while to find us without a map.

The teleporter flashes and we are brought directly into the dungeon. I hold a Phantom Phoenix handgun in one hand while tightly holding Aisha's with the other.

The monsters on the lower levels are weak and stupid. I shoot in their direction and they immediately flee in terror of my bullets.

"Grampa, you're not hitting the monsters!"

"I know Aisha, I know."

Of course, I'm not hitting the monsters. If I were to do that I'd leave an easy trail leading to our location. Following a body trail would take even an amateur little to no effort.

Every second they spend trying to find us is a second my team can use to get here. All I can do is buy as much time as I can.

After we reach the fifth floor the monsters begin to become strong enough that I don't dare to go further into the dungeon. It would be a shame if we successfully hid from our pursuers only to be killed and eaten by dungeon monsters.

After searching for a while I find a small cave leading away from the main tunnel. The cave has only one entrance and features a bunch of rocky formations on the ground that I can use for cover.

Aisha also realizes that this is as far as we'll go and begins to explore the little cave to sate her curiosity. Since we are in an empty cave with only one entrance I am content to let her explore while I set things up.

The cave is only forty meters long so my sniper rifle won't be able to show its full prowess. I might be able to use it for the first kill bit after that it'll take too long between shots. I mount the sniper rifle on a rock towards the middle of the cave. Behind that same rock, I also place my backpack and assault rifle.

I search my backpack for any small anti-personnel mines I might have packed and find one remote control detonator. I place the remote mine on the rock cover that is closest to the entrance and return to my sniper rifle.

There isn't much else I can do.

Half an hour passes and just when I'm about to get my hopes up I hear a sniffing sound echo through the tunnels. The sniffing is accompanied by low voices. I curse inwardly and motion for Aisha to come to me. She understands my hand sign without problems and approaches quietly.

Since our pursuers have tracker dogs the possibility of not being found out is far too low. They must have gotten my scent at the house and brought a dog in case I pulled something like this.

I hold my breath and allow myself to go perfectly still. My finger is comfortably resting on the trigger of my sniper rifle as I am ready to take the shot. The sniffing sound grows louder and then a dog head pokes around the corner.

I pull the trigger and brace myself against the recoil. The roaring bang from my gun makes the dog freeze up. Moments later its head explodes as the bullet penetrates cleanly through it.

The line on the dog's collar goes slack and I hear weapons being prepared to return fire. I let go of the sniper rifle and switch to the assault rifle. The first group of pursuers storms in while being covered by the second group's gunfire and hides behind the rock I suspected they would. I let them settle down for a moment before I press the remote detonator. The rock cover those four guys were hiding behind is blown away by the mine and I open fire.

I can't tell if it's due to the mine or my shooting but all four pursuers are now dead. The second group is still in the tunnel outside and hesitates to enter.

When suddenly a round object is thrown into the cave I react quickly and shoot it. My bullet hits the grenade and an explosion erupts in the air. They try this a few more times but I shoot all the grenades before they get close enough to affect me. In response, I throw a grenade back at them and they scream in pain.

I can hear them retreat but I doubt that they are leaving for good. They return ten minutes later and I can hear from their scurried footsteps that they are in a hurry. Another round object is thrown into the cave and I shoot it without thinking.

When a cloud of gas rushes out of the thrown chamber I curse out loud and pull out my handguns.