70. Fool’s Day

Johan smiles at the nine people who are anxiously standing ready in their impressive fighting gear with their kit bags on their backs.

“Okay, you April fools, it is 10:15. It’s now or never! Here we go! The door’s mechanism will open precisely at 10:30 as you know. Captain Dexter and his men are already waiting for us to take us directly to the helicopter. Move your asses! We must go up the stairs. It is 10:15 already.”

Kadin’s heart pumps in her ears with excitement and she also sees the same anticipation on the faces of the people around her. They are looking so funny with their scaled metal gear. At last, they are going to leave the shelter! In pairs, they start to climb the stairs. Soon she is going to feel the fresh air again; she is going to inhale it and see the sun! It is a pity they are worried because they are unsure of what is going on outside.

Last Wednesday Professor Johan showed them via the cameras on the roof that the Puma had already landed. Soldiers jumped out and settled around the building. An army captain appeared before the camera above the 666 door with a placate introducing him as Captain Dexter from the Eastwood Estate. He asked that they should leave the fort immediately. Unluckily it was only one-way communication as they had no way to answer him or ask him any questions.

Johan was frustrated and chided himself for losing the last drone as it had a microphone they could use, but it is now too late crying over spilled milk. It was not the only problem he had, because there was another glitch which he concealed but now he has to tell them. He discovered, in the meantime, that there was a problem with the program on his laptop that could open the door. The door is locked and could only be opened exactly on 1st April at 10:30. How it could have happened, he can’t explain because earlier he could have opened the door anytime. Nico arranged their pick-up with Morrison before they were allowed to enter the hide-out. When Dexter stood before the door, Johan wondered whether he should open up so that they can deliberate, but then he saw the message that prohibits him to do that. It was suddenly programmed so that the application would only open the door on the pre-arranged time. How the occult managed to manipulate his laptop, he couldn’t explain. He hadn’t had any communication with them.

It was when he told them about it that the insecurity started heating up. They started to doubt whether the occult really couldn’t communicate with them or if there was any other reason for their total silence. Why was there no way in which they could communicate with the world outside? Johan even wondered if it really was his fault for losing the last two drones because how they lost signal unexpectedly doesn’t make sense at all.

And if all the insecurity wasn’t bad enough, the next day, Thursday, the captain stood before the door warning them on his placate that they expect a possible attack on April Fool’s day. That was the reason they wanted to evacuate earlier than on the pre-arranged time to the farm. Now total confusion reigns and they are not sure whether they can trust Dexter and his men. And the door will be locked securely until the right time. So, they decided on the best action plan. Now they are all ready and waiting in the leisure hall before the stairs while Johan scans the outside with his cameras before he joins them at 10:15. They start ascending the stairs.

Francois and Nico lead with Jack and Johan following with their AK automatic machine guns ready. Michael and Billy follow them, then Kadin and Martie and at the back Rene and Emilie.

“Are you dead sure, Professor? Is everything okay outside?” Jack asks.

Johan shakes his head assuring him. “Everything is quiet. I don’t see any invaders. So, I think Dexter and his men were maybe over-cautious.”

Jack nods and speaks to the front with Nico and Francois: “Be ready guys! Something feels awkward for me.”

Eventually, they come together standing close to one another in the space before the door. They are waiting anxiously.

Michael frequently looks at his arm watch and counts down the seconds when the time arrives: “10 seconds, 9 … 3, 2, 1 …”

They all look in anticipation at the big sliding door. Nothing happens!

Suddenly there is a loud bang followed an ear-deafening grinding noise right behind them. Two women’s loud yelling screams through Kadin’s ears. She realizes it is Rene’s and Emilie’s before the voices become fainter as they were being dragged away. Then someone grabs her roughly and abruptly pulls her back with brute force like a rag doll. She glides and slips between metal scabs backwards. Strong arms pass her on and new hands pull her brutally further back.

A rough, low frequency, hoarse man’s voice sounds just in front of her: “Stand still! Don’t move! Hurry up! Take their weapons!”

Someone spins her around and she is being pushed forward in the dark and she realizes they unexpectedly have opened up a narrow tunnel behind them and the women are being abducted by strange but similar metal bodies and pushed down the tunnel. Their abductors have the same clothing with flashlights on their helmets that shine ahead and one of these lights warns her just in time that there are stairs ahead and she will have to tread cautiously while strong arms force her downwards.

They now drive her through the dark tunnel forward and slowly she realizes some facts. The real sliding door didn’t open but one right behind them! They were overtaken by invaders from the adjacent smallholding. It is the same tunnel that foiled the task team earlier. These people must be either the Saviours or they are working for them for why had the door of the hidden tunnel opened up at the right time? That is why the programming on Johan’s laptop suddenly changed because 10:30 exactly was the time for their ambush.

Eventually, feeling like ages, stairs are going upwards to the light. She is now being pushed heavy-handedly upwards and then they burst out through an exit and the sun blinds her eyes. She feels loose gravel beneath her feet and smells the delightful, familiar, damp air of iodine carried naturally by the sea breeze inland. There is little time to look around because she is being driven roughly forward but she sees they move through under a shadow and she looks up. They are moving through beneath a gigantic trailer hanging above them and she peeps and can only see for a moment the big wheels of the crane that holds it in the air.

Looking forward, she counts six, black Ranger double cabs waiting in a row with doors open. They are now out of the tunnel and with the more space, pairs of soldiers move away from one another taking their human booty straight to a specific Ranger. She now sees someone looking like Martie being pulled away with a soldier at each side and coming to the leftmost Ranger, they roughly push her into the canopy of the Ranger and then she is also being pushed forward into the same canopy landing with Martie at the back of the double cab’s body. She turns around and sees two soldiers also climbing in closing the door behind them.

Hostilely they look at her and Martie and for the first time, she sees their faces. Their glass shields are open and she studies the faces. They look like women but she is not sure whether they are men with womanly features.

She asks: “What is going on? Who are you?”

The nearest one grabs her arm and roughly pulls her nearer and it feels as if her shoulder gets disjointed and the soldier glares at her and aggressively whispers and Kadin realizes it is a woman’s voice: “Shut the fuck up! No fucking word, okay! Be happy you are still breathing, but give us shit then …” She pulls her gloved finger over her throat and bumps Kadin violently backwards so that her back painfully connects with the cab’s body.

Kadin now realizes that Martie is crying and she takes her hand. “Don’t worry, Martie, the Saviors sent them. Look, they are wearing the same outfits like ours.”

Martie gets a fright and looks: “What, really?” She now also studies the soldiers opposite her. “You are right, they are wearing the same gear.”

The soldiers look at each other and shake their heads. The one opposite Martie asks: “What is the name of your cute friend, cry baby?”

Martie’s sobs have ended but her voice still sounds tearful: “Kadin, her name is Kadin.”

The woman points with her forefinger at Kadin. “Listen to Kadin and you will be okay, sister.”

Martie asks: “What about the other?”

“We must get all your asses to a place where the Saviors want to hide you to do your work for them, but don’t give us shit or we lose someone very easily on our way there.”

In the meantime, boots are running around and doors slam shut and Kadin again hears the hoarse voice yelling orders: “Okay, Spyker, drop that thing quickly in front of the opening and open up the door of the trailer.”

She hears the diesel engine of the mobile crane followed by a loud bang and then a squealing sound of metal and he shouts again: “Get that spotlights at the holes. We must chase them into the tunnel with the lights. Come, quickly now! It’s almost time the hide-out’s door is going to open. Move your bloody asses … yes … switch on the fucking lights.”

Kadin hears unearthly growls and hissing sounds coming from the trailer and then it is quiet. Boots running can be heard and still more cab’s doors are being shut and then she hears the voice again. This time it is coming from the front and she realizes she and Martie unluckily are in the leader’s cab.

Again the man screams: “Recce! Recce, come in, over!”

She hears the crackling over the radio but can’t make anything out and then the man yells again: “The door has just opened and the man-eaters are on their way to meet them. Blow your whistle and move your ass and come and join us, over.”

Again radio noise and then he yells: “Right, here we go soldiers!”

The Rangers depart and soon they drive slowly on a dirt road in procession. Kadin is not sure but she suspects they are in the leading cab. She hears shots from a distance sounding like a mixture of normal and automatic gun fire and then she hears an explosion followed by the yelling in the double cap of the soldiers in front of her as if they are quite happy with what has happened.

She wonders whether it was the Puma that has been destroyed by Recce but she can see very little through the small, armor-plated window.