Dark Fields
The night hung heavy over the city skyline as Twigg checked his gear one last time. His pulse pounded with anticipation, the familiar rush of adrenaline running through his system.
"You ready for this, Twigg?" Vance's voice crackled over the comms. His oldest friend, his brother in every way but blood.
Twigg smirked. “Baby, I was born ready. But you knew that.”
Raven's laughter joined the channel. "That's what he thinks. I'm still waiting for the old man to keel over one of these days."
"Can it, tech-head," Twigg growled, unable to hide his amusement. "Just make sure those firewalls don't slow us down."
"Relax, boss," Hawk chimed in, his gruff tone all business. "We've got your back. Let's get this done."
Twigg nodded, his expression hardening. "Alright, team. You know the drill. Sync up and get ready to move on my mark."
They moved as one, ghosts in the night, scaling the towering walls of the facility with practiced ease. Twigg took point, his senses heightened, focused entirely on the physical world around them.
The first guard went down without a sound other than the soft sound of his neck breaking, and they slipped through the breach like water through a crack. Raven worked her magic from the comms van nearby, bypassing layers of security on her laptop as they advanced deeper into the compound.
“Guys…I’m picking up increased chatter," she warned. “They know we’re here."
Gunfire erupted around them, ricocheting off the walls. Twigg barked orders into his voice mic, and his team responded with lethal precision, cutting through the enemy forces with ruthless efficiency.
They fought their way to the central server room, where Vance slotted and enabled the wifi connection to Raven’s laptop. Raven’s fingers flew across the keyboard as she cracked the last ice and began downloading the sensitive data. Seconds passed. ”Almost got it..."
An explosion rocked the facility, shaking the ground beneath their feet. Twigg steadied himself, his instincts screaming at him. "What the hell was that?"
"I don't know, but we need to get out of here now!" Vance yelled, providing cover fire as they fell back.
Alarms blared, and the air grew thick with smoke. Twigg coughed, his eyes stinging, as he led his team towards the exit. But the way was blocked, debris and twisted metal barring their path.
"Raven, find us another way out!" he ordered, his voice strained.
"Working on it, but...oh no..." Her words trailed off, dread seeping into her tone.
Twigg whirled, looking for another egress point, his gut clenching. "What is it?"
Sitting in the coms van, her eyes were wide with fear. "It's not just an explosion...it's...it's the beginning.”
Chapter 1 (Four months later)
Smoke layered with the scent of decay hung heavy in the air as Twigg's boots crunched over the rubble-strewn ground. He led his team through the desolate ruins of what had been a thriving city, the skeletal husks of skyscrapers clawing at the ashen sky like bony fingers – grim reminders of a world now gone.
"You getting anything on that sensor sweep, Raven?" Twigg's gruff voice cut through the eerie silence, a low rumble that betrayed none of the weariness etched into the lines of his weathered face.
The hacker's nimble fingers danced over her battered tech-rig, the faint glow of the screen casting an ethereal light across her sharp features. "Faint energy signatures about half a click northeast. Could be our lucky day." Her tone held a cautious optimism they hadn't felt in far too long.
Hawk snorted, his grip tightening on his rifle until his knuckles turned white. "Or it could be another dead end. We've been chasing ghosts for weeks." The sniper's words carried a bitter edge, honed by the relentless struggle for survival in this harsh new reality.
"Stow it," Twigg snapped, his voice like the crack of a whip. "We're running on fumes, and you know what that means." The unspoken threat hung in the air, a specter as palpable as the clouds of dust kicked up as they walked.
A tense silence fell over the group as they picked their way through the rubble-strewn streets, the crunch of debris underfoot the only sound in the stillness. Patch, their medic, kept a watchful eye on their flanks, her expression grim beneath the grime streaking her face. She’d become so used to the copper smell of blood in the last months that it had become a constant reminder of the violence that had become their daily bread.
As they neared the coordinates, a massive structure loomed before them – a fortress of steel and concrete, untouched by the ravages that had claimed the rest of the city. Its smooth, featureless walls seemed to absorb the feeble light, an impenetrable monolith that defied the ruin surrounding it.
"Well, I'll be..." Raven muttered, her voice a hushed whisper that still managed to carry a note of awe. "Looks like we hit the jackpot."
Twigg signaled for them to take cover, his eyes narrowing as he studied the imposing structure. A faint hum emanated from within, like the heartbeat of some great metal and concrete beast. "Hawk, see if you can get a better vantage point. I want to know what we're dealing with before we make a move."
The sniper nodded curtly and melted into the shadows, his movements silent and sure, leaving no trace of his passage amidst the debris.
Long minutes ticked by as Twigg and the others waited with bated breath, their senses heightened to an almost preternatural degree. The faint whisper of wind through the skeletal remains of buildings was the only sound.
Finally, Hawk's voice crackled over the comms, terse and clipped. "You're not going to believe this..."
A deafening explosion that rocked the ground beneath their feet cut his words off. Twigg instinctively shielded his face as debris rained down around them, the concussive force of the blast momentarily stealing his breath away.
"Contact!" Patch's voice rang out, her rifle leveled at the figures emerging from the billowing smoke like wraiths given form.
Twigg's heart hammered in his chest as he took in the heavily armed soldiers advancing on their position, their faces obscured by tactical masks that lent them an almost insect appearance. His body flooded with the familiar rush of combat.
"Defensive positions! Raven, I want that door open, now!" he shouted, his words cutting through the cacophony of gunfire that surrounded them.
As bullets kicked up sprays of spalled concrete around them, Raven worked feverishly to bypass the facility's security protocols, her movements a blur of focused intensity. “Almost…almost…got it!"
The reinforced door groaned open, its mechanisms protesting the abuse with a shrill screech of tortured metal. "Go, go, go!" Twigg roared, waving his team forward into the breach.
They piled through the entrance, and Twigg paused to lay down suppressing fire, his AR-15 spitting hot lead that carved furrows in the rubble. A stray round clipped his shoulder, and he grunted in pain, the impact punching the air from his lungs as he stumbled back inside. The door slammed shut behind him with a resounding boom, sealing them off from the chaos outside.
Patch was at his side in an instant, her deft hands already working to staunch the bleeding as the coppery scent of his own blood mingled with the stale, recycled air of the facility. "You're hit, but it's just a graze. Nothing vital." Her voice was a calm, reassuring anchor in the madness.
Twigg waved her off with a curt nod, his jaw set in a hard line as he surveyed their new surroundings – a sterile, high-tech facility that seemed untouched by the devastation outside. Banks of monitors and control panels lined the walls, their displays dark and dormant, while harsh fluorescent lights cast an eerie pall over the space.
"What the hell is this place?" Hawk muttered, his voice laced with a hint of unease as he took in the cold, alien environment.
Raven's fingers flew over her rig, sifting through the data she'd uncovered in her frantic hack of the facility's systems. Her eyes widened in horror, and her breath caught in her throat. "You're not going to believe this..." She looked up, her gaze meeting Twigg's, and the dread in her expression sent a chill down his spine. "This place...it's ground zero. The HQ of the people who released the virus.”