"Let's head out then." Sebastian grips his weapon and begins sprinting to the forest, we follow suit running after him with our guns at the ready.
Back to the forest we go, the leaves splash around water droplets as we move quickly through the forest getting to Mary. As we ran, Sebastian gradually slowed down until stopping fully. In front of us is the tunnel, massive and empty. The tunnel is unexpectedly quiet, didn't they just go through here? leftover empty crates are scattered around the entrance to the tunnel.
"Oh you're here already!" A voice exclaimed behind us.
We all looked back, behind us was Mary. Standing with her hands on her hips.
"So what now?" Mary asked.
"Word from the leader says that the tunnel looks new, something they didn't build. They have no records of it nor any reports of this tunnel, must have been hidden." Sebastian explained.
"For terrorists they do have good architecture and time to make this." Lennox mockingly remarked.
"Marcel have you gotten anything yet?" Sebastian asked Marcel who is looking down at his tablet again.
"I think so, hold on." Marcel taps on his tablet with his fingers with his head close to the tablet.
"YES" Marcel rejoiced, with his fist in the air in a show of victory.
"I found a connection in one of the cameras check it out." Marcel shows the tablet to us. On the screen was the convoy, the same convoy i saw earlier. This time though they are outside of the tunnel, in the light. As we stared at the convoy moving, the ground shook knocking some of us down. An explosion rang out from the entrance way of the tunnel, sending rock and rubble at us and everywhere else.
"GET BEHIND COVER!" Sebastian screamed.
We ran back, ignoring each other to find cover, i found a concrete barrier standing at the side fortunately facing the tunnel. I vaulted over the barrier and crouched behind it, covering my head with my hands. The explosions continued getting louder and more violent than before. Rocks of varying sizes and dust flew everywhere hitting the barrier with great force, but the barrier withstood the hits.
The explosions stopped with the debris getting smaller and smaller. Smoke and rock dust choked the air around me. I looked up from the barrier, the tunnel is destroyed, with rubble in it's place.
"Everyone okay?" Sebastian yelled. We emerged from cover regrouping at the front of the rubble.
"Marcel do you know where you got the camera signal from?" Sebastian asked, Marcel taps and swipes on his tablet for that signal.
"The cam feed is lost along with multiple other connections, actually everything here is gone. They probably destroyed their electrical grid or something, but i managed to recover the location of the camera." Marcel replied.
A marker appears in my helmet, pointing me to the location of the cam feed. The marker pointed at the forest again, but the direction is opposite of the side we came from.
"Team we heard an explosion what was that?" A voice asked from the comms. The military leader's voice.
"They blew up the tunnel and escaped somewhere, we managed to find a possible lead to their location." Sebastian replied.
"You're deep in the forest now, we can't expend our soldiers due to a nearby attack from rioters, I'm sorry. But we have some helicopters that may evacuate you and your team, they will take care of the rest, just stall them but don't kill them all. report back to me when you're done and out of the forest, out" The leader said.
Sebastian turns to look at the direction of the marker.
"Marcel how long do you think is the walk to the signal?" Sebastian asked.
"About 15 to 30 minutes." Marcel replied.
"Please tell me we can kill them once we get there." Stephen begged.
"Don't worry, we will." Thalia replied happily.
"Guess we should get moving now." Sebastian leads the group and begins running once again. I prepared for another run then started moving.
I pushed through the forest, still staying close to my group, i grip my rifle tightly with both hands as i run expeditiously with leaves slamming against my body. The forest feels tighter than before, my sight getting more obstructed by leaves.
multiple markers came up but they are closer to me than the original one.
"The forest is getting tighter with more trees surrounding me, makes sense as to why they used this place. Just keep running as long as you can hear each other's steps then we are still together." Sebastian explained. I attempt to hear my teammate's footsteps, trying to ignore the sound of the leaves and my own footsteps. I can faintly hear footsteps on both sides, good thing were not split up.
I continue pushing through, running headfirst into the leaves, constantly hearing clicking sounds every second with my helmet taking the hits of the leaves.
Every step I take a gulp of air and continue running, my legs are aching but I'm not stopping.
"About 7 minutes left, it's best we save energy so for now run slower." Marcel advised.
After hearing him I gradually slowed down my sprinting practically jogging now, with the footsteps around me getting slower as well. The forest is never ending, as if something is going appear and eat me while I'm running. The trees get more tight and numerous, the light from the clouded sun now penetrates some spots on the ground as the leaves cover most of the light.
"Wait I'm getting a new signal, it's Damon's old gun?" Marcel said in disbelief.
"Wait it's near us, wait stop running now!" Marcel hastily ordered.
I stopped jogging, just staring at the green foliage of the forest, through the cracks of the leaves i can only make out darkness, with little light piercing through to illuminate the ground.
"I think were not alone, stop moving and try to hear a possible enemy nearby." Marcel cautioned.
The forest was silent and dead, with the wind hitting the leaves and raindrops falling to the dirt. As i started to stop focusing my eye caught something in a small crack of the forest. A dark silhouette of someone, walking holding a weapon, with light beaming down to the ground from his weapon.
"I see someone, the guy seems to have a flashlight." I spoke into the comms keeping my sight on the figure, it seems the figure doesn't see me.
"Well that confirms my suspicion," Marcel commented, "What now Sebastian?" Marcel asked.
"THE FOREST IS BIG JUST TURN ON YOUR FLASHLIGHTS AND KEEP SEARCHING, THEY MIGHT BE CLOSE." A male voice shouted, as soon as he finished, multiple beams of light appeared from the dark, left, right, and front. Light shot through, but fortunately the beams were aimed at the ground or didn't reach us
"Get down!" Sebastian quietly ordered.
I promptly got down on my stomach, making sure i did not make a sound while doing so.
"Hopefully the leaves cover us." Nora murmured into the comms.
"KEEP AN EYE OUT WE GOTTA GUARD THIS AREA TILL THE CONVOY LEAVES!" Another voice shouted.
As the voice ended, footsteps began, with each step accompanied by the sound of dirt water puddles and wet leaves being stepped on. They continued moving forward, the steps getting nearer and nearer.
"Rocker here, nothing much here. Is the convoy gone?" A voice talked, i realized that the voice was close to me on my right, somehow I'm still hidden. I look up and the soldier was close to me, with his hand on his ear, possibly talking to his comms.
"Finally, TEAM HEAD BACK WERE LEAVING!" The man commanded. I felt relief as they began walking away, but the man next to me didn't move yet. I felt my leg, as if something heavy was placed on it.
"What the fuck?" The man spoke, shit he saw me. I can hear him crouching down to see what he stepped on, while he was crouched, a whistle sound flew past me, followed by the sound of choking. I slowly got up to see what happened. The man, on the ground had a knife lodged into his neck, desperately gasping for air while blood poured out of his mouth. After a couple of seconds of his fruitless attempts of getting air, he took one final breath and lied dead.
I hear leaves rustling and moving around me, i hope it's my teammates.
"Judging from the sound, i think you killed him Luna." Stephen remarked in the comms. I got up to stand upright.
"Is everyone okay?" Sebastian asked in the comms."
"He almost got me, thanks." I replied.
"Well that's one down, hopefully they don't come back searching for him." Lennox added.
"Were near so no need to run. Just creep through the bushes until we see light." Marcel advised.
We started moving again, this time at a slower pace. The forest became more quiet than before, as if you can hear the air going inside your ears or the beating of your heart. Now we must focus on the task at hand. Find the convoy.