For Your Eyes Only

by Indie Cred

Chapter 5

After three hours of digging, the sun was high in the sky, beating down oppressively upon us. The trees seemed to offer no assistance to the intense light from above anymore. We stood at the bottom of the slope the troops had carved out, staring at the massive metal door. It stood at least seven feet high, and five feet across. A large metal wheel was affixed to the front of the door, and wouldn’t budge. Private Twitch gave an experimental kick at the door, and was met with a small thud. The door was solid, and apparently rather thick.

“Well, doc. Here’s your entrance. Any idea how to get it open?”

“If I had to guess, It say it has something to do with the wheel, Captain.” She said, annoyed.

“That’s a great plan and all, except it’s rusted in place. Who knows how long this thing has been sitting here?”

“Well then, I suggest your team get to work, hmm?” She said, and walked back towards the gathered scientists waiting nearby.

“Fucking bitch…” I muttered under my breath. Ironside must have heard me, as I caught him smiling.

“Let’s get this damn door open!” I said. “Starch, go get the ropes.”

Private Starch walked away towards the gear bags slowly. “With a quickness, Private!” I called after him.

A moment later, he returned carrying several lengths of heavy corded rope. After affixing them to a spoke of the wheel, the seven of us began pulling with all our might, trying to make the rusty metal wheel budge. A loud creaking sounded, and the wheel began to turn, throwing several of us off balance.

“We’re getting there! Keep pulling!” I called out. After another minute or so of heaving, the door emitted a low groaning and the wheel turned further.

“Alright, I think we can be done with the rope for now. It looks like we loosened it. Let’s get down there and see if we can get it to move any further.”

The wheel was still rather resistant to movement, but finally gave way, turning with relative ease. After a few turns, the wheel locked in place, and loud click was heard. The door groaned and complained as it slowly swung open. Hearing the cacophony the door had made, the doctor and her team gathered neat the sloping pit to the door.

“Can you see anything?” she called down.

“Not a damn thing. It’s blacker than night in there.” I replied. “Twitch, go grab some torches.”

Twitch flew off without a word, returning quickly with the bag of torched. She placed them in front of me, and I picked one up, igniting it with my pocket lighter. I tossed the burning torch into the open maw of the strange cavern, watching as it lit up the room. I noticed that the door was at least a foot thick of solid metal, and was amazed that it had opened so easily.

“It’s a bare room!” I called up.

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get in there!” The doctor said, moving down the slope to the open door.

We shuffled inside the newly opened room and looked at our foreign surroundings. The room was maybe twelve feet across, and twenty long, metal plates covering every surface. Some sort of metal and glass fixture was attached to the ceiling, but seemed to have lived past its purpose. On the opposite end of the room from the entrance was another metal door of similar proportions, but in considerably better shape than the previous. It was oddly chilly in that dark room, even with the heat outside.

The doctor was murmuring to herself, looking over every panel in the room with fascination, before approaching the closed door.

“This one should be much easier to open, I’d think. Let’s crack it open!” She said, giddiness barely contained.

I nodded, and Ironside and Starch moved to the large wheel and began to turn it. It revolved without so much as a single complaint before locking in place with the same loud click. Ironside leaned on the door and it swung open slowly to reveal a long hallway, continuing on past the glow of the torch.

Doctor Opal grabbed a torch from the bag and stepped over to me looking expectantly. I removed the lighter from my pocket and lit the torch. She threw it into the long dark hallway, illuminating is slightly further. We could now clearly see that the hallway was lined on either side by more metal doors, though these were significantly smaller than the previous two.

I walked back to the Sergeant and asked “So, what do you think now?”

He looked at the large metal door we had entered through, and then back to me, saying “Those doors. Were they meant to keep us out, or something else in?”

“Damn good question Sergeant. Not one I really want answered, but a good question all the same.”

The doctor and her team started down the hallway, looking intently at the newly found metal doors.

“Hold up there, doc!” I called out. “Maybe we should have a quick look around first, just in case.”

“Why bother? The doctor called back “This place has been sealed for an eternity! Nothing could possibly be in here. You saw those doors!” and continued to look through the hallway.

I walked into the hallway and looked at the door closest to my left. I put a hoof on a small raised part of the frame, and jumped back as the door slid to the side to reveal another room. The doctor ran over when she heard the door open, and pushed past me into the room.

“Grab another torch!” she yelled, looking around the small room.

Private Ironside grabbed another torch from the bag and lit it with the one in the center of the entry room before passing it to me. I walked into the small room, now illuminated, and set it down on the floor. Looking around for a moment, I realized this had been someone’s bedroom. A metal frame bed sat in one corner, and a desk at the back wall. Everything seemed disproportionately large though. The bed was a good six and a half feet long. The doctor had begun rummaging through drawers, no doubt looking for her precious technology.

I stepped over to the chest of drawers at the foot of the bed and opened the bottom one. Whatever the garments had once been, they were now a mass of cloth scraps and dust. I noticed something shining underneath the pile of scraps, and moved them out of the way for a better look.

A flat metal square with a small pane of glass over it lay at the bottom of the drawer. There was a scrap of paper inside, but it had faded to the point of obscurity. I stared at the paper, trying to discern what it could have been, when the doctor cried out “Aha!”

I turned to see her removing a strange angular metal contraption from a drawer. In her excitement, she dropped it on the ground, and it exploded with a loud reverberating bang. A pinging sounded as something bounced off the metal walls of the room. Twitch screamed, and I ran out to the hallway to find her laying on the ground, her right wing bleeding profusely.

“Get the damn med kit!” The Sergeant screamed, kneeling down to inspect the damage.

The doctor stood still in the small room, staring at the angular metal object. She didn’t even look up to see who she had injured.

I knelt down next to Private Twitch, trying to calm her down. “You’re gonna be fine.” I said, trying to keep the uncertainty out of my voice. “Just be calm.”

She was shaking, her hind legs thrashing as the Sergeant and I tried to hold her down and calm her. PFC Glass ran into the hallway carrying the med kit with him. He set it down next to me and popped the latch on the front. I quickly grabbed a syringe and stuck it into her flank, and she relaxed. Her eyes began to droop. “Glass! Keep her awake!” I yelled, grabbing gauze and forceps from the kit. Glass knelt by her head and shook her slightly, asking her simple questions like her name and today’s date.

“You’re going to have to hold her down, Sergeant. There’s something caught in the wing, and I need to get it out.” I said, focusing on his face. He nodded, and reapplied pressure to her mid-section.

I took the forceps and reached towards her wing. Her eyes snapped to the metal implement moving towards her, and her wing fluttered.

“Speedy, get over here and hold her wing still!” I called out. Speedy moved to the other side of Twitch and took hold of her wing gently, holding it in place.

I reached out with the forceps again, and after a moment grabbed hold of the foreign object in her body. I pulled it out and quickly applied pressure to the hole with the gauze. Twitch’s wing fluttered again, and I shouted “Keep her damn wing still!”

I looked over at Ironside and called him over. “I don’t have any free hooves. You’re going to have to wrap this wound. I’ll keep pressure on it while you work.”

He nodded and grabbed rolls of gauze and medical tape as I slid aside to give him room. He began wrapping Twitch’s wing carefully, and I slowly relieved the pressure as he applied it with the bandage. Within a few minutes, the injured wing was wrapped up, and the Sergeant allowed her to move. Twitch sat up and winced as she folded her wing back into place, still having trouble focusing her eyes.

“Thanks for the fucking help, doc!” I called into the small room. The doctor was still standing there, staring at the device that had injured my troop.

She reached out a hoof to touch it and I yelled “So help me, doc! If that thing hurts one more of my soldiers, I’ll make sure it kills you!”

She looked up and backed away from the device. “Don’t you know what this is?” She said after a moment. “This could turn the tide of war forever.” She returned her gaze to the object, still laying silently on the floor.”

“Yeah. It could kill our troops so the enemy doesn’t have to. Don’t touch it.” I said walking over and sliding it away from her.

She looked up at me, staring. I couldn’t tell quite what was going through her head, but I figured it was nothing good. “Anyone else you’d like to maim today? Or are we done for now?” I said bitterly.

“I think I have enough to work with for now.” She said quietly, and walked through the door into the hallway.