For Your Eyes Only

by Indie Cred

Chapter 14

I woke up in a cramped dark place, my head throbbing. Other than the stars in front of my eyes, I couldn’t see a thing. Slowly coming to, I realized I had something tied around my waist. I looked up to see Glass, his horn glowing green, heaving me up to the top of the pipe.

“Mother fucker!” I screamed. “Let me down! Let me down you son of a bitch!”

I was still thrashing as they pulled me over the ledge. “That rat bastard!” I screamed.

Ironside grabbed me by the shoulders and stared into my eyes. “Snap out of it!” He shouted at me.

“Son of a bitch knocked me out…” I said quietly.

“We didn’t know. The Sergeant started yelling that you had been hurt and for us to drag you up.” Ironside said, sitting down next to me.

“I owed that bastard a promotion…”

“Sir, we have to keep moving. They could already be following us.”

I stood up slowly, my head still aching. “Move out.” I said quietly.

We made our way down the narrow passage, Glass lighting the way. The sounds of the creatures began to fade as we moved farther away from the opening of the pipe, the way before us twisting back and forth. Our footsteps clanged on the thin metal of the passage, which seemed to have no end.

“We’re going up.” Speedy said after a while. “It’s very slight, but the pipe’s angling up.”

“I see a light!” Ironside yelled, running past the rest of us. A thin shaft of light poured from above, a good hundred yards away. We quickened our pace, moving to catch up to him. Within a minute, we were standing next to the PFC, staring up at the beam of sunshine falling from sky. There was a square pipe jutting out to the surface, a small fan spinning at the bottom. At the top of the pipe was a solid metal grate, a good ten feet above.

“Rainy, grab that shovel out of the bag.” I said, moving towards Shores.

Rainy pulled the shovel out and handed it to me. “Shores, give me a boost. I’m going to stop the fan.”

I stood on Shores’ back, raising the shovel slowly up towards the spinning blade. “Take cover!” I yelled, thrusting the metal blade of the shovel into the path of the fan. A loud snap followed by metal clattering around and the fan was no more. I grabbed onto the frame that had held the fan in place and lifted by back legs off of Shores, letting my body weight pull the remnants of the fan from its resting place. I dropped to the ground, the frame still in my grasp, and looked around. “Everyone okay?”

“I’ll be fine, sir.” Shores spoke up. I noticed he had a shard of the metal fan sticking out of his right hind leg.

“Shit. I said take cover, Private.” I said, moving to grab the med kit from the gear bag.

“If it’s all the same, sir, I’d prefer to wait until we’re topside before we worry about medical attention.”

I sighed and put the kit back in place. “Speedy, think you can get that grate moved?”

“I’ll try, sir.” She said, and took off. She strained with effort trying to move the solid hunk of metal, when Rainy lifted off the ground to assist. The two of them managed to lift the grate slightly out of place, and slid it to the side. Speedy dropped back to the ground and took the rope in her mouth before lifting back up.

“All clear!” she yelled down, looking at us from above.

A few minutes later, we were all back on the surface, the sun’s rays gracing us with a warmth we thought we would never feel again. A slow, gentle breeze rolled over us, causing the trees to whisper.

“Alright, enough playtime. Private, get your flank over here before you bleed out.”

We found that we had come back to the surface nearly a mile away from the ruins, in the middle of a small open area in the forest. After patching up Shores, we made our way slowly back to the trail leading to camp.

As we neared the camp, Private Blooms screamed out “Who goes there?!” peering over a makeshift barricade.

“Open the damn gate, Blooms!” I yelled back.

“Captain?!” She shouted, running to open the entrance to the camp. “Thank Celestia you came back! There were these things everywhere! We didn’t know what to-“ I put a hoof over her mouth, silencing her.

“We’re leaving. Now.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Where are Quills and Twitch?”

“Quills is in the med tent. Twitch isn’t doing so good.”

“Fuck. Alright, everybody, grab what seems necessary, and let’s get the hell out of here.”

I made my way to the med tent and walked inside. Quills turned around and upon seeing me, snapped to attention. “Sir! The log book is ready for y-“

“No time. What’s going on with Twitch?”

“She passed out a few hours ago, sir. She must have overworked herself when we put up those barricades. That plus the blood loss, and she probably passed out from exhaustion.”

“Alright, grab someone to help you carry her. And grab any of the medical supplies you can, no carts. We’re leaving in five.”