Invasion
Chapter 15

“Viktor, what do you see?” Sergey asks. “Uh, astone floor, sir?” he replies, unsure. “Yes, but what it hides is what I wantto know,” he continues. They examine the flooring, the creases and the feel ofthe stone tiles. He knocks on it to hear for hollow spots. Unfortunately thestone makes it hard for that. He looks back and sees Olivia comforting Takashi.“Hey, guys. Not to bother, but we do need help,” he says to them. She nods athim and says to Takashi, “Let’s go.” He wipes away the tears from his face andregains his composure…somewhat. “It is here, I know it is. This is theentrance,” he explains. She puts her hand on the floor, “Yeah, this is it. Ican feel the hollow.” Hovering her hand over the area, she replaces the switch toopen it. The door opens with a loud, sorta swooshing or breaking sound. “Clever,”she remarks, “let’s go.” She goes in first, jumping in and floating down. Takashigives Sergey a tap on the shoulder and says, “See you down there, guys.” Hejumps in after her, “Whoooooo!!!!” He shakes his head, smiling, “Young people. Let’sgo, Viktor.” He starts climbing down the creaky, wooden ladder downwards,followed by Viktor.

It’s quite a long waydown, leading to deep beneath the town. Takashi and Olivia, having alreadyreached the bottom, stare in amazement. The ladder leads to a huge tunnelleading only one way. Quite decrepit and obviously old, it was built a longtime ago during a time of chaos and disorder, possibly during the World War. Sergeyand Viktor finally reach the end of their descent and breathe a sigh of relief.And then they see what lies before them. They join them both in staring. “There’sa whole tunnel under this town?” Takashi asks. “This is incredible.” “I did notknow about this,” Sergey tells them. “Well, there’s nowhere left to go butforward,” Takashi continues. They all take a deep breath and march onwards inthe hopes of replaceing Sergey’s friend. Dust can be seen everywhere as theycontinue through the decrepit path. They begin to wonder if he’s actually downhere or if they just stumbled upon an old, long-forgotten tunnel or base. Thetunnel seems to go on for miles without an end, with only a few lights to lightthe way. Eventually they hear and see two men walking and talking, doing theirpatrol. They’re bickering about something in Russian and laughing, not reallydoing their job right. Takashi suddenly levitates them to the air and walks outof the shadows. They scream and jerk around as they try to escape, their gunsdrop to the floor. Sergey also steps out of the shadows with the others. “Whoare you?!” one of them asks. “My name is Sergey. Your leader is expecting me,”he says. “Sergey? Ah, da. He has been waiting for you,” he replies, “put usdown and we will take you, yes?” Sergey laughs and asks Takashi to put themdown, gently. “So where is Andrei?” Sergey asks. “Da. Follow us.”

They still have tojourney quite a ways through the tunnel, but eventually reach a big set ofmetal doors on the left side. The soldiers open the door and it reveals thebase of operations for Sergey’s friend, Andrei. As they enter, they are amazedby the equipment that they have down here. For what seems to be a really oldbunker contains a lot of pretty advance stuff—not going into details. Advancedas in present-era technology, not those bullshit future techs that you keepseeing in shows. Andrei is standing in the middle area, coordinating the wholething. He still has a few men here and there, but not much; it’s enough. He’smonitoring the surface through the big monitor they have that would dwarf anyTV. The resolution alone…is not that good compared to high-definition TVs, butit’s enough for this. Who needs good graphics anyway when there’s an alien wargoing on??? As long as it works and provides sufficient information andvisuals, it doesn’t really matter. “So, I guess it is too much to expectsomething more!” Sergey yells. Recognizing the voice of his old friend, heturns around to see him standing there, wounded and disheveled from hisencounters with the aliens. His tough demeanor doesn’t break as he walks up tothem. “Ah, my old friend…” he says before hugging him. “It is good to finallysee you again. And you too, Viktor. I am glad both of you have arrived heresafely. Well, somewhat safely, hahahahaha.” The two strangers that tagged alongwith them seem very out of place, and very young. He looks at them and says,“So, you two must be the ones that my friend here talked about,” he explains,“the ones who can help save us from the invaders.” “Well, we hope so…sir,”Olivia replies. “We’re here to help in anyway we can,” Takashi adds. “Yes,wonderful,” he nods in approval before taking Sergey and Viktor aside to catchup. Seeing them reconnect and talk about old times reminds them of the momentsthat they still haven’t remembered yet, the gaps that have yet to be filled. Butmostly it reminds him of some bad memories that he probably doesn’t wannaremember, but has to. It’s important. He knows it is, but still has much troubleaccepting it. Of course, it involves a girl. Doesn’t it always? Her name wasJoanna, and she was…beautiful. This was a time before he hung-out with Olivia. Hehad already knew her, or rather, seen her around, but never really talked withher—maybe they would exchange the occasional “Hi” or “Hey” or “Hello”. Ofcourse, she was already sorta attracted to him, but was still with her then “boyfriend”,Luke. But I digress. Joanna was someone who was, of course, way out of hisleague. He first met her during a trip that they took together as part of agroup. Well, not really met so much as saw. He was quickly stricken by herbeauty, but he knew it was just one of those infatuation things that he’s heardabout around. Since then he couldn’t get her out of her mind for a long time. Thefact that he always sees her around the accommodation that they live in didn’thelp. They talk sometimes if they should meet, talk about anything, small talk.And then she would go and say, “See ya” or “Bye”. And he would just stand therethinking about how stupid he was or how he should’ve said something else andhow beautiful and amazing that girl, that woman, he just talked to was. But heknew it wasn’t meant to be—after all, she does have a boyfriend. All he coulddo is try to not think about her. Yeah, wayeasier said than done, there’s no doubt about that. As he went about his life,that was what he would try to do. And he didn’t really have many friends, andthe ones he did have were almost always busy and didn’t have time to talk or much.So he felt alone…really alone. He tried to shake those feelings off, butusually it only lead to more contemplation and bad thoughts. Unaware of all thethings happening around him, letting life pass him by. “Don’t you know what’sgoing on??” his mind would yell at him. Of course, he does distract himselfsometimes from those thoughts by playing his video games/computer games orwatching a movie. But even then, somehow it would remind him of her. Whether itwas the environment, the music, the themes, or even dialogue—they always founda way to bring her back into his mind. And one day, he found out that she was justgone. She had already left for home. He knew about this, that she wasn’tstaying there long, but the surprise, the shock, really got to him. He didn’tget to say goodbye or anything. He didn’t even spend much time talking withher. And just like that, poof, she’s gone, never to return. And of course, thismade everything a living hell. Well, uni was already hell, so I guess it wasn’treally a step down. Everything seemed to overwhelm him at that point;everything seemed unbearable. At one point he even considered just ending itall. What’s the point anyway? There is no point. Everything is pointless…meaningless.

As he remembers that moment,everything seems to crash and crumble around him. All those feelings comeflooding back, hitting him with the force of a tsunami, or a tidal wave, as wesometimes like to call it. He can feel his heart dropping from his chest as hegrips the railing surrounding the middle, slightly raised platform tightly. Olivialooks at him confused and asks what’s wrong with him. Hearing her voice andseeing her face brings back a slightly better memory to the surface. How shenoticed that he was acting different and always came and talked to him,inviting him to events and all that. He remembers how he made it through allthat, that he’s still here, right now, at this very moment to remember allthat. He survived. “You made it,” his mind says to him. A friend once told himthat all these experiences is what makes us a better person in the future. Itmakes us stronger. Those words echo in his mind like a scream. He’s known itfor quite some time now, and when his friend told him about this, it wasn’tanything new. But hearing those words from someone else, another human being,felt so different. It felt like it was true. “It probably is,” he thinks tohimself. “Hey!” she yells, “are you okay??” He stares blankly at her, can’tthink or say anything. “Baby, you’re scaring me,” she says. He shakes his headslowly, still staring, and says, “I…uhhh, I’m fine.” “Are you sure? You’ve beenacting weird lately. Well weirder than usual.” He smiles and reassures her,“I’m fine. I have you here, with me.” She smiles. “Okay, yes. I’ve been rememberingsome bad stuff recently. The memories came back to me. I’m a little…uhh,stressed or distraught, I guess. But it’s okay, because I have you.” He hugsher. “I love you, very much.” She smiles, half-confused, but happy. “I love youtoo,” she says. “I’m sorry that I’m broken,” he apologizes. She laughs andsays, “Oh, I don’t mind. You know, they say a broken person can be the mostemotional and caring person.” “Are you listening to yourself? Who told youthat?” “No one. It’s what I feel,” she explains, putting her arms around hisneck. He chuckles. “Of course. Thank you,” he says. “For what?” she inquires. “Just…foreverything. For being there.” She rests her head on his, “You’re welcome.” He needsto stop thinking too much; he knows that all of those thoughts and feelingswill always be a part of him; he knows that he’s bringing himself down. “Ahhhrrghgh,nevermind all that,” he thinks. “I’m here now.” Time heals all wounds afterall. Well, almost all wounds. The past is the past and we have to move on. Wehave to live in the present.