I take a minute to check my surroundings before I take a deep breath to try and give myself a recap.
Ok so my family and my wife set out to kill Derricc and I.
All of us died, and I got sent to the void.
I ran into a mysterious entity who somehow was able to bring me back.
Yeah that sounds about right.
I was definitely hallucinating.
There’s no way the dead can come back to life.
As if to mock me, I start hearing someone bang on my door like a madman.
I walk up and open the door only to be tackled to the ground in an instant.
“I just woke up man why I gotta get tackled like this”, I gripe out loud as I try to get up but I realize instantly what this feeling was.
Looking down I see that Derricc has thrown himself into me and we’re both on the ground.
“Erik, I’m so glad your ok.
I didn’t know what was going on and next thing I knew I woke up here and immediately went looking for you.” Derricc says while gasping for breath.
I look around see that Derricc has both legs and my face goes pale.
“Derricc, I need you to slap me.
I think I’m Halluci”- “Erik”, Derricc yells as he slaps me, “this is not a dream, what is going on right now, we should be dead.” That slap wakes me up and I realize that the weird dream I had with the dice and the entity really happened.
I look up and see Derricc kneeled down next to me with tears in his eyes.
The scene makes me break and I can’t help but to pounce on him and give him a hug as well.
“Derricc we’re actually alive again.
I didn’t dare to fully accept this outcome was possible but it really happened.” We both just tear up for a while in each others arms as we don’t say anything else for a while until we get it out of our system.
Derricc looks at me with confusion and I have an idea on what he wants to say.
“Derrick, before you ask me anything, let’s figure out when and where we are so we can figure out what we’re working with.” “Erik, this is the villa the president left for us after our mission in Florida was completed.
It seems to be about spring time right now.” “What day is it?” I ask as I get to my feet.
“04/22/2097” Derricc says.
Immediately I ask “Bro, what time is it” Derricc looks at a clock and says 19:34.
“DAMN IT, WE GOTTA GET OUR SHIT AND GO, LIKE NOW!” I yell as I grab everything I need for my missions.
Derricc looks at me and realizes what I’m talking about “Erik we only have a couple minutes right, we’re probably already surrounded right.
How did we escape last time.” “We somehow made it out through the rubble after the building collapsed on us by hiding under the big staircase.” This time I remember that the president had never allowed us to stay in a place that doesn’t have a backup/emergency exit.
“We go through the secret tunnels that’ll take us to the hills behind the villa.
We can run away after.” “Why didn’t we use it last time” Derricc gripes.
“Because” I retort, “Rubble blocked it last time.” “Fair point, anyways it looks like we’re both ready, let’s move out.” We make it to the tunnels and manage to get to the hills.
We turn around and immediately the villa gets peppered with explosions and the villa gets reduced to rubble in a matter of minutes.
Derricc puts a hand on my shoulder and stares at the torn down villa with me.
We give each other a nod to walk away until we hear a voice we didn’t hear last time yelling orders.
We immediately go prone and look over the hill just enough see what’s going on.
Sure enough, we here the voice of Jackson screeching over everything.
“Gentleman, we’ve eliminated a threat to the mission.
Do not make any further mistakes or we have no use for you.” “Derricc, something about this isn’t right.
Jackson should be in California with Sarah, not here in the middle of Nebraska blowing up our house.” “Erik, let’s get away from here first then we can try to process everything”, Derricc says as he remembers about a phone and makes a call.
“Mr president, I’m sorry to inform you but our villa got shot by rockets and is reduced to rubble.
I’m not sure what’s going on but it may be safe to keep us away from you for a while.” “I understand boys.
If you’re being targeted, your safety is the highest priority.
I’ll wire some funds to help until you can come back to work.
Make sure to tell the rest of the group to stay safe and to run if they get targeted as well.” “Thanks sir, we’ll keep you updated”, Derricc says as he hangs up the phone.
He looks at me with hesitation “so what now.
We went after them last time and got badly hurt.
This time we played it safe but now we probably saw something we shouldn’t have.” “Hey” I try to reassure Derricc, “we’re reborn, we’re in good health, and we apparently retained all of our memories.
We got this.
I actually have a place we can go that not even our squad knows about.” “Dude, you are way too prepared.
Do you have a backup for everything.” Derricc says sarcastically “Actually bro, I got bored while we were on the reconnaissance mission in Colorado and built a makeshift place to chill in when everyone else was gone for those 3 weeks after I got hit by that sniper.” …..
…..
…..
“You’re joking right.” He says angrily, “you get hurt and built a makeshift shelter instead of recovering.” “In my defense, we can now use to”- “I don’t care, what the hell am I supposed to do if you got permanently injured doing random projects instead of recovering.
You of all people should know how dangerous sniper wounds are.” “I’m sorry man, I’m sorry okay.
I did make sure to take care of the injury properly.” “He glares at me one last time before relaxing.
So this makeshift shelter, I’m assuming it’s big enough for the two of us.” “It can fit the whole group.” “Where did you manage to hide it.
I don’t remember seeing anything out of the ordinary.” I give an evil smirk and say “it’ll make sense when we get there.
I made sure that no one, not even the president or the general knows about it.” “So why show me”, Derricc asks.
“We need a base right, you won’t find anything better, especially one that not even the president can find.” “Sweet, let’s go.”