Quickly, Adam and Riyad hoisted the two dead men into the room and shut the door. Then they resumed their walk, Sherri in the middle, just as before.
This passageway was very wide and tall, tall enough for wheeled vehicles to move freely through it. After about two minutes, a vehicle did come their way, driven by a young man with short blond hair. As he passed, he nodded at the trio, and to their relief, kept going.
From the schematics, Adam knew there were other passageways on either side of the main corridor, and soon they came to an intersection leading to one of these tunnels. They decided to get off of the main thoroughfare and try some side streets. The computer room should be about half a click beyond their position, just off the main chamber. They could meet up with it from one of the side passages.
Suddenly Sherri stopped. “I know this place!” She ran to a side opening and looked inside. It was a large room with a dozen or so exam tables, like in a doctor’s office. “This is where they examined us.”
There were four other men at the far end of the room, but they paid no attention as they looked in. Adam grabbed Sherri by the arm and pulled her back into the corridor. “Relax,” he said. “Keep cool. We only have a little ways to go-”
“Adam!” Kaylor’s voice shouted in his ear.
Before he could respond, alarms sounded everywhere. Other men began emerging out of side rooms and began running down the corridor past them. Adam and Riyad lifted their weapons, but then lowered them quickly as everyone completely ignored them. The four men in the exam room ran past them as well. Adam grabbed one by the arm before he passed. “What’s happening?” he cried out.
The other man was so agitated that he answered immediately, “It’s an attack alarm. We’re under attack.” Then Adam released him and the man quickly joined the others as they ran down the passageway.
The three of them slipped into the exam room. “Kaylor, what’s happening?”
The alien was on the comm immediately. “Juireans! A whole lot of them. In landing craft,” the alien yelled, panic in his voice. “The airlock opened and about twenty-five ships dropped in. The lock is closing now…I see troops leaving the ships. There must be hundreds of them!”
“Can you get out?” Adam asked.
“No. The lock is closed. But we can’t stay here either.”
“Get into environment suits and off the ship. They’re going to come for you if you stay. And if they open the lock again, you’ll die without the suits. I need you to find a safe vantage point and let me know everything you see.”
“We will. But there are a lot of Juireans, and they all look like Guards! This is not good!”
“Just calm down, Kaylor,” Adam sensed the alien was on the verge of a full-fledged panic attack. “Get to someplace safe and we’ll come and get you when we can.”
Adam turned to his two companions. They had heard the conversation as well. Riyad spoke first. “This calls for a change of plan, I believe.”
Adam turned to Sherri. “Do you have any idea where the captive men were kept?”
“I’m not sure, but we could hear them from the barracks we were in. And that was right through…here!”
Sherri dashed off through the exam room before Adam and Riyad could react. Pulling the flash rifles from under their coats, the two men set off after her.
Sherri ran through a number of smaller rooms until she came to a door leading to a long room full of empty bunks. “This is where they kept the women,” she shouted back at the men as they entered. Then she turned and swept past them and out of the room. She turned right in the hallway and quickly disappeared around a corner.
Adam and Riyad had caught up with her just as she reached a door and threw it open. The trio skidded to a halt in the doorway, staring open-mouthed into the room.
It was a barracks alright, with about a hundred beds — and the room was packed full of men. They were all standing, wearing old orange tunics, many of them sporting long beards and scraggly hair.
An older man near them stepped forward. “What’s going on? We can hear the alarms.”
Riyad noticed as several of the men began to move toward them with intense stares. He held his flash rifle at them, and they stopped.
Adam noticed the movement, too. Then he made a command decision. He lowered his own rifle and stepped forward. “I’m Petty-Officer Second Class Adam Cain, United States Navy SEALs. We’ve come to rescue you.”
Sherri and Riyad jerked their heads in his direction. Riyad leaned toward him and whispered. “What the fuck are you doing?”
Adam whispered back, “We need an army to get out of here. And here it is.”
The men in the room all surged forward and surrounded them. The older man spoke again. “What’s going on here? We know this isn’t Earth. How can a SEAL team be out here to rescue us?”
Adam spoke quickly. “We were all abducted, too, just like you, but managed to escape. But we haven’t much time. There is a force of aliens coming into the facility, and they plan on killing all of us.”
Another man spoke up from within the crowd, “Is this some kind of 2G trick?”
Sherri decided to speak up, hoping that a woman’s voice would sound more trustworthy.
“It’s true. You have heard of the Juireans? Well there are several hundred of them on their way here. These other men, the 2G’s, will either try to fight them off, or they will abandon you and probably blow the complex.”
“I’m not going to sit here and be killed,” someone yelled from the back. “What can we do?”
Adam climbed onto one of the beds. “Listen carefully. How many of you have military experience? And I don’t mean as yeomen or dispersing clerks. How many of you are combat trained?”
To his surprise, the majority of hands went up. “Good. We have limited weapons at this time. We’re going to have to fight our way out. But believe me, if we stay, we all die. Understood?” There were nods and murmurs throughout the room.
Adam continued. “As the battle proceeds, you must secure all the weapons and ammo as you can.” He lifted his flash rifle. “Flick here… and the charge pack drops out. Slap in another one. The rifle is good for thirty shots.” He then pulled out his MK-17. “Same here. Flick this and insert a new pack. Set for level-two and you have ten shots per pack. The Juireans will probably come at us wearing body armor. Shoot for the head. Most will not be wearing full-face armor. But if you’re against the other Humans, the 2G’s, you’ll need level-one on the pistols for a kill.”
The three of them passed out the twelve surplus weapons they carried plus a couple of knapsacks of power packs. “The rest of you will just have to arm yourself as we go. Each man with a weapon raise your hand. The rest of you form up around one of these guys.”
Riyad climbed on the bunk next to Adam. “I don’t have a lot of experience with the way the Juireans fight, but what I have seen shows they are very regimented and prefer forming lines fo r attack. Take out the lead line, and the others will probably fall back to regroup.”
Adam raised his hand. “Also, we have the advantage of close-in fighting. In the narrow passageways, they will not be able to use their superior numbers to their full advantage. Just keep the bodies piling up, and they will have trouble getting through.”
They could already hear the sounds of a battle outside the barracks. “Come on, men. Let’s go home!” Adam yelled, as a chorus of cheers joined in.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The men flowed out of the barracks room and into the corridor, turning left and heading for the exam room and the main chamber of the underground complex.
Adam pulled Sherri and Riyad aside. “Go with them and stay in touch with the comm. I have to get to the computer room.”
“By yourself?” Riyad asked.
“With the complex under attack, the Klin — or the Humans — will probably try to destroy the computer core. I have to get there first.”