“Very well.” Snap pushed open the plain metal door and walked into a large open room. The auditorium-sized room was very plain, with no decorations on the walls, and only three doors on the back wall. It reminded Snap of a high school gymnasium. To the right, were twelve chairs set up in three rows, all facing toward a blank wall. To the left there were mats on the floor like you would see in a karate studio.
“What the hell are we supposed to do here?” Sergeant Williams asked.
“I guess we just stand around and wait for someone to show up,” Justin Thomas replied.
“I wonder what that big ass dome is for,” Senior Master Sergeant Smith asked as he pointed toward the center of the ceiling.
“Damn, that thing looks like it is 10 feet across. I bet it’s some sort of surveillance device,” Sergeant Williams said.
By this time, most of the team was looking up at the large black dome. “It has some sort of reflective quality, I don’t think it’s is a video monitor,” Snap mumbled.
A great white flash of light instantly blinded Snap. A deafening crash of thunder forced them to cover their ears, as they felt a brief weightlessness sensation. Snap and the others were thrown to the floor by a violent force. Snap’s eyes were wide open, but he could not see. He struggled to focus and refocus, but his eyes could see nothing but white.
I can’t see. I’m blind.
Snap pulled himself to his hands and knees. The temperature was different; it was much hotter and very humid.
I can’t feel the concrete floor anymore. It feels like dirt or mud. Where the hell am I?
“I can’t see. Williams, Robins, are you here?” Snap called out to his squad.
“I can’t see either; I was blinded by that flash of light,” Williams said, in a frantic voice.
“Can anyone see? What the hell is going on?” Snap yelled out.
“Major, my vision is starting to come back, but all I see is green,” Moore said, from what seemed like far away.
“Where are you, Moore?”
“About 20 feet to your left, Major. I think we are in some kind of jungle.”
“Is that rain? I think the temperature just went up 40 degrees!” Senior Master Sergeant Davis proclaimed.
The bright white light was fading into a mellow green. Snap could start to make out leaves and vegetation. The ground was soft, and his face was being sprinkled by a light rain.
“Is everyone okay?” Snap yelled out.
“I’m good, ears are ringing a bit,” Ryan Taylor called out.
“My head is pounding,” Miller said.
“I think I twisted my ankle when I fell,” James Martin hollered. “But, I’ll be okay.”
Snap looked around, his vision better. He could not see his entire squad, due to the thick underbrush. The squad suffered no serious injuries. It seemed the physical effects of the event were quickly wearing off.
“What the hell was that? Where are we?” Jones asked.
“Maybe we’re in a hologram?” Moore guessed.
“What the fuck? You can’t feel a hologram!” Brown exclaimed. “We must have been transported to another location.”
“Transport? How? They don’t have that kind of technology,” Josh Miller said.
“Really? What makes you think that?” Ryan Taylor said sarcastically. “Have you not been paying attention? We are wearing alien armor and carrying laser cannons – seems like they could teleport us to wherever they wanted?”
“Bullshit. If this were a hologram, my hand would pass right through this tree,” Miller said, as he slammed his hand into a tree trunk. “Damn that hurt.” Miller quickly pulled back his fist wincing in pain.
Snap looked around; several members of his team were outside his field of vision, due to the thick underbrush and dense jungle.
“Hey, I found something” Jones yelled.
Snap and the others pushed through the thick leaves, being careful not to step on a booby trap, toward the sound of Jones’ voice.
“Where are you,” Snap asked, in a slightly elevated voice.
“Over here.”
Snap and the others followed the sound of Jones’ voice. Pushing through the green foliage, their boots sunk into the soft, wet soil. Snap pushed back a large, leafy branch that revealed Sergeant Jones standing over a wooden crate. Jones easily pushed off the lid, to display a cache of weapons.
“Where the hell are we? Why the fuck is there stash of weapons here?” Jones muttered.
“We were supposed to find these, it’s no accident.” Snap concluded as he reached for the first weapon, an AK-47. Snap examined the gun, and pulled back the charging handle. “Seems to be in good working order.”
“These were left here for us to find. Check the firing pins. Make sure they haven’t been tampered with,” Moore said.
Snap looked through the crate to find there was a wide variety of weapons, including assault rifles, sub-machine guns, large caliber pistols, and even a rocket launcher. The rest of the squad had arrived and were going through the crate.
“What the . . . a double-edged battle ax?” Miller asked, holding up the weapon.
“Look here. Why would we need a sword?” Johnson said as he lifted the sword from the crate. Johnson twirled the blade in his right hand, to check the balance. “It’s sharp,” he said, pulling his left index finger away quickly.
“Hey, watch that thing. You almost cut my arm off. Who the hell do you think you are, fucking Zorro?” Ryan Taylor shouted.
“I’m a little concerned,” Snap said, “why would they – whoever they are- give us such an odd assortment of weapons? They are not only from different manufactures and countries, they are from different time periods.”
“Maybe it’s an experiment of some kind?” Williams said, shrugging his shoulders.
“You are God Damn right it’s an experiment, and we are the fucking lab rats,” Davis shouted. “We need to get the fuck out of here before the inevitable shit hits the proverbial fan.”
“Hold on,” Snap ordered, “everyone grab a weapon first, then we can figure this out.” Snap lifted a GM6M Bull-pup anti-material sniper rifle from the crate. The GM6 shot a 50 caliber BMG round, the same round that was used in anti-aircraft machine guns. It was known for its ability to stop trucks, airplanes, and light armor. Snap detached the magazine to reveal five very large 50 BMG rounds.
Very odd weapon to have in the jungle. This may come in handy if we run into one of those Ondagra.
“Hey, Snap, is that new Exacto round? You know, the one that can self-course correct in mid-flight?” Neal West asked.
“Holy shit! I think you are right. I have never seen one of those before. Supposedly, it locks onto the target and follows it like a guided missile,” Snap said.
“It’s a sniper rifle round, great for distances, but here in close quarters, it’s pretty much useless,” Neal pointed out.
“I don’t know Neal; I got a feeling we are going to need this, even in the jungle. It may come in handy if we run into alien armor.”
Snap leaned into the crate and picked up a WW2 era combat knife. He flipped it around a couple of times to ensure that the weight was right and tucked it into his belt.
“Everybody got a weapon? Check them out; make sure they all work. Any ideas on where we are?” Snap asked, in a rhetorical way, since he was pretty sure none of his men had any idea.
Senior Master Sergeant Thomas stepped forward, holding a Russian AK-12 assault rifle, “We’re not going to figure out how we got here or where here is by standing around in the woods. The way I see it, either we were transported here somehow, or we are in some hypnotic trance or something. Either way, we need to move until we see something we recognize.”
“Agreed. Since we can’t see the sun through the canopy and rain clouds, and we have no idea where we are, I say we just start walking in this direction,” Snap pointed into the jungle.