Vladimir Kroskov's Story, EPISODE 2

I know I'm lagging way behind here on this but I promise for another segment by Friday.

Chapter Six

Cold, musty, damper than the horrendous beaches that surrounded the city, these were the only words to describe the cave interior. The entire place was gigantic, with stadium-size rooms leading to more and more passages deep underground, the formations seemed almost un-natural. Not a single living thing had thus far shown itself, not even the Infected.

The vehicles drove on and on, further and further downward, with every room they came to there was yet another passage down into blackness. Vladimir and the rest began to wonder if there really was anything underground, and why the Infected were resting so far down in the first place.

After an hour of driving they finally spotted something different, and peculiar. One passage ahead was lit up with an orange color, the source was down below. Vladimir took a few minutes to talk things over with everyone else in the platoon, then they began their descent. The passage was steeper than all of the others, gradually increasing in grade. Just as the driver started to suspect something the Bradley began to slide, even with the tracks locked it kept going, the cave floor was too slippery. The rear Bradley stopped before they could get into any serious trouble, but Vladimir's kept going, increasing in speed. The passage eventually became vertical. After only seconds of falling the tunnel ended, the Bradley fell from the ceiling of an enormous room. The vehicle met the floor front-first, the rear end was slow to follow. The entire room seemed to shake as the vehicle finally came to rest.

Chapter Six Continuation

The engine of the APC died after a few more minutes. The crew inside were shaken, Vladimir and Tyler had been flung a few feet away, having been sitting on top of the turret. Some rattling was heard from inside the tank and then the rear hatch opened. Vance, Williams, and two others stepped out. "Driver's dead..." Williams muttered. He was holding a broken left arm to his chest and Tyler was lying on the ground unconscious. Vladimir stood up from the ground and looked around for his gun, locating it a few feet away. He walked over to it and picked it up, examining it for a few seconds before turning his attention to the rest of the room.

A couple of yards away was a gigantic mob of motionless Infected, hundreds, thousands, millions of them. They all stood with their backs to Vladimir's squad, not taking any notice of them at all. All of the Infected had their attention on a glowing mass of liquid in the middle of the cavern. The liquid itself was essentially just magma that had risen from the underground, but the heat and intense light it was giving off attracted the curiosity of the Infected populace. The radio attached to the side of the Bradley began to crackle and a familiar voice of General Warsaw was heard.

"GPS tr....d, location marked, s... in the ....nance."

"What the fuck...?" Vladimir commented, limping over to the radio unit and picking up the microphone. "S.E.O.G. Group 1 to Base, over?" He stated into the mic. No answer came back, he tried again and still nothing. He was soon interrupted, the entire room began to shake and, starting from the other side of the cave, the ceiling be can to collapse. At first it was slow but the falling debris was soon barreling towards Vladimir's group. "Get in the tank, now!" He yelled before clambering inside. Williams came in last, carrying Tyler's still unconscious body. Vladimir pulled the rear hatch closed as the falling rocks finally reached the vehicle.

After a few minutes of loud, relentless clatter all noise stopped. Vladimir went for the turret hatch but it didn't budge. "Williams.. give me a hand.".
Williams nodded and stood up, with the doubled strength the hatch slowly began to open, pushing rocks of all shape and size out of the way. Daylight poured inside the vehicle and Vladimir was blinded for a moment. When his vision finally adjusted he noticed an object in the sky, it was moving, with a smoke trail behind it. "A missile...." He muttered. Vladimir was correct, it was a missile with about a quarter of the destructive power that the previous one had on Algonquin, only this time it was a conventional bomb. The missile suddenly sped up, approaching the giant sinkhole with enough speed that Vladimir didn't have a chance to react. He was blinded once again by a great flash of light, and the shockwave sent the Bradley flying backwards, along with the tons of debris.





The lonely strumming of his guitar was interrupted by a static radio signal coming through on the interception device next to him.

"Confirmed missile impact, General."

"Good.. they will be missed."

A smile came across his face, he waited a few minutes before continuing to play notes off into the silence of the city.