Oxygen

Written by: Steve Brown; Mansfield Grey

We gazed at the wonder we had found; a paradise in a hole in the ground. It gave me the most eerie feeling and I had no idea of what was to come.

With Clark’s voice in my head, I thought to myself, “Access, protocol, decide, communicate, execute.” This had been ingrained in my head since I joined the Red Band Project.

Sticks opened his mouth first, “Hey boys, holy Jules Verne huh? I hope a….”

Bronco interrupted, “Who the hell is Jules Verne?” He paused, “Is she a stripper you used to date?”

The whole gang broke out in laughter.

Bronco turned to Pogo, “What?”

Q broke in urgently, “Guys, we cannot fire any weapons! You will explode immediately! The oxygen levels are too high, and any spark will ignite the atmosphere. Everyone got it?”

We all nodded in unison. “Talk to me Q,” I said. Everyone was all ears.

“My instruments are working again. As soon as I stepped outside of the tunnel, they started up again. I go back in the tunnel and they die. There is a wireless power source in this place. It seems to be coming from over that way. The compass is set at north and stays there, so that’s fucked. That means the magnetic field has changed. It is showing gravity as changing and fluctuating. It looks like our bodies have adapted, and I speculate that it will continue to adapt, along with the Nano bots in our systems. Manny, it’s like we are in a hyperbaric chamber, with a whole new atmosphere. Our bodies are fine with it. Maybe the lengthy journey down here, the stem cells, Nano bots, and the ZX643 as a power source helped our bodies adapt? It’s just a theory. Just don’t fire any weapons or blow anything up…Sticks!”

“You heard the man, from here on in it’s hand to hand guys. Leave your firearms and explosives at the mouth of the tunnel. Axe, get the guys set up with some blades. Maybe make some spears or something pointy like you like to do. If it comes up, the ZX643 was destroyed in the blast at the cave entrance. Code for this mission to confirm identity is ‘Do you like Jules Verne?’ Your response is, ‘I never saw her dance.'” I said with a laugh.

I took off into the paradise to recon what lay ahead for Red Band 1, and I could feel the difference in the gravity. I felt lighter. Each step was easier. I felt strong. My skin felt like it was tingling. All the hair on my forearms was standing up. I felt this as soon as I left the tunnel. It didn’t feel bad, just different.

I continued to walk another few minutes and came to a bend in the canyon. I made my way up and around some sharp rocks and looked down. It was a hangar, a field, and a military base. I could see a guard every 200 yards, six in total on the perimeter of the installation. I could tell it was high security.

The uniforms the guards wore, I had never seen before; all Black with silver trim. They weren’t carrying fire arms. They carried strange looking clubs. Maybe because of the high oxygen atmosphere, I thought to myself.

I moved down to get a little closer. Then something outrageous caught my eye! Holy shit, I couldn’t believe it!