OF THE NIGHT ∘ Seth Gecko

08 | The Beginning

CHPATER SEVEN
THE BEGINNING

IT'S EASY TO feel time slipping away like sand between my fingers with every box that I look into and find something that isn't a weapon. Since there are all kinds of things in the room, I come across clothes and some personal things several times. However, I do manage to find a hammer and a knuckle duster that has a knife sticking out from its side. 

One of the only two things that I focus on during those ten minutes is the ticking of the clock. The noise is nerve wrecking and makes the pressure, which is already very much there, worse. The other thing I focus on is wasting as little time as possible. Once I open every box I come across, I give it a quick look. If it has nothing helpful, I give myself another second to move things inside of it a little, then I move on. That's how I get my hands on two stun grenades. 

"Time's up!" Frost, our host, announces.

We gather around him and I take a look around, checking what everyone got — Seth and Tanner have guns that seem to by firing wooden stakes, Tanner also has a sword, Jacob has two wooden stakes taped to a handle, and Kate has two sickles. Frost stands next to one of the sets of shelves to open another passage that is filled with darkness.

"There it is," Frost says and faces us again. "Your one-way ticket is about to get punched. Don't come crawling back, cause once you go through these, I'm shutting the door."

Kate walks forward and stands in front of him, which immediately makes me uneasy because I don't know what she's going to say or do. "You keep acting like you don't care, but you keep helping us. Why don't you help us find our way out of here? You know your way down there, don't you?"

"I'm not partial to suicide missions," he says, but it seems to me that the girl's words are getting to him.

Maybe she thinks the same thing I do because she continues talking to him. "My brother's down there, alone, in the dark."

"Kate, the man has made up his mind." Jacob interrupts her.

Ignoring the preacher's words, I decide to try and help Kate, because I can't imagine someone staying here alone for longer than we had been here. "I noticed your dog tags. We could use your help. We'll help each other," I suggest.

"My family might survive if we stick together. Because we're better together. When we're alone, we're lost." Kate insists and the man's eyes shine with tears. "You say you're surviving, but you're just rotting away."

He looks at all of us again as he says, "This place will mess with your mind. It will dig deep down into your brain and stir up the most heinous shit." Then, he focuses on Kate. "Last time I was there, I was in Fallujah, 130 degrees in the reeds and smoke, dying of heat stroke. They dropped ordnance. Commend sends me to do a dead check. I find a little boy, shell done torn him in half. No clothes on, crawling to me, life just bleeding out of him. I wanted so bad to put him out of his misery, but I can't and he's just screaming. And no matter what I did, I just can't do anything to help him. So, the dogs come and finish the job."

"Don't be afraid of what's in there. Be afraid of what's in here," he says finally and taps his finger against his temple.

It's similar to what he has said a few minutes ago and I suppose that there's a reason. What he has been through sounds awful and even though we're all different people, I don't think this temple will make things easy for us. The only problem is that we don't have a way to protect our minds. We can only get out there and do our best to fight.

"Alright, enough," Seth breaks the short silence and walks out, weapon raised.

Tanner follows him and tells Frost, "It's been real."