Endless War (Complete)

Chapter 9 "Station Attack"

I walk strait ahead ignoring the fact that Grim is even here with me and look strait at the guards as I approach. The gas station looks abandoned other than the two armed guards, sitting under the weathered roof of the filling area. There are several sections that have collapsed as the roofline rusted out leaving them with little shade from the old structure. The windows and doors have been boarded up. There are small shrubs and dessert plants growing through the large cracks in the concrete.

I smile at the two men as I continue to make my way towards them. "Hi, there guys. I seem to have been separated from the rest of my platoon during battle. I was knocked out. I need to repair, the chip was damaged."

They are both dressed identical to myself in military desert fatigues with their weapons strapped over their shoulders. "You can go right in. Just know we have one of the programers in there, he may get a little worried when he sees you. Stupid egg heads, no brain for defense, we have to accompany him to all of the stations to make sure everything is in working condition. He could use a good scare." They laugh in unison as Grim gets into position.

I already changed my gun from a kill shot to a stun shot. Grim wraps his arm around the neck of the larger of the two guards, I take advantage of the distraction and grab my weapon to fire on the other guard. He drops to the ground, then I shoot the other before Grim can kill him.

"What are you doing?" He yells.

I shake my head. "I am not going to let you kill him, just because he has a chip in his head! I stunned them both they will come out of it in six hours!"

"What makes you think that I was going to kill him and not just make him pass out from a strangle hold?" He looks at me with hatred in his giant green eyes.

Maybe he doesn't completely hate me but I regrettably don't trust him. "There is only one guy inside and he is not a threat, you grab that one and drag him into the store." I point at the heaver soldier, I take the other one and pull him through the boarded up doors.

I look over at Grim and he is looking around the room confused. I shake my head and point him toward the back where the walk in refrigerator should be. The proximity lock buzzes as the magnetic mechanism releases. He opens the door and seems surprised that there is a lighted stairway leading down into a bunker. "We would have never thought to look at old run down gas stations." He states as he descends the stairs. As soon as he walks down the last step I hit him in the back of the head with my gun.

I hear a sad excuse for a scream and look across the room to see a small shivering man cowering between shelving units. "How did one of the fallen get in here?" His voice jumps an octave.

"Because I brought him here!" I yell. "Help me tie him up, he won't be out long."

Together we rip up a lab coat and after checking him for weapons tie him up. Well he had no gun but he was loaded with knives. I suppose if he were going to kill the soldier he would have used one of those.

The small man looks up at me with green pleading eyes, "You are not going to hurt me are you?"

I shake my head and he lets out a small sigh. His shoulders slouch and his black hair falls into his face.

"What are you doing here? Your chip is not malfunctioning, an alarm would have sounded if it had, and why would you bring one of those in here?" He speaks so quickly, I barely catch what he was saying.

"First tell me what all of these different chips are for and maybe I will answer your questions." I point in the direction of a massive filing system with tiny microchips strewn about on the table beside it.

"Oh, there are just a lot of the same kind of chips. This one is the military programing that is used for regular foot soldiers like you. There are some for cooking, flying planes, and for chips for the higher ups will all of the classified stuff unlocked." He rambles off.

"I want that one then." I refer to the last statement.

His tiny eyes widen and he gasps before speaking, "I am not authorized too..."

I cut him off, "Well now you are!" I lift my weapon and point at his crotch, tilting my head to the side.

He nods his head moving toward the cabinet with a locking mechanism on it. He waves his badge and the electromagnet lock clicks, signaling him to open the drawer. He uses tweezers to pull out a chip. "Ok, lean over and I will put it in."

I dig the gun in slightly to his groin making sure he knows not to screw with me. I bend over and move my hair to the side. I feel as he moves more of my hair out of the way to access the port at the base of my skull. I am slightly disoriented, I hear him gasp then he closes up the port.

"What?" I stand up strait, jabbing the gun into his thigh. "Why did you gasp."

"I swear I put the chip in, but there were extra slots and a chip that was not inserted." He shows me the tweezers with a small chip smaller than the tip of my pinky nail. "This is not standard issue, actually I have never seen one like this. It is old, and well I think that it is a read only chip not like the one I just put in. I think there is a player over here." He holds the tweezers close to him and fumbles around with some of the equipment. He takes the chip and places it into a small drive.

"What is it?" I look over his shoulder at the computer screen.