Fragmented Echoes. Chapter 1: Undeground Hell

Act 1: Questionable goal. Part 3: Highway of confusion

Hollow ground, fog... and no horizon. I can't relax, can't forget what I just saw. Questions intrude my mind - I feel sick. Almost as if I'm drowning in my own thoughts. A distant light shines, revealing a figure - a silhouette. I can see it. It's...a woman. Beautiful, strong. An angel descended to Earth. She's slowly walking to me - I can see her lips moving, hear her distant voice, but I can't understand her. What is she saying? It sounds like I've heard it somewhere before. Is she trying to warn me about something? It sounds important... almost urgent. I try to tell her that I don't understand her. But instead, I'm speaking with an unknown voice and static... like an old, loud radio: "She is your optional objective. Eliminate her only if you get visual contact...we'll deal with her later anyway. Your primary goal is..." and it stops.

The woman is right in front of me and she is angry. Was it about her? Why? "What did you do to deserve this? Why am I involved?"

I try to ask her in confusion, but it's no use. She looks at me. Her beautiful, semi-closed green eyes are filled with disgust and hate. She slowly raises her weapon. The fog around us is turning into blazing flames. She aims directly at my head, her finger on the trigger and ready to fire. But before she shoots - she asks me... with my own voice: "How can such angel turn into this cold inked monster? What was the point of all this?" A single shot and I'm lying on the ground. Undead and defeated, burning alive, while looking at her as she slowly walks away, disappearing in the light of an emerging Black Sun....

I come to, lying on the cold floor of the train. Grrrh... my head! It's like someone filled it with alcohol, then smashed it into a wall, over and over and over... but I am as sober as I can possibly be! I start to stand up and see a drop of blood on the floor. Where did that come from? Hm... I can taste it with my mouth... there's blood on my lips! Ah shit, my nose is bleeding! I immediately wipe it off. I think it's has something to do with my pressure - craniocerebral pressure - if I am not mistaken...ah, who cares.

Anyway, what was that dream about? I can still hear that strange, confusing question; the other voice,  but I can't turn them into something coherent. It's like a noise, a sound that means nothing. Sigh. I guess it's just another thing to be marked with a question mark, left to plague my mind. The train's not moving, and one door is open. I stepped out into a preparation room.

Reinforced bullet - and bullshit - proof glass, an equipment panel in the middle, a checkpoint with a card requirement to pass... a boxie! Wait... why am I so excited about this cardboard piece of rubbish? Never mind.

This sea slug... CQ Cumber is standing near the checkpoint, staring at me with his nonexistent eyes and waiting. And here's my man, agent Asshole himself, standing on the opposite side, leaning against a wall. He just points at the box."Don't mind me. I'll keep radio contact with you... just grab your gear, listen to whatever this gloving bug has to tell you, and get the job done!"

I don't respond and open the box instead. There's some kind of watch, a new backpack, a CQ 80 and a card. Now we're talking! While I was busy fitting on my new goods, Sea Slug gave me his instructions. "Your goal is to go throw all checkpoints and eliminate any enemy resistance along the way."

I stopped for a second and looked at him. "Enemy...resistance? What kind of enemies? And how do I supposed to defeat them!? By telling bad puns?"

"Step on the middle panel and choose your weapon..."

"...via holographic dispenser. Yeeeah... I remember this tech. One time the boys and I spent days trying to repair one... but hey!" I shrugged. "It can create stuff by bending the sunlight spectrum... or something along the lines. Science!... Kinda."