Hand of God

INTERNECION

They had reached Fort Knox by night. The fires hadn’t died down where the missile had hit, there were still loud noises that contradicted the silence of the night. Before the missile had hit, the energy with which the people around Roger had marched had died down somehow. Everyone was afraid. Because they knew what would occur if another war was to happen.

Raul did his best to keep them focused but every once in a while, someone would turn and look at the camp lit up with fire.

Roger had his mind in another place entirely. Right now, his hopes had risen a bit because of the nine people departing and he was sure that the protection at Fort Knox must’ve been reduced to send help at the camp.

Raul had led the others towards the eastern end of Fort Knox. They were still a respectable distance away from the fort so as to avoid being noticed by the guards.  The area in which they were hiding was used as sewage disposal plant for all the camps. Roger couldn’t breathe through the thick air. But this was the place where the tunnel opened.

The idea was ingenious. The people who came here to dispose off the waste wanted to get out of here as soon as they could so they did not notice the haphazardly covered tunnel. It had taken Raul’s people around six months to dig the tunnel end-to-end.

When Roger was told about the plan, he realized that the whole operation had not been a hasty one. It had been in process for a long time now and he just had arrived at the moment when it was all supposed to come together.

Covering their noses, Roger and May sat huddled together as they waited for Raul’s signal.

‘Listen, we have to stay together when we go in, okay?’ said May.

Roger nodded.

‘Now, I know you have complete experience with fighting and all but with you, we’re gonna have to improvise so it’s better if you stay behind me, hmkay?’

Roger was going to agree to anything and everything she said because he was not particularly listening to her, he still had no concrete escape plan.

May patted him on the shoulder and walked away.

Roger wiped his sweaty hands on his shirt. Too much adrenaline was being pumped into his body, he could feel his heart beats in his right forearm. He closed his eyes and just waited. Roger had no idea what was in store for him at the other end of the tunnel.

All his life, Roger had just aimed to get through the Militia Test, that was all he knew. He had put everything in it and yet he had failed. The future he had imagined for himself was nowhere close to what he was witnessing. The control and stability that he had desired for his life, it was nowhere to be found, everything was in chaos. And that angered him. He had no control over his own life and that’s what he desired. The reins. The reins to the horses of his life.

‘Let’s go, people. It’s time.’

Roger looked up at Raul standing few feet away. Roger and the others gathered around him. He stood beside a massive hole in the ground. Roger bent over and looked through. May already stood inside with a red flare in her hand.

‘A Sewage treatment plant right beside the fort doesn’t seem so genius now, does it?’

That drew nervous sniggers from all of them. One by one they lowered themselves into the tunnel and began to walk along. Roger followed closely behind May with her clutching his hand tightly as if expecting someone to pop up with a gun right in front of them.

‘May,’ began Roger. ‘If the government didn’t rebuild the underground chamber, why didn’t they just seal it off?’

‘They did. I just unsealed it.’ she replied, nonchalantly. ‘I know it doesn’t sound good but it actually is enough. They have way too many problems to deal with to think much about it. If it would’ve been normal times then I would’ve been caught on day one. But in the end, we were never born in normal times and we don’t know what they are.’