RAVEN FYRE

Chapter 12

The sun was setting by the time the girls arrived at the mine.

WarFairy used her Light-Sword to cut through the thick, gigantic chains holding the rusted gate together.

"Damn. If only we knew it was going to be this bad, I could have brought the WarMachine."

"But then how would you get it into the mine?" Raven asked has she pulled open the large gate.

"What's a WarMachine?"

"A mechanical monstrosity straight out of a Japanese cartoon."

WarFairy rolled her eyes at Raven. "Anime."

Ell shot a glance at them. "Huh?"

"Sort of like a Transformer," Raven said.

"Trans ... former?"

"A giant, bipedal, death-robot. A walking battle tank."

"Ohh. I think I remember reading about that a few years ago. The SRC was working with Japan to develop them, but after years of R&D, the projects were dropped because they couldn't solve the energy or the weight issues and they were far too expensive to mass produce."

"Right you are," Raven replied.

"You have one? A functional machine?"

Raven scoffed. "Functional?"

"My baby can walk, run, dodge and it's fully capable of flight."

"No way. That's something I'd like to see. How big is it, and what are its offensi--"

"Don't. Please don't ask her about the guns."

Ell raised a hand for a moment with a nod. "Then I won't. I'm sure SCOR will grant me access at some point. Besides, we should be more focused on making it out of here alive first."

They scanned the trees and bush around them as they climbed the hill. After a couple of minutes, the front of the mine came into view.

There was a large, empty parking lot to the right beyond a checkpoint. A big, white trailer office was situated on the left side of the entrance. Nothing looked to have been used in decades. Storm debris had built up all over the entire area. The road, checkpoint stall and office was littered with dirt, dust and dead leaves. A low, whistling howl emanated from the flimsy set of planks that covered the mine entrance.

WarFairy pulled her sword out again and cut a nice big hole through the planks. The rest of the boards, along with the gate they covered, gave way and fell apart.

Raven switched on her flashlight and kicked at some protruding planks. "Good work - but you're not using that thing in there, got it?"

WarFairy switched her light on. "Why not?"

Raven tried to wave off some of the plooming dust created by their careless entry. "C'mon, babe, do I really need to explain why it's a bad idea to compromise the structural integrity of a mine tunnel?"

"I'll be careful."

A strong smell came from the gloom ahead. Moldy wood, rust and dirt mixed together, painted a picture in Raven's mind of what the conditions would be like inside.

"Finally. We made it to the mine," Ell said as she pointed her gun to the six, covering their entry as the girls pushed deeper in. "I'm I the only one who didn't come prepared with a flashlight?"

"All kinds of gear was lost in the crash. Charlie Team is going to have a hell of a time retrieving all of our crap from the island. Gonna be a shit show convincing the US and everyone else to stay away while SCOR goes in for the recovery."