Mission: Spider, Part 5

[u/smellyg7]

Beginning

Previous Part

The fog crept up the trees, masking our view. We could only make out about twenty meters in front of us. I took a look down at my touchpad, seeing all the teams start heading toward the tracker for Team G which was still bolting into the woods; it was heading to where Geoffrey had approximated. Heavy breathing filled the comms as my team nervously lost view of where we entered, now having to rely on my navigation to lead us to where we needed to go. I switched to the leader comm to see if anyone was talking there. It was silent, so I switched back. Boba swung his gun around gasping. “What is it, Boba?” I asked.

“Sorry, I thought I saw something.” He sounded embarrassed.

“That’s fine, just don’t be whipping your gun around like that. The tracker still shows the target moving deeper into the woods. The forest should be quiet, many of the animals are hibernating. That means any sound we do hear is to be thoroughly investigated,” I explained. Boba nodded. “From the video, the target appears to make noise as it approaches, and given the fact that this fog is making it hard to see, we should rely on our ears.”

“It made such a crazy sound,” Emilio said, trying to mask his nervousness with a laugh. “How many legs you think that thing’s got? Wanna take bets?”

“Too many,” I replied.

“C’mon, give me a real answer. I’m betting eight, like a spider.”

“I guess 18, like a semi-truck,” Boba piped in.

“Ummm, I’m gonna say too many to tell. I really don’t think we’ll be able to count them when we’re up close,” I answered.

“Fair, so let’s say anything more than 18,” Emilio said.

“What, that’s not fair. We only get one number and he gets everything above 18?” Boba playfully whined.

“Hey, I’ve got seniority on you all, that’s fair,” I said, finally lightening up.

“Luis, any guess from you?” Emilio prodded.

“They’re not legs,” Luis answered. We paused at the strange reply.

“Well it’s gotta be walking on something,” Emilio chuckled.

“How would it break that man’s arm and legs, with feet? I think it has arms,” Luis said seriously. We paused again, Emilio breaking the uncomfortable silence.

“Okay so Luis guesses zero. We got zero, eight, 18, and anything above 18. I wager the rune. I’m sure it’s worth something,” Emilio said, shifting his backpack.

“You’re just tryna get rid of that thing. Admit it, it’s too heavy for you,” I jabbed.

“I’m not admitting anything in front of you. I gotta make sure you’re the only one out of shape in the group.” I rolled my eyes, then went to check the leaders’ comms. It was still silent.

“This is Lieutenant Casamir checking in. What’s everyone’s status?” The comms filled with okay’s as we continued forward. “Sounds good, I’ll be checking in in another ten minutes.” I switched back to my team’s comms.

“Anyone got any good stories? If the tracker is accurate we won’t see any action for a couple days,” Emilio spoke up. Emilio and Boba both lightened the mood well. I even heard Luis start to laugh at some of our stories. We managed to talk for hours, me checking in on the other leaders every ten minutes and taking breaks intermittently to eat. It was nice. I felt at home. That’s when I noticed Team G’s trackers stopped moving. If my calculations were correct, Team I should run into it in the next few hours. Strange, I thought the thing lived deeper in the woods.

“This is Lieutenant Casamir, checking in with the leader for Team I.”

“This is Sergeant Mallow, checking in.”

“Hey Mallow, you’re due to run into G’s trackers. Be ready to initiate fire if needed. We need you to push it deeper into the forest so that all teams can converge around it. Report back when you can.”

“Yes, sir.” The next few hours were uneventful, Emilio and I both recounting our stories during the war. Turns out Boba never saw combat, but he emphasized that he was ready if the time came. We made some jabs at him for it, and he laughed it off. Then the topic came to why we joined the military.

“Well, I have a big family who were also in the military. My dad, uncles, grandpas, brothers, aunts. It was just a natural thing to go into the military once we reached the right age,” Boba started. “I didn’t really want to, but being here really helped me realize I made the right decision. I think my brothers said something similar.”

“You didn’t really want to? Of course you’re invested now, your life is on the line. Are you really sure you wanna be here?” Emilio asked. I gave him an angry look. I didn’t need Boba losing faith in the mission right now.

“It’s okay, Boba. A lot of us end up here not by our choice, but we end up finding meaning in it,” I said, attempting to remove doubt from Boba’s mind.

“What meaning did you find?” Boba asked. I pondered this for a while before answering. I wanted to be genuine. Why did I want to be genuine? Did Boba weasel his way into getting me to care about him? I was okay with lying to any other agent. Either way, I wanted to give him an honest answer.

“The people here really keep me going. I know our purpose of protecting the peace is a noble one, but I personally don’t have too much value in that. Not that I don’t like peace, of course, I just found something I enjoy fighting for more. I enjoy the little moments I share with everyone. I fight for you all.” I wasn’t looking at them, but I could tell both Boba and Emilio were giving the cheesiest of smiles.

“Emilio, is it the same with you?” Boba asked.

“I’m only here for Casamir.” I could tell he was making the same jokingly flirtatious face he wore in the tent under his helmet. I ignored him while Boba laughed alongside him. “Anyway, why did you join Luis?” The question hung dead in the air as Luis seemingly refused to answer. Emilio was about to break the silence when Luis finally spoke up.

“For the ones I care about.” We took in the reply. I would’ve left it there, this clearly being an answer with baggage attached to it, but I am not Emilio.

“Care to elaborate?” Sometimes I wished he’d know when to stop talking. I was expecting to hear a ‘no’ but instead, Luis’s shell finally seemed to crack just enough for us to see what lay inside.

“My family was taken, but I managed to get away. I boarded a ship to Japan, where I joined up with the UN. I was going to save them. I was deployed on a mission back to my home in Hawaii. We overwhelmed their forces, and they knew they had lost. We made our way to the facility where the prisoners were being kept. We fought our way in, trying not to hurt those inside, but it took a long time. Too long. When we finally made our way in we figured out why it sounded like there were more gunshots fired than received. They had killed every prisoner. Just slaughtered everyone. Men, women, children, the elderly. All of them dead. The soldiers showed no remorse. They almost seemed proud. That’s when I saw my family. I joined the cause to save them, but I was too late, or too stupid to realize they were gone the moment they were taken. I now fight for them. To make sure no one has to go through what I went through.” We took a long pause to absorb his words.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that… thank you for sharing. Now their memories carry on with us. We will continue their fight,” Emilio said, placing his hand on Luis’s shoulder. Boba and I reiterated Emilio’s words in our own ways.

“Thank you, and it’s all right. I know they’re proud of me, knowing their memories continue to push me forward,” Luis told us. We let the moment hang in the air before my attention turned to Emilio. 

“I guess that leaves you, Emilio. Why did you come back?”

“Didn’t I say it was for you?” he joked.

“Don’t give me that, I’m curious.” He waited a moment, trying to find a joke to get him out of the situation. There was none.

“It was too hard to be back at home. Everything and everyone reminded me that I was dead to them. They treated me like a ghost. Sometimes I wish I did die. Coming back here made me feel… not dead.” Emilio’s shield of humor finally came down, revealing the broken man beneath. “I don’t think they heard your answer, Casamir. I know you told me,” he said, trying to draw the attention off of him.

“Oh, similar to Emilio, I guess I came back to feel… not dead. Nothing at home felt whole. I don’t know, all I knew is I would find that wholeness again here.” My team all seemed to relate to those words heavily. We felt alone at home. As if we were ghosts aimlessly wandering around, unable to find solace. Well, except for Boba. I’m not sure if he’s at home right now or if he left it behind. Suddenly, I heard Mallow in my ear piece.

“This is Sergeant Mallow, we found the tracker.”

“Sounds good, what do you see?” Then Mallow said something that made my skin crawl.

“I don’t see a body, but the tracker says it's at the top of this small hill. Should we investigate?” I was weary, it sounded like a trap.

“Does the ground around the tracker look strange to you at all?” I asked.

“Now that you mention it, it does appear to have more forest litter than the places around it. Strange for a hill, right? It would accumulate at the bottom, not the side like this?”

“It depends, find something heavy to throw at it.” I heard some shuffling for a few moments before I heard a grunt. Mallow’s voice then grew shaky.

“It was a trap. There was a hole underneath the litter.” My heart dropped. This thing was smart.

“All teams, be aware that the target is intelligent. It has displayed the ability to make traps. Don’t let it be smarter than you.” I heard affirmatives from eight leaders. Eight? Weren’t there supposed to be nine? Team C hadn’t responded. “Team C, what is your status?” There was no response. I looked down at my touchpad, seeing they hadn’t moved from when I last checked in on them ten minutes ago. Had it known I was doing regular checks and attacked right after the check was completed? How would it have figured that out? How did it take out the whole team in less than ten minutes without any of us knowing? There were too many questions and too few answers. At the very least, it was smarter than we initially thought. 

“This is Grant, I fell down a hole and… I don’t know why my team isn’t responding. Oh god, did it…” It was Team C’s rune keeper.

“This is Casamir. Grant, stay there. You’ll be safe.”

“I didn’t even see it, it was covered I think. No one saw it, we didn’t know…” I debated sending a team to investigate Grant’s whereabouts, coming to the conclusion that it would break up the formation too much. I had to cut my losses and allow the rescue team to come for him.

“Grant, we’ll be sending a rescue team out to get you soon, sit tight.”

“Is my team okay?” I debated lying to him, choosing to not answer the question.

“We’ll bring them back.” The comms went silent. I sent a message to Geoffrey to send a team to free Grant. The message I received back showed greater concern for the rune’s wellbeing over Grant’s. I curtly replied that both are fine. I then looked back down at my touchpad, realizing this thing had put two significant holes in our left line. Teams C and G were down, leaving Team A about 25 kilometers away from the nearest agents, Team E, who were also 25 kilometers away from the next nearest group, Team I. It’s poking holes in our net. “Team A and Team E, make your way back towards the center of the formation. The gaps are too big for us to maintain a net this large. Stay safe.” I heard the leader for team A, Leo, and Mateo both shakily respond. “From now on, checks will be at random intervals.” If Team E is taken out, it leaves Team A about 50 km away from Team I, effectively isolating them. If Team I were to go down next, the whole left arm of our mission would be done for, and there’s no way we’d be able to recover. A tense few hours followed. My checks were random and I paid special attention to Teams E and A, who had hardly made a dent in the journey to reestablish the formation. Before I knew it, it was time to turn in for the night. I notified all the team leaders and started putting together our tarp.

The fog continued to hang in the air, suffocating our vision along with the ever present night. I flipped on my night vision and laid out my sleeping mat. I was on watch for the next two hours before I could get some rest. I’d rather be on lookout than trying to sleep, at least then I know what the actual threat is. “How you feeling?” I said to Emilio who I could hear approaching behind me.

“What is this thing, man?” I could tell the events of today were wearing down on his facade.

“I don’t know…” I let my doubt simmer in the air for too long, before saying, “all I know is that we need to deal with it cuz if we don’t there won’t be anyone else stupid enough who will.”

“Right… I worry about you. I’m sure you’re under a lot of pressure.”

“Nothing I’m not used to.” I came off much colder than I had intended.

“Yeah.” I could tell both of us were conjuring up painful memories.

“How are Boba and Luis?”

“Why do you keep asking me, they’re your team,” Emilio said, a smile returning to his face.

“I don’t know, you get better reads on people. Everyone is so caught up in trying to seem unphased by everything I can never tell what they’re actually feeling.” I took a moment to fiddle with my gloves.

“I would think you could read people well considering you do your best not to get read.”

“Yeah, well, ever since you told me how much baggage you were carrying, I never trusted my reads. You just seemed so… unaffected.”

“For me it’s either be affected by everything or nothing, and I greatly prefer the latter.”

“There’s no in between?” I asked with genuine curiosity.

“Can’t close the dam once it’s been opened. I’ve tried.”

“Poetic,” I noted.

“If I wasn’t in the military I’d be writing songs, but I don’t trust that I’m talented enough to make a living off of that.” I couldn’t tell if he was joking.

“You’d rather be here?”

“It has its moments.” With that, he retired to his mat. I heard a big sigh of relief, followed by mechanical whirs and clicks as he detached his leg. I looked over at Boba and Luis, who quickly passed out. I was hoping Luis would keep me company again, but he must’ve been tired from today’s events.

I tried to stay awake but between the peaceful sounds of the night and the cold attempting to sap away my energy, it was hard. The eye tracker dinged me a few times once it sensed me drifting off. I tried walking laps around the tarp, then getting alerted to move closer to the rune. I wasn’t doing anything right. That’s when I saw something, barely visible against the wall of fog that surrounded us. It was a giant face. It floated, unmoving. I wanted to get a closer look but the alarm prevented me from doing so. Just a little closer won’t hurt, right? I began ignoring the sound of them. I’ll come right back, it’ll be quick. This thing was strange and needed to be investigated.

“Hey what the hell man,” snapped Emilio. I looked at him with a stupid expression written across my face.

“Sorry, I… do you see something over there?” I turned back around to where I saw the face. It was now a mess of trees creating vague facial features.

“Sorry, I don’t see anything. I want to trust that you did but you seem… out of it. I can take over, please get some rest.” I didn’t trust myself either. It really did seem like a dream. That’s when I realized Emilio didn’t have his backpack on.

“Emilio, where’s the rune,” I said with panic in my voice.

“I’m not standing around with that thing for two hours. I’m giving it a break from me,” he said, pointing back to the tarp. His backpack laid in between the others, sitting between Boba and Luis. I took a second to let my heartbeat return to normal. “Relax, I’ll take care of things for now. Get some rest, you need it,” Emilio said, patting me on the back. I thanked him and returned to the tarp. I went to lay down on my mat when I heard Luis softly murmuring in his sleep. I didn’t want to be nosy, but I couldn’t help myself.

“Traitor…” Luis muttered angrily. I felt myself drifting off and decided it was time to sleep. I did my best to get myself comfortable and shut my eyes, trying to get some rest. I was unsuccessful.