The 122nd

Time seemed to have passed by quickly, and Bryan's thoughts had been lingering on home and the life he missed. Bryan looked at his watch. It was almost four hours now. Bryan had been hearing thunder in the distance for the past twenty minutes and, as he had predicted, Bryan was starting to see the raindrops drizzle down from the sky. The clouds were getting darker by the minute now and the wind seemed to be even stronger. Bryan knew this storm was going to be a strong one and Bryan worried for the safety of the drop-ship. Bryan decided it might be best to camp in for the duration of the mission and alert the drop-ship of the changing weather condition as well as update the admiral so far.

The first thing Bryan did was stop, turn around, and shout, "Squad, hold position!" The squad responded immediately as if someone had slapped them awake. They looked alert and Bryan liked that. Bryan took out his radio and said, "This is captain Bryan. It looks like we've made it this far. It's been nearly four hours now and I can see it's about to rain on us. Not that I would let a little rain bother us, but true to my word I want us to rest and check out that cave. It'll also keep us dry, so I hope that gives everyone another incentive." Bryan smirked to himself knowing that wasn't such a good incentive. Bryan recovered a second later and said, "Alright. I want both squads to meet in the middle. We'll discuss if anything unusual was seen or heard. If everything is well, we'll camp in the cave until it's time to go home." Bryan heard the sigh of relief from one of his soldiers as he finished the sentence. Bryan felt the same way himself.

Bryan radioed the drop-ship as the squad headed toward the middle. He heard the female response from the pilot, Christy. "Reporting in, sir." Bryan said on the radio, "Time now is - " Bryan checked to see what time it was exactly. Before he could finish, she said, "Twenty-two hundred, sir." Bryan felt irritated by her beating him to it, but he held his tongue and reluctantly said, "Yes, that is correct. I want you to prep. the drop-ship for pick-up in one hour. That would be - " She interrupted again. " Twenty-three hundred hours, sir." Bryan was now even more irritated, but he held his tongue once again. "Yes, twenty-three hundred. Just be here by then. Is that clear?" She replied as if she enjoyed taunting him, "Yes sir." Bryan let the radio rest on his side as he felt the sudden urge to strangle her for being so rude to him. Bryan then picked up his radio and radioed the admiral. Bryan said, "This is captain Bryan. Please respond." The admiral responded. "This is admiral Richard. How is the mission going?" Bryan replied "All has been peaceful, sir. We've patrolled the perimeter of the open space and we're going to head inside the cave. Weather conditions appear to be getting worse so we're going to camp in the cave and explore it until our drop-ship arrives." The admiral responded "Very good. Make sure you make it back in one piece." Bryan replied, "Yes sir. We'll do our best." Bryan switched off the radio and put it back on his side.

As the two squads met up in the middle, corporal Landon approached Bryan and saluted him. Bryan appreciated the gesture and saluted back. The corporal than proceeded to say "No unusual activity detected on our patrol routes. As you ordered, we started from the south edge of the clearing and made our way clockwise around the perimeter of this clearing. Nothing at all, sir." Bryan nodded his head and said in a slightly low voice "Very good corporal." Bryan's intuition told him something was too quiet here. Bryan just knew this planet couldn't be uninhabited with this sort of atmosphere and this sort of environment. If humans could settle here, Bryan knew something else had to be out there. There wasn't any activity. There was only silence. It worried Bryan.

After a minute of simply thinking about it, Bryan let the thought go as him being paranoid and shouted, "OK men, lets go inside!" He heard private Mike say "Alright!" Bryan chuckled and proceeded toward the cave. Both his squad and Landon's squad followed. As Bryan approached the cave, the rain was beginning to drizzle down faster. Bryan ignored it as he approached the mouth of the cave entrance. Inside the cave, it was dark. There wasn't any light past the entrance. Bryan shouted to the soldiers "Everyone got their shoulder-lamps?"
He heard the response from the soldiers "Yes sir." He shouted "If you happen not to have one, stick close to someone who does." Bryan placed his hand on his side to where his pistol was holstered. It felt secure and ready to be used at a seconds notice. Bryan inspected the formation of the cave. It seemed to curve to the right and downwards. Bryan also saw that there was a choke point where only one, possibly two, soldiers could fit in at once. Bryan immediately saw this as a problem. The choke point was located at beginning of the bend where the curve started.

As they entered the cave, Bryan stood still about four to five feet inside the entrance until everyone was inside the cave. Bryan heard the sound of thunder again and saw the rain picking up momentum. He saw the grass swaying from the wind and getting wet. If this weren't a mission, Bryan would love to have sat down and enjoyed the view until sleep induced him. As Bryan turned around, he took out a small steel flashlight from his right pocket and twisted the lens until it turned on. It was a good quality and Bryan was glad that he took it with him. The rest of the soldiers began to turn their shoulder-lamps on as well. Apparently, everyone had their shoulder lamps with them. Bryan took out his radio and said "There's a choke point here at the entrance to this cave. I don't like it one bit and it's all to easy to be trapped in by something like this. Before we head inside, I'm going to need two of you to stay here and guard the entrance. Make sure nothing comes from behind us." Bryan looked at the soldiers and wondered who would volunteer to opt out from the exploring. He saw private Rob speak up and said "I'll stay, sir, and guard the entrance." Private Tom soon joined him and said "I'll accompany him, sir." Bryan nodded his head and said "So be it."

One by one, with the exception of private Rob and private Tom, they made their way through the choke point until everyone was accounted for. Past the choke point, the cave seemed even darker. The only light that they had was from the shoulder-lamps and his flashlight. Bryan took the team deeper inside as the bend seemed to spiral around further inside. It looked almost like a staircase bending downward deeper into the bowels of the planet, but without the steps. Soon, after a good two to three minutes of following the bend, there was a ledge. It was small and took only an easy jump to get down from. He said over the radio, "Doesn't look too difficult..." He approached the ledge and jumped to the bottom. It was about a four foot jump, and he landed on his feet without any difficulty. He looked behind him at the other soldiers. They followed him one by one until everyone had made the jump. The ledge looked like it could be jumped if he ran toward it.

When Bryan turned around, he was in a large room with stalactites on the ceiling. The room looked large enough to be a fancy ball room. As Bryan scanned the room, he saw three entrances deeper inside the cave. Bryan knew all to well how easy it could be to get lost down here. Bryan said over the radio, "Did anyone remember to bring some flares?" Private Paterson was the one to respond by saying, "Yes sir." He took out a handful of un-illuminated flares that were neon green. Bryan said "Excellent. Place one at this ledge here. We don't want to get lost inside this cave." Private Paterson took one of the flares, twisted it, and dropped it right at the ledge. It was a good spot for it.

Bryan looked back at the vast open room and said "Door number one, door number two, or door number three."