By: Mike Kelly


  "Halt, humans!" barked a voice from the small device attached to my belt.
Though I could see no one, I knew we were surrounded.
My grip on my Tevix-Bahn tightened as a loud humming sound filled the cave.
I quickly glanced around. The cave was small, maybe 10 feet in diameter,
with rocks and rubble strewn about. The entrance tunnel stood right behind
us, but Eaglewind and I both knew what going back there could mean; we'd be
letting down a lot of innocent people if we didn't succeed with this mission,
and many would die--or worse yet, suffer at the hands of Overkill.
Eaglewind flinched. The radiation was beginning to take it's toll on him,
where his Enviro-suit had been ripped. It was almost like a B-grade holo-
flick watching that worm coming at us...until it caught up with us; then
it became a nightmare. Eaglewind had fought well, however. It's not often
a man gets swallowed by a Rad-worm, and cuts his way out through the beast's
throat.

  Again the air crackled as that scratchy translation of hisses and growls
snapped us back to reality. I looked forward, at the small, black panel
before us on the cave wall, which glowed slightly, as though lit up from
some internal light source. Suddenly the humming sound came to an abrupt
halt with a loud 'CLANK!' and Eaglewind stepped back, startled. The wall
above the panel began to break up, and then slid open to reveal a strange,
gun-like mechanism. Eaglewind and I turned to run, but found that the
entrance had been sealed by some sort of force field, as we ran smack into
it.
   Grabbing Eaglewind's shoulder, I lunged behind the largest of the rocks
which littered the cave (which was barely adequate to cover one of us, let
alone both).
   As I jumped behind the rock, there was a loud 'ZAAPP!' which accompanied
a brilliant flash of multi-colored light, followed by silence. I felt a
stabbing pain in my left shoulder, and as I felt myself losing conciousness
I heard Eaglewind's tortured voice cry out in horrified agony. Then I
realized it was not Eaglewind I had pulled behind the cover of the stone,
but only his tattered Enviro-suit.  The world faded to black....

(This is one of the many adventures in my ongoing story saga. I  will be
posting them on a regular basis.)

-=>Dragonstar<=-
Over The Line BBS  (918)250-0542 (1:170/260)
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