It was day six on the freeway, and while nothing wildly eventful happened beyond a couple dozen skirmishes with the assimilated soldiers, my luck would never hold out that long to make the journey to the capital all free and clear.

  The transports rolled to a stop as we saw the freeway totally blocked before us, clearly destroyed during some bombing run, with hundreds of scraps of vehicles all over, looking like the remains of some apocalyptic scenario.

  “Lieutenant, want to have a look around with us?” Captain Seash called back to Almana.

  Almana was already up and moving towards the front, gesturing for a few of her soldiers to follow after her, “Of course.”

  Seash and Kotlokk along with a couple marines followed by Almana and her soldiers exited the transports to appraise the damage to the road. Even from my spot on the bus I could see it didn’t look good at all; I was pretty sure we’d need to continue on foot, which of course would suck with all the gear we were carrying, and I was sure we’d have to abandon a lot of our spoils from the past few days.

  Everyone else on the transport was getting pretty anxious then too, not liking just sitting around like this, waiting for our next orders. A few people decided they couldn’t wait and got off the bus so they could at least move around a little.

  I looked over to see Eve fast asleep in her seat, looking like she didn’t have a concern in the world. Of course, I knew she had more concerns than anyone else on the bus, and I wondered if it would be better to let her sleep or if I should wake her to let her know what was going on.

  Ever since Eve admitted what she was really dealing with, she seemed to be trying to put on a show of being strong, to try to prevent me from seeing her suffer. I had a feeling the fact I called her out at all upset her; she probably wanted to keep her pain completely hidden from me and would try harder now to keep me from worrying. Of course, I hated the idea and wanted Eve to tell me everything that ailed her, but she was just so stubborn and prideful sometimes, and there wasn’t much I could do or say about it.

  On the other hand, she slept more than ever beside me, trying to tolerate whatever pain or discomfort she felt now. It caused me to feel wildly lonely, but I would never admit that to Eve, not with what all she was dealing with.

  Still, during her totally lucid moments, she acted the same as always, behaving like a flirtatious schoolgirl with me. It didn’t erase my concerns at all, but she was really good at distracting me; she had me wrapped around her little finger like it was nothing.

  Before I could properly make a decision about waking her, I saw our commanders make their way back towards the transports, scolding the few soldiers that had disembarked in their absence.

  “Alright everyone, things are going to be a little tricky from here; we’re not able to continue along the freeway with our transports, at least not topside.” Seash confirmed.

  Almana stepped forward, “However, there’s a freeway tunnel we can take that would go underneath all the road damage, so we can take that until we can head back to the surface after a few dozen miles.”

  There was a scattering of concerned conversation amongst the soldiers, wondering if risking getting trapped down in a tunnel would be worth it.

  Seash held his hand up to reign in the silence, “I know it could put us at a disadvantaged position in the event we were ambushed, but the alternative is abandoning the transports and losing almost a cycle’s worth of time marching towards Sesamna.”

  “There’s no way we can drive around the damaged part of the freeway?” A marine asked.

  Almana shook her head, “No, we’ve got flooding ditches on either side of the freeway for miles here, so our only options would be to double-back to the last off-ramp and head through a city in the warzone and take the main roads back onto the freeway at a further point, abandon the transports here and walk the rest of the way to Sesamna, or take the tunnel forward.” She explained.

  I heard a few people discuss the options around me, and none of them sounded good. Doubling back would put us days behind our schedule, plus going through a random city in the warzone could be incredibly dangerous, and then just walking would take us way too long and we’d be forced to abandon a lot of our gear, so really the tunnel would be the only way to keep our forward momentum while keeping all our equipment. The only problem was a tunnel would be the worst place to get ambushed by assimilated soldiers.

  Our commanders answered a few more random questions and concerns, but it was clear this was the best option moving forward. Unfortunately, it was still a shit option.

  They coordinated with the other transport, and then without further delay we turned around and headed towards one of the freeway tunnel entrances.

  The tunnel was much more spacious than I thought it would be, especially compared to what we had back on Earth. Down here, it looked every bit as spacious as the freeway topside, with long blue lights that kept it all from looking like a dingy subway or something. There were even rest areas every so often, with plenty of parking spaces and even the occasional little restaurant or diner station.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  But still, we were underground, and even with the sophisticated artificial lighting system, the absence of the sun down here put everyone on edge.

  The interceptor vehicle rode out a bit ahead of us to scout, but not so far we lost sight of it, with the second bus behind us. Everyone inside the transport was quiet now, with windows open and guns at the ready, looking for any sign of movement.

  Down in the tunnel damage was minimal, as though it was mostly untouched by the war. There were only a few abandoned vehicles around, and they didn’t look badly damaged, most had simply crashed into each other. The road was totally intact, and the walls and ceiling around us were an untouched white, but every so often there was a stretch of those long blue lights that were dim or flickering, and everyone held their breath as we drove through.

  I couldn’t shake the feeling this was all a trap, so perfectly planned out with the road topside damaged so it forced us down into the tunnel. The freeway was traveled frequently by the resistance, wasn’t it? Shouldn’t they have known we wouldn’t be able to continue forward without going in the tunnel, or was the damage new—in response to us making our way towards Sesamna? Did the assimilated soldiers have the ability to plan out traps—or more like would Beta-09 use her puppets to trap anyone traveling towards the capital?

  I didn’t like it, and all the while it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, as though someone was standing right beside me, their hot breath on my skin, waiting for the right moment to plunge the knife in my back. I didn’t know if it was just human instinct or if it was some danger sense I’d developed while being around Eve, but it was really hard for me to just sit in my seat while we traveled.

  “I don’t like this.” I said quietly, nearly grinding my teeth.

  Almana in front of me kept her eyes and gun pointed outside the bus, not looking back at me when she spoke, “What do you mean?”

  I shook my head, “This feels like a trap, and the further we go into the tunnel, the more sure I am something’s going to jump out at us.”

  Almana shook her head too, “Adam, you’re just being paranoid; we all discussed it, and this is honestly the best option moving forward.”

  “Exactly, the enemy was planning on us taking that option, allowing them to set up any kind of welcoming they might wish down here.” I reasoned.

  “We have the interceptor, we have our sensors, there’s nothing down in these tunnels.” Almana assured me.

  “How can you be so sure? What all can those sensors detect?” I pressed.

  Almana finally looked at me, pulling up her tablet to show a digital map of the tunnel; on her display, I could see our transports as glowing spots as they moved along the GPS mapping of the underground, slowly and steadily moving along an empty roadway.

  “We can detect electrical activity, heat signatures, even heartbeats. Trust me, we’ve scanned ahead and didn’t pick up any trace of enemy soldiers.” She assured me.

  I looked over her display and saw we still had several miles to go until the next tunnel exit, but there was no telling if the road topside would be clear yet.

  “I don’t like it, Almana. Don’t you vyranes have an expression for instinct or trusting your gut? I’m telling you; something isn’t right.”

  Almana almost looked amused then, as though I was being ridiculous, “Adam, how do you expect soldiers to ambush us when they aren’t anywhere on the radar? We’re clear for several miles now—in both directions.”

  “What about explosives? What if they rigged something to detonate and collapse the tunnels around us?” I asked.

  Almana put her tablet away and returned to her ready position looking out the window, “We can scan for those too; no electrical signatures around at all. We’re totally in the clear. Tell your human instincts to calm down.”

  But they wouldn’t—they couldn’t. My life has been in danger enough lately to know when something wasn’t right. I might not understand all the advanced technology of the Empire, but just because our sensors were blank didn’t mean there wasn’t some threat lurking in the shadows.

  And I’ve watched enough horror movies to know when a jump scare was around the corner.

  I decided I waited long enough and shook Eve’s shoulder gently, “Evie, wake up, something’s going on.”

  Eve was as still as a statue at first, and if anyone had been paying attention they should’ve realized she wasn’t napping like a normal person, no, she really was hibernating—in some kind of weird stasis. Once I disturbed her, she took a deep breath as she seemed to come alive once again, and when she opened her eyes, they flashed briefly before settling back to normal.

  When Eve was fully aware, she looked around, seemingly confused by her surroundings.

  “What the hell, did I sleep until nightfall?” She asked.

  I shook my head and moved aside to show her the window, “No, the freeway was blocked, so they decided to take us through a tunnel underground instead.”

  Eve barely waited for me to finish what I was saying when she turned to Almana, her expression serious and severe, “You need to turn us around immediately.”

  Almana looked like she was about laugh, “What? You’ve been asleep all this time, and yet you think—”

  “How long have we been down here—how far have we travelled?” Eve demanded, talking right over Almana.

  Almana looked annoyed, but she held her tongue as she answered, “Almost a dozen miles now, we’re nearly at the halfway point between exits.”

  “Shit.” Eve looked over at me, “Please tell me you told them this was a stupid idea.”

  I shrugged, “I knew something was wrong—can feel it in my gut. But I didn’t say anything about it, except to Almana.”

  Eve put her hand up to her temple and took a deep, calming breath, as though she was coming to terms with the fact she was surrounded by morons.

  “Eve, seriously, our sensors haven’t detected anything; these tunnels are completely devoid of anything living.” Almana insisted.

  Eve looked at her flatly, “Right, anything living; and do you believe the assimilated soldiers are still alive, considering they can be brought back from the dead?”

  I felt my stomach turn to ice as Almana paled several shades as she realized what Eve was implying.

  “Oh fuck.” She said under her breath.

  “Fuck indeed, you fucking idiots, relying on technology that senses heat and heartbeats when we face an enemy force of puppeteered dead bodies.” Eve said harshly.

  “What the—shit, what the hell do we do?” Almana pressed, pulling out her communicator quickly.

  “You said we were just about at the halfway point between exits? Not much we can do really, probably too late to turn around; I would imagine they’ll make their presence known soon.” Eve said mildly.

  “Fuck, Seash—Captain!” Almana called, jumping out of her seat and rushing off to the front of the transport.

  Eve just shrugged, “Doesn’t matter now, they’re already here.”