KABOOM! The grenade blows up a shop in front of Connor, making him fall to the ground. When Connor falls to the ground Gabrielle, Gragon and Dylan stop running and hide behind concrete pillars.
Gragon shouts over the loud gunfire, “CONNOR, ARE YOU WOUNDED?”
Connor gets up, hides behind a concrete pillar and shouts, “I’M ALL RIGHT.”
Dylan sees the agent who is loading a grenade shell into his machine gun/grenade launcher. He opens fire and attacks the agent with shots. Before the agent falls to his death he fires a grenade into the air and it hits one of the giant HD TVs. KABOOM! The TV explodes into miniature parts.
Connor, Gabrielle, Gragon and Dylan open fire on the agents from an elevated position. Some run for cover behind the concrete pillars and some are assaulted to death by gun shells. Connor, Gabrielle, Gragon, Dylan and the agents are firing their weapons at each other. Debris rains down on them. The ammunition fired from Connor, Gabrielle, Gragon and Dylan’s guns create small eruptions of wreckage on the concrete pillars and smash the glass windows of shops on the ground floor.
The agents are using concrete pillars for cover, just like Connor, Gabrielle, Gragon and Dylan. Joel and more agents have entered the shopping mall on the ground floor. Connor, Gabrielle, Gragon and Dylan stop firing and reload their weapons. Joel and his agents run behind the concrete pillars. They run to where the shootout is taking place. Using the concrete pillars for cover they open fire with their machine guns at Connor, Gabrielle, Gragon and Dylan.
Connor, Gabrielle, Gragon and Dylan have reloaded their weapons and continue to fire at the agents. Connor throws hand grenades and Gragon fires grenades from his machine gun/grenade launcher. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Shops, agents, a shop stand and concrete pillars on the ground floor are destroyed by explosions. A hydraulic elevator with glass windows, filled with agents, has arrived on the first floor.
Gabrielle looks behind her; she fires at the agents in the elevator. Gragon notices that Gabrielle is firing at the elevator so he turns around and opens fire on the elevator as well. The firearm projectiles fired from Gabrielle and Gragon’s weapons smash the glass windows, pierce through the agents and perforate the elevator with bullet holes. Gragon fires a grenade shell at the elevator. BOOM! The elevator and the agents inside it explode into mini chunks.
Connor looks inside the sports bag and sees that there’s no ammo left. He drops the bag and leaves it lying on the floor.
Connor looks at Gabrielle, Gragon and Dylan. Connor shouts, “WE’VE NO AMMO LEFT, EVERYONE FOLLOW ME!”
Connor makes another run for it; Gabrielle, Gragon and Dylan follow. From the ground floor, Joel sees Connor, Gabrielle, Gragon and Dylan running.
He shouts, “THEY’RE MAKING A RUN FOR IT; GO AFTER THEM!”
Joel and his agents run and open fire at their targets at the same time. Just like before, the agents run and fire their machine guns at the same time, and their bullets smash the glass and create small sparks on the railings, create booms of waste on the concrete pillars and smash windows and lights inside shops.
Connor stops running and comes to a complete stop at the last concrete pillar. Gabrielle, Gragon and Dylan also stop when they see Connor stop. Gabrielle, Gragon and Dylan open fire on the agents and use the concrete pillars for cover. Connor sees that in front of him there is an elevator. The elevator is their only chance of escape; there are no doors leading anywhere, just walls and an elevator.
He sees the elevator and says to himself, That’s my exit, that’s how I’m going to get out of here. The problem is that there is a distance between the last concrete pillar and the elevator. If Connor runs to the elevator and presses the button, he is a sitting duck because he has no pillars to use as a bulletproof shield. The agents will also see him calling for an elevator and they’ll shoot him down with their guns. Connor doesn’t want to backtrack with his group because they don’t have enough ammo left in their weapons to protect themselves.
Connor shouts over to Gragon, “GRAGON, GET OVER HERE!”
Gragon runs over to Connor. “WHAT?”
Connor shouts, “GIVE ME YOUR GUN.”
Gragon gives Connor his machine gun/grenade launcher. Connor points the machine gun/grenade launcher at the huge steel pillar that’s holding up four giant HD TVs. Connor fires a grenade shell at the steel pillar. BOOM! A chunk of steel is blown away. Another chunk of steel is still holding up the four TVs. Connor grabs another grenade shell from Gragon’s belt and reloads the machine gun/grenade launcher.
Connor fires again at the steel pillar. BOOM! The other chunk of steel is blown away. The pillar with the four giant HD TVs falls straight down; it’s going to hit the ground in front of the agents. BOOM! The pillar and the TVs hit the ground surface, smashing some of the floor and creating a giant explosion of sparks and glass.
The agents scream in pain as they’re stabbed with chunks of glass. Connor hands back the machine gun/grenade launcher and shouts, “COVER ME!”
Connor runs to the elevator and presses the button to call for the elevator. Gragon, Gabrielle and Dylan are firing short-burst rounds at the agents with their guns, covering Connor. None of the agents are firing back because most of them are injured or dead from multiple stab wounds from the chunks of broken glass. A lot of injured agents are screaming in pain.
The elevator makes a dinging sound and has arrived on the first floor. The doors open.
Connor shouts at Gabrielle, Gragon and Dylan, “LET’S GO!”
All four of them get in the elevator. There are three buttons. One button is for the first floor, one is for the ground floor and another is for the indoor car park floor. Connor presses the button for the car park.
Joel is very lucky he wasn’t hurt in the glass explosion. He says to Charles and the other agents who aren’t badly injured, “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Moments later, the elevator arrives at the indoor car park floor. There are lights inside the car park, but no vehicles around. Connor, Gabrielle, Gragon and Dylan look for an exit. Dylan sees sunlight shining from the indoor car park entrance.
He points to where the sunlight is shining and says, “That’s where the exit is.”
All four of them run to the exit. All of a sudden two R1LEVs arrive and stop close to the exit. Connor, Gabrielle, Gragon and Dylan open fire with their machine guns at the R1LEVs. Gragon loads his machine gun/grenade launcher with the last grenade shell and fires at one of the R1LEVs. KABOOM! The R1LEV explodes into pieces. The force of the explosion makes the other R1LEV fly into the air and land upside down.
Connor, Gabrielle, Gragon and Dylan run up a hill out of the car park. The indoor car park is an underground car park, and the entrance is located at the back of the shopping mall. The indoor car park is underneath another large outdoor car park. The outdoor car park surrounds the entrance of the indoor car park. In front of the large outdoor car park at the back of the shopping mall is a footpath and a main road with busy traffic.
Gragon says to everyone, “We need a vehicle.”
Connor, Gabrielle, Gragon and Dylan run onto the main road. Gragon points his gun at a flashy sports car. Once the driver sees Gragon pointing his gun at him, he slams his feet on the brake and clutch, making his car skid and come to a complete halt.
Gragon goes to the driver side of the car. He opens the driver door and hauls the driver out of the car. Gragon gets inside the driver side of the car. Connor gets in the passenger side and Dylan and Gabrielle get into the back. Gragon drives off very fast.
Connor speaks to Dylan in a loud and shocked voice. “Did you see anybody following you?”
Dylan says, “Nah, man, I didn’t see anybody.”
Connor says, “I think they might be tracking you. Do you have any electronic equipment?”
Dylan says, “Yeah, my planet communicator, but nobody knows I have it except you. I don’t think that they could be tracking my planet communicator.”
Connor says, “Well, they’re tracking you s
omehow; they were either following you or tracking that planet communicator.”
Dylan says, “How do you know they were tracking me and not any of you guys?”
Connor responds, “We’ve been waiting in that mall for hours and all of a sudden they show up when you show up, so like I said they’re either following you or tracking you.”
Dylan says, “Fine, I’ll get rid of this communicator.” He winds down the window beside him and throws the planet communicator out of the car.
Gabrielle says, “Hi Dylan.”
Dylan says, “Hi Gabrielle.”
Gabrielle says, “Dylan, this is Gragon. Gragon, meet Dylan.”
Dylan says, “Hey man.”
Gragon responds, “Hello. We need to get off the road immediately.”
Chapter Six
CSB-R1 BASE
Minutes later, Gragon has now driven the car miles away from the Fragma Plaza Mall. Gragon sees a motel. He turns right and parks the car in the car park of the motel. There are a few other cars in the car park, which are owned by guests staying at the motel. The name of the motel is Blydon’s Domes. Gragon tells everyone to leave their machine guns in the car before getting out. Everyone does so. The machine guns that are left in the car aren’t much use to anybody because they have hardly any ammo left. Dylan, Connor, Gabrielle and Gragon are now armed with just handguns. They exit the car.
The motel has a reception area. Dylan, Connor, Gabrielle and Gragon walk over to the motel and enter the reception. There is a male Balaxian called Antrend at the reception desk. Antrend hasn’t seen the news on the TV about Connor. Gragon tells Antrend that he needs two rooms with two single beds each for the night. Antrend tells Gragon that he has rooms available, and how much they’ll cost.
Dylan pays for the two rooms with cash. He doesn’t want anybody to pay for the rooms with a bank card because the records could be traced by Joel and his posse and tell them where they’re staying. Antrend tells Gragon that he has car garages for rental as well. In Blydon’s Domes they have garages for rent so that guests’ cars can have extra security.
The garages are around the back of the motel. Gragon wants to hire a garage for the night because he doesn’t want anybody to see the car he’s been driving. He thinks that the car might be reported stolen, and that the authorities will be looking for it. Gragon tells Dylan to pay for a garage rental for the night as well.
Dylan pays Antrend for the garage for the night. Antrend tells Gragon the room numbers and how to get to the rooms. He also tells Gragon the garage door number and where the garage is. Antrend hands Gragon three sets of keys and tells him to have a nice day. Two of the sets of keys are for the rooms and the other is for the garage.
Gragon picks up a flyer from the reception desk and puts it into his pocket. The flyer is for the motel. There is an address for the motel on the flyer. Gragon exits the reception area and goes to the rooms. Dylan, Connor and Gabrielle follow Gragon. Just before Dylan leaves the reception area he walks over to Antrend, hands him some cash and says, “If anybody looks for us, you haven’t seen us, OK?”
Antrend takes the money from Dylan’s hands and says, “No problem.”
Gragon opens the door of one of the rooms with a set of keys and goes inside.
Dylan, Connor and Gabrielle also go inside the room. Connor closes the door behind him.
Dylan says, “What do we do now?”
Gragon says, “We wait for now. When we get a contact number and location for the CSB-R1 base, we will contact the base and let them know what’s happening and we’ll try to arrange a meeting with someone there.”
Connor says to Gragon, “If your guy can’t get a contact number and the location of the CSB-R1 base by ten o’clock tonight we’re going to have to try to find the base by ourselves.”
Connor is setting himself a specific time because he wants to find the CSB-R1 base as quickly as possible.
Gragon tells everyone he’s going to park the car in the garage. He exits the room and walks over to the sports car he’s recently stolen, parks the car in the garage and locks the garage door. He then walks back into the motel room.
*
Several hours later, its 9pm and it’s night time in the First Dome. It’s a hot night. The Big Rock looks beautiful when the lights of all of the skyscrapers and other buildings are turned on. Passengers in cruise spaceships flying above Mars have often said that at night time, when you watch the buildings with lights on inside the glacitone domes on Mars, from a distance the glacitone domes and the buildings inside them look like giant fireflies inside massive glass boxes.
Gabrielle and Dylan are lying down in separate beds in one room and Gragon and Connor are on separate beds in the other room. Gragon’s cell phone starts to ring. He answers. It’s Sytron. Sytron gives Gragon a contact number for a Commander Lanken who works at the CSB-R1 base, and he also gives Gragon an address for the base. Gragon tells Connor the information. Connor stores them in his planet communicator. Gragon thanks Sytron for getting the information he needed and hangs up the call.
Gragon says, “Well, there you go, you have a contact number for the CSB-R1 base. Are you going to call them now?”
Connor says, “I think that you should call and speak to them in a morphian language; I think they’d listen to you quicker than they would listen to me. Tell them everything you know. If they don’t listen and they hang up the call we’ll drive to the CSB-R1 base and try to make them listen to us in person.”
Gragon does what Connor says. He dials the number for Commander Lanken and speaks to him in a morphian language. Gragon introduces himself to Lanken and tells him everything about what’s going on. He tells Lanken about Connor, the R-1 file, Joel’s mission, DD-12, the DC file, file hive, Space Drill, the CSB-R1 base and the explanations of the shootouts that have recently happened in the Glass Tomb.
Lanken can’t believe that Gragon knows about DD-12, the file hive and the DC file because they are all top-secret information. Lanken tells Gragon that he wants to meet up with him and his crew at the CSB-R1 base. He wants to know what other top-secret information Gragon knows about the base, but he doesn’t want this conversation to go any further over the phone.
Lanken tells Gragon that he’ll send a soldier called Tizer to pick up him and his crew in an RBM to go to the CSB-R1 base. Lanken wants to pick up Gragon and his crew in an RBM because he wants them to have extra protection when they’re travelling to the base. After hearing Gragon’s stories of the recent shootouts that have happened in the First Dome, Lanken wants Gragon and his crew to have extra protection.
Lanken feels the need to send only one RBM to protect Gragon and his crew because he thinks that nobody will attack them while they’re in the RBM. He thinks that nobody will attack the RBM because the RBM he’s sending has dark-tinted windows. He thinks that Gragon and his crew will only be under attack when they’re recognised by Joel and his men, and while they’re in an RBM with dark-tinted windows, they won’t be recognised by anybody. You can’t see the inside of an RBM with dark-tinted windows from the outside. Lanken asks for the location of where Gragon’s staying, and Gragon pulls out the motel flyer and gives Lanken the location. Lanken also asks Gragon for his contact number, and Gragon gives it to him. Lanken tells Gragon that the RBM should arrive shortly to pick him up. Gragon thanks Lanken and hangs up the call.
Gragon tells Connor that Commander Lanken is sending an RBM to pick all of them up to go to the CSB-R1 base. Connor and Gragon go into the room where Dylan and Gabrielle are staying and explain that they got a contact number and a location for the CSB-R1 base.
Connor also tells them that Gragon was speaking to a guy called Commander Lanken, and that Lanken is sending an RBM to pick all of them up to go to the base. Connor, Dylan, Gabrielle and Gragon wait in Connor and Gragon’s room for the RBM to arrive.
Connor looks at Gragon and says, “Oh shit! I’ve just realised something: at the time when Joel tried to kill us at the shopping mall, he mig
ht have tracked us down by tracking your phone, or maybe the guy you contacted, Sytron, is helping them.”
Gragon says, “A number of hours have passed since the shootout at the mall. If they were tracking my phone, why wait until now to kill us? It doesn’t make any sense. I believe that if they were tracking my phone, we would have been in another shootout in this motel hours ago.”
Connor responds, “I dunno, maybe Joel needs time to gather more soldiers and weapons. It’s possible we could be walking into a trap.”
Gragon says, “Like you said before, we were waiting inside that mall for hours and Joel and his men turned up when Dylan did.”
Connor says, “Maybe it took them a long time to find the mall.”
Gragon says, “That is a possibility.”
Minutes later the RBM arrives in the car park of the motel. Gragon peeps through the window of his room and sees the RBM.
Gragon says to everyone, “I see the RBM. Wait here; I’ll be back.”
Gragon wants to walk over to the RBM by himself to make sure that the soldier who he’s supposed to meet is called Tizer. Gragon exits the room and walks over to the RBM. Connor peeps through the window and sees Gragon in front of the RBM. A morphian soldier gets out of the RBM.
The morphian soldier says, “I’m Tizer. I was sent here by Commander Lanken to pick you up.”
Red to Fade Page 12
