Apex Is Coming

Ever since Japan became the safest country in the world back in 2023, America desired to surpass them. But this desire didn’t come to pass. Jenifer Freelox became the 46th president of The United States, and the first female president of the nation. During her tenure as president, she made many controversial decisions, the biggest of these being the ban on all guns.

No one knows how it even happened, considering that the law violated the second amendment. Citizens didn’t even think the law would actually get passed, or even be allowed to go into effect. They were wrong. It started out with people forced to either hand over their firearms or face imprisonment. People who owned gun shops had to shut down and give up their weapons. Gun manufacturers had to be closed down. People were outraged, people were furious, people panicked. So people did what they thought would work, they did what they thought would get the attention of the president and the government. They purged.

It started out just like the purge movies, people were killing each other while others looted. It was really bad in Florida, so bad in fact that it’s not a state anymore. Florida was burned to the ground, it became known as the 'wasteland', miles and miles of nothing but ash and ruins. Only around half the population of Florida survived and evacuated.

It somehow got worse from there. The loss of roughly ten million lives caused the government to step in. The government at the time was completely corrupt, they didn’t care about the people. They threatened to start bombing states and kill those who refused to listen to their rules.

People refused to listen to anything they were saying, they wanted their freedom back, they wanted their rights back. So the government actually decided to follow through with their threats, they dropped hundreds of bombs on North Carolina, where the most killing was happening. The bombs completely destroyed the state and killed the remainder of the population.

Everyone was scared. After seeing that the government wasn’t joking and was being serious, it made everyone stop. Everyone listed, no one questioned them anymore, they all obeyed.

This leads us to today. Fifty-four years later. A terrorist group called ‘REMEMBER’ has formed. Its goal, to give the people of America their rights back, and remind everyone that the government had taken everything away. The government decided to counter REMEMBER by forming a special forces team called Apex.

Apex only had four members, but being backed by the government, they had everything they needed. They were elite assassins, trained since birth with weapons other than guns to fight the forces of REMEMBER. Their names were Beta, Charlie, Delta, and their leader, my big brother Alp-

I decided to take the earbuds I was given out and glare at my only medical staff member. “You had something going there. But then you ruined it.”

“Aww, what’s wrong with it! I worked hard on that you know,” Alice replied, giving me her signature little pout. Alice gave me her phone so I could listen to a voice recording that she made not too long ago. Apparently, she was trying to make it for a video she was working on with a friend. Her monologue was inaccurate, but not all of it though.

The true story didn’t involve bombing or anything like that. The government handled the situation very carefully, making sure not to get other nations involved. The war took decades to end, causing food supplies to be terrible for years to come. Even fifty-five years after the war, hatred for the government was still strong in middle America, causing most of REMEMBER’s supporters to reside there. Another thing was that we actually were not trained since birth. But I digress.

Alice was the only member of my medical team. She was only 15 years old, but a genius when it comes to the medical field. She’d been studying ever since she learned how to read and write. Alice was wearing a nurses outfit, which didn’t look right seeing as she was actually a doctor. She had long blonde hair that was always tied into a pair of pigtails, but she only had her hair like that because she enjoys exploiting my weakness.

“Listen, Alice,” I began to rub her head gently. Since she was pretty short, head rubs were always fun and easy to give. She looked up at me with her big blue eyes, a goofy grin forming on her face. “If you’re actually gonna make something like that, and also show it to people, you shouldn’t add random details like that.” Should I tell her it was inaccurate?

“Why? I want the world to know that you’re my big brother!” She’s not even related to me, I’ve only known her for about a couple months. Why did she call me this? I had no idea, but it's not like I minded, I actually kinda liked it.

Currently, I was standing in Alice’s office, a room about the size of a small apartment. The room itself had no windows and only a single door leading in and out. She had two counters that lined the left and right side of the room with all sorts of medical equipment on them. A bunch of cabinets with fingerprint locks were lined up along the back wall. There were even a couple of couches that sat on a carpet, just next to the cabinets.

I took a seat on my favorite couch and watched as Alice started to move some of the medical items on her counter. Sometimes she looks like an actual doctor rather than just a kid playing as one. “Alice, can I just get the shot and go? We have intel coming in on our next target and I need to discuss it with my team,” I said while slouching into the couch. What I said technically wasn’t a lie, we did have intel coming in today, but I just didn’t know when.

“Hmm... Fine then you big baby,” She spat at me. She walked over to one of the cabinets and pressed her finger on the scanner. A second later, a click could be heard as the lock disengaged and she opened the cabinet. She pulled out some alcohol pads, along with a small vial of red liquid with a needle to go along with it. She sat on the couch right next to me as she pushed the needle into the red liquid and pulled back on the plunger.

I lifted up the right sleeve of my hoodie so she could do the actual injection. After rubbing some alcohol on my arm, she stuck the needle into me.

“So what does this do exactly?” I questioned, watching as the red liquid left the needle and went into my body.

“Dummy. It’s for the nanobots in your bloodstream. This is to make sure they’re working properly,” She said while puffing her cheeks out and pouting at me.

When Apex was originally formed, the government wanted to make sure we actually survived. So instead of making super suits, or something even better, they spent all their effort on nanobots instead. Micro-sized robots were injected into all of our bloodstreams. They even came with some special abilities that I didn’t remember.

“There, all done. Now, what do you say?” Alice gave me a smile as she said this. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Even if she was almost an adult and had taken on several responsibilities, she still acted like a kid sometimes.

“We say thank you.” I flexed my right arm trying to increase circulation and help the fluid disperse. After having it inside of me for almost a minute my arm was starting to feel numb. Alice stood up and threw the needle and the alcohol pad into the biohazard container in the corner of the room. After doing so, she grabbed a tablet and sat back down next to me.

“What do the bots do again? I keep forgetting.” I watched Alice press a few buttons on the tablet. She looked up at me with a frown but continued to press more buttons.

“You really are a dummy! The great team leader of Apex can’t even remember what goes inside of his body?” She was right. She’s explained the process to me many times, I just couldn’t be bothered to listen or actually remember.

“The easiest explanation is that they speed up the rate at which your cells divide. Meaning that when an injury occurs, your cells will divide faster, healing the injured area.” She continuing to press buttons on the tablet. Hearing what they do actually kinda makes sense. “Also, they’re even able to split in half and regrow into more. Meaning that even if you lose a lot of blood, you’ll still have plenty inside of you!” She continued, never stopping with the button pressing.

“Oh.” I couldn’t think of any other way to really respond to that. We ended up sitting together, not having anything else to say. The only sound being the tablet beeping for every button she pressed.

After almost three minutes of silence, she finally spoke up. “There, all done. The bots are working as they should be.” Finally being able to leave, I stood up and walked to her door.

“Hey! You’re forgetting something!” Alice called out. I was already halfway to the door when she actually said something. I turned around to see her standing with her arms stretched out and a big smile on her face. She was practically begging for a hug.

“Hmm... I don’t know. You were kinda mean to me,” I replied while crossing my arms.

“Please?” She began to pout. It actually looked like she was about to start crying. It actually kinda hurts when she looks like this.

I let out a sigh and decided it would be better to just hug her. She let out a loud giggle when I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed. “Thank you!” She was able to reply in between giggles. After about a minute and a half, I decided that the hug had been long enough.

“Well, I’ll cya later, Alice. Stay out of trouble,” I said while breaking the hug and walking to the door. The automated door opened for me, but before it could actually close, Alice grabbed my hand.

“Stay safe, Alpha. And also no promises!” I turned and looked at her as she was stuck her tongue out by me. I couldn’t help but smile. She let go of my hand as I backed up into the hallway as the automated door closed and locked.
“What’s the matter, Alpha?” A familiar, monotone voice called. I looked to my right to see Charlie, a member of my team. He had stepped out from his medical teams lab, and into the all-marble hallway.

“Nothing. Alice just tried to sho... the fuck are you wearing?” I asked while looking at him like he was retarded. Charlie was wearing an all black bathrobe. His fiery red, spiky hair was wet as if he had just went swimming in the medical lab.

“Had to wash up after a quick workout with Beta. Too lazy to go to our room.” His green eyes bore into mine as he gave me a bored and tired expression. Charlie was the support role for the team. His job was pretty self-explanatory. All he had to do was either support or defend one of us while working on a mission. His weapon of choice was a katana with a modifier that allowed it to cut through the toughest of metals.

“Wait... you have showers in there?” I was actually surprised to hear this, considering that I only get a couch in my medical lab. He gave me his usual tired expression. He then started to shake his head, spreading some water onto me and into the hallway.

“Yes, I do. Does yours not have one?” He asked. He completely ignored the annoyed look I was giving him. I’d rather not have water on my hoodie and sweatpants. Shit would look like I pissed myself.

“No, I don’t,” I replied. All he did was shrug and let out a loud yawn. I had to fight the urge to yawn too, his yawning did however actually reminded me of something. “Hey, do you know if Delta is up yet? We should be getting intel soon, and I’d rather have us all there to get it.” Delta always slept in late. There had been many morning missions we had to do without her because she was too tired to stay up and concentrate.

“I don’t know. But do you know our next target?” I started to walk through the medical and training area of the facility. Metal automated doors lined the long hallway on both sides. Each door was meant as a part for the medical wing.

“If I knew the target we wouldn’t be getting intel.” Charlie was following behind me. He was matching my footsteps so it didn’t even sound like he was even following me, but I could still feel his gaze on my back.

Charlie chose not to respond to that. Instead, he chose to speed up and get to my side and lightly hit my arm. We kept the same pace turning down hallways, and finally getting to the first floor’s central square.

The facility itself consisted of three major floors. Currently, Charlie and I were on the first floor, where the medical staff worked. We walked through central square like we owned it. It was only called that because it’s where the majority of people hung out on their breaks. The central square was a massive circle. Many well-known restaurants and cafès were spread out all over the place. In the center was a massive map that connected to the floor and the ceiling, it also worked as a support pillar. The map showed the entire facility, including all three floors, and what all three represented.

I watched as doctors and nurses were getting breakfast from various restaurants and cafes. “Yo Charlie, can you grab me a muffin from Dunkin’,” I said while pointing towards the nearest Dunkin’ Donuts. I wish other restaurants were serving lunch instead, but I can’t be picky.

“Sure.” Was the only response I got as he started to walk off to get my muffin. The next thing I needed to do was talk to my engineer.

I walked over to the closest elevator and called it to the bottom floor. Luckily no one was in it, so I didn’t have to deal with anyone. I went to the second floor, the science and engineering wing, and stepped out of the elevator and walked through the second floor’s central square. It was built the same as the medical square, the only difference being instead of doctors and nurses, it had a bunch of scientists and their assistants.

I went over to the door that led to the actual labs. After walking through a bunch of hallways, I finally found the lab where my engineer worked and let myself in. I didn’t really care if she was busy or not, I simply wanted her attention.

“Yo, Sara, you here?” I called while looking into the room. The room itself was the same size as Alice’s, except that the room was a fucking mess. Gadgets of all sorts were scattered across the tables, while some were even on the floor. I eventually spotted Sara sitting in the corner of the room playing on her computer while keeping track of everything on her monitors.

She was oblivious as I walked over to her, carefully trying not to step on anything. I tapped her on her shoulder, causing her to jump little, but she eventually spun around to face me. “Sup.” Was the only thing I said.

“Learn to knock.” She pushed me back so she could stand, her voice tinted with annoyance as she did so. Sara was a lot closer to my height compared to Alice, but she was still a bit shorter. She had a slender build, with brown eyes and a pair of black glasses to match her hair. She always kept her hair in bangs and allowed the back to lay over her shoulder. Sara was wearing a lab coat with a pair of white jeans to match.

“My bad. Anyway, what’s with the mess?” I asked while jumping to sit on her chair. I looked at all of her monitors. None of them had the same thing open, and each of them showed some type of project she was working on. But one of them was different though, it had an audio file that was in the process of being downloaded. “Don’t mean to be nosy, but what’s with the audio file?”

“Since I don’t have nearly enough room compared to the other teams, I had to make do with what I have.” She adjusting her glasses to glare at me while she told me this. Must be mad about the seat I guess. “And the audio file is a project I’m working on with Alice.”

“Oh. Why are you working with her? I’ve always seen you as the type to hide in your room or lab like a hermit crab,” I said while putting my feet on her desk. She must have been really annoyed by that comment because she started to sigh.

“It’s a history project I have to do with a partner. And since I’d rather work with someone who’s close to you, I thought it was perfect, since she also didn’t have a partner,” She said while pulling my feet off her desk. I forgot that since she was still 16 she had to go through the facility’s learning program.
The third floor of the facility was where everyone lived. To actually work here, you had to be able to live here, but you were allowed to bring your family. People under 18 had the option to go through a learning program, which is basically school. But since Sara and Alice actually worked here, they were forced to go through it.

“Makes sense. Also, what she made was inaccurate.” I’d rather not have my staff members fail and go through the process again. Even if would be funny.

“That’s the point. We were tasked to make two audio files. One with information from rumors online and one with actual facts.” So that’s why it's inaccurate. Also, what are they being taught? That project sounds dumb. Alice hung over me as she started using the mouse to move the finished audio file into a folder titled ‘School Work’.

“Isn’t this computer outdated? I could probably ask the higher-ups to upgrade it for you.” Computers nowadays were all digital. Instead of monitors, they were hologram screens that popped up next to the user.

“I prefer it this way. And besides, I’d rather have a bigger room.” She pulled away from the computer and went over to a table that wasn’t as messy as the others. “Also, before I forget, I have two pieces of equipment for you. You only get to choose one though.” I was actually surprised to hear that considering that I haven’t gotten any in a while.

“Why only one?” I asked while standing up and walking over to the table. On the table were two cardboard boxes, both were the same shape and size.

“Cause I’m going to wrap the other one and give it to you for Christmas.” She grabbed both boxes and held them up to me.

“Wow. When did you become so thoughtful,” I said sarcastically as I examined both boxes closely. It didn’t help though since they were identical.

“I’ve always been thoughtful. You’re just ungrateful” She said with an unreadable expression.

“Fuck you too then.” I grabbed the box that was in her left hand and opened it. Inside was something I wasn’t expecting to see. “Oh wow, a pair of sunglasses,” I sarcastically said while holding them up. The entire thing was made out plastic, well besides the actual glass part.

“See, ungrateful.” She grabbed the glasses from my hands and put them on for me, tinting my vision instantly. “Since you always complain that your helmet is too hot, I decided to make glasses that had the same features.” She was right. That helmet was way to hot for my liking.

She stood on her tippy toes and pushed a button I hadn’t noticed on the left side. The second she pushed it, my vision brightened just like my helmet would. It didn’t even look like I was wearing sunglasses. “Are they working?” She asked while adjusting the glasses for me.

“Yeah. But what about the other features?” She moved her hand to the other side of the glasses, where another button was located.

She pushed it down once. “Heat signature.” Everything in the room became blue. Besides Sara, she was glowing red and orange, clearly showing her heat signature. She pressed it again. “X-ray.” This time, instead the glasses started to show her skeleton. I was about to comment on how useless that was because it doesn’t even work through walls, but before I could say anything, she pressed the button once more. “And finally, heartbeat scanner.” This time the glasses showed a big red blinking blip over Sara’s body.

I was actually kinda surprised she was able to compress the helmet's technology down into a pair of sunglasses. “Wow. Nice job, Sara. But what about the other features?” I asked while pressing the button, turning off the heartbeat scanner.

“Its voice configured.” Was the only response she gave while walking away with the other box and setting it down on her desk.

“Time.” Right after I said that, a digital clock appeared at the top of my vision. It even had the seconds. Neat.

“And to turn everything off, just press the left button.” I pressed It as my vision blackened as if they were normal sunglasses. I took them off and slide them into my hoodie’s pockets.

“Thank you. See, I can be grateful!” I said while walking over and hugging her from behind. She accepted the hug since she didn’t push me away or try to get away from it. “Oh yeah, before I forget, is my gear ready for the next mission?” I broke the hug as I looked around for my gear. She responded by walking over to a closet I hadn’t even noticed.

“Everything is in here. I updated the armor and was able to install a unique update. And before you ask, I’m not telling you.” She must still be upset after I called her a shut-in. Not that I cared.

“Thanks,” I called out. I headed for the door, but before I left I turned around. “I’ll pick it up when I’m set to leave. Also, wrap the other thingy up with a green ribbon.” I backed into the hallway, letting the door shut before she could respond.

I headed back downstairs to meet up with Charlie. But I was shocked to see Beta sitting at a table with him. Both were enjoying their breakfast in peace, while my muffin rested on a napkin next to Charlie.

“Ayeee, Beta,” I said while slapping his back. Beta was the tank of the team. He was always charging in ahead of us. Beta stood a whole foot taller than me. He had muscles ripping through the t-shirt and the jeans he was wearing. I was surprised he hadn’t ripped the fucking shirt. He had a buzz cut that matched his dark brown eyes quite well. Beta’s weapon of choice was a giant hammer. He was probably the only person I knew who could actually lift it. Its modifier had the ability to release compressed air. The air increased the speed at which he swung the hammer.

“Hello, Alpha.” He said while nodding at me. His deep voice fitting perfectly with his muscular build. I took a seat next to Charlie and started to munch on my muffin. It turned out to be blueberry.

“I thought you were still pumping weights. Why’d you stop?” Around this time he’s always in the gym trying to keep his musculature.

“Wanted to eat earlier.” Was the only response I got as he kept eating. Ok, well that’s a first.

“Or your old bones wanted a rest,” I said with a smirk. Charlie snickered as Beta rolled his eyes. I wasn’t lying when I said old bones. Beta was the oldest in the group at 33. Charlie is only 19 while Delta was 22. But I’m a whole different story.

We all sat in peace enjoying each other’s company. Till it was ruined by the last member.

“SAINT, YOU CUNT!” Delta screamed as she ran up to me and got up in my face. That’s right, Saint. I actually didn’t really like being called Alpha all that much. Sure it was cool and all, but I always thought I should name myself instead of being named by the higher-ups.

Delta was the last member of the team. She stood as tall as me and Charlie. She had a ponytail that was dyed blue and barely shoulder length. It went well with her dark blue eyes that always seemed to look tired. She hadn’t even bothered to change seeing as she was still wearing a pair of basketball shorts and a plain white t-shirt.

Her role on the team was the sniper. She always provided covering fire with her steel bow. Since it wasn’t technically a gun she was allowed to use it. Her modifier allowed her arrows to penetrate most surfaces.

“Shut the fuck up. How many times have I told you not to call me that in public?” The last thing I needed was to get in trouble and have my second name taken away. So only my team members and my staff members called me that, and only in private.

“I don’t care.” She sat down next to Beta and gave me a death stare. She was already attracting attention. Doctors and nurses were giving us curious looks and glancing over, but looked away when I glared back at them.

“What’s got you so tight this morning,” I asked while looking back, munching on my muffin.

“You know why!”

“I actually don’t.”

“How many times have I asked to get a new engineering and medical team?” Oh, it was about that. I was the only member of Apex that had one dedicated medic and engineer. The rest all had full teams consisting of over thirty members. The reason for this was that I’m not good with crowds. So to counter that, the higher-ups assigned to me the best in each respective field at the time. Sara could probably work twice as fast as Delta’s engineering team. While Alice could probably cure some fatal disease before Beta’s medical team could identify it.

“What was wrong with it again?” She looked like she was about to jump forward and strangle me.

“All of them are girls! I want at least two cute guys.” She held up two fingers to emphasize her point.

“Does that really matter?” Beta respond before I could. He seemed to be annoyed by Delta’s antics.

“Yes, it does!” She responded while shifting her angry glare towards Beta. “For fucks sake Alpha, we talked about this last week.” She snapped her head back towards me.

“True. But I forgot.” I honestly didn’t really care about her problem. I didn’t think it was all that important. “Why don’t you just ask the higher-ups yourself.” To get different team members she’d have to ask them for that to be cleared.

“Don’t you think I fucking did that! They told me to ask you,” She said while snatching my muffin and taking a huge bite out of it.

“Cursing at me won’t get you far. Cunt.”

“Asshat.” she took another bite.

“Bitch.”

“Dickhead.” another bite.

“Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” I practically growled at her. She usually is never awake at this time. She’s always up around lunch, sometimes even later than that.

“I should be. But this is an important matter.” This time she didn’t take a bite.

“Can I at least have my muffin back?” I asked as nicely as I could.

“Sure.” She handed it back to me luckily. I took a bite and it was still delicious.

“I’ll ask after the next mission, which should be soon.” She kept her glare. “I’ll even invite you to come along.” This time she smiled and nodded at me for at least putting in more effort than usual.

After the argument, Delta got breakfast and ate with us. No words were said throughout the meal, besides the occasional noises Delta made in between bites.

After all of us were done eating, we just sat and chilled for a while. Till a doctor came over.

“Umm... Team Apex has been requested.” He said nervously. He then bowed and took off to continue whatever he was doing before.

“Were people always nervous around us?” Beta asked while scratching his head.

“I’d be nervous too around people who could snap at any second and murder me in cold blood. Shits scary.” I pushing my seat back, and put my feet on the table. Something like that had happened before. Someone thought it was a good idea to wake up Delta by banging on the door to our room. She actually didn’t murder the nurse, just yelled really loud.

“Yeah, but we wouldn’t do that. Right Delta?” Charlie asked while sending a smirk her way. She answered by flipping him off and standing and walking off towards the elevator.

We all followed after her towards the elevator. We were sent up to the third floor where the meetings with the higher ups usually happened. After cutting through the third floor’s central square, we all walked towards a door to where the meeting would take place. We all barged in like we owned the place, well besides Beta, he took the time to make sure the door was locked.

The room itself wasn’t all that special. It was a common conference room with a big circular table in the center. The room had no windows, and little in terms of air circulation, so it was hot as all hell. There were four seats in the room, all having a respective area of the circle. We all took our seats. I sat at the head of the circle because I was the head honcho.

Four monitors were attached to the corners of the room, though none of them were on at the moment.

“I’m hoping we don’t have to do this today,” Delta complained as she hit her head on the table. The rest of us chose not to say anything as we all watched her hit her head repeatedly.

Finally, after about six minutes, the lights turned off while all four monitors turned on. All of the monitors showed what appeared to be the silhouette of a person. It showed their figure and body type, but they were blacked out, obviously hiding their true identities.

“Hello, Apex.” One of the monitors spoke in what was a New York accent. He had a muscular build, but it was not comparable to Beta’s build. This person called himself David.

“Hi.” All of us said in unison. There wasn’t much else to say. They were the ones who were supposed to be talking.

“We are able to confirm that this mission type is a search and destroy one.” A different monitor spoke. This one was a more feminine voice. She spoke as if she was above everyone else in the room. Even if she technically was, she didn’t have to act like it. She had a slender build as well. This person called herself Crystal.

“Location and item?” Beta asked before I could. Seems he just wanted to get this over with. I could agree with that.

A holographic map of the world appeared above the table. It spun around for a bit before it zoomed in on New York. After a while, it zoomed into Manhattan.

“There is an abandoned hotel in Manhattan. “ A different monitor said. As soon as the monitor said that, a street of Manhattan appeared. The hotel was in the center of the hologram, glowing. “We believe this is where REMEMBER is hiding an illegal item.” The monitor continued. He had the same accent as Dave, but he had the figure of a heavyset person. He was known as Bruce.

“You don’t know what the item is?” Charlie asked while sounding extremely annoyed. He had a point though, they don’t even know what the item we are looking for was.

The map in the center zoomed in closer to the hotel. It was seven stories tall with a bunch of boarded-up windows and graffiti completely covering it. It was clearly abandoned. “All we know is that the illegal item is located in the basement. Sadly, the basement is a dead zone, so communication is going to be tough.” The final voice spoke. It sounded annoyed due to Charlie’s outburst, even if they tried to hide it. This person called themselves Kyle.

“This is obviously a trap,” I said while putting my feet up on the table. My team all said some type of agreement. “Dead zones are extremely rare, so it’s perfect for a trap,” I continued. Dead zones were areas where our headpiece stop working. It’s like losing service when you go through a tunnel. The only difference was that dead zones could get us killed.

“We understand this, Alpha. But we can confirm that there is indeed an illegal item located in the basement.” Bruce said. “You have 48 hours to plan accordingly. The mission will take place on Sunday.” Well, at least I have time to think of something.

“Understood.” Was the response my team and I gave. Delta seemed extremely annoyed while Charlie looked worried.

“Good luck,” All the monitors said as they turned off. Delta shot up in her seat and slammed her fist on the table.

“This is bullshit! It’s clearly a trap.” She looked like she was about to rip off the monitors and throw them.

“Calm down Delta,” I said while leaning into my chair more. Shit was actually pretty comfy, not going to lie.

“Fuck you mean calm down?! It’s obviously a trap.” She was right, it definitely was a trap. To make matters even worse, the map didn’t even show that the hotel even had a registered basement. “Look, no basement problem solved.”

“That doesn’t solve any of our problems. And the basement could have been custom built.” Beta was right. But the more I look at it, it looks more and more like a trap. I really didn’t want to do this mission. But I knew we had to.

“We’ve dealt with worse, Delta. I know we can do it,” I said. Delta seemed to be at a loss of words because she began to stutter.

“Yeah, Alpha’s right,” Beta said, stopping Delta before she could come up with something to say. He stood up and walked over to my side. “If anyone could do this, it’s us.”

Charlie took a while, but he eventually did the same. He stood up and walked over to me and sat on the table.

“Yeah. It shouldn’t be that hard.” He stretched and yawned as he said this.

Now all eyes were on Delta. She looked like she was going to start screaming at me, but she let out a loud sigh instead. She walked over and stood directly behind me. “You’re right. We’ve dealt with harder bullshit before.” She sighed dejectedly, still sounding upset about the situation.

I looked at each member of my team. We all knew what we had to do, even if none of us wanted to. I stood up and slammed a hand on the table. “Shit should be easy. Besides, I already have a plan."

“I swear my suit got tighter. Shits suffocating me,” I said while trying to stretch the suit, but to no avail. After the 48 hours we were given, my team and I were ready to start the operation. Charlie and I were now sitting on the roof of a building that overlooked the hotel. We watched as Beta and Delta blended into the night. They were hugging the walls of the hotel, just below some windows so they wouldn’t be seen.

“If you’re going to complain like a kid, take off your headpiece.” I heard Delta complain in my left ear. All of us were wearing the same thing. It was a black skin-tight suit with little white lettering that said ‘APEX’ on the left side of our chest. The suit was made out of some type of strong flexible metal that I couldn’t remember the name of. Glad Sara wasn’t here, she’d likely call me retarded.

The suit blocked poorly made steel knives and swords. But since Sara upgraded mine, and wouldn’t tell me what she did, my suit could probably protect me from a lot more.

The suit went over our entire bodies, except for our feet and heads. We all wore a pair of simple black boots that matched the suit as well as a helmet with an attached face piece that allowed it to cover our entire head. The face piece was made out of bulletproof glass, and was tinted so we could see out, but people couldn’t see in. The back of the helmet was just made out of strong plastic. And just like my glasses, they also had buttons to activate their features.

All of us were equipped with hidden magnetic pouches connected to various areas around the suit. In the pouches were throwing knives we used to help take out ranged targets. I had two pouches behind my knees and two pouches on the side of my legs towards my boots.

To top everything off, all of us had a utility belt where we kept our grenades. Hey, guns were banned, not grenades.

I had three flash grenades, three smoke grenades, three cluster grenades, and three impact grenades strapped to my belt, making twelve in total. I also had my helmet attached to the belt as I was using the new glasses Sara had given me. All of us had the same type of grenades besides Charlie. He had six flash grenades and six chlorine bombs.

Flash grenades and smoke grenades were pretty self-explanatory. Same with Charlie’s chlorine bombs. But cluster grenades were grenades stuffed with a bunch of smaller grenades that go off after the main one detonated. While impact grenades blew up as soon as they touch a surface that wasn’t your hand.

“Where’s your helmet? And what’s with the glasses, how can you even see?” I looked to my right to see Charlie sitting on the edge of the building, looking at me through his helmet. I actually completely forgot to tell them about the sunglasses.

I disabled the headpiece I was wearing and lifted my glasses to look at Charlie. “They do the same thing as the helmet, they're just smaller. Sara made them for me after I complained once.” I slid them back on and looked back at the building.

“That’s dumb. The helmets are so our facial features don’t get seen. And so we don’t lose our heads,” He said while taking his helmet off and staring at me. He was right. I hadn’t even thought about that.

“Shit. Fuck it, it’s too hot.” It really was. Even if it was the night, we were in the middle of summer, so nights were still hot

“The higher-ups will get mad.” He got up and walked over to me, poking my chest with his helmet.

“If someone sees me and somehow lives, I’ll dye my hair purple. And besides, It doesn’t matter, it’s gonna be dark in there anyway.” I was right about the dark thing. Turns out the building lost power a while back, so the lights wouldn’t even work. “If nobody seems me, off with your hair.” Charlie put his hand on his chin as he began to ponder taking the bet.

“Bet,” He said while giving me a smirk and sticking out his hand. I grabbed and shook it, sealing the deal. Jokes on him, purples my favorite color. I turned my headpiece back on and looked down on to Beta and Delta.

“How many targets? Time.” I watched as the time popped up at the top of my vision. It was currently 11:58:53 PM. Roughly a minute until we start the operation.

“I’m getting fourteen heartbeats. Teams of two on each floor. I can’t see the basement, so down there is currently unknown,” Beta responded. The more we go into this the more it’s looking like a trap. We can’t back out now though.

“Remember the plan. You two clear out the first floor silently, use your throwing knives. After you clear it, scout out the basement and check for hostiles. Rendezvous on the main floor at 12:30. By then, me and Charlie should have cleared the upper floors,” I said into the headpiece. Charlie slipped his helmet back on to join everyone back in the voice channel.

“Understood,” They all said in unison. Glad I have a team that actually listens. I remember when Delta used to question my tactics.

“Remember. If you’re spotted and they sound some type of alarm, whip out that hammer and start breaking shit, Beta.” He acknowledged what I said by taking the hammer he had on his back and lifting it up. I looked at the clock as it read 11:59:30. “Remember the dead zone. You can only speak to the person next to you.” They all acknowledge me by saying some type of agreement. “Weapons up everyone. Well, besides you, Beta,” I continued. Charlie unsheathed his katana that he kept on his back. Delta already had her bow at her side. She had a quiver of all sorts of arrow types on her back.

Then there was me. My weapon of choice was a pair of daggers that I had hanging behind my belt by a wire. The daggers blades were made out of a recently discovered metal called noirinite. Black in color, the metal become one of the most durable to ever be found. No matter what, the metal won’t rust, or even scratch for that matter. The handle was also metal, but it was covered in leather so it wouldn’t be extremely cold every time I picked them up. The modifier for my daggers wasn’t really a modifier at all. Everyone else got cool shit while I got something dumb. The daggers were connected by a very thin wire made out of noirinite. When I twist the handle of one of my daggers I’m able to stretch out the wire to its full length, which was about fifty feet, and if I twist it again, the wire would retract back into its housing. I mainly used it to choke people or set mini-traps.

After making sure my daggers were still on my belt, the clock struck 12:00:00. “Begin.” Was the only thing I had to say as I watched Beta and Delta open a window and climb in. I turned off my headpiece and looked at Charlie. “Let’s go.” He listened, as we both jumped from the rooftop and onto the hotel.

He followed me as I walked to the west side of the building. Even the roof seemed to be decaying, parts of it looking so bad that if I wasn’t careful I’d likely fall through. I turned on the heartbeat sensor on my glasses. I watched as two red blips appeared. They seemed to be on the floor below us, but instead of a room, they were in the middle of the building.

“We’ll enter through the windows, they’re in the hallways,” I said as I turned the heartbeat sensor off and set the glasses back to their default. I didn’t even turn to look at him as I dropped down onto my stomach. My head hanging over the street. Luckily, no cars were passing by. Charlie already knew what to do, as he walked over and sat on the edge. He grabbed my right arm and slid himself off the building.

I held onto Charlie as I watched him get to work from just above the boarded up windows. He used his katana to cut into the wood lightly, being careful not to actually break it yet. Once he decided he’d done enough, he looked up and handed me his katana. Using my free hand, I grabbed it and set it next to me.

He started to rip off small pieces of the wood, being careful not to make noise. He kept handing the pieces to me and I kept taking them and placing them to the side. After about five minutes, he apparently decided he was done, as he let go of my hand and slipped into the room.

I grabbed his sword and lowered myself down into the window. I slid into the window easily and handed Charlie his katana. My sunglasses were currently on, but the room was still pretty dark. Wait, why didn’t Sara install night vision? Whatever, I didn’t have time to really look around as Charlie tapped my shoulder and pointed towards a door on the other side of the room. We slowly moved towards the door, making sure not to make any noise. When we got to the door, I turned the heartbeat scanner on again.

I looked at the door and the wall and saw that the two red blips popped up. One on the left of the hall, and one on the right. I turned back to Charlie, and he was looking at the guard through the wall on the right.

I tapped his shoulder and pointed towards the left. He seemed to understand what I meant as he nodded and pulled out a throwing knife from a pouch. I grabbed one as well. I grabbed hold of the door handle and held up three fingers. I put down a finger. Charlie gripped my shoulder in preparation. I put down a second finger, then finally, the third, forming a fist.

I flung open the door and threw a knife to the left. I watched as the knife hit his hand, causinging him to flinch and lower his weapon, an AR-15. I dashed towards him and pulled out my daggers. I thrusted a dagger at him, aiming for his exposed neck. The guard tried to bring his weapon up, but couldn’t in time. I had already shoved my dagger all the way through his throat before he could even lift his gun half way. He started to gargle on his own blood as I held onto his body so he didn’t just collapse and reveal our position with the noise.

After he stopped struggling and dropped his weapon, I slowly lowered him onto the floor. I picked up my throwing knife and slid it back into a pouch and clipped my daggers back onto my belt, I then turned around to see how Charlie was doing.

To no surprise at all, he was already looting the body. “What do you think you’re gonna find?” I asked while approaching him.

“Something useful.” His focus never leaving the body. I looked over the body and saw that Charlie had stabbed the poor guard repeatedly with his Katana.

“We don’t have time. Let’s bounce.” I tried to pull Charlie away from the body, to continue the mission. But instead he shoved me away.

“This is impossible!” He shouted. I instantly smacked him upside the head for the loud outburst, but it didn’t work out well as he was still wearing his helmet. “Look.” He jabbed a plastic card in my face

I took it out of his hand and examined it. At first I thought it was just a simple ID card, but after reading more of it, I realized that it was actually an all access pass to the facility Apex lived at. The only people who had these passes were Apex and the higher-ups. And the only people who could sign these cards out were the higher-ups. Meaning one of two things. Someone in the higher-ups was a traiter, or someone on Apex was a traiter. And I doubted Beta, Charlie, or Delta would do something like this.

“Fuck it. Where grabbing Beta and Delta and leaving.” I pushed pass Charlie as I started to run down the hall and towards the emergency stairs. “There’s a rat among the higher-ups!” I shouted as I kicked the door off its hinges. I pushed past the broken door and started running down the stairs.

Charlie caught up to me. “But how? It doesn’t make sense!” Charlie was starting to get loud. Never heard him this loud before. But he had a good reason for it.

The building seemed to come to life as voices could be heard yelling through the doors we were running by. “Charlie, pop chlorine on the stairs,” I said while never stopping. Charlie listened as he ripped one off his belt, pulled the pin, and then threw it behind us. Before I could give another command, a door at the bottom of the flight of stairs flew open and two guards stepped out.

Before either one of them could even get their weapons up, Charlie hurled his katana at one of them, cutting through his head and killing him. Since I never stopped moving, I jumped at the second guard and tackled him through the open door.

I landed on top of the guard and started to punch him, hoping I could just knock him out. The guard didn’t give up though, as he rolled to his side, throwing me off. He used his newfound leverage to jump at me with a dagger in hand. I panicked and reached for the first thing on my belt, which was my helmet. I was able to pull my helmet off the belt and use it as a shield to block the dagger.

The guard clearly wasn’t expecting that judging by his reaction, he looked shocked and confused. I didn’t let up though, as I jumped up and lunged at him. I hit him in the head as hard as I could with my helmet. The hit was strong enough, because the guard collapsed to the ground. I hit him again for good measure.

Charlie came into the room right after I attached my helmet back onto my belt. “You good?” I was panting too much to even respond, so all I did was nod repeatedly.

“We need... to use a.... different set of... stairs.” I was able to say after a while of panting and gasping for air. Charlie took off running towards the end of the hall. “Oh fuck off.” I muttered as I took off after him.

I followed after him. We turned down several hallways until we found a broken elevator shaft. It seemed that the elevator itself wasn’t there. The wires holding it must have snapped, dropping the entire thing all the way to the basement. Charlie didn’t even stop to think, as he straight up jumped down it. I didn’t stop either, I trusted him to know what floor we were on, because to be honest, I had no clue.

I was right to trust him, because we only fell a few feet, landing on the broken elevator. The door leading to the lobby was closed. “Use your sword,” I said, finally catching my breath. He listened, as he shoved his katana through the crack and started prying the door open. After a couple of minutes, he was able to open it all the way. I walked through it and into the main lobby of the hotel. Delta and Beta where nowhere to be seen. I then realized that it wasn’t 12:30.

“Beta and Delta must still be in the basement,” Charlie said while looking around the lobby.

There was still a lot of yelling throughout the hotel, so we didn’t have a lot of time. “Where’s the basement door?” I called out. It was just a normal, empty, broken hotel lobby. No door that looked like it would lead down was anywhere in sight. I even noticed a couple of bodies were scattered on the floor, most likely from Delta and Beta.

Charlie hopped the receptionist counter and called out from behind it. “There’s a trap door over here.” Well, that’s convenient. I hopped the counter and stood next to him. We didn’t have time to wait, so I just said fuck it and jumped down.

Fortunately it wasn’t a long fall. We both landed in what seemed to be a completely different building altogether. “The fuck is this place?” I asked no one in particular. We seemed to be standing on a metal catwalk that connected to a concrete wall. The room itself was massive. I looked over the railing and my mouth dropped at what I saw. The room was filled with huge metal containers. All of them were filled to the brim with a green chemical like substance that I’d never seen before. I watched as a conveyor belt was bringing glass bottles to and from glass containers. Some of the bottles were even filled with the mysterious green liquid.

“How is this even possible?” Charlie muttered as he leaned over next to me. We didn’t have time to just sit and sightsee. We needed to find Beta and Delta.

I turned on the earpiece and spoke into it. “Beta, Delta, come in.” As I expected, I didn’t get a response. “Fuck it. Let’s go,” I said while walking over to a door at the end of the catwalk. I would run, but the last thing I needed was the floor to break and Charlie and I to fall into potential acid.

Surprisingly, when we got to the door, it opened as if it was automated. The room we entered seemed to be some sort of control center. The controls were located next to a big glass window that looked over everything that was in the room. I instantly ran over to the controls and looked them over.

I didn’t understand what any of the buttons were, but I pressed them all anyway. Hey, it’s not like I own the place or anything. After a couple of seconds, I heard the door Charlie and I had entered through open again. As I turned to look, I was shocked and happy to see Beta and Delta.

“What happened to you two?” Charlie asked. I was certainly thinking the same thing. They were covered in sweat, while both of their breathing was very heavy.

“We were betrayed.” Beta replied after finally catching his breath. He had started to use his hammer as a type of walking stick.

“Yeah, I fucking realized. We’re blowing this place up and then bouncing.” Blowing the whole place up seemed to be the best decision in all honesty. At least it would break the metal containers. I started to press more buttons on the controls, hoping maybe I could trigger some kind of meltdown.

Before I could finish tinkering with the controls, I heard the sound of what seemed to be air being released from something. Everything around me seemed to slow down. I looked to my left and watched as Charlie flew through the glass, shattering it, and flying into one of the metal containers. I spun around to see Beta setting down his hammer.

“WHAT ARE YOU FUCKING DOING!” I yelled while reaching for my daggers, but before I could grab them, I felt pain explode from my stomach. I fell onto my knees as I watched Delta set her bow down. I looked down at my stomach to see an arrow, the tip of which having gone completely through my suit like it wasn’t even there.

I could taste copper in my mouth as I started to cough. Blood splattered all over the floor with each one. I fought through the pain and was able to stand up. Both Delta and Beta took off their helmets and threw them on the ground. Instead of having their signature dark blue and brown, they both had bright, emerald green eyes.

The green liquid had to have done something to them. That’s the only thing I could think off. Is something like this even possible? “Make this easier on us. Stand down,” Delta said, her voice lacking any emotion.

I spat blood on the ground and pulled the arrow out of my body. I dropped the arrow onto the ground and watched as my blood followed suit. I didn’t feel any pain as adrenaline was the only thing keeping me up. I grabbed my daggers and got into a fighting stance. “Blow me.”

They didn’t even respond, instead, Beta instantly rushed me. He swung his hammer wide, causing me to duck and roll to the side. Before I could turn and get a free hit on him, I had to jump to the left to avoid an arrow. I decided it would be a good idea to run.

Before Beta could swing his hammer again, I turned towards the door and booked it. The door swung open and I started to run down the catwalk. The catwalk wasn’t big enough for two people to walk side by side, meaning Beta would be rushing ahead while Delta stayed behind him. After mentally preparing myself, I spun around and started to rush Beta, he was a lot closer than I was expecting, but he wasn’t my target.

He lifted his hammer high above his head, but that didn’t stop my rush towards him. He released the compressed air in the hammer as he swung it in a downwards arc at dangerously high speeds. I reacted fast enough as I slid between his legs just before his hammer crashed into me. I didn’t turn around to look at the damage as I closed the distance between me and Delta.

Delta already had an arrow ready to fire, but before she could do so, I twisted the handle of my daggers and threw one at her. She released the arrow just as the dagger had collided with it, throwing off its trajectory and making it hit the wall. I pulled back on the dagger I still had in hand, causing the other one to come back to me.

Delta took out a pair of throwing knives, preparing for hand to hand combat. I responded by throwing one of my daggers at her. Just as I expected her to, she dodged it with ease. I watched as the dagger stuck into the door leading into the control room.

I got close to her and fainted a lunge to the left. She took the bait and sidestepped to the right. Normally Delta would’ve expected that coming from me and would have reacted differently. I tried not to think about it too deeply and brought my attention back to the fight at hand. I twisted the handle of the dagger I still in my hand. Just as I planned, the wire connecting the two tried to retract, but instead, it tightened. Delta tripped over it and fell onto her back. Before she could get up, I kicked her fairly hard in the head. Hopefully it would knock her out without causing too much brain damage.

Before I could get the dagger out of the wall, I heard Beta behind me. I had completely forgot about him, as he slammed his hammer into my side, sending me flying into the concrete wall. I felt the air leave my body as I started coughing and gasping for air. I didn’t get the chance to move before he slammed the hammer into me again, sending me further into the concrete wall. I started choking on the blood flowing into my mouth. I kept spitting out more blood before I could choke on it.

I tried reaching out to Beta before he could swing once more, but I was too late. This time, he hit me using his modifier. Which sent me straight through the wall and into another room entirely. I tried to use my dagger to dig into the ground and crawl away, but the effort was in vain as it was still tightened to the other one in the control room door.

I tried to get back up but I couldn’t, my body just wouldn’t move. I let go of my dagger, hoping it could do some type of damage. I watched it fly from my hand, but Beta must have expected that because all I heard was my dagger hit metal. “Who knew Alpha was so persistent.” It was an all too familiar voice that I heard.

I lifted my head to actually look at the room I had been forced into. All it had was a simple desk and chair. There was a door leading into what I assumed to be a hallway behind the desk. I looked to the right to see a heavyset man leaning against the wall.

“Bruce.” I regretted saying that as I was sent into a coughing fit, spitting blood everywhere. All he did was laugh as he went to go sit in his chair. “Careful, you might break it. Fat fuck.” I croaked out. I regretted it instantly because Beta slammed his hammer into my back, sending me further into the floor.

“Watch the tone.” Bruce hissed at me. Adrenaline must have been wearing off because everything I had gone through hit me at once. I wanted to cry at this point, everything was hurting. It felt like my entire body was broken. To make things worse, the blood in my throat was making it harder for me to breath. I didn’t want to die, but if I was going to, I at least wanted to take Bruce with me. I forced through the pain and moved my left arm to my belt to grab a cluster grenade, but before I could grab it, I felt my arm explode into even more pain. I started to scream as I slammed my head into the concrete, hoping to knock myself unconscious.

“Glad you could join us, Charlie.” I heard Bruce call. Charlie ripped his sword out of my arm as Beta picked me up by the arm that didn’t have a hole in it.

I watched as Delta entered the room through the hole, carrying my daggers before throwing them into one of the corners of the room. How was she still conscious? That kick would have killed a normal person.

“How?” I forced out. I needed to know how she was still standing.

“Don’t worry your little head about it.” Bruce called while walking over to me and taking off my sunglasses. “Sara really outdid herself with these.” He started to examine them in his hands, even putting them on.

I spat at him, not caring about the consequences. All he did was chuckle though. “Look around you, Alpha. You’ve lost. Apex is under my control.” He seemed to be out of breath just from that.

“Go fuck yourself.” I managed to strain out through gritted teeth. He looked annoyed as he went to grab my daggers. I watched as he tried to stretch them out, but to no avail.

“I’ll never understand the things Sara makes.” His voice filled with wonder as he kept attempting to pull them apart. After a couple more attempts at pulling and stretching, he let out a sigh and slowly walked up to me.

I was about to make another fat joke, but before I could, he slammed one of the blades deep into my right eye, causing me to scream out in pain. I started praying to whatever god was listening to just let this end.

He ripped the dagger out of my eye. I instantly forced it closed. I felt blood pour out from my eye and slowly trek down my cheek “I’m going to love testing my newest project on you,” He chucked out before putting my glasses back onto my face. “Give him his weapons. He’ll need them.” I watched as Charlie obeyed his orders without pause, hooking my daggers back onto my belt before going to stand beside Bruce. “Follow.” Delta and Charlie took charge as they followed him through the door with Beta at the rear of the group, dragging me along.

I must have blacked out at one point, because I awoke to extreme pain in both arms. “Oh good, you’re awake.” I looked up to see Bruce standing over me. I was sitting in a room with dried blood staining the brick walls. In a corner sat my team. All of them staring at me with unreadable expressions.

I tried to stand up, but for some reason, I couldn’t. I looked down and saw that through my suit, both of my arms had been nailed to the chair I was now in. My entire body was aching and still in extreme pain. I was even fighting the urge to not cry. Bruce seemed to notice my expression as he began to laugh. “The serum worked better than I thought!” He put his fat sausage fingers onto my shoulders. “It’ll wear off sooner or later.” What serum? What is he talking about? He patted the side of my cheek and walked back over to my team. “Make sure he has everything he needs.” Bruce commanded while walking out of the room.

My team all nodded and walked over towards a table that contained some of my equipment. Charlie grabbed my throwing knives, Delta grabbed my helmet, while Beta grabbed my grenades. They all just dumped the stuff onto me and went back to the corner. I tried to beg for help but I couldn’t talk. My voice was extremely horse from all the dried blood.

After what seemed to be hours of me just sitting and wallowing in my own dried blood, Bruce reentered the room carrying a small metal box. “Stay alive long enough so we can meet up again,” He said walking up to me. He twisted the metal box and jammed it into my mouth. I started to panic as I tried to spit it out of my mouth.

Before I could do that though, the metal box started to vibrate. “Good luck Alpha,” Bruce said while walking out of the room with my team following him. I tried to scream out to them, but the metal box started to hiss extremely loudly. I watched as the room seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. Before the room could close in on itself, my vision went black as the chair began to rock side to side. Not too long after it started rocking, it fell over with me still in it.

After about an entire minute of me just laying across the ground, my vision returned. I was extremely confused as I noticed two things. First, that I was lying on a patch of grass. And second, that patch of grass was in the middle of a dark, scary forest.

What?