Dream-works

Sometimes we are given images we cannot possibly Instagram, dreams. Therefore this story is born from an image trapped within my mind.

"We need to get out of here!" Cade shouted over his shoulder through the noise.
"There's nowhere to go!" I shouted back quickly before throwing my lifeline up once more and gunning down another body blocking the way between us and our escape. Bullets were tearing up the sand, guns, bombs and shouting were littering the skies. Cade retreated to my position.
"Cover me, I'm gonna get us out of here."
Without hesitation I reloaded and lifted my armoured head over the car bonnet. I could see Robbie and Faz and I hoped it was Lola I could hear wimpering behind me.
"What's the plan boss man?" Robbie's voice crackled in my ear.
"He's working on it Rob." I answered.
Twisting my body I could see movement down the side of a nearby house. Aiming, I watched as another four men ran straight into the battlefield. Two of my bullets hit, a thigh and a chest. I guessed the others were Robbie and Faz.

"I've got something, get you're asses over here!" Cade cried out. Crouching we continued to fire and moved to our left. Robbie reached the safety of the buildings first, then Lola.
"Ladies first Andi." Faz offered stopping another assailant dead in his tracks. I smiled though I doubted he could tell through the headgear.
"What the fuck is this?" I heard Robbie exclaim as I entered the small shed like building surrounding us. Three bodies were huddled around something on the floor in the centre of the room. I pushed passed Lola and grabbed Robbie's shoulder peering over him to get a look.
"A way out, it's got to lead somewhere." Cade said nonchalant.
"Yeah, like the sewer." Lola added sarcastically moving back from the man hole cover.
"Why is it inside the house?" I asked, this caused a momentary pause where the sounds of bullets attacking the outside walls were all that could be heard, that and Faz's chewing.
"Whatever, the only other way out is through them. There's no back up coming, we're the last lot."
With that Cade and Robbie used their strength to move the cover. As they pushed it aside there was a strange sound in the air, a suction, seemingly coming from beneath the cover. We crowded closer as the boys threw the cover aside. Peering into the darkness we all waited, Cade had the honour of going first, as it was his idea, but no-one moved.
"What is that?" Lola asked eventually as movement within the space caught our attention.
"Shit, get behind something!" I yelled grabbing for the nearest solid object and hurling myself over. The others dispersed and then the sand came. Like a concentrated sandstorm it filled the room, the sound of rushing sand crushing my ear drums. I cried out in pain and got a mouthful of sand. Spitting I scrunched up my face and closed my eyes.

Eventually the sandstorm seemed to pass. My aching arms eased down from around my head and I blinked a few times before realising my visor had come down and the endless black cover my eyes was sand resting on it. Rubbing my face I slumped down against what was left of the internal wall and gasped. Most of the house had vanished, only low walls and floor remained. Immediately this brought my to my senses and I rolled onto my belly holding my gun towards the battlefield we had just come from.
The view that greeted me forced me to my feet. I removed my entire headgear, staring across a barren dry landscape, no buildings, no people and no battle in sight. A noise behind me had me back against the wall gun in hands. I carefully crossed what had been the room and found Robbie under a heap of rubble.
"Come on cowboy, get up and check this shit out" I said helping him to his feet.
"What the?" was all he could manage. We both stood statue like taking in the deserted view.
I replaced my mask and visor and we moved through the rubble trying to locate the rest of our team.
"They can't have got far." Robbie said after we'd check all the rubble piles and crumbling walls. I didn't have time to answer, suddenly he was pulling my body to the floor. I pressed myself against the nearest wall and faced him. Using my hands to show I didn't understand he responded by pointing over the wall and motioned for me to keep quiet.
I did. Two figures passed by the wall and stopped at the doorway to the room. I could here what sounded like voices but I didn't recognise the language. Robbie and I remained still watching the shadows of these potential enemies.
"Play dead." Robbie managed before the two figures entered the space we occupied.

I was glad the visor was tinted as my shock would have given me away. The two figures appeared to be wearing space suits, or something similar. They approached us carefully holding weapons I had never set eyes on before. I steadied my breathing as one came level with my face. All I could see was my covered face reflected back at me. Then I felt the weapon digging into my ribs and I came alive. I threw myself at the figure grappling him to the ground, twisting around I used his weapon and attempted to fire at the other advancing on Robbie but there was no trigger. Confused I left Robbie to fight his own battle and turned to continue mine. The guy was strong and threw me back against the wall. I felt the breath in my lungs escape and fought to get it back. Getting to my feet I was just in time to dodge the second attack from the spaceman and duck behind him. He turned quickly and raised his weapon. I could see my gun nearby on the floor, he didn't pull the trigger immediately and we stood waiting for a moment. Suddenly, we were covered in more sand and bits of space suit as Robbie destroyed his comrade. The remaining man let out a horrific sound before turning his weapon on Robbie. I saw my chance and lunged for my gun pumping five rounds into the body of his suit. He fell to his knees and slumped backward, still. Dead.

Robbie wiped his forehead and stretched. I approached my victim, reloading my gun as I moved.
"Let's see what sort of crazy you have to be to wear a space suit in the fuckin' desert!" Robbie laughed pulling at the black material melted with sweat to his face. I tapped the space visor with the end of my gun wondering how to make it retreat. Robbie grabbed the helmet and strained trying to pull it off in every direction to no avail.
"This thing is welded on."
"Robbie?" a voice croaked, we span around to see Faz.
"Mate, where the fuck have you been? These guys jumped us?" Robbie shouted pulling his friend closer.
"Yeah? You weren't the only ones." he admitted and pulled his sleeve up to reveal a nasty burn to go with the bleeding fat lip he was sporting.
"Jesus! How many'd you get?" Robbie asked taking Faz's arm to get a good look at the gory mess.
"Just one, that was enough. We gotta find Cade man."
"And Lola." I added.
The boys looked at me, all of us sharing the same thought. If Lola came across one of these guys by herself she wouldn't be the victor.
"Well where did you end up?" I asked Faz.
"Just in the over by those rocks." He pointed behind us. There were a cluster of rocks just outside the remains of the house, and beyond that there were dunes too high to see over.
"I guess we check over there."

Leaving the dead space men we headed for the dunes. It didn't take us long to realise the extent of damage the abnormal sandstorm had incurred. There were parts of the roof resting in the sand and scattered among the rocks that led from us to the other side of the vast space we were trapped in. In the distance to the North there was nothing save shimmers of heat rising off the empty land. To the South was the house and its dead inhabitants. To our West was much of the same nothing but to the East there were caves set into a rocky mountain.
"Maybe they took cover over there?" I suggested.
"I don't know about that but we might need to." Faz replied starring out into the distance.
"What can you see hawk man?" Robbie joked.
"Boss man, Lola and a bunch of space men chasing them." he replied.
"Seriously where?" Robbie asked sarcastically but then we heard the shouts, shots and saw the sand dust kicked up from running feet. Cade and Lola rounded a cluster of rocks running full pelt towards us. We set off too, pulling down our face gear to keep the sand out of our eyes and mouths. Cade noticed us first and began waving intermittently between shots. Robbie and Faz took up positions behind rock clusters and opened fire, I knew they were too good a shot to clip Cade or Lola, or me. I swerved and changed direction heading to the caves and turned as I rounded the last rock before open space engulfed me. Cade understood our stance and followed me pushing Lola towards my position. Once clear of me Cade turned and together we set about helping Robbie and Faz eliminate the opposition. The space suits acted as an extra layer of armour and it took a lot of ammunition to take just one guy down. It became quickly apparently that their weapons were some kind of grenade launcher as everything they fired at blew to pieces.

Faz stepped into my line of fire causing me to lift my head a fraction higher. He was running towards me not caring to watch his own back.
"Holy shit, we gotta get to those caves Andi!" Cade shouted as he began backing up still shooting towards Faz. I raised my body into a crouch and saw what was causing the panic. An odd truck type vehicle was bouncing over the sandy rocky terrain towards us, full of space suits. Straightening up I waited until Faz had passed me before I moved backwards step by step.
"Where's Robbie?" I shouted.
"He's coming" Cade yelled.
I couldn't see him but I continued to hold my stance, backing up with more speed. Chancing a look behind me I saw the entrance to the caves was close.
"Andi!" Faz shouted looking passed me, my head snapped around, Robbie was staggering clumsily towards us, not bothering to dodge the oncoming fire. I didn't have time to think, though I know I would have made the same decision, I ran back the way I had come shooting at anything that shot at me. I slammed into the nearest rock moments before Faz slammed into another a few feet away.
"Robbie you idiot cover yourself!" he shouted over.
"You grab him, I'll cover you." he added to me. I didn't need telling twice, I bolted towards Robbie bullets zipping passed our ears and exploding rock raining down on us. As far as I could tell Robbie was OK just disorientated so it didn't take much effort to drag him along and follow the rock formation back to Faz. Once together we made for the caves for a second time. Cade stood at the entrance to far away to use fire power but we both knew he couldn't leave Lola.

"What's the plan Boss man?" Faz shouted, still firing at the pursuing space men.
"We see how far the caves go."
"Is that it? They'll just chuck a fuckin' grenade in 'ere an' we'll be toast!" Robbie managed. He was sweating profusely, Lola was at his arm checking him over, her hair stuck out at funny angles and her face was red and flustered.
"I've got something that will hold them off, but not for long." I offered reaching into my backpack. I pulled out a large silver gun, not like any normal pistol, rifle, machine or sniper. This was more like the guns you get at a supermarket which shoot out stickers onto the items.
"What's that?" Faz asked, voicing the others bewilderment. "And, more importantly, how is it gonna hold off a bunch of space marines with blow torches and grenade launchers?"
"Watch and learn." I replied holding the gun to the caves entrance.
"I've been testing stuff for a while now, some elite group wanted to know if their junk worked in 'real-life battle situations' so I thought, why not?" I added
"And you decided now was a good time to test it?" Faz countered. I shot him a dirty look and let the ticket gun do it's thing. I had been briefed on what it could do but I hadn't used it before. As instructed, I moved the gun backwards and forwards over the entrance with my finger on the trigger, it produced a thick silvery string instantly sticking to the walls and creating a barrier between us and the enemy.
"It's like a web" Lola piped up.
"Yeah, what is that stuff?" Faz agreed reaching out to touch it. I slapped his hand away.
"Don't, I think it's corrosive."
"What do you mean you think?" Cade barked.
"If an elite force brief you on a new shiny silver gun, do you listen?" I said sarcastically, Cade mumbled in agreement and collected his own weapon.
"Let's find out where this leads."

Faz punched me lightly in the arm smiling at my handy work. Lola helped Robbie up slowly.
"Did they hit you?"
"Yeah, helmet, visor the lot. It wasn't a grenade, some sort of flame shooter, burning through my gear so I got it off. Wasn't fast enough though, eh?" he said turning his head to reveal a severely burnt ear.
"Jesus Robbie! We need to get that checked as soon as we get..." I trailed off, I wasn't sure where we were, or where we needed to be. The others seemed to understand and we set to following Cade.
The cave was like a tunnel, there was light at the other end but it seemed different to the one we came from, whiter, more piercing. The further we got down the tunnel the stranger it became, none of us spoke in awe and confusion. There was graffiti plastered all over the walls. The sort you might find in London, not anywhere containing deserts.
'Kyle woz ere'. Good for him, I hope there weren't space suited men with blow torch guns after him!
The closer we got to the end the more I felt we were in a cigarette tunnel in England. Impossible. I turned back to see if my spider web mesh was working. A giant, slimy looking, grey hand poked through a gap but retracted quickly after being singed by the mesh. It happened so quickly I wasn't sure I'd seen it, and then we heard the music. A sound that was somewhat alien to us now. A car radio, kids shouting, the buzz of nature.
"Hey Cade, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

Sub-Terrain Copyright of Lucy Marsh 08/02/13