Chapter 1- The Philippines, and The People Who Stole My (Our) Boat
The rain pelted heavily on the duct-taped window next to my face, and the sound of the wind thrashing the trees like a whip against the clouds crashed against the small Philippine house that we had hid in for the last 4 days, shying away from the terrible cyclone tearing the air outside, screaming at its own substance and batting down the lower houses like sheets of paper on the wind.
And once again, I was feeling something I hadn’t felt in a while- Fear. Being a part of The Foundation had…Dampened my emotions, after a while I just found it easier to care less, it was a way of coping I guess. To cope with seeing someone happy and cheery, briefing them off- And then finding out a couple of days later, they’d been torn apart by a monster, sliced to bits by a glowing hot wire, or swallowed by a gargantuan coral formation. You just stopped wanting to care. Dr. Glass was not exactly very caring of my worries, in the same way as he has been after our many ‘incidents’ during my earlier…state. My feelings were still there; I could sense them, sitting there, waiting to be let back out like an impatient cat. They were just trapped under a heavy grey blanket that barely stopped the glowing light from the cats eyes from getting through.
Fear- an icy vein that runs through my heart, and turns every mans mind to stone. It was back.
“You alright?” The man in front of me was Dr. Bright, dressed in a way that looked most peculiar in the manner that I was used to him wearing a formal suit, or lab coat rather than the abomination of an excuse of a Hawaiian T-shirt. The bright, canary yellow flowers of his shirt were surrounded by a dark brown, a horrid contrast.
But the silly man still bought it.
“I’ll look like a tourist, I’ll blend in with one of these…”
Sure, maybe blend into an old painted brick wall. That is, if he could walk far enough out of the house to find the brick wall, before being hit by a flying oil tanker.
“It’s a nasty storm…I’ve never experienced something so…” The house shuddered, and I winced. “Powerful…”
The Foundation needed communication, but over time, people seemed to lose the ability of social community communication. It often made things quite difficult to understand. But it made some bloody hilarious conversations with Gears and the new Doctors.
JRRrrrRRR.JRRrrrRRR.
The house was straining to keep it’s ground, and was loosing the fight. Why had I even accepted this mission? I mean, I know the GOC are meant to be handled by high-experience Foundation Members, but why on earth can't they get low-level agents to help out! The GOC are a little more than terrorists at the end of the day.
Another figure entered the dark room, and I turned to see Nagang, a local who we were ‘Borrowing’ his home from. He looked worried, and walked over to Bright, bending low to be in audible distance over the torrential storm.
“Ako nag-aalala bahay ay hindi pagpunta sa tumagal magkano na sa ilalim ng presyon, gusto namin mas mahusay na ulo pababa sa ang Bunker sa lalong madaling panahon. Kami ay magiging mas ligtas doon!”
I couldn’t understand any of it- Foreign languages were never never my forte. But either way, I could tell things were not looking good for this house. It gave another juddering groan, and Bright stood.
“He says we need to head downstairs, he’s probably right too. I can just feel this house getting one more little push and-” The emphasis gathered on the sentence left hanging as he gathered up the towels and blankets that were gathered around us. “Now, Dr. Addams.”
I ran back to the lounge room, where our two packs lay wet and sodden, only recently rescued from the torrential rain, and pulled one over each shoulder, the heavy weight of them making me grunt, and the pressure imbedded the outline of my .44 under my jacket into my skin even harder than before. It wouldn’t be staying behind.
As I bumped my way towards the kitchen, Bright piled the contents of the shelves into a small pale bag; Nagang’s flickered an ugly scar of anger for a moment, as quick as the lightning outside, but said nothing.
Bright turned, and nodded at me, before turning to Nagang.
“Kami ay handa na, maaari naming pumunta ngayon”
“Sa ganitong paraan”
And the short man led the way down the cold stone stairs.
I shivered. It was so dark down here, I couldn’t see a thing. “Can we get a li-”
The cyclone had finally taken it’s toll, the building above us gave a tremendous screech as the roof and lower part of the wall was torn away.
“Isara ang pinto, isara ang mga ito, ISARA IT!”
The small man rushed forward towards the stone doorway through which we had just entered, and slammed the door shut, pulling across a hefty wooden beam that looked like it had seen better days, and the sound of the wind and rain became muffled. I pulled off the rucksack, and started ruffling through the contents, trying to find the packed flashlights. All was silent but the whistling of the wind, and the faint Click as I found my treasure, turning it on.
“Hello Dr. Bright. Hello Dr. Addams. I believe I haven’t had the pleasure”
I turned to hear the source of the noise, raising the torch into the dark, in just enough time to see the metal bat 2 inches away from my fa-