The Amplified : Fire Blight (Book 1)

Chapter Nineteen - The Silver Fox

The soldier moved out of the way and let us pass through, we moved forward slowly and carefully. I let the heat dissipate from my hands as we left the dirt and leafy path for a tarmac road. Soldiers stood on the side of the roads, fitted from head to toe in heavy protective armour and weapons. Sunlight seemed to fade away behind the grey clouds and worry began to be the only thing that filled my mind. The security was absolutely insane here and messing up here would not end up well for anyone. We reached a steel security gate at the end of the stretch and before us were two stone-steel hybrid watchtowers on either side of the gate with a sniper on each aiming at our truck. Two more soldiers were on the ground level began to make their way to the truck.

"Meg," Adam whispered, "can you disguise their faces." Then the soldier tapped the window and signed for us to roll down the window while the other started to check the outside of the truck.

"Where are you coming from?" The soldier began.

"Colorado, we thought this was the best place to come." Adam lied.

"Why didn't you go to the Arizona base?" He continued to prod.

"While we were getting out we heard them mention hitting Arizona next, we weren't going to walk from one battle to another."

"What about the one in Missouri? That was on your way here."

"He's lying," Stephy whispered.

Before Adam could speak, I cut him off. "There isn't a base in Missouri. We've been through a lot man, we just needed to get away from there."

The soldier moved around to my window and got me to open the window, I hoped my sister wasn't wrong as I lowered the window. When the window was drawn down he stared at the three of us in the back, he kept blinking like he was trying to blink out an eyelash. Finally, his demeanor loosened, "I know just need to ask because it's the procedure after something like this happens, just need to make sure you're one of us and not with one of Starks. You guys are lucky to have made it out of there alive, I heard the Starks are on a rampage." He said as he leaned against the car. The soldier who was checking the truck knocked its side. "Looks like you guys are good. Barracks are in the centre building, we should have room for you guys. Glad to know some people made it out." He mentioned as he walked away from us. Collectively, we let out a sigh of relief as soon as the soldiers were out of earshot. The soldier signaled a man behind a window at the base of one of the watchtowers, with a loud bull horn blare the steel gate clattered open. 

We drove into the lab compound, trees were nowhere to be seen but behind us. Soldiers walked around the area leisurely with sidearms strapped by their waist, ready for battle at all times, but still comfortable as they enjoyed life. The weird thing is that some of these soldiers look about my age, even somewhat familiar. Younger soldiers did exercise drills and chilling with each other, but it was slightly unnerving that they had weapons. Above a hill were three massive buildings that seemed to never end. The furthest one from us was a glass building that stood against the water's edge, from inside I could see that there were people in lab coats and equipment moving around, which I guess made that building the lab. In the centre was the barracks, a tall solid structure that was rooted to the lush green hill. The three-story-tall building was wider than all the other buildings, made of dark brick and stone. The building could probably fit about four hundred people inside and still have space leftover inside. Finally, that meant that the building closest to us had to be the armoury and security HQ. It looked like it was made of layers of concrete and steel reinforcements almost like an overground bomb shelter that took the form of a medieval castle. At the very top of the building, there was an ominous box with one side being made completely glass, but it was completely tinted out. At the bottom of that building was a security scanner with two guards standing protecting the entrance, I'm guessing that was the Amp scanner that The Canary told us about. Soldiers walked the grounds leisurely and it kept me on edge that any of them could identify us and it would be all over, I noticed one of the Gemini members walking around the HQ.