Caution Cadets

Chapter 3

They were starting to get used to living this weird hell, for the most part. While Tab was blowing up old abandoned buildings, Maxcty was trying to explore more of the strange land. During one of his expeditions, he found another person. Or well...he found a lot of other people. He didn't talk to them, just went back to tell Tab what he saw.

"Hold on, hold on! Slow your story down, Max. You saw WHAT!?" Tab dropped the dynamite and looked at Maxcty, confusedly.

"So I was going around, you know like I do, and I found other people here!" Max gestured around to the area he went, smiling.

Tab looked at him, shocked. Other people? There was no way there were others here, right? He really thought they were alone here, that it was just a barren landscape with no life in sight. He put the rest of his TNT away and asked Max to show him where he found the others.

"Ok so it was around here" He turned around and then walked in that direction, Tab following close behind him.

The two of them reached the cliffside where Maxcty claimed to see the strangers, and just like the other time the same figures appeared out of the building. Tab gasped quietly and looked at them, then to Max. There really were people here then? He wondered why people would be here, were they dead too? Tab still didn't even know if they were dead themselves, but the sharp pains he got frequently suggested something was off. They both wondered if they should go and talk to them until they heard sudden gunfire, looking down at the strangers to see fresh corpses and blood.

"Oh my fucking god.." Tab covered his mouth, looking at the bodies that began to pile up.

Max was silent, watching the stranger covered in some sort of rock take down the other strangers in suits. He held his lighter for a moment before putting it back in his pocket and sliding down the cliff to the other people. Tab made incoherent noises before following after him, not making it as gracefully down the ledge. When they reached the bottom of the cliff, they went over to the building with some attempt to stay hidden.

"YOU!" They were stopped by a man with grey skin in a black suit and red glasses.

Max reached for his knife and then realized that...shit...it wasn't there. He must have left it up at their little base before he left. He would kick them or hit them but his body seemed to shut down, Tab seemed to be in the same boat. Suddenly the person in front of them dropped dead, a new hole in their head bleeding out on the ashy floor, adding a new color to the landscape.

"Woah..." was all they could say, looking at the dead stranger.

"Are you two ok?" Another person walked over, putting a gun away.

Max and Tab just looked at each other then back down to the person in front of them, nodding. They weren't hurt, but they definitely were a little shaken up after that. Max spoke first, asking what the hell that person was doing and why they shot them.

"Oh you died recently, didn't you?" The stranger asked, holding out his rock covered hand.

"I mean...I guess so,'' Max replied, shaking their hand. "My name is Maxcty, by the way" He smiled.

The stranger adjusted his hat, "Name's Deimos!"

Tab introduced himself after the other two and then asked what they were doing here and why they arrived here. Deimos replied with a shrug and walked into the building behind them, signaling for the others to follow him. They exchanged looks once more then followed him into the giant grey deathtrap looking building.