Dulce Truths

Mark shakes his head. “Came over early this morning, was at the post-mission debriefing.” Mark trails-off as the voice of Anderholt comes to them again.

“Stop at once and turn yourselves in,” Anderholt says, his voice loud and booming over the speaker system. “You can’t get away. Turn yourselves in… there’s nothing to fear.”

“Yeah, right,” Bennewitz says, rolling his eyes.

“How much further to the time shed?” Walter asks. “I’d rather not get into a shoot-out with some base guards, guards that don’t know the real story about what’s goin’ on.”

“And what is goin’ on?” Turn asks.

“What, you haven’t figured that out already?” Mark says over his shoulder, a wry smile on his face. Turn can only roll his eyes to that, though a moment later he starts down the hallway again, right after Mark starts ahead of him. “Time shed’ll be on this level, and probably down this hallway… look for a door labeled ‘storage room.’

“Storage room, eh?” Turn says. “And what if someone wanders in there by mistake?”

“When was the last time you saw a door labeled ‘storage room’ and decided to stop in for an unannounced visit?” Mark asks, to which Turn can give no response other than a slight shrug.

They continue down the hallway, the red lights on and that yellow strobe flashing. Occasionally Anderholt comes over the speakers, urging them to stop and turn themselves in to the guards that’d be appearing any moment now. They never do. Instead the men continue on for another minute, then up ahead Mark stops.

“Here it is,” he says, and the others catch up and see the door labeled ‘storage room.” Mark reaches his hand out to open the door, but the knob won’t turn. “Locked,” he says, and looks at the others.

“Here,” Bennewitz says, stepping forward. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a ring of keys, flips through them for a moment, then selects one and gives it a try. The door opens with an audible ‘click.’

“Where’d you get those?” Mark asks, nodding down at the keys as Bennewitz puts them back into his pocket.

“You don’t wanna know,” Bennewitz replies, an expressionless look on his face.

Mark shrugs to that and pushes the door open. The four men file inside, and there before them is what indeed looks like a storage room. Boxes are piled nearly up to the ceiling against one wall, while a table pushed up against another wall is also covered with them. The only thing that looks out of place is a large, rectangular box standing at one side of the room. If it wasn’t for all the wires and tubes going into it, Turn would guess it was some kind of shower stall, though one without a working faucet or shower head.

“There she is,” Bennewitz says, walking into the room and then over to the control panel that all the wires and tubes are leading to. It’s full of buttons, many lighted red or yellow or green.

“Get her programmed for—”

Mark’s words are cutoff by a shout of, “Stop, don’t go any further!”

The men all turn about and look back to the door. There’s no one there, but they can all hear the sound of men running down the hallway outside, their military-issued boots pounding on the cement floor.

“There’s no time to program her for anything,” Bennewitz says, looking back to Mark before jerking his eyes back to the controls.

“Then we’ll just have to take our chances,” Mark says.

“You crazy?” Walter says. “That time shed could lead anywhere!”

“Would you rather get into a shoot-out right here in Blue Lake?” Mark asks.

Walter frowns to that, but says nothing. Mark nods and looks back to Bennewitz. “Get ‘er fired up — we’re going.”

Bennewitz nods, hits a few buttons on the control panel, and Turn watches as the same type of shimmering curtain of light he saw back there in Dulce appears here as well, right there in what he can only think of as a shower stall.

“Let’s go!” Bennewitz shouts, and he doesn’t wait for anyone to answer — he simply moves away from the controls, to that shimmering gate, and then right into it. Just like that, he’s gone.

“Walter,” Mark says from his spot near the door.

“You’re gonna need—”

“Go,” Mark says, just then sticking his head out the door.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

He pulls it back right away, the sound of gunfire echoing off the hallway walls, and looks to Walter. The captain doesn’t say another word, just goes to the shimmering gate and right into it, the same as Bennewitz had done.

“Turn, you’re next,” Mark says.

“Are you sure—”

“Positive,” Mark says, and this time he leaves the door and comes over to stand next to Turn in front of the shimmer gate. He looks Turn in the eye, and Turn nods. Then he steps through the gate.

Behind him, Mark waits another few seconds, thinking. How’d it all go so wrong… how’d it get to this?

The only answer that comes are the sounds of the guards’ footfalls getting closer. Mark doesn’t want a fight with them — he doesn’t doubt for a second that they’re just doing their job, just taking orders from General Anderholt.