Looking back on it now, I realize: it was just an ordinary day. The sun was shining as it should. The clouds moved shifted lazily.
And then—nothing but a roar. It tore the calm, peaceful past away from a swift and agonizing demise. It was an explosion comparable to a volcanic eruption, judging by the sound alone. The shockwave was felt in many countries—deafening, yet so distant from them. But it wasn't the only one. The next couple of months following that incident became a living hell.
Many learned of the true state of affairs too late, but eventually, everyone fully felt the "changes" across the entire world. Mutated monsters attacked people, turning them into their own kind with a single bite. Just like in a low-budget zombie apocalypse movie. Some killed their hopelessly lost loved ones and stayed alive for a while longer; others died instantly.
Thus, at sixteen years old, Adam, like many others, became an orphan. Though the state no longer cared: it was slowly disintegrating, just like all the others.
In three months, more than half of the Earth's population vanished. Mutants attacked cities; viruses, bacteria, fungi, prions—in short, everything wanted to annihilate humanity.
If memory serves, the last state fell about two years after the explosion. Survivors began to gather wherever they could, trying to hold out. It was then that two important discoveries were made: humans had also mutated, gaining abilities and an accompanying energy, and one of the diseases infecting nearly everyone had rendered humanity sterile. Perhaps that was the sharpened blade of the guillotine? Though at the time, it felt more like a syringe needle with a lethal injection.
Abilities... At first, most had only one, and it wasn't always useful. Then they grew in number, and the energy used by these power-holders filled people more and more intensely. In fact, the entire body became a kind of reservoir, but since this energy had no density, it could potentially expand indefinitely. Probably. We didn't have a hundred years to observe it.
By the third year, when everyone had developed abilities, people began building aerial cities. Flying mutants existed too, but they were clearly fewer in number than the land-based ones. Back then, it seemed to everyone that humanity had won. No, rather, we had entered a new era, for now people had abilities, radiation didn't kill, and something could surely be done about the infertility in the near future.
But fate was clearly laughing in people's faces. The survivors had neither the time nor the specialists to study the new energy, so no one knew its full danger.
The second problem, after the monsters, emerged in the fourth year.
Researchers called it the "devouring virus." At that moment... suffice it to say that everyone accustomed to a hellish life felt true horror. The mutated devouring virus broke down the energy within people, causing them to lose control over it, fall into a vegetative state, and eventually become living bombs. Scientists, used to fighting rapidly mutating viruses, were powerless this time.
For the last few years, everyone seemed to be banging their heads against a solid wall—there were no results. Until this day.
"H-a-a-ah..." Adam didn't understand why he sighed, as it really wouldn't have changed much.
This was the final experiment. The last five people were trying to "grow" antibodies, and Adam, being the youngest, most resilient, and least damaged, volunteered.
In the process, the remaining people learned that the spread of the virus slows down if a person is in cryogenic sleep. Therefore, it was decided to place the last people, besides himself, into specially created sarcophagi until the results of the experiment were known. The young man stayed behind to wait, and yet...
He looked at the machine readings and the flat lines. In reality, it was useless. His last friends had died a month ago, but he still came here to report the results.
But what was the point? They were too late. Three days too late...
The thin stick with the green mark fell from his hands.
The virus was defeated. He was a carrier of the antibodies. And the last human. So what was the point?
His steps were as light as usual, but for some reason, they felt heavy. He took one last look at the four capsules and turned off the light.
....
Ten days had passed since the victory over the disease.
Oh, it sounds quite grand, doesn't it? Especially considering that today, the last person on earth turned twenty-three.
"Ellie, you said you'd definitely bake me cookies..." Billows of acrid cigarette smoke escaped his mouth; his throat ached, either from suppressed tears or from the smoking. "Even though Edmund said it would take at least three days to get cocoa." Another portion of smoke was spat out along with the words.
Adam sat at one of the highest points of the last floating city, continuing to smoke. Actually, he had quit when his mom found cigarettes in his bag at fifteen. It turns out he had held out for eight whole years.
The guy talked slowly to his comrades while watching the sunset. These were mundane topics, like the constantly worsening weather or the bland breakfast.
Beside him stood four simple metal urns. There was no proper soil in the floating city, so a proper funeral was impossible.
Having smoked the last cigarette, he opened the first urn and silently scattered his comrade's ashes. His hands almost mechanically repeated the same action three more times.
He gave a crooked smile, trying not to cry.
He had lost hope long before the second wave—no, much earlier than that. He had probably stopped believing in miracles the moment all his loved ones were destroyed by monsters.
"It would have been better if we left together..."
The whisper escaped his lips, after which he stood up. He hadn't cried this whole time, as if there were no tears left, even though he really wanted to just scream and break down.
After watching the sunset, Adam descended to the lowest floor where the cryogenic capsules were located. Let's just say this was his birthday present to himself.
What was the point of life? Especially one like this? But, perhaps, if one must die, it should be done with a certain grace. His friends would likely have wished him a painless death.
As he continued to set up the capsule, he kept reflecting on his action. It even felt a bit funny to him.
The antibodies had worked a miracle: now it was difficult for him to die in an ordinary way. The energy continued to expand, and at such a speed that it was becoming a little frightening. And yet, he didn't care about the changes in his body.
He was sure that the final push—the last experiment to create antibodies—would fail, so he had planned everything long ago. It was enough to turn on the program and launch the sarcophagus. Without maintenance, the solar panels would soon fail, and the generators were already on their last legs anyway. At best, he had about twenty years.
He knew himself well, so he was sure he could live out the rest of his life in total loneliness. And yet, there was no meaning in it. Ending it now or in twenty years—the outcome was equally sad.
Adam lay calmly in the chamber and folded his hands on his chest. From a distance, the sound of a countdown could be heard. He simply closed his eyes and remembered the last seven years. It had been a literal hell on earth, but there had been something good in it too. Just a little, but that sweetness was enough to drown out all the bitterness corroding his throat. The countdown ended, and consciousness faded...
This is death.
He thought it was over.
It felt like a long, long sleep. And in that sleep, he saw a beam of light, weak and fading. Nothing would have changed if he hadn't grabbed that light one day.
A feeling of constriction, weakness, and the inability to move. Adam knew this feeling—he had once been in a coma for four days, after which, by the way, he acquired his first ability. Но it was strange.
No, the strange thing wasn't that he felt this way, but that his consciousness still existed. He was supposed to die after freezing. To be more precise, eventually, the capsule's energy would run out, and he would naturally perish. A very graceful way to commit suicide, isn't it?
And yet, he was definitely alive. But it was impossible. Adam was one of the creators of the "sarcophagus"—that's what they called the capsule—so he could state with certainty that he wasn't supposed to survive. The energy would have run out sooner or later, and he would have passed away.
He didn't want to guess. Feeling the familiar flow of energy, Adam slowly separated his spiritual body from his physical one and drifted upward. This was just one of his abilities. And almost immediately, he froze.
He didn't know what his spiritual body looked like, but in this situation, all he could do was widen his eyes in bewilderment. This was not their base. Even if the base had been destroyed, this place... was strange.
An isolated black room, its walls covered in metal and some sort of patterned design glowing with a dim violet light. And in the middle of the room stood his sarcophagus. It, too, was black.
Adam couldn't help but frown. The sarcophagus had three states: cryogenic capsule (white), isolator (red), and coffin (black). No, they didn't use these incredibly useful things as coffins. The infected, to prevent the spread of free particles, were kept in red sarcophagi, but that wasn't their only problem.
The energy initially granted them abilities, but if those were unstable, people began to release power uncontrollably; some developed paranoia and fits of rage. Therefore, such individuals were locked inside until they regained consciousness. However, he could count on the fingers of one hand all the cases where someone came out of a black sarcophagus alive.
But this wasn't Adam's case. He had always been stable. And then he realized something: after the serum was injected, most likely nothing prevented the accumulation of energy in his body. There had been plenty of it before, but the current amount must be catastrophic. As for the black sarcophagus, it could very well have mistaken a massive amount of energy outside the body for instability.
Looking closer, he roughly calculated the amount of energy outside the body. All that remained was to absorb these terrifying volumes, which, however, was only a matter of time. Yes, if he didn't pull all this energy back into himself, he would remain in a coma.
Well, he had figured out one problem fairly quickly. Nevertheless...
Adam still didn't understand where he was. Looking around, he saw nothing even remotely familiar. Okay, that didn't help. The remnants of humanity didn't build places like this. It was not impossible that this was some bunker built by the government before the apocalypse began. Of course, they didn't know such places existed, so it was clear why Adam didn't recognize it.
And yet, there was something strange about it. All people were dead: he had personally scattered the ashes of the penultimate human and then climbed into the capsule hoping to die quickly and painlessly. Who could have dragged him here? But thinking about the other possibility...
"I had twenty years at most. In twenty years... Is it possible there were other survivors? Or is it someone else?" a slight flicker of interest in the unknown flashed through his thoughts.
After the appearance of strange energy and abilities in humans, he believed in everything: aliens wouldn't be anything unusual in the reality of the end of the world. Adam gave a mental sigh, deciding to explore the place. His spiritual body, considering the amount of energy he had absorbed during his very long sleep, could easily move within a radius of several hundred, if not thousands, of kilometers.
Reaching the boundary of the black room, he stepped forward. The spiritual body felt no pain or discomfort, so his eyes didn't need to adjust to bright light. Yet, for a second, he thought he was hallucinating.
Apparently, one of the walls of the black room was a one-way window. The black two-meter box stood alone in the middle of a large hall. The whole thing reminded him of a sci-fi thriller. Of course, that wasn't the only thing that caught his attention.
About twenty people were looking at various floating light screens, apparently checking readings. Most likely, these were scientists, but...
Even though Adam had called them "people," they were not. Half had marble-white skin without pores, and antennas protruded from their foreheads. Though, perhaps, they looked more like the fan-shaped antennae of moths, but given their size, they could pass for feathers. Some had entirely black eyes, as if frozen. Surprisingly, all the scientists were quite large—the minimum height was about 1.9 meters.
The rest also had distinctive features, like blue or green skin with growths like those of toads. There was even one covered in thick black short fur, like some kind of werewolf.
Well...
He really had been kidnapped by aliens. Real aliens.
"Are you... kidding me?"
The corners of his lips (if they were visible) trembled nervously as he listened to the conversations of these scientists, whose language was unintelligible to him.
"Damn it..." Adam spat out, not knowing what to do, yet still feeling an inexplicable, irrational joy. He saw living beings. And so many of them. Adam suddenly felt an urge to talk to someone.
.......
"Sir." Two junior female employees addressed the supervisor, who had been staring with utter seriousness at the object under study behind a thick layer of armored glass for a couple of minutes. "The scanners have picked up a faint change in the object's protective field. It seems to be slowly decreasing."
The man narrowed his eyes and fell into thought, but didn't answer, leaving the employees frozen in awkward anticipation.
More than ten years ago, they had stumbled upon a small planet entirely covered in snow and ice. At first, they couldn't even get there because of a strange energy field. The problem was that they had never encountered such energy before: they couldn't interact with it in any way; even their instruments failed completely when they tried to conduct a deep scan of the entire planet.
Originally, this project was overseen by the military, but when nothing could be done about the field, they decided to stop the research: no one wanted to take responsibility for invading a planet they couldn't scan. But scientists are scientists.
Securing the support of several investors and politicians, they began an "illegal study." If they could master this energy, who knows what benefits it would bring to the entire Universe? Furthermore, in the future, these discoveries would ensure them fame and honor.
And so, they descended to the icy planet. Surprisingly, besides the cold, there were no dangers: the surface and its depths were dead. Initially, they thought the source of energy was the core, but that wasn't the case: soon they found this strange, entirely black rectangular object, two meters long and one meter wide.
They named it "Object E-56" after the planet where it was found. Or simply E-56.
As soon as E-56 was extracted, the field around the planet vanished. However, it became several times stronger around the object. If someone entered the room, they would feel incredible pressure and suffocation, as well as uncontrollable fear leading to seizures, fainting, and in some cases, even death. If it hadn't been transported to the base in a huge block of ice, perhaps they wouldn't have even been able to look at it in person. Was it possible that E-56 had its own consciousness and was attacking uninvited guests this way? There were many questions, but few answers.
This strange energy prevented scanning, and physical manipulation by hand or equipment was also impossible: the devices failed, and living beings simply couldn't get closer than twenty meters. They even secretly invited a soldier with S-rank mental power and A+ physical strength, but he didn't get very far—only fifteen meters.
And now, after three years of silence, the energy had begun to slowly wane. If it continued this way, sooner or later, they would be able to study E-56. But wouldn't that mean all this energy, which triggered the study in the first place, would simply vanish?
The supervisor's lips trembled. With a sort of mad greed, as if looking at a forbidden fruit, he gazed at E-56. Whatever it was, he had to study it!
.....
It seemed he had slept for more than twenty years. There turned out to be several times more energy than he thought, but he didn't stop absorbing it. Though the absorption speed had also increased significantly, so it wasn't a problem. He didn't want to spend his whole life lying in a sarcophagus, content with existing only in his spiritual body.
Given the amount and density of the energy, it would take a few more days for full absorption—or at least until the sarcophagus system deemed him stable and safe. Just a few more days! That was more than enough to explore the alien scientists' base inside and out. He was surprised by such childish curiosity himself, especially in his situation.
During the years of the apocalypse, he had been busy killing monsters, conducting constant research, and developing various gadgets. He never had time to just wander around somewhere calmly to look at interesting things. And there were many here.
Long corridors, glowing pop-up panels like in space travel novels; there were also rooms filled with various specimens, and rather disgusting ones at that—tall glass capsules with creatures inside. If anyone asked, this was definitely a typical alien science center from any space novel.
This complex was very large, about the size of New York, although there were clearly fewer people (or rather, aliens) here.
Adam flew up higher to look down at the entire base. Indeed, it was a massive construction. Though he liked their floating platform more: it looked many times more majestic, even if it was smaller. Ahem, never mind.
A little distance away from the scientists' base was... a spaceport? Impressive aircraft seemed to declare: "Look, I can roam the expanses of space, and you can't!" Some were the size of a ten-story building, if it were tipped on its side.
"These aliens... what are they actually doing?" Adam grumbled, looking at the starships. "And if I come out of the sarcophagus... what will happen to me?" he muttered with some naïve hope for a happy future, then hung in place for a long time.
Oh, he hadn't thought about that.
.....
A man in a strict black military uniform looked at the pop-up windows. He was incomparably handsome, but his non-human features were particularly striking: practically white skin, eyes like black diamonds, as well as a thin scaly tail and sharp metallic claws, which, however, were hidden by his uniform and gloves. This was one of the Marshals of the Federation—Deyt Meorro.
He was frowning deeply, which caused a suffocating silence to hang over the entire command post. The Marshal often caused such tension, but it seemed the situation this time was much more serious than usual.
One could tell just by the fact of his presence at the border base. Usually, the personal presence of such individuals on remote planets meant something discouraging: war, invasion, or something even worse. And yet, they had been told nothing.
The Marshal's adjutant looked at him with an exhausted face. The Minister of National Security's family had been caught in strange dealings, so the investigation had been assigned to them. Who knew that secrets requiring personal presence in such the middle of nowhere would surface.
And yet, nothing could be done about it. The fact was that a group of scientists had been conducting illegal research and, judging by the information obtained, had been doing so for several decades. It was enough for him to read a brief description of the classified files on planet E-56 to realize: this wouldn't end simply.
"Has the base been checked?"
The Marshal abruptly broke the silence, addressing the adjutant.
Cloud had spent three days checking the IDs of the military personnel at the border base. Yes, he hadn't slept that entire time, so he had every reason to react slowly.
"Down to the third generation. No financial trails were found; everything is clean here."
"In that case, send a scout team to E-56. Keep a safe distance; equipment fails there."
The Marshal closed all the windows without replying to a single message. Because his eyes were entirely black, it was hard to tell where he was looking; nevertheless, Cloud had worked with him for a long time, so he simply nodded and left.
The silent gesture meant the Marshal had given permission to use special-purpose reconnaissance ships—no existing radar could detect them, and their ammunition count rivaled those of the military "Reapers." Using such ships against a group of scientists was excessive, but anyone privy to the details understood the necessity of such a decision. E-56 was an extremely unusual planet. It was unknown what the scientists had managed to find in twenty years, not to mention what that discovery could have helped them create.
The Marshal went to his office, leaving the officers and the major who was previously in charge of the base in silence. It seemed something terrible had happened in their backwater if the Marshal himself had come. The lack of information was even more frightening. Even the major, who by circumstance had access equal to a colonel's, knew nothing.
Deyt entered the office, and the metal door closed smoothly. His tail, avoiding obstacles, settled softly on his knees as the man sat down.
The Marshal gave a heavy sigh and opened the letters he had read earlier. The situation was becoming more complex.
The investigation on the "Annual Star" continues; members of two more families with influence in political circles have been taken into custody. It's no wonder the military department is on edge.
There was very little information on planet E-56 in principle. It was only clear that the potential was huge and the outcome could be extremely dangerous. The first thing that comes to mind for those studying the illegal research case is preparation for a civil war. This was not encouraging. Even though many people have already been arrested and even more are under investigation, nothing inspired peace of mind.
Deyt frowned, but after a couple of minutes, he relaxed and opened the next files to fill out documents for the use of special ships. One way or another, he needed to find the researchers and detain them. The capital Marshal would have to handle the rest.
He decided to continue with his work when suddenly a connection request popped up in front of him.
He remembered the flight schedules perfectly and knew that no trading or civilian vessels were nearby. Not counting the military border base, there were no inhabited planets here at all.
Furthermore, this external request with no identification symbols looked more like a call from a family than a distress signal. Was it possible that local systems had no security protocols? That's a serious violation; the major in charge of the base would have to face a military court...
Deyt was already mentally drafting the documents to court-martial the major, but a second later he realized: the problem here was something else. He hadn't accepted the call, but the connection had established itself.
....
Adam drifted calmly above the research center, pondering the future. He was at the base of hypothetically hostile aliens. Besides, he didn't know their language, so he couldn't negotiate anything.
Nevertheless, watching the researchers who couldn't enter the room with the sarcophagus, he realized one wonderful thing: these aliens were strangely wary of his energy. And then he remembered that the pressure he emitted jammed all waves and energy particles. In short, he was likely one of those extremely mysterious secret objects that governments carefully hide on military bases.
Should he be happy about that? No, because in that case, the aliens don't know there's a living human in the sarcophagus. And he couldn't predict their reaction either.
He had reached this conclusion a couple of hours ago. And in that same time, he could only make one deduction: he had no idea what to do. In any case, he couldn't stay inside the sarcophagus, and when he came out...
Let's just assume that's a problem for the "future him," which means he'll think about it later. Although in reality, he just didn't want to admit the hopelessness of the situation.
With a forced smile, he quickly descended and saw the familiar observation room. There stood the alien Adam had mentally designated as the boss, which, judging by the way the others addressed him, was true.
The supervisor was looking at the monitors with a strange, perverted smile, pointing his subordinates toward various data points. The attempt to learn a foreign language was unsuccessful, so Adam just watched boredly until he noticed an interesting detail: besides the usual scientists, there was a tall man with a powerful build. These aliens were already impressive, but this one was a real giant. He looked like a lizard, more like a mutant crocodile from the cartoons of his childhood.
The lizard-man put on strange clothing, similar to a hazmat suit.
Adam's eyes widened: it had been about two days by his reckoning, but for the first time, someone dared to enter the room with the sarcophagus. Impatience and anticipation showed on the youth's face, like a child looking at something new. He couldn't climb out yet—there were still a little over two days left—but such meetings, even if not direct, made him nervous.
The lizard-man walked forward, moving his legs slowly. Apparently, it was difficult for him, even though the distance to the sarcophagus did not exceed ten meters.
Adam didn't know what expression the lizard-man had, but he was slightly confused himself. He knew about radiation—or rather, its consequences. He remembered that no technology worked near ability-holders, but when they learned to keep the power inside themselves, the problem was solved.
It turns out these aliens react extremely painfully to his radiation. Wow. Now he wasn't just a mysterious object; he was also an extremely dangerous unknown thing in their eyes. This meant that when he came out, he wouldn't be given a warm welcome.
Adam decided to set that problem aside, returning to another topic: the sarcophagi were built so that energy bursts and most radiation remained inside. Previously, he thought all the particles were inside the sarcophagus and only a low-intensity background was outside, but it shouldn't affect living beings like that...
Adam looked down at the lizard-man. The man was convulsing as his colleagues tried to pull him away, though they too were suffering from the energy's effects.
Adam pursed his lips in sympathy. He had seen a similar picture before.
In the past, when the first people with abilities began to appear, they couldn't control the energy, and its particles, penetrating other people, led to the same result. Sometimes people died after such seizures, and the "unusual" ones were driven away or killed.
He was in the first group.
Remembering something unpleasant, he tried to move a mass of particles. Sure enough—they were outside the sarcophagus as well, though in small amounts. This could mean the system wasn't coping with the volume of energy. Not surprising, given that his body had been accumulating it... apparently for a very long time.
Adam looked at the poor souls below, so he gathered the leaked particles, making them hover near him. The aliens became noticeably quieter, and the lizard-man stopped writhing. One might have thought he was dead, but he wasn't.
The human youth, whom no one could see, ignored the scientists' stupor. He played with the particles and suddenly remembered numerous experiments, after which he looked toward the observation room. His eyes lit up.
A small cluster of particles floated beside him, passing through the walls in the same way. Soon he was next to the supervisor, whose face became even more expressive, but Adam didn't notice.
He had an idea. Using the particles, he could interfere with the devices and somehow make contact. He remembered drawing a smiley face on a friend's computer using the same method once. The main thing was to find a drawing program, and then his artistic skills would come into play (though he was good at... absolutely nothing). In any case, the idea seemed worth it.
Adam quickly flew up to the screens and released the particles into the hardware. He found no familiar wires, but that didn't stop him. The blue screens started going crazy: windows popped up that the youth couldn't understand, but that didn't stop him. He was so concentrated on finding a way to communicate that he didn't notice the panic. The number of aliens in the observation room doubled.
Five more minutes passed before Adam stopped. No, not because he had found anything useful. A red window with many incomprehensible symbols had popped up. And more than one. They were multiplying, so he quickly stopped the operation and looked around the room with doubt.
In the last minutes, he had acted literally by touch and now realized he might have damaged something. It's hard to do something without knowing the language.
He felt awkward, and then a thought occurred: there were no security programs at the human base—there was simply no one to steal data or send viruses. But here, everything was different. Surely the security systems had reacted to his careless actions, as he hadn't even tried to hide.
Adam got worried. If he came out, he might be imprisoned for an attempted hack. Surprising: he hadn't even woken up yet, and he'd already earned a sentence.
He would have continued to panic, but he decided that they had complex protection and it was unlikely his chaotic poking had caused serious damage. Right?
...
The last couple of hours had been a sheer nightmare. And it all started with the attempt to study Object E-56.
Field fluctuations led to the assumption that physical contact would become possible. The test personnel knew the danger, but the pay was too high. And so, one of the best walked inside in a protective suit. The result didn't improve—if anything, it got worse.
At just ten meters, he fell into convulsions. They rushed to pull him out. Last time, the tester died almost instantly, and the readings didn't even have time to register.
The supervisor thought history was repeating itself today. Who would have thought the day would become one of incredible discoveries and total misfortune.
The pressure vanished in an instant. The seizure stopped as if E-56 had taken pity. But that was only the beginning.
"S-sir..."
an analyst's frightened voice drew everyone's attention in the room. Data on the monitors began to change chaotically: files opened and closed, were deleted, and information was jumbled and distorted.
"What is happening?" the supervisor frowned, trying to maintain his composure.
"I don't know, the system is acting as if it's possessed! I can't stop it!"
The analyst was ready to cry: the screens did not respond to touch. He had never seen anything like it.
"Sir, we need to shut down the laboratory's entire system!"
The supervisor only shook his head and ordered the security department to be called. Under no circumstances could the power be cut. Then the experiments would be left unsupervised, the protection would collapse, and the data would be compromised.
But the moment the guards arrived, all the screens lit up red.
"Damn it..." the analyst whispered.
The newest encoders and security programs were simply obliterated. Moreover, during the hack, they had connected to the nearest external network. Looking at the level of security on that side, the scientists realized what they had stumbled into.
It was the system of the nearest military base. Those who understood the gravity of the situation felt ready to drop dead on the spot.
"Shut down the system immediately!" the supervisor's panicked scream shattered the silence.
To fail now meant being caught red-handed by the enemy. But it was too late. The connection had been established, and a face familiar to everyone appeared on the screen. In their position, the mere sight of a military uniform was enough to start paying for their own funerals, but the reality was even worse.
Both sides remained silent.
The supervisor stared into those black eyes, in which no one had ever seen a flicker of mercy. A shiver ran down his spine. It was Marshal Meorro—a man who ordered executions far more often than he granted pardons.
If they were seeing the Marshal through the local base's system, it meant he was close. The rumors that the military had taken them seriously were no longer a joke. It seemed the situation was far worse than he could have ever imagined.