Free Reapers: The Shadow Soldiers by Josh Collins

answer—he had expected more stalling. That didn’t change the fact that wherever Rhett was leading him was probably still going to be mired in mystery.  
    Meeting up with Index and Brosi, the four of them boarded a lift marked “restricted access” and began to descend.  
    The lift itself was industrially built, with crossbars and wire fencing the only thing separating the occupants from being able to touch the outer walls of the shaft.  
    The lift seemed to be descending at a great speed, but that didn’t stop Burns from noticing the shaft looked different from the rest of the facility—it was still industrial but it wasn’t white, and there were no bright lights. As they descended, it also seemed as if the place they were heading had no heaters.
    “It’s getting chilly,” Brosi blurted out as he rubbed his hands together.
    “I assure you, Silverset is far worse,” Index mentioned to him as she strained to turn her head in the cramped space. Even the cold storage facility back at the VA on Altias was better equipped than this place. It was almost just as cold too.
    “Speaking of places,” Burns piped up, not bothering to turn his head, “where are we? This facility I mean.”
    “That’s on a need-to-know basis,” Index responded. He’d hoped in light of the pledge of honesty that they’d tell him.
    “I think we should know,” he continued, still believing he could get something out of her.  
    “What you should know, you will know,” she put simply. He lightly scoffed and looked at the metal floor of the lift. He knew this tactic was called compartmentalization, but at some point they were going to have to let him and the others know just what was going on. The lift then shook a little as it came to a stop.  
    “Well, this secret better be worth that drop,” he lightly said as the chain doors of the lift whined and clanked as they opened. They sounded like they needed a good oiling.  
    “Follow me,” Index ordered as she squeezed her way out of the lift and into the dimly lit corridor outside.
    The corridor seemed be the only one—nothing turned off of it, and a thick metal wall blocked the end of it.  
    Doors littered the walls of this corridor. Much like the derelicts of Fifth Street, these doors seemed to have metal door handles. Indeed, the whole corridor was much like Fifth Street, but with an industrial twist. It was grungy, metallic, and dark.
    “Well, wherever we are, this looks like an original part of it,” Brosi suggested. Burns nodded his head in agreement—the man was very right. The above facility seemed to be newer additions but this looked to be how it started out.  
    From then on, no one really spoke. The total silence made each of their footsteps echo through the entire corridor.  
    Burns then realized Rhett hadn’t said a single thing from the time they had left the range to now. From the few hours he’d known the man, he didn’t seem like the quiet type. He seemed to want to instruct and lead, a trait common in most Special Forces soldiers. Yet, now he’d fallen to the back of the pack.
    “Rhett, you’ve fallen quiet back there. Everything okay?” Burns asked, turning and looking at the man.
    “Just...memories,” Rhett answered without eye contact. That wasn’t like him.  
    “Ah? I know the feeling,” Burns gently concurred.  
    What sort of horrors are hiding down here that could bring a man like Rhett to silence? he wondered, causing even more chills to arise on his skin.  
    The party then stopped at one of the doors, and Index began pressing codes into the lock.  
    “You said you lacked faith, Colonel?” she said as she finished pressing the last number.  
    “Faith?” he repeated. “With all these lies, how can I believe in anything?” She looked at him with derision as she placed her right thumb on a scanner. It was silent for a second and then beeped as it cleared her. She grabbed the door handle and turned it.  
    “Well, believe in