AREA-89 (A Fictional Story)

I dashed for the exit disregarding the flashy white light coming from it, desperate to just get away from the situation at hand hoping that this would finally end this torturous mission. Suddenly I heard a bullet whizz past my ear into the wall in front of me and I realized that they had started shooting again, the recoil from the bullet deafened me for a bit and I stumbled and fell down, but my determination to reach the end overcame my fear of getting shot and in one final moment I jumped and did a 360 while shooting the two people behind me and making a run for it. I barely managed to hit them and finally I was there, I went into the white light as I felt the building behind me collapse and saw a text flash up in the sky above me…

…………………………THE END…………………………

But who am I? How did I get here? What was I doing? Let’s go back a couple of months to answer that question. I am 09. I have no name, no identity, no existence other than this number which was given to me by my employer. I was part of an elite group that aimed to eradicate the most dangerous enemies that the government doesn’t want you to know. Remember that incident a couple of years ago where that terrorist was found dead on our country’s soil with no indication as to why or what he was doing here? Well, he was here along with 3 other minor terrorists who were planning to recreate 9/11 but on an even bigger scale. The government could not act freely due to international tensions and diplomatic relations, and so that is where we come in. 10 of the deadliest mercenaries the country has ever seen who operate without any interference from the government and cannot be held responsible for their actions simply because they do not exist. Now the thing about the number system is that the higher your number the more power you have, naturally 10 being our leader and 1 being our youngest recruit. I am 09, the second most influential in the group and leader of the second faction, the B-team. The A-team took care of the terrorist you see, and my team got hold of the other terrorists and simply “persuaded” them to give us information about their plans. Somehow all of the other terrorists disappeared from our captivity and we currently have no idea how they ended up at the bottom of the ocean. We did however manage to get their weaponry and trashed it somewhere discreet so that it would be away from public eyes. We definitely won’t use those weapons for our own use in further missions… probably. Now that you have a general idea about who I am and what I do let me tell you how I got into that situation.

Exactly 45 days before I was captured, the A-team was undergoing a covert mission spying on the top-secret government facility Area-89. I was back at mission control when I got the news, 10 was shot. I couldn’t believe it, 10 was definitely the strongest one out of all of us and he was the least likely to screw up a mission as important as this. I even witnessed him training specifically for this. It all went wrong after 10 getting shot, the other A-team members; 07, 04, 06 and 01 were all captured and tortured, and eventually we discovered that they were killed too. I just could not sit still anymore, but I was bound by my instructions. The B-team had now become the A-team and we had all been waiting steadily and training for the day Mr. C, our employer would give us the green light. 13 days prior to the D day another tragedy struck, Mr. C’s private information was leaked out to the media and we were no longer hidden from the public eye. Mr. C was put up for trial and so we had no one to give us orders anymore. 05 finally spoke up for the first time since 10 was taken out and said that it was time for us to seek retribution. I was on board with the idea and so we planned out how we would approach our mission. The difference between the A-team and the B-team was not our level of skill but our approach towards our mission. 10 and I were both given the choice to make our teams at the same time and while 10 made up his team of brutes, I made mine with brains. But with the A-team wiped out we significantly lacked strength among our ranks; 02 and 03 were both primarily hackers who made sure that our entry and exit would be unnoticed, 05 was our marksman who was going to take out any enemies that we encountered during our entry and exit, 08 and I were going to enter and carry out the mission at hand. Our mission was simple, to infiltrate and obliterate Area 89.

…………………………D-DAY…………………………

We got into position and silently stared down at our enemies. I could sense the bloodlust in 05 and 08’s eyes but for some reason, I could not tell them to pull it together, maybe because I had that same bloodlust raging inside me. 02 and 03 got straight to work disabling the security system and 05 cleared out the entrance for me and 08. We stealthily made our way to the main research building, where they had murdered our comrades. As we entered the building I sensed something ominous, and our connection to the rest of our team was broken as soon as the door closed. Outside they caught 05 in his bird’s nest and he was sniped by the guards and they intercepted 02 and 03 and raided our HQ, inside we were oblivious to this information. We made our way into the building, slowly killing all of the guards and neutralizing the scientists while 08 was setting up charges in each of the rooms we cleared. As we made it closer to the main server room the lights turned red, meaning that they had been alerted of our presence, and for us, it meant that we no longer had to be stealthy and finish our mission as soon as possible without getting caught. We decided to split up and clear as many rooms as we could and then regroup outside the server room. After 15 minutes of rampaging through each room and killing all things that moved, I finally made it to the server room, but what surprised me was that 08, who was much more efficient than me in eliminating enemies was not there yet. I took cover behind the door and peered in through the observation window, in hopes of scoping out the enemies and getting clear before the charges that 08 had placed blew. I could not believe what met my eyes when I looked into the lab, 08 was on his knees in the middle of the room with 2 guards pointing their guns at his head, while 3 people in white lab coats stood in front of him and the middle one turned and looked at me directly in the eye while he gave the order for 08 to be shot. I saw him fall to the ground riddled with bullets, and in that one brief moment I forgot all the reasoning and training that had led up to that moment as I dashed through the main entrance guns blazing into the three scientists. As I saw their lifeless bodies drop on the floor I heard two gunshots from behind, I reacted in time for the first shot but the second grazed my arm and I fell down behind the table. Two guards had entered the room from behind me and they were shooting at me at intervals so that there was no opening for me to fire back. Suddenly I heard them go silent, mustering up all of my strength I got back up and tried to shoot back but I realized that they were waiting for me to show myself and I heard one of them shoot a bullet that whizzed past my ear. That is the moment that all fear left my body and I went for it, successfully taking out both of the guards and making a run for the exit. As I headed out from the dim corridor to the bright white light, I saw the text appear in the sky above me, “THE END”.

I took off the headset as my mom called out my name for the third time screaming that dinner was ready. My character was standing with a blank expression as the loading screen took him away and I closed the game and the final text popped on before I shut down my computer.

This was an unusual way to bring the page back to life but let me know what you think of the story. It was my first attempt at writing fiction after a very long time, I’ve been playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive quite a bit recently, so I came up with this idea of terrorists and borrowed the plot from another short story that I wrote for an Instagram post a while back about Area 51 sort of colliding with the Matrix, sadly the post never saw the light of day but it placed the foundation for this story. Let me know if I should write more fiction or more real-life stuff. I’m Sarthak Devgun and apparently I took 4 hours to write a 7-minute story.