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A Night: 12:00-1:00 by KrazyKorean4



A Night: 12:00-1:00
Date: 5 March 2006, 5:34 am

      "I wasn't supposed to be there. Goddamn that night," he whispered to himself. The man sitting in the chair in the bleak interrogation room was fidgety. He tried to focus on something in the room, but found it impossible. There was literally nothing to be seen. The room was about the size of a jail cell. There was a table in the middle, with a man at either end. A window showed the gray sky, cruelly taunting the man. The table was made of steel, and it was cold. Even the Styrofoam cup of coffee the interrogator had with him was getting cold. Walls painted white, the room was just a nicer version of Hell.
      "Max," the other man said, rubbing his eyes and stretching over the back of the chair,"We need to know what the hell happened last night." He paused, trying to think of another way to pry the young UNSC officer for information. He knew the kid had been through a ton. Only a couple of weeks in his division, and some shit like this happens. Granted, he had his basic training, the kind of training every new recruit gets, but it never could prepare him for a night like the one he went through.
      "Max...Max...Max!"
      "I don't know what the fuck happened!" Max exploded. Rage suddenly filled him, and he couldn't explain why.
      "God dammit! Everything just happened so fuckin' fast! No one knew what was going on even after it happened! Son of a bitch, Jake! Even if you were there, you still wouldn't be able to explain it! No one could!" The sudden outburst didn't stun Jake at all. Unrattled, he got up and stretched his legs. He looked at the bewildered young man in front of him. He could see the fear in his eyes. He could tell he didn't want to be a UNSC officer anymore. Jake new the kid was Goddamn lucky to get out of there alive. When Jake arrived at the bloody UNSC station earlier that morning, there were things that he saw that he knew he would dream about. He would dream about them for a long, long time. The only ones living were an Elite with a bullet in his lodged in his abdomen, and Max.



The night before...



      "Happy birthday dear Frank! Happy Birthday to you!" the small UNSC station howled with song.
      "Yeah thanks for remindin' me how fuckin' old I am. "Frank said to the group with a smile on his face. Frank was one of the old guys who didn't care he was old. He had just turned 52.
      "Just blow out your candles old man!" Max yelled over everyone else. Everyone knew Max as the kid with a lot of potential, and who wasn't a dickhead like a lot of kids his age. The candles were blown out and the plume of smoke rose from the red velvet cake. There was enough cake there for the five people in the station. Everyone else had left already. They left early because of the arising snow storm outside.
      "Did you guys really have to fuck with me and sing me "Happy Birthday" right when I turned 52?" Frank asked over his shoulder. Frank, being the oldest of the group of people there, and in fact being the oldest in the station, was kind of like a mentor to all the other kids. The four others were Mike, the second oldest. He wasn't hard to make laugh, and was an all around fun guy to hang out with. Steve, a big man. He carried alot of weight, but was probably the most cheery guy of the whole station. The secretary, Julie. She was always getting hit on by annoying hotshots coming in to and out of the station. She was always really hostile with them, and would return by a swift "Fuck you", or "Eat shit". Then there was Max.
      "Jesus, look outside guys. It's fuckin' crazy out there," Max shouted peering out the window.
      "Yeah it's getting really bad. I think I'm gonna head home before it gets any worse," Julie said, plopping herself off of her chair. She took off her pointy birthday hat and sling-shotted it at Max with the string.
      "I'll see you guys tomorrow," she said through a yawn. The moment she opened the door, she screamed. She immediately closed the door. Her hand was melted all the way down to her wrist. She ran across the atrium and fell on the floor screaming in pain.
      "Holy fuck!" Max yelled, rushing toward Julie. Max skidded on his knees and held Julie's arm and examined the melting hand. Everyone was rushing around to do something. Steve was dialing 911, and Frank was using his cell phone to call the UNSC precinct on the other side of town. Mike sprinted downstairs to the weapons and ammo locker.
      "Shit! I don't have any reception with all the snow!" Frank shouted.
      "I can't even get a tone! Whatever's out there musta cut the power or something!" Steve replied. As if one cue, the lights went out.
      "Jesus Christ! What the fuck is going on!" Julie screamed. She was clearly in shock. Mike burst through the door to the basement with a basket full of weapons in one hand and a basket full of ammunition in the other.
      "Alright everyone just calm the fuck down!" Max said through the confusion. He needed to get control of the situation.
       "We have anti-plasma shit we can put on Julie's hand right? And we have a huge stockpile of weapons. There's probably just one or two Covenant out there dicking around with us. It's about six hours 'til the sun rises. I think we should just sit tight and wait." Max said, looking around the room at everyone. Max didn't know why, but he highly doubted there was only one or two Covenant out there "dicking around with them". Julie was whimpering, and Max gently kissed her on the forehead.
      "Julie...Julie, look into my eyes. I swear to you you're going to be fine," Max said to her. Julie smiled a bit and hugged Max. He started telling people what to do.
      "Okay, Frank, get the med-kit upstairs. Oh, and get the flashlights and attach them to the battle rifles. Mike, take a position at the front door and look for anything that moves. You see something you come get me, understand? Steve, go in the basement and get the rest of the guns and ammo, and don't forget th-. He was cut off by plasma rounds hitting everywhere. Flashes of blue were engulfing everything.
      "Down!" Mike yelled. Everyone dropped to the ground and covered their heads. Max crawled over to the basket with the guns and took out two "bullet hoses". He then took some magazines from the other basket. He quickly loaded the guns and crawled over to a window that had balls of super heated plasma coming out of it. Max stood up against the wall and started shooting blindly outside. He knew it probably wouldn't do anything, but he did it anyway. Steve came running up the stairs with his head ducked. He had a battle rifle in his hands. He crawled to the window to the left of Max and started unloading the rifle. Mike was over by the front door emptying shells from his shotgun. Suddenly, just as quickly as it had begun, the barrage stopped. At the very end of the noise of guns being fired, was glass breaking. The glass breaking was that of the windows in the basement. Max knew that, and, reloading his SMGs, sprinted down into the basement.        Creeping slowly down the stairs, both guns drawn, Max was ready. He got to the bottom of the stairs when he turned around to the sound of Mike coming loudly down.
      "What the hell was that?" he said, and Max jolted back against the wall as super heated plasma nearly seared his face off.
      "Goddamn it!" Max shouted as he blindly shot one SMG around the corner. Mike realized what he had done, and, trying to redeem himself, stepped behind Max and put a hole into the Elite with the shotgun.
      "Shit, sorry. Anymore down here?" Mike asked.
      "We gotta check," Max replied, ejecting the spent clip and putting a fresh one in. Both SMGs loaded, Max crept down the hallway wih Mike covering his rear with the shotgun. They slowly walked down the dark hallway and turned the corner. Nothing. The Elite had come alone. Max blew a sigh of relief.
      "We gotta get this window boarded up," said to Mike, pointing to the broken window the intruederhad gone through. He walked past Mike and went back up the stairs.
       Julie was lying on a bench cradling her arm. It was wrapped up. Frank had put some jelly-like medical stuff on it. It was supposed to heal injuries caused by plasma fire. Frank was leaning against a wall, peering out thorugh a window. Steve was setting up a little camp for himself, organizing his shotgun and battle rifle. mike was peering out a window opposite Frank. Max was sitting on the bench with Julie, stroking her hair and trying to make her feel better. He looked at the red digital clock through the darkness. It read 1:00.





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