The Missile 2
Copyright© 2025 by Zen Master
Chapter 1: Survivors’ Party
After a couple of minutes we heard Eric’s voice coming over some speakers. “Guys? We have all been through a fairly strenuous time, and we’d like a few minutes to rest, clean up, and maybe eat something. Please let us get back to the hotel where we can take a shower then have lunch. We can hold a real press conference in the hotel’s meeting room after that, maybe in an hour, but right now we are all covered in blood and goo and we REALLY NEED TO GET CLEANED UP FIRST!”
Cindy was right with him on that, too.
“Yes! That was part of the deal. I go in there, I get covered in goo, and I get to take a shower when we come out, before we do anything else!”
I’d pretty much forgotten about it, I’d been in worse shape just playing in the creek when I was younger, but Eric was right. Still, I’m sixteen...
“I’m fine. Maybe I’ll take a shower before I go to bed tonight.”
Matt stayed out of it. Margie supported Eric and Cindy, but George was right there with me.
“I always take a shower when I get up, before I go to school. I’ll be fine until then.”
Both of us got dumped on by Cindy. I’m not going to write down here what she said. I’m not sure I even remember what-all she said. I got the gist, though. We were slobs, we were disgusting degenerates, and we certainly weren’t the same species as her. Maybe not even the same order. Perhaps we were Suidae. Yeah, I had to look it up, too.
Besides, this was all my fault. If I’d had the common decency and manners to kill that damned thing before it got to her, she wouldn’t have gotten splattered with its brains and she wouldn’t NEED a shower!
I hoped everyone else was as entertained as I was. And was listening to her publicly admit that she was alive because I’d taken ‘that damned thing’ on by myself when it went for her.
All I could do was smile. “Love you, honey!”
She fought her way past her family, past all the reporters, and then past my family to give me a good hug and a really nice kiss. “Thank you for saving my life, Sam. I’ll find a way to make it worth your while.”
Awesome!
Thankfully the PRA had a bus we could use, or Mom might have made me walk back to the hotel. It was only a mile or two, but yeah, we were pretty nasty. I probably should have just stepped into the shower fully dressed, and then taken each piece off as it got rinsed off. I had blood and goo everywhere except on my backpack, and I probably would have had it covered too, if I’d worn it into any of those fights.
The hotel had staff waiting for my gear when we stepped out into the hallway to go eat, saying that they would wash it all in their industrial washers. No charge, it was part of their appreciation for our business. Sure.
Lunch. I don’t care what time it is, it’s time for lunch. We’d had breakfast about 8. We’d gone in the portal about 10, we’d been in there about four hours getting lots of really good exercise, and then another hour getting out and getting clean before we got down to the restaurant. I was starving.
The hotel had some removable walls and they set part of their dining room up for us. It would only seat about 15 or so, though, so the PRA said us, them, and a maximum of one family member or friend. Cindy and I looked at each other, but we smiled and shook our heads.
Our families would NOT be happy if I chose her as my only family and she chose me. I took Dad and she took her mom. We still sat together, though, and had a good lunch while the PRA kept everyone else out.
After lunch we went around the corner for the press conference and debrief on this official PRA operation. None of that was too bad, but the reporters just wanted the story as fast as they could get it, so they could go write it up and edit the video, and then post it.
Eric talked about what we did over-all, and then he introduced each of us so we could retrieve our weapons and explain what we did. We all pulled our weapons out and showed them before putting them away again. We all played nice and gave the PRA the public relations show that they were looking for.
All of us ‘newbies’ had to thank the PRA for setting up this training run for us as well as Eric and Margie, our ‘guides and guards’, for getting us in and then getting us out again.
I got to explain, once again, why I was ‘special’ and took two machetes in with me. Cindy had to explain that yes, when we came out she was completely covered in blood and goo, but none of it was hers. I had saved her at the last possible instant, which meant that when I killed her attacker all his blood and brains sprayed all over her. She got knocked down by the dead body, but that was all. She had no injuries.
Matt had to admit that, yes, he was actually hurt worse than it looked and he’d be seeking medical help soon, but for now he just wanted to thank God and his teammates for everyone working together to make sure we all got back alive.
They wanted to see all our loot, of course. It wasn’t much, just a pile of silver nuggets that would be split between the other five, and four paws with nasty-looking claws and a shiny clean fang for my share. Several people offered a lot of money for any of it that I’d sell. My Dad stepped in and just simply said “No” or “Not yet” to every offer.
When the reporters were done, the PRA people started in. They wanted every. possible. little. detail. Formations, opponents, tactics, weapons, loot. By that time I’d pretty much forgotten all the details from the first couple of fights. Eric, Margie, and Cindy remembered them a lot better than I did. Sure, MY job was to kill whatever was in front of me. It was their job to look at the big picture.
They had a list of things they wanted to know about. One was the machetes. After we entered the Portal, there had been three machetes left on the ground. Two had been verified to go into another Weapons’ inventory, so they were Portal System weapons. The third one hadn’t, and Mom and Dad had verified that it was the one I bought at One Stop. The PRA people had the two ‘real’ ones, and my parents had mine.
We verified that us four ‘Newbies’ got in with our machetes in our hands, and and the two veterans had not gotten in with the machetes in their hands. My sheath on my belt was empty because my Earth machete did not come with us. We had to admit that we’d almost stabbed each other when we saw our ‘awarded’ weapons, simply because we were too young, too new, and too easily distracted. That should be a training point in the future.
I’d been thinking about it and I suggested that, instead of us having them out in our hands, since the Gate took us to the ‘foyer’ first and we shouldn’t be fighting yet, maybe we should actually have the machetes in sheaths, maybe on our belts, and merely have our hands on their handles. That way, when we saw our ‘awarded’ weapons, we wouldn’t be trying to stab or slice whoever was in front of us.
They agreed that my idea would be safer for everyone else, and the next time we’d try a couple different ways. Did we have to actually be holding on to them, or would them being in a sheath on our belt be good enough? I couldn’t remember if I’d had my left hand on the handle of my second one or not. They had video of us entering the Portal, and they’d see if they could tell or not. After a couple of minutes of discussion we remembered that it didn’t matter, that was the Earth machete and it wasn’t going to come with us no matter what I did.
When they brought up experience, Eric told them that the hearsay about Pinks had been verified. He was a Level 3, and he personally had gotten no experience at all. The rest of the team had gotten 30 each, meaning the entire level had given 150 experience spread evenly between all surviving teammates who weren’t above Level 2.
We all agreed that it was probably an important clue that, when I’d tried to put the Boss’s head in my inventory, only the fang had gone. That fang being clean and shiny when I pulled it out from my inventory while the paws were still bloody and dirty was probably a clue, too. That fang was magical somehow. We’d have to find someone who could identify it for us, if we didn’t want to spend 200 Silver for a scroll to do it.
I had an idea on that, but I didn’t think Cindy would like it if I brought it up. There were a pair of ladies, the “Drunk Chick Scroungers”, on YouTube who claimed they could identify anything from the Portals. They talked like Canadians, but they worked out of a movie studio in LA. Their videos were hilarious, because they got drunk before they started the videos. They talked about everything under the sun while they drank more and threw in something about whatever item was on the table.
Their camera was mounted above a small table where it only showed the table, whatever was on the table, and the two women’s torsos below their necks. And, their torsos were pretty much right there on the table, since they were both fairly busty. They may have financial problems, since they seemed to only own T-shirts which were significantly too small for them. They also appeared to not be able to afford any support garments. Both women were constantly jiggling while they drank and laughed and talked.
Since the only things in the camera’s view were the table, whatever item they were discussing, occasionally a hand or arm, and four big firm jiggling breasts, us poor high school boys had to watch each of their new videos three or four times when they first came out, before we actually heard anything they were saying. Yeah, their videos were pretty popular.
Oh, did I mention that they were the only people closer than Russia who could identify things? They got to show, examine, identify, and discuss some pretty fascinating things. Of course, every time I saw one of their videos I wanted to show, examine, identify, and discuss four different fascinating things I saw on the table that they never mentioned. But, I wasn’t sure Cindy would support me in going out to LA to see those four things.
Eventually the PRA people had enough, or at least started getting a clue that WE’D had about enough, and they thanked us for our part in this test run. The last thing they did was hand us checks for our time and effort supporting the PRA’s mandate to control the Portals and keep the country safe. Eric and Margie got $200 each. Us four ‘Newbies’ got $150 each, with a recommendation that, unless we had seriously dysfunctional homes, we let our parents have them.
It wasn’t much considering the danger, but it was better than nothing. Yeah, Mom grabbed mine right out of my hands, saying that it would help pay for all the stuff they’d bought to train me and keep me alive in those Portals.
After the PRA people left, Eric said “Nap until 8 if you want, or nap until 7 and then go have dinner if you want. Survivors’ Party in my room starting at 8. Bring a parent if you want, to keep things from getting too out of hand. Bring a friend if you want, to help things get MORE out of hand. But, that’s it. My room isn’t big enough for more than that. Besides, this party is for US, not the whole world.”
I found out later that the Gadsden News had someone out in the hall trying to get another story. Their mike picked up Eric’s speech about the party and it was on that night’s news as part of a local ‘human interest’ story. In the Gadsden area, at least. In the coming weeks people at school probably asked me about going to the party more than they asked about going in the Portal.
Me? I went for that nap, setting my phone to wake me up about 7:30.