The Shadow of Sirius

[Crysis]

Reiner stared into the eyes of the slightly taller, bigger built dark haired man which loomed over him, the other simply turning away and walking out of the room, the door sliding closed behind him.

They were instructed to gather their equipment, a knife, a length of rope cut at twenty five metres, and their GPS nodes instructing them where there destination is with a clear mapping of the surrounding geographical area, this was to be programmed for the test at hand before ‘drop-off’. Reiner’s heart was beating fast, he became aware when he felt a warm rush fill his cheeks, he quickly came to his senses; ‘Come on! You can deal with all of this, breathe, it’s what you’ve been born to do!’, he motivated himself and calmed down entirely, dealt with professionalism. He walked out of his room precisely five minutes before he had to and arrived firmly on time at the departure hangar, in his sleek black bio suit, as did all the other squadron trainees in the room, glistening at the grooves with purple neon lights which could be triggered on or off. They looked the part, now did they have it in them? They were handed pack extensions to wear like backpacks which allowed them to now have a parachute as well as the potential of a wingsuit extension to glide to their designated drop off spot.

The time was now, before they knew it they were up in a carrier, taken passed a vast archipelago into the mainland. Cruising above mountaintops into a narrow valley which opened up into an enormous snow covered forest, the drop offs began… The area we had to navigate was forty clicks in size, we had to make our way through a number of ‘checkpoints’ each doing our own specified task at the given location remaining undetected, yes, that’s the catch… We had to survive two weeks on a ridiculously long journey whilst remaining undetected, the price we paid was our lives, the inhabitants of the area were not instructed of our arrival or mission therefore their orders in this secure intelligence location is to shoot and kill on sight. In an instant, Reiner found at the back of the freighter, holding on to the banister waiting for the guard at his side to give the go ahead, looking down the vast valley beneath rushed passed like a blurred stream of green and white too quick to focus on the actual objects around. The light turned green above his head, the guard motioned and as free as he had felt since his arrival at the institute fourteen years ago, his leant forward and in a swooping motion was sucked out and swept passed the moving freighter. He glanced over his shoulder as he began his free fall at twenty thousand feet commenced and could see the freighter making off in a northern direction. He looked down passed his visor and angled himself, positioning his body for a dive to gain speed, he swivelled at the hips changing his direction through his legs and kept his arms steady at his side occasionally opening them into a ‘crab’ position to decelerate. He was flying, for the first time in his life, without the help of any machinery, manoeuvring through the skies, reaching speeds exceeding two hundred kilometres per hour, he was in paradise, a total euphoric feeling, a rush surged through his blood and Reiner shut his eyes to take a breath and appreciate the essence of freedom. He had no time, a small red light appeared in the top corner of his visor goggles, ‘DEPLOY CHUTE, DEPLOY CHUTE’ the words read as they looped each other, he had come within six thousand feet altitude and was just overdue on the eight thousand mark to deploy his parachute. With a quick tug out it came, being pulled violently to a halt by the parachute, he motioned his finger to the side of his helmet to unlock the visor and breathing apparatus which slid back into the helmet in a very smooth and discrete manner. Reiner smirked, he looked around at the surrounding landscape and remembered LD33Cs words, ‘wait at the drop off point’, he glided down to a patch of snow, an opening in the brush which was his drop off location, with a little lift of his legs down he came, to a skid as he extended his legs in an open manner, his right leg extended forward his foot angled inwards his left leg crouched behind him to absorb the drag.

Reiner unclipped the parachute rolling up into a quick ball which he then cut with his knife to collect extra rope, elastic based materials and part of the chute he could use for shelter and as a cover from the elements. He climbed the nearest tree, with a few snapping of branches as he stepped it was a fairly simply climb, Reiner glanced around, mountains to the south, mountains to north, many, many, trees. His GPS pointed west. Turning his head to face west, he noticed a glistening light in the far distance, it must have been around sunset, a small plume of smoke could be seen, it must have been at least six clicks, a good days trek perhaps, bearing in mind they were using no conventional method of travel neither were they using the footpaths, maybe it would take a little longer than that.

He lowered himself from the canopy and decided to walk a little uphill from his drop off spot, as long as he could keep it in his sight he could tell when LD33C would arrive, he could spot him. Reiner walked a mere thirty metres from his landing spot, with a rocky face to his back, some trees at his side and a very large log before him, Reiner wedged his parachute into the snow tethered it to the trees and clipped it at the front on the larger log which hid him from the open patch before him, he began to cover it all with snow. From the outside, it was practically invisible, just more snow from the mountainside to the trees, a small slit is all that could reveal Reiner, and this had already been taken care of with some leaves, meaning only he could see out. He waited.

Seven hours had passed since the start of the trial, Reiner had been waiting for LD33C, surely he could not be far, seven hours? It was pitch black, not a sign of life could be heard, it felt almost paradoxical in such a vast expanse of white, the darkness which consumed it. In his little dugout Reiner focused, staring into the abyss which was the forest beyond, he listened and held his breath, as a sniper would to increase his accuracy, the snapping of a branch on his left, treading in the snow, it was approaching fast, Reiner placed his right hand over his head and slipped it into the back of his neck where his blade was kept and held its handle tightly, gripping firmly down one finger at a time until it shut firmly. The silhouette became clearer rustling through the bushes falling metres from Reiner, he caught a clear glimpse of the figure as it straightened itself by a tree. Reiner smiled, he whistled like an owl placing both hands together in a cupping motion and blowing through his thumbs;

*Hoot, Hoot, Hoooot, projected from Reiner’s clutch as the wind whistled through his hands*

The man turned, it was LD33C, Reiner pushed the button by his goggles, a red light flashed and in an instant was gone, LD33C approached the crack in the ‘shelter’, he was panting and quickly slid in with both feet first replacing the hole he’d made in the leaves covering the entrance almost instantly and packing it with snow…

“LD..”

Reiner was cut short as LD33C shoved his forearm into his neck and shoved him into the side of the shelter motioning with his other hand over his lips to keep quiet, he then signalled up to his eyes with both fingers and pointed out of the crevice. Reiner was rather startled, however he asked no questions of the older boy who had taken so well to him, he listened and peered out. Moments later some men rushed passed the landing point, they looked around, all were wearing thick fur coats and were armed. They made off into the opposite direction calling at each other, ‘Find whoever that was and take care of him you fools!’.

“My name is, Erich… Not LD33C… Letters and Numbers, that’s what we are to them? After fourteen years? That’s what we’re worth…” Erich stared at Reiner looking at him square in the eyes.

“I’m Reiner, at least I think I am… So it says on this, and I’ve had this since I can remember… Since before I was taken…” Reiner replied in a calm tone, however there was an essence of grief in his words as he seemed brought down by the fact he wasn’t sure of who he really was. “I’m not even too certain.”