“You can’t trust me because I can’t trust you! That’s what they just told me.” The soldier jogged back to the armored vehicles parked aside of the exit and told his officer. “They don’t give us the clearance to leave either this building or the base. I showed them the documents, but they refused to let us go, claiming that it was the order from the “leaders” of the base that no vehicles shall be leaving till new orders are made! I tried to persuade them that we are having an emergency mission and let them check with their officials, but they just don’t believe me!”

“That’s such a bad joke! We got everything we needed to go, and I shall say that we have to be at the airport in 3 hours! Now you hop in the car, if they don’t open the gate in ten minutes, we will break it and leave! Our mission was already classified as the top priority.” The officer complained, not realizing the seriousness of the situation. He switched on the headlights of the vehicle, and the light beam shone on the guards before them, warning them of his existence. Time passed by second after second, the officer glanced at the guard, nothing was unusual, the soldiers were standing incredibly stiff, however, just such a normal thing triggered the suspicion deep in his mind. ‘Why don’t they make that call to their head? It’s so weird, and where are the soldiers patrolling that shall pass by the gate at exactly 12:00 O’clock?’

With no time to hesitate anymore, the officer gave the order for departure, the soldier seated in the back grabbed his radio and relayed the command to the armored vehicles in the back. The vehicle in the front carefully pushed open the gate and turned. To their surprise, the soldiers guarding the gate remained motionless, and the base was engulfed in a mist. “Switch to low beam for headlights, then turn on the fog lights and hazard lights immediately!’ the officer ordered. As the headlights of the first armored vehicle pierced through the fog, a terrifying scene came sharply into view. People lay on the ground everywhere in nearly counterintuitive gestures. As the officer commanded, the armored vehicle came to a stop. Two soldiers quickly put on their gloves and mask, hopped out of the vehicle. They yelled at the people, no response been heard; with one soldier holding the gun toward the lying people, the other approached them, he put his hand under one of the people’s nose, no signs of breathing shown; then he touched their bodies, cold and stiff, they were already dead. “That’s not a joke, They are dead! Something went wrong!” The two soldiers ran back to the armored vehicles, yelling; “Continue driving to the airport! Now!” The officer commanded as they hopped on the armored vehicle.

Time rewinds to that shining afternoon 4 years ago, after stationed in the frontier for 5 years and diligently studying in the military academy for another 5 years, the young officer finally got the chance to become a lieutenant in his country’s largest military base in central Africa, in an untraversed, weather extremely atrocious place. Though feeling to some extent discontent with the result, he still went there, or what else could he be choosing? Nevertheless, maybe a couple of years later, he will be deployed to a better place with a promoted ranking in the military. Surprisingly, when he arrived at the base, things were completely different than he had expected, everything in the base was neatly organized. But what was this base exactly doing? Why does it have to be in such a deserted place? Time flew by, in the past 48 months, he had already guarded endless convoys in and out of the base; the freight station in the east was always the home to mysterious trains, brightly lit even late at night. The officer glanced at the rearview mirror, that grey building in the back started to leak gas, faster and faster as the fissure in the wall expanded at an almost startling speed. Suddenly, the word of his master flashed through his head: “Never trust a single person in that base, they can’t trust you either. Do what you were mandated to do, and please ignore the rest…”