Vodko tuned out as he sat there wedged in place. The tank engine even when idling was still loud enough to mostly cancel out all the voices from below. Be it complaints from Doc or the occasional comments from Ivan. Each time he had to aim he had to lean his entire body to the left and raise his arms into the air to be able to squeeze down to reach the aiming controls or to chat with the others.

  "Nein!" spat Doc, "Gott in himmel! It will never work!” Doc exclaimed from below with a volume enough to reach Vodko’s ears.

  Vodko looked out of the periscope to the outside and the wall before stretching both his arms into the air and blew out a deep breath as he slid down to the lower part of the turret. Vodko landed with a silent thud as the conversation became clear enough to reach his ears.

  “...I want to dismiss that idea based on the fact that it would kill us and that I don’t want to die,” Doc quickly clarified as he dismissed Ivan’s idea.

  “Hm,” Ivan rested his chin in his hand, “That’s fair.”

  Vodko hunched down as he crawled past Doc and Ivan’s little chat and retrieved a roll of duct tape from the emergency medical box, stepped over one of the tank shells that rolled across the floor and grabbed another tank shell from one of the three makeshift ammunition racks that lined the metal walls of the loading part of the turret.

  “Wait, what is he doing now?” Doc asked as Vodko climbed out of the closest hatch with the tank shell forced into his right armpit by a firm grip.

  “I not know.” Ivan shrugged as Vodko closed the hatch from above.

  The torrent perpetually streamed out of the exploded water main and splashed water in Vodko’s face as he hunched down outside. Crawling to the front of the tank, he saw the water flow past him and into the deep indentations left by the tank treads in the packed dirt. Vodko climbed over the cannon and opened up the emergency box situated just to the left of the drivers hatch. He pushed the flare gun to the side and picked up the victory bottle of clear vodka that was so full of alcohol that it was borderline cleaning fluid.

  Having most of the cannon block the ice cold water, he closed the box and sat down. After pulling out a strip of duct tape, Vodko grabbed a knife from his belt and began sawing long strips. With the ingredients assembled. He was ready to get to work. Thinking quickly, Vodko created a grenade using the duct tape strips, the bottle he retrieved from the emergency supply box, the tank shell… and a grenade.

  Vodko balanced the makeshift grenade on his knee as he stuck the knife back into its holster and grabbed the makeshift grenade with both of his hands as he jumped down in front of the tank. He landed with a splash. Walking through the passage, each step made his pants more and more drenched in the ice cold water. He collected himself, blew out a deep breath and pulled the iron ring, hurled the makeshift grenade into the direction of the wall and immediately sprinted in the opposite direction.

  With the time ticking down, he didn’t have enough time to climb into the tank, so he jumped behind it to use it as cover. Just as he landed in the deep puddle of water and braced for impact, an enormous explosion rippled out and shook the entire area. Sand, dirt and smoke filled the confined space as the ceiling gave way and air was sucked into the tunnel through the parking lot above. Just as the massive shockwave spread out, Vodko’s face warped. He felt a heavy blow to his abdomen as his innards churned violently.

  * * *

  Just as Doc was trying to calculate what had just happened following the closing of the hatch, the outside lit up and the entire tank shook from the shockwave of a massive explosion. Realizing what had happened, Doc became painfully aware of how few munitions they were carrying when he looked down to the tank shell that had rolled to his feet. He picked it up and placed it back into one of the empty racks on the wall. They had now used two out of the six tank shells before even arriving at the designated location. A clank was heard from above, as the hatch was once more opened. As it opened, Doc felt a strange smell hit him as it radiated into the tank, like charcoal, hot peppers and lighter fluid all mixed into one acrid stench. Vodko dropped down next to Doc.

  “You look like shit.” Ivan said as he leaned back and saw the drenched Vodko.

  Vodko exhaled a deep breath and swung his drenched clothes towards the ladder back to his position with a wet slap, got a decent grip and stepped onto the ladder. After being silent for a long while, Vodko looked down on his drenched mud covered clothes and replied.

  “Da… Also, idi nahui,” he spoke as he scratched his nose before his clothes slapped onto the ladder again.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Doc massaged his temples, still frustrated at the lack of control over the situation at hand.

  “The path is clear of the wall. Let’s go,” Vodko said as his focus trailed off and he began climbing back up into position.

  Ivan grinned, looked in the direction of Doc and nodded to himself before he flattened the gas pedal and the tank roared forwards. As they drove through the passage, not only did the scent intensify for a moment, but the headlights also revealed a fair bit of the walls had been charred. However the interior of their path quickly changed back to its bland featureless gray hue, with the occasional mold adding some variation to the walls.

  “So, Doktor” Ivan spoke as he focused on driving. “The rumors, of red zone, Is why you brought radio?-”

  “Hardline array syste-” Doc tried to correct.

  “Fancy radio. Da.“

  “I was… requested, to take it along with me.”

  “Da, da. Is no important.” Ivan pulled the steering levers to avoid a boulder before continuing to speak.

  “I’ve been told where we are going.”

  The tank bumped into the air as the treads rolled over yet another boulder.

  “When we reach mouth of the cave, you can sometimes pick up frequencies to stations that doesn’t exist. -and stations that stopped broadcasting years ago. Hear voices, sounds. Impossible to get anywhere else outside red zone area. Crazy, da?”

  “Sounds… Implausible.” Doc replied.

  “Da,” Ivan said and chuckled, “But still true”

  The tank continued undisturbed, sweeping through the twisting and winding tunnels. They arrived in front of a final wall half an hour later. The wall was huge and made of steel. Ivan jumped out of the driver’s hatch and walked up to the wall. He pounded the wall with his fist.

  “Ah, end of the line. Doktor, I leave it to you.”

  Doc climbed out of the loader’s hatch and approached Ivan, stretching his legs and swung his torso side to side as he stretched out his arms and yawned. He held a datapad in one hand and approached the panel to the right of the steel wall. Doc retrieved a screwdriver from his pocket and nudged it into a gap next to the panel. He pressed down hard on the screwdriver and a small screen revealed itself after it had been removed.

  “How long will it take for you to break this open?” Ivan asked curiously.

  Doc moved his screwdriver and punched it into four corners beneath the screen where the buttons were. He pulled it out with a tangle of wires and hooked up his datapad to the wires.

  “Fifteen, twenty minutes tops,” Doc answered without looking at Ivan.

  Ivan grinned at hearing about the efficiency and roughly twenty minutes later a whirring sound was heard, as if a machine was activated. Tired cogs clanked against one another within the walls. The massive wall split in two as the doors retreated from view. A light breeze picked up, carrying with it the smell of charcoal and black dust.

  Doc stood on a shattered black stone tile as he looked around. Each step echoed and sent ash and smoke up into the air. A crackling noise rang through the expansive space and a sliver of green light flickered into life as fluorescent lights lit up the inside of the abandoned missile silo. Vodko’s hatch opened and he stuck his head out to get a better view of the area.

  “I’m surprised that this base was still functional. Someone is still supplying it power,”

  Doc exclaimed as he saw the massive walls open up, as he expected to just negate the lock.

  “Have faith, Doktor. Do you believe in god?” Ivan asked.

  “Well?“ Doc scratched his chin. ”I guess I believe there is someone out there who watches over us?” Doc replied.

  “Unfortunately, that is the government,” Vodko interjected. “Let’s go, we don’t have the time.” Vodko ducked down and closed the hatch as Ivan climbed back into the tank.

  Doc walked alongside the tank with his datapad in hand. The tank followed a few meters behind him at a crawl. Doc arrived at another panel. He prepared his screwdriver, and a few minutes later he pulled out another tangled bundle of wires. He connected several wires to the bundle and began to type away at his datapad once more. A short instance a warning sound blared through the space before being silenced by another keystroke from Doc and the gates they entered through slowly closed once more.

  “Schisse.” he muttered as he kept tapping away at the keyboard.

  After having silenced a couple of alarms. Doc looked up from his datapad, signaled with a thumbs up and pressed enter. The silo doors finally opened up to them. Ivan drove the tank into place. Doc ran up to the tank and climbed inside. An alarm signaled as the doors to the lift closed and then, the T-55 Tank began to ascend at an accelerating speed.

  After accelerating for ten minutes the lift came to an abrupt stop, The tank levitated for a second before crashing down. The missile silo doors were closed and instead of generating an error, the lift just came to an abrupt stop. The treads of the tank began to spin in opposite directions as the tank turned around and faced a huge hole cut out with a plasma torch. The Tank drove out through it and entered a small cave. After a somewhat bumpy ride, the tank exited the mouth of the cave and an expansive area with dead trees and dried dirt came into view. Not much life seemed to exist in this bordering area to the red zone save for the occasional bush. Overhead in the distance, the eerie green light of the ion storms illuminated the area as lightning struck down like rain. Ivan unhooked the comms and spoke..

  “This is Ivan, are you guys in position? Over.”