2 Minutes to Midnight by Steve Lang Read Free Book Online

beautiful spiral
building tops added an artistic, almost spiritual aesthetic. Their
feet echoed between buildings, and somewhere music began to
play.
    "This place is about a 10 on the
creepy factor." James said.
    "I like it, but what if this city is
not as dead as they thought?" Kate asked.
    Aside from the eerie, unexplained
music, still silence was their welcome from the Martian
city.
    "It's like we’re walking inside a
tomb. I don't think anyone is here." John said.
    The entrance sealed itself again and
James could tell by the O2 sensor on his wrist that there was
oxygen outside their suits. After some debate, James took the lead
and removed his helmet first. He breathed in air as fresh as a
spring morning in the country back home on earth. Images of Arnold
Schwarzenegger in Total Recall being blown out the airlock into a
harsh, and oxygen free Martian landscape entered their minds, but
James did not choke, and his face remained the way it was. The
others removed their own helmets a moment later, and breathed with
ease.
    A large hologram, like a street sign,
appeared above their heads, displaying a map of the tetrahedron's
internal complex, and it was massive. Many towns existed under the
angular walls of this gigantic structure, and as they began to walk
along, technological evidence of how advanced Martian culture had
been lay everywhere. Bicycles with no wheels hovered in front of
small shops and bodegas, waiting for their owners to return.
Strange vehicles lined the streets designed like a cross between
nineteen fifties cars on earth and hovercraft.
    "Aside from the fact that we're inside
a giant pyramid on another planet this could be 'any street' USA."
James said.
    "There's a big building up ahead. It
may be the library we're looking for. Let's go check it out," said
John.
    "We have time for our mission later;
instead why don't we go check out some of the houses. I want to
explore. Who knows, our benefactors may never let us come back."
James said.
    "Yeah, I kind of feel like a kid in a
candy store." Kate smiled.
    "Looks like there were people here at
one time and some of them are lying in the street." John
said.
    About a block away, bodies were
sprawled on the ground. Kate knelt beside one of the corpses. The
man was on his back and staring up with odd looking pustules on his
skin.
    "I'm not touching this guy even with
my gloves on. Yick" Kate said.
    "Their appearance is...human." James
said.
    "Get a picture of this. I think this
is that something Tom said he wanted to know about." Kate said to
James.
    "I got it! You two ready to go look
around? I have a feeling we're going to see a lot more of these
dead guys. This place looks like a war zone, and we don't have a
ton of time." James said.
    "Hey Kate, check out the 3D graffiti
on the wall over there. It's amazing. Do you know what it says?"
John asked.
    James pointed to a red brick wall
covered in strange symbols. Kate paused for a moment.
    "It looks like an ancient
Mesopotamian style alphabet. The end...
is... nigh ?" Kate said.
    "OK, so the apocalypse happened here.
I'm ready, James." John said.
    A humble trio, they walked along city
streets, amazed at the complexity of Martin architecture. A
restaurant, with a sign out front resembling a slice of pizza, had
been constructed out of glass, and they could see through the
entire structure all the way from the dining room to the
kitchen.
    "It looks like they had a great diet.
I've often thought pizza was an intergalactic food." John
joked.
    Brooms lay discarded in front of
homes; children's toys had been abandoned on the sidewalk, and they
could almost hear the echo of laughter that had suddenly turned to
fear. Strange markings on the ground resembling hopscotch had been
scrawled in chalk. The silent emptiness of this city made them
realize how alone and far from home they all were.
    "Check this out. Think it still
works?" James said.
    James had a pistol in his hand
resembling something a kid would buy from a toy