《Danger Zone》 Chapter 1-Bathroom Talks ¡°AHHHH¡± Shair shouted as he punched the white marbled wall, letting out his frustrations. His immense power caused cracks to appear on the marble plate that stuck to the wall. With a large ¡®humph¡¯ he took away his hand and started to rub the blood off his knuckles, if one looked carefully enough small droplets of red could be seen on the marble where his arteries spurted blood from the extreme pressure. Shair was a man of large stature, standing at 6 feet 8 he could be considered one of the largest people in HQ his ripped body and bulging muscles only added to his intimidating atmosphere. One which he was radiating at the moment while he stared off at the bathroom wall. ¡°Jeez, Shair calm down!¡± came the reply from behind him. A large man of similar height and African descent wearing similar black military uniform as Shair stood facing the other side of the bathroom enlightening himself at a doorless white stall. ¡°How the fuck can I calm down John¡± Shair raged ¡°When they are fucking replacing us! US!¡± Shair once again sent a punch at the cracked marble plate now completely breaking it and revealing grey concrete behind, tainted with his red blood. Shair huffed some more and then went stand at another doorless stall in the corner diagonal to John to relieve himself as well. ¡°I get what you¡¯re sayin¡¯ but we did our time, heck, we¡¯re lucky to at least get a chance to retire peacefully instead of getting killed in battle¡± John said as he finished his business and zipped up his pants. ¡°14 years John, that¡¯s how long we spent fighting the Fraz¡± even though Shair glared at John, when he spoke no anger could be detected in his gaze. ¡°Ten years we have been called to risk our lives for humanity, ten years we have been on the frontlines, the irreplaceable Soldiers of Hope, Heroes!¡± Shair finished up from enlightening himself and turned to look at John ¡°And now we just¡­aren¡¯t necessary? We are too old? Not good enough!?¡± John held up his hand as if to calm Shair down ¡°He didn¡¯t say that-¡± ¡°WELL ME MIGHT AS WELL HAVE!¡± Shair looked upset as he closed his eyes and faced the ground. ¡°I get it, we¡¯re old but is it really how they are going to send us off, to die on a suicide mission. We deserve better than this.¡± Shair looked up at John angrily but once again no anger could be seen in those golden flaked brown eyes of his, John however showed genuine sadness as he looked back at Shair. ¡°What if we survive?¡± John tried to lighten the mood. ¡°What if we retire? What then? ...You know the Commander¡¯s¡­¡± ¡°It wouldn¡¯t matter what Katelyn wants, if they are just going to send us out there again, going back on their words¡± Shair snarls and spits in the toilet ¡°Not like it¡¯s the first time they did it anyway.¡± Both Shair and John remained silent for some time, their eyes closed and their face contorted in sadness, as if they were remembering a painful memory. Just then the door to the white bathroom opened and two soldiers wearing similar black military uniforms entered with blue duffel bags in hand. John and Shair looked up at the intruders and their faces immediately contort in disgust.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Here you go.¡± The short-haired soldier threw the duffle bag at Shair while the long haired soldier threw one at John. Tension could be felt as soon as the bags were caught. ¡°My names Harry¡± the blond one pointed to himself looking smug ¡°and this here is Daniel¡± he pointed to his buddy who just nodded. Both Daniel and Harry have extremely pale complexion and smug looks on their faces but where Harry has short buzz cut blond hair, Daniel has long curled black hair sleek and shiny. ¡°Alright! Soldiers you are already late so hurry up and get changed¡± A female voice from behind the newcomers ordered. ¡°Is that his secretary?¡± Shair look a little annoyed as he tried to look past the two blocking the view. ¡°Is there a problem?¡± the voice questions. ¡°I swear-¡± Shair started to huff. ¡°Less talking and more changing, come on¡± Harry shouted at the two old veterans while he smiled to Daniel. Shair and John open up the duffle bags, ignoring the jabs by Harry and Daniel. Shair takes out another type of black outfit and stares at it for a moment. The fabric was more elastic than his current military wear, however there is a lot less armor padding placed within the clothing. There was, fortunately, no shortage of pockets and the utility belt was the same as before. ¡°What the hell?¡± Shair looked at Harry and Daniel angrily. ¡°This looks¡­revealing¡± John said motioning to the lack of sleeves on the uniform. ¡°You just wear that over your shirt¡­if you¡¯re wearing one, that is¡± Daniel smiled. Shair and John ignored the disrespect from the two and stripped down to wear their clothes, carefully removing the pants so as to not accidently take off their underwear. ¡°I¡¯ll be leaving now. You guys take the Mark I¡¯s to the airfield.¡± The female voice said and shortly after footsteps could be heard leaving the premise. ¡°This is really not made for my size¡± Shair said as he struggled to put on the new military wear. John had already squeezed into his and since he didn¡¯t wear a shirt under his jacket his arms were exposed showing off all the muscle bulging out. ¡°Hey, Hey, keep moving¡± Harry grabbed John by the arm and pushed him out the bathroom door. Shair was still trying to squeeze one of his large arms through the small opening of the armor when Harry grabbed his arm. ¡°Don¡¯t touch me, kid¡± shadows cast over Shair¡¯s eyes as he pushes away the hand. ¡°Show some respect for your elders.¡± ¡°Ohhhh, old man¡¯s scary¡± Harry laughs and jabs him on the shoulder ¡°Come on old timer, stop trying to look tough in front of the Mark II¡¯s. We were made to be better than you.¡± Harry poked the brown bear. ¡°AHHHHH¡± Shair let out a scream and attacked Harry, his left hand still stuck in his clothes. Shair grabbed Harry by the jacket and pushed him against the marble wall, kicking his shins in the process to keep him unsteady on his feet. Harry tried to break free of Shair¡¯s grip on his black field jacket but before he could get anywhere with his struggles Shair head-butted him. Harry pulled his head back from the impact but Shair pushed him back into the wall harder smacking his head in the wall and continued to head-butt him. Blood trickled down both their heads until Daniel interfered and broke them apart. ¡°Just because I didn¡¯t say anything rude, doesn¡¯t mean you get to act like that you clusterf*ckers¡± Shair snarld at Harry, who is holding his head wiping the blood, and Daniel who stared at Shair with wide eyes, ready to block if Shair attacked again. Shair turned around to walk out of the bathroom, on his way he grabbed the duffel bag and pushed his arm stuck in the Tee outwards to settle into the Kevlar more easily. ¡°You okay now?¡± John looked at Shair amusingly. Clearly this was not the first time Shair had attacked in rage. Shair looked at John before smiling and wiping away the blood with his black sleeve. ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s get to the air-field and wait for the others.¡± Chapter 2-Sir! Yes! Sir Ten minutes later Shair and John were sitting in an airfield a few kilometers away from the HQ building. Shair sat on one of the many crates that were placed near a Pelican II, a drop ship from the old kids game ¡®Halo¡¯, except this one was much leaner and equipped with a smaller more compact version of JT9D engine fiddling with his Man-O-War. John was crouched over another crate next to Shair polishing a large M60, both were whistling as they each went about their tasks like professionals. Shair loaded the magazine into the chamber of the gun, aimed at the ground, switched the safety off, tested the attachments then took out the mag and loaded once more, repeating the process like he had done so many times before as he waited for the other to arrive. The sun¡¯s rays shone down on the two through the cracks between the large grey clouds that covered the sky indicating an upcoming storm. It was as if the light was an indication of interest of the passing by Soldiers or engineers. *Did you hear? It¡¯s their last mission* *I know right, they¡¯re our best team and command wants them to retire.* *This is a war for survival and they are going to retire, cowards* *Shhhh I think that psycho heard you* ¡°Damn it feels good to be popular¡± Shair smirked while shaking his head as he leaned into his rifle. ¡°Quite a mixed crowd, huh¡± John joked. ¡°What do you think?¡± Shair looked at John ¡°is 46 a good age to retire.¡± ¡°Your 46?¡± ¡°On paper, yes¡± ¡°Good enough, considering all we¡¯ve been through¡± ¡°Hey, you hear what they¡¯re calling us nowadays¡± ¡°Something better than ¡®The Crazy Bunch¡¯ I hope¡± John moaned. ¡°Team Frontline¡± ¡°Hmmmm¡± John held his shin in an exaggerated thinking manner ¡°could¡¯ve been better.¡± ¡°Hahahha¡± Shair laughed. ¡°Hey guys¡± a woman came out of the Pelican II and smiled at the two soldiers. She wore a dark, tight-fitting black body suit with a single gun holstered at her hip and was carrying a small metal box. She had reddish short hair a pale complexion and a charming sweet smile which made the world seem like a much better place. She approached the two and opened up a crate opposite Shair taking some medical supplies and transferring them into the metal box. ¡°You look good.¡± ¡°We look exposed,¡± John pointed out ¡°We should have more armor on us, especially you, Miss Medic.¡± ¡°They want us to fail the mission.¡± Shair spoke up his face grim. ¡°Hey, come on, you know Jake is doing his best¡± the woman looked at Shair. ¡°I ain¡¯t sayin¡¯ it¡¯s his fault, I blame the Council as a whole¡± Shair motioned with his hands creating a circle. ¡°Even Commander?¡± Miss Medic smiled amusingly and leaned in closer to Shair. Shair adopted a painful look on his face as he rubbed his chin. ¡°It¡¯s her fault for keeping that seat all this time. I¡¯m surprised that they haven¡¯t gotten to her yet, Mia¡± Mia punched Shair¡¯s shoulder and asked questioningly ¡°And they¡¯ve gotten to Jack?¡± ¡°No, No, Jack is too¡­eccentric for any of them¡± Shair shied away from the hateful looks Mia gave.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Hey, guys you ready¡± The group looked up at the newcomers and a low growl could be heard coming from Shair¡¯s mouth. Approaching them was a bald man of short stature, he had a friendly smile and a bit of a pot belly on him, his uniform was slightly different from the rest of the group. Where they wore pitch black clothes the bald man wore a slightly green ones and had more armor covering his body. All parts of him was practically covered with metal pads or plates, only his head seemed to have no armor. However the object of anger was not the pot-bellied man but the two soldiers behind him. The Mark II¡¯s, the new generation soldiers, the bloody head Harry and long hair Daniel. ¡°Yeah, Jon¡± Shair shook Jon¡¯s hands while giving Harry and Daniel dirty looks. ¡°Hey, J¡± John said also shaking Jon¡¯s hands doing the same a Shair. ¡°Just waiting for Commander¡± Mia chimed in giving Jon a curt nod, she then stood up to do the same to Harry and Daniel. ¡°It¡¯s good to meet you guys. I hear you will be joining us for the mission to help out.¡± Mia shook each of their hands. ¡°It¡¯s more like we¡¯re here to make sure that the mission is-¡± Harry started to speak up. ¡°Arhm, Arhm.¡± Shair interrupted with a cough ¡°Hey John, what do I need to do to stop my forehead from itching so much.¡± ¡°Perhaps bashin¡¯ it in somethin¡¯. Again.¡± John laugh slightly while giving the Mark II¡¯s a strong glare. ¡°That¡¯s not what you need. Right Mia?¡± Jon looked at Mia missing out on the low-key threats. ¡°Yeah Jon, stop joking around guys¡± Mia turned back to face them and asked ¡°you were saying¡± Harry regarded Shair for a minute while in the meantime Daniel took the lead and said; ¡°We¡¯re just here to help increase the chances for success. I know you guys don¡¯t have much to go on so we are here to help.¡± ¡°We aren¡¯t completely strapped, sure.¡± Shair stood up to look at the two ¡°But you two seem to be.¡± ¡°I know what you¡¯re thinking Shair but just let it go man.¡± John whispered. But Shair was no longer regarding the Marks II¡¯s; his gaze was fixed on the person behind them. A large person of almost 7 feet was making her way towards the group. Her face a stone cold mask filled with authority and seriousness. Her short blond hair neatly brushed to a side and hung low just side of her right eye almost covering those sea green pupils. She had a similar outfit as Mia except metal plated armor covered her entire abdomen, hugging her large muscular frame. She held a large modified HVK-30 aimed downwards and two MR6 strapped on her hips. Despite the lack of a curvaceous bode she drew attention from every soldier, engineer, or medic she walked by, perhaps due to the fact that she exuded power , and charm in her own way. As she came near them the rest of the group followed Shair¡¯s stare and spotted her making her way across the field towards them at the Pelican. They quickly stood up straight and gave her a salute stone faced as professionals, Shair fell behind in the salute but nobody seemed to notice. When she came near the group she stood at least a good two inches taller than everyone else creating an intimidating atmosphere which only seemed to affect the Mark II¡¯s. She stared at the Mark II¡¯s, her strong gaze accessing them carefully, she halted her assessment however when she saw the injury on Harry¡¯s forehead. She looked at the rest of the group and her gaze stopped on Shair who was the only one with similar injuries. ¡°Is this going to be a problem?¡± She said to both, motioning to the injuries on Harry¡¯s forehead. ¡°No, Commander¡± Harry and Shair, both spoke out at the same time, the bad blood between them already forgotten under the Commander¡¯s gaze. ¡°I apologize for being late Commander, Sergeant Mustafa reporting for duty¡± A black man in his late 50¡¯s with a green camouflage shirt covered with a black Kevlar and black trousers with green camo knee pads, came running out of the Pelican II and stood to salute with the rest of the group. He was the only one in the group who kept a beard, he came down proudly presenting those porcupine like hairs that jutted out of his chin. The Commander acknowledged his apology with a curt not in his direction and stepped back to give a once over to her team. Although each member was joking before hand, as soon as the Commander came every one stood as one, exhibiting a dangerous aura. Satisfied, the Commander walked around the group and towards the Pelican II. ¡°Grab what you need, load up and let¡¯s go!¡± Commander shouted as she boarded the airship. The soldiers; both Mark I and Mark II¡¯s moved with hustle, grabbed the ammo crates, the supply boxes and moved them to the Pelican. Once inside the group separated and moved to their stations on the Pelican II. There was a lot of space in the aircraft, there were seats on the sides facing each other where Mia, and John sat on each side. Harry and Daniel sat next to each other on the seats facing the front behind the pilot¡¯s cockpit. Shair and Jon sat to the left of Harry and Daniel, their seats wedged between the co-pilots seat on the left and a wall on the right and they were directly facing the Mark IIs. The Commander did not sit down instead she stood between the pilots and co-pilots seats hand on Mustafa¡¯s seat looking at her crew. ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Commander shouted. As she looked out the window with Mustafa. *Sigh* Shair let out a loud sigh, with that one, long, drag of air into the lungs and the exhalation that followed, dispersed the tension within the team just as air was dispersed out of the soldier. Only the newcomers were still tense, everyone else relaxed; stretching their legs, taking yawns and preparing to sleep for there was a long journey in front of them. Chapter 3-Turbulance ¡°God it¡¯s boring¡± Shair complained loudly. It had been two hours since the aircraft took off and no one had spoken for the entire time, which made flying in the Pelican II very boring. The commander and Mustafa were still fixed on the cockpit window while John and Mia slept for the most of the two hours. Harry and Daniel kept quite throughout the whole ride, maintaining their professional appearance, while Jon sat uncomfortably next to the large agitated strongman. ¡°Baby¡± the Commander muttered amusedly. ¡°Ha, if he hasn¡¯t been in a fight every hour this is what happens.¡± John joked to technician. ¡°Well Jon, take some responsibility¡± Shair looked at Jon expectantly. ¡°¡­What?¡± Jon just stared back at Shair. ¡°You are my seat buddy, take responsibility for boring me.¡± Shair huffed, winning the staring competition with Jon. Jon was slightly concerned with the look he was giving Shair, but since no one questioned Shair with his logic he went along with it. ¡°mmmm, well Shair why don¡¯t you tell me about the team.¡± Jon looked like he was really uncomfortable. ¡°Ohhh, I see, you mean gossip¡± Shair whispered leaning back and crossing his arms, grinning lightly. ¡°Sure, I haven¡¯t been a part of the team long and everyone seems to be doing their own thing at HQ so why don¡¯t you tell me?¡± Jon smiled imitating Shair¡¯s actions. ¡°Hmmmm, alright.¡± Shair rubbed his chin and continued to give dirty looks to Harry. ¡°First of all there¡¯s Mia, she is our Medic obviously self-taught, people don¡¯t have time to spend 7 years learning about medicine in this apocalyptic situation. She is the¡­girlfriend of the President. Me, John, and Commander ran into them at a gas station after the Shwitz base incident, they were the survivors of that, back then we had no idea he was the Prez, only after we came to HQ did we find out who he was. Well during our short months surviving together Mia was our Medic and¡­it just didn¡¯t feel right to separate after we survived for so long¡­sooo here she is.¡± ¡°I, ummm,¡± Jon was surprised and had to struggle for the right words. ¡°Didn¡¯t think the president could get a girlfriend¡± Shair whispered his grin getting bigger by the second. ¡°Nah, she chose him, not the other way around. Jack may be a bit, eccentric, but he is a good man.¡± ¡°¡­¡±Jon had a look of complete shock on his face. ¡°I, uh, didn¡¯t know you guys were so close.¡± ¡°Hahaha, well it doesn¡¯t really matter if we are good friends with the President. At the end of the day he¡¯s just a human being who will die even if a Fraz gets to him unarmed.¡± Shair clapped Jon on the back. ¡°Anyway, after Mia we have John. John¡¯s our weapons expert, he used to be in the army before so when it happened he was the most reliable person to be next to. Me and John, yeah, we go way back, like before the invasion back. We used to be neighbors, yeah him and another...¡± ¡°Another?¡± Jon asked. Shair leaned near Jon¡¯s ear and whispered; ¡°his wife¡± ¡°His-¡± Jon spoke a little too loud so Shair clamped his mouth shut with his hand. Luckily John was still in a half sleep state so he didn¡¯t notice. ¡°We don¡¯t talk about her. Ever!¡± Shair was still whispering. ¡°I-I see.¡± Jon was sweating a little despite the air craft being air conditioned. ¡°After we came to HQ we were provided with our pilot and plane, for missions of course. That¡¯s how we met Mustafa. He used to be a pilot for UCCA airlines after the manifestation of the Fraz at Simmer airport. Hey Mustafa¡± Shair calls the pilot. The Commander was in the way so Mustafa had to stretch his neck to look around her waist to see Shair. ¡°Yeah¡± Mustafa. ¡°Didn¡¯t you participate in dropping the nukes over at Simmer airport?¡± Shair also stretched too look around the Commander. Noticing their discomfort she moved back a bit and leaned against Mustafa¡¯s seat from the back hiding Harry and Daniel from view. ¡°Oh yeah, haha, I hated that place so I even volunteered for flying the bombs over¡± Mustafa laughed enjoying the good memory. ¡°Hey Mustafa, why do you wear that black visor, How can you see in all this dark with it?¡± Jon asked. They were currently flying through a lot of black clouds which made it hard for even Jon to see outside. ¡°Hey Commander, we¡¯re here.¡± Mustafa frowned as he reported to the Commander. Jon stood up to get a better look outside the window over the co-pilot seat. Looking outside one could make out a large cave in the middle of what seemed like an even larger cloud. The cave was completely dark inside but its outlines could still be seen, purple tendril-like objects twisted and merged to make a mold which was the cave. ¡°Where is it standing? That¡¯s a cave, right?¡± Jon asked before he was pulled back down by Shair who had his hands crossed and a serious but cheerful face. ¡°That¡¯s flesh, combined with plant to produce an organism that creates a never-ending supply of building material. The fortress or, cave, can be considered a whole organism in itself because those purple tendrils combined together are the roots and wood of a tree as it grows.¡± The Commander explained. ¡°And it¡¯s this high up because its supported by large heavy clouds full of water upon which that material can float. hehe¡± Shair laughed a little. ¡°So, to answer your question Jon; Mustafa here is a little blind. Those glasses that he wears enhances his sensory receptors in the eye.¡± ¡°Are you really gonna continue with that in this type of situation?¡± John asked. His face shocked at how Shair continued to take it easy, even though they were moving in enemy territory. ¡°Mustafa, how far are we from the drop zone?¡± Shair asked closing his eyes. ¡°About 30 minutes, I¡¯m slowing down the Pelican to avoid detection.¡± ¡°See bud, it¡¯s all good. We got plenty of time.¡± Shair spread his hands. ¡°Unbelievable¡± Mia said. ¡°Anyway, so that¡¯s Mustafa. The newcomers over there¡± Shair motions past the Commanders ass at the two soldiers staring at him ¡°the clusterf*cks, the failed products that HQ needs to get rid of.¡± ¡°Hmph. I read your file Psycho¡± Harry smiled with bad intentions ¡°you, truly, live up to your reputation. Only you can come up with this type of stupid theory.¡± ¡°hmmm, first of all fuck you too. Secondly a file report written by a woman who believes that the word of the council is the same as god would tell you no truth and lastly¡­think about it, we get new poorer armor the hour before the mission starts. We get half the amount of supplies for an infiltration mission than we had for a scouting mission. Also, have you heard the rumors, this is our last run and no one expects us to come back from this-¡± Shair counted off the points on his fingers when he was interrupted. ¡°That why we are here-¡± ¡°No! You are here because you guys failed a test of the HQ and they want to erase you without spending any resources. So they armed you guys and sent you on a suicide mission, at least you will die killing the Fraz. Two birds with one stone.¡± Shair stood up and pointed a finger at them accusingly. ¡°That¡¯s enough Shair. Sit down.¡± Commander spoke sternly but no one missed the lack of edge in her voice when she spoke to him. *thump* ¡°And that, Jon¡± Shair sat down heavily ¡°as you have already figured out is the Commander of Team Frontline. Beware of her for she is powerful and she is scary.¡± Shair smirked as he crossed his arms and right leg over the other. ¡°Onetime some poor chap flirted with her a bit too much, and got a little¡­grabby. Next thing you know she is judo flipping the poor sap and breaking one of his family jewels.¡± ¡°I was aware of that actually, she sent General McStiff to the infirmary for 3 days.¡± Jon looked down uncomfortably; every man was in the same position as him except for Shair who had a huge grin on his face. ¡°Yeah, yeah she did.¡± ¡°Turbulence!¡± Mustafa shouted just as the aircraft shook and changed directions quickly. Everyone was on edge from then on, careful and awake, all except for Shair who seemed to yawn even in a situation like this. Lightening suddenly appeared to the side of the aircraft causing it to take a hard left. Thunder could be heard rattling the window of the Pelican II, it suddenly started raining very heavily. Pellets of water came crashing down on the bullet proof glass of the Pelican deterring the view of its pilots. Jon was breathing very heavily and seemed to be about to hyperventilate any minute. ¡°Talk to me Jon, it helps to calm down.¡± Shair shouted over the thunder. ¡°Ssss-so, So, what about you? Care to tell me about you¡± Jon shouted. ¡°Me, there is only one thing you don¡¯t know about me!¡± ¡°And what¡¯s that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s that I-¡± Shair was suddenly interrupted by a large purple claw, made of similar material as the cave, puncturing into the steel wall above Jon. It tore down straight onto him with the intent to crush the poor human onto floor. Mustafa noticed the puncture into the Pelican¡¯s frame and steered the aircraft away from the claw. But all it did was cause more damage, the claw reached Jon much faster and upon recognizing the shape of a human grabbed Jon by the waist. By steering the ship away the steel walls were pushed against the back of the claw and were torn apart due to its sheer strength, Jon, his seat and most of the wall were thrown out of the aircraft as Mustafa tried to get away from the creature.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°NOOOOO!¡± Shair yelled as he jumped at Jon to grab his hands which flailed around as he fell down, away from the sky. Shair was able to get a grip on one of his hands but in doing so was pulled away out the torn down wall of the Pelican. Shair noticed that he was about to be pulled out of the aircraft, so he twisted his waist to turn back and with his free hand grabbed the side of the wall hanging onto it like it was a ledge. He was hanging outside the aircraft as it flew at high speed in the enemy base, the rain fell on his body like pellets being shot from a bb gun at close range. He was hanging on, not only against the fierce wind which tried to loosen his grip, but also rain which tried to make him slip off, carrying the weight of Jon and the thing that grabbed him did not help the situation. ¡°Hang on, Shair.¡± The Commander was making her way towards him, but the turbulence and the fierce winds were already making it hard enough for her to stay her ground and not fly out of the aircraft like the other two. Shair looked behind him to see the thing that had grabbed Jon and was now pulling them down. Lightening in the cave was able to illuminate the thing and what he saw surprised him greatly. The thing was stuck to the cave, it was as if the creature had grown out of the organic material of the cave and was a manifestation of the desire of cave to stop the intruders. The monster had crab claws, large claws, and its arms the imitation of a human¡¯s linked to a fat body much similar to an elephant¡¯s stomach far away attached to the wall. However its head was non-existent instead there was a large lump which seemed to be focused on the Pelican and its bottom was growing from the purple flesh-plant rocks that covered the sides of the cave gaining on towards the Pelican every second. The shock was enough for Shair to lose his bearing for a moment, only a single second, but that was enough for him to lose his grip and plunge towards the monster. However, as soon as his arm let go another arm shot out of the plane to grab onto him. This arm in particular belonged to a female, a female whose iron grip prevented Shair from getting away from the Pelican and her. ¡°I told you to hang on¡± she reprimanded him as the thunder echoed off the walls. ¡°Sorry¡± Shair and the Commander were having a normal conversation as if there wasn¡¯t a large monster hell bent on killing them. ¡°Mustafa we have to land¡± the Commander shouted. ¡°Can¡¯t. This thing has us in the air, it looks like we are moving but the reality is that we are just stuck in midair at that creatures mercy¡± Mustafa shouted over the sound of rain pellets hitting the bullet proof glass ¡°We can¡¯t move anywhere.¡± ¡°Shair, you should just leave me¡± Jon shouted over the thunder. ¡°Finish the mission¡± ¡°This was suicide from the start.¡± Shair shouted ¡°And Jon, F**k you for thinking I am going to abandon a teammate. Who else knows how to operate the Fraz¡¯s tech, huh?¡± ¡°Nobody¡¯s dying today! Mia, John help me pull Shair and Jon up.¡± Upon her order the two moved to the commander¡¯s sides and pulled her from the waist. But no matter what, no matter how much they pulled, they couldn¡¯t budge Shair any closer. All the while the thing was pulling them closer every second. By this time even the Mark II¡¯s had joined in, the combined power of four soldiers and one medic was ¡­ worthless. ¡°Stop, Stop.¡± Shair called for a halt ¡°This isn¡¯t working¡± ¡°Mustafa try moving towards the thing maybe we can surprise it and shake them off.¡± Commander tried for another approach. ¡°Katelyn¡± Shair shouted ¡°You gonna have to let me go here. K, this is my stop.¡± ¡°Stop talking nonsense, you¡¯re coming with us.¡± Katelyn scolded. ¡°We aren¡¯t moving¡­and that thing is pulling on us, fast. It could get surprised but it would be ready to catch us again, and then we¡¯re out of all options.¡± ¡°Shair you¡¯ve gone mad, you¡¯re making no sense.¡± The commander shouted at him. ¡°No Kate, I was already mad, completely different reasons.¡± Although he laughed, there was no cheer in his voice nor was he smiling. ¡°Like I said, my stop is here. You guys go on ahead I¡¯ll catch up to you later, trackers still work right?¡± Katelyn¡¯s head was down her hair still in perfect shape combed to the side casted a shadow over her eyes, and even now she refused to let go. ¡°Kate?¡± Shair asked worriedly. ¡°Kate please, we haven¡¯t much time. That thing is gaining on us-¡± ¡°Shut up! You-you come back, alright¡± Kate had watery eyes but she didn¡¯t lose her stern and serious expression of a Commander. ¡°Hey, I¡¯ll meet you at the next stop.¡± Shair said reassuringly, his voice much softer, before giving her hand a light squeeze. She let go and he fell. As he fell down a whisper escaped his lips, one which he didn¡¯t want to say. It was barely audible over the thunder, but she heard it. ¡°~Goodbye~¡± ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Katelyn had heard what he said and immediately turned around to look out the cockpit window, ahead, hiding her face so her crew didn¡¯t see the watery eyes and the slightly runny nose. Weaknesses bred ill-discipline. An iron clad fact that was driven into her during her few years as a business lady. Her stone appearance, strict negotiation technique, and dominating appearance is what allowed her to become one of the 7 council members. ¡°Get us to the drop off, quickly!¡± Katelyn shouted to Mustafa. Mustafa played with the controls, his fingers moving at lightening speed until a red light flashed and he pushed it. The red light was the switch for nitro in the aircraft; the momentum of the quick boost caused everyone to fall backwards on their backs and rumps, all except the Commander for she had held onto the seat to prevent herself from falling. As the people started to get up they held onto each other or the chairs to prevent themselves from falling. One by one they started to look at the one place where they would find their answers for their predicament. Harry and Daniel looked a little surprised at the incident that just occurred. John had adopted his signature stone face which bordered on worried and crossed his arms flexing his muscles to burn out the little anger that he felt for his losing his longtime friend, and Mia looked very worried and very agitated but did not say anything, only looked at her other stone cold friend. They didn¡¯t question her nor did they argue, they just waited for answers whenever those would be provided, by their old friend. They waited in silence, sniffling sounds could be heard coming from Mustafa¡¯s seat. The Commander raised her hand and rubbed her face and then proceeded to ruffle her hair once before pushing is down backwards. ¡°Mustafa¡­stop crying.¡± Katelyn said gruffly. ¡°*Cough*¡­Yes ma¡¯am.¡± Mustafa answered uncertainly. The simple act of blaming someone else of grieving allowed the tension to disperse slightly, for it not only showed that she cared but also that she wanted to remain professional while on the mission. The message was clear ¡®Time for grievances will be later¡¯. Of course those that truly knew Katelyn, the woman behind the Commander¡¯s face, didn¡¯t care. ¡°He-he¡¯s gonna be alright, right?¡± Mia asked uneasily ¡°He does this all the time, disappearing for some time then coming back bloody and bandaged, but intact. Always intact, a-and he always laughs it off. It¡¯s just like all those times, yeah?¡± ¡°Yeah Mia¡± John said sadly ¡°Just like all those times.¡± ¡°Then why aren¡¯t you smiling¡± Mia accused slightly angry ¡°Be happy we¡¯re gonna see him again.¡± ¡°Miss Mia, Shair Johani is known for his eccentric behaviors in the line of fire. Perhaps this time it is just the same, I believe that he would be able to return.¡± Daniel tried to comfort her. ¡°Please don¡¯t lie when you are in my presence Daniel,¡± the Commander sternly spoke ¡°Why don¡¯t you tell us what you really think? What has words on the report taught you that years of travelling with the man himself haven¡¯t taught us?¡± ¡°I mean no disrespect ma¡¯am. I also don¡¯t pretend to know the man himself either, we barely met¡± Daniel said helplessly, even though he said nothing wrong if a commanding officer says you are wrong; then you are wrong. It would breed ill-discipline ¡°I just mean to say that¡­the facts are; that during battle he is prone to leave midway and pop up behind enemy lines when the fighting is almost over.¡± ¡°That ain¡¯t true.¡± John sized up Daniel ¡°The fact is that he disappears only to show up behind enemy lines and whenever he is found¡­he is found fighting, ripping up the flesh of the Fraz with a knife, hands or shooting them in the head blowing away their woody f**king brains. That is a fact.¡± ¡°Whatever it is that he does doesn¡¯t matter, does it ma¡¯am?¡± Harry stepped forward towards Katelyn, because his most recent adversary had just plunged into certain doom the adrenaline was messing up his judgments and causing him to step out of line ¡°Because no matter how good you are at disappearing during battle like a coward you can¡¯t possibly survive in the enemy base without your gun.¡± He pointed at the gun laying near his leg. It was the same Man-O-War that Shair was loading at the airfield. ¡°Now we would find out if he is all that he makes himself to be, and we will see whether you really sent him to his death¡±. Harry was right in the Commanders face, smirking to himself like he was just promoted. That was until the adrenaline ran dry. The Commander is best known for her ball-busting episode, where she broke one of General Mcstiff¡¯s family jewels. What most people remember from that day was the raw, pure, anger that she displayed. Her eyes were wide and slightly red from all the anger pointed at the Generals audacity, she was snarling at the broken down man that dared to step out of line. This wrathful face was what Harry saw, that made his blood run cold, that made him regret crossing the line, and that made him learn to never cross the woman standing in front of him ever again. ¡°Wai-wait¡± Harry tried to plead. The Commander however was not having any of that, she was angry and she needed to relieve herself. As Harry pulled his hand up she kicked him in the shin causing him to bend over slightly. Since she was already a good 3 inches taller than him when he bent down his head came down to her navel, which she took advantage of and sent a knee straight for his face. Harry had no time to block. *Scrunch* came the sound of Harry¡¯s nose, that the Commander broke with her knee. Harry fell into old steps and repeated the same mistake he made with Shair, he pulled his head back to get away from the punch and so, he gave her a chance to pull back a punch for maximum power, which she sent aimed right for his jaw joint. Harry tried to block with his hand but the punch was too fast for him to block in his distorted state. The punch connected viciously. *Thump* Harry was knocked out cold in a matter of a few seconds. Surprisingly the only one worried or surprised was Daniel, the others had relieved expression suggesting that they were rather expecting to do Harry in themselves for his rude behavior. Daniel quickly bent down to wake Harry up. After a few pushes and a slap Harry was coming about, when he saw the woman standing above him he unconsciously flinched back. ¡°Do you know why he is titled as ¡®Psycho¡¯?¡± She asked as she turned to look out. ¡°It¡¯s not the fact that he disappears during battle or anything of sort. No. He is called ¡®Psycho¡¯ because every time, on every mission, no matter the situation, whenever he sees a Fraz he would disobey orders and rush into the heat, the thick of it, head first. And the bloodshed that would follow, the brutal screams of the Fraz from when he fights would cause even his best friends¡­to fear him. I let him go because I have faith that he will be able to get back to us, one way or another. He left his gun? So what! He¡¯ll just have to improvise. The reason for his title ¡®Psycho¡¯ is because one can never be sure when he would snap next and if he snaps, you can be sure that it would be fearful sight to see. In our team we have a leader, a medic, a pilot, a technician and a weapons expert. So what use would Shair have? Hmm?¡± The Commander turned to look at the two on the ground, she squatted down to look Harry in the eye. Harry and Daniel just looked up at her not being able to answer due to the fear they may get it wrong. ¡°Someone has to be the killing expert; after all he is my¡­best fighter.¡± The commander stood up again and returned to her previous place, this time placing a hand on Mustafa¡¯s shoulder. The old pilot put an old wrinkled hand over the woman¡¯s trembling one and whispered so softly that only she would hear. ¡°There, There, Katelyn. He¡¯ll be fine. He¡¯ll return.¡± Chapter 4- Behavior Problems While the Katelyn was beating Harry¡¯s ass back in the Pelican II Shair and Jon were struggling against the crab-claw monster into the abyss. The only light was the one provided by lightening whenever it struck the cave walls. After Katelyn let go of Shair¡¯s hand the crab claw pulled the two towards itself very quickly causing the two to fly straight into its body. Much to their surprise, the body of the beast was a lot softer and almost squishy, when compared to its hard crab-like claws. The two crashed into the body and immediately were sent flying away into a platform to its side, it was as if the body was made of spring. *Cough**Cough* Jon coughed loudly as he tried to stand up but his arms were slightly weak from holding unto Shair for too long causing slight tiredness in them. Suddenly he was grabbed by his right armpit and pulled upwards, when he looked up he saw Shair with a gun in his hand and blue mud smudged on his face and clothes. Jon thought he was gonna help but he was wrong when the pain came. Jon was still a little groggy so Shair had to resort to using b*tch slaps to freshen him up, which caused Jon to scream as if he was being tortured. After the yelling subsided Jon was rubbing his red cheeks and yelling such curses the likes of which even Shair didn¡¯t know. As soon as Jon looked up at Shair with tears stinging his eyes he was greeted by a palm full of blue mud Shair had grabbed from the ground. ¡°Plurgh, UGGHHHH¡± Shair was currently throwing mud all over Jon, his face, his body, even his shoes were soon covered with blue mud. Jon was still spurting nonsense when Shair clamped his mouth shut. He got very close to Jon¡¯s face and widened his eyes to warn his cursing buddy to shut up. When his mouth was only a few inches away from Jon¡¯s face he whispered slowly, even over all the thunder his voice could still be heard as loud as day, and the message was fully clear from those colorful eyes. ¡°Shut up and follow my lead¡± Shair hissed. All Jon could do was nod. Satisfied with himself Shair looked up and around the platform for any exits, keeping a close eye at the giant crab monster while he searched, Shair slowly edged towards the walls. Noticing movement the crab monster quickly turned to the platform and moved towards it. Jon upon noticing the reactions of the crab became visibly nervous and quickly pulled on Shair¡¯s straps to warn him. However Shair paid it no mind and continued to move towards the wall, again all Jon could do was helplessly follow. Jon was no idiot, he was aware that the monster getting nearer towards them very quickly and the slow movements of Shair towards a wall would only lead to death. However he trusted Shair, be it for the fact that he was known to do behave crazily during battle, or the fact the Shair had previously saved his life. Perhaps it was a combination of all, whatever the driving factor he trusted Shair with his life. He at least owed him that much. Shair had a weird way of acting during battle but the results could not be argued, whatever the reports were, the fact at the end of the day was that the mission was always successful whenever ¡®Team Frontline¡¯ participated. Since Shair was part of the squad it made sense to think that he must be resourceful and trustworthy to still be on the team. Thinking back Jon remembered the way the Commander spoke in front of him, it almost seemed like she had respect for him. Those last few words they exchanged before the fall rang in Jon¡¯s head, that conversation was evidence that she cared for the man greatly. As if losing him would cause great damage to the team and her, that man was walking infront of Jon and since he had the Commander¡¯s approval as an irreplaceable soldier in her team it seemed logical to follow the man¡¯s orders. After all, if the Commander respected him why couldn¡¯t Jon. Shair on the other hand was completely oblivious to Jon¡¯s thoughts; he instead had his mind set on one thing. Breaking open the wall. As he got closer and closer to the wall so did the monster towards them. Until Shair was standing right next to the wall with a shivering Jon and the Monster directly on the ledge of the platform. Knocking on the wall a few time he pulled back, satisfied, and did something completely unexpected. ¡°AAAAHHHHHHHH¡± He screamed as loud as he could waving his hand as he jumped up like a monkey. Jon immediately walked a few steps away from Shair and cursed himself for trusting him. The monster roared loudly and pulled up his crab claws to smash down the annoying vermin. Each claw must have been at least 200 pounds by judging from the size and Shair had just asked the monster to smash him with it. The claw sailed through the air and towards the jumping Shair. When the claw was only a few feet away Shair jumped backwards right next to Jon and they both watched it crash on the ground in front of them. The claw had left a large crater far larger than its own size, showing the immense power the claw held. ¡°Wow¡± Shair whispered fascinated by the display of power. The monster roared once more and prepared another attack, when suddenly Shair grabbed Jon by the side and pushed him to the wall on the right. ¡°Stay right next to the wall.¡± Shair instructed and proceeded to yell again. ¡°AAAAAHHHHHHHH¡± Once more, the Monster swung his claw, cutting through the air straight for the two. Shair stopped yelling and grabbed Jon by the shoulder pushing him down and they both lay on the ground as the claw sailed over their head, barely missing them by a hair¡¯s length and smashed in to the wall behind them. ¡°Roll¡± Shair shouted loudly and both him and Jon starting rolling away from the crab-claw. When Shair and Jon stood up again there was a hole in the wall where the monsters claw was struggling to get out of. It had swung with enough force to chip away more parts of the wall creating an almost doorway-like entrance into the wall. If one peered closely the light illuminated a room behind the wall. Shair pushed Jon towards the door way and then jumped after him, not giving the monster enough time to get another swing at them. Once inside the two were greeted by the large hallway, the purple roots growing in similar fashion to wood creating a long, dark hallway. The monster was still outside, its roars and screams could be heard rattling the rather catacomb-like hallway. The monster started smashing the ground outside the wall in rage, but surprisingly did not attack the wall of the cave structure again. *Cough Cough* now that the excitement was over Jon started coughing roughly, and then proceeded to vomit near Shair feet. ¡°There, there Jon. Get it all out of your system.¡± Shair patted Jon¡¯s back as he looked around, gathering their surroundings. *Cough*¡°I think I just threw up my breakfast.¡± Jon said as he stood upright. Shair looked down to examine the vomit. ¡°Where did you find the bacon?¡± Shair looked at Jon. They both stared at each other for some time. ¡°Hehehe¡±¡°Hahahaha¡± They both started laughing, they were hysterical after the close encounter with the crab-claw monster. *Sigh* After they had gotten over the craze they started to look up and down the hallway the danger of their situation seemed to finally sink in their bones. ¡°Hey, I think we should go that way.¡± Jon said. ¡°Your right, that¡¯s where the aircraft was flying and¡­.¡± Shair pulls out a small rectangular device and observes its screen. ¡°¡­They seem to be North-east of us, about 20 clicks from here. Up for some jogging?¡± ¡°Alright¡­Hey, where are you going?¡± Jon ran after the departing Shair ¡°the team¡¯s that way.¡± ¡°Oh, I know¡± Shair said. ¡°Then why are you going the other way?¡± ¡°To create safe passage¡± Shair looked over his shoulder. ¡°What? That monster is growing out of the cave from back there.¡± ¡°I know.¡± ¡°Then¡± Jon jogged over to Shair and held him by the shoulders. ¡°Why are you going where there is certain death?¡± ¡°Haha¡± Shair laughed ¡°don¡¯t joke Jon. It¡¯s only a highly probable chance that I will die, it¡¯s not certain. Shaking off the technician from his shoulder Shair continued on, but Jon was having none of that. He swung his arm and locked it around Shair¡¯s preventing him from moving forwards. Shair stayed in his position and waited. Neither was budging from their position and both waited for the other to speak up, to explain himself. Until Shair finally gave in and with a sigh asked ¡°What do you think we would do once we get to the team? We still gotta leave after we destroy this thing, right? So I am going to go, and kill the thing that would obstruct our path again. It hurt us this bad when we were peak condition, what do you think it¡¯s going to do to a damaged Pelican and an exhausted team? Huh?¡± Jon just stared at him trying to form a reasonable argument but his mouth just opened and closed over and over again. None could be made against the logic. ¡°I am not going to let it obstruct our path once again¡­and you¡¯re gonna help me.¡± Shair said as he gently pulled his arm free and walked ahead. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. *Sigh* ¡°Alright, Alright.¡± Jon reached to his side and took out a small pistol a standard Glock-66. As they both walked down the hallway Shair increasingly leaned onto the walls, Jon followed suit thinking that it was best to do what a veteran does. After a few minutes of walking the long stretch of never ending darkness Shair and Jon were practically hugging the caves purple walls. That¡¯s when they saw it. It wasn¡¯t a lot but it gave an idea to what might await them over there. A small ray of pink light was shining through the abyss and the closer the two got the brighter it seemed to become. Shair came to a halt and reached to his feet, bending over, and took out a polished Magnum 44. Jon reached over and tapped Shair¡¯s shoulder. ¡°A magnum isn¡¯t gonna cut it.¡± ¡°A colt did¡± ¡°Is it like the colt? That thing was damaged, right.¡± Jon asked worryingly. ¡°More like¡­ destroyed and no. It¡¯s modified just like the colt¡­but nothing can beat my Colton. ¡­It¡¯s still good enough to get the job done.¡± Shair looked at Jon reassuringly. As they slowly crouched their way towards the light a large purple room came into view. That was all it was, a large circular domed room with purple light coming from its dead center. The object that was radiating the light was cylindrical in shape and curved from the top and bottom similar to a muscle tissue. The light radiator was attached to a circular metal ring at the top and bottom, inside the thing was a creature similar in shape to the monster outside except it had a head seemingly attached to a helmet with wires all leading for the top metal ring, and around the purple glass tube were a whole litter of Fraz. The Fraz were most commonly known as root monsters and they lived up to the laymen¡¯s term. A humanoid creature with purple tendrils twisting and merging all over the body, creating as intricate of a network as the circulatory system found in the humans. Each tendril was similar to a blood vessel, it carried the sucrose and water in a vascular bundle such is the job of a stem in the plant. However all the tendrils overlapping each other were just an exoskeleton the main thing was hidden beneath all the layers, the power source of the creature. Usually it would be a sack of water or a human heart encased with other organs, or sometimes even a motor. The Fraz became what they ate, so obviously these Fraz¡¯s that lived in a place such as this which was constructed with plants and meat were humanoid monsters made from a delicate merger between plant armor and a meat energy source. ¡°Oh come on, this is easy picking.¡± Shair whispered and he muffled a laugh. ¡°Is it? ¡®Cause I see eight regulars and one special in the tube and judging by the masks on the regulars they¡¯re pretty weak¡± Jon acted accordingly to the situation, which was scared out of his mind, while Shair was just plain crazy. ¡°Your right¡­¡±Shair looked at the Magnums bullet chamber. ¡°This thing only carries seven bullets, so that¡¯s seven depending if I don¡¯t miss. You gonna have to take that one out though, my advice, unload the whole clip on him. Armors tough.¡± ¡°Alright, on three?¡± ¡°One¡­.Two¡­.Three!¡± Once a soldier ambushes a Fraz the area becomes a playing field, they had the first action and so obviously would have the advantage. When Jon and Shair both came out of hiding, aiming down the iron and steel sight of their respective guns they were clearly at an advantage. The 8 individuals in the playing field were momentarily frozen and just stared at the new incomers. Shair¡¯s battle experience dictated that he shoot the guys from one side despite their distance from him and check them off from one side to the next, one by one. But the rational thinking said to takeout the ones closest and move to check off the ones further behind. Aiming down his steel sight he aimed for one at random and pulled the trigger. Then moved to check on off one the side and another two on the other side, it was completely random the polar thoughts may have deterred his thinking but the memory of shooting engraved into his body was still there and had won over. The movements were quick and with as little movement as possible. Jon on the other hand had only one Fraz to take care off the one who was the furthest. It fell victim to all the bullets he could fire in the span of time Shair had to shoot the other 7 regulars. When the firing stopped, and it only stopped when the Fraz Jon was targeting fell down, everyone came to their senses. All the shots fired by Shair barely hurt the Fraz all it did was agitate them, and so immediately after the firing stopped they pulled out their own guns, a jagged shard like gun, and pointed it at them. Although they had the upper hand they did not proceed to shoot, only yelling and threatening with their guns pointed at them. By now even the special in the glass tube was aware of what was going on as it shifted its head in their direction and was also shouting. ¡°WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!¡± Jon yelled at Shair eyes ablaze with anger. ¡°Wha-.¡± ¡°Mishkin valnuk takmish Vooo¡± One Fraz yelled at ¡°It was supposed to work.¡± Jon was sobbing slightly. *Sigh* ¡°Fine, Fine¡± Shair waved his hand at Jon. Pulling out the Magnum he proceeded to pull the hammer until a loud click could be heard. That set a series of explosion of the remaining 7 Fraz, each one engulfed in a raging red fire as if an incendiary bomb went off from where the bullets were shot. Soon each of the Fraz was on the ground burning into red crimson crisp. ¡°See¡± Shair looked at Jon his hands up expectantly ¡°I told-¡± *Boom* The wall behind Jon was suddenly broke open and a large crab claw the size of two meters swung into the room, hitting Jon and throwing him away. Shair ran towards Jon and dove for him pushin him out of the way of the swinging claw. However it didn¡¯t go as intended, the large claw sung straight for Shair instead and slammed him into the shoulder. Shair was sent flying over to the base of the glass tube where the metal ring smacked him right in the stomach. ¡°Uughhh¡± Shair looked upwards as he tried to gather his bearings. The special seemed to be laughing inside his glowing liquid as he moved inside. Jon was barely dodging the claw swings and was getting increasingly fatigued, Shair could see him slowly getting out of breath. The monster however was just the same, its energy capacity was much larger than Jon and seemed to be getting closer to actually connect the claw with Jon. There was something similar to the monsters movements that Shair noticed. When he looked back at the special then at the claw, it just connected. Quickly loading the bullets in the chamber he aimed the Jon-claw duo. ¡°Jon get over here!¡± Shair shouted as he fired the sticky bullet and the claw. Jon turned to run towards Shair, but the claw was fast and almost squished its prey when Shair pulled back the hammer and with a familiar click and explosion the claw was blown back by the explosion. Jon however was also caught in the explosion and blown forward by the impact, he slid across the floor towards Shair¡¯s feet. Shair pulled Jon up by the shoulders and pointed at the creature in the glass. ¡°I break it you shoot those wires. Alright?¡± Not waiting for his answer Shair pointed at the glass and shot three bullets in a triangle, then exploded them. The glass immediately broke and collapsed on itself, the purple goop inside slowly oozed outside. The puppeteer inside the tube got angry and swung its puppets crab claw at Shair, the swing connected and knocked him away. As the special got ready for another swing Jon aimed his gun and started to unload a barrage of bullets around the head area of the creature. The bullets of a Glock-66 were made in similar style to a snipers bullets, they were pointy and made to fit in the small mag. They were widely used during the initial part of the invasion of the Fraz so the HQ issued them as a standard firearm for all its operatives, even the medics. Of course many people had some other sort of firearm on them which they had salvaged or made over the past years, like Shair¡¯s colt and Magnum 44. But the Glock-66 was still greatly used, it was not because it was easily manufactured but the bullets that its structure could fire without harming the one pulling the trigger really made it an appealing choice. The bullets were similar to a sniper in all aspects except two; the size of the bullet and the coating of mercury fulminate at the end of the bullet. Mercury fulminate would explode when friction, heat, or any other subtle energy raise in the surrounding occur. The Glock-66 was easily able to hold the bullets coated with it and fire without causing the thing to explode. So when Jon fired not only did all 6 shots connect but also caused the head gear with all the thick wire to completely explode and drop the special into the small pool of goop. When the head gear exploded the crab claw immediately fell to the ground with a loud thud suggesting that the connection was lost. Not soon after the claw fell a loud roar echoed through the room. The puppeteer had gotten up and was moving towards Jon with clear rage and anger. The special was very different from the regulars. Where the regulars had masks of woods with designs to rank their power and similar body structure, the specials had none. Each special had a different shape from the other and its power couldn¡¯t be estimated from its appearance, so when fighting a special one had to be very careful so as to not approach an extremely powerful one and Jon had just pissed one off all because he listened to Shair. Jon looked behind the special as he slowly moved backwards away from the approaching monster and saw that Shair was slowly climbing to his feet, coughing vehemently but alive. Shair dusted himself and looked around, when he saw the slumped claw he gave Jon a thumbs up ignoring the creature that was about to kill him. ¡°Hey¡± Shair shouted, attracting the special¡¯s attention. ¡°You¡¯ve caused enough trouble¡± He aimed down the sight and shot the rest of the bullets in the chamber, once the thing was agitated and the chamber empty he pulled back the hammer *click* and he watched the thing burn. Unlike the regulars this special had a meat body on the outside which allowed the death to be swift and quick so one such as Shair couldn¡¯t really enjoy the screams or struggles of the Fraz as it died. ¡°Hey, you alright?¡± Jon jogged over the dead branches of the Fraz towards Shair. ¡°Yeah, why?¡± ¡°He hit you pretty hard and you are bleeding from the head¡± ¡°Oh¡± Shair quickly pulled at his tee and wiped the blood from his head. ¡°I¡¯ll be fine. Come on, we gotta get better firearms.¡± Shair walked over to the dead bodies and picked up a shard gun the Fraz were using. Unlike the pink and purple color scheme of the room the guns were oil black colored. Shair tossed the shard gun at Jon and took up another on, he then proceed to sweep up the ash of the Fraz rubbing them all over his body and some on his check. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Jon asked the kneeling Shair. ¡°The¡­ uhh¡­ mud is washing off from sweat¡± Shair said motioning to Jon ¡°Need something else to blend us in.¡± ¡°We¡¯re gonna go back the same way¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you want double protection, mud for blending in the walls and ash to disperse in the darkness?¡± ¡°Alright¡± Jon kneeled next to Shair and scooped up some to rub it on him. Once both were covered in the ash of the enemy they moved back towards the tunnel they came from. There they reapplied the much of their uniform creating a camouflage against the Fraz. ¡°Keep quiet and follow me.¡± Shair instructed as they moved back into the darkness. Encounter While Shair and Jon were dealing with the Fraz the rest of the group had made their way to a suitable drop zone and were preparing to land on a ledge. ¡°Mustafa, release the camo-tarp.¡± The Commander said as she loaded her large HVK-35. Mustafa pressed some buttons to release a large tarp over the Pelican II from the top to camouflage it from enemies. ¡°Let¡¯s hope the Fraz¡¯s ash and mud would help us blend in.¡± Mia said as she strapped her medical box on her back. The Pelican slowly landed on a ledge leading to another cave and hissed as it opened the large door. The group slowly descended onto the muddy ground and started walking towards the dark cave. Each member had night vision goggles on their faces and comms in their ears for communication and better sight, luxuries which Shair and Jon couldn¡¯t have. ¡°Keep chatter to a minimum.¡± The Commander said as she took the lead leading up the cave. They were at a disadvantage being in a low terrain so the team stuck close to the sides blending in and slowly moved upwards. The team¡¯s mission from the HQ was indeed a ¡®suicidal¡¯ one. They were tasked with infiltrating the Fraz HQ in the sky and blow up their command center, the sheer number of enemies that were in here could easily defeat the human resistance three times over. The only reason they hadn¡¯t done that already was because the humans were well hidden in the mountain ranges. So it was understandable the tension in the team and how on edge everyone was. As they came up to the other end of the tunnel they saw that there an intersection leading to the sides. The Commander held up her hands to stop the team, she then looked at the wrist radar that she was equipped with and checked the glowing dots direction. The radar released a series of strong electronical waves which bounced off the other electronical devices. The green dot on the radar was a place of large electrical flow, possibly the command center. The Fraz with electrical sources would not appear on the radar because their sources did not have a strong electrical current so the waves would just pass through them. The Commander held up her hand and motioned for the team to go right. The Commander held her HVK-35 near her hip and slowly trudged forward. Mustafa, John and Harry all held large machine guns strapped across their shoulder and aimed at various points at the exit to constitute for the lack of visual at the sides. Daniel and Mia were slowly following behind the Commander however while Daniel help a large Dingo, Mia held up a small sub-machine gun the size of the pistols strapped at her hips. The group moved up into the intersecting hallway and quickly took up positions facing both sides, protecting each other¡¯s six. Teamwork in the group was vital for getting through the mission alive, even though there was bad blood between the members, when it came to their survival all grievances between teammates disappeared. The Commander stood up and started to walk forwards slowly, Mia and Daniel who were directly behind her did the same, guns pointed at the sides. Mustafa and Harry followed afterwards while John slowly retreated moving backwards, still facing the back to keep an eye out for any incoming Fraz. The moved like that for a while down the hall until they came up to a set of stairs. The Commander once again called for a halt and checked on her squad before looked at the radar once more, the green dot was slightly closer to them but still quite far away. Nodding at her squad they slowly moved up the stair by the sides. ¡°Voshinoru Mastafiomashru Margin¡± a voice suddenly came from above. The Commander halted her squad and moved up by herself, finger on the trigger. When she reached to the top she saw two Fraz shrouded in darkness conversing in their tongue. They looked more like two identical shadows than actual Fraz, the shadows had a lot of black shards sticking out of their joints. The Commander still had her gaze fixed on the two conversing near the pillars atop the stairs when she motioned for the group on the other side of the stairs to slowly move upwards. When Mustafa walked up the stairs to look at the two his mouth unhinged and his jaw dropped at the spectacle, the shadows almost blended in the darkness around the pillars making it almost impossible to see them. The Commander hugged the wall on the side and opened up the comms for communications. ¡°Two unknown specials. Proceed with caution.¡± ¡°Grenade?¡± Daniel asked over the radio. ¡°No, too noisy. Use guns with silencers.¡± The commander whispered as she placed a silencer on her gun. ¡°What about an EMP perhaps it has an electrical source.¡± Harry asked as he also came atop the stair and looked over Mustafa¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Not likely. It¡¯s most likely a dark matter source. Everyone move up and blend in the shadow-¡± Just then the conversation between the two suddenly stopped and they looked towards the place where the commander was hiding in the shadows. One of the Fraz moved towards her, growling and making clicking noises. Even when it was directly in front of her she made no noise in hope that it would miss her however what it did next erased all hope for stealth in her mind. The blackness around the special started to change shape, it moved upwards separated and then morphed and merged back into the shadow body. The more it changed shape the more it started to become more like the commander¡¯s shadow, until it was an almost exact copy of the Commander¡¯s silhouette. The special moved its face which looked like a shadow of the commander¡¯s towards her face and cackled as it moved back its hand which suddenly turned into large claws. At this time there was no doubt in the Commander¡¯s mind that she was found, but the voice got stuck in her throat she was unable to make a noise to warn her team. ¡®Ratttat-tattattat-tatattat-tatt¡¯ Mustafa had sensed that she was in trouble because he started to unload the entire magazine unto the shadow in front of her. The creature was struck on the back and stumbled into the commander wailing as it went into her. But the Commander rolled to the side and the special¡¯s face collided with the wall instead. Harry and Daniel moved forward and made a line on the top step, and started to fire at the other special much further back. They were a little southwest of the commander¡¯s shadow just out of reach of all the bullets that Mustafa unloaded onto it. The bullets that they shot struck the creature but it didn¡¯t move anywhere, suddenly holes started to appear on the creature¡¯s body and the bullets just moved through it. It started to rapidly close onto the soldiers firing upon it. Meanwhile the Commander¡¯s silhouette recovered from its initial knockdown and jerked its head towards the Commander crouched to its side. The Commander moved her gun and aimed at the creature who screamed at her actions. She fired at the open mouth of her own shadow. The bullets seemed to do nothing as they disappeared into the dark mouth. The creature made an exaggerated movement to slash her with its enormous claws, however Mia interceded while Mustafa was still reloading and shot it at its source location the thorax. Something happened and the darkness that was about to slash the commander suddenly halted, it froze in that position for a second more then it exploded. Like a popped water balloon the creatures black goo splashed all across the commander and a little over the Mark IIs. *Hiss* came to sound when it struck the commander and the Mark II¡¯s. It quickly melted through the night vision goggles and her gun held, protecting her face. It was like an acid which started to melt the armor on her body. The commander quickly dived away from the acidic black goop and started rolling on the floor and wiping the goop off by sliding down the stairs. Eventually she got all the goop off her but it had already caused enough damage. It had caused serious corrosion on her left leg, burning her flesh and melted part of her metal armor on her chest and arms, fortunately the fabric was still intact and unharmed.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Shoot it on its chest¡± The Commander shouted at Daniel and Harry as she stumbled next to Mia and Daniel from behind. ¡°Commander! You¡¯re hurt!¡± Mia said as she examined the flesh wounds on her leg. ¡°I¡¯m fine¡± The commander tried to dismiss it but when she started to crouch forwards the strain increased on her leg and it gave out causing her to stumble onto the ground. ¡°No, you¡¯re not. John cover me while I attend to the commander¡± Without a word John positioned himself near the two ladies looking at the bottom of the stairs for any incoming Fraz. Daniel and Harry slowly moved in front of them to protect them from the other shadow Fraz. Mustafa on the other hand slowly moved behind the pillar and continued to shoot. As Katelyn slumped against the wall Mia squatted next to her and took off her medical box, rummaging through it for different medical equipment. She quickly took out a pair of forceps, an alcohol swab and a gauze, placing them gently on the lid. As Mia tended to the injury of her Commander the person in question was worried about the excessive amounts of bullets that her team was shooting at one enemy. ¡°Hey, is all that shooting really necessary for one special?¡± The Commander finally asked. ¡°Well, while you were rolling about more showed up¡± Mia looked up at the Commander and said ¡°They must have heard the screams and now are blocking our way¡± ¡°Hurry up and stitch me up¡± The Commander said restlesstly. ¡°There will be no stitching, unless you want to deter your movements. Do you?¡± Mia looked up at her angrily. ¡°Hmph¡± The Commander remained silent until Mia was finished tending to the wound. Propping herself on her good leg she slowly moved forward careful to not get caught in the heated exchange of bullets and wooden beams. Careful so as to not melt her boots she walked over the black goop splashed over the ground and behind the cover of the pillar to protect her from the straying bullets. ¡°Daniel, toss me the grenades.¡± She smiled. Daniel rolled back behind the cover of the stairs and took out two grenades from one of his pockets. He smiled at the Commander before he threw the grenades at her. ¡°Lay cover fire for me alright, careful not to shoot me too boys.¡± The Commander said as she started to rush across the hallway. She ran towards the other side of the hallway, careful to not get caught in her teams cover fire and placing her foot on the wall launched herself towards the Fraz hiding behind a bunch of pillars. She threw the grenades between the pillars and rolled backwards to avoid the explosion. *BOOOM* and the grenades went off. That caused a large explosion that created a lot of dust to rise up in the air but the commander didn¡¯t stop for the dust to settle instead she ran into the smoke taking out her two MGM-23 fully automatic pistols. When she saw silhouettes in the smoke she aimed both her pistols at them and fired. Even the silhouettes on the ground were shot to remove any chance of them ever getting back up. When the smoke cleared up she was the only one standing, twigs and meat chunks all littered around her feet. ¡°That was good thinking using the grenades to break through their exoskeleton.¡± Daniel complimented as he walked with the rest of the team towards their Commander. The commander wiped her hair over her eye and thanked him for the compliment with a curt nod. She then looked towards John who was making his way towards them, finally satisfied that no one was following them. Upon reaching the commander John took out a small HVK-29 and gave it to the commander. ¡°You can have my back up, might help you better than those pistols.¡± He said. The Commander gave him a nod as well as she accepted the gun. She then motioned for the group to move forward, so they trudged slowly across the hallway hiding in the cover of the pillars and darkness. She then turned to look at her radar and saw that the green dot was not too far away. ¡°Just a little far away. Let¡¯s meet up with Shair quickly.¡± The group slowly moved forwards and soon reached another set of stairs. They slowly moved up those, careful to not get involved with other Fraz. When they reached the top of those stairs as well, they heard a heated argument coming from above. The group quickly blended with the walls as they waited for the Fraz to pass, this time not conversing themselves to prevent attracting unwanted attention. ¡°Gishnobu vishni Shrall¡± ¡°Sheima sumanits shino-¡± ¡°Coshi no Vidhi shimovrashni, lashin vergiona¡± A third voice broke into the conversation and started yelling what seemed like orders at the two. Immediately thumping noises could be heard, indicating the departure of the Fraz. As the Commander moved to look above the top step she saw a large group of regulars and even a few large specials running towards the left down another tunnel. Soon after another group of regulars starting running after them. One special in particular was shouting orders at other Fraz causing them to follow behind the others who went down the tunnel. The Commander went back down to prevent being spotted and exhaled loudly as she looked at her team. Mustafa, John and Harry were all silent with a mix of serious and worried expressions on their faces while Daniel seemed a little shaken up similar to Mia. She was sweating profusely, the large amount of Fraz in one place would make anyone to sweat with fear and dread. ¡°Never seen so many of them in one place.¡± Mia said as she breathed quickly. ¡°I have, there were even more at Simmer airport.¡± Mustafa said worriedly. ¡°Anyone know why they seem so eager to leave?¡± the Commander asked dreading the worst. Mia, John and Mustafa seemed to go into deep thinking while Daniel and Harry looked at each other. They seemed to be having a silent conversation and it seemed that Daniel was winning. ¡°Something I should know about?¡± The Commander asked the two. The two looked at her then at each other before Harry sighed and spilled the beans. ¡°We can understand what they are saying.¡± A moment of silence followed that as everyone focused on the two as if they had each grown another head. ¡°How?¡± ¡°HQ captured a few Fraz a while back¡­and have been trying to learn their secrets. The Mark II¡¯s were taught their language so we won¡¯t be so ignorant when facing a Fraz.¡± Harry seemed almost ashamed to be telling them this. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you-¡± ¡°How do you expect-¡± ¡°Are you really telling-¡± While the rest of the Mark I¡¯s bombarded the two with questions the Commander herself was in deep thought trying to make sense of the information given. She held up her hand causing the rest of the squad to become silent. ¡°Will you get into trouble for revealing this information?¡± She asked with a stone serious face. ¡°Yes¡± ¡°Are you going to betray us in anyway in the future?¡± ¡°What!? No!¡± ¡°Everyone, whatever they tell us is to never leave this place. Do not reveal this information to anyone. Even your best friends, or your partners.¡± She said with a serious face. ¡°Does that include Shair?¡± John asked. ¡°¡­Yes, even Shair.¡± Katelyn resolved herself before looking at Harry ¡°so what is going up there?¡± ¡°It seems like they are moving all units from this point to resolve a disturbance in the other branch.¡± ¡°Which means?¡± The commander raised her eye brow. Her face full of worry. ¡°There seems to be a human causing havoc in the left branch¡± ¡°Human¡­¡± Katelyn¡¯s eyes widened up greatly and moistened up a bit. ¡°A human causing havoc? Not humans?¡± John asked Harry. ¡°Actually¡­ there seems to be a human and¡­another creature¡± Harry¡¯s face scrunched up in confusion ¡°no, an imposter killing their comrades and demeaning their great name.¡± ¡°Great name, ha¡± Mustafa sarcastically said ¡°the only thing demeaning to them-¡± ¡°Shut up.¡± Katelyn interrupted Mustafa, then turned to look at Harry, her face twisted in confusion ¡°An imposter?¡± ¡°So its two people¡± John said relieved. ¡°No, it¡¯s one human and one other¡­thing¡± Daniel emphasized the different. ¡°What do you mean by thing?¡± Mia asked also confused. ¡°That¡¯s what they¡¯re calling it, an imposter, a black creature, a-a thing.¡± Harry said. ¡°It¡¯s one human and an imposter, right?¡± John had a worried look on his face ¡°I have fought alongside Shair many times, and sometimes he disguises himself with Fraz as and other materials to blend in for better fighting chances. Perhaps this imposter is just Shair in his disguise, I mean even I sometimes mistake him for a Fraz when he fights on the battlefield.¡± ¡°With the way they are describing that thing, and what its doing I highly doubt it¡¯s anything human. No matter how disguised and strong Shair would be he can¡¯t really be ripping apart their comrades, can he?¡± Daniel refused to believe it. John looked at Katelyn worriedly and saw it on her face. How she was hanging on a thread of hope from hearing all this negative talk, how she was about ready to give up. ¡°Well, we just have to hope. We can¡¯t say for sure who it is but at least its friendly and it has a human fighting alongside it. Perhaps that¡¯s Shair.¡± John glared at Daniel and Harry warning them about retorting. ¡°Shair¡± Katelyn said it more to herself than anyone else. ¡°He wouldn¡¯t just die like that. If it is him then he would meet us at the rendezvous, he must be tracking our position to be so close. Even if he does get surrounded he can always escape.¡± ¡°Yeah. Shair wouldn¡¯t die so easily.¡± Mustafa smiled at Katelyn. ¡°Let¡¯s go and meet him at the command center.¡± Mia touched Katelyn arm reassuringly as they got up to move once more. ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s go¡± Katelyn smiled,strained,at her two friendsas she walked into the now deserted area towards the command center. Chapter 6-Human or Fraz Let¡¯s go back a few hours, at the time when the commander and her team were attacked by the shadow specials. In another place, two individuals were walking down a large hallway having just encountered yet another group of Fraz regulars. The larger one of the two was breathing heavily, he had rips and muck on his pants and Kevlar, and flesh wounds all over the body. But none the less he was moving in a small jog in the long hallway, next to a potbellied man. The potbellied one had scratches on his face and was similarly exhausted as the man next to him. ¡°How much further?¡± The pot-bellied Jon asked. ¡°Not much farther. The group transport should be somewhere around here.¡± Shair panted. ¡°How do you know?¡± ¡°I read it¡± ¡°Oh, Okay¡± Jon said. Having already spent a few hours of time fighting alongside Shair Jon had decided that it was better to not ask any more questions and just go with the flow something. The two had run into multiple Fraz groups and their ammo for the shard guns had run out in the last encounter, but even with their low weapon power they continued to run in silence down room after room. They moved with surprising speed until they reached a large opening leading outside. The rain and thunder could be heard outside. Slowly moving up through the opening the two trudged forwards and beside the wall like they had done previously, with Shair leading the way and Jon following closely behind. They were much further away than the rest of the group so they didn¡¯t have the luxury to be moving at slow speeds. Under the light provided by the lightening Jon was able to see two Fraz up ahead unloading something large and round in a pink colored object which oddly resembled a blowfish. It¡¯s blown up skin smooth and shiny opened up when the object the Fraz were carrying was thrown in. The creature¡¯s face wasn¡¯t as blown up as its back and seemed to be made of different material than its round rump but nonetheless, its resemblance to a fish couldn¡¯t be disputed. Shair motioned to John to take down the left one while he took down the right one. Nodding to each other in understanding they both took a deep breath and got ready. Jon acted first. He took aimed down his iron sight and lined up the Fraz¡¯s chest, the place where most sources are located. One he started firing Shair also got out of the cover, extending his arm to full length and firing at the other Fraz¡¯s chest. Once the bullets struck, a quick pull on the magnum¡¯s hammer sent the creature flying backwards instantly destroying its source. When both regulars burned and fell to the ground, their wooden bodies crackled and split up into ash, quickly washing away into the cracks between the rocks. Shair and Jon walked up to the fish stepping on the dead branches and guts under them. ¡°That would be our transport.¡± Shair said indicating the large fish creature. ¡°Things just keep getting weirder¡± Jon sighed as he placed his hand on the pink flesh only to have it open up for him. ¡°Get in¡± on his command Jon stepped in- *Fishhhh* just as Shair himself was about to get into the creature, a shot suddenly rang out. Whipping his head towards the direction of the fire he spotted a Fraz on a platform on the wall, his shard like gun hissing from releasing a wooden beam. The Fraz seemed to be cackling as he reloaded his gun, quick to take another shot, but Shair was faster. Taking out his magnum he quickly shot upwards and blew up the Fraz on the platform. However by this time another group Fraz that had been following Shair and Jon suddenly came out of the tunnel they had previously exited. ¡°Vashni froom¡± One of the Fraz said as he pointed at the humans. ¡°Go! Go! Go!¡± Shair said as he fell backwards into the fish. Jon stumble to the fished head and started to push random things sticking out. The Fraz shot at the fish creature causing it to scream in agony. ¡°Step aside¡± Shair said as he limped to the controls that Jon was fumbling with. Shair moved around a few stick and pushed a few button-like pink objects and finally the fish flew. It first fell off the platform it had been attached to and then started to slowly fly up towards another entrance far away in the opposite wall. As they flew out of the range of the Fraz¡¯s guns Shair fell down and leaned against the controls panel. ¡°Hey, Hey, stay with me.¡± Jon said worriedly. ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± Shair said. ¡°No you¡¯re not. Look at your leg.¡± Shair looked at his leg and saw that there was a large chunk of his thigh missing. Blood was slowly oozing out of it and the wound looked like it had been ripped out. Shair felt a little dizzy but kept his eyes open, even if everything he saw was slightly blurred. Shair looked to the side and saw a long wooden stick, bloody, pinning a piece of meat to the pink fish floor. The wooden stick was pinning his missing chunk of thigh, upturned and bloody, almost impossible to distinguish in all the blood that was pooled around it from the stick. ¡°There¡¯s the missing part. F**K!¡± Shair pointed at the chunk then proceeded to punch the side of the wall of the panel he leaned against. ¡°Damn it. *sigh*¡± While Shair cursed, Jon moved to take out the chunk of meat; he held it and started to clean it with the side of his shirt not covered in mud. Jon sat in front Shair who was still cursing and punching the floor in sorrow. Silently, Jon offered Shair the piece of thigh, now all clean. ¡°Why does it always happen to me?¡± Shair whined as he looked up as if cursing at whoever was listening in heaven. ¡°Here, at least place it on that gushing wound¡± Jon said empathetically as he shook the meat in front of Shair. ¡°Hey, be careful with that. That a part of me you¡¯re abusing right now.¡± Shair snatched up the meat and pushed it on the bloody wound. ¡°Put pressure on it would you.¡± Shair told Jon as he moved to rip out his sleeves just above his elbows. ¡°Wait. At least clean it up a little¡± Jon took away the dirty sleeves Shair was going to wrap his wound with. ¡°You apply the pressure.¡± ¡°Sure¡± Shair complied while Jon carefully took out the mud and ash chunks from the black sleeves. Then he wiped off the dirt with some water he took out of his canteen. Once he was satisfied with the cleanliness of the cloth he moved to stretch it over and wrap it around the wound. ¡°Hssshhh¡± Shair took in a long painful breath as his ripped out piece was placed back into place and tightly wrapped up by his sleeves. ¡°There, that¡¯s done.¡± ¡°Ah, Ah,¡± Shair was sweating from enduring the pain. ¡°Thanks,¡± Shair leaned forwards to reach into one of his back pockets of his utility belt. ¡°Hey, you¡¯re not supposed to move yet, idiot.¡± Jon started scolded when Shair took out two large cigars and waved them in front of his face. Shair threw one at Jon while he bit into his own and started to chew. ¡°Wha-Where did you get those.¡± Jon said. ¡°Really now, we can¡¯t be carrying these around. Didn¡¯t you listen to the doctor last month, all intoxicating objects must be dropped off to the infirmary for medical purposes.¡± ¡°Yeah, medical purposes like being used by those supposed doctors.¡± Shair said ¡°Besides I already gave up six cigars last month. I at least have the decency to not smoke in the building or my room in case a fire may start.¡± ¡°The medics don¡¯t use the medical equipment for themselves.¡± Jon looked at Shair quizzely, refusing to believe him. Shair held his cigar in between his fingers then he reached into his shirt and took out a lighter attached to a silver chain, like a necklace around his neck. The lighter was like a small metal box with a phoenix symbol etched on the front. Shair opened up the cap and used his thumb to roll the metal spark wheel down onto the blue ignition button. He repeated the process, generating a multitude of sparks, when finally he ignited the gas and lit it on fire. As the flames burned he brought it close to the cigar and lit the tobacco on fire. He then placed the lighter back into his shirt and took a long drag of the cigar before finally speaking. ¡°Yeah, they do. Ask Mia next time you meet her, those with proper authority can practically rob us off our things whenever they want. Of course not everyone is like that, ¡­ that¡¯s why we aren¡¯t being abused like cattle.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t trust people, huh?¡± Jon offered his own cigar to be lit. ¡°Hehe, No my friend. I trust on my intuition.¡± Shair smiled as he lit Jon¡¯s cigar with his own. ¡°You just seem like someone I could trust, that¡¯s all.¡± ¡°Going by your gut, has it ever led you astray?¡± Jon asks enjoying the cigar. ¡°Once, when the Fraz had just started their invasion.¡± Shair didn¡¯t elaborate much more on it so Jon tried to look for another conversation starter. They were safe while they travelled and since Shair¡¯s leg was all beaten up it didn¡¯t seem like they would be moving for a moment. At least they couldn¡¯t attract any more attention than they already had. ¡°Your uh¡­ lighter, a pretty polished piece like that is rare these days. What the story behind that?¡± Jon pointed at Shair¡¯s shirt where the lighter hung underneath. ¡°Yeah, things like this are rare these days. I got this piece of metal¡± Shair took out the lighter and displayed it. ¡°From a special somebody a few years ago to keep as a reminder. I use sometimes to smoke on missions, of course never during a shootout¡­well there was that one time¡­. Nah, it doesn¡¯t count, there was smoke everywhere.¡± ¡°Wait, so is that like a promise ring? A promise lighter?¡± Jon asked ¡°Yeah, Ha ha, Pretty childish, huh?¡± Shair smiled bitterly. ¡°Nah, things like this is what still keep us sane in this world.¡± ¡°True that my friend.¡± Jon and Shair talked for the rest of the ride. They discussed stories of how they survived the initial part of the invasion, the grief of loss, the euphoria of their first Fraz kill. They also talked about the time before the invasion, the TV shows, the politics, and even their jobs. The cigars helped relax their nerves, until they reached their destination and the shooting started. It all happened so suddenly that they didn¡¯t have time to react. Shair and Jon were enjoying a quiet time from the running, sitting in the fish bubble and laughing about old times, and were too busy being intoxicated by the cigars to notice the group of Fraz waiting on the other side. What the two hadn¡¯t realized was that they had already reached their destination and once they came into firing distance; a barrage of wooden beams was suddenly fired upon them. That shriek of desperation, right before the life of the fish-like creature escaped its body. The fish like creature took most of the damage; the overpowering firepower allowed it a swift death and consequently awoke Shair from his intoxicated state. Pushing Jon down with his good hand Shair took out his gun, hung onto the control panel and hoisted himself up to shoot at the Fraz. However his aim was a little off and the bullets strayed a little lodging themselves in their shoulders and at their feet instead of the aimed chests. When his bullets ran out Shair slumped down under the panel and exploded them. Meanwhile Jon stood up and started shooting at the unprotected sources of the Fraz that Shair had struck. They repeated this procedure with Shair taking down their exoskeletons and Jon finishing them off until there were no more enemies to confront them. Both of the soldiers were breathing and sweating heavily by the end of the confrontation. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go.¡± Shair said as he pulled himself up and started to walk towards the entrance where the Fraz had come from. ¡°Here, lean on me.¡± Jon said supporting Shair by the shoulder, as they both walked into the dark tunnel. After a few minutes of walking through the darkness Jon became increasingly worried, so much that he halted their movements and pushed Shair against the wall. ¡°Are you sure we are going in the right direction? I didn¡¯t see any signs telling us to go here.¡± Jon waved his free hand indicating the darkness around them ¡°We can hardly see in this darkness and you can barely walk with that leg injury¡­ Come on, let¡¯s just take some other transport and get to the Pelican¡¯s drop zone.¡± Jon tried to move Shair back to where they encountered the Fraz but Shair held his ground and shook off Jon¡¯s hands. ¡°Calm down Jon Bellamy.¡± Shair¡¯s voice came out hoarse but tired ¡°The Pelican¡¯s signals isn¡¯t showing on the radar¡± Shair showed the small radar attached to his right wrist ¡°It¡¯s showing me where the Commander is, and like I promised her I will meet up with her at the next stop. She is going to need our help to finish this mission Jon and I don¡¯t indent to go back on my promise. The Fraz can shoot us down any time while we are in these tunnels, that¡¯s why I want to get us out of these tunnels as quickly as possible and if you are going to deter me in my path then leave. I can walk on my own just fine. Do you understand Bellamy?¡± Shair shouted that last bit stunning Jon momentarily. Jon looked to the floor, contemplating the consequences of stopping Shair. After some time he curled his fists, shook them in rage. *Sigh*¡±Let¡¯s go.¡± Jon¡¯s fists fell and he looked at Shair with a mimicking tired expression. He slowly moved away from Shair and indicated that he lead the way. The two once again started to move into the ever growing darkness. Shair, supported by the wall, slowly limped forwards following Jon, who had his gun aimed into the darkness. They kept on moving like this for a few more minutes until the darkness seemed to disappear and a glimmer of hope could be felt. It wasn¡¯t by a lot like before, the light, that is. It wasn¡¯t bright colours that greeted them, but a small, slight change from pitch black to dark grey that gave Shair a glimmer of hope. Hope for reuniting with the team, for being closer than before, for ending this suicide mission.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Shair reach out and tapped Jon on the shoulder, and motioned for him to move with caution into the grey light. The further they moved the brighter the light became, however it was still not enough to properly see everything. The grey light shone out into the tunnel and illuminated Shair¡¯s face momentarily, blinding him for a while as his eyes adjusted and took in the sight of the room. Saying the room was massive was an understatement. The tunnel entrance that Shair was in was about two meters above ground, similar entrances could be seen covering the cylindrical room at different points all in a circle. The shape of room was similar to the inside of a hollowed out beehive, from a large base to a narrow top all twisted into a circular like shape. The room seemed to have a circumference of about 100 yards and reached a height at least three times that. If one carefully observed the ceiling of the room then they would see that the walled all merged at the top creating a small dome, and on that dome were four planchette or petal shaped openings aligned in a circular fashion allowing light into the dark, large room, illuminating it from its pitch blackness to dark grey. On the slightly illuminated ground stuck out black oval objects similar to wasps¡¯ egg. ¡°What are those?¡± Jon whispered as he slowly moved allowing Shair space to stand next to him. ¡°No idea, and I¡¯m not sticking around to find out. This is a really bad place to get caught in, we¡¯ll be sitting ducks here, so let¡¯s move quickly.¡± Shair slowly moved forwards and slid down to the ground. Jon followed afterwards and they both, hunching down, moved across the large room. ¡°Any idea which one of the doors we are going to take?¡± Jon whispered softly. ¡°Yeah, the doors have different symbols on them and I think I know which one to take. Just follow my lead.¡± Shair said. The two slowly made their way across the room, careful to not touch any of the pods that protruded out of the ground. The two had slowly made it halfway across the room when suddenly loud shouts could be heard coming from the tunnel they had exited. Shair and Jon picked up their speed to get through the room as quickly as possible. Shair was still hurting painfully in his leg and kept on limping so Jon quickly over took Shair. It wasn¡¯t until he heard the shout of the Fraz that he realized how much further back Shair was. Both stood their ground and took out their guns, ready to shoot the incoming Fraz from behind. *BOOM* as they were about to shoot, a loud explosion came from their left and a tremble went through the room shocking them into momentary paralysis. Out of the recently broken wall came out monsters of all shapes and sizes. The Fraz brigade of specials broke through the wall and the one in the front, a large humanoid looking creature with horns on its head and black dripping blades on its joints like shards sticking out of a big body, stepped forwards, pointed his claw like hands at them and screamed loudly. Upon the monsters bellow the other specials around it started to run towards the humans. ¡°RUNN!!!¡± Shair shouted as he and Jon ran towards the exit not too far away. Shair started shooting the incoming monsters as he limped behind Jon who without aiming shot to his left, focusing more on running to the exit than actually hitting the Fraz. After Shair unloaded his bullets on the incoming monsters, he reloaded and shot at the ground just ahead of Jon who just emptied his own magazine. Shair didn¡¯t explode any of the bullets he shot instead kept limping towards the exit behind Jon and shooting the incoming monsters. Jon was only a few feet away from the exit when he suddenly heard a loud explosion from behind him, knocking him forwards. He quickly recovered and looked back to see a horrible sight which would haunt him for years to come. Far behind him, was Shair, standing over a small pile of broken oval pods, he smiled at Jon and their eyes met. They glimmered for a small while as water started to gloss over the eyes, and slowly they closed. Two long lines of blood ran down the sides of his mouth and onto his shirt, mixing with the mud and ash. A large claw belonging to the large black monstrosity had speared him through his chest and was holding him above the ground; Shair¡¯s hand was still twitching as he held onto the claw that went through his body. ¡°RUN!!!¡± Shair shouted for one last time as his body was flung across the room skidding on the ground coming to a stop by crashing into some of the pods. Once Shair was dealt with the Fraz specials turned their attention to the figure of the other human, Jon Bellamy. Jon was already running towards the exit a few feet away, his body pumping all the blood into his legs to carry him as fast as they could. His hands however were still moving, while he ran towards the small black entrance to another tunnel, loading the Glock-66 for another confrontation. The exit was only two meters higher than the ground, easily climbed by a soldier trained by HQ. But the Fraz were faster. When Jon ran up the slope and grabbed onto the ledge of the exit he tried to pull himself up, but couldn¡¯t move an inch. A searing hot pain radiated from his right leg travelling up his to knee and turning into a small ball of fire in the kneecap. Jon looked down at his knee and saw thin needle-like claws sticking out of his leg, those claws belonged to a special with large oval eyes and sharp white teeth which it displayed along with its long tongue that hung loosely to the side of its mouth. Those were the only notable features on its dark mole-filled face that Jon had time to register before his instincts kicked in and he took out his Glock-66 and fired at the creatures face. It screamed loudly as took out its claws that had stabbed Jon in the leg and fell backwards, holding his face from which white effervescence could be seen coming out. Jon pulled himself from one hand while with the other he shot all around him stopping the Fraz from catching him. The tunnel was very small and only a few short Fraz could come in there, in single file, the type of Fraz that Jon could handle on his own. He wanted to get as far away from the large black Fraz that killed Shair as he could. As soon as Jon¡¯s bum touched the tunnel floor he used all his might to pull himself away from the horde of Fraz on the ground, but he couldn¡¯t move. The large Fraz that killed Shair had his claw-like hand wrapped around Jon¡¯s bloody leg and refused to let go even when Jon shot all the remaining bullets he had in his Glock¡¯s mag on its wrist. The bullets just hissed and created small popping sounds when he shot them, not deterring the monster in the least. Jon slowly looked at the creatures face and saw the anger, those sharp fangs protruding out of that foaming mouth, released. The creatures face was only a foot away from Jon¡¯s when he opened his mouth and roared like an animal. He was pulled down by the creature and smashed on the ground, when he tried to get up a large foot was placed on his chest, a foot belonging to the black monster himself. Jon knew he was about to die and resolved himself for the moment his life would be taken by the ugly beast in front of him when... *Raaaar* a loud voice suddenly erupted from far away. Some of the smaller Fraz moved away from Jon and warily looked at where the voice came from, while the big ugly just glanced over as the roars continued. The screaming and bellowing got louder and louder until the black creature removed its foot from Jon¡¯s chest and started to walk towards the sound. Jon slowly got up, supported by his elbows, and looked around him to gather his bearing once more. The small specials were much further away now, while the big ones were running after the special that killed Shair. Jon was momentarily safe as all the Fraz¡¯s attention was on the newcomer. ¡°RAAARGH¡±. Jon slowly got up during the confusion brought upon the smaller regular Fraz by the large roar of the Big Black, far away. When Jon strained his eyes he could make out its figure battling a much smaller, almost human like creature in the dark. The light rays from the ceiling fortunately shone near where the two were fighting, so when they grappled against each other and the smaller one was thrown into the place where the light shone, it gave him a good look at the other thing. It had an almost perfect human stature, but the Fraz element was notable as its entire body was made of bark and tree roots or branches twisting around to give its exoskeleton. It was arguably the plainest Fraz he had ever seen, no other element other than dark wood could be seen making up its body, and its mask was a simple piece of wood cut into the shape of to fit a humans head. The only notable thing would be the overgrown roots that protruded from its head almost like spikes that merged on top to form a crown. No designs could be seen on both; its body and the mask, by the ranking order of the Fraz it should be a very weak regular but it was holding its own against the large special, defying the facts that HQ had collected over the past 10 years. The fighting still hadn¡¯t ended; they were both still going at it like wolves and all of the other Fraz were watching it like their lives were on the line. That gave Jon time to look for the perfect moment to run away. The plain Fraz was slowly overpowering the Big Black, dodging most of its heavy attacks and attacking soon afterwards, at the opening created afterwards. However that tactic didn¡¯t work for long, when the smaller one came in for another attack the large special quickly twisted its body and slammed its elbow into the smaller one, sending it flying into another area where the light shone from above. Quickly using this as an opportunity he large one tried stomping on the fallen Fraz. Jon knew that when the small one was crushed the others would be momentarily distracted, getting lost in their excitement for the death of their enemy. That would be the best moment to run, when no one would be paying attention to him, so he waited. He waited for the foot to come down, it came¡­ but it didn¡¯t kill the small Fraz. No. When it came down the smaller one quickly rolled to the side and stood back up again. The Big Black was not fast enough to retaliate, so it could do nothing when the plain Fraz jumped on its shoulders, using its own leg as a jumping pad and started to attack. Punch after punch came down on the creatures head while it was slamming punches into the back of the smaller one. The other smaller Fraz around Jon were acting up and screaming, yet no one tried to help. After watching the spectacle for a little while, a body fell to the ground. The black mass of flesh, oil and wood glinted in the light as another form, a wooden one stood on top, victorious. ¡°RAAARR¡± another loud voice bellowed throughout out the large cavern. It created chaos. The smaller Fraz moved backwards and started yelling and stomping as they completely immersed their attention to the creature that felled the large special. A minute or two later of a yelling competition, some of the larger Fraz started to run towards the plain creature, still standing over the big black. No one was paying any attention to the still alive human near a cave entrance. Seeing this as an opportunity Jon loaded his gun and slowly stood up to run for the exit, hoisting himself up to the ledge he got up and ran away from the Fraz fighting behind him. However, he didn¡¯t move two steps when a wave of nausea and dizziness suddenly assaulted his mind. Leaning on the rocks of the tunnels for support he slowly moved forwards being careful not to throw up as the headache got worse. The Fraz were still yelling outside and the conflict seemed to have escalated even more, Jon could hear the screams and screeches of the dying. He felt something hot surge up from his stomach and onto his throat; using all his willpower Jon trapped the surging vomit in his mouth to prevent himself from vomiting. The bitter and stingy taste of his vomit cleared up some of the nausea in his head giving him a second wind as he walked forwards without any guidance. Jon was walking for a long time he could tell even in all this darkness because; the screams had faded off into a distance. Jon was holding onto the sides of the walls to keep on walking when he saw a small light flash in front of him. It was coming off from the side in a different room, the same room where voices of muffled screams could be heard from. Cautiously making his way to the flashing lights Jon stuck his head into the dark room to see what was causing all the commotion. The room was small, meaning that there were a lot of things to occupy the space. Lining the walls were humans, dead humans, stuck by some sort of meat paste or such, their dead eyes all pointed to middle where all the action was happening. In the middle of the room was a hospital table with an electric generator next to it. The generator was connected to two wires that a Fraz was holding, speaking in tongues unknown to someone strapped on the table. Jon could only see a small part of the thing on the table, it had hair. Black hair to be exact and only humans had hairs on their body. Even the specials that ate hairy parts of the humans to mutate and grow didn¡¯t have any hair on their body. The Fraz¡¯s bodies couldn¡¯t support anything not containing energy, they were all as hairless as a bald man¡¯s head. So when Jon saw the black hair he immediately understood that this was a Fraz torturing human for information. Jon took aim and fired three consecutive shots. After the Fraz was shot down Jon made his way towards the man on the table to help him. The man was tied up by the straps attached to the table and he had a belt tied around his mouth. Jon first unstrapped him from the bed then moved to take off the belt, but the electrocuted man held up his hand to stop his attempts and took it off himself. The man was wearing an old military uniform from way before the invasion even began, and had a lot of bruises on his face especially two large dark spots near his head probably where the Fraz was electrocuting him. He looked to be in his late 60¡¯s, very old, and very skinny by the looks of how his uniform hung off on him. The man wiped his face as he got up, but limped on his left leg as soon as he tried to stand up. Jon immediately went over and supported him by the shoulder as he endured the pain that shot up from his foot. After slowly setting into his limped posture he took off Jon¡¯s hand from his shoulder and turned towards him. ¡°Thank you soldier. What your name?¡± he coughed. ¡°Jon Bellamy, um, sir¡± Jon frowned ¡°I¡¯m sorry for the question but who might you be?¡± ¡°I¡¯m General Wezzil soldier! How do you not know your own commanding officer?¡± ¡°General Wezzil, as in Wezzil Kartrim? The Swiss Chameleon?¡± Jon was shocked at meeting his idol at a place such as this. Jon held his country¡¯s military in high regard for maintaining neutrality for so long even when it looked like the rest of the world was going to be consumed in flames of war. ¡°Yes, why do you look so surprised?¡± ¡°I thought you were dead sir, when the invasion started¡­all order crumbled so¡­¡± ¡°My god. The invasion! How long has it been since the invasion?¡± Despite his poor health Wezzil started shaking Jon by the shoulders. ¡°It¡¯s¡­ It¡¯s been 14 years sir¡± Wezzil pushed Jon back and grabbed the edge of the table he had been strapped to not too long ago. Wezzil¡¯s breathing became deeper and faster while he grasped the meaning behind those words. After what seemed like only a few seconds Wezzil looked up at Jon, his eyes deadly serious. ¡°You didn¡¯t come here for me Jon.¡± That seemed more like a statement than a question so Jon kept silent and continued to watch the man with worry. ¡°So what is it that you came for?¡± ¡°My team and I were sent here to blow this place up General.¡± Jon. ¡°How are you going to do that? This place doesn¡¯t have explosives.¡± Wezzil looked at Jon confusedly. ¡°This place contains lots of toxic gases which can be ignited, the Fraz¡­um, these monsters, seem unaffected by these gases. In this large base is a command center which controls certain electronical rooms throughout this place we are going to overload the machines in those rooms and blow this place up.¡± ¡°Well then let¡¯s go.¡± Wezzil said after some thought and started to walk out of the room when Jon suddenly held onto his shoulder. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you need a gun sir?¡± ¡°Do you have an extra gun?¡± He asked innocently. ¡°Yes sir¡± Jon bent down to take out a small pistol from inside his sock ¡°You can have this.¡± Jon gave Wezzil his Glock-66. ¡°Kid, I haven¡¯t fired a gun since I was caught. My body has deteriorated down to this since then¡± Wezzil motioned to his thin body ¡°and I am badly hurt. Don¡¯t give up your best gun to someone who it would be wasted upon.¡± Jon merely nodded as he gave Wezzil the small gun and got the Glock-66 in front of him to lead the way, down the dark corridor he was previously walking through. Jon kept on walking and walking, aiming down and leading the newly acquired ally to his team. Inside Jon¡¯s mind thoughts were completely bouncing around, but one thing kept coming back, a thought. The thought of what the commander would do once she learned of Shair¡¯s death. Jon was no idiot; he knew there was something up between Shair and the Commander from when they were attacked on the Pelican. Jon was too busy thinking to notice the figure approaching him from behind. Although Jon was distracted the General wasn¡¯t, he quickly caught onto the fact that they were being followed. So when the thing came close enough Wezzil turned around and shot three bullets in succession at where he thought the figure would be. Jon was oblivious to the figures presence until he heard the shots fired; he turned around and aimed at the creature that had snuck up behind them. ¡°Wha-¡± Jon¡¯s eyes couldn¡¯t get any bigger from shock. Standing right in front of him was him. He was bloody, with multiple injuries on his head, stomach and leg, but he was alive. He was still alive even after he lost a piece of his thigh and got impaled with a black thing. He had blood running down the side of his face, as he scowled at the man in front of him. The General scowled equally as hard, returning the favor of having a gun pointed at his face by doing the same with his smaller one. The two soldiers kept scowling at each other refusing to be the first to look away. The tension started to rise when they both pulled back their gun¡¯s hammer and shoved the gun closer to each other¡¯s face. ¡°Stop it. Both of you!¡± Jon couldn¡¯t take the suspense so he stepped in. The two faced each other for a while then simultaneously looked at Jon before lowering their arms collectively. Jon was so relieved to see him alive that as soon they lowered their arms he hugged Shair. ¡°Your alive. Thank god. Shair.¡± ¡°You know him soldier?¡± Wezzil questioned Jon. ¡°Yes sir. Bu-but Shair, where have-what did-¡­How?!¡± Although Jon wasn¡¯t done asking, Shair interrupted him by pushing him aside and took out his gun to shoot down the dark corridor with his colt. He clicked his hammer and screams along with explosions erupted from down the corridor with the bullets explosion. Wezzil quickly got next to the wall where Jon was pushed to while Shair calmly walked forwards, into the fray of wooden beams that seemingly missed him entirely but almost got Wezzil. ¡°We got company soldier. Give ¡®em hell!¡± Wezzil shouted at Jon as he started to fire at the Fraz down the corridor. ¡°Sir! Yessir!¡± Jon shouted as joined in the battle. Chapter 7- New Enemy Katelyn was not having a good day. First she had to fight against the council for better equipment for their mission, then she had to persuade the others to let them borrow the Pelican II and more soldiers to accomplish the mission. However, both of these occurrences were quite normal in her daily life. Ever since she accepted a seat in the council most of the other ¡®Commanders¡¯ at the council gave her a hard time on her solo mission, when she wasn¡¯t leading a team of a hundred troops, their troops. Just that much wouldn¡¯t have made her angry, but the continuous requests from Doctor Mozart, the head of science department, to take Shair off the mission and send him to the basement to assist them with experiments on the Fraz was what annoyed her and slightly angry. It was clear the two loathed the other so that fact the Doctor willingly sought Shair¡¯s company for Fraz research made no sense to her. She had long since made the assumption that the doctor was blackmailing Shair to help out with Fraz research. Why the doctor needed Shair¡¯s help specifically and how did Shair help him, was what bugged her. She knew Shair well, so she knew that Shair would have to hide something very dark if he caved in to the blackmail. But¡­she knew Shair, and she trusted him greatly, so she had decided to wait for him to tell her about the secret. Even though she had decided to trust Shair, she hated being kept in the dark and so today she finally couldn¡¯t take it. The stress of their possible last mission, and the accumulated frustrations from the morning when she asked for the equipments to the time the doctor was listing reasons Shair needed to be in base and not with her, she finally confronted him about the real reason why he needed Shair. She never got an answer because like a coward Dr. Mozart just shut up and left the room with a ¡®have a pleasant day¡¯ angering Katelyn to no end. From that point on the fear of what Shair was hiding from her settled in, a bad thing before a suicide mission. Katelyn also knew that this mission was set up by the council to kill off any of the soldiers that were nearing the end of their ¡®reliability stage¡¯ and were about to retire. The council thought that it would be counterproductive to continue to support the soldiers who were no longer any good in a fight. That thought was really narrow-minded, men of numbers although claimed to be greatest minds of their generations could still never predict the expiration date of the soldiers who fought for them. That was one thing they didn¡¯t know that she did, she could tell at a glance the potential of the soldiers fighting with her and the people she fought with, her team, had the greatest potential off all the other troops in HQ. She knew that their chances of surviving were slim and she knew that what she was doing was wrong, not dismissing Shair from the mission to help out in research with doctor Mozart only confirmed his death. She needed him by her side. Most likely all of them were going to die from this, but her team was everything to her and had been for a long time. Without them she had no actual friends on HQ, only allies and people who pretended to be for their greater benefit. She had lost people close to her before, back then she didn¡¯t have any power to protect her people and even now she didn¡¯t have any, even after all that time what got her cornered was not her lack of strength, but politics. So she had decided to go on with her team, die with her friends and that special someone instead of living on without anyone to trust in a world where humanity was clearly divided. Katelyn¡¯s day only got worse from then on, as she grappled with these thoughts convincing herself that it was the only option, the creature attacked and took away her only emotional support from her. She then had to grasp leadership as soon as she lost it, with force, treading down an old and hateful path once more. When she received the news that only one of the two survived she was ashamed at herself for hoping that Jon had died. He was part of her team, he willingly joined her knowing that he was going to be prejudiced against because of its ¡®special¡¯ members and she thanked him for his help by hoping he died over Shair. Everyone was equal in her team, each member treated the other like their own family, yet she hoped that Shair lived while Jon died. These thoughts really stressed her and made her hate herself. But nothing of the past could counter the dreadful situation that she was facing now which made today her really bad day. After the Fraz had left the area, Katelyn had led her team out of hiding and towards the command center door just 50 meters away. The door had some sort of Fraz technology as its security, so when the team got there Daniel and Harry were left to deal with the lock while the others guarded them. Jon Bellamy was their technician who was experienced in dealing with Fraz technology, but since he was no longer with the team she made the calculated decision to let Daniel and Harry-who seemed to know more about the Fraz than them-deal with the lock. One could learn only so much about the Fraz when they were continuously fighting and hiding from them. After a few agonizingly slow minutes Katelyn heard a small click behind them and Harry¡¯s voice calling them over. Katelyn twisted around to face the half open door and silently signaled the team to fan out and search the room. Daniel opened the door completely and Harry, Mia, John, and Mustafa marched inside, securing the area before Katelyn walked in with Daniel following behind closing the door. The command center was a very small room; a few large panels on electrical boxes were placed on the wall in front of them. The room was very dark, with the only light source being a blue bulb that hung over the panels. There was also a rectangular glass on the ground in the middle of the room, underneath the glass water could be seen flowing through. There were large screens placed on the wall above the panels displaying different symbols and graphs she had never seen before. To the sides of the room, stuck to the wall, were pulsating sacks made of black flesh-like membranes layered upon each other. ¡°Alright, Daniel and Harry. Get to work.¡± She ordered. ¡°Ummm¡­but Commander we don¡¯t know how to work this tech.¡± Harry said. ¡°¡­What?¡± She was a little ticked off and thought that perhaps she misheard them ¡°Repeat that.¡± ¡°Sorry Commander, we¡¯ll get to it.¡± Daniel interjected and pulled Harry to the panels. They both bent over and started observing the station. ¡°We don¡¯t have all day.¡± She snarled ¡°Get to it. The rest of you, be alert and ready.¡± ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am¡± Everyone answered. Katelyn was angry but not at the one¡¯s present. Her anger was mostly directed towards the one¡¯s not present, or more specifically she was angry at Shair. Shair had promised her that he would meet her here and yet when she reached the command center she didn¡¯t find Shair waiting for her. ¡°He¡¯s late¡± Katelyn hissed out as the continued to look at the Mark II¡¯s work on the panels. John looked over at Katelyn and adopted his signature look, a mix between worry and pity. Katelyn hated how he made her feel better, she wanted to vent her anger not have it dissipate. ¡°He¡¯s coming. Don¡¯t worry.¡± John, having said his piece, looked away. He couldn¡¯t bear to lie to her face, because even he had his doubts that Shair survived so long and after hearing about the conversation between the Fraz he wasn¡¯t optimistic. John knew Katelyn was only hanging on by a thread of hope. That was the only thing keeping her going right now and John knew he had to pretend for her sake or else the whole team would fall apart. Katelyn¡¯s strong leadership was the only thing stopping this team from abandoning the mission and getting out of this base. ¡°He better.¡± Katelyn scowled at the floor; losing herself in her thoughts. The whole room became silent, everyone focusing on their tasks and leaving their commander to her thoughts. John, Mustafa, and Mia were keeping a watch on the door and the pulsating sacks on the side walls, while Harry and Daniel fiddled with the controls obviously scared of upsetting Katelyn. Mia walked towards one of the sacks on the side wall that was pulsating at a different rhythm than the others and focused her small gun at it. ¡°Hey, John. Does this look weird to you?¡± John came by her side and saw what she meant. Aiming his gun at the sack he shot it with a couple of rounds, stopping its movements. ¡°Nope. Looks normal to me.¡± John turned back around to watch his side of the room when he suddenly heard a loud shout escape Mia. Twisting around he saw a large Fraz drenched in a transparent liquid holding Mia by her throat. John took aim with his gun as the Fraz threw Mia towards him knocking him into the floor. Harry and Daniel turned around and also took aim at the thing. They never stood a chance. The Fraz ran towards them ducking under their fire and tackling them into the shocked Mustafa. By this time Katelyn was brought out of her thoughts and had started firing at the Fraz as it brought down Mustafa. The Fraz reacted to the sound of fire and brought his arms to block the incoming bullets. Then it ran towards Katelyn dodging the shots fired, when it got close it sent a punch towards Katelyn¡¯s head to which she responding by jumping out of reach. Suddenly shots were heard on the right but it blocked them as well with his arms. Lowering them to look at the offender it saw that John was standing over an unconscious Mia aiming his gun towards it, the barrel of the gun smoking from releasing bullets at high speed. Katelyn took advantage of the moment and started to fire at the back of the Fraz. To which it responded by jumping back and smacking Katelyn on the door, knocking her out. Using the momentum the Fraz jumped from the door straight into John, who was still firing at it. John ducked down to get out the Fraz¡¯s trajectory but its outstretched arms dug into his shoulders dragging him across the floor as the Fraz landed on his chest. John was immediately knocked out a few feet left of Mia. *Rat-tat-tatat-* The Fraz was knocked off John¡¯s chest and sent flying into the sack he came from, getting drenched in its goop once again. Daniel and Harry were the only ones left conscious, everyone was knocked out by the Fraz. They kept up the heat on it, firing at it until they ran out of bullets. By then the Fraz was slumped on the wall riddled with bullets on its meat-wood body. ¡°Let¡¯s check on the others.¡± Harry nudged Daniel before turning to his fallen teammates. Daniel shot once more at the Fraz on the head before turning and checking on Mia as Harry checked on John. Daniel squatted near Mia and started tapping her on her head. ¡°Hey, get up.¡± Daniel continued on like that for a few minutes but to no avail. So he changed tactics and started shaking her by the shoulders. Harry was having similar problems so he changed to the same tactics as Daniel. ¡°You gotta¡¯ get up Mi-¡±*Blurgh* Daniel suddenly vomited as he felt being lifted from the ground. ¡°Daniel!¡± Harry shouted as he saw Daniel getting picked up off the ground by a large tendril in his shoulder. The tendril belonged to the Fraz they had recently taken down. The Fraz was clicking its teeth together, as it had no generic Fraz mask the mass of meat and wood just covered the rest of its face, leaving its mouth with the spiky teeth open to click and drool. ¡°Ahhh¡± Harry shouted as he grabbed his gun started shooting. *Click-Click* ¡°Huh¡± Harry looked at his gun. He and Daniel had forgotten to reload their guns after taking that thing down so when he started firing at the Fraz, there was no ammo to be shot. ¡°HAAAAAAAH¡± The special shouted as it threw Daniel into Harry knocking them both down. Harry could feel the blood coming from Daniel¡¯s shoulder wound, when he tried to get up and reach for his pistol he was met with the Fraz¡¯s face only inches away from his. The only thing visible on the face was the mouth as it drooled on the unconscious Daniel, the rest of the face was hidden underneath the mass of wood and meat. Harry tried to reach for his pistol slowly without alerting the Fraz, but it was smarter. The Fraz grabbed Harry by the neck and head-butted him knocking him out like the rest of the group. The single newly hatched Fraz had decimated the entire team in a matter of minutes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Katelyn was having the best day of her life. She was currently in the mess hall of HQ sitting on one of the benches, facing the man kneeling in front of her. It wasn¡¯t the man that her attention was on but the thing he was holding up and presenting to her. It had been wrapped up in a dirty piece of cloth but that did nothing to take away its shine. The man was presenting it in both hands as if offering his soul, his face; hidden as he looked down awaiting her verdict which tickled her insides and made her feel all warm inside, knowing that even he could get nervous about doing this made him seem more caring. She had dreaded for days, thinking that he was never going to do it. After their last mission when they had been excused from their duty as soldiers he had started to act differently. He had stopped ¡®interrupting¡¯ her during work, he had stopped hanging out with her, possible even avoiding her, and even stopped his late night ¡®visits¡¯. So for past few days she had been nervously sitting on this subject, afraid that if she gave it any thought she would legitimize the idea that he no longer wanted to be with her. So when she was eating in the mess hall, imagine her surprise when she was eating in the mess hall and she overheard him ask for where she was. She was, of course, shocked to the events that unfolded afterwards; he walked straight towards her, kneeled in front of her and shouted ¡°Will you marry me¡±. Gathering the attention of everyone around her. She looked at the shining object in his hand, it wasn¡¯t too ornate, rather it was very simple. A hollowed cylindrical object no more than an inch in diameter, it was made of silver and engraved with a peculiar design on the outside, shining brightly in her eyes. She reached out to pick it up and slowly turned it around in her fingers, looking at the engraving inside the object. The rough etching of the words suggested that he had to write it by hand instead of using an engraving machine. The thought and effort that he placed in it made her feel¡­secure, she was in her own world; thinking of the reasons for it and the possibilities it presented, until a light cough brought her down to Earth. He was still nervously awaiting her response, it was cute, the way he was sweating during this moment. It showed how important it was to him and that made her feel secure. She placed the ring on her finger and inspected it from far away. ¡°I think it suits me well, don¡¯t you?¡± She mischievously asked him enjoying the blank stares everyone gave her. She knew how she was presented in the HQ, an aggressive but cold commander who only cared about getting victory through the smallest effort. The councils influence stretched far and deep, it may have been a bad move to cross some of them but if she wanted to remain faithful to her ideals she would have it no way. ¡®Let them think whatever they want. What do you think?¡¯ she thought, smiling at how his head shot up and looked at her joyfully. This moment was by far the happiest moment of her life, her man proposing and asking to spend the rest of his life by her side. She was happy¡­ That was until a large amount of saliva suddenly fell from the ceiling and unto her arm. She looked up at the source and saw only darkness; a chill ran down her spine as she suddenly looked down around her. Everyone, everything had disappeared leaving only blackness behind. It was a dream. When the realization hit her she spiraled into the abyss in despair until a white light pierced the darkness and blinded her. She slowly opened her eyes and saw that she was in the command center of the Fraz headquarters; the Fraz was above her, drooling on her arms. She was feeling pain around her chest and once she looked down she knew why. She was tied up by a vine, and around her was the rest of her team. To her left was John and to her right was Mia, both already awake and glaring at the Fraz. The Fraz, upon noticing that she was awake, turned around and moved to the panels to fiddle with. ¡°You are very troublesome.¡± A deep voice reverberated through the room. It took her a few seconds before she found the source. The Fraz had just spoken English. Ever since the invasion there had never been any incident that the Fraz had spoken a human language. This was a new type of Fraz and judging by how easily it knocked out her team, it was very a dangerous new breed. ¡°Why keep us alive?¡± Katelyn asked gaining attention from both John and Mia. ¡°Need prisoners¡± The Fraz spoke ¡°Our supply was running out¡± The Fraz looked towards Katelyn once more, a large gap appeared underneath the area where its eyes should be. The gap curved to the sides until it looked like a smile. ¡°Of course one of you is going to be my¡­¡®source¡¯ so I can get stronger¡± The Fraz held up his hands to gesture to himself ¡°a growing thing needs its nutrition, right?¡± It then turned back and looked at the panels to fiddle with again. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Katelyn asked once more. ¡°Signaling comrade-¡± *Boom*was all that escaped his mouth when suddenly a large hole in the ceiling near the pulsating sacks was created. Dust and smoke suddenly filled the room; the Fraz immediately positioned himself in a leaping stance that had knocked Katelyn before. Two dark figures fell down from the dark hole in the ceiling and stood on the rubble. Katelyn was paying close attention to the figures; one of the figures was short and rather fat, while the other was significantly taller but very thin. None of the shadows matched his, when the revelation dawned upon Katelyn it shook something inside her. All she heard was the ringing in her ears as her eyes became hazy and her face became numb, Katelyn¡¯s senses started to close down. The only sense she still retained was her sight even after everything had become numb and filled with ringing. Her eyes saw through the dust and the smoke how the two figures raised their hands and started to fire at the Fraz. The bullets barely scratched it, instead they ricochet of off the armor and damaged the machinery surrounding the Fraz. Even if they were bound to die Katelyn knew that blowing up the Fraz base with them was way better than being killed by the Fraz one by one. ¡°Hey, Idiots stop damaging the machinery we need it to blow this base up.¡± The thought of blowing the base up and killing thousands of Fraz at the same time brought her out of her sorrowful state, allowing her to shout at the two humans¡¯ about to mess up her genocide plan. The new type of Fraz was most definitely made to imitate human nature as it adopted a boxer¡¯s defensive pose while moving towards the two shooting at it. None of the Fraz had ever been as powerful as this one and they had never been so human like too. This new creature was definitely dangerous and even a greater threat to humanity than the others of its kind, Katelyn knew it all too well. The Fraz rushed into the barrage of fire that the dark figures lay out and tackled the taller one, slamming it into the wall out of the smoke. The thin old man spurted blood as his ribs broke and fell over in a coughing fit, while the Fraz used its momentum like it did when slamming Katelyn and jumped back into the potbellied figure still in the smoke. The figure wasn¡¯t as agile as John so it felt the full force of the Fraz¡¯s tackle when the creature speared the figure, sending it skidding on the floor out the smoke as well. When the Fraz stood over the figure, it grabbed the figure by the neck and lifted it off the floor, Katelyn saw that it was Jon.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Hey, mud face. Let him go.¡± John yelled at the Fraz angrily as he twisted next to Katelyn to get out of his strong binds. Mustafa also started to move about trying to loosen the rope tied around them. The groups focus was so much on the thing tying them and Jon being strangled by the Fraz that they completely missed a third figure hope down in the dissipating dust. *Bang* The sound of loud gun fire in the room momentarily stopped everyone¡¯s motion, except for the Fraz¡¯s movement who stumbled forwards throwing Jon against the other wall, the back of its neck hissing smoke. The Fraz looked back and snarled at the figure appearing out of the smoke, his colt directed at the Fraz and its barrel hissing smoke. Katelyn was the first to break from the stillness that encompassed the room and looked at the figure appearing out of the smoke. A wide grin grew on her face when she saw that the shadow belonged to Shair, appearing out of the smoke. He was bruised, limping, and bleeding from different places on his body, but he was alive and that was all she cared about. However that large smile disappeared as soon as it came when she saw that the Fraz was running towards Shair. Before she had a chance to warn him the Fraz had already reached him. It was a few feet away from Shair when it jumped in the air like a feral creature aiming for his head. Shair ducked to the side under the swing of its arm, as the Fraz landed behind him he twisted around and shot the creature on its chest thrice more. The impact of the colt¡¯s bullets caught the Fraz off guard and it stumbled backwards. However that¡¯s all it did, the Fraz still had no visible wound on its body, and still seemed to be advancing at Shair. The Fraz reached out for Shair head once more and once again Shair ducked away from it, but it had been expecting that. When Shair ducked under its claw the Fraz sent a punch from his other hand aimed for his chest where his shirt was soaked in blood. Knowing what was about to happen Shair brought up his left hand to absorb the punch while with his right he aimed at the Fraz¡¯s chest. *Squench* *Crack* The sound of bones breaking and blood spurting out could be heard as Shair was sent flying to the closed door, slamming in it with such force that a loud ¡®slap¡¯ sound could be heard. However, as Shair sailed through the air his right hand on instinct started firing wildly at the dark creature, some bullet struck it while the others struck the control panels behind it. The Fraz seemingly unfazed started to saunter towards Shair. When the Fraz came into range Shair sent a kick flying towards the creature¡¯s head, but it never connected as the Fraz ducked down and punched Shair straight in the bloody spot of his Kevlar. *Crack* sounds of ribs breaking could be heard as Shair spat blood straight at the creatures face. The Fraz just smiled and wiped the blood off its face before grabbing him by the neck and bringing him closer towards its face. Shair was bleeding from the sides of his mouth and had multiple bruises and cuts on his face, but despite being in close proximity to the Fraz¡¯s face Shair still kept an expressionless face, refusing to even grunt in pain as he was lifted upwards. ¡°Hmmmm¡± The Fraz hummed as a gap appeared on its face, where its mouth was ¡°Why don¡¯t you get me coffee this time¡­Lion.¡± Everyone in room was shocked at the creature¡¯s actions; they all had a face of astonishment and disbelief but not Katelyn. Katelyn wasn¡¯t shocked like the rest of the humans present; she was utterly horrified at the voice that came out of the Fraz¡¯s mouth. The voice was not one it had used a moment ago when he was talking to her, no, this voice was much more feminine and what horrified her so much was that she knew who that voice belonged to. That was her voice. The Fraz was repeating what she told Shair two days ago. The Fraz was using her voice and calling him by their nickname. She knew that the perfect imitation of her voice and the nickname that only they knew meant that¡­it had been in her mind. It seemed like Shair also knew that because he was staring at her with a shocked expression, he looked back at the Fraz when it spoke once more. ¡°Do you think a life together would be worth it?¡± This time the voice was much calmer and softer than before. The Fraz seemed to enjoy being a schadenfreude because its smile grew as it watched Shair¡¯s reaction. Shair¡¯s previous shock was replaced by a look of pure anger and hate as he clenched his teeth and glared at the Fraz angrily. The Fraz was really enjoying this as it drooled onto Shair¡¯s Kevlar, its tongue hanging off on the side. While Katelyn was completely immersed in what the Fraz was going to say next, Jon was already moving forwards to help Shair unbeknownst to the man himself. Jon carefully located the bullets Shair fired off into the panels and started to dig them out without making a noise. Wezzil was watching this and when their eyes met, a silent nod was passed between the two as Wezzil also joined in locating and digging the bullets. The Fraz was too busy enjoying Shair¡¯s reactions to pay attention to them silently working in the back. Shair was glaring at the Fraz with hate and anger boiling up inside him, his mouth was slightly foaming but not a single voice escaped him mouth, it was all being stored inside him, waiting to explode, waiting to escape. Even though it had no eyes to see from the Fraz looked away from Shair to admire Katelyn¡¯s reaction as she was tied up with the rest of her squad. Upon her face was no longer a look of horror but instead a look similar to Shair¡¯s was present, both had eyes glaring at the creature with hatred, both had clenched teeth but only she was releasing a dangerous aura around her while Shair had bottled it up. The anger and threat that Katelyn was releasing could be felt by those tied up around her, so they had leaned away from her in case she tried to break free and accidently hurt those around her. The Fraz turned back to look at Shair and opened his mouth to speak out. ¡°Yeah, But you know?¡± The Fraz widened his grin ¡°I wouldn¡¯t mind saying it¡­I¡­love-¡± ¡°AHHHHHHHHH!¡± Shair screamed. All the anger and hate stored inside him suddenly erupted. It all came out in once long rage filled scream. Everyone in the room was caught off guard, even Katelyn lost her previous anger as she looked at Shair worriedly. ¡°AHHHHHHH!¡± Shair continued to yell as he forcefully grabbed the creature¡¯s wrists and used it to pull himself upwards and kicked the Fraz into the chest with all his might. The Fraz¡¯s grip loosened and it stumbled backwards quickly regaining its balance as it readied itself to charge forwards but what Shair said next stopped it in its tracks. ¡°Moshni vishru¡± Shair brought his colt near his head for the Fraz to see and slowly cocked the hammer of his gun back ¡°Stiffa Virna Mashira¡±. Jon at this moment with Wezzil threw the bullets they had collected from the panels towards the Fraz. *Click**Boom* as the familiar sound of his gun activating the explosive bullets rung in the room it was filled with a loud explosion as the bullets embedded in the Fraz and the ones thrown towards it, blew up. Smoke rose from the explosion and, a dark figure could be seen illuminated in the smoke from the one light source in the room. Shair didn¡¯t wait for the figure to act as he ran into the smoke, yelling as he went by. Katelyn couldn¡¯t see his face as he went but she knew that he had finally snapped once again. Katelyn looked at Shair figure disappearing into the smoke and she swore she saw tears leaking from his eyes. When the two figures confronted in the smoke it was mostly one-sided offense on Shair¡¯s side. The Fraz held his ground as he received punches and kicks from the angry Shair. Katelyn could see his figure picking up more speed, the more he punched or kicked and his attacks seemed to be getting more focused on the chest area of the Fraz. Finally Shair grabbed the Fraz by the head and ran to ram him into the wall on the left outside of Katelyn¡¯s field of view. *Crunch* the sound of wood and bone breaking could be heard as he brought the creatures head into the wall. Shair let go of the Fraz once he heard it breaking and the body fell on the floor with no resistance, but Shair didn¡¯t stop there. He got on top of the creature, straddling him on his chest and started to punch the broken head. Neither Jon, nor Daniel, nor Harry had a clear view of what was happening to the Fraz but both of them could clearly see the damage previously done on the body and they could hear the crunching sound as Shair pummeled the Fraz¡¯s head. The Fraz¡¯s body was still hissing as it lay there, still smoking, and Shair was sitting on it, punching like it was a cushion. Large holes could be seen exposing the insides of the Fraz, the result of Shair¡¯s colt. ¡°Haaaa¡­.Haaaa¡­.Haaaa,¡± Harry could see Shair getting tired as the pain of the bruises and cuts finally took their toll on him. Shair quickly changed tactics and instead of punching the Fraz he started to rip the body apart. He grabbed the twisted branches and vines and started to pull them apart, exposing the creature¡¯s insides. Shair started with the head and moved downwards onto this chest, his breathing had gotten shorter and louder, as if the more air he took it the more it was forced out by the pain. He finally stopped ripping and breaking away at the wood when he couldn¡¯t feel his arms anymore; the searing hot pain in them numbed his control his own body. It was like the arms had been completely shut off from the rest of the body, stuck to his shoulders like extra baggage. He could still feel his fingers, bending them was easy, but he couldn¡¯t bend his arms without shaking in exhaustion. Tired, Shair grabbed his colt from the side and unsteadily stood up, his breathing was much harder and he was sweating greatly. By which time Jon and Wezzil had untied and freed the rest of the group and they all stood a few feet away watching Shair breath over the motionless body of the Fraz. Shair aimed for the creature¡¯s chest, the fleshy insides exposed and shot one last bullet. ¡®Bang!¡¯ Moving off of the dead body Shair cupped his side, where the Fraz had attacked him and slowly stumbled towards the wall on the left leaning against the wall next to the steel door. By this time Wezzil and Jon were working on getting the rope tied around the rest of the group off. Shair¡¯s armed was shaking as he moved his thumb over the hammer and pushed it down. *Click* ¡®Boom¡¯ and so with a last willing effort, he exploded the final bullet stuck on the fallen Fraz new-breed. Once the bang rung across the room Shair fell to the ground he slumped over and started to cough violently, the injuries finally taking their toll on him. Katelyn immediately appeared next to him and gave him a large hug as he coughed over her shoulder. She could feel his blood and spit going down her back, but, in this moment, she didn¡¯t care what he did neither did she care what the others saw her do. The HQ had strict rules on male and females soldiers getting too comfortable with each other, no, that was a right reserved to only the heads of departments, the staff member and ¡­ the retired (of which there weren¡¯t any). Once a soldier felt too strongly for another it would hinder their results in the field, or so the council made the excuse. When they announced that her team was getting retirement, the first of the survivors associated with HQ to do so, she was really happy that it would no longer have to stay a secret; a bond hidden in the dark. She had him in her arms, and this was her last mission on the field before retirement so she going to do damn well whatever she liked, despite what others thought or what they saw. Katelyn held him by the back of his head once Shair had stopped coughing up blood, his eyes were still a little hazy and in his dizzy state he smiled weakly at her, pressing his forehead against hers. Katelyn allowed herself to smile as well and proceeded to kiss the sides of his neck, where the marks from the Fraz¡¯s fingers could still be seen; she then moved to kiss his check and then¡­despite the blood covering the sides of his mouth kissed him full on the lips. They both shared a moment of silence as they enjoyed their intimate moment. *Sigh* ¡°About damn time¡± John smiled at the two. Despite the worrying situation a moment ago once Katelyn and Shair rekindled their fire all tension in the room seemed to be lifted, although they were all injured in some way, although they were all tired to some degree and although what they were doing was extremely reckless in their situation where enemies could be popping through the door any moment; the whole group enjoyed a moment of silence and peace. Of course not everyone had the same reaction. The rescued general was still worried about their current situation and found the public display of love in their current situation extremely inappropriate, evident by his disgusted face. However, he did not voice his concerns to the others. It was because once he looked at the two¡¯s expression he immediately understood that they both had experienced tragic and needed the other to keep them grounded. He was not a member of their team, nor was he a person of significance anymore, governments had fallen so there was obviously no need to keep dwelling on the past ranks which would no longer serve him at times like this. He had no right to interject of their ¡®moment¡¯ so he just let it go and awaited the next most appropriate time instead. Mustafa was a little blind in the dark room so of course he couldn¡¯t properly see what Katelyn was doing. He thought that she was checking his wounds and making sure he was alright, he doubted the two would reveal their relationship in front of the Mark IIs who could potentially report it. With the way everyone else was acting, it was evident to Mustafa that the trouble had passed and that they would have some time for a breather until the next wave. Similarly Jon was pleased with how the situation turned out, he wasn¡¯t part blind like Mustafa so when he saw the two go for it he felt content. He had some time for a breather for the next battle, from the beginning he had his doubts about the two¡¯s relationship since the beginning and was satisfied at being proven correct. However the most content and happy about the situation were two individuals standing side by the side gleaming at their buddies. John and Mia looked at each other and a small smile of satisfaction passed over the two¡¯s faces. Mia and John had known the two for as long as Shair and Katelyn had known each other, so this public display of affection really made the two feel happy. They had been Shair and Katelyn¡¯s confidants for some time now, whenever the two had bumps and hurdles to cross in their relationships they had been there to help them along, going so far as to even discuss the two¡¯s relationship behind their backs. The HQ forbid deep relations between soldiers, even though they necessarily didn¡¯t like those rules they still had to follow them due to a promise to a certain someone. Therefore they had to help keep Shair and Katelyn¡¯s relationship a secret for their sakes and now that they were officially displaying it, no longer keeping it a secret, John and Mia felt a pang of satisfaction from seeing the curtain finally reveal the real Commander Katelyn and ¡®Psycho¡¯ Shair. While Mia and John were feeling good about themselves the two other individuals felt rather awkward with what they were seeing. One could say that those two were the only one¡¯s ¡®grounded¡¯ at the moment of peace, they fully grasped the stupidity and recklessness of the situation as it unfolded. One moment Shair had been on the verge of insanity with rage, thrashing the Fraz and now he was kissing their Commander who was most known for her serious and cold demeanor. This complete reversal from a few moments ago was too much for the soldiers to handle, they were so shocked that they couldn¡¯t voice any concerns while the ¡®session¡¯ continued. One of them was bleeding out while the other grasped the situation they were truly facing. Harry looked towards his friend who was leaning upon him and saw that Daniel was still bleeding out. Looking across towards Shair, Harry saw a small pool of blood also pile up below him. Despite the intense bleeding nobody seemed to be noticing the pool of blood spreading below him, so Harry gave Mia a slight nudge getting her attention and pointed towards the blood spreading below Shair. ¡°Oh my!¡± Mia exclaimed as she whipped her head back to look at Daniel leaning against Harry with a hole of his own bleeding on the ground. ¡°Uh¡­Katelyn move aside!¡± Mia practically shoved the mesmerized Katelyn from an equally mesmerized Shair and opened up her small metal medic box. Ignoring the annoyed looks from both lovers she took out a bottle of alcohol while ordering the others what to do. ¡°All those who have serious injuries find a spot at the near the metal walls and wait your turn.¡± Mia looked at Katelyn apologetically ¡°We¡¯ll be depending on you, Commander¡± Something about that sentence seemed to snap Katelyn back to her Commander self. She stood up and looked at her teammates; some were waddling to sit against the walls while the others helped them sit down. ¡°John! Harry!¡± She shouted gaining both of their attention as they struck a salute. ¡°Get rid of the other¡¯s on the wall¡­and make sure they don¡¯t move again.¡± Once the two were firing at the pulsating sacks on the wall she finally gave her attention to general Wezzil. Sensing what she wanted, Wezzil also struck a salute. ¡°General Wezzil... Ex-General, Ma¡¯am¡± ¡°General Wezzil, I am Commander Katelyn with the human resistance against the Fraz. I believe one of my subordinates rescued you and brought you here. I am grateful for your assistance in getting them here. Thank you.¡± The Commander kept a serious tone as she gave her thanks and even proceeded to salute the man. ¡°No, No. Thank you for rescuing me.¡± Wezzil waved his hands as if to deny any thanks. Wezzil, upon noticing the wincing and smiling Shair as Mia applied bandaged and alcohol on him, leaned closer to Commander and said ¡°I don¡¯t believe that one is human, with all due respect Ma¡¯am. He didn¡¯t speak a single word since I met him and just walked into the fray of lasers from the creatures we encountered above. And the whispers? I believe those were the same words that monster of this base use as communica-¡± ¡°Thank you for worrying General Wezzil, but I will interrogate my subordinates if I feel it is necessary.¡± The Commander smiled, ending their conversation. ¡°Ah¡­ Sorry for bothering Ma¡¯am.¡± General Wezzil apologized. ¡°What would you need me to do?¡± ¡°Um, Can you help patch up Daniel with Mustafa?¡± She pointed towards the slumped over Daniel near the far wall. Once he had gone over to help Harry and John approached her and asked for further instructions. ¡°Help with the injuries first, then reload all the weapons and check inventory. Report them at the end.¡± Having finished giving orders Katelyn moved to squat beside the laughing Shair, whose laugh suddenly turned into a violent cough as he spurted blood from his mouth. ¡°Try to stop laughing so much, you¡¯ll cause more damage that way.¡± Mia scolded him as she finished binding his leg, she then turned towards Katelyn. ¡°I swear next time he won¡¯t be so lucky, Kate¡± Mia fussed. ¡°What happened?¡± Katelyn asked while glaring at Shair. ¡°Part of his thigh is missing, the thing itself is barely holding together with a sleeve.¡± ¡°Hey, now. How am I supposed to know what to do when my body parts go flying off during fights?¡± Shair glared at Mia. ¡°Shair¡­¡± Katelyn said threateningly ¡°You are missing pieces of your thigh. Mind explaining that?¡± ¡°Uh¡­ well the piece of thigh was ripped off by one of the Fraz¡¯s guns. I tried to improvise and use my sleeves as bandages, Jon helped patch me up that time.¡± Shair nervously explained under the intense gaze of Katelyn. Shair knew he had done something wrong with the way Katelyn was glaring at him and didn¡¯t want to feel her ire. ¡°Okay, any other wounds?¡± Mia asked uncomfortably as Katelyn stared at Shair with fire in her eyes. ¡°Um, nope. I¡¯m golden. Thanks.¡± Shair told Mia. Mia turned to close up her medical box so she could move onto someone else while Katelyn continued to observe Shair figure with a scowl. As Mia stood up to leave Katelyn¡¯s hand shot up and held her in place by the arm. ¡°What is it?¡± Mia looked at Katelyn puzzlingly. ¡°He¡¯s faking it.¡± She whispered. ¡°What?¡± Mia asked confusedly. Katelyn shot a punch aimed for Shair¡¯s side, once it connected Shair yelled in pain stunning Mia and causing others in the room to look at him. ¡°Take off the armor¡± Katleyn ordered as she opened Mia¡¯s medical box and took out a tube and some bandages. ¡°Alright, alright.¡± Shair said gruffly as he started to take off his Kevlar. Katelyn, having taken out all she needed, turned to Mia. ¡°I¡¯ll take it from here, go help Daniel. He needs immediate attention.¡± ¡°Al-Alright¡± Mia took her medical box and went to take care of Daniel who was groaning in pain. Katelyn lifted up Shair¡¯s shirt to examine the damage, his stomach and ribs had black and blue bruises and the heart area on his chest had a large drill wound as if the flesh was regenerating in steps. Katelyn looked up at Shair and held his eyes, Shair didn¡¯t say a word. ¡°Why?¡± Katelyn broke the contact and looked at the ground. ¡°Had to get to you¡± Shair gloomily looked at Katelyn¡¯s bowed head. ¡°Is this¡­not good?¡± Katelyn took out some paste from the tube and started to rub it over Shair¡¯s stomach and chest. Once she was finished she then started to wrap bandages around him starting from his lowest pair of abs. ¡°What isn¡¯t good is that you¡¯ll get yourself killed if you keep going at this rate.¡± Katelyn focused on her task as she answered. ¡°If I didn¡¯t do these kind of things where would I be now? I promised I¡¯ll meet you here and I kept it, this was just what cost me my achievement. I small price to all the good things we are going to do once we get back if you ask me.¡± Shair grinned as he winced at the pain. ¡°Hmmmm¡± Katelyn blushed slightly thinking of what ¡®good things¡¯ meant. ¡°It would be a nice change from all the fighting lately.¡± ¡°Retirement, huh. Hey Kate.¡± Shair placed his hand on her shoulder gaining her attention. ¡°How many do you want?¡± Katelyn just stared at Shair as she thought of what that statement meant. When it dawned on her what he was talking about she slightly blushed, her face fell and a hand shot out to punch his shoulder. ¡°Ow¡± Shair groaned slightly but didn¡¯t protest anymore. Katelyn¡¯s fist was still placed on his shoulder, they were shaking so much that she had to stop and take a breather and lean backwards. ¡°You¡¯ll have to do some things before that, Lion.¡± She told him. While Katelyn kept on looking down at the bandages Shair reached into the Kevlar on the side and opened up a pocket. Inside the pocket were two large cigars, he took one out and left the pocket open. Shair reached into his shirt and took out a small lighter. It wasn¡¯t anything ornate but it held great sentimental value to him, evident by the polished and clean surface juxtaposing with the dirty man himself. Shair tapped Katelyn on the shoulder bringing her out of her thoughts, she looked at him and then the lighter he was holding in his hand. ¡°I know.¡± Shair tapped the lighter and showed her the underside of it, ¡°I haven¡¯t forgotten¡±. On the bottom of the lighter, crudely etched in italics ¡®A promise till the end¡¯ was written, the writing was so small it was wonder how he was able to write in down with his large fingers. ¡°Lion¡± Katelyn murmured as she leaned forward, her hands resting against his large chest feeling the steady heartbeat of his human heart. Katelyn smiled as she brought her face directly in front of his, their lips a few millimeters away from touching. She was looking at his eyes, waiting for him to take the lead for once. However like before he remained where he was, ever the gentleman, he refused to act until Katelyn gave him the okay. ¡°Yes, Kate?¡± Shair whispered. ¡°Don¡¯t keep me waiting.¡± She purred as she grinned seductively. ¡°I won¡¯t¡± Shair leaned forward, covering the distance of a few millimeters and placed his parched lips on hers. They enjoyed a moment of complete happiness as, like before, a steady warmth spread through their chests, electricity passed through their spines as they both felt excited. All other noises shut themselves out and soon only the two of them were there. Enjoying. Loving. And surviving. Shair was the one to break the kiss as he leaned back and showed Katelyn the cigar, offering her the sensual relief that it provided. Katelyn, however, shook her head as she giggled and returned back to patching him up. Shair opened up the lighter and lit his cigar after a few swipes of the wheel, he took a long drag as he admired Katelyn¡¯s face while she worked. After a few minutes of Katelyn working and Shair smoking, she finally finished and leaned back to look at him, smoke hid most of his face but a content smile was evident on his face. She moved over to the Kevlar and also took out a cigar before taking the lighter that hung around his neck and lighting her own. Shair opened his eyes and smiled as he bit into the cigar. While Katelyn and Shair enjoyed themselves the rest of the group also took a relaxed position in their part of the room and discussed their own thing. They were still deep in the enemy territory and only six of them were in any condition to move around and fight the Fraz, but for a small moment it didn¡¯t seem to matter. John and Jon were discussing what happened after they were separated from the group while Wezzil was telling the others of what he learned about the Fraz while he was tortured for the past decade or so. Chapter 8- Lion and His Pride After Katelyn and Shair had finished their cigars, the giddy looks on their faces slowly disappeared and both of them adopted a serious expression as they stood up. Kate helped Shair stand while the rest of the group, upon noticing the two moving, also stood to await their new orders. After making sure Shair could move on his own, Katelyn moved towards the rest of the group to address their agenda. ¡°Ahhhh, I am going to spare you guys the long speeches unlike before¡± She grinned threateningly ¡°we are hard pressed for time, once we start the ignition of the gases from here, the whole place will combust in a matter of minutes. Understood!" ¡°Yes, Ma¡¯am,¡± Everyone shouted in synch. ¡°Alright, Jon go get the ignition system ready.¡± She ordered, turning towards Jon ¡°Yes, Ma¡¯am¡± ¡°John! Inventory report,¡± She turned slightly towards John, her face frowned in a mix of both anger and determination. ¡°We got three HVK¡¯s, with a total of 130 bullets. Five Glock-66¡¯s with 150 bullets. One Dingo-6 with 50 bullets. The rest of the guns have no ammo so they¡¯re useless¡± ¡°Hey, wait, wait.¡± Shair interjected ¡°What about the colt?¡± ¡°The colt doesn¡¯t have any more bullets, does it?¡± John asked. ¡°Wait.¡± The Commander reached into the back pocket of her armor and took out two magazines of revolver bullets. ¡°Here¡± She said handing the two to Shair ¡°You left them last time.¡± ¡°Alright¡± Shair said happily. ¡°Now that¡¯s one colt with 14 bullets.¡± ¡°Humph. That¡¯s all Commander.¡± ¡°Give the most able; the assault rifles and LMG¡¯s while the rest equip with the pistols.¡± She said as she dismissed him. ¡°My god what was it trying to do?¡± Suddenly Jon¡¯s voice could be heard from over at the panels. ¡°What do you mean?¡± The Commander moved towards Jon. ¡°Whoever used this last was trying to divert all the energy towards this place from other stations. This room would have blown up if this had continued.¡± Jon was nervously sweating as he changed the course for the power. As the three fussed over the predicament they had just got out of, unbeknownst to everyone two individuals were sweating even more than the technician. Although they were relieved at being saved they were also very afraid of the consequences if it somehow led back to them. So scooting away from the group, as if it would decrease their chances of being spotted, the Mark II¡¯s moved to the corner of the room. ¡°Try your best Jon.¡± The Commander said, then focused her attention towards Mustafa. ¡°Could you use those glasses to see what¡¯s happening outside?¡± ¡°Sure¡± Mustafa clicked a few buttons on his visor before looking outside the door. Since his visor was equipped with equipment to restore his sight, the HQ saw it fit to add other features in as well like; X-ray, or Infrared and such. ¡°There isn¡¯t any movement outside. Do you think that thing didn¡¯t contact its brethren yet?¡± After a minute or two of looking outside Mustafa turned towards his Commander. ¡°Hmmm, Maybe, but keep your eyes peeled and stay alert all the same. ¡®Kay?¡± the Commander¡¯s frowned deepened as she stared at the two large steel doors. ¡°That¡¯s for sure.¡± ¡°What do you need me to do?¡± Shair said as he approached her, taking this as his cue Mustafa moved away to give the two some space. ¡°All you have to do is¡± She pinched his cheeks as she spoke ¡°stay in my sight.¡± ¡°Ow¡± With that she turned away leaving Shair to rub his cheek in pain, all the wounds on his body should have been causing him intense pain but the only thing he was focused on right now was passing the boredom of not doing anything but stay in her sight. Katelyn was acting like a proper commander now that he was here and he didn¡¯t want to cause any more harm and jeopardize the safety of his comrades by distracting her. After a few minutes of discussions and preparations everyone was ready to move out. The tense atmosphere could be felt oppressing those few, injured and battle hardened soldiers in the room; even the drops of sweat flowing down Jon¡¯s face could be heard. Eventually Jon finished fiddling with the controls and raised his hand up as if to give the affirmation to move out, he then swung down as he pushed a button on the panel and turned to move with the group. The Glock-66, unclasped and in his hand, ready to shoot any Fraz they would encounter. ¡°Let¡¯s go everyone!¡± The Commander opened the doors and led the way outside. The group moved with caution, everyone knew how important this moment was one wrong move and an encounter with the enemy could kill them all. The tense atmosphere remained¡­until someone ran ahead recklessly. ¡°Shair, get back here!¡± Katelyn hissed. ¡°Nobody is here, so let¡¯s go.¡± Shair hissed back as he ran. ¡°Idiot¡± Katelyn cursed. Seeing how he wasn¡¯t going to stop, the commander led her team in a slow jog to catch up to Shair who had already traversed the large clearing and was standing at the top of the staircase, waiting for the team. Once the she reached him the first thing she did was swing her arm back. *Shhht* Katelyn slapped Shair as hard as she could afford without making much noise. Shair just stayed still his eyes wide with shock, until his pain receptors picked up the action and transmitted the burn of the slap to the brain. ¡°Owwwww¡± Shair hissed as he held his cheek where she had slapped him. ¡°I don¡¯t care on what basis you are running. I am the teams commander and you will follow my orders, understood?¡± Katelyn held him by the hair. ¡°You are injured and if you overexert yourself, you will reopen your wounds. Follow my lead and stay with the group.¡± Katelyn pushed him back and Shair fell into step next to John who just gave him a wry smile as they jogged behind their commander. ¡°How were you so sure there was no one hiding around outside for us?¡± Jon asked. ¡°Intuition¡± Shair whispered as he looked to the ground sadly. ¡°Intuition, huh?¡± John whispered. ¡°When have my intuition ever been wrong?¡± Shair whispered back glaring at John as they descended the steps. ¡°I am not saying you¡¯re wrong. But... I thought we went past this?¡± ¡°Past what?¡± Shair looked quizzily. ¡°It¡¯s worrying how you could forget about it so easily. You just promised to stay in her sight and then we see you running off, imagine what your putting her through.¡± ¡°The faster we get off this thing and retire the faster we get to be happy.¡± *Sigh*¡°Your still suffering from acute amnesia¡­fuck. Okay, imagine from her perspective; the man you love gets taken away from you by a Fraz mutation, no wait.¡± John shoookhis head ¡°To begin with you always disappear whenever you go out on a mission. She has to keep on worrying if you are alive or died behind enemy lines and still put up with you when you do get back. Did you ever open up to her, properly?¡± ¡°Hey¡± Shair hissed as he followed John to get a bit away from the group to have their conversation ¡°I open up, I tell her things.¡± John frowned at Shair pitifully ¡°I saw an opening and I took it.¡± Shair just shrugged unable to believe that he did something wrong. ¡°It would have been fine the first few times, but seriously using the same excuse over and over again loses its value. I know you don¡¯t talk about these things and I find it incredible that she is willing to put up with that.¡± John rolled his eyes while Shair looked at the ground worryingly. ¡°I can¡¯t believe we are having this conversation here. You have some serious explaining to do when we get back, especially to her. She, no, we have been through enough for today and then we see you running off again, doesn¡¯t matter if there are no Fraz around us, that was a wrong move friend. If it was up to me I would have left your ass a long time ago.¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Shair stayed silent as he stared at the ground, worry written all over his face as they reached the second flight of stairs. ¡°Carefully¡± Katelyn whispered as she descended down the steps. The rest of the group followed her until she suddenly crouched at one step and held her hand to signal a halt. Another series of hand signals followed telling them that a group of Frazs were spread out in front of them on a ledge. Katelyn looked back and glared at Mustafa who just shrugged nervously. Shair crouched forwards and reached a hand on her shoulder gaining her attention. He then explained with his hands that a silencer would be needed to take them out. Understanding what he said Katelyn reached for the pockets on her utility belt and took out a large silencer looking thing. This was more suited to be placed on an assault rifle than anything else. She placed it on her HVK and it clasped on its barrel with a click. Shair gave her an encouraging squeeze before returning to his place and letting the rest of the squad members who already had the silencers on their glock in front. Wezzil didn¡¯t have a silenced weapon and Daniel was too injured to fire properly so he had to uncomfortably stay next to them while the others did the work. Evident by the gritting of his teeth, Shair did not like other people taking care of things for him, even if they were his closest friends. Katelyn moved forwards with slow careful steps until she was close enough to get a sure fire kill without any stray bullets. The others had occupied the space behind her and each aimed at a different target. Katelyn held up her hand and counted down from 3, 2, 1. *Swip-Swip-Swip* *pip-pip-pip-pip-pip* A barrage of fire hit the Fraz standing around, luckily there were enough Fraz for each person. The Glock-66 and the HVK shot down each Fraz before they even had time to react, the bullets from the guns were placed perfectly at the dead center of their chests so even the smallest sources on those regulars would be destroyed. This display of silent execution showed off that one strength they all had in common, they were all suited to kill a Fraz. After a little while when the ammo of the HVK finally stopped and the last Fraz fell down in a heap of dead wood, only then did the group progress further. The caution seemed to disappear in the group as they were suddenly taken over by exhaustion, their movements less steady and their steps heavy. John and Shair were walking side by side when they were joined by Weezil and Jon. Harry walked back to Daniel who was being helped by Mia and supported him from the other side as they followed Mustafa and their Commander towards the ledge. Mustafa stopped a few meters away from the ledge and raised his arm, after waiting like that for a while a dark cloth came in view. It was covering a large object that took up the entire length of the ledge. Wezzil upon seeing this nudged Jon in the side and asked. ¡°That¡¯s a camouflage for covering our ride out of here.¡± Shair spoke up instead of Jon, his eyes fixed on Katelyn. Wezzil was slightly shocked at being addressed by him but quickly regained his composure and gave him a once over before speaking. ¡°It surprises me that a man with such injuries can still talk properly without coughing up blood.¡± ¡°Then you must have lived around weak people.¡± Shair snapped. ¡°Shair¡± Jon frowned at Shair¡¯s behavior while John placed a hand on his shoulder. ¡°Sorry, just a bit tired.¡± Shair scratched the back of his neck, taking John¡¯s hand off him. Jon turned towards Wezzil before addressing him ¡°Shair is a Mark I, we all are, except those two¡±. ¡°Mark I?¡± ¡°Phase one of enhanced humans. HQ has these drugs that enhance the reflexes of the humans allowing us to match the Fraz in battle.¡± When Jon said then Shair whipped his hands towards Jon. ¡°Drugs? They injected you with drugs?¡± Shair addressed Jon with his nostrils flared. ¡°Shair. The injection enhances the reflexes, we all went through this.¡± John looked towards Shair with concern. ¡°What process did you go through?¡± Shair was starting to sweat as he looked from Jon to John, his mind drawing different scenarios that his next choice may lead to. Finally he sighed and looked back at the Commander who was helping Mustafa get in the aircraft. ¡°I can¡¯t remember, must have slept through the process.¡± Shair was obviously lying and John could feel it, having been his friend this long, he knew that whenever Shair lied; his left eye¡¯s lower eyelid twitched slightly. But he didn¡¯t pursue it at the moment, they were very close to getting out of this and he didn¡¯t want to delay them nor did he want to cause Katelyn anymore stress, he would deal with this later. *Boom-FSSHHHH* A large explosion followed by a tremor and sounds of gases being released sent the humans into action. Katelyn shouted for everyone to get into the Pelican while the tarp that was covering the aircraft suddenly got pulled back into it. As everyone boarded the aircraft the explosive sounds were getting louder, indicating that they were getting closer. When everyone entered the Pelican II it got airborne and Mustafa started to turn it around and fly away. *Boom* Just as he was flying through the dark tunnel a large explosion from the back shook the aircraft causing everyone to fall over. Shair fell over straight into the ripped out part of Pelican where he fell out last time. Shair was falling head first into the opening when something suddenly pulled him from the straps of his Kevlar throwing him deeper into the aircraft, away from the hole. Shair landed flat on his chest and yelled out in pain. The wounds were bleeding out again from the force as he was pushing himself, up another explosion from the back made him loose his stance and he fell over once more. The others had occupied the seats on the sides while Shair just laid where he was thrown, not moving until the light from the outside flowed in the aircraft, signaling that they had successfully escaped from the Fraz base. Once he knew that the aircraft would no longer experience anymore tremors Shair slowly stood up and walked towards the far end where he sat down far away from the rest of the group. No one spoke a word until Mustafa spoke up. ¡°We¡¯re out of the clouds.¡± Katelyn turned towards the group, and gave them all one of her rare ¡®public¡¯ smiles. The others returned her smile with equal enthusiasm and joy. ¡°Retirement, huh?¡± John asked her. ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Katelyn said. A silence followed her statement until John pumped his fists in the air and yelled. ¡°Yeah!!!!!¡± Everyone joined in as Katelyn made her way deeper into the Pelican. ¡°That what I¡¯m talking about.¡± Mustafa shouted from the cockpit. ¡°Wooohoo¡± the joy and merry feelings continued on in the plane even after the initial realization had set in. Each Mark I had spent a whole year working for the HQ, either directly or in one of the other human resistance outposts in other countries. They all had travelled for two years or more with each other until, fighting the Fraz, watching others die by your side, surviving and killing. They had finally destroyed the Fraz command center, their place of communications and storage facility for sources to produce more of their kind, with such achievements the fight for the human survival had gotten considerably easier. Everyone had a face of pure joy, content and satisfaction as they all sang and talked. Everyone, except two people, a man and a woman who sat side by side cuddled together as they enjoyed the sounds of the celebration around them. The man was reaching the half century mark, while the woman was still in her early 40¡¯s. The man had grey streaks of hair lined up around his sides while the woman had disheveled blond hair that almost glittered as the light from the ripped part of the sun shone on her. ¡°That was you, wasn¡¯t it?¡± the man asked her as he cuddled closer, not that he could, but he still tried. ¡°Not losing you another time.¡± The woman had her head placed in a perfect rest place between the side of the man¡¯s neck and the top of his shoulder met. ¡°I think I may be bleeding again.¡± ¡°Is it really bad?¡± She asked with concern. The man was about to speak out when he hesitated and sighed. ¡°I¡¯ll live.¡± He said after a while. ¡°Retirement.¡± The woman said as if the whole thing was alien to her. ¡°You deserve it I think.¡± ¡°I am still quite young y¡¯know I got a lot of fight left in me.¡± ¡°You also have the most achievements out of all of us.¡± ¡°But I don¡¯t think they will allow someone of the council to¡­just retire.¡± The woman nuzzled in closer to the man. ¡°You don¡¯t have to retire. You can still contribute.¡± The man leaned away and looked at the woman in the eyes. ¡°I will be damned before I let them send you into the frontlines again.¡± She seemed a little annoyed at the notion of being controlled where her position was, but this was a moment of celebration, so she just let it slide. For now, anyway. ¡°Without team Frontline I am not going to in the Frontlines.¡± ¡°Good, cause if you did I would have chased after you.¡± At this, the woman leaned back and looked down, troubled. ¡°You know we have a lot to talk about when we return¡± ¡°I know¡± the man reached for the woman¡¯s chin and turned her to face him. She was still troubled. ¡°What?¡± ¡°I am sorry for running ahead like that.¡± ¡°And?¡± She looked at him with a slight frown. ¡°I am sorry for not always telling you the truth, I will when we get back.¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°I am sorry I didn¡¯t do this sooner¡± He moved in closer, his face only centimeters away from the woman¡¯s. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Will you marry me, Kate,¡± The woman was surprised for one second but quickly regained her composure. ¡°What, no ring?¡± ¡°Not yet. That will have to wait until the wedding.¡± He smiled ¡°I wanted to know your answer.¡± ¡°Hmmm. Well you have been a good person so far, if not very conservative and private.¡± Kate leaned in closer their lips only a few millimeters apart her eyes focusing on her man¡¯s ¡°But you mean well, I know that and you only snapped once on this mission so that¡¯s an improvement.¡± ¡°So¡­¡± Shair raised his eyebrows. ¡° Hmmmm, what to say what to say.¡± A smile had spread across her face, a cheeky smile that clearly showed how much she was enjoying making him wait now. ¡°No need to say anything, an engagement kiss would be enough.¡± He was playing along with her. Kate moved her hair out of her left eye and smiled. She moved in for the kiss and he met her half way. The two, for a rare moment, enjoyed the happiness and blissfulness of being together tuning out all noise around them. When they broke the kiss she licked her lips before saying with a smile. ¡°Yes I will, Lion.¡± ¡°Finally!!!¡± They whipped their head at the shouts and saw grins, larger than life, planted on their old friends. John and Mustafa, having placed the Pelican on autopilot, were sitting side by side and grinning like idiots wearing their black glasses while Mia held her hands in a clap and beamed at them. ¡°Congratulations Commander, Shair.¡± Jon and the Mark II¡¯s shouted while Wezzil just smiled at them. ¡°Haha, thanks, everyone even you clust-¡± Shair was nudged in the ribs by Kate ¡°Harry and Daniel.¡± Cheers and joy once again resumed in the group as they pushed all things aside and enjoyed themselves. Tomorrow wasn¡¯t going anywhere, so they enjoyed today.