Chapter 1 – The Start of Today

Noun -

Success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions.

 

Verb -

Chance to find or acquire.

 

Darkness filled the sky during the day, clouds covering the earth and I sit here waiting for something to happen. Not that I’m complaining about doing nothing but laying on my ass all day can take its toll on my insanity.

I was forced to join the army like so many others and I expected more shooting and screaming. Guess I should be glad I was put on protection duties like this, most of the other Privates here look like they’d stay in cover; I would.

When I was a kid I’d always imagined why War was a big deal, and as I got older into my teens I thought War was a waste of time, a waste of pointless effort for the greater good.

The greater good…. I thought looking at the last sunlight being blocked by clouds.

Lots of things will never change in War - The smell of gun-powder, the sound of explosions, a man screaming, the sight of pain, the fear in every man’s eyes, Metal and Steel equipment, and the only thing every War in history has and will always have; Blood.

 

‘Pvt Adam, what are fighting for again?’ I asked

 

‘Don’t know anymore. First it was a disagreement, then a broken peace treaty, then the E.K.Y for world domination. It’s been years, the list goes on.’ Pvt Adam sighed blowing a smoke from a custom cigarette.

 

‘Then what are we guarding?’

 

‘The five of us are guarding something that we or our comrades stole in one of their recon mission… That’s all I know.’ Pvt Adam puts his cigarette out, ‘Now finish digging that pot hole.’

 

The men and I were playing with grenades a couple days ago and have been getting more crazed. Today - A mine game. Now that the mine was planted, a man blind folded and a semi-automatic pistol in his hand, the game started.

 

‘Spin him three times.’ We begain to laugh as he points and swing the gun around trying to found the planted mine.

 

‘Oh. Pvt Son, here’s that drink you wanted.’ Pvt Alexander tossed a ration at me.

 

‘It’s Tomato.’ He grinned.

 

Aw… Tomato… I put it in my front pocket when I notice a small orange light coming from the iron-steel door. The others begun to notice as well when it started getting bigger, mini bubbles were appearing on it. Pvt Adams eyes opened as wide as they could, he turned to us and he screamed ‘GET BACK!’

 

A big explosion blew open layers and layers of the Iron-steel door, coursing the impact to push all of us back. I tried to look up but my body was numb, my ears were ringing and my vision was shaking but I continued to try get up. I staggered on my knees to found myself four foots away from the mine.

 

‘-to think that this place would have terrible security, you know? Look at these poor bastards, leg there, arm here and even that sucker over there trying to get back on his feet. Hah, pathetic.’

 

Three armoured men walked out from where the door was blown. The one talking was a skinny looking fellow coming towards me, the guy at the back was buff carrying the stolen equipment by himself and the one in between looked more like a woman, slim with hips. Limber.

 

The skinny one put his rifle behind him and pulls out his pistol, ‘It’s time to die-’ he took two steps, lift his pistol at my head and took a third step onto the mine. He looks at the bump on the ground then looks at me as I said ‘Shit.’

 

I was pushed back onto the nearest wall and his body was blown in two.

 

‘…Why would they plant something so close to their base?’ The buff one said.

 

‘Doesn’t matter. We have to leave,’ the woman said.

 

‘What about-‘

 

‘Now! Agent Pollux.’

 

She looks at me laying down and in a split second I imagined her doing the same thing the skinny guy did; coming toward me to kill me. But Pvt Adam’s rifle was on the side of me with his right arm still attach, and a Tactical-Blade must have flew here during the second explosion. I grabbed the blade as quickly as I could, through it at her and as she dodges it with ease, I rolled over the arm, grabbing the rifle and took aim. She would have shot me then but the Tactical-Blade blasted behind her, distracting her, allowing me to shoot multiple bullets in one area on her head. And then the buff guy kills me; but I got to kill someone.

 

‘ARRUGH… Help me, dammit!’ Sadly that didn’t happen because the skinny guy was still alive and I didn’t predict that.

 

She stares at him, ‘Help me, carry me, DO SOMETHING!’ She shoots him in the head from a distance then without taking another look at me, she shoots me in the chest.

I felt winded, my vision was fading again and my fingers can feel blood.

 

‘We’re finish here.’ They walked away.

 

I’m dying… Aw.  I passed out.

Chapter 2 – A City for Refugee

Seven days later.

A refugee city.

Inside a hidden black-listed pub bar.

 

‘-so she shots the guy in the chest and they walked away.’

 

‘Gees, and she killed her comrade? That’s cold hearted.’ The bartender said cleaning the same glass for the past forty-five minutes.

 

‘And… How do you know all this?’ He asked.

 

‘I would tell you but I’m hanging low right now, if that’s okay with you?’

 

‘That’s fine,’ he then reaches down and grabbed an old sawed off shotgun ‘but that means you have to leave.’

 

‘Whoa, buddy. Take it easy, I’ll tell you then, okay.’

 

‘It’s not your story, it’s if you’re being persuaded then this place will be compromised. So, are you being chased?’ The bartender started to feel uneasy.

 

‘Maybe, maybe not. Either way I’m a customer, I paid for this drink that I haven’t even finished.’ The other customers were getting tense too, holding their holstered gun and even getting twitchy fingers.

 

‘Keep those guns away, ladies,’ two suited military men walked through the door capable of staring down every man and woman in this bar as they walk through ‘We've come for you, Private Son.’

 

Crap. ‘I think he’s talking to you, bartender.’

 

‘No, I’m talking to you, Private.’ The one with the moustache said. He placed his hands on the shoulder of the man at the counters, and he was tense then before.

 

‘Sir, the man we’re after has red hair. That man’s hair is black.’ The guy behind moustache said, looks around and spotted me trying to leave at the front door. ‘FREEZE!’ He pointed his gun at my back but it caused anxiety and everyone pulled their guns out.

 

‘Lieutenant.’ The Lieutenant slowly put his gun away and straighten back up.

My friend with the black hair quickly got up, pulled his gun in the air and fired. Then everyone else started shooting and I got the heck out of there. I know why he did it too; I couldn’t remember at the time but I know he didn’t do it for me.

 

A Flashback

His name was Scientist Adam, not to be confused with Pvt Adam and he was there one hour after I was shot in the chest, limping out the base. He was holding something in his hands and it was a attractive looking ball like a pearl, and it was plling him towards me. He tumbles over and the pearl was dragging him along the ground. He got on his knees to face me, ‘Damn, shot in the chest. I don’t understand what it wants with this dead guy… Wait a minute.’ he took a closer look at me ‘is he? He’s sleeping.’

 

Snoring and a snot running down into my month made it more clear that I was alive, and even more obvious I was lazy as ever.

 

‘Wake up, dammit!’ He took off my helmet and started slapping me silly. ‘I said wake up!’

 

‘Ah, stop it already, dad. Give me five more minutes.’ Sliding over to my right. He punch me across the face.

 

‘I’d kill you if it wasn’t important. Now get up soldier.’

 

‘Ow, man… Who? What happened?’ It took some time to recollect my memory and the pain on my chest was bruised, and the blood on my fingers were tomato jucie. I told Adam what happened and he said ‘So she shot you in the chest and they walked away? That’s a funny story. But now is not the time to give tales of ones life, we have to leave well we still can. I’ll explain everything on the way.’ He got back up and started walking ahead of me.

 

‘We should wait here for reinforucement though.’ I said, he stops and took a good hard look at me.

 

‘We have lost the War, comrade.’ The flashback was quick and ended.

 

After the shot out in the black-listed pub, I ran into a public area, the market ally, hoping that I won’t be attacked or spotted.

 

‘Get your Rat meat here!’ I’m just running through.

 

‘Old school Pop Turts!’ I’m just running through.

 

‘Juicy Peaches blended with Lemon and Tea leaves all in a Pineapple cup! Ice Tea.’ Maybe stop for a drink and some rat meat, and some pop turts; I’m not used to alcohol. Well I was eating my barbeque rat meat and drinking my tea, I notice at the corner of my eye a different group of men running down the market and I knew they were after me too. I felt nervous for a bit and acted like a normal guy eating a cooked rat. They ran past but one guy stopped behind me, making me sweat a little. He asked the cook, ‘Chef, did you see anyone running through here?’ and the cook didn’t answer. ‘To hell with you then.’ He took off.

I was relieved until the cook said, ‘If it was the North continent I would have told them.’ I look at him as he looks back, I nodded and walked away.

 

‘Target spotted’

 

I went into an old run downed building that had old toys everywhere, and I tried not to gasp and cry at the old times of life, I instead giggled that leaded me to laugh vulgarly because I saw one ugly looking action figure, that reminded me of that buff armoured guy.

 

‘Ha. Come to think of it, it does look like him… More ugly up close.’

 

‘If that was me I’d be pissed.’ He was breathing down my neck and my eyes couldn’t open any wider. I slowly turned to my left and started to walk. He grabbed me by the collar with one hand, ‘Hey now, get back here.’ He lift me face to face above two foots off the ground.

 

‘Man, you’re big. How did you know I was talking about you?’ I squirmed around.

 

‘It’s the only thing that remotely looks like me.’ He smiled.

 

‘I take it back. You look more handsome,’ No lies was given ‘so have you tried rat meat?’

 

‘Side tracking. Where is the Orb?’

 

‘What orb?’ He lifted me up into the air by my leg and I was thinking what a fun ride this is, then he threw me down quicker than any roller coaster, but that’s how I felt and he managed to crack the concrete.

 

‘Where is the Orb?’

 

‘Can’t… Winded… Pain.’ Somehow my skull didn't break.

 

He gave me a minute to breathe and in a split second I thought I was going to die if I didn’t give him the Orb, through the Orb away or take offences options. I noticed two or three grenades around his belt then a theory hits me. With my eyes closed I screamed out ‘It’s inside me!’ I got feeling back in my body and continued to squirm around.

 

‘Then let’s open you up.’ He pulls out a blade the size of my arm and about to shave it into me.

 

‘You can’t! You can’t! Stop! You can’t because it merged itself to me. In my mind!’ The tip of the blade touched my belly through my rob and it took three seconds for him to respond, ‘Bullshit.’

 

‘Do you see it on me?’ I paniced.

 

‘What if someone else has it?’ His eyes norrowed at me.

 

‘Would you be looking for a dead guy? You saw me get shot by your comrade, remember? The orb found me and bought me back to life, dammit.’

 

He tries to turn his head upside down to get a better look at me, ‘Oh, hey. That’s who you are.’ I then realized he takes orders not notes.

 

‘I’m sick of you wasting my time. If you don’t have it on you, someone else does and now you’re going to die.’ He holstered his blade, grabs his rifle (Got It.) as he lift me off the ground and my collar was choking me, he faced back, does a 180 degree turn and threw me. He takes aim and in mid-air, he notices me smiling back at him wiggling three pins on my middle finger.

He quickly looks at his belt, ‘Funny.’ KA-BOOM.

Chapter 3 – An Unlikely Escape

 

Like every morning on this forsaken planet the two suns pass each other in a race of time, one smaller than our first star but faster and terrifying in every passing day. It gives me hope that one day, one day it’ll hit and destroy everything and everyone on this dried up, stupid, and damned planet. The human race has worked itself to extinction, to the point where mankind used nuclear bombs to set us back thousands and thousands of millenniums, but I digress – it makes me very energetic for that day and I’m growing ever impatient. Agent Pollux, Agent Oroka-Dan and I are hired mercenaries sent to gather equipment from enemy territory, The Bethamend, They were working on a secret weapon for nearly twenty five years and no new information about it has suffice since, until last week. We ambushed their base of operation for five years and find what we needed or so we thought.

 

‘Target spotted.’ Agent Pollux has found our objective on the run from the other “competitors”, and this city is covered with them. This won’t be easy.

 

‘Moving to your position.’ Jumping from rooftop to rooftop has an advantage of course but I’m not the only one on top looking down below. I keep my distance from any unwanted party. Agent Pollux turned his com off by the sound of the click, ‘Agent Pollux? Agent. Dammit.’ And I’m only three minutes away to reach him, but from where I was running an unexpected explosion up a head and I quickly make my way down. Another unexpected turn of event was seeing the target emerging through the rabble, sprinting away the outburst like a suspect fleeing from the scene of a crime or from the world. I tailed him running in zigzags around the whole city, missing and dodging every passing citizen, ‘There he is! Capture him, we need him alive!’ Another complication but he manages to avoid each pursuer with impressive tactics leaving them incapable or oblivious to what or where he was going, or simple dumb luck was helping him out, it truly looks like he has no idea what he is doing but despite he’s shock in appearances, he’s body moves accordingly, or again, Stupid dumb luck. I barely succeeded to keep up with him with the amount of people pushing and shoving, lucky for me this isn’t my first chase.

 

‘Shit. I’m out of breath but SAFE!’ He did a victory pose.

 

‘Don’t move or I’ll slit your throat,’ I snuck up from behind when he least expected it ‘where is the orb?’

 

‘I know that voice. You’re that spy that shot her own team mate and infiltrated our base, you twisted-‘

 

‘Say another word not involving the orb and this blade is going in the knee cap. Where is the orb!?’ I wanted to get this over and done with but the “competition” blasted their way through into the building we’re in, causing me to lose my grip on the target in the smoke and debris.

 

‘Where is he? Who-‘ As the debris clouded the entrance I took action, only six men walked in holding handguns but none of them knew I was taking each one down in stealth. The less, the better in this chase. I run back after the target getting more annoyed with each passing second, fortunately we were coming up to the highway of the city and there’s nothing out there for miles, nothing but a sandy wasteland and mad drivers. I found him trying to hot wire a vehicle.

 

‘Come on, you stupid thing. Shit!’ He saw me but I knocked him out from behind the neck before he could make another escape. Seconds later more baddies showed up firing from mostly every corner, and I had to get out of here then I notice the wires he tried to hotwire, they weren’t even the right ones.

 

‘You stupid-‘ After I got the vehicle working and looked back up at the rear view mirror, they pulled out a rocket launcher and I floored it, quickly turning, it nearly hit the back and I got out of their line of fire. Now this is a high speed chase, I need to find my comrade, get this idiot somewhere out of this city for questioning, and I really, really need something to eat.

 

‘Out of the way, out of the way, dammit.’ Whispering at them won’t get them to move but I’m hoping they wouldn’t see me coming.

 

Warrior Jets, ‘Surrender the target or death will welcome you.’  Three soldiers with jet packs shouting their warnings at me, but I know better, they’ll say anything to achieve their objective, the jerks once hunted me down for weeks on end, and they stopped when more than fifteen men didn’t reported back to their base. ‘Shot to kill.’

 

To my surprise the target was up on the passenger side hiding like a child looking back at the passing citizens, and at the Warrior Jets firing, he looks at me and said ‘Give me a gun,’ so I socked his face.

 

‘Take the wheel.’ I told him.

 

‘Shit,’ he stagger to grab the wheel. ‘You didn’t have to hit me.’

 

‘Just drive.’ I unlocked the roof of this convertible and climbed over to the back looking at the warriors, the thrill I got from grabbing my rifle can hardly put a smile on my face but it is there. I take aim. My shots was quick and took ones left arm, left him spinning down to our level , another managed to dodge my second shot with his rifle, he dropped his gun and they started splitting up.

 

‘You got one? He looks back after he heard my rifle fire.

 

‘Eyes forward.’ He felt my stock hit his face this time, then he panicked in pain when a warrior zoomed in front of the automobile, whirling from the bullets. ‘There’s one in front of us!’

 

I turned my body forward but was interrupted from behind by the armless one latching on my rifle, he must have dragged along the ground exhausting his chest armour, relentless. My left elbow hit his chin, hooking around his head to pull him in front, he doesn’t let go of my rifle while facing the barrel at me, BANG, it scorched my right ear as I tilted my head fast enough to keep my focused eyes on him, meanwhile the target straggles to avoid every shot the one in front fires by serpentine. The armless one pulls my rifle with me along with it holding on and he used both knees to my face while my knee hits his, he keeps hitting me as I did the same and I know only one of us will give and it was him, the blood loss must of gotten to him so with both of my hands trying to plie my rifle back, my foot made its final contact with his face, and I get shot in my left shoulder, pushing me on the passenger’s front seat, with my legs up in the air.

 

‘Shit.’ I hastily tried to get back up right. I could see the second warrior with his pistol that hit me from behind.

 

‘Hey, give me a bloody gun!’ he was getting annoyed of both me and the warrior in front.

 

The warrior behind us threw a grenade that hit the target’s head and I quickly rushed over to the back seats, I picked it up and hurled it back at him while three bullets hits my right arm, pushing me back down. Luckily the grenade exploded behind his jet pack, damaging it and he went flying into the nearest buildings window. I was too strained to notice the last warrior landing on the hood of the vehicle.

 

‘Oh hell.’ The target left both arms into the air, as the warrior pulls the trigger his clip was empty and he reloaded and took aim. I turn to see what was happening and my instincts got me to duck down as the target did the same. The warrior chuckled and pulled the trigger once more the moment his head collided with the entrance of a tunnel sign “You are now leaving Refugee City”

 

The target rushed back to the wheel looking back once at the tumbling Warrior behind the tracks, and he notice my rifle at the corner of his eye, I left my head from cover and notice his eyes not focusing on the road. It was an awkward six seconds when I slowly reached for my gun as he did, or so he made me believe, then he quickly whistled, placing his hand behind his head. ‘I’m not going to bother fighting you when I think we could help each other, yeah?’ I knocked him out from behind the neck again and took over the wheel with my good arm.

 

‘Agent Pollux, I got the target. Report back to…. Shit.’ Of course, no signal in a tunnel. I have to make contact with Agent Pollux the moment we’re out but I have no idea where this tunnel leads. Just where was this guy taking us and he better have what we’re looking for because I killed more than I was expecting to, but wondering what purpose they have with him is none of my business, I just need to retrieve the Orb and the job is done but the pain in my arm lingers to find answers. Next time then. I see the light at the end of the tunnel and we made it out, we’re safe.

 

‘Shit.’ The red zone, the Level three desert, the mobile speedway graveyard, a place for those who wants to fight in extreme accelerated pace. I look at the target in anger as he was wide awake and smiling back at me, ‘so, want to team up?’

Chapter 4

To be continued.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 29.07.2014

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