by Ray O'Neil
Emich couldn’t feel his legs below him, using the wall behind him to keep himself upright. Knocking his head back, he covered his face. “This can’t be happening…”
Konrad stood up, returning to his brother to hold him by the shoulders. “Listen, there’s no time to think about this. None of the residential buildings have been destroyed yet, but it’s only time until they start. We have to get out of here. We’re being attacked by creatures of another world. They have some way to keep themselves concealed until they hit the atmosphere. By the time anyone could know what was going on, their main ship was already on the ground and unleashing everything it had. They’re planning on nuking it.”
Emich’s hands flew away from his face, his eyes wide in fear. “What?!”
“This is serious. We have to get out now, and we have to get as far away as possible. It’s already too late for our parents, but… it’s not too late for us. We’re getting out of here, I promise.”
“How are we going to—”
The glass of an opened room exploded nearby, getting both of the brothers’ attention. Crashing and banging came from inside the housing unit, with more windows being broken right after. A woman screamed, followed by the sound of a quick firing laser sizzling. Before either one of the guys could react to the commotion, something leaped out of the room and clung to the wall. Channeling between walls and hopping at rapid speeds, Konrad got his gun up by the time it was already lunging towards them.
Armor piercing rounds tore through the walls down the hall, most of them hitting their target in quick succession. The creature fell back in mid-air, its lanky arms wriggling to flip the rest of its body upright. Pulling out two small weapons from its back holsters, it opened fire, sending a barrage of bright yellow dots at the brothers. Konrad pushed his younger sibling into the wall before the hallway’s path, getting him behind cover. Using the grip treads on his feet to slide backwards, he leaned back to avoid the otherworldly gun fire.
The elevator doors disappeared from its center as the blinding hot ammunition ate away at its essence. Inside, it filled with static and bolts of electricity that burned through its metal frame and caused it to fall downwards. Using his way in as an exit was now out of the question. Konrad peeked out of cover to let out a quick burst, Emich staying low and sticking his back to the wall. The faceless creature flinched from a few bullets winging its left side, its gun going off into the ceiling as it misfired.
Seeing his enemy was quickly stunned, he sprinted out of cover and ran to the opposite wall within the hallways, leaping over the doorway to run along the wall above it. With its right arm, the pale blue alien aimed at the moving target, trying to get a shot off on him. Leaping left to right across the ground below, Konrad dodged the incoming shots, the dots swerving behind him, trying to intercept his charge forward. Using the kinetic boost of his boots, his last hop sent him flying into the alien’s slim body, quickly flipping forward to have his feet first. Slamming the alien into the ground and pinning its arms down with his boots, the two of them slid shortly, yellow dots tearing through the walls and ceiling around them.
Konrad aimed the barrel of his gun straight at the creature's skull, having no way to miss. “This ought to end you!”
Pulling the trigger, the smoothed over face of the creature vibrated violently, its leathery skin flying off in chunks. Bursts of deep purple liquid exploded from its head as its six big eyes were filled with bullets. Its dual guns clacked on the floor as it let go of its grip, it’s overly long fingers curling into its hands. Looking back, Konrad motioned his brother to follow him, seeing that the threat was handled. Meeting up, Emich followed the Kommando to their housing unit, making sure to lock the door behind them.
As Emich put his hand to the sensor to close off the door, another one of the creatures crashed into the door, coming out of the corner of his eye just in time to make him fall back. It continued to claw and scratch at the metal of the door, the scraping loud enough to drown out the still playing wall screen.
“Once it starts shooting, it’s going to get us,” Emich said in a panic. “There’s no way to escape these things!”
“Get away from there!” Konrad lifted his brother from the ground, practically carrying him as he got back to his feet. “Don’t make it easier for them.”
Blasts of yellow gunfire melted the door behind them as they went up the stairs just in time to have the lower steps chip away into nothing. The steps hung in the air, the metal at the top bending down from the weight. They braced against the railing, keeping close to avoid having one of them fall back. Grabbing his brother by the waist, Konrad gave the step a quick burst of his kinetic boosters. Flying up to the top and sending the stairs down to the floor below them, he landed into a run; Emich struggling to keep up.
“How are we going to get out of here now?” He shouted over the falling staircase and out of breath.
Konrad pulled him by the arm, leading him to the bedroom. “Same way they got in. Hold tight!”
Kicking what little remained of the door off of the entrance, one of the creatures fired upon the brothers, being pushed around as others poured in and scurried along the wall. Photos and decor exploded behind them as they outran the gunfire, hurrying to get behind the wall as they crossed the kitchen’s viewable area and into where the bedrooms where. Passing the doorway, Konrad shot up the window, the wind from being so high nearly sucking them out of the room with the glass shards. Landing onto the second floor behind them, a couple of the aliens already had them in their line of sight. Weapons raised, the skeletal aliens unloaded on them.
Leaping over the bed with a kinetic boost, Konrad moved his brother’s arms around his neck in mid air, carrying him through the window and outside into the open world. Wind rushed past them as they freefell in an arc, heading towards the ground far down below. Sticking his legs out in front of him, the kommando let out another kinetic boost, spinning himself to face the building’s frame. Bolts of electricity shot out from his hand and feet, attaching him to the wall, their descent slowing down with a metal-on-metal screech. The glass continued to fall into the dust covered streets below, while they hung there firmly in place, the wind and the sudden stop nearly knocking Emich out of his grip.
Having his gun hang on its strap, Konrad held himself with one hand while he used the other to open a panel on his left thigh armor. Pressing the second to top button, he closed the panel back up and connected his hand hook with the wall. “I have a flyer on its way to get us, all we have to do is hang around until it gets here.”
“How long will it take?” Emich shouted through the high winds.
“Only a few seconds.” His deep voice was still calm, the helmet's microphone able to amplify itself to be heard clearly.
From where they jumped from, the creatures stuck their heads out of the opening, guns first. Konrad tensed up. The treads on his forearms shot them to the right as the yellow dots flew down at them, shredding the wall where they were. The long gashes along the building shredded through the exterior, like riverbeds being made in an instant. Glowing shrapnel blew away with the wind, Konrad covering his brother with his body to protect him from the traces of hot metal heading towards them.
With his free hand up and covering his visor, the kommando quickly pulled up his carbine and tried to fire one handed — the amount of recoil limiting him to single shots. One of the bullets found its way into one of the creatures, knocking it off balance and out the window. Its guns still fired as it tumbled down past them, smashing and grinding against the building, pieces of debris bursting into the air with each impact. More of the creatures appeared, flipped over the window’s edges and kept their limbs on the surface. Galloping downwards towards the two, they closed in from the left and the right.
Konrad fired at whichever got closest, having to bounce the crosshair of his gun from side to side, only letting out enough gunfire to make them lose their grip and plummet down into the ever-increasing dust below. More alien air
craft flew by above them, sending an orange beam of light into the high road not too far from them. Huge bolts of electricity shot throughout the road, soon turning it into chunks of rubble that started to fall from its impact point. Buildings below the high road were crushed instantly, smashed inward by the thick massive blocks of destroyed roadway. Any of the towers used as support beams next to the road had the blots of alien weaponry travel through them as well, windows instantly bursting before the structure soon crumbled.
Dodging the next hail of lasers, Konrad sent himself to the left; Emich’s legs dangling helplessly in the opposite direction. Thinking an enemy aircraft was trying to ram them, Konrad aimed his carbine at the approaching vehicle. The ERA insignia on its stubby wings allowed him to finally let out a sigh of relief. His self-piloting recon flyer slowed down next to them and opened its side door. The two minigun turrets on the top of the flyer filled the sky with a powerful barrage of bullets, turning the window into a gaping hole and anything within it into clouds of purple blood.
Kicking off of the wall with a boost, Konrad flew toward the flyer, both hands outward. His free hand grabbed on, while his carbine was knocked out of his other — having it clatter against the edge before it spun its way down into the cloud below. Fighting the strong wind coming from the nearby explosions, Konrad held on tight as the flyer steadied itself. The aliens continued to come out of the windows, more of them opening up more from different levels. The turrets couldn’t keep up much longer, having too many to lower their growing numbers.
“Emich, climb up! Get inside!”
Following his brother’s orders, he used him as a ladder to crawl into the cabin, rolling off to avoid stepping on his fingers. Turning around, he stretched out an open hand. “Grab on!”
Inching up to clasp his hand onto Emich’s, he lifted himself up, his armor weighing him down. From the building, a spidery alien scurried passed the rest of them, joined by a few others. Using their sisters as decoys, they rushed through the wall of gunfire, closing in on the flyer. Leaping through the air, there was too many of them for the flyer to do any good. One of them wrapped its long arms around Konrad’s waste, two others holding onto his legs.
Losing his grip and overcome by the force, Konrad let go.
There was nothing either one of them could have done. All Emich could do was watch as his brother fell towards the city street below. Claws dug into his skin, tearing off everything they touched. With his last ounce of strength, Konrad pressed the button on his leg panel. It was the last thing Emich saw him do before his brother was engulfed by the smoke.
The flyer’s hatch closed up while it took off — the blue flames emiting out of its small rockets on its underbelly swinging out of hover mode to get him out of there. A sonic boom rang outside its thin armor, the flyer reaching Mach II with a sudden blast of its engines before the two could even get off the floor. He sat there, staring at the blank sheet of metal, his head slowly dipping to the floor. Quicker than he arrived… Konrad was gone.
The time with his brother was robbed from him. Time that Emich would never get back. A moment that could never happen again. Never be completed. His world would never be the same.
He stood up, wondering why to even bother. There was nothing for him on the floor, other than staying there until death does its deed. If only he was stronger. If only he was able to lift his brother into the flyer right away… it would have been different. He knew in his heart, his brother died because he was too weak, too useless.
Nothing but dead weight to everyone around him.
Sitting down, Emich’s hand fell from holding his small wound and flopped over his lap, his stinging back being soothed by the softness of the co-pilot seat. He looked at the passing city — buildings absent from where they were supposed to be, weird aircraft replacing the birds that would have been flying around, the lack of life around them. The feeling that everyone and everything they once knew was now dead and gone. If the adrenaline wasn’t still pumping through him, he probably would have passed out from the shock. Barely an hour ago he was fighting a hangover and now he is fighting to keep himself intact.
It stayed silent in the flyer the entire time.
Air rushed through the landing pad, the blue-hued engines lowering the flyer down to have the landing gear touch ground. The door lifted, the glare of the sunset entering the cabin. There was no going back, nowhere to call home. His fist clenched hard enough for his hands to feel like they were ready to bleed. Emich closed his eyes, unable to hear anything outside.
Konrad’s words from long ago echoed in his memory, back when he left to join the ERA. Don’t waste your life anymore, Emich. Make me proud. Okay?
Standing before the light, Emich walked towards it. He knew what he had to do. He knew what was in his blood. The call to battle. There was only one thing on his mind the entire time he worked his way to become a soldier.
The Niflheim were going to pay for what they did.
Chapter 3
It was strange to feel a bed that wasn’t cold and metallic. It was even stranger that he could still feel anything at all. Emich sat up with a start, having no memory of when he was last conscious. The room was different than the cell he called home for several weeks. He actually had a whole room with all four walls.
Somehow, that addition of confinement gave him comfort. He could picture anything he wanted past the closed door. No matter what was behind it, the door was electronically locked. Emich tried to swing his legs out of the bed, but they refused. Just sitting down was draining him of all of his energy.
Lying back down to have the back of his head bash into the soft pillow, he enjoyed the comfort of a soft bed. So many little things he had taken for granted in the past, so many luxuries that he’s forgotten. The room was kept dim, lights coming from the bottom of the walls to give just enough brightness to see all of the body monitoring equipment. Looking down at his body, he was covered in medical stickers for every reason possible. The needle in his arm gave him a steady dose of something purple from an IV bag hanging next to his bed.
He would have torn it out of his arm by instinct if he had the strength to.
The door whooshed upwards with an electronic beep, the agent from before marching in. He had the same bulldog scowl he wore the last time Emich saw him, the scientist next to him looking more nervous than anything. It was cold in the room and the young man was sweating like he’s been running all over the place. If the agent treated his patients the way he treated Emich, his lackies were not any better off. Turning on his wrist screen, the scientist opened up a floating holo-page that showed Emich’s profile, as well as his current status.
Since the page wasn’t flashing red, Emich assumed he wasn’t dying just yet.
“Looks like his vitals are stable, sir,” The scientist rapidly said. His voice was faster than the words flying by on the holo-page. “No signs of any abnormalities. Heart rate is clear, air intake is clear, metabolism is clear…”
While he checked off everything important, the agent grabbed Emich by the head and spread his eyelid open, hard enough to have it feel like his skin was going to be torn off. Emich wanted to send a fist his way, but his muscles wouldn’t even let him tap his fingers. Shifting his head to the side once the agent was done looking at his eyes, Emich stared at the IV bag, the purple fluid steadily dripping down the tube and into his bloodstream. He knew whatever was in that bag had something to do with him in a state similar to being paralyzed. It was either that or it was the stuff they injected into him before.
What the hell did they do to me, Emich thought, almost defeatedly.
He survived so far, but that only meant more tests. More things to mark down as “reasons to kill everyone in this place”. He regretted the idea of entering the program the day he woke up in his cell for the first time — watching the guards and the scowling agent dragging them away, kicking and screaming. They allowed the inmates to talk to each other, say everything on their mind.
; They wanted that to happen, to have them ready to fight back when their cell was opened.
Emich kept his eyes away at the observing agent, the conversation about his medical report nothing but white noise. All he could think about was ending up like the others he saw in the hallway; the ones in the body bags. Being motionless was the least horrible thing that could have happened to him. But, with the agent in the room, it didn’t make Emich’s heart stop pounding.
Heavy boots calmly shuffled around the bed, the agent bending forward to face his test subject. “It appears you’ve complete phase one with as little complication as possible. Something tells me… we have some hope with you. Your inability to move is not one of them. We started doing that after sixty percent of our test subjects would grow feral and started costing this project more than it should in new hires.” He directed Emich’s eyes to the young scientist by looking over at him. “It’s why this one is more on the edge than usual. And we can’t risk that chance with you especially.”
Muscle relaxant, in a dose enough to keep his body limp yet still functional. It seemed to be cheaper and more “humane” than chaining him to a wall by the arms and neck. Emich almost forgot that there were still rules in the facility, that they had their limits. He could only imagine the state he would be in if they didn’t regulate the project. Thinking further into it, he was starting to be thankful that it was government owned and not a private one.
“Don’t get too comfortable, Mr. Aumeier,” the agent said with a coy smirk that mixed horribly with his permanent scowl. “Today, we are going to test the results.”
More staff members walked in and unhooked the bed from its locked position. Pushing it out of the room, they moved Emich out into the hallway; one of the staff members taking the needle out of his arm as they moved. The hallways was the same as last time he passed by, the only difference being that he was being wheeled over instead of dragged. Gunshots escaped from a closed door, a guard coming out and wiping blood off of his visor. Looking into the room, Emich saw the deceased test subject’s skin gradually peel itself off of his body, curling outwards.