Ravage

by MacCraw

  “I didn’t think about that, because my only goal now is to kill each and every wolf man on the planet. Our damned government let those cunt critters scurry about through England AND through all of Europe, and now I’m prepared to make a difference, or at least die trying”, Kirkley declared.

  “Alright, but we’re coming with you”, Darnell added.

  “So who’s ready to open a can of whoopass on those MEC?” Kylie smirked.

  …

  The newly-reunited group of hardened survivors, now in an alliance with the Italian Army, were poised to strike a crippling blow to the Middle Eastern Coalition. The gang hadn’t had official military support before, so a new feeling of improved morale and heavier determination anointed them. It was an exciting sight to see so many uniformed soldiers with bravery in their hearts and rifles in their arms, standing in formation as they loaded into their ships. Across the beach, numerous tanks and other armored vehicles were being shuttled into the warships and carriers through means of amphibious transports.

  “This outta be exciting”, quipped Royce.

  “Well we’re not going in with the main force”, said Kirkley. “We aren’t- well, we with the exception of Darnell, aren’t soldiers, and this isn’t about starting another war. It’s about ending a war that determines whether the human race goes extinct or not.”

  “Excuse me”, Adelmo shouted as he jogged over to the group, “The general told me that I’m going to be needed in the invasion, so I’m afraid you’re on your own.”

  “Well thanks for all of your support”, Kirkley sighed.

  “I’m not leaving you and your comrades entirely”, said Adelmo, “So we’ve prepared a vehicle and plenty of consumables for when you set out for Sadiz. Also, take these handheld radios to complement those in the Puma. When we land on their shores, go in after the ground base has been established and after the army has gotten out of the ships.”

  “Cheers, mate”, Royce replied.

  “Now this time, Kirkley”, Kylie stated as she tightly clutched his wrist; “We go in as a team. No going AWOL, no lone-wolfing it.”

  “Look, I wasn’t well at the time, okay?” Kirkley sighed, “Now let’s all shut up and get into our vehicle. We wake up whenever we start taking fire.”

  “That’s a hell of a pleasant thought”, Kylie replied with a grin and rolled eyes.

  …

  As the Italian armada advanced towards the shores of Turkey, which was but a country neighboring their target country of Iran, Kirkley and his comrades were packed within an Italian Puma armored fighting vehicle outfitted with freshly-painted desert camouflage and a machine gun, as well as a spare tire, a fuel tank, and plenty of extra rations that would, in theory, last the heroic survivors all the way through Turkey and into the ghost town of Sadiz. The Middle Eastern Coalition was not expecting any company, but that didn’t mean that they hadn’t prepared for any. The shores of Turkey, and presumably each other MEC country had plenty of firebases fortified with tanks and howitzers, and cities full of snipers and machine gunners.

  Kirkley couldn’t sleep, and even if he could he was afraid to. Each time he slept, he had horrific visions of dog soldiers and the gruesome deaths of those he held close to his heart. Well, the only good news about attacking one the world’s dominant nations following the fall of the United Kingdom and the obliteration of the American infrastructure is that the dog soldiers wouldn’t be around at all. They seemed to have originated from the UK, and they were only recently released in northern Germany, so there was no way they could have chewed through at least five other countries to catch up with Kirkley, the so called Gifted One. Now the conflict ensuing beneath an eternal eclipse, and a battle between two godlike beings, was now a conventional war between two desperate human superpowers.

  Another addition to Kirkley’s scorching hatred of the MEC was in remembering the heroic sacrifice of Captain Pack, who had narrowly survived the destructive war that claimed the lives of his beloved men and left him with acute PTSD; remembering the pain Pack felt made Kirkley somehow suffer it as well, and in a personal vendetta to avenge and return honor to Pack, it was about to get brutal between four elite survival experts and an army of titanic proportion. Still, Kirkley knew this wasn’t his war, and that the Italians were more than prepared to throw down with the MEC.

  At long last, the invasion fleet reached Turkish shores, and the massive tank battalions began to deploy from their craft and thunder across the dusty desert shoreline and into the rolling dunes of MEC territory. Their numbers almost seemed to multiply, and there were too many troops and tanks to count. Once all of the Italian equipment and vehicles had emptied out of their transports, Kirkley floored it, and within short order, the survivors were speeding down a coastal highway, up towards the northeastern border of Turkey and into Iran, where they would be able to reach the Iranian edge of the Caspian Sea, and to Sadiz.

  “So remind me what we’re doing, going to Sadiz?” Darnell asked as the Puma cruised down the sandy highway with a scenic view of the Mediterranean Sea.

  “It’s just a feeling, and a strong one”, Kirkley sighed.

  “That feeling will turn into a feeling of pain if we get all the way out there and don’t find a bloody thing”, Royce remarked.

  “Oh zip it, Captain Hook”, Darnell scoffed, pointing to Royce’s stub of an arm.

  “’Eh, mate, I can still shoot!”

  “With abysmal accuracy!” Kylie howled, despite her secret feelings for Royce and her sympathy for him losing an arm.

  “What’s he referencing? Am I missing something?” asked Kirkley.

  “After you ditched us in Germany, we came across a small group of German troopers who somehow realized that we were posers, and they opened up on us. Royce fired from the hip with one arm, but from a 30-round magazine on a rifle with pinpoint accuracy aiming at targets 10 yards away, not a single fuckin’ shot hit”, Kylie explained with a grin. “Hell, if Darnell and I hadn’t been ready on the trigger we’d all be dead.”

  “Well how else am I supposed to shoot with only one arm?” Royce laughed, bringing a smile to even the most serious of faces, one of which was focused on a figure standing out in the road.

  “What have we here…?” Kirkley murmured as the Puma came to a gradual stop.

  “Why have we stopped?” Kylie inquired.

  Reluctantly, the passengers departed from their vehicle with their weapons equipped, but concealed as much as possible. Kirkley made sure to take his new anti-wolf weapon of mass destruction, in case his worse fear became realized.

  “Hey buddy, need a ride?” Kylie nervously hollered as the wind blew strongly around her. The entity didn’t respond, which Kylie assumed to be a lack of translated English language on their part.

  The person, or personified being, continued its silent pact as it began to advance forward. Kirkley slowly reached behind him and began to carefully bring up his AA-12, since his deepest and darkest fear was now coming to life before him. Kirkley’s attentive eyes noticed two triangular shapes rising up from behind its head, and without announcement, Kirkley opened fire with his automatic shotgun. The oncoming fire of silver shotgun pellets was enough to provoke the wolf soldier into blindly charging at the shooter, despite the burning pain of the silver. After several more shots’ worth of deathly pellets, the wolf let out a desperate and agonized moan as it dropped to the ground dead.

  “I do all the work”, Kirkley quipped, smirking as he racked the handle and exchanged the partially full drum of silver shells with a new one before cocking his gun again.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake”, Kylie groaned, banging her fist against the car, “How did they get here?!”

  “It might mean something”, Kirkley said as he inspected the corpse of the dog soldier.

  “Yes, it means we’re going to die in the Middle East by a bunch of bipedal hyenas”, Darnell declared.

  “No, idiot, it means we might have stumbled upon something extremely significant. If
there are dogs out this far in the MEC, especially this close to Sadiz, then there’s obviously something that these things are guarding, or coming from”, Kirkley explained.

  “So we’re fighting the MEC and the wolf men?”

  “Yes. Get in the Puma. We’re hitting the road, going to Sadiz, and putting an end to this, once and for all.”

  “Alright, who wants to play cards?” Kylie asked with a smirk as she turned to face Royce.

  “I can’t play with one hand”, said Royce, which made everybody laugh despite how unfortunate his statement was.

  …

  “Well, this bites”, Kylie grunted as the Puma was forced to come to a stop due to a large barricade just outside of the unfinished resort city of Sadiz, with the Caspian Sea in sight.

  “Hey, at least we got here intact”, replied Darnell, “And I’ve gotta say, this is a hell of an impressive city. Kind of like it, want to book a vacation here as soon as the shit’s over and done with.”

  “Sure, if you don’t mine the snipers, or the tanks, or wolf men running amok through the ruins”, Kirkley joked.

  “Well, are we going to stand here with our hands on our dicks, or are we gonna go in and kill every living, nonliving or anything could-be-living?” Royce exclaimed.

  “You’ve only got one hand, so I’ll vote for the second option”, Kylie remarked.

  “Damnit, Kylie!”

  The group took a moment to check their vehicle for additional supplies given to them courtesy of the Italian Army; they struck gold with the perfect item for massive demolition: explosive charges. They also took along the weapons stowed in the vehicle, which happened to be the same rifles; ARX-160’s, utilized by the Italians, and with fresh magazines with silver bullets, there was no reason to hold onto the G36 rifles stolen from the Germans. Now everybody was tooled up with the weaponry capable of killing the wolf men, though they would still need to stay as a group and not get careless. If the creatures got in too close, it was over. With Kirkley at the front with a devastatingly powerful automatic shotgun, the quartet’s hearts began to pound as they began to march down into Sadiz.

  The wind howled as loudly as an angry dog soldier, and sand continuously blew at the group members’ faces, to points where some of them would use their stolen helmets as shields from the fierce Middle Eastern weather.

  “Still want to book a vay-cay here?” Kylie yelled as she spit out a mouthful of dusty sand.

  “I’m reconsidering it”, Darnell replied as he coughed violently.

  Kirkley raised his fist, and his followers came to a halt. “What is it, Kirkley?” asked Royce.

  “MEC”, Kirkley snarled, pointing towards the soldiers patrolling the derelict construction ruins of Sadiz.

  “What are they so interested in this ghost town?” Kylie inquired.

  “Out of curiosity, does anybody recollect how and why Sadiz was abandoned and left incomplete?” asked Darnell.

  “I’m guessing due to the neighboring country of Takistan being engulfed in a gigantic war that saw the usage of WMD’s, the construction was stopped”, said Kirkley.

  The group was too enthralled in discussion to realize that the MEC patrol had sighted them, and a volley of gunfire made way towards them. The survivors were at a serious disadvantage – the MEC were using trucks and crates and palettes as cover, and the survivors were up on a sand dune with no cover whatsoever.

  “Cover me!” Kirkley shouted; “I’m flanking around to the left!”

  “Wilco!” Darnell hollered in response as bullets struck alarmingly close to him.

  Kirkley got up and made a frenzied dash for the closest building; panting heavily as MEC gunfire chased after him; each shot closer than the last. Once Kirkley had made it around the corner of the building and out of direct sight from both his friends and from the men shooting at them. One of the MEC soldiers shouted to his subordinate, who nodded and took up pursuit of Kirkley.

  The MEC soldier reloaded his AUG as he began walking towards the enemy’s presumed location. The Arab soldier didn’t know what he was up against, other than another human with a weapon. What he didn’t know was that said human was now unpredictable, psychotic and ruthless due to the tragic demises of his loved ones and the nightmares induced by wolf men responsible for killing them. The soldier continued down the street, scanning for even the most minute of giveaways; weapon barrels protruding out, the tip of a boot, modified terrain…

  But all of a sudden, a brutally sharp and painful feeling struck the clothed buttock of the MEC soldier, who shouted in agony and slowly turned his head to see a combat knife embedded deeply in his rear end.

  “Ding! You’re done, bitch!” Kirkley hissed with a sadistic smirk. As the MEC soldier raised his AUG, Kirkley kicked it clean out of his hands, watching as it struck the nearby pile of bricks and mortar, and dove his machete into the base of his prey’s throat with enough force to make the tip of the oversized knife permeate the back of his neck. Tugging the machete out was considerably more challenging than thrusting it in, and Kirkley found himself being forced to use his foot to hold down the lifeless body as he yanked his trusty knife out of the neck of the MEC soldier. Kirkley shook the excess blood off of the blade before sliding it back into its sheath and continuing towards the group of soldiers still firing on his friends.

  Kirkley rounded the corner and opened fire with his AA-12, laughing uncontrollably as the massive death cannon condensed into an averagely-sized weapon thundered with each destructively powerful shot. Even from a dozen yards away, the AA-12 bestowed upon him by the Italians had pinpoint accuracy and little to no recoil. In approximately 15 seconds, an entire patrol of 10 Middle Eastern Coalition soldiers had been completely destroyed by a single shooter with a shotgun. Kirkley looked past the smoking barrel and down at the translucent drum, checking to see if he had plenty of ammunition remaining, which he did.

  Kirkley walked up and over the only surviving soldier narrowly clinging to life, and out towards his friends, where he was prepared to reach an agonizing surprise.

  “He’s dead”, Kylie wept as she knelt down beside Darnell’s lifeless body. One of the MEC had managed to score an extraordinarily lucky headshot that instantly put an end to the heroic British soldier who had died serving his country, and his species.

  “He was a good man”, sighed Kirkley. “He was a good soldier, one who sacrificed himself to defend the lives of others.”

  “Look, let’s just avenge him and all of those we’ve lost”, Royce announced. “We’re in Sadiz, we’ve completely bypassed two separate wars, and now we have the weapons we need to fight the wolves. I mean, I’m not exactly fully armed and operational, but…”

  “No arm puns”, Kirkley barked. “Kylie’s got an assault rifle, I’ve got this badass motherfucker, and you’ve got us. Let’s move.”

  …

  “If I were a shrine to an ethereally demonic being in the middle of a desert resort crawling with Middle Eastern soldiers, where would I hide?” Kylie joked.

  “Keep your voice down”, Kirkley insisted. “There might be wolves around.”

  “That’s just the wind howling, mate”, said Royce.

  “All I’m saying is that no matter wherever this damned thing is and whatever it looks like, it’s probably heavily defended”, Kylie added.

  “Well, we’re heavily armed”, Kirkley responded as he gestured to his AA-12 shotgun.

  They were heavily armed, but not heavily prepared for a wolf man to appear out of nowhere, snarling and screeching as it took Royce by surprise, holding its prey close to its chest as a shield while it started to shred through Royce with its powerful teeth and claws. Kylie watched with horror as the man she had gradually fallen for was torn asunder, and Kylie found herself unable to open fire on the dog soldier out of fear of hitting Royce. Kirkley, however, was not bothered by such a fear, and without looking down the sights, Kirkley aimed and fired a shot that blew the wolf’s head open. The body dropped its intended victim as it d
ropped to the ground itself, but given how many gnarly slashes and cuts and teeth marks it had inflicted on Royce, it was immediately clear that the wolf was taking Royce down with it. Royce barely looked human; in fact, he looked like Poet in the disturbing nightmare Kirkley had, but with several new “additions” to his mutilated form: missing numerous body parts; barely covered in scraps of clothing; his one good arm torn off of the bone; and was now struggling with each breath he took.

  The tears in Kylie’s eyes began pooling up as Royce desperately attempted to use his words despite the amount of blood clogging his vocal chords.

  “Ky- Kyl-…”

  “Please don’t go…” Kylie sobbed, clutching his hand until she realized that it was no longer attached to his body. “I love you so much. There was something about you; your Scottish charm, your jolly attitude, and your empathy for those you lost…”

  “Means al- a lo-…” Royce garbled in response, his mouth forming a weak smile.

  “Do or die, there is no what, when or why”, Kirkley remarked as he reluctantly took aim at Royce in preparation to end his friend’s suffering. Even Kirkley, with a somewhat broken heart, felt and shared Kylie’s pain, and was opposed to shooting one of his own, but he knew it was what had to be done.

  “Close your eyes, and no peeking”, Kirkley croaked. Despite the request being directed towards Royce, Kirkley and Kylie did the same, and only several seconds after a clanking shot put an end to Royce’s horrific suffering did they reopen their teary eyes, but not before turning around 180 degrees to avoid opening their eyes to a grotesque carcass.

  “It’s just you and I now”, Kirkley sighed as he gave Kylie a comforting pat on the shoulder.

  The duo forced themselves to trudge on through Sadiz; a desperate wasteland that was occupied with gigantic, unfinished buildings with cranes adjacent, shuttling building materials and girders up to the skyline – if there were people still manning them, that is. Sadiz had so much potential, and to quote one of the late Pvt. Darnell’s final quotes, it could be a wonderful place to take a vacation. A busy hub full of casinos, nightclubs and five-star resorts, now left to be reclaimed by the Iranian dunes at the shores of the Caspian Sea.