by Nathan Wall
An RPG ripped through the air, crashing into one of the aircrafts that laid down suppressing fire. It erupted into a swarm of flames. Chunks of steel scattered in every direction as the chopper swirled into the streets of the shanty town and out of view. After a few seconds, another explosion tore through the town, tearing off bits of stone and mortar from the nearby mudstone buildings.
The aircraft dropping off the foot soldiers pulled up and away, laying down more cover fire while the men ran to the city wall for protection. A loud roar echoed throughout the valley, carrying with it a slight tremor in the ground. As the chopper pulled away, a burning car hurtled through the air, crashing through the aircraft with incredible ease. It hit the ground, already in pieces.
“We've gotta get down there.” Jarrod clinched his assault rifle and snapped the action back to load it. He crouched, tightening his boots and gloves, and looked up. Austin placed a hand on his shoulder to hold him down.
“Let's call it in and wait. It's the smart decision.”
“It's the wrong decision,” Jarrod argued. He stood up, looked at Austin and almost relented.
“Men, arm yourselves and stay alert,” Jarrod’s squad leader barked. The Captain walked through Jarrod’s company, taking up Austin’s vantage point. “We need to better gauge the situation. Lt. Travis, call it in now.”
“Sir, the situation is that we have friendlies down there taking heat...”
“Friendlies you say, Corporal Ryan?” The Captain turned to Jarrod and then looked past him for a second before refocusing his attention back on Jarrod. “You got that from what exactly? We don't know who is down there or what's going on.”
“Captain, still no signal. All the gear is going haywire,” Travis replied.
“Did you guys see that car fly through the air?” Christian sat on the ground, curled up into a ball. His gun rattled in his shaking hands. “Wha-what c-could do that?”
“Our best bet is helping out those men.” Jarrod spun around, ran to a part of the pass that had a steady enough slope, and started to slide down.
“He's in for a world of hurt when we get back.” The Captain turned around and looked at Austin. “I know you're dying to go, Sergeant. Well, don't even think about it.”
“You're a little late with those orders, sir.” Austin pulled back on his rifle, arming it. “I already have.”
Austin quickly ran to catch up with Jarrod. The two slid down the side of the hill and looked back up to see their company following suit. Three RPGs fired from a second story building in the town and pummeled the hillside behind the company. When the dust settled they could see the side of the mountain splitting open. The crack raced down the hillside, swallowing up a large portion of their group.
A hulking dirt-encrusted, rock behemoth emerged from the hole in the ground. With watermelon sized hands, it grabbed up soldiers and tossed them like a pile of sticks. Heavy machine gun fire bounced off the monster like paper spit-wads. It was bulbous, absorbing dirt, gravel, and bushes from the immediate surroundings. Broken pieces of its body were reformed by the debris it consumed.
The third aircraft readjusted its course and swarmed in on the hillside, laying down cover for Jarrod and his company. The guns tore through the beast but didn't do a thing to impede its momentum. A rocket fired from the side of the chopper blew it up. Once in the valley, it was just a few hundred yards to the edge of the city wall. Jarrod and company were waved in by the other forces.
“What sector are you with?” one of the men in a black uniform said, leaning forward and yelling over the firefight. His uniform wasn't bulky like Jarrod's, but seemed to sit on his body like something that resembled football pads. A large black visor hung over his face. The lens suddenly changed from black to transparent, exposing his brown eyes.
“Sector?” Jarrod shook his head. The man sighed and turned to the guy at his right, mouthing something unintelligible. Jarrod placed a hand on the man's shoulder. “What's going on?”
“I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to discuss things with you,” he replied. “What you and your men need to do is create a blockade and lay down some suppressing fire on the hillside in case any more of those things come up.”
“What are those things?” Jarrod did a double take. He grabbed the man’s arm, turning him around.
“I'm in command of this company, solider.” The Captain power walked over to Jarrod, grabbed him by his flak jacket, and slammed him into the wall. “We'll have serious discussions later.” He turned around and pointed at Travis and Christian. “Push those vehicles into a line and cover our sixes.”
“I'm sorry, but you're not in charge here.” The man in black walked over to the Captain. He then turned his head and spoke into the empty space in front of him. “Lian, this is Hershiser. What's Jackson's ETA?”
“Who are you? Who are you talking with?” the Captain yelled, snarling at Hershiser.
“Hey Merle,” Hershiser said, turning to one of the men who dropped out of the helicopter with him. “We've got orders to take our men around the east side of the town and enter in through a breach in the wall. Satellite support says there is an alleyway about five hundred meters down the wall. You go. I'll stay with these guys.”
Merle nodded and led the group of six away.
“Yeah, there's no signal here,” Austin said, looking at his gear. “Who is giving you the orders?”
“Hold on, these guys are talking to me.” Hershiser looked at the Captain and held a finger up while pressing his other hand over his ear. He took off his helmet and revealed no radio in his ear. “Yes, I said ‘guys.’ We have a military company of some sort...”
“We're Rangers, dammit,” the Captain yelled, spitting in the process.
“The belligerent one says they're Rangers. We need Jackson fast. Oreios has the area more heavily fortified than the intel led us to believe.” Hershiser stopped talking for a few seconds and then nodded. “Yes, I know they shouldn't be here. Jesus… Can you just tell Elliot that we need more men?”
A large steel beam penetrated through the portion of the city wall they stood next to, sending shards of stone and dirt spraying outward. Jarrod sat up and saw that the beam had crushed the Captain into a pile of mush.
“Holy shit.” He crawled backwards and into Austin. Jarrod pushed himself onto his stomach and shimmied over to Hershiser who was passed. Trickles of blood trailed down his face from several lacerations. “He's still alive.”
“Forget it. Fall back,” Austin yelled, looking at Christian and Travis, noticing them shooting at nearly a dozen of the rock-covered beasts walking their direction. The two got up and ran toward Austin who tried his best to shoot down the rock-like creatures. A group of four other Rangers sprinted madly away from the beasts, but to no avail. The rock creature in the front jumped thirty feet in the air and landed on two of the men, pulverizing them into the ground. Moving with the lumbering force of a silverback gorilla, but with the speed and precision of a cobra, the beast swiped a backhand into the third Ranger, snapping his back in half, and then squished the fourth with the palm of its hand.
“These weapons are useless.” Austin cast his rifle to the side, shooting Jarrod a despaired glance. He took out a grenade and hurled it at the beast, but the explosion seemed to do nothing as the stones from the battered wall surrounding them were sucked in to reform the creature's body.
“I'll be damned if I'm going to die with a loaded gun.” Jarrod took aim and the other three followed suit. They unloaded everything they had until they were completely surrounded on three sides. Jarrod threw his gun at the one closest, hitting it on the head just as it exploded from a missile launched by the last remaining helicopter. A path was cleared for an escape route. “That way, into the city. Our eye in the sky is clearing our way.”
Jarrod carried Hershiser into a nearby building, following his three squad-mates. He looked back just as a rock creature launched through the air and collided with the last helicopter. It penetrated its fingers
into the side of the helicopter, tearing it apart. The aircraft spiraled toward the ground, unable to support the weight.
“Check him for whatever he was communicating with.” Austin pointed at Hershiser while Jarrod laid him against the wall of what used to be a bakery.
“I don't see anything.” Jarrod combed through Hershiser's things and pulled out what looked like a gun. It was a slate-gray color and smooth to the touch. Being incredibly lightweight, Jarrod mistook it as unhelpful. “What the hell kind of gun doesn't carry ammo?”
A large hole erupted in the back wall of the bakery as a rock monster punched through. Clumps of rock and dirt scraped off the creature, but were quickly replenished by pieces of the broken wall. Jarrod aimed the gun and pulled the trigger. In a split second, a transparent purple glow formed around his wrist and up around the barrel of the gun, creating what looked like a crossbow. A spark of light quickly crystallized in the form of a dart and shot out of the bow, piercing into the chest of the creature before being swallowed by the dirt and rocks.
“Well, a lot of good that did, jackass.” Christian scoffed, slapping his palm onto his forehead.
The creature stepped into the room, letting out a terrible roar as a purple light beamed from its mouth. The creature crumbled to the ground, reaching a hand out for Travis before exploding into a plume of dust.
“Ok, I want one of those.” Travis grinned, slapping Christian on the back.
Machine gun fire rattled in through the opposite side of the building that faced the main roadway of the town. Bullets sheared through the crumbling façade. Hiding behind a counter, Jarrod looked through the window. A single man was running faster than the wind across the rooftops, shooting towards their location.
“How many can you see?” Austin shouted, covering his head with his hands, cradling himself in the fetal position.
“Just one,” Jarrod replied. A bullet hit him in the chest, sending him backwards. His head hit on a broken section of the building, causing his vision blur. He shook the haziness away and rubbed his face.
“You're lucky.” Austin smiled, sitting over Jarrod and patting him on the flak jacket.
“There's only one guy out there.” Jarrod pushed Austin aside, jumped over the counter, and pressed his back against the wall, peering again through one of the many holes. “Just one guy shooting off those RPGs and guns.”
Jarrod saw the man—Oreios—facing his palm toward the street below, slowly turning and raising his hand as it got closer to his face. More of the rock creatures formed as the dirt, shards of buildings, stones, and metal molded together.
“He's the one we've got to take out.” Jarrod looked back at Austin and the others. Hershiser moaned, slowly sitting up. “He's waking.”
“That man… Oreios...” Hershiser coughed, collapsing back to the floor. “He's the one we're after… He's gotten stronger than we'd been told.”
“What's he doing?” Travis knelt next to Hershiser and wrapped bandages around his hands and head.
“It's hard to explain.” Hershiser pulled out a small round metal object which appeared to be formed from even tinier metal squares. “This thing should take out enough of those rock creatures for you to get to the other side of the street.”
“We're not going out.” Austin shook his head. “We're staying put. Let your men handle this.”
“I can't hear my men think.” Hershiser breathed heavily, pulling at his hair. “Just trust me when I say that means they're probably dead.”
“How does this work?” Jarrod walked over to a side door of the bakery and out to an alleyway with a little less than a shoulder’s width of space between buildings.
“You can't be serious about this?” Austin grabbed Jarrod, trying to pull him back. “You don't know anything about these weapons. Those things. It's by the grace of God that you're not dead yet.”
“I know this gun worked pretty well.” Jarrod tugged his arm out of his friend’s grasp and looked at Hershiser.
“Hold it tightly in your fist. You'll see a light emanate from between your fingers. When your hand numbs, throw the object between as many of those things as you can and run.”
“Tell him to stay.” Austin turned and grabbed Hershiser by the collar. “Tell him backup is on the way.”
“Backup is coming, but the man we're after may be gone.” Hershiser wrapped his hand around Austin's head and pulled him close. “Your friend may die, but as you see, life is of little consequence to us when we're after someone important.”
Austin turned around and Jarrod was gone.
Sprinting through the streets, Jarrod took aim at the rooftop Oreios stood on. He shot three times. A blast of light shimmered, causing the rooftop to collapse inward.
A rock creature ran towards him, stomping and crushing several vehicles on the way. Jarrod shot it once in the neck and the creature was engulfed in a purple blaze of dust. He rolled the object around in his hand and closed his fist tightly. Just as Hershiser said, light emanated through his fingers. He threw the ball of light into the street and ran a few feet before turning to look on.
The rock creatures were drawn to the light, standing over it. Suddenly, a shockwave of energy erupted from the object, creating a ripple effect in everything around it before sucking everything back into the light source. Jarrod slid toward the light as cars, rock creatures, bricks, and sheet metal from buildings were all sucked in as well. He grabbed hold of the building closest to him, feeling the skin on his face being pulled from muscle and bone. Then, with a loud crash, the light blinded everything for several miles, and all that was sucked into the center of the light was completely gone.
Jarrod stumbled around until Austin grabbed him, standing him up straight. They nodded at each other, not needing to exchange words, and ran into the building with a collapsed roof. Buried in the rubble, Oreios pushed himself free. Dust and dirt fell from his hair and clothes in a steady stream of debris. He looked at the two friends and smiled.
“You're a clever one, aren't you?” he chuckled, exposing slightly crooked teeth. He turned around and cracked his knuckles. His accent was sharp; Eastern European by the sound of it. He grabbed a large chunk of the building that pinned his right foot down and tossed it through the wall with ease. “Where's Jackson?”
“Who?” Jarrod pointed the gun at Oreios’ head, aiming right between his two bushy eyebrows.
“The only reason I let myself be found.” Oreios flung his hands down and a quick spurt of light shot over his body, removing the rest of the dust. “I'll make him pay.”
Oreios charged forward, but Jarrod got a shot off. Oreios ducked out of the way, swirling around to his left, almost completely parallel with the floor. The shot blasted a hole in the adjacent roof. As if he was skipping along in space, Oreios seemed like a blur. He thrust his palm into Austin's chest and sent him through the frail wall facing the main street.
A whole side of the building collapsed as Oreios tried to kick Jarrod in the head. Jarrod ducked, rolling forward, and attempted to get another shot off. Oreios grabbed him by the wrist and pointed the gun away. The shot tore another section off the building, taking with it the last support beam.
The building groaned as dust fell all around, quickly followed by small clumps of rock. Jarrod slammed his forehead into Oreios' face and then kneed him in the stomach to get free. He sprinted to an opening in the wall and jumped out just as the building crumbled.
“I think that got him,” Jarrod said, walking over to Austin and offering a hand to help him up. The two looked at the pile of stones as the ground tremored. Large sections of the building rumbled and quickly scattered in all directions. The shockwave flung Jarrod and Austin back several dozen feet.
Oreios skipped along the ground, phasing in and out of sight, and grabbed Jarrod by the neck. Jarrod swung a fist, but Oreios took hold of the blow and twisted Jarrod's arm around in a complete circle, snapping it. He slammed a knee into Jarrod's face and threw him back into the bakery.
“Jackson,” he said as a ball of shimmering purple light crashed into the ground. From the dust, Jackson appeared in purple and silver armor. The two charged in on each other. Jackson struck first with three hooks, pummeling Oreios' stomach. He grabbed Oreios by the arms, spun around twice, and threw him through a building several blocks down the road.
Austin watched in awe as Jackson run in a blur. Oreios emerged from the rubble, almost floating in the air with several sections of wreckage hovering next to him. He shot his hands forward and the large pieces of collapsed building crashed into the road, rolling to a stop. Jackson evaded the debris with ease, sliding between each impact and adjusting his course without effort.
The two locked up in a flurry of blows. Oreios landed a good strike on Jackson's face, sending him tumbling backwards through a wall and back out into the main street. Charging in and drawing shards of metal and stone around his fist, Oreios slammed his knee into Jackson's stomach, pinning him onto ground, and repeatedly bludgeoned his fists into Jackson's face. Pieces of debris fell off from his hand, but were quickly replaced by more debris that was sucked up from the ground around them.
Austin stumbled forward, away from the bakery, and watched Oreios slam the twelfth blow into Jackson's face. He aimed the gun Jarrod dropped, his hand shaking, and shot Oreios in the forearm, blowing his arm off from the elbow to the hand. Jackson squeezed Oreios’ neck, slung him over his head and back into the ground, knocking him out.
“Lian, we have him.” Jackson stood with one foot on Oreios' chest. The armor over his face retreated backwards, exposing his blue eyes. Jackson dragged Oreios' unconscious body down the street. Giving Austin and the others a brief once-over, he turned to address Hershiser. “These men will need to be dealt with.”
“These men are the only reason I'm alive and the only reason you were able to apprehend Oreios.” Hershiser stumbled over to Jackson, speaking with a faint hack.