by R. Malak
~ * ~
Location: Forest of Glokeen, Year 2061
The ashen-faced moon beamed one last burst of dim light before disappearing behind faint white clouds which rolled in from either side. A deep and all-consuming darkness blackened the land. The glittering stars above winking out of existence, leaving behind nothing, but shadows. Lying flat along one of the cedar’s great tree branches, Cora pushed her silver hair out of her light blue eyes and adjusted her aim. Strong gusts of wind blowing in through the forest treetops to chill her to the bone, causing an eerie creaking sound from the tall cedar trees swaying in the breeze around her. Joints aching from the cold, she tried to rub her fingers together; her hands firmly clasped around the barrel of her rifle. Eyes never leaving the ground below her, she studied the hundreds of goblins, hooting and jeering. Their bright yellow eyes glowing in the darkness.
Unable to get a clear shot at the goblins who were well-protected by the darkened forest, she closed her eyes briefly and focused on her breathing. Orcs in heavily bloodstained armor floated in and out of the torchlight, daring the humans to waste their bullets. But Cora accustomed to seeing such tactics used by these cunning creatures, simply ignored them, waiting patiently for her opportunity. A brash young goblin with a scrawny frame, eager for battle suddenly hooted and charged towards the remains of lightning squad rushing into the glaring torchlight. The creature managed to reach the center of the road, before two well-timed bullets, tore through its jugular and skull simultaneously.
In the tree beside her, Tommy laughed, “Did you see that Cora, shot the gob right between the eyes.”
Cora’s lips tightened at the sound of Tommy’s weasel-like voice.
“Maybe you should retire Cora, looks like you’re getting old and slow,” he crowed as he fired another round to blow out the brains of another unlucky goblin to step into the circle of torchlight.
Having had enough of his preening, she retorted, “Shut yer mouth, Tommy, this ain’t no game.”
Tommy chortled nastily and replied, “Why? Are you afraid to lose?”
Cora grimaced, and flexed her numb fingers. She disliked noise, she disliked talking, and she also disliked company. She preferred to hunt and scavenge on her own, but with so many patrols losing men or gone missing... Squads were becoming desperate for replacements to assist in defending the perimeter. Worried for her younger sister Katie, a shy young woman with no combat experience, she had put her hand up for the new assignment. Tommy a rowdy city boy with quick fingers and perfect hand and eye co-ordination had taken the appearance of a ranger in the squad as a direct challenge to his position as the best marksmen.
Sighing, she tried to ignore his jibes, but he continued his one-sided rant.
“Reckon I could have taken a nap and still had time to kill more gobs than you? I am like a god with a rifle, nobody can beat me. Maybe if you had my skills, you wouldn’t be shootin’ gobs in the neck,” he proclaimed, his voice so full of arrogance, it twisted her stomach.
Hicks, overhearing the entire conversation bellowed, “Tommy, shut that damn mouth of yours! We don’t need you bringing any more goblins our way!”
Tommy his brown eyes still twinkling with mischief replied, “Aye, Aye Sarg.”
As if waiting for the stillness and quiet to return to the forest, the huge grey skinned Orc lumbered forward skirting the round pools of torchlight.
Cora licked her dry lips and moved her finger to rest lightly upon the trigger. She had never seen an Orc the size of this one, not to mention the odd skin color. She wondered if it was a berserker, if so this creature would take more than one bullet to kill. The grey-skinned Orc swung its massive war axe through the air one handed, showing off its physical prowess, before stepping into the torchlight. Cora’s eyes locked onto a weak point at the base of the Orc’s throat where the jugular was and gently squeezed the trigger. Her bullet hit the mark, snapping the Orc’s head back. The creature shook its lumpy round head, shrugging off the pain and continued advancing slowly. Tommy’s rifle immediately fired after hers, smacking the beast solidly in the forehead. Again, the Orc grunted in pain, but continued its ominous advance. Cora worried now, fired two more rounds into the creature’s knees to slow its advance. The first round hit the mark; the second ricocheted off the heavy plate armor.
Tommy followed suit, firing round after round into any weak points in the plate armor, shoulders, knees and neck. The colossal Orc ignored the rain of bullets and continued plodding forward, its flame colored eyes never wavering, staring at them with malevolent intent. As it reached the center of the road, where the remains of the goblin lay at its feet with barely any scratches on its iron-grey skin, it gave a low menacing growl and lurched forward a little faster. The Orcs and goblins screamed and howled with excitement. And like a bank bursting with too much water, they flooded onto the road right after the huge Orc.
~ * ~
Qazin watched through watery eyes as his men frantically tried to stem the tide of Orcs and goblins pouring onto the road in the wake of the great beast. The huge grey skinned titan continuing to lead the way, bullets bouncing off its tough hide, drawing closer with each breath.
“Sir, I am almost out of ammo!” shouted Soren, over the deafening sound of gunfire.
Hick’s grunted, “Get up into the trees and stay up there.”
The sergeant stopped firing and ran over towards him. Grabbing him by both shoulders and tried to lift him up, but Qazin refused to budge from his spot. He shook his head stubbornly and thrust Hick’s hands aside, before pulling out a makeshift grenade from his chest pocket. Each squad member carried one in case of emergency situations. He’d make sure his death meant something.
“Get up into the trees Sergeant, that’s an order!” he said, voice full of authority.
“I can’t do that Qaz, so just put that grenade away and let me help you up.”
Qazin’s black eyes flashed angrily. “Leave me! You’ve wasted enough time,” adding underneath his breath, “You need to take care of your family.”
Hick’s stepped backwards, tears prickling his blue eyes, as Qazin clambered up onto his feet, using the trees behind him to prop him up. Clutching the grenade to his chest, he shuffled forward towards the big grey-skinned bastard. And prayed his friend would make it out of this forest alive without him.
~ * ~
Grul Han, his body badly bruised and armor dented, hungrily gazed at the human wobbling towards him, eager to have a taste of human flesh. His eyes turned ruby red at the intoxicating smell of human blood, his mouth dripping with drool. In two long strides, he stood in front of the juicy morsel. Wanting to feel the human’s bones break beneath his hands, he dropped his war axe to the earth with a thud and pounced. The human didn’t move. His hands closed in around the human, crushing the soft creature in his palms. Something small and round dropped to the ground. Not caring what it was, he leaned in to bite the human’s head off, when abruptly his body was engulfed in excruciating pain, and a bright white fiery light.
~ * ~
Time passed by and the dead Orc beside him began to reek of death, while gunfire resumed once more off in the distance, maybe a few miles behind him. After waiting for his eyes to adjust to the gloom, Talmen gingerly began pulling out the shards of metal from his chest and arms. Biting his tongue to stop himself from screaming, he felt his fingers dig into his chest and pull out the jagged pieces of metal. Tears slipped down his cheeks, as he winced with each excruciating movement.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” he whispered under his breath with each stab of pain. Taking another deep breath, he yanked out the one in his stomach, releasing a small fountain of blood. Gasping at the fire roaring in his belly, he pressed his hand to the open wound and slowly worked on removing two smaller pieces from his chest and the one from his right arm.
As he rested again, he tried to not think of the next part. Without any water on hand, there was only one way to clean a wound to avoid infection. He slowly pulled off his bloo
d-stained shirt and laid it down beside him. Then unzipping his jeans, he cupped his hands together and peed into his open palms. Grimacing in disgust, he splashed the urine onto his open wounds, and then rubbed his fingers gently across the wounds, groaning as they stung furiously. Done, he thought about wrapping his injuries with pieces from his tattered shirt, but realized it would be pointless. His shirt was caked in blood, sweat and dirt, which would only aid in speeding any infection.
He tiredly pushed himself up to his feet and zipped his jeans. More flashes of gunfire blazed off in the distance. He wondered how many were still alive, judging by the sound of the gunfire, he reckoned there were only a few left. In any case, they would all be dead soon, as would he, if he didn’t find a place to shelter for the night. He hurriedly bent down to pick up his shirt, when he saw the creature that stalked his nightmares... Skin blackened like molten lava, with red hot flames dripping down its naked lithe body. It glided across the earth, its footsteps turning the ground beneath it to ash and giving birth to tiny flames that crackled to life. Twin flames burned within pitiless caverns where its eyes should have been. Its wide crimson lips slightly parted to release bursts of fire, revealing a corpse-like visage.
Petrified, he stood still watching as it passed through the forest heading towards the sound of the gunfire, gracefully gliding forward. Images flashed before his eyes of his father curled up in a ball screaming in agony, waving his hands in the air begging the creature to stop as it melted the flesh and skin from his bones, laughing all the while. Shuddering at the vivid memory, he broke free of the hypnotic appearance of the dread creature and hid within the crevice of a nearby tree; his body trembling uncontrollably. More lights dotted the forest as more of the creatures appeared. Burning the ground where they walked and lighting up the forest with their bright red flames. Too scared to move, he watched as the almost human like creature passed him by and felt an intense heat that caused his skin to sweat profusely.
Heart beating furiously, he gazed up into the sky and mouthed a prayer:
“Please, please, don’t let them find me.”
~ * ~
The powerful blast from the makeshift grenade shook the tall cedar trees and set them aflame, lighting up the darkness to reveal a seething mass of filthy goblins below in dirty brown robes with bits of human flesh hanging from their necks as they scrambled up the trees. The strong stench of blood, sweat and desiccation lingered in the breeze. Bullets whistled through the air tearing away goblins from treetops and dropping them to the earth like rocks dropping into a pond. The Orcs clad head to toe in thick plate armor, stood at the base of the trees swinging their massive war axes, splintering wood and cracking the skulls of goblins that accidentally got in their path.
Trees shaking with every blow, Tommy found himself struggling to line up perfect head shots. He fired into their chests instead, which wasn’t quite as satisfying. But that didn’t matter to him in the end, all he really wanted was for this fight to never end. He loved the feeling of warm blood gushing over him, the feeling of invincibility that followed the adrenaline rush. This was…this was the way to live life.
~ * ~
Cora, her ears still ringing from the grenade exploding, felt a touch of guilt and regret at the passing of the commander. Qazin had been a decent man and a good leader. He shouldn’t have had to sacrifice his life like that, but then again, this world was like that, sacrifices had to be made every single day so that other men and women could survive. In this case however, survival was futile, they should have died fighting beside him. Rubbing her eyes gloomily at the pessimistic thought, she carefully aimed her rifle at the nearest goblins, making sure to make each bullet count. But with so many goblins climbing up from all directions it was difficult to keep track of them all. It was only until she heard branches shaking above her, did she realize she was in trouble.
Cursing aloud at the sight of goblins above her, she called out, “Tommy gimme a hand. I got gobs up top!”
Tommy glanced her way, smirked, and stuck up his middle finger and kept firing into the goblins around him. Her face flushed red, she swung the rifle onto her back, unsheathed her machete and crouched down to make a smaller target. Two spears flew down, one punching into her right side, knocking the breath out of her, the other grazing her thigh. Wincing in pain, she snapped the flimsy spear in half and staunched the wound quickly by wrapping a piece of her shirt around the spearhead.
One of the goblins, excited by the sight of blood, dropped down from the branch above with a whoop and jabbed the spear towards her chest. Gritting her teeth, she parried the blow deftly, then lunged forward and sliced the goblin's throat out. The creature held its torn throat with a look of surprise on its ugly face, before toppling sideways off the tree. To be quickly replaced by another goblin scrambling up to take its place. Unlike the first, this goblin didn’t attack her immediately, instead the creature stared at her with sunken-yellow eyes; watching her. Worried by the careful way the creature positioned itself, she realized she was facing an experienced fighter and judging by the wrinkles, solid stature and scars on its face this creature had seen a lot of action. Knowing she was outmatched, she stepped back and whipped the rifle off her shoulder and fired in one single motion to blow the creature out of the tree with a gunshot to the chest.
~ * ~
Hicks, temporarily blinded by the brilliant white light, instinctively turned away and blinked rapidly. Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead. The hard-faced sergeant twisted his head back and forth searching frantically for the commander, a part of him hoping his eyes had lied to him and that the commander had thrown the grenade and made a miraculous escape, before the explosion.
His steel grey eyes searched the forest, as bright orange flames licked the ground spreading far and fast to either side of him burning dozens of goblins alive, their squeals adding to the din of gunfire and battle cries. He could see the remains of his squad outlined against the flames, battling against the horde of goblins that were teeming against the trees. Fire engulfing most of the forest around him, forcing many of the goblins and Orcs to avoid his side, except for two determined Orcs who hacked away with their axes directly below him.
With no way to get a clear shot at the pair, Hick’s continued his search for his friend and saw Soren’s muscular figure come into view off to his right, climbing higher up into the treetops to avoid the smoke and goblins racing up to reach him.
He lifted his rifle to provide some support, when through the smoke and ash, the badly burnt figure of the monstrous Orc appeared in his line of vision. The creature lay at the edge of the road, armor shredded, one arm missing, tusks blackened, and its skin red and raw. Hick’s smiled savagely at the mangled corpse, a warm glow emanating in his chest at the thought of the creature having suffered before it died. Then it moved… the huge Orc with pieces of armor melted into its flesh slowly rose to its feet and stood up... Mouth twisting into a snarl of rage and anger, Hick’s trained his rifle on the Orc, switched to semi-automatic and let loose a stream of bullets, determined to end its life the way it had ended his friend’s life. The well-aimed spray of bullets hit the large Orc in the chest and torso, tearing through its flesh, and breaking its bones, before knocking it backwards.
The Orc howling in agony, held up a muscular arm to protect itself from the storm of missiles raining down on it, but the rifle rounds tore right through its burnt flesh. The heavy rifle fire, ringing clear and true.
Magazine empty, he took a deep long breath to settle his bubbling rage. But his anger refused to simmer down, eyes burning with fury, he unsheathed his machete and prepared to leap down to finish the job. He could not let it live. The great big Orc, bleeding from more than half a dozen gunshot wounds, took two more steps before collapsing onto its knees, its face and arms a bloody mess.
~ * ~
Body soaked in perspiration, arms shaking, and bowels loosening with fear. Talmen his mind drowning in fear tried to think
of a way to escape, but his brain kept circling back to image of his father burning alive. Flames crackled nearby and the sweltering heat grew stronger. The creatures were close… He needed to move, but where to go? Blood thirsty abominations blocked off the west. A battle raged off to the north with flames, smoke and bright bursts of gunfire scarring the night sky, which meant there was only one option, which was to head back south into the wide-open plains. Rubbing his temples to massage his growing headache, he mustered his courage and took a breath. Swallowing the bile rising at the back of his throat, he surged out of his hiding spot and sprinted towards where he thought the flat open plains would be using the forest fire burning in the distance to guide his path. And saw an abomination its skin oozing liquid hot magma slip out of the shadows to block his path. Its pitiless flame lit eyes flaring a fiery blue at the sight of him. He jerked to halt, thought of turning back, but it was too late… more abominations closed in to surround him.
Biting his lips, he bolted past the creature of pure flame, as it raised its palms up and shot liquid hot streams of fire towards him. He vaulted out of the path of the fiery blast, the white-hot flames incinerating the branches and earth like acid. Choking back a panicked scream, he kept running, when he felt the white-hot flames scorch the skin off his back. Shrieking in agony, he kept running oblivious to the tree branches and rocks that cut and slapped at his hands and feet. The pain in his back throbbing angrily, as the breeze slapped against the open wound, wafting the scent of burnt meat. He could hear hoarse screeching coming from behind him, and an intense heat that warmed his body. Losing concentration for a split second he tumbled to earth, scraping his palms and chest against the hard surface. A mixture of fear and adrenaline pumping in his veins urged him to his feet, and kept him moving. It was only until he began passing the bodies of dead goblins and Orcs that he realized he had run in the wrong direction. Cursing his stupidity, he turned to run back the way he had come and gaped at the sight of hundreds of abominations spreading out to either side of the forest, lighting up the night sky with their unearthly glow. Terror stricken by the sight of so many of them, he fled towards the sounds of gunfire, growls, and wild cries.