CHAPTER 40
“A Soldier's Creed”
January 4th, 2042: Unknown Position, Foreign Forest
At first, it was the silence that Jessica noticed, and though she could hear leaves rustling from the light breeze, and the droning conversation between her fellow Canadians, the forest itself was stiff as a board. Anxiety growing in the pit of her stomach, her mind processed the world around them faster, and with it, she continued to scan their immediate surroundings.
“You hear something, Jessica?” Looking over with curiosity, Sergeant Keen also looked around, though seemed none too bothered by the lack of sound. “Been a hot minute since I’ve seen something get you this excited.”
“This forest… something isn’t right with it--and I’m not talking about the damn anomalies. It comes off like one of those artificial forests, ya know? It looks natural until you look closer--and find that there is no ecosystem at all, it’s only trees.”
“So what exactly is it then? You're saying that this is some weird… Cloverfield Paradox shit?” Benjamin waved his arms out in confusion. “We’re technically on Earth still, but just not our Earth?”
“Maybe so, maybe not. But what I’m getting at is, this place is far from anything natural, or at the very least, it gives off that feeling.” Still looking at Benjamin--and by extension the other Canadians - Jessica looked on in confusion as their faces went from neutral, to complete white-washed horror.
“What? Was what I said really that mind-rattling?” Questioning her countrymen, she then realized that they weren't looking at her, but rather slightly above. Turning around herself, she let out a shriek of terror, and collapsed to the ground a quivering wreck.
There, behind her for god knows how long, and standing well above ten feet tall, was a great monstrosity that the Canadian minds could only process as having once been a wolf. Its vantablack fur seemed to eat any light that touched it; everywhere that was except its bright glowing white eyes. However, what horrified Jessica--and by extension the rest of them, the most was the near-constant blood and saliva cocktail that was spilling from its mouth; which its oversized canine teeth prevented it from completely closing. Making no sound whatsoever, the creature raised its left, slender-like arm and with four ever more humanoid fingers, gripped a nearby tree.
“Light it up!” Being the first to snap out of his trance, Sergeant Keen raised his rifle and let loose a torrent of bullets. Everyone else quickly followed with burst-fire.
In response, the hideous creature let out a distorted shrill. Cupping her ears as they rang in pain, Jessica only got a glimpse of the creature using the tree it had grabbed to push itself forwards and over her. With the painful ringing taking more priority than trying to track the creature, she curled up into a ball; only able to faintly hear gunfire and screams that no human should be able to make, yet managed to.
As for Sergeant Keen, his earmuffs protected him from the awful sound, however, he could only look on as the creature tore past him and right into Oliver. Unhinging its jaw in the short distance between them, scooping up Oliver, then snapping it shut and bounding off into the thick undergrowth again with its kill, still screaming for a short while before silencing. Taking the opportunity to switch magazines Keen’s mind changed gears and began to operate of its own accord--blocking out fear and replacing it with years of drilled-in military training.
“Noah! Get on the bushmaster! Benjamin, you better have your M203 ready for when that thing comes back! Liam, with me!” As he seated the magazine with his left palm, he twirled around to Jessica, picking her up by the collar of her coat and proceeding to push her towards the Russian Iveco. “Get under that vehicle and do not move!” With her mind in a state of ‘fight or flight,’ she did just that, and dived underneath the vehicle.
Taking manual control of the Coyote’s 25mm chaingun, Noah desperately tried to rotate the turret in the general direction of where the… demon had bounded off. With their own minds going a million kilometers an hour, Keen, Benjamin and Liam sprinted to the opposite side of the glade, hopefully leaving enough distance for Benjamin’s underbarrel grenade launcher to arm the actual grenade.
“There! 11 o’clock!” This time prepared, and their heads on a swivel now, Benjamin called out movement in the underbrush on the other side of the glade, and right next to the Coyote. Raising his rifle, he pulled the trigger.
Within seconds, a puff of white smoke and debris was thrown up, and not long after, another shriek echoed around them. Letting loose another magazine of 5.56 into the debris cloud as Benjamin did the same, Keen hastily reloaded his rifle, though as he did, his eyes grew wide in disbelief. Still alive and standing, the creature bounded towards them; each stride over more ground than they could ever hope to react to in time. Upon reaching the space in front of Liam, the creature once again unhinged its jaws, then snapped them shut; blood spurting out from any opening in its mouth. However, this time the creature did not go bounding off, but rather slowed down and turned within the glade. Shaking its head, it let go of Liam’s lifeless corpse which went ragdolling across the ground. The creature, stained in its own crimson blood--bleeding from well over a hundred fragments and bullet wounds all over its body, acted like nothing had happened. As it continued to step forward towards the frozen Canadians, the Coyote’s chaingun finally opened up, Noah letting loose round after round into the creature. As the mix of armor-piercing and high-explosive rounds landed, Keen and Benjamin watched as blood and bone fragments were ejected out and away from the creature. Though, for the humans… the enjoyment was short-lived.
Digging its slender fingers into the ground, the creature launched itself past Keen and Benjamin, and at the Coyote itself. Landing perfectly on top of it, it gripped the mantle of the turret with its right hand, and began to try and tear it off the hull. The scrapping and groaning of bending metal filled the air for a moment, then agonizing nails-on-chalkboard scraping as the turret was ripped off. Still holding the turret, the creature let out another banshee screech--though its head was quickly knocked to the side when an unseen force hammered into its lower jaw. Shattering the bone and leaving the front portion hanging loosely by its skin and remaining muscle.
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“Davai, davai! Ubey eto!”
Bursting through the trees behind the Canadians, the Russians wasted no time in throwing every piece of ordinance they had into the fight; and with every shell fired from the KS-23, chunks of flesh were ripped away and bone shattered on the creature.
“Vadium! Get the canisters!” Barking commands, Moskvin emptied his shotgun’s short magazine while Vadium quickly raced back into the woods and circled around.
“May Boris and Gleb guide me.” Calling up his once cast-aside orthodox faith, Moskvin steadied his breathing. Opening the breach to insert another slug he could see the world around him slowing down--an effect of his mind going into overdrive to process everything happening. Sliding the breach closed, Moskvin only saw the creature leaping from the Coyote and towards him before firing. For its part, the slug made contact with the creature's right eye; completely obliterating the orbital bone in the process.
With more of a garbled roar than a shriek the creature missed Moskvin with what remained of its head, but still knocked him to the ground with its bullet-ridden, bloody mess of a body as it tumbled and rolled across the ground. Struggling to stand by himself. Moskvin lifted his face from the grassy dirt and gazed towards the flying monster and as it tumbled a shower of bullets befell it once more. A mix of Russian 5.45 and Canadian 5.56 bullets rang through the air.
“Everyone back!” Sprinting with a canister of nerve agent in hand, Vadium pulled the pin and hurled it at the now struggling-to-stand creature--and a panicking Moskvin who scrambled to his feet and ran.
After no more than a few seconds, the canister began to release its odorless gray cloud; though not as odorless as one would hope for a demonic creature. Flailing its arms and legs around to get away from the cloud, the creature pawed and scratched at its snout as it backed away, taking chunks of fur and flesh with it; then, locked its one functioning eye onto Moskvin. A look of pure abhorrence. Taking a single step forward, the creature’s back left leg suddenly and violently extended.
With spasms starting at the creature’s neck, everyone continued to watch in silence as its nerves began firing off uncontrollably all across its body. Collapsing to the ground again, saliva and other bodily fluids flowed and bubbled from its mouth. With its head writhing around, it continued to let out sad excuses of roars and growls. With the sounds only causing more bubbles to foam from its mouth. Eventually, the horrific gargling ceased and the sound of rustling leaves was all that remained. The beast's once bright white eye fading into complete darkness.
“Did… did we kill it?” Not lowering his rifle for a second, Benjamin continued to stare down the sights of his rifle. “I mean, it’s not moving, right?” Not wanting to get caught in the still-dispersing cloud of nerve gas, not a single soldier dared take a step closer to the creature.
“All that firepower, and it didn’t even act injured. Even the---oh shit! Noah!” Remembering that one of his own was still potentially alive but unaccounted for, Keen sprinted over to the decapitated Coyote. Practically throwing open one of its rear doors he breathed a sigh of relief to find Noah was in fact still in one piece… albeit in a fetal position at the far corner, his mind far from okay.
“The Lord is my light and my salvation, The Lord is my light and my salvation, The Lord is my light and my salvation--” Repeating the same bible phrase over and over again, Keen knelt down next to Noah and placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. At his touch Noah immediately shot his head upwards to face him, and gripped his arms tightly; tears running down his cheeks.
“And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” Seemingly not present in reality at all Noah’s eyes wandered around the coyote. Completely oblivious to what had just transpired.
“Noah, I need you to pull yourself together, that thing is deceased. I really need you--” Trailing off, Keen noticed a small glow emanating from Noah’s upper chest. Slowly moving his right hand over it, he felt a small object.
“What’s up with your dog tags?” Keen thought, slowly moving his hand up to Noah’s neck and gingerly pulling out his dog tag chain. Though as he reached them, his eyes fixed not on the dog tags, but rather on the glowing Christian cross that was attached. Holding it in his hand, Noah’s lost eyes finally focused on Keen.
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.”
With the final sentence worming its way into Keen’s mind, he practically lifted Noah under his own strength and threw him out of the coyote. Turning to see the rest of the soldiers comforting a very shaken Jessica, Keen racked his rifle.
“The fight’s not over yet! You got any more of that gas?” Grabbing Noah by the collar of his shirt, he dragged him over to the rest.
“Ya, we have got five more. Where is the threat now?” Not with even an ounce of hesitation, Vadium went to grab the briefcase.
“I don’t know exactly, but Noah’s gone all screwy in the head and won’t stop reciting bible verses. That said, I'm inclined to believe anything he says because of what’s going on here.” Holding up the still glowing cross, everyone’s eyes widened in both shock and astonishment; as Noah simply gazed around at the massive trees surrounding them.
“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Utter silence followed Noah’s proclamation, Moskvin let out a low chuckle.
“Sound enough logic to me.” Raising his shotgun, Moskvin pointed to where they had burst through the trees during the fight. “There is an abandoned Chinese Army encampment that way--destroyed by this very demon we have slain… most likely. We should make haste for it and I pray that we will find useful weapons.”
“Makes a good point Sergeant, even a single disposable rocket launcher would sway things in our favor.” With Benjamin in agreement, Keen remained silent as he slowly walked over to Liam, whose body barely held together from the sheer damage. Taking his dog tags and the few magazines he had left, Keen stood up to look at Moskvin who saw an all too familiar look in his eyes.
“Do not worry, brother. If there are indeed more of these demons, they will come to fear us. And your comrade’s sacrifices will not be forgotten or be in vain.”
“You bet your fucking ass they won’t be…” Everyone now almost on the same page, the multi-national squadron of lost soldiers began their march as from high above them, in complete silence, a young-looking woman watched, her pointed elven ears ever so slightly twitching at the unorthodox yet known language.
“To be able to defeat a lesser-demon without magic, nor with the aid of strange American weaponry. Nor do you sound like them, yet once again, look nearly the same.” Waiting until the foreign soldiers were long gone she simply walked off the branch she was standing upon and fell; though before reaching the ground, a whirlwind of air slowed her down to a soft thud on the hard ground. Walking over to the deceased soldier, she placed her right hand on his chest.
“Goddess Aro is truly grateful for your sacrifice, unknown savior.” As she spoke, his body began to glow with a blinding white light, and as it did it began to reform. Not into a human, but rather into an ethereal buck. As the elf watched, it stood then quickly glanced around before bounding off into the forest. As for herself, she turned towards where the still human soldiers had marched. “I wonder, what is the plan these humans have schemed? If they have a plan at all...”