Location: HMS Sutherland, Caribbean Sea

Unit: GOU, Royal Navy

Date: 16th April 2022 CE

Mclaw sat there cleaning his pistol. He was nearly done.

Finally pulling the magazine apart, Mclaw grabbed a small knife from his boot. Pressing the tip into a small square, he heard it click as the spring fell away. Pulling a small rag, he placed it over the top of the main magazine, then he put some liquid on it before starting to push it through. Dust and mud started to seep out. He continued this again and again until it was clean.

Putting drops of oil on the magazine, he rubbed the steel up and down.

Just as he was about to reassemble it he heard a scream.

Mclaw swore upon hearing the scream. Pulling an old submachine gun from the wall, he chambered a round and ran down the corridor. Turning the corridor he saw James sitting on the bed. Sweat covered his face as it dripped down onto the sheets.

Mclaw lowered his weapon, "Nightmare?"

James' head was frozen facing forward, "It would be more accurate to call it reliving a memory."

Mclaw sat on the unoccupied bed next to James, "Want to get it off your chest?"

James thought for a second, "March 25th, 2021," he paused, "The day of the attack."

Mclaw knew where James was going with this, but he didn't interrupt, he let James continue.

James started to recount the events of his past... he explained what he saw that day.

He remembered sitting on a bus. He remembered when the first few shots rang out. He remembered being dragged off the coach as he heard screams of those who refused to move. He remembered the yelling as the instructors were beaten with the butt of the enemy's pistol. Then they came to one of the Cadet Lance Corporals next to him, immediately the enemy pointed his rifle at a Lance Corporal, speaking to one of the adults, "If you don't tell us where the Minister of Defence is... this one gets it."

James noticed the fear in the Lance Corporal's eyes, as the adult started to plead, telling them they were just from the Cadet Force. But the enemy started to count down, "FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE--"

Suddenly, a gunshot rang out as the enemy slumped forward with a chunk of the left side of his head missing. James knelt behind the dead body, pistol still pointed at where the head once was. Standing up, he remarked, "Damn, this pistol is a bit heavier than the Glock."

He smiled turning around, seeing several of the enemy staring at him, cocking his head to the right he looked at them as they shook, "Gonna kill any more of us?" Before they could react he brought his pistol up into the firing position, snapping between targets. Several dropped before the slide locked to the rear. James checked the chamber noticing it was empty.

Seeing two of the enemy left he frowned, knowing what would come next, "Come one you stupid fuckers, gonna kill me or what?"

They aimed in as James raised his arms to each side. Suddenly, he heard a click as both their guns jammed, James smiled, "Well I'll be damned."

Then two shots rang out behind him as a bullet pierced the chests of both the enemy.

James looked to the left, noticing the Lance Corporal Holding the M4-style rifle, "You lucky bastard," he chuckled.

James chuckled back, "It seems I have plot armour."

The other cadets and adults looked in shock at the several dead enemies around them. The Lance Corporal held out his hands, "Let's see how long that lasts then, name's Luther Morgan, yours?"

James shook his hand, "James Thompson."

Then, an imposing figure walked up next to them. Their shadow loomed over the two. Looking up, James and Luther gulped, noticing it was the Major. She looked them up and down, "Lance Corporal... Cadet, thank you."

Both the kid's eyes widened, surprised, "What?"

The Major picked up a rifle, checking the chamber, "Those who are willing to take a life, grab a rifle or pistol. The rest of you get back on the couch."

One of the instructors called out, "Engines done in, ma'am."

The Senior Officer swore quietly under her breath, "Enemy reinforcements could be on the way, we need to get out of here."

The cadets were silent, shocked at what just happened.

One of the other Cadet non-commissioned officers ground their teeth together before shouting, "YES MA'AM!"

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A fire was lit under the cadets as they repeated the two words, "Yes ma'am!"

The non-commissioned officer gave an order, "Get into your detachments, we need to move!"

Grabbing rifles and pistols, the remaining adults quickly checked their chambers. James picked up a bloodied rifle, it was M4 style. Pulling the slide back he let a round slam into the chamber. Then he lifted a plate carrier off one of the dead, before clipping a holster to his belt.

The other cadets had already started to move across the woodblock, all running as detachments. James looked down the road noticing a shine in the distance, suddenly an autocannon tore through the trees, incinerating several cadets and injuring a few others.

James dived to cover as the gun turned to him, crawling into a ditch it opened fire. He heard shouts and screams as he covered his head from the gunfire. We heard bullets from smaller arms land around him, immediately rolling over he fired several rounds, the first two enemies fell into the ditch next to him as their blood splashed his face and he started to choke at the horrific feel of someone else's blood seeping into his mouth, he turned over spitting it out. Then he felt a hard object hit him in the back of the head. Falling onto his front he spun around drawing a sidearm, he emptied it on the man in front of him as they fell on top of him. Chucking the pistol to the side he attempted to free the rifle from the corpse's side. Just as he did it was kicked from his hands before he felt a foot slam into his face.

And he blacked out.

James shook, coming back to the present day, Mclaw sat ahead of him. A dark look had grown on Mclaw's face, "What happened next?"

James clenched his fist. Part of him still ached from the painful memory, but another part of him knew he needed to tell it, "I remember waking in the forest, it's what we know as an NZA harbour area."

He started to recount the events of his capture.

Waking up he looked left and right. He was knelt with a member of the NZA holding him up. As soon as James noticed the skull face, he brought his face back and slammed it forward. Making contact, the enemy yelled as they fell backwards. James yelled out beneath the gag in his mouth at the pain he just received by headbutting the enemy.

The enemy stood up and just stared at him, then pulled a blade from his side. James gulped staring the enemy straight through the eyes. Immediately he put the knife to James's chin cutting him.

The soldier pulled the knife away as James' blood dripped down his throat and onto his clothes. Walking behind James, the enemy stopped. James heard a sawing next to his wrist. Suddenly, he felt his hands split apart, but before he could realise what was going on his head was forced to the ground and struggled as he felt a foot on his shoulder. He felt his arm extend backwards feeling like it might be torn off at any second. Looking back he saw his arm being held by the man in a skeleton mask.

James attempted to swear through the gag, attempted to hurl every insult in the English dictionary at him, he continued on and on but the enemy just looked blankly beneath the mask. Moving his knife closer he made four incisions on his left arm with his blade. James felt minimal pain spread throughout his arm. Blood oozed out as the knife left permanent scars on his arm.

The enemy let James go as the Cadet clenched his arm. He watched as the red substance spilt over the muddy ground.

James tore the gag off going to stand up, "You fucking cunt, I'll have your head on a pike."

The skeleton-faced soldier didn't react, he just walked away. Next, another skull-faced soldier emerged from the shadows. James attempted to swing at him, but immediately the soldier drove him to the ground. Holding his face onto the ground he spoke to a few soldiers, "Bring me four of them."

Immediately, the soldiers brought four prisoners, all members of the Cadet Force. They knelt down in front of him, all terrified. The enemy pulled a small submachine gun from his side and opened fire on all of the prisoners, James screamed, "YOU BASTARDS!" as he watched people he knew collapse to the ground, filled with bullets.

A tear streamed down James's face realising what the marks on his left arm meant. The enemy crouched down in front of him, "Do you realise what you have to do now?"

James looked up, teeth clenched he had the devil's own anger pasted across his face. The whole woods was filled with a dark presence, "Go fuck yourself."

The soldier laughed beneath his mask, before disappearing into the darkness which he came from. James lay in tears, he felt anger overwhelm him.

Then a third voice spoke, "Had enough... James?"

It was another of those skull-faced fuckers. James stood to his feet as the rain started to leak through the forest washing the blood away. James went cold, his glare dark.

The third skull-faced enemy spoke again, "This is your fault James, if you hadn't risen against us, maybe more of you would have survived," a crooked smile broke through the mask as he finished his sentence, "You are a fool, even if you aren't killed here, we will hunt you, we won't stop until one of us completely wipe out the other."

James stood in silence, "Then kill me."

The skull face man looked somewhat shocked, he cocked his head to the side, "But that's no fun, you still have one more visitor."

The figure disappeared as a final one took his place, "Don't resist, kid, it'll be easier that way."

James looked in front of him as the figure fazed out of existence, suddenly he felt a stab in the back of his neck as he saw the final man in a skull mask standing behind him with a syringe penetrating his neck.

Suddenly, he felt the monster inject something into his body. He started to lose control as he fell to the ground. Seeing hundreds of scenes and environments in one second, he started to shriek. He rolled back and forth as he saw wasteland after wasteland. Some burning, some freezing... some urban, some rural all covered in battlefields and bodies. James grabbed his head swinging it back and forth, trying to regain control of his surroundings, he told himself it was an illusion, a drug. He just had to be stronger than it.

Then suddenly it stopped. The forest chirped as James looked up. All four of them stood there staring him down. They turned to leave and walked in four directions.

Well... they tried.

Immediately, four figures repelled down the trees, unloading several rounds into the skeleton masked figures. James laughed, seeing those who had taken such pleasure in torturing him die.

He fell backwards smiling, laying his head against a tree stump his vision blacked out.

Back on the ship, Mclaw sat in silence, it was interesting hearing how James told it. It had more detail. It showed Mclaw a true picture of what happened, even when he saw the aftermath images, he still couldn't get a complete picture.

Mclaw leaned forward, "Those four figures... I want you to remember what they said to you, I want you to remember what they did to you. It may be useful."

James gulped, "Will the nightmares go away."

Mclaw smiled, "Only when you accept they aren't nightmares," he paused clenching his fist, "Think of them as... motivation," A dark grin grew across his face as the light bulb started to flash, but when the light stabilised Mclaw's face calmed again. He became composed.

But still, James didn't notice Mclaw's true personality.