Disclaimer: All events and characters in this story are purely fictional. If there are similarities in names and places, please understand. The author is still a beginner. Criticism and suggestions are expected. Reader discretion is advised.

WARNING!!

Strong language and violence

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Lasciate Ogne Speranza, Voi Ch'intrate

The light of the sunset illuminated the lush trees blown by the wind. Among the trees, a parachute was stuck trying to stop the man wearing it from falling like a ripe fruit falling from a tree. The man looked lifeless. But a moment later, he woke up, letting out a series of heavy coughs that sounded like he was about to spit out his own lungs.

The man fumbled for his belt and tried to open it, but it got stuck. He tried to open it again, groaning and sighing in pain every time it seemed as if he was exerting himself to undo the belt. Eventually, the belt opened, and he was released from his parachute,falling few inches on the ground. He groaned in pain but immediately ignored it as he reached into his pocket and took out a walkie talkie from beside his waist. He turned on the device and tried to say something, hoping someone would hear him.

"Base, this is Beta requesting for casevac, over."

Only static sound.

He tried again. This time the message is a little different. “Base, this is Beta. Our plane crashed and we need an immediate pickup, over.”

And just like before, there was only radio static. He was getting angry and agitated. It looked like he wanted to cry but he held back his tears.

Then he tried again. “Base… this is Sgt. Aiden McKiernnan, I… our plane crashed, and we need help, over.”

Only radio static could be heard coming from his walkie talkie. He tried fiddling with the radio, but the result was still the same.

Aiden decided to give up using his radio and tried to check his surroundings. While he’s in a lot of pain, he manages to force himself to get up. Stroking his throbbing left rib, it seems that there are no broken bones. Shouldn't the area around here be drier and colder? Aiden thought. Of course, he's right. He was supposed to be dropped off in a dry area in the eastern part of Syria for a hostage rescue mission assigned to his squad. Then why was he now in the middle of a damp forest? Had Wayne been given the wrong coordinates? He thought. No, no way. Wayne has served more than five years as a pilot. How come he didn't question the accuracy of the coordinates? Or maybe he didn’t check it himself. He put on his night vision goggles, only to find out that they were broken. Thankfully he has some skill at seeing in the dark.

The day slowly turned into night. He intended to make a bonfire, but his thoughts were dashed when he heard a strange sound close to where he was resting. He immediately took out his gun. He checked his mag. It’s half full. But beggars can’t be the chooser.

Aiden followed the source of the sound by moving very slowly and carefully like secret agents in those James Bond movies. Occasionally he turned his head towards the ground and hoped that there was no stupid branch that he would step on and causing the entire army of ghosts and masked killers to turn their heads with incredible speed to stare into his face. He got to the place where the strange sound was coming from. The sound was like a groan that sounded hoarse and wet. He saw a creature sleeping under the big shady tree. A panther? He thought. The panther is asleep. This curiosity that had started to emerge cursed Aiden, telling him to look at this creature, even though his common sense told him it was better to just leave it and go away immediately. He cursed himself and moved slowly to look at the Panther's face. Is this Panther a beast? Is it possible that he will meet a creature from urban legends? Like maybe a Skinwalkers? Or a Chupacabra?

He walked slowly, circling the creature, intending to investigate its face. What he saw was not a panther, at least not something out of ordinary, but a wide-open gaping mouth, as if the front of its head had been split open and its skull was taken away, leaving sharp teeth as its eyeless face and only showing organs and fresh red flesh as his head. THAT'S NOT A FUCKING PANTHER!!! His instincts screamed at him to get as far away, as far as he could go. But alas, through strings of bad luck befell him when he tripped over a tree root sticking out of the ground. Damn it… He thought. The creature woke up and saw Aiden who was sitting, staring at him deeply.

Aiden wanted to get up and run without looking back. He wanted to shot his gun towards the creature. But he couldn't do that. He was silent, neither screaming nor moving. He stared at the creature deeply, wishing that it would reveal its true majestic form and tell him that this was all a dream and that he should wake up from his sleep and return to his boring life. But no, it lunged at him with insane speed towards Aiden. Aiden swiftly rolled to the side and avoided the creature's lunge. He shot his gun once, but the creature dodged it perfectly, turned his body around and lunged back at him. Aiden ran while occasionally looking back, looking at the creature whose split face was writhing and swaying in a sickeningly hideous motion. Aiden kept running while changing his running direction to outwit the creature. But when he dodged, he again tripped over a root sticking out of the ground. Right when he fell, the creature was already above him and bit his left shoulder. He is screaming. His screams sounded like a mixture of unbearable pain and unimaginable fear. He was lost in pain. He wanted to go home to his mother who was lying in the hospital. He wanted to go home to his college friends who would take him to movies and concerts and take him to play video games. He wanted to go home to his squad mates who would invite him to arm-wrestle match and talk about beautiful women and boring philosophical chats. Between his thoughts, the pain returned, and he saw the creature almost rip his left shoulder. He thought that if he was about to die, this would be the last thing he ever wanted. He refuses to die killed by this vile creature. He roared like a warrior charging to a battle, as if he had been possessed by the God of Vengeance, his nimble hand reached into his pocket and drew a bayonet. He stabbed the creature's face many times. He let out a series of heavy sighs full of pain and anger as he stabbed the creature. He kicked the creature who was now clearly starting to hurt from Aiden's continuous attacks. The creature saw Aiden once and lunged at him again, however, its slow movements made Aiden quickly pull out his pistol and shoot the creature many times until he spends the last of his bullets.

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His breath was ragged, his shoulder that was ripped apart released a rush of red fluid and soaked Aiden's left side as he tried to stand up and hurry away. He did not look back, nor had any desire to confirm that it was dead. He was already scared enough, tired and fed up. He walked until he finally came out of the forest and found himself on a large unpaved road. While enduring the pain, he moved his feet slowly. If anyone passing by saw him, they would have thought he was a zombie.

Suddenly, he spat out a liter of green liquid from his mouth. He looked at the wound on his shoulder that was getting more and more painful and noticed that the flesh was blackened and gave off a rotten smell. He fell on his knees groaning in pain. His tears flowed. He had never been in this much pain while he was serving his country as a member of the military. He had been shot, stabbed, and beaten several times, but nothing hurt like this. Not only that, but his body also convulsed, and his head hurt. His breath was hot, and his toes were cold. I'm going to die, he thought. He regretted doing those things and leaving his mother alone in the hospital. He regretted having refused the help of his friends. He regretted that the last thing he said to his sister was those hurtful things. He regretted that he was now nothing more than a killing machine.

Aiden closed his eyes, hoping the pain would go away and he could sleep well tonight. Apart from this unbearable pain, everything was peaceful. He had longed for peace from long ago, but this kind of peace wasn't so bad. He just wished he could redo everything and correct his mistakes. As his consciousness began to slowly drift away, he began to fall asleep peacefully, under the moonlight covered in clouds.

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I remember just before the plane crashed. Brent was joking with Zack about his past.

"Take it easy, Aiden. If you don't vomit when you jump, then there won't be a problem. Unlike this guy over there." He pointed at Pablo, our Co-pilot.

“Damn you, Brent. Fucking kill yourself!"

“Hahahahaha! You should have seen your vomit flying through the air, Pablo."

“Urgh…”

Brent was telling how Pablo's oxygen hose came off while they were practicing high-altitude jumps. Due to the extreme altitude, Pablo felt excruciatingly nauseous and vomited high up in the sky. For them at that time it was a very critical situation, as well as Pablo who was between life and death. But now they laugh at the incident because it was a long time ago and when you think about it, it sounds funny.

“Besides, who told you to drink three bottles of that shitty beers of yours the night before? You know who's the fool,” said Daniel. He is also the longest member of the Squad out of all the other members. A technical specialist if you look at his work history.

"You know what, Dan? You got it even worse," said Lieutenant Bob with his thick southern accent. He is retiring soon, and this is his last mission. “You were drunk and started babbling incoherently while carrying that cartoon pillow with a naked girl drawing on it. Then you screamed on top of your lung like a strangled horse.”

They all laughed at the memory of what happened a long time ago, except for Dan who was now blushing with embarrassment and anger.

“Oh… Oh… I still have the video, hahaha!” says Karin, our weapons expert. A female weapons expert making her way into our Squad is not something to be underestimated. We all respect her. But sometimes she can become a crazy maniac when overloaded by excessive stress.

"Girl, you better don't fucking mess with me!" Dan threatens her, but it's too late because the video is already set. Then she showed it to me.

The video…. quite shocking and ridiculous. They all laughed again. And Dan continued to pull List's cellphone from her which she answered with the laughter of a maniac girl who sounded very mischievous. We all laughed and joked, as if we had forgotten our mission, which could be our last mission before we finally made it home or died in the field.

Lieutenant Bob came up to me. "Somethin’ on yer mind?" he asked.

I replied, "Not really"

I couldn't tell him that I wasn't scared at all. Maybe because I've been in the same situation, I don't know.

"You join the marine to pay your mother’s medical bill, right? Don’tcha worry, kiddo. You’re going to make a lot of money from this. Paying a few medical bills after this are pretty much like ridin’ horses through sunny day.”

He said that for a reason. I joined the military five years ago. And now I've become a third-class Officer in the Marines. Five years and being a member of the Marines is a big achievement, let alone being able to join a special team. Sometimes I feel pressured and afraid of my abilities. Paying my mother’s bill is one thing. But I can’t tell my true reason for being here.

"Stay cool. The worst scenario is they fire missiles at us.” Lieutenant Bob said.

Just as he said that there was a sound of explosion from the side and made the plane shake.

“Bastard! What was that?" Brent exclaimed.

"We lost engine one," said Wayne, our pilot.

"26 thousand feet, 25 thousand feet, 24, damn we're going down."

"Base this is Beta, we request permission to land at XX.XXX, X.XXX, over."

“Wayne! The radio's off."

"Fuck. Lieutenant, get them all out.”

Lieutenant Bob nodded. "All right, soldier. It's time to put on the mask."

We all quickly put our masks on. Suddenly, the rear of the plane was ripped open by something inexplicable. It makes the rear fuselage destroyed.

“JESUS CHRIST, AAA-” Brent shouted, before we had time to put on our masks, Brent's body was thrown violently until it was crushed by a giant black tentacle that suddenly appeared from the side of the plane. The tentacles crushed the side of the plane, and an ill fate befallen Dan and List.

“MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY, COORDINATES XX.XXX, X.XXX WE FALL FROM 26 THOUSAND FEET!”

“17 THOUSAND FEET! 15 THOUSAND FEET! WE CAN'T DO IT!!!”

“AIDEN!!! JUMP!!!"

I saw Lieutenant Bob's body crushed by the same black tentacles. The plane split in two leaving me in the middle of the sky with the plane exploding above me. I looked up. There's a black hole that's spewing out monstrous black tentacles that are slowly chasing me. I tried to dive faster, but the tentacles caught me. The moment that followed was so strange and terrifying. It was as if I was looking at my entire life in the past while feeling my body being crushed and torn apart violently.

And then, only Darkness came…

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Aiden woke up from his dream. Cold sweat pouring from his forehead as he saw a straw pillow and a small cloth that he used as a blanket. There is a bonfire in front of him and he saw an old, bearded man drinking what seemed to be a hot drink. He took a sip of the drink and saw the now awakened Aiden.

"Already awake, yes. I thought you would sleep longer than that. Judging from your wound anyway."

Aiden looked at the old man. Old enough to be called grandparent. But his body looks quite muscular. He was wearing a leather jacket with warm thick fur, brown trousers, and slightly oversized boots.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Is that how you greet the person who saved you?" replied the old man.

The old man took a glass filled with warm drink and handed it to Aiden.

“Just an ordinary Old Man. My name is Wilson."

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-To be Continued-