Chapter 3

I was staring at the screen for a couple of seconds after which I promptly broke out in cold sweat.

The first wave! Shit! I'm not ready yet! Okay calm down Erik, we can do this. I'm going to survive this!

I promptly ran out of the headquarters almost bumping into a soldier. Still don’t know their names.

Focus, Erik, focus we can deal with that afterwards.

“Soldiers, we have an emergency situation. The enemy will be upon us in one hour.”

“We possess no intelligence regarding the invaders and their fighting power.”

“Start preparing yourself physically and mentally as best as you can.”

“Someone go mark the 300 and 100 meters distance. Also we will barricade ourselves into the base and defend ourselves from there.”

“Oh, and someone go make a hole in the roof and climb upstairs so we can spot the enemies.”

“If we cannot hold our headquarters we will certainly die so we must hold this position! Am I clear soldiers?”

“SIR, YES SIR!”  Well I’m glad at least someone is confident. Unknown enemy coming from an unknown direction with unknown combat power. Is there anything more frightening for a commander?

I hope we will survive this somehow. I don’t want to see that smug bastard and his smug face.

During the next hour we pilled everything from beds to kitchen pots next to the door. Since there are only windows on the second floor we can consider ourselves lucky. The door will make a nice killing zone.

I took position on the second floor looking out of the windows while the engineers split into three teams.

One person was on the roof trying to spot the enemy while five were inside the trenches and two were positioned to provide covering fire from the doors if need be. I hope not.

As the only person to see the countdown the pressure was immense. The ticking felt like some kind of death sentence. After zero lies only troublesome enemies and a will to survive. The only question worth asking now is: Do you have what it takes to survive another day?

[First wave: 0:00:02] Shit.

[First wave: 0:00:01] Shit. Shit!

[First wave: 0:00:00] SHIIIIIT!!!

I was frantically looking through the windows to spot the enemy but to no avail. I was mentally exhausted before the damn fight. Are they not coming? Do we have to wait? They should have already come? Why are they not coming?

While I was losing my mind a shout came from the soldier on the roof. The ground was slightly trembling. What the hell is going on?

“The enemy!!!”

As I put my head through the window I almost fell out of it. Fuck! Can I please not die so stupidly?! I am not asking for much!!!

The first thing I saw was the color white. Littered around the perimeter, peeking out of the bushes white dots. What are those?

As the realization dawned upon me, my mind went blank.

…

…

…

It’s the fucking rabbits! FUCK your mother! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! Can I not have at least a shred of dignity left?!?!?

One day when someone asks me: Erik how was your first battle? WHAT THE FUCK am I supposed to say? Oh, that’s easy I was attacked by a rabbit horde. It was thrilling as fuck. After that we had rabbits for lunch for a loooong time.

Goddamn rabbits, Ares aren’t you looking down upon me a bit too much?

Well it turned out he didn’t.

It was a fight for the ages, well at least for the rabbits. As for their human counterparts they were part hungry part embarrassed.

At first we were surprised, then for a moment we were hungry and after that we realized that we were surrounded. Yes, surrounded, you heard me. The bushes were full of white dots wherever you looked.

For a good minute there was only the sound of movement inside the bushes and the multiplication of white dots in my view.

After that, well after that was only pure chaos. All the goddamned rabbits attacked at the same time. It was an avalanche of fluffiness with a touch of death by impalement.

I did my best to stay calm by issuing orders.

“Get ready everyone! “

“Even if the enemy is rabbits we must do our utmost to survive today!”

“I don’t want to put on your gravestones: Died while fighting against rabbits!!!”

“It would be too embarrassing and I don’t want to go down in history for this!!!!”

“When they come in range, open fire and don’t stop until every single one of those fluffy bastards is dead!!!”

That asshole is definitely behind this, can I not live in peace?!? I’m sorry for calling you a noob, I’M SORRY!!!

While I was regretting my cockiness, the rabbits were zooming across the clearing. They were nearing the effective range of our weapons and soon, very soon they will start dying. I only hope that we have enough bullets.

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600 meters

500 meters Wait.

400 meters Wait. Wait Erik, not yet.

350 meters So close. Come on you fluffy bastards, let this daddy show you the power of humanity!

300 meters

“OPEN FIRE!!”

BANG! BANG! Rata-tata-ta

The first of the rabbits literally exploded into air and painted the ground and the surrounding rabbits red. Almost every bullet went through a couple of rabbits. It was easy to aim but there were too many of them. Soon the rabbits were upon us.

When the rabbits advanced to the 100 meters mark the engineers started retreating while providing covering fire. As soon as everyone was inside the house we closed the door and piled everything onto the door to stop the rabbits from coming through although I doubted it would stop them for long.

The engineers spread out on the second floor and shot at the rabbits from the windows. One soldier was watching the door for any breakthroughs and another soldier and I were shooting atop the roof.

Why was I on top the roof you ask? Well it was a unanimous decision between us after all, since I was a coward and they were willing to die for me. I wasn’t very good at this fighting business. So there you go. I know, I was ashamed of myself but I was practically a kid at that time. My life was very important to me.

Everything was going fine for a couple of minutes while the door held and the rabbits were insanely jumping around the base. But the doors weren’t impervious to constant impalement.

The first rabbit collided into the obstacles behind the doors and died under a hail of bullets. But even that couldn’t stop them. As soon as there appeared a critical mass of fluffiness, the stairs were lost.

The engineer tried to retreat onto the second floor but he didn’t make it. A shooting rabbit impaled him right in the chest knocking him over. Fortunately, he didn’t immediately die but unfortunately he was mobbed by rabbits and the last thing heard from below was the sound of chain grenade explosions.

At that particular moment I somehow sensed he was dead, it was creepy to the utmost. I did my best not to puke.

Is this how it’s going to be from now on? Fuck! I can’t let this happen again!

But life was hell bent on screwing me over. There was probably a joke or two to be made about my new life but at the time I wasn’t in the mood.

The door to the second floor was almost instantaneously broken through. All the firepower we could bear was aimed at the door. There were the 6 engineers on the second floor and one engineer and me shooting through a hole atop the roof.

There was a small mountain of rabbits right at the door but even that couldn’t prevent the onslaught of the rabbit horde. The engineers threw grenades into the stairs and for a second there were no more rabbits coming through but that lasted only for a short while. While the engineers were reloading their weapons the rabbits stormed into the second floor and there was a bloody massacre.

All of the engineers died but not before pulling the pins out of their grenades and sending themselves and the rabbits to death.

Fucking hell! I told you guys not to die!!!

It seemed to be over for a moment but it was not meant to be.

Due to the grenade explosions the roof under us was full of holes and we fell through. We quickly got up and intensely searched for rabbits but there were none. The engineer went to check the stairs or what was left of them.

He just got there in time to die. A small band of surviving rabbits was trying to get up to the second floor by jumping and they impaled him to death.

I was the only one left. I immediately threw a grenade after him because I was certain he was dead.

After that there was only the uncomfortable silence until it was broking by the sounds of a rabbit.

There were only two survivors. One man, one rabbit. At that moment it became very personal for me.

These fucking rabbits killed everyone!

It tried to ram me but I trained my STG44 at it and shot. Unfortunately, even though I shot it mid-air it still knocked out the gun out of my hands.

It was time to get up close and personal. I pulled out my army knife and went into a rage induced frenzy.  In close-quarters it was not my match.

It was a good couple of minutes of me stabbing the rabbit to death.

After I calmed down, I was covered top to bottom in blood. I cried bloody tears immediately when I comprehended everything that happened. I still didn’t know their names.

As for what I will say when someone asks me about my first battle? Fucking rabbits.