Many people say that the eyes are the window to the soul. Others say they are the window to the heart. I’ve always assumed it’s the latter, because after my first deployment everyone said the same thing. My eyes looked dead.

I struggle to maintain my breath as I lay in the drenched mud, the crack and whiz of bullets howling through the air above and around me, leaving no place to move, trapping soldiers on both sides.

I calm myself, as I have so many times before and raise the barrel of my rifle. I steady it, bracing the stock against my shoulder and resting my hand holding the barrel on a slightly raised patch of mud before lining my vision with the scope.

My eyes follow the countless tracers of weapon fire, searching for a target who happens to be exposed, ready to be shot. I breathe in and out, a rhythm practiced so many times it’s the only thing I can do without fail.

The sound fades as my sight settles on a target. I don’t consider his age. I don’t think about what I might find in his eyes. I just do what I’ve always done.

Click!

The slow squeeze is rewarded with a small sound, but nothing more. I growl and stay still, sight still settled. One second, two, three seconds pass. Nothing. I rotate the gun and pull back the slide, peeking into the chamber. Completely jammed, mud was caught everywhere, though I have no idea how that managed to happen.

Throwing the weapon to the side I reach down to my leg, grabbing the only weapon that’s never failed me. My trusty .44 open top revolver, custom made. I sighed slightly as I felt the familiar grip in my hand, before breathing again.

Obviously the revolver’s ironsight and bullet velocity could not compare to a rifle’s superior barrel length and standard optics, but I knew it better, and it would never fail me.

I raised the barrel, my grip right armed, my left hand placed on the ground, attempting to help me balance my body rather than my arm. My arm did not need to be steadied.

Slowly, the barrel raised just a few notches above my target, I pulled the trigger.

Click

BANG

Red mist filled my sights. A perfect shot, I knew my target could not survive. But such is war, as I suddenly felt my body jolt and drop. Unable to move, my face limp in the mud, I moved my eyes up to watch the cold dark sky, and surrendered myself. Perhaps after all this fighting, after all this loss, and my powerless efforts. I would be rewarded? Perhaps, I would finally be free of the pain.

My vision darkened, further and further until there was nothing at all. I wondered for a moment, and only a moment, if this was the afterlife. A void, an abyss of pure freedom and emptiness, a place where there was nothing, a place where all things came to an end, and as I briefly contemplated on when I’d reach that end, I felt a pull.

Perhaps it would have been better to describe it as a suction, an unavoidable force dragging me with unmatched power, as though not just myself but the entire space around me was being dragged and ripped at, the entire expanse tugged and pulled apart, until just barely, a small dim light broke through.

Opening my eyes I contemplated on the ethereal experience I just had, slowly raising my hands to block out the light, no matter how incredibly dark it actually was.

That’s strange actually, why is it so dark? I took in my surroundings slowly, my mind racing at a million miles an hour as I tried to comprehend everything. Didn’t I die? Perhaps I was alive, an injury to the spinal cord perhaps. I had heard of soldiers being paralyzed in the field and being saved afterwards.

But that didn’t make sense, if I had been saved and placed in a medical facility, how did I end up… here? I felt out the ground with my hands as my eyes adjusted to the light, which the place had an apparent lack of despite being so bright just a moment ago. The ground was rock solid, wait, no it is rock. Slowly my hands made their way up the jagged structure of the walls and it quickly became apparent.

This was a cave!

What the hell am I doing in a cave? Nothing is adding up here at all…

Before I could question what was happening, a growl resounded from my right. Wait. Growling!?

Faster than I could blink, a snout appeared, sniffing the damp air of the cave, as the body of an enormous wolf turned the corner just ahead. Enormous was an understatement, the wolf was massive. The wolf had to be at least three meters tall, its height practically brushed the ceiling, which was roughly two times the height of my body, and its claws scraped the ground, each one being about as big as my foot.

I couldn’t help but gulp. No, I wasn’t afraid, it was simply a human reaction to witnessing a predator so awe inspiring and incomprehensibly massive.

Slowly that snout, and those large brown eyes turned glistening like gold, before snapping onto me. It had only been about thirty seconds since I had woken up from a near death experience, and yet now I was going to die again.

I smiled wryly at the thought, before shaking my head. The least I could do was try.

The wolf didn’t pounce, instead it sized me up. A rare sign of intelligence, especially considering the fact that normally such a territorial animal would have attacked without a second thought…

I cleared my mind of thoughts and tempered my breathing, watching the wolf observe me and making no movements.

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I lowered myself but did no more, and watched as the wolf circled me slowly, its eyes watching me curiously. It went no further to my right, a quarter circle around me, before pacing back around to the other side of the cave, not intent on letting me get a headstart to the exit.

Noticing that I was making no attempt to attack, its eyes narrowed, and slowly I watched as its muscles tense, building up strength as it ever so slightly lowered itself towards the floor. I prepared myself in turn, watching and waiting, keeping myself as still as possible.

We stood there, watching each other, both prepared for what would come next. The wolf, as much as it tried to hide it, was ready to jump. I watched closely, the ever so slight sway of its tail giving away its final readiness. The tail stopped, and I leapt forward, keeping myself as low as possible as the wolf, monster thing, launched itself towards my previous position.

Harrowingly I heard the scraping of its claws behind me but didn't dare to look back as I slammed into the wall with my foot, desperately reorienting myself and pushing off of the wall to the left as it came. As a result, I was barely keeping my balance as it were and even less so as I heard something slam behind me, the force shaking the entire cave. I didn’t dare look back as I kept my pace, running down the cave's incredibly poorly lit tunnel.

I knew one thing for certain, this monster was not natural. I had heard of genetic experiments, but I had thought they were abandoned years ago with the appearance of new technologies and leaps forward in technological fields. Why did this thing exist? And how?

My questions remained unanswered as I sprinted faster, pushing myself harder. Certainly, this was perhaps the fastest I’d ever run in my life, which is quite the achievement all things considered. I forced myself to breathe carefully, and curiously I felt energy spread through me, foreign and unfamiliar.

Unable to question what was happening I simply sprinted faster, unwilling and unable to waste the newfound energy that might save me from my current predicament, and unable to comprehend how it was ever possible to reach such a speed.

A glimmer of hope passed through my long dead heart as I spotted a slimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. A curious statement, considering my assured death what must have been only moments earlier. The man-eating wolf howled behind me, enraged at my imminent escape.

Further empowered I run towards the light, my escape and possible survival clearly at hand before me. Faster. The unbridled thought came quickly and, to my complete surprise, my body followed through with ease. Seemingly instantly I found myself becoming faster as energy that I had been accumulating the whole time quickly seemed to dissipate.

Hoping that what was left was enough to last I ran towards my hope, my final escape, as the passage to the world opened before me. Despite the hope, I couldn’t help but think it was strange. Why is it so bright? So, so bright?

I couldn’t afford to close my eyes or remove my attention from the land in front of me as I kept traversing the terrain, desperate to escape the beast behind me, its talons seemingly ever closer, to the point I could feel a warm breath on my back. Or perhaps just a warm breeze.

Curious but undeterred I continued my mad sprint, until finally, I could no longer hear the beast's ragged pants. I collapsed onto the soft grass and breathed in with my eyes closed. The energy from earlier welling within me.

Exasperated, I could not help myself but speak my troubles aloud. “What, on earth, was that? What is happening?”

It was an old habit, one I tended to fall into when alone. Speaking to myself. I’d done it often, and continued to do so.

“What’s earth?”

I practically jumped out of my skin before looking around cautiously, eyeing every tree, every plant, every single place an enemy could be hiding, searching for the voice. A frown formed on my face as I realized that absolutely nothing looked normal. Not the trees, grass. Certainly not the sky.

I found myself in a world that seemed almost alien. The grass was tall, spindly and dark, as though it were cast in constant shade. The trees looked dense somehow, as though they held far more strength and power than any simple tree had any right to.

“Curious. How can you be so… innocent?”

The voice again. Where was it coming from?

“I am surprised you cannot ascertain my presence. Just so you know, if it helps, I mean you no harm.”

I sighed and gave up. “Ok, what are you and what’s going on? Also, I like to speak face to face with people.”

“Face to face…” The voice chuckled.

“I am afraid that is impossible. I do not have a face.”

My frown deepened as I dragged my hand down my face, my mind practically overheating with frustration and incomprehension.

“I hate this.” I announced, finding the entire situation unbearable.

“As do I. I certainly did not expect to draw on a vessel so… curious. But you are in fact, quite weak. Physically at least. I had believed I drew on a fearless and peerless warrior, one who has seen much combat. You look somewhat admirable, but you are nothing to what I might have preferred.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about right now.” My head hurt so much from all this.

“Alright well the gist is, you died. But good news, I saved you!” The voice sounded triumphant.

“Right… well that would explain some things. If it made sense. At all.” I added, skeptically.

“You were a warrior, a fighter in your last life. A fearless one. I summoned you here upon your death so that you could complete a mission.” The ‘voice’ explained, though the very thought itself eluded me as anything but incomprehensible.

“You could say that. But, why me?” I asked curious, despite the incredulity of it all.

“I don’t choose. The whole process is rather complex, but the whole idea is that you’re here to save the world! Go team.” The voice said, a little too enthusiastically.

“Right. Can you explain a little more understandably?” I asked, still completely confused by the complete and utter ramblings of the voice.

“Weak in body and in mind it seems. I suppose the world is doomed after all.” The voice proclaimed sadly, clearly disappointed, though in an almost sarcastic or snarky way.

“Okay, so you summoned me into whatever this place is. To save it? That makes literally no sense. Out of all the people you could drag from the afterlife, I’m just another soldier. One more statistic. Why did you choose me?” I asked clueless. Truly, it doesn’t make any sense for me to be chosen. Out of all the other soldiers, on all the battlefields, why on earth would it be me? Another soulless husk.

“I don’t get to choose. I am here now to guide you on your journey, that’s all I can say.”

“Right, so where are you?” I asked, still keen to meet this mysterious ‘spirit of guidance’.

“I am inside you.”

“Gross.”

“You know I didn’t mean it like that!”