-Chapter VI-
Demon Hunting Monsters, Stress, and Love
Sitting in the middle of the back seats of a Humvee, wearing a big black cloak and resting my sledgehammer before me on the ground between my legs, the soldiers of Alpha Team, under SSG. Haren, fill the vehicle with me as we travel through the base and towards the south gate. Bravo and Charly Teams are in the vehicles behind us and are led by Sgt’s. Victor and Luise.
All together we have an assortment of sixteen soldiers excluding myself, from the Staff Sergeant, Sergeants, and varying specialists of different designations. Riflemen, CQC, Grenadiers, Marksmen, and two Field Medics among others. And then there is me, the little Imp with nothing but a sledgehammer, a 1911 handgun, and a big ass knife holstered on my waist.
Armor wise, everyone is decked out and covered from head to toe. Some of the soldiers are so heavily layered in protective plating that you can’t even see their faces. One gentleman in particular is looking like an absolute tank of a unit, loaded up in armor and holding an LMG like it’s the world’s deadliest baby.
In comparison to the recon team lead by Sgt. Lenz, these men look like they are going to war. Which makes sense considering that we aren’t heading out to sneak around and scout a city. We are heading out with the intention of drawing attention and slaying monsters. We’ll be going in loud and proud and trying to piss off everything we can south of the base, and my job is going to be to bash skulls and hunt anything that can’t be taken out with a shower of bullets.
In regard to myself, besides the nice pistol they assigned me, the army has also managed to suit me up with a bit of armor. I am nowhere near as heavily armored as everyone else; not wanting to sacrifice mobility, so I only have on an armored chest plate, shoulders, knees and arm guards over a standard issue army camo pants and sweater. Besides that, I have some fingerless gloves with knuckle, but no boots or helmet. My claws and horns will take some working around if I am going to be having specialized gear like that. Finally, I have a small pack with some emergency supplies and my big black cloak that I am hiding under so the civilians don't see the little demon riding through base.
Outside of the Humvee, as I look out the windows, past my big, armored buddies, I watch as people go about their lives. Talking with one another, walking to somewhere, buying food or trading goods, or even happily waving at us as we pass and wishing us luck.
Of course, not everything is happy and good outside of the Humvee’s. For every playing child or smiling person that can be found, there is also those sitting around in depression. Be it the injured, the mourning, or even those that have just given up and are waiting for the next part of the end of the world to inevitably come through and mess everything up; for the temporary safety of these metal reinforced wooden walls to eventually be breached and for death to come pouring through the cracks. Even now as we drive, the distant cracks of gunfire can be heard from the outer walls accompanied by the roars of angered monsters throwing themselves mindlessly against our defenses.
Another gate is passed, and we are soon reaching the southernmost gate. Civilian presence here is sparce, the area not yet safe enough for people to move in and typically only being occupied by those that volunteer to risk their lives chopping down trees on the front lines or to help move supplies while the guards and soldiers hold the walls and man the towers. Further back from the walls are artillery emplacements, occasionally firing up and over the wall to eliminate dangerous targets and large groups of creatures that stick to close to one another.
Stopping at the gate, SSG. Harren calls over a messenger and exchanges a few words while I watch from the back seat. With a salute, the messenger runs off and we wait; all three Humvees idling in single fire line at the gate. After about five minutes of waiting, I turn and poke the guy next to me, “Hey, what are we waiting for?”
He turns a bit and looks down at me, “Hmm? Oh, nothing much. They're just going to clear the field for us.”
“Oh?”
“Yah.” He raises an arm to point his thumb out the window, but before he can continue his explanation, the artillery emplacements let loose with a loud crack that rips through the air like thunder. Moments later, the sounds of explosions and screaming monstrosities sound out over the wall. Following that, the noise of gunfire from the wall picks up noticeably in frequency until it all suddenly comes to halt. The field outside goes quiet.
“Oh…”
From up above on the wall someone hollers, “All clear! Opening the gate!”
With the loud creaking of heavy metal hinges, the large reinforced wooden gates are unlocked and slowly opened outwards. Once the gates are open far enough, our armored vehicles immediately accelerate and drive out of the walls and away from the safety of civilization. Outside, through the windows and past the bodies of the soldiers sitting next to me, I see the pitted and destroyed terrain where the bodies of many monsters and mutated creatures lay dead and torn apart. Some are skewered on spikes and others are charred and burned, their bodies left where they had tried to crawl and drag their burning bodies towards the wall in their final moments.
Behind us, as we drive away, soldiers and guards are pouring out from the wall to drag the bodies away to piles, to be burned or work on digging out bullets of lead and copper to be smelted down and reused in making more ammunition. It does not take long for the crows and other scavengers to descend upon the field to feast on the dead flesh, having become used to the cycle of killing and moving corpses to the burning piles. They care little for the humans scurrying about as they fill their stomachs with freshly culled meat. They have long learned that the humans will not keep them from their meal. Soon the gunfire will start again, and they will scatter as they wait for the cycle to repeat, but for now, they feast.
I wonder why I haven’t seen any other flying monsters or mutated birds yet? Although, it’s not like we have much an aerial presence here… I know I saw some helicopters on base, but we don’t seem to be using them at all. I guess there are those giant mutated bats, but I think the noise actually scares them away, rather than draw them in…
Eh, might as well ask. As long as I don’t distract the driver, it should be fine.
“Excuse me, Staff Sergeant Haren, why don’t we use the helicopters?”
He turns in his seat and gives me a look as if he is staring at an idiot, opening his mouth to respond, he reconsiders and thinks for a bit. Finally, he says, “That’s right, you lived outside the walls. You don’t know what happened to our air forces, do you?”
I shake my head, “No sir.”
“Oh, well the short and simple of it is flying monsters. And not wanting to waste fuel, but flyers are the main reason. Anything we put up in the air inevitably gets swarmed and brought down. Jets lasted the longest -those that could still be repaired after the pulse, that is- but they eventually got taken down as well. We lost air support and radio contact with the Air Force and Navy about six months ago. Our last contact was with the U.S.S Gerald R. Ford when they reported being attacked by some kind of giant sea monster off the coast of Virginia... We haven’t had a bird in the sky since.”
“Oh… I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be, they went down fighting. Now, no more questions. We’ve got a job to do.” He turns back around in his seat and directing his attention back to what is ahead of us.
“Yes sir…”
Well, that answers my questions about flying monsters… I definitely don’t want to mess with anything that could take on jets in the air. Or whatever the hell could take out an aircraft carrier…
It doesn’t take long until the base is no longer in view, our surrounding now nothing but trees and the ruined remains of buildings. Of people's homes and businesses, reduced to nothing but a grown over skeleton of human society. Trees and plants making these buildings the base for their roots like mollusks growing on the corpse of a whale. Within these old bones, creatures scurry about, looking for scraps of rotting meat and darting from shadow to shadow as we speed through this graveyard of society. It does not take long until the first monstrosity is throwing itself from within a building at our speeding vehicle and simply gets ran over and turned into roadkill. Soon, I am gripping the handle of my sledgehammer tightly as the roof mounted MG’s open fire on targets and bullet casings come clinking down into a catch next to the gunner.
Roars sound out from outside and gunfire spits from all our vehicles as we speed down a road and through a turn. Abandoned vehicles and suicidally mad beasts are hit and thrown aside as we plow through the road, the surroundings quickly becoming a cacophony of noise as the sounds of gunfire and the roars of our vehicle's engines and that of monsters' mix. Even through the earplug that I am wearing, the chaos of noise is deafening. The only thing keeping me from becoming turned into a confused mess in this hellish rollercoaster is my enhanced senses that allow for me to somehow keep up with everything that I am seeing.
It’s because of this, that I am able to watch the moment that a creature jumps from the shadow of building and slams into the side of our vehicle. A hellish looking thing with a narrow waist and foot long claws, like a crocodile that decided to become bipedal in a failed mimicry of humanity. We lurch to the side violently as it grapples for a hold on our side and hangs on to the side of our vehicle; its mouth full of teeth trying to bite into the side of the vehicle and our bullet proof widows, but failing to find purchase. The driver quickly manages to regain control over the vehicle and throws the wheel to left, slamming into the side of a building and scraping the creature off our side with a crunch and a splattering of blood. I watch as it goes flying off behind us, screaming in the air, twisted and broken, only to end up dying under the tires of the following vehicles as they roll over its head.
Three more turns and we exit the surrounding of buildings, a small park with a children’s play set has been left to rot in it center. The vehicles quickly pull in and take up defensive positions, MG’s pointed out and barrels hot. The call is given and the doors open as we all pour out of the vehicles and hug their sides.
“Triggers free! Open fire at anything that moves!”
Within seconds, monstrosities of all shapes and sizes come screaming out from the town and charge our position. Guns open up and spit lead as they approach; legs get taken out and chests and faces get turned to Swiss Cheese. Those that get gunned down are simply ran over by those that follow behind them. Those that trip and fall are forgotten and trampled. There is no comradery to be found amongst these beasts.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
While the squad unloads on the coming hoard, I grip my hammer tightly and watch from beside the Staff Sergeant, waiting for the order to be given.
It doesn’t take long for it to finally happen. A roar breaks out from the chaos and a new figure quickly plows its way through the crowd, throwing aside anything that gets in its way as it charges towards us.
“Armored target! Lain go!”
The gunfire stops for a moment and I explode from my cover towards the charging beast as it pulls ahead of the crowd. The beast looks like an eight-legged moose bred with a bull; its massive antlers have grown and joined above its head into an armored crown of foot long spikes from which the flesh and bloodied meat of other creatures hang in curtains like dirtied rags.
As I charge forward to meet it, it lowers its head to try and gore me with its antlers, its head held low to the ground and spikes grinding against the floor, tearing up earth as its eight legs carry it across the ground without dropping speed in the slightest. Dropping my hammers head low to the ground, I meet it in the middle and strike its antler as it raises it to try and gore me. Metal meets horn and with a great crack, the beast’s head is thrown into the air as my feet sink into asphalt. Shattered horn goes flying and the charging beast is diverted to side as it screams in anger and pain. But it doesn’t fall.
Shaking its head, it runs off to the side and down a road before disappearing behind a building.
I don’t pursue, I have my orders and move according to training. Turning away, I run from the approaching beasts and return to the vehicles in an arching route as the gun fire resumes. Without that giant thing or I being in the way, the soldiers are free to resume firing on the approaching enemies.
Not wasting a moment, I dive back into formation and take up my post next to the Staff Sergeant.
“Good job! Keep an eye out for when it comes back!”
“Yes Sir!”
It doesn’t take long for it to do so, quickly emerging from another road and charging our position again. The order is given, and I charge out to meet it again. The giant beast, much like most monsters, is apparently dumb as a brick, as it tries the same tactic again, only this time with the antlers on the other side of its head. It charges and rakes, and I meet it with my hammer. Much like the first time, its antler breaks, and it goes screaming off to the side before disappearing down a road. I return to my spot.
“Sir, that thing is dumb as shit. I’ll kill it on the next pass!”
“Good!” He yells out over the gunfire, “Hold out until the next charge, then we are moving!”
Everyone calls back affirmative and I wait, my head on a swivel as I wait for it to return. Like clockwork, it arrives, only this time coming bursting from the side of building, mortar and brick flying in every direction as it comes charging at us, blood pouring from the ruined stumps of its broken antlers.
“Everyone, load up! Lain charge!”
I’m off before he can finish his order. Rocketing toward the beast and dragging the head of my hammer on the ground behind me. It lowers its head to try and headbutt me, and I swing out at it while spinning off to the side, sidestepping its attack.
Its face quickly passes me by as the head of my hammer buries itself into the side of its head. Its skull rings out with a crack of breaking bone and its head is thrown to the side. Its eyes go white as it loses focus, and it trips over its own legs, falling to the side and coming to a skidding halt on the ground in a mess of kicking limbs. I don’t give it any time to right itself as I run over and jump onto its body, swinging down on its temple with all the force I can muster. Its head cracks open like a walnut and is slammed back into the ground from where it was trying to rise, blood and grey matter exploding out from the side of its head as it collapses and gives a few last spasming kicks.
I don’t stay to watch it die or finish it off, the hoard is already reaching its large body and trying to climb over its hide to come after me. Behind me, the Humvees are already peeling away from the park and plowing their way down another road. Turning away from the hoard, I give chase and launch myself with a jump onto the roof of a nearby building as I pursue the vehicles; easily keeping pace with them as I move from rooftop to rooftop.
We quickly gain some distance from the hoard. By this point we most likely have most of the hostiles in the area chasing after us and are pulling even more away from the walls. Which is the entire point of doing any of this. While we are pissing off absolutely everything in the surrounding area. Our workers are pushing out from the southern wall and putting up fences, planting landmines, digging pit falls, installing spikes, and deploying prebuilt sections of the new wall while we are out running around with a hoard on our tail. Quite literally in my case. This will keep going until we either run low on fuel, ammo, or end up sustaining too many injuries. Then we will head back, and a second squad will go out to kite as we resupply and rest. Rinse and repeat until the new wall is done and secured.
As I ruminate on our job out here, jumping from roof to roof, I manage to spot a priority target: a ranged type of monster. There are different kinds of them, be it launching spikes, spitting acid or other nasty fluids, or even just throwing smaller creatures and other stuff at us. Most of our casualties come from these things and they are Kill on Sight targets. Especially since they are often smart enough to retreat and hide as they attack from a distance.
Quickly, I lean in and talk into my radio on my chest as I run, “Moose is down and out, Spike Slinger spotted, breaking off and hunting.”
A response comes back quickly. “Copy that Lain, meet us at Bravo, good hunting.”
I launch myself off the roof and across the street before diving into an alleyway between two buildings.
Thank goodness we get to use radios. We are already out here pissing everything off, might as well give them even more reasons to be pissy and chase after us.
Jumping over a fence and crossing another street, I jump up onto the roof where I saw the Slinger and quickly spot it. It had jumped to another building and is tracking our vehicles as they speed away. Not giving it a moment to notice me or start launching spikes, I charge at it and jump to reach the same building that it is on.
As I soar through the air, the beast twitches and turns towards me, launching spikes from the forward facing holes on its humped back as I move through the air.
How the hell did it notice me!?
Quickly, I react and slap the meter long projectiles out of the air as they soar towards me. I manage to knock aside two of the projectiles as a third goes tearing past my side and through my black cloak. Hitting the ground running, I charge forward as it fires more spikes towards me, forcing me to duck and dodge as they fly towards my face.
With a hiss, the beast turns and runs as it throws itself off the building in the direction of the moving vehicles. I go to pursue it but stop just short of jumping off the roof as a short barrage of spikes come flying up and pierces into the building’s roof right where I was about to jump from. Cursing, I peak over the edge and see as the beast takes a corner and disappears from view.
“Fucking hell! Get back here!” I scream as I leap from the roof to the next building and then the next after that. Following the direction that it went, I run and search until I find it again, only to have to duck and weave as more spikes are fired at me.
How the hell is this thing knowing where I am? It shouldn’t have even know I was there.
Watching it disappear around another corner, I see as its long-spiked tail trails behind it, a few of the spikes on it are missing. Apparently, this thing can fire spikes in every direction.
I continue to pursue until I can see that we are growing closer to Bravo, where the squad has already deployed. The Slinger is drawing closer and will have line of sight soon.
“Shit!”
Those spikes can go through armor, and I don’t want that thing anywhere near them. Throwing caution to the wayside, I pick up speed until I am breaking the floor beneath me and launch myself at top speed toward the Slinger just as it exits the alley. Having gotten in range, it turns to fire on the soldiers while its tail snaps in my direction, as I hurtle towards it like a bullet. Its tail fires at me, as it aims at the soldiers, and I plow through the attack. Slapping aside one spike aimed at my head, I raise my hammer and take a spike to the shoulder and one to my thigh as I collide with the beast like a comet. My hammer hits it dead on and my body plows through it as it explodes from the impact of an Imp shaped cannon ball ramming into it at a hundred miles an hour.
Hitting the ground in an explosion of red, I come rolling to a stop before immediately forcing myself to my feet and ripping the spikes from my body with a pained scream and a slew of curses. Catching my breath, I shakingly press the call button on the radio and report.
“Spike Slinger down. I took two shots, need a minute to rest and heal before I rejoin you.”
“Status?”
“Leg and shoulder, non-lethal, be good in a bit.”
“Copy that Lain, make it quick. No priority targets spotted yet but keep your eyes open and be ready to move.”
“Yes sir.”
Limping off of the road and next to a building, I keep an eye on the soldiers as they fight and scan over the area while occasionally checking over my wounds and flexing them as they heal. The second they are ready, I will be back on the move, and with each passing moment the pain in both of them is noticeably dulling.
I’m going to have to be more careful with Slingers in the future. It could be because I was moving too fast when the spikes hit, but they seem to be able to break through my skin. Damn armor didn't even stop them. Don’t think it did anything to my bones though, shoulder completely stopped it. Still doesn’t mean that I want to test getting shot in the head though; not worth risking it.
After a couple minutes, my leg feels ready to go, “On my way over, right hand side. Don’t shoot me.”
“Got it, we see you coming. Your clear.”
A quick limping jog later, I am back in the squad and next to the Staff Sergeant. As he finishes firing his rifle into the oncoming monsters he turns to me, “Status.”
“Healed enough to move, good enough to fight in ten, sir.”
“Good, everyone load up, we’re going for a drive!”
Quickly, everyone enters the vehicles, and we are driving away, speeding down the roads with the hoard trailing behind us. Sinking into my chair, I focus on not moving to much as I down a bottle of water and calm my nerves. All around me, the soldiers are reloading their weapons and pulling fresh mags from ammo boxes to replace their empties. As we drive through the road and dodge around blockages or simply ram our way through, I keep an eye on my leg wound and watch it heal. The one on my shoulder wasn’t deep, having stopped at the bone and has already healed. My thigh was much deeper and is taking a bit longer. The spike had gone all the way though, missing the bone and making a hole two fingers wide through my thigh. Watching the muscle knit itself together is both disgusting and fascinating to watch.
Dr. Doe would love to see this...
Minutes pass as it heals and we continue to swerve through the streets, MG’s blasting away above us as I watch the wound finally finish sealing up and the pain in my leg finally disappearing.
“Sir! Finished healing and ready for combat!”
“Good, Wester, take us to Delta. Let’s keep this up people!”
The engine roars, and the orders are shared between the vehicles. Moving as a group we tear through the town and lead the hoard by the nose until we stop and deploy again at Delta, a shopping plaza.
Rinse and repeat, again and again. Hold a position and then move. Hunt anything to dangerous or that could damage the vehicles, and then rejoin the squad or follow from the roof tops. Rinse and repeat, again and again; kiting a hoard of monsters that refuses to diminish around town in circles, in a maddening dance accompanied by a song of screaming monsters and roaring gunfire.
Eventually the order is given. We are running low on ammo and need to resupply. In quick order we retreat and drive back to base, exhausted but still alive and whole. By the time we arrive, the wall is already being built in quick order and the second squad is speeding past us on the road to go and pick up the hoard from where we left it before it can scatter.
As we park, crews come over with fuel and ammunition to resupply us, as medics quickly go over all of us and push food into our hands. I remain in the vehicle with my hood up as everyone else is tended to; munching on a ration bar as I wait. Soon enough, there is cheering as word quickly spreads that our squad managed to stay out for four hours and did not sustain any major injuries.
We would be deployed once more that day, shuffling with two other squads, with only one casualty being suffered by Red Squad that day before the new wall is finally finished. The soldier in question took a hit from a monster that managed to throw itself through the gunfire and tackle him before dying, he only suffered a broken arm and some cracked ribs.
After eleven hours of hard work, the base was successfully expanded further south, and I finally got to go home after spending another three hours giving a full report and receiving a full medical checkup from Dr. Doe and her staff.
As soon as I got home -despite it being the middle of the night- Sky excitedly tackled me with a hug and welcomed me home. I was so happy to see her that I ended up planting a big kiss on her cheek as I held her and returned her hug.