Chapter 1

"GOD FUCKING DAMNIT, THOSE BASTARDS ARE GOING TO KILL US ALL!" Brian roared over the comms directly into his team's ear. Phoenix flinched at the sound but remained silent, shooting off another couple rounds in the direction of the enemy.

5 years ago, Mother Nature had apparently decided enough was enough with humanity living on Earth. Massive natural disasters began occurring - first tsunami's taller than some mountains appeared on the coast killing millions, then monsoons in the deserts, tornados in the mountains, wildfires in the middle of cities and so on. You'd really think she'd been as creative as she could, then BOOM you were proven wrong as an avalanche showed up in the middle of Dubai.

There were only a couple million people that were left, and did they rally to maybe apologize to Mother Nature and fix the mess? Nope, they were doing what humanity does best and fighting over what little inhabitable parts of the planet were left. Whether Mother Nature had decided that killing a couple billion people was overkill and took pity on them, or wanted a safe place for the animals to go, there were a couple patches of Earth that remained untouched by her wrath.

So, of course, there was no peace between nations, only fighting for what little remains there was to fight for. Before the Earth went to shit, Phoenix had already been in the military for a couple years, having joined up as soon as she turned 18. Her childhood hadn't been an easy one, moving from foster home to foster home which meant that school had fallen to the wayside. When graduation had come, there were only a few options for her: a glorified janitor or the military. Picking the latter she found a new sense of purpose, and eventually settled down as a combat medic.

In school she had never understood the lessons, but medical shit? It just made sense. So, after doing a couple tours she had been at home in Colorado when the world went to shit. The deafening, shrill sound of the emergency broadcast went off, and an hour later she was on a plane heading to her base in Fort Richardson, Alaska. For some reason or another, that had been one of the "safe zones" that had ended up free from Mother Nature's purge. Phoenix always theorized it was due to the sad, low population and there weren't enough people there to justify killing.

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After the crazy weather had died out, and the world began to take a breath, the wars began. They were small skirmishes at first between surviving neighboring lands that quickly escalated into full blown wars. Soon each small territory of land had created their own army to defend and attack. The only reason she and her squad had survived so long was because of their previous training and experience, and it helped to have a couple hundred of the same kind of people behind you.

Phoenix found herself now in the biggest battle for land they had seen so far. 14 "countries" had come to battle for the largest surviving piece of land located smack in the middle of Texas. So, here she was, fighting a losing war she never wanted to be in for the greedy Generals she served under.

Their unit of 200 had dwindled down to just 15 in under 24 hours, and in the next hour Phoenix was sure everyone she knew would be dead. Taking cover behind an old building, she reloaded her rifle, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, only to shoot them open at the next words from her friend's mouth.

"THEY'VE GOT A FUCKING TANK, WHERE DID THEY GET A TANK?!" She took the risk and looked around the wall, watching a massive hunk of old metal rumble into sight through the smoke. Immediately shouts of panic rose up from everyone and the tank fired its first shot. Phoenix watched as half of another building came down, crushing an enemy team that had been residing in it. She heard the shots of gunfire from everyone desperate enough to try and stop the tank.

"God damn it, Phoenix we need you over here now! To your left, and 10 paces forward! Johnny took a shot!" Brain yelled again. Having no choice, she looked over her shoulder at the tank, sent a quick prayer and ran, counting her steps as she ran. 10...9... shots rang out, whizzing by her ear. 8...7... the dirt around her began flying up as more rounds joined in trying to take down the moving target. 6...5... just a couple more steps now. 4...3...

"SHIT! PHOENIX MOVE!" She heard Brian yell yet again. Of course the last thing I'm going to hear is that bastard yelling at me. She thought. 2... A massive blast went off next to her and she was thrown sideways. The last thought she had was that she never got to 1 before the world went black.