The Ancient Scrolls - The First War - Part 2

This is written from my point of view. All of my men nod in approval. We are going to destroy the weapon facility. I still don't know why we can't just raid it and take all of their advanced weaponry. I can't think about that now, I have a mission to do. "General, the enemy is closing in, they will get here in two minutes." One of my new recruits, I forgot his name, but he isn't soldier material. "Alright, everyone, we have a change in plans," I start, they all look at me in confusion. "We are not going to destroy the weapon facility, we are going to raid it." A Lieutenant steps forward. "No, we are not. Commander Johnson specifically ordered us to destroy it, and that is what we are going to do." Great, he thinks he outranks me. I shoot him a look. "You will do as I ask, soldier, unless you want to test my ability." I hope he doesn't accept my challenge, because I will have to kill him if he does. If a soldier feels as though the commanding officer is unfit to lead, they may participate in a duel between the General and himself. "I accept." He replies. My heart sinks. I will have to kill him. I will not lose this duel, but we will have to do this later. "We will fight, but we must leave, now. Everyone move!" I say. We file out of our base. No one here really likes me, mostly because I never talk to them. I can't blame them, however, because I never encourage them either. I only order them around. It's my job to succeed in missions. My personal feelings don't matter. I am the last one out of the base. The weapon facility is around 2 miles away, and we're walking. The entire way there I may sure we are covered by trees and bushes. I still don't know how this planet can sustain life. One mile in, I stop everyone. "All right, Lieutenant Evans and I are going to have a duel, to the death," I start out. "Because he believes I am unfit for duty, because I am disobeying a direct order from Commander Johnson." Evans smirks at me. I resume speaking. "If he kills me, he will take command, and destroy the weapon facility, but if I kill him, we are going to raid it." Everyone nods. They form a circle around Evans and I, and one of them counts down. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Evans takes a dash at me. We can only use knives, because guns would be to quick. The first person who shoots, wins. With a knife, it's all about skill. I roll to my right, dodging his attack. He face is bright red, likely from anger. He takes another dash at me, this time, throwing his knife at my face. I grab the knife. He stops in his tracks. He looks me in the eye, I can see fear, fear in his eyes. He doesn't want to die. "I'm sorry! You can take command, just let me live! Please, I will resign after this mission, but let me live!" He pleads. Rules say if one surrenders, it is up to the winner to kill him or not. "You wanted this fight, Evans, I will show no pity for you." I reply. He keeps his head down. Everyone is silent. I can't hear the slightest breath. I can tell most of my men are telling me in their heads to let him live. I can't do that. I go up to Evans, I look down on him. I take a deep breath and knee him in the jaw. He shrieks. He falls to the ground with tears in his eyes. I grab his neck and put the edge of the knife carefully on the skin of his neck. "Evans, before you die, I want you to remember something." I say. "What?" He asks, he can barely speak. "This, if your fault." I thrust the knife forward, piercing his neck, blood spills out. I can feel the life flow out of his body, his blood running cold. I hear gasps all around me. They think I'm a monster. "All right, now that this is done, we will raid the weapon facility." I say. Everyone nods silently, and heads toward the facility. The facility is one mile away. Most of the walk is pretty easy, there are no enemies in sight. The terrain is smooth, for the most part. The facility comes into view. "I see the facility, everyone get your weapons. Once we get to the entrance of the building, we will flank the enemy on both sides, with luck, we will have minimal casualties." I say. Everyone nods. They still think I made the wrong choice, killing Evans. We make it to the facility, I silently order two teams to go to the left, and right side of the building, both placing explosives to bust into the building. "All right," I whisper. "On the count of three, Team Alpha and Beta will detonate the explosives and then we kick the door in. After that, take cover and fire at will." Everyone nods. I count. "No." I look behind me. It's Tommy. "I am not going to follow your orders. You killed him, you killed Evans," He continues. "He was my friend, and I will never forgive you for that. Now, I have no one, no one to talk to, no one who cares about me." I don't like where this is going. "Goodbye" He put his gun to his head. "No!" I exclaim. He pulls the trigger. His body collapses to the ground. The two teams I sent run back to see what happened. "What happened? Did you shoot him General?" One guy asks. "Probably, he killed Evans, why not kill him too?" Another says. Soon mostly everyone is yelling or spiting me. Then I realize, the door to the building is open. I hear a whisper. Crap. It's here. Everyone is still yelling. Out of nowhere, I hear a gunshot. Five of my men fall to the ground. It's the Mist. It went back into solid form. "Everyone take cover!" I yell. Some do as I say, and some shoot at it. I hear more gunshots, and I hear screams. Ten more of my men collapse. I grab my Assault Rifle and my Pistol and start firing, Rifle in one hand, Pistol in the other. I see a black creature in the corner of my eye, I turn and shoot it with my Rifle, it falls. I look to my right and see two more of them. They shoot at me. I roll and book it towards the nearest cover. Nothing in sight, crap. I turn around and point my pistol at their heads. I shoot twice. They both collapse to the ground. I find two of my men. I join their cover. "Where are the rest of your team?" I ask. They look at me with anger. "There all dead, and we're next." They say. I look over the cover. What I see cannot be unseen. Bodies, all the bodies of my men. 89 bodies. All mutilated, some with gunshot wounds, some with claw marks. I turn back to the to soldiers. They are gone. I look back over the cover and see them running towards the building. "What are you two doing?" I yell. They don't look back. I see five enemies run up to their position, they all start firing. The two soldiers kill one of the creatures, but then take at least 50 bullets to the chest. They're dead too. I came into this mission with confidence, but now I am alone. I am the only one left in my entire team. 92 men in my team, and there is only one left, me. I am not going to give up. If anyone can survive hundreds of enemy troops alone with only two weapons, it's me. I am going to kill them all. I am going to rip up their flesh and bulge out their eyes before I slit their throat. I exit my cover into the five enemy troops. I put both guns in front of me, and fire. Part 3 will come soon. Tell me how you thought in the comments.