Chapter 5: Grizzly
With a resounding thud and a metallic hiss, the doors to the drop ship opened, revealing its human cargo. “Alright everyone,” Commander William Keshiner said, his voice muffled by the gas mask that was draped over his face, “keep your eyes peeled and your ears open!”
“Sir yes sir!” The five soldiers standing behind him chorused, activating the radios velcroed to their chest.
“Keep your comms on at all times!” William ordered as he too switched on his radio. “And don’t lose sight of your lab coat at any time! Is everyone ready? Then let’s move!”
:[-]:
For nearly two hours, William and Shaun did nothing interesting as they stood around, helping a large scientist dig around in some undergrowth. Judging by where the moon sat in the clear night sky, William guessed that it was currently about midnight. Will couldn’t fathom why his superiors would order this operation to be done at night. Was it simply a communication error? Was there some sort of typo in the briefing? Or did the sun hate them and decide to go down right as they were landing?
Regardless of why he was here, William couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It was a sobering fact that where he was standing right now was most likely once controlled by mankind. That at some time in the past, it might have been a city, a highway. Or maybe it was someone’s house, a place of many cherished family memories. And now it was nothing but a grassy field surrounded by hills and mountains as far as the eye could see, it was a little depressing. To his right was Doug Miller, an overweight scientist who was currently hunched over examining an odd bush covered with blue flowers. The fact that said bush was growing right on the edge of a large, ominous looking forest seemed to be lost on Doug. Doug was a pretty neat guy in William’s opinion, unlike most of the other scientists on Horizon. Which amazed him when he learned that they were considered Earth’s ‘Best and Brightest’. For the way some of them acted though, they might as well be called ‘The World’s Biggest Pricks.’ But Doug was simply nicer than the rest. Though smart, he still had his flaws and, frankly was a little weird. Despite being smarter than all of the non-lab coats, he jumped in to lend a hand whenever he could, regardless of the task. And even better, he spoke normal English whenever he could get away with it, albeit using some words that would make an English teacher proud.
Even so, William was very thankful that Doug was this pleasant to be around. Even after over two hours of being in close proximity to him, Will still wasn’t feeling particularly annoyed enough to shout at him. In fact, Will had actually enjoyed the time since leaving the shuttle; as he and Doug were having a quite enjoyable chat while working. Shaun had had stopped talking after about half an hour, deciding instead to whip out his cell phone despite the fact that there was no reception. After seeing that Shaun had begun playing games, William had ordered him to put the phone away and keep watch. Even though they were friends, Will was still Shaun’s superior and it surprised him to see Shaun being so casually thoughtless. It just went to show that even after years of knowing someone, they can still surprise you. Even when Shaun was acting like a careless child, his remarkable aim and his quick wit had sealed him a position on Horizon’s away team. Although that wit was almost entirely situational, as any of his friends would attest to; his quick thinking shined the brightest when thinking up escape routes, as he tended to lean towards cowardice. But if the job called for something he could do, Shaun would always step up to the plate. That is, provided someone else was willing to tag along and keep him covered.
“Alright, that should about do it,” Doug said as he snipped several of the pollen covered bits off of the bush and placed them into a small bag. Zipping the bag closed, Doug got back onto his feet. “Okay gentlemen,” Doug began as he unslung his backpack and stored his plant samples, “We need to head north another sixty-one meters before we’re done here.” Doug closed his pack and flung it back over his shoulders.
Standing up, William nudged his fellow soldier. Jumping a bit, Shaun woke up from his apparent daydream. “Already on it, Commander.” Grabbing the night vision binoculars resting around his neck, Shaun scanned the open field around them before turning north and heading up the hill in front of them. Doug following him as William brought up the rear. Upon reaching the top, Shaun knelt down and turned towards the other two. “Just to be safe, I don’t want either of you to crest the top of the hill until after I recon the area, ok?”
The two men nodded and Shaun turned back towards the valley raising his binoculars to his eyes, Shaun surveyed the area surrounding the group. Looking eastward he saw the nasty looking forest they had just been rooting through, while to the west the unmistakable silhouettes of mountains greeted him. Just below the mountains were fields of trees that looked to be lined up in perfect rows, each row parallel to the other. Making a note to mention this odd phenomenon later, Shaun continued his scan. Next he turned his vision north, where the lenses of his binoculars were met with a faint glow coming from a familiar looking object. Then it clicked, and Shaun’s jaw dropped. “Jesus! Commander, take a look at this!”
William, who was continuing his conversation with Doug, spun around and crawled up next to Shaun. “What is it?” William asked, looking in the direction of Shaun’s gaze. He couldn’t see as many of the details as Shaun could, but William could still make out the faint glow coming from the structure’s upper rear window.
“Take a look for yourself sir.” Shaun answered as he handed over the binoculars.
Will looked through the lenses, and his jaw dropped into a pose identical to Shaun’s. “Well I’ll be damned...” Lowering the binoculars, William cupped his hand around his radio and spoke. “Central, this is Commander Keshiner. Do you read, over?”
“This is Central. We read you, Commander. Over,” Johnny’s voice came out clearly from the device.
“We have spotted a structure, presumably a house. It looks inhabited. Bearing,” William raised his compass, “three-two-five from our position, maybe… seventy five meters out. Requesting permission to close with the structure and investigate, over.”
“We’re picking up life signatures all around your position, though nothing too major. You should be fine. Your team is cleared to perform recon on the structure, over.”
William nodded, despite Johnny not being there to see it. “Copy that, Central. Over and out.” William took his hand off the radio and turned towards the scientist and soldier. “Alright gentlemen, we’re going to go in smoothly and quietly. Any questions?” William reached back and unslung his AK-12.
“If we are going in smoothly and quietly, why do you need your gun out?” Doug inquired.
“Because of Murphy, doctor. Shaun, you got anything?”
“Could these be the people that Central and Nelson heard on the recording, sir?” Shaun asked as they began to quietly make their way down the hill towards the house.
“I doubt... that,” Doug huffed, already running out of breath; presumably from running down the hill. “It’s been... nearly... eight thousand years... since that... Oh my...” As they reached the bottom of the hill, Doug collapsed onto his knees.
“Damn son!” William turned around. “You okay?” Doug had his gloved hands firmly planted on the ground as he let out thick, raspy breaths. As each breath came through the respirator, William couldn’t help but think that Doug sounded like Darth Vader.
Nodding his head in response, Doug continued panting. “Come on now, man.” Shaun went over and offered a hand to help the scientist up. “We don’t need you slowing us down now. You can do it.”
“S-sorry, it’s just that... all the excitement. You know, adrenaline. And the thought of a house just being–” Doug was interrupted by a large slap on his back.
“So you don’t like running. No need for excuses here man. No one’s judging you.” Shaun chuckled quietly and turned back towards the house, now only sixty meters away.
Doug frowned as he got his breathing under control. Once he got enough air in his lungs, he offered up his incredibly well thought out, intelligent, and infallible counter argument: “Shut up Shaun.”
William snickered and looked towards Doug, “We’ll take it slower if you’d like, Doug. There's no rush.”
Doug took Shaun’s offered hand, “There’s no need, Commander. I’ll do just fine... Besides, I need the exercise anyways. Personal fitness was one of the requirements to join, after all.”
“Yes, you most certainly do need the exercise.” Shaun said through gritted teeth as he pulled the man back onto his feet.
“Again, shut up Shaun.” Doug regained his balance after swaying a little and brushed off his pants legs.
“I’m afraid I can’t promise you that.” Shaun smiled and looked towards William. “Now then, let’s go see how the neighbors are doing.”
:[-]:
The trio quietly crept over an oddly shaped stone and dirt bridge, crossing over a little stream that flowed around the base of a small hill, upon which the structure they had spotted earlier was built. The area around the structure, now visibly a compact cottage, was littered with holes and bird houses. “Jesus, look at this place.” William muttered under his breath.
“Yeah,” Shaun agreed, lagging slightly behind William. “Looks a lot like my grandmother’s house.”
Doug saw an opportunity to take an easy jab at Shaun. “Was she some sort of crazy bird lady?”
“No, she was a veterinarian.” Shaun countered as he took a glance over William’s shoulder, completely shrugging off Doug’s comment. The three men were now heading up the dirt path leading to the house. “You’d think we’d have heard something by now,” he whispered.
“It’s like four in the morning, dingus.” William looked back at Shaun, slowing his pace just a bit, so as to not step in one of the many holes scattered throughout the yard. “The owner is probably asleep.”
“That’s not what I was referring to, sir. I’m talking about the animals.” Shaun’s voice was quiet and quick. “We’ve hardly heard anything since our landing, it’s like nothing lives here.”
“Well, Lieutenant,” Doug piped in, “we did just land a massive drop ship in a spectacular display of fire, noise, and shockwaves. We probably scared everything within a ten mile radius into hiding.”
Shaun looked over at Doug. “Then wouldn’t the person that lives here know that we’ve landed?”
The three of them stopped dead, about a meter from the front door. “Most likely,” William said. “Let’s just hope they don’t think we’re intruding.” William reached towards the door and gave it a gentle knock.
“If they’re asleep,” Shaun said, giving William a stern look, “I doubt they would hear–.” Suddenly, the sound of a crash, followed by the sound of something scampering across a wooden floor reached their ears.
“What in the name of–?!” A gravelly voice, more akin to a growl than voice, exclaimed from within the house. The exclamation was quickly followed by a mix of thumping and the thud of a door slamming shut.
“Whoever lives here,” Doug said, his voice filled with concern, “must have some serious pet issues.” William silenced the large man with his finger as he reached for the handle of the door.
“Commander, you can’t be–” Shaun was cut off by William’s sudden glare.
“We are going to make sure whoever is in there is safe. No. Questions.” William grasped the handle on the door, but before opening, he switched his radio on. “Central, Commander Keshiner. Do you copy, over?”
“Keshiner, this is Central. We read you loud and clear, over.”
“We have arrived at the structure, which we have identified as a small cottage. It is surrounded by animal dens, and it sounds as though there is some sort of struggle occurring inside. Requesting permission to confirm and possibly ensure the safety of those inside, over.”
“Commander, are you positive that a fight is indeed occurring inside, over?”
“Affirmative, over.”
“Heard you Five, Commander. Make sure your men are transmitting live feedback. Your team is cleared to enter the structure, and your response to the situation is at your discretion. Don’t harm our relations with the ‘natives’ before they even begin, Commander. Over.” Johnny replied, his voice obscured by a small wave of static.
“Wilco, over and out. Doug, get your cam ready. Same for you Lieutenant.” William said, flipping the switch on the small video camera that was attached to their helmets.
“Camera is rolling, sir,” Shaun said, checking his gun to make sure he was loaded and hot.
“Same here, Commander,” Doug said, unholstering the 9mm Beretta that all scientist were equipped with. He began to prepare his weapon, talking to himself as he did. “Okay, mag in, rack the round, turn off the saf–”
“Would ya shut the fuck up already?!” Shaun hissed. The scientist only smirked and nodded at William, showing that he was ready.
“Well, we need to make it seem interesting and entertaining for the guys above.” Doug chuckled at William’s statement, but Shaun merely shook his head in frustration. William twisted the handle on the door and pulled it open.
Surprisingly, only the top half of the door opened, leaving the bottom half still closed. “That is rather odd,” William remarked before reaching inside and grabbing hold of the lower handle.
“I don’t know if any of you noticed yet,” Shaun got up and quietly approached the door, letting the boys up in the stars get a better look. “But doesn’t this door seem shorter than it should?”
“That is slightly less odd, but yes, it is.” William replied.
“Only by about six inches, why does it matter?” Doug asked as he crept closer. William opened the bottom half of the door and ducked his way inside.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s just weird.” Shaun said as he dismissed the thought and followed in behind William. Shortly afterwards, Doug crawled his way in.
“Goddamn it’s dark in here.” William muttered as he went to turn on the flashlight on his helmet.
“Do any of you see a light switch anywhere?” Doug whispered, peering into the darkness, searching for any source of light that they could use.
“Well, seeing as there was neither a generator nor any power lines, I highly doubt they have electricity for lights in the first place.” Shaun activated the powerful LED in his helmet, smiling as it sliced through the darkness with its light. Suddenly, three loud screeches emitted from the darkness. The trio of humans jumped in fear as three large shadows swooped overhead, one coming within inches of the lieutenant's face. Shaun yelled in surprise as his legs caught on something as he stumbled back, causing him to trip. As he fell, one of his fingers caught on his AK-12’s trigger, sending almost half of his magazine into the darkness.
The moment Shaun fired his weapon both William and Doug dove to the floor. One of the many bullets rammed its way into the wooden wall only to ricochet off a nail and come flying back at the men who all lay helplessly on the floor. “CEASEFIRE! CEASEFIRE!” yelled William as the bullet slammed into the hardwood floor barely a foot away from where he lay. Flinching away from the wave of splinters, William covered his head as he curled up on the floor, trying to make himself a smaller target. Shaun’s gun quickly fell silent, but the sound of shattered glass and pieces of splintered wood falling onto the ground continued for a few more seconds.
Shaun slouched back in a chair he tripped into, the gun lying at his side. “What... What the fuck were those?!” he cried, breathing heavily.
“Those were animals, Lieutenant!” Doug shouted. “Possibly the owner’s pets!” Doug clambered back onto his feet and dusted off his pants. “So much for the friendly introduction,” he grumbled under his breath as he began checking to make sure his suit wasn’t punctured.
William, who was outright furious about the incident, shot back to his feet and stomped his way towards the lieutenant. “Son, what the fuck is wrong with you?!”
Shaun instantly stood, snapping to attention. “My apologies, sir. I got startled and fell ba–”
“Startled?” William snarled. “Son, you nearly blew my fucking head off while shitting your trousers!” William clenched and unclenched his fists, doing his best to keep himself under control. “Now you listen here.” His voice was lower than before, but that only made him sound more intimidating. “I’ve seen you go up against dozens of heavy Sleepers without breaking a sweat, and you jump at that?! That is downright embarrassing.” William bent down to retrieve Shaun’s gun. After picking it up, he slammed the weapon into Shaun’s chest. “Get your shit together, Shaun! We haven’t even been here for two hours and you’ve already ruined a native’s home.”
Shaun took hold of his gun and gulped. “My apologies, si–”
“Yeah, I know.” William turned away and turned his own flashlight on, shining it across the warzone of a room. “Well, seeing as no one came down to check what the hell just happened, I guess nobody's home.” As if to contradict William, the trio heard a heavy thumping coming from the floor above them.
The three men turned their attention to the ceiling. “Commander, I think you spoke too soon,” Doug whispered.
“I guess I did.” William took a deep breath. “Well, there’s no point in keeping quiet anymore, since they already know we’re here.” William turned back towards the men. “Shaun, I want you on my back. Doug, I want you on his.”
“Yes sir,” they both responded, nodding their heads.
“Oh, and Shaun,” Will said, causing Shaun to look his way, “do try not to shit yourself this time.” Chuckling, Will turned towards the staircase.
Slowly, as to not be caught off guard, the three men crept up the stairs. The soldiers let their weapons guide their way, while Doug kept his Beretta close to his side. Instead of being focused on what was ahead or behind them, his eyes and thoughts were drawn to the pictures that lined the walls. Once the other two were on the stairs, Doug unclipped his LED and shined it on one of the frames.
A yellow furred, equine like creature with a pink mane and what looked like wings was sitting beside a tree full of bird houses. Beside the equine was a tall, slender creature with a snake like body, its eyes yellow with red pupils, and two wings, one being something that resembled an eagle’s wing while the other was a more akin to a bat’s. He sucked in a gasp and dropped the flashlight from his trembling hands. His heart was racing as he turned towards the Commander “William!” he shouted, his voice quavering a bit.
William and Shaun quickly spun around, their weapons pointing behind Doug. “What is it?” William asked. Seeing that there was nothing behind Doug, he lowered his weapon and descended the stairs and towards him.
Doug bent over to retrieve his light and, shining it on the image, he pointed at the monster. “I-i-it’s h-him!”
William squinted his eyes and leaned forward, trying to see what Doug was pointing at in the image. He was dumbstruck. “No, no, no. That can’t be right… Central, are you receiving this?” William cupped his hand around the radio.
No response. “Central, this is Commander Kesh–”
The radio suddenly released a wave of static. “W-we’re reading you, Commander...” Johnny’s voice sounded through the radio. William thought that meant the boys up above were seeing what they were looking at. William didn’t know about the others, but he knew he didn’t believe what he was seeing; Archangel happily standing beside a yellow smiling alien equine, his arms stretched wide as he smiled at the camera. “This can’t be! This is absolutely impossible!” Doug began freaking out, his voice hysterical “Nothing on Earth could have survived that amount of firepower–”
“But that’s just it, Doug.” William said, his voice low and stern. “Archangel isn’t from Earth.”
“Commander,” Shaun said. Looking, Will found the boy further up the steps examining the rest of the pictures. “Whoever lives here must be very fond of small yellow horses with wings.”
“Wings?” Confused and trying to take his mind off of the fact that the harbinger of death was still alive, Doug began to look at the other features of the picture. Upon closer inspection, he found that the small horse did indeed have “–Wings! My God, it has wings!”
Now thoroughly distracted from their previous goal, William sighed as he shook his head. “Alright lads, I think we’ve had enough time looking at this poor fellow’s obsessions, let’s move.” Although he wasn’t showing it, William was absolutely terrified. The thought that the destroyer of humanity was still out and about, and even taking selfies, was not only incredibly horrifying, but tremendously bizarre. If Archangel is still alive, does that mean that the others down in the fallout shelters aren’t? William didn’t want to think about it. Instead, he lowered his weapon back down to his side and began to move onwards, searching for whoever had made the thumping noise from earlier.
“Right here,” Shaun whispered as he motioned towards a door in the center of the hallway. Right across from the door was a balcony that shared a clear view of the ruined living room. Loud and clear, the three men could hear and feel the steady movement that was coming from behind that door. “Whatever is in there, it must be massive,” Shaun breathed.
“Sure ain’t no dog,” Doug mumbled, positioning himself on the right side of the door while Shaun covered the left. William was standing in the middle, ready to open the door. Grabbing hold of the knob, William started to turn it. The door clicked and everything fell silent; even the heavy thumping from behind the door grew still. “I think it knows we’re out he–”
Out of nowhere, a thunderous roar erupted from behind the door right as it exploded into a wave of splinters. William, terrified beyond belief, instinctively tried to shield his face from the thousands of wooden needles. Forgetting for half a second that he was wearing a protective suit of armor. William felt the colossal weight of something immense plowing into him, flinging his gun out of his hands and picking his feet up off of the ground. His back smashed into the wooden rail which snapped like a twig, sending him down on to the top of a glass end table that shattered upon impact.. The AK that was seconds ago firmly grasped in his hands slammed into the ground beside him and fired a round that put a hole through a nearby birdhouse.
After watching his commander get tossed around like a ragdoll, Shaun let loose a mighty battle cry as he fired wave after wave of rounds into the beast that had suddenly appeared before them. Or at least, that was what he meant to do. Instead, he screamed like a little girl as his gun clicked, pronouncing its emptiness to the entire world. The monster turned towards the poor lieutenant, and Shaun decided he wanted to see what his attacker was before he was killed. Shaun shined his small LED onto the six foot tall pile of fur, beady eyes glaring down at him. His jaw made contact with the floor, “Shit! It’s a fucking bear!” he screeched. The bear roared and Shaun stumbled back falling onto his rear in the process. All he could do before his inevitable demise was to scream his lungs out as the bear leaned back with its mighty paw, ready to end the soldier below it.
Before the blow was dealt, a loud shout rang through the hall, causing the bear to hesitate before forgetting about the lieutenant pinned beneath him. The bear turned toward the sound of the suddenly not so confident lab coat shouting at it. “Hey you–uh...” The bear looked dumbly over at the scientist. Doug quickly aimed his gun at it. “Just leave him alone!” Doug hadn't fired a gun for a long time, not ever since he’d earned his rifleman’s badge, and he didn’t want to fire one again now. He didn’t even know if he had the strength to control the recoil on it. Doug had never known that his career in biology would require him to fire a gun, but all career expectations had disappeared along with the rest of human civilization.
“Jesus Christ, Doug what are you doing?!” Shaun cried.
“What does it look like? I’m saving your damn life!” Doug responded, keeping his gun trained on the bear’s head. If he knew one thing for sure, it was that there was no way in Hell he was going to pierce the skull of this gargantuan beast with his puny little handgun.
Shaun gave the stupidly brave scientist a confused look. “I don’t think you’re saving it, you’re just prolonging it.”
The bear looked down at Shaun, and then back to Doug, who scoffed. “What do you mean I’m not saving your life? You have time, run!”
Shaun jammed a finger at Doug, “No, you run! You saw what it did to the commander! How easily it killed him off!”
William, who had been lying in a pile of shards of glass the whole time, responded to the two of them with a groan. Doug took a quick glance over the broken railing, “See? William’s not dead. Now go, Goddammit!”
“You go! You’re more important than I am!” Shaun retorted.
“But you’re my friend!” Doug replied.
“When the hell did we become friends?!” Shaun asked, stretching his arms out wide. He completely forgot that there was a six foot bear standing between them.
The bear on the other hand, had stopped in confusion and now seemed completely lost about what to do with these two odd creatures. “Oh?” Doug said, lowering his weapon, “I see how it is!”
“Yeah,” Shaun nodded his head rapidly while jutting his thumb towards the stairs. “Now get the commander and get the hell out of here!”
“Fine.” Doug began to cautiously make his way around the bear, trying his best not to snap it out of its confused state. “Get mauled to death by a be–oof!” When Doug stepped in front of the broken down door, a textbook sized hardcover came flying out of the darkness, slamming into the side of his face and sending him tumbling over the railing.
Seeing this as a convenient time to get the hell out of there while the bear was distracted, Shaun scrambled to his feet and tried to make a break for the stairs. He was caught off guard by a big, meaty paw suddenly making contact with his abdomen as the bear realized what he was doing. Thankfully wearing armor, the brunt of the swipe was mainly absorbed by his Kevlar vest. The force from the attack sent Shaun a few feet back. Not giving him time to react, the grizzly was on him in seconds. It planted its two bone crushing paws on his chest, causing the soldier to cry out in pain. Shaun stretched his hand out, grasping for his weapon. Seeing what the man was reaching for, the bear smacked it off the balcony and released a roar of triumph as it went to take a bite out of the man’s face mask. Only to have its mouth blocked by a wrist guard. For Shaun, that proved to be no more than a delay. With barely any effort, the bear crushed the guard, along with Shaun’s wrist, into a bloody mess. Shaun screamed in pain as he unsheathed his combat knife from his belt. He jammed the blade into the side of the bear’s face, its eyes widened and it let out a howl of agony. However, it only applied more pressure to Shaun’s chest, using him to push itself back onto its hind legs despite the knife still being lodged just below its left eye.
The bear screeched and cried as it began to paw at the blade. With all of the energy remaining in him, Shaun rolled himself onto his ruined stomach and began crawling towards the staircase. He could already tell that his ribs were shattered; each movement sending waves of pain into his abdomen. His bleeding and alarmingly numb wrist also unable to support any weight. His vision was becoming extremely blurry, he felt sick, the world was spinning, and worst of all, his uniform was bloody and destroyed. Everything was becoming darker as well. Then, at the top of the staircase, Shaun fainted. His body went limp and his arm dangled just over the first step.
The grizzly swatted one last time at the knife, finally dislodging it from its face and sending the Damascus steel clattering to the floor. Looking back to the unconscious soldier, the bear released a sinister snarl and dropped back onto all fours as it crept towards the man. Coming to a stop over Shaun’s broken form, the bear gently placed a paw onto the prone man’s back. Bending down, it went to finish him off with one last bite to the throat. Though before it could do so, a click caused the beast to stop just inches away from the man’s neck. Shifting its eyes upwards, it saw both Doug and William standing at the bottom of the steps, assault rifles trained on the bear.
Both men simultaneously opened fire, pumping round after round into the grizzly’s hide. The bear roared in pain as each bullet penetrated its coat. Stumbling off of Shaun, the bear turned to run, only to have one of the men score a round in the behemoths right ear, lodging itself into the beast’s brain and ending it’s rampage through the house. As the bear collapsed the shooting died down before William dropped his gun on to the hardwood floor and limped his way up the stairs to check on the lieutenant. “Doug,” William gasped as he clamped his hand below Shaun’s broken wrist. When he received no response from the scientist, William looked down at Doug “Jesus. Doug, what are you... boy, are you okay?”
Doug sat at the bottom of the staircase, gazing down at the weapon he held in his hands. He was trembling uncontrollably, trying to grapple with the fact that he had just killed that poor animal. He never wanted to kill it, he just wanted to scare it off. Not kill it. “Goddammit, Doug!” William tried to shout but the soreness in his chest made it come out as a loud, hoarse whisper. “Now’s not the time to question what you’ve done. Get up here and fucking tell me if Shaun is going to be alright!” The tone of the commander’s voice was completely different from its usual cadence. The tone of a man giving orders that he fully expected to be followed. The tone of a leader confident in both himself and his men; instead, Will now spoke with the tone of a man fearing for the life of his closest friend, but knowing that he could do little to save it.
Doug snapped out of his stupor and looked towards William. Quickly nodding his head, he ran up the steps to help. Getting up beside William he asked, “What’s wrong?”
“His suit,” William’s voice wavered. “It’s fucking torn!” he motioned towards Shaun’s shattered wrist. As clear as day the grey tyvek was now replaced by glistening red flesh, “What do we do?” William asked.
“Uh...” Doug was conflicted over what he should say. No matter what they did, they would have to leave him, as there could be foreign pathogens in the air. At the very least he would have to be isolated and stay on the ground, away from the medical equipment that he desperately needed. Glancing around, Doug formulated a plan. “William, grab his combat knife and start cutting his suit into strips. Make them each about two finger widths wide and as long as you can. I’ll try to slow the bleeding.” Instead of searching for Shaun’s knife, which had been thrown to places unknown by the bear, Will pulled out his own. Doing as he was instructed, he cut off the remains of the shredded suit arm and began slicing it into strips that were as long as he could make them. Meanwhile, Doug grabbed the section that had been yanked off by the bear and, wadding it up, pressed it onto Shaun’s bloodied arm. Once Will had a respectable amount of fabric strips cut, Doug spoke up once more.
“That’s enough. Come here and help me apply pressure to this. But be careful of his chest. He already has several broken ribs, and we don’t want to pierce his lungs.”
“But what about his arm? Those bones are broken too, and I think you’ve broken them even more!”
“It won’t matter after this! Now get over here and help me save his fucking life!” William quickly leaned over and pressed his hands onto the wad of fabric soaked in his friend’s blood. As soon as he did, Doug withdrew his own hands, moving for the pile of makeshift bandages. “These are perfect. Keep that tight to his chest while I work on this.” With that, Doug took out his 9mm and began to field strip it. As soon as it was accessible, he snatched up the barrel and set it next to himself. Then, turning back to the pile of bandages, he began to tie the strips together. Once he had a few sufficiently long cords, he grabbed them and the 9mm barrel and ran back over to Shaun’s side. Quickly, he began to wrap the cords tightly around Shaun’s left elbow. As soon as he had the knot in place, he shoved the gun barrel into the center of the knot. “Will, do you feel the rhythm of his blood coming out?”
“Yeah. Isn’t that his pulse?”
“Correct. Tell me when it stops.” With this, Doug began to turn the gun barrel, using the torque to tighten the tourniquet. Tighter and tighter he wound, slowly but surely closing off the artery.
“Doug, his pulse is going down! I think it just stopped!”
After one final revolution of the barrel, Doug tied another strip as to hold the rod in place. Then, he turned towards Will. “Don’t worry, he's still alive, but his arm might need to be amputated. However, a life is more important than a limb, right? As long as that stays tight, he should be okay. But…” Doug seemed to be unable to continue, and an oppressive silence fell over the two. After a few hour like minutes, Doug became the one to break it. “William. I’m sorry; I truly am, but we─”
William knew what was coming; in fact, he had known it the second he had seen the tear in Shaun’s suit. If there was indeed a pathogen there they were going to be forced to leave him. Ever since the Weybridge Incident during the collapse, protocol had commanded that all individuals possibly exposed to a hot agent must be quarantined, left behind, or worse. But even that didn’t prove to work. Despite any quarantine efforts some way or another Archangel’s Sleeper virus would escape. “You’re saying we have to leave him?” William looked Doug in the eyes, hoping that he would say no.
“Yes.” Doug looked away from William and stared straight ahead. “If there is a pathogen in the air, I don’t know how far it could’ve spread throughout his body. Or if it’s even contagious for that matter. We’ve done all we could for him, Will. If he’s lucky, Hassel will be able to prove there isn’t any pathogens in this environment and we might be able to come back for him.”
William was about to say something but stopped himself. Doug was right. An eerie silence fell over the two of them save for the ragged breaths coming from the wounded soldier. William took a deep breath “Shaun... I’m so sorry.” With those last words, William stood up and patted Doug on the shoulders, motioning him to follow. Turning away from their broken friend, the two men made their way down the steps and towards the exit, leaving their comrade at the top of the staircase.
Suddenly, William’s radio began to emit a constant buzz of static, “Villiam... ar.... you... ere? Vill...?”
William stopped, detaching his radio and bringing it up to his mask. “Hassel? Is that you, you’re going to have to repeat that, over?”
“Yes. Zee drones are getting farzer avay... and its... causing... intervernce,” Hassel’s voice was drowned out momentarily, only to return seconds later. “Vee heard gunvire coming... your location, no?” Hassel asked.
William sighed, “Affirmative, that was us. We had some trouble with the local wildlife. We’ve got one man down, over.”
There was a pause. “Und who vould zat be?”
“Lt. DeShaun Bell, ov─.”
“Is zee Lieutenant dead?” Hassel asked before William could even finish his sentence.
William waited a moment, wondering how he should respond. He didn’t want to drag this conversation on any longer than necessary. “Negative, over.” Why did he say that? He wanted to just say yes, get this over with quicker, and simply pull out to extraction.
“Zen vat is wrong vith him, Villiam?”
“His… His suit was compromised and he suffered severe injuries. We patched him up, but we’re going to have to leave him behind, over.”
There was a long pause this time, to the point that William thought that Hassel had turned off his radio. Motioning for Doug to follow him out the exit, both men were stopped once again by the German. “Nonsense... get Shaun... bring him to extraction. I vill order my... to set up and quarantine zee entire medical bay...” Static from the radio kept disrupting Hassel’s accent. Making it that much harder to understand him.
“Wait, what?! A quarantine onboard the Horizon? Are you crazy, over?” William asked surprised that Hassel would even mention something as idiotic as that sounded.
“Vell, Villiam.... if zere is somesink in zee air.... could be harmful, it is vise... learn how harmful it is,” Hassel ended his response with a semi-creepy chuckle.
“And put everyone on board at risk?! Where the fuck would we put him?”
“Commander?” Doug tapped William on the shoulder.
Without turning his head, William glanced towards Doug. Doug was staring intensely at William’s helmet while making a quick cutting motion with his hand. William was confused by this until he realized that his camera was still running. He nodded as he switched it off.
“Don’t vorry, Villiam,” Hassel said happily. “I vill notivy zee ozers of zee specimen’s arrifal.” William felt slightly hurt. So Shaun is a specimen now? “Vee vill eefen prepare a treatment room vor him, so zere should be no problems. I’ll see you in a few minutes Villiam.” With that, the radio emitted a few more seconds of hissing static before William turned it off and placed it back into his vest. William turned his gaze back to Shaun, who was now lying on his side. William noticed that Doug had also disappeared from his side and was now making his way back over to Shaun, but stopped when his foot kicked something on the floor. Shining his light downwards, he saw the book that had smacked him in the head earlier. Doug gazed at the book, looking back up at the broken down door he frowned. Bending down to retrieve the book, he saw and noticed how large and heavy it was. The book was big, about the size of a dictionary. There was no way something of this size could’ve fallen in a way such that it would hit him. Something must’ve thrown it.
Before Doug could start looking for the perpetrator, who was probably long gone, William brushed past Doug as he went to grab his unconscious friend. “Now is not the time for checking out books, Doug. Help me get Shaun.”
“Ye-yes sir. I’ll be there in a moment,” Doug stammered. Still, he couldn’t help but glance curiously back at the cover of the book with that held two candy colored horses nuzzling each other. “What the hell is with these damn horses?” he mumbled to himself as he stuffed the book into his bag and went off to help William.
Editors’ Notes:
Wulf95- (Grammar Guy)
And apparently the medical guy too. Damn, it is amazing how much of what I thought was common sense isn’t. That was enjoyable! When Nebula said this chapter had comedy, I almost went Jericho on this thing. I think I held myself back well enough. And I can’t believe that Nebula can’t correctly write the character I added to his story and told him nothing about! Geez! Speaking of which, some of you might be able to start to piece together that Doug might be something that I am not directly telling you about… Something that marks him more different than the rest of the crew… Something that dates back to long before the Collapse… Something that I can use to cause unneeded suspense… But shh! It’s a secret, after all. That means that those that figure it out should not put it into the comments. But feel free to PM if you think you’ve got it. Damn this Editor’s note has gotten long. Meh. Who’s going to BronyCon? I know I am. And apparently I’ll be very lonely there.
Terminal343- (Army Guy)
I wish I could, but work and school kick my ass. And also Dark Souls.
Teslaponie- (New Guy–also– Grammar Officer)
Oh, hey, editor’s notes. I have absolutely no idea what to put here. Also no Bronycon, but I am going to Makerfaire Detroit in a month.
Nuclear Grenade- (Science Guy of very few words)
....
Isaac3924- (Grammar Jew (I can't very well be a Nazi!))
Well put Nuclear! Now...... STILL NO FIRST CONTACT!
I'm sorry for that. On so many levels. At least the wait will be worth it. As for Bronycon, not this year, I don't have the money to travel, hopefully next year it'll be possible. I just want it to be the 22nd already, then I can get my Dark Souls DLC, Destiny Beta will hopefully come out soon for Xbone, and I'll be closer to getting Fallout: Equestria in dead tree format #1stworldproblems.... Now I feel like a douche. On a lighter note, my friends have recently gotten me addicted to Gmod Towers, so there's that..... Now how to end this... Bitches love cannons?
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Great chapter as always.
New chapter, still no first contact...
God damn it author.
Why must you tease us?
Oh, one thing. Please don't let Fluttershy's stare work on humans. It's cliché and annoying, and its only ever been shown to work like a stern mother chastising a child (man-child in case of the dragon). And she's like a mother to most of her animals.
But your characters are not animals nor man-childs.
4637341 Pfft, of course we're not going to. The Stare is overrated, and underpowered to work on human soldiers. It might work on weak-willed people (Shaun), but it won't work on humans. At all. I can guarantee you that. It didn't work in the original, and I have a more intimidating glare than 'Shy. I blame it on my 1.93 metre-tall Russian charms. And maybe my perpetual grimace. I break mirrors.
4637398
Oh you cannot know of the unbridled joy you have inspired within me today.
Sorry, I just remember Fluttershy's stare being overused in fics. In one fic it overpowered the princesses! Bleh...
I forgot to hit you with this, Joe, but have it anyway. It's a responce to the end of this chappehr:
dashie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw10598-fatality.png
And it werks.
4637209
Thank you Dr. Badass
4637308
Because teasing is the best form of fore play.
4637341
The stare never works on humans in my stories. Like Terminal said maybe the feeble minded.
4637416 Joy has been inspired?
Well, then. Nothing to do except...
mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw10804-287324__safe_animated_trixie_edit_sunglasses_party_artist-valcron_party-hard_whiskey_glassess_515cc752a4c72de2ac00015d.gif
4637479
YEEEEAAAAAH!!!
i.imgur.com/EpnTTGl.jpg
Whoops, wrong image. ...Well, it probably gets the point across well enough.
4637489
mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw1869_small.jpg
Shawn showed a lack of trigger discipline. You are not even allowed to carry a rifle in the armed forces until you've had it drilled into you that your finger is off the trigger until it's time to make something stop living, and this unintended discharge is exactly the reason why.
Had he been a trained soldier he would have been clenching the trigger guard fruitlessly instead of wasting ammo and nearly killing his commanding officer.
goddamn these operators are out of it.
Well, this was unfortunate. Really, though, it's at least half the fault of whoever threw that book.
Did they just accidentally a war?
I feel that the owner of the house, who is obviously not a bear, should be thankful that they removed a nuisance animal from the premises. However, that probably will not be the case. AND OH MY GOD A YELLOW HORSE WITH A PINK MANE AND WINGS WHO IS IT THE SUSPENSE IS UNBEARABLE!
Shaun clearly failed Basic. Hell, even I wouldn't keep my finger on the trigger and I never will go through it. You learn that before getting a license for anything to do with guns: until you want to kill something, your finger and the trigger stay separated by as much as possible.
But I also have complaints. Because you need to learn to put commas down. Instead you start sentences with prepositions. And it annoys the f
k outta me. And your punctuation in general could use work. Please do that. Soon.
@Nuclear: I like you. You seem nice.
4638310 Lol that's kinda funny really. The whole comma thing I'm talking about, either I'm getting told I don't use them enough, or I use them too often.
I'm so confused XD.
Also for anyone else who goes commenting about the Shaun guy failing. I had him fire his gun intentionally (of course) I know the whole rules about keep finger off the trigger, and all that other shnaz about gun safety.
It all just adds into his cowardly trait. Kinda odd really seeing a coward join the military, maybe there's some reasoning behind it.
4638097 Of course! But this is where the real fun begins.
4638310
Heh, you should see how bad the commas and fragmented sentences are before all the editors go through the chapter. It's like, half of what I do with this thing.
As for shaun's lack of trigger control. We talked about this when going through the chapter. Nebula wanted comedy, and it has been several thousand years since anyone's gone through basic.
4638604 But presumably they weren't awake, and therefore couldn't forget.
I'm an editor myself. It's all too easy for me to imagine.
Edit: About the comedy: You find it funny that someone almost got shot by the idiocy of another? Thou art horrible people.
Edit 2: Lol, I'm an editor and I edited my comments.
4638607
Weren't awake? Pfffffffftttttt. It's not like......(yes, this is exactly the problem I had with this. Oh well.)
4638633 Heh. Smartness is vaguely magical, in a science-y way!
Did you see my edits?
Side note: Apple wanted to autocorrect "edits" to "edicts".
4638563 This story has a habit of blue balling us.
4638643
4638633
You two are really good at making me feel like shit, ya know?
4638735 No. We didn't. Now we do.
We are pleased.
Right, TeslaPonie--
Wait. TeslaPonie? TP?
Doth this please thee, Dark? Thou hast a way to retaliate against TP now.
4638735
Love you too Nebs
4638765 Nah I think I'm good, I wouldn't want to shove one of my best editors away. Despite how good he is at making me feel like crap.
4638774 Don't lie.
4638852 I'll take his place!
4638774 You dirty, dirty liar. How dare you bring Darkie's hopes up so much?! I reiterate my statement of "thou are terrible people".
4638869 I'm constantly accepting new people if you're willing to hop on the bandwagon.
4638897 Yay!
PM me? I'll respond in the morning. I'm supposed to wake up in f--
Holy Nutella I need to get to bed. G'night.
Man, you'd think gunfire would wake up more than that.
well a very interesting chapter, well done
fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/313/4/7/bitches_love_cannons_motivational_poster_by_shadowslasher11x-d6togp1.png
Nuff said.
4648713 I have no idea if this is relevant to the story. But... Hellsing Abridged is the greatest.
Double hads.
Anyway! I thought the reasons why the "greatest soldiers" to be fucking up so many times is because... Well, you know, been asleep for several thousand years— not to mention barely escaping a mass genocidal attack. So I'd like to think that a lot of their good men to be screwing up.
This chapter was awesome. Plz gib new chaoter
4648728 Its not relevant, but it's true.
4649351 Today is your lucky day, reader. Because last night I actually just finished another chapter (I been on kinda a roll lately with this story) and it's also the 2nd longest. It's not ready yet though, I've sent it to my editors and should hopefully been finished in a few days.
4650472 Neat.
An assault rifle will never discharge simply by dropping it.
The only guns that will ever go off simply from a fall are handguns that use hammers (revolvers and older style pistols).
The only gun mentioned in this story thus far that could possibly fire from being dropped would be Doug's Berretta 9mm (And even then that depends on the model).
A gas operated (and/or blowback) weapon such as an AK-12 (Or any modern assault rifle used in military service since the 1920's) is physically incapable of firing simply because it was dropped.
Other than that, I liked the chapter.
(And hope this story updates more frequently!)
4650472
Oh fuck, that's an anti-tank rifle.
OH FUCK! THAT'S AN ANTI-TANK RIFLE!
That book, that book is one of Fluttersy's many romance novels.
4654715
Err... assault rifles weren't developed until WWII...
Though there were semi-automatic and fully automatic weapons before then, the German Sturmgewehr 44 is where the assault rifle started.
4663583
You're right.
I should have worded that better.
"Any main service rifle and/or carbine used in military service (by non-third world countries that is)" works better.
Quick bit on radio protocol, since I don't see it mentioned by anyone else: 'Over and Out' is not something you're supposed to say. You would just use 'Out' Their meanings overlap, so having both is redundant.
Good job on the story, I like where it's been going so far.
can't wait for moar!
Dammit I swear if we find out that in the fallout shelters that persons daughter did not survive I will kill you!
I understand what this is trying to say, but you might want to rephrase the sentence while also getting rid of the extra and.
4650674 Do you think you could ask your editors to take a look at my story and see if they would be interested in editing it? I just started writing two weeks ago and have no idea how to go about getting one. I only have one chapter so far and I have 1,800 words of the second chap done. It is the only story I have on my profile and it is called The Ultimate Life Form.
Thanks and good luck on your own story! Pretty interesting so far, even if it might seem to drag a tad bit in my opinion.
4685521 Of course she did not survive, it has been thousands of years. Unless she was put in stasis... Hmmm.
I JUST realized that this was a re-write. God, I'm an idiot. They're completely different too, it used to be like a Timberwolf killing off two soldiers or something.
Also, Shaun is just like me, so please don't kill
mehim off.And I like Hassel. And Doug, kinda. But Hassel more.
Fluttershy is going to be furious and super sad at the same time. I hope her opinion on humans isn't ruined by this. I can't see her forgiving them for killing Harry though.
How were these soldiers even considered for this mission?? If that is the best humanity has to offer it deserved whatever discord did to them. I will stop reading here because this completely shattered my immersion and from what I saw in the comments in later chapters it doesnt get better.