The next morning after breakfast, I wandered into the camp's open fields, watching END soldiers go through their morning training. Meg and I weren't obligated to train with them yet cause we hadn't officially joined, so I basically still had the whole week to lazy around without any guilt.
I noticed that unlike your usual army training, their training here was more…individualistic.
There were no strict rigid formations or barking sergeants supervising the soldiers.
The training didn't even seem obligatory. I noticed a few soldiers laughing and chasing each other on the fields like they just came to have a good time.
But as for the majority…
Some were doing simple bench pressing, some others were charging up rows of electrical bulbs with sparks from their fingertips, their eyes glowing with a faint blue light, while others were literally flying through the skies at impossible speeds.
A flying race?
Seemed a bit like show off to me cause not everyone could fly.
Yeah, I was jealous.
But I guess it all made sense considering there were lots of diverse Abilities present.
From the distance, the entire field looked like a very large, very uncoordinated dance group with very different training exercises and by some miracle not colliding with each other.
Though they were careful enough to stay away from the part of the field that looked like it was being constantly set on fire. Flames roared, going up to fifty feet in the air, then died down and flared up again.
I guess it was the training ground for people with fire-type Abilities?
I spotted Hylla and Brody under a shaded area, along with some heavily shredded-looking individuals, lifting weights that must have weighed more than a ton.
Meg had left earlier to train her telepathic powers with some instructors so I was free to spend most of my morning wandering the camp.
I found a sick bay, an empty jet hangar, an indoor gym(tried to lift a couple weights there and gave up immediately), an indoor pool, some normal-looking corporate offices and finally the armory.
I poked my head in through the ajar glass doors.
The armory was lined with a wild assortment of weapons—from electric chainsaws and heavy axes like the one I saw Hylla using, to rocket launchers. And every one of them had a faint blue radioactive-looking glow on them.
The place was roughly the size of a gymnasium. Rows of heavily armored vehicles with mounted machine guns and reinforced tires were lined at the other end of the armory.
E.N.D had to have been funded by the government to be able to afford these.
I was just about to leave when I ran into Hylla, who seemed to just be coming from her training, her biceps still glistening with sweat.
"Oh…hi." I said, my voice sounding croaky for some reason, " was just…looking at stuff." I gestured at the weapon rack on the wall.
"Uh huh." She narrowed her eyes like she suspected I was trying to steal something. "You're the one that tried to kill me yesterday, right?"
"It was an accident." I said, feeling panicked. "I didn't-"
"Have you made up your mind yet?" She asked abruptly, "about joining us."
"Yeah, I don't know yet." I hesitated, "Meg is staying so I might just stay…too. To protect her."
She narrowed her eyes again, "Are you two…?
"We're just friends."
Why was she asking that?! I thought.
"Hmm."
We stood in silence for another awkward minute, me shifting restlessly on my feet. This conversation was already too long for my ADHD brain to handle. I had the sudden urge to sprint.
Hylla looked so hot in her tank top, her neck and chest glistening with sweat from her workout and her brown hair tied up in a ponytail was all too distracting.
"So….how was your training?" I asked, immediately regretting it.
She raised an eyebrow, "Stalker much?"
"No! I just spotted-"
Loud alarm bells rang out. The lights in the entire armory started flashing red.
"What's that?!" I asked, bewildered.
"Armageddon Bringers. They've appeared. Grab a weapon. You're coming with me." Hylla said, not even fazed for a second, already entering an armored truck.
"What?"
"Hurry!"
I picked up the first thing that caught my eye—a cool looking gun that had some type of glowing blue capsule inside.
Hylla smirked, "Nice choice. That's a plasma gun. Don't shoot yourself with it though, that thing is highly dangerous even for our standard."
Everything seemed to be moving too fast.
I wasn't ready. I'd refused to train this morning because…well, I thought I had the whole week. I got in the car and she leaned in close and helped me put on a bullet proof vest and elbow pads.
She smelled nice, like mm…
Like jasmine.
Maybe I was losing my mind from the tension of the moment after all.
"I won't help you with this next time." She grumbled while fastening some straps around my back, "this is just an emergency."
I nodded, "But we won't need these right? These bulletproof vests? It's not like the apocalypse monsters are going to shoot at us." I said with a nervous laugh. "Right?"
She didn't answer, instead she pulled on her own vest and gunned the engine. We found Meg and Brody on our way out, looking like they'd just come from training too.
"Get in!" Hylla said.
Meg opened the door and forced me to scoot over. "It only sits two." I grumbled but she kept pinching me till I moved.
Brody climbed onto the back of the truck like it was something he did everyday.
"I already alerted Bravo Null. They'll meet us there" Brody said to Hylla, yelling over the engine, "They say this one is really bad, Cap."
Hylla didn't say anything though her expression was troubled.
***
Before we got there I already saw the sulphuric smoke clouding up the early afternoon sun. I heard a distant piercing screech filled with rage and I remembered what Meg said about their hatred last night, about how malicious and intense it was.
Meg had managed to have time to put on her dark gothic makeup this morning, probably not expecting to go to war with it...or maybe she was? I don't know, she's really unpredictable. Under her helmet she was sweaty and her hands were shaking so badly I had to squeeze them with mine to make sure she knew I was still there with her.
She gave me a defiant nod and muttered, "I'm fine."
Hylla parked a safe distance some streets away. We had arrived. I could already feel vibrations from under the car.
"Out." Hylla ordered and jumped out and started sprinting towards the direction of the monstrous screeches but not before putting on a gas mask.
I checked the glove compartment and found more gas masks. I figured it was probably a necessity to have them on. I still remembered what Meg and I experienced our first time with all the smoke and ash. I passed them to Meg and Brody before climbing out.
It felt so tight and uncomfortable around my face. How did people breathe in these?
Why was I even here?? I didn't sign up for this yet!
Huge wreckages of half-burnt office buildings, like giant pieces of broken Lego blocks were scattered haphazardly around. Seems the breakout was right in the middle of the city. I silently hoped the police and fire department had evacuated every civilian.
Hylla was already nowhere to be seen in the thick smoke.
"Come on!" Brody said, his voice muffled in his mask, "Hurry!" He carried rows of massive chains from the back of the truck and started climbing the wreckage with them like they weighed nothing.
"Come on Meg." I said
She nodded and followed Brody, carrying some kind of rifle Brody must have given her from the armored truck. I slung my plasma gun across my back and followed them.
At the center of the burning, wrecked city, there was a massive gaping sinkhole where the monsters must have crawled out of.
The few half standing buildings had giant clawed marks on them, like a giant grizzly went crazy in the city. The atmosphere was filled with ashes raining down like snow in the middle of winter but instead, this was just….well, ashes.
The battle had already begun. Hylla was fighting the most terrifying looking creature I'd ever had the displeasure to look upon.
The monster was vaguely humanoid but it was about sixty feet tall with two misshapen heads. The heads looked like they were melted and fused together, each with a terrifying Scream-like expression on its face. The eye sockets were empty and hollow, and depthless. The body looked reptilian and scarred with thousands of burns all over it.
It had mismatched arms, one arm so long, it was well below its knees, like some kind of half ape. The real problem though, seemed to be its massive tail that had like a hundred spikes embedded in it.
As I watched, it roared, vibrating the very ground I was standing on and swung its oversized arm at Hylla who was perched on the side of a building.
And I thought that was it for Hylla.
Those claws would slice her like ribbons.
But Hylla saw the attack coming. She lunged five feet into the air, the giant narrowly missing her, crashing into the building, sending glass and broken blocks flying around. Hylla landed on its outstretched arm and charged in with no hesitation, landing a punch on one of the faces' nose. A punch surprisingly so hard, it knocked the monster a few steps backwards, flattening a row of cars beneath its clawed feet.
On the other side of the battle, there was a smaller monster, about the same size as that moose monster from my school. About the size of your average bungalow house.
That was probably the standard size for Armageddon Bringers.
This monster was built like a ram with curly horns on his head. I could tell it could be trouble because it seemed to make up for its smaller size with too much vigor and aggressiveness.
A different group was engaged in a battle with that one. I spotted Meg's ex, Carter, the guy that Meg was trying to hide from, during dinner last night.
He was in the mix, trying to get the monster's attention.
As I watched, Carter and some other guy positioned themselves in front of the ram monster and their arms lit up with blue electric sparks.
Electric powers? Cool.
Carter and his colleague seemed to be trying to charge up enough electric current before firing their attack, but the Armageddon Bringer wasn't waiting for that to happen.
It charged straight at them, bellowing like a crazy bull and headbutted them, sending them both flying and crashing through the glass doors of a nearby store.
"Help them! That's the Bravo Null squad." Meg said, "I'll go assist Hylla."
"What? Can you-?" I started.
"Go! I'll be fine." And with that, she ran towards Hylla and Brolly who were now tag teaming the two-headed giant just a few yards away.
I cursed and ran towards the other Armageddon Bringer.
What was I even supposed to do against something like that?
The rest of the Bravo Null squad were now cautiously trying to encircle the monster and somehow trap it, but without the powerhouses like Hylla or Brody it was proving to be impossible.
Whenever any of the soldiers crept close, the Armageddon Bringer would belch red-blue flames from its mouth, sending everyone back immediately.
I noticed a few of them with half burnt smoking uniforms already, now wary of getting in close again.
They were going absolutely nowhere if they kept trying to get in close with that thing. Like any wild animal, the Armageddon Bringer didn't like being cornered. And that's when it's most dangerous.
The soldiers with firearms couldn't do anything either because their bullets seemed to bounce off its tough hide. But how tough was it…?
I unslung the plasma gun from my shoulder and aimed.
I'd never fired a gun in my life…but how hard could it be?
There were tiny inscriptions and warnings etched on the handle but I didn't have time to read all that. I clicked the regulator to the highest level and pulled the trigger.
"Please work for me." I murmured to the weapon.
The gun vibrated violently in my hand and…
FOOOOOOOM!!
It was so bright I was momentarily blinded. Pure blue energy shot out of the muzzle with a loud chainsaw-like sound. I could feel the very air charged with an electric current. The laser hit the monster in the rear with so much force it fell over, nearly flattening some soldiers in the process.
The gun vibrated more violently the longer I kept my finger on the trigger and for a terrifying second, it shook out of my control a little, the laser beam cutting through a half collapsed building, vaporizing cement and glass before I released the trigger button and the laser beam disappeared, with a sudden silence.
The monster had fallen on its side, now trying to get back on its feet again despite the now ugly, smoky wound on its back still glowing a faint, charred blue.
I was still stunned, my mouth slightly open in a shock. The force had been so strong, I could barely handle it.
The rest of the Bravo Null squad quickly took that as an opportunity to strike—but the monster wasn't done yet.
It blew flames in every direction violently engulfing a few soldiers in flames as they scrambled back in retreat, while the beast screamed and made loud panicked oink pig noises, kicking its short legs in the air.
And finally, it struggled to its feet again, looking even angrier than before but this time, it only had eyes for me.
Big yay…
It let out an ear-piercing bellow, loud enough to shatter the windows of nearby buildings and charged straight at me, trampling every abandoned car on its path, its beady eyes filled with murderous rage towards me.