Chapter 1
Hearing a groan coming from the other side of the rubble I made my way towards it. Bodies getting crushed under my feet resonated throughout my body as I let out a small laugh.
Turning around the corner, there was a woman leaning on a poster of a movie on a broken wall with a bullet through her chest. The poster that had a spiraling dragon was dyed with red spots and her breathing could be heard even with the siren in the distance. On her lap, lay a little girl with lifeless eyes, bleeding out from a bullet in her stomach. She reminded me of my little sister, but the girl’s empty eyes contrasted Ava’s eyes that were filled to the brim with life.
I knelt down and closed the little girl’s eyelids with my trembling hand, “If only you weren’t born in this rotten country, you would have lived. I am sorry.” I lifted her pretty brown hair off her forehead and slid my hand down to her cheeks and patted it.
Finally noticing my presence, the woman’s hand twitched and move towards me. Getting hold of the hand with a tattoo of two spiraling dragons similar to the one in the movie, I noticed a silver ring with a jewel on top, that shined like a spotlight and fit perfectly on her dusty, slender fingers.
she met me in the eyes and moved her lips, “He- KUHK.” A series of coughs were all that came out. A soft chuckle escaped my lips, “What? Are you asking for help? After letting your daughter die, failing to protect her, you want to live?” I could hear my heartbeat getting faster and faster and my heart banging at the walls of my chest from the inside. Tilting my head slightly towards the left, I leaned closer to her face. “You really think you are allowed to live? No.”
The bright shine of the jewel on top of the ring had now gotten dull, I rubbed my fingers over its intricate carvings. I pulled out my sidearm and placed the muzzle on her bloody forehead. My legs felt heavy with my ears now surrounded with the sound of heavy breaths. Looking down towards the girl, A soft slime appeared on my face as a tear drop rolled off my cheeks and fell on the girl’s face.
BAM
I put the gun down and wiped my hands off the filthy blood on the ground with mud and staring at it for a while, “this is better.” I let out a whisper.
The scent of blood lingered in the air with the thousands of corpses dying the atmosphere in red mixed with black smokes enshrouded the place in absolute silence. The siren was also gone after a series of thunderous explosions cut through the air. Not thinking much of it, I walked ahead.
With each corpse of civilians and soldier I glanced at, my rage subsided little by little. My body shuddered with a huge grin on my face at how we had given the people of Brandol a dog’s death. After all the years of dreaming of this day, I could finally get rid of a major part of this worlds filth that has haunted us for years.
My team was responsible to begin the invasion of the capital of Brandol along with a few other teams, but I was the only one who survived from my team after a bloody ambush from those bastards . As I was left all alone, my only choice was to detonate the bomb that we had managed to place in the city square which also served as a signal for HQ back home for reinforcement to continue the attacks.
I just had to head for the reinforcement point to meet up with the other troops and await further orders.
Seeing a huge lake that was pitch black as if made out of asphalt, I approximated that it would still take me one more day to reach the location where reinforcements would arrive and where all the teams were told to gather. The part of the city that I walked through had been completely turned into a battlefield but now appeared only a wasteland with scavenging animals being the only ones who still breathed.
With no food and scarce water for the past two days, my legs had turned into lead and each step I took, got slower.
Finally reaching my destination, I could but help ask, “What happened here..?” As far as I could see, everything was reduced to smithereens of its former self. My pace became quicker and my breath heavy as I glanced my eyes around trying to find someone, anyone.
“I cant die here.. no..” I muttered under my breath. “no, no... I have to return!” I screamed out but my throat was immediately engulfed with a throbbing pain as I held my dry throat with one of my hands as tears swelled up in my eyes. My vision went hazy and the space around me distorted into a blend, hearing went numb and legs jelly.
Nothing could be heard apart from the thud of my knees collapsing to the ground. My hands failed to get me back up on my feet but only scramble on the ground. Everything that filled my sight slowly darkened and soon my consciousness slid into the void.
