Chapter 42: Reaching the End

Date: November 22, 3007
Time: 06:40
Location: Sea of El Nath

Felix’s left foot suddenly paused in mid-stride. His ears perked up, picking up a most minute disturbance in the air. He quietly whispered the order to halt. Gently, he placed his foot on the ice, hoping it would stay his weight. The treads of his combat boots hit the floor.

With a sigh of relief, Felix relaxed his tensed up leg muscles. They were headed north, which meant the ice would start to thin out. He had to reach land before the sun rose, or the intense heat of the star would melt away the thin layer of ice separating his platoon and the watery underworld.

Suddenly, a sharp crack rang through the snowy air, as if something large had snapped in two. But at that same instant, Felix felt himself sink down an inch. Eyes widening in horror, he dove to the side just as the piece of ice he was standing on disappeared into the ocean. “RUN!”

His words had barely left his screaming throat when Felix started to move his feet. Churning them faster and faster, he sprinted east towards what he perceived was the direction of land. Behind him, he could hear his platoon huffing and puffing as they tried to keep up. And then, another sharp crack hit Felix’s eardrums. The ice split apart beneath his feet.

All of a sudden, Felix felt his boot catch a piece of ice. Cursing wildly, he fell to the ground and started to slide across the frozen sea. He tried to get up but could not catch any friction between his boots and the ice. A large iceberg loomed up ahead, threatening to crush his incoming body.

Then, behind him, Felix heard the clacking of a machine gun. Immediately, the iceberg in front of him blew apart into smaller fragments. Felix slid into the field of broken ice, his body hitting one boulder after another until he finally came to a stop. Laying spread eagle upon the ice, he looked up into the dawning sky. The clouds were becoming greyer and greyer as they desperately continued to veil the sun from the world.

“Captain, let’s go!” Caleio shouted, and Felix suddenly realized she was standing above him with her hand outstretched to him. The rest of the platoon dashed past them. Felix heard another sharp jolt in the ice and quickly scrambled up. He felt Caleio’s hand tighten around his wrist as they ran. Felix took a quick peek behind him and felt his face contort into shock as the ice field he had just been in fell into the ocean.

“Talk about global warming,” Felix chuckled to Caleio. She did not respond, but gave a cry of surprise and pointed forwards. Felix squinted, trying to make out what was in front of him. But then there it was, looming ahead like the pearly gates of heaven. A white field of snow and further behind, a range of mountains appeared over the horizon. On the plain, were the dying lights of little houses waking up to a new day. It was El Nath.

Without warning, Felix felt Caleio’s hand jolt out of his. Stumbling as he ran, he turned around and saw Caleio slipping away as the ice cracked open to envelop her. “NO!”

Felix dived back despite the cruel cracks as the ice fractured and broke apart by the second. He skidded to the edge of the ice field and grabbed Caleio’s forearms. Her body was submerged beneath the icy waters; Felix shuddered: the maximum survival time in the Sea of El Nath was about ten seconds.

“Come on!” Felix grunted and with all of his strength, managed to pull his sergeant out of the death trap. Caleio was shaking like mad, unable to control herself. Felix roughly yanked her to her feet and grabbed her head in both of his hands, “Cal you have to fight it. Run, run damn you!”

Caleio’s brain snapped into place and despite the pain, she ran after Felix. The two of them were the last ones on the ice. Up ahead, the rest of the platoon was already on solid land, peering out into the ocean, looking for them. Felix could hear them scream his name as they neared the shore, urging him to not back down, to make the last few strides to safety.

Beneath him, through the ice, Felix could see the bottom of the beach now. Then, his foot hit something soft and slushy: snow. He slumped over onto the ground in exhaustion. In the distance, the ice field had completely broken apart; chunks of ice were floating around aimlessly in the ocean as the sun continued to bring the temperature up.

“Captain you made it!” Niel grinned as he kneeled down next to Felix. He patted Felix’s shoulder and laughed triumphantly. Felix tried to muster up a smile, but his face muscles would not cooperate. All of his energy seemed to be drained from his body.

Felix looked into the eyes of his platoon, “Hell of a good job, you bastards…” And then he blacked out.

Date: September 11, 3001
Time: 08:40
Location: Orbis

Private First Class Felix Shadeswalker ran. His feet splashed in the murky swamps in the outskirts of Kerning City. Something went off next to him, and he knew someone else was gone. A shell whistled overhead and dug itself into the mud directly in front of him. Felix threw himself out of the way just as it exploded, sending shrapnel sailing in all directions. Fear shot into every single cell in Felix’s body: the essence of war.

“Shadeswalker, Renaldo, Skye, fall back to Safe Haven! I repeat, fall back to Safe Haven!” Felix’s communicator crackled as his commanding officer screamed for them to bring their asses back to safety.

But the enemy was right on their tails. He could smell their foul stench as they pursued him and his friends. A bullet whizzed by out of no where and struck the man next to him. Skye fell down with a shout, face first into the suffocating swampy mud. Tears blinded Felix as he continued to run, not wanting to suffer anymore.

Behind him, the sound of automatic weapons seemed to grow stronger. He heard an unmistakable sound of a stream of flames from a flamethrower followed by the screams of burning men. Felix started to scream. He pointed his S-16 blindly behind him and squeezed the trigger, adding to the random carnage already unfolding around him.

“F***! Shadeswaker, Schuman, Renaldo, Skye, where the hell are you!” the communicator roared again. Felix sobbed as he ran, wiping his eyes with his dirt covered hands.

“Skye’s dead,” another voice replied, filled with exhaustion and fear, “We’re about a mile out. We’re coming in hot! Got the enemy nipping our asses! We need reinforcements!” A tank shell engulfed someone up in flames in front of him. Wincing, he could only run past as the man rolled around on the ground in agony, his skin melting away in his fiery tomb.

There was a silence in the communicator as hell continued to ravage the swamp. Felix felt an intense heat singe the hairs on his neck as something exploded behind him. Then, the radio crackled to life again, “SH**! You’re supposed to be OUR reinforcements!”

Felix would have laughed at the irony if he remembered how to laugh. It had been so long since he had seen laughter. The very idea of it was now distant and no much more than a memory.

“Felix!” someone shouted to Felix’s right, “Just in case I don’t make it back…” Renaldo pulled a necklace off of his neck and tossed it through the air into Felix’s hands, “I want you to give that to my mother.” A muffled blast reached his ears.

Felix wiped his eyes and mustered up the bravest voice he could, “Don’t be a jackass, Renaldo, you’re giving her this yourself.”

Renaldo chuckled and looked directly into Felix’s eyes, “Just promise me, promise…” But right then, his eyes lost its life. The fiery glint had been wiped out in the blink of an eye. Renaldo’s body fell limp and tumbled into the mud, a red stain forming on the back of his uniform.

Felix winced as his friend fell and almost stopped, but just when his legs started to lose momentum, a shell landed right beside Renaldo’s fallen body. Tearing his head back, Felix heard the explosion tear his friend’s body apart. He did not want to look back, he could not look back.

“What the f*** was that?!” the communicator boomed again.

“Renaldo’s dead,” Felix screamed into the communicator. His fear was rivaled only by his anger. He wanted nothing more than a gun with unlimited ammo, an invincible suit of armor and a license to kill. But there he was, sprinting through the dense swampy mud, his gun with half a clip left.

“Casualty report!” the communicator barked.

Felix looked around and then, the worst feeling in the world hit him full on in the chest. He did a mental double take as his eyes failed him. No one was left. It was only him and him alone.

“I… I’m alone… There’s no… no one left…”

Felix had never head such a stream of profane swear words in his life, but that was the least of his worries. His friends were dead, his allies were dead, and for all he knew, his commanding officers were dead too. He was the only one left. But he was dead too.

“Shadeswalker, you get your ass here now. That’s a direct order, soldier!” Felix jumped over a fallen tree as another shell landed behind him and detonated, sending a ridiculous amount of mud soaring into the smoky air. Raging fires dotted the landscape as more balls of fire fell from the sky: meteors from hell. In Felix’s eyes, this was the apocalypse, the end of all things.

The next moment, Felix found himself flying through the air. A fireball consumed the air behind him and the concussion of the blast forced him into the earth. Choking on the putrid mud, he staggered up and despite the seething pain in his legs, continued to run towards his destination.

Bullets whizzed by, striking trees, splintering bark, shredding leaves and grass. Chaos streaked by Felix’s head, tearing at anything and everything it could reach. The war zone was the very definition of Armageddon. Suddenly, someone loomed up ahead, someone familiar, yet distant in memory.

“Whoa! Sh**!” Felix tumbled over a log and rolled right past the man. He tried to get up again, to continue running, but suddenly realized he was there. He was at his destination, designated, “Safe Haven.” How ironic as this safe haven resembled anything but.

“Shadeswalker…” a man holding a FF-20 Fair Frozen Heavy Duty Machine Gun sauntered up to him. The boom of an artillery shell leaving the barrel of the 50mm gun felt like music to Felix’s ears. Men in uniforms he recognized swarmed around the little clearing surrounded by tall grass and fallen logs. But this was no different than back out there, only with a different set of killers, a different set of weapons, though the motives were still the same. The thought of the cruelty of humanity was unbearable as flashes of the deaths of his friends pounded Felix’s head. It was so agonizing that he almost forgot his commanding officer was standing above him, “Congratulations, you made it. Hell of a good job, you bastard.”

The tragedies of war. In a fight between life and death, it was ultimately a binary choice. Either a man lived or died. It was that simple. But Felix did not, could not choose. After loosing everyone and everything, he wanted nothing more than to die. Yet, he survived with the curse of life.

Date: November 22, 3007
Time: 13:00
Location: Orbis

Felix’s eyelids fluttered open, revealing his cold black eyes. There was an unusually bright light shining directly onto his face. He sat up and suddenly realized he was in a bed. Letting his eyes focus and adapt to the light, he noticed that he was in a white room with fancy medical equipment. A hospital.

Then, Felix realized the absurdly bright light was actually the afternoon sun shining bright through the open window. It wasn’t cold, nor dark anymore. Felix grunted as he tried to get up. His entire body was sore from working more than a day without sleep. Trudging to the edge of the window, he supported himself up by leaning on the windowsill and peered out.

The city below him dazzled and sparkled in the white sunlight. It looked too perfect to be a city in this world. Was he dead? A gentle cool breeze reached the window and ruffled Felix’s black hair. He closed his eyes in bliss, as if this was the best feeling in the world. There was not a care in the world right now. It was just him and the open air. Felix had never felt so free.

Turning around, Felix gasped aloud both in shock and of joy. There, before the foot of his bed, lay Caleio, Zanna, Annikabelle, Niel, and Rey, all sleeping soundly. Felix felt a sudden surge of affection for the loyal members of his platoon. In his mind, he promised himself to never separate from his 5 brave companions whom he had grown to respect.

Felix turned back to the window and stared out into the field of white puffy clouds on the horizon. For the first time in a long time, he felt a genuine smile creep across his face.