The Enemies

Out of Moneree

Oden

The uncaring sky hangs above me. The snowflakes still fall peacefully to the ground, covering my body. The loud ringing in my ears enables me to hear only the air leaving my lungs and my heartbeat, with no sound from the outside world. I sit up, but the sharp pain shoots through my entire body, and I wince. A large piece of steel wire goes through my right side. I take a moment to panic, but my brain takes over and I grip the dark metal with both hands and pull. The pain intensifies. I grunt and hungrily gulp the air but remain conscious. Then look around, completely dumbstruck.

A crumpled piece of the concrete wall is under me. I think it used to be the roof. Large chunks of building carcass stick out of it. I can no longer see the rooftops as I am on the ground. The building folded like a house of cards. I try to steady my breathing and notice the rest of the buildings in ruin with pieces of brick, concrete, and glass on the street. The battleships lay on their sides like large dead behemoths, covered by the construction debris and surrounded by puddles of blood.

My eyes widen at the menacing view. Slowly I inspect my limbs as if this is not happening to me with a mixture of horror and surprise. Still unable to contemplate what has just happened.

'Anyone,' I try my microphone.

I pause to listen but there is no answer. Five men of my team with Ozias ahead are running towards the street we covered. I stand up and stumble slowly in their direction.

'Hey!'

'What happened, Major? We heard the blast and headed your way. We lost connection with you right after. Do you know if anyone survived?'

'I don't think so, no. Two of us need to stay and check anyway. I think they went to the control building, we need to intercept them if we still can. Communicate it to the rest who is left through earpieces.'

Ozias starts calling for others to respond, yelling orders. We head to the control building. Running is twice as hard. I am semiconscious from the pain in my side and slow down to take a breath. The same instant, the ground shivers under my feet. Everyone comes to a holt and watches pieces of the control building ahead of us start falling and shattering when they hit the ground with a deafening noise. A dark cloud of dust erupts from the place that used to be the building. It happens too fast. My vision is too clouded. And for a second I think I am hallucinating. The whole picture seems too surreal to be true.

I turn to Ozias then.

'We need to get out of here. It would be a slaughter, not a battle since Karmians managed to take down the control building. We need to tell the others if we can and then leave the city.'

The communication is completely lost now. The Drellian forces are blinded and unprotected. Drones, battleships, or anything that requires internal communication is gone. We run to the direction of the control building in hopes to find a vehicle. Everything is covered in dust and dirt. Several vehicles are damaged but two remained unscathed. Soldiers stand further away staring at an empty place, lost and confused.

I grab one of the lieutenants who stands motionless with his eyes fixed on the ruins.

'Hey! What is your name?'

'Loid,' he replies, eyes empty.

'Loid, we need to get to our forces. We need to let them know what happened. They must be warned.'

He hears me at last. He shakes his head as if to wake up and runs to the vehicle motioning for everyone to join. We head towards the city limits leaving another vehicle to pick up the survivors of the bombing. The truck drives fast through the streets and does not slow down turning the corners.