As The World Ends

Chapter 4 - Up In Flames

A soldier by the name of Fantôme crept through a forest. The trees were easily a hundred feet tall and so old that their name had been forgotten. It was quiet. Too quiet. He drew his gun from its holster and held it in front of himself, ready to obliterate anything that moved. 

A sudden scream shot through the air before it went back to being pin-drop silent. Fantôme quickened his pace, disregarding stealth. When he finally broke through the trees, the stench of death and disease hit him immediately. 

A village lay before him. Bones littered the well-walked dirt roads and there were blood stains on every stationary surface. Fantôme tightened his grip on his gun and slowly walked forward, picking his way through the human remains. 

He reached the door of the first house and pushed it open, revealing an intact body huddled in the corner. As he warily moved closer, he was able to make out minuscule chest movement, indicating that the person was, indeed, alive. Barely. 

Fantôme knelt down next to the blood and mud covered figure and took one gloved hand off of his gun, keeping the other on the trigger. Just in case. 

With one finger, he carefully lifted their chin and revealed a dark gash across their chin that stretched down their throat to their shoulder. It was caked in dried blood, but what was visible of the actual wound was dark purple. 

He nudged it with his gun, causing them to regain consciousness with a gasp and break into a coughing fit. Fantôme rose quickly, returning his hand to his gun and aiming it at the person. Their eyes fluttered open violently and their body convulsed. 

"Please," they coughed out, "please-" their voice broke and they convulsed again, clawing at their neck. "Kill me- please-" Fantôme hesitated. 

They stared up at him with bloodshot eyes, dark liquid dripping out their mouth, and Fantôme nodded. He stepped back and pressed the trigger. The person convulsed once more then lay still. 

The soldier met no other disturbances until he reached the seventh house. The door had been knocked off the hinges and lay on the ground outside. Fantôme stepped over the threshold but was met with a bloodcurdling inhuman scream, causing him to careen backwards and jerk the scope of his gun to his face. 

A bright yellow creature with nine jelly-like legs and a single plate-sized eye climbed through the doorway and hung from the side of the house, staring at him. Fantôme fired a shot, resulting in the creature falling to the ground, screeching and writhing in pain. 

He took several more steps backward, raising his hand to the microphone attached to his helmet. "Abort, plan B. Now. Over." He spoke in a low voice as to not cause any more disturbances. A response came immediately. "Alright. You have three minutes to get out. Hurry. Over." 

Fantôme took off running, boots crunching on wood, stone, and bones, as more of the creatures started screeching. He heard something crash behind him, but the sound was overshadowed by the deafening noise of a helicopter, which dropped dangerously close to the ground and lowered a rope. Fantôme grabbed the rope and started climbing as it was hoisted up. 

The chopper started ascending again even before he reached the top of the rope. Moments later, an explosion sounded and a sound wave shook the air, causing Fantôme to spit out a curse as his robotic arm locked up and almost lost hold of the rope. Despite that, he safely reached the landing skids and released the rope to grip an outstretched hand. 

They left the burning village behind, confident that someone would be monitoring the fire to ensure that the forest remained untouched. 

*****

The helicopter touched down on an empty pad, blades coming to a smooth stop. Fantôme pulled open the door and swung out, landing on the hard surface of the helipad with a heavy clunk. The crew member that had pulled him up busied herself with clearing out the cockpit  while Fantôme strode down the ramp to ground level, mixing in with the thin crowd.