grave digger

chapter 3

The morning seemed to have passed in the blink of an eye.

Instead of the normal workout routine at 6:00 would've done normally, they immediately went to the cafeteria to enjoy a small breakfast, then went back to the barracks to grab their rifle and put on their armors. The air seemed to be vibrating due to the excitement of the troops. Finally some action!

Quickly running to the launch bay, they simply got into the trucks and started rolling. No big speech, no parade. This was the real thing.

The trucks departed in silence, since for the occasion they had put the expensive mufflers on, to at least not alert their enemies that a force ten thousand men strong was about to knock on their door. No one spoke on bumpy road that lend to the frontline, but every man and woman had a slight smile. This is what they had been waiting for their whole life! Thought Ezekiel, and he was no exception.

They finally arrived at their destination, a small cave with basic furniture like chairs and beds. The soldiers that were occupying the outpost pointed in silence at a map of the battlefield and pointed at two points of interest, the ones that they had to take control of. In front of the small cave was a rockrete wall, an almost indestructible material, and a massive hole in it. The hole went on for about 4 meters and was then blocked by normal rock. They had to mine through that to get to their objectives.

Quickly, Ezekiel met up with his team and chambered a round in his rifle. After making sure his sidearm was loaded, he took his pickaxe in hand and waited for

the order to advance. He and his squad were in the tenth row he guessed. The space was too small to fit an entire army in it, so Ezekiel was glad to be in front. He didn't want to miss out on the action.

An officer walked up to the hole and lifted her arm to give the signal to advance. Everything was happening so quickly! Ezekiel grasped his rifle tighter and got into a sprint speed position. He could see everything so clearly, from the smoke his comrades made while breathing the cold air of the cave and the small water droplets that fell from the ceiling. The officer took her revolver in slow motion and slowly brought her arm back down.

Immediately the cave got filled with the noise of pickaxes hitting the rock violently. Ezekiel sprung forward and stated running behind the sea of men that moved like a tidal wave. If he stopped, he would be crushed by the legion of soldiers behind him. He locked eyes with his squamates and smiled. This was it!

Soon, he heard his boot touch the rock floor of the cave instead of the wooden planks of the outpost. The first wave was mining as fast as they could, but it wasn't enough. Ezekiel had to slow down a bit so he wouldn't crash into the guy in front of him. The sounds in the cave reverbed endlessly, Bit by bit, the men got more excited. Some chanted the hymn of the empire, quietly at first but then louder and louder. Checking his map, Ezekiel saw that they were approaching objective Acies, and the thought of the action that awaited him made his blood pulse like never in his veins. The boots of the people next to him started hitting the ground with more vigor, the lancers in front of him were agitating the flags on their halberds with more enthusiasm, and the voices of the people grew in fervor. The atmosphere was increasingly, until it reached its crescendo and then...

Bang! The wall in front of them exploded, and Ezekiel only got time to protect its head from the incoming shards of rock. He fell on the floor, pushed by the arm of someone else. His helmet hit the side of the tunnel in an audible clang, and his vision became blurry. He lifted his arms to protect his face, and

felt pressure on his leg. He couldn't lift his head to see what was pressing on it, but the feeling went away quickly. All he could hear was a high-pitched ringing in hies ears. He brought his legs closer to him and stayed in a fetal position for a couple seconds before getting grabbed by the shirt and put him back on his feet. He got thrown something in the arms and instinctively grabbed it tight. Someone pushed him in the back, and he got thrown forward, still unable to see what was happening in front of him. He could feel people pushing him out of the way, menacing to throw him back to the ground, so he started running forward to God knows where. Slowly, his ears stopped ringing, and he could distinguish the screams of people around him. His boots were hitting an even material, so he wasn't in the tunnel anymore. As his vision unblurred he started making out shapes in the distance, masses of white and yellow moving everywhere. He stopped and put his knee down to come back to his senses. His vision slowly came back to normal, just like his hearing. He identified the thing he held in his hands as his rifle, then lifted his head.