Heaven's Eternal End

Chapter 6: Escaping Shiloh

"We need reinforcements! Our whole platoon was wiped out!"

-Seventeenth of Maximum Messis

     Daniel and Kaitlyn arrived back at the Carsonville Space Port with nothing to show for but the ghosts of their fallen comrades and Kaitlyn's broken spirit.

     Laiful cherished the emotional output Kaitlyn was experiencing, making him think that she was broken beyond repair, which he enjoyed. He did this to her father at one point. It's how you mold the successful soldier. She didn't need to know that he was her father's guardian for a while. Not yet, at least.

     "So what happened to the ginger and the dweeb and the smith?" Laiful asked in his usual aggravated fervor. A smile started to creepily form in the corners of his mouth.

     You need to weed out the weaklings, he thought to himself.

     "They were killed in the most... brutal of ways," Daniel replied exhaustedly. He didn't want to be a part of the military anymore. He would've never signed up if he knew this was going to happen.

     "Now explain to me what you have found on your failure of a suicide mission!" Laiful yelled annoyingly. Daniel sighed, trying to bring the courage to tell Laiful.

     "Jacobson's guts were ripped from his chest through the wall of a building. Rico sacrificed himself so we can escape from these humanoid zombie creatures. Tyler and Nox were killed by the survivors, who turned out to be the creatures in disguise."

     Laiful frowned.

     "And you didn't NEUTRALIZE THEM SO I CAN STUDY THEIR BEAUTIFUL FORMS?!" Laiful yelled, slapping Kaitlyn onto the ground. Daniel fell onto his knees and tried to comfort her as she held her cheek.

     "That is uncalled for!" Daniel yelled, eyes firing up in rage. Laiful did better, growling like a hellhound and bulging out his eyes.

     "You listen to me and listen to me well, cadet. I am in charge of the Relative Order, the science guild of the Knights, and as far as you are concerned, I'm more inclined to save a beast that I have never studied than save a human life."

     Daniel gulped, staring into the void of Laiful's pupils.

     "And as far as you are aware," Laiful continued, "I do not have time to chat with the likes of you heathens, but I regretfully have to anyway."

     Laiful turned, looking onto the firefight that lay below him. His marines were being torn apart while he stood there and watched.

     "You see all that?" he asked, licking his lips. "That is the benevolent gift from the unknown comprised of the unknown, and I was put here in this body to study it, no matter how many casualties occur." Laiful turned, eyeing Kaitlyn.

     "This she-beast's father served under me, but he too was a buffoon. He paid for his negligence with his life, and I see her paying the same toll as well..." Laiful trailed off, looking at one of the creatures below him eating the live remains of a marine that lay in a pool of blood. He pulled out his pistol and shot the marine in the head so the creature could continue eating.

     "You, cadet, show more promise than what she does, which is why I haven't assaulted you yet, and which is why I am giving you the special mission of going to Ground Zero. You will act as reconnaissance and try to distract their forces as we lift off. We'll try to find you when we leave."

     Daniel stood still, mouth agape at what Laiful just uttered. His mind started to race. Thoughts of how quickly his comrades' lives were snuffed out penetrated the inner sanctum of his very own consciousness, delving deeper and deeper into uncertainty and ill-fate.