Grey

Grey...that is all I see as I trudge through the muddy trench dug by my brothers in this god forsaken hole they call Bkorin. The once beautiful landscape now torn by bullets and mortar fire looks as if it were this way all along. The pale blue sky seems to be the only thing with color anymore. Everything just looks...grey.

The year is 2175, my name is Joseph Barrow and I am a soldier of an army that no longer has a name. We lost that dignity along with many of our brothers and friends. These things we're fighting are easy to kill in small groups during the hazy daytime. When they attack in the dead of night in a massive hunting party that is when we suffer. The ground is covered with the blood of a thousand good men slaughtered in the night. The beasts that killed them used to be human but have become savage monsters that do nothing but kill and wreak havoc on the lives of man. They have destroyed countries all across Europe and Northern Africa. What used to be America is now a barren wasteland covered with radiation and disease. The rolling plains of Oklahoma are now gorges in the Earth, and the Rocky Mountains of Colorado are nothing more than piles of dust blowing in the hot, arid desert wind. Thats all America is...a desert full of nothing.

My family came from America before the war and death. Before the radiation and mutants, and before me. My mother became pregnant with me and she fled the U.S. when war became Imminent. When she arrived in Britain she went into labor and was rushed to a hospital. My mother died giving birth and I was put in an orphanage. My father being an American soldier could not come to Britain and raise me because the Nuclear War on America had begun. A couple of years later I watched on the holoscreen as what would have been my home country burned to ashes as the hostile countries drop nuke after nuke on capitol cities and small towns. The burning homes bright with red and yellow from the flames and water turned green from the radiation. The burnt skeletons of souls who failed to escape in time lying in the rubble of tall skyscrapers now felled by the whim of a greedy dictator. Russia now the greatest super power in the world would not reign for long.

This is where I begin my part of the story. I was never adopted and the lady in charge of the orphanage was as nice as anyone really could be. She was the mother figure that I needed but I never had a father. I decided in 2165 on February 21, my 19th birthday, that I was going to be a soldier, but little did I know it would lead to me being in the worst hell hole on Earth.

"Joseph...Hey numbnuts get up its time for P.T." said my friend Daniel

"Go the hell away and let me sleep"

"Alright but its your ass not mine when the Sergeant Major comes in and sees you sleeping and not runnin' "

"honestly I could care less about the naggin' but I guess now that you've gone and waken me up I might as well go"

"CORPORAL BARROW AND PRIVATE GRIGGS WHY ARE YOU NOT OUTSIDE RUNNIN' " said Sergeant Major Dempsey

"No reason Sergeant Major its just Private Griggs failed to wake his bunk mate when the alarm was not sounded"

"Right well get your sorry asses out there and do your damn laps"

(same time)"Yes Sergeant Major"

"Thanks for throwing me under the bus prick"

"Yea well what I said was true but I also did it for the satisfaction of knowing what you get to do tonight"

"Ahh damn thats right now I gotta clean the latrines...you are an a**hole you know that right"

"Glad to help you learn how to clean friend"

After doing my 5 laps around the facility I head down to the cafeteria to get some of the "wonderful" food they serve.

"God this is awful I don't know how you can stand it Griggs" I said

"Well I have been here longer than you and I have had to deal with it longer but don't worry you get used to it"

"Yea well the way its tastin' I'm gonna end up makin' one hell of a mess in the latrine for you Daniel"

"Oh hell no I will have to kill you with my bare hands for that"

"Don't worry it won't be bad until after drill later on"

"Sh*t...this day just keeps getting better"

"Hey shut up and turn the holoscreen volume up" said one of the soldiers

"(low mumbling)...ssia has now gone dark. No speeches from Dictator Borov or his advisors. The country seems to have just blacked out after its victory in the Nuclear War"

"Watch that is going to be our first deployment, to find out why the biggest super power just suddenly drops off the face of the Earth" said Daniel

"Don't you dare jinx us because I really don't want to go to the place that killed my father"

"Sorry jeez I was just making an observation"

"Well I just hope that observation doesn't become a reality.

Several months later I was promoted to Sergeant and Daniel and I were stationed on the border of Moscow. We were only supposed to stay 2 months to see if the Russian government would respond. However we recieved no aggressive response instead we had a convoy of civilian refugees repeatedly saying "those". It made absolutely no sense to my platoon but we later found out what "those" were.

"This place is creepy as f*ck Joseph and I don't like the quiet" said Daniel

"Oh would you quit bein' a puss and shut up we're on recon"

(russeling in the trees)

"What the hell was that" said Daniel

"I don't know. Private Palowski go check it out"

"Yes sir"

(couple minutes later)

"Looks clear Ser...AHHHH"

(Deep roar)"Rahhhhh"

"Open fire" I screamed

(barage of gunfire)

"Cease fire, cease fire. What the hell is that thing"

"Maybe it is what the refugees called 'Those' " said Corporal Dunn

"Maybe. Someone bag it and we'll take it back to post"

(all at once)"Yes sir"

Later I was briefed on what the creature was. It was a human mutated by a radiation leak after the nuclear war. It had huge blades instead of arms but seemed to be poorly armored.

"Sergeant this is Lieutenant Simms with the Aerial Recon unit" said Corporal Dunn

"Nice to meet you Lieutenant what can I help you with"

"Actually I'm here to help you and your men"

"How is that"

"We have been tracking the things your men have nicknamed 'Blades' and we found a very large group on the main road into moscow. We took a further look into the city and found that the 'Blades' are not the only mutants out there"

"What others could plague this desolate country"

"Well we have found some that seem to be scavengers, they are small , fast, and travel in large packs. Another kind is like a sentinel, it spits acid projectiles that when they make contact with anything they immediately burst into flame. Last we seem to have found the leader, he..."

"Wait these things have a f**king leader"

"Yes they do and they run off a hive mind...that is how he sends commands. You will know which one he is, he has bones coming from his head in an unorganized shape of a crown"

"This is going to be extremely difficult. Have you located any other civilian camps or possibly Borov"

"We found a camp on the other side of Moscow in a small town named Bkorin"

"Right, well you stick around I may have further use of you"

"Call me when you need some aerial reconnaissance"

"Will do"

...To Be Continued...