Mist

Your Rod and Your Staff

An alien stops me, a large, slender alien. They toss me to into a hodgepodge of aliens from Unity and service. I lay there as Unity and Service Soldiers battle each other in a pile of pain. I scramble around for a weapon as the bodies squirm. A bomb explodes and I'm launched back. The ringing noise dazes me. The world warps and spins.

Service and Unity Soldiers obliterate bodies in a bloody festival. I don't feel pain. I feel calm. "War," I say to myself. I rise and see a Service Soldier sprinting towards a fire. Everywhere I look, people are running. Nobody stays in one central place. They inflict damage to the point of injury or death, then leave. I run to the only thing I know right now. I run to hell. Without hell, there can't be heaven.

A Unity Soldier charges at me. They're small and helmetless. They bring out a pistol. I bring out my fist. They fire and the bullet goes through my arm. I backhand the alien. They jerks back. I grab them, pick them up easily, and bring them down on my knee. The alien screams as it rolls on the ground. I stomp on their head as hard as I can. They stop screaming. And now my leg hurts.

I run a different direction and meet up with a wave of Soldiers. We find no Unity, just peaceful mist. The sun breaks through it, slowly falling. The sunset projects another shade of grey. I look back at the valley and see the battle continues. I fire my missile launcher into the madness. I fire again and nothing happens. The other Service Soldiers run back to the battle.

My body is sore, wounded, and broken. I'm tired. The sky turns black. Our wave hits Unity's. I hear and see explosions in front of me, but no battle. I ease closer to the belly of the beast. The anticipation is killing me. I sprint between Service Soldiers into the battle.

I lean my shoulder down and slam into an alien. I hit my stock on an alien's head. They turn rapidly and fall down. I get whacked with a gun. My helmet pounds against my head. I drunkenly grapple a random alien wearing white armor and I push them forward. I feel for my gun. I can't find it.

I get thrown by a large alien. I wrap around a leg and pull down. They punch my arms, but I get it to drop. They lose their gun and I scurry across the muddy ground to steal it. The alien holds me back. Mud and blood cover both of our faces. I push them away, stand, and hit them with the stock of the weapon. They stop moving.

Three Service Soldiers surround me, pointing pistols at me. I pick up the body and hold it in front of me. They don't fire. I prepare the gun, drop to one knee, and fire five shots around me. I don't know if I killed anyone. I stare down and try to stand.

An alien prances on me. They're like the ones in the Warship. They bite down on my head. Their teeth rip through my helmet with a shrill noise. The teeth cut my skin and fresh blood spills down my head. They jerks their head and my neck is pulled with their jaws. I hit them with my weapon. They're still biting down.

I start to take off my helmet. Pain fills my body. The helmet pops off. The alien chews down on it as I seize their neck. I twist them and they scream in pain. I keep twisting. They shrink. I hold tighter. They gag and spit blood on me. I jerk my arms and hear a crack. The alien bites down on my arm. They push on my armor, but it doesn't break. I twist and hear a larger crack. They stop moving.

I ease myself up. The battlefield is clear, other than the bodies that lay in piles or alone. I feel something wriggling in my throat and cough out blood. The cold breeze flows through my hair. I study the skies. There's nothing. No ships. No reinforcements. A puddle of liquid grows beneath me. It's a dark brown, a color I haven't seen in a while. I feel around in it. The liquid twists and turns with each movement of my finger.

I stare at all of the dead. I'm not looking for their story. I'm searching for life. What happened? What happened? I feel my eyes weight try to push down. I take every step like a zombie. Am I alive? I stumble over bodies, stepping on them and tripping, falling into the mud. I lay there trying to get up, but nothing happens. I slam my fist in a puddle, pull at the soft dirt, and flip myself over. Blood and dirt drip off my face. I crawl forward, using the bodies as leverage. I hear explosions in the distance and crawl faster.

I knife slices through my hand. I fall and scream into the mountain tops. I look at my hand. A small knife is shoved through it. I grab the end and pull. Blood puddles as I slowly rip it out. The soreness, the wounds, everything seems to amplified. I scream as the pain pounds into my brain. I look at my stomach, covered in brownish red. My bandages are gone. I look at the mountaintops, covered in smoke and clouds. I'm in the abyss, a new hell of nothing. A hell just for me.

I gradually rise up and spot this alien standing around, out of place, roaming the bodies with a limp in its step. They're wearing black armor. I see a Mist flower right next to them, white petals shining in the darkness. The alien squints at me and takes a step towards me. I sigh and walk ahead. "Fuck you," they mutter in a tired voice from them. They struggle forward, screaming in pain, and adjusts himself.

"Unity just can't, stop can they," I spurt out of my bloody mouth. We close in on each other.

"Service just can't know when they've lost," they cough at me. Their face is a bloody mess, green and covered in mud. Their leg is cut badly, almost split in two. It spits blood at me. We pause, gazing at each other, shivering in the night. I throw a punch.