Pause

Epilogue

Liam had sealed his late brother's lab. The alpha-creature and whatever was left of Farah's heroic soldier would remain under quarantine, indefinitely.

No one told Liam about Ulises' part in his brother's death.

Micah willfully underwent many tests given by Liam's medics, procedures he could not begin to fathom. The Biogen had been safely and completely removed from Micah, with little risk of breach. He had received a clean bill of health. He had also injected a syringe of the anti-viral serum into himself before they had made the jump into the new dimension. The medics had found themselves impressed; the serum had already done a large percentage of their work for them.

The unit's visit into the new reality thus far had been an education. Micah had lain his eyes upon technology he'd never dreamt of. It was a wonderland of exploration for all of them.

Liam had explained to Micah that he had helped his brother Oberon develop and produce the time-stopping devices. "And I see you've discovered our latest upgrade," he had remarked, speaking of Micah's sleek device. "Fun little tools, aren't they?"

"They helped us save lives," Micah had replied. "Our unit is a hundred times in your debt."

"Too bad that beast had used it for... evilry," Liam had concluded. Micah had given Liam's laboratory scientists what was left of the wriggling creature sample for study.

Liam had allowed Farah's unit free clearance into the facility's control room. They found that they were able to remotely monitor the status of Micah's dimension.

Their plan had worked... in part. The targeted hemisphere of their planet had undergone a wild transformation. They tapped into a satellite their unit had controlled, moving its finetuned camera onto the face of their Earth.

The continent they were formally stationed on was lush with green. Farah zoomed in and enhanced the feed.

A huge jungle had sprouted, similar to where Micah and his now-imprisoned comrade were stationed, before it all began. The feed centered above a wet rainforest. There was no sign of the alpha-creatures.

"Wow," Ulises said. "He did it. He really was brilliant."

"Dr. Oberon has saved our planet," Farah said.

"Wait," Micah said, reading the stream of data flowing below the display on the screen.

"There's... no one," Micah said.

"What do you mean," Farah replied, her eyes squinting to get a closer look at the feed.

"Oh my God," she said. "You're right. Our warheads... we killed the population we targeted. All of them."

"Better than what they had become," Ulises quietly said.

Micah scanned the rest of the planet. There had been no change within the other hemisphere. Except... more lifesigns.

Exponentially more.

"Oh no," Liam said, as he too realized.

"Alpha-creatures," Micah announced. "Every single one of them."

He leaned his hands against the console before him, broken from the knowledge that his unit were the only surviving humans of their dimension. He closed his eyes.

"Oberon, my friend. We've failed you."

"Despair, Micah? That's not very becoming of you."

He turned to look at Farah, whom had spoken. Then Liam stepped forward.

"We've been working with your anti-bio weapons and the serum within," he told Micah. "We've already enhanced the serum with some pretty nifty stuff... however, I believe we can tune it even more to possibly reverse the Biogen mutation altogether - and save your world's people. We, of course, await your orders."

"My orders?" Micah asked in response.

"Yes," Farah answered him. "Congratulations."

She turned around and addressed everyone on the bridge before her.

"Atten-SHUN! By the power invested in me, I hereby promote Micah to Commanding Officer of this unit, effective immediately. You and I are now to follow his orders. Comrades! Ten HUT!"

All of Micah's soldiers, including Farah and Ulises, faced him, then stomped their boots and held their fists to their chests, rifles pointed to the roof at their sides.

"Persephone Unit awaits your orders, CO Micah," Ulises announced.

Micah wanted to cry. He held back his glistening tears. Liam stood by, arms folded, grinning widely.

Micah saluted back.

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Micah's adventures continue in Pause 2