Zaden

GENESIS

The sounds got louder as it got closer. But we couldnt see anything. Just loud stomps. Our supposed Dragon, suddenly hovered above the tree, and as the stomps got closer, the Dragon. Disappeared.

"Shit!" was the only reaction I could manage.

At least the cyclops looking creatures were still visible, although they started running towards our direction. And once they passed by us, they also vanished.

"What the heck!" one of my men shouted.

The situation was dire.

A quick but brief sweep of the planet had been done earlier, and it was believed that nothing, which could pose a serious threat to humanity was found. But we never observed any multi-cellular organisms; like the Dragon, or the cyclops thing, let alone, vanishing abilities.

Staying in the open was stupid, I radioed everybody else to abort the mission and report back to the base. Lack of information would deprive me of sleep, and that I could not handle.

Back at the camp......

"Obanje! Obanje! Witch o! I freaking saw a woman on brooms, Laughing!" Shouted Ade to everyone in the camp.

"People! Camp Ground, Now!" Announced Lieutenant Joy.

Not too long, everyone gathered at the camp ground.

I paced around in my bunker thinking of the next step. What should I do? I was confused. My sweat trickled out of my skin, my bowels grumbled, and my worry diarrhea kicked in. Off to the toilet I went. With every poop, I focused on a plan, well....... Until another jumped out of my burning anus.

"Oh! Whatever! I would just call the commander" I thought to myself as I held unto my belly to squeeze out another worry shit.

I was finally relieved and rushed out to the comms' room. Everything was prepared, as if someone heard my thoughts. I turned towards my right to see a shy Joy take her eyes away from me.

"I need to learn to shut up sometimes" I thought.

I was ushered to my seat as the preparations were completed.

Warp communication, another new tech for interstellar travel. Developed not to long after the warp engine. Communication over long distances, including light years away was practically easier and faster.

"The commander is onboard now, captain" said one of the engineers

"Captain, this is quite the early call", said the commander

"Sir, we encountered undocumented hostiles"

"And........."

"We want an emergency boarding back, as soon as possible" I replied

"Declined...."

"What do you mean declined sir, we stumbled upon new unknown hostiles, you got the report, we are practically seeing dragons for God's sake" I replied rather irritated.

"Emotions captain, watch your emotions. You are all soldiers given a task; secure and protect, and with any means necessary"

"And the new creatures?" I asked

"Shoot them down, and beam them to us for study"

"Oh! So, you would rather take an inhuman dead body than one of your people?"

"Yes, the logistics is way easier....... You are hero arent you, Captain Tobi, be a hero. And by the way young man, try not to call me without results next time"

The screens went off, and I was left shocked.
"Were we sent to another death mission like the last time." I thought

The situation wasnt good. I went back to the camp to brief the awaiting soldiers on the next course of action. As the harbinger of bad tidings, I approached the camp ever slowly thinking of the right words, the right things, the right actions. All my life till now, I had been just a follower, I hardly had a responsibility in my life, I only ever cared about myself and my family, nothing else. Funny, I even joined the army to get my family's issues off my back, because of the benefits it had for them. Now, I was responsible for fifty lives.
As I moved closer to the camp, I caught a glimpse of Ade, worried. Well, why won't he, a proud father of an adorable one-year girl. After the last incident, he just went off and got hitched to his girlfriend, it all happened fast. He started a family, and now he was here.
My eyes jeered off him and caught Joy's face, who was running around to get things in order in case of an emergency. She was just twenty-three, with her level of innocence, I doubt she had tasted the Joy of a woman.......... At that moment, I remembered....

"I was a freaking twenty-eight-year-old virgin",

"Never, that won't happen" I shouted

Hey, Don't judge me, it's by choice, okay, good. Let's move on.

I turned around and found myself on the camp's podium. At that moment, I shouted....

"Troop"

"Yes, sir, They replied shouting

"We are pioneers, we are the pace setters. We are about to make history; we are now immortals. This is our time to show who we are, to show that we are the greatest. Zaden is a giant, and we are its David. Lets take it down....... Let's take it down.... For us, for our family, for Nigeria, for Africa and for the world."

"YEAAAAH!!!!!", they all replied shouting.

I am not dying a freaking virgin, I thought to myself as I walked away with my lieutenants to the strategy room.

We had decided to go with a simple strategy, move together. But for the time being, we tightened our camp's security.
The evening had dawned and we settled in waiting for the next day. That night, I could hardly sleep, my first bad sleepy day on a rather comfortable bed. No late-night Jokes, everyone was on high alert. As I laid on my bed thinking and relaxing as much as I could. I heard noises from outside my room.

"Come on, what is it now, Kini!" I thought as I shrugged off my bed and opened my door.

"Captain, come down to the camp ground, something is going on", said a Soldier who ran back towards the event after relaying the news.
I rushed off to also see what was going on.

You know, humans have always been peculiar to strange phenomenon, we either run from it or towards it, but only after experiencing it. Satisfying our curiosity takes precedence towards survival, in a sense its a form of survival for the entire species, through the sacrifice of the curious few.

As I got closer, my men gave way, inching me closer to the thing. At the center of the crowd, all armed to kill...... was a humanoid-bird.

I was terrified, shocked and amazed. The thing had wings with red feathers, and at the end of each wing were practical human hands. Its face was like that of a vulture, with normal human legs and abdomen, but with a red-feathered back and a long tail feather, with three talons at its tip. This thing was just like a harpy....... No, it was a freaky harpy, a freaking-freaky harpy!
The creature was afraid and kept on disappearing and reappearing. Every time it reappeared, it was shocked to still be within our midst, almost like something was wrong with it.

"Captain, what should we do?" asked a trooper

"Tranquilize it, lets see if it would go to sleep", I replied

My men switched their guns from kill to disarm. Multiple shots were fired, and in a matter of seconds, I watched the green eyes of my feathery friend shut slowly.

"Damn, what is this", a trooper asked

"Maybe a harpy", another replied

"Wetin be harpy? This is some weird shit!"

Yeah, it was truly wierd. But at least I could radio the base for a pick up the following day.