The Reaper Wars 04: Night Tides

I remember as a child how war was presented to me. Like most children my first experience of war was through film. Those scripted pieces of supposed art that were as naïve as I was. Where the hero vanquished scores of enemies without so much as a scratch before setting off into the sunset. Oh how I admired those heroes when I was young and ignorant to the real nature of war.

In reality, war was a different beast. Unceasing in its power to turn everything beautiful into ruin and decay. The movies didn't teach you of how someone's insides look when they're ripped apart. How they scream as their legs are blown off. How grown men piss themselves in fear of that final agonizing breath.

War is a dirty, brutal business where fairness and morality is a dream. It's a cut throat realm that turns the best of men into savages and cold blooded psychopaths. It brings out the worst in people and yet also the best of those rare few. I wasn't one of those, after an hour in this forsaken land I already felt myself being broken, piece by piece until something I didn't recognize remained.

I couldn't physically show my despair any more. My throat was ripped apart from the violent bouts of vomiting until all that was left were agonizing dry retches. Every effort to breathe was filled with these ripping wails that I had no control over. I struggled to even open my bloodshot eyes. Behind thin veils of skin, the orbs pulsed with each heartbeat as it ascended to panicking heights. We were drawing ever closer to the Wall.

From my position in the rear of the armored vehicle I couldn't physically see the deserted streets outside. The unsettling quiet, the roads barren of their former vitality when the city's residents hurried along in their daily struggle to make ends meet.

Yet something within me, some primal instinct from aeons of evolution sent dread flooding through my body. Screaming at me to turn away from this path, to run as fast and as far as I could from my destination. Yet there was no way back, my journey was taking me forward towards a darkness I could never imagine. I was a passenger in this mechanized procession down the river Styx. So I lay there, my body weightless against the chassis, feeling every inch of terrain the wheels rolled over inside my weakened gut.

The vehicle eventually rolled to an abrupt stop and the squad lazily made their way out the exit hatch, but Takashi sat beside me for a moment. He stared at me with something akin to pity, or at least an attempt at pity. It felt almost soulless bar the merit behind it.

"We're here Civvie, it's time to go." He said as a firm hand rested on my shoulder. I looked up to him, the shock of what I had seen laid bare on my face. "I know you're no stranger to warzones, you've seen death before, you'll see it again. Now get up before I drag you out of this vehicle."

"What I saw wasn't war!" I shouted, tendrils of saliva straining outward from my lips. "That boy wasn't a combatant! You murdered him and burnt the body like it was nothing but meat!" I shouted at him with some misplaced sense of righteousness, I still couldn't wrap my head around what I saw bursting forth from the child's burning body. That screaming serpent.

"Yes I murdered him, I'd have done it sooner if I knew he was a carrier." He paused for a moment, itching the stubble around his dirt-smeared face. He looked to his hands before picking up his rifle and I could see them trembling just like my own. "What you saw was nothing compared to what's happened here over the past two weeks. You're right, this isn't war, this is something else. Everyone here has innocent blood on their hands and we're all well aware of it. I only ask that you don't judge us until you know what's going on here."

He slung his arm under my own and raised me up on unsteady legs before reaching for the handgun left ownerless on the seat beside mine. Picking up the pistol he wiped the slide against his trouser leg, leaving a bloody smear on his camouflaged fatigue. Takashi then held it forward towards me. "You ready to do what you came here to do?" He asked me. All I could do was nod as I reached for the gun.

He made the effort to lock his eyes onto mine before letting go of the weapon. "Remember what I told you. There's fifteen rounds in the magazine, leave one for yourself just in case. Suicide is better than ending up like that boy."

I didn't nod but still he patted me on the shoulder. "You got a headcam?"

I had completely forgotten my original purpose in being here. Rummaging through my pack, I found the small device attached to a head-strap and pulled it on. The first images it recorded were of the where I had just been sitting. The floor around it covered with bloodied vomit and spent bullet cases. I had decided already that none of this footage was getting edited out, I wanted it as raw as I felt it.

Without another word, we exited the APC and the first thing that hit me was the smell. Initially, the scent made me think of cooking meat and then I thought of the boy's body burning. The smell of skin, muscle and fat being burned off the bone. It was more than a scent: it was an ambient, greasy aroma that clung to my clothes, sinking into the fibers. No amount of washing would ever erase it. I couldn't yet see the source, but I saw the billowing smoke rising up into the sky, overshadowed by the Wall.

Standing over fifty feet tall, it towered over the buildings underneath its shadow like a tidal wave frozen in steel. It was a crude black monolith that rebelled against the bright sky. It looked more like a medieval construction than anything fabricated in the current age of energy weapons and space travel. Its smooth surface was spattered with dried blood trails that had originated from the walkway above.

Makeshift stairs were welded onto the side of the monstrosity and I could see figures patrolling along the top. Objects were hung from the battlements, dangling from thick ropes, but I couldn't make out what they were quite yet. From what I could see though, there were no barriers whatsoever on the walkways so if anyone was to fall, they would barely have time to scream before their bodies struck the concrete below.

"It took only two days for the engineers to build it, not to mention the fleet of terrestrial haulers that flew it all in. Any longer and we would've all died trying to hold them off. The Captain said it was one of the greatest feats of human engineering ever accomplished. Damn thing goes all the way south to Jinshan up to northern Jiading. It's over a hundred kilometers of solid steel, twelve feet thick. Don't ask me how they did it, we we're all too busy fighting for our lives, slipping in each other's blood to look back."

It was indeed an incredible feat, but all the while I was thinking what could possibly be inside the quarantine zone to warrant such a structure. Then I finally focused on what lay below it. We exited the vehicle a couple blocks away from the Wall. We couldn't have made it any further without running over the dozens of portable structures that littered the streets, covering every piece of ground that they could. Tents, containers, vehicles and other shelters were erected around a singular building; a hospital.

I couldn't make out any more of the area due to the crowds of soldiers that stood in formation under the shadow of the Wall. These were the new arrivals that I had flown in with and they looked just as nervous as I felt. Every head was turned high towards a singular figure standing on a balcony resting on the upper floors of the hospital. The figure's distorted voice rang out through the quiet streets as Takashi led me past the crowds of unblooded youth listening to their commanding officer. I could only catch the ending of his speech but it was enough for me to grasp the magnitude and desperation of what was going on here.

"Make no mistake. We are under siege by a horrific and monstrous enemy. That fear you feel is natural but you will have to fight it as hard as you fight these abominations! Because they will both most assuredly usher you into the grave! Those who run will be shot on sight, those who run further will be tracked down and hanged."

It was then that I recognized what was hanging from those ropes. The bodies were hung sequentially so as to spread the message as far as possible. I'd come to find out later that being hung wasn't the worst of it: the executed deserters were called by the older surviving soldiers either Breakers or Swingers. The Breakers were the lucky ones whose necks snapped instantly as the rope reached its length. The Swingers survived the drop and suffered through suffocation and cerebral hypoxia until their eyes bulged out of their sockets from the noose around their necks. The sight of their purple bloated faces and unnaturally distended tongues seemed to add to the stench of rot in unsettling ways.

It horrified me more that I didn't feel the disgust that I knew I should've felt at the time, it seemed that the boy had driven the weakness out of me. His death allowed me to continue on without being inconvenienced by shock. For now at least. It wouldn't last long.

The commander's speech continued: "I look at all of you and I feel an immense pride that I've been blessed to command you brave young souls. Now show me that pride isn't unjustified and let's take back this city from the enemy!"

The new troops responded in a unified roar of confidence that echoed through the empty streets that surrounded the makeshift base. They seemed so confident, each one trusting in their own destiny that they'd survive this.

I knew that feeling all too well from my times in conflict zones, that no bullet would have my name on it, that no step I took would trigger a mine. That death would stay his hand from my form. I didn't get that feeling here, death was in every atom of air I breathed.

As we drew further away from the recruits Takashi spoke in a low voice. "Most of those kids haven't even completed basic training yet. Most of them won't survive the night." There he was again with that almost careless voice, surely he couldn't be so cold.

"Why are you bringing in raw recruits? Where's your navy? Why does your government not disclose what's going on here?" I asked. If things were so bad here, it seemed like madness that the Chinese military hadn't pleaded for aid from other nations.

"Those are questions better left for the Captain when you meet him. You could try and persuade him but he's not the one running this shitshow." Takashi spoke as we passed the columns of portable tents housing soldiers that couldn't fit in the hospital. What struck me was the lack of voices from this area: all the soldiers were circled around their tents in an unnatural silence.

Ignorant of typical hygiene regulations, their uniforms were burdened with all manner of stains. From smoke to dirt and blood, no one here was fit for inspection, yet inspection was for peace time. These troops were suffering under the cruel beast known as war. Some returned my glances with their own, their eyes visibly absent of something vital to being human.

"All I can tell you is that most of our Navy is out of the system on deployment." Takashi continued on as we weaved past the tents. "Hell, what we'd give for an Assault Carrier, or a Destroyer, just one would change things here. Yet here we are fighting an enemy more dangerous than anything we've ever faced with reservists." He spat out a wad of phlegm, coughing loudly before finishing. "All we have here are old men and children who've never fired their weapons before. I reckon we'll last another few days if the attacks keep coming at this rate. Anything bigger and we're fucked."

As we reached the corner of the next street, that same smell of burning meat grew stronger. One second it was noticeable, the next it was nauseating. If I hadn't been so violently sick earlier, I would've been soon enough. In front of us marched a procession of soldiers, clad in full-body overalls with gas masks covering their faces, robbing them of all appearance of individuality, they were only mechanisms in a larger machine. What they carried hammered home to me that any sense of humanity died here.

In pairs they shared the burdens of fellow humans; at least what was recognizable as human. The bodies they carried were still smoking, the clothes they once wore stripped by ignited fuel, leaving their naked bodies covered in hideous burns and blisters. Others had the skin seared from their bodies leaving the muscle tissue and stark white of exposed bone visible.

The convoy of industrialized, faceless carnage continued on down the empty street to our right towards a black smouldering pile of corpses. It was near unrecognizable apart from the limbs protruding outward, breaking the mound's silhouette as the bodies seemed to reach out from death. Once each pair reached the mound, they unceremoniously tossed the bodies onto the pile.

Even in such a damaged state, some still retained recognizable features. One was clearly the body of a young woman. Half her face had survived the roaring flames, the other half was ravaged until the skull and empty eye socket were exposed. A single patch of long, thick black hair remained rooted to her scalp. Her remaining eye staring into my very soul as her charred carcass passed me by. It sent a cold and unclean feeling crawling down my spine. It was like the filth of this place was trying to take up residence inside me, like some sort of parasite.

The young, the old and those blessed in their prime, all were equal in the absence of mercy that they had been purged in. As the last pair of these shamans of slaughter tossed their burden onto the mound, a few began to heave copious amounts of fuel from jerry cans onto the fresh corpses. Once they were suitably drenched one figure produced a zippo style lighter and ignited the pyre. As the flames licked upward to the sky, the wind funneled the smell down the street towards us. The smell was so strong now, it was as if the souls of those burning bodies were screaming their last disgusting breath of anguish.

"Priority one. Containment at all costs." Takashi spoke as he stared towards the body pyre, his voice absent any emotion. I was lost for words at so many things but the most alarming was the Sergeant's apparent indifference to what had just occurred. How many times had he seen this ghoulishness, how much suffering and death had it taken to make him so jaded?

"If a carrier is discovered in one of the pens, procedure is to incinerate all inside. We can't afford a single one of those things past the perimeter." As he finished speaking, the haunting figure that lit the fire walked towards us, his eyes invisible behind the thick lens of the gas mask. The figure pulled the heavy mask off to reveal feminine features, her smooth skin stained with smoke and grime. It only served to heighten the ferocity in her eyes as she flashed him a look of curiosity.

"Pen seven?" Takashi asked nodding towards the flames.

"Yeah, old guy came in last night with a small party, somehow skipped the scan. Some of the teams have been talking today. Think it's about time for the priest to go?" She kept flashing me looks, I knew I didn't belong here but that didn't stop her cold, uncomfortable glances from reminding me.

"About fucking time. What happened?"

"Tried to turn one of the flamers on us when we torched the pen. Who's this?" She nodded towards me as she lit a cigarette, the lighter and her hands were spattered with dots of blood. The familiar scent of cigarette smoke was a reprieve from the torched flesh that filled my lungs. The addiction I had abolished was rearing its ugly head, that pathetic need to feel it burn my throat like an old friend, feeding me that sweet nicotine.

Dammit this wasn't the place for manners but my brain foolishly thought otherwise and my hand shot out automatically. "David..." I paused as I remembered my hand was a mirror image of hers, dotted with the life force of another. It always seemed like such a precious commodity, yet here its value was cheaper than the stench-filled air I breathed. I kept forgetting the blood-drenched state of my appearance. It felt like the sickness of this place was slowly infecting me.

"Looks like you've already got your hands dirty, David." Maybe it was just paranoia but the way she said my name unnerved me, like I wouldn't live long enough here for her to actually make an effort to remember my name.

Takashi looked towards me, checking my body from head to toe. I could only imagine how bad I looked. I didn't know whether the smell was coming from me or from everything around me. My clothes didn't feel as wet any more as the blood and bile dried into the synthetic fabrics.

"A boy missed the transport, we were gonna bring him back here but he started birthing an embryo on the trip back."

The stone-hearted woman clearly reacted in surprise. "Jesus. Inside the vehicle?" She asked to which Takashi only replied with a quick nod.

"Had to throw him from the vehicle and finish him quick." Even with the nonchalant manner that Takashi had worded the event, I could see in his face that the memory didn't sit comfortably with him. Perhaps that was my mind placing regret onto his features for my own sake. "You better get back up there. They're bound to have a go soon after losing one of the embryos."

"Been nearly a half hour and still nothing yet, but yeah. You're right." Without a word towards me she bypassed us and headed straight for the Wall as we continued on our path towards the hospital. As we drew closer the smell of the burning bodies started to be replaced by a pungent odor. I couldn't hope to describe the severity of what I smelt but it set my tortured stomach on edge once more.

The hospital itself wasn't particularly large, if anything it looked more like a typical clinic, lacking any separate entrance for emergency casualties. Three stories high its white exterior was clouded black with heavy smoke stains. The entrance was facing east towards the Wall and as we turned the corner to reach it, I saw where they kept the survivors.

Set in a single row going on for as long as I could see the Wall were multitudes of high roofed pens. Built like cages with thick steel bars built over chain-link wire. Each one housing maybe thirty to forty refugees. I honestly couldn't get an accurate count. They were crammed in, living on top of each other in a state of squalor that sickened me. What I smelled was the pungent odor of human waste, disease and death.

These poor people had survived whatever horror lay beyond the Wall only to be treated worse than cattle, herded into these pens where they were forced to live in each other's filth. A subtle chorus of lamented wailing whispered through this side of the Wall. A haunting air of melancholy that haunted everyone it reached, consuming any desperate grasp of positivity like a vampire.

I now understood why their companions in suffering had acted the way they had back at the landing site. They seemed no longer human, turned feral through torment and the primal necessity of survival.

Almost on cue, soldiers surrounded the cages and my heart sank. At first I thought they were going to shoot them but what came next was perhaps worse. The soldiers started throwing foil packets of food rations inside the pens, with no sense of control or order the civilians threw themselves at each other in abandon like starved beasts. That same wailing I had heard before was replaced by screaming, guttural snarls and shrieks that pierced the seemingly quiet atmosphere around the area. Yet none of the troops seemed to be concerned, like this depravity was the norm here.

"If you ask me they're better off dead. And some of them know it." He pointed towards one of the pens where a dead man was dangling from the roof. He was practically naked, emaciated to the point that his skeleton could be seen trying to break free from the skin. His clothes were wrapped tightly around his neck and his fellow tenants couldn't care less.