The Reaper Wars 04: Night Tides

I sneaked behind the desk next to my companion, she was collapsed against the table, her chest rising and descending in short bursts. I collapsed alongside her, defeated. It must have been clear as day on my face when she looked to me.

I could see in her eyes that some insane, hopeful part of her mind thought we were safe. Then the beast hissed and its pounding footsteps drew closer and closer. There was nowhere else to go, we were trapped. At that moment I remembered the gun jammed inside my pocket.

I pulled it out and both of us just stared at it in a twisted appreciation. I came here desperate for a story and now I was just desperate to feel the kiss of another sunrise on my face. To forget this hellish nightmare, erase the memory of this wretched netherworld from my existence. The escape from all this suffering and death was only a trigger pull away.

We both wordlessly asked the same question, how would we do it. Would one be brave enough to kill the other then themselves? I didn't even know this woman's name and yet we were sharing this twisted final intimacy. She made the decision for me and wrenched the pistol from my hands.

"I don't even know your name." I whimpered, the tears were flowing freely and I didn't feel ashamed. I was still terrified, of the beast stalking us, of death but strangely I felt relief.

"Ying." She whispered.

The door burst open as something massive crunched on top of the desk we were resting beside. Instantly we scrambled away like frightened animals, looking back to see our scourge, our ruin, the end of our time.

It crouched low, poised like an unsprung coil, ready to leap and annihilate. Thick globs of oil mixed with blood leaked from its open jaws as hot, steamy breath emerged. It exhaled rotten decay and emanated torment. The long, menacing tail lay against the floor like a heavy steel chain, grinding against the floor as it quivered in anticipation.

We fled to the balcony without thought to our plan of a painless death. It's proximity killed all forethought and left only the most basic of instincts, fight or flight. Now outside the sounds of the still raging siege powered over any noises the three of us made. This was an isolated battle, a private massacre.

I looked to Ying, desperately I screamed. "Do it!"

She didn't have a chance, as soon as she lifted the gun to my direction it bore down on her. But the devil wouldn't make it quick, no it wanted to savoir the terror, to drink it like sweet nectar. It gripped her by the torso, so tightly that she couldn't breathe or scream, lifting her off her feet as it snarled into her face.

Where my instincts screamed flight to me like a mantra, Ying was a warrior, she had faced the hordes, the rushing tides of everlasting night. Like every man and woman manning that damned wall, she made the hard choice, she did what was necessary, she would die fighting.

As the beast smiled, opening its mouth to protrude that horrible inner jaw she jammed the pistol inside its mouth and fired. She only had time for three shots before the dragon vomited its acidic blood. Spraying her all over as it threw her away in desperate agony to land by my side. She'd delivered the fatal blow, the beast spun around once before collapsing. In its death throes it lashed out in all directions with everything it had in some final effort to maim and kill.

The tail smashed into the floor behind me, the barb digging deep into the concrete before it withdrew, dragging the blade across my face. Pain exploded on the left side of my head and I thought my eye was gone. I screamed out in anguish as it drew its last horrid breath and died.

I realized I could open my left eye a few seconds later, blood constantly pouring down from the wound fast as I could blink it away. I watched the acidic blood pool around the nightmarish corpse and melt through the floor until eventually it slipped through and away from sight. Crashing into the street below.

None of it mattered, this hollow victory, this delaying of the inevitable. As I watched my saviors body melt into nothingness the war still screamed on in the distance. I wept uncontrollably. All this death, all this self-sacrifice didn't matter. The flood showed no signs of ending, the screaming never stopped.

I didn't know how long I laid there, lost in exhaustion and despair, no story was worth this, nothing was worth this. The guns were still firing, the rain still falling just like my ceaseless tears. No one came for us, the only change was Ying's body melting out of existence. She deserved better. If the gun was still here perhaps I would've still turned it on myself, I couldn't survive another night of this cutting sorrow.

Eventually the lightning ceased, the heavens stopped crying and the darkness above us started to die. Sunrise was coming and so was something else.

It announced its arrival like a vengeful god, pouring explosive ordnance down upon the wicked plague. I could feel the explosions vibrate the entire building like a steady heartbeat. It was relentless and it turned the tide for one more sunrise. Eventually the constant weapons fire from the battlements began to fade until once more it was as silent as yesterday.

I heard something come after but I couldn't quite believe it. Eventually it got the better of my despair and I pulled the ear plugs out. I could hear it clearly now and I still didn't believe it. People were cheering. It was such an alien sound, filled with relief and hope.

I couldn't see the source from this side of the building. Walking back through the hospital once more it was deserted. Apart from the dead who littered the floor, all ripped and torn beyond recognition. I couldn't look down, I led that thing here, dragged it in like a stray dog. It was survivor's guilt but I didn't know it at the time. Nothing would rid me of the shame but I couldn't stay on that balcony any longer.

Exiting the building, the sky was beginning to brighten, the cold black replaced by a comforting saffron that stained the dispersing clouds above us all. Atop the Wall was the aftermath, bodies were everywhere, sharing the floor with spent magazines in the thousands and blood from both sides.

The atmosphere was one of victory, a powerful aura that infected most of the survivors, the cause of it floated high above the shattered city. A black obelisk looming in silence with destructive intent. The single starship Takashi hoped for.

"You survived the night." It wasn't the voice I was hoping for. It was the Captain. He looked like he was standing on sheer willpower alone, his clothes were ruined beyond repair, painted anew with blood.

"Sergeant Takashi?" I asked though part of me already knew the answer.

The Captain was good enough to walk me to the body. Slumped to the side of the machine gun emplacement he had held all night. The end of one of those sickening tails speared directly into his chest through the body armor, pinning him against the ammo box behind him.

"He held this section most of the night." The Captain said with a mournful pride. "He was the real leader here, not me. He was the man we rallied behind when it seemed like we were lost."

The Captain helped me lay out his body, wrenching the barb out of his chest before tossing it over the parapet. Taking off the gas mask to see a man at rest, it was a necessary act of decency that hadn't been seen here since it all began.

"I wish it was me that died instead of him." The Captain said with genuine sorrow. "History may not remember him but we all will."

Screeching sounds came from the sky and we looked to see the warship spitting out a flight of personnel carriers, each one flying to different sections of the Wall. There couldn't have been any more than twenty but everyone cheered like it was an entire fleet.

The sun finally had breached the horizon, its glorious heat piercing every one of us who thought we'd never see its beauty again. The ship above us was also illuminated as light streaked across a Interstellar Marine Destroyer, with a raven painted across the rear.

"Is that what I think it is?" I asked disbelieving my squinting eyes.

"It is. The traitors have come home." He said as a single ship emerged late and flew straight down into the city interior.

Most soldiers knew exactly what that ship was and who flew her. I didn't know it then but I'd grow to call these Reapers family, sharing this harsh and brutal journey with them as they rode out the apocalypse.

This siege was merely the beginning. The seed had already been planted in our home world and we had let it flower here in this doomed metropolis. Like a cancer it would spread across continents, bringing forth pestilence, agony and destruction until our home was turned into nothing more than memory and ashes.

***