Unfortunately, the soldiers’ desperate counterattack came at a price.
They had managed to kill one of the fel-corrupted monsters by sheer luck and determination.
Their Humvee hadn’t survived the explosion.
They were forced to abandon it and continue on foot.
Elite special operators or not...
No human could outrun the creatures pursuing them.
The remaining fel-corrupted warriors caught them quickly.
Against monsters that possessed overwhelming strength, terrifying resilience, and no sense of pain, the soldiers stood no chance.
Every one of them was slaughtered.
That left only a single surviving team from the original search force.
Captain Kobe.
Maddie.
Jordan.
James.
O’Neal.
Unfortunately...
Their nightmare was far from over.
The fel-corrupted creatures had no intention of letting prey escape.
Enhanced senses and predatory instincts led them relentlessly across the desert, following the survivors’ trail.
Two hours later...
The remaining Humvee continued racing across the Afghan desert.
Captain Kobe kept one hand on the steering wheel while glancing nervously into the rearview mirror.
"Damn."
The curse escaped almost unconsciously.
"Guys..."
"I’ve got two pieces of bad news."
Maddie gave a humorless laugh.
"As long as the monsters aren’t behind us, I think we can handle just about anything."
Two hours earlier he would have disagreed.
Now?
If a hundred armed terrorists suddenly appeared in front of them, he’d count himself lucky.
At least terrorists killed people like soldiers.
Not like rabbits being torn apart by wild animals.
Kobe nodded grimly.
"First..."
"The explosion snapped our radio antenna."
"We’ve lost communications with base."
The Humvee’s external antenna had broken during the battle.
Without it, they couldn’t report what had happened.
Nor could they request reinforcements.
O’Neal let out a relieved breath.
"I can live with that."
"We’ll just drive back ourselves."
None of them were seriously injured.
Immediate medical evacuation wasn’t necessary.
As long as they reached base alive...
Everything else could wait.
The sentence had barely left his mouth.
The engine coughed.
Then died.
The Humvee rolled another twenty meters before finally grinding to a stop.
Kobe rested both hands on the steering wheel.
"...Second piece of bad news."
"We’re out of diesel."
The Humvee’s powerful engine had been the only reason they’d escaped in the first place.
Power came at a price.
Fuel consumption.
Normally, the enlarged primary tank and auxiliary fuel tank compensated for the vehicle’s enormous appetite.
But the team had already spent most of the day conducting search operations before the battle even began.
They had nearly been ready to return to base when the monsters attacked.
Then came two uninterrupted hours of driving at maximum speed.
The fuel never stood a chance.
There was nothing to do except abandon the vehicle.
It belonged to the Army.
Replacing it wasn’t their problem.
And pushing a two-ton Humvee through the desert wasn’t anyone’s idea of survival.
Kobe climbed out.
"Take the M2."
Several teammates looked at him.
"...Seriously?"
Maddie stared at the heavy machine gun mounted on the roof.
With its tripod and ammunition, it weighed well over a hundred pounds.
"You want us to carry that?"
Kobe looked back toward the endless desert.
"I’ve got a feeling..."
"...they’re still coming."
Nobody argued after that.
The memory of those monsters remained painfully vivid.
Against creatures like that, assault rifles felt almost pointless.
The M2 at least offered a chance.
A slim one.
Maddie and Jordan climbed onto the Humvee, removed the heavy machine gun, and began carrying it between them.
Each man also wrapped an ammunition belt around his shoulders.
An hour later...
James pointed toward the horizon.
"Village."
A small settlement sat among the dunes.
The buildings were old.
Mud-brick walls.
Flat roofs.
Traditional Afghan architecture.
Jordan adjusted his grip on the machine gun.
"Do we risk it?"
Normally, finding civilization in the middle of the desert would have been cause for celebration.
Not today.
None of them knew whether the villagers supported the United States...
Or hated it.
If the village welcomed Americans, they could finally rest.
Eat.
Drink.
Recover.
An hour of marching through the desert had drained what little strength they had left.
But if the villagers sympathized with the insurgents...
Walking inside would amount to volunteering for execution.
Captain Kobe estimated their position relative to the base.
Then studied the size of the village.
Finally, he nodded.
"We’re going."
His reasoning was straightforward.
The settlement wasn’t especially remote.
Nor was it newly established.
If it openly supported anti-American insurgents, the U.S. military would’ve destroyed it long ago.
Whether that assumption was fair...
Or even accurate...
Didn’t matter.
It was how the soldiers saw the situation.
Fortunately, the gamble paid off.
The villagers didn’t attack them.
Neither did they welcome them.
The locals merely watched the exhausted soldiers with guarded, unreadable expressions.
Neutrality was apparently the closest thing to friendship available.
James did his best to communicate.
"We need..."
He pointed at his mouth.
"...water."
Then mimed eating.
After a lengthy exchange of broken gestures and confused expressions, the villagers finally understood.
By the time Maddie and Jordan had carried the M2 to the highest point in the village and established a defensive position, each soldier had received a waterskin and a round of flatbread.
After drinking and eating, they finally began to feel human again.
The battle from two hours earlier almost seemed unreal.
Almost.
The memory of those monsters remained impossible to forget.
Captain Kobe approached one of the villagers.
He mimed speaking into a radio.
"Telephone?"
"Radio?"
"Anything?"
Eventually, the villager led him to an aging shortwave radio.
It wasn’t much.
But in a village like this, expecting satellite communications would have been ridiculous.
Kobe carefully adjusted the frequency.
Static filled the room.
Then...
A familiar voice answered.
"Base receiving."
"Identify yourself by unit designation and rank."
Relief flooded Kobe’s face.
At last.
They’d reached someone.
"This is Staff Sergeant Kobe."
"Commander of Third Search Team."
"We were attacked."
"My squad is all that’s left."
"We need immediate assistance."
Back at the base, a communications technician shot to his feet.
"Sir!"
Everyone in the command center turned.
"We’ve locked onto a Special Forces transmission."
He looked up from his headset.
"They’re identifying themselves as survivors from the attacked search team."
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter