Reading: "Arktalus" from EVENFALL OF THE HELICAL (A.Glass 2022)

 

“An assassination?” Professor Eptson asks.

“Yes, like the last mission. It is all that was left, as a military protocol, internally. Were these rogue elements which were thought would destabilize what little order we had left.”

“And what did you believe?”

“It was, at the time, a necessity, the target for my last mission was a failed actor who, once again, formed a Doomsday Cult, holed up in large apartment block in the old city. They couldn't order a surgical strike, too many civilians, innocents. So, my unit was sent called in, because of the success of the last mission...”

“Was it a success Master Zelac?” The Professor asks with a grin.

Zelac closes his eyes, “That flash of light. I've seen nothing like it.”

“Thermonuclear explosion”

Master Zelac nods without replying.

“Come on! Move it!” Captain Zelac orders, as he and the three remaining members of his unit, lead by corporal Sarah Linstein, make their way through a jungle clearing, while Zelac assists their wounded colleague. He eyes an underground storage area of an abandoned airport. “There!” Pointing at two large metal service doors that are open, to what appears to be a set of stairs that descend into the Earth. Suddenly the man Zelac is supporting collapses, Corporal Linstein turns facing Captain Zelac and the fallen solider, as she does a flash is seen on the horizon behind Zelac and the remainder of his team.

“DON'T LOOK AT IT!” He yells out as the blinding light of a thousands suns, bleaches the pigmentation of Corporal Linstein's eyes, burning the retina, blinded by the flash from the one megaton explosion, instantly affecting her vision. Zelac grabs her with his right hand, whilst dragging the wounded subordinate with his left, in the direction of the makeshift underground shelter. In a frantic pace, the three soldiers stumble towards the staircase, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... Zelac counts as the shock wave hits, sending both his corporal and himself down the stairwell, as the unconscious and wounded soldier is blown away from the ascending staircase, caught within the rolling dust cloud from the thermonuclear explosion.

Tumbling down the concrete stair case, Captain Zelac lands on his right shoulder, dislocating it. As Corporal Linstein slams her head against the left side wall of the staircase, rendering herself unconscious. The sound of the explosion is deafening with its continuing shock wave, as though it will never end.

Grimacing in pain, with his corporeal lying beside him semiconscious, Zelac looks up at the rectangular opening above him, the blue sky now just a gray expanses of dust and debris.

“I can't see!” Linstein cries out.

“The flash from the Nuke...” Catching his breath, he lets out one last exhale, closing his eyes briefly, he then turns and looks his Corporeal who is slumped against the concrete wall, noticing blood running down from right side of her head. “...You’ve hit your head...” He slowly sits up looking up at the skyline from where he and Linstein are sitting at the bottom of the stairs. “...Your sight. Is it totally gone?...” Zelac asks, leaning across with his right hand, lifting up Linstein's same hand, guiding it to where her wound is at the side of her head. “...Put some pressure on it.”

She places her own hand against the bleeding gash, blinking, whilst, in an exaggerated manner, opening her eyes.

“Blurry”

“Alright, you'll need to get it checked. Could be temporary flash blindness...” He turns and looks at her. “...Can you see my outline.”

She stares are him, without blinking. “I can sir,”

“Then you have some sight…” He stands, looking up at the stairs, helping Linstein onto her feet. “...We gotta get out of here, airlift is due, we'll have to call in, contact them. Let them know we're alive.

“What about Jameson?” Linstein asks, referring to their wounded comrade.

Zelac turns and looks at his Corporeal. “The blast wave, it took him.”

“The trauma of a mission, that by all retrospect may have been successful, you did end up killing this Cult leader, but it took its toll.”

“Yes,” Master Zelac replies.

“At a cost, you lost four members of your unit, with one wounded. You, also, were very lucky to be alive after the nuclear detonation. Master Zelac, your ultimate question you ask is. What are these shadows? With your second mission, was there not also a nuclear detonation.”

“There was...” Zelac pauses, looking away briefly.

“The same, but different?” Professor Eptson asks, tilting his head slightly whilst looking at Zelac.

Master Zelac stands, tiring from Professor's Eptson's obscure and equivocal dialogue.

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Reading: "Arktalus"  from EVENFALL OF THE HELICAL (A.Glass 2022)