Transitioning through the gate is more like walking into a different room. The gate closes behind us as Lena’s foot touches down on our side, leaving us engulfed in darkness. The only sound we can hear is breathing, the darkness weighs heavy like a blanket.

“Lena, do you have a flashlight? It never even occurred to me.” Being able to see in most low-light conditions has spoiled me, a flashlight should have been on my list.

“I have light magic, it will not last long though, I can sustain it for ten-minutes before I have to rest.” She’s whispering, I guess I was too. Something about the pitch black does that to people I guess.

“Go ahead and do what you need, be ready to cancel it at any moment though. Once you have it up we’ll assess and move out. Guess we hope we didn’t get dropped into a nest of some kind.” Probably shouldn’t have added the last part.

“You’re a ray of sunshine. So, comforting.” There’s a tremble in her voice, she’s a big girl though, she’ll be fine.

“Whenever you’re ready.”

The darkness starts to take on a cold blue light. As our surroundings come into view I’m not liking our chances of survival.

It looks too much like the inside of an ammo bunker. The walls were slick concrete and there were pallets, and shelves stocked with ammo all around us.

“Fuck, Lena put your gun away or we’re going to get murdered. We need to find the door, it shouldn’t take long.” This is a shitty place to start, if the gate guards are dead we are so fucked. These things are bomb proof, as well as intruder proof. On the upside if we can get out we’re going to have a couple of hours to plan.

“Why? What are these boxes? Do you know this place? It looks military, some kind of cache ?” Smart kid, brownie points for getting it on the first go.

“Yeah, it’s definitely military. U.S. by the writing on the boxes. On the upside, I served in the US military, on the downside we are more the ‘shoot first, ask later.’ Kinds of people. We’re going to put our weapons away so we look about as unthreatening as we can, and go knocking on a door.” I take a breath, trying to appear calmer than I am, “with a little bit of luck we can get to a command and get everyone rousted. More than likely though, we’re going to have to break ourselves out of whatever holding cell they put us in.”

That’s making a huge leap though, and only counts on the lower-enlisted at the door not blasting us away as soon as they see us.

Lena makes her ball of light bright enough for us to see that the bunker is relatively small, a few hundred feet by a few hundred feet. The door is easy to find at least.

While walking towards the door I try and read some of the ammo boxes on the way. It looks like the shipping flags are marked ‘Fort Carson’ I spent time stationed during my first enlistment. Nice surroundings, the leadership sucked though. I hope it’s changed since then.

Passing a half-stripped pallet of ammo, I read 5.56, waste not want not. I stop her and start stripping the box, with my upgraded strength a can of ammo in my inventory shouldn’t affect much.

“Lena put this in your inventory, tell me if it’s too much though. I can always grab ammo off bodies.”

Walking over she tries to pick up a box and throw it in her inventory “It’s too heavy. I could carry it, but I would be hampered.” She sounds disappointed, I am too but we’ll make do. An ammo can is 840 rounds I shouldn’t run through that anytime soon.

“it’s no problem, adding to the mags I already have loaded I’m good to go for a while.” I wave her on and we head towards the door.

Once we’re at the door we run into another problem, its reinforced steel. There’s no keypads or anything, so I revert to the best option.

I turn around and donkey kick the door until I can hear people on the other side.

“Lena, move back about five-feet, put your hands on your head and get on your knees. No matter what, do NOT respond in violence. They’re going to get rough with us, but I won’t let them take it too far.” Nodding she does as I ask, I move back next to her “Kill the light, they’re going to freak out enough once they see us.” The light is fading before I even finish talking, I had been annoyed with having her at first, but she’s been invaluable. I forget how nice it is to work in a team sometimes.

The lock on the other side of the door is being undone, and I can hear them talking about stacking up.

“Shit, Lena, they’re going to breach, face on the ground, close your eyes and plug your ears.” I hadn’t thought about it before hand, it’s a smart move though.

We are barely able to get down and cover like before a flash-bang pops through the door and lands a few feet behind us. Even with my ears and eyes covered the concussive force is still disorienting. Before my senses recover there’s already a guy with a knee on my back putting me in zip cuffs.

I look over and see how Lena is doing, I hope I don’t look as confused as she does. Looking forward again I can see a captain in ACU pointing a gun at me moving his mouth. I can’t hear him with the ringing, but I can guess.

“CAPTAIN, I CAN’T UNDERSTAND YOU. I’VE BEEN FLASHBANGED.” I know I’m yelling, I don’t care. He looks confused for a second, then realizes I can’t hear him. It takes us a few minutes but they’ve got us standing with a guard. His guys are well trained, intersecting fields without hitting their own. If we made a move they’d cut us down.

“Pretty sure my hearing is coming back sir, I need you to take us to whomever oversees the base. If shit hasn’t gone bad yet it’s going to sometime soon.” I feel more confident then I should with all these guns pointed at me.

“I don’t know what you are, or where you came from, but don’t try and tell me what to do. I know what the ROE is here, you are lucky we didn’t shoot you.” Now that they’ve all calmed down they are noticing we’re not wearing paint, that I’m not camo'd up I’m actually grey with red swirls “Are those tattoos tribal? Are you Samoan or something?”

“Was really hoping this could wait Cap. I’m a daemon elf, the end of the world is coming. I’ve been teleported from somewhere else to here, I don’t have time to explain. And if I did I’d have to explain again. Do whatever you need to do to get me to someone important, please, for all of our safety.” If this doesn’t work my next move is a bit more drastic.

“You’re going straight to holding, command will get to you when they get to you.” Sweet, another jumped up LT probably spent all his command time here, fucking old boys club.

“Fine SIR, we’ll do this the hard way.” I hope this bluff pays off. “Me and my partner here are contractors. we get hired by commands to infiltrate bases and see where we can get without being caught. I hope you have enjoyed your command. Not only did I manage to get past base We’ve been in this bunker since the last ammo drop.” His eyes bulge a little, good, fuck him.

“I don’t believe you.” His voice is a few octaves higher now, and his face is turning a brighter color.

“What you believe is irrelevant. You will call command, and you will take me straight to the brigade building for a report.” Deciding to soften him up a little bit I put my teeth away. “I will report how fast and organized you took the bunker though. Don’t feel too bad Captain, this isn’t the first time we’ve broken into a heavily defensed position, it’s kind of our job.”

Poor Lena is doing her best not to look confused. If the soldiers weren’t so confused by our coloring, they would have noticed that, but distraction is good enough for now.

“I’m leaving you in the zips.” He says giving me a dirty look, I guess that had the opposite effect.

I shrug, “I don’t care, do what you have to do.”

The captain tries a few times to make conversation while we’re loaded into a HUMVEE and driven back to the command building. He stops after a few tries, I’m not going to talk to him, and Lena hasn’t said a word aloud.

-MESSAGE-

Gnome: If you have to talk, just tell them we’re with Dainsleif industries. Were a private company that the Government contracts for jobs that need to be done in the dark.

Lena: I can do that, one question though. Did you pull that name out of your ass, sounds fake as shit.

Gnome: No, Dainsleif was the sword of some Norse king. The wounds it gave never healed, and once bared couldn’t be sheathed without taking a life.

Lena: You’re the boss, just don’t get us killed.

A rousing vote of confidence there. I guess in her defense it wasn’t looking great.

We pulled up to the command building and were ushered inside to the building and into a room with the command staff already sitting at desk’s. There were armed guards all around the room with mags loaded, and angry looks on their faces. The guards moving us in take us to the center of the room and leave us standing there alone.

“Captain Long said he couldn’t get a name out of you, but you’re supposed to be contractors. I find that highly suspect, we normally know when those are coming.” The guy in the center seat looked very familiar. His head was shaved bald, razor style, an overly athletic face. With a scar over his nose.

“No fucking way.” It takes me a minute to even realize I said it aloud, I barely notice though. I am fighting too hard not to laugh. I can’t keep the smile off my face though.

“Look son, I don’t know who you are, or why you’re in that get up, but I can guarantee this isn’t a laughing matter.” His face has turned dark, he’s pissed. Different from back when we served together, but for him it’s been years.

“Calm your shit Bizkit.” I hit him full in the face with the shitty smirk I used to give him. He drops his hands on the table in front of him and leans forward, I can see his temper has gotten much worse.

“There were very few men who knew that name, and I can’t think of any of them who would give it without reason. You can tell me who told it to you or you can rot in a cell until the CIA or whoever they send comes to get you.” Fuck it, knowing I’ll have to deal with him if I get aced makes this much easier, I’m going to ride this.

“I figured you would go officer. A little too smart for your usual grunt type.” I step forward until I’m a few feet from the desk he’s leaning on “Two things general. First: I want you to take a very close look at my face. Second: I don’t know what the pot was up to, but I won, and yall owe me.”

He closes his eyes in anger before I see him take a deep breath and can almost hear him counting to calm down. I’d bet it’s been awhile since someone talked to him like I do.

After opening his eyes, he looks at my face and I see a light of recognition start to shine. Some panic comes into his face, “Not possible, we picked apart your killers, and delivered your body to the plane ourselves. You’re dead. I don’t know where you got that face.” He falls back into his seat, “no one else knew about the pot though, we never told anybody about it. It was a joke.” He’s talking to himself now, I feel bad about it but I needed him to see me. The faster he understands the faster we can get to what needs to be done. I only have until midnight before bad shit starts to happen.

“Do you know this man general?” Some weasel Colonel pipes up. He’s one of those pen-pusher types. Too skinny, close to six-foot. Pretty boy with a perfect haircut.

I give him the full effect of my attention behind a look cultivated to kill, “Shut. Up. Let him process. If you interrupt again, I’ll kill you. Your men are good, but I’m not worried about dying.” Shit, that came across more aggressive than I wanted.

His hand slides down to his pistol, his face is slightly more pale, but no hesitation. I don’t want to, but I like him more now. “I’m not going to hurt anyone. Keep your hand off the gun. He knows me, and he’ll tell you what he wants, when he wants.” If he’s going to shoot me he’ll do it whether I’m looking or not, so I turn back to my old friend.

“I don’t want to rush you here general, but we’re on a timeline. At midnight CST, the world is going to go to shit, the whole thing. You need to get the word out, and you need to move your civilians to a defensible position. It’s going to be bad.” He’s still giving me a deeply skeptical look, understandable.

“Fine ask me something only I would know. You want to talk about how I stopped wearing underwear? Even with ripped pants that showed my junk to the dismounts. We can talk about the time I shot a steel ball out of a slingshot and broke Delsks turret windows, I know that never left the truck.” Both of those have his eye’s wide open.

“Both of those have been told at one point or another, rarely, but I’ve heard them. I can only think of one thing. What did you say to Big-J before you died? Your last words, we never told anyone.” He looks like a man standing on the ledge, just waiting for the push to send him over. I had to do it, I wouldn’t let him fall alone though.

Closing my eyes and taking a ragged breath I whisper, “Ready and forward.” I don’t have the courage to look him in the face as I say it, I’m holding myself together with the slimmest of margins as is.

The room is dead silent, the only sound I can hear is my own breathing.

“Put your guns away, everybody out. Sergeant, put a man on the other side of my door no one comes in until I say.” The whole thing is said in a flat monotone voice, devoid of emotion. “Give me your knife sergeant.” I need out of these zips, he’d be well within his rights to put a knife in me. Thinking about it though I don’t feel like the world is going to put me in the same spot twice, and there are very few places as good as here.

“I don’t think this is adv- “

“Shut your fucking mouth Colonel. Go report to whomever you need to, but get a general alert going. I’ll be out of this room in the next five minutes. We’ve just got some things that need working out.” That same tone, I kind of miss the happy go lucky one from back when I knew him. I feel like this version is much more dangerous, possibly unstable.

Everyone else in the room files out, a soldier handing him the Kbar off his vest before pulling the door closed behind him.

“Now. You’re going to tell me how you know that information, or I’m going to cut you into little pieces.” I never was one to be intimidated, but if I were I’d probably be terrified.

“I told you. It’s me, for me I’ve been gone weeks. You do whatever you need to do short of killing me to feel right, but we need to get this over with.” I easily snap my zip cuffs and pull my knife from the sheath. “If you think I’m going to sit and take it though, your mistaken.”

Rolling the knife around his fingers a few times he finally stops and gives me a small smile “…Daniels? It is you, isn’t it? How man. How the fuck? You’ve been dead for twelve-years.” He sits back down, putting the knife on the table.

“I died. That shit happened. Times weird there, I imagine there is a queue or something judging by the time differences and who’s where. But I am dead. Mostly.” I walk around and sit in the chair next to him. “The world really is going to go bad. The clock says we have four hours, you need to do something. The civilians need to be brought to a fallback point, and we need to be set up for a siege.”

He looks at me like I’m crazy “I can trust that you are you, but these people aren’t going to.”

“Fine, tell them I’m part of Dainsleif Industries. We contract out as security and investigations for DHS. Get the ball moving, call everyone you can. Get the word out to believers. There are going to be some big changes at midnight, and everyone is going to have to adjust or die. The new world requires no less.” I give him a minute to respond, he looks to be chewing it over.

“O.K. What are you going to be doing?” It’s a question that sounds more like a beesechment.

“I’m not going anywhere bro, I’ll stay with you, or I’ll go where you need me. I do think you should sound the base general quarters though. Have them bring their families in, with enough population the base should be able to be made safe quickly.”

He reaches up and pokes at my face, pushing my ear, wiping my skin to see if I’m painted. “Unless you’re going to buy me dinner and a drink first you better stop rubbing on me like that buddy.”

The sound of my voice gives him a start. “All right. Alright, SERGEANT!! Get in here!!” the door is open and the soldier comes in with his gun up. “Shit, calm down Sykes. I just needed you in here, put the gun away. Call the rest of command staff into my office. Have CQ call battalions, I want commanders in my office within the next half an hour.” The sergeant solutes and double times his way back out the door.

He turns back to me and stands up to go, “I need you to stick with me Daniels, people are going to have questions.”

“You got it, call me Gnome though. I don’t want to sound callous, but Daniels is dead. This is what I am now.”

“Like ThagNome? You could choose any name to take with you into the afterlife and you picked your fucking gamertag? Jesus fuck.” The vein on the side of his head is big enough to drive a small car through, and I hear him whisper “Fucking nerd.” Before he walks towards the door

“Come on Elf, we’ve got shit to do. Tell your friend to stop pretending she didn’t break her zips when you did, and bring her with us.” He doesn’t even look back to make sure we’re following as he walks out the door, and across the hall to his office.

I walk in and take a seat in his office. I spend the next half an hour leading up to the command staff meeting listening to a friend I haven’t seen since the day I died giving out orders. He managed to have the 10’th SFG stood-to and ready, and the national guard unit activated and pulled in before the commencement. He even called the other service bases in the area and warned them the threat level has gone up and they need to get their people on base.

It was awe inspiring, in a way, how organized he was. How quick he got things across, he had gotten a reputation as a man who was straightforward. Someone who only said what needed said and was listened to immediately. But taken another way I realized he was doing this entirely on my word, he sat with me for two minutes and believed everything I said. If I was wrong he would lose everything, probably spend a few years in Leavenworth for gross negligence. But he hadn’t even hesitated.

Having quality friends is better than having quantity of friends.

The command staff meeting happened in the same room I was brought into when we got here. We didn’t mention that I was a guy who’d died to him years ago. we did tell them that there was a very serious national security threat and soldiers needed called in, and collected if necessary. They needed to bring their families in. I was there to bring across the seriousness of the threat. It ran much longer than it needed to, leaving us with under an hour to get everyone set.

Well, not me, I didn’t do shit. Initially they wanted to centralize everything. I told them their radio equipment would work, so they decided to have everyone move to companies and they’d all hold regular radio procedures. It was coordination of a scope that was out of my depth. I couldn’t have even begun to follow what they were doing. After the meeting adjourned everyone moved out to complete their assigned tasks. Bizkit called a couple of red phones and told them terrorist were going to attack the president, and other things, they needed to prepare.

That was more of an afterthought for him, I think, He was so wrapped up in his own people everything else came second. Made sense to me, I could follow that logic.

I spent the last hour leading up to the drop informing him of what was going to happen. Meteors from the sky, creatures would appear at random and attack. Status windows would pop up, people would need to level. He seemed skeptical at that point, but I kept on. He’s already in for the penny, might as well get the whole pound.

At ten till he gave me and Lena personal radios to keep in contact with his people, I told him I needed to be out in the shit. I wasn’t like him, I needed direct contact and the more dangerous the better. It was complete bullshit, I would have been just as happy to sit at the rear and let it happen. I’d be sitting pretty as it is, but if I could get into fights I’d pick up EXP like crazy. He’d told me to take the Humvee out front and head down to the SF facility, they’d deploy me and Lena as an asset from there.

I gave him a handshake and told him to stick with his people, they were going to need leaders like him to keep everyone afloat in the future. Neither of us were under the delusion that he was going to survive, but we weren’t the type to play it up. I could see he was a little nervous about what was going on, but I didn’t say anything, I was trying to keep my own nerves in check.