"Hey, Dopeman!" Kyle shakes me awake. It's freezing when I step out of the tent, so it must be like three in the morning.

Fisher steps out while I get dressed. Kyle was the only man who is properly awake. He starts complaining. "Tann, what the hell."

He looks back. "This isn't a sleepover. They've brought out the object." We looked over to see the massive object over at the fort. Upon closer look, it's a statue made of pure bronze in the shape of a tribal man, stomping on a mule and an elephant. He has this massive headdress on and loads of tattoos on his body. I hum. "They're really into the lack of government thing, huh?"

Fisher chuckles and gets his weapons loaded. "Yeah. So, It's just gonna be us three, Tann?"

Kyle shakes his head and pulls out a flare gun. "No, I'll shoot this flare here, we'll have air support and about 90 soldiers on route at that point."

"Wait," I walk over to my tent for my shotgun, loading it. It's gonna be a long night. "We have working helicopters?"

"Sorta. It works, but not for long distances. We've been prepping them up for bombing runs, like airplanes. They would fly in, drop the bombs, and leave. At that point, the backup would come in."

Seems like a nice enough plan. Just hope it works. We studied them for a bit before firing. "Cbaus. Intel says he's their god of chaos. Made to bring down traditional governments and bring 'freedom' or whatever that means." Kyle checks the watch and aims the flare gun up. "It's time." He pulls the trigger, letting the bright red light fly in the air. We all grab our horses and ride over to the fort. At the same time, the helicopters roar over our heads, as they drop bombs filled with oil. Three is all that it took for the fortress to be a glorified oven. The fires were as high as they can be, As we dismount, the massive horde of men could be heard in the distance.

"God," Fisher utters. He could hear the Trastornos screaming in pain as they are finished off by the fire. "This is..."

"Needed." Kyle finished when Fisher was too shocked to say more. "It was needed to start stage two."

"This stage two better be worth it," I say as I pet Serena.

The fire died down as the morning hit. "The black char could be seen everywhere. It smelled awful. Sera comes up to me, looking over the damage. I look at her, holding my arm. "War. This is what war does."

"It's what war did to Dani too, right?" Sera asked.

"Yeah, exactly."

"Dopeman... What happened to Dani?"