Bits of wood and white dust exploded above my head as I knelt over the polymer box. I kept low to the ground to avoid being shot. My ears rang and everything was muffled as I went back to pulling out the equipment I had left inside. Plate carrier, check; Bug out bag, check; Magazines, check; Pistol, check; Rifle... Shit!

After I pulled out everything and put it on, the most important part was gone! I felt the bottom of the dark box as only a few dim rays of sunlight came from the bullet holes in the exterior wall behind me. I felt around again. Then again, but there wasn’t a rifle. “No! No! I should have-”

I was suddenly pulled off the box by my carrier and came face to face with my brother. I could see his lips form words, but my ears rang and each word was muffled. Maybe he saw my lost eyes, but he figured out I couldn’t understand what he was barking about. He looked over me quickly as he made sure to keep checking the entrance to my room.

Once he was done, he pointed to his rifle and pointed to my box. I quickly conveyed my confusion with my head and hands. I could see him bite back that stupid fucking snarl he always gave me when he knew I fucked up something really important. One that I would have gladly argued with him over, but more bullets tore through the wall again and he jerked me towards the door.

I got to my hands and feet as my brother kept low by the doorway. He was fully geared up with his HK416, full package plate carrier with a few grenades, a screen on his forearm, and a large kevlar helmet on his head. He was going through his backpack and pulled out a device that was the carbon copy of the one on his arm, just white rather than the black casing.

He did some voodoo jumbo stuff with it before he threw it to me. It bounced by my hands and he gestured to put it on. The device had four straps on each side of it that connected. I slipped it on and left it tight. When I looked up again, my brother slid me over a large headset that crashed into my hand. I didn’t ask this time and put it on. The muffled noises around me became even more stifled by the headset. He pulled his pack onto his back and checked his rifle. He then got adjusted his grip and stepped into the hallway. The hallway flashed erratically as he let out a burst of fire in the hallway before he stepped back into gesture for me to follow.

He slipped away and the dust swirled in his tracks.

I quickly scrambled after him with a bit of effort as my limbs shook with fear and adrenaline. When I stepped into the hall, I saw the slightly obscured figures of my brother’s squad members peel of their positions on both sides of the staircase. That part of the house faced the neighbor’s home, no more than fifteen feet in distance from ours. When I got closer, I saw it was riddled with bullets and all the windows were shot out. The scent of gunpowder filled the air along with a heavy scent of iron and something else.

Out of nowhere, my brother grabbed my arm and I yelped in surprise. My hearing had already begun to clear up with the help of the headset and I heard a slightly muffled. “What the fuck?” From one of his squadmates. “It’s nothing.” My brother barked at him. “Your bro sounded -” He was cut off by my brother “If you have time to comment on Kian, you have time to secure the area.” As the leader of the squad, my brother’s word was law.

[“Don’t gotta be so protective, Jacob.”]

A voice popped over the headset’s speakers before my brother growled into his microphone. “The package is moving.” Ooo, he’s pissed... I whispered in my heat as my brother led me to where my dust-covered boots were by the top of the staircase. I cleared away the hot brass at the top step and sat down. I reached into them, grabbed the socks inside and tried to put them but my nerves played hell on my motor functions. “Hurry up!” My brother yelled at me as he waited for me a few steps down. “I’m trying!” I squeaked back. “Why...” He was about to berate me, something he had usually done, but he stopped.

I looked at him, glad of it and finally managed to finish with the boots. For once, I was glad I slept in my jeans. I got up and tried to hurry down the stairs, but Jacob was still there. He looked at me, with a sad tint somewhere in his eyes before he pulled my headset off and brushed my hair back before he replaced the headset. I felt a little weirded out at the sudden tender care he showed, but his scold returned as he forcibly led me back down the stairs. Somehow, it felt like I might have imagined it.

By the time we reached the first floor, my hearing returned and I could hear jets fly past overhead as well as distant explosions.

I looked up at my brother who towered half a head over me as I waited for some sort of explanation, but none came and he led me through the kitchen to the backyard where his squad was. “This is Kian...?” One of the men posted by the large French doors said. He didn’t have a helmet on, just a headset like me. His confusion showed on his face as he sized me up, probably to compare me to my bear of a brother next to me. Jacob was wider, larger, and all-around – much more of a bear than a human in my eyes than me. “I thought you had a sister for a moment.” He chuckled before my brother grabbed one random piece of décor and threw it at him. Ah... My iPad... It wasn’t a piece décor; I reside that observation.

The delicate piece of tech flew through the now windowless doors and landed in the grass beyond.

I couldn’t fault my him though. I did look feminine, especially when placed side my side by my brother. My brother let me go. “Stay in the kitchen. Get some water. We need to secure a new route.” He said as he let go of my arm and I took his suggestion. The communication line buzzed with activity as more and more people talked as they tried to formulate a new plan. They were supposed to get me out of here by car, but since everything had gone to hell; They had to check their options.

I looked back towards the front door and saw that it had been blown apart. A few other men were there on standby. I wanted to say something witty and edgy about this lonely shit hole of a house was finally going to come down, but I couldn’t. I felt sick and afraid. I ventured off to the bathroom beneath the staircase. I hung the headset on the towel rack and splashed as much water over myself as possible.

I could still hear the buzz of activity on the comms while it was hung and I could only stare into the mirror as I took deep breathes.

My soft feature face was more akin to a girl than a man. My shoulder-length brown hair had been swept back and pieces of drywall were still stuck in it. I pluck them out with my hands. In all, aside from my countenance, I was an average guy, aside from being a smaller build than the average guy. At 5’7” I was still in the acceptable height range. I had nice bright hazel eyes. I focused on the face in an attempt to ignore that armored plate carrier I wore. It was out of place with my features as the white t-shirt sleeves poked out. God, I look pitiful... Like a kicked puppy...

suddenly hardened face, square-jawed with mean eyes appeared above me. “Hey!” He hissed. His eyes looked on my kicked puppy face and his expression cramped. I turned around. “Hey... Sorry... I just...” A myriad of emotions flickered through me. I wanted to complain about how he couldn’t just treat his abandoned kid brother with some sympathy when the house was raided. How that two high up career soldiers who were the literal guardians of one teen could not see a war coming to their home town.

But I couldn’t. I only felt the tears well up in my eyes and I began to hyperventilate. “Woah, Woah! Hey. I didn’t-” I only hugged him tight and kept all my words inside. We stood there for a few seconds before I felt the headset slide back over my head. “Sorry for the yelling, but we need to go.” The touching moment was over, but I felt better. We both cleared our throats and I stayed on his tail. No one commented on my looks as we all filed with haste into the backyard.

We crossed the large green yard and filed out the back gate my dad used for its stupid RV and came out in a large paved alleyway for backyard access. I looked back and saw the suburban McMansion I had grown up in, but I didn’t have time to reminisce or feel any heartbreak as two jets flew past us overhead; their guns roared violently the chaser tried to shoot down the front jet.

A few gunshots rang out a few streets away, or maybe it was in a house down the street, but it was soon met with tens of gunshots in response before the world fell silently momentarily before more explosions.

We quickly crossed the alleyway and came out near the border of the HOA. The main road leading to the guardhouse was empty aside from a few dead bodies. A few of my neighbors I could tell from their fancy clothes. We followed the road to the gated entry and exit ways where cars had piled up, into a heap of smoking mess. Blood splattered around the gates were the unlucky elderly folks had been gunned down by someone. The guardhouse had been completely blown apart, my best guess was an airstrike, but I wasn’t versed in whatever formal way they determined that.

Both vehicle entryways were blocked by cars, we had to exit through the entry gate since it was open enough for us to walk through. It had been blocked from opening more, but it couldn’t close on one side with another car in its way.

[“Bear One to Oracle Actual, over.”] Jacob called out over the radio.

There was a pause as he waited for a reply.

[“This is Oracle Actual. What is your status? Over.”] Shit. It was my dad.

[“Little Willow retrieved. Roads are blocked. We’re hoofing it to his favorite supermarket to the east of the complex. Requesting pick up at that location, over.] Jacob said as we crossed the deserted four-lane road and the lot of the gas station. It was empty, but it was the only cover since there were only open roads and parking lots all over.

[“Acknowledged. Do not let him get hurt, over and out.”] Dad replied over the radio

The about of gunfire around the city was beginning to scale up, but most of it appeared to come from the west. Using the gas station as the center, the home was to the west. North led to the commercial side of town while if we kept east, we’ll stay mostly on the residential side. The main part of the city was south of us and housed most of the high-level figureheads of the state as well as plenty of very important civilians. I quickly got that we were in the middle of being invaded so I concluded that east would have been relatively safe.

That was until a few bullets skipped off the concrete by my feet.

Sparks jumped with bits of concrete and I quickly flung myself across the refill bays to the storefront. Everyone called out “Sniper!” as everyone followed after me.

“You’re a fucking rabbit! Haha!” One of my brother’s men laughed, despite the situation. I couldn’t say anything back, as much as I wanted too. No one looked surprised by the sudden attack. We all rushed inside the station as ballistic cracks chased after us. Once inside, no further shots rang out.

“Did anyone get a visual?” My brother asked everyone. Everyone shook their heads before he looked to me. “You okay?” I gave him the thumbs up, but I figured my pale face was enough to tell him my mental state may have been shot instead. I hid deep inside the store behind a rack of chips and candy while everyone else, but one guy, kept to the front. The stray cleared the backroom for another exit. I felt my heart slow down while took some deep breaths and I saw a Three musketeer bar to my right as I crouched down.

“What the fuck are you doing...?” One of my brother’s men asked me. He was the closest to me and took cover by the checkout counter center of the room. He had turned to me when he heard me open the candy bar.

“Stress eating,” I muttered back as I chewed viciously at it like a starved rabbit. He looked at me in awe before he chuckled. He looked around and saw a mini-fridge by him; he pulled out a few Gatorades from it and rolled them at me with a thumbs up. What a bro. My brother was, along with two other men, were in the middle of locating the sniper when he popped on the radio.

[“What the hell are you two doing back there?”] He said.

[“Your little bro is stress eating back here.”] The guy who rolled me the Gatorades responded.

[“Kian, how are you eating in this situation?”] Jacob asked and I heard the amused tone in his voice.

I was surprised by how casual all of them were in this situation, but I only shrugged in response.

[“He shrugged".] Gatorade man replied to my brother for me.

[“Kian, there are three buttons on the right earpiece. Use the top one to talk.”] Jacob said. For a trained Special Force Operative, he sure forgot that his little brother was not a soldier or a military geek.

[“You rather I just have a freakout, or do you want me to stuff my face?”] I replied with a half-joke-half-serious tone while I chewed on another bar. To be honest, I would have much preferred the freak out rather than stress eating.

[“Eat to your heart’s content, just don’t go overboard, or stick your head up.”] Jacob replied with a sigh.

[“Can’t you just, like, stick a pair of sunglasses out to trick him into shooting?”] I asked. Ah, he’ll probably regret that he showed me how to use the comms now.

No response came, but I could hear his hushed curses from here about how that only worked in movies. A few of his men joked back with him. I heard one of them agree and said he’d do it. A few seconds later, a few bullets tore through the storefront window.

"Holy shit!" One of the soldiers laughed "It really fucking worked!"

The laughter was short-lived as a barrage of bullets began to cut through the store. I threw myself down just before the snacks around me exploded into mists of oranges, whites, and other colors that made my choke on the dustifed snacks. Glass shattered, metal sang, and I heard pained screams as I quickly pulled myself across the store like a meth-fueled lizard. Gatorade man pulled by my vest's back handle and pulled me out of the zone of fire.

["Tangos on the Wal-greens! Tangos-!"] My brother's voice cut off as another hail of bullets tore through the storefront, forcing me and Gatorade man to retreat.

Dadadadadada-!

Gatorade man stuck up and returned fire from the back of the store, which, unfortunately, faced the -greens. The return fire was short-lived as I felt a weight slam into my back. I yelped at the and thought I had been hit, but the pressure kept pressing me down. I turned to see what it was and... Gatorade's bloodied face looked back at me...

I stared in shock, his nose was ripped in two and he was missing his right eye. Blood was gushing from his face and... his neck. It pooled on the floor amongst the scattered snacks and glass. It wasn't like in the video games or movies; bits of other... things. mixed into the blood. A bit of pink was mixed in and... I threw up everything I had eaten just a few moments ago. Now I struggled through throw off the soldier as the blood and vomit mixed under my chest. The stench... God... The stench was indescribable.

I cursed myself, my dad, my country, and every other entity I could think of as I struggled to even turn over. This man was in full gear too, which added hundred pounds onto this man who had nearly a hundred pounds over my. I was just an average pretty guy, not built like the bear the other men in the family were. this moment, I had finally wished I had been.

The weight finally lived and I was dragged forward across all the bodily fluids. I saw bloodied boots and felt a few hot casings hit the back of me. The world felt numb and I only heard the rapid thumping of automatic fire. Shell casings were dropping on my right, but it all felt… Unreal.

Free of the weight, I slowly heaved myself to my knees before I was pulled back down by my brother. Somehow, this felt like a deja vu moment as he yelled at me, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. Rather than being deafened by gunshots, I think my mind was short-circuiting.

I just stared back at him, my thoughts a haze as I tried to wipe Gatorade Man’s bloodied face from my mind.

I just spoke to him… We… He was alive. I thought as my brother only scowled and pushed me down. I wanted to get back up, but he kept me down effortlessly. The floor was covered in a mixture of sodas and water as the refrigerated section had been peppered with bullets. Blood swirled in the sugary mixture beneath me as.

Just when I tried to get up again, I felt my whole body momentarily shudder. The liquid mixture on the floor also became disturbed, more than when the shells were landing in it. The floor shook and that was when I felt the world come out of its monotonous state.

“Take that motherfucker!” I heard my brother call out. “Fuck yeah!” He hollered as he removed his hand from my back. I could hear distant shouting. I got up and realized I had been dragged away behind the large foot island where they heated their little shit rolls and shoved them into those little bags. From where we were, we had a perfect view of the building across from us. The Wal-greens that was just on the boundary of the HOA I lived in.

The storefront sat on raised land, just like the guardhouse and the office for the HOA; Unlike the HOA, the storefront and its parking lot was smoking.

Before I could register why my brother was howling, I saw the storefront be torn apart my several small explosions - Like those videos of Chinese people setting off a bundle of firecrackers, but much, much more violently.

BURERERERERE - BRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTT!

I recognized that iconic sound as an A-10 Warthog.

BRRRRRRRRRT-BRRRRRRRT-BRRRRRRT-!

Followed by another pass seconds apart.

“Good hit! Good hit!” My brother yelled over the radio.

I heard the roar of the planes overhead as they circled around and my brother pulled me with him.

“Let’s go!” He yelled.

. . . . . .

Run. The only thought that was in my head.

That was all I could think as I hauled my little brother after me out of that godforsaken dead trap. With most of my squad down, we were practically fucking shrimps to any large enemy element. That didn't help my friends though. Jackson had laid in his own blood. He was the first one to die and we hadn't even noticed him drop on contact. I felt that sink to the pit in my stomach when I thought about that.

Anderson and Kelmar also died but in the store. All that was left was Preacher, Hernadez, Kian, and I. We had already lost others when we tried to secure the house. I hadn't expected that. I was more concerned with securing the last member of my family, my precious little brother. Though in hindsight, I hadn't treated him so precious in the years previous.

I don't know if the house was a target for the forces, or they had just been canvassing the neighborhood, looking for anyone important. None of us would know, and the information wouldn't stem the loss of my friends. But at least Kian was safe...

We stopped in the hedges just off the old Home Depot lot, one of those large corporate home improvement stores that existed before the resources became scarce. Just beyond the hedges, a four-foot concrete wall sat. It offered us cover from that abandoned store and the hedges offered us concealment from the street. For once, I was happy that politicians loved their appearances more than they loved saving resources, or the whole damn street would have been baren.

I looked back at my little brother. His body was much too small to be related to us... too... much like our mother. But I had to remember that it as pops and I that were the irregularities. We looked like walking tanks, muscular and "Manly." It took a lot to remember that. Even when crouched, Kian was much smaller than me.

He had such a pretty face for a boy, and if I didn't know he was a boy, and my brother; I could have more than certain take him as a young pretty girl. He had long disheveled hair. It wasn't that he girly, but his looks were effeminate, or maybe the word was androgynous. With each passing year, he even began to look more and more like our mother. Not that he didn't before...

I had to pump the brakes on my wandering thoughts. It was a clusterfuck of a situation. Whenever family became involved, one of the few things I learned to only care about, came under attack - I just wanted to blindly beat the issue into submission. I couldn't take on a foreign army, and the rogue state to the north. No. I could only run and take my family away.

In Kian's hands was the HK416 that Anderson had used, along with two spare magazines I had shoved into Kian's vest. I never wanted him to kill anyone, to have that taint his soul, but I would much rather turn my brother into a sinner than have him dead. Even if I had to die, I would get him away from here.

The thoughts had only lasted a few seconds and Kian felt my stare. He looked up with those trusting eyes, those innocent lost eyes that had just seen someone die in front of him. I looked away, guilty for something I hadn't even done, but I had a mission. A mission to get him out of here.

I brought my Onboard Tactical Assistant Device, OTAD, and flicked through a few menu options before I found the updated situation map of the area. Should we have been in our full battle gear, we would have been wearing the latest battle armor with cool-ass helmets that had a heads-up display and use voice commands to do all of this. Yet, we were caught with our pants down. Pops should be securing our gear and inbound to us.

On the small screen, I saw my squad on the screen - Zulu Squad, Coded Bear for today - and the surrounding DC area.

God... It was a mess...

On a battlefield, there would have been controlled areas were friendlies or combatants held ground. Then there would be contested ground, where the combat was. There was none of the first element, but there was only contested ground. The on-board AI was listening to the radio traffic, no longer trying to breach the enemy lines, but fully devoted to transcribing the plethora of friendly comms. With our friendlies, two other hostile elements attacked us at once, but from what was happening, they didn't seem to be friendly to each other either.

Everyone was fighting everyone and each street was being fought for control or having already been drenched in blood and those streets were about to be recontested by the other element. This was a resource race, we were trying to protect our supply depots or secure reinforcement routes, but everyone else wanted those depots, and they couldn't just bomb us to hell if they were to get them.

The silver lining in the situation was that all the fighting was going on in the south and north. Their area was marked contested, but with a notation that it was only being marked for transportation to the battles. The contested came from the forces running into each other on their way to the resources. That meant the ambush at the gas station wasn't actually meant for them, but transport.

That made him feel even angry about the situation. All that blood and it hadn't even been meant for them.

A message came over his headset, by the robotic voice of his AI.

["Oracle Actual is inbound and requests the landing zone be secured. All friendly fighters have been scrambled and will tie up the enemy jets. All friendly and civilian elements have been cleared into the air to hide our EVAC."] The program stated.

The plan made him feel even sicker but on the other hand, he didn't care if he had to spend the lives of strangers if it meant he wouldn't lose any more friend or his family. He lamented on the monster he was and looked to his baby brother.

I do this so you do not become one... He thought, but his brother didn't feel his stare.

The air came alive as tens of jets soared overhead, screaming towards the south. For once in the nation's life, all those spend dollars and they were all finally being put to use.

"Secure the parking lot," I said into the mic. "EVAC inbound. We're only going to have one shot at this.

← Nuclear Missile Officer →

Twenty Minutes prior...

"Jesus!" I screamed.

The television mounted in the control room showed the chaos that was playing out above. Bodies in the streets, planes falling from above. Even the new chopper had been shot down by a fighter jet just a few minutes into their broadcast. However, my co-worker, Devan, only kept playing Candy Crush on his phone with the same indifferent expression as aways.

Both of us were Nuclear key carriers. On a normal day, we wouldn't even be in the same section of the bunker. The sudden break out of war changed that quickly though. They showed us both into the launch room before they closed the door. We can leave, but they can't enter without one of us opening the door.

"Do you think they'll call us to..." I turned back to him. "Do you think this is it?"

The broadcast showed the sudden arrival of an entire armada of jets. Helicopters were beginning to take up the lower air space and the jets had to move higher into the sky to fight each other; Or risk crashing into the slower helicopters. It was strange. I wouldn't have done that. However, they must have some sort of plan. Hopefully.

Something in me said I had to do something, but what? In the movies, they always called their loved ones. I didn't have a family, aside from a small little chihuahua named Luke. He was an adorable little brown dog with big eyes. It was unfortunate that he couldn't answer the house phone though. I would've liked to see him one last time. The fighting hadn't reached where our home was, but no doubt it would within a few hours if the fighting continues to escalate. That was the requirement to be a Keyholder. No family.

Since the nuclear scare that after the third Cold War, presidents were no longer allowed to be to call in the nukes. That was entirely left to the army, with no contest from the political body. They had fallen into a convoluted mess of infighting that never ceased. Hell, there were even whole websites dedicated to the congress brawls that almost always broke out every week.

However, none of that mattered when the world above broke out into an all-out war. While both of them had different beliefs from their NCOs, they were still soldiers. Soldiers that would turn their keys and input their confirmation codes once that red phone rang. Though, I highly doubted they wanted to destroy whatever valuable resources were left.

I heard the soft roll of Devan's computer chair as he rolled away. I watched him curiously, but he only rolled into the station's small kitchen with his phone. Most likely went to look into what goodies the higher-ups stocked for us. I turned back to the television, my eyes always looking at my neighborhood when the camera would pan past it.

Nothing there this time...

The newswoman began to shout, informing us that more and more people were jumping into the fight below. Political groups, cults. Anyone and everyone who had a weapon began to filter into the fighting. The camera panned a few more streets. Yeah, it became even more hectic down there.

They kicked the proverbial hornet's nest... I thought.

Click.

I heard something just behind me and turned. I came face to face with Devan, who pointed a pistol at me. My thoughts studdered for a few moments. I wondered if I was just not seeing it correctly, or if I was actually looking down the barrel of a gun.

"Its nothing personal," Devan said as he lowered the barrel to my stomach. He pulled the trigger.

I flinched at the bark of the gun. My ears rang from the powerful gunshot that echoed through the room. I felt something warm dribble down my leg... I looked down and saw a small circle of blood that stained my uniform on my stomach. I had also pissed myself. I looked back up to Devan, not sure what was going on. I only knew he had a gun and he shot me. We weren't friends, but we usually saw each other during briefings and lunch...

I thought we were cool...

Devan's lips moved and I knew he was talking, but only the ringing existed in my ears. He shook his head before he pulled out two small orange earplugs from his ears. He gave me a weary smile before he pulled my keycard off my shirt. I wanted to stop him, but the blood... There was so much blood coming out of me.

I tried to get up, but I didn't have the strength to do it. Maybe I was just entering into a state of shock. I didn't know, but what I did know, was that there was already a small puddle of blood beginning to form under my feet. Then Devan appeared before me again. He only slid me aside and went back to the launch station. There was another one in the room now and the blast door was wide open.

I mumbled some words, a warning that this was illegal but they paid no mind. I called out again to tell them they didn't have my code. Yet again... They ignored me as they inserted the keycards into the two different consoles on different sides of the room in unison. The room turned dark red and they both inputted codes and the room turned dark green.

They... Didn't need my code?

That was odd, but not as odd as that I was bleeding to death here. Further exploration of the situation came up with a strange thing... I really didn't care. I only cared about that stupid dog I was leaving behind. The world was shit, this place was shit, and only that innocent little puppy was worth living for. Pure and happy. The only living thing I cared about in this world.

I fumbled for my phone and inputted the code. I was going to look at that those stupid videos I always took of him, but my phone was snatched away. The newcomer took it. He looked pissed, but I only wanted my phone. Before I could try and fight for it back, Devan had taken it from the man. He looked at me and I only said one word.

"Superman." The name of that damn dog I had.

The man nodded, tapped on my screen a few times before he handed me one the phone. It showed that little rut running in circles as I walked through the front door. It was a short video, and a pathetic one to want to see as I was dying, but Superman was my little guy and the only thing I had come to look forward to when I went home.

The only regret was that he and I wouldn't be moving to that nice house after my retirement in a few months.

"Nuclear missile launched." A faint robotic voice broke the ringing in the distance.