Chapter 1

Tony

“Letter to my parents, if you’re still living in the same house.” I began the writing.

“I remember you telling Ryan, if I join the Rhinos, you’d hope I die. Well, I may be coming close to it but unfortunately, I made a promise.”

I gazed at the ceiling like it were the sky and bit the pen before writing down again.

“I’m going to see you two again and I won’t be a child anymore. I hope you know that. I’ll be a better son even if you don’t take me back.”

A feeling stacked up in my heart. I felt so warm. I even grew a slight smile. Regardless of how terrible my parents were and how meddlesome of a child I was, some things are worth looking back to.

“Hey, Tony,” Patrick knocked on my door in his new condition.

“I see you got patched up now.” I rested my arm on the chair. “You joining us again?”

“Yeah, but I see we have some Omega trouble now,” Patrick crossed his arms and leaned on the doorway. “I had some business with Omega myself.”

“Really? What kind?”

“That’s classified information,” Patrick lowered his tone. “I’m going to meet you in the truck. I’m going back to the forest with you, and prepare for that attack.”

“Sure,” I stepped off my chair. “I’m going to need you to not get down so easily this time.”

***

For some reason, Ryan decided we should have our own army at the forest filled with Cobras.

“Boss, we’ve lost another thousand men to the cold,” a Rhino said.

“Are they obstructing the rest?” I sighed.

“Most of them have been buried so far. I’ll get back to you with more details.”

“Sure thing.” I wanted to take off my helmet to rub my eyes but I’ll literally freeze my head off.

We've been here for more than a week already. I think the Lox were purposely waiting for the Cobras to die off. According to Ryan, they were supposed to attack three days ago.

“Any sign of Lox yet, Jacob?” I told him over comms.

“As far as I know, they’re still in that same base, wait!” Jacob broke his voice. “They’re coming! All of them! They have two tanks and several thousand Lox coming!”

“Thousands?!”

In an instant, a clap of thunder trampled from the distance. I didn’t have to order anybody around because it was so loud.

Cobras stacked up against the sandbag walls, awaiting the tanks. One look into the trees and gunfire peeked, hitting several of us.

“I can’t see them!” a Cobra shouted.

“Stay behind the walls!” I said. Only Jacob can see them. It was up to him to spot them out. “Jacob, where are they?!”

“They’re all behind the tanks in a long line,” Jacob said. “You won’t be able to shoot them even if I spot them for you. We need the explosives crew immediately!”

“I need all RPGs stacking against the wall!”

The trampling was so, it made our men hesitate in stepping over the wall. I needed to do something or else we’ll die the moment, we see them.

“Patrick! Maurice! Jump over the wall with me!”

With my subtle orders, they hopped over the wall without question and prepared to feel the death touching their skin.

We lined up against the trees and felt a breeze of bullets run across our space. The Cobras were watching us nearly get shot and received the attention needed to step forward.

I eyed down a peek of the army and immediately felt my blood boil. Two tanks with giant spikes coming out of them bigger than I imagined. The lord was not thanking us today for our service.

They were substantially larger than the Tiger tanks used by the Germans in WW2. Not only that, but the spikes could split our tanks in half just by ramming into them.

“Retreat!” I shouted. “Get out of the way before the tanks come in!”

Before I turned around, my attention returned to the Lox from before. The one with the shield and axe, rushing through the trees faster than a cheetah.

My feet called it a day and decided to push my limits by fasting further than the sandbag walls only to be whacked in the spine by his shield and slammed against a tree.

He approached my body as I put my strength to step my feet back up again.

“The one who will kill you today is, Bod,” the Lok said and twirled his axe around. “Let’s start doing more than cursing you humans!”

I loaded my shotgun only for him to block my shots but then I clipped in explosive shells. The shells aimed below him and knocked him back. Then Maurice and Patrick wrestled him to the snow.

Bod reached for Maurice’ shoulder and threw him like a rag doll into a tree then he launched Patrick against him. I shared eyes with him again and he charged and hit me in the face that slapped my head on the snow.

I had no will to stand back up but Nancy appeared and fired several shots into Bod. As she shot him. Bod gazed at his army running ahead of him. He ignored her and rushed back to his army.

“Damn.” Nancy aided me. “He got away.”

“They’re going to attack the north,” I said. “We need to catch up!”

“No,” Jacob came out of nowhere. “With an army that size, we have no chance. We’ll have to inform Ryan of the army we’re facing here.”

I punched the snow and grunted. “Damn it! I couldn’t beat that Lok again!”

“Forget the Lok!” Nancy yelled. “Right now, that army is going to tear through the north. We need to figure out a new strategy.”

“More civilians are going to get hurt, Tony.” Jacob touched my shoulder. “This is exactly what I was talking about before.”

“So what?” I said. “Look at that army. You would have died if you went there on your own.”

“I guess so,” Jacob muttered. “Let’s just get this situated before Omega arrives.”

My foot followed the steps of where I was hit. The guns were useless against Bod.

“Nancy hit him three times in the chest with her rifle.” I picked up my AR. “She has the strongest rifle our Rhinos have. It's going to take a lot more than bullets to kill this Lok.

“Ryan also told me to kill the Omega Rhinos that will join. This is going to be problematic.”

“No, it won’t,” Jacob said. “The base is ahead. Let's take what the Lox have and kill them with what we’re offered.”