Square Zero
2018-01-11

DUTY

Copy Link
K sees the big picture

Somewhere in a snowy part of the world

K was listless. All his pals were fatigued. The squad was still wading through the snow on foot with their commander aboard the ATV, and the rest of the patrol followed suit. Sun was just about to rise, so that was a relief. The chilly blizzard was eventually going to subside. "Ten more minutes to civilization!" one of the soldiers yelled. "Aight let's stay frosty" replied K. "Pun?" asked his pal. "That's all I got now." K retorted with disdain. This was a simple infiltration mission, no hostiles expected on their way; the only enemy was the blizzard and the snow. The squad still had to remain stealthy, orders from the commander. Their vision was extremely limited, thanks to the weather. "I see houses" K shouted. "Dang it, we couldn't see shit till we're 20 feet away?" said J. "Good lord, where is everyone? There's no people and all the doors are unlocked!" exclaimed P. "Bingo! Let's use the houses to move, get in, get out through the back doors. We'll have cover, and we'll have heat." K directed. "No, brother. We need to get there ASAP. No time to dally. Bear the cold for a few more minutes, would ya? We're almost there" ordered his commander. "Makes sense" said K. "Aight people, straight ahead. Let's keep going." As they made their way into the town for about 20 minutes, the blizzard got worse. Echo Squad was left blind as bats. U saw something. "Wait a minute, Halt! Take cover! Y and F are dead! They've been shot. Looks like a sniper! Watch out." The squad quickly took cover, and as they proceeded to move with caution, 3 others were shot in the head. "Holy cow! What's happening?" P was scared. 2 more of them got shot right infront of them. "We've got to keep going as fast as possible. Run, so we don't give them the time to aim. Run!" the Commander shouted at the top of his voice. K knew something was sketchy about this. "They're using a drone to spot us. Heat signatures." K whispered to P. "Doesn't make sense. It's our airspace." P answered. "I know. Listen, follow me." K insisted as he cut through to the side with P. They made their way around, running as quietly as possible. They eventually entered an abandoned robot manufacturing plant, and continued to run to the other side. "Holy molly, get down NOW! 12 O' clock!" P said in a frantic tone. They spotted 2 enemy snipers camping on the first floor. "There's definitely more of them. I hear radio chatter. They're spread out all over the area." P whispered. "There's no way our patrol can make it through. We've gotta take them all out." K infered. P continued, "Affirmative. These 2 first. On my mark. 3...2... " Before they took the shot, the snipers got their heads blown out from the side. All P and K could hear were more suppressed rifles going off further to their right. "Not our squad. What the fuck is going on?" K exclaimed. One of the snipers got lucky, and retaliated. The gunshots were now loud and clear. K and P took cover and just listened with panic. There was a big shoot out for a while, and then the sounds stopped. As K and P got up the ladder to take a look, detonators set off simulatenously, making a huge noise, and mangling the bodies. "Our guests wanted to make sure everyone's dead. I believe they've left." K and P took snipers from a corpse and looked for them. They could see an ATV speed away at a distance. It then stopped briefly, and their commander got into it, and then it vanished into the snow. After a few minutes of deliberation, K realized what was happening. "They're making it seem like a war has been started." "What do you mean? We're already in war" P was confused. "It has just aggravated. Now this will be a whole different war. We've started a bigger one. And someone's gonna use this to keep all the eyes away from something else, something much bigger than this."

Cover image