Yes, I jumped out of a moving helicopter without any form of parachute.
Wind rushed past my ears as I tumbled through the sky, about a hundred feet above the ground…for the second time that day.
And somehow I still didn't regret my reckless decision.
The atmosphere back in that helicopter had seriously freaked me out.
Freaked me out enough to make me jump to certain death.
So yeah, I'd really rather be anywhere than there.
Directly down below, by the side of the road, I spotted what looked like a deserted warehouse compound, with old tires piled together in a corner.
And to my left in the north horizon, for the first time, I properly saw the monster that had emerged from beneath the ground.
The one that made us retreat.
All of a sudden being back in the helicopter didn't seem like such a horrible choice.
I wanted to hide.
I wanted to be very far away from that creature.
The very aura of it…was horrible.
The creature looked like what I'd pictured the devil to look like from my own childish imaginations.
It was a powerful force of just pure evil.
The creature towered over the entire town, the body length was easily taller than any skyscraper around.
It had massive curved golden horns on its head and anywhere it stepped, its hooves(yes hooves), the ground erupted with mini explosions, like landmines going off, leaving behind a trail of fiery holes on the ground.
The creature's body shone brightly, bathing the city in an artificial golden glow like an early sunset.
Trees around caught fire and glasses on windows melted from the pure heat emanating from its body.
The scariest part was that it had a human-like face, looking like it was made from pure gold. And the eyes shone painfully like miniature suns on its face.
The creature was more than fifty kilometers away but it still towered over the whole landscape, like a horrible landmark.
Abel had called it "The Commander". Looking at now, that was a massive understatement.
It didn't even seem to notice me falling to my death or the helicopter I'd jumped from.
Maybe it couldn't see us or it just didn't regard us as any form of threat or worth.
I registered all this in about five seconds before I burst through the roof of the warehouse and crashed through large stacks of wooden crates, slowing my fall a little.
It was better than falling straight on the hard concrete but I still twisted my ankle from the crash.
And even with that I was grateful that was all I'd gotten from foolishly jumping off a helicopter.
Pain shot up from my ankle like an electric jolt and spread upwards through my entire body when I tried to sit up.
The whole warehouse was dark and deserted except for a lone blinking light at the edge of the room.
If anything was going to attack me right now I was just going to accept my fate and die here.
"If you are going to kill me, just do it now."I said to the empty warehouse.
Thankfully there was no answer.
Good.
Also, it was just so quiet, I had to hear myself talk.
I sat there for a while, listening to the heavy footsteps of The Commander in the distance.
Thankfully it faded away after a while.
Where had it gone? I don't know. I just never wanted to see that thing ever again.
And I was certain about something else now.
The reason why everyone had lost control in the helicopter was simply because of the presence of The Commander.
When I saw it, I immediately knew. The aura coming from it was a hundred times more intense than the Scokytocles I'd encountered.
Somehow it had taken control over everyone in the helicopter, even from that distance.
And then that sneaky bastard, Scuria, somehow knew about The Commander's brainwashing power over us and piled us up into the same aircraft.
He was actually going to take us all out in one swoop.
Thinking about that was exhausting the little strength I had left.
For now, I just needed to survive before I could deal with that matter.
I took out my phone which had somehow survived the crash and texted Meg.
***
An hour later, Meg and Brody arrived in an armoured truck and found me in my sorry broken state.
"Zephan!" Meg exclaimed immediately she saw my twisted ankle, "Your ankle!"
"Yeah, I noticed that too." I muttered.
"H-how did this happen?" Meg said, rushing to my side, "Your text barely explained anything! You fool!"
"Can we please do this later? My head hurts." I grumbled.
Brody squatted next to me and studied the dislocation. "We have to fix this first and get you out of here ASAP. This place is still a little too close to the enemy for comfort."
"I can't treat broken bones." Meg said, still fuming.
"It's not broken, the ankle is just dislocated. I'll fix it."
Meg found a piece of wood from the wooden stacks I'd broken with my body when I'd crashed for splint.
Then she held my leg still as Brody snapped my ankle back into the right position.
I wasn't proud of the high pitched scream that escaped my lips after.
Then Brody scooped me up like I weighed nothing and put me in the armored truck. Meg climbed into the backseat with me while Brody gunned the engine.
On the drive back to camp I told Brody and Meg all that had happened since I'd gotten on that helicopter and my theory of how The Commander probably had similar brainwash powers of a Scokytocles but a lot more amplified.
"We call them Harbingers." Brody said when I was done. "So far, there's been only four sightings of those things. Even lesser monsters seem scared of them…" He hesitated, "But the thing about them being able to control Hollowbound soldiers like you…that's a first. They've been no reports about anything like that."
"Hollowbound?" I asked.
"Oh, you haven't heard? That's what they are calling possessed soldiers now."
"Oh." I wasn't sure what to say about that so I continued, "Well to answer your question about how this situation is unheard of, that's because it has probably never happened before. This is like the rarest of cases. It's why it should be looked into."
"How did you guys manage to board the same aircraft anyway?" Meg asked.
"I think it was commander Scuria's plan…somehow. It felt like a bait."
"Commander Scuria?" Brody turned back to look at me from his driver's seat, "Are you sure you didn't hit your head too?"
"What? No. I'm telling you. I followed his orders to board that aircraft. He sent Katie to direct me towards that aircraft. And not just me too, everyone else there said the same thing too. How does every Hollowbound in that battlefield just somehow happen to board the same aircraft? It's not a coincidence, Brody."
Brody contemplated this for a minute.
"Surely, this is completely in character for him right?" I pressed on, "He absolutely hates H-Hollowbounds with everything he has."
Brody breathed, "Fine…I hear you. I do see your point. Plus you've never ranted about anything like this ever before." He admitted, "But, you have to report this to Hylla when we make it back to camp. She'll probably lead an investigation on that matter." He paused, "But then again, the apocalypse has started so I don't really see Hylla or any of the high ranking officers actually having time for something like this."
I looked down.
Why hadn't I thought of that? Of course there wouldn't be any time to investigate Scuria. Humanity was currently on the path of extinction.
But still, Steve, Mei and the others were still human beings, it didn't matter what Scuria thought about them.
And I hated myself for not being able to help them back there. I'd run away…
As we neared camp, I silently swore to get justice for them, no matter what.
***
The defenses around camp had tripled since the last time I'd seen it.
New metal barricades lined the entire perimeter of the camp, while the ten foot tall metal fence behind it hummed with lethal electricity.
Each watchtower was now primed with high artillery machine guns so complicated I couldn't even tell how to operate it.
In the skies, helicopters circled the whole zone in patrol.
However the most shocking, yet expected development was the new rows of shelter now filled with civilian refugees from the city.
Seeing that, it then dawned on me that it really was the end of the world, and it was here the Extinction Neutralisation Department (END) shined.
For the first time, I actually felt proud of being a part of END.
Brody insisted on taking me to the infirmary immediately but I declined.
I'd spent too much time there already in the past few days. I was certain I was going to throw up if I stepped in there again.
I also feared I'd never get rid of the stench of hospital from my clothes.
"Can you stand?" Brody asked.
"Yeah, I guess. With a limp at least. Props of having monster poison boost." I said with a weak smile. "I heal super fast."
I wrapped my arm around Meg's neck for support.
"Go on, Brody." Meg said, "We'll be fine from here. Thank you…for everything."
He nodded and jogged off towards the direction of the admins block.
"Come on, let's get you to your dorm." Meg said.
I silently wondered how Hylla was doing. Hopefully she was taking a very long beauty nap after a healthy meal.
But then again…
"I don't want to go back to the dorms yet." I told Meg.
She looked at me like I was crazy, "Huh?"
"Let's just…walk. My ankle actually doesn't hurt like I thought it would."
"Huh?!"
"I'm serious, dummy. I'm really fine…to an extent."
"You fell down a million feet about an hour ago."
"I'm fine, I swear. I don't know how, I'm just okay."
"Hmph."
So we walked around camp, said hi to a few familiar faces. I noticed everyone was sporting one new bruise or another from recent battles.
"I don't think we are prepared for what's coming." I told Meg, "it doesn't matter how big our defenses are…I just don't see it stopping that thing…The Harbinger."
"It's that bad, huh?" Meg muttered. "Do you think the END has any plans for taking it down?"
"I don't know." I admitted, "I actually want to talk to Hylla about it. Maybe she could formulate a plan to take it down."
"You want us to go to Hylla right now? While she's still recovering from battle?"
"Yup." I knew if I didn't ambush her now, I'll probably never get another chance again. Besides, it was the end of the world. Literally anything could happen.
Meg sighed, "You are insufferable."
"I'll take you out for ice cream if you come with me."
Few minutes later, I was knocking on the wooden door of Hylla's private quarters, with Meg shifting on her feet restlessly and grumbling beside me.
"This sucks." Meg muttered under her breath.
I'd been knocking for the past three minutes now but there was no response.
"Should we head back?" Meg asked. "I say we should just let her rest. I bet she's dead asleep."
"I'm going to peep through the windows." I decided, "Just in case."
Meg hissed at me like an irritated cat, "That's so inappropriate! I hope she sees you stalking again."
"I'm not stalking." I said as I pried open the window blinds with my fingers and peeked through.
And my heart stopped.
More like crushed.
On the couch, two figures were glued together on the sofa in the spacious living room.
"What do you see?" Meg asked impatiently, nudging my ribs. "I want to see."
I didn't answer.
I sucked in my breath, my insides churning.
It couldn't be…
Hylla was on the sofa, in a cuddling position, locking lips with some random guy I'd never seen before.