In an instant, we popped back into existence at the center of a burnt-looking road riddled with massive craters.
And I'll tell you this… Teleportation sucked.
Immediately my feet touched the ground, I dropped to my knees and threw up my entire lunch.
My body suddenly felt too big, too bulky and too clumsy.
Like I was a huge sack of flesh with organs stacked inside haphazardly.
I noticed Meg also throwing up her entire stomach close by.
While beside me, Katie crumpled to her knees suddenly, her face turning green. I remembered what Brody said about her being drained if she teleported more than just herself.
"Teleportation nausea." Katie said, her voice small and weak. "Happened to me the first few times I did it."
After I emptied my belly by the side of the road, I told Meg, "Come on. We need to take Katie somewhere safe."
Meg looked at me like I was crazy. "Safe? Where is safe right now?"
And she was right.
Katie had teleported us just a few yards away from the nearest END defense line. In other words, a literal battlefield.
Beyond the defense line, I was looking at thousands of Skyraxes, a mass of grey and black swarming over basically everything—cars, buildings, soldiers.
And among the Skyraxes, there were a bunch of other uglies I'd never even encountered before.
This was the whole package.
The smell of ozone was extremely thick in the atmosphere, I didn't dare breathe in too deeply.
It was late afternoon but the sky was almost pitch black, choked with thick black smoke and ash raining from the sky.
The defense line was a row of armored tanks, firing shots into the mass of the Skyraxes hoard, along with a bunch of heavy artillery and missile launchers constantly firing at the horde.
Just standing in the vicinity was already making me go deaf.
But even all that firepower was barely doing anything to the horde.
Above us, a dozen high speed military jets thundered past at full speed into the gloom ahead.
I could have sworn I saw a giant leathery wing flapping inside the smoke cloud above us.
"Holy crap." Meg murmured. "I knew the war was serious but this is…something else."
"If that defense line breaks, it's over for this whole area." Gracie groaned weakly in my arms. "Take me to the ambulance further back. I'll be fine there."
I nodded and took her to the ambulance parked at the end of the block, well away from the battle.
A young doctor exited the ambulance and rushed to take her from my arms.
"A teleporter?" He asked as he took her.
"Yeah. This is common?" I asked.
"Since yesterday? Yeah. A lot of emergency reinforcements have been making use of the teleporters."
"Nathan?" Katie muttered weakly. "Is that you?"
"Yeah." The doctor answered. "Oh wait, it's you, Katie?" now looking at her face closely.
"Just shut up and take me to the ambulance please."
Nathan blushed and apologized and rushed away with her.
When I got back, Meg was already waiting for me with her gun loaded and ready.
"So, are we just going to join the defense line over there or do we just wait here in case any monsters slip past them. I mean, Brody didn't exactly give us orders. He just said 'don't die.' Helpful."
"Maybe just don't die, Meg." I chipped in.
"Haha. But seriously…what do we do?"
I thought about that. The whole place was actually so chaotic I wasn't even sure what was going on. The ground was literally vibrating from the constant explosions and gunfire.
I scanned the area for a commander or captain in charge but it was mostly just regular soldiers crouched with rifles ready, in case of any monster breaking through the defense line.
"There." Meg said, pointing at a ragged emergency command tent at the side of the road a few yards away, much like the one back at camp with two soldiers guarding the entrance.
So we went there and introduced ourselves to the entrance guards as reinforcement from the North Dakota branch.
The guards looked at each other.
"Take them to the commander." The one on the right said.
"Why me?" The other complained.
"Cause I was the one who had to go in last time!"
"Urghh." He groaned and told us, "Follow me."
Inside there was a grumpy looking commander with an overly red plump baby face explaining military plans with two of his subordinates.
He looked so grumpy…he looked like he could start crying.
Yeah. He looked that upset.
"Uhh, Commander Scuria, these are reinforcements from the North Dakota branch. They just appeared."
"Oh?" He looked up, his face even reddening more. "Uh my regards to Brody and stuff."
He dismissed his subordinates and turned to us, now smiling in a painful looking way. Like smiling was hurting his round face.
"Yeah." Meg said, "So…uh, what are your orders…sir?"
"My orders?" He asked, like the question offended him.
Did he forget he's the commander?
I looked at Meg and she gave me the don't-look-at-me-this-was-your-idea look.
"We are about to go into battle to help your men out there." I said, "We need your instructions."
I had no idea what was going on with this guy and right now I didn't want to have to worry about that. I could hear monstrous roars growing closer outside.
I was starting to regret why we came to talk to the commander in the first place.
"Hmm?" He said moving around his desk to study us intently, "What are your Abilities?"
"I'm a telepath and he's… strong." She hesitated.
I know why she didn't say possessed. We didn't know how he'd take it if he knew I was a potential murderous maniac.
He sneered, "A telepath you say? I don't know…are you even useful in battle at all?"
I closed my fists.
What was this guy's deal?
He shrugged, "Doesn't matter anyway. You, the telepath will stay back and join the defense line. Shoot anything that breaks the line. While you, 'strong boy'"he said, making air quotes with his fingers, "you are going inside the bulk of the horde and you are to take down as many of those creatures as you can."
Meg flared, "That's actually so stupid. You know that's basically suicide. Also we are supposed to stay together. With my telepath-"
"Who's the commander here, young lady?" Scuria said, eyes flashing dangerously and for the first time, I could see he could actually be a very dangerous man.
Meg faltered.
"It's fine, Meg." I took her hand, "Doesn't matter. I'll be back anyway, you just try to stay alive."
"But--"
I squeezed her hand.
Not here, I told her with my eyes.
I could already tell the commander didn't have a lot of patience for us. If anything happens we could actually get punished.
But I was already fine with the orders.
I definitely didn't want Meg in the middle of the battle.
Was that selfish of me? Probably, but I didn't care much.
As we walked out of the command tent, I heard the commander mutter under his breath, "Damn half monster boy."
Unfortunately, Meg heard it too.
She turned around and started marching towards Scuria, fuming furiously.
"What did you just say?" She snarled.
"Meg!" I yelled, exasperated now. "Just let it go."
She shrugged me off and stood right in front of the commander, heaving in anger.
They glared at each other, nose to nose.
"What are you gonna do?" The commander jeered right in Meg's face.
This time, anger suddenly blinded me and I was about to launch at him when suddenly….
AAAAAAARGHHHH!
Commander Scuria fell to his knees, screaming, both hands on his head, his fingers digging inside his wild hair in a crazy frenzy.
I hadn't even touched him…
Oh no.
Was that something to do with Meg's telepathy?
"Meg!" I yelled. "Stop!"
She didn't move. A vein on her forehead bulged.
A drop of blood dribbled down Scuria's nose.
"Meg! You'll kill him!" I shook her hard.
And she suddenly seemed to snap back to her senses and the commander stopped screaming.
Meg looked a bit shaken but she took one look at Commander Scuria sprawled on the floor still groaning in pain, turned on her heel without a word and left.
****
We stood outside behind the defense line, gearing up.
For once I was glad for my gas mask. The smoke and ash in the air was actually choking.
Meg was fidgeting with the straps on her vest, her hands shaky.
After the incident with the commander, she didn't say a word to me. It felt like she couldn't bring herself to meet my eyes.
The commander himself didn't even react after what happened. Probably scared of getting his head blown for real.
I'd known Meg for a year and a half and I'd never once seen her this nervous and fidgety.
She was only this shaken during our first encounter with Armageddon Bringers when she had just gained telepathy.
"You okay?" I asked, as I fixed her gear for her.
She tried to force a smile and failed miserably, "yeah, why not?"
"Meg…"
She stared at her boots, hands still shaky, "I didn't mean to…hurt the commander like that. I just… I got carried away." Her voice was so small, I could barely hear her over the roar of gunfire and monsters.
She was scared. She was so scared of her power and what it could do. I'd noticed she was always weary about her telepathy but she'd never admit it. She'd always try to keep a brave face about it but it was scaring her. I could tell.
She continued, "I kind of just… screamed really loud…inside his head. I don't know. I just projected my anger towards…and the force nearly killed him. I swear I didn't know I could do that.
I gripped her shoulders, "Listen, I don't give a Skyraxes' rear about Commander Scuria."
She let out a small laugh and sniffled, "A Skyraxes' rear? That's so bad, Zeph."
"I just worry about you." I continued, "I don't know much about telepathy and how to use or not use it but I'd trust you with my life. I know you would never hurt someone on purpose. You don't even know how to fight."
She chuckled a little again, "Have you seen me on the battlefield?" She teased.
"Do you want to sit this one out?" I asked. "You could just–"
"No, Zeph. I want this actually. Especially now. I need this."
I hesitated. I wanted to bundle her up in a big blanket and hide her in a safe place far away from this hell, but I knew I couldn't. Wouldn't be fair to her.
This was her own decision.
I kissed her on the cheek, catching her by total surprise. She didn't say anything but her face suddenly turned bright red.
"Uh, y-yeah, whatever." She stuttered. "You need to get out of here. Go and help the comrades there and stuff." But she couldn't stop smiling as she pulled on her gas mask to cover her red face. "I'll remain here with the defense line."
****
A few minutes later I was flying in the air above hundreds of thousands of misshapen monsters in the arms of a random END soldier named Abel with the Ability of flight.
"Did it really have to be this way?" I shouted over the roar of the battle. "We could have just used a helicopter or something."
"Too dangerous!" Abel yelled back. "We'd get knocked out of the sky instantly. Three times today I've been chased around the skies by an absolute monstrosity of a creature. I just hope she's sleeping now."
"That sounds interesting."
"Uh huh."
"So…uhh, where do we drop?" I asked, "The entire place is covered. Is there like a landing point?"
"We are gonna circle for a while. If there's no landing spot, I'd just drop you in the horde."
"You kidding, right?" Before he answered I already knew the answer.
"Those were my orders. Don't worry you probably won't die."
"Scuria's orders?" I asked.
"Yup. He hates your guts. Your girlfriend tried to kill him. Plus he hates those of us with Abilities…and he knows you are possessed so…yeah."
"Meg is not my girlfriend." I said for the hundredth time, "Scuria doesn't have Abilities?"
"Nope."
He didn't elaborate after.
"I don't see any other soldiers fighting here though." I noticed. "It's just…monsters."
"Yeah… some END soldiers are still fighting somewhere in there…" He sounded like he was trying to give himself some hope.
I wondered how many people he'd dropped off that had never gotten to return after.
We flew in silence for a while, looking for the least hostile place to land on but the entire area was completely covered with monsters. It actually looked disgusting.
And the heat emitting from the horde was brutal. How could someone fight in there.
After a while Abel said, "They say you are pretty strong."
"They do? Who said that?" I demanded.
"Just people, man. I don't know." He paused, "Oh! A landing spot. At least you have a partner."
"What landing spot? What are you talking about?"
He nodded at a newly cleared area, about three feet of space in the sea of monsters. There was a lone soldier fighting with an oversized axe on that spot.
"I'd drop you off with her and zoom off." Abel said.
"But don't you think it's dangerous to drop me next to someone wielding an axe, without warning in the middle of battl—" I got interrupted by a deafening metallic sounding roar right behind us. A great wing flapped somewhere close by in the smoke cloud.
"Oh great! That thing is back!" Abel cried.
He zoomed straight towards the landing area with so much speed, I nearly got a whiplash.
Then he dropped me from ten feet, wished me good luck and zoomed away.
Great. Absolutely wonderful.
I braced myself for the landing, stretching my legs out in front of me, then ducked and rolled immediately to lessen the impact.
And almost immediately (as I'd predicted), my 'partner' swung the massive axe at my neck, ready to decapitate me in one strike.
But I was ready. I'd already unsheathed my sword before Abel dropped me.
Clang!!
Her axe blade hit my sword as I blocked her swift attack.
Her black hair was tied in a very messy bun, her combat muscle shirt and camouflage trouser had been clawed and scratched all over.
Her face was beat up with one eye completely swollen shut. The only reason I was able to block her strike was because of how tired and drained she was.
My heart sank, "Hylla?"
She managed a bloody grin, "How do we keep meeting in awkward situations like these, Zephan?"