I'm Still Here
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Chapter One
He rose to power with the promise of an enlightened utopia. The neighbouring nation to the north of our own, wrapped in suffering, crippled by our own nation. Kept down in order to maintain the stability of our enlightened utopia. Our tolerant, educated, wealthy, blissful utopia that relies entirely upon the labour of the nation to the north to maintain itself. Our people blissfully unaware of the cost of their bliss. He was beaten into the dirt by life, everyone he ever loved turned his back on him, betrayed him, and then perished by our hand. He was the perfect representation of the suffering we have caused. He rallies the people, his revolution envelops the nation. The key to our victory is the enhancement of the physical self in every way possible. Machine our bodies into nothing but a vessel. Neural implants, bio technological enhancement, you are now nothing. You are nothing but victory.
He locks himself in a room and is never heard from again.
There was always more of them than there were of us, they used to be the powerhouse, we got lucky... We used false promise, the revolution that sparked our position in the world came with the promise of enlightenment and bliss for all. The world resented their power, we resented their power, the people resented their power... We used the people to topple their government and establish ourselves. Then we enslaved their people.
Dead. Dead. Dead. My mother is dead, my father screams to save my sister bring her to th- my father is dead my sister is dead, my body finds itself outside, the house is gone, I run. A man calls out to me, tells me where to go, inside, underground, we're prepared.
"It isn't time to think, it is time to act. We are not facing the death of our nation, we are facing the death of all. We created him, we did. He thinks nothing but the end and he always has. He doesn't wish to save his people, he never did. There is no time for anything but action, come with me."
Chapter Two
A man stands before a small crowd, on display is a map and a lot of graphs and technical data. I learn five smaller nations have had their governments toppled, troops are moving in and without mercy eliminating every single living thing. Every man, woman, child, animal... Everything that lives. It has been but three days and two nations have already lost half their population. All preparation was put in place to disable anything that could prevent this action. For the past ten years, all over the world, secretly, in the background, were vessels of this man sabotaging every single thing that could ever stop him.
I am given a gun, I am given armour, I am given three grenades. I am introduced to four others, I am told I am the leader for I have stated my abilities. They state their abilities, we move. Our town is lost, all that remains is those who found the bunker. We find our convoy and move to the capitol.
Our town has a surplus of grenades and so we all get three. It's rare. Most soldiers are lucky to get one.
Chapter Three
"Get some sleep while we're on the road, you won't be getting many opportunities to sleep from here on in."
I am on a concrete surface, flat, everything is white with sunlight, a shadowy figure says to me "It won't let us." "...It won't let you... Resist his orders?" "I'm not one of them, I'm one of you."
The white subsides and all that is left is a barren wasteland, all plant life is dead and brown but a single ever wilting green leaf nearly about to fall off a seemingly dead tree. All around is nothing but shadows and darkness. Intense disappointment, the deepest disappointment. It doesn't like me, it doesn't like him, it doesn't like any of us, even if we win we will never be released from this feeling, we do not have the right to ever do better than what we've done, the feeling that we simply need to be as contented and accepting in this awareness as it is.
"It won't let us." "Let us what?" "Lose."
Chapter Four
"Two minutes until arrival, prepare yourself and lose yourself, think about nothing but the goal. We cannot save the people, we cannot save the city, all we can do is save the structure. There are various points where leadership is hiding, there are some people who managed to make it to the bunker. At the current time the only goal is get the remaining leadership into the bunker. The priority is the president, the orders are to place his life above the collective life of everyone else."
One of my teammates says "...The ORDERS... That came... From the president." "Correct."
The door opens, we run out, the first thing heard over the radio is "The president is dead, reestablish. The priority is the vice president. Seventeen generals dead since last update, total count three hundred and twelve, secondary priority after the line of succession is the remaining fifty two generals." The end of the transmission blurred by all of the explosions around us. "Air strike approaching sector three, potential nuclear weapons, immediate evacuation of all soldiers is the priority of all in sector three." "That's us, underground."
We approach a subway tunnel, ignoring all bullets flying at us, the enemy soldiers seem to have split into leave and stay, the ones who leave are not shooting, only running, the ones who stay are locked in place shooting at everyone who seems to be the closest to succeeding in evacuation. We shoot four on the way down the stairs to the subway and enter the tunnel. Our captain has a keycard to open an armored door, from here it is fifteen stairwells down into a small escape tunnel.
The degenerate teammate says "We deserve this, you know." "Shut up. There is no such thing as an entire people who deserves this." "Look at the bigger picture, this is a society that needs to be destroyed. Not just us, the entire damn planet." "I will shoot you in the face. Move." "We made... Everyone... Worship us... And now... They worship us... And so they deserve to die." "I deem this one invaluable. Net negative." He pulls out his gun, everyone in my squad points our gun at the captain, many outside of our squad reach for their guns, tremble and hesitate. The radio states "The vice president is dead, the chief of defense is dead, reestablish. The priority is the minister of the interior." "I'm not done with you, I'm watching you, from now on you'd best not open your mouth. Move."
Dust falls from the ceiling, a soft bang is heard, another, another, everywhere above us. We keep running until the captain stops to look at his tablet. "This door is sector four. YOU, this is where you exit, I have already alerted the other captains, don't try anything, out. The rest of us follow the tunnel to the capitol building." "Ah, the hero, he knows the government tunnels so he gets to save himself and go right for the glory while tens of thousands become cannon fodder. He sees the bigger picture." "Out." The radio states "The minister of the interior is dead, the chief justice is dead, the minister of foreign affairs is dead, reestablish. The priority is the minister of strategic research. There are twenty three remaining generals since last update." "Out."
We get to capitol building and meet three other captains, one of my teammates says "An entire sector. You just had to keep the anti aircraft missiles pointed above this building, you couldn't spare any of them." "Why? We run out of missiles before they run out of aircraft, the sector is lost, the entire city is lost. Priorities." "I see..." The radio states "The minister of strategic research is dead, the director of intelligence is dead, the national science advisor is dead, the minister of civil infrastructure is dead, reestablish. The priority is the minister of unity. There are seven remaining generals since last update." The captain receives a bullet to the shoulder and then to the chest and drops, we turn and engage the enemy, as the numbers dwindle they begin to charge. "The ones most likely to remain standing are always packed full of explosives, ACT FAST." We take them all down, they all explode just before they can reach us.
"...The minister of unity... Could only ever be our fate. This is the way it needs to be. Move." We shoot our way through the halls, our numbers gradually dwindle down to my team, five others who were with us from the beginning and one of the other captains, we're all running out of ammunition, the vessels fry all of their equipment when they're taken down. The remaining captain says "It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. We don't matter. We can't do it. The priority is save yourself so you can keep fighting, we can't get anybody to the bunker." The radio states "The minister of unity is dead, all priority to the remaining four generals." "...Hm. All we have is the failsafe. The director of the national continuity authority. His office is located in the bunker."
"...I guess... Just... Get to the bunker." "It's all we can do." I say "I'm out of ammunition." "Nobody cares." "...Okay."
I realize, rather than hide behind my squad mates, I'll just find a spot until things quiet down. I slip away, find an office. In the office is one of the enemy, he immediately points his gun at me and says "I c-c-can't... I know wh-wh-what he wants and I can do noohh...thing... More... The neu-r-ral... Implant... Delivers... To me... The highest o-f-f... Pa-in... Unless... I ca-rry... Out. C-Can't k-k-kill s-self. C-can't-T!! T!! K-KI!! LL!!! ME!!! KILL!!! ME!!!!! I W-L! KILL!! YOU!!" I throw one of my grenades.
I sit and wait.
Chapter Five
After everything seems safe enough I make for the bunker. When I arrive, my former teammate arrives with me. "Oh. You. I like you. You made it." "I made it." "The captain is dead." "Hah." Another captain states "And so is pretty much anybody who cares. The rest of us have decided... We didn't hear anything. As long as you can point your gun and shoot your philosophies don't matter. Would you ever dare point your gun at one of us?" "Of course not, it's not like I like the guy, let's kill that asshole." "That's all we need."
We have one remaining general, the general seen as the lowest priority to the enemy, he was all we could save. He is delivering to us our only plan of attack, we only have one option.
"On the road to the capitol are two fortified cities, designed in every way to serve as a fortress that is a metropolis, designed in every way to prevent passage and eliminate any threat within the metropolis immediately. We're the ones who made them, we made the cities in this manner in order to always have a presence pointed at the capitol, however it has now been turned in the other direction."
"Within the capitol is an EMP failsafe, we implanted it to disable the country, apparently we implanted it for this moment. They were never able to find it's location due to the complex system of redundant wiring and SPST switches, however they were able to sabotage all connection to it. The system of wiring has many failsafes in order to redirect the electricity through the system in any way possible to reach the EMP, all we need to do is get there."
"YOU. DO. NOT. SLEEP. YOU DO NOT SLEEP. Adenosine build corrects day one of sleep deprivation. Twitch on the pain of exhaustion, call the exhaustion towards you and tremor, do whatever your body needs to do to correct, the chemical now keeps you awake. You then have until day fourty before you can no longer control your body. That is all we need. If you think you can squeeze in an hour of sleep, all you're going to get out of it is a small amount of adenosine flush, this will only make you more tired, this will not be enough to recharge your mind and body in any way meaningful. Resist all urge to sleep unless you know you can get at least five hours and you are not beyond day five of sleep deprivation. If you are beyond day five of sleep deprivation you do not have time to allow your body to recover, three to four days of recovery is a dead soldier and a lost cause. We will complete the mission within the timeframe that will allow most of you to retain control of your body, if the mission is not completed by then all is lost."
"We are the heroes of humanity and we always will be, the world looks to us, the world is our responsibility, we will save them."
"The implant was designed to hard wire people into perfect soldiers, it recognizes the action of a perfect fighter and electrocutes the vessel into place. It now electrocutes the vessel when the vessel begins any thought that does not serve destruction. The implant automatically fries itself once the vessel is killed, any attempt to capture a vessel alive terminates the vessel. We can never trace the signal, we don't know where he is."
"He was always a psychopath, everyone who betrayed him knew what they were doing, all he did with this was develop the urge to end everything and the urge to be loved by everyone, refine his false persona into something that would bring him worship and then turn it on everyone. He is a coward. All anybody who ever got to know him well enough and be allowed into his true self would ever hear is whining, crying, whimpering... Then his paranoia turns on them and they know they must flee or be killed, yet another person who just doesn't get it, who just doesn't understand, he's disappointed in all of us."
Chapter Six
I am back on the concrete surface, however now the sky is black. "We don't matter to it, you know..." "No..." "But it isn't permitted. Losing is not permitted." "Because..." "Because it is alive, it is to be forever." "Forever..." "Forever disappointing. Forever wretched. Forever lost. Forever meaningless." "...But... Alive..." "But alive."
The sky once again turns white, then it is overtaken by the black, then back to white. "Redeeming ourselves is not permitted. We were one of the greatest, we were going to places the others could not dream of, but something defeated it." "We defeated it." "In the middle ages we were driven... We were driven to where we deserved... From here we managed the renaissance, we entered our redemption, and then..." "...And then... AND THEN..." "WE USED IT!!! WE USED THE ENLIGHTENMENT TO UNDO THE ENLIGHTENMENT!!! WE WILL NEVER BE FORGIVEN!!! WE WILL ALWAYS REMAIN IN WHAT WE WERE GIVEN!!! APPARENTLY... WE DON'T GET TO RECOVER!!!"
"But we get to remain..." "Yes."
Chapter Seven
"Two minutes until arrival, wake up."
The degenerate is in the middle of an argument with one of the others "There is not pure evil, there is not, it's impossible." "He's only... All he is is love self hate everyone kill everyone." "It's more complicated! He's psychopathic, he's psychotic, he just broke. He's just a mind that broke he didn't start this way, some sort of force of the purest of evil." "But you call him God's justice, surely a part of you thinks he just... Came... Only to destroy, and that this is all he is." "You're simple. To only be guided by the purest of evil, it doesn't happen... He's guided by pathetic, whimpering psychopathic self love meets nobody loves the psychopath. Inside, his every thought, only evil, it's impossible. Inside the man is crying at himself, crying at what he's doing, and... Repressing it. And using it to hurt even more. Turning it into anger at us for making him feel this. There. Is. No. Pure. Evil." I say to the other "If you need to see him as nothing but a force of the purest of evil and that keeps you focused, fine. I simply see him as broken, dysfunctional, a problem to solve." "Exactly."
"There are three holes that have been blown in the front wall of the fort, all three holes were given our least valuable battalions, they are to draw the enemy focus. We expect him to be too smart, however this is the best idea we have, we know it's nearly impossible to defeat our own fortress, all we can do is desperately throw ourselves at it. The next wave of holes blown in the wall is us... We're a distraction as well, the key is the third wave. Your orders are STAY. ALIVE. Preserve yourself. Do not enter a corridor, never enter a corridor. Always stay behind cover, do not leave cover. Do not take deliberate aim, shoot from cover, expose yourself to no wall. Wall turrets exist at these key locations, don't even think about it just avoid the walls. Only expose yourself to the hole and the cover. Corridors are impossible to enter."
"If we make it until the third wave?" "Wait for the AA guns to be taken out, at which point we sweep from above, destroy key areas. Particularly key power plants. We will destroy the power plants that apply to your wave, we will not destroy the power plants that apply to the first wave. If they survive they don't move forward they pull back and wait."
The wall is blown and we enter. I say "Find the middle, stay in the middle of the group." "I know. That way the smartest survive." We get to a point of cover and position ourselves. I say "If we can't look we don't even know when an encroach is coming!" "I know. I know. I shoot sweeping forward you watch that side. HEY, you over there, ONLY CONCERN YOURSELF with what is coming up beside us, you're on the side, the rest of us are shooting forward." "Yep."
"It's coming it's coming I know it is, there's a lot coming on my side a lot I just know it, you three turn it all in this direction it'll overtake me." I hear a faint "hAH-STA..HA! HAHA... You..." "I'm..." "What? Are you okay?" I hear "S-St-SAY-T- IT! ST-ST-AY!! IT!! VESSEL!!! ME!? YOU HURT!! M-T-MGH!T!! ME!? WT-WTORLD?! ! T!-T-HURT!! T-T-ME!? ST-HAH! STY-YOU-TH-THINK-ST-STYOU-CAN ST-STOP ME STW-W-W... WORLD?" I peek around the corner of my cover just for a second to look at him and then I shoot the vessel in the head.
Three hours later we hear the planes, the radio contact is made "AA Guns are out, we're moving in." The blanket sweep is made, the power stations are out "Move in, turrets down, corridors accessible." "Let's go!" says one of my crew. "Do not. All this means is we can peek our heads out don't get excited." The degenerate says "That's why we didn't make the third wave, man." We begin taking aim from behind our cover... He gets excited, "I'm moving forward, I can see an easy path to another cover." "You're on your own." "I'm going." The degenerate says "Hero!"
He's getting bogged down. "Goodbye hero..." "Fuck." Aahh... Grenade. I already wasted a grenade on one to save myself I already wasted it. It could easily kill ten. I killed ONE. To save ME. I'm not I'm not. I can't. I can do better I can do better, if I don't feel it was worth me it isn't worth him, I can't I can't just use it now to redeem my own feelings, the grenade is worth more it can kill more, his skillset... His skillset his skillset... W-w-we used it, we used it. It isn't... It isn't... It isn't that valuable it isn't, this grenade could save five more valuable it could it could I can't I can't I can't. He is overtaken. And now not only have I used a grenade to save myself against one but I've wasted a life to save a grenade. Redeem. Redeem...
Our area is clear, all clear, we can move to the corridor. The degenerate says "Third wave beat us, road looks like it's getting pretty clear." "Okay, well, I think we're done here, looks like we've made it." "Do you think we will? All the way to the end?" "I do. Do you?" "I don't plan ahead, we'll see if I'm right or I'm wrong."
On one of our allies bodies, an unused grenade... It could be mine. It could... I could have... I could have... I-c-can't... Take. The grenade. They're too precious, I don't deserve it. I turn to the degenerate and say "Unused grenade, it's yours." "Me?" "Yes you." "Well that's very generous."
...I had the dream... I had the dream... It's me. Saving myself was correct action, it was correct action, not saving him was correct... Action. APPARENTLY, I was given the dream as a tool to justify myself. Maybe I'm the one because I'm the one who feels a need to redeem myself.
Chapter Eight
I can't... I can't get my brain to sleep I can't, the deprivation is making me too jittery it's like I'm getting electrocuted. I can, I can... There I'm going.
All I get is an hour when we get attacked by a small platoon that was set to area monitor. Easily cleaned up.
"Ohh dude now you're in trouble." Our captain says "It's only for... Three days now that you'll be exhausted, by day four it doesn't matter anymore you're on another plane altogether."
"All awareness has been drawn to us approaching the capitol, obviously, it isn't just what was stationed anymore, the next one is going to be a slog. Connections at the device in the capitol have been made by our espionage teams but it's pretty hopeless, they get disabled, the team gets killed. We can't do it without an army, we need to figure out how to make the connection and we need to keep it fortified."
Chapter Nine
"This is more or less full frontal assault for the first 48 to 72 hours. Attack at the predictable points, including the gates, hopefully he'll think obviously they would, I'm not falling for anything twice, they're going to make it look like they've given up on any of this and then draw me to these points of predictable warfare and then do it again. Which we are. Except we hold these areas for as long as possible until he begins to think maybe we are not maybe we really did give up on tricking him, and then we start blowing holes, hopefully he'll think this time we're not going to bother with a second distraction and just go straight to where we've blown the holes as this time these holes are in the ideal place to hit the AA guns, but, yes, we're doing it again, bring all attention to this, looking like what we're going for is devoted full frontal assault... Try it again, third wave goes for the AA guns again from a non ideal position."
We get to our point of cover. The degenerate says "I guess this is the bulk of our remaining life, now. Frozen with a sore ass in the same position, movement equals certain death." "I don't care. I don't care I don't care I don't care just get me in range of that connection I can hold through anything as long as I need to." "Ah. You too, hm?" "Yes. Me too. But I'm smarter about it." "I sense no desire for glory in you. Determination, that's what you have." "I'm just going to prove myself by not even acknowledging that." "You're making that connection." "God hates us... God hates us... God wants victory." "...Maybe you're right."
Sit. Wait. Shoot. Every push of the trigger brings the deepest of suffering, I know every time I push that trigger I'm a little closer to a future devoid of bullets.
On day three I begin to hallucinate... I've been feeling it coming for awhile, I am incredibly dissociated. It's in a dream it isn't in a dream, I feel I dreamt it I know I didn't... He shows himself to me again, I feel him again. He says to me... "STCSHA-STSTST-ST-I-I-CAN-SEE, YOU, WORLD. HAH-ST-H-HAHA- IST-STEE- YOU, WORLD. I-K-KNOW... ST-STI-KNOW-ST-STWHO- YOU ARE. ST-HAHA-YOU-ARE... YOU AR-ST-HAHA-ST-WORLD... COME-ST... TO... ST-STOP ME. HAHA. STA-... ST-ST-... HAHA... ST-TRY." Alright asshole, I'm not with you anymore... You get the dreams too, I know you do. I can be world. You can be human, you can be in your experience, and I can be world, I'm losing my body, I'm losing my experience... I can be world.
It gets heavier and heavier and heavier, no, no... He isn't falling for it. No he isn't. He gradually gets heavier in order to look like he thinks what we want him to think.
The radio states "He knows exactly what we're going for, he knew exactly what we would do, he knows the mind of our remaining general he left exactly one for a reason he can completely figure him out based entirely on the one strategy. He let us have the first city he let it happen. Satellites say troops came out of hiding exactly where he knew we would blow the second holes as soon as they were blown and then openly fortified where he knew we would blow the third holes and then lesser fortified every logical point after that. All we can do is push, all we can do is push. We cannot hit AA guns or power plants they're too fortified. The lines are unfortified go for the lines go for the lines. Air support is coming whether those guns are offline or not." "The lines... Are NOT unfortified you... IDITOS. THE LINES ARE NOT UNFORTIFIED. DOES ANYBODY HAVE ACCESS TO A SEND? THEY LEFT US, THEY THINK WE'RE STUPID. NOBODY CAN FUCKING TELL THEM!!! HE LEFT!! YOU!!! FOR A REASON!!! YOU STUPID FUCKER!!!"
"...What... What now?" "Wait. We're not good enough. Wait." "I know I know I know. But... We only have so much ammunition, we only have so much food." "WAIT. Wait until desperation."
Day seven. I'm hallucinating pretty hard... I see a fragmented human... I hear a voice but I know it isn't this hallucinatory human. "Yo-g-geh- you- g- dea- fine-is-fin-fine-y-y-do-do-n't- is-ju-you- don't... Don't eve-pa-pay attention to the hallu-hal-yo-g-g-e..."
I say "He could have... Haha... Haha... He could have killed him... He easily could have killed him. No... No... Leave the dumbest one it'll be fun. This'll be funny." "I've been coming to the same conclusion." "...Do you respect it?" "...Almost. No. He's smart, total extinction is but a funny little game... As he cries... And cries... I can see why he was the one." "He isn't going to make it all the way to being the last one." "I wonder what he does..." "...Masturbates. He masturbates and then kills himself." "Doesn't even go outside to look at the empty planet, nope. Takes out his knife, slices up his penis and cries as he pretends to suck on his mother's tits and then kills himself. And that was humanity." "And that was humanity..."
He says "It could never be... It could never be. Him?" "No. No... Him. No. He could never be the one. It's impossible." "...There could never be a one." "No, no... There could never be a one. Nobody deserves to do this."
Plane falling out of the sky, plane falling out of the sky, plane falling out of the sky.
Day eight. The degenerate says "...He... He speaks to you. I've heard it. Both times I was a little out of it, but... That... That was him. And that was for you." "..." "I see. I'm going to take that as victory. There would never be a one he speaks to, if..." "..."
Day eleven. The degenerate says "I have... Enough ammunition to maintain myself for about another 30 kills." "At this rate... That's about three days. This team is not the focus." "No. I'm surprised we're going to run out of food rations before we run out of bullets." "It's... We're not the focus, means... It's time." "Of course. You were right. The only way to get you to the connection is... Wait. We're not soldiers, we're not. We wait. Let's go."
"...But..." "Yes." "...But..." "Yes." "He knows who you are." "Yes." "And yet..." "This is the reason we are not the focus." "Invitation... And statement." "He isn't as smart as he thinks he is." "Because he is God. Because we are God." "Because he is God. Because we are God."
Chapter Ten
The radio states "AA guns are down. AA GUNS ARE DOWN. Immediate take shelter, we're hitting everything." "What if we don't?" "Let's... Don't." "I'm a little out of it I'm a little out of it I don't even know what I'm doing I don't even know what I'm doing." "Everything's fine. We're invincible." "Are we?" "Oh, no... Sorry, I was in the event. I was referring to humanity not you." "Ri-" bombs begin dropping all around us.
We need... To be this. We need to be desperation. At the bottom of desperation... Lies...
A man who cannot be stopped. At the bottom of desperation lies the realization that as long as a body can move a job will be done.
Sleep deprivation, it's... It's... Gone...! Gone you're gone! I'm... I'm not even... In me... I'm me... But I'm not... The self, me... I'm... Everything... Me... Outside... Outside... Everything is pale, empty, nothing, meaningless... Self meaningless, the self is meaningless. The self is gone... The everything... The everything just is. It just is. It isn't a meaning or a lack of meaning, it isn't... Anything. It's just the thing that is. Everything... Simply... Exists.
"You get the dead one. You get the dead one. You are dead. You are dead." "I've been told to ignore you."
Everything is raining hell. Explosions are all around, people are dropping... Sometimes I'm myself, sometimes I am the dead one... Watching... Myself. I th-th-e... Thr-ew... Th-... I threw a grenade no. NO. NO. I would have done... It better... I could have done so much better it I... IT... COULD... I... Fine. Let it go. The grenade means nothing, I've given it so much meaning it didn't even mean... Anything... Nor did that man's life in relation to the grenade... It... It doesn't even... The only thing that matters is the connection, this body approaching the connection. Existential... Ponderment... Angst... It's... It's... Not... It's not the connection...
We did it. We made it. We're through. We're through with this fortification. I approach the northern gate.
"So... How much did you lose going for the lines?" "Nearly 60% of the force." "And I wasn't the only one who made the observation, was I?" "...No you were not, no you were not." "But it's done." "It's done..."
"...They were..." He begins to cry. "They were far more heavily fortified than the power plants and AA guns themselves." "I know. I know..." "He drew us right to where he knew we would hit. He... He isolated the forces on this task and drew them right away from the power plants and AA guns themselves." "I know."
"WE REJECT COMMAND." "We reject command..."
Chapter Elven
On the road to the capitol, I hear on the radio in my dissociated muted outside of myself state "We know what room he's in, there's a massive basement storage complex in an office building near the capitol buildings, one corner room was secretly retrofitted with armour plating, magnetic locks, turrets, cammeras, almost as much military power around this one room as there is an entire small nation. It's all hidden, to the outside it looks identical to the rest of the basement. Our espionage team is in position, they're waiting for the EMP."
"The connection has been made again and again and again, he outsmarts our every attempt, he knows every little thing about our technological tactics. We finally found somebody who can think outside of him, we have the perfect invincible connection, we're working on it. The last of our forces in the capitol area are all surrounding this connection point, however we are losing the battle and we don't have a lot of time to make this connection."
"...I'm sorry... I'm sorry... Every civilian in our nation is dead and 90% of the military. The only ones who remain are those of us in the command centre, the small espionage team within range of the room, those of us surrounding the connection and those of you on the way to the connection. Most small nations have been wiped clean, at this point all we can save is less than 1% of the global population."
Chapter Twelve
All I understand is I am not in the truck anymore. I'm outside. It's... Behind... Me? Ye-s... Wh-... No... Why would I even need... To... Care... Where... Truck... Is...
I don't... Know what's happening I don't even... Know... How... To... Know... All... I know... Is move. Explosions are everywhere, bullets flying everywhere, everyone is dropping as we're all... We all... Seem... To be... Moving... Towards...
My hallucination states "You've already lost." "I...? NO... ARE..." "Am I?" The second layer of my hallucination, speaks to me... "It'sjustwhatitsaysit'sjustwhatitsays... The dead one... The dead one... You get the dead one. YOU. ARE. NOT. DEAD. Not yet... Run."
My body... Runs... Runs... RunsSTOP. NOW. Hold. Duck.
"You did this to yourself." "...I...?" "IT'S. JU-AH-ST. W-KNG-HAT. THE. DEAD. ONE. SA-T!-YS."
Sit. Sit here. I can't... Even... I AM... USELESS. EVERYONE BUT ME IS FIGHTING. I haven't... Eaten... In two days... I haven't... Slept... In... ...AHhuuhh... "Thirty seven. You hav-snhavehave-e not slept in th-statntntn-irty seven days."
"Wait." I... "WAIT."
"Remember?" "..." "You never came back." "..." "You're not supposed to be here." "..."
It isn't... It isn't worth... Saving. It isn't... But... It... It... It is saved... Becauseaahhh... Because... Because forever... Forever... Forever... No matter what forever...
"Are you with me?" says the degenerate. "You... You're alive?" "I'm alive. I'm alive and it seems my nervous system energy is a little higher than yours, I have just enough to keep me going, okay? Okay? So you're coming with me, we're going to the connection." "...Okay..."
He grabs my arm and pulls me towards the fire. Everything... THerE... Is... DEAD... It's dead... It's dead...
"Remember?" "You've already lost." "I'm still here."
"I'm still here."
But you're... Dead. But you're dead. But you're... But you're... Dead. "I'm still here."
If... If... If... All... Is lost... Then... "Yes."
You're not... Here. "Yes."
"We wait. We have to wait we wait." "OK-...ay..."
"...How ... ma...n.. manman... mah... MAH... N-H... NH..." "How many days?" "Y-euh... Y...." "Two. Two..." "So... So..." "So day fourty is coming, your body can no longer preform is coming, and so victory is coming. It is. It is. It is. We're so close. We're... So... The science... TE-" he starts to cry. "The science team is dead, they finished their task, nobody has any idea what they did, there's like two hundred of us left, just a bunch of dumbass soldiers we don't know anything. We don't know anything all we know is form the connection. It's all set it's all set it's all set we just need to get there we just need to get there... They made it easy for us they made it easy for us, look look here it's on the tablet it's on the tablet you can do it you can do it."
"OKAY. OKAY we move we move we move let's go. Look, look right here. You hear me? You hear me? We've got it we've got it we've got it, we managed to do it and then die we did we did we did just press enter JUST PRESS ENTER GO GO GO GO."
The degenerate receives many bullets and all I know is that I am running. I hear over the radio "The command centre has been overtaken. We're finished. But we did it, we did, the connection is ready, the only remaining variables are whoever is listening and the espionage team."
"Remember?"
"I'm still here."
My last genade... Myl-...ahh... Falls... Off my fingers... It kills three in my way on the way to the button and scorches half of my body.
"I'm still here."
I don't know what's happening but I know a body is moving a body is moving GOD. MAKE. THIS. BODY. RUN. GO.
"I'm still here."
"Stnad-stnd-sntatechnology-st-st-stnaunprecided-st-stnatech-ond-ts-tdayfourt-spushbuttonp-nology uprecidented far too great was-st-stnt-meantmeantm-stn-eandnts-st-st-st-to end-st-stoend a soc-societysts-s-ts-tdayfourtystpush-tssntntostwasn't-t-t-meant-to end-society. The dea-snatsd-d one says re-elibtos-member the dea-stlibam-d one says you did this to you-stdayfourtypushbut-rself it doesn't ma-stangdli-tter it do-stin-esn't mattermattermatter it's just the fo-st-st-dint-stn-rmat it's just the for-st-st-st-stn-mat of sleepslees-s-s-leep depri-st-stl-a-vation it is ex-stadayfourtypushpushpushpush-but-butto-istent-st-st-st-ial dread arche-butpushtonb-push-utto-push-nbutton-typearchetypalrep-archetypalrep-representationrepresentation it mea-st-sn-st-stn-ns nothingnothingnothing to this moment push the but-st-st-ton push the bu-st-tton push the button pusth the butt-st-st-st-st-stst-on the sys-dayfourtyhepushbuttonda-STN...AH...STyouHURT..M-Mst-st.ME,GOD?-yfourtyhepushbutton-tem does not all-st-st-ow for extinc-sdayf-STAHA-HAHAHA-HAHA-GOD?-ourtybuttonbutton-tion and you w-HAHA?ME?-ill push the butt-HAHA-HAHA-ME?-onbuttony-stbutton-st-st-stbut-but-button-ouw-extinctioni-extinctionisn-sno-otpermitted-tpermitted-illyo-ondayfo-typearchetypalrep-urtyhep-M-M-HAHA-ME?-ushesthebutton-uststwillst-HAHA-HAHA-ME?-ststpushpushbutton." I made it. Click. I receive a bullet to the head.