Wings of Death

I hate sunny days

The Bloodwings swarmed the skies like a plague of red locusts and soon their enormous wings blotted out the sun. Their screams kept growing louder every second. The survivors started feeling dizzy. Nathan knew this feeling. He had felt that unbearable pain when the Bloodwings had shattered the window panes of his house. Alex shouted at the people and told them to find shelter. It was of no use. They were so terrified that they started to panic.

“Cover your ears and run!” shouted Alex but no one listened to him. They started running mindlessly. Nathan and his parents stood motionless. They didn’t even try to cover their ears or run. Alex pulled Joshua by his arm and cried, “We have to get off the streets”. He remembered he had promised his mom that he would always take care of his brother. No matter what happened he had to save Joshua. His mom’s face flashed before his eyes, he wasn’t ready to die yet, not before rescuing her. Alex kept pulling Joshua with all his strength but he was frozen in terror. All his energy had been drained; he could no longer hold on to Joshua’s arm. Everyone on the street had already started to bleed. They now had nowhere to run even if they wanted to. The Bloodwings had completely surrounded them.

“Slaughter them! Charge forward”, cried a voice in the distance. A tall muscular man with a dark bushy beard and a clean shaven head jumped down from an armored hummer and started firing guided rockets from his Z-19 rocket launcher. In a minute he had managed to slaughter almost 30 Bloodwings with his rockets. The remaining Bloodwings tried to get away but were shot down by the soldiers behind him. They had just witnessed a miracle.

It took Captain Elijah and his men just 90 seconds to clear out the Bloodwings. Captain Elijah had trained his men to hit the Bloodwings hard and clear out all threats within 3 minutes. Any longer and they all would have started bleeding due to the screams. They were lucky that only a small swarm of Bloodwings had shown up. Perhaps the rest were still hiding somewhere. This special unit contained veteran soldiers as well as the best new recruits who had been handpicked by the Captain himself. They had received just 15 hours of special training before being deployed for their first mission against the Bloodwings. Rescuing these survivors seemed pretty easy compared to their first mission where they had to secure the area around the fort which had been swarming with Bloodwings. It had taken them almost 175 seconds to eliminate the Bloodwings around the fort. Though the fort itself was well protected they still needed to establish a safe zone all around it in order to maintain lines of communication and transport.

Their savior stepped forward. Alex had collapsed on the ground. The grim looking man in military uniform gave Alex his hand and helped him get back on his feet. When the survivors had managed to come to their senses, he greeted them in his loud booming voice, “Captain Elijah West at your service. You are in safe hands now.”

Nathan kept looking at him in amazement. He could not believe what had just happened. From that day onward he started worshiping Captain Elijah as his hero. They all thanked the captain with teary eyes. Captain Elijah graciously accepted their token of gratitude and escorted them to the armored troop carriers. Nathan was curious to know how he had managed to find them.

“I was on my way to the subway when I met this man standing in the middle of the road with his wife and two sons. When I spoke with him I realized you all were in grave danger. The bridge has been out for three days now.” explained the captain.

If Captain Elijah hadn’t encountered that man on the street he would have headed for the subway. The arrival of Captain Elijah and his men was nothing less than a miracle. A few more minutes and they all would have bled to death. Nathan understood that he had a lot to learn before he could become a good leader. He realized that saving humanity was far more difficult than luring a couple of Bloodwings into a trap. One needed to possess foresight to be a good leader.

After they had picked up all the survivors, the convoy headed back to the subway. Nathan and Alex looked at each other and smiled. They would have an epic story to tell when they meet Margaret again.

Joshua started crying and hugged Alex tightly. He spoke in a feeble voice, “I hope mom is safe”.

Alex rubbed his back and tried to comfort him. “I am sure mom is okay. She is a smart woman”, he said.

When Nathan was three years old he often used to say, “I hate sunny days. It’s so hot outside. Please make it rain, dad”. It seemed he was destined to be haunted by sunny days forever.

Captain Elijah’s convoy made short work of the Bloodwings along the way. The convoy consisted of 10 fully armored troop carriers, 5 light armored assault cars and 5 specially designed tanks. These troop carriers had been specially designed to protect the people inside from the Bloodwings. They did not have any windows and windshields. The driver navigated his way by the help of cameras attached on all 4 sides of the vehicle which were connected to the main control panel inside the car. It allowed the driver a 360 degree view of his surroundings. These specially designed cars were sound proof and had a top speed of 100 miles an hour. They had been designed by the military’s weapons expert Klaus Varchovsky. These armored troop carriers were commonly known as Metal Guardians. The tanks had 101 mm main cannon which fired both explosive rounds as well as smoke bombs. These tanks had been designed to counter the Bloodwings. Their main cannons could be moved upward up to an angle of 60 degrees which allowed the tank to target Bloodwings flying in the skies. Just like the Metal Guardians these tanks were also completely soundproof and were popularly known as Arch Knight tanks. The light assault cars were also fully armored and without any windows. They had automatic turrets mounted on top of them which fired cluster grenades at a rate of 30 rounds per minute. These cars were designed to be highly mobile and had a top speed of 200 miles per hour. The soldiers called these assault cars Shock Hounds.

The convoy managed to plough through the Bloodwings with ease and managed to reach the subway within 15 minutes. It had been an agonizingly long wait for Margaret. She had heard the cries of the Bloodwings and knew Nathan and Alex were in grave danger.  The color of her cheeks finally returned when she saw Nathan and Alex were safe. However, she was not in a good mood. She walked up to Nathan and Alex and reprimanded them severely for not listening to her. They both apologized to her and promised to listen to her advice from now on. Captain Elijah stepped down from his Shock Hound and greeted the survivors. He assured them that no harm would come to them. The survivors thanked the captain and quickly boarded the Metal Guardians. They were quite surprised to see that none of the cars had any windows.

“We are going to suffocate inside this metal cage,” cried a man in panic.

“Don’t worry, there is an internal ventilation system which supplies oxygen. You will be safe inside”, replied Captain Elijah.

After all their doubts and suspicions had been put to rest, the convoy began to move. Captain Elijah advised them to take the service tunnel on the right as it would be safer. They did not want to run into any more Bloodwings on the way. Service tunnel B-38 was connected directly to Fort Barton’s vehicle storage facility. It was used by soldiers for rapid deployment. The tunnel was 6 miles long and was sealed by two metal doors at each end. These doors could only be opened by speaking a password. The inside of the tunnel was dimly lit and had a check post after every 2 miles.

Nathan had only seen such secret tunnels in movies. The fear of the Bloodwings no longer bothered him. He was super excited to travel inside an armored car and that too in the company of Captain Elijah, one of the most decorated military captains. It was an honor for them to be escorted by the man who was the head of security at Fort Barton.