Wings of Death

The Hunt

When the Bloodwing invasion began people were afraid of dying, they were afraid of losing their near and dear ones, they were afraid of going outside. Everyone just wanted to survive. People were willing to hide like cattle in a closed barn because they were afraid of the wolves outside. After 4 weeks, a lot had changed. Now they knew that the dreaded enemy had a weakness. They knew that even the Bloodwings can bleed and they can be killed too. It was time to fight back against these monsters and reclaim what humanity had lost.

The Vipers had been emboldened by their recent excursions outside the base and were prepared to go on the offensive. Captain Elijah ordered the Viper Squad and the three new recruits to meet him outside the ammunition storage facility.

Nathan and his friends felt honored to stand shoulder to shoulder with the elite Viper squad. They knew they had earned the Captain’s trust. It was a clear night; the moon washed the soldiers in a flood of moonlight. Captain Elijah had a determined look on his face. He handed the new recruits their SAGL 32-Ts which had just arrived from the Research and Development department and congratulated them for making it this far. The time had come for him to reveal his plan.

“Men, the time has come to take back what is ours”, he said addressing them.

Nathan realized what it meant. He knew that this was his chance to prove himself. For the first time in life Alex felt unprepared. The day of reckoning had arrived too soon. Joshua stood there motionless and waited for the captain to utter his next words. His heart was pounding faster than ever.

The Captain looked at the recruits long and hard and then continued with his speech.

“We have lost our homes, our families and our friends. They have taken our freedom from us. Look at yourself; you can’t even go out for a walk during daytime. Are we really so weak? Are we merely pawns in the hand of Destiny? Look into your heart and each one of you will discover a burning desire to fight for humanity. We have waited too long. Now the time has come to show these pesky birds what we humans are capable of. We will no longer live as prey. Instead we will step outside our pens and fight the wolves head on. Tonight, we hunt!”

All the men were roused by the Captain’s fiery speech. They shouted in unison,”Hoorah!”

Captain Elijah shouted on top of his voice, “Let me hear your battle cry!”

“Brave in the face of death! Brave in the face of death! Brave in the face of death!”

Their cries resounded throughout the whole military base. All of them were ready to hunt the Bloodwings. The day they all had been waiting for had finally arrived. The Vipers checked their gear and boarded their vehicles. Captain Elijah asked Nathan and his friends to board the Arch Knight tank before entering himself. The Viper squad was 30 strong and consisted of 6 Shock Hounds, 2 Metal Guardians and 2 Arch Knight Tanks. They were going to stay outside till dawn so they took three extra oxygen canisters for each vehicle. The men knew they had nothing to be afraid of since the cars were soundproof and the vanadium earplugs would temporarily protect them when they stepped outside. At the Captain’s order the convoy rolled out of the base ready to slaughter the Bloodwings.

It was a clear night and the stars lit up the sky like glittering diamonds. There wasn’t a single Bloodwing in sight. The convoy crossed the safe zone and headed into the dark unknown. On either side lay the ruined buildings with broken window panes and the decaying bodies of innocent men, women and children who had been killed by the Bloodwings. The moonlight flooded the streets and revealed once more the c*****e left behind by the alien invasion. The soldiers inside the vehicles swore to avenge the fallen tonight.

Some 20 miles from the base, they encountered a small swarm of Bloodwings. They were feeding on the corpses of the bandits killed by Lieutenant Amy. Joshua almost threw up after witnessing the dreadful scene.

“Open fire men. Aim at the ground!” thundered the Captain.

Immediately a volley of grenades pounded the ground in front and decimated the Bloodwings. The vehicles stopped for a while to check if they all had been killed and Alex counted the corpses of the Bloodwings. When the convoy started moving again, he announced, “Vipers: 20. Bloodwings: 0”.

“Let’s kill at least 200 tonight”, said Corporal Matt with a bloodthirsty look on his face. His wife and daughter had been killed by the Bloodwings and he had been dying to avenge his family. Tonight he had the chance to settle the score.

The Bloodwing encounters became more frequent as they neared the countryside. 1 hour into the mission they had already stacked up over 130 kills. The men in uniform felt unstoppable. One of the soldiers even suggested that they should launch an attack during the day next time so that they could kill even more of them. Captain Elijah however, knew that the Bloodwings were extremely difficult to target during the day time because of their increased flying speeds. Even if they did manage to target a few of them they would soon be overwhelmed by plagues of Bloodwings which were over 500 strong. The night was advantageous to them as it restricted the flying speeds of the Bloodwings and they mostly appeared in small swarms.

2 hours into the mission the squad had already killed 300 Bloodwings. The Shock Hounds were running low on gas now so they decided to step outside and continue the hunt on foot. As long as they had the vanadium ear plugs inserted they had nothing to fear. The Arch Knight tanks guarded the rear while the Vipers went ahead on foot. Nathan and his friends were ordered to stay near the tanks and keep their eyes peeled. Captain Elijah and his men had reached the City Square and were scanning the surroundings for threats.

“Sir, I think I see something”, cried out Abel. He had been searching the area in front using his binoculars.

“Let me see”, Captain Elijah stretched out his right hand towards him.

“Here you go sir”, Abel handed the binoculars to the Captain and stepped back.

Captain Elijah zoomed in using the binoculars and was quite surprised to see a single Bloodwing flying towards them. He was quite baffled by what he had seen because   Bloodwings always hunted in groups. As the Bloodwing moved neared he noticed that this one didn’t look like any of the others they had encountered so far.