SG Vol. 1 pt. 2

Heading Home; Reassignment

I remember when I used to lie in bed at night, shaking from adrenaline and fear, covered in sweat and filling a trash can next to my bed with vomit, and praying that I was delusional and that none of this world is real.

Now I just lie in bed, staring up at the ceiling, sweating because it’s fucking hot.

I might have my own room, but those in the barracks may as well have their own rooms with how empty they are now.

There’s no way I’ll be able to sleep like this.

May as well go on a run before we all get pulled out of here.

I open the door to my room and see Hog 3… what was his name again? Whatever his name is, he’s sitting on the ground with his back up to the wall.

“What are you doing?” I ask him.

“S-sir! I – I was just… I couldn’t sleep,” he answers.

“So you decided to sit in front of my door and get in the way of anybody who needs to use the hall? Go not sleep in your bed. That’s what it’s for on nights like these.”

“Sir, I just – I just… how – I want to know… how you do it.”

“How I do what?”

“How you deal with it, sir. How do you… forget their screams? Forget what you saw?”

“I don’t.”

“How the hell are we supposed to sleep? How do we go look at our families and smile after what we’ve seen?”

“You either get used to it or you die before you can.” His eyes widen from hearing my response. He looks shocked, maybe angry. This isn’t the first time I’ve had this conversation and I’m sure it won’t be the last time. People always expect some sort of easy answer from me that will make it all better for them, but that’s never what they get. Nothing is going to help them except for the truth.

“I… I see,” he says, hanging his head low.

“Try drinking and asking around for some pills. The combination will knock you out no matter what if you need sleep badly enough.” Might as well let him know about one of the other methods of dealing with it.

“I…”

“Look. Just use my bed. It’s comfier then whatever shit you’ve probably got, and you’ll get some quiet if you shut the door. You can have it until we leave.”

“Right… leaving. Those – those monsters are less than a hundred miles away from us. They know we’re here now. Shouldn’t we be leaving now? Aren’t they on their way here?”

“Yeah, they’re on their way here, and you’ll know they’re close if the alarm goes off. No point worrying about it unless the base alarm goes off. Just wait for prep to be done and we’ll be back on the carriers tomorrow.” We never should have fucking came here in the first place. Mission after mission results in nothing but failure, but the suits in their armchairs think wasting our lives is better than sitting around doing nothing all day.

Now we’re going to run with our tail between our legs back to Pearl with a half of what we left with.

“Did you see any Processor-classes?” I ask him.

“N-no, sir,” he answers.

“Then be grateful. You wouldn’t sleep for a month if you did.”

“Are they… that bad?”

“I’m telling you that you’ll never want to see one in action for as long as you live. Take that however you want.”

He gulps.

“I’m going for a jog. Go to sleep, and if you decide to use my bed, don’t mind the sweat.”

“Y-yes, sir.”

I look behind myself once I reach the end of the hallway and catch him walking into my room. Good. Hopefully, he’ll be able to get some rest.

I look back ahead of me and see a flash of Hog 2 with the skin melting off of her body.

Ghosts don’t scare me anymore. Maybe when I first fought on the front lines, but now, I know I can just walk right through them since they’re not real.

And so I do.

I bet this place used to be beautiful before the world went to shit. The gentle waves kissing the rocky shore, dead trees as far as the eye can see, and there are even a few patches of yellow grass here and there. The ocean and its waves are all that remain beautiful of this place. Outside of the base, not even the town that once watched over the ocean here is left standing.

It’s just ruins.

If seeing some small town reduced to ruins is enough to fill me with rage, I don’t even want to know what seeing LA or SF would do to me. How would it feel to see such massive cities that once used to be full of life now empty of it? To see monuments reduced to rubble and playgrounds scorched?

Just thinking about it is enough to piss me off.

I reach into my back pocket and pull out a picture as a gust of wind blasts sulfuric air into my face.

Naomi.

No matter how shit this world might be, you remind me that you are worth fighting for. That smile on your face can never be allowed to vanish.

I will fight to my last breath for you, Naomi, and even after I breathe my last, I will keep fighting even if it means prying those demons apart with my own fingers.

It’s my duty as your dad to make sure that you have a world worth living in someday.

I tuck her picture back into my pocket and go on my jog.

The carriers off the coast are already having supplies ferried over to them. Airlifting supplies and machines isn’t worth the risk anymore now that the demons know we’re here, so even the few remaining helicopters are being placed on boats and taken over to the carriers.

Us pilots will be the last to leave. First in, last out. Every time.

When I look in the direction of where the mission took place, I’m reminded of how many corpses were left behind.

It doesn’t matter how many of those fucking demons we kill. There will always be more and dying for them just gives them more materials to work with.

Can’t nuke them, can’t kill them without inevitably giving them more materials than they lose, and the losses they do suffer can just be recycled.

How the fuck are we supposed to defeat them?

Those experiments in Japan better lead to fucking something.

“Look!” one of the men nearby shouts at the other man he’s with.

I look at where they’re looking.

Three old gals are out on the water turning their cannons this way.

Bet nobody back then thought that the Yamato, Iowa, and Warspite would someday be working together to blast some demons from space to kingdom come. I bet they really never would have expected these girls to still be in service over sixty years later.

Explosions erupt from the barrels of their main guns. Shells as large as I am are sent flying overhead toward where those demons must be coming from. First, I hear the sound of the guns firing. Next, I hear their fired shells exploding in the distance. The destroyers escorting them launch a barrage of missiles afterward.

They’re coming for us. No doubt about it. All these battleships can do is slow down their approach.

“Hey, what do you think that is?” the man from before asks the other.

I look down at where they’re looking now and see something covered being loaded onto a… is that a submarine they brought into the bay?

From all the information shared with us, there isn’t supposed to be a submarine here.

This can only mean one thing.

The fucking sacrifice of all the lives lost here is a coverup for something else, and we’re apparently not important enough to know just what exactly they want us to die for.

I knew something was off about this operation when I first heard about it. It made no sense. I’m getting fucking tired of being left in the dark having no idea whatever the real goal might be.

But no matter how much I bitch and shout about it, nothing is going to change. I’m just some pilot.

I pull out Naomi’s picture again.

No matter how pissed off they might make me, seeing her angelic smile is enough to calm me down.

I can’t wait to see her again.

Shit, I almost forgot.

I jog down to the beach.

I told her I’d bring something back for her… but everything around here is ruined. All that’s left are these shells on the beach.

She has enough shells, but… I can’t think of what else to get her. I know she’ll smile and say she loves it no matter what, but I want to bring her something that is genuinely special.

Wait, is that a…

Seriously?