Doomsday Pillars

"Bravo unit report!"

"I see dozens of monkeys, sir."

"Ok, cautiously move in."

"Roger that!"

"Charlie unit, report!"

"..."

"Charlie unit! Report!"

"Charlie unit! Hey! Misfits, report!!!"

"Yes! Yes! Yes, colonel. The area looks clear, sir! Sorry, we forgot that we’re Char... doesn’t matter."

"Move in, Misfits, be careful."

"Yes, sir."

The man behind the radio was Colonel Bernard of the Jakarta’s fourth division. Hundreds of his men were trying to infiltrate a small village somewhere in the south of Java.

"Are you sure that they will be fine without you?" Colonel Bernard looked at the young man behind him.

"I trust my group, colonel. They’ll be fine." Adam said.

The colonel couldn’t help but feel a little bit worried, this was the first time the group called Misfits would be fighting without their leader. He looked at the girl next to Adam and asked. "So Daisy, how many humans can you sense in there?"

Daisy closed her eyes and concentrated on the village in front of her. Within her mind, everything was pitch black, but lights suddenly sprung out and started moving around the space. She could see the lights representing the army behind her and the two units that were slowly approaching the village, she then saw a few lights standing still inside the village. She opened her eyes and said, "Around half of a dozen, colonel. There are a few dozen mutated beast roaming in the village though."

Colonel Bernard had been depending on Daisy’s power for a while now. Upon hearing what she said, he looked at the hundred men behind him.

"Everyone, get ready!" ordered Colonel Bernard.

Two weeks ago, at the rendezvous point in the City of Bandung, the fourth division was devastated upon seeing the remains of the third division. More than a thousand corpses of their comrades were found. It was such a horrible scene. There were also a lot of mutated animals corpses at the site, but upon further investigation, there were reasons that suggested the third division was attacked by other humans.

The most obvious reason was that all of the third division’s equipment and supplies were nowhere to be found. Next, was that Colonel Bernard knew the commander of the third division. Colonel Joko was a cautious man, it’s unlikely for him and his men to be defeated by mindless animals, unless something might had happened out of their expectations. But Colonel Bernard knew this was just speculation, if it were indeed humans who had done this, he couldn’t understand why in such a crazy time humans would turn on each other.

The fourth division was composed of 3,000 men. The colonel had decided to split them into two, half would bring the ten thousand survivors to the City of Semarang to meet General Rico as planned. As for the other 1,500 men, they had been separated further into three battalions of 500 men. The first battalion was led by the colonel himself and had headed south through the east path, while the second battalion had gone through the west path. The third battalion had stayed in Bandung City to find other survivors.

The 500 men from the first battalion had been tracking the culprits for days and the tracks had led them to this small village.

Among the 500 men, there were only three platoons that the colonel could rely on. The Alpha platoon, the colonel’s own personal army, the Bravo platoon, composed from the special forces, and the Charlie platoon, the group led by Adam called Misfits.

The Misfits had been a very reliable unit ever since their first campaign 3 weeks ago. Although they were reckless, the Misfits had been able to finish the task given with great results.

The colonel had realized the secret of the Misfit’s achievement were due to their leader. Even though Adam may be very young, he had been leading his people quite well. The colonel knew about Adam’s identity, in fact, General Rico himself gave him a special note about Adam. Initially, the colonel thought that this Adam and the Misfits would only endanger the mission, but within the last month that they had been fighting together, the colonel found himself liking this young man more and more, he felt that Adam was a born leader.

"Are you sure that this is the right time to let the Misfits fight without you?"

The colonel was worried as he knew the Misfits were not professionally trained men. They were just a bunch of teenagers, a ragtag group and if not for Adam, the colonel believed that these young people would have died already, without Adam, he felt that the Misfits would not be fine.

"They’ll be fine colonel. In times like these, my comrades need to learn and work with each other. Especially more so for dangerous missions like this. I believe their team work will improve dramastically."

The colonel took Adam’s word for it, but Daisy knew behind Adam’s stern and confident look, Adam’s was truly nervous about what would happen to his group of misfits.

"The fight is about to start! Get ready!"

SLASH!! PA!! PA!!

50 men from the special forces attacked from the east side, while the misfits attacked from the west side, soon after, dozens of monkeys frantically charged at the two teams.

Most of the special forces had reached high stage Mortal Realm and some had reached the peak stage Mortal Realm. While, on the other hand, most of the Misfits had reached the peak stage Mortal Realm, it was just that they were just lacking a bit in numbers. But with the two forces combined, these dozens of mutated monkeys were easily dealt with.

SLASH!! PA!! PA!!

The screeching of the wild monkeys in the village. The Misfits seemed to be having fun in getting a piece of the action.

"Five little monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell off and bumped his head, mama called the doctor and the doctor said no more monkeys jumping on the bed..."

"Hey Romi, stop with the singing. It’s creeping me out!"

"Come on, Jason! I am just trying to lighten the mood that’s all!"

"Watch your back!"

SLASH!!! Shrieeekkk!!!

"You guys should talk less, concentrate."

"Yes, vice-leader Rick!"

"Nathan and Nathalie, advance your team’s positions. We take care of the ones left in here."

"Ok, Rick."

"Bye, boys! We are heading up first. Tommy, you come with us!"

Rick led the Misfits if neither Adam nor Daisy was there to lead. He was their neighbor in the apartment and had been a good teammate ever since the doomsday started. Among them, there are: Jason, the huge bulky guy, was Adam’s basketball teammates and best friend. There is also Romi the talkative guy, Nathan and Natalie the siblings orphan from the street mercenaries and Lastly, Tommy the young shadow spirit enhancer.

The Misfits quickly cleared the area of mutated monkeys. Since there were no more monkeys attacking them, Rick radioed the colonel back. "All clear, colonel. We are heading to the suspected building"

"Greta job Misfits! Is anyone hurt?"

"No, sir. That’s a negative. We are fine."

"Good."

Hearing the report, Adam felt delighted, it looked like his worries were for nothing after all.

The colonel received the same confirmation from the Bravo unit a few seconds later.

The Misfits and the Bravo unit then went inside a building where the tracks seemed to be leading them.

"Bravo unit to central command."

"This is central, what’s the status, soldier?"

"The area is clear of hostiles, sir."

"What do you mean? The tracks led here. Are they already gone?"

"It’s... I think it’s probably best for you to come and see yourself, colonel."

"Ok."

After clearing the area of the mutated beasts, the first battalion men went inside the small village. Colonel Bernard was accompanied by Adam and Daisy and went straight to the building where they were expecting the culprits, but what’s awaiting them shocked their cores.

Five men lied on the floor. But that wasn’t the reason for their shock, rather the condition of the five men lying on the floor were gruesome; their bodies were thin and oozing out sweat, and blood were slowly coming out from their eyes, ears, and nose. The medics were already treating them.

The colonel expected resistance waiting for them in the building, but instead, what they found were five dying men. He was confused, and had no further lead as to what had happened, these five men might give him the answer.

Half an hour later, the army of 500 deployed defensive positions in the four corners of the village.

The leader of the medic finished checking on the five men and approached the colonel. "These five men seems to have had ingested some sort of poison, but I can’t say for sure as I need to use a laboratory for a solid conclusion."

"Poison... is there a way to save them for now?"

"I’m sorry sir, but we can’t administer an antidote without knowing what kind of poison they took. Right now, their pulse is very low, I reckon they probably only have a few hours left."

"..."

The colonel gave it a little thought and said. "How about forcefully waking one up? We need information."

"Morphine should do the job, but he won’t last long after he consumed it."

Seeing the men lying on the floor, Colonel Bernard somewhat hesitant, these men looked like any other Indonesian citizens, a simple villager. Giving the morphine would surely kill the man. But recalling about the dead corpses of the third division, he stopped hesitating. "Do it."

The medic injected the morphine serum into the veins of a dying man.

Suddenly, the man’s eyes opened wide. Earlier, the man had been unconscious, but now, he was awake and was able to push the medic, the whole thing happened so fast that no one had no time to react.

BAAMMM!!!

The medic was thrown 5 meters away and hit the wall. The force of the push was so strong that the medic passed out.

The drugged man suddenly stood up. Two of the nearest special forces quickly grabbed on to him to push him down, but the drugged man was stronger than the two who had the strength of high stage Mortal Realm and broke out their grasp. He looked around and saw that he’s surrounded by dozens of fighter, and then he stopped moving. He seemed to be confused for a moment and stared at his hands and body.

Colonel Bernard quickly called out to the confused man. "We are from the government, we are here to help, tell us who you are?"

The confused man woke up from his daze and then looked at the people surrounding him as he said, "We are the Heavenly Gate, all of you infidels cannot stop us! I will soon be with my god! My god is great! Pledge your allegiance to our lord, or else you all will be purged!

"PURGEDD!! PURGED!!! Hahahahaah!"

The man suddenly knelt to the ground and blood started to pour out from his nose and ears, he then started coughing blood a few seconds later. The man then dropped to the ground, not moving anymore, he was dead as blood were spilling out from his orifices creating a pool of blood on the floor.

There was a sudden silence within the room, everyone was shocked on what had just happened. Adam then suddenly felt that something bad was about to happen, he then looked at Daisy and her pale face gave out the answer he was worried about. "Daisy.. What is it?"

"We... we are surrounded..."

"How many?"

"There are...hundreds... no... thousands"