The Saga Of The Emptiness Harbinger - Chapter 3 The Scream

‘Damn he’s big.’ I thought as I circled around the Centurion.

“C’mon, worm, poke me if you can. Or do you want me to move first?” He asked in a mocking tone that would infuriate many people but not me, it scared the shit out of me.

He moved first. He swung his steel hammer at me trying to smash me with his first try. I evaded his powerful swing god knows how and ‘poked’ him in the leg.

‘Wait!!!! What?! I stabbed him?!? What the fucking shit??!?!’

My mind was blown away while his blood poured from the wound on his leg.

The centurion looked at his leg and scratched his head. He then said with an indifferent tone like someone saying ‘a mosquito bit me’

“Heh? Looks like you poked me, lad.”

I was dumbfounded by his exclamation, and I couldn’t help but stare at him. He took out a bandage and wrapped his wound.

“Ok. Then what was your name again, lad?” He asked

“It’s Shorty, sir.”

“Nice to meet you, Shorty. My name is Aurelius Imp. You are now in charge of these newbies, let them know.” He said in a relatively low voice.

I cleared my throat and said to my fellow newbies:

“I’m now in charge of you gentlemen. I won’t be as harsh as the Centurion so you’ll need to give me only fifty.”

Of course, there were whispers in the crowd, I am an outsider here in the first place.

They did what I ordered since I was chosen by Aurelius and they didn’t dare oppose him. What surprised me was the feeling that the power of being in command brought me. It is absolutely wonderful!

While they were doing push-ups, I suddenly remembered my father, the way he died, his last words. It’s not just two of us who were affected by the enemies’ sneak attack, the whole town was erased from the face of Gronos. My father mentioned a guy that is responsible for firing the laser over our neighborhood.

‘Father, I swear I’ll find the truth behind the attack. I’ll make him suffer.’ I promised my deceased father and myself.

“Shorty come here.” Legate Arnold called me. I went up the stairs and stood before him. Next to him was Mark, and he said in a friendly tone:

“Don’t forget to salute. You’ll get yourself punished for disrespectful behavior otherwise.”

I followed his advice and saluted to both of them.

“So, I see you got Aurelius’ respect. Not bad, the last one died trying. You’ll be sent on a low-risk mission to test your capability as an officer. If you mess it up or lose your men, you’ll be kicked out of the army and left on your own. If you don’t succeed in getting respect from your men, well, they’ll kick you out. And beat you up.” Legate said simply while smoking his cigar.

“Also keep in mind that they are soldiers, while you are not. They all know each other and you are a stranger that was suddenly given command over their lives. Don’t expect them to love you, expect them to hate you instead.” Mark added

“Sir, if I can ask, what will be the mission?” I asked

“Well, they won’t tell you now of course. You’ll be sent out tomorrow noon, you’ll get a quick briefing on the go. They don’t have three-hour talks about missions like the ordinary army. You’re in the SF, god damn it, act like that” My question was answered by a soldier in a grey uniform, most certainly not ours. He came out for the door behind the legate and stood next to him without saluting or greeting the seniors. His face was covered with a face-like mask made out of metal. He spoke directly to me not giving any attention to the legate or the centurion.

“Lad, I’ll be your supervisor on the test run. I would like to know your name, by the way.”

“It’s Shorty, sir.” I answered

“No need to be so stiff while talking to me. I’m not ranked nor is there a way to rank me or name me. I’ll explain since you seem uninformed about my faction. I’m a Nameless of Anonymous. We are an assassin organization that sells it’s services to everyone who can pay. Doesn’t matter if it’s a personal or state matter if you pay someone dies. We also steal and sell information, stuff and so on. We are stationed everywhere, so I can’t really tell you everything ’bout us.”

“That’s already too much info for him, tin-face.” Said Mark to the Nameless one.

Go to the barracks and get some rest before you and your men go for a mission.”

After the direct orders given by centurion Mark, I saluted and turned to go find a place to sleep. As I walk through the passages between the barracks I am stopped by three of the soldiers I remember seeing somewhere. They approach and pull out tactical batons, ready to make trouble. One of them says in a rough voice:

Are you ready to defend yourself brat?”

I started laughing. It wasn’t evening yet, and I’m already assaulted in the middle of the barracks. All because I’ve been appointed to command after a day in the military. Since I was warned I expected this to happen, but not so soon.

“Are you guys sure you want to test me now?” I asked with an arrogant smirk on my face

“You, brat are not gonna command us veterans.” says the big guy to the left and then moves, but much slower than Aurelius, so I avoided him easily. The only problem is, I’m unarmed and they have the tactical batons. I moved five steps back as they moved towards me swinging their batons. I evaded and moved back again, I’m simply not better than three armed men and I realize that.

‘Damn it. They’re gonna beat me up like this. I can’t run away and I have nothing to fight back with. And if they hit me with a baton away goes my bone.’ I thought for myself, and then said to them:

“Guys, I can go on like this for a couple of minutes before we end up in centurions’ parts, and then we all suffer.”

“I will not stop until I break at least one of your legs.” says the third guy who didn’t speak until now. I looked at them again and shrugged:

“You guys really don’t understand, do you? I asked are you sure about testing me now since we are going to a test mission tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” the third guy said

“It’s impossible for it to be tomorrow. We need to pass at least a month of advanced training to be allowed to go out of the base. Let alone on a mission of some importance.” said the one that spoke the first when we met.

“I was told we should have a supervisor from Anonymous, and the info is legit. The legate informed me so it’s for sure.” I said, using the free time to gain some space between us just in case they attack again.

“But we don’t have our equipment yet. How the heck are we supposed to pull out a mission?” said one of them with an angered expression on his face.

“Let’s worry about that when we get up tomorrow. Now let’s go find ourselves some napping space, shall we?” I said and went on to the barracks’ dorms.

Others put away their batons and go to sleep as well. While laying on the bed I thought:

‘I can’t believe I’ve survived that. Damn. Who knows, I might even thrive in this service.’

And with this thought, I fell asleep.

I woke up after three hours. I sat up on the bed and concentrated on the noises coming from outside. There were shouts coming from the outside. And there was a scream in my head. A scream that was ear shattering, one of pain, and of extreme pleasure. A primal scream, one which I never encountered before.

My bones were frozen by it. After five minutes of paralysis, I was able to move, I ran out of the building and looked around. The whole base was covered in thick fog that stank of blood and explosives. I moved to the doors of the adjacent room since my squad should be in there. And they were. They were sleeping, which is logical since it is nearly midnight. I started waking them by shaking them by the shoulder.

“Hey get up we have a problem.” I whispered.

“What is it, sir?” asked one of the three that assaulted me not too long ago.

“Something is wrong outside, wake the rest and gear up with what we have.”

“Got it.” he said. As he started shaking his friend I remembered something:

“Soldier, I forgot to ask. What is your name?”

“It’s Alan, sir.” he answered while shaking another soldier

“Ok, Alan, you can call me Shorty. And I need to ask you one more question” I said also waking soldiers.

“Go on Shorty.” he said with caution noticeable in his voice.

“Is there often a mist stinking of blood out here?” I asked in a worried tone. He looked at me with a shocked expression on his face.

“N-no, there was never such a thing in the north that I know about, Shorty.”

“Then we have trouble on our backs. Is everyone ready yet?” I asked upon hearing his answer. Since all of them were soldiers they got ready pretty fast, but the problem was our lack of armaments.

“We are ready, sir. The only thing that we are lacking is weapons and special equipment.” one of the soldiers said.

“Is there a way for us to arm ourselves?”

“Armory, sir. But it is on the other side of the base.”

“No problem, just show us the way.”

“Yes, sir.”

‘Looks like it’s all gonna change from now on. We’re gonna have trouble, heh.’ As I thought about the trouble we’re gonna have the scream echoed in my head again and I fainted.