Life

Draco watched the soldier's head explode with awe. 

The injured man screamed out in horror when he saw this, "ODION!! Nooo!" he yelled.

Draco shook his head when he saw the man crawling over to his dead friend's rifle. 

He raised his pistol and shot a round into the man's head, putting him out of his misery. 

The man died pitifully, and Draco didn't have to look at his corpse to know that his head was now a pile of mush. 

Draco left the destroyed bunker with a weird feeling in his heart. 

'It was either me or them, and I still have to complete this mission or I'll be left here to rot." Draco thought, resolving himself for the battle ahead. 

He knew those wouldn't be the last soldiers he would have to kill. 

As Draco crossed the boundary marking the edge of the compound, he saw that the defenders had created a makeshift barricade outside of the industrial facilities. 

They had blocked the inner area with several armored vehicles, and a score of men stood behind the vehicles, using them as cover.

The machine guns mounted on top of the vehicles were firing off towards one of the bunkers to Draco's left. 

The bunker was not more than a hundred meters away, and it looked to be a target of the enemy's offensive.

Draco saw that there were two black-clothed men sprinting out of the bunker. 

They were engaged in a gunfight with several soldiers outside of the bunker, and Draco watched as they ran to cover behind a collapsed concrete wall.

They fired shots back at the soldiers, and whenever a soldier was hit they were blown into pieces or their arms and legs were sent flying. 

The soldiers continued to shoot at them though, blasting off chunks of concrete from their cover.

One of the strike-team members stood up from behind the cover to shoot back, but one of the armored vehicles had started to focus on his position.

Draco watched as the man was shredded and filled with bullets, collapsing lifeless over the concrete barrier. 

The lone survivor of the strike team was now pinned down, and he was unable to do anything as the soldier's advanced on his position.

Seeing that he was about to be surrounded, Draco steadied his pistol and shot a long range shot at one of the soldiers. 

His aim was true, and Draco watched as a fist sized hole was blown into his target's chest. 

The man flew backwards from the force of the impact, landing on a different soldier and knocking him off of his feet.

Draco was able to fire two more rounds, one of them missing and the other taking another soldier down in a flash of blood. 

This drew the attention of the barricade, and two of the mounted machine guns turned to focus on Draco! 

Seeing this, Draco dived down just in time to avoid the hail of bullets that arrived on his position. 

He crawled up to a piece of rubble for cover. He could feel bullets landing around him and slamming against his cover. 

After a few moments he dared to look over the edge, but quickly ducked back down when a bullet ricocheted dangerously close to his face. 

'F*ck! I'm pinned down!' Draco thought, wondering if this was how we would go out. 

However, Draco heard a loud explosion coming from the direction of the barricade, and the gunfire coming at him stopped.

He soon heard the gunfire resume, but this time it wasn't directed at him.

Peering over the edge once again, he saw that several of the armored vehicles were now smoking ruins! 

There were four individuals in black clothing a short distance behind the barricade, and they were firing rounds into the backs of the soldiers.

Draco watched as they promptly executed half a dozen of the soldiers, eliminating them with well placed shots to their backs. 

The remaining soldiers turned around to try to fight back, but they were now disorganized and panicking.

Draco got up from his cover and advanced on the barricade, shooting rounds at the distracted enemies.

The strike team member to his left must have killed the soldiers surrounding him, for he was also advancing on the enemy. 

Like this, the barricade was caught in a three pronged attack! 

Draco landed a shot at the back of one of the soldiers, blowing a hole into his spine and sending him flying forwards.

The soldier next to him turned to Draco in alarm, but Draco blew his head off as well.

Draco's comrade to his left dispatched another soldier, and the remaining few soldiers threw their weapons down and raised their hands in surrender.

As Draco reached the barricades position, he arrived just in time to see the other members of his strike team executing the kneeling soldiers with shots to the head. 

Draco spotted Ron and Demetri among them, and Ron was currently issuing out orders.

"You three, attack that compound to the East." he said, pointing to Demetri and two others.

He then turned to Draco and the other strike team member he had saved. 

"You two who just arrived, come with me. We'll be taking the big facility up ahead." he said.

The person Draco saved turned to him and offered his hand. 

Draco took his hand and the man said, "Thanks for saving me back there, I appreciate it. My name is Lenny, I'm in your debt, friend." 

Draco just smiled, "I'm Draco. Don't worry about it."

He watched Demetri's group head to a smaller building to their right. He caught Demetri's eyes and they gave each other a small nod, the meaning of which saying, 'Good luck. Don't die.'

Draco wondered where Snow was, but he put it out of his mind to focus on the mission ahead of him.

Draco and Lenny then followed Ron towards the large building ahead of their position. 

This building looked like a factory of some sort, and plumes of smoke were being blown into the air from a large hole on the top.

There was a rather large hole in the side of the building, and Draco guessed it must've been from the air strike earlier.

'This must be the main manufacturing facility. I wonder if that warlord is in there.' Draco thought, preparing himself for the inevitable fight.

Draco's group advanced on the building, and they came up to it along the side.

Seeing the gap in its wall up ahead, they creeped along until they had reached it.

Ron led the way, and the three of them crossed the hole to reach the inside of the facility.

Once inside, Draco was shocked by what he saw.

The building's interior was vast, and it was filled with various machines of unknown purposes.

There was a large vat of red liquid in the center of the facility, and it bubbled and swirled in the dim light of the building.

This was not even the most notable feature of the facility though, for hanging off the roof was a number of cages! 

These cages were all filled with malnourished people, their arms hanging uselessly out of the bars as they tried to call for help. 

Several people were frantically running around the facilities floor, and judging by their white lab coats Draco guessed that these were the researchers. 

Draco was about to ask Ron what they were going to do with them, when Ron and Lenny abruptly started shooting their pistols. 

Draco watched with shock as they gunned down the scientists. They paid their pleas for mercy no heed as they shot the researchers in cold blood. 

They spared no one, and once the researchers had all been killed Ron started shooting at the tank of red liquid in the center of the facility. 

After just two shots the vat exploded in a shower of glass and red fluids. 

'What a waste!' Draco thought, seeing the pool of what was presumably progenitor serum filling the facility. 

Draco saw that Ron was now heading up a set of staircases along the edge of the facility, and he and Lenny followed him with their pistols at the ready. 

There was a balcony at the top of the staircase, and the top floor of the facility was behind it.

Before they had reached the top of the staircase though, a group of soldiers rushed out at them, shooting down at their position with machine guns. 

There was no cover, and Draco watched as Lenny took a hit to the shoulder. 

The three of them began to fire shots up the staircase, and Draco heard a pained scream as one of the soldiers came tumbling down the staircase. 

Stepping over the man's body, Draco continued to fire upwards. 

One of his shots must've landed, for another soldier fell off the edge of the balcony and crashed into a machine on the ground floor. 

There was still one more soldier, but he retreated backwards to get better cover. 

Ron led the charge as the three of them pushed up the staircase, and once they had the soldier in their sights they blasted him into oblivion. 

The soldier fell against a metal door with three steaming holes in his body, each the size of a baseball. 

"Be ready, our target likely lies ahead." Ron said, looking at the metal door 

Ron pushed the body off of the door and then proceeded to blast a hole in the door's lock. He kicked the door open and it flew off its hinges into the room.

With his gun at the ready, Ron proceeded into the room.

However, just as he was crossing the doorway, a white flash of light went off in the room.

Draco watched as an explosion blasted Ron into a hundred pieces, sending chunks of the man flying out of the doorway. 

Draco stopped in front of the doorway with his ears ringing, and he saw Lenny dive into him just in time to watch the man get shredded by a hail of gunfire.

As Lenny lay across from him, Draco could tell that the man was done for. He was coughing up blood, and there must have been ten different gunshot wounds in his body.

Powered or not, no one could survive that.

Draco heard Lenny say something, his voice a whisper as he said one last thing with his dying breath.

"See.. I repaid.. you. A life… for a life." Lenny said, his eyes turning dull as he died.