( The Tower Beckons )

"Attention!" the drill sergeant shouted to the crowd of soldiers below him.

The group of soldiers salutes the sergeant as they are called to attention in a large plaza, placed in the middle of the army base. The sergeant begins to pace.

"As you should know, today is the most important day of your life. This is more important than the birth of your first son, more important than the day you finally get married to the love of your life, more important than the day that the towers fell from the sky!"

He pauses.

"Do you know why?" He asked.

"YES, SIR!" the crowd roars.

He smirks. "Of course you do; you have been training for the last two years of your life! But just to remind you, today is the day the second Great Tower draft is scheduled! Today is the day that you will be remembered as heroes to your country, both in life and death! No one knows what the tower has in store for you all, but I know every single person here is a warrior in their own right."

"The great tower draft starts in two hours. I want you to prepare yourself, ensure you have your equipment, and I suggest that you organize your affairs because this may be the last time you touch American soil."

"Dismissed."

The crowd of soldiers stops their feet, salutes the sergeant, and disperses. Walking among the group is a young black man wearing soldier attire with dreads hanging past his neck; he stands five feet eleven. He has brown eyes and a pigment defect at the lower part of his cheek that runs down to his neck. His physique is pretty average by all standards.

"Just some luck I have," he says whiny. 'Of course, I had to be drafted as soon as I graduated, man.' he thought. 'I thought I had so much life ahead of me, but now I've gotta go into this damned tower.' As he was thinking this, he felt something touch his shoulder from behind; looking back, he saw a petite woman. She has pale skin and brown hair with blonde stripes running through it and also wears military attire. She has blue eyes and wears a necklace with a cross running through its chains, also around her neck, a distinct pair of rounded goggles, and a name tag that says, Cecil.

"You about ready to go, Elijah," said Cecil.

"Yeah, just about. Gotta call my brother to tell him bye first, might be the last time I see him anyway," he says remiss.

"Don't say that, You're the strongest guy I know, we'll be fine," she says while punching him in the shoulder.

"Alright," she says as she stops punching.

"Right," he says.

"Well, I have to go and get the rest of my things. We're meeting the rest of the platoon in front of the barracks before we leave, make sure to meet us there, k," she said.

"Alright, meet you there and tell Luke and Makoa not to eat all my snacks, or I'll kick their ass."

Walking, looking around for a quiet space among the thousands upon thousands of people gathered in the venue, he finds a spot behind some building near the massive electric wall that circles the camp. He pulls out his phone and starts to call. After ringing for a couple of seconds, someone picks up.

"Yo, what up, man?" said the person on the phone.

"Nothing much, but you know I'm about to be deployed and I just wanted to tell you... I love you, String," said Elijah.

"Ah man love you too, but it's not like we'll be apart for that long. I'll be getting deployed in the next tower draft anyway," said String.

"Yeah, man, I know but anything can happen in two years, seeing as the monster attacks have been getting worse over the last two years...," Elijah says with slight concern in his voice.

"There's no need to worry, bro, You know I'm the best cadet in my year, I'll be fine."

"Yeah, I know but I'm just worried," Elijah said.

"Don't be, what you should be doing is worrying about that girlfriend of yours. Where is she anyway?"

"She just went to meet up with the rest of the squad before we head out, I'm heading over there after this," Elijah said.

"Alright, your anniversary coming up soon, right? It'll be 1 year, right?"

"Yeah, it's too bad we'll be in the tower, getting everything set up and doing recon so we won't be able to celebrate, but I did get her this nice..." Elijah said as a giant explosion rumbled in the distance.

"What the hell was that!" Elijah said.

"What's going on over there," String said concerned.

"There was just a huge explosion over by the main plaza, I'm going to have to call you back," he says as he hangs up the phone. running over to the plaza there stands a 10-foot orc with primitive clothing, and a gigantic wooden club, surrounded by fire and bodies, blood stained upon the pavement, along its skin red tattoos looking like tribal markets, and its belly bloated, like it hadn't eaten in weeks, eating a fellow soldier.

Over the intercom, the announcer says, "This is a code red, I repeat a code red, monsters have arrived at camp. Shoot to kill, I repeat shoot to... wait no, no stay away, NOOO, AH-" he says as the intercom cuts out.

"Fuck this is bad, really fucking bad, when the hell does the gate open up," he says. he looks at the clock tower remaining in the town square, and it reads 5:44. "damn it I still have 16 more minutes, I have to find the rest of my squadron quickly," Elijah thinks. as he says this he feels the air around him start to change and get warmer, he looks behind him and sees a second orc drooling in anticipation of its next meal. the orc starts to pull back its hand. As it pulls its arm back he says,

"Shit."