Curtain Call

"He's waking up!" A distant voice called, a flash of light was shown into my right eye and I tried to turn it away but a hand held me in place. My head was forced further to the right until the light shone into my left eye.

"Good Job Doc." A harsh voice said. My mind was foggy and the voice seemed distant with echoes. Yet they were right in front of me. "On your feet poster boy." Said the harsh voice. My arm got slung around a neck and I was hoisted to my feet. My vision swam and nausea churned my stomach.

I tried to look up into the eyes of the harsh man but my vision dropped back to the pavement. A finger pressed against my forehead, tilting my head back up to meet the harsh man's gaze. My eyes darted to his shoulder. There were three of those, with three badges and insignias. Three officers. 

"Lieutenant, sir!" My arm jerked upward in a motion that barely resembled a salute. A sharp pain shot through me with a cold, metallic intrusion.

"This should help." A young man said, dressed in militarized doctor's attire.

Instinctively I wanted to say, "Thanks, Doc." But my eyes shot around, my voice roused and one name came forth. "IBUKI!" From left to right, I saw body bags loaded up to a half-track, both directorate and Insurgent numbers among them. Further to the left prisoners are lined up with a soldier having his foot on one of their shoulders squeezing out what little information they have in them. 

Darting to the right, I saw another platoon advancing in formation, half-tracks rolling alongside troopers on foot as they slowly and orderly made their way forward. To our right, more half-tracks stood by as medics rushed between the wounded. Ibuki layd strapped to a stretcher, set to be shipped back to the upper city alongside the other wounded and dead. 

"I commend your resilience, Sergeant. Your friend showed no signs of waking up tonight you're lucky that green-haired lunatic found you when he did," the Lieutenant said. "Given your efforts to remodel the lower city, they might not have bothered to capture you."

"I thank you for your encouraging words, Lieutenant. I apologize for my failure to avoid capture, my inability to extract without support, and the excessive use of force, along with the damage to the lower city." 

"Quite, Sergeant. Despite your shortcomings, your actions allowed us to coordinate with the Internal Police force in tandem with their Commissars. By dawn, this threat will be eradicated, and the upper city will remain secured." Small bursts of gunfire echo from one or two streets over, punctuated by the occasional roar of machine guns. "In the end, only results matter." 

"..." 

"The footage from your body cams demonstrated efficiency, swift decision-making, and precise execution. The Military is prepared to issue a recommendation should you wish to join the Commissariat. With a service record as distinguished as yours, you can expect a warm welcome."

"I don't want that kind of power or authority, sir."

The Lieutenant chuckled, "I believe such a position has its merits in accordance with the work you are already doing, especially with the additional leeway it offers regarding your reports and censure you might face for overstepping boundaries that are not public knowledge."

"I'm not sure I should be hearing this, sir"

"No, you stay." The Medic shifted my weight around uncomfortably but kept me on my feet. "For you, Sergeant, serving in both the Militia and the Internal Police only magnifies the weight of your actions. These aren't just my words; they come directly from High Commissar Hoxworth, who would be delighted to show you the ropes." 

The Temperature changed from a freezing cold to a crushing sense of warmth. 

"And he's not alone in this," the Lieutenant continued. "The troopers here respect you for your courage, and two figures are in agreement on this. The Commissar from the Internal... Secret Police?" He glanced down at the screen mounted on his wrist. "We really should standardize this at some point," he muttered. He looked back up at me, a bit confused. "And your daddy…" In this very moment, the deepest sight of Human history was taken." By any chance, do you happen to know Commissar Hoxworth on a personal level?"

"..." In the lifetime of the Human species, an event like this will not ever occur again, with the deepest sight and the second deepest sight taken in back-to-back action. "Yes… He's an old friend of my Foster Father, they go way back." 

"Then there should nothing be in your way to join their ranks." His eyes narrowed when he looked at my eyes. "Given the opportunity one doesn't refuse to join the Commissariat, neither does one refuse the status out of humility, but selfishness your inaction would keep the power and status out of reach to help the Citizens of the Directorate."

"Perhaps this is also the power you're going to need to endure the censure boastful elements of the military will push for with all of the inflicted damage you two caused. The Merit one holds only protects one that much, Sergeant." He concluded. 

"But you don't get to kill him." A voice said with a deep breath, the scarce amount of sanity he possessed audible in every syllable. My eyes darted to where that weirdo was hiding. The Lieutenant looked around restlessly as well until my eyes fixed on the point where Ibuki was loaded onto a stretcher. Towards the upper city.

A boy with green hair and a similar military uniform was smiling at me ear to ear. "No one's going to kill me tonight, Gilbert." His smile vanished. "Who let you out? They still don't have a way to contain you?" The smile crept back up to his face, not as striking as before.

"He was the one who saved you, you know him? He was the one who watched over you two before we arrived." 

"I really shouldn't be listening to this." The young man in his military doctor attire said as he unslung me and sprinted across the street. With an unexpected show of strength, he hopped onto the half-track with the other medics.

I didn't topple over… Standing upright, I felt rather uncomfortable with the severe lack of dizziness that used to cloud my mind. I don't want to know what he injected into me.

I pointed my finger at the green-haired boy. "This is Gilbert, probably the second strongest pet sociopath in their arsenal."

"And who is their strongest?"

"Their strongest is so strong she doesn't even know her own name and wouldn't survive in our society without supervision." Gunshots in the distance intensified.

"Lieutenant, is this a counterattack?" I asked. He was already pressing his receiver further into his ear.

"The night thrives, and stuff of dream and legend roam arrives," Gilbert sang.

"Defensive position!" the Lieutenant shouted as explosions began to echo from dozens of different sources. He was yelling incoherent orders, and the troops advancing toward our position halted, their officers shouting in response.

The sound of potshots exchanged turned into full automatic fire, with shouts and screams reigniting another sense of terror through my veins. In the distance, troopers were already breaking off from their cover, keeping up steady streams of fire through the streets and alleyways.

I rushed forward, grabbed a Private's rifle, and tore it from him. "Get into the APC and drive it!" He tried to fight back, going for a jab and making other motions to retrieve his weapon.

"Who do you think you're giving orders to?"

"GET INTO THE HALF-TRACK!" The Lieutenant shouted on my behalf. I snatched the magazine from his Kevlar vest before he could turn around.

"Gilbert! You're with me!" I sprinted toward the retreating troops, their half-tracks already reversing as the troopers retreated in an orderly fashion. Before we could reach their position, the plight of this world came gushing out of the alley and swept sideways.

"Nightmares!" one shouted unhelpfully. Their barely corporal form could clobber a person or shred through steel, bleeding ichor from which their whole body was made. They kept coming, seeping back into the ground to reemerge later. Once a breach is made, it will reappear until we're all dead.

They were onto the troopers in a matter of seconds. Full automatic fire kept them at arm's length, but moments later, I saw the first instance of the formation breaking. The troopers resolved into melee tactics, clubbing the Nightmares with their rifles or slashing around with knives.

The closer I got to the fight, the more energized I felt, like an electric current was streaming through my body, barely contained as sparks flew around me. Moments later, I was in the thick of it. A small burst from my rifle destroyed the Nightmare forms, and when they came too close, I swung the rifle like a club. It barely met any resistance from the strange bodies of the Nightmares.

The troopers had already moved past me, and I was now caught in a tide of those monsters. I watched as they were lifted up and torn apart, their bodies subjected to brutalization before dissolving and returning to the earth in their strange, liquefied state. "Did one of the earlier explosions trigger this breach?"

"Breaches form over weeks! It can't possibly have come from an explosion tonight!"

My first magazine dropped to the ground, followed by the second, which clicked firmly into place as I slammed it in. The scent of dissolving ichor in the air only seemed to accelerate my movements further. I spun around faster, delivering deadlier swats and short bursts of fire, until the magazine was spent. I struggled to keep up with the retreating troopers and the half-tracks covering them.

The Lieutenant and his troops from earlier had already formed a defensive line, creating passages for us and the half-tracks to pass through. The third and final magazine clicked into place, and I was once again thrust into the thick of it, reveling in the nightmare bloodshed.

I ducked beneath a strike from a nightmare and emptied the magazine into it. The rifle quickly found itself in an unceremonious reverse grip, and I used it like a club, batting away the nightmares. It always fascinated me how the butt of the barrel passed into the forms of the nightmares until it met resistance, severing a hand or limb, which quickly liquefied and fell to the ground.

Despite the streak of near-misses, the rifle was dented beyond use. I stretched my arms wide and reached into my jacket, pulling out two knives. Hack, slash, twirl. I was in the thick of it, killing and maiming the nightmares, sending them back to the earth. I fell back further with the other troops, and steadily, we began to build up distance between us and the nightmares.

"Get back into line Sergeant!" A hand was placed on my shoulder dragging me behind formation with another Riffle getting forced into my hands. The Lieutenant began to shout and point at targets for the four Machine gunners of our Vehicles. Have we already managed to retreat into safety?

"Don't die on me now Kyle!" Gilbert said, pointing his finger at another nightmare he brought his hands up for a tearing motion and began to focus on his next target. 

I glanced to our right and beyond the battle, spotting a wrecked half-track with its crew and surrounding soldiers butchered, laid bare on the adjacent street. "Keep falling back!" the Lieutenant shouted. "The Gates are not prepared for a nightmare threat, if we let them break through we will lose the uper City!" 

The ground boomed with what sounded like heavy footsteps.

"What is this? What is this?"

"Keep it together!"

"We can't hold them!"

"THAT'S WHY WE FALL BACK!"

One rifle after another fell silent, replaced by a chorus of pistols. The gunners on the half-tracks cursed as their barrels overheated or their weapons malfunctioned.

"We can't!" More and more desperate voices echoed their concern until we were back fighting them hand to hand in front of the half-tracks.

"Second line, two steps backward! Ready grenades! First line, stand firm!" A desperate struggle erupted. We no longer took steps back, and the strength of their numbers began to drain us. Dodging and swatting their barely-physical forms was off-putting due to the visual discrepancy. You had to wait longer than expected before you could properly seize and drag the nightmares to the ground or aside.

The first wave of grenades thundered, with shrapnel soaking up the tide of nightmares. "Grenades!" the Lieutenant shouted, as another wave flew high over our heads.

"First line, move backward! Second line, when I say, move. Take two steps!" The vehicles kept creeping backward, leaving us further and further behind as we struggled with the nightmares.

I broke ranks and dashed into it once again, somersaulting forward and twirling my knives around. Nightmares are weaker than humans, which makes it easy to take on multiple, but they'll kill you once they get their hands on you. "Focus fire on the big one!"

"Big one!"

"We gotta fall back!"

"RETREAT!"

"RUN!"

Nightmares started to fly upright, dissolving mid-air as a looming frame crashed through their midst. I leapt sideways and fended off the nightmares that closed the gap, now in my guard. I pushed and slashed, each swing making me repeat the motion faster and faster as I felt more alive than ever!

I loosened my grip and swung around in a greater arc, squeezing out every bit of range I could. At the corner of my eye, the ENORMOUS nightmare crashed through our line, toppling one, then two of our half-tracks. The engines howled, their sound fading in the chaos within seconds.

The shouts grew more desperate as more troopers fell by the second. The number of nightmares began to dwindle, just like ours. I backed away to the half-track, pressing my back against it. The driver and gunner fought with me, back to back, but they were overwhelmed as the nightmares circled around us. Alone, I was fighting now, with barely any nightmares remaining. My arms felt sluggish, despite the energy I could still feel pulsing through me.

Instead of just my arms, I used my body now, taking longer and shorter steps while I swung myself around in more erratic steps to tear into them. I felt intense pressure and was thrown to the ground, Gilbert stood on top of the toppled half-track and was sweating profusely. 

For once there werent any nightmares around me, they dissolved after the impact and tonly the giant frame remained. The Giant nightmare came around and Bull rushed for Gilbert. He jumped off the Halftrack before it was rammed into a building. I sheathed one knife and drew my pistol to fire at it.

"It's not dissolving!" I noticed after dumping my Magazine into it, the half-track got rammed through the wall and the building began to fall on top of the nightmare which began to shrug the falling debris off!? 

"Kyle!" Gilbert shouted after he rounded around me. I pushed him away further behind me and Dashed at the Giant. 

He slammed his arm on the ground which left a crater. "Is it Physical?" I shouted to Gilbert while I was ducking and jumping between its attacks, my knives did not find any purchase and my movements felt sluggish more and more. It came at me with a series of Swings and slams creating more and more craters on the ground. "We gotta sever its arms!" 

"It's too thick Kyle, I can't tear it apart!" He said sweating more and more. Another time it swung its arm over me into the ground, I slammed my knife into it and jumped over it but it pulled it arm up with unmatched speed. I began to fly over the ground, but gravity seized hold of me making me crash down like a meteor. I saw Gilbert punching the air between us and I catapulted down the streets until I flew past half-tracks and lines of soldiers exterminating the last Nightmares.

Before I hit the ground I stretched my arm out and tried to push me off the ground to kill my momentum but failed. I didn't feel anything, neither did I hear. I felt like screaming. I couldn't move a thing but I could scream, I tried to rise but my mouth only forced itself further in an effort to drain the air in my lungs. 

A medic rushed next to me, "I don't need a doctor, help someone else!" I wanted to shout but I only met him with more incoherent screaming. I was screaming still when he put a syringe out of his pouch and a sense of dizziness and warmth came around me as everything faded to black one too many times tonight,