More Than Meets The Eye #1 | The Island

The air smelled of sweat and desperation. We were twenty when we dropped, parachutes flaring open like wounded birds caught in a violent storm. The island was unfamiliar—lush green hills marred by the scars of countless battles. Smoke rose from distant hills, and every sound—every snap of a twig—was enough to send shivers down our spines. The instant we touched the ground, we did so in an abandoned city, the place looked intact, and from the windows, we could see objects left exactly how they were last used, vehicles neatly parked as if their owners would one day return to use them once again, yet we knew that would never happen. We advanced slowly through the deserted streets illuminated by bright neon lights, advertisements littered the sides of every building, yet the products displayed were as unknown as our mission on this island. We soon found our way out through the grassy fields on the outskirts of the city. Yet, even in these massive spaces, there was no sound to be heard, no life to be seen. Abandoned buildings like sheds or small fishing outposts close to ponds were littered across the gargantuan grasslands, but they appeared untouched and forgotten as if they were built and stocked up yet no human ever used them. My platoon grew restless with the pressure of such eerie calm, the peace on what was supposed to be an active warzone sent shivers down our spine, were we tricked? Were the enemies preparing an ambush? Were there any enemies at all? We continued to wander, observing the bizarre landscape around us. Our expedition soon led us to a water dam, the distant rumbling of the machines made us believe we would find any sort of life there, and in a twisted way of fate, we did. We carefully approached the main control room, however, the door was wide open with no one inside, we were about to leave when we heard a strange noise, a nauseating gurgling sound was coming from outside. Fearful, one of my soldiers rushed outside, ready to save whoever was drowning in the rapidly flowing waters of the dam, but he stopped dead in his tracks while standing right in front of the source of the sound. We ran to meet him there, and we found him staring in horror at the waters, something was standing right under the murky surface. It slowly walked out of the water, revealing scales on its head, and it emerged, a grotesque image was painted in front of my eyes: a lanky figure was slowly rising from the stream, bulging eyes staring blankly forward, a gaping maw full or razor-sharp teeth, two pairs of arms hanged limp at its sides, too weak to move. In some sort of mockery of human nature, it wore a light blue jumpsuit and a brown cap. The legs of this beast looked too weak to sustain its body, yet they kept it upright and advancing, breathing with difficulty, yet it seemed unphased by its own painful existence, a beast like no other.

We were expecting a relentless attack, but it walked right past me, not even turning its amorphous head to glance over at me. Clumsily, it moved toward a flight of stairs, heading up the dam, yet it stumbled and fell. When its skull hit the floor, it was apparently bleeding, a bright blue liquid spilled but dissipated right away, the beast unharmed. It continued its trek up the stairs, oblivious to the world around it, and to its own pain. Staying close to the abomination was dangerous, and trying to predict its behavior was an impossible task, so we left the dam and continued our search for our targets. Not much time passed when he heard the roar of thunder above our heads, but stopping was not an option, so we marched forward. The rain fell, yet it also brought a purple mist, not like anything we had seen before, it wasn't even a problem for visibility either, it stayed low and flowed forward like a liquid. One minute passed until some of the younger recruits started feeling unwell, their vision got blurry and their limbs were weakening, and then, eight of them started to cough up blood. The symptoms got worse for the first who manifested them, and the rest of us quickly fell ill too. The connection was clear, this rain was somehow causing us harm. We picked up our pace, scared to lose any men to the strange disease, and we witnessed one more of the bizarre oddities this place had to offer. The rainclouds suddenly cut off at a certain point, and the wall of thick mist gave way to clean and fresh air at an equally sudden and unnatural cut-off. We arrived at the other side five minutes after the strange storm had started, yet we lost the eight brave soldiers who showed the first signs of what we now know as Storm Sickness. May God have mercy on their souls, and their tragic passing shall never be forgotten.

We buried our men hastily and continued our stride, there was no time to be lost. We were led to a strange grove composed of purple and pink trees, the eerie calm persistent. But not for long. 

The first shot rang out like a crack of doom, and chaos erupted. We ducked for cover behind the ruins of a stone wall, hearts pounding as bursts of automatic fire echoed across the field. The enemy was unlike anything we’d ever seen—not the disciplined soldiers we were trained to fight, but lone figures clad in garish, mismatched outfits. One wore a bright red hood, her weapon gleaming in the strange light of the trees as she darted between the tall stumps with inhuman speed. Another, dressed in a banana costume, moved with such fluidity that it seemed like a cruel joke, his laughter carrying on the wind. But their skill was no laughing matter. One of our sharpshooters had a clean line of sight on the red-hooded woman and took the shot. The bullet struck her chest, square in the heart. We heard the sickening impactbone-shatteringg, a life extinguished.

Or so we thought.

She stumbled back, clutching her chest, and for a moment, hope flickered in our hearts. But then, impossibly, she stood up. There was no blood, no torn flesh. The area where the bullet should have torn through her was glowing faintly, a shimmering blue light wrapping around her body like a second skin. Her grin widened, sharp and feral, as she raised her weapon and returned fire. However, the pistol she was holding had vanished into thin air, in her hands was now an impossibly large rotary canon, painted red black, and yellow. The weapon's abnormality didn't stop there, however, defying any possible logic, as the bullets left the constantly rotating barrels, music also did. A popular rap song was erupting from the roaring machine, the singer's signature speed almost cruel mockery as if it was telling us that our own weapons were too slow, we retreated from the fight, trying desperately to land another shot on the hooded woman. Then, she suddenly stopped, her head darting around, looking for something, and as the sounds of trees falling got progressively closer, we feared a monstrous vehicle was approaching, yet, from the woods emerged another strange being. This time, its head resembled that of a common red fox, but its body was humanoid, its legs contorted strangely to accommodate for its unnatural height and anthropomorphic body, the being searched its backpack briefly, only to pull out what seemed like blueprints and a pencil. We were puzzled, the violence that had just occurred made no sense: people who survived being shot, strangely dressed individuals who were able to run at impossible speeds, firearms that could sing, yet this was an even more anomalous occurrence. This strange animal stood there, holding useless tools for a confrontation with such a heavily armed enemy, yet the woman's face showed nothing but horror, she frantically searched her own backpack, but it looked like she failed to find what she needed. Then, the fox-man moved his hands slightly, as if drawing on the blueprint paper on his hands, and in the blink of an eye, a set of neatly built wooden stairs manifested itself in front of him. He then started to frantically scribble on the paper, creating walls, ramps, and pyramids made of solid wooden planks incomprehensibly, advancing toward the fleeing woman. He managed to trap her in a small room made of planks, we heard their weapons draw, and two bullets went off. We stayed behind cover, waiting for the bizarre creature to come out from iitscover, but it never did. We carefully approached the grotesque structure, its geometry nonsensical. As I turned a corner to look at the place where the creature had shot the woman, I expected to find a scene of unspeakable carnage, yet I found nothing but weapons and flasks of unknown liquid on the floor. The horror of the previous moments gave way to confusion, where had the bodies gone? One of my men carefully picked up one of the firearms on the floor, a Mossberg 500, it gleamed with a dark blue hue, similar to the mysterious aura that the woman gave off when the bullet landed on her. The weapon was much heavier than a standard one of its kind. We hurried to flee the grove, faster than we ever ran, hoping to never again encounter any of the abominations that fought their war inonhat island. Our ears were filled with hope as we emerged, seeing yet another grassland, free of any threats, the silence that filled the air once again, iitspresence like that of an old friend. But that place had a twisted way of toying with anyone who stepped foot in it. A thundering sound, a bright light in the sky, something was making its rapid descent not very far from us, something enveloped in fire. It hit the ground with tremendous force, causing the remaining members of my platoon to tremble and fall. From the ground we observed as something got up in the distance, one final mockery of human form. A metal colossus was ravaging the land, two figures inside of it, likely pilots. One sat in the lower area of the metal beast, making it walk, the other sat on a secured cockpit on top,and  he aimed the weapons. With a simple move, the monster unleashed devastating missiles that destroyed whatever they impacted, and it also had a devastating shotgun that could mercilessly end any of the fighters who tried to defeat it. We spotted someone holding the strange weapon that the woman had been holding, they fired at the monstrosity, however, the laughter of its pilots as the bullets simply bounced off was haunting, it stomped the man in the banana costume and stood still for a few seconds. Then it turned and looked at us. We ran once more, incapable of doing anything else, we heard the noise of an engine starting, and observed in horror as the abomination flew right over our heads, "Retreat!" I managed to finally scream uselessly. One by one, my men fell, they all tried to defend themselves with their weapons, but had were as useless as the attempt from the demigods that called the island home. I was certain I would die, yet a bright beam of light came from the heavens like a guardian angel, the mechanical brute retreating at the sight of it. I felt my body lift off the ground, weightless, as the world around me dissolved into white. The last thing I saw was the battlefield below, shrinking away as I was pulled into the craft. When I awoke, I was no longer on the Island. I was in a stark, featureless room, lit by harsh fluorescent lights. Figures in black uniforms stood around me, their faces obscured by helmets. One of them stepped forward, holding a clipboard. “You’re lucky to be alive,” they said. “You’ve been removed from the Loop. Welcome to the Imagined Order.”