The Omega Archives

by Erik Melendez

  “Did you see that?” the marine said to the other marines.

  “This is Delta Two. First building clear,” I said on my radio. We got confirmation from the other three teams of marines that they had secured the other three buildings.

  “Good. Proceed to the main target building. The fifth chopper is on the way with additional reinforcements to arrive near the target building,” said the operator on the radio.

  “Rodger that. We’re Oscar Mike,” I said, as we started to move out.

  We then advanced to the target building.

  As we went to the main target building, we got a call from the sergeant.

  “This is Delta One. Chopper down, repeat chopper down, outside the target building. Need assistance now!” he said.

  “Delta Two here. We’re on our way now over!” I said.

  My squad and I arrived at the site and were immediately met with enemy forces. The target building was two stories tall. I saw Sergeant Hayes and another marines fighting off enemy soldiers while taking cover behind the wreckage. I ran behind a destroyed car and shot at the hoard of enemy soldiers coming at us.

  The other marines helped the marines in the chopper out of the wreckage as the other teams rushed in to assist in securing the area. I could hear the sounds of gunfire almost everywhere.

  One marine threw a grenade at a group of Taliban soldiers, killing at least five of them. The Taliban soldiers fired at us almost non-stop. Puffs of smoke and debris clouded the air as they shot. We were starting to get pinned down; we could barely move without getting shot at.

  “I can take care of them, cover me,” I said to Hayes.

  “That’s suicide,” he replied.

  “Don’t worry, I got it,” I said.

  Hayes hesitated for a second, but as he spotted another marine getting shot, he gave me the go ahead.

  “All right, go. Covering fire!” he said.

  I got up and started to push the enemy back. I walked toward a group of Taliban Soldiers and shot at them with my rifle. Once I ran out of ammunition, I quickly pulled out my pistol and kept shooting to keep them under cover. Once I reached them, I went after one soldier by moving his rifle away and shooting him in the chest. I then quickly shot the other soldiers behind me. The last one pointed his rifle at me and almost shot me, but one of the marines got him in the head just in time. Blood sprayed from his head.

  Once we cleared most of the soldiers, we proceeded to the target building to locate Mikhail. We entered the building, approached the room where Mikhail took cover in, and prepared to breach. One of the marines took out a fiber-optic camera to see what’s on the other side of the door; Mikhail stood in the room with a gun in his hand. We breached the area and secured the room.

  Mikhail opened fire on the team, but we put him down quickly. When we examined the body, we discovered it was a double when we took his wig off. Then, we were ambushed by an enormous bio-weapon that smashed through the wall opposite of the room. He was at least six feet tall and super muscular.

  He screamed, then picked up one marine and threw him into a wall. We opened fire, the bullets bouncing off of him like we were throwing small rocks at him. Meanwhile, I heard on my radio that outside, the other marines were ambushed by what looked like two-foot tall camel spiders. They were green and were in large numbers. I told the other marines to retreat outside while I fought the bio-weapon.

  I started by doing a tornado kick to its face, which barely moved him, followed by a side kick. It started growling before charging at me, and he body-slammed me through the wall.

  After he knocked me onto the ground, he picked me up and threw me across the hallway. I felt like all of my insides were shaken up as I struggled to get up. He tried to grab me again, but this time I countered by grabbing his arm and throwing him through the wall.

  I picked him up and slammed him into several walls before throwing him across the room. He got up and went in for a punch, but I dodged and punched him in the face. I followed with a roundhouse kick to his side, then a spinning side kick sending him through a wall. I shook my hand a little bit to ease the pain. He then charged into me, but I countered by placing my left hand on his shoulder and used my right hand to push his head toward the ground and knock him down.

  He got up, grappled me, and threw me across the room. He grabbed me again. This time, I punched him in his stomach until I got him low enough, so I could knee him in the face, then I slammed him onto the ground. I immediately got him into a headlock and broke his neck, killing him.

  I gathered my assault rifle and went outside. The camel spiders were everywhere, tearing the marines apart. Gunfire erupted from the Taliban forces on the roofs of the building, shooting at us with machine guns and rocket launchers. I watched the chaos unfold before my eyes as the marines were being torn apart. Sweat poured down my head and my heart racing. I could hear screaming, gunshots, bodies being blasted apart, and explosions all over. One of the enemy soldiers shot, missed me, and I snapped out of it. Meanwhile, one spider came at me, and I quickly shot it.

  I saw a nearby building that looked strong enough for us to take cover in, so I readied my rifle and started getting the marines inside. I went to the first group, kicking one of the spiders that went to attack the marines, shot it, and provided cover as the two marines got one of the wounded men into the building. One marine with his machine gun led some more marines to the building as I went for the second group. As I moved, one of the spiders charged at me, but Hayes pulled out his knife. Right as the spider jumped at me, he sliced its head off.

  “Nice hit,” I said.

  “Thanks. The ka-bar knife is the marine’s best friend,” he replied as we went inside with the other group of marines.

  Once we got inside, we boarded up the place with whatever we could find, covered all entrances and exits, and blocked the windows. There were six marines alive, and we got four wounded from the spider attacks, ranging from torn off body parts to large wounds.

  “Let’s do an ammo count,” Hayes asked.

  “I’m out. I’m down to my pistol,” Thompson said.

  “Last magazine,” Wright said.

  “One mag left,” Carter said trembling.

  “Half a mag left,” Jones said.

  “All out,” Moore said.

  “I got one magazine left,” I said.

  “What about injuries?” Hayes asked.

  “Most of us are okay. One guy got shot in the arm, another had his leg torn off by one of those things, and the other also got shot,” Moore said.

  “What the hell happened out there?” I asked.

  “We got our ass kicked out there, that’s what!” Jones said.

  “Those things just came out of nowhere and ripped my men apart,” Hayes said.

  “The last time I checked, camel spiders went that big, and they didn’t attack humans!” Wright said.

  “They were bio-weapons that Mikhail must have created. He must have modified them to be aggressive towards humans using presumably the Type-2 serum,” I replied.

  “The intel didn’t show bio-weapons,” Wright said.

  “I know. They must have hidden them away and waited for an ambush. Not to mention that we killed a double of Mikhail instead of the real Mikhail. They knew we were coming. This whole mission was a trap,” I said.

  “So, what do we do know?” Thompson asked.

  “We will wait here until the convoy gets here, and then we get the hell out of here,” Hayes said.

  “Problem, sir. When I recovered the radio from one of the downed marines, it took some damage from an explosion,” Moore said.

  The radio we had is a standard portable radio with a phone-like object at the end. One of the Taliban forces must have damaged it when they were shooting rockets at us.

  “Shit. So now we’re stuck here and unable to contact base. Is that right?” Hayes asked.

  “I can fix it, sir. I need some time,” Moore said. He did have a repair kit and some spare parts to fix
it.

  “Can I help?” I asked.

  “Sure, I guess,” Moore replied.

  Moore and I worked on the radio, so we could contact base. We had to unscrew a few of the panels to find and replace the damaged parts. Luckily, I had received training to operate and fix these kinds of radios, so it did help out a little. It took us a few minutes, but we eventually got it up and running after replacing all the damaged parts. Hayes spoke with the base commander, and they said it would take at least four hours for the convoy to get us out of here.

  Meanwhile, Jones tried to help one of the wounded soldiers. I tried to help out.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “The bullet is still inside of him. I need to go in and dig it out,” Jones said.

  “Okay, what do you need me to do?” I asked.

  “I need you to hold him still while I dig for the bullet. It is right under his heart. If I make one small, wrong move, I could damage it,” Jones said before reassuring the wounded marine. “Hey, man, just hold on and try to stay calm. This will be over faster than you know it, okay?”

  He dug into the wound with his tweezers, the marine screamed in pain. I held him down and tried to reassure him, but he was in grave pain. He also moved around a lot, which didn’t help. I tried to hold him still as much as I could. Eventually, Jones got the bullet out.

  We spent the next four hours just sitting around, waiting for either orders or for the convoy to arrive and get us out of there. I sat on a chair that felt like it was going to break at any second. It was so hot in there, it was unbearable. The place smelled like sweat and death. But after sitting there four hours, you get used to it.

  Night time arrived. We were starving, dehydrated, wounded and exhausted. We had to wait things out before evacuation could get here. One of our men suffered internal bleeding from the attack. Another medic and I were able to treat his wound, but unfortunately, he could not walk until he received proper medical attention. Meanwhile, Carter looked uneasy. I saw him taking off his helmet and trying to take a drink of his canteen, but he dropped the cap because he shook so much. He was skinny, tall, and bald. I pulled up a chair and sat in front of him.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Um... ye…yeah. I’m fine,” Carter said.

  “Is this your first mission?” I asked.

  “Uh, yes, sir,” he replied.

  “Look, I know you’re scared. We all are, but you got to hang in there and trust me. We will make it out of here,” I reassured him.

  “Yeah, it’s just that I don’t want to die here, you know?” he replied.

  “Yeah, I know. Just hang in there, and we will make it out of here,” I replied.

  He continued shaking and fondling his rifle, he was barely holding himself together as it was. A little while later my phone rang.

  “Hello?” I asked.

  “Hey Alex, it’s Melissa,” a female voice said.

  “What do you want?” I asked.

  “Where are you? I have been sitting here for hours. I told you that we were going to go out tonight, remember?” she said.

  I forgot that we were supposed to hang out tonight. I felt so bad about standing her up.

  “I’m so sorry about that. I completely forgot about our date,” I said.

  “Where are you?” she asked.

  “I’m at Max’s house. We’re having a sleepover,” I replied.

  “Can I come over?” she asked.

  “No. We’re kind of busy,” I replied.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Uh, you know, homework and stuff,” I said.

  While Melissa and I were talking, we got word on the radio that the convoy was en route. We needed to mark the signal with a flare, so it could find us.

  “Look, Melissa, I got to go. See ya,” I said before hanging up.

  “Okay, here’s the plan. We need someone to go out there and use a flare to mark the signal, so that the gunships can clear a path for the convoy to get here,” Hayes said.

  I paused for a moment to get some ideas. Since I had the most ammo and a healing factor in my body, I would have to go out there. The rest of the marines would have to lay down cover while I move out.

  “I’ll go out there,” I said.

  “Are you sure?” he replied.

  “Look I have a healing factor which means my injuries can heal faster than normal,” I said.

  “You can still get killed though,” Thompson said.

  “Yeah, but it would be extremely difficult. They will need armor-piercing bullets to penetrate my skin, and even if they did have any, they would either have to aim for the head or focus fire on my body nonstop. I’ll be fine,” I replied.

  “Just be careful, okay?” Hayes said.

  The other marines undid the barricade and let me out.

  It was dark, quiet, and all the creatures were gone. I saw nothing but damaged buildings from rocket explosions, dead bodies of either marines, Taliban soldiers, or those spiders, and the air smelled like death. I moved quietly across the field. All of a sudden, gunfire erupted, and I took cover behind a pillar.

  I looked around for the sniper and shot him. Soon more gun fire erupted from the roof by the Taliban forces. The marines saw me and undid the boards on the windows and used what little ammo that they had left to law down cover fire for me as I stormed the roof.

  When I got to the roof, there were more enemy soldiers waiting. I sprayed my rifle at them, killing them, and sending bits of debris and dust flying everywhere. Then, I planted the signal with the flare. The chopper came in and killed the remaining enemy units. The spiders came back, but luckily the choppers killed most of them. When the convoy arrived, we began evacuating the injured marines. The six others and I walked alongside the convoy to provide cover fire.

  When we got back to base, the other personnel took care of the wounded while I sat down at one of the triage stations. Hayes walked up to me after he got his wounds taken care of.

  “You kicked ass out there, Connors,” Hayes said.

  “Thanks. The mission was a pooch screw though,” I replied.

  “Some are,” he replied. “But that’s the thing. Sometimes, you have to fail in order to succeed.” Then, Hayes walked off.

  My plane came in a few hours later, and it flew me back home. I was then driven back to HQ. Mathis was disappointed that we still didn’t find him.

  “So, I guess this was another failure, huh? Guy is a real pain in the ass,” Mathis replied.

  “Look, we were ambushed. They knew we were coming,” I replied.

  “Yeah, I figured. Those bastards at the Union are known for being one step ahead of us,” he said.

  “Look, I will get him, okay?” I said.

  “Don’t worry about it for now. We will call you if anything comes up,” he replied.

  It was time to go home and get some rest. During dinner, my parents asked me about what I did.

  “So, Alex, how was the sleepover?” Mom asked.

  “Fine,” I replied.

  “What did you guys do?” Dad asked.

  “Nothing much. Just hung out and played some games and stuff,” I replied.

  “What did you guys play?” Mom asked.

  “We played a game where we played as marines sent into a town in the Middle East to capture a terrorist leader. Kind of generic, I’ll admit,” I said.

  “Did you get him?” Mom asked.

  “No. It was a double,” I replied.

  I hoped that I could have the night to myself complete with games and junk food. After all, I did finish all my homework.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The next day, Max came over to talk about what happened while we played a video game.

  “So, your men got ambushed by two-foot camel spiders basically?” he asked.

  “That’s exactly what happened. Ten killed, three wounded,” I replied.

  “Jeez,” he replied. “What are you going to do now?”

  �
�I don’t know. The tech guys are going to do some more searching.”

  My phone rang, and according to the caller ID, it was Melissa.

  “Hey Melissa, what’s up?” I asked.

  “What the heck was that all about?” she said.

  “I was busy with homework,” I replied.

  “You were doing homework for the past three days. How much did you have?” she asked.

  “I had my book report to finish. Look, I’m sorry I didn’t call you, okay?” I replied.

  “It’s fine, don’t worry about it. Is everything okay?” she asked.

  “Everything is fine. Look, I will call you later, okay?” I replied as I hung up.

  “I take it she does not know?” he asked.

  “No, and I would like to keep it that way.”

  “If you’re going to date her, maybe you should tell her.”

  “No. The fewer people who know about me, the better.”

  I couldn’t tell her what was really going on, and it was bad enough that Max and Sarah knew. As for Melissa, we continued to date; and things were not working out. Every time we hung out, I barely talked, and my mind was always somewhere else. The most frustrating part was that I could not tell her what was really going on. I was contemplating breaking up with her, but I also didn’t want to hurt her.

  The following Tuesday, when I went to school, I turned my book report in and got an A.

  “Nice job,” Mr. Bennet said as he handed me my paper.

  After class, Mr. Bennet pulled me aside.

  “Alex, can I talk to you really quick?” he asked.

  “Something wrong?” I asked.

  “Nothing. I’m curious. Have you ever thought of taking AP classes?” he asked. “I mean, every paper I assign, you get an A on.”

  “I just prefer regular classes. My math teacher asked me the same thing,” I said.

  “Do you get straight A’s in your other classes?” he asked.

  “Yes. They are also all regular classes,” I said.

  “Maybe you should think about it. Anyway, have a nice break,” he said.

  The real reason why I didn’t take AP classes is because I feared that if I were to outperform in those classes, it would increase my chances of my true identity being exposed.