***

It wasn’t like anything Alex had ever seen in his entire life. The number of military personnel, tanks, trucks, and aircraft all seemed too surreal. It was an odd mix of admiration and disgust that swirled around him. The admiration of the sheer might of his country’s military prowess and the disgust that it took so long for them to use it.

Deep down, Alex knew there was more to it than he understood, but with everything that was swirling about in his head, it was hard to focus on what those elements were. He shook his head and focused on finishing loading the magazine in his hand. Despite his optimism that the sentries would drop their weapons after the first wave, he wanted to make sure he’d have enough ammo in case they didn’t.

And besides, the main objective of the military was to capture the capital. The farm camps were a secondary measure, which both Alex and Luis had decided to make their primary focus. With the aid of Nelson and the military insight that Luis was able to bring from his superiors, the three of them had managed to come up with a strategy that would give them a good chance of making sure both Todd and Emma came out alive.

Ray had chosen to accompany Alex and seemed just as likely to put a bullet in the back of Alex’s head as he was to forgive him. But Alex knew how close Ray was with Todd, and an extra gun wouldn’t hurt the cause.

Both Alex and Luis would be embedded with a small unit of soldiers infiltrating the same grid where both Todd and Emma’s farm camps were located. While the two were allowed to tag along, both were thoroughly instructed, at least six times, that the unit they were tagging along with could neither guarantee their safety nor help them with the extraction of the two individuals they were seeking. Every soldier’s mandate on that field was to take the capital, extract the soil data, and make sure they nabbed Gordon before he could take off anywhere. As badly as Alex wanted to be a part of the group that took Gordon out, he owed a greater debt to Todd.

It was an odd feeling, being this close to the front lines on the eve of such an historic battle. All the killing and hunting he’d done before felt different from how this felt. All the fights and battles up to this point had been filled with a reckless rage he hadn’t been able to control. But this—this was calculated, this had a goal bigger than the satisfaction of his own revenge.

A sergeant drove through the units, notifying the soldiers of the time left on everyone’s dwindling clock. “Two minutes! Two minutes!”

Alex managed to finish loading one more magazine, which brought his total to six. He pulled on the Kevlar one of the units had loaned him and picked up his rifle.

The fact that he was surrounded by a group of soldiers who had seen combat before gave him a boost of confidence. All he wanted to do was grab Todd and get him out. Alex looked around for Ray, and just before the lieutenant in charge of their platoon marched the first few steps toward war, he popped up behind him.

Those next two miles seemed to crawl and stretch forever. Each time Alex set his foot down, he felt as though his life were shortening. There was a finality that grew the closer he moved to the edge of conflict. He wasn’t sure what the finality meant, but he did know the answer lay just over the horizon.

Alex kept just to the right of the tank, using it as a protective barrier as he scanned the north end, where Todd’s farm camp was stationed. The rumble of the tank tracks was interrupted by the gunfire from the first unit of sentries they came across. The rolling hills in front of them suddenly became alive with screams and the thundering explosions of artillery.

The air quickly grew thick with lead. Two soldiers to Alex’s right had already succumbed to the fire of war, their lifeless bodies collapsing to the dirt while a medical officer rushed to their aid.

The tank tracks slowed, and Alex crouched lower, keeping the barrel of his rifle up and looking for anything to shoot at, but the number of bodies on the field was overwhelming. Alex could feel himself hesitating. The end of the barrel moved from one sentry to another, each time he failed to pull the trigger after seeing the flashes of another barrel right next him. His palms grew sweaty on the rifle’s grips, and he could feel his breathing accelerate along in time with his heart rate.

A mortar exploded a few feet in front of him, sending Alex onto his back and flinging the rifle from his hands. The impact sent a rain of dirt into the air and down on Alex, covering him in a gray ash. Everything was spinning. The loud bass of the mortar’s impact left his body vibrating and shaken.

Alex rolled onto his stomach. The boots of men passed him as the bullets overhead continued their perforation. He could see his rifle’s stock buried in a pile of ashy earth. It was a few feet behind him, and he had to watch his hands to keep them from being crushed by the endless march of boots. Once the forest of legs had cleared, he pushed himself to his knees, when a foot slammed into his stomach and knocked him backwards.

“Fucking coward,” Ray said, sending another kick into Alex’s side. Luckily for Alex, the Kevlar had absorbed most of the blows.

Alex rolled quickly to his right, still disoriented from the previous hit, but evaded another vicious kick from Ray and managed to get to his feet. “Stop, Ray.”

Ray dropped his rifle and ran, full sprint, into Alex, sending both of them to the dirt. The two rolled over a few times, until Ray finally planted himself on top, but Alex gripped both of Ray’s wrists in his hands, restraining him.

“I won’t let you be the one who finishes him off!” Ray said, his face turning a shade of purple from the amount of effort it took for him to try and free himself from Alex’s grip.

Using the leverage he had on Ray’s arms, Alex rotated his arms, legs, hips, and torso to the left, which brought enough force to slam Ray to his side, where Alex pinned him down, and he pulled his sidearm and placed it to Ray’s forehead. “Listen to me! I know what I did, all right? Now, I swear to you, there are no other games or sides I’m trying to play.”

Even with the gun to his head, Ray refused to end his resistance, still attempting to push Alex off him. Alex felt the rage in him return. It was the same bloodlust that had consumed him the night he killed the sentries in his community. It boiled over, and Alex’s finger inched over the trigger, his entire body tense.

“Do it!” Ray said.

Alex removed his finger from the trigger and pushed himself off Ray, holstering the pistol. The tanks and trucks were a few hundred feet in front of them now, continuing their steady march to Topeka’s heart. “I’m going to get him out, Ray.”