Devil Equinox

Everyone was armed and well prepared in the cargo plane, however something did feel odd. I looked the plane windows out into the dark stormy night. The ocean was unstable and savage, with large waves that could consume freights on the surface killing hundreds of people. Being in the middle of that be a death wish, besides drowning in the ocean one can die from the cold water. You had to be fast enough to get out of there, get warm and not die. But if you found yourself stranded in the middle of the ocean, waves and the freezing temperatures will not be the only things to get you, dehydration will try its hand at you as well making it impossible to survive alone.

Some people have once before and that gives hope. At that point it is safe to assume you would live, by your own means. Kevin stood in the middle of the reinforced floor of the fuselage of the cargo plane. "All right ladies, we are going to land ETA five minutes. The island we are heading to has inhabitants, hostile inhabitants, who aren't from this world. We are to land, set up the bombs in five key locations of the island and kill everything that moves. That's all we got for encouraging words, now ready up!" he briefed everyone with the info the others had gotten from the briefing with General Mynde.

Kevin came toward me and stood in front of me, crouched and looked me in the eye. He looked to the left then back at me, eyebrows raised. "You know I once envied you and all your achievements," he paused. "But now I am happy where I am because I haven't lost everything. You just threw it all away for what, Downtime City? You should've done it for yourself. Anyway, let me take those off."

His words filled with spite, jaded enough by those who committed the same antics he portrayed. He took the cuffs off, like he said. I massaged my wrists one after another because they cuffs were tight on them. "Well, the island is quite large. How are we supposed to travel around the island with bombs that weigh hundreds of kilos?" I asked him.

He stood up and looked down on me. "We had already thought about transport, and we are travelling a few trucks and off-road vehicles. Oh! Yeah, we had them covered with proprietary camouflage tech." He said smugly.

I paid no attention to his antics and kept to my thoughts. We were left with a few minutes before landing. I closed my eyes for a bit and drifted into a light and quick nap. Time flew by and the cargo plane shook, indicating we were landing on the ground. It was a violent shake, but everyone was calm and unfazed by this.

We soon came to a halt and that nap was enough to keep me awake for a few more months. I looked at the watch on my left wrist – I had acquired it after Marvin briefed us – to monitor my condition, heart rate, blood pressure and hunger level. My hunger was low, which was good, but I didn't want to stay too long on this island to starve. I lowered my arm down and set there waiting for what was next.

"Everyone, grab your gear and get in the trucks!" he commanded walking past everyone toward the hatch and opened it. Everyone in the plane picked up their guns and climbed onto the trucks and others into the smaller off-road vehicles. Kevin came by and gave me one of their guns to use as well. "I know you were gonna ask. Here you go. Hop on," he said sincerely. The time draw near; the engines came to life and each vehicle one after the other drove out of the hatch. Two trucks – one carrying two of the bombs and the other three – accompanied by two off-road vehicles and the one I was in followed either of the two trucks.

Travelling through the dense forest greenery the island fostered was troubling, but manageable. It was eerily quiet on this island; there didn't seem to be any chirping of birds and no signs of other life. The vehicles were the only source of sound on this island, and it wasn't the best situation to be in.

We had arrived at the first location to set one of the bombs and through communication via walkie-talkies the team had arrived at the second location. They then took out some tech from the off-road vehicles and set them up for a little status update and to the other team. "Fifteen minutes before a connection is set up," one the members spoke. "Okay! We need eyes in the sky to survey this island and possible hostiles. "Copy that team leader," the member said.

This was how this private Spec Ops team operates, efficient in their work, coordinated in their chaos. They started setting up the camp for our operations. I walked by and throughout the camp, observing their work, a change from watching afar. They took an hour to set up everything to aid in placement of the bombs and to locate any movements.

"Kevin… Ugh… We need help here! Shit… We are under… Argh!" a man exclaimed over the walkie-talkie. Kevin rushed over to the walkie-talkie and responded, "Hey are there! Repeat. What's your status?" The walkie-talkie was quiet and then made static noise.

He began breathing hard and heavy, grasping the walkie-talkie tighter, then he threw it in a fit, shouting 'Fuck!' He looked at me pissed off and rushed over to one of the off-road vehicles. "Aren't you fucking coming, Captain!" he exclaimed. I rushed into it and we drove off.

Driving through the plants, we were drawing near the camp of the other team, beta. "Shit, shit, shit. This is happening faster than I thought," Kevin spoke to himself.

"What do you mean faster than you thought?" I asked him.

"Now is not the fucking time!" he said angrily.

Then I sensed a demon heading our way, I raised my assault rifle and shot at it, dropping dead on the forest floor. Screeching loudly, it made it hard for Kevin to focus on driving forcing him to stop beside it. He covered his ears and exited the vehicle, walking up to the demon with his pistol in his hand and stopped before it. Six gunshots one after the other rang out through the forest, silencing the demon.

"Son of a bitch!" he shouted angrily.

I stepped out of the vehicle walked toward the demon he shot. It was a mutated Ravager, explaining why it didn't burn going back to Hell. It's fangs sharp and long, claws smoother and the tips not so sharp. It's horns, gone as if they were removed by force and its eyes blood red.

"What the fuck is this thing?" Kevin asked, having calmed down.

"A Ravager, a beast that hunts to kill, but this one is mutated. It lost all its most defining and dangerous features. We have to leave, it's too dark and the storm subsided after our arrival, but it is still cloudy and we may not when it will rain once." I told him.

"Fuck! Yeah, you are right, we gotta go back and we will have to tell the rest. Come on let's turn around." He spoke.

Arriving was hard enough in this dark and everyone back at the camp were still alive. Kevin turned the engine off and got out and spoke to two men