American Gate

Chapter 9: Mithril

Chapter 9: Mithril

June 30th, 2053

South Duremar Plains, 6:00 AM

Daniel was running through the forest they passed through yesterday. He heard the footsteps of some kind of animal chasing after him. No matter how fast he ran, the creature was always right behind him. He made it out of the trees and into a small clearing in the middle of the forest. Then, the trees began melting together around him. All the trees morphed into a single wall encompassing him. He was trapped.

He turned around to face his pursuer. All he saw behind him were the remains of the forest ghoul, with its menacing skull staring at him. He ignored the skull and went around the edge of the wall, desperately trying to find a way to escape.

Then he heard a low growl from behind. Slowly, he reached for his ARX-35 assault rifle slung across his back, but it wasn't there. He reached down to his hip for his sidearm, but that was gone too. He checked for his combat knife; nothing. He was completely unarmed.

Daniel felt an overwhelming sense of fear and dread come over him. As he slowly turned around, he saw that the skull atop the pile of forest ghoul remains was gone. In its place was a menacing, vaguely feline creature watching him. It had swirling purple eyes that radiated faint purple particles. Its large tooth filled mouth spanned the entire front of its head. It had frail looking arms with boney human-like hands and sharp claws. The creature seemed to be grinning at him, as if it were enjoying itself.

He tried to back away from it, but his legs wouldn't move. Suddenly, the creature leaped through the air toward him. The last thing he saw before he closed his eyes and waited for a painful death was the animal's razor sharp teeth, inches away from his face.

Daniel bolted upright in his sleeping bag drenched in sweat and his heart racing. Instinctively, he reached his hand over to make sure his rifle was still where he had left it; it was. He fearfully looked around for any sign of the creature that was chasing him. Realization dawned on him that it was all just a dream; it felt so real, though.

Some of the marines were starting to get up and eat their breakfast while others got right to work packing up camp. Benny walked past him, carrying a box of rations, and asked, "You have a bad dream or something?"

"Yeah," Daniel replied. "You could say that."

Putting the disturbing dream in the back of his mind, Daniel got up and resumed his duties as the leader of the 4th Deep Recon Team. Checking a report from the vehicles' AI on his tac-pad, he saw that no hostile fauna attempted to approach the camp last night. The droid patrols detected a handful of animals in the vicinity, but all of them kept their distance.

They had made little progress the previous day. The meandering road through the forest took a very roundabout route. Eldryn was not familiar with the roads this far south, so they didn't have anyone to guide them. The tree canopy wasn't dense enough to block the sunlight, but it made it difficult for the recon drones to find a more efficient path. By the time they made it out of the forest, it was already mid-afternoon.

They drove for the rest of the day yesterday, but didn't quite make it all the way to Miretan. They were only about 50 kilometers away now. Today they will finally reach their destination. Hopefully, they could ask the people of Miretan for a map to make the return trip easier. After packing up the camp and eating their morning meal, everyone was ready to go.

As he was boarding his Rhino, Daniel saw another mana ball. They'd seen a few of them roaming around yesterday, but this one looked like the first one they saw; after Elmot shot fire at it. It looked like it was fleeing from something. Scanning the area around the mana ball, Daniel didn't see anything. It had probably just noticed them, so he thought nothing more of it and boarded the Rhino, closing the hatch behind him.