Final Moments

7 years. 7 long years had passed since the start of the war. The war that many thought, would never end. A war that caused loss on both sides. Throughout history, men had been fighting one another. But in this war, they had a common enemy. The enemies did not belong to this world. Many people had lost everything to these extraterrestrial animals. And among those many people, there was one, who had revenge in his heart. He was Rake. Commander Rake Whitefield of the 18th Combined Earth Defense. His armada was the leading group against these animals, which the CED called Adders. These Adders had destroyed Rake’s home city and along with it, all those he loved. Now, he only lived to see these Adders die the same painful death that they caused.

Day in day out, Rake’s army would slaughter dozens of those Adders. But with every successful slaughter, the Adders just seemed to multiply. Their number kept increasing. They kept attacking city after city, reducing every victim city to dust. Sometimes, these creatures would get down from their massive ships and go on foot to kill everyone in that city, as if their goal was not to win but to eliminate. Some scientists suggested that these creatures were not here to take humans as their slaves, rather eradicate us and terraform our planet to be able to colonize. Rake did not listen to any of this scientific chatter. He only said,” The only things they will get are my bullets and defeat.”

Each day Rake thought of his family. The family that he couldn’t even see before they died. He was always either found leading a victorious battle or alone in his command office, looking at the only family photo he had. And on such a similar day, he was suddenly called to the infirmary. He said he was in the middle of a battle. But he could not stay when he heard that they had an Adder that was caught by the 11th CED Relief branch. He reached there and saw the animal for the first time. Brown, winged, and hairy with antennae. Those were not what he had expected. The creature seemed to understand them. But did not talk. Rake became angry seeing the Adder’s calm look. He banged the thick glass pane that separated them. The creature moved its head to meet Rake’s eye. Rake did not understand which eye among the 8 eyes of the creature to look at. Then, suddenly the creature spoke. The tone was as low as a deep purr. “Do not make the mistake of thinking that you captured me.”, it said in accurate English. “I came to you. And is destined to come next, you are not prepared to contain.” Rake banged the glass harder than before, "What is that supposed to mean, you worthless lump of meat?” “You will understand when the time comes. I only came to warn you as I have been exiled from my colony for wanting to be with one from your species. I will not say more.” Just as he said that he lifted one of his appendages and vanished in thin air.

“Maybe he was talking about the final phase of their plan?” said one of the scientists. “I’m sure it is nothing but a plan to demoralize us. How can anyone believe his lies?” Many such comments were being passed around the hall room when suddenly one of the IR attendants came in and said that Russia had been nuked. The news caught everyone off-guard. Rake quickly rushed to his command room and saw the footage from the IR. A huge cloud of dust, looming over the entire landmass of Russia. The space tower station in the command room suddenly lit up. The workers there said that an unidentified object was heading toward the base. The base where Rake was standing. There was a moment of silence. A silence that felt very loud. But that only a moment. Soon people started shouting and running. But the unusually calm Rake went towards the big wide windowpane looking over the destroyed mountains. The ‘bomb’ dropped just as Rake touched the large glass. Suddenly, Rake felt scared. As he stood, his knees buckling, the supernova-esque light of the mushroom cloud looming over him, he sighed at the final moments and said, “This is what it all led to eternal despair.”

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