1147 Chapter 132- The Colonel – Instruction from the General (VOLUME 6) ~~
The Colonel Harrison Orson
~~
I had the guns. I had the vehicles. I had the men. And, unfortunately, I had plenty of women as well. I had an army, albeit a small one. There was almost nothing else that I needed before I was able to launch my attack.
The only thing that I needed to work on now was when I was going to launch the attack on those people. No, on those things. They were not worthy of being called people. They were disgusting monsters that turned into different creatures of the night. They were the stuff of nightmares and Hollywood horror movies.
Yes, over the years, people had romanticized those 'things' in books, movies, and television, but they were not worthy of being called people. They were gross, disgusting, and needed to be exterminated. And that was where I came in.
I was going to be the exterminator. I was going to rid the world of the infestation that had taken root under our noses. I was going to see to it that they were gone for good. Then I would lead the people. I would change the world into what it needed to be.
I would create a new world order. A new kingdom that rose above all the others. It would be a military state, one that was governed by me and made to cooperate. We would always be at the ready for another war, another battle, and anyone that couldn't cut it would be pruned from the garden. I had no patience for people that were weak and useless.
"You're doing well, Colonel." I heard the voice say from nearby. I had heard this voice before, but it was always in the back of my mind. I had never heard it so clearly before. "Are you really there?" I had a feeling I knew who it was, but I wasn't sure. Not until I heard them more, what they sounded like and what they had to say.
"Yes, it is me. Look over here." The voice called from near the wall. I rose to my feet and stepped closer to where the voice was. It seemed to me like the man that was talking, in that deep and familiar tone, was coming from the corner.
The only thing in the corner was a standing mirror. Why was that in here? I hadn't asked for it to be put in here when I set up these quarters. I hadn't ever had a reason for a standing mirror like this. Still, that was where the voice was coming from.
"Over here, Colonel." The voice, commanding and strong, seemed like it was coming from the mirror itself. "Come here, soldier."
"I am not just a soldier." I told the voice as I stepped in front of the mirror. "I am the Colonel around here. I am in charge."
"Oh yes, I know that you are." The voice was not condescending, but it was acting as if it were a higher rank than I was. Not in my army, I was the highest authority.
"Who are you? Why are you here? What do you want?" There was so much about this voice that I wanted to know. So much that I wanted to ask.
"Who am I? Are you telling me that you don't know? You haven't figured it out yet?" The voice, a little mocking now, chuckled as it spoke.
At that moment, I stepped in front of the mirror. The person that was looking back at me was familiar, but I still didn't know who they were. Not right away. I saw his hair, military short and sandy colored and knew that I had seen it before, but I wasn't able to put my finger on it. His eyes, a warm and intense brown, very human and normal looking but also conveying authority, were looking me right in the eyes. He stood tall and straight, a proud man with a proper military background.
He was wearing a uniform, one that I knew that I had never seen before. It was green with plenty of medals and badges on it. He looked regal and important. He looked very much like the leader that I intended to be.
"Do you know who I am now, Colonel?" He asked me, a smirk playing at the corner of his lips.
"You are the General. You are the man that I want to be." I smiled at him. "Are you here to tell me that I will achieve my goals? That I will become the king and general of my new world order?"
"If you can accomplish what you want to Colonel, then all is possible." His eyes, wide and filled with energy, seemed to be boring into my soul as he looked at me. "That monster bitch is all that stands in our way. She is the reason that our investigation was canceled. She is the reason why we lost face in the office. She is the reason that we have fallen so low with our peers. They will see, though. They will all see what it is that we wanted to show them." "Yes, they will see. They will understand that all we were trying to do was save them. Those things, those monsters, they were the reason for all those murders. The ones that killed them, the Jaegan, they were in the right. They were doing our work before we even knew what our work was." There was a burning intensity inside of me. I knew that it was him, the General, empowering me with his support.
"Exactly. Now we must continue that work. We must show the world what is possible, without all those things polluting it. When we kill them all off, there will be a vacuum of power. So many positions will need to be filled, and only you can do it, Colonel. You need to win this battle and ascend to your new position. You need to become General Orson. That is the only way to make our dreams come true." He was right. I needed to ascend. I needed to raise my ranks.
"But how will I do that? How can I guarantee my victory?" I felt a small slip in the connection between the General in the mirror and myself. I knew that he was me, but he wasn't the me now. He was the me that I wanted to be. He was the me that I needed to become.
"You need to attack. You need to take them by surprise and attack them with all that you have. They will not see it coming, and they will all perish instantly." He seemed so confident and powerful that it was hard to see how he could be wrong.
"And if they manage to somehow make it through the next attack? If I cannot eliminate them in one go? What do I do then?" I needed more from him though. I needed to know what to do. I needed him to tell me what to do.
"Then you need to step it up. You have one more option if the munitions you have at hand do not succeed." There was a glint in his eyes, a shining little light that told me that he had an ace up his uniformed sleeve.
"One more?" I asked the General, wondering what it was that he was talking about. "You will need to break into one of the most guarded offices in the country, but I am sure that you know what I am talking about. And with the army at your command, you can do anything that you set your mind to. I believe in you, Colonel."
Break into a highly guarded office for an ace in the hole? There was only one thing that he could be talking about. He was telling me that I needed to get into the command office and launch a missile. A nuke to be exact. I could do without this part of the country, if it meant destroying all of those things that were trying to infest my world and stop me from reaching my true potential.
"I understand, General. I know what I must do. If this next attack does not work, then I will make sure that I launch the bomb. Humans will perish with them, but they will be a necessary sacrifice for the greater good. I will rebuild this part of the world after the radiation settles, and it will never again be tainted with the disgusting monsters that inhabit it now."
"That's it. You do understand, Colonel. You can take care of this. You know what to do." There was a small amount of laughter that filled the room. I wasn't sure if it was coming from me or the General, but I knew that it was in support of the plans that I was making. No, that we were making. The General was the future me, but he wasn't me yet. He was there, in the mirror, offering me his guidance so that I could become the man that I needed to be. He was going to show me the way, so that I could one day be him.
I could feel the pride and the sense of accomplishment already. The General was happy with me, and he was going to show me how to be even better. He wanted to see me as the new world leader. He wanted to see the new regime as much as I did, and that made me feel like there was nothing that could stop me.
*~~!~~**~~!~~**~~!~~*
~~
DOE GRUNT/VAMPARD
~~
I was asked to take a file to the Colonel. We had just managed to absorb another group into the DOE army. We were preparing for the attack that was coming up, the one where we were supposed to be destroying the hive Queen. We were almost set and ready to go, but there was just a little more that we needed to do.
This new group, the Loyal Army of Minutemen, Bombers, and Snipers, or LAMBS, was a highly skilled set of warriors that had honed their craft over the last several years. They weren't exactly against those super natural pieces of shit, but they were willing to join our fight because they wanted to put their skills to good use.
08:23
When I had approached the Colonel's office, I heard two voices coming from the room beyond the door. One of the voices was definitely the Colonel's, but the other seemed a little gruffer and sterner. And that was saying something because the Colonel was a very stern and angry man as it was.
The door to the office was cracked open, not quite latched all the way, so I was able to peek into the room. I saw that the Colonel was actually alone in the room. He was standing in the corner directly opposite of me, looking into the mirror that one of the women had put in there for him. They had thought that he would want to make sure that his new DOE uniform that he had commissioned was fitting him properly and to admire the way that it looked on himself.
The second voice, the one that was not quite the Colonel's, was actually coming from him. I hadn't thought that it was him because he was changing the tone and timber of his voice, but it was him alright. He was talking to himself as he looked into the mirror.
"That's it. You do understand, Colonel. You can take care of this. You know what to do." He was encouraging himself as he spoke in the other voice. I thought that it was quite strange, and it actually scared me a little. What was the Colonel doing? Why was he talking to himself?
Before I had the answer to what I was asking myself, the Colonel called from the other side of the door.
"WHO'S THERE!?"
"Excuse me, Colonel, I have brought a file for you." I had to fight not to stammer and show how scared I was of the man that had called out to me.
"GET IN HERE AND GIVE IT TO ME THEN, SOLDIER. DO NOT JUST STAND THERE!" I was frightened by what the Colonel had been doing, and by that tone in his voice. He was acting differently than he had when I originally joined the DOE. He was acting unstable and unpredictable.
"H..here you are, Sir." I stepped into the office and held the file out to him.
"Were you spying on me?" The Colonel's eyes narrowed as he took the file from me.
"No, Sir, not at all. I just arrived when you called out to me. I hadn't had the chance to knock yet." He narrowed his eyes at my words, I could tell that he didn't believe me. It was the truth though. I had just arrived. I hadn't spied on him.
"You are part of the VAMPs, correct?" He knew who I was. He knew who everyone in the group was once they had been there for a week at the least.
"Y..yes, Sir, I am."
"Pity, your team seemed promising." He spoke calmly, almost as if he were dismissive and about to let things go, but I still didn't trust him. And I had good reason to. I never even saw him going for the gun, he hadn't lifted it at all. He shot from hip height, the loud reverberating sound filling the room the moment that I felt the pain searing through my chest.
"S..S..S..Sir?" I stuttered out the word as I fell to my knees. I knew that I was already dead. He had killed me, and my mind was just trying to catch up to my body as I slumped to the ground. "That is what you get for spying on me and the General!" He said as he stooped over me. "You should never spy on your superior officers and commanders. I am the highest authority in this army, in the world, and I will not tolerate people spying on me. I will kill anyone that breaks these rules." There was angry spittle flying from his mouth as he spoke these words with vehemence. "I..I..I..I didn't." I said the words with my last breath. It was at that moment that everything around me went dark.