Two Hours Earlier...
Peshawar was long gone. The nation of Pakistan was a place long forgotten. The hellish bright light above burned down on the floor that Sergeant Randall and the others currently walked on. A time estimate would've been around two hours, that's how long the group had been walking. That was a vague estimate made by Sergeant Randall on how long they had been walking.
Fatigue had set in.
"Ah shit. Ah, this fucking headache!" Green complained as he used his gloved hands to cling to his face. "Simon. Got any water left?" He asked while wiping a light sweat from his forehead.
The helmetless Simon searched his battle belt as he looked for his canteen. "Yeah-here you go." Pulling the small olive drab canteen out he handed it to Green, "Don't drink it all. I just have enough for myself as it is." He warned as he poked a finger at his near empty camelback.
"We need to find something." Thompson told as he patted Patterson on the back, "At the very least some sort of cover to protect us from this light."
"Yeah. Figures. I would imagine your SERE training never taught you how to survive in a fucking void." Patterson said jokingly to Staff Sergeant Baker who was trying to keep the light out of his eyes.
The group continued to the walk the void. It wasn't long before they came to a stop, with Thompson making the decision to rest for the moment. Some tried to gain some shut eye, while others attempted to scout the area looking for a source of water. Laying on his now empty camelback, Sergeant Randall stared upwards as hundreds, if not thousands of thoughts ran through his mind trying to make sense of the situation, he and the rest of the squadron were thrown into.
"Hey Randall." Sergeant Malkovich called out in a tired voice.
"Yeah?" Randall responded as he turned his head towards the Sergeant.
"You ever wonder why both Simon and Green decided to become Rangers?"
This question confused Randall as he tried to come up with a response. "I uh-I'm sure they have their own reasons why they joined. I mean you can technically sign up once you're eligible to be selected in RASP." Randall paused as he glanced at the two Rangers huddled next to each other sleeping. "From what I've heard they enlisted after the attacks."
Malkovich let out a quick yawn as, "They did? My brother did the same." Disgruntled, the Sergeant twisted and turned as he tried to find a comfortable position to sleep in, but after several failed attempts, he simply returned to the conversation, "Mike, right? Mind if I ask a question?"
Randall shifted his head to look at Malkovich. He wasn't used to being called by his first name. Even out of uniform, his friends always called him by his last name. "Shoot."
"What do you think of this place?" The man questioned as he gazed at the void above. Following his gaze, Randall too found himself looking at a never-ending sea of white.
"I-I don't know." Randall began as he rubbed his eyes, "Perhaps this could be some Hell or Heaven. Perhaps this could be some purgatory where we are just waiting for judgment."
"Or we did enter another godforsaken plain of reality." He said finishing Randall's sentence.
"Yeah. But that's the part that makes no sense." Randall said as he rubbed his semi-blood crusted hand along the ground. "If we really were transported to this place, I would've expected for the teleportation to be more drastic, like an explosion or something."
"Or a magic portal." Malkovich said. "Back when I was a teenager, I liked to read all sorts of stuff. Some of the material included web novels."
"I fail to see how that relates to magic portals?" Randall responded as he gazed at Malkovich hoping to gain an answer.
"It's a common trope. Some angsty kid with daddy issues get sent into a world as a hero." Malkovich explained as he brought up the nipple of his camelback, "My friends always joked around about it during high school, but I never saw the appeal. For starters a kid would be fucked if he was suddenly whisked away from his world, then to throw him into a position of power? I don't think so."
All Randall could do was hum along at the information provided as he shut his eyes.
"Hey Lieutenant, you see that? Is it a mirage?"
Scrunching his face and opening his eyes gently, Sergeant Randall quietly awoke as voices came to the right of him.
"Lower your rifle man! C'mon be real there's probably nothing out there. It's all just flat desert."
Putting away his binoculars, Patterson turned to Captain Thompson who was sipping a small amount of water he had left in his canteen, "It's not too far. We shout investigate the mirage." Patterson mentioned as he handed his canteen out to the captain.
"Are you sure? It could be our water-deprived bodies showing us a mirage?" Thompson questioned as he brushed off the offer and took out his knife to draw the estimated distance from their current position.
"If all of us are seeing it then it is more than a simple hallucination." Randall said as he rose from his camelback and grabbed his carbine. "If anything, we should investigate before we get to that point."
"We should get moving." Patterson suggested as he looked down at his plate carrier and viewed how many magazines he had left.
One by one the Rangers slowly collected themselves and began the perilous journey through the white wasteland in the hopes of reaching the mirage that was spotted not long ago. Their sense of direction was almost non-existent due to a supposed magnetic field screwing with their compasses, and that all forms of navigation by either sun or star was now impossible.
Walking beside him, Randall noticed how Green kept rubbing his finger against the magazine in his rifle and attached to his plate carrier. "Problem with ammo?" He asked calmly making the boy almost jump from the sudden start of a conversation.
"U-Uh yeah... I've got five mags left." Green quietly said. "You think we'll be able to resupply wherever the hell we end up?" He asked with a downcast expression.
"Three magazines spent?" Randall said before adjusting his answer, "No. If what I think is true; we will have more than a few difficulties attempting to resupply, perhaps more extreme than I initially thought."
"Don't tell me you actually believe that shit?" Green questioned with wide eyes.
"We have to consider it a possibility. If not, we'll be unprepared." Randall responded with a shrug.
With a heavy sigh, Green fell to the back of the group much to Randall's annoyance. He had a difficult time understanding why his answer failed to get through to the PFC, yet he knew just like the other men around him that the impossible should be considered in this "extreme" situation they had all found themselves in
As the distance between them and the mirage swiftly closed, it was clear that the anomaly was no hallucination. Cutting through the confusion, Captain Thompson directed his men away from the mirage as a precautionary measure, while Patterson and Simon kept their weapons trained.
"What do you think it is?" Richard asked sparing a glance to the captain.
"No fucking idea, but it could be something we could use." Thompson coolly explained. "If anything, it will get us out of this shithole."
"Great." Richard mumbled as he gazed at the mirage. Beside him, Malkovich and PFC Simon spoke to each other about the nature of the mirage, with Malkovich being steadfast that the anomaly being a possible way back to Peshawar or Earth.
The small talk soon quieted down as Thompson rose from his knelt position and he slowly grew closer to the mirage ignoring the protests of the other Rangers. Randall and Richard soon followed, and together with the captain in the lead, the three slowly approached.
Over the shouts of his teammates, all Randall could focus on was the cold sweat that ran down the side of his head, and the constant throbbing pains at the front of his head.