After exactly two years of peacekeeping at the desert village.
A squad of soldiers patrolled the desert village named "AL-shams" meaning sun village or THE sun.
In that group, was Theo, Khalid, Malik (Captain\Naqib) and another soldier named Abdullah, they were doing a routine patrol of the village, they knew there were no enemies in the village since the occupants of the village were peaceful people who were a mix of both Jewish and Muslim plus other religions that I unfortunately am not familiar with.
The patrol went smoothly, so smooth it was boring. so Theo sneakily shoved Khalid to the ground and faked a concerned voice "oh no, did you hurt yourself? he held in a laugh. that fall sounded really rough!" the group stopped as Malik shouted to Khalid who got up slowly "GET UP YA JUNDI! WE STILL HAVE 50KM TO FINISH THE PATROL!" the captain sounded annoyed due to Khalid's clumsiness, but His words stuck with Khalid, made him reply enthusiastically "YES YA NAQIB! IT WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN SIR!" Theo laughed behind Khalid's back, like he was having a gran ol'good time
Abdullah took notice of what happened but waited a few minutes before tapping Khalid's shoulder, that got his attention as they were walking, he asked him "what that first lieutenant did was just cruel", Khalid woukd reply to him happily "Theo is just trying to assert his dominance over me. he has been ever since he saw the weak version of me." Abdullah noticed that Khalid wasn't angry or showed any hatred towards Theo. But he was alert, because when Theo tried to pull the same trick, he intentionally walked behind the captain who was leading them and stepped out of the way, and that caused Theo to lose balance and stumble into Malik causing them to both fall onto the ground with Theo on top of the captain. That made the captain irritated and resulted in the temporary suspension of Theo from Future patrols.
After they reached the 25km (about 15.53 mi) mark, they rested at a local's house, the local offered that they take an hour or two to rest since they work tirelessly to keep their village and the country safe from any foreign or domestic enemies.
The local whose name is Adam, is the proud father of two, and his wife Nadia is the best, she has this way of making your heart ease and wash away your stress, maybe it's the blend of herbs she puts in her tea? Hell if I know.
Adam sat with Captain Malik and as they were conversing about the state of the village, Adam looked uneasy, shifting in his seat, looking out the windows every 5 to 10 minutes. So naturally, Malik questioned the old man "Are you alright sir?" That question made Adam's hair stand still.
Adam pondered the question, nervously sweating as he did so. After he was done, he answered the captain whispering "The...hand...of...Satan", the captain asked him concernedly "what are you mumbling about? Speak clearly old man!" Adam got on his knees and begged Malik intensely "PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING GOD CREATED! grabs onto the captain's pants after getting off the chair. SAVE MY SONS! MY PRIDE AND JOY! MY CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD!"
Captain Malik stood up and practically began scraping the old man off his slipping pants as he told him "I CAN'T HELP YOU tries to remove the old man's hands off of his shirt. IF YOU DON'T TELL ME EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR SONS!" Adam, with tears flowing down his face, sobbingly informed the captain "sobs in old man. men, and women. Dressed in black uniforms. cries harder at this next part. THEY STOLE MY SONS! THEY TOOK THEM AWAY! sniffles sadly. I watched... helplessly... hoping God would send anyone, anybody! To bring back my sons! I beg you! Soldier of Arabia. Please, BRING MY SONS BACK FROM THOSE DEVILS!" Malik grabbed the old man's hands and helped him to his seat before reassuring him "Allah be my witness; may he help me keep my word. I WILL bring back your sons, inshallah." the old man watched as the captain left and gathered his squad.
After a short debrief of the current mission, Malik sent Abdullah and another soldier back to the mobile barracks to inform the unit's major about the threat of, as he put it "The Left Hand of Shaytan" before he told Khalid "Listen good ya jundi, me and you will head into the palm of shaytan, alone, with reinforcement coming in T-minus 7 hours. If you are a coward, then my death will be on your soul every time you close your eyes. If you choose to leave and go back to base, I won't stop you. But the lives- no, the future of two children is at stake here." Khalid checked his backpack, after making sure he was well prepared to take on the enemy, he checked the mag on his gun and the clip in his side arm before walking alongside the captain informing him of his answer "Sir, with all due respect, I will not run away. my job is to protect these people, and it's also to serve this country" Malik smiled a little as he stated "should've known the son of Raqib Awwal(master sergeant) Mohammed bin Saeed, is a true soldier. Your heart is as big as your build. So, try not to stick out like shit in sand".
With that, they started scouting the village at noon! Ya allah! That's like torture! It was 60 degrees! which is a lot in fahrenheit!
But anyway, they looked in houses, inns, churches and mosques. Everywhere people gather.
They spent the good part of the 7 hours waiting on the reinforcement, about 4 hours to be exact.
In those 4 hours, they found out that these hand of whatever group arrived about 5 years ago, which was 2020.
They first arrived in Humvees then dug inside a cave that was later named "Kahf al-moet" cave of death, due to the smell that came from it.
Khalid got chills running down his spine when he heard death, he doesn't seem to be a fan of it. Can't say I blame him, shits scary!
However, upon seeing how hopeless the villagers looked when he asked them about those group, he held onto his fear and used it to find the courage within to seek out those hands of shaytan.
Malik sniffed the air before commanding Khalid "Follow me, I smell something foul" when Khalid sniffed the air, he almost vomited but he kept his mouth shut with his hands. He followed the captain before saying, "swallows vomit back the way it came. I think I will be sick ya Naqib. starts looking a little green as he holds his mouth shut again." The captain just kept following the foul smell, he thought they'll find their base of operation, only to find something he never expected.
Khalid just managed to catch up with the captain as he was tired from all that walking, and the running really didn't help his lungs, when he asked the captain, "why- bends to his knees and tries to catch his breath. Fuuu! breathes heavily for a moment before glancing over at Malik. why did we?-" His heart sank upon seeing a woman with pale almost ghostly in hue skin, her Blood covered eyes and half of her face is just melted off like it turned into slime or something else that's viscous yet retaining some of its skin like texture.
This time, Khalid really vomited, all over his shoes and the ground. Malik just inspected the strange and very much bare woman. On the only eye she has left is a blood red half skull with a heart below it. It looked almost like it was produced by her own body, like a birthmark or a mole, except it was on her eye.
Malik took a picture to later bring to the Director, but as he was taking the picture, the corpse started to move wildly as if it hasn't accepted its death yet! And right as it tried to reach out to Malik, he pulled out a Glock and aimed it directly at her half melting head and BANG! Right through her head! but even after that, she was still moving! (Sheesh, she's certainly persistent) but Malik wasn't about to let whatever she was live.
He slowly and calmly emptied 17 rounds in her head, causing her to stop moving, PERMENANTLY. Then Khalid walked closer to him asking Malik as he covered his eyes from this horrifying scene "ya allah, ya Naqib! Why did you do that?!" then he got grabbed by the collar of his shirt as Malik explained "quiet down! This- looks at the mutilated body of the pale woman. -thing, was about to attack us!" before he could continue explaining his reasoning, a couple of armed personnel dressed in black clothing with "ق ع" written on their front body armor walked out the cave.
One of the couple bragged "Always knew I was special!" his partner didn't share his sentiment as she stated with a hint of jealousy in her voice "You're one of the lucky few Ahmed, you should thank the mistress", Ahmed pointed out his partner's tone "YOU'RE JEALOUS! laughs psychoticlly. MISTRESS SAW POTENTIAL IN ME! points his extra sharp claws at her. AND SAW NOTHING IN YOU! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" His insane laughter could be heard from a mile away, and it influenced Khalid's psyche negatively as he believed he wasn't ready to beat such an unpredictable and clearly deranged foe.
The couple got closer to the mutilated pale women's body, then Ahmed looked at the corpse with his gleaming red eyes and commented, "well, this is what's left of her. looks at his partner. what do you think happened?" his partner looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary, she reported, "no sign of the shooter, might've been one of our sinners" Ahmed sniffed the air and contradicted "Nope, I smell sweat, specifically ball sweat. squats down facing the dead pale woman on the ground. and I see bullet sized holes in this dumb bitch's head, too small to be our bullets." he started fishing inside the dead woman's bullet holed skull and managed to pull out a bullet the size of a pinkie's fingernail.
His partner, whose name was Kathrine, inspected the bullet and watched the ground for bullet casing and saw a line of them heading behind a giant rock formation. She looked back to her partner who was eating the dead pale woman's head and gave him a signal that meant "stay alert" before slowly approaching the rock formation.
She had her shotgun drawn and traced at the only way anyone could get out from behind it and continued to advance. Her breathing steady, her footing strong. But there was one flaw.
Kathrine couldn't possibly predetermine what Khalid and Malik did.
Khalid threw a grenade at her from above the rock formation, and she tried to run away but it was too late. Or that's what she thought. The grenade was merely a distraction! However, that gave Malik enough time to aim for a headshot, and a bullet was fired!
But it wasn't Malik's! It was Ahmed's who had finally finished eating the dead women's head and used his own pistol to shoot Malik.
He made fun of Kathrine who was on her back from the diversion "You are sooooo pathetic Kathy! Getting fooled like that. This is why I'M special, and you're not." As he boasted, Khalid took the opportunity to throw a punch at Kathrine, he hit her head hard onto the dirt covered ground, causing a loud thud to sound out as her body hit the ground from how much force was put behind that hit.
She was out cold, and Khalid told Ahmed who was amused by how determined of taking them out the young soldier was "YOU ARE VIEWED AS FORIEGN INVADERS! aims his automatic rifle at Ahmed with great difficulty due to him being very afraid. DO NOT MOVE ANY CLOSER!" but Ahmed wasn't the cooperative type. He slowly walked towards Khalid with this menacing Aura about him. Khalid shot him for second and almost lost his balance, but when he looked back at the damage the bullets did, he just saw Ahmed standing right before him, weapon holstered and with a grin across his face he remarked "you're young but I like your guts, sadly- plunges his whole fricking hand into Khalid's left lung. I'm gonna have to spill em" Ahmed slowly pulled his hand out of the soldier's abdomen, only for Khalid to start coughing up blood asking in a weakened voice, "do...you...hear...that?" Ahmed heard nothing so he ignored him after fully pulling his hand out.
Khalid didn't fall right away, he looked at Ahmed and flipped him off before getting a slight push to the chest by him, that was all it took for him to finally backwards and hit the ground.
Once he did, Malik appeared behind Ahmed and injected a syringe into his brain saying, "You're in his mercy now, answer three, and go to Jaheem"
"YOU PIECE O-"
But it was too late, the clear substance in the syringe entered the brutal Ahmed's cerebral artery causing it to coagulate and close them, now it's just a matter of minutes before Ahmed's brain shut down completely(hopefully). However, if he was going down, he won't be the only one.
Ahmed swung his right arm at Malik shouting in anger "I WILL KILL YOU!", Malik dodged the swinging arm and punched Ahmed in the nose causing him to fall back disoriented.
Then he executed him by pulling his gun out and shooting him four times in the chest, blood started to flow from under Ahmed as he felt the world around him darkening, no light, not even a matchstick can illuminate this darkness.
Malik looked down on the sinful creature and told it, "Pray while you still have a brain to do so, I injected 5ml (about 0.17 oz) of Zamzam water into it, you will be dead before you can have anything else to say." then he walked past him and over to Khalid who was looking up to the night sky, he was mumbling something, "speaks in a low and weak voice. I... did g- coughs up blood. good. I... can go… see dad... now" Malik knelt on one knee next to him and looked at his subordinate before shutting the younger soldier's eyes as he was no longer with him. Malik looked at his wristwatch then spoke into his earpiece, " time of death, 19:07. cause of death, puncture wound in the left lung. Occupation, Military. Age 19. His father is a good teacher, taught me discipline and how to fight. stands up. I will not let your death be in vain Khalid, you served, you did your part." and then he turned his back to his deceased subordinate and walked over to where both Kathrine and Ahmed came from, which was a cave entrance.
As he went, Ahmed coughed out a clear glob of phlegm and then promised painfully "That bastard. starts turning onto his stomach. I'll fucking show him. begins to crawl towards the nearest corpse. I'm going to eat his fucking flesh and drink his stupid blood, then I'm going to rip him to shreds and eat him whole!" As he reached Khalid's corpse, he dug his blood covered hand and claws into the young man's heart through the open gut wound he had. But he couldn't for some reason pull them out again, it's as if he's not in control anymore.
He tried to pull his hand out of Khalid's heart, but it was stuck there for good. After just a few minutes, he got a gory idea and chopped off his own left forearm, it took a few swing and tear, but he was able to do it. and then proceeded to crawl over to Kathrine's unconscious body and started off by biting her foot through the boots which woke her up SCREAMING!
She kicked him off questioning him, "WHAT IN THE SEVEN CIRCLES OF HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Ahmed groaned at her question, "why do you have to make things difficult? I was just trying to heal up." she looked around and noticed Malik isn't dead and isn't around. "He's not here, where did he-" then she realized the only place he could have possibly gone into and hurried to stand up and go after him, Ahmed yelled for her to bring meat or blood, but he doubts she will.
Ahmed looked around himself while he laid on the ground, he was bored, he didn't see anything out of order, except for the fact Khalid's body mysteriously disappeared, he had no idea how, and he was flabbergasted by it.
Sadly, he didn't have enough time to think, as a unit of 14 soldiers, all armed and armored, were approaching his position. Leading them was Sergeant Yousef to his right is Theo and to his left is Isaa with smoke escaping his mouth as he dropped a lit cigarette to the ground.
Yousef instructed his soldiers, "men! Don't be reckless, and don't engage in combat until you have a clear visual on the enemy. I want us to show off before we kill them! rests weapon in front of his upper chest." Theo was shaking in his boots at the thought of being killed by the enemy, he had little to no experience dealing with terrorists or foreign organized groups such as the left hand of shaytan.
Not Isaa though, he was ready, ready to take a life and give his own for his comrades and country, he was the textbook definition of a soldier, nothing could dilute or absolve his resolve, nothing except for a wounded Khalid who was struggling to walk right as he tried to come over to them.
Yousef halted the unit with his hand up in a fist held up position, he commanded a soldier to go check on him, but Isaa ran towards his friend before the soldier could start moving.
Khalid had blood covering his abdomen and his hands along with a trail of blood behind his feet, He clutched his gut that seemed to have been filled in. It was as if someone poured flesh into a wound and it magically healed on its own and became nee flesh.
Isaa grabbed Khalid's arm and wrapped it around the back of his neck as he began supporting him back to the unit where he'd be diagnosed by a combat medic, He also asked Khalid with seriousness and concern in his voice "what the hell happened to you K? You look like you spilled your guts all over yourself!". Khalid didn't answer as he himself doesn't remember what happened to him exactly, all he remembered was a half human skull asking him in many voices "WhO ArE yUo?" He didn't know what the skull meant by that question, so he didn't answer.
Once he was checked by the combat medic, he was giving the all clear to return to base since there was no wound or injury for some reason despite the blood everywhere on him. the order came from Sergeant Yousef himself who deemed Khalid unfit for this mission. "you're too shocked to be of any use, cub. just go back to the litter while the real lions hunt down the hyenas Malik mentioned." Isaa tried to defend Khalid's case saying "YOU AREN'T SERIOUS, ARE YOU SARGEANT!?" That's when the Sergeant looked down on Isaa and asserted his authority by belittling him "you don't question my orders ya mulazim, you follow them. So be a good dog and take this cub back to the litter, that's not a recommendation OR a suggestion, it's an order".
Isaa grinded his teeth before Khalid stepped up to Yousef who seemed to be short enough to be up to Khalid's neck, He told the Sergeant with sincerity and devotion in his voice "I may not be strong, I doubt I can fight any enemy if they engage me right now, but. clenches hand before slamming it on his chest as his eyes met Yousef's. I WILL DIE BEFORE I LET ANY ENEMY HARM MY COMRADES!"
The Sergeant scoffed at the young soldier's words of devotion and dedication before telling his unit, "Listen up men! We move in groups of 3! looks at Khalid and then at Theo who was clearly scared. I believe you two would be a great wolf team, so go on." Theo directed his attention to the Sergeant then argued, "YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS! THIS FUCKING GIANT WILL LEAVE ME FOR DEAD! HE'S NOTHING BUT A COWARD!"
That word, coward. It made Khalid's blood boil, his heart rate become unstable and his eyes grow red. as he balled up his fists and looked at Theo menacingly, he wished to make him understand just how quote on quote "Cowardly" he can get.