Daisuki(Narrating):"I had forgotten every horrific thing I saw in war and while holding my hands over my ears, slid down the door. I couldn't fully mute their horrific but soon fading screams. Until there was no screaming, just gnashing and snarling of the Icemen feasting.
To tell you the truth, as your mentor now, at that moment I cried. I cried because I went into this thinking I was going to feel free again. Not only was I going to be helping people from evil like I did as a soldier, but I would be in the open outside world that I was cut off from for a full year because of these monsters. But instead at that point I was scared. I was in a fetal position with my hands over my head and tears in my eyes like a real baby. I decided, mostly out of fear, that I had enough of an experience for the day.
This next part I would've been willing to die without telling anyone. Knowing my route back was long and because I had not eaten lunch, I sat there, pulled out my lunch and ate my food. I ate with the background noise of Icemen tearing apart the sons or brothers of a family back in the mountains. I waited 20 minutes after they finished eating to leave the hotel lobby I was hiding in.
In retrospect looking over at where the scene took place was more than karma because I almost threw up the lunch.
Both men were held in place to the fence by the ice that spread from their wounds. Their bodies were completely mutilated from their predators.
Both their faces missing an eye, one's jaw was gone, all their ears bitten off as well as their noses.
The torsos, just like the first woman's, were completely hollowed out but there were entrails sprawled around the ground and the top of the fence. Their SunSwords, completely cold from being unsheathed for so long, were laying on the ground with snow and cold blood from the men splattered slightly on them. I know I was just seeing things, but I could've sworn right before I looked away, one of them looked right at me with their only remaining eye as if, from the dead, asking 'why I didn't save them.'
I started running back out of the city, North, towards the mountain entrances. I wasn't going to stop jogging, I just wanted to get to safety. Right before I ran into the forest I saw a flock of birds flying in the same direction.Right as I passed the first layer of trees I felt a slight tremble but kept going.
Within 3 seconds another tremor was felt but slightly stronger. That's when I remembered not only because it was another fact from the vague debriefing, but because I had felt those tremors before, but that's a whole nother story.
The cause of the rumbling of trees and the ground was now clear to me, I just hoped I wasn't in the wrong place at the wrong time. My jog turned into a sprint, with my SunSword in its holster hitting my hips.
I couldn't see the sky through the mountain forest trees but knew, from some direction, more than just one of the giant Icemen was getting closer. At this point, just getting out of the woods was a little less than the halfway point towards getting to safety.
I kept running and the tremors became stronger and more frequent. Too frequent for just one giant Iceman to make.
My now heavy legs kept running, with a 20 pound backpack and 10 extra pounds of steel at my hip. I tripped and I fell, exhausted my face went into the accumulated alien snow.
As I felt ultimately defeated I could hear the sound of trees snapping and oncoming destruction, I almost accepted my punishment for wanting to foolishly leave the safety of the mountains.
I only spent 90 minutes in the city just to witness 3 people, die no matter the weapons they had. These monsters were created to overpower us weak humans. I waited to be crushed by either a kicked tree or the bottom of an icy foot.I could hear the splintering of fully grown trees snapping and looked to my right.
My fear turned into complete amazement when I saw the poetic horror that I was able to witness.
500 yards away, 10 giant Icemen legs, submerging from the trees and going back up out of sight for another to replace it, 5 Icemen ranging from either 35-50 feet(10-15m) were in stride as if they were strolling together and incidentally clearing a path through the forest.
At first this sight wasn't too alarming since I was out of their path, but then a gaggle of the smaller Iceman could be seen combing the destruction for humans trying to hide.
Like how the two groups I witnessed in the city seemed to be helping each other, the giant Icemen were using their size to fish out humans that were hiding within the forest. Then the smaller Icemen would hunt them down and either eat the person themselves or immobilize them so a slower giant could have a meal. I wondered, now that humans are scattered and scarce, if it was them learning to hunt or was this how they hunted instinctively?After having a minute to breathe and my adrenaline fully kicked in, I finished my trek through the forest and saw one of the direction signs towards an entrance. I hustled that way, staying at the same pace for 10 minutes.
I slowed down and planned a short walk to catch my breath again for the final leg of my run. The entire way after my mental breakdown in the forest, I kept asking myself, 'Is this the final time I'll get to see the sky?'.
After not even 6 hours away from the Sister Mountains I realized the world I returned to was now a living 'Hell'. Humans no longer had certainty about their position on the food chain. With the thought of the food chain still in my head I suddenly heard a bloodcurdling snarl behind me.
Quickly I turned around and confirmed what I had thought the sound came from. A solo smaller Iceman that must have broken off from the combing pack in the woods from before. I started running in the direction of the entrance.
I was at least a football field from the buzz-in entrance underneath a stone canopy and the HFF flag flapping in the alien snowy winds. Even if I made it to the buzzer to let them know to open the door, the monster in pursuit of me wasn't going to wait.
Once I was within 10 yards of the shut steel doors and the bright pulsing red button with 'CALL' printed in it. I pulled out my bright and burning SunSword.
In the heat of the moment I could feel the literal heat coming from the red/orange blade and I think so could the Iceman. As I turned around to face the ice beast it looked at my heated weapon in obvious confusion.I have had basic blade training before, so I kept a decent stance and slowly backed up towards the button to call the elevator. The Iceman also kept its distance but was still slowly trying to find an opening to attack. I backed into the wall and felt for the button, just then I noticed my sword was losing its glow and remembered the 2 minute time limit.
It had been a solid minute since I pulled it out and then I felt the call button for the elevator. I pressed it and a voice came over the small speaker above the button,'Are you returning from scouting?'.
I told them yes and to please hurry because I was in trouble. They said they sent up the elevator and it'll open in 30 seconds.
As if understanding HE now had a time limit to get to me, the Iceman darted towards me gnashing and gnarling it's teeth.I dodged and sheathed my sword. At the moment I figured if I left my sword heating up for the 15 seconds until the elevator got there. Then I could finish off the beast, get back to safety with an enemy corpse for more information than ever on the alien species.
I remembered those 3 people who died fighting these monsters, all the information that I acquired because of their sacrifice was for this one vs. one of species. Finding my resolve, I continuously dodged the swipes of the monster until finally I heard the 'ding' of the elevator door, then it opened. I ran directly towards the doors and a timer could be heard from the speaker before, counting down from 10… I got to the doorway at 6…5…4, and with the Iceman only 10 yards away I had one choice.
The alien beast lunged off its feet for the last 5 feet and in the same movement, I unsheathed my lit sword once more and cleanly cut its head off, its sharp claw narrowly missing my eye. I think it may have even gotten an eyelash.
The body and head both flew into the elevator wall behind me and I pulled my foot in right before the door closed.I could feel the elevator begin to rumble in its descent and I took a deep breath while my sword's glow began to dim.
I looked at the first ever Iceman slain by a human. The first return fire from humanity on the Icemen was the result of my cowardice but with these new swords, humans CAN fight back.
I remembered the woman and the men whose lifeless eyes were open after their death, just like this monster had its eyes open. When I went to get a closer look at the dead Iceman, I must've gotten too close to it because the last thing I remember in the elevator with the dead Iceman, was I suddenly got this intense pain in my right eye.
As if something was 'spreading' over my entire eye and from the most intense all over head pain, I passed out.
But once I woke up this whole mystery got even more peculiar. When I awoke in the infirmary a nearby nurse saw me and came over to check up on me. It wasn't until she saw my right eye was now an Iceman eye that she screamed in horror and I knew something was wrong.
I was handcuffed to my infirmary hospital bed as I told them the whole story, except how I ate lunch with the Icemen.
Once I told them about the 3 other soldiers from the elevator that I saw slain by the monsters, about my duel with the enemy, as well as the mass amounts of information from my excursion alone, they believed me and unhandcuffed me. I was kept under high security watch to make sure I wasn't possessed or controlled by the Iceman I accidentally stole the eye from.
Afterwards I was told once the elevator doors opened, they found me unconscious with the Iceman body and head laying next to me.
The Iceman was missing an eye and before I woke up, they just thought I had managed to gouge it out in our fight. My minor cuts and wounds had healed almost overnight. It wasn't until the next night when I was going to the bathroom, that I used the thermal vision by accident and knew there was something more to the eye and these aliens.
You guys remember how I said there were a couple reasons I was part of the 'unofficial' first HFF Response Unit? The reason other than our ignorance, was because I was the only person out of the 50 who went out on that excursion and returned home.
Between bringing an enemy's corpse back for research and 49 brave souls paying the ultimate sacrifice, it was both a victory and defeat for humanity.
After I got the eye I decided to go back out once more, after 8 months of developmental research, I was cleared to go. This time with my own goals in mind and two SunSwords, loaded in a HeatHolster on each hip. Surprisingly, after receiving the eye, two swords felt lighter. I thought it was because of the updated hardware.
As soon as I got to Hanabi City my second time, my feelings of fear and not wanting to fight were now a feeling of 'excited curiosity' and 'wanting to know more'.
I made as much noise as I could.
I knocked over trash cans, yelled, and broke windows. I wasn't afraid of the repercussions.
Not even if it was the 10 smaller Icemen wanting to know what the racket was.
Once they realized it was me they all attacked at once. Not intimidated from my 'stolen' eye, but as if more enraged by it. The sight I hid in fear of during my first excursion was approaching me.
I pulled one of my fully lit SunSwords and I was able to read their movements perfectly. I cut them all down with agility and acrobatics that I had never been trained for while switching between hot swords to keep a consistent weapon available. As if knowing where to move, how to contort my body mid-air and which direction to swing my sword.
Then, after cutting up the 10 enemies an extra I hadn't heard caught me by surprise and scratched my arm. I stabbed it with one sword and cut its head off with the other.
I looked at the cut and held my arm up to the blade ready to cut, but I noticed, there was no ice from the injury spreading.