18 Guardians

John awoke, dazed and confused, and looked around. He saw rubble and smoke surrounding him. He opened his mouth to call out but was unable to speak, as he was still trying to recover. He finally managed to stand up clumsily, and stumbled a bit. Finally he found his balance and footing, and looked around. He then began to shout out. 

"Is anyone there? Can you hear me? Anyone?" 

Quickly he took notice of the sounds of rock shuffling, and reactively looked over to see rock piles were being stirred in several regions. Brandon, Greag, Sean, Rex, and Tommy emerged from beneath the piles. John looked around for his last squad mate Gary. 

"Where's Gary?" 

Everyone was still dazed and trying to figure out what had happened. 

Finally everyone recouped, and was up and moving. They spread out, in search of Gary. A moment went by, when Tommy shouted out from the left side of everyone. 

"I found him. I think he's dead though." 

John ran over to him and began to check his wrist for a heartbeat, and was inspecting his body. Gary's lifeless eyes were looking up, blood covered his chest, which appeared to have been crushed. 

"He's dead." 

John announced in disappointment, with sadness in his face. Sean looked around and saw the walls of the building were heavily damaged. Able to see outside he saw that it was dark out, from cloud cover. In the sky he saw a bluish green mushroom cloud at a distance. Greag walked over beside him, also looking at the cloud. 

"What kind of nuke are they using? I've never seen a cloud that color." 

Brandon overhearing them answered. 

"It's actually not a nuke. We thought the same since the day they first attacked, and had those explosions going off." 

He walked over next to them, as he stared at the cloud and continued. 

"What we discovered. Was those are from these supposed God's. They come down and destroy whole areas. The reason is unclear. We know the God things are humanoid, but we haven't been able to truly see any of them." 

John heard this and shouted over to Brandon. 

"What the fuck do you mean that a god is doing that? How does that make any sense? You know what I think? I think you're crazy and don't have a clue what's going on. I also think these creatures are aliens coming to take over our planet." 

Everyone stared at him astonished.  He was kneeled over Gary's dead body with anger in his face. Rocks began to shake and float up around him. 

Brandon's face turned to him, as if he was studying him. 

"John calm down. I know you're pissed about Gary and this whole thing, but that can't slow us down." 

Sean softly said to John while gradually walking to him, with his hands out for comfort. John was calming down as Sean walked to him. The rocks dropped to the ground and John looked at Brandon and softly said. 

"I'm sorry Brandon. Just too much going on all at once." 

Brandon was still standing there staring, and studying him. 

"Let's get our gear, and get ready to get out of here." 

John commanded everyone. 

As everyone packed up and got ready, John put his helmet on. Radio signals began to flood in from command. 

"John. Are you there John? John can you repeat?" 

John quickly replied. 

"Hello this is John Stewart, we got hit by a blast of some kind. Only one casualty, and our payload is safe." 

Command quickly returned. 

"Get your asses back here now. This is getting too risky. Protect that payload." 

John walked over and shouted out to everyone. 

"Command came in. We have to go now and get back to the base. They said this is getting too dangerous." 

Greag quickly replied. 

"No shit it's getting dangerous. It's been dangerous."

"Shut it greag, let's roll out now. We don't have too far to go." John barked. 

Everyone uncovered the vehicles of debris and rubble, loaded up inside them and rolled out. Speeding off in a hurry to get back, pushing the cars as much as they can. 

Five minutes from the base, the fallout from the massive explosion earlier started rolling in. The rain water came in like flood waters. 

"We're almost there. Just keep going." 

John radioed to everyone. Brandon was sitting in the passenger seat in John's car in front. He looked over to John as if studying him some more. 

They rolled up to the front of the base. Drove down the long hallway to the big door. The door swung open, and they drove through to the field, and parked their vehicles at the spot the soldier with light batons directed them. 

As they walked to the man door, they were greeted by the general himself. He stood there with a salute to them. They approached closer, stopped, and saluted back, and then followed him through the door. 

"You guys are fucking heroes, you know that? Well Brandon we need you to go to the conference room to go get debriefed and you guys follow me. We have a surprise for you."

They walked through an attractively decorated door to a posh auditorium stage, people were sitting in the chairs in the auditorium, clapping and applauding them. The general stopped at the podium, commanded everyone to stand by rank in a line next to him. He stepped to the microphone and began to speak.

"These men have gone out, against all odds. To ensure our safety and change the odds. They have slain the seemingly unstoppable monsters. Stopped their forward gain and just now. Just now they returned with information that could change this whole war." 

The whole crowd applauded. He then continued as people settled down. 

"I am granting every one of these men awards of the bronze star for acts of bravery and courage for our united body." 

He stopped to each person and placed the metals onto the soft parts on their suits and walked back to continue.  

"I am also giving them a special rank, the rank of guardians. If they accept this rank they will be granted full immunity and power to do as they feel bests our people." 

As the crowd was cheering, the general looked at them with a question on his face. John looked to his friends, waited for their answer to the question, they all nodded yes. John turned his head back to the general and replied to the general. 

"We would be honored."