11 The Crucial Mission

The civilians were directed to follow the soldier as John and his squad were ordered to move in for debriefing. Several hours of being questioned on what all happened on the field, they were let go for some R&R. John, exhausted, went to his bunk, and lay with his girlfriend Sam, while she slept. She awoke as he crawled into the bed, turned her head toward him, leaned in, gave him a kiss and draped her arms around his torso. 

"Thank god you're still alive." She cried to him as she wrapped herself around him, her mascara ran from her eyes down over her cheeks. They fell asleep while holding on to each other as they laid there.

The next morning Sean and John went to the mess hall for some food, while Greag decided to hit the showers and go hit the sheets. John and Sean talked about what all had transpired while out on the field as they ate, while also attempting to guess what happened with Bryan after being snatched up. 

"I don't know what that fucking thing was, but hopefully if it did not kill Bryan he went out fast." Sean said to John. 

"It was so fast and took us all by surprise. Though after seeing you go against the other two things, I somehow think you could've taken it down."

John looked at him with confusion in his face and responded. 

"What do you mean by that? I had you guys to help with those other things. And I'm pretty sure those are the creatures we've heard about that no-one seems to be able to kill."

As they were deep in discussion, a three-star general walked into the mess hull. Every soldier in the vicinity took notice, and they all hurried to stand in attention, with a salute at ready. The general acknowledged, respectfully returned one to everybody and shouted out loud.

"At ease."

He continued on as everybody sat back down. 

"I'm looking for John Stewart and his squad."

John stood back up and boasted out to the general. 

"Sergeant John Stewart present." John looked down at Sean and jabbed him to hint to him to stand up too. 

The general walked over to them, and commanded them to sit back down, as he began to squat down with them. With his right-hand pointer and middle finger, the general waved over the cook. The man came over to see what he was about to request, a pen and paper in hand. 

"I want you to make us a nice steak dinner, with some mashed potatoes and green beans. For the three of us."

The cook agreed and went on his way back to the kitchen. 

"Perks of the rank." The general joked. 

"Ok now on a serious note, I have a mission for you guys."

John interrupted him. "Why a mission for us?"

The general looked at him for a moment, as If deciphering his choice of words and then responded. 

"Well I would send out our best squad, but as of now I'm looking at them."

He took notice to their faces as he was saying this and continued. 

"That last mission you guys had, was by far the most successful mission to date with these fucking things. You were able to complete the mission with minimum casualties and you managed to take down several of those fucking creatures. This has not been done yet, to be frankly honest, the most that we've been able to take out was two of those rolling things, and that took a gunship and a regime of tanks."

John and Sean looked at each other, with an amazement upon their faces and then put their attention back at the general. 

The general continued, "We require you to infiltrate an old high school building, it's holding dozens of survivors. Several of these survivors are children and parents. But what we really need is the military personnel. They have reconnaissance information vital to this whole damn situation. So, my question to you is. Will you take this? We will grant you any supplies, personal, and freedoms you deem necessary."

John turned his attention to Sean and saw that he was already looking at him. They both acknowledged with a nod to each other, looked back at the general and John replied. 

"We would be honored."

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