A meeting beyond the grave

My breath came out in wheezes and wet gurgles as blood started to fill my lungs.

"...Dumbass..." I muttered to myself. How idiotic do you have to be to lead your squad into the perfect spot for an ambush.

We knew the risks, but I chose to go through with it anyway. How stupid of me. Looking back now, there were many other ways to proceed. Our target was an extremist group leader in China. We had received intel that the overlord was gathering a mass of lethal weaponry.

We had already made contact with the radicalist suggesting that if they do not cease amassing armed forces to such a degree, we will take it as a sign of impending violence and will respond in kind.

As I'm sure you guessed, they didn't stop.

Our objective was simple. Either remove the head of the snake, or destroy the body. That being assassinate the leader of the extremist group, or destroy the forces they have gathered so far.

Unfortunately, in my brashness I made a mistake. I became over confident in my own squadrons firepower, thinking we could make a frontal assault on the group through an area of extreme coverage.

However, much to my dismay, there were more people who believed in his cause than I anticipated.

They were sloppy, amateurish, and untrained, however we were out numbered at least 10:1 in that area alone. By the time I realised we couldn't continue to push forward without sustaining major casualties, our retreat was in the process of being blocked off.

As such, I did what any good commanding officer should do. A commander is nothing without his team, as such they became my priority. I broke into a dead sprint towards the bulk of the extremist group, all the while telling my squad to retreat. My intention being to deal enough damage to their frontal group that those trying to cut off the retreat will come to support in taking me down.

I somewhat accomplished my goal. In an all out firefight with them I would surely lose, but success wasn't my intention.

Instead, as I was dashing towards them, I drew my gun and rained gunfire on them. Where I could, I dove behind a rock and picked off one or 2 trying to cut off the escape, alleviating some pressure on my team.

For every kill I got, more and more extremists disobeyed their orders and came to swarm me. After all, I was killing their comrades. Their friends...

Besides, with how obviously little training this ragtag group had, it would never be long before they broke rank and charged me down.

As such the majority of my team got away.

I was thankful for that at least, soon a tight circle was formed around me. No amount of cover could save me from the hailstorm of bullets being fired at me, and soon I was filled to the brink with lead.

A blood infused smile emerged from my lips as I caught the hateful glares of the ones surrounding me.

The thunder of gunfire had covered the sound of a metal pin being released, and once I fell to the ground, those morons came to get one good look at me before putting a bullet through my skull.

Their emotions cost them their lives as I released the handheld explosive.

I died in a storm of fire and shrapnel, and I imagine the majority of my opponents did too.

So why could I form these thoughts of introspection?

There were too many answers to that question. I could be in purgatory, waiting for the end after death. My consciousness could still be fading, and I'm in too much pain for my body to register, hence it has cut me off from any and all feeling. Or maybe this is the after life, a blank nothing in which you are left with your own thoughts.

I didn't see darkness, nor a white room, nor a kingdom in the coulds. I just couldn't see. Maybe this is what blind people experience.

As such, I looked back on my life, I had nothing better to do. My name is Mason Smith. I'm from the great and wonderful country of England, and not the nice area's. However, my mother lived in area's that were at the very least middle class, although she herself wasn't, throughout childhood.

As such, I grew up with a "posh" accent, however that didn't stop me from making friends. I was always one of the smart kids but that fact became rather pronounced when I started secondary school.

Each year was divided up into sets, these sets each had a different order depending on the school or area, but for me I was in the top set for each subject. The sets you were placed into were dependent on you SAT scores.

That was the time I found anime. I enjoyed it casually, as a pass time. My passion for anything of a fantastical nature started with reading, books like the Percy Jackson series and the like. Then when I found anime, manga and lightnovels, I was hooked. They became a new passion of mine, unfortunately that just labelled me as even more of a nerd.

And yet, I was never bullied. I wasn't great at sports, but I reached a height of six feet by the time I was 16, so I had always been a bit bigger than the other kids my age, but not like those giraffes that could see where there were bold spots on adults by the age of 14.

Hence I became a popular nerd, easy enough to talk to, smart enough to get understand a topic I had just come across in conversation to the point I could ask meaningful questions. That was my true talent.

That talent being, I understood people. Everyone has a self absorbed nature at heart. They like to be listened to, they like to be the one to speak. As such, I exploited that talent and became friendly enough with most people in all kinds of groups.

Now, as to why I decided to go into the army. In truth I didn't. My life plans were cut short when a war erupted. One of the world powers decided to test their luck in dominating its surrounding countries, completely disregarding the alliances formed by the countries under attack.

As such, I joined the army at the tender age of 21, just in time to finish my university degree.

The war lasted for 3 years, which was both a short and long time for someone like me. And in the blink of an eye I was seen as too valuable to be let go.

I died at the age of 28. Hence I served for 7 long years.

"Thank you for revealing your life so easily to me." a voice rang out. It was in a language that I didn't recognise, yet could understand. It was like the very meaning of the sentence was implanted in my head.

Then tone held no hostility, yet, i couldn't shake the feeling that it was a sinister sentence.