EXFIL (1)

*Pant, *pant.

This is the third time I have woken up tonight. I can't sleep without having a nightmare.

It's been two weeks since Linda's death. I haven't been able to sleep ever since. Closing my eyes means I see her getting killed before my eyes. My mind keeps creating illusions of me killing her. I can't help but feel like her life would have been better if she hadn't met me.

It's self pity, I know. Its selfishness. But I miss her so damn much!

Today was the only day I managed to sleep of my own volition for an hour instead of actually collapsing from exhaustion. The FBAC is relentless. Naturally, I was already prepared for the ruthless order of such establishments where emotions are not considered in the face of the primary directive.

I had two brutal missions in the past two weeks. Despite the vicious creatures that we fought, the elimination and containment was successful still. Reason? No one got to do anything when I entered the scene.

I'm slowly reverting back to the man I was before that day. An aimless existence that was shunned.

A tool to be used with no soul, with no want.

I rose from my bed. I was in a hotel. I can't sleep on my own bed at home without having violent flashes of the memories that now hold nothing but pain. The scent on the sheets drives me insane whenever I think of my inability to hold her in my arms.

On the large double bed, I sat up, shirtless. My short black hair was unkempt and the dark circles around my eyes showed the battle within. My brown eyes were devoid of life when I looked at my reflection. I could only see a  Lycan in the mirror and Morgan was fading.

I drank a glass of water and lay down again. I have no idea if it's hallucination or what, but my mind recreated the night when I first played my favourite song for her. We got passionate.

I caressed her face, feeling the texture and sensation of youth through it. My thumbs perused through the contours of her cheeks and swiped the skin under her eyes.

I could feel her breath on my face. With my keen ears I heard the sound of her speeding heartbeat. I yearned for her as she yearned for me. Her brown eyes, like mine, showed a desire and little bit of hesitation.

Our heads slowly collided and we kissed. The sensation was more than just having our lips touch, I felt a part of me become hers and a part of her become mine. I felt whole, like our souls were intertwining so as to never part. So that even if she was on the other side of the world I could feel her in me.

As we kissed passionately, my hands wandered around her waist, feeling her curves as I moved up, taking in her marvellous shape. I then moved them to her back, running my fingers along her tender skin and rubbing it gently with the other.

She had her arms around my neck, caressing my hair, and occasionally bringing my head closer when I seemed to stray from her affection.

That affection, that passion. It brings me back to the song that I had her listen to that night. It went:

She beautiful, I know that she knows it,

Then my heart gets involved and it's out of my control,

She's too beautiful to just ignore it,

So I lay my hands on her head and say, "Baby, you're mine",

This feeling's unusual,

Faith and love are all I know,

She's the kind you can't let go,

So, so, I learn to fall in love,

With the lows and the midnight highs,

The pills and the pain and the bad advice,

I swear that I'm doing it one last time,

Falls in love,

With the fire, baby it got cold,

She's gonna set fire to everything I own,

She never does, I know,

I wanna put my heart (she's just for me),

I would I wanna fall into your,

Everything, just for me (she's just for me),

I wanna give my all, but you could say that you don't,

(You're just for me),

(A/N: Just for me by Saint JHN).

I shook my head violently and tried to force my mind to shut down, but another memory shuffled through. The memory of how it all began.

The extraction mission.

***

The sky was dark. A team had been rapidly assembled after the encoded message had gone through to HQ.

The set bureaucratic setup in the FBAC was almost the same as the one in the FBI, from Director to field agents. The only difference were the agents and divisions tasked with the actual Anomaly assorted activities.

Several agents had infiltrated into the CIA in order to intercept information that would normally not be divulged to the public. Sure, with our own intelligence network we could gain information faster than most agencies but the relationship between all state owned establishments was rocky due to credit stealing and general grudges that can be traced back for decades. Thus, we had to make sure that we didn't miss anything. All information was significant. Basically we had agents in all the state agencies.

Where we were supposed to go was, of course, the stereotypical underground base in a wasteland, North of a country called Diona. There was a town near the base, where a government funded research organisation would bring some of its promising personnel to learn and study the creatures in that wasteland as well as search for remnants of a biological weapon that had been unleashed, causing the death of most life forms in the area. And yes, Diona was one of the states in the United Canadian Nations.

The message we received stated that a rogue CIA operative who was on the run suddenly appeared near the base, literally handing himself over.

When he was inside and imprisoned within the facility, they tried to interrogate him to no avail, only for him to murder every single prisoner trapped along with him and draw and a strange mystical circle or the floor when they left him in his cell.

The operative had gone on a killing spree, tanking bullets like it was Friday and growing stronger. The circle he drew was also constantly growing as he killed his way through. And this was all the knowledge we had.

We were in a black stealth type plane, strapping up our parachutes and waiting for the signal as we were about to drop and engage.

We were all dressed in black, combat suits tailor made for field agents. They were heat, shock and energy resistant, with a tough layer of a certain alloy produced by the Bureau. Most of the alloy was used to make breastplates, arm guards, back plates and the heavy defence boots.

My life was a job back then, I had no excitement. Only bloodlust. People treated me like an animal, so I behaved like one. I had only one person who would usually talk to me, but he was more of a narcissistic monologuing bastard than a colleague or friend.

A stunningly beautiful lady, as tall as I am, with a curvy figure and the physique to match the nature of our horrendous work. Her combat suit hugged her figure, accentuating its athletic shape. She was the special agent-in-charge.

She had a rectangular face, her blonde hair done into a Caesar cut, with round, blue eyes and a straight nose. Her gaze was firm and cold as she faced us.

"You've already been briefed. I expect a swift dispatching of the target. Beware though, there is a city nearby, we have to act swiftly and avoid collateral damage.

Team 1, engage long range with the Bio-Centurion firearm. Team 2, mid range fire with AK Uniforce rifles. Team 3, do not engage with the hostile target. Search and retrieve our men, dead or alive. Teams 1 and 2 will provide the cover.

Lastly, team 4. Go wild as always. We only have half an hour before we expect reinforcements from the army to be here. You two are all the resources we have," she said," Are we clear, Hound96?"

I nodded.

She left us to ready our descent and then the guy I hate the most, strolled over to me and casually strapped his hand around my neck like we were world war pals.

"Now ain't that nice? You could easily steal the show tonight, Hound. Hahaha, don't you agree? Hey, don't be so stuck up. At least you're given a codename and even have the freedom to waltz around town," he said and then pointed to a guy within the plane with a thick metal cap on his head that covered his entire face.

He was strapped all over his body with what looked like a rubber strap jacket, holding his limbs in place as two men strapped a parachute on him and his assistant diver.

"Don't wanna end up like him do ya? A weapon that stays holed up in the armoury with all the other Bureau's toys. Smile, wave, spank an ass or two. Might do ya some good."

This was Derrick. My handler. He was supposed to 'put me down' after my rampage with a specially designed gun that neutralised my abilities.

After a short while it was time to take the jump. One by one we dived down, seeing the barren grounds, cracked and dead as we fell towards our target.

Whilst still in mid-air, an extraordinarily powerful explosion erupted, splitting the ground and unearthing heaps and chunks of the rock and soil. The explosion was so grand and powerful that the rocked earth even reached our altitude, some shards of metal and steel killing some of our men. The earth literally split and it kept breaking apart, the cracks extending for hundreds of meters.

From the underground, it appeared.

A colossal creature that looked like a full blown titan made of countless bodies. It was roughly 200 meters tall and from the looks of it, the explosion was a detonation of its highly unstable energies. It had 4 humongous heads that had no features. Because they didn't need them. The hundreds of faces that made up each head were features enough.

As we fell, I transformed, fur and extra flesh covering my person.

Frankly this was not an extraordinary case among our assignments. This creature didn't really faze us much. And for more, it was just another Anomaly to put down.

But then the creature released another explosive wave of unstable energy that further split the earth and caused atmospheric turbulence within almost a full kilometre range.

When I landed on my ground, preparing to engage, I heard it with my amplified sense of hearing. Screams from the nearby town.