A Lot of Fire

POV: Joao (present time)

As he sat in the trench, Joao looked at his Torterra's metal bracelet. He played with metal beads and thought about the last months of his life.

A lot of people were running around him, passing him, sometimes they kicked him and didn't apologize. The trench was narrow and dug by hand. Next to João was a dugout in which were the commanders of this unit. The dugout was deeper than the trenches and had a wooden roof. The tree on top of the dugout was covered with earth.

The trees around were cut down and many different traps and stakes sticking out of the ground were made from them. Joao was now in Botswana, and he was waiting for the waves of the swarm of White Thorns that ran here. Artillery shells flew over him, making a whistling sound. The ішлувartillery did not stop for several hours. At first the explosions were so far away that it was hard to hear them, but now they were much closer to them.

He was calm in this situation. This is all because he almost died 2 weeks after the events in Maputo. He did not expect to survive, so he resigned himself to death. Joao survived, but he did not stop coming to terms with death. It was easier that way during the war.

After he and the boys were sent to Botswana, they became very ill. The new commanders found out what happened to them and locked them in a separate barracks. After two weeks of normal life, radiation sickness started in them. After witnessing the explosion of a nuclear bomb with their own eyes, they received a lethal dose of radiation.

Fortunately, the radiation was not too much, otherwise the symptoms could have started after a few hours. The fact that they started getting sick after only a few weeks said that things were not so bad. That's what the doctors said, but according to their feelings, everything was bad. They started having nausea and diarrhea, their noses started bleeding, and many sores appeared on their skin.

Their immunity was the most damaged, and they began to suffer from all kinds of diseases. Everything that their immunity easily defeated began to go out of control and even a common cold seemed like a deadly disease to them.

They suffered for a whole month. After which almost all of them recovered, all thanks to Torterra's metal and the pills the doctors brought them. This metal helped them a lot and they even became stronger when they healed.

Joao felt excessive force as he clenched his fist. There was a feeling that he was not sick, but engaged in weightlifting. It wasn't anything extraordinary, but he could fight on an equal footing with athletic soldiers.

Some people who were sick with him did not believe that this magical metal would help them and threw away their bracelets. These people were not many, but half of them died, and the other half remained disabled, unable to serve in the army.

For this reason, Joao was grateful for this bracelet. He valued it and decided to protect it and if he survives, he will pass this bracelet on to his children. Yes, the doctors said that his reproductive system has also recovered. He may have children. If he survives now, of course.

BOOM BOOM

Artillery explosions were already near Joao.

"Everyone take their places. The enemy is approaching! Joao! Get your lazy ass off the ground and pick up your machine gun!"

"Yes sir!"

Getting to his feet, Joao stood on the box to see what was going on, and put his elbows on the sand, aiming forward.

Far from his trench, everything was shrouded in smoke and dust. The smoke was from the explosions and the dust was from the running swarm of White Thorns that were closing in on them. These white monsters ran maneuvering between explosions. Many of them were hit by shrapnel and lay writhing in pain, but most of them ran on.

"Get ready. Machine gun! Don't sleep!"

A man sitting behind an old soviet machine gun was trying to load it. His hands were shaking, and the mechanism stopped working.

"Let me take your place." Joao approached the boy and gave him his machine gun, and he himself stood behind the machine gun.

SSSHINK

He deftly and quickly inserted the magazine into the side of the machine gun and loaded it. The machine gun had a metal shield on the front, and Joao aimed at the enemy through a gap in this shield. He waited for commands.

"Come on! Shoot!"

When the White Spikes came within firing range, the commander gave the order. Everyone started shooting as one, sending many bullets at the enemy. Joao also started firing the machine gun.

TRTR TRTR TRTR

He fired several shots in bursts so as not to overheat the muzzle of the machine gun. It was old soviet crap, so he couldn't just shower the monsters with a continuous stream of bullets.

But his vision was clear, and his hands did not tremble, so each round of 3-5 shots hit directly in the head. Joao moved the machine gun several degrees, using his new strength to move this heavy weapon. He shot well, and by his work the White Thorns fell one by one.

GGREEEE

The screams of the monsters echoed everywhere along with the gunshots and explosions from the cannons. In response, people received spikes that fell on them from above.

Joao picked up a cap with a square metal shield on top and put it on like a helmet. The cap was funny looking, but it worked. With a square metal plate on his head, the spikes bounced off it and he remained unharmed.

All the soldiers around became very funny looking, people wore square wide hats. It was the idea of people who survived in the city of Maputo. At first the command laughed at this, but when they described in detail how the White Thorns shoot upwards and thus quickly eliminate the entire line of defense, they took it more seriously.

TRTR TRTR KLAAANGG

As he continued to shoot, Joao no longer paid attention to what was falling on his head from above. Unfortunately, not everything was so good. The bouncing spikes sometimes hurt people around them, and careless people fell on the spikes that got stuck in the ground.

BAH

A pin flew right into the shield of his machine gun and got stuck in it. Joao turned the machine gun in the direction from where the spike came and started firing. Not only he was good at it. The rest of the people who survived radiation sickness also shot accurately. A whole bunch of dead monsters quickly gathered in front of their trench.

The pile of corpses grew higher and higher and soon Joao could no longer see the horizon. He could no longer shoot far ahead, but only shoot those monsters that were climbing over the mountain of blue meat in front of him.

"We have to retreat!" Joao shouted to the commander. They made several lines of defense, digging many trenches everywhere.

"We cannot all run together. They just shoot us in the back!" The commander answered him.

"I will stay. With a machine gun I can hold them off long enough for you to run to another trench!"

"OK! We retreat!" The commander shouted.

TRTR TRTR

The machine gun worked killing many monsters. Fortunately, Joao managed to reload the ammo magazine and it was full. He shot to the left, then to the right, killing many monsters.

BAH BAH

AAAAAA

Several spikes hit the shield, but one flew right through the gap and hit him in the shoulder, piercing him through. Joao screamed but continued to fire, holding the machine gun with only one hand.

The people around him had already fled and he was left alone.

"Don't think that only you can kill so many monsters. I'm no worse than you either!" Said someone next to Joao. He turned his head and noticed one of the boys who was sick with him. During their isolation, they became good friends and Joao almost shed a tear when he noticed that he was not alone.

"Decided to be cool too?" He smiled at his friend.

Together they did better and even when the machine gun ran out of ammunition, they were able to quickly reload it. Just in time, when the White Thorns were already with them. Unfortunately, they could not fight for long and they quickly received many injuries. They had to run into the dugout and close the wooden door behind them. They leaned against the dirt wall. The next moment, the wooden door was pierced by dozens of spikes and turned into sawdust.

"This is probably the end. Again!" Joao said.

HA-HA-HA

They laughed out loud, expecting to be killed now, but somehow they kept laughing and laughing, but death did not come to them. They opened their eyes and noticed that no one was entering their dugout, so they left there themselves.

In the air, they heard a very powerful roar of jet engines. It was as if a huge rocket was flying above them and they raised their heads up. From the side of the battlefield, something huge was flying towards them in the air, leaving a lot of smoke behind.

The White Thorns screamed in anger and began to retreat. They all ran back, shooting their tails in the direction of the missile.

"HA-HA! This is Torterra! We are saved again!" A friend shouted.

"This sleepy turtle finally decided to help us. It seems that we owe him something." Joao said climbing out of the trench and sitting down on a pile of dirt in front of her. He was going to see monsters being burned and he was not disappointed.

BRBRBRBR

Torterra was not far away, and a bright golden light was coming out of his mouth.

BOOOOMMM

In an instant, Torterra flew extremely fast across the battlefield. So fast that Jaya and his friend were blown away by the air and fell back into the trench. Such a large creature flew by so fast that it was difficult to even follow it by turning its head.

As he flew by, he shot fire from his mouth and the entire battlefield turned into an inferno. The White Thorns immediately turned to ash, and the ground melted.

AAAAA

Joao and his friend screamed from the heat and ran back into the dugout. Torterra released the fire quite far from the trench, but the heat of the fire was felt even in the trenches.

The White Thorns screamed and ran away. Some ran even when engulfed in fire, but eventually could not bear the pain and fell. Torterra flew over the battlefield with his arms at his sides, and far beyond the horizon he began to gain altitude. High in the air, he turned around and began to fall, and when he was near the ground, he twirled his arms and abruptly changed course, flying low along the ground.

RAAAAAAHHH

Torterra opened his mouth and started pouring fire on the ground again. He flew back and burned all the monsters that survived his first attack and those that managed to escape further.

BOOOM

The speed of Torterra's flight and the fire created a shock wave of sound mixed with hot air.

"Keep it up! Burn them! Burn them all!" Joao shouted. He climbed out of the trench again and watched everything burn. Torterra's next attack was much further away from them, so he could suffer the heat of the hot air.

Everything Joao saw in front of him was covered in fire. The whole Earth was burning with a powerful flame, burning all the evil that was just running there.

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