The Mist

Mist

by Black Knight (George Murrell)

A hazy mist arose from the cold ground and slowly surrounded
me. As I opened my eyes in astonishment, the mist slowly shaped
into an old man's face. I had no time to think as it spoke to me;
"Trust nobody, not even yourself." Stunned by its presence, I
froze in my tracks as a tremendous power surge ran through my veins.
I reached up toward the sky as if to ask for help. I had no idea
what was being done to me.
Then, all became quiet. The mist slowly seeped back into
the ground, and was gone. The surge was gone; however, I felt
stronger, smarter, and more agile than I did before the mist
engulfed me. What I had witnessed was something that was very
rare out here in the Wastelands. It was called the Oracle. Only
two men alive had ever seen one, and they became obsessed with
the idea that it could happen again, so they ventured off into
the Wastelands, and was never heard from again.
It was a cold morning as I rose out of my bunk. My head hit
the railing underneath Viper's bed. "Hey! Watch where you put
that head of yours! It could get chopped off one day." He
snapped, pulling out his razor sharp Tevix-Bahn. "Sorry," I said
in a soft voice. Viper was well known to be the best killers of
all the recruits. He had all the best weapons, armor, and was
the strongest of all the Hexmen. They say he once had a glimpse
of the Hydrite's base, but before he could get inside, he fought
two-hundred hydrites in about a half-an-hour. I couldn't argue
with them because I had just gotten at the Main Complex three
days ago. I was just a "rookie" to the other Hexmen. I hadn't
even told anyone about the Oracle I had seen. "Just another dumb
newcomer!" they would say. I was practically thier slave. Just
couldn't reason with anyone in that place, except for one
recruit. An older guy had a long white beard, huge hands, and a
very strong sense of togetherness, his name was Top Kat. He had
told me the story of the Hydrite takeover of the planet and how
they want all the water on the Earth. Got me a little scared.
But one day, it all came down to the last fight.
Suprax and I were on watch partol on the Second Tower right
over the Sand Mountains. We had been assigned to monitor a
Hydrite settlement on the Plains of Yorkshire. "Movement!" she
wispered in my ear. I had my Salanger ready to be plunged into
some Hydrite gut when I turned and saw a huge mass of radiation
coming at me quicker than I could react. The "Mass" struck me
with his tentical and tore away my armor. Suprax, being more
experienced than I was, ripped out her Electric Sword and swung
it into the heart of the "Mass". It quivvered for about three
seconds and died. "Thanks," I said to her. "No problem," she
said with relief. I looked onto the ground and I saw a weapon
buried lightly into the ground. It was a Trans-axe. "You lucky
son-of-a-gun", she said. I picked it up and it was fully charged
with 200 rounds of ZZETS Shells. I strapped it to my back and was
ready to do battle with these monsters!

I heard a hummming sound coming from the sky. As I looked
up, there was the Hydrite spacecraft ready to land on the
campsite. "So that's what this settlement was. It's a landing
site for the spacecraft," I said in amazement. The craft was
about 250 meters in diameter and had a hole in the bottom of it
that could hold 20,000 Hydrites. As it landed, alarms rang and
those little green monsters swarmed around the craft and bowed as
the hatch opened. "There he is!" Suprax said. And it was. The
infamous Overkill. The leader of all those maggot eating
Hydrites. As he glided down the ramp, his long red cape flowed
behind him in the greatest charm as I had ever seen.
This...THING...was 15 feet tall, had bright green scaly skin, and
a weapon like I had never seen. "What is that thing he's
holding?" I asked Suprax. "That's an Xendrix. The most powerful
weapon of the Wastelands. It could cut through a solid titanium
block 12 feet thick with one swoop. You don't want to mess with that
guy." She said with quite a warning to her voice. We must had
been talking too loud, as a monitoring device picked up our life
signs and an alarm sounded off louder than 20 jets taking off at
the same time. "GET THEM!!" Overkill yelled raising his right
hand and dropping it in attack. We were faced in front of an
army of 400 Hydrites. We were not dumb Hexmen. By the time I
looked around, Suprax had already footed it 45 meters ahead of
me, transmitting a radio device to the Complex saying that the
Hydrites have found us, and they will attack in 15 minutes.

"Received," Viper acknowledged. "Get the cannons in place
Top Kat. Col. KAT! KAT!!" Rolling out of his bed, Top Kat awoke
in the worst mood he could ever be in. Faced with an army of 400
Hydrites, the Hydrites craft, and Overkill himself, the only
thing I could do was to run for my life until I got to the
Complex. The battle was about to be underway.
As the cannons were being rasied up onto the base, I
suddenly felt a trembling in my body. I looked at my hands while
I was running and they were glowing with a bright blue mist, like
the mist I saw four days ago. Before I knew it, I was running
twice as fast as I was before. My arms grew out of my shirt and
I felt a sense of courage run through my veins. I didn't stop
running though I had to fight myself to keep on going. My fear
was gone. Instead, I had a pure fighting spirt. The glow
disappeared, but the strength remained with me. "Outer gates
close in two seconds." the intercom crackled. The base was
equipped with a computer system to run the base system. "Gates
close in one second." the computer crackled again. I dove for
the opening and just barely made it inside with my legs. "Come
on and get us you Hydrite scum. You not will get past me!" I
yelled out the complex. I ran back to the closed gates and
started to pull them apart trying to get out of the base
security. Suprax ran up to me and started to pull me away from
the gates as I tore them apart. "Don't go out there!" she
yelled. "You will never survive! They will kill you!" My
courage had overwhelmed me. I had to get a piece of Hydrite meat
between my teeth and crunch their bones to dust. "Are you
crazy!" she yelled, trying to pull me from the bars. I was now
twice the size of her and had twice the stregth. Those bars were
like putty in my hands. I had to chose between fighting in the
base, or crunching Hydrites, which at the time was a great idea.

"Trust nobody, not even yourself." echoed through my head.
I then realized what I was doing. The Oracle had given me a
warrior in place of what I really was. I had to overcome the
courage and be myself again. The men who saw the Oracle the
first time couldn't overcome the courage and tryed to fight the
army alone and died in the process. Would I become one of them?
Would I be a lost cause because of too much courage? I slowly
bent the bars back into place as Suprax grabbed me and dragged me
inside the base. Alarms were ringing and Hexmen recruits were
scattered throughout the base setting up the Hyperaccelerator
cannons with plasma rifles in hand. "Hydrites broke outer
defense perimeter!" Col. Kat announced. I took my spot two
flights up in the shooting towers as I saw the army break into
the base. The outer cannons had blown away about 150 Hydrites
already. It was all up to the 50021-HX Unit to defeat this
mighty army and their leader. I reached around to my Trans-axe
and to my amazement, it had turned into one of those Xendrix's
Suprax had told me about.

I was now Equipped with full most powerful Reflecto armor,
and my Herculean loaded to the max, I ran downstairs in full
battle gear. "Die!" shouted a Hydrite
dressed in his gear. I ripped out my Xendrix and tore out his
insides as I ran past him. Yells and screams were heard
downstairs as Hexmen and Hydrites were battling it out.
ZZZIIIPPP!! A shot of ice blasted past as a Hydrite Guard fired
his Z-Tempest at me. "So you want to play like that, do you?" I
asked the Guard sarcasticly. I swung my Hercleon around and
blasted a hole through him. Pieces of Hydrite flesh were flying
everywhere. I sliced past my last Hydrite before I came across
the master himself. "You really think a puny human like you will
defeat me?" Overkill said deeply. "No! I know I can!" raising
my Xendrix in battle position. "Fine! You want to do this the
hard way? Then let the fight begin." He thrashed his Xendrix
against my arm drawing blood from it. "A mere flesh wound will
not stop me!" I said. I thrashed my weapon into his mid-
section. "Now you will, die!" Overkill screamed as he saw the
blood. My skills prevailed me as he rushed towards me, and I
flipped over his 15 foot high head and landed my Xendrix squarely
on his skull. Overkill fell in a pool of blood and lay still.

The other Hydrites looked on in awe as they saw their leader
enslaved by a human. Their hesitation was their downfall. The
other Hexmen in pure radiance sliced the remaining Hydrites into
bits. Everything suddenly became quiet. The base was silient as
the remains of Overkill soared into the air and disappeared. The
fight was over. The Complex remained intact. We had won.

I never really figured out what the Oracle meant when it
said "Trust nobody,.."------
Until this one time when Suprax and I were
having dinner in the Recreation center. "Soup too hot for you, Ma'm?"
I asked her. "Oorpt, glupts, hlerpt!" she mumbled.