The order could come any day now, the waiting killed him.

  To say Adan was bored at camp was a heavy understatement. The whole day was just filled with either building offensive guns, or defensive positions.

  The only downtime was filled with him sitting next to smokers-their breath smelt bad by the way, and waiting for tomorrow. Then once tomorrow actually came by some poor hours of sleep he was just exhausted.

  There was also no way to clean their uniforms or bathe, so everything around him smelt like a sewer. There was dirt and grime stuck to the green fabric and under his nails. Oh how he hated the feeling of dirt in his nails. The way it rubbed against the skin under the nail, how there always seemed to be more the next minute.

  There was also the fact that his commander was a complete asshole. He did not do one thing to contribute to their projects. Instead, he just made people hold a plank that was "slow".

  If Adan got his thinking about ranks correct, the commander had to help in making positions.

  This was one of the only things the other soldiers in his platoon actually agreed with him on, besides that they were also assholes to him.

  He began thinking about what the orders could quite possibly be. He knew the general idea, but the question was how would it be done? He was deep in thought when a loud takoom! Banged out and made his ears ring. Oh shit! He thought, It might actually be starting holy shit!

  He began running to where he knew the artillery pieces were. He ran into a guy on the way who responded by cursing his name.

  He turned just to see the big piece of machinery dispose of a shell and smoke was pouring out of the barrel.

  "So you're the guy's that got the order? They didn't tell any of us infantry?" Adan asked the artillery team, "I guess so, probably a communication issue. Now, plug your ears, these things are fucking loud." He responded as another shell was fired.

  "They should maybe tell us next time! Damn it!"

  "Not my problem!"

  "Hayden! Get back over here to load this thing!" Called out the man's comrade, "Alright! You can wait for that barrel to not be so damn hot you dick head!"

  Adan was amused by them. They didn't know where he originated from which was a bonus as they would be nice to him and they were funny. He could tell that the insults were just jokes and that these two were friends, good friends.

  "Baumer! Get in the transport trucks! We're leaving!" Yelled his commander. "We're leaving now? Shouldn't we wait for the artillery to fire?" He asked.

  "Those things can hit targets miles away, you'll be fine!"

  Adan, while scared, followed the orders and leapt into the truck. The night made it practically black inside and the smell of soldiers was there. There were two little tap-taps! On the side, the truck started rolling.

  Adan thought one last thing in the truck. Mom, I swear I am going to be back. I won't die or let you down.

  ***

  Thunder was still missing, so that was probably bad.

  Hurricane sat in the darkness with the 3 other dragons that were still here. You had Tumbleweed the Sandwing, which was a generic name. There was also Aardvark the Rainwing and Icecap the Icewing.

  They weren't bad to him or annoying. Thunder was annoying, but not them. They did have a little worry for Thunder though, which was understandable but he didn't think the same as them.

  "Where do you think those scavengers took him?" Asked Aardvark, "How did they even capture him?"

  Icecap was next to talk, "Who knows? They probably have some weird dragon taking contraption."

  Tumbleweed interjected, "How do we know it really was scavengers? Hurricane wasn't actually there to see him disappear."

  "Listen, count how many dragons you've seen besides us. Give me a number. That's right, none. Now count how many scavengers we've seen. Oh right, dozens." Hurricane snapped. "I swear on the moons it was scavengers."

  For some reason, this gave reason for Aardvark to stifle a laugh. He had no idea how anything he said in that sentence was funny.

  "What? What is funny?" He asked.

  She quieted enough to answer, "You kind of grinded into him!"

  "Yeah, I still fail to understand how that's funny."

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  In the middle of their squabble Icecap once again interrupted to speak. "What would they even do with him? Dragons have rarely been killed by scavengers, even more rarely to be captured." Icecap sighed, "Who knows what they had to be able to do that."

  Everyone was quiet. The only noise produced was from their breathing.

  "They did have that weird box thing," Hurricane said, "I don't know what it does or how it works. But it was rolling at an abnormal speed for land, and it was making quite a loud noise. When it hit Thunder I heard a loud bang, then a scavenger came out and just died."

  "Well, what if it was like, one of their huts?" Asked Tumbleweed.

  "Seriously? A hut? Do you think huts can move? He replied.

  "If you put it like that then n-"

  "It was metal, it seemed alive, unnaturally so. A scavenger was in it, controlling it somehow. I can't explain what that loud bang was, but it made my ears ring." He groaned, "Everything here is insane."

  "You have that right! These fruits are tiny!" Aardvark replied to them.

  "You're that worried about fruit right now? Seriously?"

  "I have to eat, don't I?"

  "I guess you're right."

  Aardvark was right though, those fruits were freakishly tiny. Small apples would be the size of a scavenger head, but these ones were smaller. A lot could fit in his talon if he picked them, multiple dozens.

  He would continue the conversation if it wasn't interrupted by distant booms. They reminded him of the one from the metal box, but these sounded distant.

  "Anybody want to go check that out?" He asked. Everybody nodded and stood up to follow. "Alright, let's go."

  The forest was dark as they walked through it, the only light coming from the torch that Tumbleweed made. As they walked the booming didn't cease or falter. It was a consistent sound that kept going. Even after minutes of walking it never stopped. It never got louder either. It stayed the same volume even when he thought he got closer.

  "What do you even think it is? It sounds similar to what you described Hurricane." Tumbleweed asked.

  "That's because it is," He answered. "I just don't know if it's the same booming, or if it came from the same thing. But it's happening a lot more."

  Aardvark came from behind, "What are those lights? They're moving!" She said.

  "I... don't know. Probably just another weird scavenger invention. Moons, this place is weirder everyday." Hurricane said. The booms were coming from that direction.

  "Should we... go to where they're going?"

  ***

  Destroyed. Everything was destroyed.

  He layed in the rubble that was once his home. Every single part of him was hurting. His clothes felt like they were sticking to his skin and there was a putrid smell coming from around. His legs were covered in bricks and wood, only leaving his torso outside of the rubble.

  He grunted in pain as he tried to move. Something about his legs wasn't right in the already huge amount of things that weren't right.

  He painfully lifted himself out of the destroyed home, his whole body burning as he did so. Then he looked at his legs.

  Oh, his fucking legs.

  There was a piece of metal at least a foot long lodged right through his left thigh. Blood coated the leg, the warm, red substance dripping from his body as he laid there stunned.

  And then there was the city.

  His city, Giro, was mostly rubble at this point. The only structure standing were the corners of walls that once stood there. There were fires burning, lighting up the night and burning corpses.

  He stood up putting more weight on his right leg, and limped through what were once streets.

  Something fell and made a clink sound as it hit the ground. He picked it up. A name tag. On the tag read the name Ternan. Right, my name tag. That's what it is. I'm Ternan. He thought as he remembered right before Giro was turned into hell.

  What even happened? My body is so hot, my clothes are burned and fused into my skin. There are bodies I can't even recognize.

  Ternan walked past a body that nearly made him throw up. Most of the face was burned away, leaving one empty eye socket showing along with the majority of the jaw. The body's entire right arm was just gone. There wasn't even bone sticking out from where it should be. The one eye it had left was staring up at the dark sky. It showed no emotions or indication of pain.

  The world felt slow to Ternan. The cries of pain, the falling of buildings, all of the noise blended together into a daze.

  There was another person standing a few feet away. Their pupils were completely wide.

  He tried choking out some words to the person but only silence followed.

  Ternan looked around some more to see another dead body impaled through the stomach. Someone moved to his left. "Please.. Help." Cried the person as she crawled to him.

  He tried helping her up until he realized those were the last words she'd ever speak.

  His fear was in overload. The person standing from earlier came up to him, "W-We have to find survivors. Oh man what the hell..."

  Ternan nodded, "Yeah, there has to be, right? If we survived surely others could've."

  He limped after the stranger. The stranger's arm looked broken and there were multiple cuts along his body.

  He passed by a cloth with a red cross and yellow background. Their country's flag. It was covered in dirt and torn everywhere, the cloth laid on the battered ground instead of waving in the air as it should be.

  Papers were everywhere too, ranging from enlistment to regular paperwork.

  Ternan and the stranger picked up survivors. Most were heavily injured. They found a man who worked at a bank who saw some lights coming their direction before his building fell. The man from the bank had a son, Ternan wanted to tell him that he'd be alright but he didn't even believe that.

  Some buildings were well kept and safe from destruction. The people that came out of them went to work helping the group. Tourniquets were made for broken limbs but that was really all they could do. Most medical supplies were gone along with the hospital.

  The leg with the bar through it was beginning to give out on him. It was more painful than ever and there was so much blood. He couldn't exactly take it out either as that would allow even more blood to gush out. Every step he took he could feel the thing collide with his bone and muscle causing more pain. The only thing he could hope for was that it would go numb.

  Who the hell would do this? We're just a civilian population! He thought angrily at the world. Why would this happen? So many people are dead and for what reason? How did they even die? He couldn't even think properly!

  He walked up onto a hill that was facing a forest looking out at the destruction. There was still a portion that wasn't badly damaged but the part of the city facing east was obliterated.

  The east side. Why would it mostly be the east?

  If the east is what's been destroyed, does that mean it was... He stopped his thoughts as he saw some vehicles driving into the town. There were flags on them, not the yellow and red of Gr?sen. They were red and black which could only mean one thing.

  Cervius.