"Huff, huff" 

The panting voice of a young man could be heard as he ran for his life. A man wearing a combat uniform, in his hands, is an assault rifle. Fear assaulted his heart as he kept running within the trenches. With each step on the boggy ground an even louder, even more, ferocious step followed behind. The man was running fast, but the creature behind him was even faster. Knowing that he couldn't outrun it any longer he turned around slightly and started shooting at the abomination. The loud sound of mass-based projectiles was heard when it ejected from the assault rifle.

A few shots hit the creature but it soon jumped out of the way of his cone of fire. The man tried desperately to keep his sight on the creature, but it was simply too fast. Using its hideous forelegs, it leapt left and right, trying to dodge itself out of the way from the potential fire. But the young man was patient and waited for an opportunity. Once the creature had closed enough distance, it made one big leap towards the man. 

The young man saw this and let loose every bullet, his fingers holding the trigger tight. The creature was barraged by a hail of bullets and was unable to dodge them any further. In its leap, it was able to shrug off most of the bullets but one lucky bullet managed to hit the monster right in between the eyes. The creature died instantly. Its body flung forward like a rag doll, missing the man slightly as it tumbled.

The man never let go of his riffle's trigger. Continuous clicking sounds could be heard, signifying the fact that he ran out of ammo in the weapon. His heartbeat continued to race even after the creature's death. His hands shaking as he holds his breath. After a few moments of deep breathing, he managed to calm down and rest his back onto the wall of the trench.

His hands reached for the back of his utility belt, to find a fresh magazine to reload his weapon. To his surprise, he found none. His stomach rolled over as he desperately touched all over his body to find ammunition. He was sweating, his hands were shaking and he was breathing in and out so fast that he could be mistaken to be hyperventilating.

As he was doing this, a loud screeching noise came from behind him. Before he could react, his body was already on the ground as he was pinned by another creature who managed to sneak upon him. Unlike the creature that he killed prior, this creature was slimmer and had a thin visage. The creature rides the man and using its big sharp scary jaws, tried to bite the man's head off. The man simply moved his head away from the bite. The young man then took out the army knife that was attached to his combat uniform before using it to stab the creature above him with all his might. With rapid succession, he stabbed the creature with pure adrenaline. Large drops of blue disgusting blood leaked out of the creature. Visibly angry, the creature knocks the knife away from the man and tried to once again bite his head off.

"ARGGHHHH!!!"

If the young man wasn't hyperventilating before, he is certainly hyperventilating now. He moved his entire body, he flings his hands and legs all over the place to get the creature off of him. His voice was incoherent as he continued to struggle against the monster with all his might. Tears dropped from his eyelids as he was doing this.

*BANG!

A shot from another projectile-based weapon rang out. The creature's head splattered in front of the man and its blue blood spurts out of its destroyed head like a water fountain. Its body then falls down lifelessly on top of the young man. The young man took some time to calm down before pushing the creature away and slowly rose up to find the source of the shot.

What was in his view is another young man. However, unlike him who was wearing a combat uniform, the other man was wearing an officers uniform. His uniformed was all dirtied with traces of dirt and blood, a large revolver on his right hand. The officer tilted his peaked cap before moving over to the young man and offered him his hand.

"Th-thanks..." The young man took his hand and got up.

'Thank goodness, there are still some survivors in the area' the young man thought to himself.

"What's your name?" The officer asked the young man as he sat down in a Russian slav, his back to the wall of the trench.

"Private Colt Sir!" The young man gave the officer a salute.

The officer pulled out some sort of container from his jacket. He opens it only for it to reveal that it contained drops of candies. He proceeded to pick one up and inserted it into his mouth. "Name's Quattro. Want some?" The officer offers Colt some candy.

"I'm fine, Sir Quattro." 

"Please. Stop it with the Sir. I don't think my rank really matters at this point. We are both pretty much dead men you know?"

Colt's heart shrunk as he heard the words from Quattro's mouth.

"Sir?"

"Haven't you noticed? How it's all quiet now? The fighting had stopped quite a while back" Quattro pops another candy into his mouth.

Colt looked around him and indeed as Quattro said. It was all quiet, so quiet that his ears were ringing. The loud battlefield noises nowhere to heard. No artillery explosions off in the distance, no sound of planes in the air, and not even the sound of any gunshots. 

"See? We are dead men walking"

"No... NO!" Colt couldn't accept the reality of the situation and shout back. "The harbour is just right beyond, if we make it there we could stil—"

"The harbour is a goner at this point" Quattro pops another candy to his mouth. "Evacuation had to be cut off early. Those that were lucky had already been evacuated, those that couldn't... Well, you know the story"

Colt could feel his heart stop. A heavy feeling wound up in his chest as he slumps down to the floor.

"Is... is there any others?" Colt asked in a shaking voice.

"I'm sorry, but we are probably the only ones that are still alive in this place."

All hope drained from Colt's face as he lied back to the wall. His body was no longer tense as he blankly stared off to the front of him.

"Want some now? Might as well." Quattro offered the man the container containing the candies.

Colt just let out an awkward laugh before taking a piece of candy and inserting it to his mouth. "Thanks."

"No problem." Quattro puts yet again another candy to his mouth before placing the container in between the two of them. "You know, my wife used to tell me that one day I'll die from diabetes at the rate I'm eating sweets. She says I'm a bad influence on the children. Well, jokes on her. If I knew it will come to this point I would have just splurged on all the sweets in the world"

"..." Colt just kept silent as he slowly consumed the candy in his mouth. His eyes still staring blankly at the wall.

"All that effort to the war and this is how I meet my end huh. What a joke."

Colt didn't know the reason why, but he responded to Quattro anyways "Least you had a happy life before this. I never even got the chance. As soon as I'm out of school and ready to live a life worth living I got forcefully recruited into the army." Colt's voice grew angrier "They didn't even bother to give me proper training. All the did was just give me a rank and a gun and immediately shipped me off to war. I spent the last few years of my goddamn life fighting in several battlefields and they didn't even bother giving me a promotion." Colt released his pent up anger and slammed the wall next to him. "They say we are winning and that our win will be nothing but glorious. What a bunch of lies!"

Colt lets out a sigh before seeing a half-dead cigarette on the ground. He went over and picked it before flicking it to take off any dirt that was stuck on it. He puts the cigarette in his mouth before searching his body to find his matchbox. He lied back down to the wall as soon as he founds out that the matchbox was nowhere to be found. Colt could only hang his head in disappointment.

 A flicking sound was heard as a small flame appeared in front of Colt's eyes. It was an elegant looking lighter. He turned around to see that Quattro was holding him the light. Colt gave his thanks before lighting up the cigarette. Once lighted up, he took one deep breath from the cig before releasing his breath. Puff of smoke exhaled out of his lungs.

Once done, Colt offered Quattro the cig to smoke only to be denied. "It's alright, I don't smoke"

Colt was perplexed by his answer and asked him a question. "Why bring around a lighter if you don't smoke?"

"I don't know... I just thought it might be useful one day." Quattro inspects the lighter before tossing it to the floor. He no longer needs it anymore.

"To be fair, you ain't wrong. That lighter did end up being useful in the end" Colt let out a short laugh. Quattro let out his own laugh as well.

The two stayed silent for a while.

"I was about to get married you know?" Colt broke the silence. "Just right before the invasion, before I got forced into the army"

"Oh? You got recruited after school right? That's quite a young age to be married. Who was the lucky one?"

"It was the sweetest girl I've ever met. I've known her since kindergarten. We didn't become a thing until highschool. Our families objected to it at first, but we managed to pull through. I love her with all my heart. Sweet cherry almond eyes, I could just stare it all day and not be tired. We would oftentimes just hang out by cliffside, just cuddling with each other as we look towards the stars." 

"I see, that's quite the love story huh. It's like destiny. I wish my love life was just as eventful, I basically met my wife at the flea market."

"It's nothing special really. One day we realised that we want to be together forever and that's what we did"

"So what happened next?" Quattro asked as he grabbed more candies. "Having being forced into recruitment right before getting married. I can only imagine the frustration"

"You bet it was frustrating. But I had to go. It wasn't an option. We still kept in contact via letters. At first, it was alright, I get to see her live and I get to have my few moments of happiness. Then, the battlefield grew more intense and slowly but surely, few and fewer letters managed to reach me and vice versa, my letters were not reaching her. At some point I knew it was hopeless, so I just wrote all my letters to her to ask her to get married to someone else and forget about me"

"..." Quattro remained silent as he listened to Colt earnestly.

"But... she kept sending me letters. She kept talking about her day, about her family and how things are going on at my hometown. She keeps mentioning how proud she was of me, to know that I'm fighting for her here." Colt finished smoking his cigarette and threw it in front of him "She kept mentioning that she will wait for me to return no matter what..." Colt hung his head down and stared at the floor.

"My condolences," Quattro gave his sympathies. He knew they aren't going to live through this. Colt will probably never meet the girl of his life again.

"How's it like by the way?" Colt raises his head.

"How is what?"

"The married life with kids. What does it feels like?"

Quattro laughed a short while before replying "Why it's pretty much heaven and hell at the same time. At one point you are the happiest being in the world. Holding your newborn with the only other significant person in your life and at another point, you are the most miserable human in the world. All those sleepless nights and all those time having to feed and care for your offsprings. And the moment they say out your name, you could feel as if nothing else mattered but at the same time your wife would just rant endlessly about how she's not satisfied that I'm the more loved of us two."

Colt could only let out a smile as his posture relaxed. Quattro went on and on about his family life. Colt could only imagine what would happen in his life if he did manage to marry his beloved.

"But it's not like I don't have any regrets outside of the married life."

"What is it?" Colt asked, curious about what does Quattro regret despite his enviable married life.

"I never did tell my elder sister that I got married. I got into a fight with her you see... It was mostly my fault. I was nothing more than a dumb and rash man at that time. I never understood her reason for doing the things she did. She would always try to re-connect to me but I kept pushing her away, until one day she stopped. We never talked again since then. I'm a changed man now, and I have achieved a lot. Never grew the courage to face her though. I only wish I could have shown her how far I have come since then."

"You aren't the only one with regrets then. Other than not getting married, I got things I regretted not doing either. You see, I always wanted to write a story. A book where—"

Colt was interrupted by the sound of abominations crawling over the area. Hissing sounds echoed in the air.

"Looks like time's up huh." Quattro takes his last candy and puts it in his mouth before inspecting his revolver. He spun the cylinder. No ammo. Despite that, he still cocks the hammer of the revolver. Not wanting to let Colt know about his situation.

Colt grabs his assault rifle and reloaded an empty mag himself too. Not letting Quattro know about his lack of munitions. Tears then dropped off Colt's face as he mentions "I don't want to die... I'm... scared"

Quattro only looked forward and put his shoulders over Colt. "I'm scared too. I too, don't want to die in a place like this. But one must accept things as it is"

Being consoled by Quattro, Colt wiped his tears away and clenches his jaw muscles. "What do you think the odds of us surviving this?" Colt asked in determination, but one will not miss the hint of melancholy in his voice.

Quattro just scoffs at the question "If we survive this. Then I'll start believing in God."

Colt and Quattro just let out a silent chuckle as the get ready for the incoming engagement. Silence filled the area.

"Major General Motmo Quattro Aleksander," Quattro said out of nowhere.

Colt only raised his eyebrows.

"That's my full name and title."

"Well... I might as well let you know my full name then. Name is Colton White."

"I see. It's nice to know you Colton" Quattro offered his hand to Colt for the second time that day.

"Nice to meet you too" Colt replied back and they both shook hands.

"You know what? If we do live through this, come find me. I'll try to get that discharge letter approved for you to get married. Just make sure to invite me to the wedding"

Colt didn't answer. He merely nodded with a smile on his face. He was no longer afraid like he was. His heart only filled with determination. 

And resignation.

Colt got his weapon ready. Despite knowing there were no bullets in it, he decided that he was going to fight. And fight he will to the very end.

The quiet battlefield was filled one last time by the shouts of two brave men.

Kotohood

Thank you to all of those who read this. It means a lot to me. I hope you all live without any regrets before The End comes for you.