Let me start off by saying this is just an idea of mine. Whether I continue past the first few chapters, hand this story over to someone, or just let it sit depends on interest in it. Anyway, on with my sheer boredom.

Same Shit Different World

Always Something More

Since I was a kid, I always wanted to be like the comic book superheroes, putting down the bad guys and saving the people. Real life hit me when I was 18 joining the Army, 'heroes' was just a term used to describe the people that could do something others couldn't. Depending on perspective the term would be swapped to 'villain', but that was all I could make of it as the blood, and smoke of the Persian Gulf forged who I am today 'Sandman'.

The blood on my hands was immeasurable, and people had the audacity to call me a hero. I guess I can't blame them without perspective war will always seem like good versus evil in the minds of the many. Often times as Price told me, "It's the lie that is preserved to keep the sanity of the public consciousness." I respected the man; he always knew something of the situations that we found ourselves in. Now I wish that man wasn't light years away from me.

Pain and darkness were the last things I remembered before waking up in a place that clearly wasn't a collapsing mineshaft. Now I wasn't the intuitive person that the captain was, but I sure as hell never imagined my afterlife would be a lush green forest that continued for miles beyond my sight. Fire and brimstone were more the expectation, with a side of eternal torment, but even the opposite that I was expecting didn't contain pure vegetation on all sides. Not that I can truly complain as this is a much preferable situation than feeling my body suffer in a lake of fire. However, it does beg the question, where am I?

It was a question I could sit and contemplate for the rest of eternity, or an answer I could get off my ass and go find out. I started first by getting a real handle on my surroundings and situation. I found my back against a tall oak tree surrounded by more of the same with mixtures of dirt and grass going on for ages. I could tell by the flowering of the trees and dampness of the ground I must have ended up waking up in the middle of whatever this place considers springtime. Taking stock of myself I found myself still completely decked out in my BDU and equipment. My trusty M4 lay to my side while my sidearm a simple desert eagle was clipped to my belt. On the opposite side of my waist was a simple combat knife and a flashlight.

Deciding that limited resources would make all but my knife useless, I wrote my guns off as a last-ditch. As such I decided to make use of my current most useful item and pulled the knife to mark the tree behind me. If there was one thing, I learned from my time in Boy Scouts it was how to survive, simple things like marking locations can save an individual a lot of time figuring out where to proceed. With the now cut tree I pushed myself onto my feet and looked skyward through the canopy the trees provided I could only barely make out the sun, but managed to cite its location as TDC. Sighing I went and felt around my back to feel that my pack was still there. Good at least I had enough supplies to last me a week or 2 without having to put hunting skills to use. Most of all it meant I also had my basic equipment; although the map is probably useless as I still have no idea where I am, but I still had my compass to give me some form of direction. Fishing out the handy device I took a minute to 'smell the roses' as it were, it seemed strange there was no real sound other than the rustle of my hands wading through my pack. This place seemed to be a rather expansive forest so it was curious that the typical sounds of even just the wind or small critter or two never registered on my radar. It was too quiet for my liking and usually that meant something was up, but I never had the feeling of being watched. Grabbing the compass, I aligned myself due north and began my trudge through the woodwork.

One thing I would admit to was still being a bit of an avid reader of comic books, it was something that never changed from my childhood, as such I often carried around a few books in my pack to keep me from going insane on longer trips and missions. Reading those books always brought a somewhat sad smile to my face. I could get lost in a world where I didn't have to question what was being fought for or whether something was right or not, it was just simply known that it was good guys and bad guys in the end. Not that things like Marvel's "Civil War" wasn't interesting and fun to read through and contemplate, but the simplicity was just refreshing after having to deal with the fallout of Shepheard's treachery.

I continued on for what must have been hours as I got lost in my books once more. Seeing as the sun was making a noticeable decline into the west creating a blanket of shadows that descended upon the forest. I let out a long sigh seeing as I was getting no where fast. I reached for my flashlight and put the book away. Snaping on the light I simply allowed myself to stew in the darker terrain; trying to piece together a course of action, but lo and behold a building made itself known on my 2. It appeared to have once been a church building, that time had decided to waste away at. There were noticeable holes and wear on the structure leading me to believe that it must have been sitting for quite awhile given the state and the overgrowth surrounding the building.

However, stepping up to the front steps of the wooden structure I could make out that some kind of care had been administrated to the building as there was almost a frightening lack of dust, cobwebs, and general rot inside the church. There was one obvious conclusion.

"Someone's been here." I stated to the wind as I looked around. The main room seemed as though it was supposed to be a worship center, but with the missing pews and religious symbols I assumed the area was fashioned more into a foyer of the building. My first instinct was to get the hell out of Dodge, but thinking about the circumstances this was the only shelter I had found for miles plus any kind of human contact at this point would be welcomed. Looking around I still couldn't shake my unease as there seemed to be a noise or something in the corner of my eye that always seemed to escape my vision. I doubted I was going insane, but I swore I heard a low murmuring of voices somewhere.

Shaking my head, I grabbed my bag and dug out one of the MRE packs to give myself some form of sustenance before getting too comfortable with my surroundings. While not the 5-star meal one would like MREs were not the puke bags that people seemed to think they were. The best word that comes to mind is bland. They were imitations of flavors more than the actual flavor itself and it was noticeable, but not bad. After surviving off them for years you simply didn't even care about the flavor you just ate and asked questions when you went to the toilet.

Regardless of how I felt about it, it was still food that kept me going. Knowing the current situation and my mind seemingly playing tricks on me I would need that resource to keep me up as I doubted sleep would come easily. Still to give myself some peace of mind I allowed my eyes to rest while my senses went wild with speculation. I sat against the wall of the building simply allowing myself to unwind my muscles as much as possible before something unexpected happened.

Surprisingly the act led me to sleep faster than expected, which by the time I realized I shot up from my position to have the morning rays of light blind my senses. Thankfully as I got my bearings together, I came to realize my equipment and body were not touched by what ever bogeyman my mind seemed to think was hiding in the shadows of the church. Getting up from my position on the wall I took my time to truly take in the church. The building was made from a darker oak and now that I could truly see the deck of the building, I saw numerous sleeping bags and pillows scattered about.

"That would have been nice to know about a few hours earlier." I stated dryly, grabbing my trash I quickly stuffed it into my pack, and turned to face the entrance.

Whatever my mind thought was the monster hiding in the dark did not prepare me for the very children that lay before my eyes going about what looked like chores. To say they varied in appearance was to call night and day a little different. Before any of them noticed me I ducked behind a wooden wall bordering the entrance to observe what I saw before my eyes. There was one thing that they all at least had in common, which happened to be their gender. All of them appeared to be girls ranging from the age of 4 to even 16. However, the similarities happened to end there as their bodies had acquired through some means extra appendages that did not belong on anything human. From bat-like wings to the triangular ears of a cat there was something that separated these girls from the average female.

Before my mind could process anything, I witnessed a figure stepping out of the woodwork. A woman who appeared to be in her 20's was dressed in what appeared to be a religious garb by the obvious depictions of crosses and pure white silk that made up the long dress. At the sight of the woman the younger of the girls ran with bright smiles towards her while the older ones seemed to restrain themselves giving of warm gazes of recognition towards the woman.

Whoever she was and the children she seemed to look after I decided was not my place to get involved with. Hastily turning from the scene, I stepped away from the entrance to find a back door, only to set my foot on the wrong board of the decrypted building causing a loud creak to echo its halls. At once I felt the gazes of the group fall onto my back.

"Shit"

Hate it, like it, want it to burn in a dumpster fire? I honestly could care less I just needed to get this out of my head before I went insane. However, I would be interested in continuing should there be people open to seeing more. If someone thinks they can do a better job with it feel free as I imagine without proper motivation, I will probably leave this to the dust. Anyway flames I ignore, criticism I accept, and comments tend to read so I leave what happens up to you guys whether or not I choose to continue this.