Epilogue
Hay everyone, sorry about forgetting to upload this about forgetting to upload this for almost two months, but now it's here.
After Jason, Rachel, Eric, and Nick arrived back at Camp Slayer, they each gave a report on everything they faced underground. Just as they thought, no one really believed them at first until teams were sent to recover the bodies of the other American soldiers that died during the fight with the Iraqis in the village and underground. However, they didn't come back with just human bodies, they also came back with the bodies of vampires that had burned in the light of the sun when the eclipse passed. Everything moved quick after that. An organization known as AEGIS arrived and took over Camp Slayer, the palace was turned into some sort of experiment site with people wearing hazmat suits and masks; the place looked like it had been pulled out from E.T. The whole operation was looked over by a woman in a blue hazmat suit named Brooks. She was currently outside the palace doors, waiting for one of her colleges to arrive. Soon enough, a man in a yellow suit approached her.
"Miller." Brooks greeted as the man approached her. "You're late and you look like shit."
"I just got off the red eye. What's your excuse?" Miller replied.
Brooks and Miller touched their arms together.
"Good flight?" Brooks asked.
"Shit movie, shit meal, no leg room." Miller replied.
"They cram you in the back?" Brooks asked.
"By the toilets." Miller said.
"Nice!" Brooks replied with amusement.
"Coffee wasn't so bad, though. Good fucking muffins." Miller said.
Brooks grabbed a clipboard and she and Miller entered the palace into AEGIS' experiment site.
"Did you read the brief?" Brooks asked.
"On the flight. How's it going with the analysis team?" Miller asked.
"Four of the ISG unit survived. They're being debriefed through here." Brooks explained. "Shall we?"
"After you." Miller offered.
Brooks and Miller walked into the now tented up halls of the palace.
"And the entities?" Miller asked.
"Like nothing we've seen before." Brooks replied as she and Miller passed an AEGIS scientist examining an unburnt bat-like alien, pulling out one of the parasites that had turned them into vampires.
Brooks looked down at her clipboard, listing the names of the survivors.
"Kolchek, Jason. First Lieutenant – Marine Force Recon." Brooks read.
"The best of the best, huh?" Miller commented.
"Or so they advertised." Brooks said.
Brooks and Miller passed a room where Jason was being questioned and he sounded angry.
"Fuck! Now how many times do I have to keep telling you the same damn story?" Jason demanded angrily.
"I understand, however CENTCOM needs to iron out any… irregularities." the man questioning Jason said.
"Such as? The whole fucking thing was irregular!" Jason stated.
"Such as why you allied with an enemy combatant?" the man questioned.
"You weren't fucking there! Those things were ripping us to shreds. I don't give a damn who it was, we needed all the help we can get!" Jason stated. "I stepped back into that Hell to save Salim. That man was worth five of you people. Semper fucking fi."
Brooks and Miller moved on from the interrogation.
"So, they co-operated with an Iraqi soldier down there?" Miller asked, still surprised to hear that had happened.
"Republican Guard, if you can believe it. Must have made a hell of an impression for Kolchek to go back for him." Brooks said.
"I'm dying to meet this guy." Miller said.
"Nothing to show, he walked." Brooks informed.
"The hell's that mean?" Miller questioned.
"By the time the extraction team got here, he was gone. Could be across the border by now." Brooks explained.
"Sneaky son of a bitch. Now I see why Kolchek enlisted his help." Miller said.
"The analysis team are still pulling specimens from the site. It's carnage down there." Brooks informed, handing Miller the clipboard.
"They used dynamite?" Miller questioned, seeing dynamite mentioned.
"We don't know how they got their hands on it." Brooks said.
Brooks and Miller passed another room where Nick was being questioned.
"No, no, no! I'm done. I told you already, it was a city! A goddman city full of those things." Nick said. "There were cocoons down there. Fucking thousands of them."
"How many organisms were still alive down there?" the man questioning Nick asked.
"Too many…" Nick said. "I hope for all our sake they all fucking burned."
Brooks and Miller moved on and as they did, Miller couldn't help but think of another situation similar to this one he and Brooks had investigated years ago.
"This is like Winterfold all over again." Miller said.
"Uh huh." Brooks agreed, taking the clipboard back. "Ah, and here we have Colonel Eric King, our in-house genius. He definitely got more than he bargained for."
Brooks and Miller stopped by the room where Eric was being questioned.
"Everything you know about biology just went up in smoke! These things, they're advanced. They're stronger than us, more intelligent than us." Eric explained urgently. "If you want to get ahead of this, you need to start taking me seriously!"
"None of us doubt the severity of the situation Colonel." the woman questioning him replied arrogantly. "A number of people have died."
"I made it out alive!" Eric said with a look of determination. "And I'm going to make sure those things stay buried in that hellhole where they belong."
"Let's move on to Caelus." the woman said, not paying what Eric said much mind.
Brooks and Miller moved, passing a room where AEGIS scientists were examining a canister of the fluid from the aliens' cocoons, which was labeled 'X-1172.' They than came into the room where Rachel was waiting for them.
"Well. Do you believe me now?" Rachel immediately asked as they entered.
"This is Miller. He'll be fully debriefing you." Brooks informed.
"Debriefing?" Rachel questioned. "You need to get your damn priorities straight! Those things are still down there! What are you doing about them?"
"There will be plenty of time to talk things through. Right now, I suggest you count your blessings that you came through the other side. It's nothing short of a miracle that you survived down there." Miller said.
"I learned not to rely on anyone but myself. I was stronger than them all." Rachel said.
"We'll be back shortly." Miller said before and Brooks walked off.
As they walked away, Brooks looked towards Miller.
"We still on for next Sunday?" Brooks asked Miller.
"Janet's making hotpot. You bet your ass we're on." Miller replied enthusiastically.
Brooks and Miller exited the experiment site and decontaminated their suits.
"I'll never get used to this job." Brooks said.
"Why would you want to?" Miller questioned with a chuckle.
"At least this one was localized." Brooks said.
"Small blessings." Miller agreed.
"So… What'd you make of it all?" Brooks asked as she and Miller left the palace.
"It doesn't matter what I think. Only thing that matters is controlling the flow of information." Miller stated. "As far as the world knows, not a damn thing happened here."