Trying to follow the monster’s trail, the convoy travelled around the desert for hours until the sun set over the horizon. Everyone scanned the area, trying to find the horror that terrorised those lands. However, they’ve found nothing. Even if they travelled through an area they’d already patrolled, no one could find any evidence of the Jinn. All they could find was sand and an uneasy sense of silence as no one spoke during their hunt for the desert horror.
But eventually, the convoy came to a halt. It wasn’t because they were tired or needed a break, but because they had to refill their armoured cars. Meanwhile, Curly sat on the rock overlooking the members of the Disposal Unit doing some basic maintenance on their armoured vehicles. Benjamin, feeling unable to properly assist the Unit in refuelling the cars, decided to sit beside Curly to pass the time.
‘You know, I sorta miss this,’ Curly explained. ‘Going on patrol, stopping periodically to have our vehicles rest while we keep working, and doing it all over again. But now, we have our thumbs up our asses with the only thing to do is daydream about fucking someone’s girlfriend.’
‘What kind of girlfriend?’ Ben curiously asked. Wanting to have a conversation to not fall asleep, and perhaps get some amusement out of it.
‘A woman who is dating someone in the Air Force. I feel they need to have some kind of trauma while we grunts deal with the hard jobs.’
‘What? Too scared to have sex with a Marine’s girl?’
‘I am pretty sure those guys are used to their girls being piped while they're on deployment.’ Curly laughed. ‘Nah, the Air Force is the way to go. It will be funnier as well, I think.’
Ben raised a brow. ‘Are you sure they won’t like it? This is the Air Force we are talking about. Wouldn’t they like that sort of thing?’
‘Ah, yeah, that is a problem. They are all freaks like that.’ Curly leaned back, thinking about which branch of the military he would want to mess with once he got back home. ‘What about Navy guys?’
‘The Navy?’
‘Fair point, different branch than?’
The two men continue talking. Debating which branch is better to mess with by having sex with the service members’ girlfriends. Curly stubbornly still thinks the Air Force would be better despite believing that they might secretly accept being cuckolded. Ben, just to extend the conversation, was on the camp with the idea that the Marines would be the better option. Mindless dribble to waste time while everyone worked, and a bit of acceptable fun.
Ell called for everyone to get in the armoured cars to continue their patrol. But as everyone got ready to get in, the engines suddenly switched off and died on them. Ben tried to use his torch, but it wouldn’t work, causing his heart to race as he realised what it meant. It was here. The monster had arrived.
‘Stand two!’ Ben shouted as he ran to the cars, planting his back against the armoured door while he kept his rifle up. He tried to search for Curly, but it seemed their scramble to safety caused them to separate. Yet besides searching for his teammate. The best he could do was wish for Curly to be safe.
Meanwhile, the Disposal Unit rushed into positions to take ground. They readied their weapons to prepare for the eventual battle. Some swore over their equipment failure and how they were unable to illuminate the field. Without delay, they grabbed their blue flares and threw them all around the convoy. Even if their electronic devices failed them, they at least had a chance to fight the beast they were after.
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‘Ghoul!’ Ell hissed beside Ben. ‘I thought that was the case.’
Ben overheard her, trying to figure out what she meant by ghoul. The way she said it made him realise that they knew more about the creature than she let on, and perhaps, what Ben suspected to be a super soldier was instead something else entirely. A creature of evil, a monster of needless slaughter beyond his understanding.
But that wasn’t meant to be. Before he could even react, Jinn slammed Ell into the armoured car. Turning her body into a splurge of red paste and coating Ben in a spray of gore. Meanwhile, the armoured car she stood in front of dented upon impact.
Reacting quickly, Ben fell onto his back with his rifle at the ready, firing a few rounds into the monster while he crawled away from it. Besides focusing on the downed man, the Jinn turned to Ben, its bloodied grin visible under the cloak of black smoke. Yet it didn’t strike at Ben when it could, killing him like how it effortlessly killed Ell. Instead, it wanted to save him for last.
With that grin and long claws, the Jinn went to work. Rushing from soldier to soldier, slicing them up like someone would cut a cake at unimaginable speeds. The bang of guns and the whistle of bullets, the monster sliced and diced without slowing down. Ben struggled to follow the movements of the monster, nor could he fathom how it was so fast when his battles against the creature had been a lot slower and manageable. Watching as it effortlessly brutalised his comrades of the Disposal Unit, an impending sense of doom washed over him. There was nothing he could do to kill it.
Without warning, a hand emerged from under the armoured car and dragged Ben under it. Ben reached for his pistol to use on himself, he refused to be eaten alive, but calmed himself when he saw Curly’s terrified face right in front of him. Hiding under the car the moment the lights went out.
They stared at each other. Ben struggled to find something to say to him. All while Curly shook his head, urging him to keep quiet. Neither of them could fight the monster, not in their wildest dreams. If they wanted to survive, they had to be cowards and hide. To throw away their training to become trained killers for the hope that they could live another day.
Ben lay on his back, staring at the underside of the armoured car while the grunts and cries of the Disposal Unit ran throughout the slaughter. He tried to close his eyes to drown out the screams, but there was no point. He knew that he was allowing them to die so he could live. Ben was no fool. He understood that he couldn’t combat the creature and that crawling out of the car would be an idiot’s errand. Yet he couldn’t ignore the reality that he had to do something that his very nature despised.
When there were no more people to slaughter, the monster admired its kills and walked around. Picking up corpses to feed on them later on by skewering the bodies and dragging them along the ground.
Meanwhile, it was looking for Ben, the man who caused it problems for weeks. As it stood beside the car Benjamin was hiding under, his heart raced while his lungs seized to stop him from making a sound.
And to his luck, or because the Jinn had enough flesh to feed on. It decided to leave. Allowing Ben to finally take a breath of air, and as the flares outside started to slowly die down, he refused to crawl out from the safety of the armoured car. A horror was out there, and he couldn’t dare to move a muscle. All he could do was wait for the morning sun and ponder about the deaths that had happened. Unfortunately, he had all night to be alone with his thoughts.
