AJ stood at the edge of the cliff just gazing out at the vast distance. The sun was rising behind the horizon whilst a herd of buffalo ran acrossed the land. A trail of dust followed in their stampede. The sky above was dark, thought the sun was out. That was just the way it was. The way it has always been. Ever since the war that ended almost all life on the planet.

He placed his hand on his sword, he kept sheathed away in a metal box wrapped onto his back. He was ready to pull it out at a moment’s notice. Not that he ever had to use the sword; not in a while.

A cool breeze blowed through and brushed against his dark skin. He wore a black skin tight shirt made with nanofibers that could take the shot from a nasty 50.cal sniper rifle. A weapon he had a knack for getting on the wrong end of.

“AJ are you listening?” a voice asked.

He found himself daydreaming and soon came to his senses. He looked over to his left at his best friend Sev who sat on the edge of the cliff with his legs hanging off. He smiled up at AJ with his winning white teeth.

“Sorry, I was busy thinking about something,” AJ said.

“It’s alright man, just wanted to know why you grabbing your sword. You expecting a fight way out here?”

AJ shook his head. “No, I was just…” He couldn’t understand why he was gripping his sword. He let go of it and placed his hand at his side. He was always uneasy, an effect from living a life of a spectre.

Spectres were soldiers for hire by the remaining nations. They were soldiers who could wield powers known as Kitek. It gave them all sorts of powers, from elemental abilities to powers that allows them to change the very laws of physics. It was a game changer which is the reason why countries that haven’t been destroyed are constantly scouring the dying world for those who can wield kitek.

“So, whatcha think’n about man?” Sev asked.

AJ lowered his guard, something he had trouble doing, and sat down beside Sev. At eighteen, Sev was just a bit older than AJ. He wore a sleeveless black turtleneck with the spectre white insignia pinned to his chest. He wore dark armor padded jeans and a two belts around his waist that crossed over his crotch.

“I was just thinking about our last battle,” AJ said. “I don’t think I saved enough of those people.”

Sev smiled. “Don’t worry man. For your first mission you did pretty good out there. You didn’t freeze up or nothing.”

AJ was just fresh from training. He wasn’t a rookie anymore but a full fledged spectre. Unlike most spectres, he wasn’t up for hire but worked along the US military as a soldier. Today was the first time he had gone out on a mission with his friend Sev. Sev had gone on numerous missions before so he was use to it.

“Yeah, but I overheard the commander going over the body count. The numbers were extremely high.”

Sev nodded his head along to AJ’s words.

“I think about how all those people could have been saved if I tried hard enough.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself man,” Sev said. “You need to know that you can’t save everybody. What matters is you saved people.”

“I guess you’re right. But I want to be able to save everyone.”

“Well if heres a thought.” Sev leaned back and looked out into the distance. Another cool breeze rolled through and his long black hair fluttered in the air. “If you can convince the countries to stop fighting over a dying planet, maybe then you’ll save everyone.”

AJ crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow. “You know that would be impossible. Countries are quite stubborn.”

“Well that’s the only idea I got right now.” He stood up and stepped walked away from the edge while dusting his pants off.

“Where are we going?” AJ asked.

“Come on man, we’re heading back to base. We’re not really suppose to be out here and the commander’s real anal about it.”

“But you said we were!” AJ said, jumping up and running up behind Sev.

Just a few feet from the cliff was a black road that seemed to go endlessly into two directions. The road was covered in cracks, worn from nature and riddled with potholes. Right in the middle were their two motorcycles called Spears. Long black bikes with armored plating. Silver pipes came from the back and the wheels were reinforced with iron metal.

Sev swung his leg over the seat and sat down. The spear turned on without him needing to do anything. It rumbled and roared as he twisted on the throttle. The pipes jittered as it emitted puffs of black smoke into the air.

“Hey AJ, you want to try keeping up?”

AJ twisted the throttle on his spear and smiled. “Just try not to eat my dust like last time.”

“We’ll see about that-”

Before Sev was able to finish his sentence, AJ had ridden off at full speed down the road. He gritted his teeth and kicked his stand before driving off to catch up with WIJ.

AJ and Sev were not sure why, but there was something that fancied them about driving down the endless roads to go knows where. While they rode down the road, they worried about nothing. Just the wind blowing over their heads while they kept low. The gazed into the endlessly at the way in front of them. Eventually the sound of air gusting past their ears would go dead and it would be total bliss.

Sev speed up just a bit, enough to get ahead of AJ. He leaned his spear to the left and cut past him. AJ slowed down to avoid hitting Sev. That move always grinded his gears. Sev was a risky guy and knew AJ would slow down to give way to him.

AJ sped up but as he did so too did Sev. Sev wasn’t going to allow him to get ahead of him, not without a fight at least. He shadowed AJ’s moves as sharply as he could.

AJ growled and gritted his teeth. He decided to get risky too. He leaned right, driving off the side of the road and into the desert. The dust kicked up behind him like a wave. His spear jittered and shook on the jagged land. At full speed he got ahead of Sev and then jumped back on the road in front of him. The sudden student caused Sev to break hard to avoid hitting him. AJ looked back over his shoulder and smiled.

“Nice one AJ!” Sev shouted.

AJ slowed down to match Sev’s speed. “Hey Sev, do you think commander will notice that we’re gone?”

“It’s best not to think about that. Commander it not a total hardass. Let’s just try getting back to base.”

AJ looked to his right. Another herd of buffalo were stampeding passed them. The group of a hundred or so looked like a ball of fur just mixed with dust and dirt that flew around it.

After a bit of riding, the two made it back to base. The base was a large facility that rested on the side of the cliff that overlooked the black sea. They rode up to it’s giant rusted metal gate that stood forty or so meters high. Snipers stood in the diamond shaped towers, looking down at them with their sniper rifles in hand.

A soldier stood squad of soldiers stood outside the gate, guarding the it from everything but enemies.

Sev slowed his down his spear just at the foot of the head guard. The guard glared at him with his arms crossed. In between his rugged lips he held a cigar that billowed smoke from its tip.

“Hey George, didn’t think you were guarding today.”

“Sev and…” He glanced over at AJ who tried to hide his big spear behind Sev. “...AJ what are you two doing outside the base?”

“You know, just get a fresh breather and what not,” Sev said. “Hey man, mind letting us inside?”

George smiled. “Sure but I have to report everyone who enters and leaves the base to the commander.”

“Oh come one Georgy, you don’t need to do that,” Sev said.

“Of course I do, it’s my job.”

“It’s your only job,” AJ muttered.

AJ’s words didn’t escape George's keen hearing. But he let it passed anyways.

“Also I’m pretty sure the command told me specifically, If Sev and AJ come back, make sure you tell me.”

“So commander knows we were gone huh?” AJ said.

“Looks like it man.”

George’s cigar was short. He took it out his mouth and pressed it against the hood of Sev’s spear and then gave it a good twist. He then dropped it on the ground and crushed it with the tip of his boot.

“You can bet your ass commander knows. Why don’t you guys head up there right now? I’ll be sure to tell her you’re coming.”

Sev rolled his eyes and groaned. “Alright, let’s just get this over with.”

***

Commander East sat her desk, buried in stacks of paper piled high around her. The golden rays of light poured in through the large panel glass window behind her. The waves outside were as violent as ever, crashing against the cliffs.

East rubbed her hand through her brown hair tied in a ponytail and took another hit from her cigarette. She tapped it against her ash tray and took a second hit. Two months ago she promised herself she’d stop smoking...she broke that promise two hours later.

She was a young woman, petite and short but with an even shorter temper. When the previous commander died she, as his second in command, was promoted to commander by general mathews. Ever since then she had to deal with the struggles that the previous man had to deal with. Constant food shortage, soldiers dying from disease and toxic air, and a growing threat from neighboring countries.

They base she controlled was just thirty kilometers from a Russian outpost facility. This meant if the United States and Russian went into an all out war with one another, her base would be the first to get hit. They were under equipped and didn’t have enough manpower to run most of the facilities twenty four seven.

She also had to deal with the constant proxy wars being waged between Russia and the United States. Every day they’d have a battle using small arms and guerilla tactics. Most of the fighting was done between hired spectres. Just two weeks a Russian spectre had sabotage their main water supply badly destroying it. Even now they have yet to get it online and have to rely on imports.

The door slid open and Sev and AJ walked into the room. They had been here so many times under this circumstances they already knew the drill. Sev took a seat in the chair on the left and placed his feet on her desk while AJ sat down in chair on the right. He didn’t put his boots on the desk but instead held his head down.

“Sev get your feet off the desk,” All three of them said.

“Will do boss,” Sev said. He planted his boots the floor.

East looked at AJ and groaned while rubbing her face. “Mind telling me why you thought you’re allowed to leave the base without notifying me?”

“Umm, well I didn’t actually know-”

“We thought we wouldn’t get caught,” Sev finished.

“What he said,” AJ muttered.

“You know the rules,” East said. “Nobody is allowed to leave the base unless they’re on a mission or have permission from me.”

“We just wanted to chill outside for a moment. The base is so stuffy and very...dull.”

“I don’t care!” East raised her voice. “I’ve got all these problems rising up the ass. I found out two soldiers died from the plague, we’re going to run out of water in three days, half the facility is still without power and I found out my only two spectres had gone AWOL.”

East dropped her cigarette into her ashtray and the leaned back into her chair. The poor girl wanted to cry but couldn’t. She wondered how the previous commander was able to put up with all this mess.

She glared at the two. “If another spectre were to attack us, do you know how disastrous that would be?”

“Are we really that important?” AJ asked.

“Of course!”

Sev nudged AJ to get his attention. “Of course we’re important. Why do you think I can get away with most of what I do.”

East called for her guards who entered through separate door on the left. The three armed soldiers surrounded both AJ and Sev.

“Guards, take Sev to the brig and take AJ back to his quarters. Make sure he doesn’t leave without my permission.”

Two guards grabbed Sev and cuffed him in thick iron handcuffs. He struggled a bit but gave up, realizing it was futile to resist. He allowed the two to usher him away out of the room. The third guard grabbed AJ by the shoulder and whisked him from the office.

East took a deep breath. “When will those two learn,” she muttered.