Doomsday Pillars

The 200 men were confused as a group of mad people approached them. The mad people were holding weapons and waved it to the 200 men as they force them to go down inside an empty Olympic sized swimming pool. 

Looking around, the 200 men were shocked. The tiles were smeared with dried and wet blood. Its horrible stench hovered in the air and entered their noses, some couldn't help but vomit on the ground as they smelled the stomach curling odor. One of the 200 walked but suddenly slipped and fell on an upward broken tile and stabbed her hand. They were inside a bloody pit arena.

Hafiz raised his arms into the sky and said, "Prove yourselves to our merciful god, and we will let you live." 

Hearing Hafiz's voice, the men feel conflicted emotionally, some went depressed and some other burn with rage. Hafiz is one of the hardest men to deal with. Alex has known him before in his previous life, he regretted he didn't kill the man when he rescued Rico from the terrorist base. Hafiz is a spirit enhancer with power similar to Raissa the singer.. if Raissa singing could lift up the spirit of the one who listens, Hafiz word, on the other hand, would lower their spirit. Playing with their fear would increase the effect even more.

When the 200 men were conflicted with emotion, Cold ringing of the metals echoed as the mad people dropped around 50 various weapons while surrounding the whole area.

Melissa shouted from the side, "Adam! Jason! You must grab a weapon! Do it now!"

Her voice resounded in the whole pit, but a lot of them remained frozen. Some though carefully walked and to try and pick up a weapon but they were dragged back by their comrades hesitating.

Seeing the people not moving for a while, frown can be seen in Hafiz face, it seems he didn't really get the result he wanted. He raised his hand and a mad citizen brought a gun from one of the boxes of raided weapons. The mad citizen shots at the 200 man aimlessly

Dratatatatatta!!!

A few of the nearest men died with bodies full of bullet holes.

"10 seconds. If no one acts in 10 seconds, I will start shooting again," Hafiz coldly said.

"!!!"

One man among the 200 walks forward. It was Captain Yonas. His expression was dark as he picked up a butcher knife.

He said to himself, "I cannot die here."

He then started staring at the people in front of him and his eyes met with Adam's.

"Adam! It was your advice that made my friend, the Colonel, die! We wouldn't be in this mess if not because of you."

A lot of people looked at Adam and the misfits as they picked up weapons from the ground. 

"Yes!! They even try to run away by themselves!!"

Some of them were the ones who had chased the tanks. Their faces wore expressions of resentment as they continued shouting.

"Traitors!"

"It's all your @!#$% fault!!!"

These people were looking for a scapegoat, an excuse to live. Now that Captain Yonas stood forward, they also blamed Adam. Cursing, blaming, fear, all of these converged as they slowly advanced and the misfits retreated.

Romi lost strength in his knees as he fell to the ground and covered his ears, "No, no! It's not our fault! Don't kill us!"

Nathan and Nathalie had grew up in the streets with the mercenaries and ever since they were little kids, they had been taught the law of the jungle. Kill or be killed. They hastily grabbed two weapons from the ground and threw it to Adam and Jason. 

Adam caught the weapon but found it somewhat heavy even though he held a weapon uncountable times.

As for Jason, he avoided it. He just simply stood there and glared at the foreign eastern man.

The rest of the misfits clumped together picking up weapons from the ground.

As for the rest of the militia, they were divided.

"We don't have to do this! We're comrades! Please drop the weapon!"

"They're gonna kill us, can't you see that?!"

"Let's not turn on each o—" he suddenly felt a stabbing pain from his back. Turning around, he saw his trembling comrade holding a bloodied knife.

"I-I did it! I.. I let me live!!" breathing heavily, the one who stabbed dropped the weapon from his shaking hands and ran towards the ladder. 

"Good good, my child. You have chosen our merciful god, as the first who has decided, only you may climb up and join us now. As for the rest, pick a side," Hafiz praised.

Everyone was in a daze, a few seconds later, another person from the crowd croaked and fell to the ground. Chaos ensued and people who were comrades began killing each other. Jason didn't kill but just defended the misfits. The siblings have no problem killing to defend themselves. Romi noticed a person who was still breathing on the ground, he found an ice pick and stabbed the injured person.

Feeling a gust of wind from the right side, Adam raised his saber as he saw Captain Yonas rushing at him.

Clang!!!

The clashing metal bodies of the butcher knife and the saber cried a grating sound as Adam and Captain Yonas tried to push each other. 

"Why are you doing this?!" Adam asked.

"A boy who thinks he's an adult. Your immatureness led us all to this!" Captain Yonas shouted as he waved his sword and jumped back.

"We're com—" 

"NO, WE'RE NOT!" Captain Yonas interrupted Adam's words and their bout of butcher knife versus saber continued.

After several rounds of exchanges, Adam's body was bleeding as he only kept defending from Captain Yonas' aggressive attacks. From time to time, people snuck up on Adam and tried to kill him, but he was able to defend himself. Captain Yonas was able to take the openings created by the people who targeted Adam, but he only managed to wound Adam.

Romi was crawling, trying to keep a low profile, but he saw Captain Yonas. Rage welled up within him as he stealthily made his way near Adam and Captain Yonas' battle with the ice pick in his hands.

"Stop this, Captain Yonas!" Adam said.

"..."

Suddenly, a silhouette appeared near Captain Yonas and stabbed him on his thigh.

"!!!"

"You! You sh*tty kid!" Captain Yonas turned around in rage and saw Romi. He waved his butcher knife to kill him but he suddenly felt something pass through in his stomach. It was Adam.

Not wanting his friends to die, Adam knew he had to make a choice. 

Losing his grip on the butcher knife, it fell down to the ground as he spat out blood, "Not like this… not lik…." Captain Yonas' voice trailed off and took one more hateful glance at Adam before landing on Romi.

"Get off me! You f*cking prick!" Romi shoved away Captain Yonas' corpse. His eyes suddenly glowed with a hint of madness as he stared at the lifeless Captain Yonas, he then began stabbing the dead body with the ice pick while saying, "It's not our fault, you d*mn piece of sh*t! Die die die! Hahahaha!"

Adam stared at his shaking blood-soaked hands, the first time was through a gun and there was some distance, but now it was up close. He felt the warm blood of his once was comrade. Again, he took another life... Surrounded by his fellow comrades who were killing each other, his whole body shivered as he screamed, "Aaaarrrggghhhhh!!!!!"

.

.

Several minutes later, the fighting finally ended. Out of the 200 people, there were only 80 left.

The 80 people who survived were once again tied up. They were being held by the mad people on the side as they faced the makeshift platform.

Below the face of the platform, one of the mad people placed down a block with a curve in the middle and a basket was set in front of it. 

Hafiz had watched the whole battle and then pointed at eight men, "You people rejected the chance our merciful god gave. You know the consequences." 

These eight men were people who didn't took life during the pit battle. Some of them got lucky by just hiding in the midst of corpses, some were scared and ran around the whole time, but one of them is Jason, who had just defended.

The misfits saw that Jason was pointed out and they all tried to resist the mad people. A lot of them had been saved by Jason thousands of times. They strained themselves to break free, but the mad people struck them with blunt weapons, 

The eight men were then forced to form a line in front of the executioner's block. And a person with a hood that hid his face approached while carrying a big axe. He grunted at the mad citizen who was holding the rope to bring the first person. 

Adam and the misfits saw that Jason's the first to go. The mad citizen understood as this wasn't his first time and then pulled the rope as he guided Jason to the block. 

"Stop!!!" Adam raised his head and tried to stand up with his wobbly legs.

However, the mad citizen pinned Adam on the ground. Adam attempted to gather strength in his body, but the mad citizen pushed him so hard that he only made a mess of dirt with his struggling.

Jason stood straight and high, unyielding all this time. He didn't kill anyone when he defended earlier, he stuck to his principles. Slowly he strodded to the executioner's block and stopped. He turned to Adam and simply smiled, "Brother, farewell." 

When Adam heard Jason's words, tears rolled down his cheeks. He stared at Jason as he kept on struggling to break free, but the mad citizen pinning him kicked him in the guts causing him to drop down to the ground. His best friend; his brother. With a cracking voice, he tearfully said, "Please no… Please spare him… Take me instead..."

The mad citizen then kicked the back of Jason's knees making him kneel and then the mad citizen placed his foot on Jason's back. 

Jason looks around one more time to Adam and then to the madman around him "The apocalypse... how did our world become like this…" No longer wanting to be part of it, Jason tried to raise his head to stare at the vast blue sky.

.

.

A sound like a butcher chopping a piece of meat on his board resounded. The severed head of Jason spun and rolled over outside of the basket.

Looking at Jason's severed head, Adam felt something snapped in his mind. Clenching his fist so hard that it made it white, his heart pounded wildly as if it were trying to break out. His eyes menacingly searched for Hafiz as he vehemently said, "I swear… I'll get stronger… stronger than anyone that I'll be able to kill who hurts my people… I swear it...." An aura so strong emitted out of him made the mad people and remaining survivors felt goosebumps running in their spines.

"Hooo hooo. This young one has a strong spirit," Hafiz wasn't affected by Adam's terrifying aura. He simply waves his hands and said, "Take him away."

He struggled like a wounded beast trying to escape, but they overpowered him. They pushed his head on the ground and kicked his stomach and struck his face at the same time. Adam spat out blood as he began to lose his consciousness.

"I swear I'll avenge you," Adam uttered before everything went black.

"Here's another lab rat for you," Hafiz said to the old man.

"This one so badly wounded, probably not gonna last long... we'll see how it goes," the old man grinned as he adjusted his glasses.

.

Adam was taken away while all the other misfits can only helplessly watch.

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