Life of an NPC

The eight men walked into the room and took a seat in front of the podium. All of them wore a red, paramilitary uniform with a black scarf that covered everything but their eyes and eyebrows. The eight men chatted amongst themselves as they waited for their commander to enter and brief them.

The door on the right side of the room opened, and two men walked in. The first one that walked in was their commander. He was a career soldier, and had fought in numerous conflicts, which had worn his face accordingly. His chest also held numerous medals from past campaigns and skirmishes. The commander ran his fingers through his brown hair and coughed into his other hand before he stepped behind the podium.

“Alright men, listen up. The task you’ll be undertaking will be to escort and assist this man here in infiltrating and destroying the supply depot located near Zertonin. Yes, you’ll be going into dangerous enemy territory. Yes, it’s going to just be you guys. There will be no further support on this mission. Stealth is of the utmost importance. Now, let me introduce you to this man.”

The commander waved forward the man who entered with him. The man was in a dark green jumpsuit with a forest camouflage painted face. The man nodded his head to the men in front of him, with a lit cigarette in his mouth.

“This is Major Nick O’Tine. He’s been infiltrating enemy buildings and territory since most of you were still in elementary school. Pay attention to what he says, and do it quickly, and you shouldn’t have any problems. That’s all you need to know. Now, dismissed.”

The eight men got up, and all but one moved to exit the room. The lone man raised his hand.

“Uh, sir?”

The commander ignored the young private and talked to the Major instead. After the two are done, the Major walked out of the room. The lone private still tried to get the attention of the commander.

“Sir, I have a question.”

The commander didn’t acknowledge the existence of the private, instead, stood there looking out the door. The private moved to the commander and found the commander had stopped moving, and breathing. The private waved his hand in front of the commander’s face, but he got no response. With a sigh, the private left to catch up with the rest.

Outside of the building, he ran into the men standing around chatting in the clearing of the forest the base was built in. Surprisingly, the Major was not there. The private thought it was odd, as the Major had left before him, yet was not here yet.

The Major walked out of the base, He beckoned the men closer to him.

“Okay, I had just talked with the commander, and he said that all of you know what you’re doing, so I’ll spare the training session. Unless one of you has forgotten, in which case, press X on the subject matter you’d like to review.”

The private looked at the Major dumbfounded, as he wondered what the Major was smoking, since it would be far easier to just simply ask. Never mind that there wasn’t any menu to select something to review anyways.

“Alright, let’s get moving. Remember, to move, push the left analog stick.”

The private held his head in his hands, as he felt an oncoming headache.

The nine men moved through the forest easily, not encountering any enemy soldiers or traps. They quickly arrived at the top of a hill overlooking the supply depot. The Major spoke up.

“We’re running behind schedule. It took far too many hours to get here.”

The private blinked, since it had only taken maybe two minutes.

“Since we’re this close, it’ll be okay to run. Hold down the O button to run while moving the left analog stick.”

The private shook his head at the ridiculousness the Major continued to sprout.
The men ran to the supply depot, and enemy soldiers that wore blue armor and full face helmets rushed towards them. Everything became bright and the world spun around. When it ended, the private found himself incapable of moving, and that three soldiers were standing in a row facing the Major. The Major stuck a fresh cigarette in his mouth and lit it before he started to talk to himself.

“Notice the slots in the upper right corner? The one who’s on the left is whose turn it is. The next slot will be the next person. Use this to your advantage.”

The private thought the Major seriously needed some medication.

It was a very odd scene, as each person attacked one at a time, and the gunshots were incapable of killing someone off with one burst. That was ludicrous, as the rifles had more than enough power to kill someone. The Major decided he needed to say something else.

“Notice how my rage bar is full? The attack command now says ‘Special’. Select it and then select ‘O’Tiney bomb.’ Notice how it selects all enemies as targets.”

The Major then pulled out a large grenade and hurled it at the enemy soldiers, and it exploded. The soldiers faded away, and the Major took a long drag on the cigarette and blew the smoke in the air before he spoke.

“Piece of cake.”

The private stared in utter confusion when the Major said, “Level up already?”

Everything went to black, and when his sight returned, the private noticed that there were now dozens of bodies of the enemy soldiers littering the ground. This failed to make any sense.

The Major shrugged animatedly and shook his head.

“Wow, they seriously didn’t put up much of a fight, did they? Things will be smooth sailing from here on out if that’s all we have to contend with.”

The nine men ran into the supply depot, and they passed crates of various supplies along the way. The pathway was clear of any obstructions, and they made their way quickly through the building. They were going in more or less a straight line the whole way, except for twice, when the Major ran to a chest that was along the side of a wall.

The private still had no idea why there was a chest in the supply depot, and why it actually would have something in it. Nor did he understand why when the chest opened a little ‘beep’ noise was made. He thought perhaps it was the sound of an alarm going off or a bomb ready to explode. It was neither case, and it puzzled the poor private greatly.

A minute or so later, the team arrived at the back of the supply depot. The privates looked around for a little bit as the Major took another puff of his cigarette. The Major dropped the cigarette and crushed it underneath his boot.

“Alright boys, place the explosives on the munitions. Set the timers for five minutes, then haul butt out of here.”

The privates quickly did their task, and everyone ran as fast as they could for the entrance to the supply depot. They stopped at the sight of close to thirty men blocking the large garage doors of the supply depot. A voice called out from the group of enemy soldiers.

“There are the intruders, kill ‘em!”

The Major roared and sprinted forward as everything again spun around and went to white. The Major and three of the soldiers lined up in a row in front of six enemy soldiers. The blue soldiers all fired first, and the three soldiers in red died off in quick order. It left the Major alone and outnumbered.

However, the Major killed the enemy before he could be killed. At the end of the fight, the Major was breathing heavily and barely standing. The fight had taken quite a toll on him.

“Wow, they were stronger than I thought…”

Everything went to black, and when vision returned, he was of two still with the Major. They were pinned down behind a crate by the machine gun fire of the enemy soldiers. The Major didn’t seem too happy, and he fidgeted in anger.

“We’re running out of time and unable to advance! Things couldn’t get worse.”

The private disagreed with that statement completely. Things could get worse, and the Major could very well have jinxed them by saying that.

Screams of joy flew through the air as the enemy soldiers celebrated some new change. A rumble could be felt through the steel floor as something incredibly heavy made its way towards the three intruders. The private took a quick glance, and regretted seeing the sight.

A large, dark green treaded tank made its way into the supply depot. It boasted a main cannon that fired fifteen inch shells, and two smaller guns mounted on either side of the tank manned by a soldier. There was an extension in front of the tank with barbed wire snaked around the metal poles that stuck up from the extension.

The private went back behind the cover and explained what he saw to the Major. The Major shook his head and raised his rifle.

“Well boys, looks like we have a serious fight on our hands. You guys take care of the soldiers, and I’ll take out the tank.”

The private didn’t think that was a scenario that worked. The soldiers had proven to be capable of killing the private’s comrades without a problem, and the likelihood that the two privates could handle eight of the enemy soldiers wasn’t worth consideration of anything beyond suicide.

The private thought that this would end up killing him. He knew that he was little more than fodder. Hell, he figured he may as well be wearing a red shirt… until he realized that he was wearing a red uniform, which seemed to equate to the same thing. It boiled down to two nameless soldiers against eight nameless soldiers. In fact, he realized that the Major was the only one with a name.

That bothered the private greatly, not knowing what his name was. There was no way to distinguish himself from the other soldiers in a picture without taking a close look at their eyebrows. He was about to die, off in a war he didn’t really know what was being fought for, and he was of no significance to anyone or thing. His time was up, either dying from machine gun fire, or being blown up by the explosives on the munitions pile.

Major Nick O’Tine roared and leapt over the crate, and he fired his rifle at the tank. The privates left the safety of the crate and joined the counterattack. Time slowed for the private as bullets narrowly missed him and struck the wall behind him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the other private jerked and fell backwards as bullets pummeled into him, a cloud of blood sprayed from the wounds.

Just as the Major slew both gunners on the tank, the private felt a sharp pain in his chest. His body flinched and was thrown to the right. The world spun, and pain spread to his back as he connected with the floor. Every breath became a struggle and he wished that his suffering would end.

The world spun again and was flooded with a white light. From his angle on the ground, he couldn’t see what was occurring. The sounds seemed to be machine gun fire and a thunderous sound that had to have been the main cannon of the tank. The Major yelled ‘O’Tiney bomb’, and explosion soon followed. Several other things were said, but the private was losing consciousness and awareness.

“Alright! Level up!”

The private thought that was the Major, but was unsure. Everything went black, and the private thought he had gone blind before he died. That was not the case, as everything became clear again, as the cold grey color of the ceiling stared back at him. Boots clicked on the floor, heading in the opposite direction, and the private surmised it had to have been the Major.

“After everything I had to go through, it’s my lot in life to die in this damn place. A nameless grunt, some piece of machine gun fodder… it pisses me off. Where’s the justice? I guess I don’t matter to anyone. My existence was meaningless, which is why I’m dead. No, I can’t accept that. Please, someone, save me…”

He raised his hand to the ceiling as he hoped someone would answer his prayer and take him away from that place. No one answered it, and his hand fell to his chest. Through the uniform, he felt something out of place. He struggled to take it out and find out what it was. He raised it into his sights, and his eyes widened in surprise, and then in anger.

“A… game? This is a script for a game? You mean I’m in a game and I didn’t know it?! No wonder I didn’t understand what was going on, or had a name or background! That’s why I don’t have a face or anything special about my appearance! I really was just fodder!”

The rage he felt intensified as he began to yell from the pain his pride took as well as the pain from the spot on his left pectoral where the bullet hit him. He earnestly wished to destroy the building. The explosives blew up, and he got his wish as the supply depot and everything within it was consumed in a flash fire.