I knew from the very beginning that something was not right with the battle we fought. Everyone in my unit thought something was fishy about the spontaneous practice mission we received. Asking questions is not something that someone in boot camp, like myself, does. I would soon find out the hard way that this was no training routine. The United States Military made a mistake, and created a disaster. My entire unit including myself ended up paying the ultimate price for this accident.

It seemed like any regular evening, eating dinner in the dining hall just after the end of a hard day of training. It had been very hot, and we were exhausted from being outside all day in the scorching sun. I was eating with my close buddies, Jason and Kevin. As usual, Kevin was ranting about some arbitrary topic, this time trying to explain why cell phone companies are attempting to take over the world. Just as he was about to conclude, our sergeant suddenly walked in and made an announcement. The regular buzzing commotion of the mess hall came to a sudden halt and everyone directed his or her attention to the front of the hall. “Listen up ladies!” Sergeant Tom shouted to get our attention, “We have a special drill for you guys tonight. Meet outside the barracks at 19:00 sharp. Come in full gear, ready for battle.” As soon as he was through, the dinning hall erupted in confused conversation.

The general reaction of the soldiers was fear and uncertainty. Nobody understood why we were having an unscheduled training drill that late in the evening. Why wasn’t it on the training field, and where exactly were we going? We all thought it was fishy, but there was nothing that we could do. I suited up and was outside by 18:45, waiting with Kevin and Jason. We sat, fidgeting nervously, questioning what was going on.

“This is it guys. We are being shipped off to Cuba. Missile Crisis 2. This time the government is not so open about it”, Kevin said, paranoid as usual.

“Yeah right, watch the Tominator roll up in a few, and make us run in full gear for hours” said Jason, balancing out Kevin’s paranoia with his habitual reason. We called Sergeant Tom the Tominator behind his back because he drilled us mercilessly. To our surprise the, Tominator showed up, with eight convoy trucks ready to transport the awaiting troops, proving this wasn’t a joke.

During the tedious ride, we were given a mission brief by our squad. We were to take over the old military testing lab that had been closed down for years, then secure the premises to complete the task. We were given specific orders to shoot any suspicious animals around the site–very bizarre for a training drill. In training, one never actually shoots a living creature. We finally arrived, just outside the abandoned laboratory, a white, four-story building complex that stood out in the middle of a forest, dirty from years of desertion. The sun had almost set, and the cooler air felt refreshing after a long day of being outside in the heat. We knew there wouldn’t be much light left, but figured we would finish our mission quickly.

Our squad was supposed to enter the building complex through one of the side doors. We found it, and piled into a darkened hallway, waiting for our eyes to adjust to the lack of light. When I was finally able to see, I felt like I was in a hospital from the 1960’s. The cement walls and ceiling were painted white, and the floor was made of white tile. Everything was dirty, covered with spider webs. We split into two groups, with Kevin, Jason and myself going to the left, and the others going to the right.

Walking down the dim, eerie hallway, I finally found a sign that read “Testing Room 14 – 3rd Floor”. Our leader had told us this was where our squad was to rendezvous. I pressed the elevator button, but nothing happened. Jason opened the stairwell door and we noticed a lingering stench of rotting flesh, like the smell of an otter washed ashore, dead and decaying in the sun for days.

As we approached the 3rd floor, the pungent odor saturated the air, making me nauseous. I was in the middle, with Jason leading the way, and Kevin was behind us. At the moment Jason opened the door, we thought we heard a scream.

“It was probably just the door, guys, we are all really nervous right now. Just relax, this just a training drill, rem-" I was abruptly cut off by the sound of gunshots coming from nearby.

“Let’s just get this over with,” said Jason as he took off down the hall, searching for our rendezvous point.

“Hold up!” I shouted after Jason, and slowly began to make my way in the direction he had gone. Kevin, looking confused and paranoid, cautiously followed.

Jason ran so far ahead of me that I couldn’t tell which way he had gone when I reached a fork in the hallway. Just as Kevin caught up to me, we heard a scream of terror, then screams of pain, then nothing.

“Jason!?!? JASON?!?” I shouted down the hall. We approached the direction where the screams had originated from with extreme caution. The hall was darker there, as there were no longer windows to let in the waning sunlight. Just as it was getting difficult to see, I noticed that the floor was wet. I dipped my fingers in the warm watery substance. Once the light hit my fingers just right, I could tell it was blood. I turned to tell Kevin of my new discovery, but just as I was about to tell him, he pointed behind me and screamed. I turned around and discovered Jason’s dead body, thrashed to pieces.

“WHAT THE FUCK?! THIS IS NO TRAINING DRILL! FUCK THIS!!!” Kevin shouted at the top of his lungs as he turned around and ran back.

“KEVIN!!! HOLD ON!!” I shouted back at him, but it was too late; he didn’t stop running. Right as he was about to turn the corner, he saw something, slipped and fell down because he was so desperate to change directions. While he was still on the ground, I saw a creature resembling a lion, pounce on him, and rip him to shreds before he could even scream.

“Jesus Christ, what is going on? This must be a dream,” I said to myself. I knew there was something suspicious about this so-called training drill. I needed to know what was going on. I had just seen my two best friends devoured by some kind of lion, and it was not going to happen to me.

I pulled out my assault rifle, made sure it was properly loaded, cocked it back and prepared to shoot some lions. I continued down the hall in search of Testing Room 14, ready for action. Turning the corner, I noticed light coming from an open door down the hall. I approached and just before I entered, I read the sign: Testing Room 14.

I walked in and gasped. It was a monstrous brown hairy beast, the size of a rhino, with a giant mane, teeth like a shark, curled claws like sickles, and a ferocious, ugly face like an angry pit bull. This creature was tied down, motionless to a lab table. I looked to the side of the room, and discovered Sergeant Tom, smoking a cigarette and brandishing a pistol, as he sat behind a desk.

“What is going on here?” I demanded.

“I am surprised you made it here,” Tom responded in a surprisingly calm tone. “Most of the men died trying to fix this accident”

“What accident? What are you talking about? I thought this place was closed down!”

“Well, it wasn’t exactly closed down. A section of the military had been secretly developing a breed of battle animals designed to replace soldiers in combat but something went wrong. We needed to fix things quickly, and you guys were the only forces anywhere nearby. I figured we could get away with it, but now I know it failed. There will be huge trouble when the General finds out. I lied to my troops, and because of me they are all dead now.” With that, Tom pointed his pistol at me, muttered something and shook his head, then put the barrel of the gun in his mouth, looked at me and pulled the trigger, leaving most of his brains and blood all over the wall behind him.

I then realized what a waste this had been. Had we not been lied to, the mission might have been a success. Had the military not been secretly engineering war monsters, there would be no need for this mission in the first place. I lost my two best friends, the rest of my unit, and I sure wasn’t going to let them take me too. I turned and headed for the door, but at that instant I noticed a monstrous beast staring me in the face. I grabbed for my gun, but it was too late–it had already wrapped its gigantic jaws around my neck. I knew I had lost everything. I felt pain for only an instant, then there was nothingness.