Chapter 1

“The last lap of the race is left. Brian Storm and Quincy Allen are once again fighting for the lead in the 2028 World Motorcycle Championship,” the words of the commentator echoed through the stadium.

He might actually win. He’s going to be the Champion twelve years in a row.

My dad is the greatest motorcycle racer who’s ever lived. Today, if he wins this race, he’s going to break the previous record of most consecutive championships won. The record, eleven, is currently held by my grandfather, Morgan Storm. But that’s about to change.

“The turn ahead will determine who will take the lead. Both Storm and Allen are maxing out their bikes. In order to turn safely ahead they must slow down. It seems like they are challenging each other to see who will maintain their speed the longest”

The commentator is right. Neither of them are slowing down. If they keep this up, neither of them will be able to make the turn and will crash. What’s my dad thinking?

“At this point both Storm and Allen are way ahead of the rest of the racers but still are refusing to slow down their bikes”

“C’mon dad, slow down” I was really starting to get worried now. They were only about three seconds away from the turn and they were travelling at about four-hundred kilometres per hour thanks to the micro gas turbine engine.

The commentator was starting to sound nervous at this point. “Looks like Allen gave in and has slowed down to be able to make the turn. Storm is well ahead of him now but God forbid it seems like he won’t be able to pull this off.”

My dad was heading straight for the wall. I wanted to scream. He was going to crash into the wall. His last race actually might be his last. With a sudden jerk, my dad stood up and with all his force he pulled the bike up and made it jump. He turned the bike in the air so that it’s wheels landed against the wall of the turn.

“Oh my god. This is incredible! Brian Storm is riding along the wall at maxed out speed. This has never been done before!” The commentator was on his feet along with everybody else.

With the smoothest movement, my dad moved back towards the road and was heading to the finish line well ahead of Quincy Allen and the rest of the racers.

“This is it folks. Brian Storm, the reigning champion, is going to break the record previously held by his father in a few seconds.”

I could tell my dad was smiling right now. After winning this last championship, my dad promised to start training me full time for the next tournament. And that’s when it happened. The back tire of the motorcycle burst causing my father to lose control of the bike. He was holding on to the bike as hard as he could but it was no use. He flew off his bike and landed hard on the pavement right before hitting the wall. His bike slid right next to him a moment later.

He had crossed the finish line but the crowd was silent. He had made history, and died trying.



Chapter 2
“Dad!” I couldn’t believe what I just saw. My dad has been doing this all his life, there’s no way he could get hurt playing the sport he loves so much. Yet there he was lying lifeless beside his bike. I ran towards him along with everyone else. We would have done the same thing if he was alive except we would have carried him on our shoulders. Now we were carrying him on a stretcher.

“Please don’t take him away! He’s perfectly fine! C’mon dad get up and show them you’re ok!” I knew he was ok. I just did.

“It’s ok buddy. Everything’s going to be fine” Bill Tucker, my dad’s best friend and my godfather, was holding me back along with his tears.

I watched helplessly as my dad was carried into the ambulance while everyone crowded around and watched. I knew though, we all knew, no one could survive an accident like that. My dad had the best pit crew in the world. There was no way the tire could have burst that easily. My dad had carefully landed on the road after riding along the wall to make sure not to put to much pressure on the bike.

A sudden rage surged through me. I pushed my way through the crowd towards the biker slowly taking his helmet off. I punched Quincy Allen in the back of the head as hard as I could and he fell off his bike onto the pavement. I may be only eighteen years old but I am six foot three and weigh a hundred and eighty pounds so I’m never scared to confront anyone especially when I’m angry.

“I know you killed my father you son of a b****!” I wasn’t able to control my anger and began punching him on the ground.

“Riley!” Bill was running towards me, “Get off him! What are you doing!”
Bill pulled me off of Quincy before I could do any real damage.

“He killed him Bill! He killed my father! He wanted to win so badly that he rigged my dad’s bike! I know he did it! Let go of me! I’ll kill him I swear!”

“Nobody killed your father Riley. It was an accident that’s all. Just a really horrible accident”

No. I wasn’t buying it. My dad was too good of a rider to cause a malfunction in his bike and his pit crew was too experienced to not notice something wrong with the bike. Quincy must have done something to ensure his victory. I fought out of Bill’s hold and lunged at Quincy again but this time e had gotten up and landed a punch right across my face before I could reach him. I staggered back dazed and lost my balance but Bill caught me before I hit the ground.

“You ignorant brat! If I wanted to kill your father, I would have killed him long before the race finished. I would’ve gained nothing by killing him so late into the race because he won anyway didn’t he? Your not mad at me, you’re mad at your father for trying such a risky manoeuvre. Face it kid, your father was a good rider but not as good as you think he was. Go take your anger out on somebody else!” Quincy picked up his helmet and walked back to his bike.

His words hit me like slaps to the face. I wanted to make him regret speaking about my father. He didn’t deserve the honour to speak about my father.

“I’m afraid he’s right Riley just let it go” Bill said while walking me to his car. “You’re not the only person in shock by your father’s sudden death. Brian was a great rider and will go down in history as the greatest who ever lived. What happened was a freak accident. Things like that happen in this sport Riley. Your grandfather died while racing as well. We must move on from this and not let it ruin our lives. I will make sure it won’t because you’re my responsibility now Riley. I’m sorry Riley but the medics have declared your father dead. As a duty to your father we must make sure he is given a most honourable burial.”


















Chapter 3

The next few days were a blur. I spent most of the time in my room alone thinking about what me and my dad would be doing together if he was still alive. I was supposed to start receiving advanced training from my father. Up until now I’ve been taught by professional bikers but none of them are nearly as good as my dad was. Was. Not is. Was. It breaks my heart just thinking about it. Just a while ago my dad had a smile spreading from ear to ear and now he was buried beneath the dirt.

Bill insisted I stay with him for a while but I wanted to be alone. My dad left all his money in my name and I turned eighteen a few days before his death. I never cared for his money. My dad was rich but he wasn’t one of those rich dads who never spend time with their kids. My father spent all his time with me. He would take me to the race track to watch him practice and he would give me some tips to help me with my training as well. When we weren’t training, he was taking me out somewhere else. Some days we would go to the movies, others to the park and sometimes even to play baseball with a couple of his friends. He was good at every sport and not just racing. My mother died giving me birth so I was the only family my father had. And he was my only family. But now he was gone and I had to move on.

My maid is making sure I’m eating properly, otherwise I probably would have starved to death while ago. My father’s death has crushed her as well but she is keeping herself together for my sake. She tries to hide it but I can tell how devastated she is. Every time she looks at me, I see her eyes fill with tears. Not knowing what to do, I turn away and act like I didn’t see anything.
While grieving, I didn’t even take notice of the things happening around the world. I found out when my maid told me she was quitting. A war has broken out between the United States of America and Russia, the two most powerful countries in the world. Something about America wanting Russia to give up their nuclear weapons and Russian refusing to do so. Of course Canada has to pick a side so it chose its Cold War ally, the United States. Apparently, things have escalated pretty quickly to the point that recruits are being gathered and deployed to the US.
Unfortunately for my maid she’s Russian. There’s extreme discrimination towards Russians due to the fear of spies so now my maid is being deported back to Russia. My maid has been living with me and my dad for about eleven years so I am used to seeing her everyday. I didn’t realize it a first but thinking about life without her, I realize how much she means to me. She has always taken care of me and treated me like her son. She is like a mother to me and now she is being forced to leave the country she has lived in for eleven years. Eleven years and she still wasn’t granted citizenship. It’s almost as if Canada and the US always knew this war would happen.
When the time came for her to leave, I became even more depressed than before. I don’t want to say goodbye to her. I just watched my father leave and now my mother was leaving me right before my eyes. I can’t hold it in anymore. Tears ran across my face and I rushed towards her and gave her a hug.
“I wish there was something I could do. I’m so sorry.” I managed to say.
“It’s ok Riley. I know you can take care of yourself without me. You don’t need me anymore. Don’t worry, we will make it through this horrible war. Then I will come back to see you when it’s all over.” She was about to cry, I could hear it in her voice.
Unable to say anything else, I gave her a kiss on the cheek and watched her enter the taxi that had come to pick her up.

Now I was alone. Just me in this gloomy, empty, memory-ridden house. I don’t want to stay here any longer. The memories are starting to kill me. I have to pursue both my father’s and my dream. I am going to train harder than ever before and become a bike racer just like my father. At least, that’s what I thought I would do. I was really going to prepare for World War III.













Chapter 4

Signing up for the war wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. There were hundreds of young men and women lined up to sign up. Instead of giving me confidence, this scared me. Hundreds of thousands of people were signing up so fast for the war which only shows how serious this war is.

After a few hours when my turn finally came to sign up, the registrar recognized me right away.

“I know what to sign you up for,” he said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You’re Brian Storm’s kid right? What’s your name? Uhh….Raymond Storm, am I right?” he asked confidently.

“Riley Storm,” I corrected him. “And what did you say you’re signing me up for?”

“You’re the son of the greatest riders who ever lived. Don’t tell me you don’t got some skill yourself.”

“I picked up a few things from my dad. Yeah, I would say I’m pretty skilled with a bike. But what does that have to do with anything. Just give me a gun so I could go and fight a war.”

“Ha ha! Wars aren’t only fought with guns boy! We need riders to deliver packages as quickly as possible. Of course the bikes in the army aren’t like the ones you see on the race track. These ones are made for warfare. They’re loaded with weapons that can be used for all circumstances. They are very expensive and there are only a few hundred of them so the army doesn’t assign them to just anybody. The reapers, the name given to these war bikes, are given to the most skilled riders in the world. Thanks to your family history, I may be able to set you up for an exam and if you pass, you will be given a reaper of your own and become a Grim Reaper. That’s what the riders are called in the army. Grim Reapers are already higher in rank than a normal soldier so if you pass the exam, you will already have a respected position in the army.”

“All I know how to do is ride. I’ve never fired a gun. Heck, I’ve never even been near one. Sign me up for these reapers and I’m sure whatever test this is I’ll pass it easily.”

“Whoa, careful champ. It’s not that simple. You only get one chance and if you fail you’ll be given the rank of a pawn as a punishment for wasting the army’s precious time. In other words, you won’t last a single day in the war. Pawns are mainly criminal soldiers used for suicidal missions. They’re pretty much used for strategic experiments done by generals. With all these people signing up for the war at once, the army doesn’t have enough resources to support them all so the pawns live in the worst conditions possible. If you don’t pass that test you’re pretty much dead meat so are you sure you’re up for it?”

I remembered my father. What kind of a son am I? I’m a disappointment. I’m standing here doubting my ability to do the one thing my father ever taught me. I’m not going to back away from this.

“Yeah. Sign me up”






Chapter 5

I think there’s been a mistake. There is no way any human being could finish a course like this.

The reaper exam course is not a normal race track. There are obstacles here that I’ve never seen before. So many jumps and turns that it’s almost impossible not to crash. As if that isn’t enough, the last obstacle is a giant wooden wall about two metres thick with no way around it.

“Riley Storm, you’re up. You have thirty seconds to complete the course. The clock will start the moment you accelerate. You must follow the track and stay on course. If you fall off the bike you automatically fail the test and will not be allowed another test. To complete the course you must stop on the red mark behind the wooden wall without taking any shortcuts. Are you clear on the instructions?” The examiner said everything with one breath as if he had said these exact words hundreds of time. Then again he probably had.

“Yes sir!” I answered. I was sure my voice came out a lot higher pitched than I thought it did. I wasn’t ready to do this. There was no way I could complete this course within 30 seconds. But there was no backing out now. I walked towards the reaper and for moment I was completely shocked. For a war vehicle, this was one of the most beautiful bikes I had ever seen. It was magnificently engineered. It looked like a normal bike expect this one was much larger and completely black. It also had two mini machine guns on either side of the front tire. I knew right away there was more to this bike than visible on the outside. I slowly seated myself on the top of the bike and was overwhelmed right away by its weight. I thought the bike was going to fall over and I was going to fail before starting. After using all my strength I gave in to its weight and amazingly, the bike slowly moved back to its vertical position. To make up for it’s weight, it was very balanced. The examiner was giving me a dirty look at this point for taking so long but I knew I had as much time as I wanted because the clock only starts once I accelerate. I adjusted myself on the seat and got used to the heavy, sturdy feel of the reaper. Once I was comfortable I looked straight ahead and got ready to finish the hardest course ever made. I twisted the throttle back and realized as soon as had that maybe I twisted a little too much. I accelerated towards a large bump about six feet high at insane speeds. Within two seconds I was travelling at ninety kilometres per hour. The bump made me go soaring through the air. Why was there such a large bump so early in the course? Looking down I saw the trick. There was a sharp left turn directly in front of where I was going to land. After landing I wouldn’t able to make the turn and my reaper will go off course.

I turned the reaper in the air with all my strength so it was parallel to the turn and I twisted the throttle as much as it could go. My landing could have been better. After landing I almost skid off course but thanks to the sudden acceleration I was getting from twisting the throttle as much as it could go, I made the turn right before drifting off course. I was going to fast to see what was happening at this point. At the last moment I saw a long, metal horizontal bar ahead of me. If I hit that I would crash and fall off my bike. With not much time to think, my reflexes kicked in and I tilted my reaper over to the side as much as I could to avoid the bar. The heavy reaper was overwhelming me at this point and continued leaning over. I thought for sure that I would lose control and hit the ground. The side of my thigh was being scraped against the pavement. Soon I would be crushed under the weight of the bike. Remembering what had happened to the bike before I started the course, I let my body lose and loosened my grip on the bike. Surely enough, the bike moved back to its original position and I had it under my control. The bike would always stay in this position unless I put weight to either side. The only way to bring it back to its original position is to relax my body and stop leaning to whichever side and the bike will automatically move back to its original position. Forcing it to its original position is useless because it won’t work. I was starting to understand how to control the reaper.

Ahead of me now were many small bumps made to the rider lose control of the reaper. I knew now that tensing my body would only make matters worse so I kept myself relaxed and let the reaper give me a ride instead of trying to ride the reaper. The reaper stayed in its steady rigid position and easily glided across the small bumps. It wasn’t going to change it’s position unless I wanted it to.

The next obstacle was another metal bar except there were large spikes on the ground this time. The only area where there were no spikes was a narrow path made just for the tires of the bike. If I tiled the bike this time, a part of my body would hit the spikes and they would rip me away from the reaper. That’s when I thought of something I’ve seen many times in movies.

I started to slowly stand up on the bike and made sure the bike was aligned correctly so that it was heading straight for the path made for the tires where there are no spikes. I waited until I was close enough to the metal bar and right before the bar would hit me directly in the chest, I jumped forwards off the bike and caught the bar with both hands. the bike was under the bar now and I was above it. I used all my upper body strength and pulled my self over the bar and somehow landed safely on the bike. Thanks to the beautiful engineering of the bike, it stayed well balanced and kept going straight forward even when I wasn’t on it.

Now there was only the last obstacle, the wooden wall. I didn’t see any way around it. I was going to have to run straight through the wall and hope it wasn’t as thick as I thought it was. I got as low as I could on the bike so it looked like I was lying down on the bike. I closed my eyes and hoped for the best. The bike went through the wall like a bullet through butter. The wall was not made of wood at all. It was an illusion. It was made of a jelly-like substance. After passing through the wall of jelly, I saw the finish mark which was a roughly draw “X” in red spray paint. I braked and parked skilfully on the “X”. I finished the course but I am too tired to celebrate.

“Congratulations. It seems you finished the test. Wait what’s this?” The examiner noticed my wound on the side of my leg. “You touched the pavement. I’m sorry but that is considered a crash which means you have failed the course”

No way! I put all my energy into this and he’s telling me I failed because I touched the pavement. “If I recall correctly, the rule was that I could not fall off my bike or go off course. When I got this wound I was on my bike and I had touched the pavement which means I did not touch the out of bounds area. So I believe I completed the course and it’s conditions.”

“I guess so. Fair enough, you passed the course and therefore will be assigned your own reaper and given Grim Reaper rank.” The examiner sounded annoyed. It was obvious he doesn’t like to be proved wrong.

I did it. I wasn’t a disappointment after all. But my victory was short lived, for this course was paradise compared to the battlefield I was about to be thrown on to.


Chapter 6

I received proper training on how to use a reaper and all of its abilities. It turns out the reaper could travel on top of water and had 6 homing missiles. Best of all, it could fly….almost. It had a airborne feature which would automatically detect if the reaper is high in the air and release astonishing amounts of air pressure from under the bike to reduce the landing impact of the back. The pressure could not make the bike go any higher and would only help it glide comfortable back to the ground. It only lasted for a little while but it was by far the most exciting thing I have ever done.

The Grim Reapers weren’t needed yet because the conditions of the war were not that extreme so I had a lot of spare time on my hands. I would mainly just train overtime with some of the other Grim Reapers. Being only eighteen, I was the youngest Grim Reaper there was so I wasn’t as respected as I thought I would be. The youngest Grim Reaper after me was twenty-six which goes to show why. The other Grim Reapers including regular soldiers thought I got lucky in the reaper examination so they didn’t think I deserved the rank. I tried to ignore everyone but I help feeling irritated by everyone’s low thinking of me. Did they really think I wasn’t good enough? Riding is in my blood. I was born to do this.

After training overtime in one of the advanced courses, I went back to my dorm after parking reaper in the garage where the rest of the reapers were kept. On my way to the dorm I saw a bunch of people crowded around a TV. They were all whispering things to each other. At first I thought Miss World 2028 was on but I was very much mistaken.

They were all watching the news so I had to cut through some people to see exactly what was happening. I regretted that decision right away. The images on the TV were the most traumatic images I have ever seen. The pictures were of pure despair and destruction. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. The entire city of Washington was in ruins. All the buildings were completely destroyed including the once proudly standing White House. Whatever had happened, surely there were no survivors. Then I saw the headline: Russia drops nuclear bomb on Washington, D.C.. This is it. The nuclear war has begun.

















Chapter 7

The capital of the most powerful country in the world had been wiped out by a single nuclear bomb. Just one simple, daring move by Russia and we’re already losing this war. This attack brought fear on everyone’s faces. People were starting to realize the seriousness of this war. The power of nuclear bombs was exponential and if other countries started to use nuclear weapons of mass destruction, the entire world will be destroyed.

There is chaos in the training facility. Everyone is running around hurriedly trying to get the nation back on track. This is where the training ends. Now I will have to go and actually fight the war. The reapers were being separated into groups. I got put into Reaper Squad 23 along with about thirteen other Grim Reapers. I’ve been training so hard the entire time I’ve been a reaper that I’m not even scared to actually step on the battlefield.

My squad’s mission was to hold off Russian forces in England. England was the only European country on America’s side in this war and because of that it has been under attack since the beginning of the war. London has been taken over by the Russian army so it was our job to defend the rest of the cities. The easiest city to get to from USA is Newquay. After taking that over we will move from city to city as quietly but quickly as possible and destroy all the Russian bases. I don’t know how a group of fourteen Grim Reapers were supposed to take out entire Russian bases by themselves. But then again, the last thing I wanted to do was doubt the ability of the squad I would be spending the rest of my time with.

We were going to be transported tomorrow. We would be dropped a hundred miles before Newquay right onto the Atlantic Ocean. From there we were going to use our reapers and travel the rest of the distance to Newquay. Thanks to the pitch black colour of the reapers, we should undetectable during the night. The American army is convinced that the reapers are undetectable by Russian radar so theoretically we should be fine.

I didn’t go to sleep that night. I don’t think anyone did. I wasn’t scared or anything. I was just nervous. This mission was planned in a very short amount of time so I don’t’ think we will be able to pull it off. It seems like a suicide mission to me. Just a few weeks ago I was cheering for my dad to break a world record. Now I was going to war in England and am probably going to die.

I was the last one to wake up. Everyone in my squadron was packing up and getting ready to leave. After getting ready myself and once we were all ready we got aboard the plane that would take us to our destination. The ride to the drop off point was a quiet one. No one said anything to one another. Some of these reapers have been in the army long before this war but no one was prepared to fight a nuclear war.

After what seemed like centuries of silence, the pilot gave us the signal and we got onto our reapers. The back gate of the plane opened and without saying anything we accelerated our reapers and fell into the darkness.

Underneath me was what seemed like black water with a beautiful reflection of the bright white moon. If I wasn’t about to take over a Russian base, I would’ve stayed just to admire the ocean.

My reaper detected the water right away and inflated the tires to allow itself to float above water. Once all the reapers had safely landed on the water we twisted the shafts and glided towards the shore. I was secretly praying that we weren’t on the enemy’s radar. Although I always knew the reaper could travel on water, I never actually got to try it and I’ve got to say, it’s one of the most exhilarating feelings I’ve ever experienced. We were about ten miles away from the shore of Newquay, we slowed down to make sure we wouldn’t crash and alert any guards. I couldn’t see much when we reached the shore. Most of the guards were on the ground but some were high up in watch towers. Our reapers made too much noise for us to sneak by them so we had to attack them all at once.

“We have to kill them as quickly as possible,” Xavier, our squadron leader, analysed the surroundings. “There is no way we can sneak past them. Reaper 7 and I will take out the towers and everyone else spread out and attack the guards on the ground.”

I am Reaper 7 so I followed Xavier’s lead. The rest of the reapers did not wait for anyone. Right away they started to charge forward on their reapers and unleashed the wrath of their reapers’ miniguns. The guards were caught by surprise and could not defend themselves against the giant killing machines. Xavier told me to destroy the three watch towers on the west side of the battlefield. I locked on to all three of them at once and three homing missiles flew towards the towers. The missiles were much more destructive than I thought, They destroyed the towers completely and killed everyone inside them. On the east side, Xavier had done the same thing. Within about five minutes, the entire shore had been cleared of Russian military.

I’ve never killed anyone before. Lucky for me I didn’t see the victims of my homing missiles but the scene on the ground was much different. There were dozens of dead Russians all across the shore. Innocent soldiers who were only doing what they were told by the tyrannical leaders of the country. But there was no time to mourn anyone’s death. We moved on right away towards the base.

Chapter 8

The base was an enormous building with a thick brick wall surrounding it. Xavier was leading the squadron. There was nobody anywhere near the base. It looked as if it was abandoned. There was no way we had already killed all the soldiers. The rest of the reapers were feeling uneasy as well. There was no one to be seen. No civilians or any soldiers. Suddenly, the reaper next to me exploded. I looked up and saw a few Russians on the top of the base. They were launching rockets right at us. Dozens of rockets flew straight at us. I moved side to side to avoid the rockets. Reapers around me were a little late to respond and were blown up by rockets. Five, six, seven. The reapers were constantly being blown off the ground. I tried to focus on the rockets as much as I could and dodged as many as I could.

“Sharp right in 50 metres!” Yelled Xavier.

We all braced our selves and turned into an empty street. Thankfully the rockets were not lock on rockets otherwise they would have followed us.

“Why didn’t we see them before?! How many reapers have we lost” Xavier was trying to keep himself together.

“Seven sir,” I answered.

“We have lost too many reapers in too little time. We have to flank the building and catch them by surprise. Split up into two teams. I’ll take Reaper 7 and Reaper 2 and flank their east side. The rest of you guys flank them on their west side.”

We separated into the two groups and went both ways. Reaper 2 was a woman named Rose. For some reason she seemed unaffected by what had just happened.

“Reaper 2 and I will distract them from the east side so you go and surprise them from the south.” Xavier said.

“I can’t take them on alone,” I was scared. We had lost so many Grim Reapers so easily. The vehicles that I once thought were unstoppable seemed fragile and useless to me now.

“Don’t you dare speak like that soldier. Don’t lose hope in a time like this. you’ll be fine.”

We moved at full speed towards the east side of the building. There was no entrance through the brick wall so Rose blew it up using a homing missile. Xavier and Rose launched a full on attack on the building and I kept going towards the south side.

Soldiers were coming out of the building now and these soldiers were not normal ones. They all had heavy weaponry capable of damaging the reapers. I knew there was no way I could get past them so I moved away as far as I could.


Was I retreating? No. I moved as far away from the building as I could and towards a giant hill about a hundred metres away from the south east side of the building. I went around the hill and came to a stop. The only way I was going to succeed was If I got on top of that building. I twisted the throttle of the reaper as far as it could go. I went up the hill like a giant ramp and I could see the top of the building from this high. After launching myself from the top of the hill, I realized that I may be a little too high. The highly intelligent reaper activated its airborne system and the gliders turned on. I flew towards the top of the building shooting frantically and using the last three missiles I had left. The top of the building had been cleared so I had to make sure that the rest of the reapers were okay. I moved to the west side of the building and saw only one alive Grim Reaper hiding behind a wall. All the reapers had been destroyed. I pulled out my rifle and fired at the soldiers on the ground. They were caught by surprise and I had killed them before they could retaliate.

I motioned to the Grim Reaper to proceed inside the building so we could completely take it over. The reaper understood and entered the base. I moved towards the east side of the base but to my shock I didn’t see anyone there. The reapers had been destroyed but there was no sign of Xavier, Rose or even any of the enemy soldiers. I used the entrance on the roof to enter the base and climbed down the stairs. The halls of the base were empty. I heard screaming coming from straight ahead. Rose. It had to be Rose but what was wrong.

I ran towards the door at the end of the hallway and the screaming grew louder. Without thinking I braced myself for whatever might be happening inside and opened the door.

Rose was definitely inside but there was no one else there. She was sitting on a chair facing me.

“Rose what happened? Where’s Xav-“ my words were cut short by Russian soldiers coming out from another door at the end of the room. They were lead by Xavier who was holding up a tied up, lifeless Grim Reaper. It was the one I had rescued on the east side of the base. What was happening?

“Xavier what did you do to him?!” I was starting to fill up with rage once I realized what was happening.

“Don’t act like you don’t know Reaper 7.” His voice sounded much colder than before, “I did what I had to do. I joined the winning side.”

“You were our squadron leader. We all trusted you. We could have gone through with the mission and succeeded. Why did you-“

“Succeeded?!” he gave out a shrill laugh. “This plan would have never worked. How dare America threaten Mother Russia. You were all doomed the moment you challenged us.”

“You’re a spy. You and Rose. I should have known. You guys lead us straight to the base which resulted in half our squadron being destroyed. You didn’t even look like you cared Rose. Our soldiers died in front of our eyes and you acted like nothing happened. Then you separated our small group so it would be easier for all of us to get killed. The entire strategic planning was wrong from the start. Why was I so blind?”

“It doesn’t matter now does it Reaper 7? Don’t worry I won’t kill you like the rest of them. Someone else will have the honour of that.”

A large figure walked out in front of Xavier. Quincy Allen.

“We meet again Storm. Except this time I won’t let you lay a hand on me.” Quincy Allen pulled out a gun and pointed it right at me.

I’m more confused than angry. What’s happening here? Xavier, Rose and Quincy are all traitors to America. This is enough. I’m not scared anymore. I ran pulled out my gun as quickly as I could but Quincy shot me four times right in the chest.

“Like father, like son,” The last words I ever heard came from Quincy as I fell to the ground.