Dimensional Travels: World at War-Chapter 51: Vegas

David enjoyed a night out on the strip. Pretty girls, plenty of drinks, and a lot of illicit substances made his skin feel alive. When he was on the dance floor, he believed he was a God. His buddies would always hype him, recording his crazy antics.

"Yo David, what is that?" A voice behind him said, and he turned, looking up.

"Am I high?" David said, confused as he saw two suns. He turned to look at his buddy Ricky, but Ricky was too busy looking off into the distance. Snow capped mountains lay within their sight. The ground shook violently as people panicked, screaming as they made their way into the street, only to find that the street was no more. Teal colored grass and purple trees lay in between the clubs.

Then the power went out. The music stopped, and everything went silent.

"What the fuck?" David leaned down to touch the grass, feeling it’s texture and noting that it was as soft as cotton. As a biologist, the grass fascinated him. Ricky came running up to him, his face frantically.

"Come on man! Lets get back inside. There’s cops rounding people up and telling them to stay indoors. They don’t care what we do, they’re just telling us to stay in the buildings."

David stepped inside the club they had just left and stood near the back. He was tracing his fingers through the grass he had picked, grounding himself as he sighed. The building was quiet as no one spoke. He heard a girl crying in the background while her friend held her, trying to calm her down.

"Hmm. It seems like even the cell phones aren’t working." Ricky said as he walked up to David. He showed David the amount of bars he had, just one single bar.

"Dude, check this out. Bioluminescent grass." David responded as he held out the grass for Ricky. His friend stared at him for a moment before taking the grass, his face displaying shock.

"What the fuck. Are we in a new world or some shit?"

No one answered.

Eric and Mia were going baby clothes shopping while holding hands. The war had calmed down for the moment, so they tried to live normal lives between the chaos that was happening. It had been two months since the battalion had assumed command of the encampments, now collectively called Fort Esponia. As far as Eric could guess, they had roughly four months left before a road leading up to the Fort was fully built.

"Oh! Lets go visit Samara!" Mia said as she pointed to the store. "She always has the cutest baby clothes." By now, Mia was roughly six months pregnant. Even though her energy levels were low, her close friends and family would say she never looked happier. And they would be right. She had spent the last two months practically breathing Eric’s air for him.

Mia’s ears flicked, and Eric’s cell phone began buzzing. He pulled it out, looking at it while his jaw dropped. He turned to Mia, his mouth still open as he showed her his phone.

It had full bars.

"Something big is about to cross over." He groaned. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

He pulled up his map feature on a whim, and his eyes bugged out. His face taunt as he studied the location where he was. "No... fucking... way..."

Where the foothills of the Esponia mountains used to be was a massive lake. Standing tall and proud over the lake, the Hoover Dam looked out over the valley. Squeals of tires could be heard as cars stopped, people getting out of their cars to look around.

Eric recieved another notification. A news article labeled "HOOVER DAM DISSAPPEARED, APOCALYPSE IMMINENT?"

Mia looked at Eric, sighing. Eric stroked her hair and kissed her head. They knew, but didn’t speak as they headed back to the house. They embraced, kissing once more while Eric kissed her belly. No words were said as he donned his uniform and walked to his humvee. He had work to do.

Milano looked at Eric as he entered the command room. The commander stared silently at the updated map, his thoughts jumbled as something that should have been absolutely impossible was staring right in front of his eyes.

"So it isn’t just infrastructure that is merging..." Milano said quietly as he turned to address the room. "Alright, this is not our first rodeo. I want people up on that bridge asap, luckily the gods built the damn into a hill so we can get to it. Move, get soldiers up there and control the situation."

"Uh... sir. The drones just sent this imagery from the other side of Fort Esponia." A Staff Sergeant said as he slid four pictures to across the desk to Milano.

"Dryer... Handle it." Milano said while handing Eric the reports.

Sighing, Eric looked at the pictures, and his jaw dropped. "Is that... Downtown Las Vegas?" He forgot how to speak for a moment as he saw the world famous icon of the Sin City. Fragmented parts of the strip lay in front of him, and then...

He saw the sphere.

"Fuck."

Eric thought for a second before realizing the battalion might be out of it’s league here.

"Sir, we might just have to evacuate any civilians in the area and bring them here. We are stretched too thin between Hood Hill, Esponia, the warehouse, and now... this." He grumbled. "We would need more soldiers from Riemskin, but they are already stretched thin themselves."

Milano nodded as he sat back down. His cell phone was constantly buzzing, so he turned it off. Most of the staff had done the same. He sat forward and folded his arms on the table, pressing his fingers together.

"Maybe we ecacuate the civilians, and bomb it with the B2?" An officer from S3 suggested. "If we go out and attempt to man it ourselves, we will likely be out maneuvered."

Milano stood up again, looking at the S3 officer who suggested they bomb the fragment of Vegas.

"I understand what you are saying." He said, his voice shaking with anger.

"We will not, have not, and will never bomb infrastructure. Right now, top priority will be siezing control of the Dam, and cutting off access to the Vegas fracture that appeared. Dryer, you take charge of Vegas. Figure out how large of an area the fracture covered, and see if there is a power grid. If we can turn the power back on, that opens up easier decisions. Apaches, you are to be up in the air in ten minutes. Fly over the strip and ensure any empire units stay away. Mech, you are to go to the Hoover damn. I want one bradley on each cardinal direction. I don’t care who, just get it done."

Milano walked out of the room. "Dismissed."

"Alright, speed is everything here, soldiers. We will blitz through the mountains safely. Your Blue Force Trackers should be working now. Alpha team, go to the south. Bravo goes north. We will stop any civilians we see. Hopefully they will congregate in buildings, or rush us when they see us."

Eric gave commands as he traversed the roads carved into the Esponia mountains. He chuckled as he rode a curve extremely close. If Mia was here, she would be growling at him with her "sharper than daggers" glare. A man had to live a little sometimes. As he crested the mountain, he saw it. The fragmented strip. Hotels stood taller than the foothills, while the Sphere sat in the background, attention instinctively drawn to it as it’s LED lights glowed in the back-

"GODDAMNIT"

Eric yelled out as he noticed a large mass of creatures heading straight for the Sphere. The horde was comprised of the worst type of creatures in the area:

The Biform wolves.

"Alright, get on the .50 cals and start killing those things." Eric called coldly over the radio. "We cannot let them reach the city."

Eric remembered his first encounter with the wolves. They discharged electricity and absorbed it. They had gotten too close to Hood Hill when it wad still nothing more than a fob, and a pack of them were able to short out three generators. It had taken four days to figure out how to fix the generators.

"Looks like wolf is back on the menu again, fellas." He said, half joking and half serious.

Brishan fought against itself as the .50 cal on each vehicle began sending pressurized death. The new rounds from Jonny ate through the wolves as if they were plastic bags. Eric drove faster, urgency meeting pedal as he saw the leader draw ever closer to the Sphere.

"Mayday... mayday!" One of the trucks called. "Our engine isn’t working!"

"Close up the truck and lock yourselves in!" Eric responded. "The wolves can’t scratch through the armor!"

"Roger."

It was a battle against time as round after round lessened the numbers they faced. But...

They were too late.