“They are onto us, sir! They outnumber us ten to one. There is no way that we will make it by running away.”

“Have some faith in God Simon. I don’t want to hear another negative word out of your mouth.”

Commander Javic said but he was not fully convinced himself. He knew Simon was right, but he could not let the team lose hope. That was the last thing keeping them alive. He clicked at his communicator, and said,

“X-ray two-three, this is Alpha one-two, radio check, over.”

There was no response besides the static that pinched the ears.

“X-ray two-three, this is Alpha one-two, radio check, over. Do you read?”

He had no luck it seemed. If they could not communicate with the base, they were as good as dead. They couldn’t outrun the enemy that pursued them, and they were not going to receive backup of any sort. In fact, back at base, they could have assumed that their Operation Squad had been killed. Having received no contact for so long, it was a reasonable line of thinking. The commander assessed the situation. He had five able soldiers with him, who were all highly trained. But it would not matter with the number disadvantage they were at. Besides, the layout of the land had no spots where they could stay hidden and wait. The only way they could survive was clear to the commander.

“Gentlemen, we have performed our service to the word. We have done absolutely everything today and we have done our country proud. Now it is time for us to return to our families, and to our children who wait for us endlessly and restlessly. You may have realised that there is no way that all of us can make it out alive from here. There is only one way for us to survive. One of us needs to stay here and hold them off. As your commanding officer, it is my duty to sacrifice my life to save yours. As it is all of yours, you may all feel. But the call is mine and you will respect it. It has been a pleasure working with you men, and I will see you all on the other side.”

The men did not move and were rooted to their spot. They couldn’t think of leaving their commander behind after all the life and death situations they had been through and all the people they had lost. But they saw the look in the commander’s face and decided to respect his decision. It wasn’t one of fear or hopelessness. It was one of resounding confidence and pride, one that made anyone feel that there was no way he wasn’t making it out alive. He had managed to look excited. The men saluted him one last time and continued ahead, leaving their leader behind.

Commander Javic was not a coward, and his mind was already calculating the best chance he had to survive. He was outnumbered, so he could only fight for so long before he would be killed. As of now, he had a major disadvantage – He was the one being hunted. If the enemy had that mindset, his chances of survival were slim. He decided his only option was to flip the table. To change his strategy from surviving to hunting. He would take the fight to the enemy. As a lone soldier, Javic was dangerous. He knew the enemy had as much to fear as he did. He charged his laser gun and put on his goggles. He checked his supplies to see what all he could use that could possibly help him. He had his trusty dagger, some first aid, some smoke grenades, a stun grenade and a pill. He also had some proximity mines (which could come in handy). Being captured alive would be worse than dying in his situation. The pill could provide him with an immediate and painless death. He stuck it to the neck of his armour – he needed to be able to take it quickly, if he ended up in a sticky situation. Having checked his supplies, his confidence grew a little. He moved forward, while he said to himself,

“And I have nothing to lose.”

There were close to fifty armed men who would be out to kill him, but there was one advantage he had. They were coming to him. Which made them sitting ducks for an all-out attack. He would have to think of a creative way to distract them, if they all reached him at the same time. He couldn’t stray too much from the middle, for the risk that the enemy go after the rest of his men that were retreating. He decided to create a layer of smoke in front of him. The smoke combined with the pitch-black night would make it impossible to see anything. One would have to rely on their other senses – which meant that for the enemy it would be tough to distinguish between their own soldiers and him. On the other hand, he could shoot at anything he heard.

“I’m liking the odds now.”

He was in an open field, so he needed to create a spot for cover. He decided to make a small trench, which would have been difficult in ordinary circumstances, but luckily, the ground was very soft – allowing him to dig into it easily. He had a plan, cover and an advantage. He also had his men to protect. All he had to do now was to create the illusion that he was more than one man.

“Easier said than done. I have to make them think that we got backup, while I just lost five of my men.”

He knew he did not have much time left, so he set up his proximity mines according to his plan. His plan was simple. Once he heard them approaching, he would shoot at them while changing his position in the trench. That would take some of them down, but he couldn’t expect them to retreat from that. He had set up mines all around the trench. When he thought they were close enough, he would abandon the trench and manoeuvre to the right and flank them from that side, as they search the trench. It was the best he could think of in the circumstances. He heard the first footsteps approaching from right in front of him and he fired continuously. He heard some grunts and bodies falling. He changed his position to the left and waited until he heard something else. The squadron he had fired on were returning fire to where he was earlier. So far so good.

This continued for some time, as the enemy forces grew scattered and confused. He knew he couldn’t hold them off forever, as he was close to running out on ammunition as well. He decided it was the right time to abandon the trench.

His decision turned out to be a wise one. Frustrated by their position, the enemy had decided to charge the position together, using their numbers to their advantage. Luckily, that was exactly was Javic was hoping for. He got out from the trench and crawled across it, in a place where he could still look at the trench but was far enough to not take too much damage from the mines. The enemy charged in foolishly, while Javic watched them from the side. Their fear had let to their downfall.

He heard his proximity mines go off and he covered his head and ears as he shielded himself as best he could. It had gone better than he had even expected. Almost all of his mines had gone off, meaning that a lot of the people who had charged were dead. He knew the battle yet was not over. There would be some survivors and he couldn’t retreat until he had taken care of them. He unsheathed his dagger and walked without a sound towards the trench.

Javic had taken some damage from the explosion as well, and he was having difficulty in walking. His ears were ringing and his head was spinning. Yet he remained focused, his adrenaline guiding him. From his estimate, he supposed there were five or six people still alive who were breathing and he needed to take care of them. Nothing was more dangerous than a dying man seeking vengeance. As he felt he had approached a body, he slid his dagger in their throats, to make sure that they didn’t cause him any trouble. He realised that there were more people than he had originally foreseen. In front of him he heard people talking, so he went close to the ground and approached them silently.

“They got us, they really got us. They must have had twenty people over here.”

“But we saw only five retreat, there is no way they could have gotten these many people here in so little time.”

“We can’t be sure though that they had backup; we didn’t see it yet. It could just be them.”

Javic knew that they would understand what would happen sooner or later, but it didn’t matter because before they did, they would be dead. He approached like a cobra and struck one from behind in the neck. Nothing was visible still, and Javic had muffled the soldier’s scream. His comrade shouldn’t have suspected anything yet.

“Five men defeating sixty-two. We are a shame, aren’t we? Landon?”

Javic realised that the man was further away than he had thought he was. The man must have realised that something was amiss. Javic heard him retreating, going as fast as his broken body would allow him to. But Javic was faster. He caught up. They were at the edge of the smoke now, and they could see each other. The man was on the ground and severely wounded. His face didn’t have any colour. Javic approached him tauntingly. Javic was far from worrying about survival. He was thirsty for blood. The wounded man in front of him didn’t excite him.

“Get up. Get up and fight.”

Javic looked like a demon. His armour was all torn and his face was covered with scratches and had blood all over it. He held his dagger in his right hand, and it was dripping with blood. The man tried to get up and failed. Javic was disappointed. He thought that he had barely had any fun. He removed his gun and shot the last soldier. It was a merciful thing to do.

Once he was sure that he had taken care of all of them, exhaustion set over him. All the damage he had taken earlier suddenly set again on him. He collapsed in the middle of the trench. He could afford to sleep, he had taken down sixty two people alone. His consciousness faded away from him.

“Commander Javic! Commander Javic! Can you hear me?”

Javic’s eyes fluttered open. His mind was still hazy, and he got up slowly. The sight in front of him slowly materialized, as his mind cleared. Derek, one of his squadron members was standing above him, offering him a hand to get up.

Javic took the hand and got up. As soon as he put weight on his feet, he realized that they were not in the right condition to do so. He fell onto the ground.

“Commander.don’t push yourself. Be careful, you don’t know the damage your body has taken. What happened here? How did you.. How? What happened to the people who were pursuing us.”

“Dead. I killed them. Every last one of them.”

He said as his consciousness was snatched from him once again.

The next time he woke up Javic was in a bed. He tried to get up but his body betrayed him. Watching him struggle in the bed, the two men who had been waiting for him came up to him. Javic saw them and gave up his attempts. He asked them,

“How long has it been since that day?”

“A week. The mines you set up really damaged your body. It was pure spirit that kept you up.”

Javic requested water and he was immediately provided with some. He took a sip as the men briefed him on what had happened in his absence. His sole massacre had allowed them to gain an upper hand in the battle. Yet Javic felt that something was amiss. There was something wrong with the information he received. It didn’t tell the whole story. The faces of the soldiers also revealed that there was something that he was not being told. He asked,

“I don’t see why you are all so gloomy. We are close to victory right? Then why does everyone give the indication that we have lost?”

“We cannot tell you that sir. You will be informed soon enough.”

Saying that the two men left the room. Javic was left puzzled. He decided that he would come to know eventually, so he rested any thoughts on the issue.

Javic spent many days in bed until he was let go when he passed the physical examination. He had said to the examiner,

“You know if you knew what all I have done, you won’t be asking me to do all this.”

The examiner just laughed as Javic struggled to walk while putting weight on his legs one at a time.

As soon as Javic was back, he was called into the headquarters. He had been told that the meeting was a serious one, and an important decision had to be made. Javic adjusted accordingly.

As he walked into the headquarters, he could feel the tension in the air. It looked like they had been waiting for him for some time.

“Javic, so good to see you back. Sit down, let us tell you what has happened.”

Bloody high time for that, he thought. Neil continued,

“You are a man of war, Javic and you know what it means to take a life. But what we face now is not a question of our position or strength. It’s one of morality.”

“A moral decision? Surely that must not be the reason for the distress of so many.”

Neil didn’t look like he was in a mood to answer his question. Javic realised the situation was much more serious than he thought it was.

“We are not authorized to make the decision, Javic. It falls to you. Nobody should ever have to make such a choice. Here it is in front of you. We have nearly overtaken their base in Lader, but there seems to be a huge problem. Even if we capture the city that comes after Lader, if we do so as we have done, which is a land invasion, the target we are after will be long gone. As of now, we have intel that tells us Dorak(the target) is residing in Nocrass. The news that we have moved so far has reached him, and in some time he will be beyond our reach. There is only one way to get him before he leaves.We..”

“So you are suggesting we burn the whole city down. If we don’t have to worry about the casualties, we will easily be able to get rid of him.”

“Yes. A missile into Raukoff will burn the whole city and with it, it will kill Dorak as well. You know yourself how many lives he has taken and how big of a threat he is. We have been chasing him for over a year, and this is our best chance to get him. If we let him go now, who knows what he will do in the future?”

“So if we are to save the world from him, we will have to take the lives of thousands of innocent people. People who have no idea about what’s coming.”

Javic realised the difficulty of the situation.

“What are the time constraints here? Could we not send a kill squad and individually get rid of him?”

“It’s too dangerous. Besides, our intel tells us that he is leaving today. Even in the best case scenario, a kill squad won’t reach Raukoff by tomorrow. A missile is the only option.”

“What is the population of Raukoff?”

“Twenty three thousand, sir, approximately.”

“And how many of them would survive if we target the missile?”

“None sir. We have no exact location on Dorak. If we shoot it, there would be no survivors.”

Javic scratched his head. He could finally get rid of Dorak, but he would have to kill thousands of innocent people to get what he wants. There was no other way. Letting Dorak go was not an option. Neither was having thousands of casualties.

“What’s the word from base?”

He asked Neil.

“Javic, you’re in command here. If you were to push the button, you would be court martialed when you got back home. You could no longer serve in the forces. But if you let him go, your mission timelog would end, and your failure would be catastrophic for the whole country. Dorak is too big of a fish to let go.”

“Thank you Neil. That will be all. Leave me to make the call. I don’t want any of you to be mixed with this. Take everyone from the room.”

“Might I just say sir, “said Neil,” It’s been an honour serving under you.”

Neil saluted him and left the room along with the remaining men. The doors were closed and the room was shut off. It was just Javic and the decision.

The button in front of him took the shape of a monster. A monster with its fangs out ready to swallow Javic whole. No matter what he did, he would be wrong. How could one decide between two wrongs? There was no right decision here, Javic thought. He knew the decision he had to make. His hand reached for the button.

From behind him came a sound

“VWORP VWORP VWORP,”

It was an elongated wheeze. Out of nowhere there materialized a big blue police box behind him. Javic was amazed. He waited in wonder to see what would happen next.

A long slender man wearing a tweed coat and converse shoes walked out. He had his spectacles on and he looked like a misfit, like a child in an adult’s body. He stepped out of the blue police box and looked at Javic, who had removed a gun and had it pointed at the man’s chest.

“Hello Captain! I am the Doctor. How may I help you today?”

(‘I am the Doctor’ plays in the background and The Doctor removes his sonic and points it at the console. Javic stands up and faces the man who introduced himself as the Doctor)

“Doctor - Doctor who?”