Perspective

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Perspective

Karl huddles in a damp hole overlooking the road, waiting to slay a Demon.  If it detects him he’ll be dead.  He can hear its approach but won’t see it till it passes his position, the hole has been carefully dug to be invisible to the Demon as it approaches.  He sees his comrades though, laying down fire with their heavy machine guns.  He watches them die as the Demon advances.  Its armour yet again turning every weapon aside.  The few survivors start to pull back, several more dying as a grenade goes off amongst them.

Then suddenly the Demon is there, appearing in Karl’s view.  Heart pounding Karl triggers the modified rocket launcher.  Four rockets fly instead of the usual one, all four fly true to hit their target.  Anxious seconds pass while the dust settles, all the time Karl expects to feel the impact as the Demon targets him.  Then the dust settles enough and he can see the Demon laid out on the floor, body and head smashed open by the rockets.  Clearly dead.

Karl just stares for a while, unable to take in what he sees.  Then he lets out a whoop of joy.  They’ve done it!  The Demon is dead.  The capital city, just a couple of miles further down the road, is safe.  The Demon had evaded every trap, every clever strategy designed to bring it down.  Finally they had managed to surprise it, finally they’d killed it.

Other soldiers are running up now.  Cheering, shouting, weeping.  All smiling.

Karl thinks that…

* * *

YOU DIED!

RESTART FROM LAST SAVE GAME?

<YES>

* * *

Karl huddles in a damp hole overlooking the road, waiting to slay a Demon.  If it detects him he’ll be dead.  He can hear its approach but won’t see it till it passes his position, the hole has been carefully dug to be invisible to the Demon as it approaches.  He sees his comrades though, laying down fire with their heavy machine guns.  He watches them die as the Demon advances.  Its armour yet again turning every weapon aside.  The few survivors start to pull back, several more dying as a grenade goes off amongst them.

Then suddenly the Demon is there, appearing in Karl’s view.  Already turned to face him.  Before Karl can react the Demon is blasting at him with machine gun fire, tearing him apart. 

His last thoughts are…

How?  How could it possibly have known?

The End

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