A quiet road just outside a classified military installation, somewhere deep in a forested valley. The air is still. The world feels… too normal.
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The massive steel doors behind them hiss shut. Unit 13 no longer exists. Not on paper. Not in command files. Not even in whispers.
Ace adjusts the black duffel over his shoulder, his face unreadable as ever.
Jack exhales slowly, the kind of breath only a man carrying years of death can let out.
Kevin kicks at a stone on the path, his movements sharp, restless.
> Jack:
"So that's it. Fifteen years of hell, and they wrap it up with a clipboard and a handshake."
> Ace (quietly):
"We didn't do it for the send-off."
> Kevin (mutters):
"We didn't do it for anything anymore."
They walk along the dirt road leading to the civilian transport line—a small rural bus stand at the edge of the base's shadow. For a moment, there's only silence. But it's not awkward. It's heavy. Familiar.
> Jack:
"They said no contact between us. 'Clean break', they called it. Like we're some virus."
> Kevin:
"A virus that kept this planet breathing."
Ace stops walking. The other two pause beside him.
> Ace:
"They're afraid. Not of the aliens. Of what we became to kill them."
The three look at each other. There's no salute. No orders. Just the knowledge that the job is over… and the peace is not theirs.
> Jack (half-smile):
"So what now? They gave me a badge and said 'blend in'. I've got a wife and a daughter who think I worked cyber-security."
> Kevin:
"I got New York. Can't tell if that's punishment or bait."
> Ace:
"They're sending me to college. Said I need to 'learn the human condition'."
> Jack:
"Heh. Good luck with that."
They arrive at the roadside. A lone bus shelter stands under a flickering streetlamp. Three buses pull up, one after another—each marked for a different destination. The sound of engines hums in the quiet night.
> Kevin (soft):
"You think it's really over?"
Ace turns to face them, calm eyes watching both of them like he always did before they breached a Leviathan nest.
> Ace:
"It's never over. But for now… it's quiet."
> Jack:
"'Til the quiet breaks."
The three exchange one final look—not of goodbye, but of unspoken promise.
Kevin boards first. The bus doors hiss closed behind him. Jack follows a moment later. Then Ace. Each on a different path. Each carrying ghosts.
And behind them, in the shadows of the hills, something ancient stirs in silence.