Epilogue

Damon Joyce is falling in darkness; he looks around and sees he is falling into some sort of black hole. When he is surrounded in the blackness bright sheets of lights suddenly appears, displaying images as he falls past them, they look like television screens, but instead of shows they are presenting memories; his memories. Blood and gore decorated each and every one; from his first to kill, to the death of Estrada. He continues falling through his dark memories when he feels himself being righted up until he is now standing on his feet.

He is standing on some sort of platform that is glowing faintly, lighting the darkness, but not by much. He bends down and sees that the object is round and is casting off a pale light, he soon realize it's the moon.

Damon is puzzled with what is happening when he hears the growls. He jerks his head up Just in time to see them. Forming out of the shadows are giant black wolves, their color tone light enough for him to see their outlines as well as their glowing red eyes. They begin to growl and snap at the human, causing the Ghost to wearily step back. He almost slips over the edge, but he regains his footing. He looks down for a means of escape, but only sees a dark abyss.

He returns his gaze to the animals in front of him, unsure how to proceed, but he raises his hands in preparations to fight. The dozen wolves all bow in preparation to pounce, Damon mimes the movements, not sure if he can lunge like them but is willing to attempt to be light on his feet.

Out of nowhere he hears rushing water approaching from behind. He turns around to see what is causing it only to be swept away in a sudden flood. He is forced underwater as he tumbles head over heels in the bright blue waters. He has no idea how long he remained beneath the deep blue, but a force skyrockets him upwards until he shoots out of the water and into a new setting.

He is shock to see he is standing on water, in the middle of endless ocean with no breakage in sight. The sky is a pale azure color mixed with heavenly looking clouds. The water begins to crash against one another, but none of the waves are threatening to overbear him. Without warning, a golden double door rises from the waters and stands directly in front of Damon.

Nothing happens until the doors slowly opens, washing the Ghost in a blinding light. With no idea with what else to do, Damon covers his eyes and advances into the doorway.

There is a flash that temporarily blinds him before his vision clears again, allowing him to see the three fists resting against each other in front of Damon. He looks up and releases a gasp; standing in front of him is Ghost Team Comanche.

Gordon with his hands on a Remington. Swans with a slight slouch in his stance as he handles his sniper rifle lazily with one hand. Falkner standing at attention despite his fist being held up, no doubt with his familiar grin behind his mask.

Damon feels tears starting to enter his eyes, they look so real. Falkner hefts his fist in front of Damon once more before Damon raises his own curled hand and bumps it against his teams. It is then he sees he is in combat gear, complete with a rifle in hand, helmet on his head and his mask covering his face.

Before he could question what has just occurred, his team took off running. Not wanting to lose them, he slings his rifle and sprints after them, not wanting to let them go. As they ran he sees that they are in No Man's Land; destroyed cars, houses and dead bodies litter the ground as they race by.

Damon is closing in on the other Ghosts, he makes ready to pounce on Swans when something unexpected happen. All three Ghosts leaps into the air, while in midair their forms becomes a mist, slowly they are rearranged and when they land, all three of them are wolves who ran away from Damon with inhuman speed until they disappeared.

The remaining Ghost comes to a stuttering halt, unsure of what he has just witnessed. The Earth begins to shake as if an earthquake was happening, and sure enough the ground cracks open. Damon makes to run again, but his feet refuses to move, almost as if they are glued to the floor.

Soon the ground is upturn and all the war torn debris begins to fall into the cavities, and here another peculiar thing happens; slowly the large tectonic plates flips over, creating a whole new scene.

Gone is the ash, the bullet ridden buildings and the dark grey clouds. Now as the ground levels out Damon finds himself in a meadow in the middle of an evergreen forest during what appears to be night time. He is all alone until he sees the movement.

Shapes are running in circles around the Ghost as he looks on, he squints to see what it is when he realizes they are wolves. Soon more and more appears and are circling the human in an almost mad dance, dizzying Damon in the process.

The Earth shakes again and then Damon is shot up high into the air, feet still attached to the piece of ground he is standing on. He looks down and sees the Earth rapidly fading away when the slab of dirt comes to a stop and launches Damon into the midnight color sky.

The Ghost slowly flips end over end until he lands softly feet first on a solid surface. He looks around and sees he is standing on the Moon once more, only this time he is in space and he has a clear view of Earth.

Chills all of a sudden explode on the back of his neck, causing him to turn quickly. He gawks as a giant stands above him, a figure taller than the moon and appears to just be there in empty space with no place to stand. It is made of shadows; all except for its eyes which are ablaze with fire as it glares down at the Ghost. It raises its arm and takes a swipe at Damon. He tries to run, but the arm passes through the moon, smashing it into a million pieces and sends the Ghost hurling down towards the Earth.

Damon releases a scream as he falls towards the ground, thousands of feet from the surface. He falls through the atmosphere at a fast rate, causing flames to appear around him as he descends. Soon the impact with the ground becomes imminent as he falls. Terror starts to spread within him when he sees that he is about to fall into a dark hole. He yells as he is about to fall in when suddenly something shoots out and grabs his arm. Damon dangles along the sides of the fissure while whatever caught him pulls him out and onto the surface. When he looks up at his savior, he is surprise to come face to face with Meadow.

She grins at him before licking his cheek. The Ghost looks around and sees Humphrey, Kate, Garth, Lilly, Max, Devan, Talia and Ann. All the wolves smile at him in a joyous manner, causing him to grins back despite his recent death defying dilemma.

Suddenly their bodies become a bright flash of light, causing the human to raise his arms to shield his eyes, but he watches through parted fingers at what is happening. The wolves bodies twist and turns, collapsing into tiny hard pack sparkling spheres before shooting up with high speed towards the sky.

Damon tilts his head back to see where they are going, but he loses his balance and plunges into the dark pit. But as he falls he doesn't scream. Instead he watches as the bright orbs fly into the blackened skies before colliding into each other. Millions of blue stars are formed and they expanded across the sky, brightening the heavens. However, a small cluster of stars came together and created a constellation, one that the Ghost has never seen before; it formed the shape of a wolf in a sitting position. The star made wolf suddenly leans its head back and releases a long and beautiful howl, a cry that carries on for minutes on end, a cry that sounds like Meadow's...

Damon then hits the boarded ground as he lands. With a gasp he sits up and looks around at his surroundings.

He is inside his newly acquired barracks; the Marines he is housing with are snoring away in their cots, unaware of the Ghost's sweaty and unsure experience. He glances out a window and sees its dark…with a full moon out. Damon regains control over his breathing as he runs a hand over his now shaven face and through his buzz cut hair.

He starts to think and remembers the dream he had. That was a first, it was the first dream he had that wasn't a nightmare about Comanche tram's death. Far from it, it was about his pack, his family. He remembers it all, how the wolves looked so realistic and how it somehow brought him a little comfort. Especially the part where it showed Comanche team as wolves, out running death and going off into a better place, a far better dream of their deaths than the bloody one he had almost every night. Then he remembers the part where the wolves changed and morphed into a constellation of stars, Damon then looks outside again and sees that the sky is currently clear of cloud cover.

Curious, Damon carefully gets onto his feet and heads towards the door. There is a Marine sentry on guard looking out into the blackness in the direction of No Man's Land. He tenses when he hears footsteps and turns to see the Ghost approaching.

"Sarge!" the man says as he jumps to his feet, "is there something wrong sir?" he asks as he sees Damon's perspiration soaked shirt. The Ghost just steps around the Marine and steps onto the hard ground barefooted.

The ground is hard and full of sharp stones and yet Damon doesn't feel them as he moves forward, oblivious to the Marine as he watches the First Sergeant in concern.

After stumbling forward a while, Damon finally stops and looks up into the sky, somehow unsurprised at what he sees. Tonight is one of those rare clear nights when he can see the milky way. Remembering the dream, he stumbles around like a drunk with his eyes glued to the sky, searching with an almost desperate haste when he comes to a stop.

Directly above him is the wolf constellation, sitting down, with its head back and its maw open as it howls its endless cry.

The Ghost stands there, probably looking like a fool to most people, but all he could do was stare with wonder at the stars. It's as if it's a sign…it is a sign.

Damon hears the booming of cannons and looks towards No Man's Land and sees the bright bolts of fire streak between the U.S and the Federation lines. But this doesn't concern him, nothing concerns him at the moment.

He looks back up at the skies, as he remembers his friends, his family in the pack; silly Humphrey, skillful Kate, fighting Garth, gentle Lilly, energized Max, thoughtful Devan, resourceful Talia, tough Ann, and Meadow the Alpha.

He smiles as a resolution forms in his mind. He doesn't know how, he doesn't know when, but there's something inside him, informing the Ghost that one day; he will return.

End

Psalm 18; 30-36

PM if you wish to know what this mean or look in the Bible. I do not own the Bible or this verse.

This story was made to honor the warrior within my cousin Josh, who despite being a gentle soul, didn't hesitate to pick up the rifle to defend his family and his country.

A special thanks to Sabere Commander and Lynda. Key 1 for their help/advice, and thanks to you readers, you guys are the ones that kept me writing this story, thanks for reading.

And just to let you know, I have plans for a sequel, I am unsure when the release date will be, but it'll be up someday, but first I'm going to go over and reedit this story a bit.

If you wish to read a story similar to this one, I recommend you check out fellow writers oohra15 and Sabere Commander.

Anyway thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed my first completed story, please leave a review expressing your opinion of the story.