Chapter 1: August 15th, 2003

“I believe something will be there, Jones,” said Agent Thomas to his friend standing next to him.

“I think you are heading into this too fast. I can’t believe that they accepted you for this mission,” Jones replied. “Our goals are to ensure that the U.S. Embassy is protected during our deployment. We must get those refugees out of there before rebel forces arrive.”

They stood by the Helipad of the US Embassy that had already been established by Joint Task Force Liberia. It was a rescue and relief operation launched by the United States to provide relief effort to evacuate refugees of the upcoming rebel forces closing in on Monrovia against the Charles Taylor administration forces. Two hundred marines were sent to partake in this mission, with many more coming to help Liberia.

“It’s such a mess,” Jones said as they were taking a short break. “I can already see the devastation. I can hear everything in the distance...”

“My mission is to go in there and to find them,” Thomas remarked. “I have to use this cease-fire as a moment to press east...”

They looked at the beach as the helicopter had deployed the next set of troops.

Jones gave a firm finger and pointed to him, “Whatever you do, whatever the fuck you do, don’t go to West Point north of here in Monrovia. It’s...”

“I am well informed of the area Jones,” Thomas interrupted. “Trust me. From the horror stories I hear, I have no plan to go to West Point or any of the slums in Liberia. With this coming conflict coming to a close and Charles Taylor already gone, that place is off-limits. Make sure everyone you talk to Marines wise avoids that place or any place suspected of destabilization until more peacekeeping forces arrive.”

“I can’t believe you are going deep into Liberia for this assignment. It’s suicide. You will get killed, and they will...”

“Possibly eat me, I know Jones. I know what is at stake. Volunteers of my group are known to go on suicide missions. Their goals are clear. We must search it out.”

“This ceasefire can end at any moment,” Jones remarked. “It was made just yesterday, and it is very precarious. It is only just here in Monrovia as well. It does not mark the rest of the area.”

He wiped the sweat from his brow. His pale skin was already getting cooked from the hot sun. The smell of the ocean breeze was marked with the distant sounds of conflict and war. Jones, being African American, would help play a role in getting Thomas to the destination point.

Thomas thought to himself as Jones looked at the buildings of Monrovia in the far distance. A part of him wondered if he was genuinely insane in accepting this assignment. He couldn’t believe that he was a part of Outreach. The orders superseded his chain of command. It was a suicide mission but something that he was ready for.

Outreach was a small unknown organization in the United States Government. Its goal was to search out any potentially magical events that happened and report back its findings to the UN. It was a secret organization that was responsible for finding things such as mythical creatures, deities, folktale creatures, or any unusual events and catalogs the events to the UN. It was not a large organization, nor was it well received by the government. Many argued with the purpose of such an organization and its purpose. The fatality rate for its volunteers was astronomical, and as a result, the few that volunteer and manage to report back encounter nothing to report except just more ghost stories. Thomas decided to tell Jones a little bit of the story as his goal was to assist him on this mission.

Corporal Thomas was a man of twenty-eight that served in the United States Marines. He was a firm believer in God and a spiritualist at heart. He studied theology and war in college. He was never the best of the group, but he was a man of adventure. He was the perfect individual to volunteer for Project Outreach. He wanted to take up the most dangerous assignment he wanted, even if it got him killed. He was not suicidal, but to him, he had to search for the truth.

“They always show up during conflicts,” he whispered to himself. “It’s as if they are searching for something ... something important. Even conflicts such as this they will ultimately show up if they haven’t already done so. One of those people in this savage conflict is sure to be what I am looking for.”

He took a good look at his surroundings. He was not far from the US Embassy. He could see the white building somewhat in a state of disrepair as it stood in a precarious situation. With forces closing on the city, former President Charles Taylor fleeing to Nigeria, the two Civil Wars, the building, and its staff had to face great peril. For Thomas, he was not a part of this mission to enforce and protect the staff. His goal was to head eastward.

“Yekeba,” he thought quietly to himself. “I can look at the map and think it’s close, but it puts me at the border of Guinea and Cote D’Ivoire. It’s very far, almost a two hundred-mile travel through the plague-ridden, war-ridden territory.”

He considered his options. He could take a helicopter or plane, but it would risk getting shot down by some warring faction. If it is one thing he knew, the United States felt comfortable with Liberia while keeping its back to the sea in case they needed to retreat or reinforce its capital.

It is 2003. It was a time when Liberia was in a fierce second civil war following the recent First Civil War that lasted from 1989 to 1997. Liberia, a nation created by the United States by the American Colonization Society, the purpose of the act was to allow former ex-slaves and freed slaves to return to a place in Africa. It was a mangled plan that ultimately ended up having tens of thousands of former slaves move to a location that some have never been to and claim as a home of their own. Liberia is a historical footnote in US history books of the actual consequences of the current present. It is a history marked with success, savagery, bloodshed, disaster, and potential. It will be a place that Corporal Eugene Thomas, a man born in Virginia from a middle-class family, was soon to discover the true beauty and horror a place can be. The Liberian Civil Wars would simply be known to some as the “Cannibals’ War.”

With the arrival of the US Marines, a temporary ceasefire was called by Rebel Forces to allow the safe transversal of individuals. Many thought that the US was there to help restore balance to the location. While this was true to a point and would not happen until later, many Liberians were mistaken in the beginning because their goal was to safely evacuate individuals, not restore peace. Once US citizens were evacuated, the Marines were to leave. At this time, Thomas had his chance to head East deep through Liberian territory to a place he was secretly assigned to search by Outreach.

Thomas went and picked up his backpack filled with emergency supplies, ammo, food, water, and other necessities that would allow him to survive at least for a couple of days. He and Jones were already dressed in civilian clothing. Technically if the road was unhindered, it was only a 200-mile trip, but with a war going on and tensions everywhere, it could turn that simple trip into a day’s journey. If he made it and found nothing, then it was his job to get back home to the marines or by other means. For the agents of Outreach, their goals were to find what they were looking for, even if it meant their very lives. It was a volunteer mission with so few willing to actually do it. But for Thomas, he was ready to die if need be to accomplish his goal.