Column Rising: La Douleur De La Mort

“Ahhhh…. La douleur de la mort” spoke William.
“What does that mean, dad?” his son replied questioningly.
“It means the pain of death, it’s French. I may have been dead only three minutes but I still felt it. I have to say it was… amazing.”
“Are you okay?” asked the, now, vice chairman.
“I’m feel incredible. What did I fly? Ninety? A hundred feet?”
“YOU DIED!” yelled Josh in major shock.
“I realize, so don’t scream in my ear, son.”
All our fighting had not been for not, though the God Masque had died he was reborn. He is not Column, but not human. He is not alive, but, obviously, he is not dead. He has not left us, and he never will. We call him The Chief, The Master, and though not aloud some of us call him The Abomination. He has changed, part of him has become undead. He leads us, we know that he knows best but can we trust some one who is not bound, like ourselves, to die an inevitable death. He says that he felt the pain of death. He said it was a cold sting, like a winter wind biting your face. He said also that it was amazing, that’s the worst part, he liked it.
We have already begun our underground lives, the new colonies of earth, or NCE, have become very homey. Though at most times the tunnels are dark and damp, it still maintains some sense of shelter. Most of the women stay indoors at all times, and the men who are old enough take turns patrolling and keeping the Column at bay. They seem to have developed a major pattern of finding one thing and sticking to it until they have it to themselves. They as individuals do not speak, are selfish, and vile. They only want to eat. They require no food but they still eat. They feel no pain, they do not heal or breathe.
They have all the strength that the original body had at there disposal. Normal human beings are limited in the amount of strength that they can consciously use. The Column brain is developed differently so that they can use all of the strength in every muscle. We have seen, in our field cameras, that one Column of the average human size can destroy a concrete wall and keep moving. The best strategy that has always worked for us was to aim between the eyes. These creatures are stupid in every way but some how they still seem coordinated to the point that they can put up a good fight if they need to.
In the battles of our trek to the NCE, the Column sent reams of their demons after us. They aren’t intelligent enough to see when they should retreat. When it comes to military tactics they seem to always rely on the old fashioned swarm tact. In which they send large numbers of soldiers to overwhelm the fire power of the opposition, a costly strategy but often useful.
Our counter strategy is often to use a dispersal technique with explosives and bombs, to break up the enemy into more easily defeated groups of enemies.
Generally they never divert from their tactic so we have become the only survivors who fight against these creatures. If there are any other survivors we have never seen them and never heard from them.
There’s nothing we can do about the Chief, after all we trust him. Maybe this new development will aid us in our fight to reclaim the surface of our, once beautiful, planet. Maybe what we needed… was la douleur de la mort.