I gasped and nearly stumbled backward with Caroline in tow as the zombies sprinted at us like a pack of hungry wolves.

We were trapped on the roof; the only way out was through the door. I glanced off to the side at a walkway that led to a fancy-looking spiral staircase encased in glass and paintings that would take us to the upper level. Still, it was too far—the zombies would catch us before we'd get anywhere close to it.

But I had to try.

"NO, NO, NO!" Caroline cried out in distress at the sight of her zombified parents.

I did my best to scoop the shrieking and crying girl over my shoulders as I ran towards the stairs. The sound of shouting behind me told me that Midori was fighting for her life with the zombies. I hoped she could handle herself.

I didn't have time to worry about her or the others, though, as I focused on reaching the glass stairwell up ahead. It was just a few yards away, but the distance felt like miles. With every step I took, the flames' roar and the monsters' inhuman shrieks grew louder.

Just a few more steps.

Midori shouted something, but I couldn't hear her over the sound of my own blood rushing through my veins. Just one last step; if I make it—if they don't catch up to me now —If, if, if.

Then there was a crash as the glass wall of the stairwell burst into splinters. I reflexively slowed to a stop and turned around, shielding Caroline with my body.

Unfortunately, I was too slow once again. I heard Caroline yelp in pain, followed by a sobbing whimper and flailing. I climbed to my feet, cursing my now-scraped hands, and took a deep breath, checking over Caroline. She hissed in pain as she nursed a cut on her arm.

I looked back at Midori and froze again, blood running cold at the sight that greeted me.

Midori swung her axe, chopping into the skull of one of the two men rushing at her. He looked Southeast Asian — tan skin with Malay features. He had a neat, crimson comb-over haircut that looked like it was dyed, but I suspected it was his natural hair color. He was wearing a brown business suit that had been torn and shredded in multiple places.

The other man was also chasing after her. He was taller and burlier than the first, wearing jeans and a flannel shirt, and had short black hair. And he was grinning widely as he ran at her, his eyes gleaming blue with madness.

Midori drew her axe out of the man's skull while stepping back before delivering an expert follow-up stroke. Blood flew everywhere; the decapitated corpse fell onto its knees before collapsing completely.

"DADDY!" Caroline shouted, reaching out in anguish as his head hit the floor with a sickening plop.

The woman with the golden eyes was on top of her now-identified husband in a second, biting into his open neck and tearing chunks of flesh from him in a frenzy. The zombie girl was much slower, lumbering forward with each step. Her arms were limp and useless, her legs didn't seem to be moving correctly, and she was drooling black goo from her mouth.

More and more zombies began to pour forth from the windows above Midori, like some kind of grotesque tide, as she backed up, funneling the two zombies in front of her. Nearly a dozen zombies approached Midori as she backed up to use the walkway as a chokepoint. The zombie woman quickly got to her feet, pulling her husband's head in front of her and biting hard into the meat, leaving behind a trail of blood. The air was filled with a raucous chorus as more and more zombies poured in from the windows above.

"How...how many are there!?" I yelled in panic.

Midori spared just a second to turn around and scream at me.

"Run, dammit! I'll catch up!"

I hesitated for half a second out of concern for her. Then, I saw three streaks of lights rapidly approaching our area on the rooftop — one red, one blue, and one yellow.

That had to be our rescue. We just had to hold out for a minute or two.

I threw Caroline back over my shoulder and started running at the now-exposed spiral stairs.

As soon as I reached the stairs, a powerful gust of wind blew past me, carrying a scent like burnt metal and rubber; the air smelled scorched and tasted like ashes.

"What the hell?" I muttered to myself as I climbed the stairs with a sobbing Caroline on my back. Behind me, Midori screamed and began to fall back from her position as she fought off the zombies. Even grossly outnumbered, she used the terrain with surprising expertise and dropped one zombie after another with single strokes of her axe.

A fireball appeared from the darkness above, streaking across the sky and exploding against the building across the street. Another followed right afterward, this one striking the same spot. Flames erupted from the buildings on either side of ours, engulfing the entire block in seconds.

"What the fuck is going on?!" I shouted as I took the final step up to the upper level.

This shouldn't be happening. I came here to escape this. Terra had massive Imaginary arrays that suppressed Chaos Events to the point where nobody had to worry about them in a central metropolitan area. This wasn't supposed to happen!

There were always exceptions, of course. But, there were instruments up to detect them. Sometimes a tiny Event occurred outside the city limits — and usually, the MGs were on it in minutes. Even on Earth, where the infrastructure was a lot less established, there were still pockets where citizens didn't really have to deal with large-scale Aberration attacks anymore. I had lived through a few incursions in Philadelphia, but they were always Level 1 events where the local militias and MGs could keep us relatively sheltered.

Then the world shook again, causing the floor beneath my feet to rumble. The noise of the explosions and the screams of the dying were drowned out by a loud, thundering roar like a thousand lions. Something was coming; the ground itself seemed to shake in fear.

Then a giant shadow flew in overhead, blocking out the light of the fires and the stars overhead.

I looked up, my heart in my throat—

A huge, winged, lizard-like monster with a long tail, sharp claws, and a serpentine tongue flew overhead. Its scales were a dark grey patterned with layers of red, and it was as big as a plane. It was covered in spikes and horns, which were glowing white hot—a sign that it was pulsing with Chaos Energy. It looked like it came out of a 3-D movie or something.

I could feel a wave of nausea wash over me as I stared at the creature. The sight of it sent a chill down my spine that made my skin crawl. My hands were shaking.

It was a dragon. A fucking dragon.

I'd read up on different types of Aberrations, and I definitely didn't recall seeing dragons in my textbooks.

The beast soared high above us and landed atop the roof of a skyscraper several blocks away but still visible to my eye. It let out a deafening roar; the sound echoed throughout the surrounding streets and buildings.

I had no idea what was going on. I didn't know why it was attacking. I knew the streaks of light were approaching us, and we needed more time.

"Mommy...daddy...please, please, please," Caroline wailed, soaking my uniform with tears. The sound of her crying broke my paralysis.

I had to help her — and Midori.

I turned back around to face the door at the top of the stairs. The glass pavilion around it had been shattered by the force of the explosion, and the door was bent and twisted, hanging on by only a few broken hinges.

A shout of agony caused me to snap my head toward the source. Midori was fighting off a pair of zombies that had overwhelmed and gotten on top of her as she pushed one of them back with the handle of her axe. One of them grabbed her leg, and she stumbled, falling to the ground. Before she could recover, the other zombie jumped on her back and bit into her shoulder, tearing off a chunk of flesh.

That shot a visceral jolt of emotions through my body as I fought back the tears. I was angry and frustrated, but I couldn't do anything for Midori. I couldn't even reach her; the zombies between us would kill me if I tried to run to her. If they passed a payload chaos energy into her, she would suffer a fate worse than death herself.

I took a deep breath and turned to the door in front of me.

I stepped forward and knocked the splintered door down with one kick—the wood cracked and split apart with a resounding noise. There was another railed, wide walkway in this pavilion and lounge that would allow hotel guests to walk out and get a view of the sunset from the harbor. I imagined it would be the perfect spot to extract survivors from this hotel, which is why Midori had flagged the ERC to that location.

Another roar sounded like it was coming from somewhere far below; the noise was so loud that it hurt my ears. As the sound faded, a new sound replaced it: a sound like rushing water or a hurricane.

When the sound was gone, I gulped as I realized that the ocean crashing against the coastline was what I had heard. The sky crackled with lightning, and the clouds glowed red with flashes of energy.

"I'm repeating myself, but what the fuck is going on?" I asked out loud as I let Caroline into a lounge chair, taking care to avoid stepping on any glass. I could make out an emergency kit hanging off an isolated pillar through the dim gloom. I rushed to it, popped it open immediately, and yanked it off its hook.

"This should be enough," I said as I pulled a flashlight, flare gun, and a first aid kit out of the bag. The roof was too dark; the flashing strobe lights of the fire and the explosions weren't helping. All the windows from blocks on end had blown out from the concussive blasts.

The first-aid kit contained bandages, disinfectant spray, and other first-aid supplies. After flicking the flashlight on so I could see, I tore open a package of gauze pads. I disinfected Caroline's bleeding arm and wrapped the bandages around her arm tightly. As I did so, she was screaming and writhing in pain; her eyes rolled in her head, her teeth chattering.

I clicked the button on the flare gun and fired it into the air. In a second, it exploded into a bright flame that briefly illuminated the whole space like it was noon.

"Shhhh, shhh, it's okay. You're gonna be fine. Just hold still..." I whispered as I finished tying the bandage as I had some light.

As I finished wrapping the last loop, I saw the three streaks of light draw in close to us. They were hovering just above the rooftops now. The blue one was closest to the building—and I could make out the silhouettes of three girls as they approached us. They were still too far away for me to make out any notable features.

Hope swelled in my chest. These could be the three who were supposed to come to rescue us. If so, then everything was going to be alright. I didn't have to be alone anymore. I didn't have to be scared.

The blue streak spearheaded the group, and the yellow and red ones were flanking the blue like a triangle as they approached. Unfortunately, all my hopes were dashed when the three suddenly stopped and hovered in place; the two MGs flanking the blue one held their arms up and quickly summoned magic barriers.

A beam of lightning enveloped them in an instant, making the air sizzle with electricity. Each girl screamed, and the blue girl in the center suddenly fell to the ground.

I dropped the medical supplies and ran across the floor to the roof's edge with the flashlight in hand. "No!" I screamed, peering over the edge to see that the girl was unconscious and breathing raggedly. She laying face up with her legs tangled up in the brambles of some bushes that grew along the side of the building across the street. Her long, flowing blue and purple dress was bunched around her waist, exposing her pale, slender thighs.

I turned to look at the lightning beam's source; a monster was flying overhead. Its wings were like an eagle's, with long horns that curled back and a set of eight eyes and limbs. The creature had the body of a mechanized lion and, like the dragon, looked straight out of a 3-D movie or something.

The monster let loose a roar that shook the hotel's walls, and the creature dove at the group of magical girls. The magical girl with the red aura brandished a bow glowing with a faint light, and the magical girl with the yellow aura fired off beams of concentrated magical power out of a staff.

Chaos filled the air as the monster crashed into them, tackling the red magical girl into the city streets below. I could almost make out an apologetic look from the girl with the yellow aura before she turned and chased after the monster.

I barely had time to react when the floor behind me suddenly erupted like a volcano, showering me with dirt. I scrambled, barely regaining my balance and stopping myself from falling over the edge. I rolled, cutting myself once again on the glass on the ground as something large—like a giant butterfly —shot out of the hole in the floor. Its mouth was full of razor-sharp fangs that glistened with venom. Its blue and gold carapace was covered with glittering jewels; a massive pair of wings spread out on either side as it rose. Four antennae with eyeballs on a cylinder-like main body then topped off its alien, CGI look as it stared intently at me. I grunted as the flashlight I'd picked up rolled out of my hand, spinning off to the middle of the rooftop.

The flashlight illuminated the creature, which briefly recoiled for a second when the line shined over one of its stalks.

I stared in horror — it was at least eight feet long and the size of a small car. It had a long, serpentine tail that ended in a barbed stinger. Its wings fluttered as it flew closer to me, the tips of each wing touching the ground like a helicopter blade. The thing was so big that I felt like it would crush me if it landed on me.

The magical girls were still battling the beast below, and Caroline let out a cry of fear. The creature whipped all of its eyes to focus on her.

I reacted the only way I could.

With an adrenaline-fueled shout, I threw a rock at the monster from my seated position on the ground. The stone hit the creature's left eye, causing it to make a squawking noise and turn away from Caroline. I had no time to celebrate, though.

As I scrambled to my feet, the serpentine tail coiled and shot at my eyes like a bullet.