We stood at the gaping hole in the humongous gate. Countless tracks led inside and outside. A horde of death was inside there. One that came out hungry for food every night. And the nights here are longer and audacious. A chill ran down my spine. I could only imagine what these creatures look like. From the tracks, their size varied. I held my m429 ahead. Suddenly, I felt like I didn’t bring enough ammo. Neither I nor Shaw felt the need to take a step forward. That is until we heard the humvee doors open and shut. Saoirse carried one of the shotguns I kept inside. She didn’t even know how to shoot it yet she carried it like a professional. Rhonda must have given her pointers at some point. Georgia and Charlotte had their own weapons. Strange yet familiar in an eerie way. Heavy rifles if I had to guess. This place was a death trap and they knew it. Whether it was some sixth sense or from prior knowledge, they knew death awaited all those who dared enter. Yet, here we were doing exactly that. The walls were thick. Two to three times more than the sanctuary. I force myself to take a step forward. Shaw comes up behind me. Our unsure steps took us inside the tunnel leading in. I couldn’t help but notice the plate armor along the inner tunnel. Moreso, the countless scraps and scratches along the armor. The women kept a good distance behind us. I am not sure what good that would do for them. We wouldn’t last a second if we got rushed now. They wouldn’t last two seconds. The midway and inner gates both were ruptured. 

On the inside, revealed what this place really was. A prison… a city turned into a prison. The same plate armor lined the curtain wall all the way to the top. An impossibly slick surface that no creature could scale. No human could either. The only weakness was the gates. Whatever metal the plate armor is made of, the gates weren’t. From a security point of view, that seemed like a catastrophic oversight. This place was made to keep you in. The streets and buildings are all ruins or rubble. Bones of various kinds lay scattered everywhere. This was a feeding ground. I spotted leftovers of dozens of Qrurcean’s undead soldiers and even those spider-scorpion creatures. My stomach tightens uncomfortably. Anything that could feed on those monsters was leagues worse. 

“Don’t tell me that’s one of your spider things monsters?” Shaw whispered.

“I hate to say it, but yeah,” I whispered.

I heard him click his machine gun’s safety off. ‘How the fuck are we suppose to deal with this? This is just a scouting mission, but these things can and will breach the sanctuary. Those gates won’t last another night. That much I knew for certain.’ We continued along the ruins inside and I kept a close eye on the three suns. Every second we spent inside was one less we had getting as far away as possible. Of course we could pile in our vehicles and drive like hell. The question is can we outrun these things. Even if we could, the possibility of leading them back to Pineford was real. More bones of unknown origin continue to present themselves. Bigger creatures than what we’d seen so far. Ahead I catch movement. We were entering the area of the city that the castle casted a shadow over. It took a second for my eyes to adjust. Then I saw the terrible truth. Something borne from an insane asylum patient’s mind. A creature of ungodly creation. From here I can tell it would tower over me even. A monster of pure white muscles. Arms that could rip a train car or tank apart. Legs that could outpace a formula one car. Just a body of peak muscle tone with a giant eyeball as a head. An angry eyeball that locked its eye on me. 

“Run…,” I said to the woman.

Something inside of me told me it understood what I said. Even from over a hundred yards away. It smiled, I knew it smiled. The monster was that of pure evil and the hunt was just beginning. I heard the sound of gunfire and screaming. I was firing as the thing jogged at inhumane speed. We both were letting this fallen God have everything. The rounds just bounced right off the thing. In an instant it was on top of me. A glow of reddish light shimmers in its eyes as it looks at me. I quickly duck and roll backwards as a beam of red light burns across the ground. The beam reaches all the way to the curtain wall. Instead of burning a hole in the armor, it reflects back into the ruined city. The gates flashed in my mind. They burned through each wall at close range. Until they breached the outside. I didn’t have time to dwell on it longer. The monster was fast with quick bursts. I tossed a grenade at it as I spotted the three women heading for the shaded side of the city. 

“Shit!” I blurted.

Shaw was between me and the monster with another charging him. We both knew they were heading for death.

“Go after them!” Shaw yelled.

The explosion from my grenade gave me an opening. I took the chance to head for the women. They weren’t far ahead. Gunfire erupts from behind me. I turn just in time to avoid another eye beam. The building beside me, explodes. Another beam came from a totally different direction. Nevertheless, I kept my eye on them as they darted in and out of ruined buildings. ‘Damn, those girls are fast!’ I could hear more of those ungodly creatures everywhere. The two Hodge girls follow Saoirse into a massive building. I pick up the pace and charge in behind them, dropping a grenade at the entrance. Their footsteps echo through the structure. Losing them now would be bad. I spot smoothing as I pass an open room. It was them, they were trying to transverse to another building. The window was blocked by debris. They’d run right into a dead end. Those monstrosities were right behind me. They didn’t even notice that they’d cornered themselves in the hectic frantic.

“Wait! Hold up!” I yelled.

The second I stepped inside the small room, I felt a sudden movement of floating. ‘Fuck!! The floor is collapsing!’ Gravity took over a millisecond later. I ball myself up as I fell into the darkness below.