Getting up from his bed, Jason yawned as his eyes were barely open. The sun was already up and the alarm clock beside the table was already showing it was early in the afternoon. Last night probably put a toll on his body since he did practice smithing in the day.

 

Taking his steps down the stairs, he saw his family gathered in front of the flat-screen television. Judging from the space it was taking on the wall, Jason bet that this one might be a new one. His dad had itchy hands when it was about new technology.

 

Jason slightly glanced at the screen and his eyes went wide open. Esther who was focused on the TV glanced behind her.

 

“You have to see this,” she said.

 

“It’s just a bunch of reporters filming the monsters,” said Jason.

 

“No, not that. Just wait,” she said.

 

To her sister’s suggestion, he waited and took a seat on the L-shaped sofa. The news was the same like any news about the monster invasion. Big fat lies from reporters telling of how the military had the situation under control and to be rest assured by the strength of their military force, yet all of those were just a facade.

 

The news station probably already knew the truth but with a little sum money under the table, it was enough to mislead the viewers.

 

Then, Jason saw it. He leaned towards the TV as his eyes focused at the sight of that bright red-hair silhouette.

 

--

 

A reporter with her cameraman was on the Lincoln Highway. They are one of the few journalists who detested the way the military handled the press. She knew the truth, a truth that she couldn’t handle. She knew the moment the reality went live on the screen then the whole United States would fall into chaos. Yet her journalism spirit made her falter about this truth, she felt the urge to tell it to everyone.

 

Rather than blatantly accusing the military of not doing their job, she planned to catch it on camera but with the tight surveillance from the men in green, she was barred from coming close to them.

 

But she was luckier than she thought. While getting out of the way from the military ops, she and her cameraman stumbled upon an unbelievable sight.

 

“Stop,” she said.

 

The car stopped in the middle of the road, thankfully they were no cars on the road except for them. The citizen of New Jersey had a little bit of sense and ran away far from the area close to the crack.

 

“Megan, are you sure about this? The UC are coming at us and we need to get out of here,” said the cameraman.

 

“Don’t be a wuss. Drive the car closer to Walmart,” said Megan.

 

The cameraman obliged and as they got closer to Walmart's empty parking lot, the cameraman grabbed on to his video camera out of instinct. Now, he knew what Megan had seen.

 

“Get out and shoot the video,” said Megan.

 

“What? It’s too dangerous. We can just shoot it here in the car,” said the cameraman.

 

“Don’t be a wuss Mike. A professional need to stay professional,” said Megan.

 

She got out of the car and ran closer to the parking lot. She hid behind the big Walmart’s road sign as her hand kept on beckoning Mike to come over.

 

“I’m so going to die,” said Mike as he ran to Megan with a big video camera on his shoulder.

 

“You know, we can just record it and go back to the TV station,” said Mike.

 

“Record? Hell no, we’re going live with this,” said Megan.

 

“What? We’re not authorize…” Mike’s word fell over as he saw Megan showing her phone. A text from the chief himself, telling to go on with it as the station was ready for a live broadcast.

 

“How do I look?” Megan readied herself.

 

“You look fine. We’re going live by 3…2…” Mike gave the okay and Megan showed her professionalism.

 

“I’m Megan Wolfe and I’m bringing you live, the hope of humanity,” said Megan.

 

The live broadcast caught the sight of a woman with her clothes at the brink of being shredded into pieces. Her bright red hair tied in a ponytail jumping around in the air as she dodged the claws and fangs of these big wolves.

 

Her breath was ragged and her body was drenched in her own sweat. With all those cuts and claw marks on her clothes yet her skin was still perfectly white and healthy, but her time was close to running out.

 

That Jason really knows how to jinx a person, thought Bryce. She remembered his words about her being able to survive through the jaws of a wolf with her newfound ability and here she was fighting against a pack of them.

 

She had been training for the past week and indeed it wasn’t enough. Her determination to protect was beginning to crumble as she felt the difficulty of fighting. Eight against one was unfair but she didn’t have a choice, there was nothing fair about war and not when you put your life on the line.

 

Eight wolves attacked her as she dodged and tried to attack. But it was futile. These wolves are a lot of swifter than they look and with that third eye hanging at the center of its head, it only made it worse for Bryce.

 

Am I going to die? Thought Bryce.

 

But then she remembered the memories at the airport. She proclaimed to the capable man that she would be the protector of New Jersey.

 

I can’t give up, thought Bryce.

 

A wolf pounced at her and she leaped in response. They collided against one another as the wolf’s jaw was biting down on Bryce’s forearm. Notification windows came up one after another telling her that the limit of Copper Body was reaching to an end. It was either her or the wolf.

 

Both fell on the asphalt parking lot and Bryce stabbed the wolf right in the eye. Her resounding shout fueled her vigor as she pressed the hilt further into the wolf’s skull. It struggled for a while and in the end, it stopped moving. A blue window emerged as she leveled up but the battle hadn’t ended yet. Seven more were left and two of them were already baring their claws at the unguarded red-hair lady.

 

BANG!

 

A loud noise echoed in the parking lot. The gunshot snapped Bryce out of her momentary daze. She got up on her feet and guarded herself with her two kitchen knives, one of them already had a chipped blade. She glanced at the source of the gunshot and saw a man jumping down from his cruiser motorcycle. A long barrel shotgun was in his hand as the smoke from the previous shot still lingered around the muzzle.

 

He ran towards Bryce with his beige trench coat flapping by the wind. A wolf charged at him and pounced at this new prey. It leaped but the shotgun shot once more, the pounce fell short as the wolf landed on the ground. The shotgun didn’t do any damage at the wolf but the force behind it was enough to render its pounce ineffective.

 

The trench coat man came running at the wolf and stabbed it in the eye with a switchblade. The wolf retaliated opening its jaw wide trying to bite the man by the head, he pulled the trigger and the shotgun roared. The force from the bullets shut the jaw of the wolf from below as the trench coat man stabbed it on the eye multiple times until it was finally dead.

 

It kicked the head of the wolf dislodging its switchblade. Blood spurted out as the man glared at the five other wolves. His eyes were filled with hatred, hatred towards these creatures from another world.

 

“Watch out,” a voice came from the side.

 

The trench coat man noticed a bit too late as a wolf was already in motion of pouncing at him. Yet a red-hair woman leaped into action tackling the wolf to the ground. She got back up and ran to the trench coat man’s side.

 

“Help me,” Bryce said.

 

“With pleasure,” said the trench coat man. His hate-fill eyes didn’t leave the sight of those six wolves as the pack started positioning themselves for another attack.

 

“Bryce,” Bryce said.

 

“Moretti,” he said.

 

Both man and woman stood side by side as they prepared for another clash with these hungry wolves.

 

“Cover your ears,” said Moretti.

 

“Why?” she said. Yet she knew what he meant after her line of sight saw the purplish round thing forming on top of Moretti’s palm.

 

--

 

Meanwhile, Mike who was capturing the moment was trembling seeing this surreal scene. Even Megan was rendered speechless, she knew for a fact that the military couldn’t kill these damn monsters and yet here she found two people capable of killing them.

 

Megan gulped down her saliva as she faced the camera once more.

 

“Citizen of New Jersey, two of these monsters from the crack had been killed by humans, by us and they are not even military. They are like us normal people, living normal lives and here they are now fighting for our sake, cheer and pray for them, to the hope of mankind.”