The Birth of the New World

-Sandy-

“Move damnit, keep moving!”

We run as fast as we can through the woods, combat boots pounding on dirt as we move over roots and through the brush. Overhead a massive shadow circles up above, waiting for its chance to dive down and strike.

As we make our mad dash, creatures and monstrosities of all shapes and sizes pour out of the woods. Some we can take down with a burst of fire, others have to tripped by taking out their legs. We don’t have the time to confirm kills. Only to run and gun down anything that gets in our way.

Overhead the shadow in the sky shifts. I look back and see the figure descending.

“Grab a tree, incoming left-hand side!”

We move right and seconds later the earth explodes behind us as the beast lands. Dirt and rock are thrown in every direction like shrapnel as the six-legged beast hits the ground with thousands of pounds of force.

“Move to 3 o’clock, Go!” I scream out orders as I turn and unload on the monster, aiming for its eyes to try and keep it back.

More monsters are pouring into the clearing, swarming from every direction. Some stop to fight one another. Angry at running into other competitors, some of the smaller ones simply get ran over, crushed by the larger specimens that care little for those they trample underfoot.

“Thomas, grenade!”

“Yes!”

Pulling one from his bandoleer, he pulls the pin and chucks it behind us as we run. The rampaging creatures ignore the small devise and continue to charge as they run after us. Two seconds after hitting the ground, it goes off, turning the creatures around it into a red mist and cracking the sides of trees. With loud groans they fall about the place with the loud cries of tearing wood. Taking down their neighbors with them as they fall, the path behind us becomes filled with crushed and exploded monsters and toppled trees.

Further back, I see as the flying beast takes off into the air, not bothering to pursue us deep into the trees on foot like the others, but more content to simply follow from the sky.

Firing a spray of rounds into our pursuers, we continue to run. It is all we can do. Soon enough we can see a break in the woods ahead where they thin. We are nearing one of the residential areas.

“Go for the buildings! Kick down doors, go through windows if you have to! Don’t stay out in the open and keep moving!”

We break from the woods at top speed, breathing heavy and dripping with sweat. Adrenaline pumping through our veins like fire.

We reach the first house and I notice the beast start to dive. I don’t bother with shutting the door behind me, I simply run through the house. Jumping over furniture and past forgotten family memories.

Behind me the house collapses as I run. The roof falling down and consuming the kitchen and soon the living room. The noise of splintering support beams, shattering glass, porcelain, tile, and cracking concrete sounds out in the catastrophe of a collapsing structure.

We make it out and break for the next house across the street. Thomas simply plowing through the front door with his shoulder. Behind us, the beast continues to tear through the remains of the house. Ripping out whole sections of the building and flinging them about as it digs to try and find us.

Looking over, it catches sight of us as we run into the next building. I turn away as I witness it clamber over the ruined pile of what used to be a home.

We move through the house, and I bark out orders before we exit out the back.

“Hide and seek! No firing unless you have to! Break visual contact and hide until they leave!”

“I don’t think that one will! Its smarter than the others!”

“I don’t give a shit! Unless you’ve got a better idea, this is all we can do!”

We make it out the back, not having stopped running for a second. As we leave, the building explodes behind us as the beast smashes into it. Something heavy flies onto my back and smacks my armor, threatening to knock me over, but I catch my footing and keep running.

Another house, another house, another house. We move from building to building not moving in a straight line as we try to get as much distance as we can from the damn thing.

We stop several houses later, breathing heavily and hugging the walls. Through the busted open window next to us we can see at the beast savages another building a couple of blocks away. Plumes of dust being thrown up into the air as it tears away at it with savage abandon.

With a mighty roar, it takes off into the air and starts to circle in the sky, scanning the ground as it passes overhead. In the sky, it continues to call out, its voice sounding out far and wide. The other creatures in the area, still prowling as they search for their lost targets are soon thrown into frenzy as they hear its calls. Throwing their heads back, those that can join in, howl and scream towards the sky.

“Shit!”

The creatures, thrown into a frenzy, begin to attack the houses around them, tackling the walls and busting in through windows. Across the street, a particularly tanky looking beast turns and charges towards our house.

“Move damnit!”

We break for the exit as it plows through the walls like a professional football player running through a defensive line made of children.

Making our way out and across another street and to another house, a roar breaks out overhead.

We almost make it to the door, until I am tripped and fall to the ground screaming. A white-hot pain lances its way up my right leg as I fall to the ground. Looking down, I find a meter long spike speared through my lower calf.

I curse as I look down the street and find a quadrupedal monster with forward facing spines adorning its shoulders and back. It had apparently fired them at us and managed to hit me.

Thomas and Sander double back to come and grab me. To try and drag me away to safety. But I can see the flying beast going for its dive.

With a mighty roar it folds it four wings and quickly drops towards us. Hurtling at us with amazing speed and growing larger and larger as it draws near.

I open my mouth and breath in, ready to yell out the order to open fire, knowing full well that it will accomplish nothing, “Open fir….!”

Something small and fast smashes into the side of the beast’s face, throwing it off course as it is forced to turn in the air. It crashes shoulder first into the road with a loud crack before sliding and tumbling over the spike throwing monster and into the side of a house. The structure crumbles down around it as it flails about and calls out angrily and in pain.

For a few moments we are shocked to silence as we watch, but our training quickly kicks in and Sanders and Thomas hurry to lift me, bringing me away from the flailing beast and into another house.

Setting me down on a rotting couch, Thomas moves over to the window while Sanders tends to my leg. Snapping the spike close to the leg but still keeping it in, he pours disinfectant on both sides of the wound before wrapping it all with gauze and securing the spike in place.

I curse as he works, just wanting him to rip the damn thing out, but I know that if he does, I might very well bleed out.

From the window, Thomas calls out to us, “Someone is fighting that thing!”

Through my light headedness I ask, “What the hell are you saying!?”

“Someone is fighting that thing with a sledgehammer or something! I don’t know, it’s hard to tell.”

Outside I can hear the crash of another building falling, I look out the window through exhausted eyes just in time to watch as the beast goes charging past, swatting at something small that keeps dodging it blows. Its top right limb hangs uselessly to its side as it rampages, chasing after the small target like a cat after a mouse.

Thomas starts cursing and turns back to us, “They’re turning this way! We need to move!”

He rushes over and scoops me into his arms, Sanders running up ahead as he gets the door to the back yard. Rushing outside, we turn as we hear a loud crash. Soon a small figure is plowing through the wall and being launched out into the back yard with us in a shower of rubble and wood.

Hitting the ground and rolling a couple of times, it smacks the ground with an arm before flipping over and landing on their feet, sliding to a stop.

“Oi, you fucking fluffy dragon! Stop throwing me through fucking walls!!! Are trying to break my other horn!?” She angrily screams, sharp canines showing as she grits her teeth.

A girl, no, a young woman. Her skin is grey like ash and her hair is a deep black. Her yellow eyes shine with anger over black sclera, and a tail tipped with a black tuft of hair angrily whips behind her as she curses. Her clothes are a tattered mess, having torn through the walls of buildings, and she is covered in dust and blood.

Her eyes fall on us and surprise fills her face, “Oh the soldiers… What the hell are doing you here!? Run!”

Hardly a moment later the thing she called a fluffy dragon, comes tearing through the house and launches itself at her. It doesn’t even so much as spare us a glance as we bolt.

I watch over Thomas’s shoulder as he runs, the dragon swings it arms as she dodges around. Rolling under blows and jumping from walls only to have them destroyed a second latter by a swinging limb. Finding an opening she aims for the creature's head with her hammer but the dragon reals back its head before the blow can land, swatting at her with a paw that could crush a full-grown man and knocking her from the air.

“We have to help her!”

“The hell you talking about!?” Sanders yells, “I hardly understand what the hell is going on back there and you want us to help!?”

“That an order Sanders!” I yell. A short spell of dizziness hitting me.

I shake my head and force it to focus.

“She is fighting that thing. If she loses, it goes back to hunting us! And we are soldiers; we don’t just leave civilians behind to fight monsters by themselves!”

"She doesn't look like a civilian; she looks like a demon..." He says apprehensively.

"That an order damn it!"

“Alright damnit! But what the hell are we supposed to do? That thing doesn’t give a shit about bullets!”

“I don’t know, look for an opening to help and take it!”

We turn around and chase after the fighting pair, Thomas setting me beside a building as he pulls up his LMG and levels it at the beast. Sanders follows suite, aiming his M16 and tracking the pair as they move.

Around the area, the surrounding monsters stand back, anything that gets to close quickly finding themselves crushed underfoot or thrown aside. At one moment, a particularly unlucky one gets reduced to bloody chunks as the grey woman gets smashed into it like a cannon ball, after getting slapped aside.

The battle slowly turns towards us as they fight, the strange grey woman being forced more and more onto the defensive as she dodges around. To the left, under a swing, back away from a bite, parry aside a stab of the tail's spikes with her hammer head. She continues to backpedal away and give ground as the beast attacks with savage furry.

Finally, it makes a mistake. It trips over its own broken limb and stumbles. The young woman rushes forward to attack, and the dragon goes for a bite.

“Now! Fire!”

With a crack of gun fire, Thomas and Sanders open fire on its face and force it to flinch, closing its eyes as bullets ping against its face.

She doesn’t hesitate. Moving in with an underhand blow, she swings her hammer up and into its jaw. With inhuman force, its head is forced back as a crack of breaking bone rings out.

The dragon reels in pain as she charges forward. With its head no longer in range, she runs under it and swings for its back leg. Another crack rings out as the leg breaks and the dragon falls to its side.

Hitting the ground, it roars out in pain. She moves to target its head, but as she does, I see as the tail of the dragon moves.

“Watch out!” I scream from my spot by the wall.

Either not hearing me or failing to react in time, the twin tail snakes around and smacks her aside. She goes flying out of view with a string of curses as she soars over a building.

The dragon shakes it head and locks eyes with us, one side of its jaw hanging limply open and dripping with blood. Rolling over and dragging itself with its four good limbs, it moves itself towards us at a horrifying speed despite dragging two useless limbs behind it. Jaw hanging half open on one side and sabretooth fangs on full display, it rushes towards us, opening its mouth to devour us whole.

Sanders curses and moves to grab me, but he will be to slow. Thomas, being the wall of a man that he is, moves to block the charging dragon with his own body. To buy us a precious few seconds to run.

It draws near and all I can see is the gapping maw of its open mouth full of serrated teeth.

As it is about to bite down on Thomas, a small figure moves in front of him and pushes him back.

The dragon clamps its jaws down on the girl and she screams.

Her right arm is caught within the jaw of the beast, from where she stands, digging her feet into the ground, she hugs its head and holds it back, digging her feet into the ground. Black-red blood flows down her side and out of the dragon's mouth as she screams. Her voice a mix of rage and pain as she holds the massive beast back.

Turning to behind her, she calls out to Thomas and holds out a hand, “You! Give me a grenade!”

She has tears flowing down her dirty and bloody face, but she clenches her teeth and makes it known that it was not a request.

Thomas removes a grenade from his bandolier and tosses it to her waiting palm.

Catching the grenade, she holds it with her teeth. Taking her left hand, she starts to violently punch and slash at the creature's face, clawing and stabbing at its fur covered skin with her claws. Red tracks of flowing blood open up where her claws rake against its hide, fur being ripped away with each slash.

The dragon raises it head as high as it can, carrying her into the air and shaking her about. She holds on to its mouth as hard as she can until a kick to its broken jaw finally forces it to release her right arm from its mouth. With her arm finally free, she manages to pull herself away from its mouth and up its face, dodging a scratching paw trying to remove her.

Sitting before its eyes and holding on tightly with her legs, she pulls the grenades pin with her teeth and plunges the grenade, fist and all, into its eye.

With a roar, the dragon swings at its own face and slaps her off. She lands with a crash onto a nearby roof.

The dragon roars one final time as it claws at its own face in pain; the grenade goes off a couple seconds later. Its head disappearing in an explosion of red mist and bone shrapnel. Thomas and Sanders manage to pull me behind a building just in time to avoid being hit by a rain of flying shards.

The surroundings go quite as the dragons body collapses in a heap. The ground shaking as its massive frame finishes its fall. Three seconds of silence, that is all we get until the roars of other monsters fill the area. We brace ourselves for more creatures to come pouring in, to swarm us. But the calls start to draw distant, the sound of running paws and stamping hooves are not approaching, but are instead sounding from further away with each passing second.

I back up and knock into a wall. Sliding down to the floor, I sit there and stare in shock. The monsters are running away, and laying about twenty meters away from us is the corpse of what might as well be a fucking dragon.

A dragon that was just killed by a woman about half my size.

Is this real!?

Beside me, Sanders is cheering, throwing rocks and curses at the giant corpse while laughing like a mad man.

“Sanders! Sanders come here; I have something to tell you.”

“What is it, Sandy?” He responds with a manic smile.

“Come here, down here to me.” I say, wave for him to come.

He does so and I grab him by his chest plate. Pulling him in, I plant a kiss on his lips; holding him there until I am satisfied and pushing him back. He tastes like sweat and dirt, and I love it.

Face flushed red and stumbling over himself, he tries his best to work up a question, “Wha, what the hell? Why did you kiss me!?”

“Wanted to make sure I was still alive.”

“So you kissed me! Wha, wh, whyy wou, would you do tha, that?” He studders out.

“Huh!? Because I love you, you dumbass! Why the hell else would I do that!?” I yell.

He freezes up. His face stuck in a state of shock and red like a cherry.

….

….

“Thomas, I think I broke him…”

“Don’t worry, he’s just a dumbass. Give him a little bit to turn his gears and he’ll be back soon. I’m going to go check on that grey girl.”

He walks off, looking utterly exhausted as I continue to watch Sanders do his best impression of a statue.

Well, at least I got to finally confess. We came way too close to dying there…