Hazelwood, Cansidia; seven years ago...
"Rena, dear, what have I told you about playing in the marshes?" My mother softly scolded. I was a wet mess, having fallen into one of the grass weed marshes found all around my home.
"You... you told me not to?" I whimpered.
"Yes, that's right. Do you know why I told you not to?"
"Because you said it was dangerous..."
"Then why did you go?"
I folded my arms behind my back and turned my feet inwards, feeling a little embarrassed. A couple of other kids and I had decided to go down into the Cansidia marshes to collect hyrone fossils. Fossils of this extinct creature are very common in Cansidia.
"Me and Ruby were going to collect fossils... and she said the marshes were the best place to find them."
My mother looked at me with more sadness than anger, although I don't believe it was really her intention to look at me that way. I didn't say anything, but I was begining to become worried. My parents had been acting strangely for the past week or so. Their usual daily routine habits were different, as if something was bothering them. My mom and dad would usually take me down to the city where we would go to the park and the central mall and have fun every three days or so. But so far we haven't left the house in nine days, which is unusual for us. My dad had been overly tense, and my mom had been overprotective to a fault since a week and a half ago. She monitored my actions more closely than she did before, and she always had a close eye on who I'm with, regardless of adult or child. I suppose there's nothing wrong with that; typical mom behavior for most people, I guess. But it was almost like having a second shadow. She wasn't normally like this.
"Please don't go back into those marshes anymore, okay?" She said, trying to smile. "Those marshes are more dangerous than they look on the outside. If you fall into one of the sinkholes, there's no telling if anyone will be able to get you out." I nodded and decided to go back into the house and dry up.
"Oh, and Rena, don't forget; raid locusts have been spawning this year. Be extra careful when playing outside." I nodded to her and opened the back door, stepping inside.
I went up to my room and began to change my clothes. And as I began to look for something suitable to wear, I began to think more and more about the strange condition of my parents. Of course I had noticed that things had been different lately, but now I really began to think about why they had been acting this way.
I thought about my dad and what he had been like the past week. His body had been showing signs of fatigue, I could see and feel that very clearly. He had also been under severe mental and physical strain, although he tried not to show it. They could not hide their problems from me even as hard as they had been trying lately. I could see their condition as clearly as someone reading a book.
My mom was also under strain, but not like my father's. Me and my father train regularly; he's a national league champion fighter and prone to physical fatigue. But the type of physical fatigue my father had been showing was due to mental strain. A responsible fighter would never allow his or herself to be under any type of physical fatigue for this long of a period of time; it was very unprofessional. But it just seemed as though my father was weakening steadily every day, trying to grasp with some sort of problem that was not yet apparent to me. My mother was most likely under strain because she had hardly been getting any sleep lately. I could see the lack of rest in her eyes when I looked at her, and once more I began to wonder what was bothering her, what was bothering both of them.
I found myself a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and decided that that was enough. It was more comfortable going barefoot anyway. I walked through my living room and looked at the pictures of me and my parents on the wall. Many of them were taken recently either at the central mall or Unity Park. Some of them were around-the-house pictures. But the pictures that I really liked to look at were the ones of my mother and father when they still participated in the world martial arts tournaments that were held in Febrial, Cansidia; a town located a few miles from here. My parents are really powerful fighters. And every day after school my dad would train with me in the backyard.
As I began to make my way back to the backdoor I began to have a strange feeling. I didn't know what it was; it was more horrible than anything I had ever felt before. The entire atmosphere felt different, as if something dark and evil had enveloped my entire house.
I made it two feet away from the front door before I felt my knees began to wobble. I was completely confused. What was wrong with me?
Somehow I managed to snap out of whatever was affecting me and make it out of the door. My parents were standing by the great oak tree that stood at the edge of the forest, the forest that led to one of the grass weed marshes. Instead of running over towards them, I just sat on the stairs by the backdoor, observing. Maybe if I looked hard enough I would be able to figure out what was wrong. My mother was crying again, hugging my father around his waist. My father held her close with a look of serious concern on his face. They were talking, but I could not hear what the conversation was about. They didn't notice me sitting on the stairs in front of the house watching them, waiting for some sort of answer.
And then the answer came as a beam of fire from the sky.
The shockwave from the blast was so powerful it knocked me to the ground. I searched frantically for my parents. Were where they?!
My eyes shot back to the oak tree. The oak tree was gone. In it's place was an imploded stump. But I could see my parents on the ground struggling to their feet. The beam had only hit the tree, not them. I was relieved, but only for a moment. Where had the beam come from in the first place?
I ran over towards my parents, but before I could reach them something huge and colossal flew over my head and blotted out the sun. It was coming from behind me, quaking the ground in it's wake. And from what I could see, it appeared to be a large ship of some kind.
"Mom!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, trying to shout over the noise. Somehow over all of the racket that the ship was making she managed to hear me.
"Rena! Get out of here and run!" She cried out. My parents were both trying to regain their footing. I heard what my mother had said, but I wasn't listening. I was afraid and I knew that if I somehow made it next to them everything would be okay.
I made it within five feet of them before another horrific beam lanced the ground right in front of me. The force threw me at least a foot back, but somehow my parents managed to escape the blast. I couldn't see through all of the dust and smoke, but then I felt my mothers arms around my shoulders.
"Rena, are you okay?" She said, her voice shaking like a leaf.
"Y-yes, I think so. Mommy, what's going on? What is that ship?"
She looked around for a moment at the transformed surroundings, and then looked back at me.
"Mommy doesn't have time to explain right now, but I promise I will later, okay?"
"Mom..."
My father found his way next to us somehow. I could only assume the reason that the ship hadn't re-fired was because we were enveloped in the smoke and debris.
"Cherone, get Amarene out of here as fast as you can. I'll try to hold off these bastards as long as I can."
"Don't even think about trying to take these guys alone, Alloren. I'll get Rena to safety and meet you back here."
"Cherone, I can't risk--"
"Don't try to be a hero, Alloren!"
Somewhere above us in the dusty cloud we were trapped in I began to see a spiral of light appear above us. Every second it appeared to be intensifying in strength.
"Cherone, they're beginning to fire again. Take Amarene to safety now!"
I felt myself being dragged off again as another explosion went off. I prayed my father hadn't been caught in that.
My mother and I made it to the edge of the forest. But we didn't go any further. Slowly, almost delicately, my mother looked down at me and placed her hands on my shoulders.
"Rena, mom can't go with you this time, okay? I need you to get out of here as fast as you can. We'll try to look for you later, but there's something that we must handle now."
I was confused. What was she talking about? And what was going on?
"No, let's go. Let's go together." I said to her while clutching to her hand, trying to get her to change her mind. I can't leave by myself! I'm only five!
Another blast was fired and my mother looked behind her in panic. All I could see was dust and debris again.
"Rena, run as far as you can into the marshes."
"But you told me--"
"Listen! Run as far as you can into the marshes and don't look back. Just keep running."
I couldn't move. All I could do was just look at her.
My mom took a glance back towards the house, and then back at me. And then she bent down and gave me a tight hug.
"I can't go with you this time, Rena. I need you to run and get away from this place as fast as you can. Go somewhere they can't find you. I promise we'll come back to look for you when this is over."
I wanted to ask her who these people were that I was running from, but she had already gotten up and left me. I understood what she wanted me to do, but I couldn't move. For some reason I couldn't will my legs to move me away from the scene of horror my home had now been converted to.
Another beam lanced from the sky, and this one hit the ground half a foot away from me. I flew backwards and hit a tree, bruising my right wing. I didn't think this time. I just ran. All I wanted was to get away from that horrible energy ray.
I ran for what seemed like an hour into the grass weed marsh. It seemed like I had ran ten miles, but when I looked behind myself I could see that I had only ran a hundred feet or so. I could still hear explosions, and I wondered if my parents were ok. Why didn't they tell me? If this is what was bothering them, how come they didn't tell me before? This was too much to take all at once. Ten minutes ago my home was perfectly normal. Now I couldn't even see it through all of the dust in the air from energy explosions.
I stood in place for at least half a minute, trying to think. My mom had told me to run, but I was too afraid to advance deeper into the marsh. I had already gone further into the marsh than I had ever gone before, and I didn't know whether I felt safer going forward into god-knows-where or running back towards my house which was busy being bombarded by the energy beam.
After a while I decided to turn back. Not because of my fear of the marsh, however. Instead, it was because I couldn't bear to leave my mother or father back there at the house facing some enemy that was unknown to me. I ran as fast as I could, trying to shake off the fear that was begining to re-consume my body. It was the same feeling I felt right before I stepped outside the house.
I made it back to the edge of the forest that opened up to the clearing where my house was. The debris and dust had finally settled down. But in it's place was a very, very bad scene. My parents were standing fifty feet away or so with their backs turned towards me, but in front of them and on side of them was a massive militia of black-armored troops. Were those the people after my parents? Who were they?
One of them in front of my parents began to speak to them, but I couldn't make out what he was saying. He was standing too far away, but I could only guess he was giving an order or demand of some sort. My father said something back, which caused the man to stand back a step or so. He then looked at his fellow troops along side of him, made some kind of motion with his hand, and then turned back towards my parents. Almost instantaneously, ten of the troops leveled what appeared to be some sort of weapons directly at my parents. He said something else, more angrily this time, and my parents looked at each other as if not sure what to do. I was scared, and unfortunately completely helpless in this situation. My parents would fight, of course. But I was nowhere near their level of skill in fighting to actually be of any help. I would only get in the way. So I couldn't think of anything else to do except sit and watch and see if my parents could make these unwanted guests go away.
The last thing I saw before everything went chaotic was my mother saying something to my father.
And then they were both gone.
The troops were completely surprised. I could tell they probably had never faced anyone that could move with that rate of speed.
Three seconds later my mom dropped behind the left flank of troops and my dad dropped behind the right. They had no idea that my parents were right behind them. At that moment I actually began to relax a little. The soldiers had made a big mistake in underestimating their opponents. Evidently the black-armored troops had no idea they were up against the two strongest warriors in all of Cansidia.
In an awesome rush of energy I could see my father powering up one of his most powerful techniques called the Seinko Wave. It was a skill he developed all on his own through training. The attack involved concentrating a very large amount of balanced internal energy and channeling it through the hands in the form of a rotating sphere. The troops directly in front of my father realized his intentions too late.
Way too late.
The first one that actually made it all the way around to look behind himself never even had the time to cry out a warning. The wave hit him point blank, atomizing nearly his entire body. The incredible blast of energy managed to shred it's way past half of the first flank before it detonated right in the middle of the remaining soldiers. I had seen my father fight before, but not with the ferocity and unmercifulness that he now showed these black armored soldiers. He wasn't fighting in a skillful manner. He just killed them.
The second flank of troops were so busy looking at their other team get cremated that they didn't even notice my mother powering up one of her own favorites. My mom's Thunder Wave hit them all squarely in their backs, immobilizing the entire flank at once. It wasn't as powerful as my father's Seinko Wave, but it was certainly more effective for deactivating a large amount of people at once. I looked back over to the carnage my father had caused. Of the entire flank of troops that was hit by that attack, I could only see three that were actually still conscious enough to stand (barely) on their feet. The others, as far as I could tell from my senses, were either already dead or dying. All of the troops that my mother were hit were deeply unconscious and probably wouldn't be getting up for a while.
The remaining flank of troops was the one that had been standing right in front of my parents before everything went crazy. They stood, dumbfounded. I didn't blame them. All in all, that entire scene I had just witnessed took less than five seconds. And within that time, two-thirds of their troops had been wiped out. By only two people. The one cocky soldier that had threatened my parents a few moments ago still seemed pompous and confident, however. He was right on the verge of commanding his remaining soldiers to attack when my parents once more disappeared. Of course, they really didn't disappear, but to the untrained eye they would hardly even appear as a blur.
I saw them clearly, though. My father had rushed and leaped a good ten feet into the air before crashing down right into the center of the remaining fleet of soldiers.
Two of them went down instantly. Three others aimed their weapons and prepared to fire. But I could see they were hesitant because their target was right in the center of them. They had to find some other way unless they were all going to ventilate each other with their own weapons.
My father had somehow ended up clear of the soldiers. And now with no human shield to protect him anymore, the soldiers were prepared to fire at will. Unfortunately for them, their weapons didn't work.
Great save, mom.
Somehow, she had managed to disable all of the soldiers weapons before they could fire. And with no weapons, they didn't stand a chance against both of my parents at the same time. There's nothing much to describe about the battle because it went so quickly. The soldiers almost appeared to be standing still as my parents masterfully -- and brutally -- beat the living daylights out of them. I almost laughed as the general, now with not a single troop left at his disposal, trembled slightly while trying to grip his useless weapon.
My parents had him cornered now, but he didn't look like he was going to go down without a fight. He drew a concealed sword that I hadn't realized he had and took up a fighters stance, daring them to approach him further.
It was a really stupid mistake. If there's one thing that was better than my father's martial arts, it was his swordplay. I was just now realizing that my father was armed with both of his. They were standard size, but the thing that made them purely unique was that there were no two other swords in the world like them. They were completely priceless.
The remaining soldier attacked...
...and went down in two pieces.
It was so sudden I didn't even see my father draw his sword. The entire movement escaped my vision.
The soldiers had been all wiped out, and I held some weird mixture of relief and happiness and disturbance within myself. But all of that changed to sudden fear when I realized that we had claimed no victory yet.
I never saw it before because there was still a lot of dust and debris being blown away by the wind from the house. But now the area towards the right side of my house began to clear.
The only thing that filled my vision was the massive, black ship that had fired on my parents only a little while ago.
I braced myself for the horrible energy ray, but it never came.
Instead, the front of the ship just opened and released -- I couldn't count them all -- at least forty more troops. This time in gold armor. And they didn't look as crummy as the last batch of soldiers my parents had dispatched. I could tell they were more trained. More dangerous.
There was no hesitation; no foreplay. The assault just began instantly.
My parents instantly took the defensive approach and bombarded them from afar as they came. But the soldiers were holding out more than the previous ones. Their armor actually seemed to be protecting them from the energy dispersals my parents fired.
The distance between them closed rapidly. Fifty feet. Thirty-five. Twenty. Fifteen.
The first line of soldiers leaped forward!
It was almost amazing. The soldiers' capabilities seemed to be almost superhuman. But my parents were unwavering. My father stood his ground defensively, and at the last moment as the gold armored soldier descended on him, he drew both swords simultaneously and slammed them into the soldier's midsection.
The soldier seemed to shudder, his body silently quaking. My father then removed both swords with a very loud sound that kind of resembled Velcro, only it sounded a lot wetter. It almost made me throw up.
My mother wasn't faring as well as my father. She really had no weapon except a long bow that she used to practice shooting targets a while back. Not only was that weapon in the house, I don't believe it would have served much of a purpose in this battle against the gold armored soldiers.
A couple of the soldiers got in a few good hits on my mother, knocking her to her knees. Then one of them began to charge something that looked like a weapon. Yet, he held no weapon of any kind. I then realized that all of the soldiers had weapons concealed within their armor.
Before the soldier could finish, though, my mother had already sent a tremendous blast of electric current through the entire mob of soldiers surrounding her. It knocked them down hard, but they already seemed to be regaining their footing.
It seemed incredibly tough, but slowly yet surely my parents were actually beginning to turn the soldiers back. Half of them lay injured or dead on the field already. But I began to see the reason for the soldiers' retreat. It wasn't because of my parents.
It was because the ship was preparing to fire again.
In a blinding flash of light, I could see the beam erupt from the main cannon of the ship. It arced towards my parents like some kind of killer light beam. Both dodged just in the knick of time, but quite a few of the soldiers weren't so lucky. It was madness! The ship was firing on it's own troops to hit my parents!
The beam had missed my parents entirely and made off with about seven of the gold armored soldiers, but I could see that it had definitely hit a much wider target. In a blazing explosion, my entire house went up in a blaze. My entire home simply dilapidated.
The ship began to re-fire, but I could see that it was not targeting my parents this time. Instead, it was targeting the troops that were either dead or knocked unconscious. The remaining troops retreated back to the ship.
I was astounded. What the heck were they trying to accomplish?
My parents dodged, but they hardly had to. But the one thing that confused me was that my parents were not surprised at what had just happened. I could no longer even recognize this place as being my home anymore now. The house was gone completely, and instead of hills of lush grass, the ground was simply transformed into jagged scars of dirt caused by the energy beam.
For a few moments, nothing happened. My parents stared at the ship, and the ship almost seemed to be staring right back at them.
The front of the ship began to open again. But this time it wasn't another militia of troops. Not another wave of soldiers.
A single figure stepped from the ship. Even from this distance I could tell it was not human.
It stood a hulking ten feet tall, completely covered on the outside with jet black armor. There was no doubt that it was a machine of some sort. The legs were bulky, interlocking plates of black steel and more black steel. And the midsection was completely smooth, with a V-shaped black metal piece on the outside that entirely covered and blended in with the body of the machine. It resembled a human by the form of arms, legs, and body, but other than that it didn't resemble a human at all. The ghastly creation was just about as wide as it was tall.
From the top, I could see what I could guess was the machine's head. It was black and also V-shaped, but big and swept backwards. And where the eyes should have been, there was simply a red visor with a demonic glow.
To my utter surprise, it began to speak.
<:: SENSORY DATA LOADED. MAINFRAME POWER OUTPUT AT 100%. ARTILLERY AND WEAPON SYSTEMS AT 100%. PRIORITY AND SUB-ROUTINE COMMANDS INITIATED. ALL INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL SENSES ONLINE. BGH-101 IS ONLINE::>
My parents took a few steps backwards. It frightened me a little because this was the first time they openly showed any fear.
The giant black monster took a couple of steps forward, shaking the ground. It stopped about twenty feet away from my parents. Then, the red visor part of his head began to glow again. Almost instantly, a bright read ray shot out from the visor and struck... the ground right where my parents had been standing. Even I was unable to see them dodge this time.
From where they ended up, I could clearly see that my father had dodged left and my mother right. They were both on opposite sides of the machine, and now with two targets instead of one, I could see that the machine was having a little difficulty deciding who to target first.
My parents unleashed a direct attack from both sides of the machine.
There was a giant flash, then an explosion. I was almost blinded for a moment, but the light show didn't last that long.
To my disappointment, as far as I could tell, the machine had not been damaged at all. And it finally seemed to have decided who to target first.
The black machine turned faster than I thought possible towards my father and lifted both "arms" so that they were at level with his body. And then, almost like some kind of crimson flower of death, both arms blossomed open with a reddish glow and fired multiple rounds of energy cannon.
My father dodged, or at least tried to dodge, the massive onslaught, but it was coming on too severe to avoid completely. At least three bursts hit him in his right leg, and five more collided with his chest. But the machine didn't stop. It continued to fire, fire, and fire without any type of feeling.
The entire field went alive with electricity! The machine, which had previously had a jet black hue, now glowed a vibrant blue color. It seemed to no longer be able to fire, but even under my mother's electric maelstrom it was still able to move. And it moved right towards her and slapped her away like an annoying insect. Almost at the same time my father fired five more concentrated bursts of energy at the head of the hulking mechanical beast. Still, from both attacks, no damage seemed to be caused.
My parents were doing well by keeping separated and firing whenever they had the chance, sometimes with energy attacks and at other times directly physical, but in the end it wasn't working. The machine, when it got the chance, caused damage, but my parents couldn't even scratch it through all of their efforts. They slowly wore down as the machine stayed constant.
And then the end of the battle came.
My father rushed up desperately, a sword in both hands, and actually managed to penetrate the machine with both right above the V-piece armor. And my mom, understanding my father's intentions, sent a huge bolt of lightning right into him; which flowed directly into the mechanical behemoth. There were giant sparks and flashes, and my father flew back from the shock of the force. He was still conscious, but completely done in. I didn't think he could get back up if he tried. My mother was also completely exhausted.
The machine staggered a little from the attack, but it still seemed to be operating normally. It took a few steps forward, ignoring the flashing sparks jumping in front of it's face.
Then it kneeled over.
At first I thought they had actually severely hurt it. A sudden rush of hope welled up within me. They could still win this!
But I soon realized that it was not kneeling from damage at all.
From the back, I could see something emerge. It was cylindrical in size, and about half as long as the machine was tall. It slowly extended, aligning with the back of the machine, until it extended about a foot past it's head and aligned perfectly at level with my parents. It began to charge with glowing energy, the back of the strange tube pulsating with a burning red glow that increased every second.
They just sat there, staring. My father couldn't move, and there was no way my mother was going to leave him there. Neither of them had any strength left to fight back or even deter the attack that was coming towards them. They already did all they could.
Slowly, almost in a dreamlike fashion, it fired.
The mechanical cylinder flew towards my parents, and before I could even cry out to say something, anything, it impacted and detonated right on them.
I was so shocked, so deathly mesmerized by what had just happened, my brain couldn't even register the sound of the explosion that was going on right in front of me. The only thing that filled my field of vision was a sea of red and orange and crimson swirling together in a cauldron of death and despair.
The explosion finally died down, and my eyes were still transfixed on the same spot where my parents had once been sitting twenty seconds ago. Even the ground that they had been sitting on was no longer there anymore. Just a huge crater. I was stunned. Just ten minutes ago they were fine. In perfect condition. Now they were gone. Completely. I was too paralyzed in despair to even cry.
The gold armored soldiers re-emerged from the ship now, probably searching for any remains. But there was nothing. The house was gone. My parents were gone. Even the landscape that had been there previously was gone. What in the world were they looking for?
The soldiers conversed among themselves, as if trying to figure out something. The black armored machine, the monster that had killed my parents, simply stood there, waiting. The damage my parents had caused before they died had somehow been repaired.
Three of them were poking around were the house once stood. They were definitely looking for something that should have been in the house. A few others were checking the woods and the road that extended from behind where the house used to be.
Very, very slowly, it began to dawn on me what they were looking for.
Maybe it was the tone in her voice when my mother told me to run, or maybe it was something else, but something was begining to come together in my mind. They didn't try to capture my parents. It was clear that they had intentionally tried to kill them. What confused me was why the one head soldier would waste his time talking to someone he was about to kill. Even in my five-year old mind, it didn't seem to make sense. Unless they were asking them something.
Something like; where was I?
All of them. Looking for me.
Five more were slowly turning to head in my direction.
I forced myself to my feet, my entire body trembling. I staggered, trying not to fall back to the ground under the severe mental strain I was under. I made it three feet before I tripped and fell over a tree root that made a loud SNAP!
That got about five soldiers' attention.
It would have been smart to stay down so it would have been more difficult to track where the sound came from. More importantly, it would have been more difficult for them to track me. Instead, I simply jumped up and ran.
I didn't bother to turn around to see if they were following me. I ran, ran, ran until I thought my legs would fall from my body. But I didn't really know how to maneuver all that well in the marshes. I ended up having to wade completely through one spot because I made a wrong turn, but who could tell which way was right or wrong? The paths, if you could even call them paths, winded everywhere, sometimes even going in circles. But a lot of them simply led right into a watery marsh. I was running so blindly in terror I didn't even have any time to conjure up the fear of falling into one of the deep marsh pits that my mother said could swallow kids like me whole. I simply didn't have any time to be afraid of things like that because of the even greater fear of having what happened to my parents happen to me.
Finally, after running for what seemed like hours, I couldn't run anymore. I was purely exhausted, lost, wet, and orphaned. My body was resting up against a tree as I sat on the ground, drained in every corner of my body. I didn't hear anyone. Maybe I really did lose them.
A big, fat, shiny green bug landed in front of me. Two feet long, with long whiplike antenna. I recognized it as a raid locust, one of the largest insects in the world. My mother had told me they spawned this year. In disgust, I kicked it away. I really couldn't stand insects.
The vile creature recoiled against my kick and sent out a loud shrilling sound that reminded me of a really old car my father once had before he used it for target practice one day.
"Hey, what was that?" A voice said from behind. How? How did they catch up to me so quickly?
The stupid insect was steady making that horrible shrilling noise, and I cursed it for revealing my location. I wasn't caught yet, but I might as well had been. I really had nowhere to run. And even if I did, I didn't have the energy to make it there.
The raid locust flew away from me at high speed. It made it ten feet away from me before a red beam lanced across and atomized it.
"Steele, what's your status?"
"Fine, Lou. Just another one of those damn bugs."
"Any sign of the alleged kid?"
"None so far. I'm not sure if he made it this far yet. We may have passed him."
As I was listening to this conversation go on, another raid locust fell from the tree above directly onto my face.
Normally I probably wouldn't have, but under the circumstances it was reasonable what I did. The insect scared me so badly that I completely panicked. That started off with screaming.
"What in the...?"
I couldn't help it then. My little body fluctuated with power and I pulsed out a severe heat wave through my body. The insect, now wrapped in flames, flew away from my face, and the tree, now also wrapped in flames, tilted and fell right towards the soldier on my left. I hadn't meant for that to happen, but it had and now there was nothing else I could do except run. Or at least try to.
"We have visual confirmation! The child is running north, bearing--"
I was too far away to hear anything else he said. But I could definitely hear people running towards my position now. But before I could see who was following me I tripped and fell into nothingness. I had not anticipated the short hill that had suddenly appeared in front of me, and now I was tumbling all the way down, crashing into the miniature river at the bottom.
I forced myself up, standing to my feet. That's when I saw it in front of me. A pure black physical manifestation of death. And I knew that I was no match. That I probably would never be a match for anything that powerful. Not that I would live long enough to live up to my inadequacy anyway. How did something that large find me so quickly?
It raised it's one arm towards me and fired two metallic pins, both sticking into my chest. It hurt, but not as much as I expected it to. I decided that I was not going to go down without a fight, no matter how powerful my foe. I started towards it, but for some reason my vision began to become very cloudy. My body began to feel as if it were floating, and it almost seemed like I could fly and float right through the nightmare machine standing in front of me. I knew that I had been tranquilized, but it didn't matter now. Everything was so peaceful. Slow and peaceful... I could feel my body sleepily falling, falling towards a swirling black abyss that led to...
Chapter 1
Black was my first thought.
Oh... I left the lights off.
Struggling to my feet from my desk, I walked over to the other side of the room and flicked the lights on. I glanced at my clock. 6:35AM. Fifty-five minutes before my first class.
Class... oh shoot! My report!