Tirena's Story

The night is cold as our pack quietly roams through the deserted streets of some forgotten city. Unlike the others, I'm dressed in a thick tunic and heavy gloves I can tell already that the others have never been here, we're all spread far apart, searching the streets for a perfect place to set loose our package.

Erica is trudging a few paces ahead of me, walking in the center of us all with the flame in the palm of her hand being our only light. Like the others, In front her was Kamron, leading the way like he usually does and to Erica's sides are Polly and Jack. Every few minutes they would disappear from my sight to scout the grounds ahead of Kamron, while Peirce and I took up the back. Unlike the others, we're walking together. He mumbles quietly under his breath, sometimes speaking so quickly it's hard for me to understand him, yet I don't have to know every word. To our pack, this city is just another wasted life, but to us, it was everything.

The skyscrapers loom broken and crumbling over us. Every so often, you'll hear rumbling in the distance, mixed in with the screeches of metal and iron twisting against each other. After all these years, the buildings have never stopped falling and it doesn't take much to bring them down anymore. There is a delicate wind this night, blowing down stories like dust. The rubble falls into the icy snow with a sickly crunch. It scares me to hear them fall, especially since I knew of a time where they used to be so strong. And what a time that was. Just six years ago there was life and prosperity in this city. Through out the entire world. I was ten years old at the time and I saw nothing of the corruption that doomed the future of the human race. I was blind and ignorant, so much was happening around me that looking at it now I'm incredulous to my own behavior.

Another rumble sounds in the distance and I can feel the vibrations in the soles of my shoes.

I could have done something to stop it if only I had been able to see. Then logic kicked in, at ten years old? So much was wrong with the way I'd been thinking lately. I could do nothing as a ten year old to stop what was happening in the world.

Many tried and rebellions rose, but none of them could.

It was unknown to many why the nation leaders and great figures of the world could not stop the simplistic brilliance of a seventeen year old prodigy. Though to us, it was all too clear. Brilliance was not the only thing his mind perfected...

A spot on my shoulder burned in the freezing cold and I bit down on my lip to stop a small wince that threatened to escape my throat. Sadly, though, I couldn't stop the twitch and Peirce shifted his head towards me at the sudden movement. His eyes narrowed, "Will you stop thinking about it?" he hissed quietly, his lips barely moving. I shot him a look, I couldn't speak with out Erica or anyone else hearing me. Unlike Peirce, I did not have that uncanny ability to do anything undetected as he an the others did. I was the only human in our tight, little pack. And I was one of the only humans remaining on earth. The human race was considered a dying breed, though I always saw it as being terminated.

Ahead of us, Kamron stopped, raising a hand to stop us too. He turned his head back towards Erica and she dropped her hand, the flame disappearing instantly and suddenly we were all plunged into a sea of darkness. My body tensed as Peirce grabbed hold of my elbow, ready to guide me. As much as my eyes had grown used to the dark, I still couldn't see as well as the others could. A low murmur rippled through us, like a warning hum. We've got one.

I closed my eyes and let my ears do the seeing now. The wind carried the sound of crunching bones over to our ears and the five of us closed the open circle that surrounded Erica, tightening the spaces at her sides to keep the creature we heard from finding any openings at her. This was our strategy for every mission. Erica always held the package and we had to protect her at all costs. If the package she carried was harmed before she set it loose, then we would be it's targets. Kamron locked arms with Jack and Polly, while they locked arms with Pierce and me. "Erica, bring out the package now," I whispered into her ear. She nodded once, needle thin markings began outlining the skin of her arm and exposed shoulder in an angry red glow.

At the sound of my voice, the creature Kamron spotted slid out from the shadows of an overturned bus. "Hellfire Sleeper," Jack whispered in my ear, knowing I could only see the purple fire of it's eyes clearly. Half of me wish that my little gadget whiz hadn't have said anything. Sleepers were among the nastiest of Hellfire creatures born from the human race. Yes, dreaded monsters such as Sleepers are what's left of the humanity as I once knew. I could hear it's lithe body step carefully through the ash black snow. Sleepers were cat-like creatures with sickly gray skin and long, wiry black hair, their naked bodies were the only evidence that they'd once been human. Quite often, their faces took odd shapes. I tried, but couldn't see the details of this particular sleeper, but I could just barely make out the formation it's head made. It's chin was pointed as was the top of it's head, almond shaped. And it's eyes stood out the most, slitted and Hellfire purple, a very deadly color in my opinion. It growled at us, a grinding sound forcing its way out of it's throat.