| Twilight of the Apocalypse | |||||||
| Chapter 5: Captured | |||||||
| Free Haven- Trimoire Island 0735 hours, 15 June 2016 | |||||||
| A horrible scream, and the ceiling splintered. The wooden boards came crashing | |||||||
| down on us. As I wiped the dust off my visor, I spied a 'creature' in the midst of | |||||||
| the rubble. | |||||||
| "What the heck is that?" Ryan exclaimed. | |||||||
| As the soldier stepped forward cautiously, the 'creature' rose. Bits and pieces | |||||||
| of wood fell to the floor as it shook its body slowly. | |||||||
| The creature roared once, and its nightmarish body was revealed as red bio-lights | |||||||
| on the creature's abdomen and back lit up its fearsome form. I reeled back in | |||||||
| terror and fear as the creature's six eyes- three on each side of its head- turned | |||||||
| to look at me. Those red, lidless eyes stared so intently at me. It then shifted | |||||||
| its gaze to the others in the room. | |||||||
| "Oh.." Ryan gasped, his face pale and hysterical. | |||||||
| "Ryan, fall back!" I cried. | |||||||
| The beast was huge, at least 3 metres tall. Its back was covered with a writhing | |||||||
| mass of long tentacles, with sharp talons at the ends. Two arms dangled at its | |||||||
| sides and two strong legs supported its body. At it's rear, three monstrously | |||||||
| long tails waved in the air. The tails looked almost metallic and were silver in | |||||||
| colour. The rest of the creature's body was black and there appeared to be | |||||||
| an exo-skeleton on the exterior of the creature's body, instead of skin. | |||||||
| Without warning, one of the tentacles shot out and embedded into Ryan's | |||||||
| mid-section. The appendage broke through his combat armour, and buried | |||||||
| itself in his body. Another tentacle did the same, but this time, it smashed | |||||||
| into the soldier's helmet and through his skull. | |||||||
| The man's head exploded from the impact, and blood sprayed out of his skull | |||||||
| from where the tentacle made a hole in his head and helmet. The creature | |||||||
| withdrew its tentacle from the man's head, but the one in his body held him | |||||||
| in the air. | |||||||
| The dead soldier dangled on the tentacle for a moment, then dropped to the | |||||||
| ground in a mangled heap. The man's body was horribly mutilated. I stepped | |||||||
| forward. | |||||||
| "Open fire!" I yelled. | |||||||
| The room lit up as bullets left their weapons and hit the creature's tough | |||||||
| carapace. Parts of the creature remained unharmed by the projectiles, but | |||||||
| bits of carapace flew in all directions on many other areas under the | |||||||
| assault. The rounds penetrated the creature's oval-shaped head and again, | |||||||
| the creature roared. | |||||||
| I took out a dagger from a compartment in my suit and flung it hard at the | |||||||
| beast. The blade hit the creature's neck and severed its head from its bloody | |||||||
| torso. I let out a whoop and ceased fire. The others stopped firing too. | |||||||
| "Come on, let's go. This place isn't safe," I said to the survivors. | |||||||
| "You'd better hurry. There are more of them. I've seen how people who | |||||||
| have stood their ground and fought had died. Few have ever escaped them," | |||||||
| one of the survivors warned. | |||||||
| Blake took the rear and Adrian stayed with the men. I took the lead and | |||||||
| hurried the others out of the room and down the ladder we had used before. | |||||||
| "Dark Baron, we're out. Do you copy?" I spoke into the microphone built | |||||||
| into my helmet. | |||||||
| "Affirmative, I'm coming in," was the reply. | |||||||
| "Chopper's coming. ETA three minutes. Let's get the hell outta this place | |||||||
| and report our findings to GSN HQ. They've gotta see this mess," I said. | |||||||
| We reached the carpark without any more frightening encounters. I looked | |||||||
| up, expecting to see the chopper. Instead, I saw something even worse. | |||||||
| Two massive, cigar-shaped crafts were hovering in the sky above Free Haven. | |||||||
| The sides were covered in green lights and the bottom was glowing a deep | |||||||
| red. | |||||||
| The crafts had a powerful search-lights at the front. One of the beams fell | |||||||
| on us and the craft glided silently through the air in our direction. I staggered | |||||||
| back. The craft was at least a hundred metres long. The other craft moved | |||||||
| in the opposite direction, away from us. | |||||||
| I spotted the helicopter in the distance. As the chopper flew beneath the | |||||||
| alien' craft, a hole opened at the bottom of the craft and an orange beam | |||||||
| of light, so intense and brilliant, shot out. The chopper burst into flames, | |||||||
| and its burning wreckage fell to the ground. | |||||||
| "Nooo…" I silently cried. | |||||||
| "Watch out!" Adrian shouted. | |||||||
| I turned around and saw a dozen of the beasts moving at full speed | |||||||
| towards us. We started shooting, and the survivors ran about, trying | |||||||
| in vain to flee from the creatures. One by one, the survivors died, as claws | |||||||
| and tentacles ripped into their bodies. | |||||||
| One by one, my teammates fell to the ground, their corpses so bloody they | |||||||
| were almost unrecognizable. And one after another, the creatures came | |||||||
| towards me, their limbs stretching out, and reaching, for me… | |||||||
