[b]Landon POV[/b]
At the right of the room are bookshelves against the walls, and there's two windows overlooking the large wooden front porch. A door is next to the bookshelves entering into the main entrance area. The walls are painted red like a barn, including the walls on the second floor of the library. In the middle there are two blue couches facing each other, separated by a wooden coffee table.
Wyatt steps further in and I follow. The door we came from has a bookshelf extending to the ceiling of the second floor with a brick fireplace to the right of it, and next to the fireplace is another bookshelf equal in height. To the left of the door is a set of stairs, going onto the loft. A door is to the right of the stairs leading to an unknown room.
Axel is sitting on a blue couch on the loft next to a man in pyjamas holding a machine gun. "That's the guy?" James asks, looking to Axel. Axel has brown dirt bike gear with black accents, and a brown helmet with the same colour scheme. He has black gloves, and a tablet is attached to his pants above his knee guard.
Axel spots our group and waves. "Yo guys! Come up here." He says, pushing a bottle of root beer into his helmet for him to take a sip. We climb the stairs, and walk onto the loft. In front of the stairs is a door leading to the back balcony, and next to the door is the couch Axel and his buddy are sitting on.
White painted wooden railing line the L-shaped loft. The flooring is the same as the second floor, but it seems to have recently been swept. A low hum of an air conditioner inside a window next to me makes itself known. The couch they're sitting in has a pot of flowers on each side of it.
A door is beside their couch leading to somewhere that I don't know. At the right of the loft is a bookshelf on the wall. Further down the loft is a door leading to the front balcony on the side wall. And two bookshelves with another blue couch in between them sits neatly on the wall.
"How you been?" Axel asks me, pushing himself off the couch.
"Good, you?" I ask, dapping him up.
"Yep," He nods, looking towards the man on the couch. "Here's Mitchell. Just met him this morning."
We greet each other, Jason talks about what happened at the Hexagon with the breach. "I heard you guy's got a Titan up your way." Axel says, putting his hands on his belt.
"I didn't see nothing." Wyatt states, looking under the loft.
"I thought Winston was coming." I say, turning to Chris.
Chris looks back at me. "He is. Just not today."
"This storm's been going on for a while." The man named Mitchell says, Axel nods.
"Think there'll be a Titan?" Mitchell asks, sipping a can of cheap beer.
James nods frantically. "There was one heading towards here. We saw it on our train..." He says, looking at Mitchell.
"Shut your ass up, James." I state, shaking my head.
A man walks through the door beside the couch, he's holding a phone, and he sits on a couch on the end of the loft. "You guys wanna get dinner?" Axel asks, nodding his head towards the door the man came from.
"Sure..." Chris says, looking at the door. He leads us out of the room. I walk behind him and my boots hit the second floor, almost loft like space. A set of stairs is to the left of me a couple feet away leading upstairs. To the right is another set of stairs, this one is leading to the base floor though.
In front of me, there's another door, and next to that door is a staircase parallel to the staircase to the left of me. The wallpaper here is a dark yellow, and between the two stairs are two bookshelves. Axel keep walking and turns left. The floor extends, and there's a spacious spot to hang out at between the two left stairs. It has a couch, with a small coffee table in front of it facing us.
You can see the upstairs from here, the yellow flower pattern walls standing out. "You know, the first time I ever saw a Titan was when I was six." Jason says, walking past me. Wyatt follows Axel, as they both walk on the extension and walking down the stairs on the far side of the room.
"It was the wandering glory. I think I got traumatised by it." He says, and I catch up to them.
Andrew looks at Jason. "Well what did it do?" I walk on the main floor. The main lobby is pretty big. To the left of us is a window that looks inside the small dining room, it's empty. To the right is the rest of the room. The extension we were on looks like an indoor balcony, supported by wooden beams. Underneath it are three couches, all facing a table with a TV.
Behind the couches are two bookshelves, and flowerpots on tables are placed around the room. "Didn't do nothing. I got scared by it just existing." Jason says, James leans towards me slightly.
"Pussy..." James whispers, putting a hand beside his mouthguard on his yellow dirt bike helmet. I snicker, trying not to find that funny. Which it's not. Axel makes another left and enters through a small white archway. We all follow and are in a small dining room. The wallpaper is blue, to the right of us are two windows looking at the front porch.
In front of me, is a long dining table, with a window in front. To the left is another door, leading to the kitchen it sounds like, hearing all the noises coming from it.
"What's your first ever time seeing a Titan?" Chris asks me.
I search my mind, and an image pops up. "Well... it wasn't really a Titan. But when I was about like, 5, I was playing around at an empty park behind a school with my family. And then I looked up and saw a sky ray. You couldn't see the end of it, it was above the clouds."
Wyatt is about to say something but Axel knocks on the kitchen door. He then sits at the table and I follow. Chris sits next to me and James sits at the end. The rain seems to get heavier, and Wyatt looks at his phone. He breathes out heavily, and Andrew looks at him. "What?"
"Flood warning..." Wyatt says, putting the device back into his pocket.
A waiter comes out of the door and Axel says something, and the waiter nods. After a moment, the waiter takes all of our orders. After a couple minutes, I decide to walk onto the front porch. I sit in a rocking chair, looking at the raining sky. Fog forms at my feet from the rain, and a distant strike of lightning cracks from a distance.
Andrew puts both of his machine guns on the floor, but no one else disarms themselves. For some reason, Axel doesn't have his guns on him though. "Where we sleepin'?" James asks, looking to Axel.
"There's a bunch of rooms upstairs." Axel states, pulling down the black cloth mask under his helmet. "Seven on the third floor and three more in the basement."
"This place has a basement?" I question, tilting my head.
Mitchell nods, as he taps his foot. Another strike of thunder sounds through the air. "There was a bufera earli-"Axel gets cut off, as a waitress comes out with a tray. She puts a plate of salad in front of Chris, a plate of steak in front of James, and a plate of Chinese food for me.
"There dog in that?" James asks, I give him a sarcastic nod.
I almost finish my food, and I lean back into my chair. "Where's my room?" I ask, putting my fork down.
Axel nods upwards. "Upstairs, third floor, room two. Why?"
"Ain't feeling too good."
After a couple minutes, I walk out of the dining room. Walking through the stairs, past the extension, I make a turn to the right of the two bookshelves. I walk onto the third floor. The wallpaper is a light yellow, flower pattern. Two doors are in front of me, and the one on the left has the word "Bathroom," above it.
Behind me, the second floor's loft is overlooked by the third floors loft. The third floor's loft is in the shape of half a zero. You can see the library door from here, the lamps shining a cozy glow into the area. I find the second room, it's to the left of me. I walk in the doors direction, and the wall its on is broken into three parts.
The other two parts seem to be bedrooms, but the areas separating the bedrooms are short hallways leading the third floor balcony. I push open the door to the second bedroom. The room is spacious, the wallpaper is a nice green. Four windows are on the front wall of the room, three of the left. The king bed is on the left too, sandwiched between two oak nightstands.
Walking further into the room, a door is next to the same door I came in through, probably a bathroom. Unbuckling my helmet, I toss it onto the floor and take off my black cloth mask. I sit on the edge of the bed, the rain seems to have calmed slightly, the air smells of rain.
I take off my belt, putting it on the nightstand, then my rifle and shotgun. I put them under the bed, and I pull the Glock from the nightstand and I drop it on the bed. Unstrapping the gloves, I toss them across the room, and I unstrap the velcro on my red and black dirt bike pants.
Walking over to the walk in closet on the right side of the room, I enter. There's a stand where I could've hung all my dirt bike gear at, and shelves on each side of me. I see some black pyjamas in front of me, and I take my boots off. I put on the sleepwear, and I put on a black pair of crocs.
Jumping back on the bed, I turn on the TV in front of it. Out of the window, I see a figure floating in the sky. It's a drig. Its body is in the shape of a rectangle, its body is white. Fleshy tendrils dangle from the underside, and some mouths are scattered across the body of it.
With a sigh, I put on YouTube and grab my Glock 19. The handgun has a switch on the end of it, although I barely ever use it. A red dot is on top, pretty simple. No other accessories than that, Liam said I should at least put an extended mag, but what's the point?
Just in case something breaks in, I lay it next to me. The heat in my face heightens. The mag beside my Glock shifts as I go under the covers, I look back out of my window. The drig is still there, just floating. A video plays of news of a recent sighting of the wandering doom. Apparently it destroyed an entire town in the middle of the U.S, right in the middle of our land.
I hear footsteps pass my door. Sounds like Axel and Jason. Closing my eyes, my muscles relax. The last thing I see is the inside of my eyelids.
[b]10 hours later[/b]
My eyes flutter open, the room is black. Outside of the windows is the night, the digital clock on my nightstand reading "6:12 AM,". I almost close my eyes again until I hear a knock on the window. I jolt upwards and I grab my handgun. Upon no further events happening, I sigh and put the Glock nineteen onto the nightstand.
On the floor, I grab my helmet and gloves. Strapping the red and black dirt bike gloves onto my hand, I put on my helmet. Walking in the closet, I put on my dirt bike clothes. I put on my ballistic vest, some mags full of 5.56 ammunition and .9mm hang from it. Putting on my knee and elbow guards, including my neck protector, I walk out.
I put on my belt. The belt has a black hatchet to the left, a black machete sheath to the right, and my carbon fibre Glock holster is attached to the sheath. I put the gun slings onto my back, and holster my Glock. I open my front satchel, it has a small power bank used for charging small devices in it, along with a silver multi-tool. Grabbing the phone from the nightstand, I stick it in the belt satchel.
I stick a switchblade into my left knee guard, and I walk out of my room. The loft is illuminated by a warm glow by lamps on tables. I walk into the short hallway next to my room and enter the balcony. The air is quiet, the moon lights up the ground slightly. Sitting in a chair, I sigh.
It's been a long few days lately, nice that I have some time to unwind. Not too sure what knocked on my window though. James's room is right behind me, through his windows he seems to be sleeping. The sun slightly peeking through the cornfields and forests.
A three drigs are floating in the air, in the distance. A blue truck drives through a dirt road in the cornfields, driving to another farmhouse. I see something roaming the grass in front of the farmhouse. Rancher. It's a rancher. The creature walks on all fours with a low, stalking gait. It has four long, thick limbs that resemble massive, sinewy arms rather than legs - each one ending in a pointy, but blunt undefined extremity. It has brown, cracked skin, looking almost like stone.
It has some fur, some strains of hair hang from its lower jaw. The head resembles a mix between a reptile and a canine, with a long, narrow snout. Its mouth is lined with sharp, jagged teeth that are irregularly spaced. Its eyes glow a yellowish- orange hue.
I slowly get up, walking inside. I unsling my Benilli m4 shotgun, filled with slugs, and I walk down the stairs and onto the second floor extension. My boots walk onto the front lobby, and I pump the gun. Slowly pushing the front doors open, I walk onto the porch.
It's made out of a dark wood surface, and the porch extends to the entire front side of the building. The rancher notices me, and it stares at me. I turn the safety off with my thumb and I look through my Eotech sight. It begins to walk towards me, and is met with a slug to its chest.
It stumbles, and I back up as it almost reaches the porch. I pull the trigger again, a large crack sounds through the air as its head explodes. I slowly go inside, and I walk to the door on the left.
Opening it, the soft glow of the library fills my eyes. I hear something behind me, and I see Andrew running down the stairs, probably to find out what caused all that noise. Chuckling, I climb the stairs and onto the loft. I sit in the same blue couch Axel and Mitchell were on.
A waiter walks inside, carrying a bunch of eggs and pancakes. She gives the plate to the soldier and walks to the door beside me, but I raise my hand. She notices and walks over to me. "You guys have breakfast?" I ask, loading two shells of buckshot into my shotgun to replace the ones I shot.
"Yep," She states, holding a notebook.
I nod. "Well then... I'll have some rolls, with butter. And some pancakes, please." She nods and walks out. A door opens below me, and another soldier walks out under the loft and grabs a book from the bookshelf next to the fireplace. He turns around and it's Mitchell.
I wave and he spots me. He walks to the left and begins to climb the stairs.
———————————————————————————————————————————————
Four members of the Sylvatus Strike force are outside of a building. They stand in front of the black tinted glass front doors, preparing for their assault. Hiwassee's built a small base right under Sylvatus's nose. There are four men.
One of them, named Logan sits on the concrete floor. He has white dirt bike gear with light blue accents. He's holding a M16 with a suppressor, and strapped to his back is a large clear container. The container is strapped to his back with two black coiled lanyards. Behind the container is a .45 ACP kriss vector with an Eotech optic.
Inside the container are some security cameras. A small clear pocket inside the container contains some .22lr rounds. On his belt is a white drill, with a crystal blue like material as a drill bit. The building is made out of brick, with dark glass windows lining the walls.
It's three stories tall. "You guys ready?" Logan asks, looking at the three other men.
Xander, his teammate, nods. He is clad in black and purple dirt bike gear. A metal tank is on his back, with a black hose going onto his arm. It's attached to his arm, and it ends in a purple metal rod, about twelve inches in length. The rod has a small spring, allowing for Xander to bring it out and spray things.
His belt has a satchel, and a Glock 18 on it. Beside the dual tank is a gun. A Spas-12 is slung over his shoulder, beside the tank. Xander holds an Aug A3, with an Acog scope on it. Xander sighs as he stands up from the short concrete wall he was sitting on.
Joey leans against the brick wall, the third teammate. He has a thin camo hoodie and camo pants, along with black military boots. He has leather gloves, and is holding a camo AR-15 with a red dot. On his back is a single shot twenty gauge shotgun, with another red dot.
His face is covered with a gas mask. On the right side of his belt is a black revolver, large and powerful. The left side has a green and black machete, along with a black camilus knife on the front side of his belt. Canisters of mustard gas and other weapons of the sort line the rest of his belt.
Logan stands up, walking to the front of the building. He almost pushes the glass door open before his fourth teammate speaks up. "Hold on." Kade says, putting a magazine on his plate carrier.
Kade has grey and black dirt bike gear. He has a large clear ballistic shield on his back, attached to a lanyard. Behind the shield is a UMP-45, with another Acog. On his belt is an Sig p320 flux legion, with an optic and flashlight on it. "Alright. I'm good."
Everyone lines to the double door, and Logan pushes it open. He instantly readies his M16, gunning down a soldier reading a book. Blood splatters onto the wall and seat, the cartridges clanking onto the floor. The man gurgles and drops his book, and is finished off by another shot to the head. Xander looks at his phone, reading a message.
"They've got some safe on the third floor. And another somewhere else."
The floor is made of white tiles, the inside walls made out of white painted bricks. The room they're in is empty, but a hallway is on each side of the room. Joey calls left, and everyone agrees.
Xander pulls out his Glock 18 with a silencer on it. Usually he doesn't have a silencer on it, but today he does. Kade nods to a wooden door, and Joey nods. Kade grabs his shield, kicks the door down, and a shot rings out from the air. The shield bounces back slightly as he holds it, a small crack visible through the clear material.
Kade walks inside, unholstering his Flux Legion. The stock shoots out of the compact gun, and he shoulders it with one hand. There are two people in the room, both in black uniforms. Both are shot by Kade, and one is still alive.
Logan and Joey walk inside, and Xander follows. "You know where the safe is?" Joey asks, walking over to the man on the ground. The man doesn't respond, and Logan sighs.
"Let's keep going..." Kade says, walking back out.
Xander follows, and looks back to the lobby they came from. He presses a button in his palm and the purple rod extends from his arm. With a sharp and loud click, it extends eight inches from his hand, and a handle hangs from it.
The handle is small, and a black button is in the middle of it. Xander holds the handle in his palm, and a purple tinted liquid shoots out of the rod. The tank makes a whirring noise, and the liquid spews to the start of the hallway. It sticks to the floor and Xander lets go of the handle.
He presses the button in his palm again and the rod goes back to his forearm. "They gotta know we're here now..." Logan mutters, looking further into the hallway. The hallway seems to go two direction at the end.
Joey looks to Logan. "Ya wanna split?"
"Minus well..."
Kade and Joey split up, going to the right side of the hallway. Xander and Logan quickly jog up the hallway, climbing a set of stairs that they find. A soldier attempts to position himself on the top of the stairs, but Xander shoots him quickly with his Aug.
"Ay. I got left." Xander says, nodding to Logan. In unison, they both peek to their sides. Logan makes sure the hall is clear before stepping on the floor. The sun illuminates the hall through the windows.
Before they can walk further in, a soldier pushes a door open. Logan shoots the man and Xander slings his rifle. He pulls out his Spas-12 and pumps it, flicking the safety off.
Xander blocks the stairway off with a spray of the sticky liquid, and Logan walks to the wall. He puts his clear box off his back and puts it onto the ground. He grabs a camera, and drills it into the wall. The camera has a small .22lr turret on the side of it, and it overlooks the stairwell.
After a couple minutes of clearing rooms, they find a room with the safe. This isn't the one on the third floor though, so there'll be less documents inside. Logan shoots a soldier beside the safe, and Xander sees someone hiding behind a desk.
Xander quickly puts some pellets of buckshot through the metal surface, and the man screams. They both walk deeper in, and Logan sits on the desk. The man Xander shot sits up, unholstering his handgun. Xander grabs the gun and throws it across the room, and grabs the soldier's neck.
The man weakly fights back, but Xander puts his wrist directly in front of his mouth. He presses the button in his palm, and the rod shoots out, ripping through his mouth and blood gushes out. His jaw dislocates, the rod ripping through flesh and severing the tongue. He fills the man's mouth with the liquid, but he's already dead.
"Open the safe already..." Logan says, and Xander stands back up.
"Alright, damn."
He walks over to the safe and shoots it continuously with his shotgun. Eventually, the door to the safe busts open and he reaches inside. Some important papers are inside, and grabbed and stuffed inside his pocket.
Logan checks hid tablet just in time for him to see someone on the stairs through the camera feed. The man is holding a shotgun, and is stuck in the purple tinted liquid. With great effort, he raises one boot and takes a step forwards. Logan shoots the man in the face with the turret three times.
The soldier falls backward, but his body is stuck on the steps, even gravity unable to move him from the glue-like substance. From the camera the hall is clear. The walkie talkie from both of them sounds. "Hey dudes. We found the safe. Bunch of cash and bullshit, you guys found yours yet?" Kade asks through the device, Logan confirms.
"Regroup at the lobby." Kade says.
Logan stands back up and stretches. Mission successful. Nice cardio.
———————————————————————————————————————————————
"I can't believe this bullshit." The man named Levi says. The group of three are in a small makeshift cabin in north Canada. There's 3 men. Levi, Mason, and Connor. Levi has a light blue camo hoodie, with pants to match.
He wears a black mask with light blue ski goggles. A metal tank filled with water sits on his back. A respirator is tied to the tank, and a Scar L with a custom scope is beside it.
"I saw what it was." The man named Connor says, putting a leg over the other as he sits on the bed made out of dead grass. The lamp on the floor illuminates the room, revealing log walls, with slight openings in them, they had just made it for this trip.
Connor has a M250 machine gun on his back, along with a huge tan survival backpack. He's dressed in gear typically found on woodland camo military gear, including his helmet.
"And what's that?" Mason asks, looking at Connor.
"I saw it when I was gettin firewood. It was like a kraken... But it was pink. It was a bit smaller too, but I could only see its mouth. It fucking grabbed our damn truck."
Mason sighs and stands up. The air is cold, but their gear insulates their bodies. It's close to fall, but this far north it feels like winter. "Why don't we walk to great bear lake again?" Levi asks, standing up.
"We can't. It's frozen over, wouldn't be a great fishing spot, eh?" Mason says, standing up. He wears camo clothes, camo boots, and a camo bucket hat. An intervention sniper rifle is on his back, waiting for him to use it again.
Strands of fake leaves and bushery hang from his clothes, especially on his arms. They aren't as dense as a ghillie suit though, but the underside of his arms are close.
Under the strands under his right arm sits a large blade. It extends right below his wrist, going all the way to above his elbow. The metal is silver, a mechanism on his elbow allows the blade to bend so he can move his arm.
"So what do we do?" Levi asks again, looking outside. The sky is cloudy, the taiga trees smothered in snow, the ground looking like if they stepped out they'd be swallowed whole by the white dust.
"Hunt."
"I'll do it." Mason volunteers, grabbing the sling of his sniper. "I need some protection against monsters though." He says, looking at Connor. "Can I have that?" He asks, motioning towards his Glock 40.
Connor nods and swaps sidearms. Mason temporarily trades his Glock 18 for the 40, ten millimeter is sure to be enough against blackhounds, there's gotta be some in this weather. "I guess I'll get some more wood."
Connor sets his backpack onto his makeshift bed. He grabs a hatchet tied to the side of his backpack, and unzips the main compartment. The backpack is filled to the brim with all sorts of ammo, the only thing that isn't glossy brass is a couple drum mags inside.
"If you need ammo you can get it." Connor says, patting the pack. "Where you hunting anyway?"
"Treestand near here."
Mason grabs a thick brown blanket to keep him warmth in the cold, and pushes the rickety door open with his shoulder. "You gonna set up your machine gun?" Levi asks, looking to Connor.
"It'd freeze. Why would I? Where would I even put it?"
Levi shrugs. "Just put the bipod on it and put it under your bed or in the window. Could be a horde coming."
"I'll do that later..."
Levi walks outside, the cold penetrates his clothes. The wooden shack is a dug out cabin made in the side of a hill. The roof has snow piling on it, and the door is on the right side of the front wall. There are two other windows on the wall, letting Levi watch Connor try to get the courage to go back into the cold. Fuck, the windows aren't even windows. Not even made of glass, just covered by a clear plastic tarp they found on the ice near the lake.
On the left side is a tiny stair leading to the basement. If you could even call it that. Just a slightly taller crawlspace. Just contains some wood, and some elk or something if they caught any.
Levi walks down the stairs and opens the white painted door. He crouches to enter, and crawls in. He can hear Connor writing something, probably letters to his wife. Levi grabs a shovel, then walks out. He begins to shovel snow out of the walkway and dirt trail, trying to keep himself busy.
Inside the shack, Connor is finished putting the bipod onto his M250. He slides the weapon under his bed. The bed frame is held up by some logs, the flat surface made of the same material. Some dead grass is on the hard surface, providing minimal comfort, but it's a bed.
Connor knows they need to find some blankets. "Maybe I should do that instead..." He whispers. He puts the piece of paper he was writing on onto the floor. Putting the hatchet onto his belt, he looks out the window.
The floor is made of hardpacked dirt. Two beds line the backwall, mine and Mason's. Levi's is built into the right wall, along with some cubbies in the wall beside his bed. Filled with seasonings, salt, and a ferro rod.
His bed actually has a blanket. Made from a grizzly Mason hunted yesterday. Connor walks outside, holding the hatchet. Levi is playing with something on the ground, poking it with a shovel. "What're you doing?"
Levi's gaze snaps to Connor. "There's a Crocotta trying to eat me!" He yells, stepping back slightly. Connor walks forwards and sees a creature blending in with the snow.
The creature looks similar to an alligator, but instead of feet it has fins. Its skin is a soft white, made of pillow-like material. It doesn't have eyes, but it has large eye sockets made of the same material. Its mouth is a pillow too, it has sharp teeth, but no tongue.
It pathetically waddles towards Levi, attempting to get a quick snack. Connor sits on its back and it wiggles around. Connor gently slides the blade of the hatchet on its skin, and it tears open like butter.
"Oh my god! You think we can make pillows?!" Levi asks in a high pitch, dropping the shovel.
"I reckon. But not for you."
"The fuck did I do?"
"You already got a blanket. Me and Mason are getting these pillows."
Levi sighs. "Seriously. Come on." He says, Connor shakes his head. "I'm getting the liver though."
"Deal... Now let's bring this inside, I'm cold." Connor states, nodding to the door. Levi walks over to it as Connor follows, dragging the creature behind him. When inside, he drops it onto the floor. "Mason has the knife."
"I got my wasp injector knife. Just don't press the black button." Levi says, handing his knife over to him.
"Shitty vacation, huh?" Levi mutters, leaning onto his bed.
Connor looks up at him. "It could turn around. Think about it. We get some more pillows, we get a carpet and blankets for the rest of us, maybe even find an actual house."
"And you say I'm optimistic..."
Connor grabs a leather bag, stuffing it with feathers. Instead of flesh, like a normal creature, Crocottas have feathers.. After a while he gets everything he can, then severs the liver. The organ is grey, and slimy, but it tastes good after cooking.
Levi puts the flesh in the cubby next to him. A gunshot rings out from the distance. "Think he got something?"
Connor looks up, wide eyes. "No... That's too early to catch anything."
[b]1 hour later[/b]
The trio are inside of their shack, an elk cooking outside. Mason hangs his intervention on some sticks wedged into the wall, putting the safety on. Connor and Mason exchange sidearms once again, and Levi grabs the pelts Mason got.
Now they all have blankets. Levi tosses both of them a blanket. "I made some pillows from a Crocotta." Connor states, grabbing the elk pelt.
Mason stands up, putting the pelt above the dead grass mattress. "How many?"
"2."
Connor reaches under his blanket and puts a pillow on his own bed, and tosses Mason one. Levi grumbles. "I'll get you one tomorrow." Mason says, locking the door.
"Alright..."
The sky begins to darken, the clouds blocking the sun. "I'm just gonna hit the hay..." Mason says, looking around and taking his bucket hat off. "Levi. Cook that elk, I'll get some wood." Connor says, standing up with his hatchet.
He walks out, and Levi grabs his Glock 17 from a cubby. "What'd ya need that for?" Mason asks, sitting on his bed.
"In case anything tries to jump me."
Mason yells out the clear tarp window. "Get some moss too!" Levi walks outside, and Mason takes his gloves off and tosses them to the floor. The snow storm slows outside, as he gets under the pelt.
Connor stomps in the snow, attempting to follow the dirt trail even though he can't see it. Further down the trail, he sees some creatures. It's a pack of three wolves, normal wolves. He unholsters his Glock 40 and fires at one. The wolf yelps but they run away, as he only hit its ass.
Levi is sitting in the shack, cleaning the scope of his Scar L. He drops the rifle onto the bed, and walks outside. Grabbing the shovel, he looks upwards to the roof of the shack. The roof is built into the hill, making it covered in snow. Levi holds the shovel in both hands and the water tank on his back purrs.
His boots have a mini water propulsion machine built onto the backs of them, connected by a hose to the metal water tank. Levi jumps six and a half feet high, onto the metal rooftop. The machines spray a burst of water, hissing slightly. The machines stop as his boots land onto the roof.
With a sigh, he gets to shovelling, the roof barely supporting his weight.
———————————————————————————————————————————————
[b]Landon POV[/b]
"Just picked this thing up a couple days ago." Axel says, holding up his AA-12 shotgun.
We're on the second floor back porch, it's about eight in the morning. My helmet sits on my head, unstrapped. It's hanging half on my head, my face exposed, as I took off my black cloth mask. I hold a mug of hot chocolate, watching Axel show me his gun.
"It's nice out." I state, looking around. The backyard has some grass, a dirt trail, stacks of hay, and corn fields. "It's bouta be fall..." Axel says, slinging the shotgun over his shoulders and onto his back,
I see a monster slithering on the ground, on the dirt trail. I walk closer, walking onto an extension of the porch, that has two wooden picnic tables on it. "Look. There's a clump. You should shoot it."
The creature is about a foot tall. It's just a clump of flesh, slightly bleeding as it slithers across the ground like a slug. Axel leans over the guardrail and takes out his shotgun. I quickly put in my earmuffs, and he fires. Buckshot splatters the clump across the ground, leaving only crumbs of it.
"Let's go inside... I'm hungry." I state, nodding to the door behind us.
"Alright."
Chris walks out of a door behind us, holding his phone. "Hey. I got some news."
"What?"
"Winston can't come here. He got sick." He says, putting his phone in his pocket.
After a couple more minutes of chatting, I walk back inside. My boots step onto the loft of the library, and I see Andrew on the phone on the blue couch at the far end of the loft. Mitchell sits next to him. "What are ya'll doing?" I ask, walking over to them.
"I got Ethan to come over here."
"Which one?"
"Ethan Russel."
I nod. "Alright. Where'd James go?"
"Huntin." Mitchell said, standing up.
"Mason and Levi and Connor are on a camping trip in Canada." Andrew says, sipping a cup of coffee.
"Who's Connor?" I ask, looking at him.
"A dude."
"Actually?"
"Yeah."
I shake my head. "Woah," Andrew's phone rings, he picks it back up.
"Hello?" He asks, bringing the phone to his mouth guard on his black and light blue dirt bike helmet. Mitchell stands up and walks away, walking down the stairs to the first floor of the library. "Yeah, I know. Okay."
He puts the phone back in his pocket, and stands up. "Never fucking mind."
"What?" I ask, tilting my helmet. Mitchell grabs a book from the bookshelf next to the fireplace on the first floor.
"Ethan can't come. He said he doesn't feel like it."
"He don't feel like it?"
Andrew nods, but is interrupted by a gunshot on the first floor. I rush to the guardrails and I see Mitchell standing up, hands in the air. "The fuck?!" I yell out, like I'm asking a question.
"My gun went off!"
With a sigh, I lean on the rails. "P320?" I ask, he nods.
"It dropped..." He states, glancing to the handgun on the floor.
"How'd it go off though?" Andrew asks, now standing beside me.
"It's a 320. That's how."
Andrew shakes his head. "It's one of the safest guns in the world. He probably pulled the trigger."
I flip Andrew off, and I look back to Mitchell. "Go toss that bullshit."
He complies and picks up the gun. He pulls the slide back and drops the magazine onto the ground, then walks out from the door next to the stairs. "Welp..." Andrew says, walking in lines.
"What?"
"I don't know."
Andrew shifts, looking around. "Don't you leave tomorrow?" I nod. "Where are ya going?"
"I ain't sure."
"You could go to mount rogers with me. Some others are going too."
"Sure..."
[b]4 hours later[/b]
It's nighttime now. Or close to it. Me, Chris, and Mitchell are at the dining table by ourselves. Me and Liam talked on the phone a bit ago, probably gonna make a pit stop at the compound before I go to mount rogers.
"How much training you got?" I ask Mitchell, the clanking of Chris's fork against his plate sounding through the air.
"Well... Got some trainin by commanders a couple years ago. I don't train much."
"If you train some more I could invite you to the strike force."
Mitchell shrugs, taking a bite of his food. "I don't think I'd even accept it. I'm actually in the security force."
"You're in the guard?" Chris interjects, Mitchell nods.
"I actually used to be a commander in the defensive force. But I done switched to security."
Chris nods, looking at his finished plate. I stand up, ready to leave. "Well guys... I'm gonna head over to James-" I'm cut off by a burst of gunfire from what sounds like the back porch. "The fuck?"
The gunfire persists, and Mitchell stands up. "Yo dudes. Come on..." We walk to the second floor extension. We climb the stairs, and walk into the library loft. Taking a right, we open the door to the second floor balcony. James is standing there, Scar 17 in hand.
Standing next to him is Jason, firing in the darkness. Chris gets their attention and James looks at him. "Hello?!" Chris yells out, Wyatt walks out of the door we came from.
"Look! Some vermin."
We all look, and see nothing, but Jason keeps shooting before reloading. Chris grabs his AR-15 off of his back. It has a small suppressor, and an Eotech optic on top. He turns the flashlight on his rifle, and it reveals many monsters crawling below the balcony.
I yell out a curse and grab my Benilli M4. There's many creatures, ranging from bolstlets, bleachers, and others. Above, some spectres float above us. The spectres do not have any skin, just exposed flesh. Their ribcage and spine are on full display, they reek of sulfur.
They don't have bottom halves, instead fleshy strings extend from where their other halves would be. They have a head, but no face. The head seems to be hollowed out and is replaced by darkness. All of them seem to be six feet in length. About four float above us, one of them spitting acid at us.
I shoot one, my Eotech sight moving on to the other. Wyatt shoots his XM8 at one, but the 5.56 round doesn't seem to do much. With some continued fire, Wyatt brings one down onto the porch, and I do the same with one shot. James takes care of the last one, and Jason continues holding the horde back.
It's still alive on the balcony, its strings, flowing in non existent air. It tries to fly, but is too damaged to do so. Mitchell opens fire with his machine gun, mowing down as much as he can.
"Mitchell!" I yell. "Let's go to the front!"
We run back inside, catching our breath. We make our way through the library and go onto the first floor of the library. We walk into the main entrance, the second floor extension overlooking the room. The flower pots that were on the tables are now broken and scattered across the room.
"To the dining room." Mitchell says, we walk into the dining room and look around. The kitchen door is open, but nobody seems to be inside of it. The sound of gunfire still rings out, and monsters howling. The porch in front of the dining room window creaks.
I sling my shotgun and take my rifle out. I hear a noise and Mitchell turns towards the archway. He walks in front of the dinner table, keeping his machine gun ready. I walk behind him, rifle aimed towards the empty lobby. A broken flower pot is scattered across the lobby floor.
A screech rips through the air, and I turn towards the window right as a monster tries to jump through it. I shoot its head a couple times, leaving the body hanging from the window sill.
"Anything?" I ask, turning towards him.
When I look at him, he opens fire on something I can't see. A Mala jumps towards him, teeth sharp and claws ready. His bullets rip through its body but it doesn't seem to care.
It slams into him with a devastating force, pushing him onto the table. The table snaps in half, and he attempts to aim at the creature but it is already emptying his innards.
I empty my magazine into the Mala, its roars almost drowning out Mitchell's screams. Putting my rifle on my back, I grab my shotgun and empty its brains out. The mala's body goes limp, on top of Mitchell.
With a grunt, I push the Mala over, and the scent of iron floods the air. Mitchell's intestines are spread out against the wooden floor, his empty eyes staring into the ceiling. His blood drips from the edges of the broken table, like soft rain drops in a calm forest. My shoulders slump before I quickly run off to help Andrew.