Prologue

2045.... WWIII left the world in a state of severe depression. The most wealthy and influential countries, destitute. The population had dropped by around half in only 10 years. The fighting was intense and the damage extensive but nuclear war, while feared, never happened. The wars ended, and while peace was achieved no one was happy. People starved, many countries had completely collapsed and fell to anarchy before being engulfed by their neighbors or whatever remaining world power felt greedy enough. The world was shaken and humanity was on the brink of collapse. Then the worst thing in human history happened, giant pillars of light slammed into the earth, from these pillars came calamities. Creatures that rival small cities in size emerged. Communication was pointless. Conventional weapons were meaningless as these creatures would destroy just about everything in their path. China was the first to fall, the largest of them had appeared in Beijing and before China could respond. The CCP was gone. The second to fall was France, Paris was an even easier target for the creatures. The UN authorized the use of nuclear weapons. Fortunately, the plan worked. It appeared that in the blast, the creatures evaporated. They vanished without a trace. Shortly after the world had agreed to unify and consolidate its people. By 2050 most people had moved to Eastern/Southern Europe, North America or Africa. They had been affected the least. The world had been made uninhabitable across wide swaths of its surface.

2055 - The world was in the process of rebuilding. Humanity had faced extinction and survived. Starvation was no longer commonplace and few did not have shelter and most of the ones that did, chose to live that way. A small town in what was formerly the central United States goes silent. No news, no communications. The United Nations sends in a small 50 man task force of their elite Special Forces to investigate.

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"Lieutenant, what is the objective of this mission?" A young man appears to be at best 20 years of age shouts from across the Chinook helicopter. 

"Private Reid, I have already debriefed you on the objective. Sergeant Ryans, when we land please make sure Reid is prepared. This mission is of utmost importance. Satellite imagery shows zero activity in Oakswood and the joint council wants answers. Sooner than later."

"Roger, Sir!"

"Lieutenant! Headquarters has notified me that our satellites have picked up slight cell phone signals near quadrant F of the search zone. They have ordered us to drop team C there first." The pilot yells back. "We are about 15 minutes out!"

Team C consists of Sergeant Lee Ryans, Private First Class David Greenway, Private Kasey Reid, and Private Sarah Kings. This is Kasey's first assignment after Special Forces training and he was extremely antsy but after hearing this, even he went dead silent. The 15 minutes passed without a word, Teams A and B who were also stationed on this helo were just as nervous. Everyone lived through the great calamity and this was the first severe mission that almost all of them had since enlisting. As they land, Lieutenant Robert Tyler shouts, "Reid, we have faith in your abilities. Your team needs you. Remember your training. We are counting on you. Ryans, stick to your objective. Kings and Greenway, watch out for Reid. Team, if you find anything, notify me right away and if not, you have 8 hours. Notify me by then. Good luck and Godspeed."

Team C leaves the back of the helo after it touches down and then the helo departs once they have all left. "Reid, Kings. I need you to watch the perimeter," Lee whispers into his head mounted radio. "Roger." they respond as Lee starts looking at the location data on his field tablet. David being the primary radio and LMG carrier stuck close as Kasey and Sarah spread out a bit to cover more ground. A few klicks north was a large hilly area with a small mountain near the center and it would appear the signals came from there. If the mountain had a name, they would not know it. Lee has Kasey and David hike to the North East side while he takes Sarah North West.

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Kasey and David travel about 4 klicks and find what appears to be an abandoned mine. They see light from a fire at the entrance but no evidence of anyone there. 

*shhz* "Sarge, we found something." David whispers into his radio.

"What is it?"

"A mine shaft. There is a fire burning outside but we don't see anyone outside."

"Proceed with caution, if you run into any danger or find anything, back off and wait for us. We will circle back to you, ETA 30 minutes. Reid take point."

"Understood, Sir." *shhz*

"You heard the man Reid, after you. I got your back."

Kasey nods and starts slowly making his way towards the entrance of the mine shaft. As they get closer to the fire, they begin to hear a couple of raspy and guttural voices but it's not any language they have ever heard.

The first was in a slightly higher pitch and went something like, "Vot enu helyvfutu, noi vogra oucna giexdravan phouriar owunfutu. Babra ubro skub ybraou, aihdra ufra ig opunugoot ai uth iesfrei deteaobs ypdragro iesfreiriar raizkiot." 

The second had a deeper pitch and went something like, "Aihsc, uth cox priefrouboicou id' asp' sholu sjoigo. Brbra e blaå swaou jo cox a aueotriar aiblbo."

"Any idea what language that is, Greenway?"

"Not at all. Maybe French? Either way we need too..." "shhhh" Kasey cuts David off and points towards the mine entrance as a very large hairy creature walks towards the fire and dumps a bucket over it. The creature had the body of a man and walked on its hind legs but was covered in hair like a monkey. It had the head of a wolf, or maybe a hyena. It's incredibly sharp teeth showing from the sides. Its mouth is covered and stained with blood. It has long human-like arms but with paws like a wolfs. Claws dripping blood. They both thought it was a Werewolf or maybe a Yeti as their minds raced in shock. After a couple minutes, as the smoke and steam start to clear, the creature tilts its head up and makes a couple sniffs and looks straight in the direction of the two soldiers in the bushes that were at best 150 yards away.

"Reid, we need to back off.... Reid, are you okay?" David rests his hand on Kasey's shoulder as he comes too and starts to panic. "What is that thing? Why is it looking at us? What do we do?" 

It's been about 10 minutes from the time they reported into Lee and they have at least 20 more until Lee and Sarah catch up. David hits Kasey hard over the head and shakes him, "Listen, we do not know what else is back there. We need to get away, if it spotted us, we need to run. Engaging it may bring more and we do not have enough intel to make that determination. I need you to relax and just listen to me. We will make it through this." 

As David finished speaking, Kasey nods and started to walk backwards, the barrel of his standard issue M50 aimed towards the mine entrance and more specifically at whatever that creature was.

◇◇◇

Lee verified the location of any mine shafts through HQ and made sure to get the proper bearings. He had hoped that it would be him and Sarah who found anything. While every enlisted person had experienced the results of the calamity, most were never face to face with it. Lee was 32. This was supposed to be his last year. He never had the chance to become a fully listed NCO, much less a CO. Frankly, he didn't want it. It used to be that if you didn't get promoted you could not continue to reenlist. That changed after WWIII and the events of 2045. He had just finished Special forces school when the news of a peace agreement came down the line. Of course he was disappointed. He trained so hard but was not going to be able to show it off. At 22, Lee was a hothead. He would often get into fights and hardly would lose. While incredibly competent, he was rarely viewed as reliable due to his hot blooded nature. 

This however would change as just a month later as a Massive Pillar of Light struck down only 40 miles north west from the base he was stationed at in Central America, Panama City. Each Pillar appeared at different intervals and on different days. Sometimes with weeks in between. This was the first. What most people don't realize is that the first couple of beams left massive portals where hordes of strange creatures could flow. Creatures no one had ever seen before. As reports came into the US stationed base of "el monstruos" and "el Diablo", the government of Panama requested aid from the US and Lee was ordered amongst the initial investigation. Just like today. That day was a massacre, he lost friend after friend, brother after brother. It was not so much the level of weaponry but the amount. There were millions of creatures of different shapes and sizes. Guns worked on the smaller ones but the larger ones would keep coming for minutes before succumbing to their wounds. The 5000 strong battalion was brought down to 500 in a day. 50 in a week. The area was barren and wiped clean. 

The only redeeming factor was that they had literally zero ways to stop air power. The air force flattened the area with carpet bomb run after carpet bomb run. After the first day, the battalion was ordered back to base. After the week, the 50 or so that were left were ordered to evacuate entirely. From the coast, he could see flashes going off every second or two. Up and down the coastline. He survived, but there was one thing he could not forget. It was the tingling feeling he felt in the air. At the time he did not know what it was, to this day he still didn't know. He had almost forgotten about it entirely until he felt it again on the helo shortly before landing. It was faint but he felt it and it gave him a bad feeling, something was making him feel like this was similar to that night. He followed his training and experience to the letter but something made him feel like sending Kasey and David alone was a terrible mistake. Especially after hearing the report over the radio. He ordered Sarah to "triple time it!" She could hear the sound of urgency and worry in his voice. They ran as fast as they could back towards their squad mates.

◇◇◇

Around 10 minutes had passed and a loud roar could be heard echoing through the slight forest. It was so loud that it sent shivers down the spines of Lee and Sarah. Lee could recognize it instantly. It was the sound of one of those large looking creatures he saw 10 or so years ago. Then followed by gunshots in front of them. So many Gunshots.

*shhz* "Greenway, to all channels. Requesting back up, Reid, and I have engaged a strange large creature. We have no idea how it detected us. We Took it down but more of them have run out of the mine. We filled it with lead but it would not go down. Our coordinates are in sector F at roughly ***, ***. Please hurry." *Shhz*

As Lee and Sarah kept running, the gunshots mixed with periodic roaring continued.