Our End is only the Beginning

The countdown slowly ticked down, a countdown to a beginning, which subsequently means our end. As the seconds counted down to their final seconds I braced myself for the worst.

But the worst never came, or not as it had before. Before, when the timer reached its end, the world just changed. There was no emotion, no preparation it just was. I waited in agonizing anticipation but nothing happened. I sat angry, for what seemed like hours. Why, or for what reason, I don't know. I was still alive, there was no pain shouldn't I be grateful? The sky began to dim but that was nothing out of the ordinary. Then it became darker and even darker, then Black. There was no light, no moon, no stars, just black.

It stayed black for a moment, long enough for one to get used to the sight, but not the eerie feeling. The shadows brought an insecurity as if to continue the sadistic taunting towards the, distraught people of the world that the countdown had started. Then a premonition of dread washed over me, and I'm sure many others, as I hid myself. Ducking behind the tree, as the sky lit up again but the sun no longer looked the same. It had a slit of black down the middle. It was no longer the sun we knew, it was something else, it was frightening, it was unnatural, and I was certain it was watching us.

Howls rose in the distance as the sky had been tinged red, portals appeared just as the previous. Hoards of flying creatures filled the sky like a swarm of insects around a light as an army of armoured monsters filled the land, a tide of flesh and metal ascending from purgatory. Fires rose from the ground, and The world burned. Our not so peaceful planet had had been turned from a veritable hell to a personified one. This wave wasn't just new creatures to combat or new weather to brave, it was an army, Hell's true army, an army hell-bent on destruction.

The creatures seemed to be outfitted with armor, and organized in groups of eleven. One leader and ten followers. There army numbered into the tens of thousands, or so I've come to believe, I didn't actually count, and they were preparing for war. They killed anything they saw, they trampled all that got in there way, nothing survived. That being said they hadn't attacked any large settlements yet.

There were three nearby settlements between which I liked to roam that were currently still standing from the first of this world's changes. One was a fortified city, with tons of watch guards and had an impressive fighting force. The walls surrounding it were massive, colossal constructs that were as impressive as they were sturdy and imposing. There military was also impressive, I would occasionally see them when any large threat that entered the area that may harm them or the other two cities as they were allies. The monsters include but are not limited to a Yeti, a lich, a group of massive velociraptor's with multiple sets of heads, a pride of fire breathing lions with wings, and I think there was a dragon once, just to name a few of the more dangerous encounters.

Apart from them there was a decent sized plot of land dedicated to plants and farming. Though that place was probably more a dense jungle than a simple farming city. They were peaceful people who grew and created foods, they traded these things for peace and other resources from the other two cities.That city always had an astronomical surplus of food, and it was all pretty good. They were peaceful but not defenseless. They used foliage as not only scenery and food, but as defense mechanisms. They could create Venus fly traps that could eat people, among many more terrifying things with various plants. Thankfully these were the people seemingly devoted to nonviolence, and I had only seen them attack something other than monsters once. Most of the people there have some sort of plant augmentation ability if any at all, so as long as there are plants around they should be fine to defend themselves at least.

The third was an underground bunker they carved out into a city. The person who designed that was a genius, because it has a beautiful, expansive inside and has yet to collapse on itself. This city was more of a cross between the other two. They were the most self sufficient and limited outside trade. Doing there best to keep themselves hidden from monsters and humans alike. They only seemed to keep relations so that they had less need to worry about possible conflict. They had the most obscured resources and in my opinion had the best chance to win, not that I thought that was likely.

I could see it now, the Fire that seems to follow the invaders damaging the forests in the more peaceful settlement, then the hoard attacking them destroying everything with the ground force. Since the larger city depends on food from the other they would send forces to help and to try and corner the enemy inside so the remaining plants and could contain them and so they could destroy the main force.

While that's happening the flying demons would attack the other base, easily laying siege to the city and killing anyone that's not a fighter, before going to assist there friends. Like this two cities are destroyed and even if they have to retreat, we have nowhere to run. Only question is what the third city would do. If they attempt to attack immediately that may alleviate the pressure from the other two, making the ground force easier to deal with, but that would be exposing there location and in the event they still fail, all is lost. Otherwise they could hide out and try to catch their opponents off guard, but the foe has eyes everywhere.

Then again what do I know, I've long since removed myself from the actions of people. I can't even remember the last time I talked to another human being. I've lived on repeat for so many years I nearly stoped thinking entirely, The timer was the only thing to snap me out of my mindless droning. I was finally sick of nothing being different. I had never wanted excitement before, but Jumping down I make my way to the enemy, anyways.

The one thing I'm most confident in is my ability to hide and not get caught. Using that I infiltrated the enemies base. This isn't something difficult, I've been breaking and entering ever since I was a kid, with this ability. I then started my self designated job. I began to note everything about the enemy, from how they look to there organization, everything I could find. I even killed a few to see how difficult it would be, and to be honest even if they can't see me, they still put up a pretty good fight.

I then went and made copies for all of the cities along with thank you notes for the disappearing food I've been taking for who knows how long, and returned to try and kill a few more.

I discovered that the army's forces numbered about 110,000 for ground troops and 30,000 for Aerial troops. The short version, I think we're fucked. The cities have some impressive defenses, but I've seen the ones in command of this army and they're scary. I've never met a creature that could see me while invisible, and I got the feeling I shouldn't try to test if they could.

I had an effective method of killing the smaller ground troops, and that was to cut the back of there heels then there throat, then consecutively stab there three hearts. Oh yes, I forgot to mention these creatures are majority Bipedal with four arms and three hearts,all of there organs are sized similar to a person's except their lungs which are way larger. They stand at about seven or so feet tall, and are really gross looking. Not only that, there were a few of the leaders that easily hit eighteen feet tall or roughly six meters and those weren't even the biggest guys. They had cavalry that road these weird looking mounts. They were like some boar, dog, land dragon looking abomination. They were bulky, with six legs and a short stubby tail. Their face looked like a messed up fusion between a dog and a pig and they had big elephant, boar like tusks. Imagine someone fused a battering ram, pig, dog and dragon and you've got these nightmares.

I only delt with the little guys, because those were the only ones I could draw blood on. I'm really small and they are really big so they couldn't touch me really, despite the few close calls in the beginning. It was funny seeing them become paranoid, when one of there friends died suddenly from an invisible force. It was also funny when they realized they couldn't see me and started to flail. There were a few occasions where there friends would try to help by swinging around a sword, but most of the time they ended up killing each other. These things really aren't that smart.

I also would occasionally steal from their base, or irritate the, Until I pissed them off enough then I would high tail it out not wanting to see the latter parts of their rage up close. I was like a one man terrorist team, and I could tell they hated me.

I would run into their base kill a a few until I was tired or my invisibility started to run out and burn my way out to the exit. I could stay invisible for an upwards of about ten to eleven hours before it starts to falter, and a quick sleep refreshes it and my exhaustion. It is not often that I hit the limit though. That was my day for a few days. The sun still rose and set as normal, but It was still creepy. I made sure the sun was always out of sight before undoing my invisibility, and any time I felt something watching I would hide. Call me paranoid, but the sun is the part of all of this I fear the most, and it's always watching.

I had probably killed a little over a few hundred creatures before the fighting actually began. I was only one person and a single human can't kill an army such as this. The enemy had been gathering information about the two other cities for a few days and now they were finally on the move.

As I predicted they went to attack the Forest city first, but they only seemed to attack with a quarter of the army, which don't get me wrong, is still a lot, but not enough to win against the plants. I continued to watch from afar when I realized something.

The areas to the back of the conflict were both almost completely exposed. As if on cue another military power, the mounted attackers come charging through the back of the city trampling and destroying everything in sight. The plant people were surrounded. They were dead.

What followed was disgusting, the people were trapped within a coffin made by there own hands. I watched as the mounts breathed fire into the forest, spewing like a high pressure kerosene hose. The forest went up in flames in seconds and not a single person made it out alive.

I made my way to the other city, It was only a few days away, but it was gone when I arrived. It too had fallen. The grand wall that I admired had collapsed, a massive gaping hole in the side as clear as day. Walking among the wreckage, you could see it all. The bodies of men and women, adults and children all strung across the ground like a massive deranged puppet show massacre. You could find the chest from the same body across the street from the head, the hand of a child outstretched from a piece of concrete that had striped them of there future, and it wasn't only people. Pets were dead beside there owners, pests were burned out of the broken down houses, I've never seen such an effective attempt at pest control. I couldn't handle the gore, every step, I felt a debilitating grip on my heart, like the dead souls were trying to drag me with them to the afterlife. I ran away.

Calming myself and deciding I needed to stop this from happening again, I made my way to the Underground City. I thought they would have eluded the enemy, but I encountered a problem. I couldn't enter. It had collapsed.

I searched and searched for signs of life anywhere, but it all was gone the ground littered with bodies. Monster, human, it didn't matter. I searched for days and found nothing. That's what scared me the most. I heard no bird or animals, I heard no bugs or rodents, I heard nothing but silence. What scared me the most was the demons had vanished too. Everything was gone.

The sun turned back to normal, and the sky cleared, but I still wandered. The world felt hollow, I had ignored everything around me ever since I was a kid. I had my own world that comprised of me and my mother and when she died I was all that was left, but I didn't feel lonely. The sadness faded. I never felt abandoned. But as I wandered in this sickening desolation, this Isolation of immolated wilderness, filled only with ash and fire. I was truly and utterly alone. I begin to cry.

I cried and cried and cried. All the tears I never shed in all the time that had passed. Tears from the loneliness, tears from the longing, tears from the remorse, tears for the sadness, tears from the regret. An Iron grip around my heart squeezed until it hindered my ability to breathe, I felt weak. My Facade of Isolation broke, I realized it wasn't that I disliked people, nor did I feel complete with only watching, keeping forever to myself. I longed to join them I wanted to return to people, but as fear has always done to me it convinced me otherwise, it told me what I felt was something else.

I refuse to be scared, I refuse to run away. After the tears had dried and my fear had been exposed I crushed it in resolution, but what was the saying? Better late than never? I'm afraid whoever said that was an idiot, or maybe I'm the idiot for not realizing it sooner. Is there a ' too late' in the situation they refer? I'm afraid that I have far since past any chance to turn back now.

It's Ironic, I kept away from people in fear of the pain they may cause me, yet in the end it was the thought of them all being gone, that hurt me more than any slander or hit ever could.

I was tired, so I closed my eyes and tried my best to let my mind drift off into slumber but the deafening silence, kept me awake, the thought of never hearing anything but the shaking of the leaves prevented me from sleeping.

I stared into the sky with a complicated expression. How would I continue? what should I do now? Is there a point to going further? Why am I the only one here? These thoughts created chaos in my mind, a lack of order that was comforting in no other time or place but now. I finally drifted off, as the sky turned white and a my mind was whisked away from my body.