Acknowledged

New York as a whole has always been listed as one of the bigger urban danger zones on the North American continent. From the safe Green Zones to the certain death Black Zones. When the Gate Incident started the danger of the Gate snowballed. It started on the west coast for the U.S and made its way across the country to the east coast. The west coast states were quickly labeled Red Zones, before reaching Texas Red was the highest danger level. Texas changed that creating the first Purple Zone. No one could enter or leave the state during that time, no support could be given and no communication could get through.

After Texas, New York City was seen as the potential host of the absolute worse danger zones, leading to the creation of Black Zones or better known as Dark Zones. In the Dark Zones, there was no chance of survival anyone that entered one was deemed dead as soon as visual contact was broken. New York lived up to expectations and hosted two of the largest dark zones within a city. The subway system became the theorized largest dark zone, while Central Park became the largest known dark zone in a city. Over the last year, there had been rumors of how dangerous a dark zone was, yet no one had ever ventured into one. Within three minutes of stepping into the Central Park DZ; Ayla, Anna, and Menefer figured out why no one would ever even wish their worst enemies into a Dark Zone.

Within the first few seconds of entering Central Park, the women were attacked by a dozen Pandora Beast. They made quick work of half a dozen within seconds, however, more arrived and attacked. Fifteen minutes after entering and they had each killed nearly fifty beasts, they had no rest between these engagements.

Because of the non-stop onslaught, the three couldn't break focus to check on each other or their surroundings. They were each locked in their worlds filled with nothing but the need and desperation to survive. Thus none of them could realize that they were being watched, not by a hidden monster or the King of Beast himself but another person. Not that they would even think to look out for another person within the dark zone.

Neither too close nor far a woman dressed in all black with long red hair waving in the wind nested in a tree. If any of the women could see her they would instantly recognize her as Astrid from Liberty Fortress. As she spectated the battle she found herself involuntarily nodding and shaking her head.

[describe the battle in freeflow]

Ayla seemed to be doing the best among the three, she quickly dispatched every beast that came within three meters of her. Her moves were savage it was difficult to tell which one was the beast, at one point a heavy kick landed on the side of a charging beast sending it barreling into Anna's range.

Though she was facing four beasts at the time the addition of one more made little difference, the beast nearly collided with her back, she spun around allowing the beast to crash into one of the other four she was already fighting. The impact sent both beasts sliding across the ground into the range of Menefer's attacks.

Menefer was doing the worst out of the three she was a defensive fighter and focused mostly on not getting hit. She seemed to employ some strangely adapted form of aikido. The addition of these two beasts just gave her more weapons to use against the others. She would twist, twirl, and lightly push the beasts around. She looked to be dancing and conducting the most chaotic orchestra ever. Every movement was graceful, precise, and meaningful. The battle was her canvas and the picture she painted was magnificent, but the heavy pageantry didn't suit Astrids' taste nor did the results. Although Menefer remained unharmed and her fight didn't interfere with the others, she also wasn't truly defeating the beasts. They accrued injuries from colliding with trees and each other and that slowed them down, but it wasn't enough to stop them.

After three hours of non-stop fighting the battle finally ended. From her perch, she could see more Beasts approaching the women. Although she could help them and would've liked to do so only as an acknowledgment of their skills. Unfortunately for them, she had another objective she needed to complete and that was far more important than her goal in scouting them.

Astrid quickly disappeared from Central Park and was running down the streets at unprecedented speed. Along the way, she came across many beasts, all of which would have attempted to attack her. Yet none of them got the chance. Before they even recognized her approach they were falling to the ground, the heavy thud from their collapse acted as the beat to the unfamiliar sound of gunfire. The guns she used were relatively quiet if compared to the collapse of buildings and the roaring of beasts.

However, to anyone that happened to be hiding in one of the buildings she passed or just camped out along the road, she may as well have tossed bombs around. For a little over a year, the survivors in New York had been locked to fighting the beasts with their bare hands and what amounted to sticks. But now the pleasantly nostalgic sound of gunfire was echoing through the streets. Among the survivors, very few were capable of fighting beasts, even fewer were brave enough to continue doing it. But guns, that would turn the tides anyone could use a gun. Whether they could do it well or not didn't matter, they could point and they could pull a trigger that was worth enough. For the first time in a long time, the survivors felt hopeful maybe taking the city back wasn't that far away anymore.

Uncaring of what hope her firearms may have inspired in the few witnesses that may have heard her, after a few hours of sprinting Astrid arrived at a high rooftop across from an even larger building. In front of her was the Unitech Headquarters. Like with Ayla's group she found a nice perch and scouted the building and what she saw was anything but reasonable.