Sentarion

Friday, May 3rd 1957,

Last night I had the strangest dream. I was floating in space, and four entities as big as the Empire State Building, cloaked in silver robes encircled me. One of them spoke with a voice of a male telling me,

"She has arrived! Will you accept her gift? Will you suck at her teat, and indulge yourself with her promises?"

"What gift! What promises? What are you? Who is 'she'? I yelled back.

Just then I awoke with cold sweat trickling down my neck. I looked at the clock and it was 11:59 so I went back to sleep. After that dream, I thought today would be boring by comparison. Instead when I got down to the station, Anita Baker was in a straitjacket foaming from the mouth writhing on the floor screaming gibberish. It sounded like she was speaking in tongues. I asked Chief O'Malley what had happened and he told me she attacked and kill her husband of forty-five years. He also said that she started to beat on her neighbor's door. When Dufran got out there she started to attack him. I then said to him in disbelief,

"She killed Ralph? Mrs. Baker could hardly bend over to get the newspaper and she killed a war veteran?"

"I don't much care about the hows, I care about whys." O'Malley said.

"So much for, 'Just another quiet day in Shandon'."

I heard on the radio that McCarthy bit the dust. About time if you ask me. For the rest of the day I just did paper work and thought about Ralph's death and the dream I had the night before. "What gift?" I kept asking myself. I'm probably worrying over nothing. Hopefully, tomorrow will be less eventful.


Saturday, May 4th 1957,

One day, and I don't know when, I'm going to learn how to stop hoping for things. I had a call for a homicide and I got to Ellison Peter's house and she was impaled on a seven foot metal rod in her front lawn. At 7:00 in the morning! When they pulled her body off the rod Officer Dufran yelled,

"Eh Detective Wicker, look at this shit." I walked over to her body and she was smiling. "I don't know what she was into, but I wouldn't be smiling if some shit like this happened to me."

"It looks more like relief than joy," I told him.

"Relief from what?" he asked.

"Hell if I know," I said.

That wasn't even the strangest part. I asked around the neighborhood and nobody heard or saw anything, or even seemed to care. Her house wasn't broken into and the only fingerprints on the scene were hers. That would suggest a suicide, but how would she impale herself on a seven foot pole? I thought about what the chief said yesterday. "The whys, not the hows."

When I was walking from the station tonight I swear I hear could someone following me. Footsteps were echoing in the night bouncing of the houses in the empty streets. But when I looked back I saw nothing, and all I heard was the buzzing of the street lamps. I must be paranoid from the weirdness of today.

Sunday, May 5th 1957,

When I woke up I thought I had finally died and went to my version of Hell. I walked outside only to be met with five inches of snow. I went and put on the heaviest jacket I had, and dredged through the snow. When I arrived at the station Eddy said to Sam, "Man I don't even have a shovel."

"Since when does it snow down here?" Sam asked

Then Eddy responded, "When the hell did it start snowing in spring?"

I looked over and saw Jones in the fetal position shivering. I walked up to him and lied to him and said,

"It isn't that cold you baby." I heard him whispering to himself,

"Too soon, too soon, too soon," He looked up to me and the color around his eyes were purple and black.

I told him, "Jesus Jones, you look like shit," then his eyes went all black, and he lunged at me. I threw into a wall, and he got back up and pulled his gun on me and yelled,

"She is coming too soon!" I ducked and Eddy and Sam pulled their guns and shot Jones down. The chief ran out and yelled,

"What the fuck is going on?" Eddy still confused himself, responded,

"Jones just had a, what the hell do you call it a … mental breakdown! And pulled his gun on Wicker."

"One drop of snow and cops start killing each other. God damnit, call the morgue. Relieved that I was still alive, but still on the verge of having a heart attack, I sat down by the radio and turned it on. I heard that it was 90 degrees in Maine, and Florida was getting more snow than us.

We got a call later that day about an arson that took place. When we got there, the fire department had already put out the fire.

"Hey Lance!" Fire Marshal Donald shouted to me.

"Hi Donny, do you know who or what did this?" I asked.

"The what, was a Molotov Cocktail. The who, ran away before we got here."

"Hmm, that was James and Sarah Sullivan's house. Did they make it out?" I asked.

"No. They were bound by barbed wire before the house was ignited." Donny told me.

"Jesus." I said with a dull sigh. Just like Ellison, they where no suspects, no witnesses, and no mourners.

Monday, May 6th 1957,

When I woke up this morning it had to have been 100 degrees outside. It felt like I was in a puddle of my own sweat. I ran over to the thermostat and turned the heat off. I put on some shorts and went down to the station. On the way I saw Bill Kinnly getting chased by a rabid dog. I ran up to it and kicked it in its face and then it tried to bite me. It pounced on me and I threw it off of me and shot it twice, not giving it a chance to get back up. Billy walked up to the dog's corpse and started to cry, that's when I noticed it was his golden retriever Tet. That dog wouldn't wake up long enough to attack anyone. I took Billy to his house and called animal control to take care of Tet's remains. When I got to the office they were shipping Mrs. Baker to an asylum. On the way out I heard her mumbling to herself. "She is great. She is release. She is coming." I told the chief what had happened with Tet and he couldn't believe it.

"What the hell is going on in this town?" he asked.

After that it was quiet for a couple hours, so I turned on the radio. The broadcaster said

"Birds have been literally falling from the sky. Scientists say that they were dead before they hit the ground. Some domesticated animals have been suffering the same fate. Thousands of reports are coming in that some domesticated animals have been attacking their owners. Some animals have been quarantined in an attempt to deter this epidemic."

I looked outside of the window, and then I saw a black cloud flying towards the window. I turned the radio off and then opened the window and saw it was a massive flock of crows. I slammed the window shut and left my office and told the guys to close the windows and doors. They looked at me for a second, puzzled, and then I yelled,

"Just do it!" they closed the door and the windows. Then the screeching, cawing mass of crows plummeted into the windows shattering the glass. O'Malley walked out of his office and shouted,

"What the hell was that?"

"Birds, lots of birds." I responded as I got my revolver and Sam, Eddy, and Dufran did the same and them the chief came out of his office with his shotgun closed his door and grouped up with us. The crows clawed and rammed into the door. Then in an instant, the noises stopped. I opened my office door with my gun leading the way and saw that all of the crows had died. Why in my office I asked myself. I called animal patrol again and the sent over Frank.

He asked, "What did you do to get these crows so angry?"

"I wish I knew," I replied.


Tuesday, May 7th 1957,

Its weeks like this that make me want to retire early; at least all the snow is gone. When I got down to the station, we got a call that Remington Sureweather had killed himself. He ripped his own eyes out and drowned himself in his toilet. When I got there he was still holding an eye in each of his hands, but, like Ellison, he had a look of relief, like he had just got away from something. His wife and daughter were still pretty shook up about it. Mrs. Sureweather said all she heard was him yell "Freedom!" When she finally was able to get the bathroom door open, Remmy was already dead.


At night when I was going home the sound of monotone ritualistic chanting echoed in the starless night. It sounded like they were saying "Sentarion". I think I'm going insane, at least I hope I am.


Wednesday, May 8th 1957,

I had another dream with the four entities last night. This time they said, "You dare mock her! You dare not accept her gift!" I yelled back,

"What Gift? Who is 'her'?" I woke up and glanced over to the clock and it was only 2:00 am. But I couldn't go back to sleep. I went to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. I pulled the skin under my eye down and noticed it had a dark circle. Then I noticed a strand silver in my black hair.

"I'm too young to look old," I told myself with a grin on my face. I smoothed my hair over with my hands. I left the bathroom and sat down next to the radio and thought about all the murders and 'suicides' that have been going on. The only thing that has linked them is how bizarre they have been and how callous the people have been. Everybody used to care when someone here died, or even got sent to a hospital. I started to get sleepy again so went back to bed. When I woke up I took a shower got dressed and went to the station. The streets were littered with more bird carcasses and it smelled like fried shit .When I got to the station Eddy and Chief O'Malley looked glum. "What happened?" I asked even though I already had a clue.

"Officer Sam killed his family then himself." Eddy said. "He burned the house down while they were asleep then shot himself," he added.

The rest of the day was filled with awkward silence and remorse for another fallen officer in just one week.

Thursday, May 9th 1957,

I couldn't go to sleep last night. I lied awake all night listening to the radio. At 9:00 in the morning a meteor hit Kansas City and destroyed all of it. The news broadcasters are saying it's the one of biggest meteorites to hit Earth in millions of years, it was shaped like a pin and it was 100 sq miles wide and 120 miles tall. It was sticking out of the ground. The death toll is almost over 90,000. They say the meteorite is green and black, with streaks of purple spiraling to the top. They say the army has already made a perimeter around the meteorite and is not letting anyone near it. I couldn't believe it. All those people dead, in the blink of an eye. When I walked to the station this morning it felt the town was empty, but someone was still watching me. I looked over my shoulder every ten steps, but saw nothing. Nothing happened in the way of crimes today. It was a warm, quiet day in Shandon, California; I wish I could say the same for all of America. I took some extra ammo for my revolver before I went home. It may be an instinct, or just paranoia, but I feel uneasy, like something is about to happen. When I got home I put my revolver and the extra ammo on the dresser next to my bed. I hope I don't have any more strange dreams tonight; I would like to have some sleep.



My alarm woke me up from the best sleep I had in about a week. I groaned and turned it off. I walked to my bathroom, while rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, and then I got into the shower. While I was taking my shower I heard something outside. I got out, put a towel around my waist and got my gun. I looked out of my window and two people were running away. I couldn't see who they, but I saw that they had something on their heads. "Can't a guy take a shower in peace?" I went back in the shower and finished up. I put on my blue jeans, a white shirt, my black boots and my flight jacket. I put my revolver in its holster and put the extra ammo in my pockets. When I got outside there was a thick layer of grey clouds that seemed almost stagnant. The wind was blowing furiously almost pushing me back. "This place looks like a ghost town," I said to myself. When I got to the station the chief was already there as usual. I went up and said, The town is quiet today,"

He turned to me and said, "After my wife died last year, I started to basically live here. But I usually do go home. But last night I didn't, I had this feeling that something was going to happen-"

"You too?" I interrupted.

"What do you mean 'you too'? What did you do?" he asked.

"Nothing, never mind," I responded. A few minutes later Eddy and Dufran walked into the station
"I'm telling you, it looked like some octopus on their heads," Dufran said.

"As much as I want people walking around with octopi on their heads, I don't believe you." Eddy responded laughingly. "But seriously what is up with this town? We get a murder-suicide crime wave then, nothing, ghost town; it's like nobody's here, except Dufran's octopus man."

"Oh shut the hell up," Dufran said as he pushed Eddy. Eddy started to laugh as he went to the armory with Dufran following.

"When the hell are we gonna get a T.V chief?" I asked as I walked over to the radio.

"When I care enough to see people's damned faces." He responded with a grunt.

I turned the radio on and just heard static. I turned the knob, but every station was static. I yelled out, "Hey the radio must be busted! I'm getting static on every station!"

"Good maybe you can get some paperwork done," the chief said.

"Old fart." I mumbled under my breath. I walked out of the station and saw the clouds had gotten darker. I saw a group of things standing in the middle of the street. "What the hell is that thing on their heads?" with my revolver at hand I walked closer to them. "Were you guys near my house?" I shouted. One started to walk towards me, and I started to make out some of its features. It had no hair and sandy tan skin. For its nose it had three vertical slits. Its eyes were big, oval-like, black, and glossy. Its mouth was sprawling with sharp off-white teeth and had hundreds of tongues writhing in it. "What the fuck?" I shoot at its head twice, the bullets deflected off of its head, like I was shooting a piece of lead, so I turned and ran inside of the station. The chief walked out along with Dufran and saw the things running towards the station like Olympic sprinters.

"Get in here Wicker!" he yelled. I scooted pass him and he slammed the door shut. Dufran and Eddy were barricading the doors and windows.

"I fucking told you they were octopus people!" Dufran yelled out.

"Great. Now I know what will be chewing on my bones." Eddy replied. Before the windows were blocked, I saw one of the creatures holding something.

"We can't stay in here," I said.

"And why not?" Dufran said.

I yelled back, "For starters, we have no food! And I don't think chairs are gonna hold something back that can take a shot from a revolver to the face."

"He's right. Let's get in the squad car and go to the market and try to figure out what's going on." The chief said. "Put some ammo in the trunk. It might not do anything, but I'll be damned if I don't go out shooting," He added. Just then I heard glass shattering and a fire igniting.

"Well there's our pyro," I said. We all went into the garage and I broke all of the windows in the car so we could shoot on the go, and then I got into the driver's seat. The chief sat next to me, and Eddy and Dufran armed with rifles and handguns got in the back after hauling an ammo cache into the trunk. I started to drive out of the garage and two of the creatures were waiting for us. The rest of the guys started to shoot at them as I slammed my foot on the gas. One of them fell down after being pummeled with bullets, but the other stopped the car with its bare hands. The guys started to shoot at it and as it stumbled I ran it over.

"I think I know where all the people are." Eddy said.

"No way. They didn't turn into to these things." Dufran replied.

"Come on think about it, we see no one in town and then the first forms of life we see are these things. That can only mean they are all killed or that they transformed," Eddy said.

"And none of the houses showed any signs of forced entrance," I added.

"I don't care who or what they are. I just want to live to hate the world another day," The chief said. He picked up the radio. "Can anyone hear me? We're being attacked. Can anyone hear me?" He threw it down as he said, "Piece of shit."

Then I saw about ten of the creatures in the mirror running after the car and catching up to us. I said, "Be crotchety some other time and shoot." The chief got a rifle from under his seat while Dufran and Eddy got their rifles and started to shoot at the creatures. "I was just thinking,-"

"Yea, and how was that, did the first time hurt?" The chief said interrupting me, while loading his gun.

I sneered at him then said "If these things are really people that are transformed, that means there has to be about eight hundred of them out there."

"What? Are the ten running after us not exciting enough for you?" Eddy asked.

I made a sharp turn into the supermarket's parking lot. "Put your heads down!" I yelled out. I ducked my head under the dashboard, then we smashed through the glass doors and I slammed the brakes stopping in one of the aisles.

"Was that completely fucking necessary!?" Dufran shouted.

"Those things aren't that dumb. They might steal the car if we leave it out there." I said.

"Get food, only things that don't need to be prepared." The chief said.

"Yes dad." Eddy said.

"And stay focused dammit!" he shouted. I ran over to the TV they had set up in the corner of the market and turned on the news to figure out what the hell was happening.

"…. to the military protected zones. I repeat all citizens of California get to the military protected zones! Fort MacArthur in Los Angeles and the Sierra Army Depot close to Herlong are the only forts left."
The screen went grey and then a story from the morning started to play. "The meteorite has split open revealing half of a black and silver humanoid. It has what looks like a black sphere covering its face." The reporter turned her face and whispered to the camera man. "Wait I think it moved." The camera zipped back from the reporter to the creature. It lifted its head and yelled, "My children, you have been faithful. Now receive my gift, and fulfill my promise!" The black veil lifted from her face. It was beautiful.

Looking into her eyes made me feel like nothing could go wrong, as if my problems, worries, and inhibitions were being swept away, like sand in the desert. She rose from out of the crater and then the TV suddenly jumped to static and the emergency broadcast came back on. "What you just witnessed was the awakening of the monster from the meteorite. Since then, yellow and black creatures have spawned and been abducting or killing any humans they see. Please, if you are receiving this message, go to Fort MacArthur in Los Angeles or the Sierra Army Depot near Herlong. I repeat all citizens-" I turned off the TV and grabbed whatever food I could. I got some firewood and matches just in case. When I returned to the car Eddy and Dufran were packing the food they got in the trunk. The chief came around the aisle with a fireplace poker and a crate of food.

"A stoker?" I asked. "If bullets won't work I don't think a fireplace stoker will work any better."

"I may be old enough to die, but I'm not going to just roll over. I'm gonna fight 'em with my bare hands if I have to." The chief said. Eddy shook his head as he looked at the chief. We all got into the squad car and I drove out of the market.

When I pulled into the street looked to the sky and the amethyst clouds were stabbing at the horizon with purple lightning. I turned on the headlights while saying, "There was a news broadcast on the TV that said Fort MacArthur in L.A was letting civilians in we should go there."

"Sounds good to me," Eddy said.
"Where did the-." I cut myself off, hoping that god wouldn't answer my question. I slammed my foot on the gas driving toward Fort MacArthur. When we got to the city limits there was a barricade of the creatures trying to keep us in Shandon. "Well fuck." I said aloud to myself.

"Well fuck indeed." Dufran repeated.

I turned the car around quickly to drive away from the creatures. When I turned more creatures were waiting for us. I turned and drove onto the Hethermen's lawn and crashed through their house. II looked back and saw different kinds of creatures pouncing from roof to roof. They had long black hair covering their faces, and had their bodies were plum colored and had tiny white spheres roving around in their skin. As I drove through an alleyway I yelled to the guys, "Shoot something damnit!" I drove onto the road and the male creatures were running after us. The guys popped out of the car and started to shoot at the creatures,

Eddy yelled to the gunners, "Aim for their mouths it could just be their skin that's acting like armor."

"Hold on to something guys!" I yelled as I made a sharp turn to avoid some of the male creatures.

"Keep the damn car steady!" the chief yelled.

"Do you want to live or shoot?" I yelled back.

"Both, if you don't mind!" the chief shouted. I raced down another alleyway and turned onto the road. From the rearview mirror I saw one of the female creatures had jumped onto the roof of the car and started to attack Eddy.

"Damn, get this thing off of me!" He held the rifle long horizontally against her throat. She picked her head up and as her hair fell revealing a twisted black maw with short pointy teeth covering. Dufran turned and shoved his rifle inside her mouth. He pulled the trigger and black blood showered on Eddy and most of the car. Eddy heaved the dead body off of him and sat in his seat. "Why me?" Eddy asked himself.

"Brace yourselves!" I yelled as I saw another roadblock of the male creatures. I hit the brakes and turned onto a front lawn and drove around to the backyard. I turned back on the street then looked behind me only to see the male creatures running after us. I raced down the street hoping to at least make it out of the Shandon alive. The guys hung their bodies out of the car and started to shoot at the creatures. I looked to the side of me and saw more of the female creatures dashing on all fours across the buildings like demonic leopards. We finally hit the city limits, and the creatures stopped following us. "Why aren't they following us?" I asked aloud.

"Why do you question good luck? Say something like, 'Hell yea, they aren't following us!' such a downer man," Eddy said while wiping the black blood off of himself.

"Good luck isn't getting run out of your hometown by some things." I snapped back.

"All I know is that we're alive," Eddy said. "And during the end of god damn humanity, that's score one for us." As much of an ass as he sounded like, I knew he was right.

The highway was barren. "Are we the only ones that made it?" Dufran asked.

"Looks like it," The chief said. "I don't think we should even bother going to L.A," he added.

"Why's that?" I asked as I slowed the car to a stop.

"Shandon had about eight hundred people, and only us four survived from what I can tell. Now, L.A has about two million people. Do the math."

"Shit, the old man is right." Eddy said.

"Chief, try to get something on the radio, maybe we can find out if they're still alive." The chief started to fumble around with the radio trying to find a signal. I looked up to black sky and I heard the thunder explode after the violet lightning severed the clouds. Then I saw something moving on the side of the highway. It moved closer and I saw its dark blue eyes gleaming like sapphires. As it slunk out of the sheet of pure blackness it revealed its lion-like head attached to the body of a buffalo. Then the four legged ashen creature jumped at us and latched its black teeth into the door. I pulled out my revolver as I slammed my foot on the gas.

"What the fuck is that?" Eddy yelled.

"I don't know, just fucking shoot it!" I yelled back as I shot at it. The ashen creature recoiled when I shot it in the eye then I was able to pull off. It started to follow as Eddy and Dufran popped out of the windows and started to shoot at it, and the chief was still trying to get somebody from L.A.

"Aim for the mouth!" Dufran shouted. I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw that Eddy has killed it.

"Hell yea!" Eddy exclaimed. I heard a loud howl then about a minute later I heard animals stampeding towards us. I looked in the rear-view then said,

"Oh shit." There must have been sixteen of the ashen creatures chasing us.

"To hell with this I can't get a signal, Eddy, Dufran let's kill these damn things," the chief said. "And you keep the damn car steady," he added. They hung their bodies out of the window and started to shoot at the ashen creatures. Every other time I looked back one would get killed, but another would join the pack.

"They're relentless!" Dufran yelled.

"We're almost at L.A, hang on," I yelled back.

"Great. We can fight both of them now," Eddy said as he fired his rifle.

"I would say you're an asshole, but you're right, were fucked either way," I responded. As soon as I saw the city limits I could see a barricade of the male creatures and some of the female creatures lining the roofs. I looked behind me, and the ashen creatures stopped following us. "Everybody, brace yourself!" I shouted. I swerved the car into a building and crashed through it to drive around the "human" barricade. I looked up and saw a helicopter roaring above us, shooting the female creatures with a mounted Gatling gun. The guys had already started to shoot at the male creatures that were chasing us.

"Do you know how to get to the base?" asked Eddy.

"We're not going to the base. We're getting some supplies then getting the fuck outta here," I said. "All of those damn creatures are most likely attacking the base." I added.

"Wicker is right. We should go to a small town, kill all the creatures there, and lay low," the chief said.

"How do you know that those animal things won't just invade the town?" Dufran asked.

"For some reason it seems the 'human' creatures stay in the city and the animal-like creatures seem to stay out," the chief said.

I drove around until I saw a gun store. "Alright get some guns and some ammo," I said. The guys ran into the store. I saw a gas station up the street and drove over to it and filled the car up and took a couple canisters of gasoline. As I was putting the gas tanks in the car, I saw a helicopter getting attacked by four of the female creatures. The soldiers tried to shoot she-creatures, but one of the creatures ripped the propeller off and the others went inside it, took some of the soldiers out, and whisked them into the darkness as the helicopter crashed into a building, exploding into a roaring red and orange fire. I drove back to the gun store and the guys were waiting for me with armfuls of guns and ammo. They packed it in the car and we drove off. As we drove we could hear machine guns crackling in the distance in a harmonious duet with the thunder. We left L.A and got back onto the highway. "Anyone know of a small town?" I asked.

"I do," the chief said. "Ryde. It only has about forty people living there."

I stopped the car. "Good you can drive there I'm tired of driving," I said. Both of us got out and the chief gave me his rifle. I got in and he drove off.

"Damn its cramped back here," Eddy complained, as he pushed some guns off of his lap. "Take some of these things Wicker," he added while he passed me some ammo, some pistols, and some shotguns.

"Did you guys take enough guns?" I asked jokingly as I started to load a shotgun and reload my revolver.

"Alright let's stop fucking around and get some things settled," the chief suggested.

"Yea," I said solemnly. Did anyone else have a weird dream with these giant entities floating in space?" I asked.

"I did. They kept asking me about a gift or a promise or something like that," Dufran responded.

"Me too, the kept on about 'Her'. Who the hell is 'her'?" Eddy asked.

"It must've been that thing that came out of the meteor," I said.

"You mean the one that hit Kansas? A monster came out of that thing?" the chief asked.

"Yea, I saw it on the TV; her body was black and had millions of tiny silver dots, they looked like stars. Her hands had wings attached to them like a bat's," I explained.

"So all of the people in town that went crazy are the people that accepted the gift?" the chief asked.

"Possibly," I responded. We drove on the empty highway until we saw a destroyed military caravan which blocked the road. The chief slammed on the breaks. Dufran, Eddy, and I walked out to check if there was anything to scavenge from the overturned flatbeds. A door was ripped off and thrown about fifteen feet away from trucks, but something was strange. "Five flatbeds, two jeeps, and only one corpse," I said as I pointed my rifle the only soldier's corpse which was pinned underneath a jeep. "Take any weapons he has I'll try to find something back here." I said as I walked to the back of the caravan. After about twenty seconds of looking I thought to myself that this must've been a troop transport. We heard an ungodly roar that echoed in the distance. We all ran back into the car, then the chief drove around the wreckage.

"Why the hell was there only one corpse?" Eddy asked. "That entire caravan was destroyed," he added.

"The evidence would suggest they were kidnapped, but why the hell would those animals want to kidnap anyone?" I asked.

"Does anyone else hear that?" Dufran asked. "It's like a, a flapping noise." The chief looked put his hand out of the window and pointed the dangling side-view mirror upwards.

"Oh shit," The chief said. I picked up a rifle and hung my body outside of the car.

"Oh shit," I repeated.

Dufran and Eddy heaved a sigh and got their rifles and hung their bodies outside of the car. "I hate my life," Dufran said.

"I hate your life too," Eddy replied. A flock that easily numbered in the thousands of giant, black, bat-winged "birds" were coming straight for us. The biggest one of them all, that seemed to lead the flock, cawed loudly, starting the attack. "STEP ON IT OLD MAN!!" Eddy yelled as he, Duran, and I started to shoot into the black mist of "birds". With every shot that made contact a "bird" dropped from the sky, but another would just peel from the black clouds and join the flock

"What I wouldn't give for a communist takeover, or maybe even a nuclear war. But no, we get attacked by fucking aliens," Dufran said. The lead "bird" swooped in and landed on the car jamming its black jagged dried-blood caked talons into the roof of the car and ripped it off like it was lid for a can of sardines.

These damn birds must have had a twelve foot wingspan. I took a couple of shots at it, but it had no effect. The chief picked up his shotgun when the bird dropped the roof and started to come back around. I took a few shots at its dark orange and black bell shaped beak, but I couldn't get a direct hit. As it got closer the chief let go of the wheel and as the "bird" let out an eardrum piercing screech, he shot the "bird" in the mouth killing it. It belted out a screech that sounded like three birds were screeching at once. The chief and I ducked our heads down as the "bird's" corpse bounced off of the hood and landed behind us. As the car started to swerve the chief put his shotgun down started to drive again. I turned to help with the "birds" still behind us. Even more "birds" started to dive in after us. I yelled to the chief "Are we almost there yet? This shit is getting intense!"

"There's that little hick town!" the chief exclaimed. I could see Ryde on the black and purple horizon. Dufran threw down his rifle and picked up a shotgun and Eddy did the same shortly after.

"Only shoot the ones that get close, we need to conserve ammo!" Eddy yelled out. The echoing and thundering sounds of the shotguns, the squealing of the tires and the high pitched squawks of the "birds" were the only things we could hear in the desolate Hell that used to be California. As we got closer to Ryde I could see four or five male creatures waiting for any intruders.

"Eddy, Dufran, keep shooting the 'birds'. Wicker, take out those yellow bastards!" the chief yelled out. I turned around and started to shoot at the "yellow bastards".

I shot twice, but I couldn't land a hit in their mouths. "Fuck me; I can't hit 'em," I said aloud to myself.

"You always were a shitty shot, take the wheel!" the chief yelled out as he took my rifle. We switched seats quickly. That ol' fart was able to take out two in two shots. "Never let a detective do a cop's job," The chief said as he shot a third one and killed it. As I muttered "Asshole," under my breath, I saw a set of piercing sapphire eyes running alongside us in the side-view mirror.

"Crap," I muttered to myself as the ashen creature jolted over to the car. The chief must've seen it out of the corner of his eye because he turned and shot at its head. I shot it in its eye and stopped suddenly and let out a loud roar.

"Fuck! I forgot about those things," Eddy said after shooting down a "bird".

"So fucking close!" I yelled out as we were about two-hundred feet away from Ryde. I swerved away from the last standing male creature and we zoomed past him. "Missed one, ya bastard," I muttered. The chief turned and shot it and its black blood spewed from the back of its head. I turned my head and saw the "animals" stopped chasing us.

"Thirty-five to go," The chief said. I slowed the car and said,

"I wonder where the rest are," I asked.

"You just don't like life do you Wicker. We escape a horde of animals from the depths of hell, and now you wanna find some more," Eddy said.

"It's in my nature to know what's going on," I replied.

"I guess so detective," He replied.

I laid my head back on the seat and said, "We gotta name these things so we communicate better."

"That could be helpful," The chief said.

"Well we should just call the "birds", birds. And those four legged fuckers, runners," Eddy suggested.

"Yea that's pretty simple," I said. "How about the humanoid ones?" I asked.

"How about townies and we can just state their location," Dufran said.

"That'll work," the chief said. "Well there's no reason to look for a fight. Let's get bunkered down," He added.

I drove around the town and found a bar that was generally untouched. "That could be a good place," I said as I pointed to the bar.

"Yea that way we can get piss drunk one last time," Eddy said.

"I plan to get drunk many more days my coloured friend," Dufran said.

"I can second that remark," the chief said. I stopped the car in an alleyway behind the bar.

I opened the back door of the bar and I said to myself, "No locks on the door, this is a small town," We walked into the bar and I hit the lights. We walked into the main part of the pub and I saw the polished wooden bar counter with all the amenities; the steel taps were gleaming; about one-hundred shot glasses were lying atop a white towel with pitchers tucked underneath it. When I walked over to the counter's opening I saw all the bottles of wine and beer.

"Alright this place will do, Eddy, Dufran, get the guns. Me and Wicker will get the food," The chief said. We only unloaded about half of the food and guns just in case we had to make a hasty retreat. When we were finished, we got some Budweisers and sat down at the bar stools out of the line-of-sight of the giant window in front of the bar, which in backwards big red letters said "Joe's Place".

"Alright let's try to make sense of this thing. After we all had the same dream, people in town start going insane, and then the animals started to go insane or just die. Then I assume we had another shared dream, and then this shit started," I said after I sipped my drink.

"Yea. It looks like the humans that accepted the 'gift' and couldn't handle it went crazy, and the people that did accept the gift and could handle it transformed when that monster came out of the meteor. Then there's us, the people that didn't accept the gift and are trying to survive," Eddy said as he rested his head on the table.

"What the fuck time is it?" asked Dufran. I looked for a clock and when I found it, it read 12:55

"Damn it's only one in the afternoon!" I exclaimed.

"All this bullshit and we've only survived six hours," Eddy while sighing.

"Did you guys notice that they weren't many townies waiting for us when we got here?" I asked.

"Yea. I wonder where they're all at," Dufran asked as he downed is drink.

"God dammit this is killing me, I have to know what's going on!" I exclaimed.

"Fine, go, if they start chasing you don't come back here," Eddy said.

"Yea, I know what you mean. I'll be right back. Hopefully," I said. I looked over to the chief he was resting his head on the table. I picked up a shotgun took some extra ammo, and then walked out of the backdoor. My heart started to beat so fast I could hear it in the eerily quiet town. I looked on the roofs for any female townies, but I didn't see any. The black clouds were endless boiling over with thunder and exploding with violently with purple lightning. With my shotgun leading the way, I walked towards the center of Ryde. I checked every roof and strained my eyes to see every unlit corner to see if I was being followed. "So far, so good," I said to myself. Moments later, I heard a loud clicking noise coming from down the street. I ran down an alleyway and hid in a dumpster. I opened the lid enough so I could see what was happening. Two of the male townies were carrying something. It was oozing a dark blue sludge. Then I heard a screech above me, it sounded like one of the female townies. The males carrying the body bag shaped pile of slime ran towards the center of town and I peeked out of the dumpster more and saw the female jumping away. I got out of the dumpster and followed the townies to the middle of Ryde. When I got there

I saw a rounded dark grey rock with giant green, and light blue crystals hanging from it jutting from the ground with all the townies surrounding it, chanting, drawing out the word, "Seen-taar-rion" The two male townies holding the slime covered object stood in front of the monolith and started to peel off the slime. It revealed a man.

He started to yell out, "Noooo! Get the fuck off of me!" he was slammed into the rock formation and the blue and green crystals started to engulf him.

The amethyst lightning started to batter the rock formation and the townies started chant faster, "Sentarion, Sentarion." The dark-grey rock turned silver as the lightning continued to strike it. Then the crystal holding the survivor shattered, he walked out and he had turned into one of the creatures. The two townies brought him to his feet. He then turned to the monolith and started to chant. I ran back to the bar as quietly as I could, making sure I wasn't being followed.

When I got back in the bar it smelt like pure gasoline. "For fucks sake what are you guys doing in here?" I said as I shielded my nose with my arm. I looked at Eddy and he was stuffing rags into bottles.

"Oh shit you're alive; I'm just making mocktolv cocktails," Eddy said as Dufran handed him more bottles.

"Oh really," I said.

"Keep the back door open before we die in here," the chief grumbled. I walked to the backdoor and opened the door and I ran back in. "So what did you see out there Wicker?" the chief asked.

"They're changing the survivors into townies! No wonder that caravan only had one corpse there trying to convert us not kill us," I said.

"Well that's fucked up," Eddy said as he and Dufran brought the cocktails to the car. "Do you know what the hell that thing was that came out of the meteor?" Eddy said as he walked back in.

"I think her name might be Sentarion," I replied.

"I've heard that name before," Dufran said.

"Me too," Eddy said.

Hours passed, I looked at the white and black clock and it was about almost five. I had just laid my head down trying to get some sleep, that's when I felt the ground shake.

"An earthquake? You gotta be shittin' me," Dufran said as he picked up his gun. The earth shook again.

"That doesn't sound like an earthquake," the chief said.

""Yea it sounds like," I trailed off as I walked towards the front door of the bar. "Footsteps," I said as my heart sank. "It's her," I added.

"Who?" Eddy asked as he picked up his shogun

"It's Sentarion! Run!" I yelled out. I picked up my revolver and shotgun. Me and the rest of the guys ran out of the bar and got into our car. Chief O'Mally got in the driver's seat and I kneeled in the seat next to him as Eddy and Dufran got in the back and got the mocktolv cocktails ready to throw. The chief backed out of the alleyway and we were met with some of the male townies. Dufran, Eddy, and I started to shoot at them as the chief raced towards the highway.

"So that's Sentarion, she's huge!" Eddy said as he shot a male townie in the mouth. Sentarion raised her hands and a blinding blood red light formed in her claw-like hands. We got onto the highway, but the townies still chased us.

"Shit," I said to myself. I looked ahead of me and saw a swarm of black birds coming our way. "Turn off the highway old man!" I yelled to the chief. He sharply turned the car as I started to shoot the massive flock of birds. I smelt something burning so I turned to Eddy and Dufran and they were igniting the cocktails. Eddy threw his first, the bottle shattered, and the fire hissed threw the gasoline. When it hit the townies behind us they slowed down some trying to swat the flames away and some hit the rocky dirt ground and rolled. Then a runner rammed the car making it almost tip over. I took a couple shots at its head and it backed off a bit. "Pass me a cocktail!" I yelled. Eddy gave me one and I tossed it at the runner. When the cocktail hit it quickly burst into flames. As it fell its legs folded behind it and then it slid to a stop. I turned back to the birds and started to shoot at them again. About a dozen birds swooped in from the massive flock, Dufran turned and threw a cocktail at the birds and they all burst into flames. We all ducked our heads as the burning bird carcases showered over the car. I think at this point we knew our efforts were meaningless. We all just wanted to survive as long as we could. We all knew we were going to die in the next ten minutes. I turned to see if Sentarion was still behind us, and she was, levitating towards us leaving a trail of thick black smog behind her. A couple dozen more birds swooped in again. "Dufran! Birds!" I yelled. He turned and chucked a cocktail at them sending more birds into flames, but some got through and picked up Dufran.

"Dufran! Nooo!" Eddy yelled as he took a round of shots at the birds, but it was too late. The birds dropped Dufran into Sentarion's hands and she made him burst into black flame and his body disappeared. Eddy lit about ten cocktails and dumped the entire box at the male townies behind us. The cocktails burst into a fiery explosion. I heard a howling in the distance so I turned my head. I saw female townies riding on runners. When they got close enough they jumped onto the car. One landed on the roof and started to attack the chief the other jumped on the trunk and attacked Eddy. I bunted the one that was on the chief. It turned its head towards me then I shot it in the mouth then kicked its corpse out of the car. I turned to Eddy and I saw him shove his shotgun in the female's gapping mouth and pull the trigger spraying its black blood all over the car. Then a runner jumped over the car and grabbed Eddy from it. He tried to shoot at it, but it looked liked it clenched its jaw, making Eddy drop his weapon as he writhed and yelled in pain. The runner threw Eddy in the air and a bird caught him in its beak and brought him to Sentraion. I looked away as he too was turned into black flame.

More female townies mounted on the runners pierced the darkness and started to ram into the car. I was able to shoot one of the female townies, but the others were able to jump onto the hood of the car. One of them threw the chief out of the car. He hit the ground and the crunching sound of his bones shattering sent chills up my spine. I shot one of the female townies off the car and jumped into the driver's seat. One of the runners ran in front of the car and rammed it from the front. The car stopped like I just hit a brick wall. I flew out of the car landing on the hood. Then I rolled off the hood of the car onto the cold dirt ground. Sentarion stood above me and picked me up. I felt my body getting hot, sweat poured from my forehead and raced down my back.

I looked into Sentarion's eyes, but this time I didn't feel calm, I was horrified. Her cold black eyes seemed to look beyond my soul. An emotionless female's voice raced through my mind and said "I offered you my gift and you denied. Now you will go to the Edge of the Universe, the home that is now a prison."

A black fire raced up my legs engulfing my body. I closed my eyes, ready for death.