This chapter has been proof-read by: AnthonyL

First published on my wordpress: Here

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It had been a little while already since my first contact with the survivors, 6 months since our arrival into this world. I had kept restricted, yet regular contact with them via radio and during our daily patrols. Since a few days back, we had begun to conduct regular patrols around town and killed everything that moved.

Our objective was simple, to take back control of our town by any means necessary. One would drive the vehicle while another was acting as the gunman. We would always remain mobile, never staying at the same place for too long and shoot while on the move. That way we had managed to slowly take over the town.

Usually, I would be teamed up with Robert the surgeon, while Marc would follow behind in the support vehicle teamed up with either Camille or Emanuela. This strategy had proven to be very effective so far so daily patrols had now became mandatory.

Trying to save some ammunition and gunpowder, we ended up using a new type of weapons. On the back of each one of our trucks was a small generator and an air compressor used to power our compressed air cannons. Not as precise, they were still very deadly and could be loaded with basically anything, from rocks to pieces of metal and even glass shards.

Made with a 2 meter long steel pipe, these air cannons were based on the same principle as the potato guns we used to play with as kids but a lot deadlier. We also began to observe that the creatures had learned to run away at the sound of our engines.

The local creatures were clearly learning that humans were the apex predator as it used to be back on earth. We were slowly starting to feel like we didn’t need to be afraid anymore but I still had vivid memories of the dragon attack and of whatever had eaten its corpse afterwards.

There were things living in this world that we needed to avoid at all cost, but the other survivors hadn’t been exposed to these type of monsters yet, so they were still acting a bit more careless than me. The survivors had also progressed quite a bit in their red air resistance training and would soon be ready to learn the expulsion technique which would accelerate their growth rate even more.

They were far from my level but were no longer threatened by blue blooded creatures. After having killed thousands of creatures, we had finally begun to understand how to rank them by strength. Those which had blue blood, were weak. Those with red blood seemed to be the strongest. In the middle were the purple blooded creatures and in their case, it all depended on how closer to red or blue their blood was.

Logically I would have assumed that all creatures were born with blue blood, and that absorbing red mist was slowly making their blood turn red, making them stronger in the process, but as a red blooded creature myself, I was confused since we humans had red blood even though we came from a world without red mist.

Maybe it was something totally different after all. Anyway, the survivors could now tolerate a few hours of red mist exposure and didn’t have to panic anymore if the generator happened to die for a few hours before being fixed. We were also using walkie radios now, so we could keep in touch with those who remained at the hospital as we patrolled town.

During these last weeks, I had mostly talked with Camille and Léopaul since I would always learn something useful when I spoke with that old man. As for Camille, she was mostly a friend. I truly enjoyed our daily talks and was more than happy to speak with her as long as it was via radio.

Emanuela would often try to speak to me via radio but I had tried to keep our conversation to a minimum for obvious reasons. As for my patrol partner, Robert the surgeon, we had ended up growing closer and friendlier as well. It was a strange relationship, we never spoke much but we knew we could count on each other. It was mostly a relationship based on mutual respect.

Our days were so incredibly busy that we didn’t see the time go by and the weather slowly getting dryer. The old Léopaul had brought up a very good idea which had launched a massive building project. His idea was simple but brilliant, it was to build an electric fence around the area we wished to keep safe.

In the following days, we went on the roofs of each buildings in the centre of town and scavenged all the solar panels we could find. Léopaul had first wanted to build windmills, but I had windmills myself and knew for a fact that the wind wasn’t powerful enough around here to make them worth having.

Back home, all my energy was mostly produced via my solar panels. The absence of strong wind would also explain how styrofoam trees could stay upright and not snap in half at every storms. Anyway, Léopaul had then spent all of his time creating an electrical system capable of powering the hospital with enough electricity to spare for the electrical fence which was still under construction.

We were using heavy machinery to rip and recycle all the metal wire fences we could find. These fences were far from rare and were used to enclose everything from parks to industrial complexes. Our first goal was to fence up the hospital but we ended up expanding the project to a 1 kilometre perimeter around the hospital.

The survivors had also begun to fix their living quarters and turn the place into something worth calling home. They now had working toilets and showers, they also had a kitchen and could also now use the massive hospital cafeteria’s refrigerator, since electricity had been restored in the building.

With so much work ahead of ourselves, we didn’t have time to think about our situation. People who were almost suicidal before, were now too busy to think about anything else. My days now very different from before as well.

I would generally wake up and have breakfast with Camille. Not in person but she would keep me company on the radio as I ate and prepared myself. Then I could leave and meet up with the others for the morning patrol. These patrols generally only lasted a few hours, leaving me time to do my own things until afternoon patrol.

We had also begun to gather the corpses of whatever we killed and put them in a fenced up field to rot and prevent wild animals from eating them. We also mixed various stuff with the corpses like grass, out of date food, wood chips and other various biodegradable stuff.

Our goal was simple, to make compost to be used in our experimental field. We needed to complete our electric fence project before sowing anything since the local creature would most likely destroy our harvests if we didn’t. Our goal was to learn if earth crops could grow in this world. We knew we would eventually run out of preserved food, so we needed to find a way to produce fresh food to feed ourselves in the future.

During my free times, I had also perfected my arsenal quite a bit, helped by Léopaul who seemed to know everything about anything. My pipe bombs were now more compact and more deadly. The old man had also taught me how to make ammonium nitrate bombs which were like atom bombs compared to my small pipe bombs.

Ammonium nitrate was something more easily accessible than I would have suspected. Some fertilizers had ammonium nitrate as ingredient and could be used for the bombs. Even in its pure form, ammonium nitrate by itself is not explosive. In fact, bombs need two components beside the fertilizer: a detonator and a fuel.

Armed with that new found knowledge, I was currently creating the biggest bomb I had ever made during my free time. The entire bomb was three, 55 gallon plastic barrels filled with explosives, strapped to a palette and held by a forklift in my garage. It now only needed a powerful detonator which I was working on with the help of the old man Léopaul.

I had affectionately named the bomb ‘Little Boy’ in homage to the first nuclear bomb created back on earth. My reason for creating this bomb was my constant fear of coming across another dragon or the thing that ate its corpse. You can never have too much firepower in a fight for survival.

As safe at the town might have currently felt, I couldn’t shake this ominous feeling. In the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but suspect that something really bad could happen at any moment. It was this way of thinking that had made me a prepper in the first place. This “paranoia” had saved my and these other survivors’ lives so far after all.

I was currently standing in the back of a pick-up truck, holding on to one of our giant air cannons as Robert drove us around town. Marc and Emanuela were shadowing us from behind in a different pick-up truck with Emanuela at the wheel and Marc handling the cannon.

As the days went by, we had all noticed how there were less and less creatures roaming in our territory which motivated us to keep doing these patrols. We were currently driving down the main road, chasing some creatures that were running away from us like a horde of gazelles hunted by lions.

We pursued them until they left the 5 kilometres circle we were now calling our territory. The creatures ran away and disappeared into the jungle, hopefully having learned to stay away from here. With the other survivors also increasing their red mist resistance, the local creatures no longer had any easy prey to hunt and had no reason to hang around anymore.

Robert then immobilized the vehicle and got out as Marc and Emanuela stopped behind us and gathered for a quick meeting. I pulled out a bottle of rum from my bag and began sipping on it after lighting a cigarette while people gathered around.

“Look like the town has been cleared already. Umf* Getting easier everyday.” Proudly boasted Marc as he walked toward us. Ignoring him, the bubbly Emanuela jogged her way past him and sat in the truck bed next to me. “Mind giving me a sip of that?” She then asked while cutely pouting her cheeks. “Suit yourself.” I then answered while passing her the bottle. I had plenty more where it had come from after all.

Marc was discretely gritting his teeth as Emanuela placed her supple lips on the rim of the bottle without wiping it. This was a definite indirect kiss and I knew she was doing it on purpose every-time, but I had always refrained from saying anything. I had a suspicion that she was waiting for exactly that, the feeling that I would be playing in her hands if I commented on it.

“Will you join us today for some fence building?” Then inquired Robert the surgeon. I had helped them a bit by teaching them how to operate some of the equipment and with some manual labour but I already had other projects for the day. “Sorry, I have a project of my own in mind for today.” I nonchalantly responded.

Marc made an obviously displeased face and Emanuela also seemed a bit disconcerted by my loner lifestyle but they didn’t push it any further. In Marc’s case, he was probably happier the further away I stayed from ‘his girl’. “Mmmmm, you know Nate, I was wondering. Why don’t you live with us? We have worked a lot and made the hospital very cozy and comfortable. That way we could all work together don’t you think?” Curiously asked miss universe.

This was an annoying question. It’s not like I could simply answer them with a ‘I work alone’ type of line here. They had obviously asked about that before but I had always changed the subject. This time though, I felt like I couldn’t avoid it since they had so much on their plates at the moment, they definitely needed the extra help I could bring them.

How was I supposed to answer this? Tell them I don’t like hanging around people too much? Wouldn’t they dislike me if they learned that? They should naturally think it’s because I don’t like them. Other than that I had no idea what to say. Emanuela was looking deep into my eyes, expecting an answer while taking a sip from my bottle of rum.

Sensing my discomfort, Robert immediately came to my rescue. “He has his reason. Anyway, let’s go back to the hospital.” I took my bottle of rum back from the seductive succubus and stuffed it in my bag before taking back my gunner position. “Thanks, doc.” I then whispered to the 41 years old Robert who answered with a bright smile. “You can count on me my friend.”

Emanuela pouted her way back to her vehicle with Marc in tow, then our convoy finally took back on the road. We crossed the centre of town and arrived at an intersection near the police station. I still hadn’t told them about the guns stashed in there and was surprised that they still hadn’t thought of having a look there. In my head, the police station was the most obvious place to look at first. The bullet proof vests I had gifted them even had ‘police’ written on them…

I tapped three time on the roof of the truck, signalling Robert to stop his vehicle. I grabbed my assault rifle and got down from the vehicle. “Static* Why are we stopping here?” Asked Emanuela through the walkies-talkies. This area was where I had found the green patches of goo on the buildings’ walls.

I had assumed these were territory marking belonging to a creature but had never seen which creature had made them. I even asked Camille and Robert if they could identify what this green goo was with their ‘super medical knowledge’ but was met with a negative answer. Apparently doctors and surgeons are not to be confused with lab rats or something…

Suspecting that maybe the creature was dead or gone, I had decided to spray orange paint on the markings to see if the creature would ‘fix’ them. Robert immediately understood what I was looking at and rolled down his window. “It hasn’t even been 24 hours since you sprayed them… Yet they have all been covered back up with that green stuff. It must be a nocturnal creature…”

Not knowing what I was dealing with was what terrified me the most. Something was living in our town, and this thing had yet to be seen or identified. Undeterred, I had anticipated this possibility and had brought the solution in my bag. The solution was hunting cameras, two of them. These cameras were meant to be attached to trees and left in the woods for weeks or even months.

They had motion detectors and would take pictures of anything that walked in front of them while left unattended. I grabbed my radio and told the other three that I needed time to reapply paint on the markings and install the cameras. I also told them that instead of waiting for me, they should go loot the guns in the nearby police station.

This obviously caused a bit of a backlash since I knew that place was filled with ammunition and rifles and hadn’t told them before now, but once again Robert’s intervention calmed everyone down. The two trucks rolled past me and stopped in front of the police station as I began to tag the buildings with orange paint.

Once the paint job completed, I attached the cameras to telephone posts and tested them to make sure they were working properly. By the time I was finished, the other three had already loaded quite a bit of stuff in their trucks. Even though they all already had one, they ended up taking all the remaining bullet proof vests anyway. It was better to have too much than not enough after all.

As I was nonchalantly walking up to them, screams of terror from Emanuela and Marc unconsciously made me go super saiyan with red mist. What I then saw, was a giant gecko like creature which was perfectly camouflaged in the tall grass. Even though this thing was as big as a truck, its camouflage was so well developed that we would have never seen it if it hadn’t moved.

The reason it was now moving was because it had taken Marc and Emanuela for targets. Emanuela had instantly begun to unload her firearm on the creature while Marc had turned tail and was running away, leaving her to face the giant creature alone. Assault rifle in hand, I was unloading my magazine on the creature while running toward Emanuela as fast as I could.

Doped on red mist, I ripped a stop sign from the ground and threw it like a javelin at the creature. The long metal pole flew like a missile and embedded itself into the creature’s left front leg which made it scream in agony. At this point, Marc had already jumped back in his truck and seemed ready to flee on his own.

As the creature began to charge toward her, Emanuela turned around and began to run toward me. I would have normally kept my distance and shot it with my sniper but the girl was in danger, forcing me to take reckless measures. Finally reaching me, Emanuela hid behind my back as I unsheathed my sword like a samurai, ready to face the creature head on.

Annoyingly, the creature’s next move took me by surprise as it began to spit green goo in our direction. Doped on red mist, my reflexes and speed would have allowed me to avoid the green goo but Emanuela would have been left unprotected, so I instantly grabbed and shielded her from the spit with my own body.

This was not something I would have normally done but everything had happened so quickly that I hadn’t had time to think things through. My entire back got sprayed with the goo but my full body armour luckily managed to protect me against most of it. Then, I felt a small trickle flowing down my back, starting from my neck region.

If this was poison like I suspected, I was dead. “N-Nate!!!!” Screamed the woman in my arms with tears filling her eyes. I had fucked up, I was going to die because I had decided to be with these people. If I had stayed alone like I normally do, this would have never happened.

Of course I was terrified, but I could also feel a warm and prideful feeling swelling deep down in my chest. If someone had told me that one day I would feel prideful for dying a warrior’s death, I would have laughed in their face, but here I was, prepared to give my life to protect people I barely knew. I truly had changed a lot during these last months haven’t I?

I stared in Emanuela’s eyes and forced a smile before screaming. “RUNNNNN!!!!!!” I then pushed her away and turned to face the charging creature with my sword. My vision was already getting blurry but I didn’t need to see perfectly to spot such a big creature. Expelling as much red mist as I could, I charged the beast with speed that would have made me appear blurry to any spectators.

I tightened the grip on my sword and slashed downward, aiming for its head. My katana sank between the creature’s eyes and into its skull. The blade made its way through the bones and brain but snapped in half as it reached the spine, sending me tumbling down on the ground.

I was struggling to get back up and continue the fight, but the dizziness kept making me fall back on the ground. I couldn’t see anymore and couldn’t confirm that the beast was dead so I kept fighting to get up when I finally heard Robert’s voice. “NATE!!!” Pan!* Pan!* Pan!* Pan!* The sound of gunfire was the last thing I heard as my consciousness faded into oblivion. ‘I hope they will be alright without me’, was the only thought I had in mind at this instant.

What came next were nightmarish visions and a sense of emptiness. I had no longer any control over my thought and was instead caught up in a delirium, a simple viewer without free will. It was like a nightmare you couldn’t escape from by waking up. I was also devoid of any sense of time but couldn’t think of anything anyway since I was a simple spectator.

In these nightmares, otherworldly voices could sometime be heard. Bringing me comfort, these voices were the only things I was hoping for. I couldn’t distinguish who was talking or what they were talking about at first but as time went by, I began to discern them more properly.

“You know Nate, before we met you, I thought of ending my life many times…….. Sob* If you die, what will I do? Sob* sniff* Sorry, I shouldn’t be thinking about these things because I know you will definitely wake up. Sniff* You are the strongest person I have ever met. This situation really made me regret never tel-….”

The voice then began to fade as I sank back into my nightmares. That voice, was Camille’s. How could I not recognize the voice of the woman I had spent so much time talking to on the radio. In our daily conversations, she would tell me about her past life, how she had lost her little brother to cancer when she was still in high-school. This was the trigger that had made her want to become a doctor.

She would also recall what their group had went through before we met. How the majority of the death in their groups hadn’t been from monsters but from the people taking their own lives out of fear and despair. The mission to get the fuel truck which had costed them the lives of 3 of their people.

How Robert had kept the group together and how old pop Léopaul had always been the positive voice in the group. I also knew that her favourite colour was green, that she also enjoyed the ocean and nature in general. She had even told me how she had always been too busy with work to ever get a serious boyfriend in the past. I felt like she was the person I knew best in this world.

Among the many voices that kept talking to me, Camille and Robert were the most frequent. I would also occasionally hear the voices of my dead mother and father who would tell me random things like ‘What do you want for dinner?’ or ‘When will you finally do something with your life!’

I thought I would never wake up from this never ending nightmare when suddenly, for no apparent reason, I woke up as if I had only went to sleep like usual. First blinded by the light, I gradually opened my eyes and waited for my vision to focus.

What I first saw was the ceiling, then felt warmth in my hands. Turning to my left, I saw Emanuela, who had apparently fallen asleep while holding my hand. Then turning to my right, I saw Camille who was doing the exact same thing but with my right hand. Since when did I have a harem again? No, more importantly, I had survived the poison? Sure, we were in an hospital but poison isn’t something you can easily threat. My luck was apparently immeasurable.

My mouth and throat were dry like a desert and my head felt like it would explode. I could really have used some painkillers but didn’t want to wake the girls up so I remained immobile and stared at the ceiling. After a while, it had become unbearable, leaving me no other choice than to wake them up. I squeezed Camille’s hand a bit which caused her to jerk her head up in surprise.

“Did he just move his hand? Nate? Can you hear me?” I slowly opened my eyes and looked at her before trying to tell her what I truly needed at this instant. “C-c-c…” I was apparently still very weak and couldn’t articulate what I was trying to say. “Sea? What about the sea?”

“C-cc-c-…. Cigarette!” Finally! The word had came out silently but flawlessly. “Hehehehehehehehe! I can’t believe you! Heheheheheheh! You are still weak, you know smoking is bad for you.” Annoying, I knew she had a very motherly personality but I was older than her for fuck sake.

“Nate????!!!!!” Sigh* And here’s the other one. “NATE!!!!!! Sob* Cry* I knew you wouldn’t die like this!” Urgg, the bane of being popular I guess. Still, I was happy to see that she was alive and well. I had succeeded in protecting her after all. I then tried to ask them if everybody else were still alright but was stopped by Camille who told me to get some rest and save my strength.

What she didn’t understand was that going back to the dream world was the last thing I wanted to do after finally waking up. All I wanted right now was a goddamned cigarette!!!! “G-give me…. a cig-… Dammit! Cough!* cough!*” Totally ignoring me, the two girls ran out and began to yell the good news to everyone.

After that they all came running into my room and made it incredibly awkward with their tears and get well wishes. The fat Alice came and handed to me the necklace she had finally managed to complete after so long. “I know this is owed, but take it as a get well gift if you want. Glad to see you back with us young man.” The fat lady then gave me a rare smile, followed by a wink that gave me goosebumps.

I inspected the necklace and was amazed by her craftsmanship. (Or should I say craftswomanship?) She had polished and cut the eye in the same way she would have done to an opal. She had removed all the useless material and kept only the glowing iris then mounted it on a medallion surrounded by diamonds.

The two dragon teeth were now held by dragon shaped thingy instead of simple hole through them. The entire thing was made out of shiny white metal. I was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t gold but assumed it was because she thought that gold was weak and too easy to break. “What metal is it made of?” I then inquired.

“Eh, it’s white gold. A lot sturdier than crappy yellow gold.” White gold? I had heard of this before but never really understood what it was. She then explained that white gold was an alloy, a mix of two or more metals together. In this case, it was a mix of gold and palladium, giving it this white chrome colour.

The fat lady then leaned closer to me and whispered. “When you feel better, remember to come and see me. There’s something strange about your old gold chain that I’d like to discuss in private with you.” That sounded intriguing but we were then interrupted by Robert and old pop Léopaul who then came in the room with springs in their steps.

“You really are back! We missed you my friend.” Robert then approached and shook my hand. He seemed incredibly tired and looked like he had a rough time. Then came old man Léopaul. “Heyy youngster! How does it feel to have all the ladies worrying about you? Hurhuhurhu” The then followed with his usual hearty laugh that made me laugh but earned him some glare from the ladies.

“W-what happened a-after I got p-poisoned?” I then laboriously asked. Everybody’s expressions then turned serious as Robert took Camille’s chair next to my bed and began to recall the events. “When I came out of the police station after hearing all the commotion outside, I saw you on the ground, struggling to get up. Then I saw the giant monster next to you that was still moving, so I unloaded my weapon on it without knowing that you had already killed it.

The creature was only twitching due to it’s nerves. Then Emanuela came running at me, saying you had been poisoned and to help you. We brought you back to the hospital but there was not much we could do to threat poison so we kept monitoring your vitals and gave you medication to fight against the effects of the poison. At this point, there was nothing more we could do than wait. In the end, you are the one who pulled through.”

Then my next question was an obvious one. “How long, have I been out?” Robert cringed a bit before answering. “Almost a week.” Woaa, almost a week? What kind of terrible poison was it to knock me out so badly? Then my attention turned back to the people looking at me.

I was browsing through the room, looking for the two missing persons. Seemingly understanding what I was looking for, Emanuela’s face became twisted and angry looking. Sensing the tension, Camille quickly intervened. “Annie! Stop being so shy and come here already!” The small girl’s head instantly popped out from the doorway, then disappearing again as fast as it had appeared.

Seeing the scene, I couldn’t help but giggle as she reminded me of a groundhog or something. Seeing that Marc wasn’t here, I first thought that maybe he was busy or injured, but Emanuela’s reaction was enough hint to guess what was truly going on. I now suspected that he had maybe suffered some backlashes from the group for running away and abandoning Emanuela to her death back then.

Wanting to avoid annoying dramas, I then decided not to mention his name. Anyway, right now there was something a lot more important for me to ask. I then threw an intense stare at my best buddy Robert which caught all of his attention and made him lean forward to hear me properly. “Robert, my f-friend. I have a f-favour to ask you.”

Robert then gave me his most serious and determined expression which meant I could count on him for anything. “YOU’RE NOT GETTING A CIGARETTE!!!!!!” Then interrupted Camille with a giant frown on her forehead. “Tch, bitch.” The room then exploded with laughter and among the loud laughs, Camille then added “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that last part. Umf!*”

After that, I spent a few days recuperating from my misadventure that had almost cost me my life. Camille would always remain next to me, feed me some porridge and holding idle talks. Most of the time it would be only me and her for hours as the others were always busy with patrols and fence building.

As time went by, Annie gradually began to get closer to me and stopped acting as if I was a frightening monster. This scene almost made us look like a husband and wife and their young daughter. After asking every 2 minutes for the last 3 days, Camille eventually caved in and brought me a pack of cigarettes to stop me from trying to sneak out of bed every-time she left.

What was she expecting. Spending the entire day laying in bed, I had nothing else to do than smoke. On the fourth day I was already walking around and kicking. The reason for my fast recovery? I was a neet who couldn’t bear to be in contact with people for too long, yet I had been stuck with people coming in and out of my room all the time for days. I had endured this for four days now and couldn’t wait to get the fuck out of there and go back to my bunker.

Using red mist doping to make me appear completely healed, I then managed to convinced them of my total remission and had them bring my equipment to my room. Everything was there, they had even cleaned my body armour of all the poisonous green goo. They had also brought my broken sword even though it was now useless.

Still using the red mist doping, I put on my equipment and prepared to leave but made a quick stop to see Alice before leaving. I knocked at the door of her room to which she responded with a loud “Come in!” I then entered and closed the door behind me for more intimacy. She was sitting at her desk and inspected some rocks.

“Ha! It’s you. You look like shit. Gahahagaha” Sigh* This fat lady was always so coarse that it made me cringe every-time. “What was it about my gold necklace you wanted to talk about?” Acting as if she had just now remembered something important she quickly stood up and started browsing through her drawers.

“There it is!” She then held the necklace in her hand. I walked closer to her to get a look at also noticed something strange with it. “You see this?” She asked while pointing exactly at what I was staring at. “Yea, what is it?” I didn’t know what I was looking at but some areas of my necklace had begun to change colour and had began to turned red.

“This discoloration is not oxidation or any kind of dye. The areas which have turned red seem to have changed at a molecular level or something. I’m no nerd but the gold that has turned red got stronger. Usually, gold is very weak but I could only scratch this red gold with a diamond. Also, the areas which have turned red seem to be the areas that were in direct contact with your skin.”

Now this was interesting. To me it appeared that gold could absorb red mist and be strengthened by it the same way my body was while using the expulsion technique. I couldn’t see any use for it yet, but this was something interesting to know. The fat lady then continued. “Those teeth you gave me were also very peculiar.”

She walked back up to her desk as she talked and grabbed the small stone she was previously looking at before I arrived. “To mount them properly, I had to cut the roots of the tooth. At first everything seemed normal until I reached the core. The white on them seem to be made out of normal teeth stuff but their core is black and made out of something I have never seen before. This is one of the most important discoveries we have ever made since that black thing that looks like obsidian is actually harder than diamond which is supposed to be the hardest material known to man. I totally ruined a diamond faceting disk to cut that shit out.”

At this point, nothing surprised me anymore when it came to dragons. Then, a sudden thought crossed my mind. If dragon’s teeth had a solid black core, could the bones have the same thing in them? This would explain how I couldn’t crush its rib cage with my huge 5 tons machine.

I was curious to go check out the bones I had back home and was getting dizzy from constantly using red mist to stay upright, so I quickly thanked Alice, said my goodbyes to everyone and left as quickly as possible. On my way I noticed that they had made considerable progress on the electric fence and it should soon be completed.

With the daily patrols, the town was now perfectly safe so my ride back home was luckily uneventful. When I turned and engaged into my driveway, I suddenly stomped on the brake and stared at the area where my dragon skull used to be. One, the skull was gone. Two, the ground in that area had been trashed.

I quickly turned my attention to my house but luckily, everything else seemed intact. I parked my vehicle and ran down to my bunker. My CCTV cameras had a motion detector function to them. Like the hunting cameras, they would record videos of the moments when movement had been detected and save them into my computer.

I hurriedly browsed through the 11 last days that I hadn’t been here to monitor, and found what I was looking for in the folder containing the videos from only a few hours ago. What I saw in this 43 seconds video froze the blood in my veins. The hairs were standing straight on my head and I almost fell off my chair.

Snapping out of it a few seconds later, I ran to the radio and began to yell at the other survivors. “HELLO?! THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!!!!!! EVERYBODY GET BACK INSIDE!!!!”