We watched its shadow fly off into the distance in complete stupor. Its two eyes glowed like searchlights that swept the ground below it as it flew.

The rain pattered through the glass-less windows, starting to soak us. Jared broke the silence, "What the fuck was that thing?"

I tried to speak, but I couldn't. I was still gripped with shock.

If... if that thing had wanted to, it easily could have just killed all three of us in a matter of seconds, plucking us up and swallowing us whole with its huge beak. I don't know why it had left... but I really wasn't complaining in the slightest.

"I don't know..." I managed to mutter, "I don't know... I can't even begin to guess."

I turned back to Aaron to see him shaking with fear. Maybe I'd better get in the backseat with him from now on.

I turned the key in the car.

It wouldn't start. The key wouldn't even turn. None of the lights or anything worked anymore, either. I had expected that... the strange shock-wave let off by the creature must have done this, but expecting it still didn't lessen the frustration.

Careful not to cut myself on any of the fallen glass, I got out of the car and took Aaron out of the backseat, hugging him close to me. I kept my eyes on the sky, half expecting the flying thing or some other horror to drop down on us at any moment.

He sobbed a little as I hugged him, but it didn't take long for him to get back his senses.

"Are you going to be okay?" I asked as I let go of him.

He nodded.

Jared got out of the car, with a bag of supplies around his shoulder and the shotgun in his hand.

"Well," he said after sighing, "Now that the car's bricked, what should we do? I guess we don't have any options other than going on foot, but the question is... do we stay on the road or..." he glanced to the trees behind us, "do we try our luck going through the forest?"

I stared at the tightly knit thick line of pine trees swaying in the wind. If there was more than one of that flying thing or if it came back... we'd be sitting ducks if we stayed on the open road. The trees provided good cover, there was no way anything would be able to see us from up above. Staying near the edge of the woods might be our best bet... that is, assuming there's nothing lurking in there.

I sighed.

No matter where we went, it was probably all the same.

I had a sinking feeling that there was no longer anywhere on this earth that was free from this nightmare.

Our only hope of survival would be to get to the manor, no matter how slim our chances were. The way Edward's letter was worded gave me confidence. It almost seemed like he knew something like this would happen.

Even then, we couldn't be sure... what if the manor was destroyed or something? What if there was no escape?

If that were the case, I guess it really wouldn't matter what we did then.

...So why not at least bet on a miracle?

"Let's walk through the edge of the woods," I decided, "If we go too deep in we'll probably just get lost. Let's take what we can carry out of the car, prioritize food. If we see a car or house on our way, we can stop there. We shouldn't be too far away from some houses, now that I think about it... There's a few smaller neighborhoods outside of Crestland, we should be near them now."

Jared nodded, and the three of us packed bags full of as much food and such as we could carry. I took the crowbar I had brought and strapped it to the back of the pack. As we were packing, Jared shuddered and shared his thoughts, "I have this sinking feeling that if we get in a car again, that flying thing will be back. Call me crazy... but I almost got the impression that the only thing it was interested in was shutting down our car. Why else would it have flown off after it shut down? It's not like it couldn't have easily killed us..."

He let the idea linger for a moment, and then continued, "But the question is... why? Why would it do that? Does the thing need to eat? Shit, why are any of these things doing what they're doing?" his voice turned a little frantic, "None of this makes any sense! What the fuck is even happening? What are these things?! Where did they come from?! What do they want?!"

I put my hand on his shoulder and shook my head, "Right now, we have no way of knowing. I don't know if we'll ever find any answers. If we think too hard about it, it will only give us headaches... We just need to focus on surviving, and avoiding these things... whatever they are."

He nodded, "You're right... thanks. The only thing we should worry about is whether we need to kill them or not... and whether we can kill them or not..."

We had finished packing up what we thought we could make do with. We took one last look around us, climbed down the ditch and stepped into the thick trees.