The man stared at the city view before him, trembling in fear at what he was seeing and clenching the metal railing of his fire escape desperately. Fiery clouds rose from dozens of locations as sounds of explosions and screaming filled the air. Once towering skyscrapers in downtown St. Louis were nothing more than jagged protrusions, bellowing smoke and spilling debris onto their surroundings. Though he wanted to resolutely ignore it, the man knew that those debris falling were as much human than any other material. His eyes were drawn further up to the streaks of fire and light in the sky. Roaring sounds of aircraft could be heard in the chaotic scene above, but they were far few compared to the inhuman roars and screeches that signaled the dominance of 'them.' The man's black eyes were dilated in shear terror at what he was witnessing, as inhuman figures of all sizes and shapes dominated the once clear skies.

Though he knew logically that this was expected sooner or later, he was having a hard time accepting that it was happening to his home. The news over the last few weeks had reported city after city being ravaged by 'them,' with world wide military forces failing to do anything to stop 'them' when they appeared, except to use the final solution. Some called it the world's revenge against humanity and its greed, while others proclaimed the coming of the Apocalypse. The man did not care what it was, but all he knew was that in front of the literal hell that had appeared in front of him, he was nothing more than a gnat.

He wiped the sweat rolling down his forehead, scattering away black hair that was plastered to his head from the sweat. Grabbing his backpack that was crammed with a few days worth of nutrition bars and water, he began scrambling down the five story building's fire escape, not caring if his brown t-shirt and blue jeans got scuffed. He knew the building's relatively tall height in the surrounding two and three story buildings would make it a perfect target for whatever flying monstrosity that wanted to use it as a temporary perch in the local area. His narrow face was tense, with his jaws clenched tightly, both from fear as well as from some desperate desire for survival as he literally skipped down stairwells, not caring how much it hurt his legs.

He had no solid plan, as he knew that the streets of the city would be as chaotic as the skies, but staying indoors was also a death sentence. If the ongoing battle for the city crossed a certain line, the military would use the final solution. Two weeks ago, that would have been insane to think about and would have probably led to major protests if not rebellions. However, after the world had watched dozens of major metropolitan cities attacked by 'them' and their populations turned into fodder while being tortured and brutalized in inhuman ways, a clean death was determined to be better. The list of cities that vanished in nuclear strikes had only increased in the past two months with places like New York City, Moscow, Beijing, New Delhi, and dozens if not a hundred others only being remembered in memory, images, and literature. Worse yet, just when people began to flee to the countryside, the creatures had also started appearing everywhere. Small towns and rural communities were nothing more than appetizers for 'them.'

The man had nowhere to go anyway and no one to seek out, considering he was an orphan. The worst part was that he was part this and that, to the point that he had to check 'other' in the categories for various applications that asked for ethnicity. So, he did not fit in anywhere. All the value he had to his name was his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering, though his performance in achieving his degree was average if anything. There was no special helicopter or rescue squad coming to save him. He was like every other poor bastard he saw on the streets below running for it or trying to stuff their cars with meaningless possessions, while trying reassure their children that world was not ending.

He shook his head to clear the feelings of desperation as he grimaced, realizing this was not the time to get sucked into pitying himself or anyone else. Stumbling down the last few stairs, he began running as fast as he could, trying to make it to a nearby sewer manhole. It was a desperate move, but he hoped the chances of surviving underground was better than the chaos happening in the city above. Moreover, he knew that there were deeper and more durable parts of the sewer system, where he had a chance to possibly survive, as low of a chance as that might be.

Gasping, he made out a manhole that he had memorized the location of weeks ago. He had no desire to wade through sewage, but it was better than ending up as feces himself. Just as he ran past the last building on the block and onto to the sidewalk, he heard a screeching and rumbling sound followed up a inhuman growl. He stumbled to a halt, eyes widening, as he turned to his right side. He felt his heart skip a beat as his bowels clenched in shock from the hideous monstrosity that had filled the street. Towering nearly 4 meters high and 6 meters long, it looked like someone had taken a bulldog's body, stuck a crocodile's head on it, covered the body in scales and spikes, and added a half a dozen tentacles onto the creature's body. To make some sicko's fantasy even more horrifying, the tentacles had snake like heads with mouths crammed full of teeth the size of a man's finger. The military called this variant of 'them,' a Category 2 Assault Unit. Most people had labeled the monsters Demon Hounds.

The creature roared, shattering windows in the buildings near it and flinging any person shivering in terror away from its surroundings. The man was far enough away that he just felt a sudden blast of air on himself and felt his ears ringing from the sudden change in air pressure. However, in the few seconds it took for him to shake off the sudden shock, bodies of dozens of people were torn apart by the creature's snake head tentacles, splattering blood, guts and viscera on the once clean sidewalks and brown colored buildings. The creature head butted a nearby family car, that had a family of four in it, flinging the car against the building and flipping it upside down.

The man stumbled backwards as his brain briefly replayed the scene of the two children screaming in the back seat of the car and their father trying to escape out the driver side door, even as the monster ended their lives with a casual toss of it's head. Almost as to shatter the numbness he was feeling, the Demon Hound jumped on top of the now upside down car, crushing the car and sending blood splattering out its sides. The man felt bile rising in his throat and began to heave as though he was going to throw up, but terror kept his throat muscles clenched tightly as the monstrosity barked/growled almost as if it was laughing,while it looked down at those surviving before it. Its long barbed tongue hung from its mouth as acidic saliva dripped onto the now smoking car. The man could see the malicious awareness and enjoyment in the creature's reptilian eyes, and he knew the stories about 'their' intelligence was true.

Around him, people began screaming, and he saw many turning to run away from the creature. However, he knew that was impossible. From what he remembered from the news, the thing had quick reflexes and could reach high speeds, which along with its heavy armor, made it a perfect assault weapon against any defense lines. As his brain tried to desperately force his body to move, a booming sound filled the air, and he had less than a second to quickly curl up on the ground, as an explosion lit up the creature, filling the air with flesh and blood along with smoke and fire. The man felt his body tossed across the sidewalk, as unknown objects hit him all over. He screamed in pain, as he felt something slam against his right thigh and barely stayed conscious as the sound of objects falling faded.

Now covered in streaks of inhuman blood and viscera, the man uncurled himself from his balled up form and found himself pushed behind a concrete divider that had been nearby. Pulling himself out of his daze, he realized the divider had absorbed the majority of the fallout from the explosion, which he now realized had been from a missile. The man dragged himself to his feet, using the divider for support. The street, where the creature had been, was now filled with burning wreckage and a large pile of burnt flesh. The man could make out parts of the Demon Hound, but it was now barely identifiable as the monster it had once been.

As his hearing slowly returned, he heard crying, moaning, and shouting from nearby, but all he could do was look around. He could barely keep his aching body standing, as he tried not to collapse. Looking around at nearby survivors starting to get up, he knew he couldn't stay here, not with all the blood that had been spilled. The news had mentioned how 'they' were drawn to blood like flies to honey. He tried to look for the sewer manhole, but with all the debris nearby, he could not find it. As he stumbled forward, he caught sight of something in the distance that made him pause.

Beyond the smoke and pile of flesh, a couple military vehicles could be made out. They looked like they had been worked over by the monster, but the sight of the vehicles made the man's heart race. He knew that missile had come from one of the vehicles. He wasn't a military enthusiast, but even he knew that there were man held missile launchers and vehicle mounted ones that were being upgraded and mass produced to fight 'them.' Some part of him held hope that there was a soldier alive, as it meant better chances of surviving than running alone. It was a desperate hope, but something was better than nothing.

Forcing himself to ignore his pain, he broke into a stumbling jog, sloshing past the mess created by the monster's putrid smelling flesh. He made out damaged buildings and torn apart bodies and cars, showing the mayhem the creature had caused as it had proceeded down the street. When he finally reached the military vehicles, he made out what he knew were military Humvees and a large military truck. The first Humvee, looked like the demon hound had torn apart one of its sides, ripping its crew out and leaving pieces of them scattered everywhere. What amazed him and filled him with some pride for humanity was the soldier whose scarred body was draped on top of the Humvee, holding onto a mounted, missile launcher of some kind. He remembered from news reports that such weapon had been used for destroying tanks before 'they' began invading. The man silently prayed for the soldier, whoever he had been, for what he had done, no doubt in his last few minutes of life.

Turning away from the wrecked Humvee, the man felt his shoulders collapse in weariness as he realized the chances of finding any living soldiers was next to nil. There had been three other vehicles in the convoy, but the other two Humvee's were scrap, while a truck looked like it had been mauled. He saw dead soldiers or what was left of them all over the place, with their weapons sharing a similar fate. However, even so, he eyed the truck, wondering what it held. He knew technically how to use a weapon as he had read up on it online, but he had not been able to buy any weapons as the gun shops had run out when the Apocalypse had begun. Walking over to the truck, he gave up hope of finding anything in its cab, as most of the front of the truck had been crushed. That left the back, and he hoped there were some weapons in it.

Walking past shards of glass and jagged pieces of metal, the man found the rear of the truck open, with one of the doors torn off and lying some distance away. A peek into the dark interior showed splashes of blood and clumps of flesh and fabric, along with a handful of metal containers. Hesitating, the man pulled himself into the truck interior, which was surprisingly not as big as he thought it would be. Other than a handful of chest like containers, there was some kind of four wheeled machine that reminded the man of one of NASA's drone vehicles used to explore Mars and the moon. However, the machine was further in the back of the truck while the metal containers were closer to the entrance.

Ruffling his hair, he cursed out loud, “Shit. What am I doing?” His voice, raspy with pain, sounded frustrated even to himself, but some part of him kept him in the truck. He knew that the chances of him getting out of the city was getting lower by the second, but with how badly his body hurt, he knew that his chances were even worse now than before everything. Looking at the black colored containers, he smiled wryly and began unlatching their seals.

Opening up the lids, he found a mix of computers, paper documents, and what looked like metal objects of different types. Flipping through some of the papers, his eyes narrowed as words like dimensional rift, Intruders, subspace artifacts, perpetual energy, and a dozen others jumped out right at him. Part of him felt like he was reading some kind of science fiction novel or something, but the pages continued on and on with charts, dates, locations, and more importantly names of people. One name in particular stood out him: a Dr. Harold Lightford. The man knew the professor,'s name as he was the head of the Nuclear Physics lab at the nearby university.

Looking at the artifacts, the man swallowed heavily, realizing he had just found something way out of his league and probably something very closely related to 'them.' He wasn't a genius, but even he could put two and two together to realize that the government may know more about 'them' than was being revealed. His sight finally focused on a artifact that occupied it's own container. It was metallic gray in its color, and nothing stood out in particular about it, but the man realized that there must have been something special about it for it to have been stored in a separate container. Lifting it up, he felt its smooth surface, wondering why someone would make something obloid in shape. It was about the size of a thermos flask and weighed about the same. The man realized that the scientists probably had been curious about the metallurgical properties of the item, hence its separate container. Even so, he felt it was a poor trade for a weapon.

Just as he was lamenting his luck, he heard what sounded like thunder from outside. A deep guttural bellow followed, making the air around him vibrate. It sent chills down his back, as he realized whatever caused the sound couldn't be nearby. That only meant one thing. Trembling, he cradled the artifact in his arms as he slowly made his way to the truck's entrance. Looking out, he saw people standing outside, staring at the now crimson colored sky that had flashes of lighting running through it. The people stood still, just staring skywards, and the man felt the remaining tension flow from him as he realized that everything was over. All options and choices no longer existed. Destiny had decided his fate and the fate of everyone, who lived in St. Louis.

Looking at the sky to his left, he finally saw the bloated, spherical monster as it dragged itself completely out of some kind of dark red rift in the sky over St. Louis, even as lighting rippled around the rift. The rumbling and screeching sound that rippled through the city quieted all other noise. It's body filled the sky, making a mockery of all man made constructs in history and taking away all hope anyone had left in the city. From the surface of the creature, flagella began stretching out, extending to all parts of the city. Anyone looking from a distance would think a massive amoeba was about to swallow the city, but the man knew that it was worse. There was only one answer to it.

The man sat down at the entrance of the truck, watching the creature as it stretched out in the sky and as its newly formed extensions reached the ground. People on the streets finally began screaming and running again, but even they knew that there was nowhere to run to. The man felt tired, whether it was from some internal injury or just from all the desperation he had felt in the last few months as he watched the world go to shit. He began laughing, even as tears began flowing down his cheeks. He sounded like a madman, but even the pain coming from his sides did not stop him from laughing. Raising his right hand, he showed his fist to the monster in the sky, finally raising his middle finger in defiance. “[email protected]$K You!”

A bright light lit up the sky and then another, and then the man knew nothing.