***AUTHORS NOTE***

This is a very long chapter. Almost 7k words.

The drawing of Z I've been doing is not complete. I shall occasionally update it as I finish it, but you will get the gist of her appearance. Xai'an is still only in the sketch phase.

***END AUTHORS NOTE***

I woke up in a pool of my own drool. Well, that was nice. At least I didn't have to suffer from the embarrassment of someone seeing me like this. I simply wiped my face and sat up.

My body ached and cracked with protest, telling me further that I had slept hard. I slowly rolled my arms and neck, wincing slightly at the resistance of my own muscles. This always happened to me when I put off sleep for too long.

I allowed myself to really look around the room and it took me a second to realize that it was dark. Fuck! I had slept well past what I had intended to! What the hell did I do with my phone? I glanced on the table and didn't see it there. Damn it. I left it in the truck, didn't I?

Running my hands over my face helped to wake me up a bit, but my body protested me getting up. I was surprised that Sosha hadn't come in here yapping his need to go outside. I had left the door to his cage open and he had a tiny bladder after all.

I had to turn on the hallway light in order to navigate through the darkened house. I grew up here, but it had been several years since I had been inside these walls. It was a lot quieter than I remembered, but it was also void of four other people. Both my parents and sisters. It made things a lot more lively.

I found Sosha sitting in his cage. He didn't so much as sniff a growl at me. Whatever freaked him out this morning seemed to have tamed his temperament. I'd take it.

"Come on, Sosha. Let's go outside." I tapped my hand on my thigh, beckoning him to follow me. He did. His little collar chimed as he waited for me to open the door for him.

I watched him as I approached the truck to make sure he didn't wander very far. Owls would love to just swoop down and grab him. When he squatted down to do his business, I turned to open the truck. I always left it open when I was down here. Small towns just didn't have crime like they did in the suburbs.

Right there in the center console was my phone. I snatched it just as the ground shook. This wasn't a small tremor. This thing rocked the ground so hard that it set off my truck alarm and not just mine. The houses next to mom's all had alarms going off.

What the hell was that?

I scrambled to my glove box which had a secret compartment that I kept the spare key in so I could silence it. I glanced back for Sosha and my heart stopped. He was gone.

"Sosha?" I hopped out of the truck and started to go to where he last was. "Sosha?"

Nothing.

"Son of a bitch! Mom should have just gotten a damn cat!" I snapped at the air and bent to look for Sosha again. A soft whimper turned me toward mom's rose bushes. There he was. I let out a sigh of relief.

"Come on, Sosha. Let's go back inside." I had to get on all fours to reach into him and grab him. He didn't fight me in the slightest. Probably because he was quivering far too much to move again. He was spooked.

With one final glance around me, I started to make my way inside. The chorus of car alarms softened as soon as I closed the door and after a moment they seemed to cease.

I sat Sosha down so he could run back to his cage just as another much smaller quake vibrated my feet. I don't think I had ever felt an earthquake in Harrisburg before. This just wasn't a common area for them.

My phone started vibrating in my hand and I nearly pissed myself. I had forgotten I even had it. My mother was calling. I answered and hit the speaker so I could go feed Sosha one more time. "How was your flight mom?"

"Zena, where are you?" Her voice was frantic. Alarm bells went off.

"What do you mean 'where am I'? I'm at your house? Why-"

"Get out! Get out now! It's all over the news! The mines caved in and the whole town is going to go under soon-" The call abruptly ended with a series of beeps. I pulled my phone back and saw that I suddenly had no service.

I didn't hesitate in the slightest. I ran to snatch Sosha and I booked it to my truck. I didn't bother locking the door. If this town was going under then there'd be no house left anyway. My heart was hammering as I clutched the little dog to me.

I heard a blood curdling scream as I opened the passenger door and dumped the little dog inside. Unable to resist, I looked behind me and froze. My brain was having trouble processing what the fuck I was seeing but I understood that I was suddenly scared. Instincts were telling me that I needed to get the fuck out of there, but I was caught in one of those terrible horror movies. You know the ones where the girl just sits there and screams while the killer ultimately slashes her to pieces instead of you know...RUNNING!

Something was standing above what looked like a body. It was hard to make out because it's black body blended seamlessly with the darkness around it. The thing was tall, standing almost six feet tall. It's massive head glistened in the moonlight and had an odd growl. The way it moved was almost serpentine like.

The choked gasp made me look down at the body at it's feet. White and red matted against what looked like a head. Small flowers decorated the soft blue or maybe green dress that had been stained with something dark and slick. The thing moved just a fraction. Enough for me to see a face and then my brain suddenly understood that I was looking at Mrs. Dunninham. My mother's elderly next door neighbor.

Soft horror dawned on me that whatever the fuck that black thing was, it was fucking eating her! Oh...my...god!

Sosha snarled from my seat and started going insane with his barking. My heart slammed my throat because that thing hadn't seemed to notice me yet, but as it lifted it's long, tube-like head, I knew sure as shit that it noticed now. THIS DAMN DOG!

The thing pulled back some sort of lip as it snarled almost crystal like teeth at me, hissing it's threat. It stood up on two, sickly thin legs as it's vertebrae-like tail rose above it's head.

"Oh...fuck…" I whispered just before it rushed me. I screamed, barely having time to drop to avoid this thing crushing me into the car. The metal frame screeched in protest as the glass shattered, raining down on me. My alarm started blaring again. I curled into a ball and waited for the thing to kill me...but it didn't.

I uncurled myself enough to look up and see the thing hissing at the back end of the truck. It seemed to be attacking it with it's grotesque fingers. I rolled under the truck, thankful now more than ever that I let the salesman talk me into getting a lifted version, while trying to keep myself from crying out. If it was busy fighting my truck, I didn't want to draw it's attention back over to me.

I tried to be as quiet as possible as I inched my way over to the driver's side of the truck, my teeth clenched to the point of pain to ensure it. My whole body shook as adrenaline pumped through me.

I heard more screams echo out in the air and I clapped my hands over my mouth to keep myself from screaming out. Were there more of these things out there? Where the fuck did they come from? They sure as fuck weren't anything native to this world. So what did that mean? Genetic mutation? Government experiment gone wrong? Fucking aliens? God…

Tears formed in my eyes but I bit my lip hard enough to hurt because if I lost it right now, I knew I'd not stop and that thing would fucking kill me. I spent the last six years training so no one could fuck with me and it's completely fucking useless against this fucking thing! I had to run. I had to run! RUN!

I managed to crawl out while the beast was chewing into the back bumper of my truck. A quick peek inside the cabin showed that Sosha wasn't inside. It was a quick relief because there was no way I could grab him without alerting the thing that I was right here and I would have felt terrible leaving him trapped in there. Sosha would have to take care of himself out in the wilds.

Kneeling low, I made quick but quiet steps to hide on the side of the house. It was nearly pitch black here but I couldn't be sure if the creature could see at night or not, so I didn't want to haul ass just yet. I didn't see any eyes on the thing so it would be my luck that it would have echolocation capabilities.

As soon as I felt confident I was far enough away without being detected, I ran. I ran so hard and so fast, I thought my lungs were going to burst. I had to find help! But where?

More screams came out of the night just as I crossed into the Ferns backyard, my mother's other neighbor. I knew because of the obnoxious amount of lawn ornaments they had out here. Gnomes in particular. The damn things were ugly as hell and never seemed as happy as they were supposed to be. They always looked sinister. Especially when silhouetted by the motion fog lamps attached to the house; like now.

Pain starred my vision and I had the distinct notion that I was rolling. Something had hit me. Hard. Another spurt of adrenaline forced me to scramble back as another hiss made me scream. I didn't even have to look to know the creature had followed me or maybe there was simply that many out and about. My heart fluttering like a hummingbird told me either way, it was one of those things.

My hands went to the first ceramic gnome that I could get my hands on and threw it at the things head. The gnome shattered, but didn't seem to phase it other than make the thing hiss again and thrash that tail. It was much closer than I thought. Maybe about six feet which was a terrifyingly small number when faced with something trying to kill you.

My hands frantically searched for another as the creature inched closer to me, drool dripping out of it's monstrous mouth like a leaky fountain. It hunkered down to the ground, like a cat, taking it's time. Probably toying with me. Daring me to run.

I chose to throw another gnome, this one was heavier than the first so I had to use two hands to throw it, grunting with the effort. The monster flicked it's tail, smashing the gnome into pieces like a damn pinata. "Fuck!"

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! My heart was pounding in sync with my mantra. There was no way I was getting out of this alive! This thing was going to fucking kill me! I was going to die! I. Was. Going. To. Die!

It just stared at me, whipping its tail about. What the fuck was it doing? Well if it wanted to fucking watch me throw more shit at it, I would gladly-

The things tail pierced the ground with such force it was almost a small explosion. I screamed and jerked my hand back. It really was just fucking with me! It wanted to watch me struggle until it was bored of me.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?" I screamed my frustration out.

If it had the ability to answer, it didn't get the chance to because a deep, animalistic roar took both of our attention. At first I didn't see anything, but then there was a flash of eyes before seemingly out of thin air a massive humanoid form appeared.

Whatever this was, definitely wasn't human. I knew that much. No man was built to be this size. He was easily eight feet tall. If not taller. Not to mention this thing had reptilian-like skin. Dark scales and spikes covered his body, leaving his much lighter chest and abdominals bare. And it was definitely a 'he' from the massive pectoral definition. He had a wide spaced netting covering him from his neck down. He had metal armor on his thick shins, thighs, arms and shoulders and his back was adorned with skulls of some sort. His face was covered with a metal mask of some sort and thick, rubber like dreads bounced around his head as he threw out his clawed hands in direct challenge. In a way, he was much more terrifying than the first monster.

The monster screeched out at the face of this new monster, it's tail twitching aggressively. Whatever this thing was, it was far more interesting than me.

The new monster rushed the serpentine one, each step causing vibrations under his weight. Which explained why the serpent screeched, seemingly in pain, when it was tackled. He pushed it into the Ferns gardening shed, taking the whole thing down in a crashing dust plume.

I scrambled to my feet, tripping over one of the fallen gnomes. Pain shot through my hand after landing on some of the broken ones. The ground rumbled again behind me from where the two were still battling but I wasn't sticking around to see if Thing 1 lost to Thing 2.

I heard more screams. These were much closer than before and it made me pause. How many of these things were there?

A hand grabbed my shoulder and I screamed. It was the second monster. My heart launched to my throat and I screamed again, trying to jerk away from him. He was unphased, fisting the fabric of my hoodie. He made a chittering noise behind that mask as he cocked his head to one side.

"Safe." A male voice said.

I froze at the word. Had I heard right? Did he just speak to me? I risked a glance up to him. He was watching me as if waiting for me to say something.

"D-did you just...speak?" I felt stupid just saying it.

"Yes." A female voice said, "You are safe." A male voice. Were these recordings? He cocked his head to the other side.

A million fucking questions ran through my head. Who was he? What was he? Why did he help me? Did he know what those things were? Could he get me out of here?

I finally settle for, "You're not going to hurt me?"

He shook his head, those rubbery dreads dancing down to his hips as he did. Jesus he was tall. I had to crane my neck all the way just to look at his...face? Mask? Whatever. I was just thankful I didn't land with an even bigger enemy to face.

"You're not human. Are you?"

He growled and it made me jump. When he simply shook his head, I realized it wasn't an angry one. "Come." A female’s voice again. This one had an accent. Scottish maybe? "Keep you safe." Another male. Different from the first one.

He didn't give me a chance to ask questions. His warm hands circled my waist and tossed me over his shoulder, careful not to impale me on the spikes. He started running then at such speeds that I couldn't even scream. If there had been any doubt that this thing was human, it was gone now.

I don't know how long we were running like that, but he suddenly stopped. Nausea settled in my stomach and threatened to expel. I groaned, "I think I'm gunna hurl."

He had me on my feet again. Probably because he didn't want me puking my guts up all over his back. I didn't blame him. I knelt down and tried to breathe with my head between my legs. In. Out. In. Out. That's right, Z. Good girl. You got this.

"Get down." This was another male's voice. Hushed and panicked.

I dropped to my stomach immediately. My eyes were eagerly looking for danger, but they couldn't see much in this dark. His black scaled hands went to the curled item on his hip. He chittered again as his head looked around, waiting for something. I realized that sound was coming directly from him. Was it his language then? Did he use the mask to translate because he couldn't speak English?

He suddenly thrust out his arm, a loud crack echoed, followed by a hissing screech. Holy fuck! There were more of the serpents out there! The one my new ally cut in half fell from the tree in front of us.

Where the hell were we? Though my eyes had now adjusted to the dark, it was too dark to tell. All I could really see were massive oaks which could mean anything for this tiny town. Woods circled it. Hell, we could have been in the middle of the park for all I knew.

He circled his arm around his head again. Another loud crack nearly popped my ears and another creature fell.

A whip. That's what he was using! Holy shit!

I saw motion to my right. It was another one of those things, sneaking up behind the male. "Behind you!"

He turned just as the thing leapt up, hitting him so hard in the face that his mask was thrust off his head. What lied underneath was a nightmarish vision. He had razor sharp mandibles over his small fanged mouth like a fucking crab. His eyes were small, but glew orange amber in the dark. Small quills lined his bulbous head like wispy hairs.

Those mandibles flared as he roared in anger, only the slightest turn of his brow showed a human-like similarity. It was so loud I had to cover my ears. Oh, he was pissed! His hands held the black creature's neck away from his face as it attempted to maim him and I noticed a small object thrusting from his mouth. Another mouth?

Crab Face body slammed the serpent in a one handed choke hold, snapping the stick like protrusions on its back. It was so forceful that it shattered the earth underneath, rocking me with it. A putrid smell hit my nostrils soon after. Something was burning and I slapped my hands over my nose to try to filter it.

My eyes darted around, but I dared not to get up and look. If Crab Face wanted me down, by god, I'd stay down. He was whooping these things ass when I had no chance!

He grabbed the things tail and flung it over his shoulder, tossing it so hard that it's body slammed into a tree and kept fucking going into the next one where it was impaled by a broken tree branch.

Four. This damn thing took down four of these monsters as if they were nothing. Just what the hell is he?

He seemed to strut over to me, clicking with those mandibles. If he was worried that I'd find him repulsive, he showed no sign of it, passing his fallen mask as he came. He knelt down over me, making me feel impossibly small with his massive size. Oh yeah, he was way bigger than just eight feet.

He held out his hand to me. With him being this close, I could see his skin much better. The back of his hands were all dark, coarse, hardened scales. Like a crocodile. If crocodiles came in onyx black anyway. Though underneath was a softer, almost cream colored appearance. Like a snake.

Was he trying to help me up? After seeing him literally snap a tree in half with the force of these hands I was a little more than nervous. Would he eventually turn these hands on me? God, I hoped not and I wasn't a religious girl.

I licked my dry lips and nervously reached for him. If he wanted to hurt me, he simply would, judging by how he reacted to the other creatures. Right? "Who are you? What are they?"

I motioned to the stilled black creatures as he helped me to my feet. His touch was warm, but rough grooved. Almost like pads of a paw. The creatures he had killed were rolled up in themselves, almost like a steaming dead bug. He followed the motion of my hand, his rubbery braids falling over his shoulder. I now noticed that he had little gold cuffs on them.