War pt 2

The young woman pressed her back against the wall and watched the procession of soldiers march by. The last four of whom were carrying two extremely bloodied and mangled bodies. All of them kep glancing over their shoulders at something behind them. Wishing it was night instead of mid afternoon, she slipped away from the street, looking for somewhere to hide. The siren with the robotic voice announcing that a code red curfew was no in place was still sounding over the speakers throughout the town. She didn't have long to find somewhere to hide before the streets were filled with watchful soldiers. It would be very bad if she was caught breaking curfew. The soldiers were already extremely annoyed with her because of her views about the Faeries. They were looking for there chance to send her off to the front lines.

With no other options, she climbed up a nearby tree. From there she was able to pull herself onto a garage roof. Hopefully the soldiers on patrol would only have dogs trained to pick up the scent of Faeries and not people. She also hoped that no one had seen her climbing the tree. If they had, they would be sure to inform the soldiers about her. She was certain that there wouldn't be any aircraft flying around: the few that were still serviceable were on the front lines. But she still felt exposed on the roof of the garage, and decided that it would be better if she kept moving towards the edge of town through the backyards.

She crept over to the far edge of the roof, taking care to keep as low as possible and then froze. Over the nearby hills was a massive black cloud, almost completely covering the whole horizon sky. As she stared at it, trying figure out what it could be and what it meant, a loud buzzing sound suddenly filled the air. It took her a second to realise that the code red siren had stopped, and had most likely been covering the buzzing sound until that point. She still didn't know what could be making the sound, although she was fairly certain that it was coming from the cloud.

Apparently the soldiers patrolling the street had no idea where it was coming from. She could hear them shouting to each other has they looked for the source of the buzzing. Starting to feel uneasy about breaking curfew and what she planned on doing, she considered telling them about the cloud. But that would mean revealing herself to them, which would undoubtedly end with her being sent to the front lines. She'd heard stories from some of the front line veterans: the front lines were filled with constant fear and horror, and it was unheard of for someone to leave them uninjured or killed. Only serious injuries that left a person completely unable to fight anymore meant leaving the front lines ... unless of course, that person was killed instead of just injured.

The front lines were a place to avoid. And that wasn't done by revealing to soldiers that you're breaking curfew.

She lay down flat on her stomach, her eyes never leaving the large buzzing cloud. She absent mindedly swatted away a couple of flies. A moment later, she stifled a scream and quickly rolled onto her back frantically brushing away a large spider, sending it flying through the air. More flies settled on her and half a dozen wasps hovered menacingly nearby. She sat up and looked around and saw the air was thick with insects.

It suddenly dawned on her what the cloud consisted of and why it was buzzing.
She wondered what kind of damage a massive swarm of insects could inflict. They can drive a person insane, she reflected humourlessly as she constantly swatted away the insects, some of which bit or stung. She could hear the frustrated shouts from the soldiers as they were also attacked by the insects. Not wanting to find out first hand just what kind of damage a massive swarm if insects could cause to a person, she darted across the garage roof and jumped down onto the bin against the fence.

Still batting away the insects, and feeling lumps rising where she'd been bitten or stung, she darted out onto the street, and saw the soldiers weren't fairing much better than her. A couple of the sniffer dogs with them were straining at their leashes and pawing at the faces, already being driven mad by the insect swarm. One of the soldiers looked up and saw her. He shouted out in surprise and annoyance.

"There's even more of them coming! There's a massive swarm!" She shouted. She spotted a house with a bright yellow sign a little bit further down the street and immediately started to run towards it. She didn't bother to see if the soldiers followed her or not. She really didn't care either way. Although things would probably be easier for her if they didn't.

She skidded to a halt at the front door of the house. The air was now so thick with insects, it was impossible to see more than a few meters in any direction. The ground was starting to crawl with the flightless bugs. She kicked them off her feet and tried opening the door, and cried out in desperation when she discovered that it was locked. Who locked their door these doors? No one bothered locking their doors ever since the army set up the training base in town. There just wasn't any need. Plus if there was an air raid, people needed to be able to get into the houses with the bunkers.

She was suddenly hauled backwards and thrown into the hands of a waiting soldier. He gripped both her arms tightly, while they both squinted through the insects as another kicked open the heavy door. Over the sound of the insects, she heard a dog whimpering.

The door burst open, and everyone rushed inside. The door was slammed shut behind them. There was about ten of them as well as two sniffer dogs. The soldier who had held her outside still kept a tight grip on her arm inside. Everyone was covered in lumps from the insect bites and stings. There was a frenzy of movement as everyone frantically shook off any insects on them, and then stamped on them to make sure the bugs were dead.

"This door won't keep'em out for long, sir." A soldier observed, looking closely at the door. Everyone else took a closer look at the door and saw that it had been damaged when it had been kicked open. There was a long crack running down it, and a couple of insects were already starting to slip through it.

"We should be safe in the bunker.
Simpson, you, Walters, Avery and Greene take the girl and the dogs to the bunker. The rest of you search the house for anyone else."

There was a chorus of "Yes, Sir!", and she was ushered to the back of the house where there was a steel trap door in the floor. This was opened and Simpson and another soldier climbed down the steel ladder, before she was sent down after them. The dogs were lowered down afterwards, followed by a middle aged man who looked like he was a new recruit. The fourth soldier perched on the top rung of the ladder and kept a lookout for the others.

She slouched over and sat in a corner with her back against the wall, staring sullenly at the soldiers in the bunker with her. Everyone crept scratching at their bites and stings, while the two dogs whimpered in another corner. There was suddenly a scream followed by a heavy thud.

"Avery?" Simpson called out to the soldier keeping lookout.

"Don't know." Avery climbed back out of the door and disappeared from everyone's view. Simpson slowly climbed the ladder and peered around. There was another scream and Simpson dropped back into the bunker with a shout. A second later, Avery scrambled down the ladder, only pausing to close the door after her. Both she and Simpson looked terrified.

"What is it?"

There was a metallic clang as something struck the steel trap door repeatedly. The dogs howled and everyone backed as far away as they could from the ladder. The soldiers nervously drew their guns and aimed at the door.

The metallic clanging continued followed by the sound of metal being torn apart, the sound caused everyone to wince and cover their ears. A deep growl came through what remained of the steel door, causing the dogs to howl even louder.

With a final wrench, the door was town away from the floor and a massive pair of glowing red eyes glared down at them.

War pt1

The air raid sirens sounded again. They were meant to indicate that everyone was supposed to take cover in the nearest bunker. But since they had sounded at least once a day for the last two months without any kind of destruction following, most people ignored them and went about their business as usual. Most people now believed that they were safe and that the war front wouldn't reach their little town. After all, the war had been raging for almost two years and no one had seen any of it except what filtered through to them in the sparse news reports.

But they were still constantly reminded that there was a fierce battle raging across the country by the constant fuel, power and food rations, not to mention that the army had set up a base on the outskirts of town to train the constant stream of new recruits, all of whom were getting younger or more elderly each day. Everyone had at least one family member serving in the army, many of whom hadn't been heard from since they were sent to the front line.

The sirens lasted for fifteen minutes, and then everything went silent again. This happened so frequently even the soldiers had stopped reacting whenever the sirens sounded. But this time, when the sirens had finished wailing, something was different. It was a subtle difference. It was the silence. It was a different kind of silence today, and only those with extra keen hearing were able to pick up on it. But they just shrugged it off as paranoia.
So it came as a massive surprise to everyone when an extremely old woman strode up to a soldier and tore a huge chunk from the side if his neck with her teeth. The soldier screamed in agony and futilely tried to stop the flow of blood pouring from the wound. The old woman hissed and bit his arm. The soldier would've screamed as she tore part of his arm away, but he was already dead.

Civilians screamed and scrambled to get away from the creature, while soldiers rushed forward, their weapons aimed at her. The creature turned and faced the soldiers, baring her blood stained pointy yellow teeth as she hissed again. She crouched down, ready to attack. The soldiers consisted of new recruits still being trained and veterans who had seen too much action in the war. All of them were terrified of the creature and fired wildly at her.

The creature shuddered with the impact of the bullets, and dark blood oozed from the wounds. She stumbled backwards and fell over the body of her victim. The shouts of a commanding officer could be heard over the gunfire but no one could make out what she was shouting.

Gradually the soldiers stopped firing and looked apprehensively at the prone body of the creature. One of the bolder recruits cautiously crept towards her.

"Sanders, fall back!" The commanding officer shouted in alarm, hurrying forward to pull him back. But she was too late. With a shriek of rage, the creature threw herself from the ground at Sanders, who screamed in agonised terror before his throat was torn out.

The creature looked up at the soldiers through slitted eyes, Sanders' blood dripping off her face, and hissed something in articulate at them before turning and running away from them with inhuman speed.

"What she say?" A heavily scarred one eyes veteran asked the group at large.

"Something about losing, I think." A recruit answered uncertainly. "My Faerie isn't all that crash hot. But I'm certain she said something about losing."

"Does anyone speak fluent Faerie?" The commanding officer demanded.

Everyone shook their heads.

"Shit! I hope somebody caught this on camera."

Most of the recruits looked sheepishly down at their feet. None of them had thought of bringing their cameras with them when they had left the base. But all of the veterans responded that they had.

"Good. All of you back to base now. Those of you idiots who don't have your cameras I want you to report to Thompson in full gear." She pulled out a small transistor radio from her belt. "This is Major Fielding. There's been an attack in town. I'm declaring a code red curfew be enforced immediately."

"What is that?" A recruit pointed towards the nearby hills. Everyone else looked in the direction he was pointing. It took a couple of minutes before they were able to see the faint black cloud that was rapidly growing darker and larger. As they stared at the growing cloud, sirens, slightly different to the air raid siren, started to sound all around them.

"THIS IS NOT A DRILL. A CODE RED CURFEW IS NOW IN PLACE. EVERYONE IS IMMEDIATELY GO INSIDE AND STAY INSIDE UNTIL FURTHER ADVISED." A deep robotic voice intoned over the siren.

All across town, everyone hurried into the nearest buildings. They all knew that code red meant that they weren't even allowed to go home. They just had to get inside or face a military tribunal for civil disobedience, which often ended with the culprit being forced to join the army before being sent off to the front lines. It was better to our up with a small amount of discomfort for a short time than facing the tribunal.

"Back to base, everyone!" Major Fielding barked.

The soldiers fell into formation and marched back to base on the other side of town. Many of them, including Major Fielding, kept stealing uneasy glances back at the still rapidly growing cloud behind them. They passed more soldiers hurrying to position themselves around town to keep look out for anyone breaking curfew and any foes. Although no one expected to face any Faeries. They still believed themselves to be safe in the relatively sleepy town.

I Do Not Wish to Alarm You, But ...

I believe that our old childhood fears of the monster under the bed may have been correct.

Yes, I know. Scary isn't it?

But I sense that you don't believe me and want some proof.

Well, unbelievers, I'm watching one of the cats. She's in front of my bedroom door and is really spooked by something in there (and I know it's not some burgular, because I've been home all day).

She keeps getting up, trying to work up the nerve to go in there, but then crouches back down again, trying to hide herself from whatever's in there.

I can hear some of you saying that it could just be one of the other cats spooking her.

It's not another cat! The rest are out in the lounge room with me.

How about another monster, I hear you ask.

That's a reasonable question, because there's quite a few monsters that haunt bedrooms ... actually there's only two; the one under the bed and the one in the wardrobe.

My wardrobe is closed tight, and if it was that monster spooking the cat, then she'd be in my bedroom acting all weird and spooked.

It has to be the monster under my bed.

And if you unbelieverswant further proof, then the cat in question just nerved herself up and went into my bedroom a couple of seconds ago. She jumped about a mile in the air and bolted from my bedroom when she reached my bed.

Proof that the monster under the bed does in fact exist.

Although, I don't know why I'm happy about this.

How am I going to reach my bed without the monster under it getting me? I don't actually trust the frame enough to do a running jump (the only way to avoid getting caught by the monster under the bed).

This is a bit of a dilemma.