A Changed World - Book II | The Awakening of Darkness

Chapter 6: The Reptilian Tribe

Two Years Ago

A small family of lizards were fishing by a river, using only fishing line. There was snow all around them and they wore makeshift wooly clothing made from animal hide.

"Patience, young ones. That is all it takes." said the adult male lizard upon noticing the younger lizards becoming bored of holding a line with no success. "This is how we feed the tribe, we must have patience."

"Are you sure the water isn't too cold for fish?" Asked a lizard child, looking up to her father questioningly.

"The fish around here aren't bothered by the cold, so yes. I'm sure." He replied, patting the young lizard's head playfully with a small chuckle.

Another few minutes went by, with absolutely no luck. Until eventually something eventful happened.

"Father... what is that?" asked the other lizard child, his eyes were glued upstream and he pointed to something floating there way.

The father was curious and he looked to where his son was pointing, his eyes squinting as he saw it. "Hmm, I do not know... but whatever it is, it's scaring the fish away." he replied, stepping closer to the shoreline so he get a closer look. But when it got closer, his eyes widened. "Young one's... run back to the tribe, quickly." he demanded, stepping into the water a bit so he could grab this object and bring it ashore.

The two children wanted to question their father, but they obeyed and rushed back to camp while the father reached out and grabbed the arm of the lifeless body after it got close enough to him. He dragged it ashore and rested the body down onto its back on the snow. The lizard crouched down to begin examining the clearly male figure, wearing very sophisticated armor head to toe. He judged that it was most certainly human, and possibly of F.E.O origin.

He moved a hand to the side of this man's helmet and tilted it to the side, where he saw a few numbers and letters engraved into the metal which read 'ELITE-061'. This lizard had heard of this breed of F.E.O troops before, and he understood how lucky he was that this one showed up already dead... presumably. He reached his hands to the elite's neck in search of a release switch for the helmet. But suddenly, the elite's hand shot up and gripped the lizard's wrist like a vice, while the eyes of his helmet flickered on with an orange glow.

"Ah! Let go!" The lizard exclaimed, startled and attempting to free himself from the elite's grip.

The elite barely even moved a muscle, as if he were trying to process and compute where he was and what happened prior, his grip tightening around the lizard's wrist. His memories eventually flooded back into his head. "Where am I?" He demanded an answer with his cold, emotionless voice.

"In the middle of nowhere, what does it look like?!" The lizard retorted, "Let me go you bastard!" he exclaimed, grabbing a nearby rock and slamming it down on the elite's helmet, succeeding with freeing himself so that he could run off into the woods.

The elite didn't have much of a reaction to being whacked over the head, and slowly rose to his knees as he watched the lizard run off. His limbs felt cold and stiff due to spending a long duration in the freezing cold river. But unlike any ordinary man who would die from such exposure, the elite had his enhancements.

"F.E.O command, come in." he said into his comm link as he slowly rose to his feet, only to find out that the communication technology in his helmet had been destroyed, either by the freezing water or the lizard smashing a rock over his helmet. It also seemed that some of his weapons were lost in the river. But it didn't matter, his programming told him to follow the lizard in hopes of gaining answers on where his primary target was, so that he could finish his objective.