Aftermath [in work]

Prologue

Prologue

Paul Ross stood ontop of a cargo crates, staring down at the Zodiac base camp placed just by the docking bay, huddled by cargo crates. The air was cold and thin tonight, and a full moon was in the night sky.

Paul looked up at a giant crane positioned behind a red cargo crate. Two men stood ontop of the crane, holding assault rifles in their hands.

"Paul. Report, Paul." Paul's radio whispered. Paul was wearing a black kevlar suit, with a dark gray backpack strapped onto him. Paul stretched his arm back, had grabbed the radio from a small pocket of the backpack.

"What?" Paul whispered into it, crouching down. The zodiacs were very noticeable.

While they did tear the skin off of dead human bodies, and practically glued it to themselves, there were major differences to their appearances. Such as the human skin being stretched, or sometimes rotten, as if the Zodiacs were instead zombies.

"How do we infiltrate this? Michael is appearently gathering some supplies by the boats at the dock, but we can't get in touch with him." Said Robert. He was part of the squad Paul was in. The group was called Nova.

Paul examined the camp. It was a pretty big area, guarded by jeeps and other vehicles. Most of the people there were shaking in fear, still as if the Zodiacs are a new threat.

"Here, sit down on the ice box," Janice said, pointing at a red icebox sitting on the ground. Lee, Janice's 10 year old brother, sat on the ice box.

Lee had bright blonde hair that put down in a bowl shape. His eyes were green, and his skin was a majestic white. Very pale, espically with the harsh conditions. On his left knee was a bad scratch he had gotten while running around just moments before.

Being siblings, Janice had quite a different appearance, given she was a 16 year old girl. Her hair was dark brown, combed down to her shoulders. Her eyes were still green, but her skin was a slight darker shade of Lee's. Janice had inherited the father's genetics instead of the mother's.

Janice bent down infront of Lee and examined the knee. "We don't really have much to cover this up with, Lee." Janice sighed. She stood up, and began looking around incase she could find any medical packs.

The crowd of people seemed lost, as the Zodiacs were infront of the camp, whispering to each other. If it was about another migration plan, it was unknown for now. Soon, they will speak up and tell everyone what is happening.

Leaning against a jeep is a man in an expensive black coat, with small tears at its collar. His black under shirt also had tears at its collars. The man had short black hair, with a five o' clock shadow following his jawline. His skin was the same as Janice, as well. He had a scar on his upper lip from a past experience with a bandit.

Janice notice that beside this man's foot, is a plastic box of first aid kit. It would probably have some band-aids to cover up Lee's wound. She approached the box, trying not to make eye contact with the man.

The man stared at across the camp, at the Zodiacs huddling and talking to each other. They seemed prepared to release their plan. By the looks of it, it didn't seem good.

Janice bent down by the box, and grabbed a first aid kit.

"Who needs it?" The man asked.

"My brother, sir." Janice replied.

"No sir here, missy. Brook--Brook Williams."

"Well. . .Brook. I'll see you later." Janice signed off, walking towards Lee with the first aid kit.

Brook looked back at the Zodiacs. At this point, there only stood three, and they were awaiting something.

Janice was already applying the band-aid to Lee's scratch when a Zodiac general jumped onto a jeep's hood, causing a loud thunk. It was obviously a general by the uniform of dark green clothing. Normal Zodiacs wear black clothing.

"Fellow people," the general said, speaking in fluent English with no accent, "we must migrate six miles North of here. Due to the colonies requiring a meet-up place for all camps. We all will start now. Pack everything up, we must-"

A gunshot echoed, and the bullet hit the back of the Zodiac general's head. The general fell off the jeep, a light green liquid oozing out of the bullet wound.

Gunfire erupted immediately.

Janice squeezed onto Lee's hand, and she ran into a random direction.

Brook ran in an opposite direction than Janice, running down a empty abondoned street while Janice ran into an alleyway. He knew of an autoshop just a few streets away from his location, a three minute run.

Paul and his comrades kept down fire at the Zodiacs. A bullet scraped Paul's neck, stinging it like a metallic bee. "We have to retreat!" One of the men, Marco, yelled out as he fired from ontop of the crane.

Robert got shot in his shoulder, and groaned in pain. Though the Zodiacs had superior weaponry, they sticked down to human artillery for now. The wound on Robert would soon heal up after being cared for.

Then, Michael popped up behind Paul with his AK in hand. He opened fire at a pair of Zodiacs chasing down some humans, and killed them. "Alright men, let's move out!" Michael ordered, keeping down fire.

Marco looked down at Robert, then back at Paul and Micheal. "Man down!" He yelled out loud. Then he turned to Robert, and began treating the wound. He applied pressure to it while Paul provided cover fire against the Zodiacs charging at the two.

"What the hell do we do?" Paul asked, his head spinning to Michael. Michael kept shooting until his magazine clipped, to which he reloaded while answering, "Keep covering them. They're thinning out." Paul turned back towards Marco and Robert, and raised up his own rifle and blasted off a Zodiac climbing up the crane.

Marco tore off a chunk of sleeve off his under shirt, and tied it around Robert's wounded shoulder. He helped pick the weak man up, but left him to walk on his own. They began climbing down the crane to get a better cover area. They scattered along the battlefield, until finally taking cover behind one of the jeeps.

Marco turned on the radio. "We have to move, quick. We can't fight them down." He said, poking his head above cover and seeing more of the zombie-like figures appearing from nowhere.

Paul heard the radio message, and looked at Micheal. Micheal had stopped firing and was stumped on the decision. However, his decision was quickly made to retreat when one of the Zodiac hangers began flying in from two miles out.

The hangers were the small ships, the size of two school buses. They were were shaped like a comet, with it's rear parts shaped in spikes like a comet's flames, but inside this mechanic comet were small groups of Zodiacs. Even when they had dropped off the reinforcements, the hangers had built-in blast orbs. Small blue orbs that move in straight lines to where it was aimed at.

"Let's move! Go, go!" Micheal barked, beginning to jump off the crates. Paul followed.