Annunaki

Chapter 1

My name is Connor James. I'm in the top of my class at the military academy that's trained me. I'm an excellent soldier in that I get things done, but I hate following orders. While my commanding officers like to remain politically correct and follow the rules by the book, I would rather take a more direct path; it's the way I've always been.
I never knew my parents. I was in an orphanage as a baby, and adopted within the year. My adopted father was a war veteran, so he strongly believed that a fair and militant structure was all that a boy needed to be raised into a man; that was how his father raised him. When I was old enough, he enrolled me in the military academy, which I hated at first. They enforced the rules strictly, trying to break us down mentally, but they always wrote home saying that I was "a wild horse that couldn't be tamed." My father's response was more discipline.
Eventually, they realized I still did what I was supposed to, just not how. I was different from the brainwashed and broken down others; I had spirit they couldn't contain or control. Looking back, it was pretty funny to see how they couldn't argue with my methods if the mission was still complete. They always got what they asked for. Even the other cadets would get flustered by my actions, especially when it cost us push-ups.
I got stronger as I got older, and more lonely. I wasn't like everyone else, so friendships dissolved over time. By graduation, I decided to become part of a special defense unit dedicated to the protection of American citizens. There were strange killings going on, entire villages wiped out in a night. No one knew what happened, and there were no traces of evidence either. It had all five of us spooked on my team. Everyone was unsettled.
Every few weeks there were more mass killings. There didn't appear to be any rhyme or reason in picking towns. They were masters of unpredictability, which made them dangerous. They only maintained one factor in these killings; every town they left covered in blood. Every person we found - man, woman, and child - their throats were cut, and had a face full of horror.
The killers started getting brave - or maybe just bored - and started moving closer to the city I lived in, where I was sworn to protect the people. We were trained to defend the people from everything, but their trust in us quickly died as an entire block was wiped out in the night. Men were stationed at every building to stand guard. Months went by, curfews were set, the mayor even went so far as to require that everyone stay indoors as much as possible. Eventually, people would start to relax, and they would strike again. It was like we were fighting an invisible opponent, and there was nowhere safe to hide. Surveillance cameras showed their strategic, quiet method, but they were inhumanly fast. All that we could actually see was a dark blur moving in a very precise motion. We couldn't show this to the public, so it was kept under wraps.
My team was guarding a particular building the night everything went down hill. I heard a muffled squeak on the second floor just above my head, like the beginning of a scream snuffed out. A particularly friendly member of my team was standing beside me, but he didn't hear the sound. I stepped forward and shined my light on the windows to see if it was just somebody who was still awake. It became evident that they weren't awake anymore when I saw that much blood running down the window. I called everyone to assemble on our walkies. Nobody saw anything go inside. We were going to search the building floor by floor until we found and could apprehend the killers, or until back up arrived. If only it were as easily said as done.
The building had ten floors, but they were all very spacious. It was an apartment building for the more financially able; only they could afford to live in a place like this. From the moment we walked in there was blood everywhere. Every door we opened, we would find another body, throat cut. Every floor, same scene and different faces. By the time we reached the ninth floor, we were almost numb to it. I called for back-up again, but there was no response, only static. Every room we searched, we only found more death. I started to notice a variance in how they were murdered. The cuts weren't so clean anymore. It wasn't the merciful execution like before, it was more jagged, careless, hungry like an animal attack. The marks were small, but very sharp, like a shark in human skin. We could hear a gurgling scream in the next room, 926B. I opened the door, guns raised and ready to fire. The room was dark, but the curtains were open. The silhouette of two men stood against the sleeping city skyline. One man was already dead standing, held up by the other which had never been alive. We found it eating the flesh off the man's neck and shoulders. Muscles and tendons now exposed, the creature dropped him. Now he focused on us. I immediately gave the command to open fire, but it was ineffective. We unloaded clip after clip, but they just bounced right off like spitballs on a chalkboard. He started darting from wall to wall at an impossible speed. We just kept shooting until we ran out of ammunition. He landed in the upper corner of the room and launched himself at us. He stopped perfectly nose to nose with the man right beside me. He snatched him up and threw him like nothing at the wall beside it. He hit one of the structural beams, dying on impact. Drywall landed on and around him pre-stained from the man who died before him. By the time I processed that, two more men had been ripped apart and I found myself cornered with the last man on my team. He was the friendly one I was guarding with, John. We were out of ammo and reduced to our most basic weaponry. I knew the creature was stalking towards us, but we couldn't see it, at least John couldn't. I could tell where he was, like I could see him, but not with my eyes. With every step, our hearts beat faster. John was in panic mode shaking and breathing heavily. I could hear him praying softly "Oh God. Oh dear God! We're not going to make it!" The creature seemed to be everywhere at once. The darkness was his body, but I knew where the darkness was radiating from. I held up my knife ready to defend myself. "We're going to make it. We have to." I said in the most determined voice I could manage. Grabbing John by the forearm, I turned him towards the door. There were stairs maybe three yards away. "You get to the stairs," I whispered. "Run. I'll keep it busy." The creature was within range for me to jump on him while he ran out, he had a life to live, a family that loved him. I would've been an easy sacrifice.
John ran as fast as he could towards the stairs and the creature stopped for a split second, then launched itself at him. I could no longer see without seeing, not that I needed to. I could hear that John's steps had stopped. In the flickering light of the emergency staircase, I could see both of them. I ran towards them, but it felt like I wasn't moving at all, like time stopped for just me. I pushed my legs harder than ever before, but it was too little too late. I could see the creature in full detail. It was covered in blood from head to toe, no hair, no clothes. Its eyes glowed an eerie shine, and its smile seemed to take up its whole face. That disgusting smile. Sinister like a rotting or sick yellow with a jagged edge. An overwhelming rage took over me and that smile became the center of focus, I was going to knock its teeth right out of its evil head. Not fast enough still. With one hand, it ripped out John's throat, and lifted the other using some sort of force to throw me straight back and out of the window.
It barely felt like I was falling, all I could see was John's horrified face. Gravel cracked and crumbled beneath me, I saw the earth waver and give to my landing. I felt nothing anymore, and let myself slip into unconsciousness.
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I woke up alone in a hospital room. I began looking around for my men desperately clinging to the hope that it was all a horrible nightmare. I quickly realized I couldn't move with the body cast I was in. Disoriented, I started rocking back and forth just trying to move or get out. I ripped the needle out of my arm in the process, cutting me off from the morphine drip I was attached to. I started to panic increasing my heart rate. Nurses rushed in with a sedative and restraints putting me back in darkness.
The next time I woke up, there was a man sitting next to me that I didn't recognize. Once the blur of sleep left my eyes, I knew who it was. The highest ranking officer, the commandant, had been waiting patiently for me to wake up. He was very still, all straight lines from his buzz cut to perfectly shined shoes, even his eyes looked very precise and focused.
"Glad to see you're still with us." He stated flatly.
I tried to stretch and sit up casually, but it looked pathetic in casts. I grunted my reply, still groggy and unsure how my voice would sound.
"James, Connor, correct?" I nodded, then he sat forward, interlaced his fingers, and began.
"Would you like to tell me the events of two nights ago?" I furrowed my brow, confused. I hadn't realized what day it was. Had I really been out that whole time?
"Uh.." I stammered, my voice cracked slightly, "We were keeping guard over the apartment building that was attacked."
"Go on." He sat back in quiet thought.
"I-I thought I heard a noise on the floor above us, and when I looked, there was blood." He just continued to sit there quietly, nodding occasionally.
"We went together floor by floor checking every room. There was just.. So much blood. We were on the ninth floor I think, and this creature was standing there eating a man. I mean, it was literally eating him while he was still standing. We tried shooting it down, but it was like bulletproof or something. They just bounced off like it was nothing. It started jumping all over the place and killed three men in the blink of an eye. It cornered me and John, but it chose to walk slowly towards us." I hesitated for just a moment before deciding not to tell him how I saw without seeing.
"I told John to run... He got to the stairs and the thing caught him.. I couldn't save him. I watched him die." My voice began to crack and I could feel myself trembling uncontrollably. "I saw the-the thing. It was covered in blood. It just... Smiled. It cut John's throat with one hand, and then used like a force or something to throw me out the window."
I saw him tilt his head to one side only slightly before snapping it back. He seemed interested in that. He leaned forward looking at me intently, furrowed brows and all. "So you're telling me that this thing didn't even touch you?" When I nodded, he continued. "And you're telling me that it threw you through the ninth story window using the force?" I nodded again.
"Son, do you realize that you sustained, not only an incredible fall from that height, but you survived that crater you caused in the center of a parking lot? Just what are you?" He paused waiting for an answer, but I didn't have one.
"Let me just reiterate what I just said in case you're too dumb to get it. A fall from a ninth story window would turn any regular man's bones to jelly, but you survived with only two fractured ribs, one broken hip, a broken fibula, and a hairline cracked wrist. That alone is miracle if not impossible, but what you're telling me is that you were physically thrown through that window - without that thing laying a hand on you - so hard that the paramedics who found you had to be careful not to get stuck in the crater they found you in. So tell me, just what the hell are you? Because you're obviously no ordinary man."

End Chapter One.