The Girl and The Beast

Prologue(Vol 1)

Lightning sparked across the night sky and gave way to darkness as the thunder's deafening boom echoed across the wasteland. In the pitch black night, a predator, higher than all others, stalked its prey. All was about business as usual; the hunters were hunting and the prey was hunted.

Another creature, prey, pushed through shrubs and bushes of the forest.It ran with deft movements, with uncanny agility. It was familiar with the terrain, and it could see in the dark. It walked on two legs, which carried it skillfully over rocks, and through rivers. It was a man.

The predator watched as the man, the prey, approached a meadow in the forest. The prey met with three others like itself, four of them in total. More men. They were startled as the Runner approached, but relaxed as soon as they saw it. They were armed with auto rifles, each had full magazines. Movement would be critical.

"I got it, I got it!" The runner said to his friends.

"Took you long enough, let's have a look at it." One of the other men said. The Runner then pulled from his back, a long silver cylinder. Showing the face of the cylinder to its friends, they each smiled, one by one.

As they looked, they each took goggles off their heads that enabled them to see with no light. These would need to go.

"AWESOME man, we're going to be rich. I'm going to get so hammered after this." One exclaimed.

"Right, but first we gotta get out of this God forsaken place. Let's go. The truck's about ten minutes away." One said. This was the Leader, his body language, the authoritative tone when he told the others what to do, and how they obeyed. This one should be the first.

The rain drops dripped on their heads, as they replaced the night-seeing eyes back on their heads. They formed single file and moved quickly for the vehicle that was parked beyond the forest's edge. Six minutes.

"Man, I can't stand this place. Gives me the heeby, jeebys. Probably filled with nightstalkers." One said. This one was Nervous, his rapid heartbeat, erratic scans of the environment. This was the weak link.

"There ain't no dumb nightstalkers, if there was, we'd have seen one by now." The Leader said trying to calm the others. It was nervous now too. Strike soon.

"Well, I ran all the way to that ruin and didn't see a single creature or animal, not even so much as the sound of crickets, trust me there ain't nothing around." The Runner added.

"...Wait. Isn't that bad? You know what they say, when there are no animals or mutants or even sandstriders. That means it's near..." The Nervous One whispered. The comment spiked the others, their hearts each began to pound, all except the one that hadn't spoken yet, the Silent One. They were closing in on a bottleneck of trees. The canopy was thick here and the rain fall decreased, so did space for escape. Strike then.

They moved in silence, listening only to the pitter-patter of rain drops above, until the Runner mustered a nervous, "What is near?"

"The beast." The Nervous One said reluctant to answer. "They say that even the animals and other creatures are terrified of it. They say..."

The Leader turned suddenly to the others, his back to the trees. Strike Now!

"Okay boys, now listen up. I won't hear this nonsense about some fictional beast that scares sandstriders and mutants and all the other crazy crap out here. There ain't nothing to worry about, it's all just a bunch of..." As the Leader spoke the Nervous One felt a tug on his head, and his night vision broke away to sudden darkness.