The Frieden Chronicles: Reckoning

Calm before the storm

Mason Lopez

"DUCK!" I yelled to Uma before he dropped to the floor as i took a shoot at the Husk behind him.

We got caught in another fight between some Wildmen and the test creatures. These 'Wildmen' were little more than a gorilla that could stand in two legs. Some of the locals call them Sasquatches and there are others call them big foots.

I was pretty as enthusiastic as Uma when I saw them, these creatures are your best friends the wild. Well that is if you actually can find a pack given how rare their kind are. They seemed docile enough for us to approach, the leader seemed rather cautious given our weapons. But a little food and water was all that it took to accept us, it was made more obvious when the leader took notice that we protected the pack as they fled.

 "Good thing we go the big guy with us!" Uma said backing up to me, his voice almost cracked from the stress as he hesitantly fired at the husks that attacked us. We only wanted to the Sasquatches, but it seemed that no matter where we went I just had the knack of getting into trouble.

"Just shut it! No worth crying over it now!" I said as I checked for my ammo. I have already burned through eight magazines, I only had three to four more left.

"Uma, how many mags left?" I asked as the Sasquatch let out a warcry before it hurled a small boulder towards a group that was in the way.

 "I got six more! You need some?"

"No right now but you might want to fix your bayonet..." I said as I slung my rifle on my back.

 "Wait we're going to charge them?" Uma asked anxiously.

"We can't stay here, the big guy over there is trying to clear a path for us." I said as big foot once again hurled yet another husk almost as if he was bowling. The creature may be little more than a highly intelligent gorilla, but it respected that we went out of our way to save his family. He constantly glanced over his shoulder only to see us fend off more of the creatures.

 "You have a point, you lead the way!"

"You're going to have to give me-" I said getting interrupted by a Husk before I quickly dispatched it.

"Follow me closely okay?!"

 "Okay!" he said before pushing a Husk away as he attempted to plug his bayonet.

"We got to wait for an opening from the big guy once he throws one, make a break for it." I said as several husk just stood in front of us hesitant on what to do next.

"W-why did they stop?!" Uma asked nervously having successfully plugged his bayonet.

The sound of sudden gunfire broke our concentration of both sides, a pair of particular girls seemed to rather eager in carving a path towards us. Diana seemed rather focused at the task at hand, taking down enemies with precision unlike Sophia who just seemed to be having a field day by blasting these poor bastards away in a shower of red. I would dare say that she even had that same look when we used to have our... times alone.

I was so distracted by them that it wasn't until I felt something squeeze my shoulder very tightly that I was brought back to the reality of our situation. To my horror, all I could see was a husk about to plunge his teeth at my shoulder and there was nothing I could do about it.

Yet in a split second it dropped to the ground, just as I braced for the electrical shock I was about to receive. I looked rather confused as to what happened, the creature was on the ground with half of its head slashed. To my surprise, my savior was non other than Keiko who I once again for a second I thought that it was Jocelyn. I went in a trance for a second as I watched her cut down the creatures with the dexterity of a gymnast before she looked at me in disapproval.