Miracle City .

Chapter 6 - New Faces

The warehouse was dark and the windows were all boarded up with no visible light shining out.

The building itself looked like it had been scorched, and there were holes in the walls made by the invaders.

The six survivors were gathered in the far left corner of the building, surrounded by boxes of supplies, mattresses and sleeping bags.

They came from all walks of life, and were found wandering the streets in search of rescue vehicles when they met Tobey, who led them to a temporary sanctuary.

Any vehicle that didn't escape the city had been decimated during the intense fighting, and these people were left without hope until Tobey showed up.

The first of the survivors I met was Vic Straker, the lead singer of a punk/metal band who was in the middle of doing a live show when the chaos from the shape-shifters erupted, and everyone, even his own band members, ran out of the venue and left him for dead.

His band, Sonicburner, had been touring across the U.S. from Australia, and their timing couldn't have been worse.

I'll remember Vic for his mohawk, and when I met him he was clutching a shotgun that he recovered from a wrecked police car.

I figured from his attitude that he's no stranger to combat, and I knew he could be a valuable asset.

The next person I'll mention is a director by the name of Wes Barker, who you may have heard of if you're a fan of the horror genre, which I no longer am.

Wes Barker was an aging, frustrated man who wouldn't stop complaining about his recent experiences during an important shoot of his latest horror/action thriller.

He was almost finished directing a scene that took place in the middle of the city when his cast and crew suddenly started dying from energy beams.

After the movie set was attacked, the only other person to make it to safety besides Wes was a struggling actress named Lisa Wydell, a blonde woman only a few years older than myself who would barely talk to us or make a sound.

Wes and Lisa didn't have the best relationship, as he disapproved of her acting style and regretted casting her in his film, although now his film would never be finished.

"Of all the people to survive, it had to be you." Wes would say to her in front of all of us, crushing her spirits.

Celeste Thompson is the next person I should talk about, as she was the only other badass besides Tobey and Vic who was prepared to survive an apocalypse.

She was a red-headed beauty about the same age as Vic who recently finished a tour of duty in the army, and was ready to jump into action when needed.

She had been working as a bartender for extra money when L.A. fell under attack, and took advantage of a fallout shelter that the bar's owner had secretly installed.

Someone the group is nervous about is Ray Cunningham, a man who, according to Tobey, claims to hear voices and have hallucinations, even though he's seemingly normal for the most part.

He apparently was spending time in a mental ward, and the panic from the invaders was enough of a distraction for him to get past the guards and somehow find his way to the warehouse, which was originally his private hiding place.

Last but not least was none other than Ross Cooper, the news anchor who reported on the false miracle happening in L.A., and that report saved my life.

Ross was always the calm and professional one on television, but since that life is over for him and he's lost everything,

now he's a depressed alcoholic who just made a liquor store run.