Cobra 22

Chapter 1: "The Flash"

"Papa, tell us a story!" cried a child

"About what?" responded the father.

"Tell us a story about how you came to this world!"

"Well, I have to check with mommy if it's alright to tell you."

The man stood up and walked towards a seperate room while children sat quietly on the floor in front of a fireplace. Quiet conversation could be heard from the other room and shadows moved on the wall. The father sat back down in the chair and looked into his children's eyes, 5 sets to be exact.

"This story starts as many, once upon a time-" he was cut off by a voice from the other room.

"Don't start the story off like that! Do something a bit funnier."

"Alright, this story starts off like many action films but with a twist. A flash but, no bang!"

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The event that would come to be called The Flash occurred on two worlds, Earth and Remnant. It did not discriminate with who it took from Earth to Remnant, but after it happened, it was calculated that 5% of Earth's population had traveled to Remnant. The 5% was transported into the curve of Vale that meets the nation of Vacuo. The three biomes of the land would serve as a homeland for these people for years to come.

Samuel Johnson opened his eyes and he was in a forest with trees as tall as the skyscrapers of Atlanta. They looked untouched by human hands, considering the only trees that even came this tall in the US were the Redwoods in California. Samuel scanned around and saw that the forest was deep and clustered with these trees.

"Hello?" called the teen.

His voice echoed through the trees and reverberated against their massive trunks. He stood silently for a moment and listened.

"Hello?" another voice responded back.

Samuel turned towards the voice and started walking towards it. He had gone about fifty meters when he came across the person who had responded. He was tall and looked to be in his mid-forties. His hair was black and he had dark skin. He was wearing a button down shirt covered in dust, black cargo pants, and tattered sneakers. If Samuel had to guess he was probably hispanic and from his accent, the south. They slowly approached each other, sizing each other up just in case.

"What's your name?" asked the man, cautiously.

"Samuel," Samuel replied just as carefully. "Who are you? And do you know where we are?"

The man said, "Diego. And no, I have no idea where we are. I was travelling with my family, driving down the highway towards Vegas for a weekend getaway. There was this flash of light while I was driving and I found myself here in this forest."

Samuel looked at him. "Vegas," he said. "As in Las Vegas? For a weekend getaway?"

Diego looked at him. "Yes," he said slowly. "Why do you ask?"

Samuel pointed at himself. "I live in Georgia!" he exclaimed. "I was hiking in the trails near the East Coast when I saw a flash of light and found myself here!"

Diego stared at him. "But... that means..." he said, "that it happened to people all over the US! If not the world! And when they got here..."

"...they were dealt around randomly like cards," Samuel finished. "The question is, where is here?"

Diego didn't respond for a second. But as he opened his mouth to talk, there was a loud crash behind them. Samuel looked up as Diego whirled around to see a huge bear-like creature barrel at them. It was huge with a pure black body and white spikes jutting out of its back. It looked like it was wearing a white mask with red highlights and it had yellow eyes that glowed like hot coals. Samuel grabbed Diego's arm and pulled him to the left behind a tree, the bear kept going and stopped whirling around to find it's potential victims.

Samuel and Diego quietly made their way through a thicket of bushes in between them and what they thought was a black bear.

"What the fuck was wrong with that bear, man?" Samuel demanded.

"I don't know. It looked like it mutated or something," Diego replied.

Both boys crossed a creek when Diego stopped, "Where are we going?'

"I think we should head for those mountains, that way we can get some shelter," said Samuel.

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Apparently, other people had gotten the same idea and were now gathering on one of the many flats on the mountain. A large group of people were milling about and were now trying to take control of various groups. All of them were speaking English and a few were marveling over that, considering it was not their native language. The area around the mountain was surrounded by thick pines with a large amount of undergrowth. It reminded Samuel of the forest of which John Rambo had hidden when the police were hunting him. There was a massive amount of people and they all formed different groups, probably according to their country of origin.

The type of people varied greatly and some of them looked a lot worse than others. Some were sporting small cuts and scratches, others were missing limbs. This was what caught Samuel's attention more than anything else. He pointed it out to Diego who suggested they check it out. They walked over to one such person: a woman in her mid-thirties who was missing her left leg. Since they had no bandages or any medical supplies, the wound was left untreated and hastily patched up with a mixture of vines and leaves. She looked as if she was in a lot of pain, her eyes squeezed shut and face tightly contorted.

Samuel put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Hey," he said. "Are you alright? What happened?"

She opened her eyes and looked at them. "No," she gasped. "Another women and I — a Korean named Rosie — got... attacked by this enormous wolf. It was pitch black and... had a white mask over its face. Its eyes looked like... mini furnaces and it could... stand on its hind legs like a normal human. It had... large white claws on its hand and spikes... coming out of its back. All of them looked like they were... bones. The thing tore Rosie to shreds in an instant and knocked me on my butt... but not before destroying my leg. Some others... found me unconscious and brought me here."

Diego and Samuel looked at each other. "We saw something too," said the latter, looking back at the woman. "Only it was a bear, not a wolf. We managed to get away, barely."

The woman gave a hollow laugh. "Then you were lucky," she said. "Then again, none of us can be very lucky. 'Cause our rotten luck caused us to flash over here with no way home. Now, we're supposed to just blindly trust each other now? People from different cultures, countries, and faiths are supposed to work together in harmony? Ha! I, Samantha Richards, make this prediction before I die; if we don't kill each other, those monsters will do it for us. Mark my words, we've been sent here to die." With that, she lied back and exhaled, seemingly going to sleep. But Samuel knew she was dead.

Samuel stood up and looked at everyone on the mountain. Each of the groups was looking at all of the others with suspicious glances. You could cut the tension with a knife and it was obviously only a matter of time before a fight broke out.

Samuel looked at Daniel. "We're downright screwed, aren't we?" he asked. Diego gave him a sympathetic glance. "It does look that way, amigo," he replied.

Then a blood-curdling roar erupted from down the slope. Eerie caws echoed from above.

The first day humanity was in Remnant, they underwent an event known as the Mountainside Massacre.