by Opal Jones
Part 1
May 1st, 2034
Matt hadn't slept well again. Ever since the last base had been overrun, nothing had been going right in the H.A.N.D (Humans Against Nature Demons).
Last night had been the list-topper of nightmares, no doubt. He had imagined the last battle of H.A.N.D in their old base. They had been fighting the wolves in the field.
That's when it went all wonky. While Matt had been knocking the brains out of the wolves (ah, memories), a bright light had hovered near the edge of the field. When he looked deeper, he saw a young girl, still in the grip of her city. But she was about to be killed by it: the room where she slept was set on fire.
Matt had run desperately to her. When Sara had seen him shake her shoulders, he had been actually screaming into the light. That's when the light clouded up with red, and more of the dream wolves began to come, and then, well, he remembered the rest all too well.
When he woke up, Matt knew almost certainly that the girl he saw was roasted, and there was nothing he could've done. But, there was always a chance; that he could've saved her.
As he sat at the desk, looking hopelessly at the map, Jackie walked up to him.
“Had a bad night?” she asked him.
Matt nodded solemnly. “I think we lost Vegas.”
“Dang.” she muttered, “Then that'd be the third in the month.”
With that, Matt went up to the map and took the yellow pin out and put the red pin in. They had already lost Cairo and Tampa Bay in the course of April (confirmed via more dreams), making the total 30 cities with no survivors since the apocalypse for positive.
Duck Creek wasn't the best place for a base, but they had run out of options. The old base in Los Angles had been knocked out by repeated attacks of lightning and rats. Matt knew all too well what damage rats did, so whenever a single mouse was spotted, it ended up with a 12 hour search of the base.
The new base was set in a similar position to the old base: a dried out field going out a solid mile, and a dense forest from there. With virtually no people around, the trees had grown out of control. Old trailers and cabins were still standing, and useful for cover.
Jackie had gone off with some of the newer recruits to scout out the still alien surroundings. Eli was working out some weapon kinks, and Chloe was sorting out the food supplies in the back room. Everyone had something on their mind except Matt, who was still distracted.
Matt decided to walk around the field. That much of the outside base had been checked. He walked around, trying to imagine how she could've woken up in such a deep dream.
As he continued to ponder, a sharp pain hit him in the side. Matt managed to stifle a cry, and looked up at the clouds, which told him the problem as they began turning dark velvet. Come to think of it, Matt wasn't sure if this was visible to anyone else.
“Soon,” he whispered, “there'll be one soon, I promise. One very soon...” Matt trailed as the pain subdued and the clouds turned as blank as before.
That was another thing that was constantly on his mind: the deal he had made that was costing him his sanity. It only happened at night, but he had been resisting, which only made the pain worse. Ever since he agreed, there would be a stab in his right leg, where the hip bone was. When he tried to ignore it, the pain would become unbearable.
No one in the base knew, because it would mean certain death for dealing with the enemy. But he had no choice. H.A.N.D was losing the battle, and too many recruits to count were dying. It had promised him that they would win as long as he held up his end of the bargain. Besides, the group was his responsibility; he would do anything to protect them.
What made Matt feel even worse was the fact that he didn't even know what he was doing at night, or who was going to suffer next.
Chapter 2
