[Prologue]

It all started sometimes in the beginning of April.

First, everyone thought wild dogs appeared in the forest, attacking innocent people on their stroll. Even though their bites were unordinary, as they seemed to be caused by the teeth of an omnivore rather than a carnivore.
It was just an accident, they said, and the government claimed to find the culprit by shooting down a stray dog in the woods. This calmed down the citizens, but only until the next murder. It was discovered by a pair who walked their dog in the area. The victim was a woman in her mid-twenties half of her neck was missing, never mentioning the insides what have been pulled out from the body.

Then a third and a fourth murder happened and the people once again got really nervous. The police closed down the area to prevent any further man-loss, thinking that this might scare the culprits away or stop them. Not soon after this another body was found. This time it was a policeman.

Chief Toudou decided to involve the Second Stage Protocol, or in short S.S.P. in the case. They were the elites of elites in both knowledge and fighting skills. Using them meant two things: the case had gotten serious, the grisly murders will end soon.

The head of the department was Alpha. He was the only one Toudou could think of when they asked him to write a name list. Alpha executed all plans precisely while keeping everything under control. A strict, yet good leader for the special forces.

But right now, as he saw the reports, he could only look at his assistant in disbelief.

"What's the meaning of this, Einamu? Are you sure you brought the good documents?" asked Alpha with furrowed brows as he read through the papers he got from the autopsy. He hoped it would explain a few questions, but instead just made more and more.

It said the wounds came from humans.

And they had decaying tissues from other people.

"I-I have no idea, Sir. Even Dr. Nata was surprised when he saw the bodies. He'd said the decomposition was different from regular corpses..." explained Einamu. He hated bringing bad news to his boss and more than one time he had the privilege to do so. Because whose back had to bear the hit of the invisible whip? Of course, the assistant's.

"Cannibals." stated Minaho who was sitting at his desk playing some kind of wicked card game with Manabe, who seemed to over strategize his play.

"Seriously? Cannibals?" Fei leant back in his chair, sending scornful look at the duo. He was responsible for the radio contact in the squad and on one of his ear was always a part of the headphone, providing him the information about the current events. "Why would anyone ate a person? Especially at Raimon City."

"The biggest question is: why not? People can be weird sometimes and we all know that. Or have you forgotten about the man who thought he was the part of a dog pack? Have you?"

"That was a freak. Don't mix it with a serial killer."

"Killers." corrected Alpha. "According to the DNS tests, the victims have saliva from different people mixed with their blood and not every wound came from the same culprit. Their number is five, to be exact."

"Sir, in my opinion this is the work of some kind of cult. We had several encounters with similar cases, and though they were not this atrocious, this might be a good lead for us."

"Still... I don't like the idea of man eating man... I hope the Bravo Team finds the culprits." sighed Fei looking at their boss hoping that he would get some kind of reassurement, but Alpha was lost in his thoughts.

"Right! Speaking of Bravo, is everything all right with them? You stopped narrating their moves a while ago." asked Manabe, drawing a card from his friend, then putting down three with a triumphant smile. It seemed his strategy finally started working and a winning streak was on the horizon.

"Nothing. Last time I checked Hamano said, they have to fly a half hour at best to reach the location, but ever since that the lines are mute." he said with a worried expression on his face.

"Fei, when was this exactly?"

The man looked at his notes, searching for his last date.

"It seems it was... 45 minutes ago."

"Call them again. They should be there by now."

For several minutes the whole room went silent and watched Fei's reactions. He hastily put both headphones on his ears and he seemed to listen carefully while he was pushing the buttons according to their frequency. How could he forget about his work? Especially at an important mission like this!

"Bravo, can you hear me?"

From the look on his face, Fei was shocked and scared, more than scared and as he pulled out the plug from the radio device, so all of them could hear what was going on. From that moment, everyone knew what they could expect.

Bravo team was in trouble.

The replies came with intense static, sometimes the lines seemed to end suddenly, then come back for a several seconds. Manabe was already facing his computer searching for the possible location of the helicopter.

"It's Hamano... From Bra-...We've been attacked by... can't asce-... ar—m… n-...ot huma-... every-he-"

"Hamano, answer me, what happened? Hamano?! Hamano!"

At the last word Fei lost the radio connection and the buzzing sound of empty static filled the room. He tried to connect it back, even by hitting the device, but it seemed that the lines were cut off from Bravo's side.

"Hey, Fei what happened?" asked Minaho finally putting down the playing cards from his hand.
"I have no idea. The connection was instable and suddenly I've lost them." he answered, voice shaking from nervousness.
Alpha just looked at the commotion and tried to collect his thoughts once again. They sent team Bravo out because they thought the case didn't require experienced soldiers, but now that he thought about it was time to call together their best team.

"Manabe, try to track down their location. The forest is big so they could be anywhere, but I have faith in you. Fei calm down, take deep breaths and don't get a panic attack. Listen carefully if they try contacting you. Einamu, call Saru and the other Alfa team members. They will head out in an hour."

The countdown had started as everyone went to do his work and once again the office was filled with life.

A/N: And this is the end of the prologue. Lately I've been playing too many survival horror games so I think this caused some kind of defect in my brain? I wish I could get my hands on a copy of Haunting Grounds though… The First team was called "Alfa" on purpose because it would be confusing since the names come from the official military numbering.

R&R perhaps? You know that I love those, right?