This story is of my own devising off the top of my head but ill disclaim anyway. I do not own anything that this story resembles or is similar to in the gaming world. Oh yes and please review. Thankyou.

0-Unknown-Author-0

Until Dawn

As night settled in I gave a slow sigh of anguish, my voice giving off signs of despair at our situation. Shivering violently I pulled myself out of sitting position; the shelter of this blasted out church we had found offered little warmth or safety, just a chance to be prepared at the very least. It was my turn on watch. I scaled the dishevelled ladder to the top of the church bell tower, surveying the whole valley before us. This church stood, perched on a hill, dwarfed by the steep sheer rock behind it; a beacon of hope consumed by shadow. I gave a quick survey of the village we had travelled through, empty. With heavy heart I slumped to the floor, leaning on the wall behind me. A quiet sound got my attention, I looked up at a broken shard of wall frame. Slowly, water was dropping and gathering into a puddle next to me. Gazing into it, I saw an unshaved filthy face. Scratches and cuts dressed upon it. My eyes showed obvious signs of lack of sleep; red raw. Looking up again my thoughts drifted back… back to when all the horror began.

I thought back to the day that would be remembered forever, The Great Purge. The day he rose. The day he woke up. The day humankind died. He awoke with the raging fury of any and all natural disasters, almost immediately 80 million people were dead. The military's defence availed to naught. His spawn crushed all in their path, innocent or no. For all I know we could be all that was left. I had met up with this squad 2 months ago; I had been hiding out around Edinburgh. The captain had told me they had been trying to hold the Scottish/English border, but within no time at all they were overwhelmed. So I joined them. Since then we had been heading ever Northward. Each day another where it could be our last; I think to myself that that day has come.

I was stirred from my musings by a sudden sharp wind, biting through to my bones I shivered violently again. Getting up I peered down at the rest of the squad, making barricades out of wreckage; holding on to the last vestiges of chance that we may get out of this alive. One final ditch attempt to strike a blow against an impossible foe. In our hearts we all knew there was no way out of this. I looked up at the sky; darkness was closing slowly, we had little time left. I pulled the 36k carbine from my shoulder; now scuffed and battered, a shadow of its prime. I then checked the ammo cartridge and my own ammunition supplies. Lord knows I would need them. Suddenly an endless piercing screech rang out across the valley: it flowed and echoed; like waves rolling along an timeless shore. A daunting hollow sound. This was it, they were coming, I was going to die.

The church suddenly buzzed with activity; like a city centre long, long ago. Men ran to their positions behind a wall that offered little other than a chance to feel hope. I went to the ladder and received the 50. Calibre machine gun which was passed up to me and helped up another soldier. We set up the gun on the window and set up the ammo crates. The rest of the squad checked their guns, repositioned sections of wall; made silent prayers. Then there was silence. The wind whistled and flowed, sailing and rolling around the valley. I raised my gun and looked down the sight, then I saw them. Small fleeting images in the dark. I nodded to the man next to me on the 50.cal. We pulled out our flares and fired them. Small beacons of light glided down slowly, revealing a vision of horror; Hundreds of hounds, ragged and torn, fangs dripping blood, were charging up the hill at us. My companion immediately started firing, the 50.cal rained death down on the insurmountable odds before us, yet they were not slowed. They were a vast, monstrous ocean untamed and unstoppable; where tens of them fell more continued poring up at us. The rest of the squad prepared, as the creatures drew closer I raised my gun again. The hounds drew closer.

I pulled the trigger a volley of bullets sprayed out, the rest of the squad let out a cascade of relentless fire, the hounds, row by row shuddered with the impact and fell lifeless to the ground, I couldn't believe it but we were holding, I felt my cartridge rattle as it emptied so I quickly reloaded another into its place. Wave after wave of the hounds fell in heaps, next to me my companion kept up his continual fire, I knew we could not keep this up forever; soon this began to show. The creatures noticed the slight drop in pressure and swathed forward; an unforgiving avalanche sailing towards us. The hounds were nearly gone, in there place were a menagerie of other creatures and living nightmares. They slammed into the wall with the full impact of a ten ton bomb. The wall was smashed to pieces as the horde swept through, men were torn to pieces before my eyes, dark crimson blood was sprayed everywhere, the captain was calling the remnants of the squad together to form up. The sound of gunfire and the screams of dying men filled the valley.

I moved away from the window and climbed down the ladder, firing all the way, I cut a swathe through the horde and called out to the surviving squad members, they moved in a circle towards the church tower with me. To my left one of the men had slowed to reload. That was enough of a chance for an apparition of horror to leap upon him and pull him into a death embrace, its claws rammed through his back and purest crimson adorned them both, his scream drilled into my skull, etched into my memories forever. His body splayed out across the floor, discarded in a growing mass of his own thick red life-force. Gunfire flashed in the dark, the flickering light caused everything to slow down in my mind. I saw a desperate scene. Flitting light caused everything to move frame by frame, picture by bloody picture; an old movie brought to horrific life. Finally after what seemed an age we returned to the shattered church tower. I helped the beleaguered and fatigued men up the ladder to the raised section of the building. Several soldiers stayed to cover those climbing, a creature suddenly fell upon one of the men and knocked him to the floor, I saw with horror in my eyes as he pulled out a grenade; I dived to the ground as he pulled the pin.

When I got up I saw the full extent of the damage, the church tower had toppled and there were dead everywhere. The creatures still swept forward, we were a small pocket of light in an ocean of darkness. Me and three others were all that was left, the captain had been killed in the explosion. We backed towards the steep cliff, gunfire never ceasing. The sound of my gun rattling empty made me realize it was over, I dropped my gun and pulled out a pistol, a creature leapt on me and began tearing at me screaming I rammed the gun up its throat and pulled the trigger repeatedly. I fell limp to the ground, life slipping from my body.

Suddenly a white light filled my vision, following it was the cascade of missiles and gunfire which fell into the mass of creatures, I felt myself carried by the survivors towards the source of the light, I realized it was a helicopter, the spinning blades; absorbing the sound of the creatures cries of fury. The men of the helicopter were helping us aboard, then we were airborne. We sailed up over the valley leaving the carnage. And, as we rose above the hills; a smile played on my lips…I saw the sun rise…for one last time…as my vision…faded.