The rain continued to pour down all through the night, and into the waking hours of the morning. When Cole woke himself, he found a voicemail had been left from Grillby.

"Good morning Cole! Listen, I know you don't exactly have a faster way of transportation other than walkin', and I know it's not exactly a pleasant day. So, feel free to take the day off. I'll be fine here on my own." Cole promptly erased the message. At least he had the day off. Now the question was, what would he do on his now free day?

He tended not to go out much, and he really didn't feel like bumping into another foot patrol. Still, what else was he going to do? He threw on his coat, and began to leave. As he was walking outside, he saw a man carrying two boxes. He looked to be struggling with the heavy load.

"Hey buddy, need any help with that?" The man looked around the boxes at Cole as he spoke, seeming hesitant, then nodded with a grunt.

"Sure, just get the one off the top." Cole picked the second box off, and was surprised by the weight in it. Shrugging, he followed the man back upstairs to the third floor, to the apartment directly below his. Once there, the man nudged the door open with his foot, moving in. He set the box down, and over his back Cole thought he saw something black in the next room. Before he could see though, the man stood up, blocking his view as he took the second box, giving him a nod.

"Thanks." He was then quick to shut the door, and he heard the lock click shut. Cole frowned for a moment, then shrugged again and headed back outside. He figured he would take a stroll down through the nearby park near the city center. Soon, he found the concrete path that broke off from the main sidewalk, leading into the small wood surrounding the park. He made the quick turn, somewhat grateful for the trees which provided some cover from the rain, which was already beginning to ease off.

Soon, he approached the statue of what appeared to be a hunched over monster with horns. Surrounding the monster was a bed of golden flowers, and a plaque with dozens of names on it. The statue was a memorial built to all the monster soldiers that had died in the final push to capture Kester.

Cole shook his head with disdain. He had always hated the memorial. Still, he couldn't deny that the flowerbed didn't add some beauty to what he regarded as an ugly pimple in the middle of Kester.

As he let the thoughts stir in his mind, he recalled past conversations he had overheard between his parents. Conversations about times when humans were free. A time before the martial law. A time before the identity cards, and the curfew. Cole had never been able to see the world as his parents had described, but it sounded almost like a paradise compared to the bleak world he had grown up in.

As he began to walk back home, the rain pattered to a stop. The sound of a large motor soon became audible through the trees. Once he rejoined the sidewalk, he was greeted with a surprising spectacle.

A monster military convoy was making its way down the road. Making it up were two heavily armoured trucks, one of them with a mounted machine gun on the top of it, escorting a large semi truck. Along the road beside the slow moving group, other armed guards from the local force were walking along the sidewalk and the road. He spotted a small gap between one of the soldiers and the apartment block, so he began to head past the convoy, towards the building.

Something caught his eye. He glanced up, then did a double take as he saw something poke out. Before he could pick out what it was, a nearby explosion rocked the street, throwing him down to the pavement. He yelled in pain, but he could hardly hear his own voice. His ears were ringing and he clutched them as he lay, dazed. He could only hear his own breath as he looked around from his position.

He could see several of the soldiers shouting muffled orders to each other, then one of them suddenly give a violent jerk before collapsing, turning to dust a moment later. A muffled series of bangs rang out, as he looked to two more small piles of dust close by. A flash appeared for a split second, and he realized a soldier was shooting at something. Then a stray bullet struck the ground close to him, snapping him out of his daze.

Frantically, Cole scrambled for safety behind a parked car, looking around wildly as gunfire rang out in all directions. A quick glance around revealed several humans advancing from nearby alleyways. The monsters had already taken up defensive positions and were returning fire. Glancing behind the bumper revealed a burning pile of metal, the stench of gasoline heavy in the air.

Glancing back up at the window, he saw the barrel of a rifle retreat from the window as a bullet slammed into the wall beside it. A few moments later, he saw the same man from that morning rush out the door, firing into the monster defenses before diving behind the same car Cole was hiding behind. He looked to the man, and shouted, trying to make himself heard over the raging gunfight.

"What's going on?!"

The man didn't answer, simply pushing him lower to the pavement behind the car. "Just stay here and keep your head down!"

One of the monsters managed to get into the machine gun mounted on top of one of the trucks, and unleashed it on the human attackers, causing them to scramble for cover. The man hiding with Cole propped himself up on the hood of the car. Cole watched as he fired off four shots, and the soldier on top of the truck collapsed back down through the peephole.

The man was quick to duck back down, and Cole flinched as one of the monsters focused his fire on the car they crouched behind. The man took an annoyed huff, before popping back up though. This time though, the monster was faster, as he shot at the man. The man made almost no sound as the bullets met their mark, and he fell to the ground by Cole, a couple drops of blood landing on his cheek.

Cole breathed rapidly as he stared at the dead man laying beside him. He poked his head back over, and a bullet struck the window of the car, shattering the glass. He instinctively grabbed the assault rifle that sat by him.

He jumped up, and fired one shot off. The gun punched against his shoulder from its recoil, and he quickly sat down, now rubbing at his sore shoulder. Grunting angirly, he poked his head back over, and shot again. Despite him being more prepared for the recoil, only one of the bullets actually struck his intended target. Suddenly, there was a click and the gun stopped firing.

He quickly dove back down and closed his eyes, praying that the monsters would at least make his death quick. Suddenly though, he heard the two remaining vehicles give their engines a large rev, before a squealing of tires drew out his eyes again. The two machines had quickly rushed backwards, escaping down a side road, their engines slowly fading away. The firefight ended only moments later.

Cole dared to poke his head back out, seeing the remaining monsters had been turned to nothing more but piles of dust on the pavement. Smoke still wafted from the hot barrel of the rifle he clutched. He looked up and down the street. Along with the dust, he could see several bodies strewn around as well. Some had firearms with them, or at least close by. Others though, were further away, and it almost looked like they had been fleeing. Suddenly, he heard a sharp click behind him, and a gruff voice.

"Drop it." Cole saw one of the armed humans out of the corner of his eye, the barrel of his own rifle trained on his head. There was no way he would be able to fight his way out. Slowly, he set down the rifle by the dead man close to him. A second later, he felt a sharp hit to the back of his head, and the pain was quickly numbed by sleep.