Chapter 3a: Life After Death (1)

Harry woke, nearly jumping from his seat. "What the…?" Harry said out loud, he was sweating profusely. Harry was dazed and confused, then he noticed he wasn't alone in the grim café, he looked up to see a young woman sitting across from him. She wore her navy blue police uniform proudly and had golden hair along with green eyes.

"Hello" she said "I'm Officer Cybil Bennett. How are you feeling?". Harry groaned for a moment, his head spinning, his eyes sensitive and even the dull interior of the room was glaring to him

"I guess I'm okay" he mumbled while getting himself back together "I'm Harry, Harry Mason".

"Do you have any idea what's going on in this town? I can't find anyone." she said moving closer to stand over Harry.

"I have no idea, I'm here…" Harry trailed off and thought about his last memory "I was here with my friends son and my daughter" he looked down just remembering about Ron and Cheryl.

"Have you seen my daughter? She has short black hair and is seven years old." asked Harry in hope of anything. Cybil thought for a moment

"A seven year old girl? No, sorry", Harry got to his feet.

Sure, he felt like someone just cracked a bat over his head but he needed to find Cheryl, Kim and Ron. As Harry headed to the door a voice stopped him

"Wait! Where do you think you are going?" Cybil demanded.

"I'm going to find my daughter!" Harry was pretty annoyed at Cybil's attempts to stop him finding his beloved daughter.

"Harry, you can't go out there, it's… dangerous" she said with great concern but Harry wasn't going to be stopped

"In that case I need to find Cheryl and the others now!".

Once again Cybil stopped Harry leaving, this time more forcefully, grabbing Harry's arm, "Fine, if you insist on going out there you'll need this" said Cybil handing him a handgun "Just make sure you know who you are shooting before you pull the trigger. I'm going to go back to Brahms for help, I'll come back soon" Harry nodded his head as she left.

He looked around the gloomy café looking for anything that could help him, something caught his eye. He found a local map "This'll come in handy" he said to himself and pocketing a knife and flashlight, the room suddenly went dark for a moment. Not very dark, just like something had blocked the light for a second. He also looked at a radio on one of the tables. He tried in vain to get it to work, but to no avail.

Harry went to leave, but the radio burst into life and boomed static. 'What the hell?' Harry thought as he approached it, suddenly the far window smashed. Throwing chards of glass inwards.

Then the next…

And then the window next to Harry smashed in, a winged creature of some kind attacked Harry causing him to fall to the floor. Harry stared up in shock for a second, but it seemed more like an eternity. The flying thing had no skin, it was oozing blood which seemed to stick to it as it flapped it's huge wings. It was almost like a Jurassic creature.

Harry pulled out the gun and fired wildly in the direction of the beast, not able to bring himself to open his eyes. Harry kept firing until the chamber was empty, he heard a bone shattering scream and then a crash. The radio fell quiet and total silence was once more resumed.

Harry opened his eyes, the winged thing had smashed through a nearby table with three wounds in it's chest area.

"This is not a dream!" remarked Harry now realising the full extent of the situation he was in, he grabbed the radio and headed outside. 'Cheryl, where are you?' he thought to himself, with no leads to follow he decided to go back to that alley where he last saw his daughter.