Demon Hunter

by Soul Divider

An extreme take off the game's story. A teenaged sly dude named Steve, along with his girlfriend Samantha, and her best friend John, break into an abandoned UAC testing facility. Unknown to them, hell is waiting to break loose,and the world needs a hero

The lightning fast pace of the city was almost gone at this moment in time. All I could see was the rolling concrete hills and crater like in contrast cement pools. I climbed to the top of the cement mountain and hopped off of its peak on the quad-wheeled piece of plywood I ride around so much. I tried to keep my concentration, even at this speed. The only the thing I could hear at the moment were my polyurethane skateboard wheels move across the pavement. Leaning back slightly, I shoved the tail on the ground, which made a loud smack, and shoved my front foot off the board and I caught it under my feet. Looking down for a moment, I realized how far down that rail was. I had to keep even with rail, or else I would be in a lot of pain. Incoherent and random thoughts crossed into my mind just before I landed. I couldn't focus on both things at once. As the board's trucks caught the rail, I couldn't balance, and I bailed. I managed to grab my board while rolling down the stairs and landed on my feet. That did not hurt as much as I thought it would.

"Nice job, Dude", said my friend John. "You should be glad you didn't land on your head, that was like eighteen feet down!" He put the camera that he was using down. We were trying to record a skate video for a class project.

"It was good effort I must admit." It was getting sort of late, so I decided to split. I could tell that was roughly 8:48 PM because the sunset just vanished, yet some light remained, creating an orange and purple sky. I rode my bike there because my skateboard isn't really mine. It's John's he lets me barrow it. I can bike pretty good. My bike is an all black DK 8 Pack. You might be wondering just who I am. My first name is Steve, but I won't tell you my last or middle name. Why? You don't need to know them. I'm 5'9" tall. I have sort of messy dark brown hair. I don't like it to get to long or else it gets in the way. This is unrelated but interesting. For some reason, I have very sharp canine teeth. I'm not vampyre or anything like that, (because the sun would have toasted me by now) they've just been that way since I was born. I guess my parents were a little freaked out by that. They're just sharp, otherwise they're normal. That's all you need to know about me, for now.

My bike and other stuff that I brought with me were near the pool where John was skating.

"Hey, here's your board back", I said.

"Thanks", he replied. I walked over to my bike, and picked up my back pack and opened it. Searching around inside my backpack, I found several things that I didn't remember bringing with me. Inside was a Fear Factory sweatshirt, three of their CD's, and around four water bottles. What I was really looking for was my CD player, and I found it. As I removed the CD player, I also removed the black sweatshirt and put it on over my regular shirt. My CD player had Powerman 5000's "Transform" in it. I love that band. So does my girlfriend Samantha. She likes every band I do. We've known each other since we were very young. Samantha is very beautiful. She is a few inches shorter than I am. Her hair is an auburnish red touched with a hint of gold, and her eyes are the coolest shade of deep blue you've ever seen. Yeah, she's perfect for me. She goes to the same Karate studio that I do, which is (shameless plug) White Tiger, Red Dragon Kempo studio. Samantha is very good at sparring, just as good as I am.

I got back on my bike and headed home. The skate park I was at is a very nice place, completely devoid of stupid people, and mean spirtited posers. Now of course there is some asshole saying:

"Hey you skate, but you ride a bike?", there is no point to such a statement. A bike is a faster mode of transportation. Especially when I have to travel so damn far just to get here. ANYWAY! I exited the skatepark and rode out to the main road, which nobody drives in the first place. Unexpectedly, rain fell from the sky. It wasn't a downpour, so worrying about getting soaked was unnecessary. I put the hood up on my hoodie (hence the name) just for in case the rain got heavy. Strange that there were clouds in the sky, but wasn't dark outside. In fact the sunset was very, very orange and red. Way more than usual. So much so, the clouds were huge black shapes in the sky. It was pretty cool looking. It was sort of a long way home from here. I live in a suburban neighborhood at a high altitude in comparison to the other neighborhoods. Despite the great view, it's bad here. My friends live around here, but my street is the worst. Every dumbass in the world lives here. If you were to make a judgment solely on the houses, which are kept surprisingly neat, you would be horribly awry. There are ton's of those awful SUV's in every driveway, walking out of which are those so called "Good kids", who will do anything, no matter how awful, to make themselves "look good". Then there are the gangs. You know, those people who walk around in groups, looking to find a fight. Their appearance outside isn't often nowadays, mainly because they're all in jail, but they're still going to be assholes, anyway.

I approached the front of my street and slowed down. When I got up my driveway, I put my bike on the side of house (locked up tight, of course), and went inside. My room is second room on the second floor of the house. At night, I can get a great view of the city and the stars. I took off my CD player and \headphones and set them on my dresser. After taking the CD out of it and putting it in my Samsung Sirrius4500 stereo I lied down on my bed for a minute, thinking about what was up the weather. I passed it off as merely strange weather, which happens a lot. I got up and sat at my computer desk, which at the far right of my room, and booted the machine up. I have an "OK" computer, which means that I should consider getting a new one. Maybe. Never. I like my computer because I can play DOOM on it. I have made way too many TC's (total conversions) and levels for it as well as having made plenty of mods as well. My favorite is the "Demon Killer" mod. I wrote the storyline and everything for it. Its not finished yet, but it will be soon. I started up Internet explorer and went to look for editing tools. I was looking for something called DOOMbuilder. It is one of the best level builders I've used so far. I clicked the "CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD" button. A message box appeared on the screen asking me if I wanted to "save the file on hard drive" or just "open it from its current location". I hit the "save to file" option and then clicked the "start download" button. The message box said that it would take at least half an hour to download, though.

In the meantime, I sat down on the small black couch I had purchased myself and turned on my TV. Nothing was on, but I kept flipping through the channels. I sometimes wonder why people do that. If there isn't anything worth watching, which generally there isn't, some people will keep scrolling through the channels as if it was a solution to the problem. Here is an idea: READ A BOOK! After a few ads for useless gadgets and awful various artists CD's, another commercial came on the screen. It was a commercial for the army. As if a commercial was going to get me to sell my soul to the "government", heh. No way, man. No one can take my life into their own hands and do with it what they wish. The commercials are misleading. They make it seem like war is fun. It isn't fun at all, so screw those commercials. I went to see what was on G4TechTV, heh, nothing there. Just that stupid show called "portal". There was only six minutes left in the show, and X-Play was on after that. What is the point of that show "portal" anyway? It appears to just be random Everquest footage, with any luck it should be canceled, along with many more of that channels programming. That show soon went to a commercial break since it had been one full minute since the last one. A commercial for U.A.C. came on. Like many commercials for large corporate enterprises, the ads only point in existing was to tell me that my generation had nothing to worry about. The overlord would handle all of lives little problems for me.

You are probably wondering what the UAC is. UAC stands for Union Aerospace Corporation. I don't know a lot about them (and I actually shouldn't even know the little I do according to their website: UA-Corp.Gov, but I digress), other than they own: their own branch of the military, tons of research into theoretical medical development (?) and experimental physics and military technology. They own a patent on just about everything, which became especially noticeable at my school. Every computer in the Tech Lab has UAC's logo on it, even the fucking basketballs in the Gym. My PC used to be branded with their name, but peeled away the sticker and scraped the serial number off. So, deciding that today's Television programming is unwatchable, I hooked up my X-box. I'd rather rot my mind on a video game, than have it killed with the subliminal messages TV provides me with. At random, I picked a game of my shelf, opened the plastic case and removed the disc. I placed the Halo 2 disc in the consoles disc tray and shut the tray. After the main menu screen appeared I went to the online option and selected "Deathmatch". A list of options appeared for each of the game rooms I could join, and I had a lot to choose from. I picked one at random and in a few seconds I was killing Red and Blue Master Chiefs left and right while waiting for that download to complete.

1 1/2 hours later...

The horrible explosion noise coming from my computer signaled that the download was complete. I left the tournament I was in. I could have won $100,000 bucks, had I known that it was a world wide multiplay championship that I had wandered into. Feeling slightly stupid that I left the chance of a lifetime (yeah fuckin' right), I walked over to my computer. I usually leave the download dialogue box on, instead of clicking the "don't show this ever AGAIN!" button, so I can see what folder the file was downloaded to. It went to my desktop, adding a fourth icon to it. I like to keep my desktop relatively free of icons. This keeps more room for more 1024x768 pictures of Jessica Alba. I opened the file and I was rewarded with a few patches for various games I owned and the latest version of DOOM Builder, which is the program I use to create Doom levels and mods. Usually, I spend 'til 2:20 AM (when I started at 5:00 or 6:00 o'clock PM) working on a level. Mostly, this is a hobby. I don't want to waste my life away on building levels forever and ever. Enough about me, I'm starting to sound selfish. After programming for a while, which does get boring when creating a large level, such as this one. Sometimes, though, I end up getting very bored with the levels I create that don't seem to come together, so I will usually work on those for 30 mins or maybe an hour at most. Thank you A.D.D., (you piece of shit neurotic disorder!) for kicking in right at the most exciting moment: the playtest.

Or was it even my A.D.D.? The sound of a ringing phone (or any sound for that matter) doesn't usually accompany it. For a moment I thought I was slowly going insane and was about murder anyone I saw, 'til my lazy brain decided to figure out that my phone was ringing. I left what I was doing on the computer and answered the phone. My grandmother reminded me that someone was the phone for me, even though I had already picked the phone up.

"I got it!" I yelled downstairs, (because, as you know, my room is on the second floor of my house). Over the phone I heard the bubbly laugh of my partner, Samantha. Her voice is so beautiful, just talking to her send shivers down my spine. Oh yeah, and when I say "partner", I am implying that she is my sweetie. We've know each other since we were both about three years old. I love her more than life itself. Samantha is a goddess in appearance: long blood colored hair, skin as smooth and soft as silk, eyes as deep blue as the oceans most mysterious depths, a smile as warm and comforting as the Sun's rays, and the sexiest legs I've seen. She also has a very cute rack, to say the least. I mean I haven't been flashed be her or anything like that (but I wish time and time again that I had been), but I have been caught staring...anyway, I think I got a little off track here. I sometimes get in a daze just thinking about her. I should be getting back onto the groove of what I was originally talking about.

"Hey, babe, what's going on with you?" she asked. I sensed a tone of lethargic boredom in her voice. This is kind of normal for her.

"Nothing much, how about you?" Many times, I'm afraid to ask how she's feeling, I forgot to mention that she has a case of depression that is nowhere near slight. At times it can get pretty serious from what her mom tells me, and I don't like seeing her upset.

"I'm bored out of my mind, I hope you've finished working of the levels, 'cause I've finished those character sketches. I just hope that they'll look as good with an engine that old". She was referring to some new character models I wanted to implement in the game. Because Samantha's one hell of an artist, I let draw out a lot of the characters in my games. She can sketch just about anything. I was thinking the same about the DOOM engine, I don't want the new character models to look too shitty with graphics almost as old I am. I also own DOOM3, but I'm no good at map-making with its in game engine as of yet. "You know, you and I have karate tomorrow".

"Yeah, I almost forgot. What time should I get you?" I have a truck (though its not really mine, but really just my grandpas), but its nothing to special, just a 1958 Chevy Longbed that I finally had gotten to run. My Grandfather and I were both proud of fixing the truck back to running order. Plus Samantha thinks the truck is pretty fuckin cool. The only thing it really needs now is a new paint job. I'm thinking going with a deep blue color, opaque with candy red flame designs.

"Around 5:00, either that or 4:30 if can get here that early, because of your job". I work part-time at an auto shop near my home. It pays very well and its one that I (finally) enjoy.

"I'll see if they can let me off a little earlier, but no guarantees".

"That's cool, see you tomorrow, babe". She has thing for calling me babe.

"Later, sweet thighs". I have a thing for calling her sweet thighs.

"What ever". She said and hung up. I don't think I upset her by calling her that. I hung my phone back up and lied on my bed. I don't ever sleep well because I have nightmares, and I can't even begin to piece them together. Some nights I don't have them, and others, I end up waking in a cold sweat, panicked out of my mind. I set my alarm clock (which read 10:45pm) and got up to switch the light off and laid back down again, hoping that I have to turn the light back on only to sleep.

9hrs & 25mins later...

I woke up at 6:30 AM, Thursday, ready (hell no!) for school. It takes a while for to wake up (probably why I'm very lethargic in the morning), so I usually take a cold shower right after I wake up. This is a sort of shock treatment for my brain so it can wake the fuck UP! After that I got dressed. I put on my baggy black camouflage pants and a Fear Factory shirt on. I don't dress to impress because I don't enough money to. Even if I did, I don't think I'd waste it all on clothes. Samantha dresses pretty much the same. She does have some pretty "revealing" outfits and they look sweet on her. I go to the same school as her (how else would we have met, The Internet? Ha!) and also I have one class with her. We both take the computer concepts class (why don't they just call it computer programming?). I kind of suckered her into taking the class, so we could make games together. Obviously, I have an Amuthafuckin+ in that class.

I looked at my clock and noticed that I had to get going. I also didn't have enough time to eat breakfast either, but that's okay, I can go a long time without eating anything. Running downstairs, I grabbed my backpack and left through the front door and went to the side of my house, where my bike was locked up. while unlocking it, I briefly glanced at the sky, and I noticed the sky was, just like yesterday afternoon, filled with huge black clouds, yet the sun wasn't obstructed by them. Hmmm, that's odd, I thought and passed it off merely as wierd weather. We get plenty of odd weather around Vegas anyway, so this wasn't new. I got on my bike and rode off (unwillingly) to school. I rode down the street until I got to Jones Street. After that I turned on Vegas Drive. This street is paved with sidewalk on the left side and is pretty barren on the right side. I take the sidewalk, mainly because you have to get WAY too close to the traffic on the right side of the street, and people in this town drive like complete assholes. After I left Vegas Drive, I turned on a few side streets and finally wound up at Odyssey Charter School. I locked my solid black bike up to one of those handicapped parking signs and as I went to the front door. Behind me, I heard a female voice say:

"Hey Babe!" Only Samantha calls me babe. I turned around and gave her a hug, and she kissed my cheek. "See you later today, oh and where's your truck?"

"It went to hell again. I can't figure out what broke this time, but I'll get fixed over the weekend. Come-on, we'll be late for class, and I don't want to get bitched at by the teacher for being a minute-and-a-half late".

"That's cool, see you in a while". She kissed me one last time and we went to class after that.

A few hours later...

Another kid that's in my computer concepts class is a kid named John Adam. He is a little taller than I am, he has the same hair color as I do, but it's a little (a lot) lighter than mine. John used to be in my karate class but he stopped going. I don't think I should ask him why. He has had a lot of bad stuff happen to him already. I don't want mention it here either since it's neither my or your business. Advanced Computer concepts are my last classes before school gets out. Our weird-ass teacher left the classroom for a minute to do one thing or another. John and I were seated at two computers next to each other.

"Hey", he said to me.

"Yeah?"

"That dude who was recording our skate video said the whole thing was awesome. He wants to make copies of it and sell them at his shop".

"That's fraggin' awesome, dude".

"What's even more awesome is what I really wanted to tell you about. There is a huge old construction site about two miles for the skatepark, and I hear that its haunted".

"Cool", Samantha interjected. I had no idea that she was sitting right next to me. "When can we go?"

"Tomorrow at noon", said John.

"I can get my truck fixed by then. I'll have to get up earlier though". After I said that, the schoolbell rang. Good thing that it was Friday and also the last day of school. I saved what ever the hell I was working on (I can't even remember what it was now. Oh well.) and the three of us left the classroom.

"See you tomorrow!", John said as he got on his bike. I waved back at him.

"Hey, can I get a ride home, I don't want to walk, oh and for karate, my mom's giving us a ride".

"Hop on", I said. Once she got on, I rode back to my street, since she lives only a few houses down from me. When I reached my street, I dropped her off at her house, and then walked my bike back to mine. I locked it up at the side of the house and then went in through the front door. I went up to my room and threw my backpack aside on the floor. I lied down on my bed to think for a while. I thought: Damn, I'd better start working on that truck! I got back up and went to my "workshop", where I keep all of my tools. I looked around to see what I might need and took them out to the truck. I lifted the hood only to find I needed to replace to the spark plugs. I also got the week off work, and rearranged my schedule anyway. I felt really stupid. I unlocked my bike and rode over a nearby auto parts store. Again the clouds in the sky were still acting weird. What the fuck is with the goddammed weather?, I thought. I finally reached the store and got off of my bike and went in the store. I left with the new sparkplugs (which are hard to find for a '58 Chevy) and returned home.

The sun began to set as I finished working on the truck. Closing the hood on this truck always makes enough noise to make every dog in the neighborhood start barking. As I walked away for the old restored vehicle, I heard owners trying to shut their pets up. I walked through my front door and glanced at the clock. It read 4:57 PM. I had to get ready for my karate class, fast. I took a quick shower using this Axe shower gel (or soap, but I don't think the word soap would look as cool as shower gel on the packaging) which smells great. I got out of the shower dried off and got into my Gi. I then got my gear bag, went downstairs and waited. At around 5:10 (PM), I heard someone at my door, so I knew it was time to leave.

"All right, I'll see you later!" I yelled because my grandparents were in another room. I opened the door to find the sexiest girl in a Gi that I know, standing at my doorstep. Her mom's SUV was waiting at the curb, yet Samantha was not shy about giving me a peck on the cheek. Her mom isn't bothered by us going out either, she likes the idea. Her dad left her at a young age due to something to do with the military. Whatever. We got in the car and her mom drove off.

"Don't beat him up too badly!" Her mom can be funny when she wants.

"I'll kick his ass only a little, just kidding, Steve".

"I know". We exited the tall vehicle and went inside the dojo...

Mars Testing Facility

"All right, that's it, sir, power is at full", said a man who doesn't legally exist.

"Perfect, open the gate", replied another. Nobody knew this man, anymore. His family and friends had their minds secretly erased of all memories of him. The same follows with everyone in this place. The UAC research base itself doesn't exist, to the "informed" and "uninformed" public.

"Gates opening, sir". Any experiment that goes on here is treated with highest level security possible, the place deals in dimensional manipulation. This is the first time that contact to the other side ever been made.

"Send them in". The UAC has always used human testing if they feel the need. This is one of the main reasons that so many of todays' missing persons case have gone cold. UAC can halt the investigation of any "missing" case they want as a measure to protect their research and to keep funding rolling in from every country under UAC's jurisidiction (which is every country).

Several of their test subjects entered the room. They are restrained with straight jackets, having become psychotic from endless tests and other experiments. These people's history was completely erased when they were acquired by UAC. Their future, however, could not be erased.

"Gate is now open. Activating security lockdown". The base was now completely sealed, so not a single thing could escape the base in the event of an "emergency". A door opened in front of the test subjects allowing them to enter the gate, since they are forced to anyway. Only one at a time is allowed in. Gates, as they are known, are a bridge between our dimension and many other dimensions'. Based on UAC's research, it is impossible guess what is on the other side(s). Many small-scale experiments have been done to see if they predict what is on the other side, with results that are "random" at best. It is also impossible to guess what the outcome of certain multi-organism Gateway experiments can be as well. One occasion, two types of animals (a rabbit and a small test rat) were sent in a gate. They emerged as one animal that was part rat and part cat. One of the human subjects entered the dimensional gateway. He was originally known as Flynn Taggart, he was actually a former employee of UAC.

He became a test bed for UAC's newest (at the time) project: memory implantation. He has the entire lifetimes of 199 criminals surging through his mind. UAC has not said a word on why such research was conducted. He became catatonic after an overload of implants to his mind. He has never said anything to anyone since the tragic "accident" that turned him into what he is. As Flynn stepped in to the gate, he was shocked by what he saw...

Back on Earth

Another student of the class, Sean, greeted Samantha and me. He is sort of a geek, but no one likes to really tell him. Samantha told me the he has a crush on her, yet I already knew that. He isn't very subtle about things like that. He has had a very hard life, though. He has a scar on his chest from a surgery that occurred at a young age.

"Hey, Steve what's up", he has an unusual complex that makes him stare at Samantha. Our class was the next one after the younger kid's class.

"LINE UP!" said Sensai Richard. "Get your gear on, sparring is in 5 minutes...

Some place else in the Universe

Taggart was not where the gate experiment was supposed to take him. This was supposed to send him to the base on Mars' asteroid moon, Phobos, but he was someplace else. Someplace that looked a lot like hell. He was about to become a permanent resident.

Meanwhile on Mars

"Where the hell is he? I can't find his tracker any where".

"Impossible. His frequency may have changed, do a quick scan..."

Somewhere

Something triggered in the back of his mind and Taggart ran. He had no idea of where to go, but he just ran until several creatures greeted him. They were brown hominids, about six feet tall and they were covered in thorns. They ripped him free of his straight jacket, and Taggart did the only thing left to do. Scream as he was ripped apart. He fell to the rocky ground, a bloody torn apart mess, as more of the creatures came to feast upon him...

Earth 9:13 PM

"Later, Sean", we said as we left. Samantha's mom returned to take us home. I was all sweaty from fighting all day and Samantha was tired out as well. You get a good work out from kicking someone in the head several times. Samantha and I sparred with each other for the first tome today. You know I felt kind of embarrassed. Probably 'cause I lost to her, but that's not important. She followed me to my front door.

"My mom says its cool if I stay the night here. That's cool with you, right?".

"Always", I told her, despite the fact she gets a shower first.

10:45 PM

I lied down on my bed while Samantha was using my computer. She was looking up paranormal websites. On her laptop computer she has hundreds of bookmarked pages on the supernatural.

"Do you think it's true, what he said".

"Who and about what?" Somehow I forgot about the "investigation" we were going to do tomorrow.

"John said that old place is haunted. I want to see what stuff to bring", she said.

"Any regular camera is good, but I don't want to buy all that equipment that..."

"It says here that all you really need is a regular tape recorder and either a still or motion camera". I have a motion camera, but I'm no good with it. I'm much more accurate with a still camera, yet John is great with a motion type digital camera. "And oh yeah,"

"Yeah."

"I'm tired as hell". She climbed into my bed and pulled me close to her. Kissing me as she put her arms around me, I turned my lamp off. We made out 'til we finally fell asleep...

Mars Informal Database

UAC decommissioned several of their Earth test facilities and disguised many of them as old construction sites, and many of which have actually been totally destroyed and converted real estate for the very wealthy. These places are kept in check, because several objects that have been used in UAC's test have ended up at these. This has something to do with a dimensional tangent that has been left behind. Only one event, where a toaster was teleported a random sector on Mars, yet ended in California, amalgamated to the head of a cat (the animal was seized and a replacement pet was issued), was necessary for UAC to monitor all dimensional testing.

On Mars, UAC controls three bases. The first is the main one which is nicknamed hell because it's exterior is subjected to the planets worst weather. Temperatures are astoundingly moderate here, though. The weather is extreme, yet the 30,000-foot circumference around the base has Earth like atmosphere, thanks to 25 years of terraforming. Breathable air is contained within the invisible atmosphere bubble that is created by four incredibly large machines that convert the planets Co2 in oxygen. The rate of terraforming is naturally controlled (it would take 2,500 years to covert the entire atmosphere of Mars).

The second base is on Phobos. A huge nuclear power generator controls "Hell". This machine has a considerable amount of radioactive discharge. And the end of every month, a storage ship is sent to Hell to retrieve the toxic discharge. It is then returned to Phobos and destroyed or cooled and converted to steel (after a rigorous process of de-radiating it). Much of what is done in the Diemos base is highly classified, no one is really sure of what goes on there; the most that anyone knows for sure is that it is owned by a separate branch of the UAC. This branch deals with theoretical medical development, but that's all you need know about it...for now...

Diemos Labs

"Send them all in, this time use that new prototype rover".

"Yes sir", the scientist typed away at his keyboard and the door to Dimensional Gate opened again. The subjects stumbled in. They were followed by a large, six-wheeled robotic device, which resembled the 1997 Mars rover. It had cameras all over it, so it could record video from all directions. These cameras could record with night vision, infra red, and heat signature vision. It was equipped with light armament in case a "situation" ever arose. The rover was equipped with a modified 7.62-mm minigun. The weapon's size was reduced slightly to fit on the rover. It equipped with 5,000 rounds of ammunition. The rover, or Expeditron V.16.66, also has a self-destruct mechanism, in case there is no other way. The Expedtron is remotely controlled by one of UAC's scientists.

"All subjects are now inside the gate. Switching Rover power on". A large monitor above the black and deep gray gridiron walkways, computer consoles, and the enormous gate generator machine itself, switched on. Before any kind of landscape showed, a short checklist of functions quickly scrolled down the large monitor. They pertained to the Rover's functionality.

Power active...

Camera active...

Night vision, infra red, heat signature lenses...undamaged and active...

Weapons system:

Ammunition...Max Capacity (5000 7.62mm rounds)

Auto-Destruct Mechanism...Disengaged...

"Sir, shall I switch to visual?"

"Do it". An image slowly coagulated on to the screen. The landscape looks sort of like Hell's. This hell was much different from UAC's main extra planetary installation, though.

"Can we begin the recording".

"Yes sir. All types of visual correction enabled"...

Groom Lake, Nevada

UAC also has renewed interest in other projects, well. This place, the infamous Area 51 is UAC's military installation. This is where the most efficient special ops trains and lives. There are few people that will ever make it here, let alone be accepted here by the very strict regulations they must abide by. The Space Marines are one of UAC's finest achievements. The Department of Defense has no knowledge of their existence. They are dispatched in only the direst of situations. So far they have not yet been dispatched. Other regular military forces are stationed here as well. The General of one of them ran to an office far below the bustling runways, and satellite communication ports...

24 Floors below the Surface

Beneath the Surface lie the offices of UAC's most valuable documents, files, and people. One person, in charge of everything that goes on here and on Mars, worked on this floor. Though his office door has a pane of glass on it, one might expect a name and occupation lettered on it. There was nothing. This man has no name, age or any identity. Only known as the G-man, he makes sure that everything here is secret, and is kept secret. He monitors all of UAC's earth bound bases. Some of the security systems in the older ones haven't been touched or maintained in years. As such, field teams have often been used to maintain the defunct bases' "civilian" appearance.

"Sir!" a General entered the office, not shy of making himself known. "We've lost contact with Diemos." G-man looked up from a paper he was reading. He placed it in a blue envelope, shut the envelope and put in file cabinet next to his desk. He then locked the cabinet and got up from behind his desk.

"General, your job just got a thousand times more interesting...

Las Vegas

Waking up with a beautiful girl lying next to me is best thing that has probably ever happened to me. I left that moment of ecstasy and glanced at my clock. It read 10:30 AM.

"Hey, Steve", she said in sort of sleepy voice. "I'll be back in about a half hour after I have something to eat, and change my clothes".

"Put on something sexy".

"Whatever, I'll see you in a while". I got a change of clothes and went downstairs. My grandma was making breakfast. Nothing like eggs, bacon, some toast and glass of OJ to wake you up in the morning.

"How is she doing?", My grandmother asked.

"Pretty good, she stayed the night here last night".

"I know, I came to check on you about 6:30".

"So you..."

"Yeah. Hurry up and eat before it all gets cold."

I ate as fast as I could without being a pig. When I finished, Samantha was back. We both went up to my room. When I said put on something sexy, she can do that, 'cause she looks good in anything (black). She put on a black Metallica shirt, cut off at the belly, black pants that were skin tight (I think they were leather pants), and the tattoo on her lower back. I gave her that tattoo. It is a symbol of eternal love. I have one as well, on my shoulder blade. I had some professional draw that one, because I can't draw on my shoulder blades. The language the symbol is form is unknown, but the news keeps reporting more stories of new artifacts being found with these types of symbols all over them. The stories only pop up once in a while, and they give no info into where the artifacts with these symbols are being found, or how the symbols have been deciphered. I noticed that Samantha had backpack with her.

"What's in that?"

"Well, I asked my mom if she had any of that stuff the website listed, well she had more than enough".

"Of what?" When she opened it was filled with video cameras and sound recorders. "Where the fuck does she get all of this stuff?"

"She used to work at an electronics shop, when it closed, she got most of what they didn't sell. Her boss was a retard for giving all of his stuff away, but that's not important. What is important is that we get going".

"We don't have to leave till noon-"

"Look at your clock", It read 11:57, but it felt like it had only been fifteen or twenty minutes. I knew that something was very weird about that.

"All right, lets go". As we went downstairs, I told my grandparents that we'd be back in few hours.

"I want this truck", she said as she got in.

"I know you do". I started the truck up and drove a few blocks away to John's house. There was enough room in the cab for three people. As I drove away from this street I realized I didn't know where the hell I was supposed to go.

"Where is this place?"

"Two miles northeast of the North Las Vegas skatepark. It's out in the middle of the desert", he said. Now that I knew where to go, I drove south on Jones until I hit the construction zone. That was 15-minute wait. They were building a new on and off ramp on the freeway, but it looked like a disaster area, as if a meteor shower had landed on the street, gouging holes and craters in the pavement. After I negotiated that hellhole, I switched lanes to the far right and got on the freeway. Around this time, traffic is perfect. While speeding up to 65 MPH to match the speed of the rest of the traffic, I decided to see how John knew about this place.

"How did you find out about this place?"

"One of the people who work at the skatepark told me about it. He said that at night, a 10 vehicle line of black Humvee's go there and then leave about an hour later".

"Someone been listening to Art Bell?" Samantha said sarcastically...

UAC Earth Installation 168-618-653-2

The floors of this testing facilty have eroded away long ago, leaving only dirt. Many of the devices invented here have become obsolete because of newer technology, and endless government UAC funding. Though untouched for years many of these still work. Such is the case the dimensional transporters original prototype. These can remain dangerously active for a long time, during that time anything could come through. Many of UAC's scientists have asked and asked either to have these deactivated or completely destroyed. Yet for some reason, the requests have gone unfulfilled for twenty years...

Las Vegas

"I think this is kind of illegal", Samantha said. "But that's the cool part...right?"

"Exactly", I replied. I just hoped that we didn't get caught on private property. "All right, I know this part of town. My parents live here". This wasn't as bad a place as you would think. You just have get "in touch" with right people. In other words, if you can be ignored by most of the gangs while having one "watch your back", you're doin' just fine. I drove past Stewart Ave. until I got to lesser-populated areas where the only streets were made of dirt. Ten minutes later I could see the skatepark in the distance. We passed by it, and as we did so, the number of houses grew less and less. Eventually the last building out here was a well placed Rebel gas station, as my truck as low on fuel. As with many of these local gas stations, they are constructed to look like an oasis with artificial palm trees, very polished white tile on the large decorative fountain out, and topped off with insane gasoline prices. I pulled up into the gas station parked under the covered refueling area, disengaged the engine and removed the key from the ignition.

"Any you guys hungry? I'll pay" If I hadn't offered to pay, I don't think they would have said they were hungry.

"Sure!"

"Um...yeah" John said. He hesitated as if forcing me shell out 20 of the $115 dollars I had with me was really going to matter. I don't usually carry that much with me, but on occasion I will. While paying for gas and munchies, the cashier, who was in his mid forties asked what we were doing this far out in the desert.

"Where you guys goin'? Aint much out here but dirt and rocks, and people's trash. Sometimes, you'll find some pretty useful stuff people have just thrown out." His accent was more southern or lower Midwestern.

"We heard about some weird old place out there, something like an abandoned Area 51." I sort of wish that she hadn't blurted everything out like that.

"Hell as a teenager, I used do that shit all the time, just be careful, all kinds a' snakes and reptiles out there. But I've hearda that place. All kindsa weird shit happens there, I just advise y'all to be careful out there". We ignored the warning and left the gas station, I returned to the truck to refuel it.

UAC Earth Installation 168-618-653-2

In the very back of the facility, a computer booted up, as if on its own. This caused a chain reaction, activating other computers that were linked to the bases' server. Once they were booted, a message with a timer of 36 seconds appeared on the screen of the main computer:

Abort Transport Activation Sequence?

Auto activate in 36...35...34...33

The countdown ended and the sequence began. Every door closed and airlocked so nothing would escape. A viewing port opened in front of the computer, as if to entertain an invisible audience. Behind the shatter and bullet proof glass was an enormous machine, one capable of ripping a hole in the fabric of time to create a gateway between our dimension and a frightening other. The device activated, and started it physics defying process. The next to this one is where the gate would appear. In a few seconds, the completely white room became a black void, which decreased from a void to a black sphere roughly the size of a basketball. The machine had finished its job, and link between two universes had created. So much strain had put upon the buildings electrical source, the place switched to reserve power, which unlocked every door in here. Most of the apparatuses used to keep the gates open had been automatically shut off, which closes them immediately. This one, however, remained. Out of it came the most gruesome creature that ever set a cloven foot on Earth...

Las Vegas

"Well, now where?", I didn't see a haunted house, or creepy a mine shaft, just a shitty old construction site. Make that a shitty old construction site with rotting old vehicles scattered about.

"That's it, right there". We drove up to it, and I stopped the truck.

"Umm. . .just outta curiosity, what the fuck is a half finished building doing out in the middle of nowhere?" Samantha asked.

"Don't know but I'm going to find out". I got out of the truck to take a look at this place. It was easily 40 feet tall, and most of the upper floors weren't finished yet. Strangely, there were desks and stuff up there. Sam and John got out of the truck. This place freaked me that hell out. I tried not to show it though. I didn't see any entrance in to here from the front, but I saw one on the side. I noticed John had a crowbar in his hand.

"Where'd you get that?"

"Inside your truck. I thought you might need it".

"Huh". The side door was padlocked, so a crowbar would come in handy. "Let me see that". I smashed lock so hard I broke the crowbar's top off. I pushed the door open and let myself in. The others followed close behind. It was very dark in there, the only light came from the door I just opened, and the florescent lighting that was flickering on and off, creating a bluish and whitish hue to everything.

"Anyone got flashlight? This place scares the shit out of me", I said. Honestly, it did scare the shit out of me. Lucky for us Samantha had brought Mag-Lights, so I felt a little better. I forced all of the fear out of me and started to act like more a leader. I switched the flashlight and I could see what the hell was in here. Workbenches with computers on them were everywhere. I went over to one of the computers and switched it on. When it finally started it I was amazed. The hard was over 700 terrabytes. "I've never seen anything like this, ever". I used the search function to see what the hell would be on a hard-drive this large. The scan took three seconds, but everything was encrypted, I figured every computer in here was the same as well. I don't know how to de-encrypt anything, yet.

I wandered away from the PC and into a place with Prototype Gallery written above the doorway. Unlike a regular door that would expect to find in a shanty place like this, those were replaced were thick, steel, pneumatic doors. They opened horizontally as you walked towards them, and they were loud. Samantha and John followed me in here. The lots of computer consoles like in the main area, yet these were already active. Behind these consoles was an open view but there was nothing but enormous computer parts and circuitry. To the left was an armory, but it was obviously empty. Next to that was room without any door. It had small window where the door would have been. I peered through tiny window. Looking back at me were a pair of gleaming red eyes. I took a few steps back as this...thing came through the wall. What happened next I couldn't explain...

Diemos Labs

Several minutes after the initial experiment, the main power supply shut off. Thirty seconds later, power returned.

"Get the ROV back". The gate reactivated, and the ROV drove back to room where it came from. This time it was followed. Horrible creatures poured out from the gate. One UAC scientist managed to hit the alarm in time, before he died, that is. Minutes later, armed UAC guards came running down the steel hallways in order to contain the situation. As they approached the main labs, two of the guards were dispatched by awful looking hominid (ish) creature. They looked like a bull from the front, but the hind legs were machine like. One of these creatures leaped at one marine in particular. He took aim with his .12 gauge and lined the barrel up with the creature's mouth, then he pulled the trigger. He smiled as blood dripped off of his uniform.

"What the shit, what the fuck is going on here!"

"How would I kno-shit!" More of these creatures kept coming out the gate, overwhelming the soldiers. It would only be matter of time before they would figure how to get to the other UAC installation near mars...

UAC Earth Installation 168-618-653-2

Something, I'm not sure what, raced through my mind and I fell to my knees. Seconds later my vision turned violently red, and I felt like ripping a building in half. I stood back up and grabbed the crowbar I had brought with me. I gripped it so tightly, I could feel the metal start to bend in my palm. I stared down directly in to its eyes and before it could react, the crowbar was inside of its skull. It took a few seconds to realize that it had died, but soon after it did, it fell to the floor. I lost all of my newly gained strength, and fell back to the floor. I slowly regained my regular vision, along with my original strength.

"What the hell just happened?" I said. Samantha and John offered the same answer:

"I DON'T CARE! CAN WE JUST GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HERE? NOW!"

That sounded like the best thing I'd heard all day. None of us wasted any time leaving. That's probably why John forgot the video camera on one of the tables in there. We all got in the truck and locked the doors. "We all saw the same thing, right?", they both nodded their heads. "We all need to just chill out. We'll stop off at my parents for a few hours", I wondered what kind of hell I just unleashed...

Las Vegas

I finally reached my parents apartment complex. They actually live in an underground apartment. It is pretty cool, really. It was originally one large apartment, but we split it in to two.

"Your parents live here?" inquired John Adam.

"Yeah, it's not as bad as you would think", I said. I drove around the back into the alley. I drove up to the rear entrance. I put the truck in park, and the got out, and opened the door for Samantha and John. I set the alarm (G.T.A. is a common occurrence around here) and locked the doors. We went the through back entrance and went down stairs.

The first room you enter when you come in here is the living room, which is decorated with my dads fish tanks, and my drum set. Next to my drums is a couch, an oval shaped coffee table, and across from the table is the entertainment center. We have great stereo, and an okay TV. My dad's computer does get the Internet, over a "cable" modem. It isn't as fast as the commercial would like to proclaim.

"Where's your dad?" Samantha asked. My dad was work.

"He's at work", I replied.

"Your mom's at the store", John said, sitting at my dads computer desk. My mom left a note on the desk as to her whereabouts. Samantha and I went in to the bedroom.

The bedroom was originally a storage room, but my father re-carpeted it and put a custom made bed in there. It is actually a bunk bed. We put one of those airbeds underneath the 6'5" tall frame. I wonder why he made the bed so big. You need a ladder just to get in it. He made that, too. Samantha and I got up in the bed and I turned the TV on. She looked right in my eyes and said:

"How did you do that?"

"I don't know, but all I know is that I didn't feel human when it happened. Something took over, something powerful".

"You brought the camera, back right, we have show somebody".

"I don't have it, John was the last one to have it". I went out to ask him where he put the camera.

"I don't kn--I forgot it", that made my soul sink. "When we left, I must have left it on the table, there is no way in hell I'm going back there"...

Unknown

Several black Humvees, raced down the road at illegal speeds. G-man was in one of them.

"What's the situation?", said the general's voice from G-man's walkie-talkie.

"A few hours after losing contact with Diemos, the security system was tripped at 168-618-653-2. We cant be sure of anything at the moment"...

UAC Earth Installation 168-618-653-2

Several heavily armed troops ran in to the place, making sure the building was safe to enter. After determining that it was, a small group of them descended to the lower levels of the facility, and found the circuit box. Once the power was turned on, they radioed up top informing them that it was safe to enter. G-man man entered the main entrance, along several other well-dressed individuals. They were dressed in black suits, and each had a briefcase. They take them everywhere, yet no one is really sure of what is in them. They each spread up, and went to separate locations of the facility. One of them returned shortly, with a motion video camera in his hand.

"Sir, I think someone was here", he said. "I'll have this sent back to S4 for analysis".

"SIR!" One of the troops found the creature that Steve had killed. "You might want to have a look at this!" G-man made his way into the old test labs to find the creature lying face down on the floor with crowbar stuck in its head. "What the fuck is it?" the marine asked.

"An Imp". Even though he didn't show it, G-man was worried. "How could these old prototypes even work? They haven't been used in years. What perplexes me even more is that that something came through". Unknown to him, in a few days, this place would be filled with Imps and many other creatures...

Las Vegas

The three of us sat on the living room couch trying to figure what the hell to do now. If anyone found that tape, and I'm sure they would eventually, all of us would be in jail.

"We'll just have to wait and see what happens, now", Samantha said. "My moms got thousands of those damn cameras, so she wouldn't be too bothered".

"What about that...thing, or whatever the fuck that bastard was. What if there were more of them. God knows what would happen if multiple ones were allowed to roam free", John was plenty worried about this, as were all of us. I was the most worried. What the hell just happened to me? I don't even want to know. A few minutes of silence passed by. After that, I could hear my fathers, or Dan's, Datsun pickup pull up in the alley. He's a pretty cool guy, despite his appearance. He has bikers beard, cause he doesn't like shaving it off. He also much taller than I. He's about 6'2". Dan must have noticed us as he descended the stairway.

"How long have you guys been here?" he asked.

"Not long," I replied.

"I'm going up to the store to get your mom, I'll be back a little while", he said, and went back up top to his truck. I heard the engine start, and the vehicle drive away.

"Hey, Sam. John and I need to talk, we'll be back in five minutes", she looked up and offered a smile, but cloaked behind it was sadness. I didn't want to leave her, but I had to speak with John Adam. As we ascended the very steep white brick stairway, John said, "I know what this is about".

"Wait 'til we get topside", when we arrived topside, John confirmed the same suspicion I had.

"No way in hell would shit like that just be lying in an old, abandoned construction site in middle of fucking nowhere!"

"I thought the same thing. What the fuck is that place...I can't think of the name but their commercials are on TV every second, what the hell is it called?"

"UAC?"

"Yeah, they own everything conceivable. But this doesn't make any sense at all. Wouldn't a thing like UAC do their experiments at a hidden air force bases?"

"You'd think they would, but you're right. They're involved somehow, but UAC is bigger than anyone or anything. There is no fuckin' way that telling them would do much more than them laughing us the hell out of there, and covering the entire up as some kind of "accident", he was right, there was nothing any of us could do. It wouldn't matter to them that an hour and half ago I just killed an alien, they wouldn't believe me. Even if they did, they would: arrest me; commit me to psychiatric solitary confinement, along with Samantha and John; perform a mind erasure of everyone that I ever met, of all memory of my life and me. After that they would go the construction site, retrieve the body and either preserve it in complete secrecy, or destroy it by cremation.

That's what I read on the Internet, so I could be wrong. One should note that John is a person who can keep his cool under anything. Even if he stressed, it's impossible to tell, but right now he noticeably stressed.

It was hotter than hell outside, Vegas summers are terrible to those who wear black. John and I couldn't stand the heat anymore, and back downstairs where it was much cooler. Samantha wasn't in the living room, on the couch.

"She's in the bedroom", John whispered. "I stay out here, I think you should try to calm her down."

I shut the door behind me as I entered the room. I made sure it was shut completely. Samantha was on the bed crying. You might have thought that she was "down" only sometimes, well that's true, sometimes though she get so sad, it hurts to watch. I climbed into the bed and sat next to her. As I caressed her cheek with the tips of my fingers, her mood lightened up and she put her arms around me and pulled me close to her. I put my arms around her and kissed and caressed her. I stroked her long golden and brown hair. The softest silk in the world couldn't match the texture of her hair. She recomposed herself and began to kiss me. She managed to slip her tongue into my mouth, and I did the same. I laid her down on the soft sheets and kissed her even more. Softly, I heard her say:

"I don't want anything to happen to you, you're everything to me. If you die, I die, for I cannot live without you. Please promise me that you'll never leave." She looked in my eyes with a look of pure love.

"No matter what happens, you and I will always be together. Always", I calmed her down, and away from feelings of dispair and hopelessness. I glad that I can make her feel better, otherwise those feelings would rule her entire life, ultimately ending it. Samantha gazed at me again, her eyes are so deeply blue, and too look at them is to know perfection. She lied on her back and held her in my arms for what felt like forever...

Area 51 (code name S4)

"Well, what's on the video?" G-man asked. To him, it was imperative to find out. The room he was in, along with a few other scientists was an audio video research lab. One the scientists put the tape in a VCR that was connected to a large view screen. The first few minutes were of much concern to G-man, just teenagers conversing in the cab of a restored late 1950's or early 1960's truck. He attention piqued when the reached the old UAC facility.

"Get the files of these kids, I want to know who they are." G-man kept watching. The next few minutes were of film was very dark, until the female of the group gave each member a flashlight, then scene lightened up a bit, but not much. "Can you make image brighter?"

"Increase gamma by 15", one of the scientists told another at a control panel. The scientist at the control panel hit a switch and the image was bright enough to see what was going on. "I need the file on the one named Steve". An entourage of shadowy black forms was unknowingly following Steve. A few minutes later, a huge one seemed to pass through him, turn around and enter him. G-man has seen many things in his life, but he has never seen one of those...things, ever. The group neared the teleportation labs, Steve looked through the small glass viewport, and the Imp crashed through the wall. What ever that shadowy thing was, it made Steve a killing machine. His eyes crimson red, and his canine teeth were sharper than knives. The other two people didn't seem to notice this change at all. The creature attacked and then fell to the floor, as a crowbar had penetrated the skull instantly piercing the brain, causing an instant death. In second's time, Steve had returned to normal, and the one holding the camera left it on a table, as they quickly left the facility.

"I need that kid, send one of the General's men to retrieve him". He said to one of the guards securing the room.

"Yes sir"...

Unknown

Several black Humvees drove down to 5924 Pebble Beach blvd., to retrieve their asset. Two of the occupants got out of the vehicle and approached the front door, but were informed he was not there by a neighbor, but at his parents house, on the other side of town.

"Thank you for your time", one of the men said. They returned to the vehicle and then sped of to towards their targets new location...

1820 Bruce Street

Samantha fell asleep, and went topside for few minutes, to think. I left out the rear entrance, and just walked around for a bit. My thoughts were interrupted when I heard the screeching of tires. I looked behind me to see a black Humvee parked. I ran as fast as I could, but the guys in the camo uniforms were faster, I managed to find cover behind the wall of a nearby tall building, and then everything faded to black.

Area 51 Interrogation room

I woke up with a pounding headache. I was in an all white room, slumped across a big oak table.

"What the fuck did I do now?" I said weakly.

"You're someplace that exists only in rumors. I apologize for the bump on your head, but it was a necessary precaution", my headache subsided and I could a see little more clearly now. The guy talking to me was this old guy in a black suit. I couldn't see his face, it in a shadow, it was pretty dark in here.

"Who the hell are you?"

"What you did back there, was amazing. You could be a very valuable asset to us."

"Hey asshole, all I want to know is: where am I, what the fuck did I kill back in that place, and who the shit are you. Is that asking too much?"

"Absolutely not, you have the right know. You may have heard of this place."

"It looks like some place at Area51."

"You are very correct, you are at Area51, yet before I can tell you what killed back at the testing facility, you need to debriefed. Just listen. 10 years before the public knew about NASA and the space program, we had already been to the moon and Mars. Our findings were quite significant. Mars had an atmosphere capable of sustaining water and life, which the planet was full of. However, whatever life had thrived there died centuries ago, in the structures we only found skeletons. Three months after that mission, we sent a second crew there, but found absolutely nothing."

"What do you mean?"

"No vegetation, no breathable air, nothing. It's like that planet had completely died.

"Explain Roswell." I didn't believe the first answer he gave me.

"The only thing I can tell you about that is we got the technology for many of the innovations of today to coexist with. We obtained the base technology that our teleportation project had expounded upon.

"Jesus. You think that somebody would have cracked, Drove to a wooden shed in the middle of nowhere, and broadcast all of this to the world!"

"Heh," He chuckled under his breath, not that what I had said was amusing, but it was incredibly absurd.

"Years later, in 1988 the government formed the UAC, which became a global domineering force so quickly, the government actually had no control of America anymore. It since created a massive near indestructible campaign to ensure the public of its control. They are a global mass, we are just a bunch of scientists here, not killers, yet, we must do what we are told. Even if we don't want to. Anyway, UAC built the bases as places of Level 7-seceret research. We do only level 3. The reason for such secrecy is because they were trying tap in to the fabric of time and space. When they successfully opened the first '"Time Gate"', they soon realized more bases doing the same kind research were needed. Several, like the one you stumbled upon, were created on Earth, and Mars' twin moons. UAC could begin testing teleportation between two or more places. Years had gone by without any conflict until a few months ago.

Many of the human subjects we had tested on had shown extreme signs of a malfunction. One of them we had restrained and interrogated. He told us that he had been to hell. Afterwards he tried to escape and broke the restraints and killed all of the interrogators. Many other subjects were flat-out insane. We had to kill all of them in order to figure out what the hell was going on through thorough autopsies. UAC ignored the disaster, calling it minor setback."

"So what the fuck do you want me for?" After I said that he came out of the shadows. He was very creepy. Not regular creepy, but a "there is something wrong with this dude", creepy.

"I have a proposition for you. Hunt down these creatures for us and you walk out of here."

"If I decline?"

"Even if I could tell you, you wouldn't want to know." This was one of those times when thinking things over is an extremely good idea. What I had just been told just flipped my little world all the fucking way upside-down. Aliens are real, Area51is real, and few hours ago, I killed a hellspawn. I thought it over. The only good answer was yes, it indeed was the only answer.

"I accept your offer."

"Excellent. Follow me, we need to perform a few tests", everything faded to black. Again.

Area51 (sector 18)

"I want to find out how the hell he does what he does. Figure that out and then figure out how to increase its power". Steve was in the experimental surgery sector of Area51. It is kept very dark, almost frightening in here. In order to find the source of Steve's power, they would have tap directly into his soul. Several surgeons entered the room and made an deep incision on the side of his neck and inserted several large hypodermic needles...

1820 Bruce Street

"Where the hell is he?" Samantha said. Steve couldn't have to far away, his truck was still there. John was suspicious of what might have happened. He was worried they if found him, and were coming for him and Sam next...

Unknown

I felt like I was in a haze, as things cleared up, I realized that I was not back Area51. I was someplace much different. Everything was so black I could not see my hand in front of my own face.

"Hello?" The echo seemed to come back as voices other than mine. After a while of that, everything turned crimson and I could my surroundings. There was absolutely no ground underneath my feet, yet I was not terrified. Usually, I'm scared shitless by heights. While everything was mostly red, parts of here were blue, green, and black. I inquisitively said hello once more, and quickly materializing before me was another version of my self, except this was not me. His skin, pale. Yet more than that, it was almost white. His hair was blacker than the most deepest regions of the universe, and hung down way past his shoulders. He also had a pointy, black scraggly beard, but not a full beard, just a tuft of hair on his chin. His eyes were redder than blood, he was far more muscular than I, and he looked purely psychotic. He was also lethally equipped with an assortment of weaponry, most noticeably he had a dual edged battle-ax strapped to his back and a large medieval type sword at his side. This version of me walked towards me and leaped at me, he seemed to jump right inside of me. What ever he did, I was filled with hate and rage, I went in to a tirade. When I snapped out of it, I looked down at my feet. Samantha lay dead on the floor.

5924 Pebble Beach blvd., 9:37 AM

Sitting straight up in bed, I yelled:

"HOLYMOTHERFUCKINGGODDAMMIT!" I realized that it was only a dream. Samantha was not dead. I was safe at home, but I felt like I just got my ass kicked by Godzilla. Every muscle in my body ached, and my mind was in a deep fog. I managed to stumble (read: fall) out of bed and make it to my closet. I slowly regained my strength and got dressed. I tried to remember how in the hell I got home. I could not remember anything before the dream I had. I was worried, what happened? I heard the ringing of a phone coming from my computer desk, which is unusual because I don't have one in my room. As went to answer it, pain surged through my body.

I couldn't take it and fell to the floor, but my brain wouldn't let me pass out. My muscular structure was increasing by the second, when this living hell of genetic re-evolution was through, I was ten times stronger than I ever was before. It didn't stop there. Oh, hell no. Everything in the room turned red and my mind raced through the animalistic nature of humans: our want to kill. If only my body wasn't so wrecked by pain, I would have slaughtered everything I could see, but before I could stand more images entered my mind. Images of a surgery ward, some place I have never been. The doctors in here were experimenting on someone, incising a line on over his right eye. Above him was a large machine with a telescopic arm. Attached to the arm were hideously sharp and long needles. The machine was built in to the ceiling, and several different IV fluids were attached to the needles. The telescopic arm descended and a single large needle entered the wound as this boiling black stuff was injected into the wound, most likely to cauterize it. The next set of images were still at the surgery ward, but these showed the person being operated on have the one needle removed and 11 more put in its place, injecting fluid of different types. As the needles descended, five more instantly stabbed the person in the back of the skull, these were hooked up to a computer, downloading information directly to his brain. Things got worse for this person pretty quickly.

Several of the doctors attached wires to every muscle in his body while making sure they did not disconnect form one various electronic devices in here. These were sending 10,000-volt shocks to them, like a hyper AB crunch machine being used to increase all muscle mass. The main doctor removed a sheet that was covering most of the patient's face which was covered in blood, as this was a brutal hackjob of a surgery, it was me on the table. When each of the IV bags were empty, the telescopic arm retracted, and the doctors removed the used IV bags. The last thing to be injected in me would be the worst. I watched as they through the 8-inch cross shaped incision in my chest, placed the most hideous medical device I've ever seen. I don't know what the fuck it was supposed to be, but it looked a bunch of black computer video cards with needles sticking out of the ends. Clear tubes were hooked up to them. What this device was actually attached to was worse than the evil looking machine itself. At the end of the surgical table was a very large stasis chamber contained the monster that I had killed. It had the same device that placed in me wired and sewn onto its heart. They going to inject my soul with a large amount of its blood, creating a genetically altered mess. That was not only what this machine did. It's "artificial" brain was beginning to make it's own thoughts for me while my actual brain was almost inactive. The doctors shut of its AI, since it was about to overload my mind, it was there in case my brain stopped creating brain waves, or if any other mental synapses were to abruptly stop functioning.

"Start the transfusion", these words echoed through the walls of my mind, as if I were in an endless cave of thought. Even in this state of deeper that twilight sleep, somehow my brain could still fell pain, and it was not dampened any bit by being unconscious. As the blood left the heart of the beast, it traveled down the several tubes attached to the device in my heart, I knew that somewhere in my mind I knew this was right. I wish that wasn't that so. The blood entered my heart and through the device's many needles, which were impaled into every major artery, vein, and blood vessel near my heart, started creating what they kept referring to as a CY-Breed. The pain became so intense, that even though I physically couldn't, I screamed anyway, in pain that was indescribable in words. The more they injected, the more my humanity faded, leaving me only with my human carapace. At that moment I was no longer a creation of God, but an experiment of Man.

These visions became increasingly unbearable so much so, they caused my nose to start bleeding. They finally ceased, and I was back in my room with a puddle of blood on my floor. The phone was still ringing, who was calling was damn patient, it had been fifteen minutes since it began to ring. I rose to my feet and picked up the phone. As I did so, I reached for an old white tee shirt to wipe the blood off of my floor.

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO ME!"

"Glad to hear that your last few changes are complete. Sorry about the flashbacks, we couldn't erase them." It was that guy from Area51. I never got his real name, so I just call him G-man.

"What changes?" I started to realize what I had become. I was no longer just a human, I half of that...thing.

"You're a Cy-Breed. You're half human and demon now." I felt much better. "Already a killer by nature, your military implications showed truly great promise."

"What are you saying?" Dumb question I knew what he was going to say I wanted to hear for myself.

"We've used our memory implantation program to instantly give you years of military knowledge and training in a matter of minutes." As he said that, I could feel pin pricks at the base of my skull. "You agreed to work for us, there were certain things we couldn't tell you about. In order to get your equipment, you will need to return to here, don't worry, and the guards will know who you are when they come to get you. Good bye, Steve."

I didn't reply and put the telephone back on the phone cradle then sat on my bed, thinking of what to tell Samantha, what to tell my own family. After a while of thinking, I decided it was best not to tell her, though obviously in time she would find out. It wouldn't a long time before they would be here. But it would be long enough for me to go to my church and speak with a person I've always confided in...

Christ Lutheran Church

"What will you tell her?" Jennifer said. She's a lifelong friend of mine, and also Sam's older sister. "That is if she even believes you."

"Do you believe me?" I was unsure if Jen believed me, no matter how understanding she was trying to be. Jennifer was just as beautiful as her younger sister, but they look nothing alike. If you were to see them sitting next to each other, you would not even guess they were related. She seems to have less Asian in her than her sister, actually much less. Jen's purple hair (yes purple, she has thing for Raven of Teen Titans) looked almost black in the low lighting in this room. I had to tell her what happened to in the most remote room in the Church, I didn't want anyone else to hear. Obviously, God could hear since this was his home, but I, being what I am, felt out of place and rejected even in this holy place.

"You look like you feel rejected, out of place." I think she can read minds as well as look good.

"I shouldn't be even alive right now."

"I do believe you, I'm no skeptic about things like this. You are here for a reason, don't ever forget that. If this was all just a coincidence, God would have probably killed you by now."

"See, this is why your such a cool person, your so Goddamn understanding."

"HEY! We're in a church, you know." I looked at my watch, it read 12:30 PM.

"Sorry about that. I better get going, they'll be waiting for me." Jen gave me a hug before I left, and she returned to whatever she was originally doing. As I left the church a large black Humvee was waiting for me in the parking lot. I knew where I was going, and I did not want to be tranqd' in front of any church, so I obliged the request to follow them without question...

Area51 (lower offices)

As I was escorted down to the lower levels of here, I wished more and more that I hadn't agreed to this, I made that decision for my own sake, not for anyone else. I felt so selfish.

"Hello there, Steve. I've been waiting for you." It was G-man. I could feel my other side taking over and let it consume me. My vision became red, making the steel walkways, doors, and hallways a cool demonic red.

"What the fuck do you think I am?" My voice was low and guttural.

"If you would put me down, I can tell you, and don't do anything stupid; you're too valuable to lose." Behind me I knew there were several guards with MP-5 assault rifles aimed at the back of my head. Before I released G-man, I thought about killing everyone in here and leaving. This would have lead to my own death, so I decided to release him. He cleared his throat and gave me an authoritative look. I forced that change to leave me and I returned to my regular self.

"Follow me to my office." I did as told and followed him. His office was at the back of this long dank hallway. When we got there, his office was surprisingly simple, not what you would expect inside an advanced place like this. "Sit." I sat down in the chair in front of his desk. This didn't look like a government office, it looked like a principles office. I was expecting something a little more vivid. All that was in here was a single desk, a single large filing cabinet and an American flag in the corner of the room. "There are certain rules you need to abide by."

"Like what?"

"You cannot ever see your friends again. You will need to live here, and not at your original residence. You will be required to participate in any UAC test or experiment you are required for, and all of your past memories are to be erased."

"Why?"

"You are a Cy-breed, a cyberneticly enhanced breed of human. You are the only of your kind."

"That's where you're wrong. I'm a Demon Hunter. Not an experimental toy for the Government."

"Any thing else?"

"Where's my gun."

"Much better, your own personal weapons cache will delivered to your living quarters at-"

"What part of I'm not your fucking pet DO YOU NOT FUCKING UNDERSTAND!" No way in hell am I living here, away from all who I know. "I'll work for you on my own terms. You'll have to agree because as you said, I'm too valuable to lose, and think being able to continue your shitty little existence means a lot to you."

"Fine, under what terms?"

"All weapons are delivered to my home, and e-mail me whatever the hell you want me to kill, got that?"

"Perfectly. Follow me then." I followed to a large armory with weapons of all types. "Take your pick."

I didn't waste time getting what I wanted. I took a .45 side arm, a modified S.P.A.S. 12 shotgun, and an M-4 assault rifle. I noticed a large hangar like area at the end of this room. The door was closed but said "Vehicles Maintenance" on the door.

"What's in there?" I asked.

"You wouldn't be interested", he G-man replied.

"I want to see anyway." He led me into the room and several types of land vehicles were stashed in here. Most were trashed, and in need of dire repair but one of them caught my eye. It was a totally revamped Hummer H1. "I want one of those." This truck was painted a glossy black, raised about 10" of it's original height and had such a bad ass image.

"That's the only one we have left, are you sure?"

"Totally, dude."

"Then our time here is concluded." I stashed the weapons and ammo in the vehicles trunk and got inside. "You can leave through the access tunnel that leads from this room." I entered the vehicle and left, but I sure as hell didn't trust this guy, or who ever he works for. He obviously knew that I had very big suspicions about him, judging from the way I spoke to him. As of this moment, I think that I'm in way over my head...

5924 Pebble Beach blvd., 12:35 PM

I put the weapons in my closet and made sure that it was shut tight. I wanted to hurry up and kill something, because waiting for something to happen was boring as hell. After a while I got up and switched my computer on. When the desktop finally showed up, my Outlook Express was the first program I opened. I had Five new e-mails in it. Most of which were from my school, and were just school announcements. One in particular, which was from Samantha, was worth reading:

Steve, I'm worried about you. You left yesterday and didn't come back, John said he saw black Humvees chase after and take you. I'm at Johns house right now, please come by here and talk ---End message.

"Great, I'll have to tell them. I sure hope Jen was right", I decided to take my new truck, instead of the old one, this time. Maybe it makes my story a little more convincing...

Deimos Labs

Having been almost completely over run, the few people that survived were several scientists, Z-Sec security guards, and a few radio technicians. They had gotten lost within the UAC base and ended up in the cargo area. All of the cargo areas are very large dark places, somehow, many rats have found a home here, and needless to say a few base scientists were baffled until they figured that the rats might have stowed on a few incoming transport ships. Much of the stuff in the various bays consists of Repair supplies, back up medical supplies, and the high security military stations, weapon caches and repair equipment.

"Why the hell do they need a full shipment of Chainsaws for?" One of them said.

"Somebody called in wrong order. Last week, I think one of the Chemical Response teams called on an order for more fire extinguishers, but instead received twenty Kegs of ice cold Miller and twelve boxes of gas canisters filled with water. They fired that guy I think." Another replied. The sound of distant footsteps whisked its way into the steely, dark cargo bay. "Shhh...I hear something," he said. A shadowy figure slumped its way out of the bay's darkest corner. "Hey! Ralph, is that you?"

"N-n-no it's not!" The monstrous roar of the chainsaw screamed out in the dark cargo bay along with its victims in horrifying harmony. Ralph's body was dead, but his mutated soul was far from that...

7845 Garden Rose Road, 1:15 PM

"Um...I really think we should talk about this at your parents house, their usually not there right now anyway", John said.

"No", I replied. "But why didn't you just come to my house?"

"They're following us." Samantha said. Her sister was with her as well. I couldn't believe this shit. I'm a killing machine I deserve to be kept under surveillance, but not my friends. They had nothing to with me, or what happened to me, they just happened to be there.

"We need to go, now." I lead them to my Hummer H1, and they got in. The engine growled under the hood as I turned the key in the ignition. My truck was parked right at the curb, so I didn't have pull out of the driveway.

"Steve, there are three black SUV's following us!" John said, to prove him, all I had to do is peer into the rear view mirror. His suspicions were correct, there indeed were three black Navigators following us, I wanted them to stop. I knew who they were, and I suspected that somehow, they knew that I had told one of my friends what I am.

"Hang on." I could feel the accelerator pedal hit the floor of the vehicle, just as the engines guttural growl became a loud thundering roar. My concentration was mainly on getting the hell of these suburban streets, I don't know how long I could maintain 70 to 90 MPH on roads like these. I'm not very adept at hauling ass through winding streets while trying to avoid unattended small kids in the middle of the street. These SUVs were directly on my tail, and I could not lose them, but I didn't give up. There were several routes to my parent's house by using the desert areas of Nevada. Lucky for us, we were nearing one. Fortunately for me my vehicle is able to power through very rocky hills that the more urban inclined vehicles following me could not. The first two had given up, after utterly destroying every major component on the SUV's undersides. The others had tried take a higher alternative route though it was blocked , but I figured out how get rid of them. I could stop so they would be right behind me. Once they neared, I'd punch it. The trail of dust, dirt, and flying rocks my truck tires would kick up would force them to stop following us. The road in front of us ended and turned to a dirt road. I switched trucks transmission down to second gear, and then to first, and slowed WAY down. This way, when our pursuers approached, my tires would pull off enough torque to send a dust could the size of a stadium floated back towards them.

"Umm..Steve..THEY'RE GETTING WAY TO CLOSE TO US, GET OUT OF HERE!" They came just a foot away from my bumper when I let my foot fall onto the gas pedal. The dust cloud following my truck gave me sufficient cover to get the fuck out of there and return to the main road...

1820 Bruce Street

"We need to talk Steve", Jen said, brushing a few strands of purple hair out of her face. As she did so, I noticed the scar on her hand from a snowboarding accident that occurred 3 years ago.

"I know what happened, or at least I think I do. I saw them take you. They've changed you, we need to be sure that we can trust you." I wasn't sure if they were going to turn they're backs to me and just leave, they're the only people I have ever trusted.

"Well of course you can trust me, I have no evil intentions of killing you. If I harbored such desires, I would acted on them by now."

"That's all we needed to hear." John seemed a little weary about himself having to trust me. "What was that thing that killed back at the-"

"Testing facility? It was an Imp. Jen, you know most of what happened, its time I fill the rest of you in." I told them what happened, and what was done to me. I think it was a little much for Samantha to take in all at once. She looked very sad and confused at the same time, John looked very distraught as well...

Area51 Control Complex

"Anything yet?" G-man said, gazing upon a large view screen. It showed the surface of Mars's moons, as pictured from several telecommunication satellites orbiting above the planet. No signal from the moons by the many military personnel stationed there had been received yet, which was taken a good sign.

"No, sir", said one of the scientists. "Must be a regular power failure, the back up generator is active on both Phobos and Deimos. We'll keep monitoring the situation and let you know if anything comes up"...

Phobos Nuclear Containment Center

One of the few higher ranking Guard Squads left, was the Elite Z-Sec squad. There were only five of them left, many of they're other squadmates suffered a fate far worse than death. Many deaths could happen in this section of the base, most of the nuclear byproducts stored here had leaked out because of all the shooting, many of the tanks would be punctured. This spilled the poisonous liquids on the steel floors. In many random spots of the base, this highly explosive toxic waste is re processed to a safer type of chemical and used of a coolant fluid for some of the larger computer systems. They can get very heated, so to speak. Those places are very prone to core leaks, due to inadequate construction time.

"KILL THAT SONOFABITCH!", the leader said.

"I'M TRYING, DIE YOU MOTHERFUCKER!" Instead of just having to fight off demonic aggressors, they would now have to defend themselves from they're own former soldiers. The team managed to rid the thick of them, with no further loses.

"What...are they?" Corporal Copperson said.

"God, I don't even want to know. But that doesn't matter, we need to keep going, the communications center is this way, and I hear a few more of our living buddies are holed up there"...

1820 Bruce Street

The clock in the bedroom read 3:34 PM. Sam was still a little upset, and was pretty adept at showing it.

"Why the FUCK did you not let me know about this earlier?"

"I did know if it was really happening or not. I didn't know if you believe me or not."

"I can believe you now, but this is... unremarkable. It's been a while since we left, I think we'd better get home." We left my parent's house, and I returned John, Jen, and Samantha to their homes. I drove back to my home and lied down on my bed. Thoughts raced through my mind faster than light, many of these thoughts were random images, and unlike the more horrific ones I had to witness a few days ago. These were far different, and were much more peaceful, for a while.

My viewpoint was up in space, facing towards Mars. A few seconds later, I was thrust onto the planet's surface, which wasn't Mars, I knew this quickly since Mars isn't Seething fire pit. Make that a seething fire surrounded by many creatures I immediately put on my hit list. Many Imps were here, put so were many forms (they were only forms because they decided to hide in the shadows) that I haven't encountered yet circled an enormous fiery crater. I could not actually see what came out of it, yet my gut reaction was to make sure it died horribly slow. In a few moments I was released from the fiery place and was back on the surface of Earth. All of this was interrupted by a sudden urge to play Unreal Tournament...

Area51 Control Complex

The main control facility was buzzing with activity, because of a very startling recent activity.

"This cannot be", the General said. General Paterson is no one to be messed with. His appearance is even intimidating. He stands about 6'5 and weighs about 255 pounds. On this Earth, very few things will be sufficient enough to disturb him. "I thought...but how?"

"This gives us a perfect opportunity." G-man said. "1:30 tomorrow afternoon, send him a mission briefing"...

5924 Pebble Beach, 1:29 PM

Before I could start an Unreal Tournament, my inbox made that whistle sound, notifying me that "I've got mail"'. Just great. I wonder what in the fuck it could possibly be. Wondering about it wouldn't get much done, so I quit unreal, and opened up Outlook Express. There was only one new message in the inbox. It read:

You'll have to pickup your weapons from a building with the letters MYS on it. It's a storage facility on Vegas Drive. We had to move them from your home, in case someone ever discovered them. This is your very first assignment, you need to return to the testing facility where you first came to contact with the creatures; we think the place may be filled with them. We sent a recovery team there, and they never returned. Recover what ever you find to be useful from there and we'll collect it by tomorrow. You must go, now. ---End message.

His style of writing was a little awkward, but clearly understandable. I went down stairs to my truck, and got in. I knew where the MYS place was, it wasn't very far from my home...

MYS Storage

I've seen this place before, I just never knew what exactly it was for. The storage shed was behind the main building, which had MYS written on the front of it. I drove around back, and through a security gate. My shed, which resembled a wooden, scaled down airplane hanger, was at the very back. I shifted the vehicle into Park and exited the Hummer. The door on the front of the hanger like shed opened horizontally, like a garage door, except it went straight up, instead of going out and then up. Inside was my weapons cache, along with really cool body armor. I decided that since I was going to merely inspect, I did not stock up on everything in here, but I took what would be useful. My weapons load out consisted of: an M-4 Assault Rifle with 125 rounds of ammo, and a S.P.A.S .12 look alike (minus automatic fire) with 96 rounds. And a pair of .357 Desert Eagles with 36 rounds for both hands. I took a backpack out the shed (if you could call it that) and stashed some of the reserve ammo inside, along with a PDA, a canteen, and a flashlight. Once I was finished loading up, I put the weapons inside the trunk of my vehicle, unloaded of course, and got inside. When I was getting my weapons, I noticed that there were two different Katanas in the storage shed. I considered giving Samantha one, and decided it would be a good idea. Turning the key in the ignition, and shifting the truck from park to drive, I left the storage facility...

UAC Earth Installation 168-618-653-2

The sound of small rocks being crushed came from underneath my tires as I neared the UAC installation. I turned the vehicle off and exited it, taking my backpack with me. The sun beat down upon this section of desert, making me feel as if I was inside the Sun's surface, instead of ninety-nine million miles away. A bead of sweat dripped off of my forehead, even though I had been in the blistering heat for only a few minutes. I heard the sound of crunching rocks, this time they crunched under my boots, as I walked around to the back if the large, charcoal black Hummer, opened the trunk and equipped my weapons. My 357's went into the holsters at my sides, so they would be easily accessible, if I needed them. I slung the

M-4A1 Rifle over my shoulder and equipped my shotgun as my primary weapon.

As I entered the building from the side entrance, I realized that most of the equipment in here was still active, so something must have activated it. Most of the florescent lights that were attached to the ceiling were now ripped free and just hung there, swinging back and forth, lighting different areas of this large entrance. It was so quiet in here, I could hear my footsteps echo throughout distant corridors I had not even been to yet. As I walked further into the room, the light diminished, and using my flashlight would be necessary as I progressed deeper within the complex. As I took one step forward, a near silent breeze swept behind my back, and a small evanescence of dust whirled out of existence behind me as I turned around. Something was in here. A form arched up the wall behind me. At first I thought it was my own shadow, created by the sunlight crawling in from the open front entrance set in contrast to the freely swinging florescent. Just to be sure, I unclipped my flashlight from my belt, and shone light across the darkened areas of the room. Hmm, nothing, I thought to myself. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, from what I assumed this was normal for a place such as this, as it had been abandoned for so long. Tables were in their normal places, chairs were overturned, and some of the steel floor tiles were uprooted from their places, exposing the dirt ground below. Something caught my attention as I took a quick look around the room. In the dirt were on of the tiles had been, I saw something, like a footprint left behind by an animal, but it was unlike any I've ever seen before. It was arranged in a pattern of three; two in front and one in the back. I then knew that I wasn't alone, even if whatever had left this behind wasn't hostile. Though my judgment might have been clouded I decided this room was safe and lowered my flashlight. The moment the beam of light it emitted spiraled down the wall it was illuminating and hit the floor, something dashed in front of the beam. I raised my light and I was now 300 sure that I wasn't alone. Upon seeing them, it took over, uncontrollably, as it did the last time I faced one of these. My vision, once again, became reddened, yet slowly reverted back to normal. Something was different though, my thought process in this stage was much different. Instead of just wanting to ravage and rip them to shreds, I took a more unknowing approach, acting as if I hadn't seen them at all.

They are very good at leaping long distances, and the one closest to me did just that. He leaped from the ground right up the pipe work laden ceiling, and went to a dark corner to where I couldn't see him. Two more had dropped off the ceiling and clambered to darkened corners of the room. As I raised my shotgun slightly, one of them crept towards, uncaring that it was in plain sight. Then it jumped right at me. Before it ripped into me with its claws, my shotgun's pellets ripped open a wide hole it his chest, and abruptly fell to the floor. I finished the last one off without much resistance. Wiping most of the blood off of my face, I continued deeper in to the compound, seeing many things I didn't previously know existed. As I got deeper in to the place, available light diminished, forcing me to use my flashlight, which might reveal my position. I didn't

really care about being found out at the moment. I continued on the down the halls and rooms of this place, until I came to a room that had DO NOT ENTER WITHOUT PROPER ATHORAZATION written on the doorway. I went inside only to find several workbenches with opened up computers on them. Three of which had hard drives that looked unbroken in them, I removed them and tucked them inside my backpack so I take a look at them later. Immediately after getting everything together, loud plodding footsteps, accompanied by a mechanical like whine faded in behind me. I turned the flashlight off and crouched close to the ground. The room was pitch black with the flashlight off. I put my left hand over the bulb to dim the light down a bit. Switching the light on, I moved to closest nearby table, making sure nothing was on top of it, and silently over turned it. I found a dimmer switch on the side of the flashlight and set it to the second dimmest setting. Peering around the side of the over tuned table, I saw new kind of creature that bullied it's way into the room.

Upon closer inspection, I realized that this creature was not solely of an organic construct, but also a manufactured cyborg as well. From the front, it appeared to be a cross between a bull and a canine pitbull, yet as you look closer to hind of the creature, the layers of flesh and muscle hung freely, as if torn and ripped without care at all, exposing a blood soaked spine. It went from bone to dark gray steel in about 10

inches. Attached to the end of its robotic spine was a large motor, about where the pelvis should have been. I say about because part's of the pelvic bone were still visible, the motor apparently grew out of the bone it self. Two large gears attached to both sides of the engine, (which seemed to be strikingly similar to what Earthly technology can create) affixed themselves to a pair of powerful pneumatic hind legs. These were equipped with tri-clawed feet, which were sharp enough to cut through the hull of a battle ship. The front claws were just as sharp, but the most frightening thing was when its mouth opened. Each tooth was about four to six inches long, and it mouth could open so far, it's jaw would literally hit the ground. I call these Demons, because they seem to be one step above the Imp.

The need for killing this mechanical monstrosity drew near and evil side enjoyed even the mere thought of such a prospect. The whine of its engine powered legs became louder as it drew nearer, and I couldn't stand much tension. As I rose up from behind the table and unslung my M-4, I realized the room was full of these sonofabitches, and I commenced firing...

Mars Informal Database

Z-Sec guards are not usually equipped with much more than standard peace keeping gear. This would include A nine-millimeter auto and 50 rounds of ammunition, an air-compressed nightstick, and one pair of unbreakable poly-syntheic hand restraints for detaining a criminal. A few others are registered use of .12 gauge shotguns, if the need for more serious enforcement becomes necessary. A select few of regular Zone Security Guards are allowed use of a 7.89 mm UAC machine gun. They are allowed use of such weapons under certain circumstances.

Elite Z-Sec's are used as the last line of defense before UAC Space Marines are dispatched to contain any incident that has arisen. An elite Z-Sec is equipped with a more formidable loadout. They will generally have: a 7.89 mm machine gun as a main weapon, a .12 gauge as a secondary, and .357 Desert Eagle side arm. They are also equipped with powered combat armor, that when electrically charged, can optimally resist everything form bullets, to corrosive acids, down to lacerations, and bite attacks; all before needing a recharge.

UAC Space Marines are equipped with UAC's best weaponry, which would include the BFG 9000, a weapon issued only the best. Obviously this weapon hasn't been issued to anyone yet, mainly because it's still in the testing phase. Another plasma type weapon they are equipped with is the C-49 Plasma Rifle. This gun uses artificially created plasmatic energy to produce blue electrified bolts of energy that are hotter than the Sun's surface. Two members of each squadron are allowed use of such a weapon. More accessible weapons include the RK-50 Rocket Launcher, and the M-50 Minigun. Although the fire rate is considerably less than a standard Minigun, around 1000 to 800 rounds per minute, it is no less powerful than the faster version, aquistioned to UAC's mechanized infantry...

Phobos Central Communications Center

As the final Z-Sec team came running through the comm centers closing blast doors as fast as they could, they didn't realize what had followed them. As soon as the 3-foot thick door's hydraulic locks shut, all of the pounding and clawing the Imps made trying to access the room had stopped almost immediately. One the Z-Sec's said:

"What the hell, why did they stop?"

"I...I don't like this, everyone, stay alert." A faint thunder, which was almost impossible to hear without straining one's ears, orated in the distance.

"What is that?" Sergeant Herrera said.

"What is what I don-" another replied, but was cut off.

"Shut the fuck up, I hear something." As he readied his 7.89-mm fully auto, the quiet stomping grew much louder, then quieted down, then stampeded again. The repetition was getting to him, and he could not stand it any longer. With a peek out of the small view port window on the door, he soon realized what was going on, the noise was not true thunder, but monstrous footsteps of huge demon using itself as a battering ram. "Someone get on that goddamnmotherfucking comm NOW!"

"I'm on it sir!" yelled an Elite Z-Sec. Most of the communications terminals in here were damaged, or had dead bodies draped over them. Only one of them was actually operable. The young marine ran over to it as an 8 foot tall beast came crashing in to the room, killing three Z-Sec's on it's way in. The beast, called the hell knight was for now the most formidable opponent to enter the corridors of the Phobos base. The young Z-Sec dispatched to request re-enforcements managed to get through, yet his message would go unheard for several days:

"We require immediate military support! Something fraggin' evil is coming out of the Gateways! Computer systems have berserk and almost all of our comm systems are out. If anyone can hear this please give us some fuckin-" His transmission was cut off as quickly as his head was, but his message would reach its destination...

7849 Garden Rose Road, 1:58 PM

Trying to contact him now would be useless, because it was now obvious to Samantha that Steve was not home. A feeling of despair came over her, uncontrollably consuming her. Every time this happens, she tries so hard to never feel this way, but nothing actually works. Her friend, John lives a few houses down the street. Before leaving she needed to get dressed, she was planning to spend today home, as such all she was wearing was a white tee shirt, with nothing underneath, and black panties, and her hair was tied back in a ponytail. Stripping out of her clothing, she let down her long auburn hair down and it fell to her shoulders. A few strands that she had dyed a deep crimson red managed to fall just past her breasts. Samantha looked in her closet for something to wear. Most of everything she owned was black, which was the color that she felt that looked good on her. Occasionally she likes the color red as an alternative to black but doesn't wear it often. She decided to wear whatever was clean.

Fully dressed, she put her boots on, before do doing so she noticed it was raining outside. For one reason or another, Samantha likes to take walks out in the rain. Stepping out of her front door, raindrops fell from the sky and traveled down the strands of her hair, down the smooth skin on her left arm, and dripped off the tips of her fingers. A few landed on the surface of her miniskirt, fell off and slid down the soft white skin on her exposed legs before landing on the concrete below. For a moment she considered going back inside and waiting for the rain to stop because it was supposed to get heavier later in the day, but realizing it was just water, she continued down her driveway and down her street.

Because of the heavy cloud cover, much of the sunlight didn't make to the street level. This activated the sensors on every street light for sixteen blocks to activate, making the middle of the afternoon appear too be late at night. The sky became so dark, it actually scared her, as though she was going to be struck down by some benevolent force form beyond. She deterred that emotion and casually walked over to John's house. As she approached his home, Samantha noticed that the garage door was open, but no one was in there, and appeared to her as though no one was home. Walking up to his door, the feeling of someone following her came over her. Samantha always carries the dagger from the katana set she used to own with her. She sold the other two pieces from the set because they completely fake. The dagger was only real part.

Her grip on the blade's handle could have been sufficient enough to break anything of a 1 lesser quality. She carries the weapon in special pouch she had tailored herself and wears near her left thigh so she can get to it quickly. For a second, the voice behind her didn't register into her memory as any she knew, or cared about what so ever. Turning around, she stopped the dagger's blade an inch away from Johns throat.

"HEY!" he said with an understandable amount of surprise in his voice. "What the hell? Ease up on that, dude!"

"Sorry," Sam replied, relaxing the blade. She wished that she had been a little less impulsive. "But I don't like the feeling that someone is following me. Anyway, where is everyone?"

"Well my parents left a while ago, but my dad told me to take some stuff out of the garage and put it in the huge new backyard shed. I just finished doing that."

"In the rain?"

"Well it had to get done, two weeks ago, I couldn't fit anything more in there, everything went from floor to ceiling."

"Right, I think we need to talk, but not here. You don't mind taking the bus, do you?"

"No."...

Stewart Shopping Plaza 2:14 PM

The bus lets off about a block away from the apartments, leaving only a brief walk across the parking lot of a nearby shopping center. The entire complex is sort of "L" shaped, with each store having a concrete awning covered walkway roughly 8' wide. The main store here was the giant Smiths grocery store. Samantha and John stepped inside to dry off and escape the rain for a few minutes.

"Do you think anyone's home?" John asked.

"Not for a while, his parents are still at work, they know me pretty well and wouldn't mind if we stayed there for a while, but I think we should get going", she replied while ringing some of the water out of her hair. The two left the store and used the awning-covered walkway to keep dry. Several of the shops here were mainly food shops, like Chinese restaurants, but there was also a huge Video, CD and Game Store here as well, one that Sam had worked in one summer. As they reached the end of the line of shops, the stepped back out in to the rain, which had reduced down to a minor shower. To get to the apartment complex from here, they had cross the street in a flat run; no one bothers to slow down for any these days. This time, all they had to do is walk, as there were no cars on the road at the moment.

"Where'd Steve go? He's usually always following you around."

"I tried to call him, but no one was home. He might have gone somewhere with his Grandparents or something like that." They were a few feet away from the apartments rear entrance when some called Samantha's name. It was someone who had a very similar name. His name was Sammie. He lives in two-story complex next door to Steve's parents complex. He was wearing a long black trench coat, because of the rain. Sammie is about Johns height, but they look nothing alike. Sam is bout 6'1", and has deep brown hair. You could mistake him for a gang member, but he is not, he hates those kinds of morons.

"Hey girl, what's up!"

"Nothing much dude." She wondered whether out or not that it was safe to tell him what was going on. For second she that he wouldn't believe a word that she said. John and Sammie started a conversation, giving her a second to think things over. Knowing him to be trustworthy, she interrupted their conversation.

"We need to talk, but in private, there is something you need to know"...

UAC Earth Installation 168-618-653-2

Having dispatched everything in the room with injuries no larger than a few deep scratches, I left this room and continued down the dim sandy tan glow of emergency light lit hallways. Back in the repair room, I found a PDA like mapping device, that showed an interactive map of the entire complex. Judging from this map, the best location to check was the "Containment Labs". Apparently, some of the UAC's Test subjects were stored there. With every step closer to there that I took, the look everything seemed to get a thousand percent more industrious. The walls were integrated with computer paneling, amidst lots of black steel pipes, filled with steam, wiring, or water. Though I didn't have too many assault rifle rounds to spare, I stuck with it for now, because it takes only one six round burst to take down an Imp, and the attached grenade launcher comes in very handy with long range work against Demons. I had pretty much run out of grenades, leaving myself with 3 spares. Upon entering the Containment Labs, I wish I would have had more.

This place was huge, and the only available light came from mounted light way up in the ceiling. There was also practically nothing in here, except three large canisters at the very back of the room. I slung the M-4 and drew my pistol, I'm really sure why, though. I slowly approached each of these canisters, to find out that they stasis chambers. The first had one of more gruesome looking creatures, a Demon, but I've already seen one of those. The second contained something I haven't encountered yet. The clipboard on the chamber told me what the hell the creature was:

Name: Cacodemon

Description: A large reddish spherical shaped creature. Skin is scaled, and has leathery texture. Creature is also cycloptic.

Weight: 435 lbs

Height: Variable, creature has levitation capabilities, but when completely on the ground, creature is 7'1

Width: 5' 6"

Other: This is creature came through one of the gateways, but died within several minutes of breathing our oxygen. These creatures may have to desensitize to our atmosphere before being able to thrive in it. With in those 10 minutes, this creature expelled a lethal ball of electrified bile which killed three of our staff. As another defense mechanism, the Cacodemon also has several large horns atop its skull, and the jaw can open to about six feet wide. The biting power is incredible. The jaw can displace almost 10,000 pounds of pressure in a single bite. Another interesting thing to note is that this creature has only one central eye. We speculate that it has terrible tunnel like vision, and little or no peripheral vision, though it is able to see in a limited spectrum of ultraviolet light, where as most other creatures we have found cannot. This might be for enhanced vision in low light conditions...

The rest of the file was overwrought with scientific speak, and couldn't understand most of it. I looked over to the third canister and saw the large hole in the glass, as if something had pounded its way out. Just out of curiosity, I went over to see what was in it. The label read: Contaminated Human. I put my pistol away and immediately drew my M-4. I'm no stranger to zombie flicks, so I knew that either I had to search out the "Contaminated Human", 'cause now I knew that there were plenty more of them in here, or sit back and let death do its thing...

1820 Bruce Street 2:14 PM

"No fucking way, dude, this shit is totally fucking insane!" John had doubts about Sammies sarcastic enthusiasm. "You know, as awesome as that sounds, I do have a very hard time believing that story."

"I thought you were a conspiracy theorist, they believe anything."

"Hell, I know for a fact that the government is fucking us over big time, but now that I think it over, you're probably right. The UAC has enough money to do whatever the hell they want so I now I do believe what you are saying."

"You know, I bet that Alan could dig up some serious shit into on UAC." John said, sitting at the computer desk. Sammie and Samantha were sitting on the couch which is directly across from the TV. "...but that would be so god damn illegal its not even funny." Alan, who is one of Sammies friends, is a professional hacker. If it is on a computer, he can access it. The catch is that if you were expecting him to be a nerd, you were wrong. He is a fat 16 year old. He isn't really that fat, just a little overweight. Maybe pudgy. Okay, he's fat but that doesn't matter, Alan has actually been teaching Samantha the basics in hacking in her spare time.

"Yeha, that would be a good idea, but god knows what would happen if they found us fucking around with classified files, dude. Goddamit, I knew that something really fucked was going to happen today. Must be the clairvoyance shit again."

"Right," she said, with a sigh of doubt. Samantha was worried that he would not help her figure out what the fuck UAC is up to. Lying only slightly, she stroked her left hand through her auburn hair and said:

"I'm so damn confused right now. I need some time to think every goddamn thing over ."

"Hey that's cool, call me when you've gotten every thing straightened out."

"Yeah"...

UAC Earth Installation 168-618-653-2

Everything in here was mostly painted a gun metal color, which made every thing harder to see because most of lights were so high up on the ceiling, that very little light ever reached the floor. The little light that reached the floor glinted as small white circles reflected against a deeply gray gird iron floor. For some reason the AC was on, keeping the place a constant chilly 60 degrees. I briefly put my hand on one of the steel pipes on the wall left of me and I was surprised to see how cold it was. The brisk temperature cooled the grip of my pistol, making it feel like I was holding a piece of Ice in my hand, but it wasn't cold enough to really bother me. What really bothered me was the shadowy figure who happened to catch my glance. I turned around fast enough to see him slump behind a large steel shelf with wooden crates in it. There were about a hundred row if these, and each one was about 30 feet long. In order to find this son of a bitch, I had to search every single row, which one shouldn't consider to be a whole lot of fun. My pistol would be pretty much useless if I were to find more of these Contaminated Humans, if that indeed was I what I saw out of the corner of my eye. My shotgun would be more useful, especially in a crowded area.

By the time I made it to the 30th row, I needed to sit down, because my legs were aching from walking that far. As I sat down, however, the sound of a dripping liquid orated behind me. For one complete millisecond, I passed it of as one of the various pipeworks in here which may have sprung a leak, but the much more advanced intuition of my other side suggested otherwise. My grip on my shotgun tightened while I readied my self for an extremely quick reaction. My enemy was facing away from me, allowing me to shove the weapons' barrel at the base of his skull. Something was wrong though, instead of looking like a mauled up wreck, this person, who was dressed in a janitors jumpsuit, looked alive still which indicated that he had just recently died. All except for his face, which looked as if he had dunked it into a piranha tank. After close range shotgun blast, it looked even worse. That didn't stop him from lumbering towards me at a surprisingly quick rate of speed. I was able to slow him down with shots to the body, but this motherfucker wouldn't simply fucking die. Though his foot steps weren't very noisy, even on this steel floor, the noise that concerned me the most wasn't human at it more machine like. Something like metal scraping against metal. Inevitably, my weapon ran out of ammunition, forcing me to simply retreat so I could reload, though the concept was a little simpler than just getting the action done...

Undisclosed Location

Though the rain continued to fall down, and the sky had grayed over to the point where the actual sky wasn't visible. If you were to looking upward all you would really be seeing was bottom of an enormous cloud. Very little light escaped the top of the cloud cover, so day practically became night. This caused every street light in town to automatically switch on. Anyone who wished to remain dry, which was just about anyone, stayed inside. A building up of stress and anxiety, however, had forced Samantha outside into the rain. She was more worried if she'd ruined her chances of ever figuring this entire goddamn thing out. She would need Sammies help and the help of his friends, this was a task that would be impossible for her to complete on her own. She had left the apartments about twenty minutes after Sammie had left, this action was not solely provoked by the above conditions, but by an overwhelming wave of boredom that seemed to consume her.

Samantha took no medication for her mental illness, she believed that going this long without them and then suddenly began taking them would make her condition almost infinitely worse. Because of this, sudden surges of helplessness and paranoia would overcome at any giving moment, such as now...

UAC Earth Installation 168-618-653-2

As I ran, my footsteps were obviously louder than they are when I am walking. My adversary's, however, were inhuman. I could hear normal foot steps, but randomly spliced in between them was a very loud metallic clang, making him sound as if he two real feet and them a third that was made out of a Foldgers coffee can. After a few minutes of chasing me, he lost me. For a moment, I felt relieved, and continued onward, they something in the back of my mind told me to turn around, and I did. He didn't lose me, he stopped running, and stood next to a pile of smashed apart wooden crates close to one of the loading docks in this room, trying retrieve something from one of them. Most of the ceiling bound lighting was arranged so I could see only his silhouette. The second I turned to face him I figured what the metallic noise was, it was something he was holding in his right hand. For a second I thought it was a pipe made of lead, but he dropped that got something form the crate and came two steps closer. That's when I saw the shiny steel blade glint of one the ceiling lights. My eardrums pounded as the saw's massive engine roared out throughout the entire complex like some prehistoric beast crying out before battle.

Somehow, this asshole was able to wield a chainsaw, which seemed impossible at first, but this was reality, and this was all too real. The only thing left to do was to hit as many times as could now with my shotgun, and then bolt. It sounded easy…

Phobos Central Mining Facility

They were overrun and knew it, but this assorted team of mine workers and Z-secs were determined to fight. The few remaining Z-Secs were reduced down to only their sidearm of fists to defends themselves with, while the mineworkers, who were now almost completely gone had used their various mining equipment to fend off the aggressors. One worker in particular, Jack Jones, had survived the longest of his crewmates, thanks to mining vehicle he dubbed "The Sandcrawler". It was basically a large earth dump truck outfitted with iron treads instead of tires. Jones, as everyone called him, lived his life so close to the edge that you could say that he already had gone over. He was never afraid of anything or anyone, he had an immortality complex as vast as the universe. One time, while repairing and re-painting one of the large bore machines used to remove iron ore and large oil deposits from the moons surface, he lost his wrench inside the machines running engine(Engines for the miners are about 20' wide). He climbed inside the running motor, which is extremely deadly and retrieved the wrench unharmed. No matter how many people told him that he was insane, he told them that he just lucky. He enjoyed that rush of being fearless, and never want to ever realize his mortality, but knows one day he will.

"Come on you mother fuckers, is that all that you got!" He yelled, leaning out of the vehicles window. The vehicle shook as if hitting a bump, but he really just squished several of his former crewmates as flat as a pancake. As he turned another in to mush, he could feel the back end of his vehicle be lifted off the ground, and then suddenly dropped. The Sandcrawler weighs well over 16,000 pounds, so none of his dead co-works did that. Looking out the window to the back the Sandcrawler, he saw nothing. Returning his vision back to the front he saw an enormous fist heading directly for the cab. In the few second prior to his departure from this world, he then realized his true mortality and actually felt afraid for the first time in his life...

Undisclosed Location

Because this area of Las Vegas isn't at all safe for a depressed female 16 year old to be wandering around, Samantha headed back to the apartments. Making sure the rear entrance was locked, she descended the stairs, and entered the living room. To her surprise, no one was here besides Sammie's friend Alan. He seemed to have noticed her entrance.

"Hey, um...do I know you?" Though startled he seemed to be attracted to her, which isn't unusual. He's attracted to just about any girl whose waist is smaller than his. "Hey, you're that chic hacker I've been teaching."

"Yeah, that stuff comes in really handy when you need to pass a test." Samantha said, not trying to kid. "Have you found anything yet?"

"Nope, their severs locked up so tight, I could never get in there on this computer. What in the hell are you looking for anyway? Even trying to hack UAC is way fucking illegal so my livelihood is at stake here, along with any of yours. What are you looking for, anyway?" Samantha considered letting him in on what was going on but negated that decision. Already too many people knew. What she was going to say to him completely escaped her, but luckily for her John managed to create an excuse.

"Nothing really, we wanted to see if you could get"

"On to their site from this shitty computer, well I can't and I could go to jail for doing this. Whatever, I'll see if I can access it from my PC, but if I end up in jail, I'm telling the cops it was your idea." He stood up from the chair he was sitting, and walked up the steep steps and back up to topside.

"Huh, that could have gone worse." John said.

"Yeah, he's willing to do it so you couldn't ask for much more. Why'd we come here anyway?"

"Not sure, for some reason I'm drawn to this place."

UAC Earth Installation 168-618-653-2

While running, I reached for the last few shells I had left. I tripped over something on the floor's surface, and dropped most of the shells I was carrying. Going back for them would be a stupid idea. He could simply get to me before I would be able to reach for the shells I had dropped, and cut off my arm, so I just kept going. I managed to load in enough shells to take him out, but before I could take aim, I was knocked to the steel floor. Just as he raised the mechanical saw over his head, the shock wave of my weapons recoil echoed all the way up arm like a 10.5 earthquake. Somehow, I was still able to hold the weapon steady. The black steel barrel impacted the side of his skull just he was about to bring the saw blade down on me. One way or another, my shotguns barrel had temporarily came into contact with chainsaws blade, making sparks fly everywhere, giving me the opportunity to roll out from underneath and fire off another round at him. His dead being fell to the cold iron floor, his chainsaw did so as well. still revving up, so loud now, it was now useless to try being stealthy or discrete. I rose to my feet and quickly lined my iron sights with his forehead and pulled the trigger again to make sure that he was gone. I wanted to continue forward, but my way was blocked by more of the people who used to work here, not to mention that my gun was empty. I killed the one closest to me, but unlike in movies and certain videogames, he did not sail fifteen feet backwards; he just fell on his back and bled everywhere.

"Heh, thought you would do that." I think I'd tooled around with my feelings of invulnerability more than I should have. All it got me was several Imp claws in the back, and they dug deep. My own warm, sticky blood poured from the wound, but soon stopped as my body instantly repaired the tissue and muscle damage that may have occurred. All that got him was a few hundred shotgun pellets in his stomach. My wounds hurt like hell, so at this point my aim was less accurate than it should as I was being subjected to several imps ripping their claws into my back. I couldn't take their bullshit any more and wasted the both with a single round in the forehead at the hand of .357 sidearm. From the position I was in, I had no choice but annihilate everything in my way with the butt end of my rifle. I started with the guy next to me. I grabbed my empty weapon by the barrel and swung downward right on his chewed up head. Coagulated blood sprayed forth from the impact, and got all over me, a few red splatters of fresh crimson dripped down off my left cheek. He fell to the floor, and came up and nailed the next closest guy right on the chin, knocking his lower jaw off. The wound wasn't enough to kill him, nor demoralize him enough to stop coming after me. The blood from his missing jaw poured to the ground, leaving a thick crimson trail of red everywhere he went, and making his last words just non understandable gurgling. I put away my gun and ran in the opposite direction, searching for an exit. The dead aren't very good at pursuing someone, however, several of those bio-mechanical bull demons were, though. I hoped that wouldn't have to run into any of them, but as I quickly passed by a communications lab, three of them leaped out from behind one of the consoles. When they landed, their steel hind legs clanged loudly against the metal grate flooring. I ran as fast as I could, but they were right on me, and no matter how fast I tried to go, they were right there. They didn't try to run their fastest, or they run right past me, but they stayed at such a distance to where I wouldn't think of stopping to rest at anytime soon. As I ran, I noticed that the ratcheting and whining, and clanging of their mechanical back legs had suddenly stopped. I glanced behind me, and they were gone. I took a very short breather, and then continued on.

I managed to run deep into the place and ended up inside storage place for tanks of nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen. There were hundreds of tanks of combustible gasses and barrels of highly explosive gas throughout this area. I rested for a full minute after I entered, then realized I had an opportunity here. There was a work bench that would useful to me in here. I took one 500ft long spool of nylon string and took three of my last few grenades and taped them to tanks of nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen using gray industrial tape. With spool of fishing line I tied off the pins f the grenades so I once the string snapped, I would ten final seconds to reach the exit. I took off out the room as fast as could. The fishing line had more tension as I ran farther and farther away from that area. Finally, The string snapped. Right about then, I took off running out towards the front entrance as fast as I could possibly ever think of running…

1824 Bruce Street

The rain had subsided around twelve minutes after 4:00 in the afternoon. As the clouds separated and moved towards the east, the sun shone through them, casting a golden and bronze hue over everything they could shine upon. It reflected off the remaining water on the ground, making it a deep bronze so bright, it was hard to look at. This didn't bother Samantha, though. She had come back outside after the rain, John had stayed inside. She wandered around the neighborhoods for a while, not intending to have a true destination, and eventually ended up in front of her old school, which since her graduation from there in eighth grade, had been closed down. It was a fairly large rectangular complex and had a elliptically open ceiling in the center of the complex, and it was secluded away from the other houses and neighborhoods, which gave a fairly similar appearance to the old UAC complex she had been to only a few days ago. The large front doors to the place had been left unlocked from some reason, and she let herself in, being cautious as she entered, as she didn't anyone to see her enter. Old, decrepit, dead, these were good words to describe he appearance of this place. The whole building would hold a similar vision in anyone else but Samantha, because this place still held good memories to her, memories of when she had friends she could trust, a life that she felt was well worth living, yet this place also held bad memories of her past as well. Those events she will never be able to forget as she remembered why it had been closed down. As she thought back to those days, a slight dizziness drifted over the surface of her brain, much like fog slowly drifting over a sprawled, bustling island bound city during the blackness of midnight. Her vision began to blur, and she couldn't even sit up at that point. Soon, she was whisked away to a better place, one existing only in her mind...

Earth Installation 168-618-653-2

I came running out of the front that building so fast, didn't see the rock I was about trip over, which is just what I did when my foot hit it. I heard the tremendous explosion of the oxygen tanks, and I could see some sail out of the roof of the place. Fragments of molten hot steel, composite plastic, and various lead pipeworkings fell to the ground, creating small fiery craters where they landed. Right then, the building started to go up like a torch just as I hit the mud covered ground so hard the air was knocked clean out of my lungs. Once I regained the ability to breathe once more, I stood up and watched the place burn. I could hear their godless and unholy screams, and it was pleasing to the ear. I returned to my Hummer and stashed my weapons in the trunk, got in, and got the fuck out of Dodge. When I had got into the truck, I had set my backpack on the passenger seat. Before I left, I opened and took a quick look at the hard drives I had snatched from the UAC tech labs. They were undamaged, I noticed that they weren't relatively new, either. They had all been manufactured in October 1995. I had taken about 8 of them and they all the same date. They also weren't large on storage space either. Each drive held exactly 1080 megabytes of data, which in general terms is about two gigabits. That is not a whole of dive space, as compared to today's technology, but since this place was shut down in about 1995, I would expect this. I put the drives as they were in the backpack and drove as fast as I could back to the city, often taking alternative back roads, because someone must have at least hear the explosion, or maybe even seen it, and called the cops or other emergency services. I think I know what would happen if they saw an 8ft tall Hummer truck come flying past them at about 116 miles an hour away from the scene of a massive explosion carrying multiple weapons in the trunk. I took the alternative routes to avoid any confrontation with the law. Though they weren't the quickest ways back to the city, they were the most scenic, and they were rugged simultaneously. Many a time, I ran into large divots, terribly uneven ground, and very soft dirt, which I had to drive as fast as I could over. This bad terrain didn't affect my vehicle at all though, the trucks suspension absorbed all of that impact. I actually liked driving out here, it felt like I was in the middle of the Baja desert races. I didn't have time to indulge the fantasy of being some off-road extreme truck driver. I had to get the hell away from here.

I had driven far enough away from there and I could safely head back to the main road. I decelerated the speed of my vehicle to a speed the law allowed on this stretch of highway and continued back towards the city. The houses out here gradually increased in numbers, and neighborhoods started appearing more often. Living out this far must be great, not having to deal with the sporadic and crime filled city life is the best thing I can imagine. While driving and taking a look around the area, I realized two things: one was that from all the fighting I had done, I was drenched with blood and sweat. If anyone saw me like this, they possibly think that I had murdered someone, which I had, yet that was for the benefit of the human race. The second thing I realized was that my grandparents, whom I live with, and my biological parents were oblivious to what I am, or even what I do. If I told them about what I had seen, what I was, or anything anywhere close to that, they most likely would not even believe me.

The city was finally in view. What stands out about this city when approaching it is obviously the large casino district we call the strip. I accelerated a bit, to match the speed of traffic on the free way I had just entered. The inside of this truck had been quiet for too long, and I flipped the radio on, keeping the volume at a low medium. My head was pounding from fighting, and didn't need a blasting double-bass heavy-metal drum beat to assist my migraine. Even though I liked that song, I switched around the dial, while keeping an eye on the traffic, looking for a station that played more "mellow" music that what I had been previously listening too. I found one, and programmed into the preset station memory, as I would be listening to it more often now. I did like the playlist of this station. Now and then, they would blast out a heavy song, but most of the time they would play more acoustic, or instrumental music which sort of like trance music, but not as sickeningly repetitive. For the somber mood I was in, this best music I could listen too at the time. Once I entered the strip, I reduced my truck's speed drastically. Most of time, traffic here is as slow as a crawling baby slug. I know this sort of good, as my parents apartment complex wasn't far from there. I would need to head there to clean all of this demon's blood off of me, anyway.

Location Unknown

From her perch atop a high cliff, Samantha gazed towards the purple sky above. Moonlight radiated through the giant clouds above and greeted her with its heavenly embrace, as it had done many nights. The rocky shore below was slowly being bathed with foamy sea water, and licked with an evanescent fog rolling in from the near endless sea before her. In the middle of the ocean was a large island. It seemed to be the only land mass besides the one Samantha was on at the moment. Form the peaceful place she was perched upon, the island seemed to be a grotesque opposite. Covering most of the land of the island was a giant black spire that twisted skyward, ending in a violently sharp point. Branching off of the spire were different branches, most probably different chambers for whomever inhabited this place. To her, the whole thing resembled a giant cursed tree, one that served as a reminder that death is inevitable, and was to always be sorrowful, and painful. To her, this place was frightening, she left her perch of the cliff and retreated to the forest behind her. Gathering around her, friends from the other side came to say hello…

Downtown Las Vegas

The Hummer's engine receded from a loud roar to a gentler growl as I slowly drove down the alleyway behind my parents apartment. Once I reached the back entrance, I shut the truck's engine off and exited the vehicle, making sure that my backpack with the hard drives in it was still in there. Though access to computer was available here, I didn't want to utilize it, I also didn't want to have to remove my dad's hard drive from his computer. After locking the vehicle, I returned to my parents apartment. The air smelled a little, bit smoky, but that's normal, that's one of the few habits that my parents can't get rid of for some reason. The bad thing about it is that the smell gets into my clothes, which sucks 'cuz I'm usually a little nit picky about how clean my clothes are, though that's just me. As I walked through the narrow passage way that led to the living room, I could hear the familiar bubbling sound of my dad's fish tanks. I get so used to the repetitive bubbling sound of the air filter that most of the time I don't even notice that he even has any tanks at all. I went into the living room and flipped the TV on. Apparently, someone had been watching with volume way up, as I had to turn that fucker down! After I did, I flipped to any of the local news channels, as I thought, they were televising the shit out of the place I had just devastated. I turned it away from that channel and turned the channel to 45, which is the sci-fi channel. As I would have figured, they were showing another one of their awful "Sci-Fi Original Pictures". Why can't they just move away from horror films about killer mutant animals? The film was unimportant though, I was concerned about cleaning the blood and sweat I drenched in off of me.

I had already known that my father wasn't home, as I able to snag the spot where he usually parks his truck and place my Hummer there. He probably would be back for some time anyway, but whatever. Leaving the living room, I entered the bedroom to grab some of the clothes of mine that I keep here, and a towel. As usual, bedroom was crowded with what ever my dad was trying to repair this time. As this is a small apartment, things can get crowded, and quickly, though he manages to have everything systematically organized so that he can find something quickly, and so that the whole place isn't a total mess. After looking around for a clean shirt that I liked, a pair of my baggy jeans, and clean towel, I found them, and started to head out of the room when I realized that someone would eventually find the blood soaked clothes that I had been wearing. I wen back into the bedroom and removed one of the pillowcases from one of the spare pillows that they own. I could just stuff the blood soaked clothes in there and I'd just wash them at home or something like that. After that, I went and took a shower. Though uncomfortable at first, the hot water was actually soothing, as it washed away all the evidence of I had done today. When I was finished, the red stained water circled the shower drain, reminding me of that scene form the film "Psycho", though my name isn't Norman Bates, and I certainly not psychopathically inclined, as far I know…anyway. I stepped out from the shower, onto the cold floor, and dried my self off and put the bloody clothes in to the pillowcase, then I changed into the clean clothes I had taken from the bedroom. I felt better when I changed into those, I didn't fell like I was a threat to the world, even though I could be if I wanted to, that obviously wouldn't happen, though. I took the clothes in the pillow case out to my truck and put them in the hidden trunk in the bed of the vehicle, and then returned inside to find John inside. I think that he was waiting for me.

"I think she's out looking for you," he meant Samantha, "I'm not sure where she went though, it's like she just took off." I knew where she was at. Her old school was a place she would always like to hang out at, though it had been closed down because several kids had committed suicide there, the sad thing was that they were all of her closest friends, before she had met myself and John. Samantha always goes there from time to time, trying to get them to come back, though it's just a lost cause. Sometimes I have wondered if she actually sees them or they are just hallucinations created from her troubled mind. Whatever the case, I had to find her, the last time she had seen them, she wanted to join them…I couldn't let that happen.

"I know where she is, you can wait here," I said with a sigh at the end. It wasn't one of annoyance, as if this has happened so much that it was a chore more than anything thing else, but I sighed at the odds that I might find her slowly bleeding to death on the floor in there. Though I didn't want to think of it, it had happened before. Two years ago, when were still friends, I went to hug her, out of politeness, and she fell in to my arms. It took me a moment to realize why she was so happy to see me, that's when the white shirt I was wearing was stained with her crimson…I'd rather talk about this anymore, so I end it here.

"That's cool…we should head home now anyway, otherwise we'll all have to deal with another 2 weeks of isolation from eachother, which isn't good, especially during shit like this."

"Yeah, well, I'll be back soon, so just hang tight, dude." With that heavily teenage sentence, I returned to the above ground, where it was already dark out, and the rain had once again come to make the oil soaked roads around here difficult to drive on, if you were in a hurry, and I was. I entered my Hummer before I was soaked in rain water, engaged the engine and drove to her former school. It was dark as night, though it was only 6:47 o'clock. Because of this, I engaged the lights on my truck, and due to the heavy rain, I flipped windshield wipers on, then proceeded out of the alley and onto the main roads. The rhythmic pounding of the raindrops on my tuck added small touch more onto the gloomy mood I was already in. Traffic was almost no existent right now, and became so as I got only 4 blocks from the school. I could see it ahead of me. In these settings, it stood out so much, resembling a foreboding place of evil no one but the bravest soul dared to enter. I guess I was the one, but on the other hand, I hadn't any other choice.

As I pulled into the parking lot of the decommissioned school, I slowed up on my speed, even though getting into an accident here was almost improbable, though not impossible. The lights that were once around the lot to illuminate the way at night were now fallen over, or just not working. The ones that were still working flickered on and off, some stayed on, though dim and casting orange incandescent circles of light. I found my way to the entrance of the school, though it more better resembled the entrance to Hell, than a school. The windows in the front were smashed from misled youths throwing rocks through them, so they had to covered with boards, some were covered with iron plates, oddly. The building was an odd shape, one that I'm sure doesn't have a name to describe it. Sort of rectangular, but the front resembled an castle from the times of olde. In the middle is a large open section, which was once covered by a glass canopy, over time, the glass has been smashed away, so now the rain fell on in. I wasn't able to admire the frightening look of this place, I had to go in there and find her. I was going to get soaked out in the rain, but right now that didn't matter. I left my truck and stepped outside. The temperature had dropped so much it felt like winter, though this had to be impossible, it had to be, but it was happening. I returned to my vehicle, looking for something warm, I found a long black coat in the back seat, though I didn't recall bringing it with me. I threw it on and grabbed a flashlight and my knife. The knife was for opening the front door, though when I glanced back, it was wide open, as if violently kicked or rammed open. I put the knife in the sheath at my side and grabbed my .357 sidearm. I still held the flashlight in my left hand, and my pistol in my right hand. I left my truck, shut the door, and proceeded inside the building.

The rain was the only other sound besides my footsteps. The echoed the distant corridors, much like the place I'd cleared out earlier. Everything seems quiet and docile at first, then everything gets thrown to the wolves. I didn't get that impression from here. I didn't call her name, not because I was afraid to, but because I didn't want anything running from me to find her. The deeper I explored into this place, the less the light became and again I forced to use my flashlight. When I activated it, echoing back to me from sorrowful corridors ahead was a single, hollow click…

Unknown

"But I can't join you…not now." She wished that she hadn't tired to be back with them before. They wanted here back, it seemed as if they needed her to come back, and stay. She peered down at her arm, at the scar she gave herself. "I don't want to be with you! Why can't you all just move on? What's keeping you away from salvation?" The pointed to something behind here. It was the spire. "What is it?" They said nothing, though they have never spoken since the last time she hurt herself. All they did was point to it, when she turned to face them, they vanished. They moonlit forest she was in now faded away, a crushing cold darkness began to over everything, until only a glint of the moonlight was left. With this gone, Samantha felt trapped, alone, and helpless. The crushing cold began to take its toll on her. From the small sliver of light that remained, she could see her own breath. She began to shiver, then her eyes began to water. Each tear felt like a spot of ice water slipping down her cheek. Then, she started to cry. She cried alone, with no one, almost no hope left in her at all. This place of darkness was becoming her prison, one that she couldn't escape. The cold grew even more intense with each passing moment. Her old friends weren't there, her hope was gone, she fell to the floor, shivering, wanting only someone to find her, somewhere in her heart she knew that someone would…

School

The amount of time I'd looked for her had seemed like too much. I glanced at my rain soaked watch, then learned the time was 7:17.

"Where the fuck could she be?" I said aloud. The echo came back to me, though I was unprepared for it. It startled me, and like a fool I threw my knife at locker door at my right, blown open by the wind. I went to retrieve the blade and then realized something about what had caused me throw it. The wind could only get to this part of the school from the large open spot where the glass canopy was. Since there was no more glass to contain the sound fully, my voice couldn't be heard to well by her. She had to be there, I had this indescribable feeling of it. I started to walk over to there. Then quickened my pace. Then I ran, as fast as I could to her. My footsteps pounded through the hallways of the schools, past the classrooms, I ran through the gym, emerging out into the open part of the building. The rain poured in, it was colder here than anywhere else. In the middle of this place, I found her. On the floor, curled in to a ball, shivering, crying, she was, but I found her. I went over to her at once.

"Angel, wake up!" She made no response, none at all. I put my sidearm away in the deep pocket in the jeans I was wearing, and knelled down beside her. The rain had soaked her, I assumed she fallen asleep, thinking of her old friends that have passed on. I reached out and softly touched her face, her skin was colder than ice, and she wasn't sleeping, she had passed out. I had to get her out of here, she could die! I threw off my coat and covered her with it then I carried her over my shoulder and ran to the front entrance. I laid my angel down in the back seat of the Hummer, I climbed in to the drivers seat and flipped the heater on. I had to keep her warm. The engine screamed out into the night as I hurried back to my apartment.

1824 Bruce Street

I came racing down the alley so fast I had I stomp on the breaks to not over shoot the rear entrance to the apartments and end up hitting a dumpster. I left the vehicle behind and raced downstairs, almost falling down a few on the way down. Running down the straight hallway that led to the living room, I remembered the gun I had on me, I had to hide it somewhere, my truck seemed the best place. I emerged in the living room where John was waiting for me.

"You find her?" He asked in his mellow voice.

"I've got no time to lose, we have to go now! Her body temperature is way to low, she passed out in the rain, then it got really cold—just come on already!" I didn't care if I was yelling or not. I ran back to my truck and John followed, and we got in. I knew where a hospital was, but I also knew that it was closed today, the closest one that was open wasn't close, but my truck's fast, I could get there in time. I turned the truck around and headed out for the freeway. The traffic was getting heavier and heavier, and I kept going faster and faster. Somehow I was able to avoid the cars and swerve around them. I had already run several red lights, barely making it each time, and no cops were on my tail. Something strange I also noticed. The weather was turning more and more into winter like weather, however, it really was the middle of summer. The roads were slick with ice, which made no sense at all, and the outside temperature had dropped so much it was about 40 cooler than it was about 2 hours ago.

"How's she doin' back there?"

"I don't know, I aint a doctor, you know, what the hell was she doing out in the rain?"

"Hell if I know!" I tried to keep the speed fast, but at max, I was saving that for the freeway, the hospital was right at the end of it.

"She's cold to the touch," John said. "I hope that you can get there in time!" I finally reached the freeway, there was no traffic, nut something new entered my mind, and I felt like something was chasing us, I looked in the rearview mirror and saw this…thing rapidly engulfing the road behind us! I punched the accelerator, hitting 126 in the truck. The formless entity seemed to fade as we got farther from it, and finally we reached the hospital…

Nowhere, yet anywhere

The cold kept getting worse and worse, and she could see her breath at this point. She wanted someone to save her from this icy hell, someone to take her from it, but the only thing of any comfort was a single strand of silver light with no source. Slowly, a gentle, yet heavenly sleep started to drift over her mind, much like fog slowly drifting over a sprawled, bustling, island bound city during the blackness of midnight. She wanted to just go to this sleep, to dream away from this place, but maybe this was just a dream. But it had to be real. The cold, she thought. I just want this cold to go away. How can this be a dream, in dreams, you don't feel anything, but this is too real- I just want to sleep this all away. As the sleepiness grew heavier and heavier, this single sliver strand of light started to shrink. It became thinner and dimmer, until it wasn't there anymore. Then, the whole world was dark. And cold. And filled with nothing. Devoid of hope, devoid of all that makes us people continue on day in and day out. The sleep was her only haven, it was her only safe place, and she went to her safe place. Willingly, she left her icy prison hell and went to the haven her mind had created for her.

In this haven, she felt saved. She felt she had nothing to fear. Now she was on the other side of the spire, lying of soft grass, staring happily into a violet, starry, and nebula filled sky. This place was where she was, and she liked it here. It was one of the few places that felt safe. The other three places would be in her lovers arms, or when she's with her friends, or at home in her room. Everywhere else feels like that hell, everywhere else is chaos to her, especially when she is around large crowds. They make it feel like the worlds coming in from all sides, crushing her to pieces. If she goes anywhere, it's with her lover right by her side.

A raven landed at her side, then flew up to a branch in the tree she was lying next to. I love this place, I want to stay here. She knew that that couldn't happen, she'd have leave everyone else behind, something that she couldn't do. I wish that they could come here and stay. They'd love this place. As she though that, some of the fallen leaves from the tree behind rustled, as if someone else was with her. She sat up, but then was returned to that crushing darkness and cold, how now she heard foot steps across the hard icy floor. The seemed to encircle her, and her heart began to race, as she didn't know who or what was in this place with her. She was too afraid to say anything, or even breathe so that someone could hear it. She just sat there, still, actually motionless, except for her shivers. The small glimmer of light start to back again, yet this time it started to light half of the room. The cold slowly started to go away, her fear slowly started to dissipate. Once the light had become intense enough, she could no longer hide, though the pain in her heart was still held quite heavy. Her tears sill streamed down her cheeks, though she didn't make a sound. She looked up to where the light came from and she saw a figure standing in the rooms doorway. He was silhouetted against the silver glow behind him, which started to eat away at the darkness. His presence alone filled her heart with more hope and love then she'd ever known ever before.

He entered the room, a sword in his right hand. Its blade was saturated in thick, deep red blood At first it had scared her, but he dropped it to the ground as he neared her. She was afraid that he was going to just brutalize her with his bare hands, instead f just killing her quickly, but the energy that radiated off of him suggested otherwise. He gave off the feeling of an angelic being, but she couldn't be sure, since she still could see him. He was now very close to her, and he stopped about 2 1/2 feet from her. The darkness once again began replace the light of the room until he couldn't be seen anymore. Suddenly, she could a loud growling behind her, and she could feel the cold, odorous breath of some kind of beast behind her. Samantha sank to the floor, not wanting to move, for fear of being devoured by the creature. Through the snarls and growls that the creature made, she heard the figure who was standing at the doorway pick his sword up once more. She could still hear the metallic ring echo through the room, and slowly fade out. For a split second she glanced up and looked right into the soulless, red eyes of the creature. It apparently had no form to it, just a sheer black, bodiless, mindless rage that devoured every glimmer of hope in its path. The person who had been standing at the doorway used his sword to cast an arc of light that filled a circle around him. His face was still in shadow and the darkness still surrounded the form less beast, but he was clearly here to protect Samantha from it. Dashing forward so fast she could barely see it, he ran straight past her, and leaped right at the monster. He struck at the very last second, parting the creature in middle. It instantly died, and the dark receded as its final breath drew near.

The room was now filled with light, the cold was gone, and she was no longer filled with sadness nor fear. She looked up at him, and her whole being was filled with warmth and love once she realized who it was. It was the only person she could ever love. The only person that would ever love her for the angel that she really was inside. He kneeled beside her and picked her up into his arms, cradling her. I love you, you truly are my angel. He looked into her soul with beautiful greenish eyes of his, and called her an angel. This was something she had waited her life for, and she melted right in his arms. She felt alive, hopeful, everything that she though that was always for someone else can at her all at once. And was nearly overwhelming. She cried out of joy just a little child, now the tears of pain were gone, and her heart let loose with the tears of joy. Soon more light entered the room, and it seemed to shine right in her eyes…

Las Vegas Hospital, Third Floor

Though I was on the fourth floor of a normal hospital, it felt as though I was inside a sanitarium, waiting for it to by turn to be locked away. John and myself had just stepped off the elevator and entered the fourth floor. Fortunately for her and us, this was a regular patient section, and not the ICU. She was lucky to have nothing more than a few cuts and scratches, but the weird thing, and scary thing were that it seemed as though she had just shut down. Her body was still active, she wasn't in a coma, but she seemed to have left herself. That's what the doctor had said to me. He told that it seemed as though she wasn't there, she just seemed to be peacefully sleeping. I was afraid to enter her room. I didn't want to see my angel like this, but I had to, and there was nothing I could do about it. Absolutely nothing.

The elevator was supposed to take me to the fourth floor, but I had stopped at the floor below to ready myself. I didn't know if I'd be able to handle seeing someone I love so much in this same position again. Once before had I encountered something like this. That was about six years ago, when she still had the voices in her head. I knew that they weren't real, but she said they were her friends. I never wanted to have to see her a hospital bed nearly painted in her blood, and that's where my fear of death came about. I used to go through life without ever thinking about my own mortality, even if I knew that my life could end at any moment. I never wanted to realize it, but seeing her in that bed, her body nearly drained of color, and skin colder than ice, her life nearly over, I then knew what life really is. It's not this vague day to day thing that has something to do with the choices you make. What life really is about is to see if you're fit for the world after. That day, life was something different to me, I can't really explain what happened, but I changed inside, and from that day on, I was changed for the better. I was different, though what I had seen went all the way through me, right to the center of my soul, I was different in the way I acted, and my attitude changed, somehow, I was able to keep away from the hell I was about to slowly drift into.

I readied myself to see her in a hospital bed for the second time in my life. At least this time would be better than the last. I re-entered the elevator, and then went up a single floor. Once I reached the floor above me, I left the elevator, and emerged into another level of the hospital. Like every other in here, the walls were painted white, with a few baby-blue accents here and there. The corridors reeked of sterility, everything in the whole building was sterilized, so that nothing could get any infectious bacteria. The smell of the chemicals was starting to get to me, though. How sterile does something have to really be? Something else drifted into my mind, and reminded me why I hate hospitals. For some reason, people think that putting white everywhere in a hospital is a good thing. I don't think it is. It reminds me of a sanitarium. Instead of a place meant to be one of healing and peace, every hospital always seems to hide the true sadness that lies behind the walls that we can see. Unable to shake the thoughts before entering one, I always seem to feel the sadness of the patients stuck there. Sometimes I have to cut my visits short if it's one of my best friends in there even.

Walking down the linoleum floors, I felt like it was the last day of my life. I remembered the room number, 429. I was nearing the room, as I glanced above me at the numbers above the rooms I had passed. Most of the doctors were busy helping the other patients, or doing their own paperwork and documenting medical records at the large circular center desk in this section of the hospital. The sounds of paper shuffling, the intercom calling a certain Ph.D., to a certain ward, and the other sounds of hospital slowly faded away. The only thing I could hear around me were the steps I took across the hard floor, and the steady rhythm of the rain outside. I neared Samantha's room, where John was standing outside. He said nothing to me, but he looked at me with a look that said a thousand words of its own. I could see worry in him, I knew that he could see more in myself than any other emotion. I stood in front of the room, looking at the number, foolish of me, as I already knew where she was.

As I entered the room, I could see her in a slumber on the single bed in the room. Most of big lights in the room were shut off, the only was active were the small little ones of some of the monitors in here. The only other source of light that crept in was the light from the bright area behind me. I breathed a sigh of relief once I saw her. She looked so peaceful, as if she was a sleeping angel. She looked like an angel in that bed, slumbering as if the world around her was really heaven and she was sleeping on the softest cloud there. Last time, it looked like she was in her own hell. This time, there were no more wires, tubes, or medical machinery to frighten me. She was just in her bed, asleep. I quietly approached her bedside, kneeling down to be right by her. I gently held her left-hand in mine, I could fell life within her, I knew that there was still hope for her. Downstairs, the doctor had told me what he though had happened, from a medical perspective. He said that her body might have shut down temporally from the cold, but the thing was, was when they had brought her in, her skin was cold as ice, yet the internal temperature was normal. He also said that they were unable to wake her from her slumber. Something in my mind told me that it was my job to do that.

The sound of the rain outside smattered against every surface in its usual rhythmic tempo. The droplets fell to the earth like the tears of a weeping angel, one that was weeping because it knew that it's true love would never be able to join them in the eternity the they had earned. The only sounds in my ears were my heart beat and the simple rhythm of the angel's tears. The world around me started to fade away, all the non-used life support machines, all the elements of the room itself, and even the conscious universe I lived in seemed to fade away in to this space that only existed because I had created it in my own mind. The bed that Samantha had lied in was gone, now she was slumbering on the floor of this simple place. A place where nothing but her and myself existed. There were no cities, no planets, no other inhabitants; just me and her. This place was as vast as the conscious universe that I was simultaneously residing in, buy there were no stars, just the blackness of it all.

A small silver glimmer of light emanated from a spot high above, yet I had no idea what it was. It cast enough light around us so that I could see her. Samantha was asleep, on her side, about four feet in front of me. Slowly, still hearing the rain in my ears, and now only the gentle beating of her angelic heart, I approached her. The light high above grew slightly brighter, making it seem as if we were both caught in the loving embrace of the Moon's heavenly glow. A chrome, bluish, silver glow blanketed her. In this place she was safe from the harm of the outside world, she was safe from anyone who wanted to harm her, she was safe from the creatures I have to destroy. I came right to her side, as I was doing in the hospital, but this time I planted a single, gentle kiss on her soft cheek. I could hear her shallow breathing becoming slightly more pronounced, and she slowly began to awake from her sleep. Her eyes opened, the heavenly deep ocean blue of them seemed to see right into the most loving part of my soul. She was finally awake from her deep sleep, her eyes refilled with the light and soul that she always had in them. This time it was different, it was more than that. I returned back the actual world, back the hospital room, back to being right at the side of my wounded angel. I held her hand in mine, feeling the warmth beginning to return to her, knew that she was returning to us.

"You saved me, you know." With those five words, a clear line of a salty tear slid down her cheek, landing on the soft sheets that she laid upon. I saw an angel, that's the only I can put it. All the beautiful words in the world couldn't describe her, something was different, but this time it was for the better.

"I saved you, huh?" Well I guess that would make me you knight in shining armor." I spoke with a soft voice, gentle stroking my hands through her soft auburn hair. "What happened back there?"

"They all moved on, this world no longer holds them back from being with Him." I knew what she was talking about. For years, she's always said she could see her friends that have long since passed on to a better world. I thought they had, but she told me that they had been trapped here, unable to move on, and all of them were lonely, and wanted Samantha to join them. She tried once, but I found her, and the doctors were able to revive her, replace the blood, suture up the wound, but I can never get the images out of my mind, if they're provoked by something someone has said, or by some of the themes that film makers these days seem to just spew out. I wish that people would begin to understand what it feels like to almost lose someone that you love. Samantha's someone I love more than my own life. Even if she's still here, not with the angels, yet, I still feel sometimes as if she had died then. Until it happens to you, you'll never be able to fully understand, or even begin to know what its like. This girl really is an angel to me, and the fact that I helped her survive, and not freeze to death, shivering, crying in the rain proves that I will risk my own life to save hers, anytime.

"Sam, listen, you can't ever do that again."

"I won't, you can't lose me, I know you can't." A small tear ran down the side of my face, I cannot lose her. She's the other half in my life that keeps me here.

"No, I can't. I love you Samantha, I love you more than anything in this world, and I'll love you until the end for both of us comes, and when it does, you and me, we'll always be together." The tear of sorrow immediately changed to one of joy, because it seemed as if all of her problems had just left her, and now they were being blown away, like small bread crumbs into a summer afternoon's breeze.

"Forever?" The tones of her sweet voice were now filled with angelic radiant happiness, and the last bit sadness was gone.

"Yes, you lovely little thing, you, forever." In my arms I held her still, holding her close not wanting to let, but wanting stay with her forever.