As it begins to move, Hunnigan stands frozen at its great size. The captain catches her as she stares down, taking her back to the surface. With each passing second, the quakes caused by this behemoth grow larger and larger. After the captain starts heading back up, the creature brakes through the floor and grabs the remaining soldiers. Their pleads for help become quieter as the captain climbs up more. He reaches the top and tosses Hunnigan to the floor. "You're coming with me back to HQ. You might be of some use."
Before Hunnigan could reply, the captain suddenly goes numb, his arms fall to his sides and drop his gun. He looks to his chest to see blood seep through his clothing, the stain growing larger and larger. He slowly turns to see Gregore, having impaled him, proceed to decapitate him. Deborah and Dylon stand behind him. Deborah goes to Hunnigan and helps her up, while around them, the quakes continue to grow exponentially.
"We have to go!" Dylon yells.
Everyone within the mansion runs out as fast as they can. Sen, along with Deborah's children, having already escaped, made it to safety near the forest boundary. As Dylon comes to the entrance, he sees Lisa, struggling to hold Piers by the shoulder while the quakes grow. He runs to her and helps them escape as the roof begins to collapse. Everyone is huddled around each other, sitting out the quakes, which seem endless. Suddenly, they notice the water by the shore begin to recede at an alarming rate. Far off in the distance, Apocalypse begins to rise. It's a mile off shore, yet its great size made it appear as a giant to them still. Its body is a mix of reds, browns, and pitch black flesh. It has no shape to its mass, except for a single eye, it alone was far larger than anything they have encountered.
It soon changes, morphing into a new shape. Limbs begin to form, armor-like growths and weapons sprout from all around it. The mass of flesh takes the shape of a leviathan-like creature. Before leaving the island, it turns to them, and gives a roar that could break the sound barrier. It takes to the deep, swimming to the nearest landmass. Already, the bodies of fish and other creatures begin to appear behind it, corpses left by its movement alone.
No one could move, the sheer size of the creature made it seem impossible to kill. Dylon then notices the returning water, crashing into the shore, flinging the cruiser the soldiers used into the air. Everyone stands still, not wanting to move in fear of walking into their spot of impact. One comes right to them. In an instant, Dylon releases his clawed hands and swipes the debris away. The chaos subsides, the silence returns, all hope, destroyed.
It has been hours now, yet most of them still remain in the same spot, staring out to the sea, where Apocalypse arose from. Chris sits by the shore, he isn't angry, he isn't frustrated, no emotion could express how he feels now. The only one that's close is… hopeless. Leon comes over next to him, more focused on leaving then sulking. "Chris…," he pauses for a moment as Chris turns to him, "look, I know what you're going through, feeling like there's no way to do this on your own. But remember, we're all here beside you. We've survived countless challenges, we'll survive this one."
Chris gives off a sigh. "It seems impossible. It's… enormous. Nothing like it has ever been made, or seen. You could hit that thing with all the missiles in the world and it would still stay standing."
"Something like this always has a weakness, we'll find it. Besides, we have to at least try."
Chris turns to Leon, more invigorated than before. "Yeah, you're right." he stands back up. "Now, we just need a way off this island."
"Let's see if we could scavenge anything from what remains of the cruisers."
They head down a distance part of the beach, having seen most of the cruisers landing far from their location. They come upon nothing but unusable piles of metal. "Damn it," Chris says, "nothing is intact, there must be something we could do."
Suddenly, Leon notices something in the distance. At first, he thought it was the main ship the cruisers came from. This couldn't be, it was destroyed as well.
Chris looks out to where Leon sees the ship, it wasn't clear, but it was just enough for one fact. "That's not their ship, it's something else.".
This ship is far larger, more heavily armored. Huge turrets, seen from a great distance, litter the top of the ship. From rocket launchers to miniguns, this ship appeared to have been made into a one fleet army. As it comes closer and closer, Chris and Leon rush back to the others.
Jacob looks to Dylon as he stands by what was left of his home. "Don't worry," Jacob says, "you can rebuild it. Hell, you could stay at my place until it's done."
Dylon gives a quick chuckle. "It's funny, we just saw the end of the world, and you talk about my house."
"YEAH, that is,… was, your home."
Suddenly, they turn to the shore at the sound of Chris and Leon's shouting. Dylon's focus is on them, but Jacob stares straight out to the ship in the distance. Soon, a small grin begins to form on his face. Dylon turns to him when he noticed. "What's wrong?" he asks.
Jacob gives no direct response and starts running to the shore. "That son of a bitch."
Dylon follows him, trying to get his attention. "Jacob, what's wrong? Do you know where that ship came from?"
As they finally reach to shore, Jacob replies. "Yeah, and as for who's on it, let's just say he's very lucky we needed this."
The large ship finally reaches the shore, almost to the point of beaching itself. Small lifeboats on the sides are released, carrying what appears to be armed men. Dylon goes into a battle stance, but Jacob stops him. "WHOA WAIT! Don't fight. Just… wait."
Dylon is unsure, but trusts his brother. Everyone comes down to the shore to see them. Most of them didn't know who they are, except for Jacob, Sen, and their group. However, to Leon, as they got closer, they brought back memories in his head. "Oh my god," he says, "they're… ganados!"
"What," Chris replies, "how do you know?"
"When I was on my mission to save Ashley, I ran into these guys on the island where Saddler did his experiments."
"Saddler? Wait, you said he was dead."
"He is, so who brought them?"
Suddenly, they see someone familiar in one of the lifeboats, Ruven. Without waiting to hit the shore, he jumps off into the water and moves as fast as he can. "I brought some back up and saw a whale of a thing out there?!" he says with shocked attention.
"Ruven," Jacob says as he stomps over to him. "I outta mount your head above my tail for leaving us here. I would do that, if I wasn't so happy to see you." The frown turns to a jokester smile as he punches him in the arm. Ruven returns the happy punch. "To be honest, I didn't do this on my own account."
"Then… who told you?"
Jacob turns to Sen, who shakes her head in response. Alex, while sitting down with Veronica in her lap, replies "I told him. We should at least be prepared to leave when we wanted to. Although, I didn't tell him to bring the Crusher."
"I thought it would be more fun," he says, "however, looks like it was a smart move too." he says when he sees the damage caused to the place. "What did I miss?"
"We'll talk later," Dylon replies, "right now, we need to take down that thing before it makes it to the mainlands."
"Wait!" Leon says, turning to Dylon. "You think it's a good idea for us to be on that ship. I've seen what these guys are capable of."
"Don't worry," Sen says, getting their attention. "They'll listen to me. They never go back on an order. You'll be safe."
Suddenly, Dylon realizes something. "Wait, we still can't go."
"Dylon," Jacob says, "don't worry, the Ganados won't do any…"
Dylon stops him. "That's not it. This is the only ship here. We can't go fight with the children in danger, or Deborah or Sen. They're not fighters."
Jacob understands instantly. Even with a ship like the Crusher, there's nothing stopping Apocalypse from destroying it. "Well, can't they stay here."
"No, it's too risky. Entity might still be watching."
Sen begins to feel saddened, thinking they were holding them back. Jacob takes notice. "Sen, it's not your fault," she looks him in the eyes, feeling comfort from what he said.
"Let's see," Ruven starts, "we can't take them with us to fight, but we can't leave them here. It'll take too long to bring them back to our home, unless you don't mind losing a full day in the process." He looks to everyone before continuing. "We could take the life boats the rest of the way when we get close enough. But, depending on what the conditions are in the mainland, a safe distance might be subjective. Plus, having the Crusher's firepower would be handy… I got nothing."
"... Well… we'll have to take that risk, it's our best option," Dylon replies. After a short while, everyone was in agreement.
As everyone arrives to the Crusher by lifeboat, Chris asks Piers something. "You said you had a larger team with you. Where are the others?"
"Before this, I sent two of my men on a retrieval mission for a certain someone. At this moment, she might even be helpful. As for the others, they're on different missions, far out of my communication. Unfortunately, it was just me, Scott, Hunter, and Ustonia when the attack happened. Wish I saw this coming"
Piers pulls out a small radio-like device. "This may look small, but its radius is unnatural, using the labs technology. I've alerted those out on the retrieval mission what is happening. Hopefully, they heard me."
"I thought you said it has great range?"
"At the moment, Apocalypse might be affecting it, we'll see."