1 Chapter 1

"Base, this is patrol 38, we are entering Bonham, Texas. There have been no signs of undead, a thorough search will be conducted once we have reached the grocery store. Over."

"This is base, read you loud and clear. Take caution, there is word that a clump of undead are in the red River. Refrain from using your firearms unless necessary. Over."

"Sir, is this really worth doing? I mean, I don't really see this small town having the resources we need."

"Well, if it does, it'll be worth it. Dallas is running short since all this hell began. It's been a decade since those fissures and armies of Hell began pouring onto Earth. We can only handle this lack of food and medicine for so much longer."

"Sir!" A man shouts from the gunner seat of the humvee. "I see a pile of undead corpses in the movie theater to our 9 o'clock. They look scorched, Sir." The driver pulls into the vacant theater lot to see a stack of about twenty corpses, burnt to a crisp. The captain steps out from the passenger seat, and one of the men step out from the back left seat.

"Specialist Evans, are there any reports of survivors this far up?"

"No, sir. To my knowledge, any town further than thirty minutes from base is vacant for the most part. I certainly haven't heard of any fire users outside of Dallas."

"Hmm, well, nothing confirms he is a fire user. He may have gasoline. Let's continue our search. Maybe-" The captain was interrupted by a loud explosion in the distance. "Get back in the vehicle, this may be who we are looking for!" The captain and the Specialist hurry into the humvee, and the humvee books it out of the lot.

"Sir, smoke at our ten!" The gunner yells.

"That's where our first location is. Whoever it is, they may have bunkered down at Mal-Kart. We need to move fast."

Ten minutes later, the humvee pulls into the Mal-Kart parking lot. The parking lot is full of burnt cars and corpses.

"Stop here, Smith. We are gonna unload and move out." They unload from the humvee, guns at the ready, all except one person, that is. A woman steps out of the passenger side back seat. She has long brown hair, put up in a pony tail, her head reaches the top of the humvee, fit build. She stretches and let's out a yawn.

"Well now, seems we have something interesting happening in this small town." She says as she pulls out a sheathed sword from the humvee. "I hope this one uses magic, but either way, I'm sure he will be useful to bring back. That is to say, if he has really been alone here all this time." She says with a smirk. They moved toward the grocery store entrance, which is now a burning whole in the wall. "Definitely a magic user."

"Ms. Tawney, please remain quiet. There be undead, or worse, the survivor is aggressive." Ms. Tawney lets out a sigh. They begin moving forward. They see a pharmacy, mostly unharmed, to their right, and toppled over isles right in front of them. A teenager walks out from the destroyed isles to the left. The men turn their weapons onto the boy. He has short brown hair, average height, and looks very dirty.

"Don't move!" They shout in unison.

"Hey there, little boy, are you alone here?" Ms. Tawney asked. The boy remained still, with a confused look on his face. "Do you know English? What is your name?"

"Elliot..." The boy spoke softly.

"Elliot, we aren't here to hurt you. My name is Margaret Tawney, we are from the Dallas settlement. Are you alone?" The boy shakes his head. "Would you like to come with us? You seem... gifted. We can help develope that ability of yours. We have a whole city still running. What do you say?" She smiled real big as she got closer and closer to him.

"Sure..." The boy replied, but suddenly there was a loud noise coming from outside.

"The red River horde must be here! That explosion attracted them. Boy, is there a back exit?" But the boy didn't respond. He began walking toward the entrance.

"Kid, we gotta go!" Margaret yelled at the boy, drawing her sword. Panic was spread on the four men and Margaret's face. A bright began to shine in front of them. They looked down, and saw a fiery wolf standing before them. It began to snarl and let out flames from the corner of it's mouth. The sounds of the undead horde barreling toward the entrance grew louder. The wolf sprinted into the entrance, enlarging as it sped up. The wolf seemed to disappear into the wall of flames as it pressed forward. They couldn't see what exactly it was doing,but as the wolf walked back in, the fire subsided, and only utter destruction remained.The boy remained still, but tension was obviously on his face.

At first look, it looked as if the wolf was smiling. The wolf suddenly lunged at the boy, in which Margaret and the men jumped at first, but then the wolf disappeared as it collided into the boy's chest.

"So, you're a spirit user." Margaret asked, seemingly trying to catch her breath. The boy looked up, but didn't responded.

"Ms. Tawney, we've gotta move. Elliot, come with us, we can get you into the academy back at Dallas." The captain said, as he signaled the men back to the humvee. Elliot followed them out, and the humvee began it's return back to Dallas.

"So, Elliot, how old are you?" Margaret asked.

"Sixteen."

"Oh my, you must have been about six when the horsemen came. What happened to your parents?" An awkward feeling filled the air, but the boy seemed unfazed.

"Well, the city was quickly over ran with undead. I lived a bit outside of town, and they suddenly showed up at the house. My father ran out with his shot gun, but he was outnumbered. He told me to run as fast as I could through the woods behind the house, so I did. As I ran, a shadow like wolf was running beside me, and I didn't feel scared of it at all. I just kept running, for hours, yet when I stopped, I didn't feel tired, and the wolf was still with me. It just stood and stared directly into my eyes. I didn't even notice it was already pretty late. That's when I discovered my powers. Shadow has been with me ever since. Cinder showed up when I was about ten years old. I was trying to sneak into the Mal-Kart when I was surrounded, and he suddenly appeared before me, cackling."

Margaret just looked at him in surprise.

"You can already handle two spirits? That's amazing! Well, get some rest, it'll still be a couple hours. It would be alot shorter if those damn undead didn't destroy most of the major roads." but when she looked over at him, he was already passed out. "Poor boy. A decade of being alone. Must have been tough."

"There was still plenty of food it seems in that place. We will bring reinforcements to retrieve it all. Maybe the kid can lead us to everything left in that place." The captain responded from the front seat.

"Yeah, I doubt someone so talented is going to struggle through the academy. I'm curious to see how far he goes. Did you know there is only one other spirit user in Dallas?"

"No ma'am, but I have met the one you are talking about. A lot of petty crime, runs around with some guy in knights armor. I think she is actually suppose to be starting at the academy soon. Part of her punishment. "

"Oh my. Well, this year's academy is going to be something else."