Chapter 2

"Lucy!" Mr Ben said into his com as he ran series of commands on the iPad that now seems to be his companion.

"Lucy, I know you're there, and I know you can hear me, so start talking," Mr Ben said hurrying towards a glass table in the big hall.

The screen still displayed the images from the city, this time around, it wasn't from Trey's phone, but live from the news. Reporters have flooded the area and a lot of media houses now have a live coverage of what's going on.

"Where are you?" Mr Ben asked, swiping up on his iPad, revealing a map of the city with a green dot moving down a particular highway into the heart of Starlake City.

"I'm driving" Mrs. Smith's voice echoed in the com. Mr Ben could hear the shifting of gears and the roaring sound of Mrs Smith's vehicle.

"Godamnit Lucy! You gave the boy that phone!" Mr Ben said raising his voice a bit high as he tried hard to suppress- screaming his head off. "You know your dad's not gonna like that don't you?"

"I'm just trying to keep him safe. I didn't know he's going to screw it up, " she replied.

"I know you're heading there right now. Alone if I'm correct" he said calmly.

"You bet",

"Return to base"

"Not an option" she replied, making Mr Ben groan inwardly.

"Let me guess, you're in your 2020 Lamborghini Huracan Evo Spyder?" Mr Ben said turning away from the glass table to his left hand side where a computer has the same display he has on his iPad.

" Of course, a man of your intelligence will know that" she replied.

" And you know I can stop you right now, don't you? "

" Of course Uncle Ben, I know. That's why I sent one of the boys to get some toiletries from the city with the one you had your little bug planted" There was a frown on Mr Ben's face. He wasn't expecting what he heard.

_How the hell did she know there was a bug in the car?_ he thought.

"You know what, return to base, let the boys handle it" he said after recovering from the shock.

"Now you sound like dad" she spat in disgust and ended the call.

Mr. Ben turned to face Mr Gary who had been sitting on a stool across the glass table. He also has an earbud plugged in his ear and he heard the conversation. The frown on his face showed how displeased he was.

"She used her Lambo as a decoy" Mr Ben said, taking off his glasses. " She knew I would track her," he added, dropping the iPad on the glass table.

"You taught her everything she does, everything!" Mr Gary stood up from the stool, pacing restlessly before turning to face Derek.

" Take fifteen men with you, bring her back with the boy", he ordered.

" Yes sir" Derek said leaving the hall.

Mr. Gary took another glance at the big screen. Nothing much has happened ever since the crash few minutes ago. He glanced at his wristwatch and was about to say something to Mr Ben, when Derek returned.

" What's the problem?" He asked.

" Armory and garage is locked down"

" What?" He frowned raising an eyebrow. " I didn't do that. Did you?" He asked directing the question at Mr Ben who had picked up his iPad again to confirm what Derek said.

" I didn't, and I'm afraid it's not just the armory. The whole building has been locked. We're on total lockdown," said Mr Ben, confirming from the information iPad.

" Lucy?" Mr Gary asked

" She's the only one that can do it. You told me to use her fingerprints back then, remember?"

" That was before she fell in love! She's now married goddamnit!" Mr Gary yelled. He punched his palm, taking deep and angry breath.

" Well, you didn't ask me to change it"

" Then do something!" He yelled again.

" There's absolutely nothing I can do about it. She has to be here".

" Seriously?" Mr Gary said moving dangerously close to Mr Ben with his face aligning with that of the tech lord. "My daughter has not been on the field for the past seven months, she now run a coffee shop. If as much as a single strand of hair on her head should go missing, I'll screw you!" he threatened storming out of the hall angrily with Derek following closely behind.

****

Five cops could be seen moving towards one of the locations where the fireball landed few minutes ago. What they had in mind was to check what's going on. It was the one close to the woods. They were not too far when they heard the explosion, so they came to check it out after receiving the order from their command headquarters.

The cop leading the team, a man in his early forties with a tanned skin that had definitely seen a lot of rough weathers, held up his fist, a gesture for them to halt; when he heard some sort of distorted noise coming from the hole which the fireball had dug in the ground. He placed his right hand on his holster, removing his gun while the rest of his team did the same. He's not sure of what's there, but he sure as hell heard something.

"What's going on?" Another cop asked. He was a young man in his mid twenties. The look on his face radiated fear and nervousness.

"I heard something" the leader said in a hushed tone. He swallowed hard.

"Can we just leave this place, it's creepy as fuck!" He said nervously.

"Goddamnit Bill, keep quiet" the leader said again in a hushed tone.

He motioned for them to keep moving as they were just a few feet away from the hole. They moved stealthily, not trying to make any noise when they heard the sound again. It was like a growl.

"Did you hear that?" Bill said freaking out, "did you fucking hear that?" He asked again, taking steps back.

"No, no, no! I can't do this anymore. This place is creepy as fuck, can't y'all see we're making a big mistake coming here? This is not even our fucking job..." Bill kept ranting on and and on as the team leader's gaze was fixed on him. He suddenly looked alert but tried hard to be calm.

"Bill, Bill!! Stay where you are. Don't move" the team leader whose name was John said, but Bill didn't get the message.

John aimed his gun and this seems to send a wrong signal to the young cop.

"What now? y'all gonna turn against me now right?" He said chuckling nervously.

"Bill, don't fucking move?" John warned.

" Oh really?" He scoffed. " Well watch me!" he almost yelled, taking another step backward, but his back felt something solid behind him.

He could feel the temperature as he turned his head slowly, only to find a mean looking creature with a single horn and eye. There's a small opening on it's face that serves as mouth, from which a tongue-like organ came out from, spreading into four branches full of teeth. It drip some acidic liquid on Bill's face as he screamed loudly before the creature wrapped it's branched tongue on it's face, eating it up as his screams echoed throughout the woods.

John fired his gun at it as the other three joined him in the shooting. The bullets seemed to have little or no effect on the creature, it kept closing in on them seething viciously. They retreated slowly, aiming at it's head.

John noticed he was the only one shooting when he look by his sides, the other three cops are missing. He turned sharply behind him. He was just inches from the hole. He turned sharply to where the creature was earlier on, but it was no longer there.

He felt a presence behind him, and before he could make any move, he was dragged into the dark hole, with his screams echoing through the woods.

****

The city was going wild already as the one eyed creatures now crawled out of the holes, eating off people's faces. The cops on ground could not control the situation as their weapons were no match for the monsters.

There was confusion everywhere. People could be seen scrambling around for safety. Amongst the confusion was a young girl of about 3 years old. She stood at the middle of the confusion, watching people run helter skelter. She didn't know what's going on and as an innocent soul, she just stood there, exposed to danger, with a confused look on her face.

Trey was behind one of the numerous vehicles at the scene, clutching his pen-knife with a false feeling of security. He had been dodging behind vehicles, hiding himself from the monsters. He was getting ready to bolt towards a big Mack truck very close to the crash site when he saw the girl.

"What the hell?!" He muttered to himself.

He knew how dangerous it was for a kid to be out there and to make things worse, there's no adult with her. She's all alone, exposed to danger.

He could see one of the monsters eating the face of a male paramedic few feets away from where the girl was standing. He wondered why she wasn't even crying with the whole situation. The thought of himself being exposed like that made him cringe.

He looked across the road, there's a building with its door opened. He thought about the possibilities of making it to the door if he could grab the girl, looks like a suicide mission though.

"Think! Think!! Think!!" He said running his fingers through his hair.

One of the monsters caught sight of the little girl and Trey knew what would happen next. Without thinking, he ran across the road, beating the monster that saw her as he picked her up, carrying her bridal style, ran down the road while screaming his head off. The screams only energized the monster who gave him a hot pursuit.

He turned to the road by his left as he almost collided with a black Sport Utility Vehicle that was about driving into the scene.

"Get out of the way" the driver screamed. Trey recognized the driver's voice, it was Joe's. He hurried out of the way as Joe stepped on the gas pedal, hitting the monster. He kept driving until he rammed it into a nearby building, destroying the bonnet which emitted white smoke. Trey watched from a distance with the girl still in his hands. He saw Joe kicked open the door to the driver's side. He exhaled heavily, shook his head to clear his vision. He stepped out of the smoking vehicle with a desert eagle in hand. He groaned softly, aimed the gun towards the ruins on hearing the shifting of bricks.

"Watch out!" Trey called out as Joe turned on reflex to his left, there was another monster charging at him with full speed. Without hesitation, he emptied his magazine, shooting at it's eye as the creature fell with a thud. One of the cops close by saw what happened and was surprised.

The one stuck in the building came out, throwing a slab at Joe who dived sideways. He knew it wasn't dead. He didn't have the opportunity to reload his gun before the creature attacked. The cop aimed his gun and released series of bullets at it, but it only seems to anger it. It growled loudly, obviously vexed and charged aggressively at the cop who ran for his life. Joe seized the opportunity to reload his gun. He was about to shoot at it's back when he heard two almost silenced shots, with the creature falling on the running cop who screamed his head off in horror as thick, black, and sticky blood drenched his uniform.

The cop was still screaming with his eyes closed. When a hand rolled the monster off- of him.

"Seriously?, Stop the screaming, it's dead" he heard a feminine voice say.

He opened his eyes slowly to see a young lady dressed in an all black combat wear, obviously made of leather. Her blonde hair was neatly packed with a black hair-bond. Half of her face was covered with a black mask and she had a red rimmed glasses on. On her belt where series of grenade and clips, two holsters housing a twin Uzi by her sides with a sheath holding a rod attached to her belt. In her hands was an Ar-15 rifle with a scope and silencer attached.

"Who are you?" The cop asked with a shaky voice.

"Your messiah".