--WGN Anchor POV--

I stare at the clock on the wall and fiddle with the blank papers on my desk, 'Woken up in the middle of the night, and was told about the most insane news story I ever heard.'

"It's like the start of the end of the world or something," I mumble to myself.

I glance at my co-anchor, who looks lost in thought as well. Finally, we hear the producer begin to speak, "Everyone ready? Well, I hope so because we'll be going live in 5...4...3...2...1."

The producer points at me, and I turn toward the camera, with a smile, "This is WGN anchor Jessie Hardwall."

I look toward my co-anchor, "And this is WGN anchor James Fonley."

I put away my smile and give the camera a stern look, "That's right, and we come to you live with a breaking news story...well, to be honest, this might be one of the most important news stories we've ever come to you with. As our viewers are aware, communication was lost with the 'Moonlight' cruise ship in the pacific ocean several days ago. Lots of controversies have surrounded the lack of information given to us by the government. However, what most of you probably don't know is tonight that cruise ship arrived in Anchorage...which is odd enough as cruise ships don't come to port in the city of Anchorage they usually go to the city of Whittier or Seward. Anyways, what happened next was...well, for our more squeamish viewers, we recommend you stop watching here as we show you a video taken by a Tremble streamer last night."

The video begins to play, showing a person running through the burning flames on a cruise ship's deck. The person drags a wounded soldier, delicately making sure the flames stay away from him. Behind them, several people follow with shirts covering their faces.

Suddenly, monsters burst from the doors and windows of the ship. The video continues showing the person being surrounded by the monsters. The person holds up some kind of odd weapon and begins to fight the monsters while protecting the people. The video cuts out just as things were escalating further.

"Now, some of you at home might think these are scenes from a movie, but we can assure you that these are, in fact, real."

James begins to speak, "Yes, and as Jessie said earlier, this was streamed live by a Tremble personality who apparently violated government orders to get these shots. It seems that Tremble was forced to cut the video before we were able to see the conclusion, but reports have come in that the people did manage to escape using some kind of rope or grappling device for those wondering. Simply amazing."

I nod and continue, "While people are still in shock from the whole scene, many people all over the world are calling the person who appears to be a young girl a hero and have been criticizing the soldiers for not doing anything throughout the altercation."

James shakes his head, showing his disapproval toward the soldier's actions, "It's incredible I've never seen anything like it, that girl must have been exhausted. Honestly, I'm shocked she was even able to drag such a large man, but let's move on. Jessie....what are those things, and has the government been hiding this from us? Don't you think the citizens of...no the world should have been immediately warned that these things existed?"

"I agree to James, and although this story is only several hours old as of right now, that is exactly the argument many are making online. Our onsite staff was forced to evacuate the city, but rumors surrounding the origins of these creatures have been spreading like crazy all over the internet."

"Quite shocking, Jessie, but we have a special guest who claims to have been on the 'Moonlight' cruise ship and fought with the monsters. At first, we ignored the man as his story seemed too crazy, but now we can see that this was a mistake, and we apologize to our guest and our viewers."

We turn to face a television where the image of a man pops up, "Our guest is Mr. Ricardo Noodleman, a man who was on board the 'Moonlight.' Mr.Noodleman, you claimed you fought with these monsters while on the cruise ship?"

"That's right. I wielded two handcrafted weapons and fought back the monsters until we could escape on the lifeboats."

I give Noodleman a confused look, "Handcrafted weapons?"

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"That's right! You can see the diagrams or even buy my weapons on my website, that's n00dleman.com with two zero's; someone had already taken noodleman, no0dleman, and n0odleman."

I struggle to keep my smile, "That's great, Mr.Noodleman, but let's move on. Can you tell us more about the creatures."

"Oh yeah. Well, what I know is they are ferocious, and they seem to have an unnatural fear of the sunlight. Also, they are in fact infectious...sorta like a zombie virus except not quite at potent."

The room turns dead silent as everyone tries to process the information.

"Are you saying those things are people that were infected, Mr.Noodleman?"

Noodleman gives us a solemn look and nods, "They were the people on the cruise ship. We were told not to contact any news agencies, but I couldn't keep quiet people need to know about this."

I regain my composure, "Mr.Noodleman, are you aware of the implications of what you are saying do you have any proof?"

"...I don't, but its the truth!" Noodleman shouts at the screen.

'I honestly don't know what to think, but we can't have him spreading misinformation like this on television.'

I signal one of the producers, and soon the image of Mr.Noodleman disappears abruptly, "Uhh, we'd like to tell our viewers that we cannot confirm what you just heard and..."

I stop what I'm saying as I notice someone passing a letter to James. James looks at the paper for a moment, and his face turns pale.

I take the sheet and read it,

"*This letter is to be sent to all major news outlets within the United States.*

Within the next hour, I, the President of the United States, will be declaring a National State of Emergency. Creatures hereafter known as 'Crawlers' have spread throughout parts of Anchorage, Alaska, and the surrounding area.

Crawlers are to be considered extremely dangerous and unfortunately are infectious. Anyone who sees one of these creatures should quickly evacuate the area and contact their local authorities. Anyone bitten (or injured) by a Crawler should immediately quarantine themselves and contact local authorities.

The city of Anchorage and the surrounding area will now enter a state of total lockdown and quarantine. Anyone caught trying to enter or leave the city will be subject to quarantine, punishment, and/or hostile actions.

This is a developing situation, and more information will be released to the press at an official press conference set to take place today at 3:00 PM EST.

Thank you,

Samuel K. McCracken

President of the United States of America

"

I reread the paper focusing on the word "infectious" thinking about the implications, '...Dear God in Heaven, what is happening. Those things were really people...'

The letter is projected on the screen, and for a while, everyone sits in silence.

----------------------------------------

--Eden POV--

I walk up behind Audrey, finding her holding the camera I tossed out the helicopter.

"My name is Audrey Hennington. I was taken hostage by a crazy little girl several days ago and am now in the middle of a war zone. If anyone's watching this, please send help."

I lean over Audrey's shoulder and get close to her ear, "Audrey, what are you doing?"

"Ekk!" Audrey shrieks and turns around. "PSH, well, ya know. Just playing around with whatever this thing is, haha."

"Are you saying you don't know what a camera is?"

"Camera? Oh, is that what this is? Never seen one in my life! Here you can have this dumb old thing." Audrey tosses the camera onto the ground and quickly walks away only for the chain around her hand to run out of slack, causing her to faceplant into the ground.

**Bang! Bang! Bang!**

I turn my head to find Aponi trying to break the chains that are still connected to the helicopter. She swings at it with the saber.

"Ugh! What is this stupid chain made of unobtainium?!"

I approach Aponi, "Stop, you're gonna break the saber, and its made of your blood, remember? Besides, I doubt that would even break a regular chain..."

"**Sigh** Yeah, I guess. To be honest, I'm still confused about everything that has happened. Are we stuck here until the princess wakes up?" Aponi points at Eira, who is now curled up in my arms and gripping my sleeve tightly.

"I guess so...well actually Eira once told me that all blood race members should be able to manipulate blood to some extent."

"Is that so? I don't really understand, but..." Aponi purses her lips and stares at the chains. I can almost see a vain bulge from her forehead as she moves her hands around, "I command thee in the name of...uhm, blood...release!"

She continues to stare at the chains, "...Well, I've done all I can think of."

"Have you tried unhooking it from the helicopter landing gear?"

"Yeah, but it's wrapped around there too tight. It's almost like it's fused to the landing gear or something."

I motion toward the sickle on the ground, "Maybe you could use that."

"Maybe, but I doubt it'll help."

"No, I mean use it on the landing gear, not the chain. At least then, you wouldn't be connected to the helicopter."

Having overheard us, the pilot of the helicopter sprints toward us, "What! No way dude! That helicopters just a rental!"

Aponi looks at him with a frown, "Listen, duuuuude. I'm not about to spend the rest of the night chained to a helicopter in a forest full of monsters."

Aponi takes the sickles and quickly walks toward the helicopter, "No, wait! I could just..."

**Bang! Bang!**

Aponi swings wildly at the landing gear until a loud noise rings out, "Haha, it worked! Now I'm only chained to seven other people!"

The pilot who looks like he is about to cry finishes his sentence, "...I was going to say I could just take it off or fly you somewhere else."

"Oh yeah. That probably would have worked should have said something earlier dude. Anyways what should we do now?... Eh?"

Aponi and I both notice that the four remaining soldiers are staring at us. Bryan steps forward, "...We should kill the girl."