Humans are machines of war.

Over 100.000 years of history, dedicated to the systematical extermination of their own life. War feeding human greed, lust for power, wrath, or even the most noble of causes, but it all brings about the same in the end

Death.

What could be scarier than a human with a reason to fight, a reason to kill, a reason to consume

and the power to do so.

It's time to wake up...

Cass' eyes opened slowly, it felt like she had just woken from a strange dream, her memory was hazy. She could see the bright blue of the sky, and the tips of tall skyscraper buildings around her, derelicts of a civilization long gone, or at least it looked the part.

Cass lifts herself off the ground urgently, quickly cleaning her crimson hoodie, and then analyzing her surroundings, she was sure she was at a hospital, doing something, and then, blank, but now, she stands within the center of a too perfectly spherical crater enveloped by the crumbling dusty yellow-brown walls of what must have once been the aforementioned hospital, but not anymore, as Cass starts to leave the crater, she notices the ragged health posters still hanging onto decrepit walls, the turn over stretcher beds and general medical equipment unorderly thrown around the ground.

Questions pummeled through Cass' head as she took in her surroundings, but the question she harbored the most came when she saw a mirror, through the cracks and dust filling the mirror's panel, she saw a woman with silver white hair, blood red eyes and razor sharp teeth, she saw... herself?

"What..." Is all she can muster to say, in her animated, crisp voice.

Suddenly, she hears a massive loud bang in the distance, coming from the never completed construction site right in front of the hospital. Cass quickly moves towards the exit of the building, passing through what once were halls of the main hospital of the city, lacking a roof, seemingly torn right off. As she sees herself further through, she notices increasingly weirder details, details which pull at her memories.

Posters warning of biological threats, masks littering the ground, including what seems to be military grade equipment, and finally, once she reaches the street, she sees a battlefield. Old broken down tanks and barriers built in vain to protect the building, all surrounding its premises, she remembers something, the plague that has been ravaging europe, and how cases have been spreading to america, how she came to the hospital to see someone.

Though something else catches Cass' attention, an armored truck, with a cannon attached, haphazardly colored in blue with an R within a circle painted in red at its side, it is parked within the alley between the massive construction site and an old building. The truck also seems to be in a distinctively intact condition, differently from any other vehicle she has noticed up until now.

As Cass moves towards the truck, she sees, bursting out from the construction, a group of 4 young people, which immediately start running towards the parked truck. A man in a grey baggy modern jacket and sweatpants, a woman in a black raincoat and beanie, with tinted purple hair, a boy wearing a helmet way too big for him with an also too big hoodie, and a person in a red leather jacket and black jeans.

They reach the truck just as Cass sees an enormous beast-like creature with a head resembling that of a rhino, razor sharp raptor claws and a reptile body covered in a thick scale shell, it breaks through the laid down equipment not yet thrown out the building and lands in the alley, preparing itself as it charges forth in their direction with a piercing wail, just as the truck starts its engine and quickly drifts around turning away from the creature, and moving straight towards her.

BEEP BEEP

"Comin' through!!!"

The truck misses Cass by mere inches as it swerves to her side, leaving her now in between the armored vehicle and the charging monster. She has no time to think before the creature closes in on her at alarming speed, ready to leap. Though just as quickly as the beast approaches, it is halted, as a large explosion throws the creature several feet back, the monster, however, seems more inconvenienced than truly injured, as it slowly picks itself back up.

Cass looks back to where the shot was fired, seeing the raincoat girl as she drops to her side a smoking rocket launcher and the man in the sweatshirt leaves the truck carrying a titanium baseball bat.

"Lynx, you're with me! Lucas, get the truck away!" he says, he's voice demanding, but caring, an air of authority by action. The truck proceeds to takes off shortly after

"Soooo... You gonna help or what?!" Screams Lynx, the girl in a raincoat while she pulls out a double barreled shotgun. Her voice is relaxed, almost convinced, but also quite energetic

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"What? Who...?"

"Watch out!!" Screams the man as he jumps into Cass, throwing her onto the ground and right under the leap of the raging creature

"Haha... that was a close one, wasn't it?"

The creature quickly recovers from its fall, "RUN!" He screams as he quickly gets up and darts away, Cass follows soon after, and the monster gives pursuit. They run through the alley as the creature closes in on them, throwing down old empty barrels on it's path, toppling over a set of construction equipment, all slowing down the creature, but never stopping it. The creature shrugs off attack after attack as Cass and the man vault and duck over and under the construction piles of materials and scaffolding, all the while the monster bashes and smashes and rips through the obstacles, throwing them aside as fast as it catches up to them. As they reach the other side of the block and the beast is ready to leap again, the man alongside Cass quickly turns and hits a sack of cement powder standing at a nearby pile, sending a cloud of grey dust directly into the creature's eyes, stunning it, if only temporarily.

"We gotta split up! I'll try to attract it's attention, you rush the other way, quick!!" He rapidly spurts out as he runs away hitting light poles, car chassis and newspaper racks along the way screaming for the monster to follow him. Cass dashes the other way, praying she'll not become its target, but either god is dead, or lady luck had a really bad day, as the monster plots its course straight at her.

She runs as fast as she can, but it's no match for the creature's speed. Spotting a car with no glass remaining, and windows too small for the creature's hulking size, she quickly jumps inside right before the beast is able to get a hold of her, its head pokes through the window attempting to reach her within, slowly, the door frame gives in, bending beneath the pressure of the creature's immense strength, backing Cass further and further into a corner, until the door holds no more, ripping apart as if it were paper thin and the monstrous figure of the strange creature overwhelms Cass, as it maws down at her arm, raised futilely in a vain attempt at defending herself, blood downs on her face as it rips through skin and muscle, breaking her bone under the pressure of its gaping maw.

She screams in utmost agony, but as scarlet red fills her vision, her eyes grow wilder, blood courses though them, as if quickly injected, leaving them little more than orbs of crimson rage, her face distorts into an expression of mixed anger and savagery, her own mouth salivating, she bites back at the monster with a beast's brutality, ripping one of its eyes clean off and half of its face with it, using naught but her bare teeth, bursting waves of blood rush out of the beast's face painting the car red and dowsing Cass' body in it. The attack forces the creature to leap back out of the vehicle, roaring in pain. Though the creature's pain lasts for few instants, before its flesh starts to close in on itself, tendons reconnect and its plate like scales grow slowly back out, and suddenly

BANG

A loud noise is heard; blood and pieces of an armor-like shell fly out of where once there was the creature's head, now, little more than a pile of mushy red goo and mist.

"That's the second time ya owe me your life by now" Says Lynx, the girl in the raincoat, as she opens up her shotgun's barrel and ejects both bullet cases, as they fly out in a path of smoking black

"Thanks... I gu..."

"But hey... like... what the fuck was that? Did ya just bit a fucking Charger's face clean off?!"

"I... I don't..."

"THAT WAS SICK!! Seriously? You're an Alpha, aren't ya?!?" Says Lynx as she passes from serious monster killer, to excited weird child within seconds, jumping up and down with every word

"I... sorry... I'm wha...?" Cass tries to ask as she lifts herself out of the broken down car

"What powers do ya have? Did ya ever eat someone before? How's the taste? Human flesh, I mean? Wait... have you ever eaten someone before?! Only like bad guys and stuff right?!" She says pointing her gun back up in sudden realization

"What?! NO! I'm not a fucking cannibal, I never 'ate' anyone. I don't even know what you're saying... I'm just..."

"Wait... did your arm just...?" Lynx says pointing the gun's barrels towards her open wound, as it slowly heals, its flesh starts to close in on itself, tendons reconnect and skin covers muscle back as if nothing ever happened

"What the fuck?"

"Woah..." Says Gilbert, the small boy as he leaves the truck, now parked near them

"Hey Gil! Get a look of this"

"That is..."

"Wait wait? I..."

"SO COOL!!" The boy loudly states, as his helmet falls on top of his face after jumps of excitement, clearly too young for the equipment he carries.

Almost as fast as he readjusts his helmet he also spurts out "Your arm's cellular structure is capable of rapidly replicating itself in a manner it can quickly heal wounds or is it some kind of time reversal ability that is slowly resetting your body's state to a woundless point in time?!??! Or maybe..." as he grabs Cass' arm, further analyzing it. The boy's voice is young, it crackles with every other word, full of energy, full of hope

"Cut the crap Gil... You're scaring her" Says another person as they also leave the truck, the one using a red jacket. Their voice is deep but soothing, their words come out much more seriously than their age would sell

"OH, ah, sorry for that... I just never seen an Alpha up close... that wasn't super dangerous to be around at least... so I got a bit excited"

"It's fine, I think... but, would anyone care to explain who the hell are you guys? And what the fuck's going on?!"

"Well, I'm Elijah, This here is Lynx, Gilbert... and Chris" Says the man in the sweatshirt, as he points to each one of them outside the truck, finally landing on the person with a red jacket

"Also, meet Lucas" He says pointing to the truck's front, where Cass can see another man, wearing a dark and old long-coat, waving at her

"And Lynx's little sister, Ash" Says Elijah, pointing now towards the truck's open door, where a small and timid child looks at Cass curiously

"And you..." he says pointing his bat at Cass

"are a Recent Awakening, right? I know, because the bubble in the hospital is gone, also white hair, red eyes, and biting a giant monster's face off aren't exactly common..."

"What do you mean by..."

"Hey... gonna put you up to speed, don't worry... But first" He says with an increasingly bigger grin

"Welcome to the Apocalypse"