“Jack, wake up.” Grace says while shaking Jack from his shoulder.

Jack, sitting in his chair, arm wrapped around the shotgun, straightens his head from its slumped position. Jack squints as his eyes are hit by the brightness of the glistening morning sun. Suddenly Jack is startled.

“Shit, did I fall asleep? What time is it?” Jack says as he forces himself awake.

“I think around 7:00 AM and it’s okay I got some sleep and was looking out for you.” Grace responds.

Jack stands to his feet and peers out of the window in search of the creatures. Jack lifts his shotgun, walks to the front door and opens it. Using the tip of the shotgun Jack pushes the front door open and cautiously peers down the driveway.

“Looks like we are good. Grace, get everyone to wake up. We must find safety.” Jack beckons as he exits the house with shotgun at the ready.

Grace disappears down the hallway. Jake continues outside and moves across the front lawn to check on the next-door neighbor only to find no evidence of him.

“Odd.” Jake thinks to himself as he continues to move around attempting to find traces of him.

Grace, Isaac and the Sealy’s exit through the front door to meet up with Jack.

“The body of your neighbor is missing” Jack broadcasts to the group.

“That might explain the missing people on the news.” Isaac responds.

The sound of sirens begin to whir as a police car emerges from one end of the street and races down the other. The sound of automatic gunfire then rings out from the direction which the police car went.

“We need to find somewhere safe.” John proclaims to the group who nod to him in agreement.

“We will take my car. We will first find safety and then I will go in search of and Isaac and my parents” Jake says as he unlocks the black jeep.

The group step into the car and Jack turns on the ignition.

“I know of an abandoned bomb shelter inside an old industrial complex. Take us there, I think I can get it open.” John says.

“Lead the way.” Jack replies as the car exits the driveway and down the street where the gunshots could be heard.

The car continues down a main road. Jack slows the car down as the group sees multiple abandoned damaged police vehicles with their blue and red lights flashing. Isaac notices both pistols and police issued assault rifles laying on the ground with evidence of bullet holes littered through the panels of the vehicles.

“Guns!” Grace points out.

“Should we get them?” Jack replies slowing the car until it stops.

John passes his rifle to Grace. Grace winds down the window and sticks the tip of the rifle out of the window. John, Isaac and Jack exit the vehicle. Jack opens the boot of the jeep as John and Isaac begin collecting the weapons on the road. John returns to the boot of the jeep and drops two police issued assault rifles into the back. Isaac returns to drop off a third assault rifle into the car.

Stolen story; please report.

“Isaac, duck!” Jack shouts.

Isaac quickly ducks to hear a loud bang hit the jeep. The jeep drags a few inches and tilts due to the force of whatever hit it.

“Fuck!” Isaac shrieks in horror while he backs away from the vehicle.

“Run to me now!” Jack shouts frantically while raising his shotgun.

Jack sees the creature against the jeep, its light brown thick looking skin resonating from the light of the sun. The creature had lightly glowing orange eyes, a head like a human but dead looking, lacking hair and any body fat as if bony in appearance. The creature also appeared to have no nose but holes where a nose should be. Its body was just as bony, with decrepit but thick skin like the creature’s face. Jack could count 5 long disproportionate fingers with even longer black nails coming from its two skinny arms. Jack could see that the nails were sharp and serrated like knives. The creature’s chest and pelvic area looked similar anatomically to a human but dead. Its chest protruded outward and then inwards with the bone of rib cage clearly showing. Its legs, skinny, disproportionate but muscular with claws about two inches thick and curling back. As it stood up the creature appeared to use a thick tail about a metre in length dropping from its pelvis area to the ground. The creature opened its mouth and let out a high pitch squeal.

Isaac gets behind Jack, sees a police baton leaned against a car and picks it up as John moves towards Jack with his assault rifle at the ready.

“Where is it Jack? I can’t see it!” John questioned.

“It’s in front of the car, I can’t shoot it.” Jack said while tracking the creature with his shotgun.

“Grace, move the car!” John shouted.

Grace climbed into the front seat of the jeep and began to move the car forward until the car was away from the creature. Jack moved forward and fired his shotgun. The bullets spread due to the range. Some of the pellets hit the creature making it flinch from its right shoulder. The creature looked directly at Jack and began to run. John fired a burst with his assault rifle in the direction Jack fired hitting the creature three times, each time flinching the creature back, but the creature continued to run. Jack pumped back the shotgun again and fired. The shot slightly missing the creature.

The creature jumps and closes the gap too quickly for Jack to fire a third shot. The creature lands in front of Jack and swipes with its left arm, claws open. Jack springs backwards, barely missing its claws.

“Fuck, this gun isn’t enough to stop it. I keep missing. I need a way to hit it because it moves too erratically.” Jack thought to himself as the creature lunged forward while snarling at him.

Jack then suddenly heard another female voice but different to Chicka’s in his head:

> [1 Dust Power Spent - New Skill Acquired: Curved Shotgun Shell Level 1]

“What was that?” Jack contemplated as the creature struck at him again. Jack barely dodging the hit.

Jack jumps back, lifts his shotgun and fires. The creature side steps to the left as he fired. The shotgun pellets, which Jack could see had a glowing tinge of red as they left the muzzle then begin to gently curve until some of the pellets hit the creature making it once again flinch. The tip of the muzzle glows a light shade of red.

Jack couldn’t stop to think about what happened. Jack pumps back the shotgun in preparation for another shot but its too late, the creature strikes downward with its left arm, cutting across Jacks shoulder. In pain, Jack drops the shotgun and takes a step back. Blood smears across the road.

The creatures lifts its left arm again to issue Jack with another blow. Isaac quickly comes to Jack’s aid with the police baton and swings at the air frantically luckily striking the creature across the face. The creature falls to the ground.

Jack using his other arm points.

“Keep hitting it there Isaac!”

Isaac raises his baton and begins once again frantically beating down. Isaac could feel the baton was hitting something and continued over and over again to pummel down on the invisible thing. An odd dark liquid spits across Isaac's face but Isaac continues to strike it.

“That’s enough Isaac, it’s dead”. Jack says in disgust of the creatures mangled body and face (which only he could see).

Isaac looks at Jack and takes a few steps back.

“So, I got it?”

“Yeah.”

“Good work Isaac.” John says as he walks over and puts his hand on Isaac’s shoulder in affirmation of his kill.

“What the?” Jack says in a curious and surprising tone.

Jack continues to stare as the creature begins to disintegrate into a fine dust. Once again, like what Jack had experienced, the dust begins to stir. The dust then lifts and completely encircles Isaac. Isaac grabs onto his head in pain as his body absorbs the dust.

“Dust… Dust… Duuuust!” Isaac shrieks as blood drips from his nose.