**

Inside the campus police station, Officer Dan begins to treat Ritz, while Enzo attempts to look for news on his cellphone.

"Ugh! My phone won't turn on."

"After eight o'clock, it seems like every electrical technology has stopped working. Even the generators won't work. Also you shouldn't bother worrying about charging your phone, electricity throughout the state has been out since last night."

Officer Dan swabs Ritz's wound with a cotton soaked with alcohol.

"Ouch!" Ritz yelled as she pushed Officer Dan's hand away.

"Oh, don't be a baby. It'll be over soon." Dan commented as he continued to clean the wounds.

"But I was just using my cellphone when I was walking down the street. That can't be right. And no electricity throughout the state?" Enzo raised his left brow as he tries to know more from the grey haired police officer. "How did you get this information?"

"There was a fax that came in from last night. I found it printed out when I came in for work."

Officer Dan place the paper in front of the two. "

"They don't know why, but the fax mentioned that the entire electrical system stopped working and they are asking all uniforms to try to keep everyone in order. If you were able to use your cellphone earlier, maybe that must have been the last time. Who knows maybe this is just temporary but the problem is that there is no way to find out what's really going on"

"At things that bad?" Ritz shouted her question after hearing what Officer Dan had said.

Officer Dan sighed and continued to speak.

"At the moment, no one knows whats going on. There's no electricity but even if there was some way to get electricity, most of the device that uses electricity that I've found, won't even turn on. Even my car stopped working. Luckily I live nearby or else I wouldn't have arrived here for work."

"If you hadn't gone to work, Ritz here would have been dead." Enzo commented.

Ritz nodded in agreement and Officer continued to speak.

"My cellphone also wouldn't work. None of the three generators that the Police station have are working . I tried turning them on several times but I just ended up making myself tired. Anything and everything that uses electricity has just stopped working. If the electricity doesn't come back soon, there will be chaos statewide. Specially if there are more of these monsters roaming about."

"Chaos? How so?" Enzo asked as he leans on the desk near Ritz.

"Without electricity, there will be no lights and no surveillance. Without those two things, it'll be difficult to identify people and with all those factors combined, desperate people or people who just want free things are going to start looting."

"That is bad." Ritz commented as she exhales.

"It is and I'm done treating your cut! Try not to move so much, so that the wound doesn't open up. We don't have anything to sew up your wound and we can't take you to the hospital because of our situation and the only way to reach the hospital is to walk."

Officer Dan cleaned up the area and placed the first aid kit on the table. Ritz remained seated and began to speak while she stared at the floor.

"Yeah, I don't think I would want to attempt walking to the hospital. Who knows what else are out there. I saw something in the news last night. It was about those kids in Oakland. I thought it was some fake news. But it turns out that there are monsters out there attacking people and I just survived it."

Ritz wiped the tears running down her cheeks. While Enzo looked at her, he stared at her wound. The slice that Ritz had received from the green creature is deep and isn't that lengthy. At that moment, Enzo spoke up when he remembered a trick that was commonly used to keep a wound closed.

"I know how to fix her up. Do you have super glue around here?"

"Super glue?" One of Officer Dan's brow raised. "What are you going to do with super glue?"

"It's to help keep small wounds close. It's a trick that we do in the military. If you don't have time to patch up a wound on the field, we use super glue to keep you from bleeding out and at the same time it prevents the wound from being contaminated."

"Ah. Is that so. I think we have some in the back."

Officer Dan got up and walked back to fetch the super glue. While the two waited for him, Enzo began asking Ritz some question.

"Hey . . . if you don't mind me asking, how did you end up getting chased by that creature?"

Ritz became silent for a few seconds. She began fidgeting with her long multi colored hair, then finally she let out a sigh as she began to speak.

"I was walking to school when suddenly at the end of Fordham street, that thing came out of the bushes. I was startled, but I wasn't frightened. I thought it was someone in a suit. At first It just stared at me. Then when I noticed the knife it was holding, I started walking away. I sped up my walking to give myself distance from it because it did kind of creep me out. When I arrived near the parking lot on Shane drive, I looked back and that was when I saw that thing running towards me. I got scared and screamed when it lunged towards me. That was when I decided to run through the parking lot. Thankfully Officer Dan was there to help."

The moment Ritz finished her story, Officer Dan returned with a small tube of super glue.

"Here we are. So how are you going to use this to seal up her wound?"

"Its the similar to super gluing things together."

Enzo knelt down in front of Ritz. But before Enzo began to treat her, he looked up to Ritz and asked for permission.

"Do you mind? Once I do this, you'll be able to move around without worrying if the wound will open up or not."

"Will it hurt?"

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

"Hmm not really, you'll feel some discomfort but I think you can handle it."

"Alright. Do it." Ritz closed her eyes when she gave gave Enzo the permission to treat her wound.

Moment after receiving Ritz's permission, Enzo slowly took off the bandage on the wound and put it aside. Then he took off the cap of the super glue and squeezed some of the liquid inside the opening of the wound. After a few seconds, Enzo put the bandage back on then stood up.

"Done. That should hold it together until it completely heals."

"That's it?" Officer Dan asked.

"Yep. That's it. Now . .I think I'm going to go home to check on my sister and her dog. If all these monsters are roaming around, I'm worried about their safety. Would it be possible for me to borrow a weapon from here?" Enzo asked.

"Borrow a weapon from a police station?!" Officer Dan laughed. "Listen kid, I'm not going to give you a weapon because I don't want to get fire."

"Get fired? This is like apocalyptic situation. I think from this moment on, you aren't getting paid anymore. Also I'm not a kid. I may look young because of my baby face, but I did serve in the military and I do know how to defend myself. I'm also experienced with several types of automatic weapons. Here's my Veteran ID."

Enzo took out his Veteran card and handed it to Officer Dan. Officer Dan squinted his eyes as he verifies the ID then after a few seconds, he looked at Enzo straight in the eyes.

"Even though you are a veteran and have experience and training with guns, I still can't allow you to borrow any of the automatic weapons in the armory. It's dangerous, I don't trust you and It's my job on the line."

"So. . . you're going to let me go out there unarmed? I know that you are fully aware that monsters may be out there. Can't you let me borrow something? I'll bring it back."

Officer Dan sighed and began to scratch his head.

"Well. . . There are somethings I can let you borrow."

Officer Dan stood up and went to the back room. When returned he has on his hand a transparent circular shield and a baton.

"Do you know how to use these?" Officer Dan asked.

"An anti-riot shield and a baton? Of course. With those, I think I'll feel safer. Thank you."

"Just return them when you're done doing what you need to do. Just remember my job is on the line here. Even though the shield and the baton aren't quiet as dangerous as a gun, they are still police property."

"Alright I'll return them. As a collateral, I'll leave my veteran I.D with you so you have some sort of safeguard just in case. Once I find my sister, I'll come back here."

"Alright. Good luck."

"Be Safe you two. I'll be back." The moment Enzo finished talking, he grinned and put on his sunglasses.

**

I rolled up my sleeves on my left arm. I made sure that the riot shield is properly strapped on to my arm so that It won't easily fall out. I also decided to put my sunglasses inside my backpack and remove my hood from my head because I needed to be able to see properly and use peripheral vision so that I can quickly detect any danger.

As I walked into the parking lot, I felt the cool fall wind on my head. I stood for a second and looked around. I waited for a minute or two to make sure that nothing was around before I began my trek back home. Knowing that there could potentially be danger everywhere, I decided to become very cautious.

While I was walking uphill on Shane Drive, I began hearing the loud sound of metal grinding together. As paranoia slowly took over my mind after hearing the noise, I immediately stopped moving and hid behind a nearby parked car. While I put my back against the car, I tried to keep calm, so that I could properly decide what I should do next. My main goal at the moment is to reach home and make sure that my sister is safe. Right now, I'm trying to reach home but something is out there and it could potentially be dangerous.

After exhaling a couple of times, I stuck out my head and scanned the surroundings for anything out of the ordinary. As I looked around, I didn't see anything moving. I waited for a minute or two to confirm if the noise earlier would continue. After waiting, I felt relieved that the noise earlier didn't resume. I quickly decided to continue my journey uphill because I was becoming more anxious and worried for my sister. As I was about to stand up to continue walking up hill, a towering humanoid creature walked out of the corner of Shane and Cantebury drive. The huge humanoid creature stood about two meters high. It wore a primitive garment that covered its leaf upper body and everything else. It also carried with it an enormous ax as it walked on the middle of the uphill street. I didn't make any noise when I saw it. At that point in time, I was trying to convince my self that what I was seeing isn't real. I froze and stood there, observing the towering muscular monster. It's large bloodshot eyes looked lazy and patches of pulsating veins all over its muscular body were its main noticeable features. As I stood there observing the monster's impressive frame, It's eyes darted towards me. The moment the creature locked onto my sight, it began rage screaming.

"GRAAAAWWWWW!"

My only thought at that moment was; "Dam, I'm not that ugly."

The monster's deep loud terrifying scream echoed through the neighborhood as it grabbed a nearby parked SUV and hurled it towards me. The moment that I saw the monster throw the SUV towards me, I quickly scurried to move out of the way.

"Monther F-!"

*BANG!*

The SUV that the monster tossed made a loud sound as it smashed into the car that I was hiding behind earlier. I turned my head to look at what the creature was doing. The moment that the monster saw me looking up at him, I began to sweat and the beating of my heart sped up. My only thought was that this shrek mother fucker is trying to kill me and at that moment, I was right.

The monster grabbed another car to toss. This time it was a smaller vehicle, a Volkswagen beetle. When the creature chucked the car at me, I quickly ran back down hill. I didn't look back, until I was back on the corner of Mills Avenue and Shane Drive hiding behind a sign. I took cover behind the college's sign and looked back to see what had happened.

When I looked back, the Volkswagen was no where to be found. Also, the creature was no longer standing in the middle of the uphill street. Instead, for some reason, the creature was now tumbling down hill. It must have tripped and now, its huge body is rolling downhill as it smashes its head several times against the parked cars along the street.

Once the monster had made it at the bottom, it was completely bloodied and it just laid there taking the space of the entire street. As its entire body is sprawled open on the ground, I could clearly tell it was alive because I can still hear its breathing and see its blood-shot bloodied eyes trying to look at me. As I leaned side to side to observed the creature, it would snarl and grunt when ever it attempted to move its body.

The moment that I realized that the monster couldn't move, I stood up and walked near the ax that it dragged down with it. I knew right at this particular point in time, that this guy some how messed himself up on the way down hill and now I had the opportunity to slay him. But before committing to enforce my action, I thought about whether I should leave the creature as is, or if I should put it out of its misery.

It was pretty obvious that this creature is dangerous. The fact that it was actually trying to kill me, the moment that it realized my existence was proof that its dangerous. I didn't like the fact that I had to take a life, but If I let this creature live, there's a chance that others may become its victim.

Also if I let this creature live, the fact that it's around where I live, gave me more reason to finish it off. If I let it live, I would have the knowledge that I just gave this monster a second chance to kill me. I don't need such paranoia in my life.

Now that the creature is immobilized on the ground and its crude large weapon was just an arms reach away from me, I made my decision and acted one it. My movement was swift and I knew what I had to do.

I dropped my baton on the ground and walked towards the enormous ax near creature. The ax was quite heavy, but I was able to lift it up by using both of my arms. I looked down at the enormous creature and without any hesitation, I swung its own ax onto its neck. A splash of its blood trickled onto me and afterwards I turned around to pick up my baton. Seconds later, blood began to leak out of the monster's neck. I moved to the sidewalk to watch the monster die. I don't why, but I had the need to watch the creature die or else in the back of my mind, i'll have the doubt that this thing is still around and I gave it a second chance to kill other people.

I stood on the sidewalk and I watched. The creature didn't make any noise as it bled to death. I was actually surprised that it didn't die after I embedded its own ax right on it jugular. All it did now was squirm around until it completely stopped moving.

Immediately after the monster's death, several screens like earlier appeared in front of me. My eyes widened as the cascading screens spammed in front of me.

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!

I pressed the screen that appeared in front of me and what I saw afterwards, put a smile on my face.

**