As Claire stepped out of her aged car, feet touching down into a puddle of water that stretched across the parking lot, she looked at the flow of people coming to and from the nearby bars. Her light jacket fluttered as the cool fall breeze slipped past the skyscrapers nearby, one hand lifting up to brush at long red hair. In her right hand she held a small purse which had a leather strap, while her keys jingled quietly in her left hand.

Claire stood at six feet in height, tall compared to a lot of women that she personally knew. Her red hair reached down to her waist and laid straight, failed attempts in the past at styling it had forced her to keep it simple. She wore a sleeveless dark green blouse which was conservative in design and a skirt with a hem that reached halfway to her knee. About her waist was a black belt made of leather with a silver buckle, while a cheap watch adorned her left wrist.

With her half-empty left hand she tugged at her jacket that covered her body, the front left open due to what she considered warm weather. About her the parking lot buzzed with activity as people came and went, most of them dressed lightly and traveling in groups. A few of the people had already finished off their night and were getting into their cars to leave, an early departure compared to the younger crowd who had arrived moments prior.

“Come on Claire, you know that he’s the better looking one!” Andrea called out a bit too loudly from the passenger side of the car, her hand shoving the door closed with enough force that it made Claire grimace.

It was an old car but one she had adored and refused to give up on. The mechanics constantly told her that it needed to be scrapped, but somehow she managed to keep the Miata from the junkyard. A gift almost twenty years prior from her parents it had proven a stubborn machine, one that Claire would keep on driving until someone pried the keys from her cold dead hand.

“Jake’s alright,” Claire admitted to her best friend, a smile finally slipping onto her face for the first time that day. She studied her friend carefully, making note of how her skirt was far too short to not reveal everything if she bent over. The loose and open low cut blouse coupled with the skirt made it clear what Andrea was looking for. “What about Phil?”

As the pair walked away from the car Andrea gave a shake of her head, the golden locks of hair bounced in the lights cast by the nearby buildings. “Bit too much like a brother, y’know?” she answered, then she began to giggle. “By the way, you sure you want the heels? Remember last time?”

Claire ignored the laughter of her friend as she lifted the purse strap to her shoulder and deposited her keys into it. “Come on Andrea, this is my only night out for a while,” she reminded her, the smile that had been there moments before already gone. “Lets just see if we can find the guys and relax.”

The further from the parking lot they went the more people they encountered, some of them drunk already and wobbling dangerously. Andrea walked close to Claire while her arms crossed over her chest, a slight shiver running over her body. Without looking Claire already knew that her friend was cold and slid her jacket off and gave it to her. “Use this,” she told Andrea, who gladly accepted it and donned it as quickly as possible.

“Hold on a second!” Andrea suddenly called out, her voice raised as the ambient noise around them continued to grow. Andrea produced a cell phone from her own purse, one that Claire hadn’t even noticed she was carrying until that moment. As she lifted the phone up to her ear she turned away from Claire, one finger pressed against her ear. “Hello? Oh hey Jake!”

The pair stood nearby a low hung building, one that was squatted down between two far taller buildings. Across the front numerous groups stood around while talking loudly, some held open cans of beer which they drank from frequently. Claire adjusted her hold on the purse, tightening her grip instinctively, while she waited patiently for Andrea to finish her call.

“Yo! Claire!” called out a masculine and deep voice from the right, nearby a group of long haired men adorned with dark clothes. Most of the men looked to be in the twenties or thirties, their hair so horribly wild and puffed out that Claire could only hope it was due to improper care.

The man who emerged from the group had much shorter hair than the rest, blue eyes and stood a few inches higher than Claire’s own height. After he stepped into view he gave a wave toward the others behind him and then quickly walked over to where Claire and Andrea were. “When did you guys get here?”

Vince wore a pair of jeans that were tight enough to make many women interested, but not so tight as to reveal too much about his body. The shirt he wore was a loose t-shirt colored black, with a small emblem on the front right part of the chest that represented the brand. He wore black sneakers that were worth at least two-hundred dollars, while his watch was far too rich for the area they were in.

“We just got here, I didn’t know you were coming,” Claire told him while she kept a small distance. She made no move to hug him, nor to shake his hand or anything else. Her stance became far more withdrawn while her eyes continually looked away from Vince. “How’ve you been?”

Before Vince could respond a loud screech came from where Andrea was, so horrendous that nobody could ignore it. “What happened?” Claire asked of her friend, noticing that Andrea had grimaced and held her phone far from her ear.

Nearby numerous other people who had been using their phones were suffering from the same symptom, each one holding a piece of plastic that sounded like sawblades attempting to mate. One even threw his phone down in a fit of rage, cursing loudly while stomping at it to silence the obnoxious noise. Claire pulled her own phone out and flipped it open, a screech originating from it as soon as she tried to make a call.

A few people began to catch on that they could simply end their calls, closing their phones or in some cases turning them off entirely. Some of the people nearby even went so far as to rip their batteries out, as though to reassure themselves that the phone wouldn’t have a chance of ravaging their ears anymore.

“What’s going on?” Andrea stepped in closer to Claire, shivering not only due to the cold but also the mysterious situation that had occurred.

It was the start to an unforgettable evening that descended like a tidal wave, a moment in the history of the world that nobody would fail to tell their children about. Few noticed the changes as they began to occur, but after a few minutes some cried out and pointed upward at the skyscrapers nearby. It was a cry that caused even Claire to look, brow furrowed in confusion while she was still aggravated at the cell phone issue.

A ripple in the air was how it looked, a visible turbulence that tumbled downward from the heavens at an ever increasing speed. As Claire watched one of the skyscrapers was devoured entirely, floor by floor, as the ripple washed down the full length of the building. One of the towers of metal nearby remained partially intact as a flawless bisection occurred, though the second half of the skyscraper vanished into oblivion.

All around Claire chaos began to brew as the people started to yell in terror and confusion, most of the people beginning to run for their cars. Some tripped and others pushed, causing an avalanche of bodies which threatened to overwhelm Claire and Andrea. It was only thanks to the tall Vince who stepped in close to them, arms uplifted to ward off the others nearby, that they weren’t shoved to the ground.

When the earthquake struck it had such an intensity that nobody standing could remain so, instead each fell to the ground while crying out in surprise. There had been no warning, no build-up or minor tremors, to the powerful earthquake that ripped through the city. The noise of the buildings as they started to collapse, the cry of people on the ground at the horrible nightmare they were enduring, even the sound of cars as they screeched and crashed all filled the air in a deafening roar.

After the tremors subsided Claire uncovered her head, as she had used her arms to shield from any potentially falling debris. Vince stood up slowly, face turned upward in search of that mysterious ripple. “What the hell is going on?” he asked of anybody, while his gaze continued to seek out the anomaly.

Before Claire had even stood up she already noticed a significant shift, as the entire area near her was blackened with night. A few emergency lights built onto the exterior of some of the buildings flickered on, but in the end most of the illumination came down from the moon and stars above.

Moans of pain and confusion swirled about the trio even as Claire clambered up from the ground, a worried look toward Andrea letting her know that nothing bad had happened to her. “I’m not sure but I need to get to my car,” Claire told them both, before she began to step past injured people and dazed individuals alike. On a better day she would have stopped to help each one, but currently her focus was on calling in assistance.

They barely made it far before Andrea cried out and pointed off to the side, while she tugged at Claire’s arm urgently. “What’s that?” she asked of her friend, while continuing to shrink in closer for protection.

What had once been a regular four-lane street had converted into something else entirely, a spot of grass that grew to two feet in total height and was intermixed with wild flowers. Centered within that greenery was a black boulder that was easily larger than any rock Claire had ever seen, unevenly shaped with multiple holes gouged into it that were darker than the rock itself.

“Meteorite?” Vince wondered aloud as he stared at it. “I’ve never heard of one that big.”

Claire’s eyes narrowed as she studied it, to her it was obvious that it was not from space as there was no impact crater. Instead she only worked to hasten the other two toward her car, all the while trying to keep her fear and panic under control. “Lets go!”

It was a noise that was familiar to all three of them, even the crowd that had managed to stand up knew what it was. A squeak that was loud, followed by a series of others, and then with a noise of nails clicking against stone the darkness of the holes turned brown. From out of the large boulder slowly emerged rats that were easily as large as any man, dozens of the monsters came forth as they carried spears attached to ropes and wore basic leather armor.

Those that emerged first looked to have been drawn by something they smelled, their noses had appeared well in advance of their bodies. Each creature sniffed curiously at the air, while they began to spread out. Those who had spears were the first, but rat men who had swords and even those with nets started to appear. “Something smells delicious,” one of the rat men chittered out to the others, who all began to agree.

A hush came over the group of rat men as a large and black furred rat emerged. It’s left eye had long since been lost and only a vicious scar remained. “Hah! Humans! Such a welcome smell! How long has it been since we last had this chance?” he called out to his men while he lifted up a large sword crafted from a type of bone. With a rapid succession of sniffs at the air he began to chitter, then pointed his sword at the crowd of people. “Catch or kill but bring some for dinner!”

Some people could not understand what they were seeing, to them it was like hollywood had sprouted to life before them. Others struggled with the concept of man-sized rats, but were wise enough to start to move away. It was the more panicked and scared that made it obvious how bad everything was, screams of despair while they ran full tilt away from the black boulder and it’s inhabitants.

If the initial panic had been bad the new one caused by the rats was worse, even as the air was filled with large wooden spears that impaled people at random. Those who were unlucky enough to not die were pulled back like fish, dragged to the rat whose strength outstripped that of a normal human. Some of the rat men had even begun to bet against one another on who could catch the most, while a few stood at the ready with nets so they could drag their prey into the nest.

Claire had given up on carefully picking her way to the car, instead she staggered toward the Miata on her heels while dragging Andrea along with her. While she loved her friend, Andrea had become hysterical, the sight of people dying around her too much for Andrea. “Vince! Run!” Claire yelled, as she noticed how he stood gawking at the rats, mesmerized perhaps by their appearance.

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It was a call that snapped the sandy blonde haired man back to reality and he turned toward Claire, his feet fast enough that he caught up to the unbalanced girl in time to stop her from falling over. “They can speak English!” was the first thing he said.

“Why does that matter!”

“They’re rat men that speak English! That’s impossible!” Vince declared, transfixed on what Claire thought was the most pointless fact in existence.

Claire shoved Andrea toward him while she unslung her purse and pulled out the keys, the glare that was on her face all that Vince needed to see to understand how unhappy she was. “Tell them that then!” she shouted at him before walking over the wet parking lot and to her car.

A spear cut through the air near Vince’s head and impaled a buick, before it ripped free and was reeled back to the owner. “Uh...no, so what are you doing?” Vince wondered while he pulled Andrea closer to him. His gaze was not on Claire but rather on the rat men, while the confusion of before began to be whittled away by the horror of rats hunting for prey.

The lock on the trunk of her car clicked as Claire turned the key, then she extracted it and opened it. As she reached in with shaking hands she fumbled with the small safe she had placed in there, struggling to input the combination that was normally so easy for her to handle. When she stood up in her right hand was the Glock that she so favored, a magazine in the other hand which promptly was slid into place.

“Claire!” Vince cried out in a panic, as a few of the rat men had begun to move away from the spear throwers. Armed with curved blades made of bone they scoured the area nearby, and one had turned it’s sights on the parking lot.

The rat man leapt onto a nearby car, blade lifted as it sighted the trio nearby Claire’s car. A long and low hiss escaped from the mouth of the man-shaped monster, while one hand lifted up in a signal to the watchers at the nest. “Come come little things, we be hungry tonight,” the rat man said in a high-pitched voice that made Vince grimace.

Claire’s response was a simple one, her pistol was lifted in a two-hand grip that was well ingrained into her. Three shots rang out in rapid succession, each bullet planted in the face of the rat man so close to them. Red blood streamed from the new holes that formed while the beast crumpled to the ground, large bone sword fallen with a clatter to the pavement. “Not interested,” Claire informed the corpse as she let out a long breath she had held in.

“Vince!” Claire called out to attract his attention, then with a quick toss of the keys she turned her attention back to the rats. The sound of her pistol firing was loud enough that they all knew something was amiss. “Get the car going, get her in it, I’ll cover you both!”

Vince, for a very brief moment, looked as though he was ready to argue with Claire. The fact that she held a gun and looked furious was enough to keep his mouth shut, and instead he unlocked the driver side door and opened it. In a matter of seconds he had the back door opened as well and guided the shaken Andrea into it.

Another rat man approached the parking lot and was met by a shower of bullets, before Claire ducked into the trunk quickly for a few more items. With a loud slam she shut the trunk, her care for it trumped by the need for haste as she quickly walked up to the passenger side of the car. Claire knocked on the window when she realized the door was still locked, which caused the already panicked Vince to scramble to unlock the door.

“It’s open!” Vince called out from inside the car, while he settled back into the drivers seat and placed the key in the ignition. The driver door shut with a bit too much force, the noise lost amidst the sound of gunfire as Claire was forced to fire a few more shots at curious rat men.

Claire flung the passenger door open and hopped into the car, while her pistol ejected the empty magazine. While the empty magazine hit the pavement of the parking lot a new one was slipped into place. She hastily closed the door to the Miata and flashed a thumbs up to the terrified Vince. “Go go!”

Vince didn’t wait for her to buckle up before he slipped the car into reverse and pulled out of the parking spot, the shudder of the car as it went over newly formed cracks in the pavement easily felt by all. A spear impaled the laminated glass and missed Vince’s chest by a few inches, before Vince turned the wheel and the Miata twisted around. The scream of Andrea from in back was largely ignored by Vince as he stomped his foot on the accelerator.

In the passenger seat Claire had righted herself and snapped the seat belt on, after which she began to fiddle with a radio set. Her police badge and a few extra magazines were also there, but she was far more focused on gaining contact with her precinct. “This is useless!” she shouted after a few seconds, throwing the radio onto the backseat. “Phones and radios aren’t working at all!”

Vince’s eyes were locked on the road ahead, or what remained of the road that he knew from a lifetime spent in the city. What had been a four-lane path through a regular chunk of the city had turned into a mixture of concrete and actual jungle. At one point he would be forced to weave past both stationary and moving cars, and another moment would force trees and brush into his path. All around him he could see various things that were beyond the norm, giant spiders and strange lizards and even a tree that had grabbed ahold of some people with vines.

Madness had descended on the world and it all seemed so unreal that he was almost tempted to believe it was a dream. “One could always hope,” he muttered to himself at the thought, while he eased off of the accelerator and tried to keep the car at a manageable speed.

“Abandoned, all abandoned, why?” Andrea mumbled in the back of the car, legs lifted up onto the car seat and arms wrapped about them. Her eyes were wide and she couldn’t seem to stop shivering, while her words continued to repeat while they grew quieter and quieter.

“Remember where my precinct is?” Claire asked Vince who was quick to nod. “Good, head there. Even if everyone is dead there’s an armory, if any more of those rat men show up I doubt my gun has enough ammo for them all.”

“Gotcha,” Vince said in response, before he spared a glance to look at Claire. In the split second he looked at her he could already see how pale she looked, eyes half-closed while she stared out the passenger window at the chaos beyond. It was a second longer than he should have spared, as when he faced back to the front window he could only slam on the brakes in reflex. “Oh shit!”

From the heavens a massive lizard had appeared with a wingspan that covered the entire reach of the four-lane road, a long tail spread out behind the beast that was covered in spikes and hardened scales. A loud roar came from the creature that could only be a dragon, while the head came down and butted into the quickly moving car.

The force of the headbutt was more than enough to flip the car into the air, the entire vehicle tossed like a toy by the dragon. As it cartwheeled in the air all three of the passengers screamed in terror, before the metal machine hit the pavement with enough force to break every single window.

It was a short while later when Claire snapped back into consciousness, her head felt as though it had split open and poured her brains out. She fingered at the gash on her scalp, as blood trickled from it, and found that her suspicions were wrong and she would survive. “Andrea!” She called out while she snapped the seat belt off, falling down inside the upside down car. “Andrea are you okay?”

What she saw was enough to make Claire vomit uncontrollably, while she began to weep openly. It was a horrid combination of reactions that made Claire look altogether disgusting, but she couldn’t help it given what had happened to Andrea. It was obvious that the backend of the car had taken the brunt of the landing, and Andrea had most definitely not survived.

A groan came from the driver side and it was enough to distract Claire from the sight of her best friends corpse, as Vince stirred while he hung upside down in the seat. A loud scream came from him while he began to wake up, his left arm broken to the point that bone protruded from the skin. “Vince!” Claire cried as she reached up to him and helped him get free from the seat belt, though he fell roughly against the ceiling of the car.

Neither of the two had much time to react when the dragon tore open the bottom of the car, which to them was now the roof. The metal screamed in protest as the mythical monster ripped it open with ease, and then the massive head tilted so that one large reptilian eye could peer in at them. A loud snort came from the dragon before it pulled it’s head back, then opened the mouth.

It was an action that caused Claire to think of being devoured alive, an image that sent her into a panic, and so she instinctively picked up her pistol and fired at the dragon’s open maw. She fired and kept going until the gun refused to produce more bullets, yet she still pulled the trigger for a short while longer with empty clicks resounding loudly.

The response from the dragon was a promising one, as bullets whizzed up into the tongue it retracted away from the car in surprise. A loud hiss came from outside while the dragon flicked out a long serpentine tongue, head turned so that only one eye stared at the car in puzzlement. In the decades the dragon had lived never before had it faced such an odd creature as this thing before it.

Claire could recognize an opportunity when she saw one, and her need to survive outweighed the tragic feelings that threatened to overwhelm her. With a rough grip on Vince’s good arm she half-dragged him out of the car even while she also crawled out herself, a task that was in no way easy given how useless he had rapidly become with the broken arm. Instead Vince wanted to lay there and moan helplessly, acting as though the arm being broken had made him utterly inept.

When they emerged from the car the dragon responded in an even odder fashion, it’s head lowered and the eye squinted at the sight of two humans. The head twisted around and both eyes were visible to Claire while it stared directly toward her, mouth slightly opened while a low growl came forth.

Whatever the monster had planned mattered little as in the next few seconds a black object descended from the heavens. The object smashed straight into the head of the dragon with enough force to shove the reptilian face against the pavement, before the black form began to move on top of the dragon.

An already confused, scared and emotionally distraught Claire watched as a man stood there atop the dragon, garbed in almost no clothes save for some dark pants and broken boots. Whatever he had once worn on his torso was long gone, while a large gathering of scars was plainly visible to her. The mysterious man lifted up his right fist even as a white light began to coalesce about it.

With a movement so fast that Claire couldn’t follow it the fist slammed down directly against the head of the dragon, the force of which caused it to smash into the pavement of the road. The unknown man stood up straight and began to turn his attention away from the dragon when it let out a low growl, a noise of defiance at what had happened.

“Forgot you’re such sturdy bastards,” the man commented to the dragon, before he lifted his arm up once more. He began to hammer away at the dragon for a short while, fist smashing again and again until blood flew free from his knuckles.

When it was all finished the dragon’s head was shoved into the ground four feet, even as blood oozed from a section of broken scales on the skull. The man hopped out of the crater he had formed by punching the dragon unconscious, hands clapping together to dislodge any grime that might have formed on them.

Claire stared at this man with a face that clearly said she had no clue what was going on anymore, while Vince continued to moan loudly next to her in pain. “Who the hell are you?”

The man rubbed at his right hand which still bled, fingers stretched out to their maximum. His green eyes studied the woman with a quizzical look on his face, especially staring at the clothing she wore. “Griff Emrys.”