Nigel motioned for Ralphie to follow him towards the abandoned ambulance. “Come on, we need to check for medical supplies.”

Ralphie’s heart raced as he eyed the overturned vehicle. He wanted to help Blanka, but the sight of those strange soldiers had paralyzed him with fear. A whining noise escaped his lips as he shook his head, unable to move.

Nigel furrowed his brow. “What’s wrong? We have to hurry before they come back.”

Ralphie gripped the bark of the tree as flashes of a horrific memory gripped his mind.

Milford, One year Ago

Ralphie was hiding in an abandoned store when a young boy, no older than ten, had stumbled in. The kid’s eyes went wide when the machine’s footsteps shook the ground outside.

“Please, you have to help me!” the boy had pleaded, tears streaming down his dirty face.

Ralphie had pressed a finger to his lips, silently begging the kid to stay quiet. But it was too late. The machine’s sensors must have detected their heat signatures. It burst through the wall, raining debris down upon them. Ralphie ducked under a desk. The boy was exposed.

In a booming, synthetic voice, it had demanded, “Identify yourselves, humans.”

The terrified boy babbled incoherently until the machine grabbed him by the throat, lifting him into the air. “Speak clearly, or be terminated.”

“M-Marcus... I’m Marcus...” he choked out.

The machine’s glowing eyes looked toward Ralphie’s hiding spot. “There is another life form present. You will disclose its location.”

Marcus shook his head defiantly. “Never!”

With a sickening crunch, the machine tore the boy’s head clean off. Ralphie watched in horror as Marcus’ decapitated body crumpled to the debris ridden floor. The machine turned its sights at the back of the room, Ralphie’s only refuge. A laser cannon extended from its arm. It opened fire! An intense heat radiated across Ralphie’s face.

If that blast was an inch to the right…

The machine stalked toward the desk, the dirt and debris shaking as it moved. Ralphie bolted past the robot and ran blindly through the streets of Milford. Laser blasts incinerated objects around him. The heat of the blasts and the ricochets of metal plunged into his skin, but he lost the robot in an alley.

“Ralphie? Ralphie!” Nigel’s voice snapped him back to the present. His brother’s concerned face swam into focus.

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Gasping for air, Ralphie realized he had been reliving that nightmare while awake. Nigel squeezed his shoulder reassuringly.

“It’s okay, little brother. I’m here. Those soldiers are gone for now.”

Ralphie nodded shakily, fighting back the panic. He had to be brave, like Nigel, for Blanka’s sake.

“L-Let’s go check that ambulance,” he stammered, forcing himself to his feet.

As they approached the overturned vehicle, Ralphie tried to push the haunting memories aside. He had survived the machine’s onslaught in Milford, but he would need more to survive the nightmare landscape that greeted the brothers. Something shifted in the ambulance, and the vehicle rocked.

“What the?” Nigel said as he pointed the rifle at the ambulance.

The rear doors flew outward, ripping off its hinges. A bestial roar that sounded like a cross between a wolf and a human emanated from the vehicle. A giant claw crept out of the ambulance. Ralphie didn’t want to see what was attached.

“Run,” Ralphie screamed.

Nigel didn’t waver from his position. He was determined to take out whatever that was in the vehicle.

“Hide,” Nigel said as he started shooting.

Ralphie hid behind a grassy outcropping. A creature with the body of the biggest wrestler he’d ever seen emerged. The head wasn’t human. It was a cross between a wolf and a man’s. It was misshapen. If a human face half melted and grew into an adjoining wolf head, that’s what this thing resembled. The report of Nigel’s rifle was deafening from the short distance. His shot hit the thing in one of its human eyes. The beast rounded toward Nigel. The wolf head was drooling; it licked its chops, and then the human head said something unintelligible. The shot hadn’t affected it. It looked annoyed but not hurt at all.

“Time to go,” Nigel said as he turned toward Ralphie.

The brothers ran toward the forest. The wolf beast thing howled as it ran. Ralphie risked a glance behind. The lumbering creature was slow but was gaining. Ralphie spotted a low branch neat behind a massive oak tree.

“Over there,” Ralphie pointed.

Moments later, the brothers were scaling the massive tree. The branches were farther apart than Ralphie anticipated, but he scrambled up the tree faster than he thought possible. Nigel was right behind him. The tree shook as the creature slammed into it.

I hope that damned thing can’t climb!

A lower branch snapped, and then the wolf creature howled in pain.

“I have an idea,” Nigel said as he reversed course.

“Are you crazy?” Ralphie said.

“Probably, but we don’t have many options.”

Ralphie’s heart leaped into his throat, and he froze in indecision. A vision of the robot with its glowing eye came into focus. His mother screamed as it ripped out her heart.

“I’m coming for you next. Ralphie!” the synthetic robotic voice said.

Nigel’s screams and the creature’s roar snapped Ralphie out of the vision. Ralphie lowered himself so he could get a better view. Nigel was atop the beast, driving a tree branch into its chest. The creature wailed as Nigel kicked the wolf’s head. He moved the rifle and shot it again, point blank. He reloaded several more times before the creature was dead.

“It’s over; you can come down, Ralph,” Nigel said, panting.

“How did you?” Ralphie trailed off as a pinkish-milky liquid oozed from the creature.

“It fell, sheering off some branches. I jumped on it, grabbed a branch, and dove it into the only soft spot I could find.”

Ralphie collapsed next to the fallen giant.

“Come on, we need to get a lay of the land before heading out again,” Nigel said as he headed toward another tree.

After considerable effort, Nigel and Ralphie sat atop the branch of the tallest tree. They gazed out toward the ruins of Haven. The city had a population of over 100,000 during regular times. But it looked like a smoking pit. Plumes of smoke were visible across the city, and Ralphie thought he heard screams of pain. He told himself it was probably the wind.