A shriek tore the air above. Its whistle pierced everything, signaling the end of the world. I ripped the struggling snake creature I held in half and tossed the pieces away. Blood and ichor covered me. 

"Incoming!" I bellowed at the top of my considerable lungs. I looked around the battlefield. I stood in a large circle of bodies. Dozens of the strange alien creatures still wriggled and writhed on the ground. Dozens more were obviously dead, their innards having been forced through rents in flesh and bone. Their strange bodies reflected light from the scales that covered their bodies. Bones jutted from torn flesh, white in the firelight.

Still more were swaying and staring at me from just outside my reach. Ice and brass casings glittered in the growing light of the falling firebomb. Men and women screamed battle cries as they fought the army of slithering creatures straight out of myth. Gunfire was constant, strobing in the otherwise cold, dead air.

I felt frozen in place. This had been a peaceful park, sometime in the not so distant past. I could even picture it- placid, sunlight bathing the trees and kid's gym toys. Now, fires guttered in the treetops, throwing long shadows across the ground. The darkness was punctuated by muzzle flares of guns. Ice coated everything in sight. Darkness reigned. There was no sun in the sky. No moon. Only dark shapes far above, throwing massive fireballs to the ground we stood and fought upon.

Two men stood on the battlements of a wooden castle, which had hosted countless wars. Embers glowed in the pressed wood. Kings had been ousted by knights and samurai, wielding cardboard swords and wearing buckets for helmets. Now it was home to two men in a desperate fight for life. Machine gun emplacements belched fire and threw metal at fatal speeds. They tore whole crowds of the snakes to the ground. The roar of those guns alone shattered the stillness of this permanent night.

"Retreat! Get inside!" Nobody was listening. Maybe they couldn't hear me over the constant gunfire. The snakes hissed at me, lunging in and out, trying to score hits. One slashed my arm, flaying it open. I grabbed the eight-foot tall enemy with my good hand, and held my arm in front of its face. My arm healed as we watched. They all stood as if mesmerized by the sight.

I whipped the snake back and forth, shattering the spine, and flung it into the crowd in front of me. The sound came again, a mechanical shriek, a buzzing like the largest mosquito on Earth inside my own ear. I looked up to see a second bomb descending. Panic gripped me. 

"Run, you fools!"

I ran into the crowd around me, bowling the creatures aside. Breaking through their line, I snatched the two nearest soldiers in my massive hands, turned, and fled toward the base doors. They rose more than twenty feet from the packed dirt, having risen on enormous hydraulics from their hiding place below the park. Though I stood over 14 feet tall, I had the urge to duck my head. The soldiers continued to fire into the crowds behind us. Flames cooked my hands, causing involuntary trembles in them. The muzzles of their guns glowed a dull red. The guns had been fired so continuously, they were in danger of failure from the heat. 

The arch was not getting closer, though the bomb was. I felt like I was trudging through knee high molasses. I lifted my foot, fighting free of the murk. Shadows swirled around my legs. they clawed their way up my body, bringing cold and dread. I fought for ground, seeing safety just within reach. Then a third shriek rattled something in my head. A blast wave caught and threw me forward. Searing heat cooked the flesh from my bones, slowly, too slowly. The heat was unbearable and cold.