Dallas

The moment Dallas came into view, everyone knew something was wrong. It’s one of the biggest cities in the U.S., but unlike every other major city we’d seen, there was no Tower growing in it, stripping it apart for material. Apart from the skeletons, abandoned cars, and black clouds blocking the sky, it looked the same as it had before the apocalypse happened. That sounds like it would be a good thing, since that’d be one less thing trying to kill us, but paranoia is our best survival strategy. If something looks weird, then stay the fuck away from it.

By unanimous decision, we chose to take as circuitous a route as we could in order to reach Fort Worth. That, at least, was the plan. When we tried enacting that plan, we found most of the roads we wanted to take were blocked by debris. At first we assumed it was from the general state of destruction the world was in, but after it kept happening, it started to feel like we were being herded toward downtown Dallas. By the time we were being forced through the Dallas urban sprawl, that feeling became strong enough to warrant action.

When we found the road again blocked by a collapsed skyscraper, Flint said, “When you tried to escape our facility, you nearly punched through several feet of solid steel? Think you could do that to a building as well?”

“Maybe. Never tried. Let’s find out.” How hard could it be, right?

Walked up and examined the debris for a while. How to go about this…. Should I just try to punch a hole through it? Maybe cut a hole in it? What if I caused too much damage, and it collapsed as we went through?

As I stood pondering, I wasn’t paying much mind to my surroundings. Which is why I wasn’t able to react very fast when a pale figure with huge claws pounced from the top of the debris onto me.

I did, however, react fast enough to prevent the Rake from tearing my throat out, so here’s to small miracles. With its opening attack a failure, the Rake sprung off me, landing on someone else in the group. They weren’t as lucky as me, and its claws tore right through their neck.

Everyone with a gun drew their weapon, but the Rake pounced into another building before anyone could fire. I suspect we would have all stood around gawking if Lucas hadn’t started yelling at people to get back into their cars and get the hell out of there.

If we’d been given a chance to calm down after the mad rush back to the cars, things might have remained more rational. But as the engines started up, the Rake pounced out from the debris again, landing on the hood of another car. Its claws tore through the window, shredding the occupants in the front seats. And again, before anyone could react, it had jumped away.

Like that, the escape quickly started devolving into a panic. The Rake continued to pounce out and pick off individuals as we tried driving away as fast as we could. Which really didn’t seem to accomplish much beyond getting people killed. So I decided to fix that problem by doing something crazy reckless: rolled down my window, got halfway out the car, and then when the Rake next jumped out, shot my arm forward in a tentacle at it.
Hit that monster right in the chest, knocking it away from the car. Gave a short cheer, which was cut off when the car hit a bump and I was promptly knocked out onto the street. Flint started to stop the car, but I waved for him to keep going. I’d gotten the Rake’s attention, and if I could keep that attention focused, it would help the others get away.

So, a cracked street in a ruined city with the Rake and I squaring off. It didn’t react as the cars drove away, instead just staring at me with its black eyes while clicking its claws together. Well, if it wanted to just stand there, then it was up to me to get this thing started. I drew my sword, and charged.

Right before I could swing, the Rake vanished. I stumbled a bit as my attack passed through air, but caught myself before falling. Heard a sound behind me, and just barely managed to turn and raise my arm to block the Rake’s attack. Its claws tore through my left arm, ripping it clean off. I didn’t feel any pain, and the shadows started to heal immediately, but while I was still down to one arm the Rake kept attacking. Managed to block a few slashes with the sword, but one got through enough to scrape across my collarbone, barely missing my neck.

Alright. This wasn’t working. Time to start running.

Bolted in the opposite direction of where the cars had gone. I quickly glanced over my shoulder to see if the Rake was following, but I didn’t see any sign of it. A few seconds later, I learned that was because it was above me. Jumped aside as it brought its claws down on where my head had been, and swung my sword at its face. The cut went straight through, but the moment the sword lefts its body, it healed. Back to running, then.

 The Rake continued to pursue me, and I barely kept ahead of its claws. So you might say things were getting a little tense there. Tripped over some debris, but quickly rolled over so I’d be able to face the Rake. It pounced at me, and I raised my sword to defend….

An explosion hit the Rake in the face, knocking it back to the ground. Heavy gunfire started up, tearing through the Rake. It was still healing too fast for those bullets to really do anything, but the sudden resistance seemed to make it reconsider fighting. The Rake vanished, and I looked over to see who had just saved me.

A military Humvee drove up to me, and several men in Army uniforms unloaded. One went over to check on me while the others kept looking around for the Rake.

“Are you I-330?” The one who’d gone to me said.

“Yeah….”

“We met your caravan near downtown. They told us you’d gone in this direction. We’re here to help escort you to Fort Worth.”

And that’s what they’re doing right now. We’ll be coming up to the place in a few minutes. From what these soldiers are saying, the radio broadcast was true: it is a safe zone. Somehow. Now to find out how that even happened....