"What you doing?" One of the two said after looking at the black haired man counting on his fingers.

"You know. It's a happy time, and there's little to worry about. There are many more weddings lined up this month. I think... all the way to the end of the year. It makes me feel that this list is never going to dry out. It is going to be another stable year this time" The other laughed too, counting money on his fingers.

"That's very good news big bro. So when is your marriage coming along?"

"Well… hey, that! Look! What is that!!?" With a trembling finger, the man pointed.

They felt a big shock that sent them flying towards the walls. Only after a few seconds were they able to stand up, albeit wobbling.

"Allen. Allen!" yelled one of them.

"I can hear you" Allen replied stumbling.

Was there anyone with them there? He did not know. How much time passed? Maybe half a minute. Most importantly, he had woken to a scene that could be best described as a terrible nightmare.

Some small rabbit sized things were cutting people using their nails. A person lying still, probably dead, was being eaten by two such abnormal things. Allen found it hard to grasp his mind around what was happening. He stood still just looking at the scene with eyes alternating between squinting and the normal position. His puzzlement was forcibly ended by another one of the small thing coming towards him screeching. Allen backed away as it tried to scratch his legs. It rushed towards him again and he reflexively just flung it away with a kick and it exploded. The situation was extremely absurd, but now was not the time to ponder on smaller things. First they needed to get to a safer place.

One hospital ward was nearby. Somehow they got to the hospital nearby, and it was so filled with patients. There were people with very grievous injuries, some were on the verge of losing their heartbeat and some may even have had. They could also recognize some of those being from the same place that they had been in. How quickly the thing had turned on its head.

The news was playing, and they understood from it that those things that had appeared out of nowhere and suddenly, and attacked without no obvious purpose, were detected a few tens of minutes before the accident, some aircraft that were not recognized in the air. Some warm signatures were noticed in the land that were out of the norm. The things had shifted gear so soon for anything concrete to be done.

The calculation of the number of attackers was unclear. And they had taken no step. They could take no step without further knowledge.

Another calculation was not clear, and that was the calculations of the casualties and the injured.

Considering that they were outside the city right now, they wondered how bad it must have been in the City.

They could communicate some words, but their communication was being interrupted, and it was really a joke. Something, suddenly, would speak in the middle of the communication, do something else, laugh loudly. Sometimes one would make jokes against them in the middle. It was really difficult to understand what their gender could be, they could understand it as a neutral kind; they could not find out much about that. They could throw some bits here and there, able to communicate a bit and transfer a few words between the other friends and family members and ask about how the situation was. But it was really not about how this had happened, but what to do from here. This was all that was on my mind.

Don't have any side facility of mind to calculate and reason out what is really happening. We should only think about escaping somewhere. Just escape. But no facilities would be available for this type of purpose. Except maybe the military. They got the news that because of the emergency, to protect the civilians, the only step they could take was to ask them to come to the nearest military place. Whether the civilians have any supplies of food. And news briefed them about the latest news and the news repeated. Talking with his friend, specifically Luke and Timothy, then ultimately deciding to go in the afternoon as there would be more light in that time. In the middle of the night, one or two of them had to be constantly getting out and helping the hospital as some type of attack was still ongoing. The city was lively.

But the enemies did not seem capable enough that they could have made that much destruction. But they did not really know much about the situation and didn't really want to think about it, so they left it at that and just tried to listen to what the military was saying. Watching the news would have more information. It makes us aware more of the situation as compared to just making wild guesses with no solid conclusion. Only after clear weather and a good plan could they make their way to the station. They were in the middle of the journey to the military station. Allen kept listening to the news and a little something happened. Approximately creatures had destroyed 30% of the station, no information about the casualty as the calculation on communication was not very clear. The city had specially encrypted the communication system after they understood that the communication was not working as privately as they liked. But there was no benefit, and they had hijacked it again, this time with different things. It was like many channels were being invaded by many things at different rates.

Other bases were more than a little further away. It was really troubling. But they could get a suitable vehicle after arriving at the military station. After more than just a few kilometers away, they entered an enormous base, compared with the smaller base that the creatures could get away with attacking. When they got there, he met some more acquaintances. Some of his neighbors, working in the military, were present there. All the new arrivals settled down swiftly.

Not really the time to be playing games, but I wanted to organize my mind. I played in the gaming pods that were available in the military, had some kind of permission. This was not the most urgent thing on the mind of the military right now and their deployments were quick, both going out and coming back. In between just looking at those displacements and preparing to play the game, Allen chose the game for some time and played in the PVP mode and it matched quickly some kind of opponent with him. He extended his hand to grab a weapon, and he got a knife…. given a knife and the opponent had a bow…..Well, the enemy could not spot him until the end where he was stabbed around the heart from the backside. He had silently waded through the terrain for quite a long time. This was possible because of the wide map. Difficult, but possible.

Another match and another match and another match.

He played n times, with hammer, pickaxe and various other things (revolver once), he was almost shot twice by one enemy, and so finding that the enemy this time was very skilled as compared to the usual routine he played discrete and continuous, playing a few difficult matches, he was really getting into the game.

The game was forcefully closed. And his military neighbor had made him log out. The neighbor looked at some soldiers at the side and asked him, "Are you able to play these games?"

"Well, let this brother show you," was what he wanted to say. But you could look around and there were other presents in the military here, so out of respect, I ended up formally telling him yes. And then his neighbor, named Sam, told him that this compound had some number of soldiers that were also playing games.

Many of them did not know how to play, some of them did, the committee had connected the game here to only help the compound members play with each other so they quickly tracked his ID, found where he was playing and they got to his pod. Allen was surprised, but he didn't understand why they were so obsessed with him playing the game. Allen did not consider it a big deal to play with some soldiers. It didn't matter that much. He already played against some soldiers before, thanks to his neighbor being the one that used to take his friends often as guests in his house. He really didn't know why that was too big of a deal.

His neighbor said," This is not the time to be discussing. So, I will just tell you-you are now part of a special team that is going to be drafted and dispatched"