A middle settlement build, large chimneys in its center were erected throwing up black smoke. Tall iron wall with sniper towers in its corner watching the build day and night.

It was a fresh day in the base, knowing as the third settlement, a middle rank base who has many people working to have energy, water and more stuff to survive day after day.

The large iron wall opened a garage door, and a vehicle, a huge cargo truck driven by an imposing golden beard subject, like a woodcutter, and a thin girl was his copilot. Behind was his team, a pair of men who had heavy ammo weapon like shotguns and machine guns.

"Now is the day sweety… sorry for this, but I need to teach you how to survive… my daughter, so sorry my love…

"It's okay dad… in the school camp I learned to shoot a 9mm. it's a bit heavy, but I think I can do it…

"Yes darling… I know you cand do it, but, shooting an immobile target is not the same to shoot a move target… but, it's okay, you will learn it…" said the driver so sad.

"Are you okay dad?" questioned the girl.

"Yeah… it's just… just…" responded.

"Mom… right?" said the girl.

"Yeah… yeah sweety… mom… your mom was…" he said and the girl interrupted him suddenly.

"I know… It's okay daddy… don't worry… please…" said the girl.

"Okay…" responded shortly.

They were in a dusty way, until they got into the forest. They arrived and took its axes.

"Okay guys, we have no much time to get wood, so, we will cut only four trees to our power plant, that will be all our fuel for this day until we return tomorrow…" the beard man.

"Yeah… I will cut a tree with you…" said the man who had an axe.

"No Charlie. I will watch our backs with my daughter" he responded.

"What?! But you said that we will cut the trees while she would be watching our backs. What's happen?" said other man with an axe.

"Ergh! Sammy, I will to…" screamed the beard man. Her daughter interrupted him.

"Dad! Let to do the work! That's the reason that I'm here… to learn how survive…" responded the girl.

"Oh… darling…

"It's okay dad I can…" she said, suddenly her father shut her up.

"Howler…" whispered the beard man.

"A howler? Where is that thing?"

"What's happening?!" said the girl.

"Shhh! Just listen…" whispered her father.

All was in silence, in a moment she could hear a spooky breathing, it looked like if that thing was drowning in its own fluids.

"Where is that thing?!" whispered Charlie.

"We need to kill it before its finds us… or we will be in troubles…" replied Sammy.

"Shhh! Let me find it…" said the beard man.

The beard man started to looking for that slowly among the undergrowth. In a moment he found it. It was a few steps away. It was horrible, it had the form of a tree, wood skin and full with dry bumps like mushrooms, it had a bit of human form, its torso could see open with its respiratory system exposed, a pair of pink flesh lungs and a bloody inflamed trachea. It walked with its two legs and kept its torso open with its hands that looked like a couple of tumors sewn next to its lungs.

"It's a mutation…" said the beard man. "I will kill it" added while he was taking his pistol.

"Wait… I want to kill it…" said the girl.

"No, this is mine…" said the man.

"But… dad…" whispered the girl despaired.

"Darling, shut up!" said the man some angry. The girl got quiet.

The beard man shot the pistol against the monster, and he killed it with one bullet to his head.

"That's it…" whispered the man.

In a moment he could hear another monster closer. His eyes filled with fear while the creature started to take a deep breathe inflating its exposed lungs. That monster gave a big scream while was vomiting up blood in a column to the sky and its mushrooms started to produce a lot of yellow dust around it.

"Run! Run to the truck!" screamed the man.

All started to run to the truck, but suddenly, a lot of corpses started to fall from the treetops. Those were more Howlers. Slowly those things began to domain territory and started to get up. They got cornered.

"Fire! Fire!" screamed the man while he started to shoot against those monsters.

In a moment, Sammy was shooting to the monsters, and behind a huge claw attacked and drilled his belly since back. The man threw up blood almost immediately and died in the arm of that monster.

"Nailer!" screamed the beard man.

It was a monster that walked in four extremities, its front legs were too big and had three huge claws each one, its arms were exposed in fresh red flesh, and its head was protected by a powerful bone with spirals in in its sides, like an huge armored parietal bone, and its jaws opened up all over its throat until to encompass its chest.

"Run sweety! Run!" screamed the beard man to his daughter while the monsters yelled around.

She tried to run, she ran far away from the creatures, but she found more problems, the Howlers screamed near to her, vomiting blood over her and stained her, at the same time she got covered in a yellow mist of dust.

She was coughing among the yellow mist and spiting the blood that those monster trew up on her. She couldn't escape from those.

"Cough! Cough! I can't breathe!" cried the girl coughing among the blood and the yellow dust cloud.

In a moment she started to feel not so good, and got a bit unconscious and she left herself drop, getting almost faint. In a moment a couple of smoke bombs exploded near to her and the horde of monsters lost sight of the girl in a huge cloud of white smoke. Suddenly, among the massive cloud of smoke, a silhouette of a woman appeared, she started to fight against the monsters who wanted to devore the girl in the ground.

She had a katana in her hands, and was cutting the monsters without problems with great agility and lethal blows, another woman was covering her back with a heavy shotgun, killing monsters around too.

The katana woman fought against the Nailer and achieved to broke its armor in its head.

"Armor is gone! Go to the head!" screamed the woman.

"Aaaah!" responded the another one with a scream who shoot the shotgun against it and the monster got murdered.

In the middle of the smoke cloud the girl could not see almost anything, and she got pass out slowly. She fought to get up and keep conscious, but she succumbed fainted.