Year 2030, March 17
A man runs in a heavy rain. He seems to be in a hurry. Not cause of the rain. No. It is something else. He was already soaking wet so it cannot be the rain. He leaps over a small puddle made by the rain. His face is covered with mud, but the expression he has on his face is easily comprehensible.
Fear.
A nurse is filing some papers at a maternity unit in United Kingdom, Torquay. The lights of the reception area flicker. The nurse flinches.
"Hey Tommy! Care to take me home after the shift?!", the nurse shouts to the backroom.
"You scared Katherine?", questions a raspy voice belonging to a man called Tommy.
"Don't be silly! Take look at the weather out there.", lashes the nurse called Kathrine. A tall nurse comes out of the backroom and glances outside.
"She ain't joking mate. There is a bloody storm out there.", states the tall male nurse. The lights flicker again.
"Yeah, yeah Jerry. Besides she lives on the same street as I do so it isn't that much of a bother to drop her off.", Tommy says while walking to the front register where the other two stand.
"Thanks Tommy I knew I could trust you!", exclaims Katherine.
The man is now running over a street. He is heading towards a light coming a far. He looks over his shoulder. There is nothing to see just darkness. He stops. The man is standing in middle of the road under street light. He gazes at the darkness. A fox wanders from the darkness to the street.
"Heh heh hehhehe! How stupid of me. I should've listened my mother when she said those video games would take my mind!", the man laughs out after visibly relaxing. The fox is gone. The man feels a cold shiver running down his spine and stops laughing. He stares in to the woods where the fox came from.
Shriek!
The man looks up to the light pole. A sight that will be drawn in his mind forever. A bird like creature that is the size of a small child looks down on to the man with its black button like eyes shimmering from the light. Its beak is the same size as its body. There are human like palms at both of the ends of its wings. It leaps down on to the ground without breaking eye contact.
Thump!
The man backs down a few steps. The creature takes few steps forward coming into the light. It is almost fully black with its massive beak dark red. The anomaly stands still only moving its head slightly to keep the eye contact. The man gulps. He cannot think straight.
Then lighting flashes the sky. That startles the anomaly. The man sees the light he was running towards earlier. He makes a quick decision and starts sprinting towards the light.
"Hey, Tommy the labour is about to start, so get ready and come observe if you want to finish your studies!", shouts a man dressed in a white coat.
"Right a way doctor Halley.", answers Tommy as he starts to walk quickly towards a corridor leading to labour section.
Tommy walks as fast as he can. He is brimming with excitement. This is his last assignment before he can specialise in labour. He heads on to the next corridor that shifts to the left.
It is the corridor where the families are waiting. It is designed such as every other corridor in the unit. White ceiling, grey floor, white walls with a light blue stripe going in the middle, the hospital lights at a set standard from each other.
There are few chairs on each side of the corridor. A man shaking his legs and looking towards the ceiling. Probably the soon to become father. A cleaner mopping the floor. It is as Tommy had thought for preparation, nothing unusual.
As Tommy opens the door for changing room he notices someone else on the corridor. A man with a brown coat reading a newspaper. The man makes eye contact with Tommy. He gives a sad smile to Tommy as he sifts his attention back to the newspaper.
Tommy enters the changing room and is puzzled. Why was that man sitting there? There shouldn't be anyone else going to labour.
But what really was strange about it was the mans looks. He could have been a model or an actor. A black male with graceful hazel eyes and shaved beard. The skin it didn't have any flaw in it. Tommy had changed while he thought of that man. He headed back to the corridor.
The nervous man was still where he used to be. The cleaner had gone to clean to the spot where the man was sitting a while back. Tommy looked to the other direction. The man wasn't there either.
"Excuse me, but did that man in brown coat leave already?", Tommy asked the cleaner with a slight shake in his voice. That man seemed important. Not like a president or police officer, but more like a priest.
"Umm, I am truly sorry, but I haven't seen a man like that here.", answered the cleaner.
"R-right. I-I mean that man who sat right there.", clarified Tommy now his voice truly trembling. While he pointed towards the seat where that man had been sitting.
"I can assure you doctor that there has been just me and him in here.", interrupted the man who had been shaking earlier.
"Yeah... just lightening the atmosphere with a little joke. Oh! And I am no doctor, just a trainee Mr?", Tommy lied with a look of confusion that didn't ensure either of the other mans there.
"Ian Wright. And it is okay to be nervous about the labour. You are the trainee going there right?", encouraged the man introduced as Ian.
"T-that is right Mr. Wright. I apologize.", claimed Tommy trying to keep his voice from shaking.
"Tommy! Get in here quickly or I will decapitate you myself!", sounded doctor Halley's threatening voice from the doorway. Tommy started to sprint towards doctor Halley after understanding his situation.
"Walking only!", echoed doctor Halley's voice to the corridor. Tommy swiftly changed to walking and entered the labour room.
Skriekkkkk!
The man could hear the bird's terrifying cry as he headed towards the light. The anomaly of an bird was far back but it was folding the distance between them
The rain was blocking most of the view, but it looked like there were someone standing at the front the building that was coming into view. Was it a hospital? No it was too small to be hospital. A medical clinic maybe? Then he felt it. Like a cold metal sliding on his calf. It didn't hurt it just felt very cold.
He turned to look his calf. It had been torn to pieces. It was a wonder he could still move on. Only 200 meters left, but the anomaly had already landed an attack. He needed to get closer, but moving started to feel harder and harder. The view started shaking. He tried to move on. The person that had been standing in front of the building before had vanished.
He fell.
A cold hard grass ground took the impact of the fall. It started to hurt like hell. He looked at his calf again. The flesh had been torn apart and he could see the bone peeking behind the muscle. He sifted his gaze towards the anomaly. It stared at him. A stare without any empathy. It was just a beast looking its prey struggle. This is the end.
His vision started to blur. He could feel his head touching the ground now. He wasn't even terrified anymore. He had lost hope of living.
"Perish evil!", someone shouted. It sounded lie English, but hearing it send a cold shiver down his spine.
Then he saw as the anomaly started to burn. The flames weren't ordinary. They were white. He couldn't wrap his head around this situation. Just before he fainted he saw a figure of a woman kneeling besides him.
"I know that the seismic activity needs to be researched quickly, but can't we take a little break. After all we have hiked through the jungle for hours.", a nagging voice sounded from a mouth belonging to a young man standing 2 meters tall and looking visibly annoyed.
"As I said earlier Fabian, this is not a play trip. We are here to make history.", answered an older man almost as tall as the man called Fabian. The older man had a whitish beard growing over his chin. The older man was reading some kind of an electronic map device.
"I know pops! But you know I am complaining for a reason, we have been going in circles through this spot for at least 12 times.", argued Fabian. A third member of the group who was a head shorter than these two, was shaking his head. He had a dark brown musky hair and blue eyes.
"Can you just shut up. You know how your father gets when he is determined.", claimed the man still shaking his head.
"You are not wrong Arthur, but I really mean it when I say that we have walked through this spot multiple times. Look I even made markings on this tree.", said Fabian as he pointed towards the tree.
"Fine, we'll take break.", mustered the old man through his beard.
The three of them stopped. Fabian sat on a tree root that was coming from one of the colossal trees. The old man was getting irritated as he tried to do something with the map device.
"Is it broken or something Neville?", asked Arthur.
"I thought the GPS was malfunctioning, but now it doesn't even take any commands from me.", answered the old man Neville.
"Let me have a look pops!", grunted Fabian. Neville threw the device to Fabian.
"Anyway, why are you shaking your head so much?", asked Neville.
"It is these mosquitos flying around my head.", Arthur said still shaking his head.
"I don't see any mosquitos.", said Neville looking towards Arthur with a confused look.
Arthur stopped shaking his head. "Then where the hell does this buzzing come from?", he questioned trying to look for mosquitos around himself.
"Buzzing?", asked Neville looking concerned.
Spiuchhcss!
Arthur and Neville turned to look towards Fabian who caused the noise.
"I swear I didn't do this!", shouted Fabian defensively as the map device started to throw sparks out of it.
"What in the world did you-", Neville started to rage as he was interrupted by a noise.
Trhump!
The ground started to shake rapidly. Before any of them had a chance to react the tree on whiches root Fabian was sitting on started to fall down. Fabian's leg got stuck under the root. Neville dashed towards his son. Arthur collapsed on the ground screaming as he held his head with his hands. Neville tried to free Fabian from the root as the tree fell towards them. He felt a grim grip on his breast. Next thing he was flying away from Fabian. Fabian had grabbed his old man and thrown him away. Arthur was still on the ground though he had fainted.
Thump!
The colossal tree had fell.
Katherine was going through a pile of documents with Jerry. The clock was well past midnight and their shift would end in less than a four hours. The rain hadn't stopped. Typical for UK thought Katherine.
Bling!
The doors opened. Probably some father coming from a grocery store after getting a midnight snack. Kathrine was not bothered enough to look.
Thump!
Jerry had dropped his pile of documents on the ground. Katherine picked them up and started scolding Jerry, "I know it is a night shift, but you still shouldn't-.". Katherine stopped mid sentence. What is he looking at she thought as she turned to look towards the doors too.
A man covered in blood limped through the doors as Katherine and Jerry just stared at him shocked.
"H-help...", the man said with a shaky voice as he collapsed on the floor.