The whir of the helicopter was the only thing the heavily armed TRIDENT agents heard as they touched down on Nomian Island. It was once a sprawling theme park full of intelligent creatures for the public to gawk at. Inexplicably, the park suffered its first casualty. A small boy had been bitten and died of blood loss by a loose Netine. The CEO of Nomian Genetics had decided it was a sign to shut down the park, but the employees who had lived there were allowed to stay. The reason why employees were allowed to stay was because of the fact that some lived full-time on the island. If forcefully taken away from the island, the employees would be homeless. The island itself was a bit grey, but had sprawling redwood forests on it, and hundreds of railway roads. Agent Hawk had read about the island, so unlike the others, he wasn't surprised when somebody ran up to them from behind a hill situated in front of the helipad. The person (he was a male) wore an old and faded Hawaii shirt, with brown khakis and dark blue boots. "I thought this place was deserted?" Agent Mark asked loudly, trying to be heard over the deafening whir of the helicopter's blades. "Well," The man said cautiously, his feet shifting on the grey helicopter pad. "By the time the park closed, I had a house along with some others, so the higher-ups decided some of us could stay if we wanted." "Oh. Well, my name is Mark." Mark said, extending a hand from the helicopter. The person shook it, and again, Hawk wasn't that surprised. "My name is Evan Stanley. I'm the head of the town here." Hawk raised an eyebrow under his gas mask as he and the others disembarked from the helicopter. "Here?" He asked. "Yeah, there's a lot more of us now. We have three other villages; Marrow, which is located in the southern part of the island, Clam, which is our fishing village and can be found in the western section of the island, and then there's my village, located here. We're smaller than before, only about thirty of us left." Hawk looked at another agent. "Okay. Are you our guide?" Evan nodded. "My train's just over there." Hawk turned his head to look behind Evan, and sure enough there was a bright orange, slightly battered, steam locomotive with a passenger car attached to it. "We going in that thing?" Hawk asked. At this point, the squad was off the helicopter and said vehicle was preparing to fly away. Near the train, Hawk noticed, was some kind of fallen tower, but his attention was redirected when Evan started towards the train. "Come on! It's not that long of a walk to my vehicle!"

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Once they were all seated, Evan started the train, it's sound of chugging replacing the worrying sound of silence. "Every so often, I'll stop the train," he said, glancing back. "The reason for this is because I need to change track directions." He gestured with his hands as he talked. "It's too dangerous to do so beforehand." Hawk, Feather, and Mark both looked at Evan, all wondering what he meant. After a couple moments of uncomfortable silence only interrupted by the soft chugging of the train, Mark question Evan. "What do you mean, 'it's too dangerous'?" Evan turned back to look over his shoulder, suddenly looking queasy. "Well, um, hehe… it's a funny story. So, the animals might, act up… a lot… during the night. We haven't lost too many people this year… only five…" Mark looked Hawk, and even though there was a mask covering Mark's face, Hawk could practically feel the suspicion radiating off of him. "So… the animals are still alive? After all this time?" Evan nodded. "The creatures were made to be resilient and adaptable to any environment." The train abruptly stopped, lurching the passengers inside forwards, launching them out of their seats.

When Hawk got back upright and balanced, he noticed two things: One, the train hadn't flipped over (thank god), and two, Evan was knocked out cold on the floor, bleeding, laying next to everyone else. The rest of the squad were quickly getting to their feet. Getting his priorities straight, Hawk tasked Feather (their doctor) to taking care of Evan while he went outside with Mark to assess the situation. Jumping out of the train with Mark, he immediately noted that something large was in front of the trains path. He pulled up his M416. Mark, on the other hand, just walked forward cautiously, but not with any weapons drawn. "What are you doing?" Hawk whisper-yelled. "I think it's dead," Mark started, "But look at it." Hawk reluctantly walked over to Mark, his boots crunching the dead grass. He gasped. The creature they had hit was double Mark's size (he was six feet tall) and was distinctly snake-like. It also had two, long front legs, with the jaws filled with razor-sharp teeth.

AN: This is my first time using Webnovel, so please excuse any mistakes with the placing of everything and how it looks- however, that said, do feel free to point out any grammar/punctuation/spelling mistakes.