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The first ten pages.

 

Washington, DC.

President Darryl Warren sat up groggily, reaching for the phone at the side of his bed. The high pitched whining stopped as soon as he picked it up, and he held it to his head with both hands.

“Darryl? Darryl, are you there,” demanded a strong woman's voice.

Warren smiled. He recognized his wife's voice anywhere. He had a feeling he knew why she was calling.

“Yeah, it's me, Alice,” he said softly.

“Darryl, how could you do that,” she exclaimed irritably.

“Do what?

“You know what,” she said coldly. “Sending soldiers to Japan? It's a jungle, for lord's sake. Almost abandoned.”

Darryl's smile became wider. He had been right about her reasons. “It's not what you think,” he started.

“So you're not starting a war? That's Russian territory, and you know how

Adrik Vasiley is. He won't like this.”

“I thought about all of that,” he said. “But Adrik is our ally, and we're no threat to him. The soldier's are there to investigate the jungles, nothing more, and Adrik has already been informed.”

“The press is having a field day with this,” she went on, ignoring this information. “They already have enough to talk about, without making people think you're sending us into another war. We just got out of the last one, we don't need you causing one in your first year.”

Darryl shifted. That last one had been a nasty one. They'd probably have gone nuclear if it hadn't ended when it had. It had also gotten the President before him thrown out of office.

Maybe Alice knew what he was thinking about, because her voice softened. “Listen, Darryl. I know you know what you're doing, but they don't, and they're the ones that matter right now. You need to start explaining what you're doing, or the media will blow it completely out of proportion.”

Darryl sighed deeply. “I know. And next time I'll run it through you first.”

“Good.”

“How's the kid doing,” asked Darryl.

“She's as happy as ever. She loves it here in California.”

“Good,” said Darryl, and his heart sang. His daughter, Adrian, was six years old, and had gone with Alice to California. Alice was addressing the public about his most recent endeavors, a job that, Darryl had to admit, was more difficult then it should be. Darryl had a way of looking at things, and didn't normally explain his logic to people who didn't understand right off. This had put him in bad standing with the media, a fact that Alice reminded him of often.

“Darryl,” said Alice slowly. “About the soldiers. Just … be careful, okay?”

“I always am, aren't I?”

Japan, East Shore

Private Allan Ray was sitting inside of the drop ship, waiting to be deployed along with the rest of his squad.

Billy, sitting to Allan's right, was silent, staring at a picture of the wife he had left back in America. “I didn't want to leave, you know,” he whispered. “But I had too.”

“We all did,” said Allan. “We all did.”

Allan was one of the first off of the transport plane. As his feet came down on the shores of Japan, he shook his head, wondering how it had sunk so low. Apparently, once, there had been whole cities here. Now all that were left were some overgrown ruins.

“So this is Japan,” said the soldier next to Allan.

“Yup,” muttered Allan, looking into dark forest right off of the beach. “This is Japan alright.”

As soon as they got off the drop ship, they began combing the forest. Orders were few, but Allan knew they were searching for anything that seemed odd or unusual in any way. Missions like this had names, but you couldn't use any of them in polite company. Or any company, for that matter.

Allan groaned inwardly as the rifle on his back hit him yet again. He was going to have such a massive bruise..

So they went on, going through swamps and climbing over fallen trees and ruins.

His radio crackled to life suddenly, and a dull, flat voice said, “All soldiers, report to the West Shore, coordinates 8, 70.”

“Come on, boys,” called Allan's squad leader, a grin crossing his rugged face. “It looks like we've found something.”

New York

Eric Helms hammered on the horn again, leaning out of his window to see what was happening ahead that had caused traffic to come to such a complete stop. A huge truck had flipped right in the middle of the intersection, causing at least six other cars to crash into it. The police and ambulance had arrived, and Eric could see no one had been hurt. But if he didn't get to work soon, he'd be fired for sure. His boss wasn't a forgiving man.

“Move, hurry up, move,” he muttered under his breath restlessly. Finally, he gave up, and pulled back into a parking lot. He sat there for a second, muttering under his breath, then he climbed out of the car and locked it up tightly, and took off running as fast as he could. He hopped over a bench, rather then go around, and missed several pedestrians by mere centimeters. He could tell that he left a less then good opinion, but at the moment he couldn't care less.

Finally he arrived outside of his workplace. He panted, and finally stood straight, before walking into Wal-mart.

Wal-Mart? He should have kept his old job, probably. But hey, it payed the bills, and it wasn't so bad. Sure, his whole family �" heck, all his friends too �" were mad at him for giving up his job at Myeshi Tech, but he just couldn't bring himself to sit behind a computer all day, no matter how much it payed. It was bad for his standards.

He was met by his boss, Jack. Jack always seemed to be where he was least wanted, and never where he was wanted - a cold, damp grave, if you believed anyone who worked here.

“Eric, you're late,” he said, his voice gruff and cracked from years of cigarettes.

“Couldn't be helped,” Eric informed his boss, matter-of-factually. “There was a wreck in the intersection, I had to walk.”

“Yeah, sure you did,” said Jack wish a snort. “Hurry up and get to work, you don't get paid to walk, do you? Hurry up,” he repeated, turning quickly, looking for someone else to boss around.

Eric shook his head, and went to relieve Daniel at the cash register.

Japan, West Shore

Allan and his squad got to the west shore just as the army was leaving. Someone met with them to brief them.

“Okay, so, we think we've spotted something about three miles north of here,” said a thin, pale soldier. “Some sort of a building that seems to be operational. The Russians deny knowing about its existence, so we aren't violating Russian space by checking it out.”

“Isn't it possible that it's just a random building that somehow wasn't destroyed during the disasters,” suggested Allan.

“That's what we thought at first, until we saw someone going inside. So someone's there.”

Silence fell, and only sound being the soldiers tramping through the forest.

They got to the edges of the city after a while, and split up their forces, coming from three different angles. At first, everything was fine. Maybe there wasn't anything to worry about?

That's what they thought, until all contact with the second squad was severed.

“Second squad's whereabouts are unknown,” said the dull radio voice. “Repeat, second squad's whereabouts are unknown. Assume a total loss.”

“A total loss,” muttered one soldier. “No way. There were easily seventy soldiers in that squad. They can't all be dead. Maybe the radio's faulty.”

“There were seven radios,” said another soldier bluntly. Silence fell.

“Listen,” said the squad leader. “We've got to move forward. Keep moving. We'll find out what happened later.”

And so they continued through the city, much more afraid then they had been before.

Washington, DC

“What do you mean, we lost all radio communication with Japan,” asked Darryl slowly.

“Exactly what I said. All communications with Japan have been severed. We can't hear them, they can't hear us,” said Sean Webb, commander of military actions and intelligence.

“I thought that was impossible. I thought we upgraded out radios so that they can't be jammed.”

“I thought so too. But we're either jammed, or all of the radios there have been disabled at once.”

“Odd,” Darryl thought aloud.

“It is,” agreed Sean. “Which is why I ask that you allow us to send in more troops to investigate the disappearance.”

“No,” Darryl said sharply. “We can't risk that. The radios will probably come back online soon. We just need to wait.”

Sean looked at Darryl strangely, then nodded. “Very well. We'll keep you posted.”

Japan, Ruins

“All communication with third and second squad has been lost,” said the radio.

“Oh, damn,” whispered a soldier.

“We've got to keep going, said the squad leader, his voice shaking.

“No way, we just lost two damn squads, we've got to get out of here,” said a scared looking soldier.

“We're almost there, don't fall back yet,” shouted the leader. Allan had to admire his courage, facing down the whole squad.

“I'm not going to let you take us to our deaths,” yelled the scared man, and he raised a pistol to the squad leader's head.

“Listen,” said the leader, “There's no need for violence.”

“Don't tell me what we do or don't need,” said the man. “The only thing we need is to get out of here, now!”

“We can't do that.”

“Like hell we can't!”

“Put down the gun,” said the leader dangerously.

“I won't put this down 'til we're out of here, or dead!”

“Well we're not leaving.”

The man started crying hopelessly. “Come on, guys,” he tried desperately. “Help me here!”

No one moved, and the man cried harder. Then he quickly turned the gun around and aimed it at his own head. There was a pause as what was happening registered. Allan yelled out, and the man pulled the trigger. His head exploded, and blood covered the wall behind his corpse.

The squad leader shook a little, and then said, “Come on,” flatly.

There it was, the building they'd come so far to find. It was more of a bunker, honestly. There was no one in sight.

“Alright, boys,” said the squad leader. “It's go time.”

Everyone noticed that Second and third squad hadn't arrived.

New York

Eric finished his shift, and left Wal-Mart, heading back to the parking lot he'd left his car in. This time he walked. He hadn't noticed just how far he'd been from Wal-Mart. Easily several miles.

When he was within seeing distance of the car, he cried out and ran forward. Two tattooed men near it looked up, and when they saw him quickly hopped in and drove off.

“Get back here, you ...” yelled Eric, leaving his sentence incomplete. They must have picked the lock, he thought dejectedly. And then hot-wired the car. Thugs these days. Getting smarter all the time.

He decided to walk home. There was no point in telling the police. They couldn't find their own nose with two hands.

Japan, ruins

They were in. The bunker seemed to be empty, and they were outside of a vault door.

“Pretty secure,” said one soldier, rapping his knuckles against the door. “It'll be hard to get through this.”

“We're getting through,” said the squad leader. “Blow it down.”

Several tons of explosives later, and the whole squad had pulled back into the entry room, rectangular and completely empty.

“Three... two … one...”

Allan couldn't see the explosion, but he could hear it. Even through the ear plugs he had, it was nearly deafening.

Silence, and then the squad leader took the squad into the room.

It was black. Allan couldn't see a thing, and the whole squad turned on their flashlights.

Washington, DC

“Radio communications are back,” said Sean triumphantly. “We'll be in contact in a few seconds.”

Silence for a second, and Darryl leaned closer.

The first sound was a loud scream.

Japan, ruins

“Holy mother of -” screamed the squad leader, as he was hit by an invisible force from the side. Whatever it was, it has cut him clean in two.

“Damn!” yelled the nearest soldier.

Allan stepped back, trying to get out.

Gunfire, and then another man fell backwards, a huge gash cut in his chest.

“It's too fast! I can't see it,” cried one man. Then something black emerged from the back of his chest, and was slowly withdrawn. The man stumbled, and fell onto the floor with a small gasp.

Allan looked around wildly. Everyone was shooting, trying to get lucky as something tore them to shreds. Allan turned, and tried to run for the door, into the sunlight.

He emerged, running wildly, and tripped over his own feet and hit the ground hard, stunning himself.

The gunfire and screams had stopped. He flipped onto his back to see what was coming.

“Oh my God,” he gasped.

It was completely black, without eyes or a nose, but an elongated head and a huge mouth. Black tendrils ran around its entire body, and it was a good six feet. The worse part about it, undoubtedly, was the two dark, blade-like arms. The monster, for that must be what it was, stepped closer to Allan.

Washington, DC

“I need help! It's going to kill me! Oh my God, it's going to kill me! It's going to kill us all! We're all going to die,” screamed the radio, a single voice, high and hysterical. There was a loud stabbing sound, and the voice screamed. There were tearing and ripping sounds, sounds from a child's worse nightmare. And then complete silence.

Darryl sat back in his chair, his face pale.

“What the hell is happening over there,” he wondered.

Sean began barking orders into a radio he kept at hand. He listened for a few seconds, and frowned.

“Mr President?”

“What?”

”They're not replying to our radio contact.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means we may be looking at the complete annihilation of everyone sent to Japan. Mr President, they're all dead.”

“That's impossible,” Darryl said. “There were two hundred soldiers. There's no way they could have been decimated so quickly.”

“I'd have said the same, yesterday.”

“Good God...” Darryl slumped in his chair, defeated.

Silence fell over the two. Sean paced the President's office, thinking. Darryl didn't move. He had sent two hundred men to their deaths.

“Was it the Russians,” he asked.

“There's no way to be sure.”

“They knew we'd be there. Who else could have killed them so quickly?”

“I don't know, Mr President. There could be any number of people that may have wanted them dead.”

“Get me my phone,” demanded Darryl suddenly.

Sean left the room, and Darryl waited in silence. When Sean returned, Darryl stood up and quickly snatched the phone out of his hands with a quick, “thank you,” then he dialed in his wife's number.

“Pick up, pick up, pick up,” he mumbled under his breath.

“Hello?”

“Alice, it's me.”

“Hi Darryl. Is there something wrong?”

Once again, Darryl appreciated his wife's way of knowing when something wasn't right.

“They're dead.”

“What,” Alice asked, shocked. “Who's dead? What are you talking about?”

“The soldier's in Japan. They're dead they're all dead!” He ended with a yell, unable to stop himself. He was shaking angrily.

“How? How could they have been killed so fast?”

“We don't know. Any number of things might have happened.”

“So what are we going to do about it?”

“We're going to find out who did this, and then we're going to give them hell.”

“Darryl, are you okay? We can't rush into another war.”

“I know that. But we can't let them get away with this, either.”

“I know you're upset. But we need to think. Give it a day or two. Don't release the news until we're ready.”

Darryl thought about arguing, but finally said, “Okay.”

“Good. I think the press will let me leave in a few days. We'll be together soon,” said Alice. “Bye.”

“Bye,” said Darryl softly, and he hung up and turned to Sean. “Keep the media out. I don't want any news slipping out. Any!”

“Yes, Mr President.” Sean was about to leave, but paused when the phone rang unexpectedly.

“This is Darryl, speaking.”

“This is Adrik Vasiley, speaking.” There was a thick sheet of anger in the voice.

“What do you want,” asked Darryl, wondering if he was talking to a traitor.

“You killed my men,” raged Adrik. “I gave you permission to investigate Japan, not to take it from me!”

“What the hell are you talking about,” demanded Darryl. “My men are dead.”

“That's impossible. My men were killed mere minutes ago.”

“No, that's impossible. Every man I sent is missing, presumed dead. As of an hour ago.”

“Then why am I not receiving radio communications? You must be jamming us!”

“No. We're both being jammed.”

There was silence. “Then what happened?”

Darryl opened his mouth to answer, then closed it.

“Well?”

“I don't have an answer for you.”

“I am sending a counter-attack. Five hundred men will storm Japan and destroy everything still alive. If you did this, I suggest calling back your American soldiers.”

“I wish I could, Adrik. I wish I could.”

New York

Eric walked into his small apartment, scratched his head, and promptly lay down on his couch.

He didn't normally watch the television, but he decided to make an exception after his unexpected walk.

“This just in,” said the newsman. “The president is withholding all information regarding the Japanese Investigative Movement. Ask yourself, what does this mean? Why would the president withhold information about what he himself called, quote, a perfectly legit operation, end quote? Are the rumors of a coming war true?”

Eric groaned. Another war? That's all they needed. Maybe they could have a few earthquakes while they were at it. Maybe a flood or two.

“In related news, the president's wife unexpectedly left California, heading for Washington, DC without warning, and without explanation.”

Eric turned off the television and stretched. The news always freaked out about this stuff. Why didn't they ever freak out about the enormous amount of crime in New York? More specifically, the enormous amount of auto theft. That might have helped him a bit today.

Nah.

Washington, DC

Several days had passed, and Darryl decided to call Adrik again, to see about his progress.

“Hello,” Darryl said into the phone. “Hello?”

He waited a few minutes, but no one picked up. Odd. Adrik always had his phone.

Moscow, Russia

Adrik was a bit distracted when he got the phone call.

“They're breaking through our defenses,” yelled a young Russian soldier.

“Don't you think I see that,” spat Adrik.

It was more like hell then Russia. Screaming, gunfire, bullets tearing through the air. They had tried to hold the city, but had been forced to retreat to Adrik's office. There were only seven of them.

The sounds stopped abruptly.

“Is it over,” asked one soldier, who stood up slowly from his crouch.

“Get down, soldier,” snapped Adrik.

“It's over,” the soldier said, relieved.

“Get down,” yelled Adrik. And then all hell broke loose as the door was ripped outwards, off of the hinges.

The standing soldier never had a chance, as several somethings stormed through the door, grabbing him and dragging him out slowly, as he screamed and tried to escape.

“Oh my God! They've got me, they've got me!!!!”

Adrik fired his pistol at one of the creatures, and saw a chunk of flesh get blasted off. There was no blood, but the creature stumbled back a few paces �" before returning to the task.

The soldier screamed, and grabbed at the door frame. Then he vanished into the swarm, which surged through the door to kill the rest of the Russians.

Adrik screamed, firing again and again and again, screaming, “Die, b******s!” But one creature grabbed him by the arm, and bit him hard. He cried out, quickly blowing off the creature's head. But there were more, always more...

Washington, DC

Darryl tried calling again. No one picked up.

“Send up Sean,” Darryl ordered one guard, who nodded and went to find Sean while Darryl wondered what had happened to Adrik. Whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

Sean found Darryl fairly quickly, and Darryl updated him.

“Adrik isn't answering his phone. I've called twice.”

“That's not like him.”

“So something's wrong.”

“It would appear so.”

“We need to find out what happened.”

“How do you suggest we do that?”

“Send an ambassador, with some armed guards, to Russia. If there's any chance of something being wrong, we've got to know.”

“Yes, Mr President.”

Moscow, Russia

The copper settled down on the landing pad, and fifteen soldiers filed out around the ambassador.

“What in hell happened here,” gasped the first soldier out.

The city was in ruins. No one was in sight, but most of the buildings had been bashed in.

“Head for the presidential office,” demanded the ambassador. The soldiers quickly complied .

“Oh, hell,” swore the ambassador when they got to the courtyard surrounding the office.

Several Russian guards were spread out around the gates, bits and pieces of them several feet away from their body. Blood was sprayed everywhere.

“Damn,” he said.

Then they walked into the palace.

“Holy...” one soldier grunted.

Adrik was hanging from the ceiling by some kind of sticky green substance, groaning in agony.

“Help me..... My God, please.... someone help me.... it hurts.....”

“Damn, get him down from there,” yelled the ambassador. One soldier cut the green … stuff, and Adrik fell on the floor with a groan.

“What happened, Adrik? What did all this?”

“It doesn't matter,” Adrik rambled. “It's going to kill us all. We are all going to die. We're all going to die..” he ended with a long laugh.

“Adrik, what happened?”

“We're all going to die,” Adrik began, and then screamed, squirming, trying to escape the green stuff that covered his body. Like some sort of a cocoon ...

The ambassador leaned closer, and Adrik's chest blew outward. Something emerged from the gaping hole, and grabbed the ambassador.

“Oh my God, get it off get it off get if off me,” he screamed, dropping his gun and trying to force the creature off of his face.

“Good God, it's got me! It's got me!!”

The soldiers raised their guns, trying to get a clear shot.

“Help me! Oh my GOD HELP ME!”

Then some sort of tentacle emerged from the creature's waist, and went down the ambassador's throat. The screams became more frantic.

“IT'S GOING TO KILL ME!!!!!!”

The small creature leap backwards, and the tentacle ripped out the mans innards. They were slimy and hit the ground with a splat. The ambassador slipped, rasped, and writhed, before falling still.

“Damn it, kill it, damn it!” screamed the lead soldier. They all began firing at once. The creature reeled back, as several bullets struck its small body. Then it stopped moving at last, yellow liquid seeping from the many bullet holes covering its body.

Washington, DC

“The soldiers are all nearly incomprehensible. However, is appears that Adrik is dead, and that something was inside of him that killed both him and the ambassador,” Sean told the president gravely.

“What are you talking about? That's absurd. Something IN him? And you make it sound as if it were alive,” demanded Darryl.

“That's just the thing, Mr President. I think it must have been, to listen to them talk.”

“How could something live inside of a living, human being?”

“Is that so impossible? Germs are alive, and they survive. This could be a sort of parasite. A huge germ.”

“I've never heard of a germ that can kill two people within seconds.”
“Neither have I. But it's a possibility.”

“A possibility, but not a probability. And how could that one creature destroy the whole city? There's more to this mystery.”

“Mr President... isn't it possible that we're not dealing with might not be entirely normal? That maybe whatever killed Adrik might be coming here, to America?”

Darryl paused. He hadn't considered that, but now the possibility was out there, it didn't seem too far-fetched.

“They can't get here, though. Can they?”

“It's a big world. All they need is one boat, one plane, and they can come to America. And there are a hell of a lot of boats and planes in Russia.”

“I want people watching the docks and the skies. No unauthorized flights or ships should come to America.”

“Yes, Mr President. What should we tell the press?”

“Absolutely nothing. Let them guess what's happening.”

“Mr President, don't you think they should know that we may be facing an inhuman threat?”

Author's Note

Here we have our first glimpses of the threat.