Chapter One: Transformation.

Heavy breathing echoed in my ears; I couldn’t hear anything else, just the puffs for breaths trapped in my mind. They’re here, somewhere around me. They’re trying to catch me in this horrid place. Machines and metals were scattered around the crumbling building, it was only a matter of time until they found me, and killed me - or worse, transform me.

Hundreds of the creatures existed now - the Brakends, they were called. After the explosion and deaths of the priests, the entire town was engulfed in darkness. The smoke from the detonation clouded the sky, making each day a day of despair and shadows. No one person could survive the attacks, none of the people had a chance, because those monsters, they were watching us. Carefully, they watched, waiting for the moments when they could strike, and strike they did.

Internet porn: down; nudity picture: gone; liars: killed; over-eating: disappeared. Now, only few morsels were available for food, and most of the town was destroyed or in flames, creating only more hazardous smoke. Then, there was the possibility that the monsters have moved on to another place, another town in Ohio. But, whether the disgusting (original) creatures moved on, or have stayed here, there was still the presence, the message, the deaths.

“Uhh! No, please, don’t hurt me,” a woman screamed from far off in the distance. I gulped, what was I going to do? Many times before had I chased away the animals, but it was becoming harder and harder to do now that the smoke was infecting my lungs, and I had little energy to run away.

My legs sprouted off, past the open entrance to Their lair. Faster and faster, I couldn’t feel the wind anymore, just pure energy being exerted out of my body. My limbs were becoming numb, my whole body was… then, I jumped. Down I fell, faster and faster. The ground was coming closer, as were the screams. Thump. I hit the ground.

“Who are you?” the masculine voice asked me. The deep throat cracked as the towering grey and brown blob turned around and stared at me with its lack of eyes; reflecting me, almost mirroring my being without having the orbs placed in sockets; these things were so unreal.

“Help me, Miss, please,” the woman, torn and about to be broken in two, said in the arms -- arms is a limb, a limb connected to the shoulder, but this thing had no arm, no shoulder. It was like a giant ball of brownish-grey mush -- of the crazed fiend. Her hair was falling out, and her cloths were tattered and barely staying on her withering body.

The woman was frozen; she was the painting in the museum that everyone would stop to stare at, but she wasn’t a painting or a sculpture, she was afraid.

Fear wasn’t something I was used to. Not since I found out about my power. But, in this woman, I saw fear, something that couldn’t be forgotten when this was all over - almost like rape. The experiences of this… year, had it been a year? Maybe even longer… catastrophe had everyone shaking. But a few others and me had the poisonous gas fill our lungs, contaminating them with the unfiltered air, making us invincible. Invincible for only a short time. A short time, almost. The gases and clouds in our lungs caused us to keep dying off. Slower and slower the pain would seep into the veins and sometimes it’d be fast; jumping off a building without being able to land right. Then, there were times when the pain lasted for months. Just the thought of having to deal with all brought weakness to my body. Strange things have been happening, that being one: fear.

“Miss?” she coughed, her eyes closed slowly and the monster laughed a long and twisted laugh. Evil laughter filled my ears, “What are you to do now? Adelaide, you’ve missed your chance.” His voice was deep, at least, I thought it was a he, and malevolent, ready to feast.

A lump formed in my throat; there was no way that I could let this thing beat me again. He tossed the woman aside, literally catapulting her against a large pile of rubble and brick. He raised his arms - really blobby no shaped globs, reaching out to me. “You will pay, for challenging His authority.” He blubbered out.

“Him?” I mocked, disgusted. The fact of these horrid creatures preaching God’s book. They kill the sinners, but they, themselves stayed on the world, killing innocent humans, spouting some garbage about the Bible and how He was all mighty, and fighting for peace. “You piece of trash,” I barked at him.

“Get away from me, Sinner,” he mouthed back. He raised his arm and shot a bolt at me. “Die Offender!”

“Sir, what do you think will happen if we get this to work?” a man dressed in black asked, tapping another man on the shoulder and pointing to the three machines that surrounded them, filling most of the room.

“Alan, if we get these machines to function, it’ll be like God is watching over us, deciding who should be forgiven, and who should rot in the fiery depths of hell.” The man jabbered on and on about the machines to his faithful companion. Only, Alan’s face was pale, the whitest shape of white. He wasn’t ready to make a decision this big. And how was a machine able to make such a difference to anyone? To them, to Him?

Another man dressed in black came up to the elder of the group, “Sir Joseph, things have seemed to …” he was hesitant about what to say, “failed,” he continued, holding a clipboard in his hands, his eyes met the floor, and his head was slouched.

Joseph looked upon him in disbelief, “What do you mean, failed?” his eyes grew twice their size and his face flamed up in a furry of red.

“I mean that the one machine, it started, as we thought, but somehow, it managed to…,” the new comer searched for the right words in his head. It was becoming harder and harder to focus on anything but the orbs of metal and what they could do for the world. “Almost explode.”

“David away from me, at once,” rubbing his temples, Joseph walked away from his group, finding his way to the bathroom. Assuring himself he was alone, he stared into the mirror. What he saw was not to his liking: a grey old man, about to break under the pressure. Under his pale blue eyes, a series of black circles smiled, teasing him about his age. The once abundant golden brown locks had long disappeared, leaving him with white stubs, covering only the bottom proportion of his scalp.

“For years,” he murmured, “I’ve been working on this - this phenomenon… and yet, My Lord has not once spoke to me as he did that day. Savor, if you can hear me,” he looked up, away from the mirror, into the ceiling and whispered, “if you hear me, please Sire, help me reconstruct what you told me to so many years ago. Please, don’t let this be a waste… but, of course, working for you has never been a waste, and never will be.” He stopped. The restroom door swung open, revealing a huffing man with dark black hair.

“What is it, David?” the pastor asked bitterly.

The clipboard in his hands were shaking, along with his body, “We’ve got it processing, Sir, it may work this time!”

The men rushed out of the room, leaving the wooden clipboard behind, rattling on the ground. Was that the start of it all? What it David, or Joseph?

Adelaide laughed as she jumped away, feeling some sort of pressure on top of her. She moved her arms once her feet hit the side of the decaying wall, but she couldn’t bounce back off. A cold wet being leaped on her back, and the pressure of the Brakend made her loose balance and fall, face first, into the rocky pavement. “Get off of me!” I screamed, feeling my brown hair being pulled from my scalp. “You wretched, lie-believing, fake loving, atrocious creature, get off!” I screamed more, but the cries were drowned out by the shrieks of the fiends. They were going to be more here soon. All of them, coming, they were summoning more of their kind. I felt the fear, my life flashed in my eyes; it was the smell of death. Death was coming to me, or even worse than that Transformation.

My eyes began to swell, tears were something I hadn’t felt in so long. Now, I was about to die, my soul was going to be lost in a sea of crazy. Slowly, I opened my eyes, it hurt to see the main honcho creeping up on me; his fangs dripping with drool, waiting for lunch.

The woman, she was awake. She mouthed me a thank you - something I was never to forget, a sign of humanity left in this world. The horrible, eager to kill world. Off she went, carefully making her feet work faster along the gravel. Soon, she was gone, and a dozen Brakends were around me.

I smiled, smirked, and coughed: “I wasn’t too late.”

“Now… Adelaide, an apology.”

News report.

“Today was just another day. The clouds didn’t change, the smoke still there… but this time, heroes. A string of hope in Alansville. After the Millen brothers came alive, and began killing and transforming these people, all hope had died. Faded with time, our dreams destroyed with a single idea, and idea that God had said Himself.

“You heard me correct, heroes. Mysterious men and woman - no, scratch that, children, teen-agers - have been found sprouting around, hurting, disabling this horrible creatures that have taken over our town. Can they help us relinquish God’s will? Or, will the Brakends get to them, before they get to them?

“God, is He real, does He speak, or is it all a load of bull? No one knows. Instead of dying and coming back to life, there is only one way to find out. Father Millen and his brother, Dr. Millen. But, until then, there is no way to find out. And, not knowing could lead to dire consequences.”

The television screen went black. This was the only way to know what was going on around. There was only local generators, and after all the energy was used up, the rest of the town would be destroyed, and the Brakends would move on, to the next city and the next… soon, there may be no more humans left on this world.

A/N: soooo here's number two. i'm working hard on this!! really, i am! so. here's we go. please review, and tell me what you thought. how can i make it better, tell how lame it is, i don't care. a review is a review. haha.

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