Kait stumbled along the passageway, the dim lights overhead flickered occasionally as she tried to navigate through the tunnels, monsters roared behind her. Kait took a sharp left and was surprised to find herself in a cavern, the gap in the wall on the far side an entrance to a mine. The other gap in the cavern was an exit. She broke off into a sprint the cavern wasn't at all wide, but it felt like a thousand miles, something roared and bullets tore past her.

Kait ran out of the opening and into the cover of the woods. The trees, once full of life, stood silently under the cold gaze of the moon. Drones tore after her, Scions loomed ominously and Juvies yelped and screamed. She ran, her bow gripped tightly in her fingers, arrow at the ready. Branches snapped and she could hear the steady swish and crack of brush being plowed. Kait tried to look through the leafy branches for any sign of her location, and when that proved useless she scanned through the trunks and undergrowth for a field, maybe, any semi-open place.

Then it caught her attention. The reflection of the moonlight in the distance on some sort glassy surface.

A lake!

. . .

Baird stood and watched intently at the displayed screens. The cameras under the Condor, the metal bird speeding faster than its "regular" speed. The others had gathered around: Sam, JD, Del, and Cole. The trees the plane had been had been flying over turned into a drop off, hundreds of feet down, into some sort of valley. Off I the distance, mountains loomed ominously, there craggy peaks disappearing into the clouds.

"Damn! Hope Marcus is okay!" Cole said loudly, "and Kait too. Damn!" Baird couldn't judge him. He never openly admitted things like this, but he was worried too.

As the mountains got nearer, all they could do was hope for the best.

…

Kait hugged the space between the shoreline and the tree line. Shouting.

Maybe these villagers hadn't heard the sirens, but when they saw the monsters behind her they either ran or pulled a gun out of nowhere, and started firing. Kait ducked into an alleyway and tried to calm her breathing. She saw many of the Swarm fall. But dread crawled into her stomach when she saw shapes take form on the rise, howling and roaring. Of course they found a way around. Pushing to her feet, she walked into a house. A woman and a child sat huddled in the corner. Kait pointed towards the back door. "Go, don't stop. To the North Ridge." They didn't hesitate, immediately running away.

Many followed the woman, out into the woods, opposite of the fight. Kait saw a Drone sneaking up from behind a man, drew back and released the arrow. The arrow buried into its neck and it toppled with a thud. She didn't have time to see if the man noticed, she just ducked into what appeared to be a makeshift warehouse. Rows upon rows of fishing equipment and weapons on the shelves.

In the back she heard scuffling. Like the sound of a rat on a wooden floor. This was a big rat.

She rounded the corner and immediately on instinct, knocked an arrow, and shot the Drone before it could turn around. Kait pulled the arrow out from between its shoulder blades and started towards the back. She cleared the rooms one by one. The biggest room, an office, was, however, occupied. The Speaker turned and grinned, its lips curling. This one wielded a giant battle axe. And when she shot at it, it brought its arm up suddenly and the arrow glanced off to the right and whistled into the dark.

She backed up, into the hallway, into the main space, the Speaker walking slowly after her. She found a rack of knives and started throwing them rapidly. The first two were at its face, but in the process to block the knives with the axe, the monster exposed the part of its stomach not hidden under a thick chest plate, the third knife—which she had expected to glance off its hide—sunk into the beasts abdomen. It howled in pain and stumbled backwards. She reached for another knife throwing after the other. The Scion had composed itself again, and knocked the knife aside with its hand as though it were a pestering insect.

"Weak!" He growled.

With its free hand, it pulled the knife from its stomach and hurled it at her. Kait tried to dodge it but it grazed her neck, hot blood pouring down it. And another followed right into her thigh, and the third.

Right into her stomach.

Kait hissed in pain and immediately reached down, and pulled the knives out. Probably not the best idea, but she didn't care, not with a giant monster trying to slice her in halves. This would be how she died. Something must've been damaged from the blade that pierced her abdomen. But pain was a far way concept right now, the wounds just bled, and bled.

So she would die of bleeding to death, nice.

Something began to trickle down her face, around the corner of her eyebrow and eye, and down her cheek in streaks. The scab was open once more. The Speaker rounded the corner and laughed, an awful booming laugh.

"Your kind are puny. Your worthless lives mean nothing."

"Then why do you keep killing us then? Obviously you need us to make your army that makes us seem a bit important." Kait called back.

Kait stood up, glaring. She was bleeding from her face, neck, leg and stomach. Bruised all over. And covered in raw spots at the knees, elbows, and knuckles, and scratched everywhere else. It started walking again, slowly, as if it didn't care, Kait reached over her shoulder and drew an arrow from her bag.

The feathered end brushed her fingers as she stared down her arm, the tip of the arrow, right between its eyes, and then shot down, right into the wound she had already made. The arrow disappeared all the way up to the feathers. The Speaker stopped and fell to its knees. Blood dripping from the wound. Kait grabbed more knives and with every step threw one at it, five knives stuck out of it.

It was still breathing and when she crouched over it, it stared at her with those hideous eyes, cursing her quietly. Kait stared back, and started stabbing it violently. Blood sprayed across her clothes. This was considered overkill, but she didn't care, vengeance was very, very powerful.

She sat there, her knees pressed into the space between its arms and side—because she couldn't straddle it fully—planted a hand on its shoulder and hooked her fingers into the gap she had made under its chin, and pulled upwards, rising to her feet at the same time.

…

The Watchers deployed from the belly of the plane, and fell through the trees before hovering through the branches, heading towards the sight. The DeeBee's dropped next, setting a perimeter around the battlefield they viewed through the eyes of the Watchers.

Off to the left, a lake, and to the right. A bloodbath. He spotted villagers fighting the Swarm, some of the people were dead, and the Drones that littered the pebbled shoreline were in the dozens, their brethren—Juvies, joining them.

More people emerged from the trees, Baird felt relief when he saw Marcus emerge. Lancer blazing.

"The old bastard is alive. Woo!" Cole said, throwing a fist in the air. Sam was smiling, JD and Del looked somewhat relived.

"Yeah, man, but where's Kait?" Del asked. They all shrugged, staring at the screens like it was some epic battle scene from a movie.

Then all at once. The Swarm beasts' numbers were dwindling in the dozen. Then five . . . two . . . none. The tree line began to shake and more poured out, no longer just Drones, Juvies and Scions. Now there was everything from the Juvies to Carriers. Baird saw hopelessness flash through the villagers faces. The monsters didn't advance, neither did the people.

"Baird, attack them." Sam hissed. He shook his head, not yet.

Marcus glanced around through the crowd, like he was looking for someone, then shook his head, and returned his gaze to the massing numbers of beasts.

A lot of the building had been destroyed, except one.

A warehouse, which doors were open slightly, Baird saw the shadows move behind it, and thumbed a control to zoom in more.

…

Kait refused to limp out of the building, so she walked out, glaring, like her thigh and stomach were bleeding tremendously, like she didn't look like she was a psycho murderer, and saw the Swarm line about two hundred yards away, they all looked in her direction, she was the only one moving. Scions were considered leaders, but Speakers seemed like gods to the Swarm.

The look on the monsters—mostly Drones and Scions—faces was one of pure fear and astonishment, as she held up the detached head of their commander.

…

"WOO! That bitch crazy!"

Baird raised his eyebrows. Kait looked rough. Rougher than rough. Her hair wasn't in its usual ponytail-thing, but in a low bun at the base of her skull, she had a cut above her eyebrow, bleeding down her face. One on her neck, and two more wounds that looked inflicted through stabs: one on her leg and the other through her gut. Damn, she was bleeding heavily too.

" . . .shit, she's tough." Sam muttered.

Under the blood sprays, Baird could make out a type of button-up shirt and a black tank top. Blue jeans and Converse. Looked more like a badass hero in their casuals to him.

The she tossed the head a few yards, it tumbled lifelessly, the jaw hinged loosely.

…

A Scion, the most decorated one she could see, bee lined towards her, roaring loudly. None of its soldiers moved after it. It swung some sort of club and Kait . . . did nothing, she didn't feel like doing anything, just bleed out and die. She was tired, she kept hearing things, like hissing and pounding. Maybe even growls and guttural chirps.

The Scion was twenty feet away, all Kait did was stare at the lake, the most peaceful thing in sight. She saw the club raise up and swing down.

Nothing happened.

Well, maybe the giant creatures head that snapped down over half of the Scion above her. That snapped her out of her daze. The beast shook its head violently back and forth, until the half of the Scion that had been hanging out, was sent flying across to the villagers. Kait turned, and saw it chew mechanically while bones snapped in its powerful black maw.

The creature snapped it jaws again and craned its dark blue-plated neck to stare down at her with its, angular, bony, nightmare head. The yellow eyes burned into her as it stared, blood dripping from its mouth onto her face. The beast shifted on its six legs and Kait saw the tail—split into three at the end, each tail ending in a serrated claw—moving subconsciously as it moved in a flicking manner.

Kait felt like she knew this monster. And she realized she did, she had seen it once, only half its gargantuan size and it hadn't killed her. She was only four at the time. Stumbling away from her parents when they were taking a hike through the woods, she remembered tripping and tumbling into a massive den, littered with skeletons of both humans and animals alike, unaware of the eyes watching her from the shadows.

It had seemed confused beforehand. Like it didn't understand why human creatures could be so small. It hovered close to her, and she had just stuck her hands into its nostrils and giggled. The creature reared back and stared at her curious. Kait hadn't seen most of its features besides the nose and part of the mouth, the rest of it obscured by shadows. But she knew now that this was the same one, just bigger. She must've thought it was a dream at the time, because dreams were the only places that monsters didn't kill you. Only in nightmares.

It blinked, then lowered its head, inspecting. Kait reached out, her hand mere inches from its faced, and poked the outside of one of its nostrils. The armored nose twitched. "I remember you." She whispered. It rose to full height. The part of the tail she had cut off with the machete had grown back, like a rejuvenation ability.

Kait saw black spots in her vision, and her hand went instantly to her stomach. She was going to die, bleeding out, just die, like all the other humans.

But the ground trembled, and the Swarm began to advance. The beast roared and leapt over her head, crouching defensively in front of her. She saw spikes push through the thick neck and shoulders, the claw extended to become longer and it hissed loudly. Kait took the bow off from over her head and knocked an arrow. Advancing, the rest of the villagers did the same. Kait saw Marcus, he nodded to her and took aim. Kait saw three Scions coming towards her. They released the war-gas and the Drones around them went crazy. Charging towards her.

Kait saw the monster look between her and a group of Snatcher's crawling towards it.

"Go." She said boldly. And she found herself surprised when it complied.

She had drawn back, staring down the arrow, and the world became blinding white.

…

Baird watched the bombs go off. Dirt and pebbles sprayed across the screen. DeeBee's broke the tree line, talking about suppressing the threat. Clouds of dust billowed upwards, and Baird could make out fires. And past those, monsters and humans alike. Fighting.

The Condor dropped more, blowing up a group of Pouncers and Juvies. Some of the cameras went out at first. Then they all did. And now he was blind.

…

She wasn't aware that she was moving. Her movements shaky and weak. She was just stumbling along, away from the fight. Bleeding heavily. She should've been dead by now, but she wasn't. Kait walked along the shoreline, and another bomb went off close by. Smoke and fire engulfed her and she felt intense heat entomb everything.

Then something cool and icy. Tugging her down into the liquid glass, that made her blood float above her in weird swirling patterns. She was fascinated.

And memories flashed through her mind.

Her mother. Father. Friends. Mutts. Animals. Climbing a cliff. Jumping from it. Swimming in a clear river. Other scenes from her life, happy moments with her family. Kait stared up, at the faint moon through the liquid, then it was red, a blood moon.

Then it was a red butterfly, flying far away.

And softly a woman sang.

Black feathers, and black wings,

Of a lonely death she will sing,

She will perch there, standing broken and alone,

Grieving for the loss of one of her own,

A loud boom sounded of in the distance, then faded into screams, matching the melody.

For there is a monster that lives in her head,

Making her do whatever it said,

Sinister bird, sinister beauty,

Her talons responsible for her undoing,

It's been stalking her for years,

Because it feeds on her fears,

The blood pools in the dust, it does not disappear,

Only washed away by the raven's tears,

She saw black spots in her vision, and a fuzziness settled over her mind.

The raven's lonely cry echoes through there,

The feathers slice through the air,

She cannot stay,

For the monster inside wants out to come play.

And the world went black.

…

Marcus watched and waited. The dust receded and he saw KR's storming there way, along with a Vulture. The monster that had eaten half of the Scion stared ahead, looking intent as it waded through the shallows of the lake. Marcus saw a KR land and some Lt.—Chutani, is all the name he caught. It was still dark out. The only light came from fires and the moon.

The creature roared and started leaping through the water, eventually swimming. People stared and then all at once, dozens of darts shot into it and hissed, thrashing wildly.

"Detain the monster. It comes back to New Ephyra." Jinn boomed over the radios everywhere. The stomach of the Vulture opened and a wide platform with thick black straps dropped down. It was completely dark until flashlights came on. Another Raven landed and people jumped out. Masks on and scuba suits as the platform lowered and Marcus saw them easily move it below the beast, toss the straps over and when they were done. The creature was lifted up. All six legs tucked neatly under it, and the straps tied it tightly to the thick metal board that held it.

Marcus saw the Vulture disappear over the trees, towards the mountains. And a Kestrel took its place, when its stomach opened, it revealed a claw, this time the aircraft did not turn on the flashlights, all Marcus could see was the metal contraption dip below the surface and come back up with something in its grip.

Marcus was pretty sure it was a body.

…

Sam locked herself in one of the labs in Settlement Four, she had refused to let anyone come with her, and had kicked everyone out of the lab except for a few co-workers that she trusted to an extreme extent. The birds were twenty minutes out so Samantha occupied herself with getting the sterile, white, lab space operational. She turned on machines and organized her tools on a large tray a robotic arm lowered for her. She set up a SAT—Suspended Animation Tank—and waited, her coworkers filed in, all wearing lab coats.

They all waited. Talking quietly to kill time. Then the Kestrel arrived, and Sam was flying down corridors of empty exam rooms and found herself in a square room. The roof opened and a metal claw lowered, then hovered at about three feet off the ground.

Sam had one of the others help her get the body off of the claw and they carried it to the lab. The Tank, about two meters in length had a domed glass lid, beside it, life monitors, temperature gauges, and scanners occupied the space. A rolling table held a jug of sterilizer and an assortment of surgical tools. They carried the body to the tank, Dahlia, an old nurse, thumbed controls and the glass dome lid slid back.

A light blue gel lined the bottom of the Tank, illuminated lightly by a white light underneath. They lowered the body onto it and the dome slid back into place. Holographic controls appeared on the glass and above it. Sam tapped them and dragged icons to certain places. Within minutes they had the body connected to the machines, and Samantha stared intently at the flat line that showed the pulse, the others were quiet.

"Come on . . . I know you're in there." She muttered. Seconds ticked by.

And then . . .

A pulse! It was only a few beats at first and then it grew stronger and powerful. Like the engine-heart of a Vulture.

She was alive.

Sam smiled. A few of the people clapped and started ordering each other around. Get the scalpels! Not until you turn on the transfusers! Asshole!Sam started tapping controls on the holographic interface displayed in front of her.

And for hours, it was nothing but back and forth between the SAT and an operating table that sprouted several metal arms holding lights like a robot octopus. They could've had the machines do it. Sterilize the wounds, stich them up, run vitals, inject anesthetics, plug blood packs into the transfusers. But Sam felt better doing it with her own hands, it felt safer. And finally after a long, long time, it was over. They watched intently as a laser sealed the last cut, on the calf, making a thin white line, a scar that would eventually fade over time. Possibly the next day.

"Hey, Byrne. Jinn requests you do research on the animal."

Sam's hands flew over the controls, it took her several minutes but she found the files. Several descriptions and articles told her why the lab had closed down, about the scientists. And then she found one with the animals. A small picture of the beast in a stasis tank, the one that Niles used for his Sires, or something like it. A short paragraph described it, and then at the end, its name. Skull Jackal. In the few sentences before her, it described that they had intended to use the animals in the Locust war, only to be shut down by the COG and their lab blow up. The animals that survived, were in few numbers.

Sam yawned and watched the vital display and ordered for the holographic interface to turn off, until it was just a steady hum of machines and Sam in the room. The others had gone to get food, and would be back in a few hours. Sam dozed off after a while, only to wake up in the same room, alone.

Well, sort of. Save for the body in the SAT across the room. The blinking lights of machines gave off a faint glow in the dark room, save for the Tank's light blue illumination from where she sat in the corner. Samantha got up and walked over to the Tank, peering through the glass dome lid, her breath fogging the glass.

"Hello, love."

And as though the girl had heard her.

Kait's eyes opened.

…

This is the ending of my first fanfic! Thank ya'll so much for reading it, I really do appreciate that, hope you enjoyed it, I'll probably be posting more soon—hopefully! And yeah, sorry if the name "Skull Jackal" sounds a bit dopey, I honestly could not think of any else at the moment. BTW Oscar and the twins are alive, they made it out and are heading to another village.