Warning: Rated M for language, eventual lemons, and a fuckton of gore.

A/N: Thank you to our amazing beta, givemesomevamp, and our prereaders cullen818 and Edward's Chipper. We appreciate your support on this crazy little fic! SMeyer owns all, we just make her characters scream in terror.

We also have to give special props to EdwardsChipper for coming up with our collab name. Thanks bb. Nothing else would do.

"When the Jews return to Zion
And a comet fills the sky
And the Holy Roman Empire rises,
Then you and I must die.
From the eternal sea he rises,
Creating armies on either shore,
Turning man against his brother
'Til man exists no more."

-Father Brennan

"The Omen"

I leaned back against the rickety antenna, hoping it didn't collapse under my weight. It only groaned and protested for a moment before falling silent, so I made myself comfortable, if only for a moment. It's not like I had much down time nowadays. Taking a moment for myself was a rarity, one that I've learned to appreciate since hell on earth began. I'd always heard to appreciate the little things, but it never made much sense to me until now.

I pulled out a pack of smokes and the lighter that I had swiped down at the convenience store earlier today, trying my damndest to wipe the memories out of my head as I lit one up, taking one long, deep drag. I tried to think of happier times before all this began, but it seemed so long ago. I'm not sure if the good times ever really existed. Maybe I'd just been conjuring them up to help deal with all the carnage and loss.

I realize it was pointless to bask in the blissful memories. It only makes me long for them even more. It's hopeless to think things could ever be good again. Butting out my Marlboro, I reclined once again to look up at the stars.

At least they hadn't changed. So much had, though. This corner of our world had fallen apart. Pulled down into the depths of hell; pulled down into insanity. We should have left this place, snuck out and headed somewhere to begin again. We should have counted our losses and never looked back. But we kept clinging to stupid fucking ideals that might be the end of us: fate, love, and hope.

We're risking our lives. We'd throw ourselves onto the grenade to save our family in the foxhole. We'd rise out of the trenches and charge the enemy, dying like maggots under a blowtorch. We'd strap bombs on our former friends and blow them up in the midst of our adversaries. Because of our ideals and the need to correct our mistake, we were spiraling down into insanity, doing things most wouldn't dare . Some of us do it for our friends, some for our family, some due to guilt, and some for their own flesh and blood.

Flesh and blood. That's what our lives had become. They consume the flesh, we consume the blood.

END NOTES:

We are dying to know what you think. We've worked hard on this and plan to update weekly. Since this was so short, we'll post the next update tomorrow night. We'll post on Saturdays from there on out.

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HammerHips & JaspersIzzy