Chapter 2

I was surprised to see a chopper waiting for us when we left the building, though I shouldn't have been. A mission of this prestige, of course they were going to allocate a helicopter. It really helped impress upon me how important the next week was going to be. I hadn't seen a chopper since I was a little girl; it was said that there were only three left in the United States. I wondered where they were going to set us down.

The goblin city - god, I hated saying that. It wasn't even close to New York, where the goblins had first broken out. They'd taken New York in less than a month, and started spreading like a virus from there. At the same time, men had started dying - it was assumed to be an attack on the US, at first, but as the population died out and no one came to invade, knowing what started it stopped being a priority. The only important thing was stopping it.

They took New York, then Philadelphia, Washington (D.C.), Boston ... and everywhere in between. Even towns where they didn't have a foothold suffered regular attacks, and the constant, persistent eradication of men. Some men just weren't affected, but most died within a few days of contact with a goblin, or anyone who had had contact with a goblin, or anyone who had had contact with anyone who had had contact with a goblin...

The entire East Coast was gone. Every city, over-run by goblins. The West Coast is safe, for now ... safe from goblins, at least. Men are still dying out everywhere you look. I don't know if the goblins have taken any other countries - I can only assume so, because no one came to help us. No one did anything when the power went out across the US, and no one did anything when trade and communications stopped. I figure if the internet going down didn't rouse anyone, there was probably no one left to be roused.

Goblins are hive animals. Individually, they're cunning, and hunt as a pack, but they act purely on instinct, and without a Queen they don't last long.

The only reason we've survived as long as we have is because they fight amongst themselves - when a Queen reproduces, she leaves, taking half of the tribe with her. They leave for a new town, and if it's one of the few human cities left, there's a battle that ends with either the goblins dying, or the humans evacuating. If it's already a goblin city, there's an even mightier war, and one of the tribes is completely wiped out.

If the race as a whole were to start working together, humanity would be fucked. As it is, we're in with a fighting chance - so far we've been steadily losing, but we're still fighting. We're still alive. We're still fighting.

The goblin city, Denver, was up ahead. We had a drop point outside of town, out of the Queen's range. There was a chance we'd encounter a few stray goblins out here; nothing we couldn't handle, and as long as the Queen is where our intel says she is, she won't be able to see through their eyes and know that we're coming.