Chapter 8

Ryder looked up at the night sky. The crimson tint was everywhere though less bright which made it settle against the dark to form a quilt cover of dark red. This was barely visible unless one stared up at the sky and noticed a lack of stars.

Ryder was one of these that looked up as he always did at what used to be a lake of twinkling stars but now was just a bland cover of dark red. This troubled him constantly that even the sky seemed to be dying under the relentless attacks.

Noises sounded in the distance, whether this was shell fire or thunder was unknown, the man simply acknowledged the presence of it and continued to look up. He was lying down, back to the bonnet of a Humvee as a few others sat close by and mumbled their convocations softly. No one, not even those with weapons stood alone anymore

The distant shriek of a jet passed them by a formation of F-16s cut through the sky unseen by the men above the constantly low invisible clouds. Ryder had heard from the pilots that no matter how high up they went the red colour seemed to only increase as visibility became poorer. Despite these relatively quiet noises the night was still and calm.

A solider walked over to the Humvee and was directed to the bonnet where he spoke up half unsure whether the staff Sergeant was awake or asleep

"Sir, the company has been ordered ... sir?"

"I'm awake, corporal, go on"

"The Company has been ordered to Houston to reinforce the garrison there. The platoon needs to mobilize and join the next convoy heading out of here"

"What's the RVP?"

"One will messaged to you when it has been established" Ryder laughed out sharply

"They haven't even thought of a meeting point, oh they must be worried"

"Sir?"

"We're moving now"

As the solider walked away, Ryder chuckled to about the military as they seemed incapable of planning ahead. He thought to his dreams, they had been getting slowly worse and more frightening, with the feelings they emitted being sharper. Even still staring up at the stars he could recount what he had seen.

At first there was darkness as always, the air was humid but cold almost icy. Screams suddenly came from all around him as the temperature slowly rose higher, the noise split Ryders' eardrums open and though he could not see anything at all, he felt the thick liquid truckle from his ears.

Something suddenly knocked him on his right shoulder and he turned around to face it but could see nothing. More screams joined in the first making the noise unbearable and making the man hold his ears and grit his teeth.

This time something grabbed him on the right shoulder and spun him around. The face in front of him now could be seen clearly, it burned the picture into the back of his mind. The long since dead flesh still hung in places from the bones of the face. The eyes were bloodshot and clear veined which were transfixed onto him in a cold dead stare

The bones that made up the figures' head were old and grey as if they had existed since the dawn of time. The mouth still had a full set of teeth though yellow and cracked as if all necessary features had been retained. Most of the head was covered in a dusty grey robe that hung down to just above the eyes and seemed to be encrusted with small bones all around the edges.

As Ryder backed away in fear from the figure he noticed there was a dagger driven into the chest where the heart should be, it glowed red slightly from the blade, the figure appeared not to notice it at all. The robed thing suddenly lunged forward at Ryder.

As the bony finger grabbed onto the man he awoke violently from his slumber with a sharp intake of breath. His chest seemed cold and his hands felt numb. He had no idea what he had seen but it seemed real unlike the feelings of past dreams, all he had since he was born were nightmares, endless things.

The platoon was assembled, loaded onto their vehicles and moved off to join the company column heading to Houston. Most military bases in the north were still operational but those in the south especially those along the Mexican border had been silent for some time. There were reports from recon teams of a sizeable hoard of Exclamber moving from the south up the coast towards the capital city.

These were being supported it seemed from a smaller group coming from the east, this group had been raiding towns and villages everywhere despite efforts from military forces. The staff sergeant was riding high on the lead LAV as it zoomed along the main road which lay completely empty

The radio inside the transport was buzzing constantly with chatter between units already engaged in combat with Excalmber scout units. Occasionally the signal would clash with paramilitary groups of civilians forming together as resistance in areas abandoned by the military

Soon Houston was close; barricades were being set up all throughout the suburban areas as the National Guard fortified all routes in where they could. The city was split into sectors that were supposed to be completely independent of each other and fight off any attacks. Though they were still a few miles out the chatter over the radio was already increasing

Immediately Ryder noticed the sectors to be ineffective but assumed this was the result of the hastily erected defence structure.

As the sun emerged up over the edge of the landscape something happened.

Blood red bolts shot up from the ball of fire into the sky almost as if the sky itself was being cut open. These bolts were zigzagged and left their trail behind them that slowly expanded outwards, enveloping the sky itself

Red thunder poured out from the wounds carved and spread all around the formation as the staff Sergeant looked all around in panic and bewilderment. The red lightning bolts struck out chased by the roaring thunder that echoed out across all the land. As this was happening the radio went completely silent, it was not broken as soon exclamations sounded from a few. This was happening everywhere.

As the thunder and lightning scarred the sky dark red clouds shifted rapidly towards the column from the Easterly direction. Ryder focussed his vision in on these clouds as they seemed to have formed slowly out of nowhere but was shown up by the red emergence of the storm.

His eyes widened as he suddenly realised that the cloud was made up of living things. The Exclamber birds moved their undeniable way towards the city in a swarm of terror. Ryder ducked down into the LAV and shouted to the nearby commander