I wish I could say that all our preparations for the Creatures were unnecessary, that they never bothered us until we were rescued.

But that's too much to ask for. It always was. I just never realized it until now.

It's early morning, and we're all unprepared. I'm spending time with Constance when I hear screaming downstairs. I flew out of the room. I'm not the only one curious, but people quickly dart back into their rooms when I scream, "Don't stand in the way! Get back in your rooms! Take cover!"

I make my way to the weapons room, tripping over debris as I go. I hear a snarling noise behind me, and before I turn around, I know I'm screwed.

I face a wide, gaping mouth, yellow teeth shining in the morning sunlight. I take a step back, slowly, and it growls, approaching me. Without taking my eyes off of it, I bend down, pick up a metal rod. It lunges, and without hesitation, I swing, snapping the Creature's head clean off. I grab a small gun, load it, and run downstairs.

It's a whole swarm of them. I don't know how this happened, but I don't hesitate. I take aim and fire. And fire again. And fire again. Somehow the Creatures are more fragile than expected, because their heads snap off every time I make contact. I make my way to the upstairs stairwell, shooting and reloading as needed.

"Duck!" Someone screams, and I do. I hear the whistle of a bullet, and find that some of those that I've trained have armed themselves and decided to join the fight. Among those few, Constance stands, her red hair pulled back in a braid, a determined gleam in her eyes.

I force my way to her. "Constance, no!" I scream at her. "Go back-go hide, or-or something!"

"No!" she snaps. "I'm not backing out of this fight. Not for those who've I lost. I'm fighting for my family. For those lost in here. For Becca and your brother and your unborn child."

I can only stare at her. There's a small lump in my throat. Finally I say, "Fine."

Constance makes to join the fight, but I pull her back up the stairs. "Constance, I think there's a key in one of the closets," I say, remembering the soldier's advice and the trap door. "I think we need to get to the trap door." 

Constance widens her eyes. "We need to go to the med ward," she whispers.

"Why?"

"There's a key...they found one on the floor where the closet had been....I dunno what they did with it, though...."

"Awesome," I say, pulling her upstairs. I push my way to the med ward, because people forgot my warning and have flooded the hallways. I run into Elf as she's leaving the med ward. "Nate, aren't you suppose to be-"

"There was a key," I say. "Where is it?"

Elf seems surprised by this question. "I'll go get it, but why?"

"The trapdoor," I explain. "Go get it. Now!"

"I'll go get some more weapons," Constance says, and darts away.

"Here," Elf hands me a small silver key. "Where's Constance?"

"Here," Constance says, returning. She tosses me a huge, bad ass gun. "If we're going to make it to the bottom floor, we'll need weapons."

Suddenly it dawns on Elf what we're planning. "That's suicide!"

"So?" I ask, shouldering the gun.

"Are you insane? Do you want to die?"

"I don't have time to argue this, Elf," I say, backing away to the stairwell. But she grabs my arm. "I'm going with you."

"No, Elf-"

"I don't care," she says firmly. "I don't have much else to live for, do I?"

Since we've arrived, I think this is the saddest thing I have heard. "Elf...."

"I'm going," she says.

Recognizing defeat, Constance sighs and says, "Arm yourself."

I hand her the small gun that I used earlier, and we make our way through the next floors.

We pretty much just shoot our way down the stairs. There's a whole lot more than we realized, and the rumbling sounds more like explosions.

I hear a scream and I see a Creature has Elf by the hair. I shoot it in the head and it lets go. "Are you okay?" I ask her.

Elf nods and shoots down another one. "I'll be fine," she says shakily.

We don't run into any soldiers until the last floor. It looks awful down there. The building is teetering on little bits of wall, and the floor is blown apart in places. The soldiers don't notice us, and as we walk by, one is torn apart by a Creature. I shoot it in the chest, but it's too late. The soldier is dead.

"Give me the key," Constance mouths. Or maybe she says it out loud. It's too loud for me to make out anything. I hand it to her, and she and Elf dart off. No kiss from Constance or anything. I've never felt so miserable.

Then there's an explosion, louder than I've ever heard. It throws me off my feet and I smack down hard onto the floor. I think to myself, What a way to die.

Then I black out.