Corrupt Winter

[Orombur]

((Yes, this is a story for the thread that failed. This will be written by me and Yaicon.))

Prologue

It looked like something out of a horror movie. This creature, whatever it was called, was walking on all fours and looked a lot like an insect. It had three sets of legs, one attached to the back and two at where it's abdomen would be. There was a pair of sharp, blade like attachments jutting out of the abdomen. And its eyes. Those were probably the worst part of the creature for Chris. They were oversized fly eyes.

Christopher Roul lifted the hunting rifle he had gotten only a few months ago from his parents as a birthday gift. The scope just made it a little low of a shot. He aimed the crossbars just above the monstrosities head and pulled the trigger.

The bullet bounced right off the top of the creature's head. Chris had done no damage whatsoever to it. The creature just continued feasting on his neighbor, seeming not to have noticed Chris' shot at all.

"Chris, what are you doing?" The voice was that of his father, named Ian Roul. Chris turned to face Ian, still hearing the sounds of the bones of his neighbor crunching as the creature ate him. "We've gotta go!"

"We need to stay here and defend the town," Chris shouted back through his scarf. Just a month ago, the weather had gone bad. The Earth's scientists had released some chemical into the air trying to combat global warming. The chemical had done its job, but it never stopped working after that. Now, the Earth had entered a second Ice Age, and with it came these creatures.

"Are you crazy? You'll die if you do that! The military isn't here yet!" Chris aimed his rifle at the back of the creature's neck and took fire. He was rewarded with the sound of the creature screaming and the bullet burying itself in flesh. Chris smirked. There was their weakness. He fired another shot into the flesh.

"Let's go!" That was Chris' mother. Chris spun between the creatures that seemed to be advancing and his parents. He wanted to stay here and defend the town, but he knew there was little more that he could do other than get killed.

Chris turned and ran to his parents, regretting every minute of it.

((Edit: Wow...That was a lot shorter than it looked...This is only the first part of the Prologue, Yaicon's is next.))

[theredbaron]

Glad to see something like this has not been forgotten. I enjoyed reading that thread, though I never took part in it.

[Orombur]

((Thanks Walder...Even though it never got off the ground...

Yaicon and I had been mulling this over for a while and decided that this would be the best thing to do. We never wanted to leave this idea in the dust.))

[Yaicon]

Henry Walker looked around the cabin of his V-22 Osprey. The left and right walls were lined with seats, twenty-four in total. But this large, tilt-rotor, transport aircraft’s cargo consisted of one passenger: Henry. His briefing from General Keyes was simple: “Strike fast and strike hard.” And that was exactly what he planned to do.

Henry was a massive man, standing almost seven feet tall, with broad shoulders, arms that could rival a bear’s, and hands that could encompass a grown man’s head. He had chiseled facial features, and his hazel eyes were almost permanently concealed by his black sunglasses. He wore a large coat made of polar bear fur, to keep warm and hidden in the snowy environment.

Henry had been trained by the best of the best. He had served in the British Special Forces; the American Green Berets; the Russian Spetsnaz, and the Chinese Red Army. Henry Walker was a human survival machine. But, all the training in the world couldn’t have prepared him for when the creatures emerged.

The global chemical agent released into the atmosphere to combat global warming had worked too well. It hurled the world into a second ice age. The subterranean creatures, arbitrarily known as the Nydod, had sensed the colder climates above, and left their deep, underground burrows by the millions; hunting down and killing everything in their path. They were reclaiming their prehistoric territory. Thick hides made the Nydod immune to almost all current firearms, showing barely any weaknesses that could be effectively exploited. Their ability to quickly dig through the ice, and reappear anywhere, made them difficult to track. But, the Nydod had an even more terrifying trait: they were intelligent. They knew how to kill, adapt, and utilize their advantages against the human race. The Nydod knew basic strategic tactics, and could cooperate to hunt in packs surrounding and razing unsuspecting cities. All of this, in under a month.

Henry chuckled. “Those poor freaks won’t know what hit ‘em. In a few days, I’ll have ‘em running back to their holes, wishing they never fucked with Henry-‘The Bull’- Walker!”

“You make sure you kill one of those bastards for me, Bull,” A deep voice yelled back from the cockpit. “Hoo-rah!”

“You bet I will,” Henry said with a grin. “What’s your name, pilot?”

“Augustus Cole,” He said “But folks just call me Gus.”

Henry stood up from his seat, and walked through a short hallway into the cockpit of the Osprey. “Well, Gus, where are you dropping me off?” He said as he eased himself into the co-pilot’s chair.

The swarthy man in the pilot’s seat, Henry noticed, looked almost as monstrous as he did. The only noticeable difference was that Gus’s eyes were almost as brown as his skin. “Some small city in Ohio,” Gus said. “Nooccar City, I think it’s called. People say it’s pretty infested.”

“Sounds like fun,” Henry said. “So, how long until we get there?”

“Right about now” Gus gestured to the cockpit window. The sky beyond was completely dark aside of two blinking red lights in the distance. He then slid his seat back, reached under the front console, and pulled out a single parachute, handing it to Henry. “Watch that first step, partner, it’s a doozy.”

“Thanks, Gus,” Henry laughed a throaty laugh, securing himself into the parachute. “You make sure you get home safely, you hear?”

Gus merely smirked, and waved Henry back into the cargo hold. Henry took the hint and left the cockpit. He took a deep breath and walked down the length of the cargo hold, checking and rechecking his parachute straps. “Here goes everything,” he murmured, lightly punching a blinking green button on the wall. With a click and a hiss, the back hangar door of the Osprey slowly opened, and the cold of the howling, outside air met Henry’s face.

“Feet first into a frozen hell!” Henry roared as he leaped from the cargo hold, and began a two minute free-fall before opening his parachute. About twenty feet from the ground, Henry spotted a lone Nydod feasting on the corpse of some poor unrecognizable creature. He instinctively adjusted himself to be directly over the Nydod. In one fluid motion, Henry unclasped his parachute, tucked his arms to his sides, and fell the remaining ten feet straight onto the back of the unsuspecting Nydod.

Henry heard a satisfying crack as the Nydod’s spine broke under his massive weight, and felt its legs give out as the creature slumped to the snowy ground. The legs on the Nydod’s back were protruding, sickly to either side of its insect-like body.

“That one’s for Gus,” Henry said, his voice muffled by his coat.

And with that, Henry trekked towards two more years of the most corrupt winter the world had ever seen.


((Haha. Was my entry supposed to be shorter...?))