I. THE REVELATION
For the next month the news feeds became more and more distressing, more and more grim. Reports showed that the creature population had grown to massive numbers and the hordes were becoming dangerously close to Washington D.C. where the news feeds originated. The military action taken in an attempt to curve the advance of the creatures had failed. Many governments had fallen into disarray. Society had been almost utterly destroyed. Those who did still survive had fled to remote wooded areas and even these were sure to lose their lives in the end. Everyone could feel the tension thicken in the air as the days wore on and the broadcasts became increasingly grave.
The creatures had obliterated every living thing in their path, eating live people and animals when they were available and even rotting corpses when live food wasn't available. The estimate was that some seventy to eighty percent of the world population was dead. Most of the armies had been destroyed. Most populated areas had been decimated. The world had lost its hope. It seemed that humanity would be lost.
The news feed in Washington D.C. reported that they had now lost contact with all of their sources but they would stay on the air reporting about the situation in their immediate vicinity. The last piece of information they had received was from London. An observatory staff there had sent an explanation and pleas for help into outer space via a ham radio setup with the antennae focused straight out from the earth. The question asked was, "Is there anyone out there who can hear us and if so will they be able to help?" but if there was an answer it was unknown.
The group sat in the theater watching the news feed and absorbing what they saw and heard with sadness when in an instant there was an explosion on the screen. People at the other end of the feed were screaming and then they saw it, one of the creatures. In an instant several more creatures had joined the first one and within just a short couple of minutes there was not another living person in that room besides the dragons. The biggest dragon looked directly into the camera for a brief moment just before the screen went to static and the news feed was gone. Several of them contemplated out loud about the possible cause of the single scar on one of that big creature's shoulder.
Misha didn't tell them that she had recognized the animal by the oddly shaped scales on its head. It had been a birth defect that the scientists had over looked because it didn't appear to be important and had eliminated that defect from every consecutive creature. Misha knew that from its size and that pattern to its scales it could only be one dragon. DRACO! This would be the last news feed they would ever receive. It would seem that mankind had all but lost the war... for now anyway. Misha's small group had to fight to remain hopeful because the urge to just give up was now looming ominously over their heads with every waking moment.
They knew there were other small pockets of humans living in similar facilities around the world, mostly scientists and support staff that were safely hidden away and completely unknown to the creatures. They knew that these facilities were communicating with each other via an emergency frequency on a network of satellites used specifically for emergency communications between U.S. sanctioned research teams. They also knew that Misha's efforts to get the communications systems up and running had been fruitless. She had tried since they had gotten Mother operational but nothing worked, she couldn't seem to revive their communication capabilities.
*****
Finally, while they ate dinner one evening Misha was able to give them the news that she had found a way to get the communications working. There was a communications tower just outside the resort that hid the second entrance. From the entrance it would be about a half mile hike through thick woods to get there. This communication tower was disguised as a radio signal repeater tower for a local radio station and the communication cables led directly up underneath it. This tower had been used as a backup in case the communications went down and that was what was so exasperating to Misha about this problem. The backup was down too and she couldn't figure out why until she accessed the surveillance feed from a small room at the base of the tower and saw that a car driven by someone apparently trying to escape the creatures had driven off the access road and right into the side of the tower. The tower itself wasn't damaged but when she swiveled the camera around she saw that a piece of metal trim, like that of a screen door or something similar, had pierced a control panel. After carefully querying Mother, cursing under her breath about the bad luck of this development and checking the inventory of parts she found a replacement for the panel but... someone would have to go up there to repair it.
