Shifter The Invasion

THE MOVING SHADOWS

        Regaining my consciousness, I opened my eyes to see smoke from outside. It brought back the trauma from my past and caused my body to move on its own. panicked I stood up and looked around like a crazy person looking for any signs of life. Even the slightest movement of the leaves spooked me out. I took a glance at my watch that showed the time and saw that it was late. I was supposed to wake up after two hours but it seems that I misjudged how tired my body was. I climbed down leaving Asher behind not wanting to wake him up. I saw that all of their tents were already closed and the lights were out which was understandable because it was already nine in the evening. I walked closer to the dome and observed the forest from the inside and all I saw was a glowing purplish mist that's covering everything. As I was patrolling the perimeter a voice called me and made me flinch.

"WH-AT!" I blurted out surprise that anyone was awake at this hour.

"Sorry, are you ok?" She asked, concerned by how I acted.

"Yeah...I'm ok, just a little jumpy." I said as I fixed myself.

"Sorry if I scared you. I was just wondering why you're awake. It's... pretty late."

"Oh yeah I couldn't sleep so I was just looking around. How about you, why are you still up?" I return the question.

She told me that an Idea came to her as she was preparing to go to sleep and she just started to work on it without thinking. She didn't realize that it was already night time since she was so into it. As she talked I couldn't help but wonder about the smoke outside and whether or not it might have caused trouble.

"Ael?" She called to me noticing how disoriented I was.

"Sorry, w-what did you say? I didn't mean to be rude like that." I apologized as I turned my gaze back to her.

"Is there something wrong?" She asked with a concerned voice.

I wasn't going to answer her question at first but she looked at me with sincerity and I ended up telling her.

"I- I was just wondering, The smoke outside. Is it... is it deadly?" I asked with hesitation .

"Oh... that? don't worry about it, Donna tested it before she went to bed. It didn't contain any chemicals that can harm us but she also said that inhaling too much might lead to breathing complications. Was that the thing that's been bothering you the whole time?" She asked after explaining everything.

"yeah..." I replied with an awkward laugh.

"It's going to be fine." She said, with a smile.

I was about to ask another question but then rustling sounds from the bushes surrounding us echoed, cutting our conversation short. We stayed silent for a while observing the weird sound that seemed to move closer towards us. Loraine turned towards me and our eyes locked. I saw that she was confused but assured her that it was probably nothing before I went around to check. It could be some lost animal or a strong wind that caused the loud sound. I flashed the light on my hand everywhere while maintaining a safe distance from the dome but I still couldn't see anything because of the mist.

"W-what is it?" She asked as she approached me.

I was about to reply but then a shadow moving fast caught my attention. It was tall and didn't move like any creature I have ever seen.

"Did you see that?..." I asked without thinking.

"What... was...that?" She replied with shaking hands.

As I took one more step backwards the shadow appeared once again. Its movement is visible due to the lights surrounding the dome. Judging by its structure this creature isn't one of the inhabitants of this forest. This being her is odd and defies my logic.

"Move slowly..." I instructed Loraine as I did the same.

This creature seems to observe our movements. They can sense even the slightest change of their prey. This isn't just some lost animal or a wind passing through. This is something else and it's coming towards us. I was about to approach the tents when a loud thud startled me and when I turned around I saw cracks forming on the dome. It was trying to get in and we can't do anything about it at all. The dome was designed to warn us but it was never designed to protect us. High damage will easily break the barrier. The loud sound managed to wake the others up and they were as surprised as I was when they saw the cracks. They slowly got out, confused by the sudden events and stayed there standing, staring blankly as the cracks slowly grew bigger. not even one of us moved nor did anyone speak. Stunned and helpless devoured by our own thoughts. The cold breeze of the forest grazed my skin and made me unable to process everything. Then the loud thud was heard once again as we all saw the same shadow throw itself against the dome. Every bone in my body was shaking, horrified by the scene unfolding before me. Then Donna spoked and broke the tension. With shaking voice she slowly said.

"Ael.... t-he rings... it's glowing."

As she said that I turned my gaze to my hands and saw the friars glowing bright. I guess we were all so distracted, too terrified that we didn't notice it until now. The rings glowing can only mean one thing, Shifters have hunted us down. As that thought sank in, my trout suddenly felt dry and at that moment I knew that I could only manage to use a few words before I completely lost my voice. So without thinking I ordered everyone to protect themselves and stay alive no matter what.

Then after that the dome and the barrier lost power and finally broke. Everything was unclear at that time. All I saw was smoke rushing towards us and Liam running towards Loraine. Then my sight became dark and foggy, I could barely even see within six feet. Then the next thing I know I was on the ground, being pulled by this huge tentacle. I screamed my lungs out as I fought to get out of its grip but it was strong and it felt like it was slowly crushing my bones. I didn't have any weapons with me beside a small dagger that I always kept around my belt. Left with no options I used the dagger and stabbed it continuously for what felt like hours but then Asher came to my rescue, using his sharp claws he slashed the tentacle in half and set me free. He then tossed my bags and my weapons towards me as he fought with the shifter giving me a chance to put my bluster together. As I finished I saw the shifter coming closer and closer towards me. Asher was no match for it at all. It was huge, strong and fast. With one flick of its tentacle hands Asher was completely blown away. Then its flimsy tentacle turned to a sharp form resembling a polished sphere. It held its arms high as it moved closer towards us. Panicked, I pressed the recharge button and aimed at it as I held my breath and waited for the power to go up. At the last second where the distance between them was inches away, the power reach four bars and I pressed the trigger, blowing its brains to bits and as if moving in slow motion it's body fell, hitting the ground hard.