(BACK AT THE CHROME SHELTER)

Astra has been at the guard watch duty, her assigned role after Jada had finished coordinating them to clean up the inner shelter had been to keep watch of the entrance and she has been sitting and watching all the live feeds from the hidden cameras outside the gate of the Chrome shelter. It has been a day since they arrived. At night Mila could see nothing on the screen because it was dark and there was no lighting outside to avoid drawing the attention of the alien crawlers.

The next day at the break of dawn, while she was monitoring the outside of the gate, she noticed something peculiar. There was noise being picked up by the microphones of the hidden cameras outside the gate. She called Jada’s attention, and the two of them watched a cloud of dust gather and dissipate as a hovering bus arrived at the gates of the shelter.

There are about twenty people inside.

“These must be from the neighboring cities we were talking about yesterday,” Astra thought and immediately stood up from her sit.

“What do we do now?” she asked Jada, who at the moment is trying hard to recognize any of the people in the hovering bus that just landed.

“Either way, we have to open the gate and let them through before they draw the attention of the group of crawlers this way,” Astra added.

Jada was hesitant at first but also agrees with what Astra said, so she summoned everyone in the shelter at the moment and just by the large gate entrance, she pressed a few keys on what looked like a locker to Astra; it beeped a few times and swing a door similar to that of a bank’s safe open.

Inside it are a variety of different weapons, ranging from different guns, to very unique and well made melee weapons.

“This is the weaponry of the shelter, so stack up, in times like these. We have to be wary of other humans as well, not just the monsters. Pick two weapons of your choice and stand behind me. I am about to open the big gate.” She said.

Astra walked into the weaponry and begin to observe the kinds of weapons that are inside row by row, thinking and estimating which weapons will suit her fighting style, and which ones may prove useful against the alien monsters whose bodies bullets bounce off of.

“Come over here Astra, you should take this with you” Jada said.

Astra walked to where the old professor is and saw a bag on the floor.

“What is in it?” She asked, but the old woman only smiled and nodded her head.

After a few seconds of trying to open the bag but couldn’t, Jada walked back to her and put a hand on her shoulder, “ just hang the bag on your back and keep it with you at all times. In the mean time, take a fee other weapons that you are okay with using, I doubt we will be able to open and close the gate without a fight” She added.

Astra put the bag on her back and continued searching for weapons to use, she finally made up her mind to take a few guns and some hand grenades. She picked up an assault rifle, two military grade combat knives, military boots and a few hand grenades.

When they were all done choosing their weapons, they headed to the door, standing behind Jada as she initiate a sequence for opening the main door of the Chrome shelter bunker. Although standing next to Jada, Astra is still monitoring the situation outside and the people from the hovering bus are trying all that they can to open the door, but it has proven useless for them so far, this Astra has figured must be because there are no first-class citizens among them who know how to open the shelter.

In a few seconds, the hinges of the giant metallic door begin to move. And slowly, one of the two arms of the gate wings, swing open. Once open, all the people dashed inside the shelter, leaving their floating bus outside.

“bring in the bus,” Jada told Astra.

Astra walked to through the group of people running into the shelter, stepping outside and walking towards the bus. ‘I still remember the tutorial on how to fly one of these. The only problem is that this will be the first time I am going to fly an actual one,’ she said to herself, and steeled her resolve even more.

Now standing by the door of the bus, she pulled the lever and opened the door. She was just about to step inside when an enormous explosion was heard from just a couple of meters to the right. Jada and Khan, who are the only ones with enough guts to get outside the doors of the Chrome shelter, rushed out to see what was going on.

From the air, another hover bus was approaching the entrance of the shelter. It was similar to the one that Mila is standing next to. The only difference is that this bus is on fire, its four jet engines are firing out like crazy and the entire vehicle has been set ablaze, yet it keeps approaching them.

“It is a new bus, but I don’t think there is anyone in it that is alive” Astra shouted to Jada and khan as she pulls out a binocular telescope and zoomed the bus, she immediately changed her facial expression and she put her telescope back in her pocket. Grabbing the door to the bus in front of her and climbing in.

“That bus is full of them, the alien monsters. All the people in it must have been dead. Close the door now.” She shouted at Jada and khan who are standing right next to the open door of the chrome shelter.

She proceeded to get in the bus and closed the door behind her, starting the hover engines and floating the long vehicle successfully in the air, she looks to her right, the other bus filled with the aliens is about to crash on her so she trust her instincts and operated the bus as she has in the Multi-vehicle simulator that they had in Chrome City.

The gates of the chrome shelter have already been activated by Jada, starting to inch closer to one another slowly, closing up. She flew the bus away in the direction of the shelter entrance just on time to avoid the other bus which crashed in front of the shelter and exploded.

From the blazing flames that engulfed the destroyed behind her, Astra can see more than five of the aliens crawling out.

“fly in as fast as you can!” Khan shouted, while Mila did heard him and increased the speed at which she is approaching the entrance of the shelter, so did the crawlers. One of them turned and looked in the direction of the shelter entrance, it bent itself downward as in about to prostrate to the Vehicle that Astra was flying into the shelter.

With an upward motion, it began a nerve wrecking shriek that made everyone in the shelter, including Astra nauseate. As soon as the first one started, the rest of the monsters joined by taking the same posture, bending their front legs and lowering their heads. The sound that the make is as unearthly as their vicious appearance, it tells the person listening one clear massage; death, agony and carnage.

From the distance, Astra and her colleagues can hear the same blood curling shrieks rising and falling.

With Astra a few inches from entering the gates, the first of the crawlers to start making the noise jumped and started charging at the gate. In a few seconds she was inside the shelter doors but the large metallic doors were yet to close, she jumped out of the vehicle as soon as it stopped moving, standing next to six of her colleagues holding different kinds of weapons, prepared to defend the entrance of the shelter till the gates fully close.

“Do not let any of them get past the gate, we would lose if we allow even one in,” Jada shouted.

The gates are more than halfway closed at the moment, and the first crawler is about to reach the entrance. Without any kind of command, they begin to fire their weapons at it. Unlike the toughness that Astra had expected after battling the first of the crawlers that chased the all the way to the shelter, this particular one fell after a few magazines of bullets hit it.

It was not as fast, nor cold it dodge their bullet barrage. She took aim of the second one and hit it on the top of the head with her new assault riffle, although it didn’t kill it, it slowed it down, but more importantly it has penetrated the skin.

This gave Astra fresh hope and she changed her riffle to single fire so she can conserve ammo, taking decisive shots and taking the crawlers out one by one. However, this sudden advantage was turned around when one crawler slightly larger than the rest arrived from nowhere, it let out a roar that left Astra shaking in fear, the sight of it was true manifestation of terror and blood lust.

Immediately it stopped the shriek, all of the other smaller crawlers that Astra had initially thought have been killed or greatly disabled suddenly started standing up and responding to the larger one with a growl.

With a violent speed, the large crawler stared charging at the door, which is a few feet closing completely. Behind it chased all the other crawlers that have just woken up even though they have been shot down before.

She fired a shot at it, aiming for the neck, but the bullet simply bounced off and ricochet. This confirmed her suspicion that the larger one that just arrived is similar to the one that chased them from the city, the one that killed Sam.

She reloaded her gun and was about to start firing again when Khan dragged her away from the entrance, heading towards the inner parts of the bunker.

As they leave the spot, the large crawler arrived just before the gate shut, a few inches left and shoved one of its fore limbs into the gate, jamming it. Immediately, five of the smaller crawlers slipped through and entered the shelter.

Before Astra could say anything, one crawler ran after Tim, who is a slow runner. By the time she has freed her arm from Khan’s grip and took aim at the crawler, it has already sliced through Tim’s legs with its razor-sharp claws on the forelimbs.

“Nooooo!” she shouted.

Tim fell on the floor with a loud shout before the monster bit him on the neck, tearing his head off. The gate of the shelter finally slammed close, tearing through the large crawler’s arm that it used to jam the gates.

The five monsters that have run into the shelter have gathered where Tim’s body is, tearing it to shreds and eating, ignoring the rest of the people running away. Astra, who at the moment is standing near the inner entrance, suddenly checked her gun with a determined look in her eyes.

Jada, who has asked Khan to drag her back by force looks at Khan and nodded her head.

“they are already in here, if we cannot kill them here, there is no escape for us. Gather all the men in there and have them quietly come here”. She said to Khan, waking to the side of the  wall and opening yet another weapons safe. Five men came a few seconds later with Khan and got handed guns.

“we are killing those damn aliens right here and now,” she said and lead them towards where Astra is standing with tears rolling down her cheeks, as she watches her friend Tim get turned into a feast for the alien monsters.

“I will kill you bastards, even if it cost me everything,” she swore under her breath and removed the safety of her gun.

Jada took one look at Astra and knew that she has resolved herself. One thing that she can tell is that from the new air around Astra, she seems to have grown. “war does that to a person,” she said out loud. That everyone turned and looked at her.

“We stand here and fight, we fight to the last of them, or last of us,” she shouted and started firing her gun at the group of aliens.