[b]North of Route A21 19:00[/b]

The moonlight illuminated the faces of two men talking to each other in the night. The first had a rather scruffy beard and matted black hair, the other clean shaven with dusty brown hair. They stood in front of what looked like a hill.

[b]"Your sure? This is one of them."[/b] His voice shook with nervousness as he studied the mound in front of him.

[b]"I wouldn't have called you out here if it wasn't. We don't know how many are in there, but a small one like this would have 80 to 150, depending on how deep it goes. Jonathan we need to act now. If we don't th-"[/b]

[b]"No. We have worse things to worry about than a couple of crawlers. We need to use our resources to keep the bandits at bay. We can't waste them on a nest that will probably attack another city before it comes to us. That's my final say. I'm going home."[/b]

Jonathan walked back through the wasteland, stepping on the occasional can, or piece of trash. Ahead he could see the outline of walls towering over him. Even from this far away they were gigantic. Those walls were the walls he would soon be passing through. Those of the murderous bandits that took his home from him.

He trudged on through the dry grass, when he thought he heard something behind him. More footsteps. He stopped, and the sound ended shortly after. He was being followed.

[b]"Nick? Nicholas is that you?[/b] There was no answer. He called again and again with the same results. Only one time did he get an answer. A loud hiss erupted from in front of him. In an instant he readied his rifle. The energy gauge was at 20.5. He heard the his again, multiple times. There were more. Without thinking he flipped a switch to automatic and fired into the grass, hearing hisses and seeing movement in the grass as he did so. The crawlers were coming, and they were coming now.