November 12, 2007

 The next few moments seemed to transpire over what seemed like hours. In reality it was more like ten minutes. At that moment the lights returned to the ring. They had changed from yellow to what can only be described as simply blood red. The corresponding gate had opened across from the homeless man, while he continued to moved frantically away from the gate, he managed to gain access from one of the on-lookers weapons. As he turned to face his opponent he muttered one word. It wasn't a plea to the creator or any other expletive it was a single word that shook Levi and myself to the core..."Scott?" The crowd seemed to pause and fall silent as if this was never part of the fighting equation. As the creature formerly known as "Scott" or Sgt.Scott Michael Richards as I would later discover. A former U.S. military special forces commander, loving husband and father of two beautiful children. I would later find out that he and the man in the ring had served together in Iraq, Pvt.Robert L. Miles was in his squad. After watching their entire squad killed by a roadside bomb escaping with career ending injuries, Scott and Robert returned home heroes. In their cases being heroes came at a cost, both were mentally destroyed. If war changes you than in their cases they were completely transformed and the people they were meant to be were gone forever. Once his adrenaline kicked in Pvt.Miles was a soldier again and all the combat training returned, like waking from hypnosis. He began to dodge his former comrades clumsy attempts at an attack and with an upward thrust he drove the weapon through the creatures skull. There was no cry of anguish, no sign of resistance from it simply ceased to exist like flipping off a light switch. At that moment Robert let out a primal scream as though reclaiming the life he had once lived. The sound from the crowd was something different, dead silence. At that moment I began to hear the faint moan that would eventually become a symphony of moans and blood curdling screams. He made his way over to the slain body of his former brother in arms to find a brown gelatinous liquid draining from it's head wound, but the life had long since left the creatures eyes. It was a mere shadow of it's former self. Scott had disappeared a few months before, but most homeless people are nomadic in nature and relocating to a new area or city is not out of the ordinary. No concerns were raised by authorities or family members, because to most people they were already dead and gone.

  The chorus of moans continued and the gate leading into the ring began to shake furiously as the figures began to tear away at the caged ring. Robert quickly grabbed the spear from the creatures head and made his way to the far side of the ring. I grabbed Levi and made my way to the ring as people began to make their way toward the exit. You could feel the tension in the air and the crowd was quickly whipping into a panic. The gate to the ring finally gave way and thirty or more creatures spilled into the ring. The guards on the scaffolding brandished their weapons and haphazardly fired into the ring striking the creatures in the shoulders, chest and various other body parts. They began to spin and tumble to the ground only to slowly rise again to their feet seemingly unaffected by the attack. If I were a betting man I would say most of the bouncers or security were soiling themselves at that moment. We had all heard the stories of the unstoppable walking dead from third world countries that began to have mass outbreaks of the super-flu, but rumors are one thing. I was watching it unfold a mere ten feet from me and still couldn't bring myself to believe it was really happening, but by the end of this night the world would have these creatures knocking at their doors.