28: Life isn't fair -Jay-

I was bleeding bad and god only knows what was going on outside, but I could hear the thumps of the Moth god's hits all the way in the lab that I'd been thrown into. How could we possibly stop something like that?

The Moth boy was nearly impervious to any physical damage we could deal him, and seemed to possess a strength I could only dream of. My body wanted to panic but my mind tried it's hardest to push those thoughts from my head.

This was all new to me. I'd never fought an actual god, I've always been on the side as support for Carl and John as they stood face to face with these leviathans. No human alive could kill something like that; I was sure of it. I pushed the idea of killing it from my head and centered on distraction.

My mind immediately leaped to John's selfless attempt to save my life, but I didn't have a moth and I would not be so foolhardy. I had to find a way to distract the boy without putting myself in that kind of peril.

I pulled myself to my feet and stole a look around the room. The room that I had previously thought to be a lab looked like it hadn't been used as one in ages. Instead the tables were stacked with boxes and several giant high-powered light stands. Moths. Light. It took me only a few seconds to realize that it was not only a significant distraction, but also a potential way to end this horror for good.

It didn't take long for me to finish what needed to be done. I heard Robby say something outside and knew it was nothing good. I slid under the exposed wires and made my way to the window. Looking outside I could see Robby dragging John away from the Moth-boy. John wasn't moving. It was now or never.

"HEY! Butterfly boy!" I stepped back from the window as the boy looked at me, "Surprise!"

I flicked the switch and the room flooded with light. I shielded my eyes and glanced outside before I turned to the second step of my plan. It was working. The Boy was breaking up and making his way to the room I was in. I slipped under the wires again and grabbed the plug that I'd left near the outlet.

The loud noise of fluttering filled the room and I yanked the lights. The boy immediately formed together in the middle of the room looking dazed as the lights went out.

"Wha-Where's the light's go? They were so prettyful." He tried to move toward me but got caught on the wires going through his abdomen.

Stretching across the room were exposed wires, all crossing in the center of the room where all the lights were pointed. He looked at me confused and I smiled.

"Bug. Zapper." I slid the plug into the wall and watched as thousands of volts of electricity coursed through the wires. Smoke began to rise and moths fell as the energy flowing through them turned them into ash.

"But I was righteous!" The boy cried as his body burned away, "My cause. I was wronged and I don't get vengeance? How is this fair?"

I stood and stared down at the last fluttering moth and sighed, "Life sucks. You either let it get to you, or keep going until it kills you," I pressed my foot down and listened to the satisfying sound of a crunching exo-skeleton, "Either way you end up dead."

25: Hive Father -Emma-

I rubbed my head as I pulled myself off the floor. Immediately after I'd gotten off the phone with Patrick something hit me hard from behind.

I wasn't sure how long I was out, but I knew that I smelled rotted flesh nearby. The lights flashed on, illuminating the large, specimen containment room I was in. The smell of rotten flesh came from the bowl of meat across the room.

"Emma." The voice came over the speakers, it belonged to a young boy.

One of the walls was made with large reinforced glass to allow safe observation of what ever subject we were working on. On the other side of the glass looking at me was a small boy, his hand on the microphone button.

"Hello, Mother." He smiled at me, "Are you well?"

"Stop calling me mother and tell me, what's going on? Let me out."

"We can't do that, you are very violent toward us." He walked to the window and looked outside, "People are coming. They want to take you away."

He stepped away from the window and made a high-pitched whistle, then he sat down again, "We know that you don't understand, but we are your son. Father stole parts of you to make me, we know because his brain-voice said so."

"Brain-voice?" I sat down closer to the glass, "Who's your father? I'm still very confused."

"People have two voices, one they use with this," He pointed to his mouth, "and the other they use with this." He pointed to his head, "It's hard to listen to both at once, it hurts our head."

"You're telepathic? That's really impressive." I was intrigued by this boy that claimed to be my son, "I'm still very confused about who you are."

He held out his hand to me and nodded at his hand. Sliding closer, I realized that his hand was moving slowly. The closer I got, the better I understood who this boy was. His hand, his entire body, was comprised of thousands of small moths.

"You're the Moths!" I pushed away from the glass and slid to the opposite wall.

"Father says that we're the God of Moths. We're the failed attempt at speeding up human evolution. He wanted to kill us. I don't want to die."

"So did all those people that you killed."

"Father says that sometimes it's necessary to do things that are immoral as long as you're saving more than you're destroying. There are thousands of us and only a few hundred people living here. It was a needed evil." He stared at me with cold eyes.

"Are you going to kill me?"

"Yes." He looked out the window as a loud explosion rocked the building. His face contorted with anger as he grabbed the chair and threw it at the glass of my cell. It bounced off and shattered on the opposite wall.

"They killed one of us! They're coming to kill us all! Just like you did! You, our Mother, ignored our screams of pain after you lit us on fire! Our Father just left us there to die! This isn't my fault, it's his!"

I was terrified of this creature. I was at its mercy, stuck inside a small cage just waiting for it to come inside and tear me to shreds.

"You . . . " The boy walked to the door, "You stay here and we will be back after we take care of the people killing your children."

"No, no wait. Don't just leave me in here!"

"We were in a jar most of our life. You learn to like it.", and he left.

21: The Easy Part -Jay-

It didn't take too long to get up the moth's throat, and wasn't really difficult either. There were a few close calls of going back down, but I managed to keep steady. In a matter of minutes I found myself at the back of its tongue, feeling the heaves of breath flow in and out. The smell of the stomach below finally got to me now that I was out of it. I pinched my nose for a moment in hopes of drowning out the horrid stench. It didn't work.

The moth kept roaring in pain, its tongue flickering at the sides of the mouth. I guess John must have left a decent amount of damage for it to cry so much. I looked around in order to locate the beginning of its windpipe. The whipping of the tongue made it a bit harder to focus, since it meant trying to keep my balance. I risked a jump to the right side of the mouth, jabbing my knife in to the tongue by mistake. A wicked screech pierced my ears as the giant muscle flailed about with me holding on tight.

I began to feel dizzy, leaving me unable to do much until the thing stopped freaking out. I may have stabbed it on accident, but it turned out for the better on my behalf. One moment, the world of the inside of a giant moth was blurry and made no sense to me. The next thing I knew, I was flying down a tube; the windpipe. I clenched my hands to make fists. The blade was still in my hand.

This moth just made my job all the easier. As I fell, I slashed and hacked at what ever was around me. I felt no solid connection; only air. Turns out the tube was a lot wider than expected. Me being skinnier had nothing to do with this task. Either John just wanted the more convenient escape, or he felt that I was more capable of this. Maybe it was both.

Up ahead, I noticed a glow of light. I ended up plummeting to a pretty soft landing. The whole lung was lit up with a faint tint of yellow. Since when did the innards of a moth give off any light? Guess I should be glad that I have some light while stuck in here.

I remained seated after landing. It seemed pointless to try and stand in such an environment as this. Cutting this thing wide open seemed simple enough though, due to how fragile the lungs are for any creature. I gripped at my knife and started slicing away, leaving large holes behind. While doing this, I kept my free hand clinging to the floppy leftovers that were attached to the tube above.

It soon became obvious that the giant moth was struggling for breath, raspy sounds echoing through out it. I placed my blade safely back into my pocket and ripped a piece of the remnants for a source of light.

I may have only took out one lung, but it would get the job done. Any longer in this thing and I may not stand a chance of ever getting out. I kept on climbing with my arms, it feeling like eternity to reach the exit. Ten minutes later and I found myself at the top again.

Carefully, I made my way towards the front and clung to the bottom of its mouth; adding my knife in for insurance. The thing snapped its jaw every few seconds, making me wary of just jumping straight out.

I leaped in, landed in a stomach, climbed a throat, flew down a breathing tube and made it back up to where the exit was just ahead, and freedom was right there. Regardless of these feats, the threat still remained before me. It would seem getting in and doing the job was easy.

Getting out would be the hard part.

19: Wait? What?! -Robby-

The moth’s head slammed into the wall where I'd just been standing. At the last moment, I had squeezed myself against the left wall. I put my arm in front of my face as the moth swung around to make another grab.

There was a horrible ripping sound and warmth spilled down my shoulder. The world blurred as I fell to the ground, my arm falling next to me; completely severed. I could hear myself screaming as I thought of a way out of this.

I felt its mouth wrap around my legs and I was tossed into the air. My blood sprayed out as I flew, making the entire scene look like something out of a movie. The breath was knocked out of me as I landed on the roof of the building next door.

"Nooooooooo!"

I couldn't see what was going on, but I recognized that as Jay. I bit down on my screams and looked around for some way to stop the bleeding before it was too late. I could feel myself getting dizzy.

I wasn't going to make it.

18: CAYT -Emma-

I opened several canisters with the OCS label and mixed them together carefully. This mixture of chemicals needed to be handled carefully, as mixing them could cause a hefty explosion if not done right.

All I had to do was get past the hundreds of creatures at the door and then I could find my way out of the lab. I closed the canister and walked to the door. Shaking the canister I opened the door, tossed it out, and then quickly closed it. I had seconds to dive behind something before the door was taken off its hinges.

A smell of burnt flesh hit my nose as I looked around at the door. The floor was littered with hundreds of dead, or half-dead moths. It wasn't surprising that they hadn't all been destroyed, I had designed them to last as long as they could.

I hadn't done much to them. I took ordinary moths, edited their DNA a bit, and then gave them the chemical known as CAYT. From there I just watched them, and recorded what I'd seen.

I picked my way around the moths trying to ignore their cries of pain; their calls for help. There were more in the building so I had to be careful as I traveled through out the compound.

When Patrick had first given me CAYT, I'd done some researching in the old case files. The origin of the chemical was listed as unknown and the chemical make-up had elements I had never seen before. Patrick had been studying this chemical before I'd been born and so many failed experiments were attached. Despite the constant failures, I could see how beneficial the chemical could be if harnessed right. It could cure disease, power weapons, give an energy output that would leave nuclear fusion in the dust.

I crept past the open door of the observation room. Laying on the floor inside were two guards, clearly dead, judging by the lack of head. It was there that I'd first learned of the problems when using CAYT. The first being that it only reacted with organic cells, and the second being the unpredictable mental and physical mutations that it caused. The reaction the subject had to the chemical depended on many factors, but mostly on how it entered their system.

One project was stopped because a mixture of CAYT and various other chemicals caused some of the workers to go insane when entered directly into the bloodstream. It had been a massacre with only one person who had surprisingly survived, only to be given the death sentence for mass murder.

I walked past the origin of the outbreak; a small laboratory holding living moths that had been injected with CAYT, inside small jars. Several scientists and guards were scattered through out the room, missing various body parts. I gently stepped over the broken glass as I made my way across the room to a cell phone I saw laying on the floor.

I punched in the number and smiled when I heard him pick up.

"Hello?"

"Hi, it's Emma."

"Well, hello. I can say I am certainly surprised and glad to hear that you've survived this unfortunate incident."

"Mr. Bernauw, I need help getting out of here. I'm at the compound."

There was a slight pause on the end of the line, followed by a loud sigh.

"You see Emma, I have a team checking things out and if they can get to you, they will. How ever, I can not promise anything and as soon as my team is extracted, I'm going to level the entire place whether you're still there or not."

"So how long do I have?"

"I'd say . . . three hours. It could be longer or shorter though; we've already lost one of the team and I'm afraid it isn't looking good for the other two."

"I'll get out in time. Bye."

"Bye Emma."

17: Robby's End -Jay-

We each dove in opposite directions as the moth smashed into the place we were standing. I took the left, fixing my gun to its side as I ran. The bullets ate through its burnt flesh, splashing its insides all over the ground. I met John behind it and in unison, we turned toward the back end of the moth and unloaded the rest of our ammo into it.

As I reloaded I glanced around for any sign of Robby. I saw him running toward an alleyway as the moth chased him down.

"Shit! John, the moth is after Robby!"

"DONE!" John finished reloading and ran toward the alleyway.

Robby had his back against the wall, his gun hanging at his side. He was trying to reload when the moth hit him. The gun strap tore away and the gun flew on to the roof of one of the buildings. He dropped the clip and raised his hand in front of him. The moth dived toward him as Robby swung.

The sound that emanated from the alleyway made my stomach drop, and my eyes lose focus. The sounds of bones crunching and Robby's screams soaked through my skin and cut unseen wounds. My friend was dieing.

The guns were useless. Fire was useless. I had even run a car into this thing and it still had enough strength to take one of us down. It took Robby down.

"Noooooooo!", I ran toward it, John following suit.

I could tell that John was thinking the same thing as me. You can beat us till we bleed, you can take away everything we have, but the one thing no one can do is hurt a friend; unless they want to end up dead.

The Moth turned toward us, its gaping maw dripping with blood. It roared loudly as me and John leapt into its mouth.

16: The Four Musketeers -John-

Broken elbow or not, I wasn't going to just let this thing kill us that easy. As it lumbered toward me, I glanced to my left and spotted a car. Grabbing Jay, I dragged him over to the car as fast as I could and pushed him beneath it.

No sooner had I gotten him under, when I was slammed to the side by the moth’s flaming arm. I hit the ground rolling, trying to ignore the pain in my arm while putting out any fire. Exhaustion and pain made it hard for me to move, but I rolled to my feet and tried to lead the moth away from Jay. The ground shook as it got closer and I couldn't run anymore. I quickly spun around and ducked under the moth’s belly.

Running beneath it I felt the heat from its charred, flaming skin. I shoved the knife up in to the charred and burning areas, cutting them wide open. As I cleared the back of it, I could hear the creature’s screams of pain as fluid and some innards spilled from the cuts. I didn't look. I just kept running.

That's when I heard the buzzing above. Glancing up, I saw one of the smaller moths flying toward me. Why do things have to keep getting worse? I dived behind a trash can as a dart hit where I'd been running. The larger moth had turned around and was making its way toward me. I heard several loud popping noises coming from somewhere.

To the left Robby came running from an alleyway, his gun in his hands, firing away at the massive thing. He saw me and ran over as fast as he could, avoiding darts from the smaller moth.

"Are you alright?"

"I'll live. Jay's underneath a car behind that thing."

"Is he?"

"He's knocked out. Robby, I've thrown everything that I could at this thing, it won't go down."

"John, cockroaches can live a week with out their head. Bugs are known to live through extreme things."

The large moth roared and began running toward us.

"Robby, Jay tried blowing it up. I shot out its eye and sliced it up a bit. It's just not stopping."

The smaller moth flew around so that it could hit us and took aim.

"We have to move."

"Yeah."

At that moment a small plane flew in from the side, blasting away with small guns on its side. The small moth turned toward it and shot three darts. The plane dipped and weaved to avoid the attack and then turned off to the side.

"Stupid moth! John, why'd you have to go and get yourself in over your head?", Tim's voice came from the small craft.

Something about that guy just gets me angry, "Couldn't have gotten here sooner you little prick?!"

Robby pulled up his gun and began to fire at the gargantuan moth, "Now's not the time to argue."

I pulled myself to my feet and raised my fist at the small plane, "When I get back . . .!"

"I'm expecting it!" The small plane flew off to resume its battle with the little moth.

Robby's bullets weren't stopping the moth; only slowing it down. I lifted my gun with my good arm and just as I was about to fire, I felt a pain on the back of my head.

"Nice way to save my life!", Jay stepped next to Robby and began firing as well, "You could have just said duck."

"My way was funner." I lifted my gun the best I could and began firing.

15: Enter The Fray -Tim-

My fingers flew over the keyboard as fast I could get them. The satellite images showed the situation going from bad to worse. I needed to find some way to help and fast. I tried my best to ignore Patrick leaning over my shoulder.

He'd gotten his composure back, but you could see that he was still very angry. This girl, Saba's death, had been an unexpected development and anything Patrick didn't expect was a pleasant thought.

"So, after your done helping them, then you'll get me as much as you can on that damned Ben?"

"Shut up." I could find nothing I could do. These computers weren't sophisticated enough to get me what I needed.

"DAMN!", I slammed my hand on the keyboard, "I can't do anything to help them from here."

"If I could get you access to a remote controlled military plane, would that help?"

"You can do that?"

"Get up." I moved as Patrick sat down and began accessing the deeper files, the ones I didn't even know existed. Moving through the system with ease, he opened a program labeled, 'Emergency Exposure Procedure' and suddenly the screen was flooded with a first person view of a runway.

Patrick stood up, "It's just like a video game. The plane is not very large, almost the size of a hawk, but it has two weapons. Side mounted automatic rifles and as a last resort, the entire thing explodes on impact. Also, you can speak through it using a sophisticated radio system."

I sat down and clicked, 'Start Engine'.

Even as I worked my fastest, I knew I wasn't going to make it in time. Even if I didn't get there to save John and Jay, I'd make that thing wish it'd never hurt them.

13:Keeping Ground -John-

The giant moth leaned its massive bulk to look me in the face with its huge multi-faceted eyes. There was nowhere to hide and I wouldn't get very far running. I stared at the creature. Was I scared?

Terrified.

My brother always told me that when you have your back against the wall, and your enemy is bigger than you; the best thing to do is show no fear, don't lose any ground, and make a big show.

Moth-beast opened its great maw, and roared like I've never heard a moth roar before. Bits of vomit flew out splattering on the ground and my chest, powered by the force of its rotten breath. By the time it closed its mouth I'd brought my fist back.

I swung my fist as hard as I could, slamming it into the moth’s beak. Caught by surprise, it pulled back its face with a small roar. I'm sure I didn't hurt it, but it was enough to give me time. I lifted up my gun and aimed for its eye.

Pulling the trigger, I fought the recoil as I tried to keep the gun trained on its eye. My ears began to ring as I watched the creature’s eye shatter. I was so busy keeping my self on target that I didn't see its limb come flying from the side.

The air was forced from my chest as it collided with me, sending me flying into a wall. Razor sharp jolts of pain flooded my mind as I landed on the ground. The cries of pain from the moth-thing were getting closer as I lifted myself to my feet. I looked up to see another limb swing forward.

Fighting the pain, I dived to the ground as the limb smashed the wall behind me. Dust flew through the air as the wall collapsed, leaving someone’s bedroom exposed. The moth turned to look at me with its good eye and roared again.

I pulled myself to my feet and started running. I didn't get far when I was hit in the back and sent sprawling. I rolled on my back, lifting the gun and pulling the trigger. Lead hit its paw as it came down to stop my movement. The recoil slammed my elbow into the ground with a loud crack. The moth-thing pulled back its arm in pain and roared loudly again.

I spun up in a run, looking for any place to hide from the certain doom that followed me. I'd already emptied enough ammunition in the thing to take down ten men and it was still coming.

I'd need something bigger than bullets.

12: Ah, Vomit. -John-

No one ever likes the feeling of being crushed, especially when it's because of a large moth creature who has a fondness for human flesh. The last thing I remember is Robby yelling for me to look out, and then I wake up halfway down the gullet of our friendly neighborhood moth man.

Maybe I was too big, or maybe it had other plans. For what ever reason, I wasn't about to just sit here. I still had my gun and a small knife so I could probably get it to let me go, but I also could get it to swallow me the rest of the way.

Thinking fast, I pulled my gun so it was facing down its throat and unleashed a horde of bullets. The sound was deafening but I didn't need to hear anyway. I felt the muscles loosen and I started to fall the way I didn't want to go, so I quickly yanked out my knife and slammed it into the side of the creature’s esophagus.

Down below me I heard a faint sound of hissing, then a sudden silence. The smell below reminded me of bad eggs and raw bacon, and it was getting worse. A blast of air lifted me from my perch and I was shot from the mouth.

Pain enveloped me as I smashed into the ground. I moaned and rolled to look up at the creature, and watched as the contents of its stomach fell through the air toward me.

The damn thing was puking on me.

11: The Sad Anger Of Patrick -Tim-

By the time I'd hacked into a satellite capable of showing me what was going on in Europe, things had gotten a little crazy. A huge moth-thing was searching for something near where everyone had been dropped, and a lone red convertible was making its way through the streets, closely followed by two smaller moth-things. John and Robby were nowhere to be seen, but I figured that was what the massive moth was searching for.

I had no communications with them and Patrick had decided that he had to keep a closer eye on me, so he lounged in a nearby seat. The pressure was phenomenal for me to do my best.

"It's not gonna help if you're looking over my shoulder."

Patrick laughed a little, "I'm your boss. I'm just doing my job."

"Could you do your job somewhere else?", I asked, my voice full of hopeful sarcasm.

"My trus-", Patrick was interrupted by the ringing of the phone.

"I hope someone died.", and I meant it.

"Hello.", Patrick answered. Then he was silent for a few moments.

The expression on his face changed from his normal to sadness in an instant. The phone dropped from his hand and he sat there staring into space.

"No. No. No." He fell to his knees, tears flooding his eyes. His body began to shake as sobs found their way from his open mouth.

"No, she can't be. She can't be gone! They took her from me! She was mine and they ripped her from my hands!"

I was completely surprised by his reaction to the phone call and the only thing I could think of doing was getting up, and putting a hand on his shoulder for comfort. Big mistake.

He slapped my hand away and pushed me so hard that I slammed into the opposite wall. The air left my lungs and as I gasped he slammed into me.

"YOU! You and your little friends killed her! That stupid bear and retarded-idiot! I’ll tear all of you limb from limb! None of you will survive my wrath! I'll kill your families one by one, and then go to your friends! Then once they are all DEAD, I will take my time torturing each and everyone of you until you scream for death!"

His strength was something I'd never felt. I'd been punched by many people but never have I felt this kind of power. It was as if I could feel his hatred flooding through me and picking at my soul with tweezers.

"I didn't do anything to you." Speaking was much easier after I'd caught my breath.

He loosened a little, "Ben, Ben Ashford . . . He did it. He's the reason she's gone. If he hadn't come in to the picture, then they all wouldn't be together."

He let me go and pointed to the computer, "Everything you can find about Ben or anyone that stays with him I need to know, RIGHT NOW! I want you to destroy his bank accounts and trash his life anyway you can."

"Who did he kill?"

"Saba, my Saba.", Patrick was near tears again, "They hit her with a car."

"Oh wow." It sounded like there was more to it, but to avoid anymore attacks I just let the suspicion pass, "Okay, but first I have to take care of that."

On the screen behind Patrick, the giant moth-thing had stopped searching and was now holding something in its mouth; something very human.

8: A Week Ago -Emma-

The glass doors closed behind me as I rushed toward the chemical lab. The situation had gotten way out of hand. It was just a test; it was only supposed to be an experiment.

Behind me I heard the low hum of hundreds of thousands of wings as the spawn of test subject FE1314I985 pressed against the glass.

“ Emma . . .”, a wispy voice echoed behind me, “Come to us, Emma . . .”

A week ago, my life was completely normal . I was just a kid graduating high school. It was eight years before I was supposed to, but what would you expect for a child prodigy?

Now I’m here, running from something that I told them was too unsafe to keep alive.

“Emma . . .“, as I shut the door to the chemical lab, the glass door shattered, “Why do you hate us?”

I backed away as it slammed into the reinforced door.

“Don’t leave us! EMMA!”

I sat down against a counter and wrapped my arms around my legs.

The voice turned into a wail, “Emma Kayser!”

A week ago everything was . . . normal.

5: More Than He Told Us -Jay-

The weapons he gave us seemed like over kill for what we were after. We needed high powered rifles for a few caterpillars? There was more to this than we were told.

We were dropped in by plane, landing in the parking lot of the only Inn within the small town of Arbing; Rott am Inn. We all shuffled quickly out of the plane and it slowly lifted into the sky. Our only escape just left.

Luckily we had radios.

"Hey, Tim?!", John nearly screamed into the radio.

"OW! Not so loud, I can hear you fine." His voice was fuzzy but it was there. Our only way out of this place was talking to him, not that I didn't trust him. I just didn't trust the information we'd gotten from Patrick, and I suspected that the second we became a liability, these radios would suddenly stop.

What can I say, my trust is very limited.

My turn to talk, “Tim.”

"Yeah?"

"Do you think you could do me a favor and check what kind of information Patrick has on this place?"

"Don't trust him either? I've already started worming my way in to his more . . . sensitive files. When I learn anything, I’ll let you know."

"Thanks."

The town looked normal besides the lack of people, and the occasional large mass of webbing the size of an ice cream truck. As we made our way outside the inn’s parking lot we came across one and, like the scientist he is, Robby was the first person to go over and began examining the fibers.

"Wow, would you look at this thing?", he could barely contain his excitement, "What if they're man eating caterpillars? Then we'd have to watch where we sit because one of them might nibble their way up your a-"

"Hey guys?", I'm pretty sure that everyone was grateful for the interruption. Robby is like that; always turning everything he can in to a very disturbing image. It was one of his quirks. Nobody enjoyed it, but they didn't stop it either because then Robby wouldn't be Robby.

"Yeah?", John responded while we all helped Robby collect some samples of the webbing.

"Okay, I think I've figured out why he sent us in with the kind of firepower he did. Apparently his "friend" was actually a squadron of armed men. He'd sent them in to retrieve a sample and document the situation. Seems they had perfect radio contact until they started to take pictures of the caterpillar nests, which I presume is the large cocoon that you people are poking at."

Patrick was keeping information from us, which was to be expected, but just pissed me off. Right now we could be working toward our real goal when instead we're miles away from home looking at the nests of killer caterpillars. Still, Patrick knew more about this stuff than we did.

"With the amount of nests we've found, these are going to create hundreds of butterflies." John had opened a hole in the nest and was staring at the writhing caterpillars that filled its interior.

Looking in, Robby laughed, "These are aren't gonna be butterflies. They're gonna be moths. I recognize the type. I've never heard of them making nests this size though."

By the time we noticed that it had gotten unusually dark it was too late. What ever had blocked out the sun landed on the ground with a thump. A blast of wind sent us all flying in different directions all at once.

I felt the radio slip out of my hand as I smashed into the upstairs of the inn.

I tried to lift my head but decided to black out instead.

2. Europe -John-

"Hey! Wake up!"

I wasn't about to get up in the middle of the night. I rolled over, grunted, and fell back to sleep. A second later I was shaken again, and I recognized Tim's voice as he called for me to get up again. I opened my eyes and glanced around the room. No one was there.

"Dude seriously, pull your ass out of bed. Patrick is here with our next assignment." This time I noticed the distinct crackle of the intercom.

"Are you watching me sleep? That's just wrong.", I sat up in bed and reached for my shirt. It was a company shirt, and by company I mean evil syndicate run by Patrick Bernauw. A man as mysterious as he is rich. I had been waiting for him to call on us for a job.

"Shut up and get over here. Idiot." That was definitely Tim on the intercom. He'd been given the computer job, a low-risk information gathering type thing. Not that he couldn't hold his own, he was just better at computers than field work.

"So what's this about?", I had slipped on my shirt and the door to my room slid open of its own accord. It could be opened from the inside as well, but the master controls could open it. Another thing for me to worry about if I piss Patrick off.

"Caterpillars.", Patrick's smooth voice came over the intercom as I walked down the halls. Something about his voice gave it an old quality, though the guy looked like he was in his 30's.

"You're gonna need to tell me more."

"A European town named Arbing vanished yesterday. Every person just disappeared with out explanation, which is very unusual. I sent a friend up there to check it out and she sent me pictures of what looked to be webs. On closer examination, it was found that these webs weren't of arachnid origin. They were caterpillar nests. Nests the size of an SUV. I tried to tell her to get a sample when suddenly the phone hit something hard, and I heard her scream in the distance. It seems there is a hostile entity up there and I need you to be the rescue-research group."

"You think these caterpillars have something to do with it?"

"I can't say." I swear the guy sounded like he knew all ready, "I can, how ever, say that you won't be going in there empty handed. I've got quite the arsenal for you."

"When do we leave?"