Few noises accompanied the silent night but the misty spray of the crashing waves and the twirling of dust on the winds blowing through the hollowed out carcass of a nearby town. This was a good sign, David thought to himself as he hurried along the broken road, scanning every possible direction. To his immediate left a good forty or fifty yards away was a pier. Rotten wood stood immobilized in the tumultuous grip of the waves that crashed against it, yielding piece by piece over a great deal of time. A few seafaring vessels remained though their emptiness was haunting, having not seen the like of human life in many years, their coats were losing their once immaculate splendor. Beyond the pier were the crashing waves, the most dangerous place they could be. Despite there being enough of the degrading boats to fit the remnant of scouts accompanying David he knew they wouldn’t make it very far. The waves crashed against the shoreline water spilling onto the soaked tarmac, as if in agreement, warning to stay away. It made David uneasy.

Forcing himself to turn away he looked straight ahead where the rusted out shell of what used to be an abandoned amusement park glittered dreadfully in the dimly lit night sky. The graceful nature of the unlit ferris wheel, its steel beams holding after all this time seemed to reach for the infinity itself only eclipsed by the twisting layout of the wooden structure David recognized to be a roller coaster behind it. The structure towered above all, declaring itself the largest object in the immediate area, though it must have seen better days David imagined, ones where the lights of this area flooded the streets, the laughter and sounds of joy rose like a unified chorus to the heavens. He missed those kind of days.

Finally he turned his attention to a curve in the road, one which led down off behind a brush landscape blocking his view, their destination. The withered out corpse of the small town they sought refuge in. Bearing a name long forgotten the town still stood, a monument to the achievements of humanity past, streets marked with enormous craters, the windows of various shops lying in scattered glittering pieces, completely hollow and devoid of human life. On the outskirts of civilization here however not many people had remained to pick its bones clean. As the advance scouts had brought back as evidence, there were resources in vast supplies here, enough to feed their struggling community.

And so a recovery expedition had been mounted. Including David and his two trusty lieutenants, their group numbered twenty in the dead of night, hoping to gather as much as they could possibly carry to bring back.

David came to a stop as he began motioning those behind him in the direction the road was leading. Alexis passed him, nodding as she picked up her pace, jogging to the front of the group. David returned the gesture, before turning his attention to his duty, continuing to motion the group forward, counting those present to make sure none had fallen behind. As those marching forth managed to catch up Carmen brought up the rear, her previous life in the military reflected in her casual but lengthy strides. She took notice of David and adjusted her trajectory coming to an abrupt and attentive halt at his side. Even in the dark David could see her trademark combat boots, camo pants and black camisole. Her sandy brown hair was getting longer, finally taking the respite it needed to regrow from her previous crewcut.

“We’re making good time.” Carmen murmured, staring proudly at the retreating backs of their cadre.

David nodded, then upon realizing that may not be something she could notice in the dark cleared his throat.

“Yeah, we’ve done well so far. No resistance, no unexpected surprises.”

As if to remind him of its existence a torrent of water crashed along the pier, drawing his attention towards it in a snapping motion and temporarily stopping his heart. Carmen, eyes followed his gaze before returning to him.

“We should be fine. There were no reports that any Outsiders were in the area from the scouts.”

David forced himself to breathe a sigh of calm.

“I know but...you can never be too careful.”

Without any verbal or physical indiciaton the two began a steady jog to catch up to the rest of the group, having successfully made sure everyone had made it through and was accounted for.

Carmen’s gaze drifted to the solemn sight of the dilapidated ferris wheel in the distance. A small smile cracked her dry lips.

“I remember loving those when I was a little girl.”

David, a bit slow to catch on, finally ascertained her meaning.

“Never really a fan myself. Didn’t like heights.” He replied curtly.

Carmen snickered slightly but not in a judgemental way.

“You were missing out, to be so high, to see everything around you from a bird’s eye view? I’d love to see the world like that again.”

David grimaced at the thought, his mind wandering once again to Outsiders.

“If you’re unlucky you might.”

Carmen’s cheeks puffed out in exasperation.

“Oh come on! There has to be something you miss right? Something that used to just make your spirits soar? Something you can look back on fondly and helps you just…relax?”

David thought for a moment, his mind sour as it scoured every section it could to retrieve a happy memory. Since the Occupation he hadn’t had many happy ones but finally one came to mind, a smiling little face in a purple dress. He felt his heartbeat begin to slow and his breathing calm as a smile tugged at his cheeks.

“Well actually, there was the one…” Carmen’s feet scraped against the asphalt as she came to a sudden stop. David pace followed suit as his gaze traveled up to survey what his second in command had seen. He could have been declared dead for how long his heart stopped as his breath caught in his throat. In front of them, all of their scouts had come to a stop. They held up their right arms at a ninety degree angle, saluting the sky with an extended pointer, pinky and middle finger, their ring finger and thumb collecting themselves in the palm of their hand. This was the sign David dreaded more than anything now, the sign that things were always about to get a lot more complicated, or worse. An Outsider.

David, quick but silent, moved to the front of the line, Carmen at his flank. As soon as Alexis caught sight of them she lowered her arm, abandoning the salute, a grim look on her face.

As the two pulled up beside her she gestured in the direction of their destination. Internally David wailed.

An Outsider lay prone in the middle of the road blocking all ingress to the town they were headed towards. She was a good thirty meters away which was good. They dare not get any closer less she pick up their scent. The Outsider’s body was shaped like that of a human woman, curvaceous as it lay upon the ground, similar in almost every way with a few key differences. First and most importantly was the size. The creature that slept before them was a good ten times or so bigger than its human counterpart, so much so that the slight vibrations of her snoring could be felt through the concrete under their feet. No hair adorned her head. Instead three ridges crested the bald surface from the front of her head to the unseen back. The area on her head where human ears would be was instead occupied by fin-like protrusions ending in three distinct pointed lobes. Her teal aquamarine skin shone ever so slightly even in the dark night, her massive eyes twitching below her heavy lids, deep in sleep.

Her breathing was slow, much, much slower than that of a human as her vast lungs took in an abundance of the air around her. Her lower body was hidden behind enormous chunks of rubble and one of her arms rested along the ground in front of her body, another fin-like protrusion sticking out from her elbow while her forearm covered her breasts in a rare display of modesty.

Alexis sighed as she shook her head, turning to her commanding officer.

“What should we do?”

As she addressed David she used the butt of her currently unlit flashlight to scratch her head.

“We can’t sneak around her. Considering how much of the road she’s taking up and the way she’s sleeping she no doubt has her ear to the ground. So either she’ll smell us if we get to close or hear us trying to sneak past.”

Carmen’s gaze sunk as her compatriots could practically feel the hope being crushed inside her. The loud accompaniment of thunder from the direction of the pier accompanied the sinking feeling they all felt. David stood, glaring at the Outsider with gritted teeth as if contemplating a new course of action but he knew he only had one choice to make.

“We’ll have to turn back and try again some other time. This is a no go.”

“After we’d come so far…” Carmen whimpered.

“No helping it,” Alexis declared, her tone sorrowful as she turned to face the scouts. “With any luck if we wait a few days she’ll…”

The words died in her throat as her back turned to the gargantuan host behind them. Puzzled for the briefest of moments David turned to inquire what was wrong and for the second time that day almost died on the spot.

In the direction of the crashing waves, far behind the gathered mass of humanity a shape was looming out of the water. Two enormous hands pushed down on the buckling pier as a colossal body finished hoisting itself out of the sea, water cascading down her delicate and feminine features as she rose to her full towering height in the sky, a living monolith. It was another Outsider.