About thirty minutes into the journey, the group came across an electronic store that had been raided and thrashed. Stepping in through a broken window, the group searched for anything useful until the commercials on the few remaining televisions ended and CNN came back on.

“…continuing the story of the monster that is still terrorizing the city of Manhattan, we have new photos that have been taken by civilians,” reported the anchorwoman.

As a few pictures came up on the screen, Val took a paperclip and managed to pick the lock on the cash register. Taking the money out and stashing it in her pockets, Val took a few one-dollar bills and fed them into a vending machine, getting four water bottles.

“The military is now fully focusing its forces on the incident. One squad has already gone either MIA or KIA, which is led by Lt. Taylor McClellan,” reported the anchorman.

“No!” Ashley yelled. She then fell to her knees and began to break down. Being helped onto a seat by Val, Ashley started to cry harder.

As the group walked into an alley, Adam and Val went to look at a map at a bus stop to find their way out of Manhattan.

“You okay?” Austin asked Ashley.

“Uh-huh…” Ashley replied with a sniff and a tear wipe. Austin then got his face close to Ashley’s. Puckering his lips, Austin gave Ashley a quick kiss. They then both looked at each other. “Sorry…”

“It’s okay, I shouldn’t have let you done it…” Ashley replied.

“Hey, guys, I found a way out of this place,” Adam said as he approached the two.

“Uh, uh, great,” Austin replied, startled.

The group then started to continue their path. As they walked, they noticed a skeletal corpse with flesh still attached to its bones. A scratching noise then sounded from a nearby building.

“What the heck is that?!” Adam yelled as he started to run. Turning back for a split second, a creature lunged at and tackled Adam. Now on the ground, Adam tried to kick off the creature. “Get this damn thing off of me!”

Grabbing a large piece of wood from a close by construction site, Austin held the piece like a golf club, step-stepped quickly, and swung the piece and hot the creature’s side, emitting a rather loud snapping noise and thrusting the creature off.

“Try doing that, Tiger,” Austin joked before being pounced on by another. Before Adam could get up, a battle cry came from the distance. Suddenly, a man in a green hoodie came out of nowhere with a machete and hacked the creature until it fell dead. “Who the hell are you?”

“Hal, Hal Bono,” the man replied after hacking down another. “We need to get out of here, now.” As soon as he finished talking, a roar followed by explosions and repeating gun shots erupted in every direction as a horde of the creatures poured out of buildings. The group then separated and ran in two different directions to the sidewalk.

The monster then came out of nowhere and crushed a few cars along with toppling over a large building. Emitting a powerful, ear-shattering roar, the monster stepped on a few soldiers and a humvee, splattering blood, bits of flesh, and metal across the street.

“Go down into the sewer!” Adam yelled to Ashley, Austin, and Hal, who had separated from Val and him.

Giving a nod of acknowledgement, Austin lifted up the manhole cover and let Ashley down first, followed by Hal and then himself. After Adam saw Austin go down completely, he lifted the manhole on his side. Letting Val in first, he jumped down and quickly took out a flashlight that he “borrowed” from the electronics store.

Upon turning the flashlight on, Adam pointed it adjacent to where he was, only to find a wall.

“Damn…”