The catastrophe struck out of nowhere. At least for those who didn't read the signs. For almost two decades, seismic activity near volcans had been irregular, even for the unpredictable science that seismology is. Environmentalists commemorated what they called an unprecedented regrowth of virgin forest across the globe. New species where discovered, and animals thought extinct reappeared after millions of years.

  It was the world changing, spilling forth what was an unnatural sight for this world. From the volcans, Fire Drakes emerged, swimming in the lava and causing premature eruptions in otherwise dormant volcans. Dragons started appearing from huge valleys that permeated the globe, their winged bodies now searching for the highest peaks to call home. Giant eagles, ten meters of wingspan, harassed the flocks of herbivores that also surged of apparently nowhere. Colossal Sea Serpents, better described as Nagas or Sea Dragons, started been seen, and then started attacking the commercial ships that soared the Atlantic and Pacific. Trolls, four meters tall apelike monsters preyed on the unsuspected mountain climbers, restarting the stories about Yetis and the Bigfoot. Everything a fantasy story described was appearing on Earth. It was a marvelous sight, beautiful in some cases. But they were beasts. And they started causing chaos.

  S?o Paulo, Brazil

  The Land Drakes, for a lack of what they should be called by those who were fighting them, had already taken almost half of S?o Paulo's Metropolitan region. They were twenty meters tall, forty long, with scales of various grades of brown, their bodies resembling a colossal armored Komodo dragon. Although flightless, they were bigger than their winged cousins and were capable of covering vast distances of land by foot. They also had a mean regeneration, making them tough kills. This ability was unfortunately discovered by Tomás battalion when they were marching towards a distress call from a neighboring unit, who called for reinforcements.

  Tomás was a twenty-five-year-old soldier who was serving in the Brazilian army when the Catastrophe struck. He was of an average height, brown hair, brown eyes, with white skin and a not so remarkable face. He had an above average fitness due to his now seven years in the army and his upbringing as a farm hand on his father’s small farm in the interior of the state of Minas Gerais. He was also a very knowledgeable individual, having concluded a myriad of technical courses, both in and out of the army.

  They were on their way to the outskirts of the city, in the suburbs called favelas, more specifically to Paraisópolis, one of the city’s biggest favelas. Most of the houses there were just one or two floors, with the occasional third floor here and there. It was midday then, with the unforgiving summer’s sun cooking them in their gear.

  On the way there, forward units called in, reporting the sight of one of the beasts and the commander ordered half the unit to proceed towards the distress call while the others, Tomás’ unit, dealt with the lone beast.

  It smelled funny for Tomás. Every one of the dragon's up until now was in a group of at least four, and, although meagerly and costly, they met resistance from the army. Small arms where useless, although light machine guns proved somewhat effective, blinding, or at least annoying, the Dragons. What proved to be useful was explosives, heavy caliber weapons and tank fire. What Tomás unit had at the moment was one LMG, operated by him, two RPG rounds, one hand grenade for each soldier, and their rifles. It was not a good prospect, since for the felling of just one dragon, they used three well placed rockets, and the beasts moved fast.

  "I don't like the look of this. That thing is luring us, sir." protested Tomás, while advancing carefully the destroyed remains of a residence. The homes were constructed almost wildly making advancing slow and dangerous. In every corner there could be a lurking enemy. As a corporal, he was the second in command of this twenty men unit. His superior, Sargeant Silva, was a middle-aged man pulled from the reserves, but he was a nice guy, Tomás was sure.

  “Don’t think I agree with you?” grunted Silva, “But an order is an order, and I can’t disrespect those. Let’s be extra careful, just in case.”

  ‘Then give me those rockets, that guy won’t hit a dead cat trembling like that’ was what Tomás wanted to say, but thought better not, since that wouldn’t bring them any good. “That guy” was their rocket bearer, Gustavo, an eighteen-year-old soldier who was shaking like green bamboo on a windy day. Tomás was sure he would have to snatch the rocket from his hands if they wanted to score a hit.

  After some excruciating minutes of walking, dodging debris and looking at dead people, they started hearing the sounds of the beast wreaking havoc on a building just ahead of where they were standing now. The Land Dragons, apparently, loved the taste of concrete and this one was enjoying himself in the pillars and roofs of a commercial building, crunching the mixture with an almost childish glee.

  “Okay boys, this is it. But more importantly…” Silva said, looking at Tomás for help “what should we do?”

  ‘For the love of God, this guy can’t be serious.’ Tomás wanted to punch him. ‘After we get here you tell me that you don’t know what to do?’

  Tomás took a deep breath, sighted and said “We’ll do the following: me and some guys go ahead and distract that thing. You go with Gustavo and wait for a moment and try to hit that thing while it is focusing on us. The rest, prepare your grenades in bundles, link the pins, and, in case the rockets fail, try to hit it with the grenades, preferably in the belly or the mouth. Mount traps if necessary.” He made a pause just for good measure, waiting for his plan to take root in their mind.

  “Any suggestions?” Tomás waited again, this time expecting no retort.

  “Me” Jonas, a middle-aged man with a lush beard and the uniform of a police officer said “Not a suggestion, but a question. How do we distract the Dragon?”

  ‘That’s the fun part’, thought Tomás “I need volunteers, but I cannot guarantee your safety, because we are going to the mouth of the beast.” This brought disapproving grumbles from the men, and none stepped fourth.

  “What’s the plan? I will go with you.” Said Jonas, standing up.

  ‘Oh, I like this guy.’ “It’s simple: we go ahead, annoy that thing while trying to get the guys a nice angle to shoot. If we are lucky, we come back to tell the tale, if not we are all dead anyways.”

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  “Fair by me.” Jonas said, checking his rifle. “You two, gimme your grenades.” He pointed to the two soldiers next to him.

  “What?! No!! What we are going to do if that thing comes to us?!” protested one of them.

  “Do as he say, that is an order.” Silva said intervening. “We go by your plan, Tomás. I hope it goes as you say”.

  “Sir, yes, sir!!” ‘I hope too’. “Just wait for the beast to focus solely on us, then move in.”

  “You heard him boys!! Spread out, stay stealthy, and protect Gustavo!!” Bellowed Silva, directing the soldiers into cover, shouting orders and scolding those who lagged behind.

  Tomás grabbed Gustavo by his collar when he passed by and leaned in for a more private talk “Not trying to put pressure on you, Gus, but don’t waste those shots, please.”

  “O-of c-cour-se C-corporal,” spoke the boy, almost whimpering, “you can count w-with m-me”.

  “Good. Hit them hard.” Tomás looked the boy in the eyes. For a moment he thought seeing some steel there, and he hoped he was not wrong. “Now go soldier!”

  “Sir, yes, sir!!” spoke Gustavo before going to where Silva was waiting.

  Tomás then turned to look for Jonas. He found the grizzly man waiting for him at the window of the house they were taking cover. Now that he looked closely to him, he noticed the man had strong arms and the look of a trained individual in him. He unpacked his grenade and handed it to him, together with some wire he found on the way here, taken from the clotheslines of the destroyed houses.

  “When I said that we were going to distract that thing I thought the plan with just myself. Thanks for volunteering. But I still think that distracting it should be a one-man job. Why don’t you use these as traps?” Tomás studied the man’s face as he spoke, looking for hints of doubt or treachery.

  “You are right. But I don’t think a simple tripwire can do much against that thing. What about a double distraction? You can distract the beast for me and then the guys with the rocket.”

  Tomás pondered for a while, but there was truth in that. “Alright. It’s settled then. Godspeed for us, then.”

  “Godspeed.” Jonas stuck out his hand for Tomás and the two grabbed each other’s forearms in a solemn handshake. Then they saluted each other and were on their way to what could be a suicide mission.

  They advanced covering each other’s backs, being careful to not make too much noise before getting too close to the Drake. Already using hand signs, Tomás gestured that they should enter a derelict home, hoping that the house could lead them to the other side of the street, giving them a better look on where they should head to hit the monster.

  With room clearing discipline in mind, they made their way inside, towards the home’s back door. They crossed the house and came to a long corridor that connected various homes side by side, a villa of sorts. When Tomás, now in the front, was finishing crossing the corridor, checking each door, making sure there was nobody inside the homes, he felt the cold barrel of a gun in his temple. He signaled Jonas to stop and lowered his LMG and slowly looked to the side where the gun was coming from, the gun’s muzzle slowing moving towards the center of his head.

  “Who are you? Are you with the army?” spoke a woman’s voice from the darkness of the home. She held a pistol with both hands and now was stepping back so Tomás couldn’t take her gun. She appeared to be a member of one of the many small gangs that populated the city’s suburbs, with her football t-shirt and simple clothing.

  ‘Shit. Getting mugged while hunting a dragon was the least of my worries’ Tomás thought, thinking on what to say. He remembered also that Jonas, a police officer, would get jumpy if he saw a possible criminal holding his colleague at gun point. Things could get a turn for the worse before they even got to the dragon.

  He spoke in a hushed tone and signaled for the other two to do the same.

  “Hello, I’m Corporal Tomás of the XXo Light Infantry Brigade, and this is…” Tomás paused for a moment. He never asked Jonas his rank. He was fighting under the army, but he was pulled from the first responder reserves, as procedure demanded.

  Jonas appeared to notice this and said “Corporal Jonas, XXo Military Police Battalion.”

  “A cop and a soldier boy, huh? And what are you two doing here?” the man spoke, with what Tomás now notice was some difficulty. His breath was labored and he wheezed a little.

  “We are here to take down that Drake. The rest of our unit is waiting for our signal to start the hunt.” Tomás said. The man nodded slowly. “Are you hurt ma’am? Do you need help?”

  “I… I… Bled a little while ago. I feeling numb” The woman spoke, now visibly weak. Tomás went in and held the wounded gal, noticing how red her clothes were.

  “Okay. I think we should help this gal. Radio in to the sergeant and inform of the delay. I’m going to dress her wound.” Although Tomás was now operating the unit LMG, he was originally their field medic, being the one with the most technical skill, but casualties were high and he was put in this position simply because he could carry the bulk of the machine gun.

  Jonas acknowledged and sent the message through his radio piece. He paced a little away and covered Tomás while he worked.

  “So, what is your name my gal?” Tomás moved the woman to a prone position and started the field dressing. He opened her shirt to reveal a gash in the woman’s belly, not deep enough to expose organ but enough to draw a lot of blood.

  “Olivia’s the name.”

  “Well, Olivia, you got quite the injury here. Care to explain it?” Tomás began to clean and stitch the wound, being careful not to cause more damage.

  Her wound did not look like it was made from the debris or the monster. In fact, it looked like a someone brandished a knife in a wide arc and hit her belly as she was dodging.

  "I was with some of the guys from around here, checking the homes for anything useful..."

  "Looting. You were looting." Tomás said. He did not want to jeopardize the gal, but it was true.

  "Whatever. But we were also checking for survivors. I think everybody here already went away." She winced as Tomás finished one of the stitches. "Then some green things started surrounding us. They came running with knives in hand. I stood to fight, but the boys who were with me got scared and ran away. I shot and killed some of them. But one got to me and did this," she said, pointing at her belly.

  'Nice. More things to worry about.' Tomás thought. "Jonas, radio that in too. Tell them to be careful about ambushing small green humanoids." Jonas acknowledged and did as he was told.

  "Well, it's finished." Tomás stood up and looked proudly at his dressing work. No one could do better, in his opinion, not in this situation anyways. "But now let's speak seriously. We got a dragon to kill and we cannot afford to stay back and babysit you, and I don't think you got much of a chance going alone in this place. You should stay here and wait for the other guys to come pick you up."

  "No. I will go with you. I know these parts. I should be of help." Olivia said, steel in her eyes. She tried to stand up with difficulty but were able to in the end. "If I stay here, I will die. I think those green things are still out there and I don't have much more ammo left."

  Tomás looked at Jonas, a question in his eyes. Jonas shrugged. "Okay. We do like that then. What do you have and what can you do? Can you keep yourself crouched?"

  "I think I can crouch, yes. I got a 9 mm and a knife; besides the supplies I took." She showed them her loot: various food items, water bottles, some simple bandages, money and a tape. "But my ammo is short right now. You got some?"

  "Yes, take it" Tomás handed her the spare mag of his service pistol. 'Not going to be of much use to me, anyways.' "The plan doesn't change Jonas. I distract the thing so you can try to blow it up. But this gal should keep close to you. "

  "Fine by me. Can we get on then?" Jonas said, gesturing for them to cross the corridor.

  "No. Let's stop and eat a little. No warm rations. Just the cereal bars. You too, Olivia. And drink some water. "

  While they ate, Jonas asked for the tape that was in the middle of Olivia's looted supplies.

  "Why do you want it?" asked Olivia.

  "I got an idea. I will use it to make a bundle with the grenades I have. If we are lucky, we glue them to the belly of the thing and cause a serious wound," Jonas said.

  "Are you brave enough for that?" Tomás asked while munching his second cereal bar.

  "'We'll see," said the wizened police man.