The engine whined in protest as the jeep sped down the debris filled road at top speed, but the driver didn’t let up.  Come on baby, I know you can do it, he urged as the jeep climbed over a large pile of rubble.  

“We’re almost to the target point, just a few more blocks.”  The man in the back shouted over the drone of the engine, “If we’re lucky we might be able to get in and out without any trouble.”

“I wouldn’t count on it” the driver shouted back, “we’re never that lucky.”

At that moment the driver saw his destination and pulled the jeep over to the curb.  Both men got out of the jeep and looked at the ruined building that stood before them.  The building looked like a rogue bulldozer driver ran through the building several times, large sections of the building were missing and the sections that remained were falling apart.  In addition the years of neglect had caused the building to decay.  Moss covered the sides of the building and the sign in front was falling apart, only the letters N, K, and HOSP remained.  

Both men looked at the destroyed hospital for awhile longer, but they knew they had a job to do.  If they were lucky, there should still be some food and medicine in the abandoned hospital, which would be good because they were running dangerously low on both.

The driver looked to the other man.  “Alright Patrick, I’m going in.  Watch my back.”

Patrick nodded, “right behind you Sam.”

Sam clutched his rifle tightly as he walked up to the door of the hospital.  He inspected the door and saw it was locked, so he kicked it as hard as he could.  The glass of the door shattered as the door caved in and fell onto the floor.  Oops Sam thought to himself.  He had forgotten how much this armor augmented his strength.  He never did like this full suit body armor he had been issued, it was bulky and it restricted movement.  However, he couldn’t deny the usefulness of the augmented speed and strength the suit provided.

“Easy big guy,” Patrick joked “we want to make sure the building is standing while we’re in it.”

“I know, I know,” Sam replied “just keep moving.”

Sam continued walking though the corridors of the hospital, with Patrick following right behind.  Large cracks ran down the walls and floor of the hospital and a thick layer of dust covered everything.  Sam looked at one of the cracks in the walls and wondered just how structurally sound the building was.  He turned to Patrick, “we need to do this fast.”

Eventually they made it to a room that looked to be a waiting room.  The place was a mess, chairs were overturned and computers were smashed and again a thick layer of dust covered everything.  Looks like this place has already been looted, Sam thought, just great, we may already be too late.  

It was then that Sam heard a light scuffling on the floor.  Sam held his hand up and Patrick froze in his tracks.  “Something’s here” Sam reported.  They waited for several seconds, neither saying a word. Suddenly Sam heard the sound again, he looked to Patrick who nodded, he had heard it too.

Just then a six-legged creature walked into the room.  It resembled an ant, except it was about a foot tall and three feet long.  It had two antennae and two legs on each segment of its three segment body.  Each leg had three joints, angling upward from the body before angling down to the ground.  Finally at the head of the creature was a pair of razor sharp pincers many claimed was able to chop through solid steel.  The creature saw the two men immediately and began crawling toward them with remarkable speed.

“Nibbler!” Sam shouted and without thinking he brought his rifle up and fired a three round burst at the small creature.  The force of the shots was too much for the Nibbler’s body and it exploded, sending pieces of its body flying all over the lobby.

“Stay alert; these things travel in packs, his friends will be here before too long.”  Sam stated as he began moving forward.  Three shots Sam thought to himself, that means there are still twenty seven shots in the clip.

“Hey!  I know all about the Nibblers man.”  Patrick snapped, “I took the same training you did.”

“Yeah, but you always were sloppy,” Sam teased.  “Anyway, start searching the rooms.  Pick up anything useful.”

Patrick was about to make a smart aleck comment about Sam’s track record but thought better of it, what good would it do.  

Sam and Patrick moved from room to room in the hospital, looking for anything that they could use.  The place was a wreck, each room had overturned furniture and hospital equipment destroyed beyond repair, and the bodies were everywhere.  Some were still lying in hospital beds while others were sprawled over counters or lying on the floor in disfigured positions.  The Nibblers had picked most of the corpses clean, but some of the skeletons still had pieces of decaying flesh on them and it took all of Sam’s willpower to not vomit from the smell.

Finally the two made it to a room at the back of the hospital that looked like a stock room.  Two more skeletons were in this room, one was huddled in a corner with its arm bent in an unnatural way and the back half of its skull smashed in.  The other skeleton was lying on the table, and was missing its head, left hand, and right leg.  Sam winced when he though of how much pain that guy had to have gone through.  After a few minutes of searching the room Patrick opened a locker that was full of medicine bottles.  “Jackpot.”  He called to Sam, who stopped rummaging through his locker and looked up.

“What did you get?”  Sam asked.

“Aspirin, Penicillin, Hydrogen Peroxide, Antacids, you name it I got it.”  Patrick replied.

“Good, bag it all.”  Sam instructed.

Patrick took off the pack he was wearing on his back and began shoveling the medicine bottles into it.  There were a few more bottles in the other lockers and they grabbed those as well.  After they were convinced that there was nothing else in this hospital, they donned their packs and headed for the exit.

Once they made it back to the lobby, Sam and Patrick were greeted with the sight of four more Nibblers feasting on the corpse of their fallen comrade.  Patrick began to take aim at the small creatures but was stopped by Sam.

“Don’t, bullets are hard to come by now.  We may be able to sneak by without them noticing us.”

“I doubt it,” Patrick replied, “but you’re the boss.  Lead the way”

The two men began walking across the lobby, moving as quietly as they could in their bulky armor.  About half way across the lobby the silence was pierced by a sharp shrill, one of the Nibblers had spotted them and was alerting his friends.  Patrick once again brought his rifle to bear on the creatures, but was interrupted by Sam grabbing his shoulder.  “No!  I got a better idea.  Follow me.”

They sprinted across the remainder of the lobby, the Nibblers hot on their heels.  Once they made it halfway down the hallway Sam shouted to Patrick “fire a grenade!  Get them with one shot!”

Patrick pivoted on one of his feet, letting his momentum spin him around.  He then pushed a button on the side of the gun that activated the grenade launcher and fired a round into the hallway.  The entire hallway erupted into flame and when the smoke cleared not one of the Nibblers remained.

“Nice shot,” Sam said.

“Let’s get out of here,” Patrick replied.

The two walked out of the hospital and made their way to the jeep.  Once they made it to the jeep, however, the air was filled with a high pitched, shrill cry that made both men freeze.  They looked up to see a giant monster standing on the roof of a nearby building.

The monster had to be about ten feet long from snout to tail, and it had two giant wings that spanned about five feet across.  Two muscular legs held the monster up and it had two small arms tipped with razor sharp claws.  The creature looked at the two men with red, beady eyes and barred its sharp teeth as it let out another cry.

“Shit!  We got a Dragon!”  Patrick shouted as he climbed up to the back of the jeep and manned the mounted chain gun.  Sam got into the driver seat and started up the engine.  As soon as the jeep was revved up he floored the accelerator and the jeep took off.  The Dragon watched as its prey ran and then jumped off of the roof and pumped its powerful wings and took flight.

As he drove Sam looked back at the monster following them, “are you sure it’s a Dragon?”  He asked, “It’s rather small for a dragon, it might just be Wyvern.”

As soon as the words left Sam’s mouth the monster opened its mouth and shot a fireball at the speeding jeep.  Sam had to swerve the jeep hard to the right to avoid the fireball and felt the intense heat as it exploded on the street nearby.  “Nope, definatly a Dragon.”

“I don’t care what it is!”  Patrick shouted as he aimed the chain gun at the Dragon.  “Eat shit and die asshole!”  Patrick then fired the chain gun, firing bullets so fast that the human ear couldn’t register the individual shots and sounded like a continuous hum.  The Dragon was too far away however and it was easily able to fly out of the path of the bullets.  The Dragon responded to the attack by firing another fireball at the jeep.  This one hit the base of a nearby building and caused it to collapse, nearing crushing the jeep.

“Command, this is Scavenger One do you copy?”  Sam shouted into the comlink in his ear.

A few seconds later a female voice came on the line, “Scavenger One this is Command, what do you need?”

“We’re being chased by a Dragon.” Sam shouted.  “We’ll need quick access into the base!”

“Negative Scavenger One,” the woman replied.  “Dragons have shown signs of intelligence and we can’t afford letting one of them know the location of the colony.  You’ll have to get rid of it before you can return.”

“We have to kill it!”  Sam shouted back to Patrick.

“I’m working on it!”  Patrick replied, “You concentrate on driving.”

Sam looked back at the road and saw that the road they were on was about to dead end.  Reacting quickly Sam swerved into a nearby alley.  The buildings on either side of the jeep would have provided adequate cover from the Dragon if they were still at their full height, but there was nothing left in this city over two stories high which meant the jeep was just a sitting duck in the alley.  The Dragon flew high above them and shot another fireball from its mouth.  This one landed just a few feet behind the jeep and washed a wave of virtually unbearable heat over Patrick.  Patrick quickly inspected the back of the jeep and decided that many of the systems back there were completely scorched.  

The alley then ended and Sam turned right and back onto the street.  Sam recognized the street almost immediately, they were on Park Avenue.  An idea began to form in Sam’s head as he floored the accelerator once again.  Patrick continued to fire wildly at the dragon and fortunately was able to prevent it from firing off any more shots.  

After a few blocks Sam arrived at his destination, a large marble building that was still relatively undamaged.  Sam turned the jeep and headed for that building.  Patrick looked away from his shooting spree to see where they were going.  “Central?  Why the hell are we going there?”

“I have an idea!”  Sam shot back.

The jeep smashed through the glass door to the building and sped through a small room filled with ticket counters.  Sam continued to speed through a nearby hallway until he ended p on a catwalk to a larger room.  He hit the railing at top speed and the jeep flew through the air to the ground one floor below.  The jeep hit the ground with a hard thud but was able to stay upright.  Sam hit the breaks and the jeep skidded to a stop in the middle of a cavernous room.

“Okay,” Sam said, thinking out loud.  “The Dragon won’t be able to fit through that hallway, so we just need to stay in here until he los—“ Sam froze as he looked up at the wall of this large room and saw that along one of the sides were three windows, three big windows.

“Great!  Just great!” Patrick commented.  “The Dragon’s not going to have any problem getting in here, and when he does we’ll be sitting ducks!”

“I-It’s okay,” Sam stuttered, thinking frantically.  “I have a new plan-“

“Your plans suck!”  Patrick interrupted.

Just then a loud crashing sound filled the room, and the two men looked up to see that the Dragon was crashing through the center window.  Luckily, the window was sturdier than either the men or the Dragon had realized.  The impact dazed the Dragon and before it could recover it hit the ground hard and skidded across the floor a few yards before finally stopping.

Patrick didn’t give the Dragon an opportunity to recover; he immediately brought the chain gun around to face the Dragon and opened fire.  The bullets hit the Dragon in its soft underbelly and began tearing through the Dragon.  Patrick fired at the Dragon for a full ten seconds before Sam reached up to stop him.
The two men looked at what was left of the Dragon.  The bullets had torn its stomach open, and now the Dragon’s blood and guts were spilled on the floor in front of the Dragon.  Both men watched the Dragon for several minutes.  It didn’t move.  The Dragon was dead.

“Well, that was fun.”  Sam said.  He then turned to Patrick, “See, I told you this would work.”

“Shut up and get us out of here.”  Patrick replied, “We’ve already fought a Dragon today, I don’t want to mess with any Tunnelers as well.”

“Agreed,” Sam said as he pushed on the accelerator and headed toward home.