August 13th, 2026. 19:05 PST

Somewhere in the middle of the Stanislaus National Forest located in California, it's a slightly dark, descending sunset. There is a chase, not just an ordinary chase but a hunting chase. Zlocu spaceships were surrounding most of the forest, with their red and black coloring making them look like beings from hell itself, except the hell in question, it's from space. Surprisingly, it also seems that even in the face of war, the forest doesn't appear damaged.

On the ground, Zlocan machine walkers are moving fast like a Leopard chasing its prey. The "prey" they are chasing is the young teacher, he's looking tired and dirty, his face covered with dust and mud, but nonetheless, he continued to run as fast as he could. Quickly dodging every bush and leaf in the path, no matter how big or small they are, he's determined to get away.

The walkers, even with their bulk, can keep up with the chase, continuing to advance menacingly towards the young teacher, who's running as fast as he can.

The young teacher turns backward, the walker still on his back. He looks in both directions until he sees something nearby. He sprints rapidly to quickly turn left to a bushy field.

"Ha! Turning left to everything is for suckers!" One of the pilots said amusingly as he continues to advance and turn to the direction of the escapee. But before he could try anything, he saw nothing. Not even the escapee running far away.

"Where did that pest go? Let me check outside." the pilot says.

"Why not simply use Galga to ram through the forest?" another one asks.

"The trees are too thick for me to enter with this, and I don't want to risk it."

"Understood. Also, set the gun to stun, you know the orders." the CO of the platoon says.

He then exits from the walker and pulls out a gun from his holster, now ready to find the lost human. As soon as he approached a tree where the Human is supposedly is, he steadily aims gun near below his arm. Soon he jumps vertically and shoots where the Human should be hiding.

The result? Nothing.

Bewildered as such unexpected occurrence, he soon tries to scout again. But before he could try anything, something grabs him from below, it was the young teacher who camouflaged himself to hide from them. He soon picks up his ax and proceeds to chop off the head of the Zlocan pilot, all quickly and swiftly.

And when the other pilots find out what's happening, they see the Human himself holding the head of the dead pilot who then proceeds to toss it near the walker were the pilot was. He then puts his ax near a tree before running off once more.

The pilots looked utterly outraged at such action, as soon holds the control pad in a stressful manner.

"Damn him! Requesting immediate order to shoot!" one of the walker pilots says.

"Negative, our orders are simple and clear, capture any surviving Humans to ensure they can join our ranks." says another who was likely the commanding officer of the group.

The pilot hesitates for a moment to talk, as he clearly has the urge to kill any opposing enemy in his path. Their path.

Ultimately, he sighed at such order as he and the rest continued to advance towards the deeper parts of the forest once more, all to chase down the Human.

But he's not alone. On the other side of the forest, there's the young scientist running as fast as he could, this time from the eponymous servants of the Zlocu Empire, the Zlocan Knights, all with red and black streamlined armor with helmets with T-shaped visors. He didn't look dirty like the young teacher but he still didn't look very clean, he was also filled with multiple cuts around his shoulder and a bloodied forehead.

While the Knights are pursuing him, he saw something that he thought could potentially distract them. He saw a nearby lake, which he saw as an opportunity to hide. But as he could know, he's just Human, he surely can't breathe for that long. But if there's one thing he can do to overcome it, it's to use a known technique used by many mammals even possibly Humans.

First off, he takes his glasses off and puts them in his pocket, then he then dives into the river, which was luckily deep enough to hide him from the Zlocan patrols. But before he can keep himself underwater, he exhales and inhales two and four times, with the last ones being done from his diaphragm.

Eventually, he submerges deep enough before one Knight can notice him submerging underwater.

The guy is laying still while underwater, to ensure a relaxed state of mind in order to ensure that the oxygen inside his body can flow properly alongside the blood. Four minutes pass by, he nervously yet steadily still keeps up in breathing underwater, likely estimating how long it can take from the hunter to stop pursuing its prey. The Zlocan Knights keep on checking the lake, using their lights to spot the escapee. The Scientist tries to hide by diving deeper and deeper underwater.

Two minutes pass by, and just when the Scientist can't hold any further...

"Subject not found, let's keep on with the search." a general says while going to another sector.

I've endured enough danger in my life from anything ...but this...would I be even the same anymore? My family...I'm deeply sorry for this...

The scientist emerges from the lakeEven if he's now all wet, he can have the chance for a nice running to keep himself dry now that the enemy has lost track of him, at least for now.

In any war, who can feel safe, who truly does?

Again, neither the young teacher nor the young scientist are the only ones running away, near the lake, there's the Alien girl, still fleeing from an animal-like creature pursuing her. Suddenly, the creature leaps towards her, almost trying to bite her off. The creature was almost Wolf-like.

With no choice left, she picks a metal hilt, igniting a red-looking blade made of light.

She then uses it to swing towards the vicious wolf-like creature.

Viciously trying to maul her alive with their metallic teeth, she holds its mouth as it continued to try to bite her. In the end, the Alien found the necessary spot for the kill as she then swings her blade vertically, beheading the wolf.

She pants heavily afterward, with her red eyes looking watery.

Then, just before she thought she could be safe, a Zlocan patrol approaches near her position, noticing that the wolf was killed. In a state of panic, she then ran away as fast as she could from the Knights. Unfortunately, they eventually notice her and the commander give the order to chase her, all with a simple, yet chilling order.

"Bring her to the daughter. She needs satisfaction," he says before he and his troops continued to give chase.

There is the young schoolgirl who is running away from Zlocu drones, trying to capture her. They all had aspects similar to a dark crane overlooking the prey to chase, all while trying to fire nets at her in which swiftly dodges. Like the rest, she looks dirty and tired, but likewise, also running bravely from her hostile pursuers.

She then hides near a tree full of plants and bushes, perfect for camouflage, to prevent the drones from seeing her. It's briefly successful as some of the drones start dropping the chase...but not all, only one remains, having heard a bit of noise being heard from the nearby tree.

After a brief moment of nervousness, she notices a pack of rocks in front of her. Smirking from her discovery, she then picks a large one, but not before she could something more daring. She whistled high enough to make one of the drones to notice her, but before the drone could do something, all it could see is the sight of a giant rock approaching it at high speed, soon supposedly ending the miserable existence of a tool like the pitiful drone.

She then briefly pulls a raspberry to the wreckage of the drone.

But to her misfortune, it turned out that the drone re-activates itself while eventually flying again, it also signaled the others who now are coming back with a vengeance.

"Oh, nutty!" She says before she runs off like hell again.

As all the four escapees continued to run to safety, they at first felt that while the captors were no longer after them, they still feel the urgency to hide somewhere so they can't found again.

With the whole place being dark, it can't be helped at all. Not to mention that with sun almost setting, it would be much harder in trying to look carefully, leading them to find somewhere else to keep on evading the troops.

As they reached to a certain spot so they could try to feel safe, they kept running until from a split second, they collided face to face as they coincidentally tripped over to a nearby trench in the forest. Maybe it was built in preparation for the invasion or maybe some unknown event.

They're briefly dazed for at least just one minute until they woke up simultaneously and the young teacher felt dizzy for a moment. Actually, so does the young scientist, the alien girl, and the schoolgirl. It was like a slumber party gone wrong.

After a brief moment of an unexpected collision, the young teacher then turns towards the scientist who's also noticeably hurt, holding his left hand over his forehead.

"Ugh, my head, huh? Hey...Are you OK man? Feeling lost as well?" said the young teacher as he tries to approach him.

Suddenly, the scientist shoved his hand away.

"Don't touch me, you could have me and the rest killed!" snaps the scientist.

"Hey, it was simply an accident!" he protests back.

"Accident or not, we would have been dead already for that clumsiness of yours. Now, out of the way."

"No no no no no! Don't argue at this moment, there is danger around us right now! I mean, who do you think you are, some sort of edgy guy?!" says the schoolgirl.

"Who you're calling edgy, pickle-head?!"

They then started to argue with the scientist in a very aggressive manner, almost bordering on a fight.

"You think you can be just as much of a douche even if you're aware of what's going on?!" the young teacher asks.

"Why do you rush to death when you're not even thinking?!"

"CUT IT OUT, OR ELSE I'LL SING THE OLD MACDONALD TO YOU ALL!" the schoolgirl shouts back.

The scientist then turns his glance towards her.

"What the hell are you blabbering on, are you dense or something!?"

The humanoid looking girl is scared for a moment, stepping back from them, thinking they're going to attack and beat her until she died if they notice her. She's crawling back, afraid of the arguments being held by them. On the verge of tears, almost clearly whimpering in fear to them.

The three of them notice her, causing them to stop arguing, all to stare at her in confusion yet awe.

"Don't move...scum." the scientist says.

"Oooooohhhh, just found a goodie being! Uh, right?" the schoolgirl says.

"P-p-please, Do-on-on-t hurt me, dear hu-uu-mans" the humanoid girl stutters nervously.

"She-she can speak to us?!" the scientist says in a surprised tone as his eyes widen towards her surprise in speaking the Human language.

But as she was about to get up, she couldn't, feeling too weak from both running endlessly and facing the wolf which scarred her.

"I think we can get a few words out of her and know what the hell is going with those Aliens out there..." the scientist says as he gets up to approach the alien.

Then, the young teacher approaches him and blocks him with his arm.

The scientist gets startled as such action.

"What the?!"

"I don't think it's a good idea to jump to conclusions just yet. I can notice she's different from them."

"How the bloody hell do you know?"

"Cause...I know what they look like. And while some of her facial features are similar...she feels very distinct."

"Ohhhhh, maybe we truly feel safe, righty right?" the schoolgirl cheerfully asks.

"I don't trust her still, so out of the way!"

" Stop it! I know why you cannot trust her now...I'm not quite sure as well if I can...but sometimes, a bit of discovery is needed if you need to understand better."

He quietly approaches the scared young Alien girl, who's slightly stopping from moving away from them as she noticed the young teacher's interest, and perhaps tenderness towards her.

But even with his newfound sympathy for her, the young teacher hesitantly continues to walk towards the Alien girls, with his arms and legs feeling tense, his hands shaking and almost stepping back in nervousness. He glances back briefly to the other two, who look at him in either frustration or simply curiosity.

After a moment of reluctance or two, he proceeds to step forward, almost feeling ready to meet the Alien.

"No...no..." she whispers.

The man then extends his hand towards her.

"There there, don't be scared."

The Alien girl at first hesitates in trying to grab his hand, still feeling insecure in what he may bring to her.

"Calm down. And I'm truly sorry for what you saw...whatever you are, it's just that these Aliens...kinda messed things up, OK?" says the young teacher.

"A-aliens...?" the young Alien whispers again.

"I...can try to explain. Just maybe..." the young teacher says sheepishly.

After some brief moment of hesitation, all while the scientist was preparing to hurl things towards her in case she does something suspicious.

A miracle then happens.

The Alien eventually grabs the young teacher's hand.

She could feel the warmness in the hand, almost feeling like feeling interested in looking for something she always wanted to know.

That eventually makes her smile while her eyes still remain watery.

The young teacher as well, though confused, looks in interest as he examines her in every way, almost never showing any discomfort at all.

This is...nice...maybe a bit too much from someone I've never seen in my life. But yet, I feel some innocence in her..or maybe just wait after all.

Never in her life, she felt something so warm from other beings she knew in her life.

TO BE CONTINUED