The stick spun in its little dimple as Fletcher tried to create enough friction to ignite the small pile of tinder that surrounded it. He was trying to make fire using the bow drill technique, but it wasn’t working very well.

He threw his “bow” in frustration.

“Everything is damp!” he sat back and regained his breath

“Then it’ll be a cold night…” Jay had been watching him and had even offered to help but he had turned out to be more of a hindrance

They had walked for most of the day and had found a suitable area to make a basic shelter when the sun started to set. A couple of fallen branches had made an impromptu lean-to and the blankets made the bed.

Their green prisoner had been watching their struggles with a large grin on her wedge shaped head.

She tried to suppress a laugh and what came out was a strange snort.

“And what the fuck are you laughing at?” Fletcher snapped

“I am a prisoner, am I not?”

“Yes”

“And you can order me to do things correct?”

“I guess…”

“And dragons can breath fire…” she let Fletcher add the two together

He tossed the tinder in her direction and remained silent.

She ignored the small pile of pine needles and bark and went to the larger pile of wood that was arranged in a small pit. The green dragoness took a deep breath and released a large plume of fire at the pile. For a second it didn’t ignite, but as the fire dried the damp wood, it finally caught fire and she stopped when she noticed the now lit fire pit.

She started to cough, releasing a small puff of smoke every time she hacked.

“Never comfortable to do that…” she stopped coughing and look at her work

“Isn’t that a natural ability though?” Jay asked as he settled by the fire

“Just because it is natural doesn’t mean it feels good”

Jay just nodded because it made sense. Fletcher grabbed their backpacks and dumped their contents as he sat by the fire. He quickly took inventory of what they had, seven MREs, three water canteens, two flares, seven magazines of ammunition for the guns including the ones that were currently loaded, two and a half blankets, and a knife.

“You going to let me hunt?” the prisoner asked Fletcher as he repacked the gear into the bags

“And let you leave? A prisoner?” It was rhetorical

“You obviously don’t have enough to feed me and as much as it might surprise you, I need to eat too”

Fletcher and Jay exchanged glances when they realized that she was right. She would need to feed herself or someone would starve.

Jay leaned over towards Fletcher and whispered in his ear “We can trust her, she won’t run”

“and you know that how?”

“She could’ve killed us both easily by now and she would’ve been fine even if we didn’t help her”

“Ok… maybe you’re right about the first part, but how do you know that about the second?”

The green dragoness watched them converse, their words lost to the crackling of the fire

“Look at her, she’s like pure muscle. If we could roll that log off, she could’ve done it.”

Fletcher looked the dragoness over and had to side with Jay, she was a very muscular creature

“And those wounds that we ‘treated’ weren’t even close to lethal. She can walk on her leg even with those bullets lodged in there, all we did was help stop the bleeding.” Jay trusted her even though she was the enemy

“Then why is she here? Why let us take her prisoner?”

Jay just shrugged. He was just as confused as Fletcher was.

The conversation ended there, but the thoughts lingered. They tore open one of the brown packets and ate a quick meal of sloppy Joes before retiring for the night.

Fletcher pretended to sleep and watched the dragon as she sat there, staring at the fire. Eventually, she curled up and went to sleep too.

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“Thunder 2-1 and 2-2 are being retasked, you’re on your own Anvil” Anvil actual told the team

The V-22 had been escorted by the A-10s for most of the trip home. They had been refueled by a HC-130P about halfway through their trip and now they were somewhere over Colorado.

“Copy that Actual” He contacted the pilots “Thanks for the company, I owe you many beers”

“Alright, we’ll claim those after we earn some more” one of the pilots replied as they turned north

Snapshot had fallen asleep a little after they had boarded the plane and Stool was busy cleaning his weapon. It was a habit more than a necessity.

Brains had been taking a nap when command rudely interrupted.

Thud

“The hell was that?” Stool looked up from cleaning his barrel

The Captain didn’t answer but just looked out one of the windows behind him. He didn’t see anything beside the light on the tip of the wing and a few stars in the dark night sky.

Thud Thud

Two small explosions blossomed far below them

It registered immediately

“We got flak incoming!”

“Flak? From what?” Stool quickly reassembled his rifle and looked out the window

More explosions

“We don’t have anything this far east” Brains told the pilots

“Whoever it is, it ain’t us” the pilot responded

The explosions slowly crept higher and higher, closer to the Osprey.

“They’re zeroing in on us!”

Before the pilot could react, the explosions shook the aircraft as they exploded dangerously close.

“The hell is happening?” Snapshot asked sluggishly as the shaking disturbed his sleep

“We got flak incoming” Brains told him as he strapped back into one of the seats

Stool did the same

The pilot tried to evade the most of the flak but the sheer amount was making it near impossible.

It wasn’t a first for Captain Lee, he had survived two helicopter crashes during previous operations. The flak was a first, the other crashes had been because of lock-on SAMs.

“Did we go back to World War two while I was sleeping?” Snapshot joked as more shells burst near them

As the fire became more accurate, one of them slammed into the tail section of the aircraft, leaving nothing but mangled metal after the explosion cleared.

“That was close!” Snapshot yelled as the Osprey stopped its violent shaking

Another round punched holes into the fuselage near the ramp

“All that shit just to be killed by some outdated bullshit!”

They flew on through the small explosions, flying erratically to throw off enemy aim.

As the volume of fire started to dwindle, the hopes of returning to safety rose.

A fireball and violent shaking crushed those hopes. A round had found one of the two large rotors and had done its job, leaving the aircraft with only a single rotor.

The Osprey began to list as it suddenly found itself with much less thrust.

To make matters worse, another round sheared off a portion of the left wing, leaving the flaps and ailerons jammed.

The cockpit was chaos as the pilot and copilot tried to keep the aircraft under control as they radioed their general location.

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“What is that?…” Fletcher shook Jay awake

Jay awoke rather irritated “What?”

“It sounds like thunder”

Several quiet thuds echoed in the distance.

“It’s nothing, get some sleep… we need it” Jay returned to his sleep

Fletcher kept listening to the ‘thunder’ until he lost interest and returned sleep

Several miles to the north and in the air, a V-22 Osprey plummeted from the sky, turning south as it lost altitude.

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To the occupants, the crash was the loudest noise ever. The smashing of trees, the twisting and grinding of metal, the crash as the aircraft met Earth.

But to the surrounding world, it was relatively silent.

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Lee’s eyes slowly opened.

He was still strapped to the seat inside the wrecked Osprey.

His training kicked in as he freed himself from his restraints and checked himself for injuries. Finding nothing of concern, he moved to check on his team, who were still unconscious.

It was immediately clear that Stool was dead, something had caved in a large portion of his skull leaving a bloody pool at his feet. The captain checked for vitals anyways.

Snapshot was in much better condition. A gash in his forehead was bleeding, but it wasn’t serious. A large crate with blood on a corner, pinned one of his legs against his seat.

He moved the crate off his leg, it elicited a groan from Snapshot.

“Shit’s broken… sir” were his first words

“Anything else?” the captain inspected the rest of him for serious wounds

“Negative… Go check on the pilots”

He left Snapshot to check on the pilots. One was alive, but his vitals faded as he tried to help. The other was dead.

“KIA” he returned to Snapshot who had unbuckled himself and was already making a splint from two pieces of metal

“Shit…” he finished fixing his own leg

Captain Lee took the dog tags from Stool and helped Snapshot stand. They moved away from the crash site and finished treating their wounds as they kept an eye out for possible hostiles.

The sun was just starting to rise over the horizon.

“Campfire” Snapshot pointed to a column of smoke that was rising above the trees a few miles to the south

“I’ll go check it out” Brains went back to the crash and managed to retrieve a single M4A1. He gave Snapshot his holstered Colt 1911 pistol and left to investigate the fire.

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“You kept the fire going all night?” Fletcher asked the dragon as they sat in front of the fire that blazed as strong as ever

“Yes… You looked cold”

“How?”

The green dragoness just turned her head to a tree that was stripped of all branches.

“Holy shit…”

Jay and Fletcher had awaken when beams of sunlight started to snipe their eyes through their rudimentary shelter. They found the dragon by the still-lit fire and a half eaten deer. The fact that she had returned after leaving the camp made Fletcher trust her more, even though she was still a dragon.

They made a quick breakfast with strips of meat taken from the deer and a couple sips from a canteen. The dragoness just rested, watching the two humans eat. Suddenly, her head jerked up and her canine-like ears swiveled on her head.

“What?” Fletcher asked in-between bites of his venison

Before he could react, she took off into the woods and vanished from sight.

“Wha-?” Fletcher was shocked

“Did she just escape?” Jay asked

“I don’t know… I doubt it though, why would she do it now?”

The continued to eat, knowing that their “prisoner” would return

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It was a campfire alright.

Brains had approached the location of the fire and quickly located the small camp. Surprisingly, he found two soldiers enjoying breakfast in front of the campfire.

He was about to approach them when he noticed their strange attire. They wore the standard ACUs that the Army would issue, but they were the wrong size. On both figures, they were too large. Another thing was the assault rifles and packs that were in their basic shelter.

Looters? Some people took advantage of any situation, no matter how severe. But what were they doing out here?

He decided that the best option was to approach cautiously.

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“Hello there” a voice said from the trees behind them

When Jay and Fletcher turned their heads, they saw a fully geared soldier wearing all black approaching them with an assault rifle.

Fletcher noticed the small U.S Flag patch on his shoulder.

Jay and Fletcher lifted their hands, showing they were unarmed.

“What are you two doing here?” The soldier asked them

“waiting for you” Fletcher told him

“Waiting?”

“Yeah, we were part of a convoy heading west when we got ambushed and everyone else was killed” He paused “You’re here to rescue us right?”

The soldier let out a slight chuckle “Not really… Plane crash”

They sat there for a minute scrutinizing each other

“Where’d you get the gear?” he gestured to their little stash with the front of his gun

Before they could answer, they were interrupted by the smashing of trees. The soldier didn’t manage to bring his gun to bear on the new threat.

The new threat, was the green dragon. She burst from the trees from behind the soldier and clamped her massive maw on the barrel of his weapon as it swung around, tearing it from his grasp easily.

He immediately went for his combat knife but was knocked to the ground by a swipe of her right paw. As he hit the ground, she pounced and pinned him to the ground with her large paws.

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The last thing he expected was a dragon to burst from the woods and attack him. It immediately went for his M4 so he drew his M-9 combat knife but he lost that too when it knocked him over. He felt it pin him, it was over. He thought about pulling the pin on a grenade, but they were under one of its paws. His expected end didn’t come.

The dragon just kept him pinned.

The two guys just sat there. Unsure what to do.

As he lay there, the weight of a young dragon on top of him, he switched between looking at the dragon and the two civvies who were not scared of the large lizard that was now attacking them. Or more specifically, him.

In the few days of the dragon invasion, not a single case of dragons sparing a human was seen. Soldiers and civilians alike were killed.

After a few minutes of silence, and the weight of a dragon sitting on his chest, he called out.

“You two want to help me out?”

There was something strange going on here. Something that shouldn’t happen.

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Jay and Fletcher were just as confused and scared as the SEAL that was now pinned under their prisoner.

“You two want to help me out?”

They looked at each other and it snapped them out of their confused state.

“Green, get off!” Fletcher was the first to speak

She carefully took her paws off the downed SEAL and backed away, picking up the knife gingerly with her mouth.

Jay offered a hand to the soldier and helped him up to his feet.

“Sorry about that” Jay noticed the murderous, but curious look that the soldier was directing at the dragon “Long story short, she’s different”

The dragoness threw the knife into the woods by flicking her head then sat on her haunches to watch the humans converse.

“You guys have a pet dragon…” The SEAL looked around for the rifle that was torn from his hands during the struggle. He found it laying in the dirt and went to inspect it. The dragon had clamped down on front of the weapon, inches away from where his left hand was. Her teeth left the barrel with multiple dents, it was unusable.

“Sort of” Jay explained the past day’s events with as much detail possible. The evacuation from the city, the convoy, the ambush, and finding the dragon.

“By the way, I’m Fletcher and this is Jay” Fletcher introduced the two of them

“Lee” was all the soldier said “I got a guy with a broken leg by the crash, mind if I borrow your lizard?”

The dragoness let out an exaggerated sigh but remained silent

Jay and Fletcher gathered up their gear and went with Lee to the crash, prisoner in tow.

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Their story was beyond crazy, if it wasn’t for the dragon that was walking with them, he wouldn’t have believed them.

It went against everything they had seen during the attacks, any buildings that contained living humans would get torched. No prisoners, no survivors.

Captain Lee led the odd trio to where Snapshot was hiding.

“Friendlies!” He yelled as they approached the general location of the crash

“Over here Cap” the reply came from behind a tree trunk

He had finished setting and splinting his leg and was just sitting up against the tree trunk.

“What’d you find?”

Before the Captain could respond, the dragon came into view rather loudly. Demolishing branches and small trees that stood in her way.

“Whoa!” Snapshot yelled as he pulled up his pistol to fire

Before Brains could stop him, he had fired off two shots at the dragon. In true Snapshot fashion, the poorly aimed shots landed at the bottom of her neck where it met the rest of her body.

He quickly took the pistol from Snapshot before he could fire more.

“I know this might be hard for you to grasp, but your enemy can feel pain” The dragoness told them matter-of-factly, ignoring the throbbing pain from where the two 9mm bullets had bounced off her scales

“It can talk?!” Snapshot yelled

Brains let him yell to his heart’s content before he started talking again

This is Jay and Fletcher, civvies that survived an ambush… And this is lizard”

“Why is it still alive?” Snapshot had 

“That lizard there is your ticket home” Captain Lee knew that helping a man with a broken leg would take too long. So why walk when you can ride?

“Evac isn’t coming, we don’t have the resources for that” He explained his plan to the rest of the group “Get on”

“I don’t get a choice do I?” The dragoness was getting sick of being treated like she couldn’t talk

“Shut up and no”

After a bit of struggling, they managed to get Snapshot seated on top of the dragon. He rode her like someone would ride a horse, one leg on either side just in front of where the wings met the body.

The dragoness was obviously annoyed, but she bore his weight easily and made the ride as rough as possible as a form of silent rebellion.

“I know why people like the concept of dragon riding… This shit is awesome!” Snapshot was enjoying himself as the group trekked west towards safety “Onward to victory! For humans!” 

It was a good sign that Snap was still his typical, childish self.

“You guys are following the road right?” Brains asked the two civilians

“Uh…” They looked at each other

To be honest, they had been moving straight west but as they thought about it, following the road while remaining concealed in the woods would have been a better idea.

“Not really” Jay answered

“If we keep going west, we will have to climb the mountain. Let’s find the road first”

Finding the road wasn’t hard, as it turns out, Jay and Fletcher had traveled parallel to the road for most of their travel. They continued their journey, following the road while hidden in the trees.

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Man-portable Air-Defense System, or MANPADS, a shoulder fired missile launcher that could take down aircraft with a single missile. A potent anti-air weapon. Infrared homing with a 6.6 pound warhead that would shred metal.

Worthless against dragons.

The Rocky mountains had been established as the line in the sand, if the dragons passed it, there was no stopping them.

The high altitude made it difficult for the lizards to fly over and enough military equipment had been packed into the small area west of the mountains that any dragon dumb enough to try it would be killed before they had a chance to land. Near the southern end of the mountain range, where the mountains were shorter, was where most of the defense was concentrated.

A team of three men positioned themselves on a ridge that overlooked the occupied side of America. One carried infrared detection equipment, one carried the FIM-92 Stinger, and one carried the specially modified missile. Several hundred feet behind them was a defensive that covered a section of the mountains that was significantly shorter than the rest.

They quickly set up their respective equipment and prepared the anti-air missile to fire.

Luckily for them, a single dragon had been flying circles near the pass for nearly the whole day.

The power supply and missile were loaded into the launcher and then shouldered.

The shooter pressed the trigger halfway and kept the dragon inside the aiming reticule. After several seconds, a tone let them know that the missile had acquired the infrared signature of the target. He fully depressed the trigger and the missile popped out of the tube and a second later, the propellant ignited and the 5 foot long missile shot into the sky, arcing through the air and approaching the oblivious dragon from above.

Just before the missile impacted on its target, the dragon let loose a stream of flames and dove straight down.

Thrown off by the wall of infrared, the missile flew into the ball of fire and detonated, leaving the dragon unharmed.

A string of curses came from the team as they packed their gear and retreated.

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“Sir, third, fifth, and seventh fleets have been tasked with evacing as many deployed troops as possible. Current casualty rates are lower than expected.” The soldier handed a couple photos to the General “The dragons only burned the houses with people inside but almost 85% of the infrastructure is intact.”

He handed him more photos

“Their advance has stalled east of the mountains but we haven’t seen a build-up of any forces that would suggest an attack”

A report followed the pictures

“This is from the team that tested the modified Stinger missile, the dragon they tested it on seemed to know it was coming and managed to use rudimentary counter-measures to evade it.”

Another stack of papers

“This is the supply situation”

And a few more photos

“And this is something that we picked up”

The picture was taken using an infrared camera mounted on a satellite. It showed the entrance of a massive hole.

“This is the entrance to the Son Doong cave in Vietnam, we’ve picked an unusually high amount of dragon traffic around this and other cave systems”

“Point of origin?” the General asked

“Unknown sir, we have tasked additional surveillance to that area but we can’t be certain yet”

The soldier had nothing left to report. The General dismissed him to attend a meeting with POTUS so that they could keep the last cities in America from falling into chaos or into the claws of the dragons.