<USS Avalon> Survivors: the dawn of day two

Rae tapped Portman’s shoulder. "Come on sunshine, up and at’em. It’s your 
watch." she whispered, stifling a yawn.
 
Portman rose sluggishly and gathered his tricorder and weapon.
 
"You gonna make it?" she asked him critically, noting the slow and somewhat 
clumsy way he was moving. "I can stick around if you need me to." 
 
Portman shook head head. "Nah…you go sleep. I got it." Like McEntire’d let him 
off the hook if he didn’t stand his shift, he thought. No way he was risking 
having the engineer mad at him. 
 
Rae nodded and headed off without another word, too tired to argue. 
 
Less than an hour into his shift, Portman was dosing on his feet. The low 
growls near his post went unnoticed. Movement went unseen. His strangled cry 
went unheard.
 
Rosas picked up movement on her tricorder. She held her firearm at ready. 
"Portman," she called out, her voice filled with fear, noting that the 
movement seemed to be registering from all sides.
 
No answer. 
 
"Terry." She tried again, a little as the movement registered nearer still, the 
menacing growls accompanying it sending shivers up her spine. 
 
Still no reply. 
 
"Oh shit," she cried out, her voice filled with panic as the creatures came 
into view, all black fur, claws and teeth and glowing eyes. "MAC!" 
 
Those able within the camp rose quickly to the sound of screams and phaser 
fire, grabbing their weapons and defending the camp from the menace that had 
somehow surrounded them. The creatures vanished before anyone else could get a 
clear look at them. 
 
Rosas lay convulsing in a rapidly spreading pool of her own blood. Linc worked 
near-desperately to staunch the flow, knowing it would do no good.
 
"Tran, help Linc." Mac called, heading out in search for Portman. "Rae, you’re 
with me."
 
"Don’t bother," Rae replied from a point not far from her earlier post. Before 
her lay bits of bone and flesh and red fabric stained redder still with blood. 
 
Twin suns rose slowly in the North, illuminating a landscape of dried out trees 
and cracked brown earth, dead and desolate. 
 
With only twenty-one survivors remaining, day two had begun.

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