Silence, blessed silence reigned as the group of three ambled through the red forest.

A crunch to their left caused their leader to drop to one knee and scan the area around them, attempting to find the cause. The others froze, holding their breaths, as an unnatural silence descended upon the small clearing.

A flash of movement, to the left. The leader swears, realizing They are the ones being hunted.

He unholsters a battered Makarov and whispers something to the men following him. They nod and the group moves slowly forward.

Again, an unnatural calm settles, even the birds watch the events unfold. A scream echoes through the woods, piercing the silence as the man in the rear hits the ground, his neck broken.

The man in the middle attempts to run, heading for the dense thicket nearby. The leader stands still, knowing the other man will die. Moments after he disappears there is another scream, a man's life ending as the echo dies. The leader sighs, before suddenly getting bowled over by a brown humanoid, it's claws shredding through his armor.

As the creature bends over the man, about to feed, it is confronted by the barrel of a handgun, flush against it's skull, between the eyes. A single shot rings through the forest, and silence again settles. The leader, as he lies on the ground, realizes that his side, where it was ripped open, does not hurt. He feels tired, and realizes that these are his last moments on the planet.

Tears stream down his face as he makes an unheard apology to those he cares about.

His eyes close, and his chest stops moving with the breaths that previously flowed through it.

Silence once again falls on the forest, signaling an end to the conflict.