Theirs was a small town that had always lived in peace. Even when they heard rumors of the vast, unearthly dark armies roaming, destroying the major cities, turning civilization to rubble beneath their feet, the town lived in peace until that day.

Old Joe, one of the farmers from the southern valley, said he’d seen a dozen or so dark … creatures … running around in the hills. Of course, no one believed him. He had a reputation for these sorts of stories, and they’d never been true before. How were they to know this time was different?

The survivors would say later that hundreds, maybe thousands of the dark creatures crested Jim’s Hill. At first they didn’t seem to notice a difference between the town and the hills. Then, there was a deep, echoing sound from the north. The creatures turned as one toward the town, and poured down the hill at frightening speed.

Buildings they touched crumbled to dust. The people they touched fell, like marionettes whose strings were cut. Only a few would survive that day.