Prologue The Last Thing Debra Saw

"I'm alone, oh God, I'm alone. Lord please, take me too!" She shouted out into the silence over and over and when she lost her voice she screamed it inside her head. After just a little more time the sobbing subsided. Something rose up from under her crushed spirit. After all, she had been shown this was going to happen.

The hymn "It is Well with My Soul" came to her and Debra stood up. The eighteen-year-old girl still felt emptiness smashing down on her but managed to walk over to the ruins of the tool shed to find a shovel. A massive winged shadow passed over and she looked up. The giant, owl-shaped silhouette with a whiplash tail three times the body length flew down at her. She hit the ground, the transgenic piasa bird swooped past, intentionally missing her, and she got up running for the tree line behind the parking lot. Halfway across the open ground the flying monster swooped down again, knocking her off her feet with a bump from one of the great wings. She got up running as fast as she could and made it into the woods.

Debra ran stooping through a thicket. Big branches snapped off the tops of trees above her as the monster flew over. Frantically she searched for a place to hide. She spotted a secluded tunnel of underbrush made by a small animal and crawled into it. Curling up with her face pressing down on the ground, she covered her head with her arms. A hideous groan came two seconds later as the Great Pecan Tree crashed down right next to her hiding spot. She got up and ran again.