//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Redemption 
// by Jack Hooves 
//------------------------------//

BOOM!!!

I awoke at the sound of that noise in a cold sweat wondering what was going on, I reached over and felt for my wife careful not to hit our newborn son, I reached over in the dark and found nothing but blankets and quickly sat up and saw that there was nobody else in the room with me and the ceiling fan was swaying a little bit as something outside began to rumble past and made the house shake and the floors groan in protest.

I got up carefully after the rumbling stopped and quickly got dressed and began to wonder where my mare was at and our son?; I pushed these thoughts away as I walked over to my dresser and tripped over something wet on the ground that made the floor slick and slipped in it landing on the dresser and heard a loud crack as my ribs hit the corner of the dresser and winced in pain through my teeth wanting to cry out loud as I opened the drawer and took out my 9mm and tucked it into my belt and slumped to the ground resting for a few minutes while looking up at the moon and saw a black dot in the distance followed by more dots and wondered what it was.

"These are the town evacuation leaders, we need to get out of here before the HOOF shows up, there seems to be some sort of invasion, just follow the designated leaders and everything will be fine." The town speaker blurted out form every corner, sending everypony to follow the leaders to the destinations.

I managed to get up and walk to the door and got outside with the others but was stuck in the back of the group with someone helping a elderly lady along the way as I winced in pain when they stopped in front of me and bumped into my ribs as the leader began to count the people that were here.

"Is Jack Hooves present with his family?" The leader called out while looking at his clipboard.
"Present, but only me, I woke up with my family gone." I said while waving my Hand for him to see and sat down as a noise that sounded like thunder began to approach.

I saw a few people begin to look panicked and afraid to be caught in the rain.
"Nothing to fear people, just some noise." A orange furred mare said while fixing her blonde mane into her dusty hat.

I stood up in time to be blown back as something exploded in the middle of the crowd killing half the group including the leader, and saw the others that survived struggling to get up like me while there was a ringing in my ears and I was blinking my eyes to clear away that bright light I saw right as it hit the group.

"Mommy, has anyone seen my mommy?" a small child asked while looking around in the small crater amid the organs and blood while crying hysterically.
"Come here kid." I said while managing to get to my feet and remembered where our destination was supposed to be.
"Do you know where she went?" The kid asked while coming to me and the sound of creatures running was heard coming from behind us. 

"When I pick you up, wrap your arms around me and don't let go unless I say so." I said while the sound of twigs snapping and running was now close to me, I picked him after he nodded and looked as the others were still on the ground giving up and ran without bothering to help the others.

I ran into the woods following the markers that were set, but stopped after I was sixty feet from the crater and looked back in time to see creatures come out of the woods with lights and shoot the remaining survivors on the ground before one of them spotted me.
"There's another one!" He shouted while alerting the others who ran over to the one who shouted.
"You know the orders, kill all hostiles!" The one in a grey suit shouted while lighting a cigar that was in his mouth and waved to the others to aim their rifles at me while I was to shocked too move as I saw their weapons.

"Move you idiot!" The orange furred mare said while tackling me and the kid to the ground and moved us behind a tree that was next to us as bullets tore up the ground where we were just standing a few moments before, Waking me up from the shock as I saw the creatures begin to spread out.

"Next time you can die with your kid, if he was smarter he would have moved." She said while taking a glance around the trunk of the tree and jerked her head back as a bullet hit the trunk where her head used to be.
"We can't go anywhere.......and he's not mine, his mom was killed in the crater with the others......take him and run.....I'll distract them." I said in between shallow breaths as I took the kid off of me and handed him to her.
"What are you going to do? You'll die." She said while the kid wrapped his arms around her neck and got in her lap while crying into her shirt while she looked at him.

"Do what I said....when they chase me, take him to the bunker with the other groups that made it." I said while drawing my 9mm and pulled the slide back as I looked at her and smiled a little.
"Are you going to be there?" She asked while the sound of the creatures began to get closer.
"I promise.....now run but stay low." I said while standing up with my shoulder against the tree and took a deep breath.