Excerpt:

She could hear movement nearby, and she held her breath in silent terror, suddenly painfully aware of the sweat beginning to trickle down the small of her back. She could hear ragged breathing that was so close, she felt as if she could almost turn around and find the owner close enough to touch, and she probably was that close, if it were not for the side of the waste bin providing a barrier between them. There was a burst of static from a radio and Vicky realised that one of the soldiers was now seeking refuge right next to the very bin that she sheltered in. In a way, she was comforted by his presence, hoping that he might somehow prove able to single handedly destroy all of the Sectines and somehow set the world to rights. Yet there was also a darker part of her mind, one that almost shrieked in madness about his presence and the danger that it brought on her if she were to be discovered or caught by shrapnel in the crossfire.
"Repeat your message, did not read you, over." The soldier whispered urgently into his radio, his voice sounding young and frightened, almost like that of a small boy rather than a man.
The static came again, the reception far too poor to read anything other than a voice that seemed to be laced with panic, garbelling into the receiver. The soldier cursed under his breath as he reloaded his weapon, the dry clicks of the metal sliding into place sounding so terribly loud that it made Vicky jump. He ran around the side of the dumpster, giving Vicky her first view of her would be saviour. He barely looked to be over the age of eighteen, with freckles that stood out against his pale skin, framed by thick reddish brown hair that matched the colour of his eyes. Perhaps he felt her own eyes upon him, for he suddenly turned his head and met her frightened gaze, his features turning into a look of surprise as he registered the fact that he was not alone in his hiding place.
They stared at each other for a few seconds, but then he broke eye contact, his head flicking around violently as he brought up his rifle and squeezed the trigger, firing round after round into the oncoming Sectine until the entire clip was empty and the rifle produced nothing but a dry, empty click. But still, the creature came, its shrill squeal of pain echoing loudly as it approached through the hail of bullets. The soldier's body was rammed back against the bin with a loud crash that shook the entire dumpster, threatening to capsize it and spill her out onto the pavement. From her vantage point, she could see the long spindly foreleg of the Sectine arc out towards him, seeming to move in slow motion as it cut through his sternum, the tip of the creature's leg embedding itself in the wall of the dumpster, coming dangerously close to her own leg.
The Sectine withdrew its leg, the tip of which was now coated in a mixture of the soldier's blood and the remains of a half eaten sandwich that had turned green with time. Vicky could hold back no longer and she vomited what little was in her stomach into the mess of the bin's contents. Miraculously, the Sectine did not seem to notice her presence, it merely turned and headed off across the road to finish off another soldier who lay half on the road and half on the pavement, his guts leading a messy path to show where he had crawled from. The tank remained silent, only having been discharged the once.