A cold wind was blowing, rustling the canvas of our tent violently and its gale and sending

freezing spikes of air into our skin. My wife and I were huddled together for warmth,

shivering and chattering our teeth. The blankets were never thick enough anymore,

and each night seemed to grow colder than the one before.

My stomach rumbled with hunger again, and I felt a sharp stab of pain in my gut at the same time.

My body revolted against the spoiled meat and rotten vegetation I'd been forced to eat the day

prior. Food was scarce this time of year, and we'd been desperate that day.

Ever since the fire became a thing of the past, we'd all been struggling to survive,

struggling to stay warm, those who were left of us anyways.

The camp where we lived was home to nearly 50 people, and each winter we lost more.

As much as we might have wanted to, no one dared to have children.

Since we were all terrified of their noisy cries, attracting the things which came in the night,

the hungry creatures that came with the darkness.

When humans lost the ability to make fire, there were other changes too.

It was like a celestial shift had happened, and we had moved into a new era,

one in which man was no longer in charge. Instead, ancient things which we had no name for

emerged from the depths of the deepest and darkest caves, and began to quickly take over,

and they devoured the weak and the helpless. People disappeared in the night,

never to be seen again, and we knew the monsters had taken them.

But none of us have been able to capture or kill a single one of them.

They are as elusive as ghosts, and quick as vipers.

It wasn't only fire that went away when the great change happened.

...