“We simply cannot, I repeat, CANNOT, let that thing continue to live and do whatever the fuck it wants!” Sylvie was standing at the front of our big group giving a good pep speech.
Love a good Ted talk.
Everyone murmured in agreement with nods.
“Good. Then if there's no objections, let’s go.” Sylvie didn’t mince her words.
It hadn’t escaped me that she’d been given a pair of oversized jogging bottoms; it made me shudder thinking back to what Triya mentioned about impregnating.
What the hell would that creature have done, had we not got her out? The answer to that was disgustingly obvious..
It felt weird marching down the streets in such a large team, as if we were about to start rioting or commit organised crime.
Well I suppose we are technically about to murder the shit out of a monster.
Athough put into perspective, the lack of any sort of military presence or authority spoke volumes for itself to the state of the country; nobody was going to come for us.
Ha, being stuck in the hospital doesn't seem as bad anymore compared to facing that thing..Heck this is probably happening all over the world...
We're well and truly on our own now.
And we would have to handle our own shit.
Once we arrived, we were organised by Steve into positions; 6 on either side with long ropes or chains; 3 people to attack from range and then 5 people who would be melee attackers; there were also 6 more people standing by who were medically trained, or had a skill that could heal.
For some reason..I volunteered to be one of the melee hitters.
Good job brain.
And I’d opted in to borrow a makeshift spear made out of some pretty solid wood, tipped with a nasty looking filed down rebar spike.
Well at least I'm going to be in good company.
Amongst the melees were myself, Tanner-who genuinely gazed longingly at his sledgehammer holding the door, 2 big guys with the special drills-equipped with extra long drill bits that effectively making them into spinning spears, and finally, a grumpy looking, stocky woman holding a plain looking circle shield with a nasty barbed spike in the middle of it; the metal looked matte grey so it was probably some kind of Majik, shimmer borne item.
We organised quietly and quickly with chains and ropes placed on the floor in loops, ready to be pulled tight once the creature stepped into them.
Tanner eagerly went up to the now silent door and looked back at everyone.
A bunch of anxious nods and whisper grunts confirmed everyone was ready.
Tanner swallowed nervously and carefully started to remove his sledgehammer, the name of which I'd forgotten, from the door handle. He retrieved it without making any loud noises and grinned as he tiptoed cartoonishly back.
"Ooh my sweet Linda.." He whispered as he move back in position.
This simple silly act was potent enough to loosen up everyone's anxiety and you could visibly see people’s shoulders relax and release a few quiet chuckles even.
This guy, honestly. Even if he was missing his arms and legs, he’d probably manage to get some laughs out of it.
Triya rolled her eyes and stepped forward, nodding to Xno to proceed; she carefully pushed open the door just enough for the floating orb to enter.
Although I should call it by its name, Xno.
The Daemon Xno hummed slowly past the gap and into the silent darkness, before letting out a few low chimes and a faint blue glow illuminated the opening. Xno hummed out of the darkness and came to a stop near Triyas shoulder and she smiled, patting it on the top of its dark grey shell; it replied with a glow display of blue vein-like lines that swam under its surface, clearly pleased with itself.
Wonder if it feels or thinks like we do..
It had been interesting seeing people’s reactions to the orb but Syvlie had shot down people’s attempts at trying to interrogate or ask Triya further questions on it as she’d gotten so pissed off. ‘It’s one of my skills. It only knows what I know. Please give me a break' was her default response.
..How crazy but amazing it is, that I’ve bore witness to the possible birth of the first true artificial sentience…or perhaps it-
The door wrenched inwards and my heart shat itself as it slammed into the wall with an almighty bang; Triya screamed as she dove to the side.
The eerie silence descended into hellish chaos.
The creature emerged and charged straight out, smashing into the cube woman's face with a horrific snapping sound. Her head slammed unnaturally fast backwards into the ground, and I stared in horror as the creature mercilessly slammed its claws down into her head, caving her face inwards.
She was gone. There was no saving her.
What were we thinking!-
Then came the screaming and shouting as people started grabbing the ropes and chains, but it quickly became evident that we’d underestimated this thing's strength as people lost grip or got yanked off the ground and sent flying.
“DONNIE MOVE!!”
“RINE GET BACK!”
“PULL THE ROPE! NO DON’T-ARGH!”
“OH MY GOD! LINZY IS DEAD!”
“UGHHH HEL-ACK-ELP!”
The creature was going completely berserk, not pulling any punches. It trampled over the whole top side of the group and then started smashing down on people trying to get back up. Blood was splattering out from the impacts and there was a slew of terrible, sickening crunching and smacking noises as the monster danced on its rampage.
“KILL THE BASTARD!!!!” Tanner roared as he ran forward glowing red.
I was near ready to run for my life but bloody Tanner had to go and commit, so I followed him as my shields deployed and I pushed past my flight response and valiantly charged forwards. That was to be the official version, anyways..in reality, I stumbled forward with my spear held out in front of me screaming in pure fear.
We shouldn’t have come back! It was just sheer luck we managed to get away the first time! I don’t want to fucking die!
Tanner swung wide and smashed one of the back legs so hard it nearly tore it clean off; the creature howled as it was left dangling via sinewy tendons and muscles.
"GO FOR THE BLOODY LEGS! GO FOR TH-OOOF-" The woman with the spike shield rushed in, but was stopped dead by a swipe that she embraced with the shield, knocking her down with a thunk.
My shields quivered and snapped up above my head, points facing forward as they angled themselves horizontally like a praying mantis. I held my breath and charged forward with the spear, sinking it into the lower abdomen. The whole time, both shields had been erratically moving, trying to anticipate any incoming attacks and indeed they excellently deflected a swipe aimed for my head, most certainly saving my life, but the impact caused me to topple backwards which I somehow turned into a roll; returning me to my feet.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
I heard Xno release a gritty, drawn out, off-key synth noise that turned into the rapid firing of projectiles. The creature screamed in pain as another spear was rammed into its side and it scrabbled at the spears sticking out, neglecting the incoming torrent from Xno. It failed to dislodge anything; the rapid fire to its face became overwhelming and itwas forced to retreat back towards the doorway while splitting its attention between protecting its face and trying to dig out the spears.
A shimmering mist started to float towards the creature and I followed the trail back to the source.
The cube woman’s corpse had patches of..rust?...
..NO!
I stared in cold dread as the mist swarmed the creature and it started to absorb it all! It was visibly repairing, pushing any spears lodged into it and stitching the wounds back together.
The nighmare triumphantly roared out as it regenerated.
The fighting abruptly stopped as the creature bellowed out, everyone was stunned with the realisation that people had died and not only had they died, but they were giving shimmer to the killer.
They were healing it.
People stared in dismay as 3 more lines of shimmer started snaking their way from bodies that were lying still, with a fourth going towards the teenager with the slingshot; he was sobbing and struggling to aim at the monster because the shimmer was storming around his hands and weapon.
“I’M SORRY!!” He wailed out. “IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!! I’M SO SORRY!”
Tanner broke the pause by glowing a deep crimson red and charging in again and smashing another leg with a brutal strike, cutting off the creature's victorious roaring and turning it into screeching.
“DON'T FUCKING STOP! KILL THE FUCKER!!!” His voice broke with how loudly he shouted and it seemed to even make the creature wince and a pulse of faint reddish mist blasted outwards from Tanner that flew out in all directions, impacting everyone around him.
People started roaring, enraged rather than scared; they threw themselves into action, picking up spears or chains, recklessly diving in to damage or lock the creature down. I felt an overwhelming surge of aggression embolden me as I grabbed a dropped spear and tried to brutally stab it again, but it was smashed away and my eyes widened in surprise as I watched one of the claws blur towards my face.
*BRRRRR*
The printer jamming noise droned out as my left shield stabbed down into the arm whilst the right shifted to cover half my face, a move to which I was very grateful for since the creature's claw pushed managed to break first of the first shield and slammed into the one guarding my head, making me stumble back.
THIS IS ABSOLUTE BOLLOCKS! USELESS! I NEED TO USE MY FUCKING ABILITIES! NOT THESE PISSING STICKS!
Growling, I lowered my stance instinctively and a faint blue haze surrounded my vision. I could feel muscles tense up and a rush of movement internally as I took a breath in and focused entirely on my next moves. There was a faint tinnitus noise as I exhaled and shoulder-rushed forward with considerably more speed and less effort than I’d ever felt in my life, and, as the shields shifted to the praying mantis position, I smashed into one of the legs, knocking it out from under the monster, with the shields following up with several rapid stab attacks into its abdomen.
YES! GOOD FUCKING HITS!
So I didn’t stop there, I carried on. I skidded into a turn and continued, smashing through a second, third, fourth and fifth leg before the creature lost balanced and buckled down on one side; its untouched legs scrambling frantically to get it back upright whilst the other legs that I’d hit were limp and lifeless. I ducked and deflected a flailing limb, and managed to get several punches and a kick onto one of the moving leg joints before I was forced to step back while my shields intercepted a very intentional, heavy swipe attack aimed just for me..But this time my legs were braced and ready for it.
My shields diverted it without throwing me off balance, and then countered by slashing into another leg whilst Tanner came in and trashed another at the front.
The monster roared and increased the intensity of its thrashing but the remaining group members had successfully started getting ropes around its torso and arms, with chains wrapping around some of the working legs, rapidly reducing its mobility and opportunity to strike out. Its desperation reached a crescendo but the creature was losing fast, the others had gained a huge foothold and were already pulling the tethered arms and legs down as the woman with the shield rammed into the abdomen with the spike, and started wrenching it around, opening a large bleeding gash.
It started to visibly weaken. Screaming before getting cut short by a direct hit by an unfamiliar whistling pyramid shaped projectile that smashed into the creature's temple and knocked its head to the side with the impact. I glanced over to see the slingshot boy with bloodshot eyes, wielding a new weapon which looked like a long flat gun with the top part removed, leaving a rail that went up his forearm with a glowing orange string that he pulled back. Majik pooled into the very back part and a small pyramid formed as the glowing orange string tightened and the rail faintly glowed. The projectile then disappeared as he fired the weapon and it shot through the air and stabbed itself into the side of the monster's torso at tremendous speed. It shook its head to recover and opened its horizontal jaw and started to roar but it was again abruptly cut off as Tanner smashed the sledgehammer right into the side of its face, audibly breaking bones and teeth.
There was so much force in the blow, that it snapped the sledgehammer in half and caused the monster to collapse like a sack of bricks, and, as soon as the head touched the ground, EVERYONE piled on in a bloody frenzy, stabbing and beating the monster finally to death.
I stood there in numb shock at the raw violence, witnessing a person on each arm forcibly wrenching it behind the monster's back, yanking and twisting in an desperate effort to snap the bones and ligaments..Another person wielding a simple ball-hammer wacking it into the creature's face with short rapid blows.
A man jumped on its back and grabbed it in a headlock then started kneeling, yanking its head back almost bending the spine at a 45 degree angle as another woman clumsily slit its throat multiple times with some kind of kitchen knife, screaming in enraged tears with each brutal slice.
That was the end.
We had done it.
The win felt bitter as the creature started to rust and people collapsed on the floor from exhaustion and sorrow. Some people sobbed, some people laughed..others just stared at the mess, probably in pure shock or broken from the loss of fallen friends and family..There appeared to be 6 dead in total with 5 more severely wounded, barely alive, being treated by Sylvie and the only other surviving designated medic.
Sylvie herself had silent tears streaming down the dirt on her face.
the Majik shimmer streams snaked a path towards their designated victors as I slumped down and sat, staring down at the ground, just wishing I was back home with Marri and Lone, not wanting anything more to do with this shitty nightmare world.
I don't want this..I just want to be back home with my family, eating nice simple food and dealing with mundane shit..
Randomly, I started to angrily wonder if there were people who hoped or wished to have the world go to shit like this; zombie outbreak fans, apocalypse romancers, nuclear war fantasizers, world war fanatics..But when it actually happens, THEY would be the ones first to die or bloody hide! And THEN it would inevitably be up to everyone remaining to deal with the rest of the shit and grime! Dragging humanity through blood and guts in order to survive as a species..
I felt the anger drain out as I took breaths in and out.
..Stupid fucking pointless thoughts…raging at imaginary scenarios is not going to make this world a better place..
Nobody really wants this to happen.
Nobody wants to see the people have their heads caved in, or insides torn out…
The sounds of heaving and hacking up escalatd as people that were seriously wounded had their regeneration kick in from the tonics and golden Majik shimmer powers.
I just sat there in solemn awe-
At least that is one bloody positive in this shitty nightmare.
-watching as people recovered from grevious bodily wounds and fractures, but a few times the tonic wasn’t enough and Syvlie would check them over before placing her hand over the wound and transfer the golden shimmer.
Healing touch. Imagine the kind of amazing world we could have had if-
*Scuttle* *Scuttle* *Scuttle*
A not welcomed noise snapped my head up. I scanned left and right, trying to pinpoint the source of a scratching and skittering sound.
Please universe, give us a fucking break. Please!
“What the hell is that noise!!?” a man shouted out, fear very evident in his voice..
Multiple other heads started scoping and people nervously started to grip weapons.
“Shhhh! Quiet! Where is it bloody coming from?” A woman angrily hushed back.
It was coming from all sides…
...And getting louder.
“Fucking everywhere..” I breathlessly squeezed out.
“Everyone! Group up! Onto the road! Back to back! Stay quiet!” Steve Hissed.
People started murmuring in fear as they rushed to group together back to back; the wounded were helped along...the dead? left behind..
Tanner beckoned me over so I rushed next to him and gave a quick puzzled look at his repaired half wooden half dull grey metal sledgehammer that now had a pick axe spike on one side of the hammerhead and the bottom of the handle had a large needle eye loop.
The wood and the metal melded unnaturally together like two colours of playdough, and he just shrugged and pointed at the recently deceased monster.
Guess he got a reward from the fight..
Good for him.
...
..
.