I stared down at the obviously chewed on human skull. I’m sure if I had a stomach, I would have been retching right about then.

To his credit, Teddy instantly had his bow held up, an arrow notched and ready to shoot. I turned, pulling mom’s frying pan out of my inventory. I had to scrub pretty hard to get all the monster brains, goo and chunks of skull off of the thing. But now its black iron shined in my hand.

Ellie and Wood had stopped, their weapons at the ready, and were headed back towards where the skull had landed between us.

Some scrabbling and scraping sounds came from the area of the library pit, like giant claws digging into earth. A few seconds later it appeared. About the size of a bear, but it wasn’t a bear. This thing looked like… a bear sized opossum. A saber-toothed, bear-sized opossum.

I stepped back a couple steps, holding my frying pan up, suddenly very tense. I remembered coming across an opossum once on the front porch of our house. I was only about ten years old, and the thing had scared the crap out of me. Seeing one now, an absolutely gigantic one, with gnashing fangs that seemed to go on for days… it resurrected that fear, and stoked it to a hellish degree.

And when I didn’t think I could be creeped out anymore, four smaller opossum heads poked out over the beast’s shoulders and glared at me.

Holy fucking shit-balls!!! A five-headed saber-toothed bear-sized opossum.

“What is this thing,” Teddy said from right beside me, “The Tiamat of opossums?”

I couldn’t help myself, I let out a nervous snicker. I heard Wood laugh, too.

And then the four heads disengaged, jumping off of the shoulders of the main beast.

Motherfucking shit-balls!

Oh, these were the beast’s babies. If they weren’t so scary, looking, and literally the size of Rottweilers, it would’ve been cute. But instead, the four baby saber-toothed opossums came charging at us all.

Shit-shit-shit-fuck-shit!

The one headed straight for Teddy went down fast, one second barreling toward him, the next second laying on the ground with an arrow sticking out of one of its eye sockets.

Brutal, yet efficient—Teddy was a good shot.

I didn’t have time to check out what was happening with Ellie or Wood. The opossum monster coming after me took a flying leap at me. I swung my mom’s frying pan like it was a tennis racket, smacking the thing in the head. That didn’t stop it from bashing right on into me. I went flying backwards, tumbling head over tea kettle, until I was planted face-down in the dirt. I pushed myself up off the ground, seeing that my frying pan was a good five feet away. Unfortunately, the baby saber-toothed opossum was right behind me, and grabbed hold of me, scratching at me with its claws, and then biting at me with its huge-assed teeth.

None of this hurt too much, but I didn’t want to press my luck. I kept hearing that voice (had it been the aliens?).

“Harder to destroy? But not impossible…”

I wasn’t really sure what could or couldn’t crack me like a walnut. Plus, this thing’s drool was like the nastiest, green and yellow slime ever. Probably had a nasty saber-toothed tooth infection. And as it tried to eat me I was getting covered with more and more of the viscous snot.

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Freaking disgusting.

I certainly had a momentary flash of thinking that this thing could possibly try to swallow me hole. I’d already been inside the brain of a monster, I didn’t want to end up in the stomach of one, too. Plus, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get out of this one. I didn’t have a knife, a pair of scissors, or a box cutter in my inventory. Obviously I was going to have to seriously start scavenge around and finding some sharp things to put in there. Mom’s frying pan was great, but it wouldn’t cut me out of a monster’s stomach. And right now it was still way out of my grasp.

Right now, though, I needed to get this thing off of me.

Suddenly the thing stopped trying to bite me, and screeched so loud it made my terra-cotta body vibrate like a tuning fork. I looked up, trying to blink the goo out of my eyes, and saw the thing turn its head towards Teddy, screeching again, like a mix between a lion and a dragon. There was an arrow sticking out of the back of its head. Didn’t look like the arrow had gone in too far. Obviously, the thing had a very thick skull.

I looked around, and saw something shining not even a foot away. I reached for it, wrapping my hand around it, and held it up in front of me. It was a plastic coat hanger, just like the kind you get at Walmart when you buy a shirt—except this one was broken off at the end and looked suspiciously like a jailhouse shiv.

I didn’t hesitate, I took the damn hanger and went straight for the baby saber-toothed opossum’s pendulous stomach. Luckily, it’s furry hide wasn’t near as tough as it’s skull, and the makeshift blade sliced right on up into it.

It cried out in pain, turned towards me again, and swatted at me with a claw. That sent me tumbling off into the direction of the freaking pit. I barely had time to reach out and grab hold of the edge before I would’ve rolled right down into it. I wasn’t sure what was down there, but if these things came out of it, I really didn’t want to see what else was down there.

I looked up, just in time to see Ellie come running up to my monster, her bat raised, and she bashed its head in with a hard, judicious swing. She stood there, the bat raised and ready to swing again, the damned thing glowing blue in the waning light. Behind her I saw Wood and Teddy laying into the mama saber-toothed opossum.

I pulled myself away from the edge of the library pit and started running towards my frying pan. Ellie was already over with the boys, taking swings at the gigantic monster. She got hit by one of the thing’s claw-studded paws, sending her flying back about five feet and landing flat on her back. I heard her groan.

That groan set something off inside me. White-hot rage course through me, and I charged towards the monster, my frying pan raised. One second I was running towards the beast, the next second I saw Teddy kneeling down, trying to shoot an arrow up through the monster’s jaw. I ran up Teddy’s back and jumped up over his shoulder, landing a hit with my frying pan right into the monster’s snout. My frying pan crushed the thing’s upper jaw, splattering me with a hot spray of its blood, snot and gore.

It cried out and swatted me with one of its massive clawed feet. That sent me sailing through the air and across the street, smashing into the side of a wrecked car so hard that I was indented into its driver’s side door.

Yeah, that actually, really hurt.

I blinked my eyes and tried to wiggle a bit. I got one of my arms free, but the rest of me was pretty well stuck in the side of the car. I almost called out to my friends for help, but they had their hands full with the mama opossum. Ellie was back up off the ground and was running towards the beast with her Negan baseball bat, glowing and ready to pummel. Wood was literally on the beast’s back, stabbing it with daggers in both hands. Teddy was standing back a few paces, shooting arrows into it, missing its eye holes because the damn thing kept on thrashing its head back-and-forth.

I think he was also having a hard time hitting eye-holes because his brother was literally riding the thing’s back. Those kinds of things can make for performance anxiety, I’m sure. But after Ellie took a swing and got the monster right in its already ruined jaw, it staggered. It held still just long enough for Teddy to make some of his arrows sprout from both eyeholes. It swayed, staggered two steps forward, and then fell to the ground.

My friends stood there for a moment, their weapons still held at the ready, but then the huge beast took its last breath, and most of it seemed to sag. Like it deflated a little.

“Good job, everybody,” I said from where I was still stuck in the side of the car door.