The checks around the rest of the area hadn't really taken them long. They'd had to sneak past the room that the noises had been coming from at one point to check the rest of the corridor, but even then they'd mostly been able to just remain silent and keep their heads below the window on the door. The creature inside hadn't so much as even caught wind of their presence.
The two of them had been tense and silent, yes, but resolute. They'd done this before. Virgil knew what to do. He knew that Cygnus knew what to do. All that was left was to actually do it.
A sense of nervous anticipation had filled his gut as he'd searched the last couple of rooms with Cygnus. He couldn't talk with him for reassurance, for they didn't want to risk alerting the monster to their presence, and he couldn't even hold his boyfriend's hand because they both needed their right hands free to handle their weapons at a moment's notice. All in all, he was tense.
There hadn't been anything of import to mark down in the last few maths classrooms or storage cupboards, not that either of them had expected anything different, but they were at least able to confirm that this creature was, without a shadow of a doubt, the only such monster within the maths area of Virgil's old secondary school.
Who'd have thought he'd have lived to see a time where that sentence made sense? It almost beggared belief.
When the two of them had made their way back to the door and peeked through a shuttered window to try and look at what manner of creature they'd be facing, well, Virgil would be lying if he said the monster looked anything close to pretty.
The monster was a fleshy mass, somewhere around two metres tall and a metre wide, with a hideously malformed face. No visible eyes, no visible ears, a very much visible mouth which was not what Virgil had hoped for at all, and at least a dozen legs with strangely human and normal looking feet. That was perhaps the weirdest part of it, for the rest of it was utterly inhuman and yet here was still a distinctly human component in the beast. It was odd.
Oh, there were a pair of tentacle-like appendages protruding from its back and waving their way around the room as well. Those things looked weird, with long stalk-like arms and bulbous heads, almost like flowers just before they bloomed.
All in all, it looked dangerous. Dangerous, and hideous.
Of course, as with all creatures as strange and unknowable as the ones they'd come to know in the last six months, there was no way of knowing that what they were looking at was what they'd be facing. Oh sure, they could get the rough measure of their opponent easily enough, but actually knowing what strange capabilities or sensory abilities it might have? That was something else. Virgil felt relatively confident in his assumption that this creature lacked unseen capabilities, for it hadn't been able to sense them using any of its physical senses when they were checking the halls and it hadn't shown any capabilities of an unknown method of tracking them like whatever the creature in that store had been capable of doing, so it was probably only dangerous in the conventional sense.
Still, dangerous in the 'conventional' sense still meant it could kill them if it got its hand... tentacle... appendage... things onto them. The creature was bigger than they were and moved around the room with fast, if clumsy and confused, steps. The two of them would have to be a little careful as they attempted to dispose of this creature, but Virgil was certain they would come out on top once more. They always did, in the end. Monsters be damned, when he was working with Cygnus and they were able to get the drop on whatever it was they were going to fight, the two of them made a hell of a team.
He watched the creature move aimlessly around the room for a few seconds more, grimacing at the squelching noise it made as its fleshy feet made contact with the floor. Christ, this thing looks ugly. Ugly, and territorial. Virgil wasn't sure how something could 'look' territorial, but then he didn't exactly need to explain his reasoning. The monsters always looked territorial, even if he couldn't explain exactly what that meant. His friends would agree with him on that matter if ever he brought it up, he suspected. The monsters weren't exactly given over to positivity, sunshine, and rainbows.
Huh. How long had it been since he'd seen any real sunshine? Or a rainbow, for that matter? The constant fog sort of made weather a done deal where that sort of thing was concerned. It was always the little things in life that they'd ended up missing the most, especially where the outdoors was concerned. Given that utilities were still working indoors Virgil was pretty sure that, had this happened when he was younger and fearful of leaving his parent's house for any stretch of time, he'd probably never have even noticed the world disappearing if not for the little things he enjoyed changing or disappearing.
On the other hand, maybe not. Not even someone as shut-in as he had been back then would have been able to ignore the moss and ivy that covered every building, nor would he have been able to stop himself from wondering where all the other people had gone. Even he could only stay inside for so long before needing to leave and get some fresh air, personal thoughts on the outside world be damned.
"Alright," Cygnus whispered in a voice as quiet as he could possibly make it, Virgil more reading his lips than listening to his words, "we can do this. Looks large but ungainly, animal in nature without real cunning. It shouldn't be too hard to avoid it, even within the confines of the classroom. We go for our usual; opening volley followed by a split before dividing its attention. Are you ready?"
"Little bit more time," Virgil mouthed back, "just need to get my nerves in check."
Cygnus nodded in understanding and gestured to one of the chairs out in the hallway, inviting Virgil to sit for a moment. He did so, allowing himself a few moments to compose himself as Cygnus rubbed small circles on Virgil's knuckles in a display of affection and support whilst Virgil made himself ready. God, but Virgil loved this man. It didn't matter what the time or the place was, Cygnus was always ready and willing to support him and make sure everything went at Virgil's pace. Virgil was very lucky to have been able to entice so sweet a man, of that he was absolutely certain. Cygnus often stated that he had no idea how he'd been able to convince Virgil to be his partner, but in all honesty Virgil thought it was the other way around; Cygnus was everything anyone could have hoped for in a boyfriend, and he was baffled that no-one else had seemed to think so when he'd first started falling for the taller man.
When he finished his breathing exercise and he didn't feel like he was going to throw up, he nodded down at his boyfriend.
"I'm ready."
Cygnus just smiled and nodded, then stood and rolled his shoulders in preparation. Virgil had seen his various motions before getting into a fight more than once even before the disappearance of the world, and some things had never quite changed about Cygnus. Well, save that he was no longer an underfed kid with scraped knuckles and a very chilly demeanour, but the rest of him hadn't needed to change much. He'd only needed a better environment to start shining, not a better personality.
The two of them took up a position on either side of the door, and Virgil watched as Cygnus made his last checks to make sure his pistol wouldn't jam or misfire. Well, all the checks he could make in the moment anyway, for most of that came under proper maintenance and as such wasn't really doable right then and there. Still, they'd both made sure to take proper care of their equipment before they'd ever really started using it, so as Virgil ran through those same checks he was certain that both his gun and his aim would be true enough to see this monster put down.
His boyfriend waited for him to finish his final checks, then nodded at him. Virgil nodded back, and in that instant Cygnus wheeled around and kicked the door open, firing four shots in rapid succession. The first went wide and smashed a window into a hundred pieces, but the rest seemed to find their mark on the creature's fleshy front. Virgil followed less than half a second behind his boyfriend, four shots of his own being fired at the creature. Unlike his partner, all four of Virgil's shots hit. Eight shots fired, seven hits, one miss. That's not bad statistically.
Without even thinking, for they had performed manoeuvres similar to this more than once before, Virgil headed right and Cygnus headed left. The idea was to distract the beast from the other side if it got too close to one of them, forcing its attention to shift even as it was taking damage and ensuring that the creature was never able to outmanoeuvre them. It wasn't something they did often, for it wasn't often that they were certain they'd be able to get the drop on a creature such as this, but they had done this before. So long as Virgil kept his head and refused to give in to his fears the two of them would be fine. There was no way he'd allow anything otherwise to happen. He wasn't going to be the reason anyone, especially not his friends and most certainly not Cygnus, would be hurt. Never.
He ducked down behind a table, certain that Cygnus was doing the same on the other side of the room, and made sure to keep his senses sharp for any other appendages or sensory organs that they hadn't been able to see on their initial scouting of the room. The two of them had been thorough, yes, but thoroughness would only take you so far. These were creatures that defied conventional logic and reasoning, that spat in the face of consistency and sense. It would be a fools errand to try and learn everything about them before facing them, for you could never truly know what tricks these malformed beasts had up their sleeves. Nor could you foresee just how animalistic or cunning one might be, for that matter; would it try and charge straight at you, cut you off at an ambush point, or calmly observe you whilst waiting for you to set off a trap it had laid?
There was no way of knowing if you weren't in the moment, which is why when you were in the moment you needed to make sure you were sharp and ready for anything.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
He heard the creature let out a guttural shriek, and realised in that moment that it had been shrieking the whole time since being fired upon and he had just been tuning it out somehow. He wasn't exactly sure how he'd managed that, but focusing on his surroundings rather than the sounds the creature was making was probably a part of that. The noise itself was godawful, and there was absolutely no way Virgil was overly keen to continue hearing that anymore. His tinnitus was bad enough as it was, there was no need for this thing to try and aggravate it further.
In one smooth motion he wheeled himself around and stretched his arms out over the desk he'd been hiding behind, pistol held squarely and securely in front of him, and squeezed the trigger.
The sound of another gunshot rang out, and the creature stumbled forwards a little. It looked like it had been making its way over to Cygnus, and Virgil had got it straight in the back as it had attempted to make a swipe for his boyfriend. Suck on that, you overgrown demon!
Even if he hadn't have taken that shot, he doubted Cygnus would have been hurt. His boyfriend was already in the middle of a combat roll, deftly moving out of the way of the angry monster that had been barrelling down towards him, making sure that he would be uninjured and ready to react to the creature's next move.
The two of them had managed to badly wound the creature already, yes, but it was still standing. Virgil wasn't overly concerned by this, for the monsters always seemed to be able to tank bullets from smaller firearms like his own and as such he had half-expected it, though he had to admit that most monsters weren't able to move freely and unimpeded after taking so many gunshot wounds. It had been hit by what, seven bullets now? Even the nine-millimetre rounds of their pistols would normally have put the target on the floor by the end of their initial volley of four shots each. He wasn't worried about them somehow losing to this monster, but it was odd that this thing had been able to take far more punishment than normal.
Again, another set of hands with another firearm would have been great here.
They only had one more sidearm at the flat, actually two because Cygnus had left the rifle behind, for their small arsenal was anything but impressive and the others tended to have reservations about using firearms, but they still had a revolver and a rifle back there. Cygnus tended to take the rifle out with him if the two of them were headed towards somewhere that they expected to encounter several aggressive creatures, but given how bulky it was he didn't like taking it out if he didn't need to. That just left the revolver, which as of right now they tended to leave back at the apartment for the others to protect themselves with.
Not that any of them really knew how to use it effectively, but in an emergency 'point and shoot' would have to suffice until Virgil could convince them to take shooting lessons from Cyg. If that was going to happen it would probably be better for him and Cyg to go and loot a hunting store or firearms shop again to pick up a few more sidearms, but that was all things to consider for the future. Right now he had other things to worry about.
"Pay attention to me, you miserable excuse for a monster!"
Cygnus' voice rang out across the classroom, swiftly followed by a guttural snarl and the sound of pattering fleshy feet. It seemed that the monster had taken Virgil's gunshot as the opportunistic attack he'd intended for it to be, and was none too pleased. As followed their tactic, Cygnus had therefore made to draw it's attention back onto himself when it had gotten too close to Virgil.
One in the chamber, one in the magazine, another three with Cyg. Five bullets left. Let's use them well.
Virgil poked his head over the desk he'd been behind, and almost immediately caught sight of one of the creature's two appendages snaking in the air to attack Cygnus from above. Snapping his pistol upwards and locking his vision onto the appendage, he fired another shot. Immediately the appendage began to flail about wildly, its previous mission of trying to strike at his boyfriend abandoned, and the creature itself let out yet another shriek of pain and anger.
Another hit. He'd done well so far, but that most recent shot wasn't likely to have helped them in actually killing this thing. Still, it had stopped it from trying to make contact with Cygnus, so it was worth it in Virgil's mind. The downside was that he only had one bullet left in the chamber, and whilst he did have another magazine on him he really didn't want to use it in case they were set upon by more creatures as they made their way back home.
It didn't matter how rare attacks were out in the open, you never left the safety of the apartment without protection in the form of a HK USP with a full magazine of nine-millimetre bullets these days. He'd have to rely on Cygnus using his shots well when this last one was spent.
Deciding it would be good to try and use his last shot as smart as possible, Virgil darted down behind another desk a little closer to the beast. Cygnus shot him a concerned look, probably wondering what the hell he was doing, but Virgil pushed his boyfriend's concern aside. They both knew the risks here, and they'd both done this before. They'd be fine, and if Virgil was the one genuinely believing they'd be okay then they really must have been fine.
Taking aim one final time, he aimed squarely at the back of the creature's head and fired. There was a small spray of bone and blood, congealed viscera spilling slowly like crystallised honey from a shattered glass, but this time the beast didn't so much as make a single noise. Instead it continued moving towards Cygnus, no longer even trying to be deft and instead just smashing desks and tables aside to reach him. Virgil felt himself panic a little as the creature's second appendage raised up to strike at Cygnus, and despite knowing he was out of ammo Virgil still for some reason attempted to shoot the second appendage out of the air as he had done to the first. Of course, the only fruits born from his efforts were that of a quiet clicking noise sounding throughout the room.
He needn't have worried, for he knew Cygnus would be fine, but in a moment where a horrifying abomination was poised to strike at his love he couldn't help but worry regardless. Cygnus moved swiftly out of the way once more, looking almost as though he were leading the monster in a dance as opposed to dodging its attacks, and seemed to be attempting to work his way around the back of the creature without placing himself in the same direction as Virgil from the monster's point of view.
Of course! Now that they'd evidently damaged the creature enough to seriously wound it, all Cygnus needed was an opening; if he could get access to the wound that Virgil had made to the creature's head, then Cygnus would surely be able to put the beast down. That was why Cygnus was moving around like a dancer instead of taking pot-shots!
But Virgil was out of bullets, and as such only had one way to get the creature's attention.
"Hey, over here you fucking bastard! I'm right here!"
Virgil waved his arms around wildly, desperate to get the creature's attention away from Cygnus for just a few seconds more, just a little bit more so that Cygnus could have his opening and-
All of a sudden one of the creature's tendrils whipped forwards, and he felt as though he'd been punched in the gut. He fell to the floor with an 'oomph', cursing himself for not seeing the appendage coming, but so long as his actions had brought Cyg a few seconds then it would have been worth it. Winded, struggling for breath, he hurriedly looked down to make sure that whatever the creature had done to him hadn't truly injured him in any way. No blood. No skin broken. He didn't feel like it had fractured a rib, and that was a feeling that he was more than acquainted with thanks to his unsafe binding when he'd been younger, so he knew that he was likely correct in assuming he was fine on that front. He was fine. The beast had winded him, but hadn't managed to score an injuring blow.
What a fucking idiot. Shot twelve times and hasn't managed to really injure either of us at all.
Rolling to one side to avoid the follow up strike by what appeared to be the same tendril, he looked over to Cygnus to see a look of terrible anger come across his partner's face. Cygnus, still at the monster's back since it had turned to focus on Virgil, vaulted the table he'd been behind and fired a shot at point blank before pulling his arm back, readying himself to strike. Not one moment later Cygnus' hand whipped back around and clocked the creature across the face in a vicious backhanded blow, a fury in the young man's eyes that belied his usually calm and collected exterior.
"Keep your fucking tendrils off of him!"
Okay, that's hot.
Cygnus, with a strength that seemed almost unfitting on his relatively lanky frame, used the butt of his firearm to repeatedly bludgeon the wounded creature. Whether or not the beast could actually feel pain was irrelevant; it was wounded, and somehow Virgil knew that it was very close to death. Cygnus was just making sure it would stay down permanently, even if he was being a little overzealous with his actions.
Once, twice, three times, then a dozen more, Virgil's partner whipped the monster with the butt of his pistol. Virgil was sure that there was some sort of name for this sort of action, a pistol-whip or something, but he'd never really been interested in action movies when he was younger so didn't really know the proper term.
Sensing that the fight must have been all but over at this point, Cygnus stood from where he'd been kneeling on the ground over the head of the wounded creature, solidly planted a foot on its neck, and unloaded the last two shots from his pistol's magazine into the monster's head at point blank range. There. It was done.
The head of the beast exploded in a mess of blood and gore, covering Cygnus' legs and staining the floor around him. It seemed classroom four would be safe from now on, if more than a little dirty. Not that Virgil particularly cared; none of them were going to be using any of the school classrooms for anything in the foreseeable future, and this was just one less monster for them all to worry about moving forwards.
Virgil looked at his boyfriend, eyebrow raised, as the young man panted then slumped thanks to his over-exertion and fleeing adrenaline. He would be lying if he said this wasn't a mildly amusing situation, what with the whole 'young man bludgeoning a rabid monster to death' and everything, but this wasn't exactly the time for joking around. No, this was a time for them to take stock of their belongings, walk back to the apartment, and have a day of rest in which they needn't go out and do anything whatsoever.
His voice came out stuttered, but not as badly as he'd feared. It seemed that the end of their fighting and the death of the monster had taken the edge off of his anxieties a little as he spoke.
"I don't know about you, but I'd call that a job well done."
As though Cygnus had suddenly remembered Virgil was there, which was odd as he'd spent the last minute and a half pummelling a monster for striking him, he rushed over to Virgil's side and helped them to sit up.
"Are you okay love? Are you hurt?"
Virgil shook his head, a shaky smile on his face.
"Nah, it just clipped me a little, I'm good. Just need a minute to catch my breath, that's all. Still, that's one more monster down though! Think about how much people will fawn over us when we get back!"
Virgil's half-joking statement earned him a well-meaning roll of the eyes from his partner.
"They would have fawned over us anyway, Virgil. They've grown rather good at worrying about us in our absence."
Virgil nodded, still smiling, as he pressed his face against Cygnus' neck.
"If that's the case then I think it's about time everyone was able to relax for a bit. It might do them some good to have us stay back with them after today. Hell, it'll do me some good as well. What about you? What do you think about taking tomorrow off and staying at home with me and the others? At least for the morning and afternoon?"
Cygnus looked down at him for a moment, then nodded whilst smiling.
"Yes. Yes, I believe that might be quite satisfactory. Now let's go back home."