John stood near the stairs, his vision slightly blurred. Yet his modified AR-15 remained steady in his hands. The only thing louder than his breathing was Annable’s footsteps while she walked down the hall. Relieved that the first room was empty.
John hoped that the entire floor was empty, that what they all heard was something else. He prayed to God that it was just the wind playing tricks on him.
Annable made her way over to the second room. She couldn’t help but let out a smile, ‘this room is empty, I know it.’ She turned the handle and pushed the door open with her foot as her free hand retreated back to hold her rifle. Her eyes and mouth widened like she was about to scream.
Yet it didn’t matter, the creature kicked the side of her knee causing the bone to shatter and spit out in fragments. The figure went behind her with their scaled fingers wrapped around her head. John could do nothing but watch as the monster snapped Annable’s head off her body with a swift yank of the wrist. Like a person grabbed a can and cracked it open.
The creature was no bigger than 5’3, his scales green though some are discoloured due to past injuries. Their body is covered in scars, his eyes a piercing blue. They have three long toes on each foot, with a retractable claw on each of them, two toes are at the front of the foot while one is at the back which all work together to act like a set of hands or talons. Their reptilian snout is short, round, and jagged, and the tips of their teeth barely show. He wore an armoured trench coat, his modified EF88 Austeyr slung to his side, his crocodilian-like tail having strange armour attached to it.
It was clear that the creature was armed to the teeth. With a free hand, the reptile aimed their Glock-19 and fired at the cultists.
John for a moment, froze in place. Before they fired back at the reptile in retaliation. His aim was erratic and unpredictable, the reptile pushed forward. However, for the most part, he and the others didn’t want to shoot at their friend’s lifeless body.
The reptile used Annable’s corpse as a shield while they approached the cultists. John freaked out, he sprang up to stand up and hopefully run, but a bullet struck his shoulder and knocked him down the stairs.
At the bottom, John looked up as the corpse of Annable smashed through the wall and back down to the first floor. Everyone backed away from the stairs as the screams from one of the cultists upstairs abruptly ended.
John crawled on their back to the other side of the building, shards of glass and wood dug into their forearms only for their retreat to end when they banged their head on the brick wall.
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John never thought he’d get that far in life. To think that just a week ago he took over a town with his friends without any problems and never had to deal with the police or the government. John never had a reason to join the cult, he never had a reason for any of his actions. To him, life was just a sandpit of opportunities that he could play with as he liked and even share with others.
So he used to party across the West Coast, drinking without a care in the world. While sex, drugs, booze, and music can create temporary enjoyment. He never truly felt satisfied, instead, he felt that he had just drifted to the next biggest hit. That was until he came in contact with Theodor, who gave him a chance to find a place in the world. Perhaps even in a new one that was promised.
But there was a flaw in his thinking, he played in his sandpit for so long and gladly took from those who were not a part of his cult family. That he forgot that what he could do to others, someone or something would do the same to him.
As blood gushed from the open throat of his once friend, their tongue still wagged around aimlessly. John leaned to his side to puke.
John rested his back against the wall, his eyes shut as to pretend it was all a dream. Only for them to be wide awake once more because of how silent the room was. No one dared move, not even speak to one another.
We’re not soldiers! We’re just some people on the street! John thought to himself. Seeing that there was no hope in the situation, he ran to the front door and tried to push the shelf out of the way.
‘What the fuck are you doing?’ Errick shouted, someone who joined the cult just over a year ago. A tough guy who believed he was invincible, that was until something challenged his masculinity.
‘I’m getting the fuck out of here! I’m running back to Theo.’
‘We have to…’
John screamed back at them, their voice cracked as they pointed at Annable’s disfigured body. ‘Look at what happened! If you want to stop it, get up there yourself!’
John struggled to push the shelf, but Martha gave him a hand to get it out of the way. She handed him her pistol; she was never good with a firearm.
Errick aimed his gun at both of them. ‘We are going upstairs together, we will kill whoever is fucking us over.’
‘Take someone else, I’m out of here!’ John replied, which made it clear to Errick that he had no hope of changing his mind. But before he could do anything, something from the second floor was drilling down towards them.
John knew it had to be now, so he burst the door open and ran outside with Martha just behind.