Another scream echoed through the air.

"Let's go see what's going on!" Jared said as he started running to the source with his gun at the ready.

As we ran, I saw a shape slowly appear through the rain ahead. There was what appeared to be an actually intact building! As we got closer, I saw even more houses and some other shapes on the road... were those cars? Were we going to see living people?

The screaming continued, then died out. Come on, come on, please be okay...

We reached the street in front of the first house and as we did I noticed that there were a few cars scattered around on the road, all of which appeared to be intact. We scanned the area as we approached. The screams had come from around here...

Jared stopped and brought his arm in front of us, signalling for us to stop too. He pointed to a car about twenty feet ahead of us, and at first I didn't realize what was up, but then I noticed that the car was rocking back and forth... and just barely, I could make out the shape of something on the other side, with part of its body in the car.

For an awful moment, we couldn't move. What should we do? What if it's another one of those things?

From what I could see through the underside of the car, it looked like the shape sloped down like it was a blanket or something, or maybe a long coat hanging off the door of the car. Through the window facing me, all I could see was the outline of the thing.

The screaming we heard stopped before we got here. All things considered, it was probably a worst case scenario...

I looked around for an escape route. I thought our best bet would be to sneak into the nearby house... It was fairly small, one story and surrounded by a picket fence like the other houses. We should dive behind the fence and get inside the house before that thing notices us... We could watch it from the window inside. Let's hope the door is unlocked, so we don't have to make any noise...

I motioned towards the house, took Aaron by the hand and took my first step. Every cell in my body froze when I heard a wet sloshing sound coming from inside the car, reminding me of the noise wet canned food would make when you quickly dumped it out of the can. I practically leaped all the way from the street to behind the fence when I regained control of my body. The car squeaked and creaked as whatever was inside of it caused it to rock more violently.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Fear paralyzed me as soon as I put my back up against the fence. Jared was right next to us, his arm trembling while he held his finger ready to place on the trigger.

The rocking grew louder, and a sickening tearing sound came from the car. Something was being torn apart over there. I cast a quick glance through the gaps between the fence, instantly regretting that action.

From where we were, I could see the shape relatively more clearly now. Through the driver's side window of the car, which was facing us, I saw... an eye nearly pressed up against the glass.

I recoiled, nearly falling backwards and making Jared and Aaron jump in surprise. The entire window... it had been filled up by one massive eye.

The car stopped rocking. I tried to get up and run to the door with Aaron, but I couldn't. I couldn't move a single muscle.

Had it seen me? It must have. With an eye that huge... there's no way it didn't see me. Hell, it must have seen us when we were first walking this way. So why didn't it react to us at first? I tried to get up but stumbled back down. Come on, move!

Maybe it didn't notice us because it was preoccupied doing... whatever it was doing. The screams and noises we heard made me think that, well... it must have been doing something to someone. Killing them, eating them or who knows what.

A cracking noise came from the car, and I heard something flop onto the wet pavement.

I instantly leaped up, dragging Aaron with me to the door, clutched desperately at the doorknob, threw the door wide open and literally dove inside, causing both me and Aaron to crash to the floor. Sheer panic rather than willpower had given me the sudden burst of energy. I still hadn't fully regained control of my muscles from the terror that had held me in place, I was just moving on pure instinct. Jared was inside not an instant behind us and slammed the door shut, locking it with the deadbolt that it luckily had. I didn't know if that would even make a difference, but it was more reassuring than nothing.

"Are you guys alright?" I heard Jared whisper above us.

"Yeah," I muttered as I slowly got back on my feet, glancing around the house. We were in the main room which was part kitchen part living room, there was a door straight ahead that looked like it led to a bedroom and two closed doors on the far wall to my right on the living room side. The house looked stripped bare of anything that could have been useful, all that remained was the furniture and some dishes in the sink.

I helped Aaron up, and then moved to look through the blinds in the nearest window, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever had been in the car. I could see the car from over the fence, but I couldn't see anything between it and the fence from where I was.

Where did that thing go?

My eyes scanned back and forth, and I nearly fell over again when I saw eyes staring directly at me from in between the fence posts. Eyes, dozens and dozens of eyes lined the entirety of the length of three fence posts.

Hastily, I jumped away from the window and ducked down, whispering for Jared and Aaron to do the same.

Whatever the hell that thing was, it had seen me. I'm sure of it. With so many eyes, there's no way it couldn't have.

...We needed to find a place to hide in the house.