Sloane zipped her bag close. Two trips.

It had taken her two back and forth trips from this house to hers to loot everything she wanted, especially the kitchen. It was a lot of supplies.

She could only assume that her neighbors just finished doing their groceries right before the apocalypse started because that was the only valid explanation she had to explain why she found so much stuff in their pantry.

As one of her goals, she also looted chairs and other furniture, which added a lot to her stockpiled material.

Sloane ran back to her house and dropped off the contents of her bag.

She now had enough food to last her for two months without looting. With this, she could now focus on other things like defenses and maybe even start exercising.

But before that, she's going to wipe her neighbors clean of even the things that are now useless to her.

Sloane went back to the house, this time with the goal of looting as much medicine and other miscellaneous items as she could.

She emptied the first aid kit in the bathroom- well, all the bathrooms, not just one. All the first aid kits in the house really. Even the ones in the basement.

She then checked the bedrooms and got herself doctor prescribed medication in bulk- she found a lot of pain killers in the parent's room and anti-depressants on another.

Sloane brought all of these back to her house where they'll stay in her room until she needs them.

Sloane drank a few tablets of anti-depressants and painkillers before going back out.

Now that she's looted everything she could from the house, it was finally time to check the attic again.

It was already opened when she got here this morning, which meant that the creatures knew how to access it. It also meant that they checked it out last night for some reason.

Sloane wasn't sure why the creatures did it, as the attic was now empty and nothing new grew on the floor or walls after she killed the prior growth.

The chlorine gas she left to permeate in here had been effective and neutralized every inch of the fleshy growth.

The wood even deteriorated, which wasn't an effect of the chlorine gas...

Now that she thought about it, this may have been because the growth took root in the wood.

It took root huh? Why? What was it even for?

Whatever the growth had been, the humanoids were intrinsically connected to it in some way.

If these things occupied buildings, and she found the growth in an attic inside a house that a humanoid lived in, didn't that mean that the one cultivating the growth in the first place was the monster?

It reminded her of a farm, but what kind of farm grew...

... Wait, was the flesh pit a nest?

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

How come she's never considered that before? The pit was clearly birthing worms... Which didn't look like tall gangly humanoids with perpetual grins.

Okay, so she could see why she didn't conclude that the first time.

Adrenaline and fear had also clouded her judgement at the time, preventing her from connecting the dots as well as she should have.

So that was why the humanoids were so pissed off when she poisoned the growth; Sloane basically killed off what amounted as their nursery.

Sloane smiled, serves them right. Then her smile faltered.

This entire thing made her think...

... If all the houses in her neighborhood is occupied by these things, then that can only mean that every single building here had a nest inside of them.

She was going to get swarmed no matter what. She also had a time limit and could only put off killing these humanoids for so long before their nests give birth and they come at her in a tidal wave of flesh and teeth.

She was going to die if she doesn't slow down or outright remove the nests of these monsters.

But maybe she didn't need to deal with the nests? Just escape this place in a car and never look back?

But then what would happen if something like this is left unchecked? Would humanity be swarmed by a horde of these things?

How long would it take for them to reach a population that every human gets outnumbered 10 to 1? Or a thousand to one even?

The human population was decreasing while these things continued on living...

She needed to take care of these nests before she leaves but at the same time, she couldn't just move with the sole focus of killing them either, she needed to do other things, like finding a vehicle to drive out of here after she's done.

Sloane thought about what she can do to solve the nesting problem as she went around of the house.

An idea came to her when she checked a room and saw a bottle of vodka inside an open closet, she wanted to burn this house down now that she looted it clean, and a molotov sounded like the best thing to do that.

Sloane grabbed the vodka followed by folding the clothes around the bottle into her bag, she only stopped when her knapsack was full.

Once outside, Sloane stuffed a torn rag inside the mouth of the bottle, lit it up, then tossed it straight at the window.

She left as the raging fire engulfed the house behind her.

Sloane glared at the monsters staring at her from various windows as she went back to her own house.

Those things could learn, she knew, but how far could that go?

Hopefully not far enough to learn what a molotov was.

Can they use cars? Operate cranes maybe? Or are they limited only to risk assessment? The thing they have been shown to intellectually adapt the best at so far.

Sloane locked the doors and sat on the couch.

She had a feeling that with how smart they were, the creatures would begin to treat the houses they occupy as a trap to lead her into.

They were aware that she wanted to loot the houses, which means she'd go to them rather than the opposite.

Did the creatures know how to prepare traps? Hopefully not, she could deal with an ambush from one of them but a trap was beyond her.

Sloane had more questions than before, and most of them were related to the humanoids surrounding her at all sides.

Sloane pushed the tools in her workbench aside and replaced them with notebooks.

She wrote down the things she knew about the creatures so far followed by her plan of dealing with them and then the one of her getting out of here.

Tossing molotovs into houses and fixing a van were the safest solutions she could come up with to fix her problems, one was for killing the creatures and the other was for escaping.

But being safe also meant she wouldn't be able to grow, as she needed to kill in order to do so, and she was in danger while doing that.

In her opinion, killing the creatures should be prioritized more than saving her own hide.

She needed those stars. Who knows what kind of monsters roamed places beyond her neighborhood?

Without the help of stars, she wouldn't be able to defend herself if she encounters something deadlier than the humanoids.

Sloane checked her bullets and began counting.

Her revolver had over three dozen shots left, that was a good number, but she still needed to conserve it until she found more bullets.

Sloane leaned back, she stared at the assortment of tools on her workbench in a daze.

She had plans but she was still indecisive about what to do now that she's secured her supplies.

Which unlike what she expected, didn't lead to a peaceful life til the end of the apocalypse.

Because now, she was under threat of being swarmed by a bunch of uncannily humanoid monsters.

She stood up and walked to her room.

Sloane didn't want to do anything with killing the humanoids just yet so she should prioritize finding a car for now.

Maybe she can even find a book in some garage somewhere that teaches her how to fix and maintain a car while on the road, that sounds nice.

One of her stars makes her smarter and another makes her more dexterous so fixing a car shouldn't be a problem.

Sloane threw on a fresh T-shirt and lay on her bed, she closed her eyes, for once glad that she had the peace of mind knowing that she wouldn't be in that lucid dream once she's asleep.

It was morning when she opened her eyes again, the night having passed in a literal blink.

She checked herself shortly after waking up and saw that her wounds had healed nicely, the one on her chest had scabbed.

Sloane ran her hand over it and feared that it may scar.

Sloane lifted her shirt, feeling the wound on her stomach through the bandages made it feel coarse, this one was also beginning to scab.

The wounds on her arms were healing well too, but she worried about them.

Will they scar? They were out in the open. She didn't like the thought of people seeing them.

She got up, deciding that worrying about people's opinions were the least of her problems right now.

She needed to find a car, preferably a van, and to also kill the humanoid monsters in the neighborhood.

Sloane ate a protein bar for breakfast as she checked the clothes she looted yesterday, among them was a sleeveless tank top and sweatpants.

She threw them on as well a pair of sneakers and then went outside.

She was going to work on her cardio.

She only had her box cutter as a weapon but the creatures detested daylight for some reason, so it should be fine.

With a deep breath to calm herself, Sloane began her jog.

She looked around the desecrated streets, scouting them for cars she might want.