The thing had him dead to rights. Probably. He sat heavily on the ledge and watched it continue down the street and turn off. Well. That was certainly one way to kick start the day.

He started to get back up, but he was shaking horribly now/ With little warning,is legs started protesting, and he realized how raw his hands, knees, elbows and face were. Every minor cut or abrasion letting itself be known while his muscles simultaneously trembled and complained about every minor movement.

He closed his eyes for brief periods and focused on his breathing and stopping the trembling, then he would look around to make sure nothing was coming.

Probably no more than 5 minutes later (though the tension of potentially dying randomly to a random red ape thing made it feel like even that was vastly too long,) he got back up, now painfully stiff. He did some stretches (as much for a much-needed sense of normalcy as the very real need to get his muscles pliable again) while he looked around.

There were some AC units, and not much else up here. Some looked over the edge as he circled, showing nothing especially interesting at street level apart from his truck, gun, and scattered bullets,all of which seemed increasingly useless the more he thought about his current situation.

The truck was wrecked, upside down and would need to be righted, let sit and given time for the fluids to settle, then filled back to normal levels for best effect. Though, it probably wouldn’t even run then. Insurance would call it totaled at this point. A Mechanic… might be able to fix it, but not anything that would be helpful now.

He took a mental search through the items he kept in the truck. Tow strap, blankets, and other assorted bits. There was a bit of tire iron. But nothing especially helpful here and now. His dropped revolver, likewise, not especially useful. It now had … 2 hollow points followed by 2 rat-shot intended for snakes. Maybe he could get lucky and blind it with the rat-shot if he put it up front? But he couldn’t imagine a situation where he would get that shot off, and not end up smashed immediately regardless.

Blinding it could be an option if he got trapped. Doing so might at least make it easier for others to put it down later, maybe…. But hardly useful for his own survival now.

Still. It was the closest thing he had to protection at the moment. So step one would be getting that back, and putting the belt and holster on so he’d still have his hands free. The ammo box was in bad shape. He could grab the loose rounds and put them in a pocket for reloads? He wasn’t crazy about the idea but preferred some ammo to nothing. He would have to stash the rest of the box somewhere before it fell apart….

Then… people. There had to be people here somewhere, right? He hadn’t heard anyone since he’d driven in. Where would they all go? Were they just hiding? Or had they been…. killed? Warped away? Spirited away? Transformed into those gorilla things?

No. Makes more sense for them to have been …. moved somehow. Too much mass difference and nothing about it looks like it was some multi person abomination. Probably just some weird invading aliens, only using tech to make hidden flamethrowers instead of world conquering space ships. Yeeaah . So that's probably out.

Military weapon? DNA research shouldn’t be far enough along even in military facilities to make something like this. Probably. And what kind of shittilly contrived series of Hollywood-esque bullshit would even need to happen to result in an escaped Bio-weapon gorilla with an integrated flamethrower, for some reason?

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Doesn’t match any battlefields they would expect to operate in the vaguely near future or their MO in general. Even if it was military, they would be hunting it down if it was escaped. No roving helicopters or other military presence hunting it down. So not military.

Territorial apparently, and/or capable of some level of intelligence. Is it nesting or something? Protecting young? What a terrifying thought.

Regardless if it's a military experiment or not, they would probably be the best. Maybe I can get out and alert the military or something. And they would have an easier time preventing further damage/ death if they know what it is/ where it came from /is going.

Easier said than done.

He did a circuit of the building, looking everywhere for clues as to the ape's current location, and the likelihood of ambush. Of course he didn’t find anything, or any signs as to what happened to everyone else either.

Doing a final unhelpful stretch, he gave his wreck another look over and plotted out what he would grab, and when to retreat. Hmm. Short of busting a window, was there a good way to… no. Retreating back onto the roof would be option 1.

Busting a window would probably let him unlock the doors. Then he'd be able to use the small doorways to gain ground on the ape if it chased him again. Which would in turn give him enough time to reach the roof.

Another last-second glance around told him nothing suspicious, so he climbed down and quietly as he could, grabbed the .357, and holstered it, and took it with him.

Then he grabbed some loose rounds and shoved them in his pocket, and ran the degrading box back to the corner of ‘his’ building. The building he had climbed on had its rolling shutters down, like most in the area, to prevent break ins and theft in the middle of the night. So that wasn’t an option.

Even if it was an option, it would be too noisy. I need a building that's either not locked up, or has a place I could break in and also unlock from inside in case I need to get away quickly again.

Moving as quickly as he could, (relatively) quietly, he managed to sneak to the adjacent building. The Ape had gone in the opposite direction, out of town, so he should be fine.

The silence was intimidating,but he took some comfort in altering his steps to be quieter, and distracted himself from worry by focusing on his breathing.

Hopefully most people are just hunkered down.

The first door was locked as well. Crossing the street yielded the same results.

Did that thing show up earlier than most businesses even open?

Going down the street further, he was disappointed to note this alley was too wide for spider climbing, and the drainage pipe didn’t look like he’d be able to scale it fast enough to use for escape. The next door was a donut shop.

They should have been in extra early.

He continued on and tried the next door, locked as well, but he saw a face poke out around the counter for a moment before it disappeared again. He quickly gave a friendly knock.

Rap- tap tap tap - - tap-tap-Tap

“Hey, can you let me in? I think it left. But I’d rather not be out here if it comes back again,” he said in a voice hopefully loud enough to be understood through the door, but quiet enough not to be heard by the ape-like demon, wherever it was.