“We simply cannot, I repeat, CANNOT, let that thing continue to live and do whatever the fuck it wants.” Sylvie was standing at the front of our big group giving a rather blunt talk.

Love a good Ted talk.

Everyone murmured in agreement with nods.

“Good. Let’s go.” Sylvie didn’t mince her words.

It hadn’t escaped me that she’d been given a pair of oversized jogging bottoms; it made me shudder thinking back to what Triya mentioned about impregnating.

What the hell would that creature have done, had we not got her out?

The answer to that was disgustingly obvious..

It felt weird marching down the streets in such a large team, as if we were about to start rioting or commit organised crime.

Well I suppose we are technically about to murder the shit out of a monster.

The lack of any sort of military presence or authorities spoke for itself to the state of the country; we're on our own for now.

Being stuck in the hospital seems to have been safer than this hell outside..

Once we arrived, we were organised by Steve into positions; 6 on either side with long ropes or chains; 3 people to attack from range and then 5 people who would be melee attackers. There were also 6 more people standing by who were medically trained, or had a skill that could heal.

I volunteered to be one of the melee hitters and I’d borrowed a makeshift spear made out of some solid wood, tipped with a nasty looking filed down rebar spike.

The ranged attackers included Triya with Xno, the teenager with the Slingshot and then a woman who was holding a small cube.

The melees were myself, Tanner who was looking longingly at his sledgehammer holding the door, 2 big guys with the special drills that were equipped with extra long drill bits, effectively making them into spinning spears, and a stocky girl holding a plain looking circle shield with a nasty barbed spike in the middle of it.

The metal looked matte grey so it was probably a shimmer item.

The chains and ropes were placed on the floor in loops, ready to be pulled tight once the creature stepped into them.

Tanner eagerly went up to the now silent door and looked back at everyone.

A bunch of anxious nods and whisper grunts confirmed everyone was ready.

Tanner swallowed nervously and carefully started to remove his sledgehammer, the name of which I'd forgotten, from the door handle.

He retrieved it without making any loud noises and grinned as he tiptoed cartoonishly back and returned to the melee group.

This simple silly act was potent enough to loosen up everyone's anxiety and you could visibly see people’s shoulders relax and a few smiles even.

This guy, honestly! Even if he was missing his arms and legs, he’d manage to get some laughs out of it.

Triya rolled her eyes and stepped forward and nodded to Xno to proceed as she pushed open the door just enough for the floating orb to enter.

The Daemon hummed slowly past the gap and into the silent darkness, before letting out a few low chimes and a faint blue glow illuminated the opening.

Xno hummed out of the darkness and came to a stop near Triyas shoulder and she smiled, patting it on the top of its dark grey shell. To which it replied with a glow display of blue vein-like lines that swam under its surface.

It had been interesting seeing people’s reactions to the orb but Syvlie had shot down people’s attempts at trying to interrogate or ask Triya further questions on it.

She’d simply said ‘it’s one of my skills but it only knows what I know’.

Wonder if Xno feels or thinks like we do..

How crazy but amazing it is, that I’ve bore witness to the possible birth of the first true artificial sentience…or perhaps it-

I nearly jumped out of my skin as the door wrenched inwards, slammed into the wall with an almighty bang and as Triya dove to the side.

The eerie silence descended into hellish chaos.

The creature charged straight out and smashed into the cube woman's face with a horrific snapping sound.

Her head slammed unnaturally fast backwards into the ground and I stared in horror as the creature slammed its claws down into her head again, caving her face inwards.

Then came the screaming and shouting as people started grabbing the ropes and chains, but it quickly became evident that we’d underestimated this thing's strength as people lost grip or got yanked to the ground.

“DONNIE MOVE!!”

“RINE GET BACK!”

“PULL THE ROPE! NO DON’T-ARGH!”

“OH MY GOD LINZY IS DEAD!”

“UGH HELP!”

The creature was going completely berserk, pulling no punches anymore.

It trampled over the whole top side of the group and then started smashing down on people trying to get back up.

Blood was splattering out from the impacts and there was a slew of terrible, sickening crunching and smacking noises as the monster went on a rampage.

“KILL THE BASTARD!!!!” Tanner roared as he ran forward glowing red.

I was near ready to run for my life, when my shields deployed and I pushed past my flight response and gracefully charged forwards.

That's the official version if anyone asks, in reality, I stumbled forward with my spear held out in front of me screaming in pure fear.

We shouldn’t have come back! It was just sheer luck we managed to get away the first time! I don’t want to die!!

Tanner swung and smashed one of the back legs so hard it nearly tore it off and it was left dangling via sinewy tendons and muscles.

The woman with the spike shield rushed in but was stopped dead by a swipe that she embraced with the shield, knocking her down with a thunk.

My shields quivered and snapped up above my head, points facing forward horizontally like a praying mantis as I stabbed forward with the spear and sunk it into the lower abdomen.

The whole time, both shields had been erratically moving, trying to anticipate any incoming attacks and they excellently deflected a swipe aimed for my head but the impact caused me to topple backwards which I turned into a roll; returning me to my feet.

I heard Xno release a long off key gritty synth noise that turned into the rapid firing of projectiles.

The creature screamed in pain as another spear was rammed into its side and it scrambled at the spears sticking out; neglecting the incoming torrent from Xno.

It failed to dislodge anything; the rapid fire to its face overwhelming the creature, forcing it to retreat back a bit towards the doorway and split the attention between protecting its face and trying to dig out the spear.

A shimmering mist started to float towards the creature and I followed the trail back to the source.

The cube woman’s corpse had patches of rust.

I stared in horror as the mist swarmed the creature and it started to absorb it all; visibly repairing it; pushing any spears lodged into it and making it triumphantly roar out.

The fighting abruptly stopped as the creature bellowed out; everyone was stunned with the realisation that people had died.

Not only had they died, but they were giving shimmer to the killer.

People stared in dismay as 3 more lines of shimmer started snaking their way from bodies that were lying still with a fourth going towards the teenager with the slingshot.

He was sobbing and struggling to aim at the monster because the shimmer was storming around his hands and weapon.

“I’M SORRY!!” He wailed out. “IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!! I’M SO SORRY!”

Tanner broke the pause by glowing a deep crimson red and charging in again and smashing another leg heavily, cutting off the creature's victorious roaring and turning it into screeching.

“DIE!!!!” His voice broke with how loudly he shouted and it seemed to even make the creature wince.

A burst of faint reddish mist blasted outwards from Tanner that flew out in all directions; impacting everyone around him.

People started roaring, enraged rather than scared as the people burst into action, picking up spears or chains, trying to damage or lock the creature down.

I felt an overwhelming surge of aggression embolden me as I grabbed a spear and tried to brutally stab it again; but it was smashed away and my eyes widened in surprise as I watched one of the claws blur towards my face.

*BZZDRRRRJJ*

My left shield stabbed down into the arm, whilst the right shifted to cover half my face.

Which I was very grateful for, since the creature's claw carried on and impacted the right shield, making me stumble back.

THIS IS SHIT! I’M USELESS! I NEED TO USE MY FUCKING ABILITIES! NOT THESE PISSING STICKS!

I lowered my stance instinctively as a faint blue haze surrounded my vision; feeling muscles tense up and a rush of movement internally, I took a breath in.

There was a faint tinnitus noise as I exhaled and shoulder-rushed forward with considerably more speed and less effort than I’d ever felt.

As the shields shifted to the praying mantis position, I smashed into one of the legs, knocking it out from under the monster.

YES! GOOD FUCKING HIT!

But I didn’t stop there, I carried on.

I smashed through a second, third, fourth and fifth leg before the creature started to fall on one side; its untouched legs scrambling frantically to get it back upright whilst the other legs that I’d hit looked limp.

I spun round and managed to get several punches and a kick onto one of the moving leg joints but I was forced to step back as my shields intercepted a heavy swipe attack on me.

But this time my legs were braced and ready for the attack.

My shields countered by slashing into another leg as I saw Tanner come in and trash one at the front.

The monster roared and increased the intensity of its thrashing but the remaining group members had successfully started getting ropes around its torso and arms with chains wrapping around some of the working legs, reducing its mobility severely.

They were already pulling the legs out and the arms down as the woman with the shield rammed the abdomen with the spike and started wrenching it around, opening a large bleeding gash.

The creature started to visibly weaken; screaming before getting cut short by a direct hit by an unfamiliar whistling pyramid shaped projectile that smashed into the creature's temple and knocked its head to the side with the impact.

I glanced over to see the slingshot boy with bloodshot eyes, wielding a new weapon which looked like a long flat gun with the top part removed; leaving a rail that went up his forearm with a glowing orange string that he pulled back.

Majik pooled into the very back part and a small pyramid formed as the glowing orange string tightened and the rail faintly glowed.

The projectile then disappeared as he fired the weapon and it shot through the air and stabbed itself into the side of the monster's torso.

It shook its head to recover and opened its horizontal jaw and started to roar but it was again abruptly cut off as Tanner smashed the sledgehammer right into the side of its face.

There was so much force in the blow, that it snapped the sledgehammer in half and caused the monster to collapse, completely knocked out.

As soon as the head touched the ground, EVERYONE piled on in a frenzy, stabbing and beating the monster finally to death.

I stood there in shock at the raw violence, witnessing a person on each arm, forcibly wrenching it behind the monster's back, yanking to snap the bone as another person using a ball hammer smashed it into the creature's face with short rapid blows.

A man jumped on its back and grabbed it in a headlock then started kneeling, yanking its head back almost bending the spine at a 45 degree angle as another woman clumsily slit its throat multiple times with some kind of kitchen knife.

That was it.

The win felt bitter as the creature started to rust and people collapsed on the floor from exhaustion and sorrow.

Some people sobbed, probably from shock or for their fallen friends and family as the Majik shimmer streams snaked a path towards their designated victors.

There were 6 dead in total with 5 more severely wounded, barely alive, being treated by Sylvie and another medically trained person.

Sylvie herself had tears streaming down the dirt on her face.

I slumped down and sat looking down at the ground, just wishing I was back home with Marri and Lone; not wanting anything more to do with this shitty nightmare world.

I just want to be back home with my family, eating nice simple food and dealing with mundane shit..

I started to angrily wonder if there were people who hoped or wished to have the world go to shit like this, zombie outbreak fans, apocalypse romancers, nuclear war fantasizers, world war fanatics..

But when it actually happens, THEY would be the ones first to die or hide! and it would inevitably be up to everyone remaining to deal with the rest of the shit and grime; dragging humanity through blood and loss in order to survive as a species.

I felt the anger drain out as I took breaths in and out.

..Stupid fucking pointless thoughts…hating on other made up people for made up things is not going to make this world a better place.

Nobody really wants this to happen.

Nobody wants to see the people they love have their heads caved in, or insides torn out…

I heard sounds of heaving and hacking up as the people that were seriously wounded were receiving healing from the tonics and golden Majik shimmer healing the wounds.

I just sat there in solemn awe, at least there’s one bloody positive in this shitty nightmare, watching as people recovered from grievous bodily wounds and fractures but a few times the tonic wasn’t enough and Syvlie would check them over before placing her hand over the wound as a golden shimmer would transfer into it.

Healing touch. Imagine the kind of amazing world we could have had if-

*Scuttle* *Scuttle* *Scuttle*

I snapped my head up, scanning left and right, trying to pinpoint the source of a scratching and skittering sound.

Please universe, give us a break.

Multiple other heads started scoping and people nervously started to grip weapons.

“What the hell is that noise!!?” a man shouted out, fear very evident in his voice..

“Shhhh! Quiet! Where is it bloody coming from?” a woman angrily hushed back.

It was coming from all sides…

..and getting louder.

“Fucking everywhere..” I breathlessly squeezed out.

“Everyone group up! onto the road! get back to back now! Stay quiet!” Steve Hissed.

People started murmuring in fear rushing to group together back to back.

Tanner beckoned me over so I rushed to him and gave a quick puzzled look at his repaired half wooden half dull grey metal sledgehammer that now had a pick axe spike on one side of the hammerhead and the bottom of the handle had a large needle eye loop.

The wood and the metal melded unnaturally together like two colours of playdough, and he just shrugged and pointed at the recently deceased monster.

Guess he got a new weapon reward from the figh.

Good for him.

***