Wither With Me

CHAPTER 24 - MONSTER

A shambler? No, more like a monster from a horror movie. With an imposing build, more than two meters tall, the humanoid creature towered over anything Marcus had seen before. Its body was covered in what could only be described as organic armor, with plates of osseous appearance covering every inch of its skin. Luminous, pulsating nodules grew on odd places all over its body. Its face was adorned with not one, but two pairs of eyes, keenly focused on something on the upper level of the concourse.

'Shit...! This thing...! It's as mentioned in the report...! I think my suspicions were correct, after all! This is bad...!'

The armed people upstairs no longer felt like a tangible threat. Not in the presence of that creature. Marcus knew he had to act fast. If his suspicions were truly on the spot, things would soon take a drastic turn. He left his cover, rushing towards the opposite side of the concourse, where Claire and the other two survivors were hiding.

His steps were noisy and agitated, but the monster didn't care. Its attention was still fixated on the space above their heads. He was insignificant to it, trivial.

"M-Marcus...! W-What's...!?" muttered Claire. She looked scared as hell.

A man and a woman were beside her, crouching down behind a pillar. The man seemed familiar, but Marcus was almost certain he didn't know either of them. They also looked terrified, and stared at him as if expecting him to shoo the monster away.

He stopped for a moment and measured his words. He believed he knew what needed to be done. He had to stop that monster, somehow. And he'd need as much help as he could afford. But the risks... Those people looked up to him looking for help, but they might just find death instead. A very, very quick death.

A sweet, chirpy voice resonated in his head again, a memory settled in the deepest corners of his heart.

[You're like a superhero! Right!?]

[I wanna be able to save people, just like you!]

'Save people, huh...?'

...

"Leave...! You need to go away! Now! It's too dangerous!" he said.

The red-haired woman sprung up from the floor. "W-Wait...! Lilian is still up there!! And William...!"

"I'll go get them! I'll make sure they get out safely, I promise!"

"But-!"

A sudden outburst of noise interrupted their conversation. They all turned towards the center of the hall, just in time to witness the hulking beast sprinting towards the stairs leading up, taking huge strides of several steps at a time in its ascent.

Whatever it was looking for, it had found it.

"Go!!!" yelled Marcus, before going for the stairs after the creature.

******

William had heard them, loud noises coming from below, almost like explosions. He didn't know what to make of it, and he certainly wasn't going to abandon his cover to check them out. He thought they were strange; he hoped the others hadn't run into any unexpected issues. However, to have the noises run upstairs was even stranger. And the source of the noise? "Strange" didn't have a strong enough superlative to describe it.

It wasn't a shambler. No shambler was that big, no shambler could move that fast, and no shambler looked even remotely similar to that thing.

The creature knew of William's presence. Somehow, he knew it did. But it didn't mind him. The monster immediately turned in the direction of the poor devils panicking at the other side of the hall, and charged right towards them.