The Art of Death Vol I

Chapter 11

   I woke up to the sound of gunshots & stuff shattering. I looked around to see the door going into the hallway, has fallen completely apart, like a giant ox ran into it. I looked over to the kitchen to see Elias and a giant, mutant looking thing fighting. The thing was about seven foot tall about, and had tentacles coming out of its sides, it was completely grotesque and rotted to the point of seeing its insides, like its organs, meat and bones. I could only see the side of its face, and it was hissing at Elias, then with one of its tentacles, it grabbed him by the throat, and slammed him on the counter. It hadn't noticed me yet, sense its senses seemed basic, but still more evolved than a regular Beast. The thing still looked like one, except bigger.. And more evolved, however, it still looked stupid like one. I got up off the couch, and pointing my handgun at it.

  "Oliver, help me!" Elias screamed in terror. It looked up and noticed me, it threw Elias against the fridge, and made him tumble to the ground. I saw it's face. It's face was covered in blood, which I assumed it was from the handgun blasts to it. One eye was missing, but the other still intact. The rest of the face was rotting, the thing looked at me and walked over to me, unhesitatingly. I started unloading my gun into its head, with nothing happening. I ran out of bullets, the giant Beast went to slap me with a tentacle and I rolled out of the way of it. I reloaded again, and this time I targeted its tentacles, with two on each side of its body. I shot it five times, and the thing stumbled back, then I heard two guns click from behind it. Elias had two shotguns in his hands. The thing turned around and Elias unloaded all the bullets into the things tentacles, until he ran out. The three of the four fell off it, and it knelled down in pain, then made a loud roaring sound. Then I unloaded five more bullets into the last tentacle, and it got back up, targeting Elias again. I then quickly reloaded, and then it slapped me from its behind, without even looking at me, making me crash into the TV. I could hardly see anything as my vision was blurry, and my ears were ringing, until I was knocked out cold. 

   I woke up and was covered in a blanket on the floor. I looked around to see everything destroyed and fallen over, like a house robbery gone wrong. I didn't see Elias, I got up, and I felt a quick jab in my leg. I fell to one knee, then got back up, walking slowly, still in pain. 

   "Elias?" I shouted his name, wondering if he was here. No answer. Guess he must've went out. I checked the time on that watch I had, and it said 12:00 PM. I did get worried wondering where he was. I noted my handgun on the table, but my shotgun was on the floor, split in half, probably the monster destroyed it. I'm assuming if he did go out, he took both of his with him. I grabbed my gun, and noticed it was loaded with only five bullets. I went out of this room, and checked that bathroom, where the corpse was. The corpse was gone. I thought about it for a second. What if that giant, mutant, beast was that corpse? Either way, there was no sign of it being anywhere besides everything in this small apartment being half destroyed. I checked the other room, and just as I thought, the corpse of that thing that attacked us last night was laying there, it looked dead, but I couldn't trust it if it was the same corpse in the bathtub. In fact, I was sure it was. If it came back once, what would stop it again? I decided to ignore it, since I wasn't touching the gross dead body, at least without help. I closed the door behind me, and decided to venture back out into the clock store. I didn't hear anything on the outside, like no sounds of the Beasts being there anymore. I twisted the handle and the door was already unlocked. I went outside it, slowly, having my guard up for anything.

   I creaked open the door, still slowly, and opened it completely. There was no signs of anything being there, and for a second time seemed to stand still because of how peaceful and serene it felt. I looked around, noting there were no corpses or Beasts anywhere. They must have left. I left the clock shop easily, making sure if I go to far, to be able to remember common landmarks. I noted the Clock Shop sign, which just said Clock Store on it. I walked around the street, seeing restaurants, small hotels, some skyscrapers in the middle of the city I could see from here. I walked around, and went down to the bridge where we came from. It was still rotting away ever so slowly. Then I went straight from there, as it was mostly unexplored area still. In the middle of the street was a trolley. I checked it out, and it still worked, surprisingly. I hopped on it, and a loud speaker came on, which was a tour guide. 

   "Shit!" I whispered, panicking. If any of the Beasts here it, they'll come to it immediately. Their sense of sound is twice as better than a bloodhound. They can hear up to two miles away. They can hear a needle drop in a loud room, and still hear it two miles away. That's how good their sense of sound is, sight might not be the best, but they still have all their senses ready to go so they can feed of their next victim. I quickly hopped off the trolley, and it ceased the sound. I walked up the trolleys route it would've taken, and there were more restaurants, bars, that type of stuff. I eventually got to the end of the street, and there was a giant building, behind two connecting roads to the street. I walked up to the building, and a giant, gold-plated sign said: "Federal Technological advancements."  Under it, it said in big bold letters: "Authorized personnel only!"  This must have been a tough building to get into. It had walkways from the building, some elevator looking things on the side. Either way, I was going in. 

   I walked up the walkway to enter the building. There was a fingerprint scanner of some sort by the entrance, probably to let people in, at least the ones that are supposed to be there, of course I wouldn't be allowed in, if it wasn't for the fact we live in a dead world, I wouldn't go in. Now that there's no one here to stop me, I will go in and investigate. I was curious. I was going to find out stuff about the past. Maybe even what caused the outbreak. I couldn't be too sure what was in there. I went to the fingerprint scanner, and pressed my thumb on it. As expected, I got the typical "Access Denied." And then, all of a sudden, a giant alarm went off, and then, I heard something creak open loudly. I looked around, and the ground to my left, moved and opened, revealing a staircase. Then, I heard something growl from below it, then it closed again. I wasn't too sure what existing thing on this planet could've made that noise. Nothing, not even the Beasts or the Mutant one we fought last night could've made that noise. I decided to head back, as it was already 2:00 PM and maybe Elias was there wondering where I went. I headed back the way I came, and in the middle of the street, I saw Elias, and he was looking around. He hasn't noticed me, apparently, but I saw him. I walked down further, him getting closer, and he still didn't notice me. I was eventually ten feet away from him, and then he turned around, and saw me.

   "Oliver! I was wondering where you went!" He shouted at me. 

   "I was looking for you!" I yelled back. I went to run, but remembered my leg was still in pain, I almost tripped, then I decided to walk. We met in the middle.

   "Where were you?" I asked, concerned.

   "I was out looking for a train to travel on," He explained, then added, "No luck yet, but did you find anything interesting?"

  "Well one thing, but I need to ask about last night.." I started saying

  "I'm listening," He said

  "What happened?"

   "Oh. That damn corpse we found in the tub? It came back alive. I had to use the toilet. So I went in, did my business, and as I was about to leave, it rose up, behind me, I saw it in the mirror, and I ran out, slamming the door behind me, then going into the living area, and closed that door behind me, and locked it. It didn't take much time for that Henkan to transform. He did so, and destroyed both doors in the matter of seconds. You woke up when it started attacking me, however, you made it weaken easily. Those tentacles, can grab anything easily. It can lift a bus by itself. The only way I killed it, was by finding that revolver, shooting it in the last tentacle, and destroying it. The last bullet it had, destroyed the revolver. It destroyed both of our shotguns too. Now we are back at square one with weapons. We each have five bullets, and should only use them if necessary."

   "What's a Henkan?" I asked, confused.

   "Those are special types of Beasts, like other ones like it, no one knows where it came from. We just know its a special type that's stronger and faster. They can kill, easily, not like Dusks, but easily. They transform, if needed," He explained. I then went on and explained to him about the building I found. We decided to wait out another day, and come prepared to go underground when that opens up again. We both agreed on finding another shotgun, for each of us, and enough ammo. We split up, and agreed to meet again at the Clock shop at dusk. 

   I looked around more on that street we were on, but no signs of guns anywhere. It was already 3 PM and I needed to get back to the Clock Shop in three hours, before dusk. I went up to where that building was, and decided to go down a connecting street to it. 

   I went down that street, and what was down further beyond the street looked like a gated community, not really "Gated" per say, but a giant steel-fenced in community, which looked huge on the inside. I went up to it, and there were man made, rundown, shacks in it. The fence was closed off.. And still locked. The fence was about 10 foot tall. I could climb over it. However, I don't know if there are any of the Beasts.. Or worse waiting for me. I tried to unlock it, but it had high security measures in it, which means there's literally no way in it through there.

   I climbed on it, and got to the top, I looked over the features of the land. It was a giant, land, transformed from the normal San Francisco from before, into a giant grassland, with fields beyond comprehension. There were no Beasts as I could see, but still, I had to check it out. I climbed down the fence, and quickly fell to the ground below me. I looked around, and it looked amazing all over the entire place.