Emerged In Darkness

Chapter 13

Saran sped out of the room and down the stairs as fast as her legs could take her. Her old white shoes pounded against the wooden steps as she jumped from the last few onto the hay covered floor. She ran past all the molded corpses and almost crashed into Ethan's back.

"Ethan, are you okay? What's going on?" She rushed, concern masking her voice.

He didn't say anything, just pulled her behind him, eyes hard. Standing on her tiptoes, Saran peeked over his shoulder.

There, in a makeshift elevator, was the biggest Molded she'd seen so far.

Its belly protruded morbidly from its body and some form of greenish-brown liquid dribbled from its teeth, hissing as it hit the floor below it.

Saran pulled her gun from the waistband of her pants and walked up beside him.

"Lemme guess, some other form of concoction brewed up by Lucas himself to make our lives harder?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

"Hit it right on the head," Ethan answered, pulling his own shotgun out.

The giant blubbering mess of goo roared once more before rumbling toward them. It stopped momentarily to open its mouth and release a spray of foul-smelling liquid at them. Ethan pushed her away and moved just as it splashed on the floor where they'd been standing. What little hay had been there hissed and burned, and within a matter of minutes, the liquid had eaten through the hay and some of the floor beneath it.

"Yeah, so I'm thinking that I'm not a fan of that," Saran muttered, face scrunched up in disgust.

"Honestly, I can't blame you," Ethan grunted, firing his gun at the Molded monster.

The only indication that the monster had been hit was squelching sounds and bits of black goo landing on the floor around it. Gurgling sounded from its throat and more acid like liquid dribbled along its needlepoint teeth.

Saran jumped out of the way just in time to avoid being hit with the junk.

Her mind began to crank and whirl for ideas. Bullets wouldn't affect this thing that much. But maybe, just maybe there might be something else that would.

"Ethan, keep that thing busy!" Saran cried, rushing away.

His startled cry is all she got back.

She raced to a corner of the barn away from Ethan and the monster and dropped to her knees. In front of her were two or three cases of some kind of alcohol. She grabbed a couple and slung off her backpack. As Saran reached in to grab a cloth, burning, searing pain raced up the back of her right leg. A pained cry left her lips. Somewhere in the distance, she could hear Lucas saying something but she blocked him out.

"Saran!" Ethan shouted somewhere behind her. A few bullets went off but she was more preoccupied with what she was doing and trying to keep the pain at the back of her mind.

Finally, with a huff of agony, she got up and limped to some nearby shelves.

Bottles, tools, and knick-knacks fell to the floor as she shoved things out of the way. Finally, her fingers touched the cool metal plating of a flip lighter and relief flooded her body. It took a couple of flicks but she finally lit it and began to light the cloth around the bottles.

"Ethan, move!" She screamed as she turned and threw the makeshift Molotov.

Ethan ducked out of the way just in time to miss the bottle shatter near the monster. And just like that, its fat body went aflame. It screeched and screamed as it began to melt away. Saran lit another one and threw it too, to make sure it was dead.