Chapter Six: Brute

Suspended over the alleyway above Grover and Abby was one of the most monstrous things Grover had ever seen. It looked like a gigantic pile of animated human flesh, with dark gray and pink coloration all over its hideous, vein-ridden body. Its head resembled a human's, but horrifically deformed. It kept itself suspended over them using its pair of long, massive, abnormally muscular arms. Its legs were dangling beneath it, and were noticeably small. It had strange, yellow coloration just before its shoulder joints, but for the most part had a discolored human skin tone. Its stomach was bulging and veiny and seemed to be the only part of it that wasn't covered in a kind of armored exoskeleton that was ridden with spikes. Grover was now as frozen in terror as Abby. He didn't dare move. That massive brute's white, pupil-less eyes were fixated on the two of them. Grover knew this thing could drop down on them any second.

He slowly reached for Abby's hand. She was still shaking. He grasped her hand softly. She turned quickly to look at Grover. He could see the terror in her eyes. Grover began thinking quickly. In the alley, they were sitting ducks. They had to get into the open. This thing couldn't be very fast given its size. Grover looked into Abby's eyes and motioned toward the opposite end of the alleyway. She seemed to understand. Grover mouthed the word "one". Abby responded by nervously mouthing the word "two". They waited no more than a second before taking off in the opposite direction of the monster. Grover didn't dare look back. He could hear the creature was after them but still hanging onto the rooftops. Grover's hearing must have been incapacitated out of terror, because he could've sworn that he heard the creature's snarls growing louder. He and Abby were only a few feet from the exit when the monster suddenly dropped down in front of them, growling viciously. Grover was speechless. Either dragging Abby along with him slowed him down more than he'd anticipated, or this thing was much faster than he'd anticipated. The monster roared at the two of them. It was walking on its two massive fists like a gorilla. Without warning, it charged. Grover, thinking fast, shoved Abby to one side. She hit the wall behind her. She was dazed, but safe. Grover was barely able to sidestep to evade the brute's charge. It stopped when it realized it had missed and came to a screeching halt.

Grover looked to the sky and yelled something in ancient Xilian. In the seconds before the monster charged again, nothing happened. Whatever Grover had attempted didn't show any signs of effectiveness. The brute charged Grover again, this time reaching him without difficulty and grabbing him in its massive hands. Grover could barely move in this thing's grasp. He could feel his bones cracking. He was barely able to squeeze one hand out of its grip and reach into his trench coat pocket. As soon as his hand felt it, he whipped the gun out of pocket and pointed it at the brute's head. Now barely able to breathe, he pulled the trigger with whatever strength he had left.

Clearly asphyxiation had messed up Grover's vision, as he completely missed the creature's head. The laser bullet instead struck its yellow shoulder joint of the same arm that currently compressed Grover's body. The enraged beast recoiled back. Unexpectedly, the arm fell to the ground, severed from its body. Its hand loosened and Grover's mangled body rolled out of it. Abby's hands covered her mouth. Tears were forming in her eyes. She didn't even notice a pair of vestigial-looking arms sprouting from the beast's chest. Using them as support, the brute turned its attentions toward Abby. She looked anxiously at Grover's body. He wasn't moving. The beast was limping toward Abby, snarling softly. Abby was too paralyzed with fear to move. Before long, it was about one and a half arms' length away from Abby. She could smell its breath. It reeked of rotten, decaying flesh.

The beast crept closer towards Abby. However, when it crossed the threshold of about five feet, it recoiled. Abby looked puzzled. She began walking slowly towards the creature. Surprisingly, it backed away from her as she got closer, maintaining the five foot distance. Suddenly, as it drew back further, it let out a loud roar and reared back. The sound of flesh severing sounded twice and the beast fell on its back, knocking it unconscious. Behind it, Grover was sitting up with his gun pointed at it. He'd been able to shoot off its legs while it was distracted with Abby. Abby breathed a sigh of relief at both her safety and Grover's. The wind had begun picking up behind Abby. It was growing stronger at a surprisingly fast rate. She turned around and froze. Something large was making its way towards her. Grover, however, didn't seem threatened. As the large being made its way into the dim light, Abby's expression of fear turned to one of confusion. This being looked, at first glance, like some kind of large reptile, however, it had the frame of a bird as well as a pair of leathery wings. It leaned close to Abby, breathing heavily. She wasn't afraid. She'd heard about ikran from Grover. Grover approached it, smiling.

"Abby, meet Mirza. Mirza, Abby."

Mirza snorted in Abby's face, blowing her hair back.

"Listen, boy," Grover said to Mirza. "Get Abby here to safety. This monster isn't finished yet."

Abby whirled around to look at Grover. "No! What about you?"

"I can't let you get hurt," Grover replied. "I have to put this thing down quickly before-"

The brute was stirring. It was growling faintly and starting to lift itself up by its arms. Grover, without warning, picked Abby up and lifted her onto Mirza's back.

"He'll get you home safely. I'm really sorry the night had to end this way, but I'll see you tomorrow… hopefully."

Mirza spread his wings and prepared to take off. Before he did, Abby leaned over, grasped Grover's head and pulled him into a kiss. When it ended, she smiled at him and said "For luck." Grover was awestruck. He wanted to say something, but Mirza had already taken to the skies. Abby watched as Grover got further and further away until the clouds shrouded him completely.

Grover turned to face the beast, only to be grabbed by its second, bulky arm and thrown to the other side of the alleyway. He hit the ground hard, but recovered surprisingly quickly. He pointed his gun at the brute as its smaller arms began pulling open a hole in its stomach. To Grover's surprise, a hideous ball of flesh burst from the hole at Grover. He dove out of the way, narrowly avoiding it. He pointed his gun and fired several more rounds at the beast, but none of them seemed to be effective. Just then, he remembered what he'd seen before shooting its legs off. The beast's back had a yellow coloration, just like the shoulder joint that he'd severed. Grover now realized what he had to do. He poised himself and took off running directly towards the immobile beast. It continued firing the organic bombs at an alarming rate at Grover. He was quick enough to narrowly dodge them, luckily. Finally, Grover reached the beast's position. With all of his leg power, he jumped over the flailing monster. It swung its massive arm at him, which normally would've meant certain death for Grover, but, miraculously, he was able to use it as a platform to jump off of. Grover landed safely behind the brute and shot it point blank in the back. The creature let out a roar of agony and, finally, slumped on the ground, motionless.

Grover exhaled deeply. He put away his gun and began limping out of the alleyway in the direction of their apartment. He really needed a beer.