The exploding curtain support, the shots, and Sunny's death inspired a number of willing converts to become less so and run away.
Mike staggered backwards as Noah struck him again.
My friend blocked with his weapon arm, accidentally blowing a hole in an aluminum wall as he clenched his fist. Sparks shot from some unidentifiable electrical object he'd destroyed.
Noah grabbed the weapon with both hands, careful to point it away from his body as he attempted to wrench it from Mike's arm.
Although a step in the right direction, Noah only had two hands. Mike kicked him twice in the crotch and punched him in the face until he let go.
The possessed Korean caught Mike's fist in mid-strike, gritting his teeth as he crushed my friend's hand. Bones audibly crunched like celery.
Crying out in pain, Mike continued to fight. He kicked Noah, butted him in the head, and after playing tug of war for a few minutes, wrested his weapon arm free. "Here. You can have it."
He clenched his fist, and Noah's body split in half, spraying blood and worms everywhere.
Mike screamed as tiny parasites bored into his face, eyes, mouth, and all sorts of other places. Additional ones wiggled across the carpeted floor, rising like an army of little cobras before a snake charmer's flute, jumping up his pant legs.
"Oh my God! What the holy fuck!"
Noah's followers shouted in protest, rushing toward Mike with religious condemnations and threats of violence, but when they saw the worms, they recoiled in horror.
Half of them fled, others nervously standing around and chanting "Stigmazas sudnohis shoatzes sqituros saewbos sogtazzi," not knowing how little those words helped in the situation.
Since Sunny's grisly job had not been completed, several unconscious people still lay sprawled on chairs and on the floor, blissfully unaware of everything.
Mike spat and spat, but the worms did not depart his body. He stumbled backwards in a daze.
"Get out of my head!" he shouted to apparently no one.
Clink clank.
I looked down and saw the white body of a Ss'sik'chtokiwij larva hunkered over my restraints.
I recognized the scent and the cross marking, but being gagged, I just waved to her.
Aquila nodded, moistening my bonds with her weak larva saliva.
I lowered my head, indicating that she should melt my bridle instead.
It took her a moment to understand enough, but she set to work melting the parts of the bit I couldn't reach.
An agonizingly slow process, like trying to melt through steel with the phosphoric acid they use in Coca Cola. I could only lay flat and wait for the saliva to burn through.
All around me on the floor, people stirred from their slumber, groaning, muttering to one another.
A sane person does not tarry with one who secretly slips drugs into their food and drink. Once up and awake, they and their companions rushed out in a hurry.
As a young brown skinned woman made a hasty retreat, Mike blasted her to pieces with the alien weapon. Bits of her bleached blonde hair, skull fragments and meat went flying up in a bloody spray. I feared my friend was a lost cause.
"No!" Mike cried as he stared at his trembling hands. "No!"
He turned, clenched his left fist, blew a hole in another wall. I think he burst a water pipe that time.
"No! Fuck you! You get out!" he yelled at nobody.
People screamed. It seemed my aunt had employed measures to maintain her supply of bodies. Not sure if these were the bound unconscious, the waking up, or people who had been sitting cross legged.
Trembling with rage, Mike pointed the weapon at the floor. "You get out! This is my body, motherfucker! You take your alien shit somewhere else!"
He dropped to his knees, body shaking with sobs. "No...no...it's not fair. I don't want you here! Get the fuck out of my head!"
Mike stuck the weapon under his chin, prepared to blow his own brains out.
He laughed. A mad barking laugh, like he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.
He rose to his feet, his mouth twisting in a bizarre sideways grin as he faced what remained of the crowd. "Have no fear, little flock. The Spirit of Ssorzechola has merely moved into a new vessel. You still have a leader!"
The followers responded with, "Amen, praise Ssorzechola" and similar things.
Some people safely escaped the compound. Others screamed and died behind the curtain.
Aquila softened some of the bolts and support pieces on the left side of the bit. I could move my jaw around with more freedom now. I worked it back, forth and downwards. A few more minutes, and I could force out the bit.
Unfortunately, this did not occur in a void.
Noticing the rattling sounds, Mike whirled around to face me, raising the weapon. "What the fuck do you think you're doing!"
I couldn't answer if I wanted to. Aquila, though capable of speech, did not speak either.
Mike stomped up to us. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
I and Aquila froze, staring at him.
Affixed to the floor, I couldn't move far from my spot, even if it were a good idea.
Mike marched closer, narrowing his eyes. "This weapon has killed five Ss'sik'chtokiwij. It could easily kill another."
He furrowed his brow. I could tell there had been some spark of recognition.
Suddenly, his eyes flashed wild with hatred. He pressed the blaster to my head. "It was you! You're behind all this!"
His fingers curled, ready to squeeze into a fist. "It's time for your final act of praise!"
"¿Es asi como se trata a un amigo?" a voice shouted from the doorway.
"Mi única amigo es Ssorzechola," Mike growled.
He backed away from me, turning toward the door.
Maria calmly strode into the room. "¿Qué hay de Nicole? ¿Qué piensa de esta?
Mike choked down a sob. "No! No! Get out of my head!"
A man with a shaved head, dark African skin and a mustache attempted to run away. An equally frightened, curly haired man with a striking resemblance to Jeff Goldblum following close behind. Mike cut them both down with blasts from his weapon.
My human friend's mood abruptly swung. He sobbed and pounded his temples. "What have I done?"
Maria gestured for him to come closer. "Ven aquí."
Mike stiffened. "I obey only Ssorzechola."
"This is not a command, Mike. This is free will. This is Elisha telling a nobleman to wash seven times in a river to be healed. Come forward and be healed."
"I am not sick!" Mike staggered forward anyway.
He stopped, clenching his fists. The weapon blew a hole through the floor, exposing a kitchenette in another trailer.
"No!" he roared at himself. "This body is Ssorzechola's vessel!"
He pointed the weapon at Maria.
My sister remained standing with angelic stillness, like a martyr patiently awaiting their own execution.
Aquila loosened the side of my bit gag. Once I distended my jaw and stretched my suaakudsi a few times, the bridle came off my head, and I could start work on my bonds in earnest, no pun intended.
During my time restrained with the bit, I'd dribbled a few drops of saliva on my chains. Not much, but something I could work with.
I cut through the bonds on my front legs, arms (however you describe them), then yelled to my possessed friend, "Mike! İLa Ss'sik'chtokiwij es su amiga!"
He gawked at me. "Ernie?"
"İHola, amigo! İViente man!"
Mike grinned, but the smile quickly faded from his face.
"Stop them!" he barked to his remaining followers as he pointed to me.
A pair of men rushed me, but when I opened my mouth and flashed my suaakudsi, they got scared and backed off.
"I said stop them!"
But then he sighed and stared at the floor.
Someone fired a gun. People screamed. From the hallway, not the room. No one near me paid any attention.
Maria edged closer to my friend. "Mike. You are stronger than the worms, as I am. You can do this!"
Mike stepped forward, one foot after another, but it was like he had weights attached to his ankles. "Please. Ayudame. Help. Kill me. Kill the worms. Please!"
He dropped to his knees, clawing at his face with his fingers.
More shots outside. A Ss'sik'chtokiwij shrieked. Couldn't tell if this were a good or a bad sign.
I melted through my bonds, cautiously approaching my friends.
"Come closer," Maria commanded Mike. "Place your hands on my shell."
Mike shuddered violently, standing up. "You will not win. This human belongs to me."
"He is small and weak. He is of little use to you."
I kept my distance, afraid to break whatever fragile connection existed between Maria and this possessed human.
"At least this one has youth!" Mike's voice changed back to normal for a moment. "Damn, this like Venom, except not as cool."
"Come to me!" Maria shrieked, somehow causing thousands of wiggling tapeworms to explode from her body like so much sickeningly intelligent hair.
The plates on her body swelled and expanded, to where she resembled a ripe pumpkin someone had cut open before the insides had been scooped out, except the stringy insides moved.
Mike grimaced. "Good Lord, that's disgusting."
"Gather your strength, come here and gain your freedom!"
He backed away. "No!"
"Get out of me!" he answered himself, stepping forward.
Mike dropped to his knees before my sister, clamping his hands on her shell. "Take it! Take it, or kill me now!"
"Stay!" Maria commanded.
And then she inhaled.
The worms in Mike's body squirmed out of his mouth, his nostrils, his eyes, his pores, in glistening translucent streams.
The worms stood erect, undulating like charmed serpents as they slithered down his arms in a vibrating fishnet pattern, slid down his hands, wrapped around the surfaces of Maria's exoskeleton.
They oozed into the cracks of her shell, causing her plates to bulge and make the unfinished Jack O' Lantern appearance even more pronounced.
The remaining humans cried in disgust. More fled out the door.
I knew the worms inhabited Maria, but hadn't seen the extent of the damage until that very moment.
I have never been more terrified in my entire life.
Can you imagine the head of your best friend nearly separated from their neck on account of a massive worm colony?
A scream caught in my throat. I ended up crying instead.
"I'm still in here, Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik," she said with a mouthful of worms. "I have just annexed more of Ssorzechola's power."
Mike vomited, and more worms came cascading over Maria's shell.
After doing this a few more times, he dry heaved, and the flood of parasites tapered down to a slow trickle.
Maria tensed, and hundreds of tiny white and clear whips shot out from her body, latching onto the stragglers. Long threads, like someone had unraveled an excessive amount of dental floss from a roll.
Those threads not only grabbed worms on the exterior of Mike's body, they entered his flesh, flicking in and out with the quick flailing motions of a fly fisherman.
After a few unsettling minutes of flagellation, Mike let out a loud gasp and stumbled backward, clutching his chest in a way that made me think of the man from the Sanford and Sons television program. "This is like a fucked up version of The Strain! I've got to get out of here!"
"Wait. You are still infected. I must remove the rest, or you will relapse."
He hurried to Maria's side. "Please, God. Don't let me relapse, cosa blanco. Do whatever you want to me, just don't let it happen. I beg you."
He probably should have knelt down. I wish I could have warned him in time.
The moment he placed his hand on Maria's shell, a brown figure in a suit stepped through the doorway, firing a pistol.
The bullet entered the front of Mike's skull and exited out the back, spraying blood, gray matter and bone in its wake. He collapsed lifeless on the floor.
"So." Kumar straightened his shoulders, popped his neck. "What's this about a canceled service?"