Chapter 7:

I messed up.

There's 3 standing before me, blocking my exit. All three of them stand there as if they were androids awaiting to be booted up. Their skin shifts colors from red to black to red again in rapid succession, like a child's coloring; rough, and incomprehensible. Their fingers reach the heels of their feet, their toes are long as half of their body height. Their sclera filled eyes, directly looks at me, not reacting to my presence at all.

I look behind me and saw the same things eating away at their hunt. Not minding the dilemma I'm in right now.

Do I fight? No, I shouldn't. Even if I do, I'm going to lose the exchange eventually. My body is still recovering. A fight with the unknown takes a lot in me. So where do I escape? The alleys between the buildings are filled up with rubble, leaving me with 2 options, and both require running straight through them.

*GUHI!*

*GUHI!* - *GUHI!* - *GUHI!* - *GUHI!*

*GUHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA!* - *GUHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA!* - *GUHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA!*

"Damn… not giving me time to think huh…?" I take a quick look behind me and saw those monsters are now standing at attention. Looking to where the sound is coming from.

"…!" I force my heavy legs to move forward and dash towards the opening between them.

It didn't take me long to notice that I'm slower to when I ran just a few minutes ago, indicating that I've exhausted my gas. Damn, now I regret following those 3 to quickly get out of the city.

*GUHI!*

1 of the 3 swings its long fingers at me. Instincts tries to pull me to safety, but my body refuses to move as it should. The swing is dangerously close, instincts suddenly stop my legs from moving. Forward momentum is pushes me forward, as I tilt forward towards the ground.

*SWING!*

*GRRR!* - *GRRR!* - *GRRR!*

I roll on the ground, dodging the swing. My body gets beaten around from the rough ground filled with glass, lead, and pebbles. My arms and legs are even more exhausted than before.

I stop rolling. My body demands that I shouldn't do that again. I take a huge breath of oxygen and force myself to get up. My legs are even heavier then before. My body is tired too, taking their sweet time to supply energy to my legs.

*GUHIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!*

*GU!* - *GU!* - *GU!* - *GU!* -*GU!*

I hear one of them, I don't need to look back to know what their planning.

I force my legs to run. Numbing pain quickly shot up. I take up another large supply of oxygen, and quickly force it down to my legs. I kick off the ground beneath me again and start to run as fast as my legs could take me.

*GUUU!* - *GUUU!* - *GUUU!* - *GUUU!* - *GUUU!*

The moment I turn a corner, I see the 3 of them chasing towards me in all fours.

They jump from building to street to cars to building. A wild chase towards their food. They weave through debris like water, jumping to the walls of the nearest building, keeping the chase while crawling. And jumping back down again. They keep a steady line towards me.

'Shit! If this continues, I'll end up like those guys…!'

Quickly pulling out the M19, and despite my arm is as heavy as if I just pumped 12 kg dumbbells in 5 sets 20 reps each, I fire the gun right at one their heads.

*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*

*GURIIIIIIIII!*

It dodges the bullets with relative ease unhampering its chase for a juicy dinner.

*BAM!*

"…!"

One of them landed on a broken-down jeep and using the power that resurges back through its body, jumped as far as it can straight at me as if saying to me "my turn!". It raised its long fingers, ready to swipe me. I quickly fire my weapon at it.

*BANG!*

*Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!*

*GURIIII!* - *GUHE!* - *GUHE* - *GUHEEEEEEEEEE!*

"…!" you've gotta be kidding me. It is like someone immediately pulled it away, it suddenly leaps from thin air towards the sidewalk. The moment it lands, it recalibrated itself and continues to run after me, jumping from building to building towards me.

"Tch…!" I can feel my legs about to give out. I'm expending more and more of whatever gas I have left to keep the pace that I'm going right now. I desperately look for a way out of this mess. I don't have anything on me that's going to help me out. And I can't waste anymore bullets either.

*GUHIIIIIIIIIIII!*

As I think, one of them screams from above as if assured that he'll be able to eat his snack. It flips in the air once, pushes itself down with its left leg ready to slam onto me.

*BAM!*

I simply moved to side, dodging from being turned into paste. It hit the ground hard enough that I can feel it shake beneath me. Clouds of dust quickly blew from where it landed, rubble from the attack quickly flies all over at the same time.

I cover my head with my arm, protecting my head from the onslaught. My torso takes a beating, but the bullet proof vest that I'm wearing keeps the damage minimal.

As I exit the cloud of dust, another one jumps towards me from the front. Instincts quickly pulled forward before I could even have time to register.

*SWIPE!*

I quickly rebalance my posture. The pain in my legs is getting worst. I've run out of gas and now I'm just swinging it with all the spirit I can muster. I take a look around me, finding the street name. One of the shops signs is still up, "Tender Flick-y Juicy". A diner whose specialty is fried chicken. And the unique name it gave itself is actually after the name of the street where it opened.

I'm about near my target building. Just around 4 intersections away.

I quickly round the nearest corner I see. The alley is fit enough for one person. I take a quick look and see all 3 of them crawling on the walls, crawling towards me in record speed.

*UHE* - *UHE* - *UHIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!*

One of them leaps at me, its mouth wide open. I look forward, the end of the alley is almost there, just 2 seconds away. I speed up a bit, trying to squeeze as much energy as I can. The corner draws near, its excited teeth is about to rip me apart.

"…!"

I jump the moment I'm at the corner. The ground below me that was so near to me, suddenly disappears. The alley leads to a riverbank, whose river flows through to the lake at the Tower and then out to the sea. And as may have guessed the riverbank has a lower elevation than the alley I just came through.

There's even more bloodshed here as the river is littered with dead bodies. It's as if it was a dumping ground of someone's distaste of their food. Missing limbs, lower halves not attached, stomachs spread wide open, guts all over, organs thrown around, faces damned in pain, expressions expressionless. A small hand poking out of the pile, a woman's head staring right at me.

"Tch!" a bitter taste spreads throughout my mouth while I'm in midair. An old feeling. Something that I locked away years ago. As if it was a greeting from an old friend. I'm reminded of that scene. I'm reminded of the origin of my motto. An ugly feeling surge through from deep within my identity.

There is something definitely wrong here.