Chapter 16:

3:56 pm.

After-Epilogue 0: Tilting ever so slightly

"Alright. Form up"

Six men stack up by the entrance of the alley: 3 on each side. Their weapons ready, their focus at its peak. Sharp eyes and senses on high alert, they're confident that if anything should happen, they're ready to take it on. Their countless brutal simulation training won't fail them. The leader of this 6-man team looks around, their backup, around 15 men strong, surrounds the entrance of the alley, further building his confidence.

The snipers on the roofs can't seem to peer through the alley from above. To them the alley is impossibly dark despite being bright, like a roof was built in the alley and was coated in vantablack. Drones had been sent in, but, before they could send any meaningful data, they would lose signal. They tried throwing small plastic balls with very bright LEDs in them, brightening up the alley like small Christmas lights. Despite that, the snipers and their spotters couldn't glean any light shining from within the alley. And thus, a strike team was formed to investigate it.

The leader of the team taps the shoulder of the soldier in front of him. With that as the signal, the 2 pointmen immediately turn to the dark all–!

*SHWING!*

Something sped out of the alley. It was so fast that to their eyes it was just a black blur. The 2 pointmen, who were still at the alley's entrance, just stood there motionless.

"He—!"

*SKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH!*

Red… something red. The color red viscously instantly covers his goggles.

Something's wrong. Something's wrong. Something's wrong. Something's wrong. But he can't see what is wrong through his blood covered goggles. Quickly, the leader wipes off the red substance, but what he saw afterwards makes him wish he had kept the ketchup on.

Right in front of him are his 2 pointmen with their heads cleanly cut off and squirting blood like a sprinkler. His gut almost contracted, the urge to puke suddenly wells up in his throat. The strength in his arms begins to regress, knees about to buckle.

The 2 headless pointmen collapse on the ground, their arms and body flailing like ragdolls. Their headless necks continue to profusely bleed. Staining the soil, and dyeing the grass into a chilling color

"MOOOOOOOONSTEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRR!"

"—!"

The remaining members of the strike-team instantly jerked their heads towards the source of the scream. There, in the middle of the road is a figure. A disturbing figure that they have never seen before. Its fingers, toes, and cranium, all stretch; elongated to a point. Their eyes have no pupils, making their eyes as pure as white. And their skin constantly shifts between black and red, like some crude attempt of a child coloring a person.

*GUHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHI!*

*GUHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!*

It laughs. It laughs from the bottom of its heart. It laughs at the sheer audacity, the stupidity. It laughs at these useless pathetic creatures that rely on machinery to assert power. It laughs at how their very existence mock the passage of evolution. Look at them, eyes filled with uncertainty, fear, safe behind those metal tubes. Worthless, they are utterly worthless. Look at how easy I lopped off their empty heads.

*GUHIHIHIHIHIHIHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!*

It laughs hard. It laughs at the foolish species that have stopped evolving their claws.

"Wh-… what the hell is that…?"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE ALL OF YOU STANDING THERE FOR! GUN THAT THING DOWN!"

"S-Sir! FIRE AT WILL!"

A small pep talk from their unit's Commander, they all take aim and immediately pull the trigger.

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

*GUHI!*

The creature smiles, a smile from ear to ear. Like a child that was just permissioned by their parents to play. Its sinister smile lines up with its sinister, slick movements.

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

It slips under the hail of lead that is heading towards the 15 man backup. It runs on all fours, running as low as it impossibly can, almost kissing the ground.

One of the soldiers at the front, lines up the sight picture with his iron sights and squeezes the trigger.

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

"—!"

It dodged and weaved effortlessly through the gunfire, like a stream of water flowing through a rocky river.

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

Then, the soldier starts to fire ahead of where the creature is going, trying to predict its movements. Hoping that one of the bullets hit. The creature simply side-steps and changes course the moment it hears the trigger pull.

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

None of the bullets from the entire back up team seems to hit the thing. It's like it already knows where to go before they could pull the trigger. As it gets closer and closer, its smile gets wider and wider. Its heart elevated in ecstasy. The joy of eating excitedly spreads all throughout its being.

And then—

*SKSSSSSSSH!*

With its elongated fingers, it swung them towards the soldier's neck, decapitating him, and causing another fountain of blood to burst out. This time in even more gruesome fashion.

The moment it lands, it swings its hind leg towards another soldier beside him. Splitting him gruesomely into four parts.

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

Another soldier fires their gun. The creature instantly ducks, then runs towards him underneath his bullets.

*BANG!* *BANG!*

"—!"

It grabs the soldier by his neck and lifts him up. The soldier tries to peel its hand away, but its rough skin hurts to touch. He can feel his skin being peeled off like it was being grinded to a cheese grater. His face begins to burn from the growing pain.

He quickly points his rifle at the arm and squeezes the trigger, but instead of recoiling in pain and letting go, it tightened its grip on him instead.

"Gah…! You little bas—!"

*BAM!*

The creature slammed its prey down on the ground, crushing his head in the process.

*GUHIHIHIHIHI!*

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

It jumps to the side the moment another salvo of lead pierces through the sound barrier. It then throws the body towards the group of soldiers.

The body rushes through the air at breakneck speed. The soldiers barely had any time to react. The body pierces them, horizontally splitting them in half as if it had been fashioned crudely into a giant machete. More blood and viscera spreads all over the place, as if a child was playing with their food.

The creature turns to another soldier. A cold chill runs down his spine.

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

"Stay away from m—!"

*SKKKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!*

*GUHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHI!*

"Guh… KH—!"

Something long suddenly grew out of this chest. A long, thick, stake suddenly grew out of his chest. It's color rapidly shifts between black and red like a child's crude drawing. Liquid that tastes like iron suddenly surged in his mouth. Causing the red substance to flow out of his mouth like a stream.

He follows the long thick stake object towards the tip. And there, just at the very tip of this stake. A small object that is the size of his fists hangs on for dear life. That small object continues to beat as if not knowing that its valves aren't connected to anything anymore.

But his beating heart continues to pump from the edge of the long finger.

*GUHIHIHIHIHIHIHI!*

He turns to look at what was behind him.

Another one.

It's another creature. Like an overgrown tree it towers over him. It lifts him up, the pain surges through like a numb wave, his consciousness slowly slipping away. The blood from his still beating heart crawls down towards his body on the finger like oil from a barrel. A slow and monotonous crawl.

He tries to scream, but nothing comes out of his throat. He tries to move his arms and legs or anything at all. But his body won't move. He's losing feeling throughout his whole body. As the creature seemingly eyes him, salivating at the thought of eating him for dinner. The last bits of blood drip from his heart as his eyes lose their light.

"DIE YOU FUCKING BASTAAAARDS!"

Another soldier woke up from his trance and pulled out his knife. He lunged forward, towards the towering creature with his knife raised over him.

*THUD!* *THUD!* *THUD!*

He suddenly lost his balance and tumbled on the ground.

"What the…?"

He must have tripped over something. 'That was embarrassing', he thought. He pushes himself off the ground and —!

"–!"

Something's missing. The thought instantly sends ice cubes crawling along his spine. His stomach felt as if it was dropping into the very pits of the underworld. He looks behind him…

His eyes went wide, his breath caught in his throat. Something's missing. An important part of him is missing. A part that had supported him through all his life. A part that has endured his weight. A part that has carried him through thick and thin and everything in between.

His legs. His leg. His legs. His legs.

They're now gone.

*GUHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHI!*

"Ah… Aaaaa…"

The moment he looks forward, he sees another one crouching before him. Its giant smile is reminiscent of a traveler that had found a delicacy from a foreign land. It opens its mouth wide and its tongue slithers out like a snake. Extending beyond common sense, it crawls its way towards the leg-less soldier. Wrapping him tightly, saliva and all.

The soldier swings his knife the moment it gets close. But the tongue instantly locks onto his wrist.

*CRACK!*

"KAh!"

The tongue breaks his hand as if it was breaking a twig, the soldier recoiled in pain.

The tongue continues to slither towards him. He pulls out his sidearm, but the pink long disgusting thing instantly snaps and wraps its body onto the other arm. The tongue snaps the 2 hands together, rendering the able one useless. It continues to wrap around him.

"Kuh…!" the soldier grasped out in pain as the tongue is now coiling around his torso, tightly. So tight that his bones are starting to scream.

*CRACK!* *CRACK!* *CRACK!*

"KH! AH–! Bluueergh!"

His bones crush into a million pieces inside him as a thick, long slippery thing tightly embraces him. His internal organs are getting pierced by calcium phosphate.

Now wrapped in place, the creature pulls him towards his wide-open mouth.

"No… Noooooooooo…! HELP! PLEASE! HEEEEEEEEEEEE–!"

*CRUNCH!* *CRUNCH!* *CRUNCH!* *CRUNCH!* *CRUNCH!*

It ate him. The crunching noises that could be heard were like a child chewing on a lollipop. The loud echoes could be felt all around the remaining cavalry. They stopped firing their weapons a long time ago and felt every crunch, every chew, every bone against bone, through their very core and bones themselves.

*CRUNCH!* *SLAP!* *SLURP!* *CRUNCH!* *SLURP!* *SLAP!*

The giant creature began to eat its share of the food as well, dragging the staked soldier within its claws into its mouth and chewing loudly and openly, as if it had never been taught table manners in the first place.

*FWOOSH!*

*THUD!*

Covered in sticky saliva, is a small ball. A ball whose color palette was similar to their own. A ball that was once part of their unit. A ball that was once their comrade. His blank expressionless eyes look directly at them.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"R-RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN! RUN AWAY! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"

"FALL BACK! FALL BACK! FALL BACK!"

The rest of the unit dropped their weapons and ran. Ran away with their tails between their legs. Ran away This wasn't what they were prepped for. This wasn't what they were simulated for. This wasn't what they were trained for. None of them had the experience of fighting something beyond. Beyond regular humans. Beyond monsters. Beyond common sense.

And so, they ran, they ran as fast their feet could take them.

The three creatures that were left behind stood and watched. Oh, they're not going to fight? With their metal tubes and their flimsy armor? They're not going to fight?

*GUHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHI!*

*HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!*

Let the feast begin.

Beta Read : TMCraze. Go read his Negadimension, been beta'ing that. lol