CHAPTER 2

WORKING OUT Part. 1

Both Matt and Gloria then run down the stairways and go down a little and get to one of the floors as they hear some of the screeches of the bats. They make a stop with one of the doors and Matt he comes to the side along with Gloria and Matt opens the door carefully and they peek in, but they see the walls and floor are completely painted and smeared with blood, they both then look up and see that there is what looks like an entire group of the humanoid bats creatures that are feeding on a lot of the downed soldiers.

They both make disgusted faces as they hear the slurping and drinking, even biting and crunching of flesh and bone, both closing the door carefully and looking away trying to hold their nausea. Despite how much death they've seen in their business, their never use to it and that sight was a new one for them.

Both then keep running down the stairwell and suddenly they stop at one floor, and they see a directory on the wall, Matt along with Gloria goes to it and puts their finger on where both are at and then traces his finger down one of the floors. They both come down to one of the floors, open it and see it's clear and as they run down the hallway; the hallway ends in some big area which contains two businesses next door from each other. They see some sort of big work out gym called "Dusk till Dawn Gym" on the left along with a Beauty store to the right called "Abbygail Beauty Shop".

Both they go to the Abbygail Beauty Shop, break in and then both run straight to the counter. Matt jumps onto it and slides over. Then gets to the other side of the counter, breaks into the manager's office, goes to the desk, sits down and is immediately at the computer terminal. He presses the power button and the terminal powers on, and he then hacks through the system to gain access and then clicks though a lot of windows and programs.

Gloria is in the office with Matt and then she says, "I've seen a lot of strange things pop up in this business, but this is a new one on me."

Matt says, 'Well I've visited Gravity Falls, Oregon enough times to learn anything is possible, even folklore and urban legends can be real."

"So, what are those things?"

Matt says, "I believe their called Vampires."

Gloria shakes her head and says, "Thought vampires are supposed to look or were once human."

Matt says, "Just like any animal species, their all-different kinds of every species."

"And what are those kinds?"

"Their basically what are according to Dipper in the news story I helped him with for the "The Log" Crawlers."

"You've encountered these creatures before?"

"Only once with Dipper and his friends but believe me I'm no expert nor was he."

"I guess it makes sense they've be called crawlers, as they seem to climb on the ceiling and walls."

"And we see they have enhanced strength from what we saw what it did to the door and ceiling back in that apartment."

"What about flying?"

"They have a wingspan on their arms but it's not enough to fly but glide depending on how high they are."

"But if their vampires, don't they have mind powers or something?"

"The Crawlers don't possess that ability; it seems their abilities are strictly physical."

"Now to the most important question is can they be killed?"

Matt says, "Dipper stated to me, to forget religious objects they do nothing just plain myth, but he also stated some myth is based on truth as sunlight and wooden stakes, those do the trick."

"Why those two?"

"There are special reasons, but we don't have time to get too deep into things; but there is one other weakness their eyes you know that neon glow."

"Yes."

"That's their night vision which is why these kinds of vampires only come in the night, but with this vison they can only see and strike out at heat."

"Which is part of how their able to lock into us, and I can easily guess it won't take them long until they find us here."

Matt then clicks into one of the building's camera programs and clicks on the stairwell they just went down on, and cameras in the areas they're at and they detect nothing and no one.

Matt says, "So far so good; if only we can find the right floor and room where our masks and weapons are, we would stand a better chance."

Gloria, she looks at the screen with all of the unoccupied areas, she then looks at Matt and says, "We may not be able to do anything about our tools, but we can do something about ourselves and our current situation."

Matt then looks at her curiously.

Matt says, "What do you mean?"

"Cmon, Matt I think I have an idea."

Gloria offers her hand and Matt doesn't hesitate to take it and she takes him somewhere.

Flashback

There is a gymnasium area with a lot of basketball court space and the floor covered with lots of mats. Matt is in a red athletic shirt and grey shorts; his opponent is Gloria who is in a black sports bra and shorts. Both circle each other, Matt then throws a punch and Gloria then executes a left outer block, does a small spin into Matt, grabs his arm, throws Matt rolling him off her shoulder and he lands flat on his back on the mat. Matt shakes his head and then stands up.

Both continue the sparing session and Matt then executes a round house kick, but Gloria then catches the kick with both her arms, moves in on Matt, and then sweeps his one balancing leg which makes Matt once again fall flat on his back. Matt then sits up and shakes his head breathing hard and sweating beads. Gloria is still in a stance, also sweating but breathing softly, not even the least bit tired.

Gloria then says, "Cmon, we still have more work to do."

Matt looks at her and says, "Alright, but first let's take five, I'm beat."

Gloria says, "Beat, I'm just getting started."

Both give each other small smiles. And they both go over to a small table near the gym mat. Gloria is drinking flavored green tea water in a bottle. While she then looks and sees Matt is drinking a can of what looks like an energy drink called Bigfoot Citrus Lime.

Gloria says, "You know you should really cut back on drinking those, not really healthy."

Matt looks at it and says, "Yeah, I know but these were really helpful for the esports, and I like the taste of them."

Gloria has a small smile and says, "How sitting down and playing video games on the screen without sweating can be a sport, I'll never truly understand, but I guess whatever works."

Gloria comes near him and says, "You did really well today, almost had me a couple of times."

"Well, it makes up for the thirty times you throttled me."

"Not quite, though truth be told I was getting bored winning against you."

Gloria, she says, "I never did ask, why did you want to learn to do this, other than being a requirement."

Matt, he takes one more swig of his drink and he says, "Three reasons, for one thing to learn to defend myself, I can't fight off the bad guys with my video game skills, and I really don't want to get kicked around by bullies anymore."

Gloria says, "Yeah, one of the reasons I got into it too, what about the other things?"

Matt takes a sip and then continues. "I don't know, ever since I watched a lot of the martial arts films like those old 70's Shaw Bros films."

Gloria says, "I watched plenty of those at the "Toronto Fantastic film festival"

"Well, I really like seeing them move and fight and seeing that made me wonder if it's possible that I could do all that, may 'be I can be even more than I ever dreamed I can be."

Matt then takes a sip of his energy drink. Gloria, she takes a sip of her green iced tea and says, "So what is the final reason."

Matt has a small smile and says, "Well…I'll tell you when the time comes."

Gloria then makes a small, frustrated face, puts her tea away, looks at Matt with a sly smile and then says, "Alright break times over, back to work."

Matt put his drink away, and taking a breath a little afraid of more times he might land on the map and then once again both are circling each other continuing their sparing session.

Gloria says, "I'll get that secret out of you, no matter how long it takes."

Matt says, "Even if it means thrashing me more times."

"I did say no matter how long it takes."

"And I'll clam up, no matter how long it takes, not even the jaws of life will open me."

Soon both then converge on each other, each have each other in an arm hold and are circling as they are holding each other, ready for one or the other to pull the first move.

Present Day

Gloria guides Matt to a shelf in the Abbygail Beauty Store and on the shelf, there are plenty of small canasters of body paint cream she then takes a few contained which are gray color.

Matt says, "What are you doing?"

Gloria says, 'This is something we're going to need to hide from their sight, this cream contains a chemical that will mask our body temperature, we'll feel warm inside but on the outside it an outer cold shell.

Gloria she then unscrews the lid, looks at Matt and then then says, "Now Matt, take off your clothes."

Matt looks at Gloria with surprise and blushes a little.

Gloria says, "Cmon Matt you can't be modest now, besides our clothes are filthy anyway.

Matt says with a sly smile on his face, "I'm not modest, just gives me a little idea."

Gloria she then has a small smile and says, "Funny, we'll have plenty of time for that latter, when we survive this first."

Both then strip down quickly till both are in nothing but their skivvies. Then Gloria applies the paint which is of grey color all over Matt. After that Matt does the same and both wait a while until the body paint sets in.

Gloria says, "You look like one of the cavemen from "Quest for Fire".

Matt says, "And you make an interesting cavewoman."

"Thanks, I think."

Both look at each other a little bit studying each other with their eyes but then snap out of it remembering the task at hand. Both come back to the office and then Matt clicks on some more windows and he keeps a window on their area open, while he investigates other windows.

Matt says, " I have an idea on what floor as I saw them carting it away on an elevator and from the number panel it was ascending floors, just need to find the right one and room it could be in."

Matt, he looks at the windows and then he sees it and says, "I think I have it."

But then suddenly both hear some sort of break-in, in the area they're in.

Matt looks at the window, monitoring the area they're in and they see there are a few of the vampires that are now crawling down the hallway, one up the ceiling, another on the wall and one on the floor. At the speed their crawling they both know they'll be within their parameter in a minute or two.

Matt says, "Oh crap, we need to hide now."

Gloria says, "We can't do it here."

Matt says, "No but we got the perfect place next door."

Matt quickly looks in another section of the Beauty shop; he looks at the manicure isle and he takes a nail clipper box. He rips it open and takes the nail clipper with him.

Gloria looks at Matt puzzled and says, "What is that for."

Matt looks at her and says, "Trust me."

Then Matt takes Gloria's hand, and she follows and then both they quickly get out of the Beauty shop, and they go straight to the "Dusk till Dawn Gym".