Chapter 15

  Like it was the signal they’d all been frozen and waiting for, Ernie’s screaming was followed by several things happening at once. The sheriff and deputy Williams both went for their guns, her taking a step back while he stepped forward and grabbed Ernie with his other hand while he tugged his gun from its holster. Behind them, Ginny turned the first step she’d taken toward Ernie into a full-on charge, leveling her harpoon at the large-mouthed creature that was leaning towards Ernie, mouth open to take another bite out of the screaming man. Brendon hesitated briefly, eyes locked on the blood spraying out of the remains of Ernie’s arm, but Ginny heard him follow after her a second later.

  Ginny leaped over Ernie’s screaming form, barely managing to avoid landing on one of his legs as she traded places with him, leaving her directly in front of the Ravager with the gaping maw.

  “Lucky Strike!” Ginny shouted, jabbing the harpoon into the almost literally unmissable target that was the Ravager’s wobbling and distended massive stomach. The blade only sank an inch into the blubbery flesh before the tightly packed rolls of fat stopped it. Even worse, when Ginny tried to yank the harpoon back out and back away, it felt like the tip was being held in place, too firmly stuck for her to pull it free. She did succeed in drawing the creature’s attention, as the gaping mouth paused instead of taking a bite out of the first part of her it could get to.

  “Huh?” The voice that came out of the creature’s mouth even as its lips and teeth stayed spread wide open made Ginny’s stomach roll. Deep, but somehow messy sounding. Like the creature’s throat was coated in phlegm or something, and its mouth was full of something wet, but solid enough to be chewing on as it spoke. She gagged at the smell of its breath, a combination of gore and rot and something sickly sweet smelling, like someone had liberally doused a rotting and mangled corpse in maple syrup.

  Before it could say anything else, the room exploded into cracks of gunfire, the sheriff and both deputies opening fire on the Ravager, the sound of it deafening in the enclosed space of the storage room. Ginny felt the air splitting just above her head, and then a hot line of pain tore across her scalp as one of the shots winged her before slamming into the Ravager’s thick body. Two of the shots ricocheted off, one passing through a metal rack of shoes and then digging a furrow into the wall behind it, while the other shot back by Ginny’s cheek, and she heard Brendon let out a grunt of pain behind her.

  The third bullet tore through the creature’s thick hide, a small burst of blood on one of its massive cheeks marking the impact.

  “Huh? Ah?” The creature repeated, bringing its large and doughy hands, fingers too bloated and sausage like to be spread apart, up to cover its face. “Ow… ow…hurts…” The monster’s words came out slowly and with that same sickening wet sound. As the deputies and sheriff hesitated, Ginny took advantage of the thing’s distraction to plant one tennis shoe on the massive gut next to where the halberd was stuck, and heave against it. It felt like stepping onto the surface of an under-inflated moon bounce, and she worried for a second that instead of yanking the harpoon free, her whole leg was going to just sink directly into the flab there.

  That was when Brendon arrived. One arm was cradled to his chest, fresh blood dripping out of a nasty looking gash along one arm, while the other was pulled back in the windup for a massive haymaker punch, his clenched fist coated in a thin, barely there flicker of black light.

  “Eat this!” He bellowed out, slamming the fist alight with what Ginny assumed was one of his abilities, directly into the monster’s gut next to Ginny’s embedded halberd and planted foot. Ripples spread out from the impact, the entirety of the monster’s blobby form shuddering and wobbling. Between that and her own heavings, the tip of the halberd sliding free with a moist sounding pop, sending Ginny hopping back on one leg as she caught her balance.

  “Ow… eat… this?” The creature peeked out from between its two doughy hands, one beady eye locking onto Brendon. “Hurts… eat… this.” A thick line of drool dripped out of one side of its still open mouth, sizzling and hissing ominously against the linoleum of the storage room floor. Ginny brought the harpoon up, readying for a slash rather than a stab, to hopefully keep hold of her weapon this time. Brendon cocked his fist back, a flicker of black light coating his hand once again. The creature looked back and forth between them, before its beady eye settled on Brendon again.

  “Eat this. So… hungry.” The creature made a wet gagging sound, the rolls of fat where its neck should have been wobbling and spasming. The whole time the creature had been talking, its mouth had remained stretched wide open, lips drawn back, the voice seeming to come from further back in its throat. Behind its shining teeth was just a wet, black void, with not even a tongue there to form words with.

  That changed suddenly. A hint of motion in the wet void behind its teeth was the only warning Ginny received, before a thick and dripping length of muscle exploded out of the monster’s mouth. The monster’s tongue was huge, even considering its massive mouth. It continued to stretch and extend out of the still open mouth, twisting in the air to slam across Brendon’s chest, sending the young man flying back into a corner of the storage room, metal racks and bowling shoes sent flying everywhere in his wake.

  Ginny’s heart leapt into her throat, and she half twisted to look at the corner where Brendon had landed. The alarmingly wet sounding cough, followed by a hissing, wheezing gasp for air that came from his crumpled form, as bad as they sounded, at least meant he was still alive.

  For the moment.

  The monster took one heavy step in Brendon’s direction, and Ginny could have sworn she felt the ground shudder slightly under its weight. Leveling the harpoon, Ginny dashed in front of it, opening a long thin cut along the monster’s side and putting herself in between it and Brendon. A few drops of blood trickled out of the cut she’d opened, but the monster ignored it. In fact, it ignored her entirely as it continued to trudge slowly toward Brendon.

  Ginny shouted, activating Lucky Strike repeatedly as she tried to carve through the layers of thick flesh and blubber, opening half a dozen shallow cuts. It continued to ignore her, and she was forced to step back and give ground steadily to avoid being slowly trampled under the monster’s steady and unhurried march to the corner to eat Brendon while he was still alive.

  Ginny gritted her teeth, her hand going to the hilt of Blood Drinker’s Bane jutting out of her vest pocket. She’d been worried about losing the dagger entirely, just watching it get sucked into the monster’s waves of doughy flesh. But it was clear that she just wasn’t hurting this thing enough with the harpoon to even distract it, much less kill it.

  They needed to run. The idea resonated with her on some deep level of truth, the muscles in her legs tingling in anticipation. Unfortunately, Brendon and Ernie would both need to be carried or at least supported, and to get enough time to do that, she needed to at least slow the Ravager down. Resolved, she started to tug Blood Drinker’s bane out of her pocket, when she was interrupted by the clatter of metal.

  “Hey, back off asshole!”

  The sheriff and deputies hadn’t been idle while this exchange had been happening. Deputy Williams had made her way around and behind the monster, and she yelled as she leapt forward. The monster, predictably, ignored her yell, still drooling its way towards Brendon’s crumpled body.

  What it didn’t ignore was the towering shelf of bowling shoes and balls that Williams leapt onto, toppling the whole thing onto the monster. It turned away from Brendon, staring up at the tall metal shelf falling onto it, blinking slowly as dozens of pairs of bowling shoes and several bowling balls rained down on it, before stumbling as the metal shelf collapsed fully on top of it. The creature waved its stubby and doughy arms ineffectively.

  “Ow…no… hungry…”

  “Grab him!” Williams shouted, struggling to gain her feet from the top of the heap of monster, bowling shoes, bowling balls, and shelf that she’d ended up on top of. Ginny twisted around, thinking that the deputy was talking to her, only to see sheriff Greg pulling Brendon out from the corner, lifting the still wheezing young man into a fireman’s carry and retreating towards the door to the storage room. Next to the door, deputy Doug crouched over Ernie, one hand holding a bloodstained mass of rags to the stump of the heavyset man’s arm, and the other waving his gun over the storage room, the barrel trembling wildly.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Ginny started to run for the door, glancing back to make sure Williams was following. The deputy had managed to get to her feet and was crouched to leap down from the heap towards them, when the entire heap seemingly exploded. Bowling balls and shoes were sent flying and rolling in every direction, and the massive metal shelf was shoved outwards. Williams stumbled and fell before letting out a scream of pain as she was roughly crushed against the wall by the mangled metal shelf, the snap of bone clearly heard through all the crashing. The monster climbed to its feet stubby arms still raised from where it had shoved all of the debris off of itself in frustration. It turned towards Williams, and the thick mass of its tongue unfurled from its mouth, dangling down so the tip of it brushed against its own stomach, the tip flicking to the side enough to catch a few drops of its own blood leaking out of one of the several cuts Ginny had opened.

  “So hungry… eat… this?” The monster’s voice was the same moist sound like it was chewing on a mouthful of something, even though its tongue was currently hanging out and filling most of its mouth. It took a step towards where Williams was struggling to escape from under the shelf she was pinned by. “Eat… this.”

  Ginny immediately leapt over the wreckage, clearing the scattered bowling balls and shoes and fragments of the shelf to land only a couple of steps away from the monster as it began pawing at the shelf on top of Williams. She leveled her harpoon and then stumbled as she tried to charge at the monster.

  What the heck!? Ginny’s legs felt like they were cramping up. The tingling sense of potential power that had been running through them ever since she realized that they needed to run, not fight, in this situation, suddenly shifted and sharpened in thin needles of pain that dug into her calves and thighs, making her legs feel weak and unsteady. She gritted her teeth and hobbled a couple steps closer to the monster, before drawing back the harpoon and swinging it in a wide swing across the monster’s back.

  “Lucky Strike!” She shouted, hoping to draw the monster’s attention away from its current target more than do it any real harm. A cut that would be deep enough to be fatal to a human, but was little more than a literal flesh wound on the monsters tore open behind the head of her harpoon, the skin splitting further, like it was already strained and stretched by the monster’s bulk. Blood poured out steadily, and the monster hesitated, half twisting around.

  “Ow… hurts…” Its stubby and doughy arms tried unsuccessfully to reach around and prod at its wounded back, while its tongue slid around its chest to lap at the blood pouring out. Ginny had planned on trying to dart around the monster and try to pull Williams out from under the wreckage before retreating, but she felt herself sagging forward, barely catching herself by planting the butt of the harpoon on the ground and leaning all her weight onto it, shuddering weaky.

  What’s going on!? Ginny’s thoughts raced; Survivor’s Will working overtime to suppress the rising panic in her chest.

  Survivor’s Will has leveled up! Now level 7!

  Ginny mentally shoved the notification away frantically, still trying to force herself back to her feet, even as another screen popped up in front of her.

  Final Girl:

  Your story template is that of the Final Girl. You are the survivor of horrid nightmares and impossible horror. Your story serves as both a beacon of hope for the ultimate triumph of humanity over darkness… and a stern reminder that not all will survive to see that triumph. The strong, the lucky, the fated, or the resolved will remain when claws have dragged others to die in the darkness.

  The dichotomy of your story is that of survival, yours, and death, of all those around you.

  Ginny blinked, the last line of her Template description drawing her eyes. She read over it again, her lips pursed into a grimace, and she shook her head. So, what, I’m just supposed to let her die!? She thought furiously at… she wasn’t quite sure who. Her own ability? The Depths? Regardless, an answer came in the form of the pain in her legs lessening, shifting back into the tingling feel of coiled muscles, like when she had thought about them all running away earlier.

  “No way. S-Screw that!” Ginny hissed out through gritted teeth, stumbling over the unfamiliar words, as she forced herself up off the harpoon and leveled it at the monster even as pain tore through her. The monster had turned fully to her at this point, beady eyes fixed on her as its massive and dripping tongue twisted back around, swaying in the air gently as it seemed to consider her alongside its owner.

  “Eat this.” There was no hesitation or uncertainty in its wet sounding voice this time, only a sense of certainty and barely contained excitement. Ginny grit her teeth and glared back at it as it reached out for her with one sausage fingered hand, mentally calling up her character sheet.

  “Yeah, why don’t you eat this!?” Mentally slamming her four unallocated points into Strength, Ginny launched herself forward, muscles screaming as she flung herself directly at the creature’s wide-open mouth, its jaws stretching further, impossibly, wider open, welcoming her in eagerly.

  “Lucky Strike!” Ginny let her protesting body stumble and drag her down to one knee, and launched herself upwards into the creature’s mouth, harpoon first.

  Lucky Strike has leveled up! Now level 3!

  The head of the harpoon tore into the roof of the monster’s mouth, and kept going, a third of the length of the weapon’s shaft burying itself into the gaping wound in the roof of its mouth. Blood sprayed down on Ginny, hot and rancid smelling, mixing with thick lines of drool that sizzled against her skin, the burning pain of acidic spit mixing with the aches from her still rebelling body. The monster screamed in surprise and pain, and Ginny retched as warm, hot breath that stank of blood and rot, rolled over her with enough force to blow her hair back. She reeled back, shuddering hands sliding off the shaft of the harpoon and leaving it embedded in the roof of the monster’s mouth, before something slammed into her side and sent her flipping end over end into another shelf, a bowling ball managing to slam right between her shoulder blades and knock the breath out of her as she collapsed to all fours with a gasp of pain.

  Worse Than it Looks leveled up! Now level 4!

  Ginny scrambled back on all four, head shooting up as she half expected to see the creature’s mouth bearing down on her.

  “Hurts… hurts… eat this? No… hurts…” She let out a sigh of relief. Instead of chasing her, the creature was still standing where she’d left it, hands flailing against the harpoon jutting out of its mouth while its tongue twitched and swung about wildly. Behind it, the sheriff was trying to shift the wreckage still pinning Williams, visibly straining against the debris.

  Gritting her teeth, Ginny launched herself forward, fully expecting her body to try and stop her with more crippling pain but only received a brief dull ache that ran through her. Whether that was because she wasn’t running directly at the literal jaws of death this, just around them, or for some reason, Ginny wasn’t sure, and didn’t have the seconds needed to consider it. She ducked under the monster’s flailing tongue and skidded to a stop next to the sheriff clawing at the wreckage.

  “Move!” Ginny crouched down and spotted what looked like the most intact part of the twisted metal shelf. Reaching into the wreckage, she wrapped her fingers around it. Unlike back in the police station when she’d been testing the bars of her cell, where she’d considered, debated, then slowly tried to push her body a little bit more, this time, she just heaved as hard as she could.

  The whole mound of wreckage was roughly shoved to the side, more bowling balls and hoes coming loose and falling in its wake. A shoe actually landed on Williams’ leg, the knee bent at a painful and unnatural angle, and she flinched back and cursed. The deputy opened her mouth, whether it was to thank Ginny or protest the rough treatment, but Ginny didn’t give her the chance to do either. Scooping the woman up in an awkward princess carry, especially because Williams was both taller and heavier than she was, Ginny staggered to her feet, even as Williams let out a sharp hiss of pain, punctuated by several words that would have made Ginny blush if she wasn’t busy desperately focused on trying to get out of the room alive. The sheriff, seeing that Ginny had his deputy, and wasn’t seeming to have any trouble carrying her, ran ahead, pulling Brendon to his feet where he’d been propped against the door after being dragged out of the corner he’d been batted into.

  The young man wavered, not looking the steadiest on his feet, but nodded quickly at the sheriff and gestured at Ernie, who had passed out next to Deputy Doug, who was still leaning on a bloodstained mess of rags pressed against the stump of the bowling alley owner’s arm. The two of them managed to get Ernie’s one good arm slung over the sheriff’s shoulders, with the deputy supporting the other side while holding onto the makeshift tourniquet. They shuffled out the door to the storage room after Brendon, back into the cluttered hallways, moving as quickly as they could while supporting the injured man. Ginny followed right behind them, shooting a final frantic glance over her shoulder as she rounded the corner.

  “Hurts… eat this… hurts… eat this…” The creature continued to mumble to itself, and as it wheeled around, it caught sight of Ginny rounding the corner. The beady eyes narrowed, practically disappearing under the rolls of fat that formed the creature’s brow.

  “HURTS.” The creature bellowed out. Its monstrous tongue shot back towards its mouth and then wrapped several times around the shaft of the harpoon still embedded in the roof of its mouth. The thick length of wet muscle tightened and strained. “EAT. THIS.”

  Unlike Ernie’s arm, there was a loud crack that echoed through the room when Ginny’s harpoon snapped in half, the pieces quickly disappearing into the monster’s mouth. It took a step forward as it chewed loudly, the sound of fiberglass and metal crunching heard clearly through its flabby cheeks. The creature took another step towards Ginny, its eyes still narrowed.

  “Eat…THIS.”

  Ginny broke into a full-on sprint as she rounded the corner, plowing through and knocking various signs and decorations to the ground as she fled. The energy in her legs was now singing with a comforting warmth, all too eager to encourage her to run away from danger, as opposed to towards it.

  “Go, go, GO!” She screamed ahead of her, as Brendon shoved open the door that led back out into the bowling alley.