Pushing into the dark, Abe stopped to sniff. He hoped to illuminate that monster in his mind’s eye. Unfortunately, his senses were dulled—the same earthy scene from earlier filling the air.

He ran a finger along the wall, then rubbed it against his thumb, feeling the sticky moisture and bringing it to his nose.

Sap. Sticky and earthy. 

It had been lathered down here far thicker than above. 

His stomach sunk. 

Could they be hiding something else, something worse than a horde of zombies?

The stench of the sap grew stronger, nauseatingly so. It was another reminder of how much he had changed. The sweet, earthy scent of the sap disturbed him more than the rotting flesh of the zombies.

Sighing, he put the thought away and continued into the tunnels below. Soon they were breaking out into sections of natural caves and caverns along the way, but the scent of sap was easy enough for him to follow.

Abe considered trying to take one of the other passaged. He might be able to escape this place without fighting that thing. But he wasn’t sure he wanted to.

Because of the cave-in, he couldn’t be certain Elissa would even be able to find that thing. And he didn’t want to leave whatever they had stumbled upon alone. 

It disturbed him how fast he was changing. But he couldn’t deny his desire to please Miss Nia. 

If he defeated that thing, would she allow him to suck her blood again? The thought made his stomach rumble, alongside pulses of intoxicating desire that tickled his veins. The hunger was growing, and he didn’t want it to stop.

He gritted his teeth, unable to hold down a moan at the thought of her. He was her knight now, and proud of it.

Another snort of stale air led him spiraling further down as the cave began to open up, stretching out into a cavern. 

Shaking his head, he couldn’t believe the sight that greeted his eyes.

At the center of the cavern was a bulbous form of folds lapping over one another. Six massive breasts drooped down from its chest—purple, gangrenous nipples pulsating at their ends. Its legs were spread, parted by spiked chains that held them up as membrane-covered zombies crawled free.

“What the fuck is that,” he muttered with a stiff shake of his head. 

After a short moment orientating themselves, the zombies stood up and groaned towards a crowd that funneled into a tunnel.

“That thing isn’t giving birth to them, is it?” His lips trembled. “As if this place isn’t fucked up enough as it is.”

What?

He turned, sensing another.

Tentacles whipped at him, slamming across his body and hurling him across the cavern.

Skidding to a stop, Abe pushed himself up—stiletto still firmly in his grasp.

Head tilted, the creature walked toward him, a curious arch to its brow. Then the tentacles began to swirl above its head.

Oh-fucking shit me.

Abe rolled, managing to avoid the first several slapping strikes before a barrage battered him.

Kicking into the rocky ground with his heels, Abe scooted back from the thrashing tentacles, finding refuge in a crevice against the cavern wall. 

Pillars of rock and ledges that cropped out from the wall blocked several strikes, but they weren’t a complete barrier, and wouldn’t hold it back for long, but it didn’t seem to care either. 

Is it a zombie? Abe wondered, eyeing the dangling flesh and rot across its body—even one of its eyes was missing.

Maybe it was like the ghouls? An evolved version of the mindless corpses flooding into the cavern above. The thought calmed him a little. He had managed to defeat the ghouls, and they had been far superior to these zombies. All he needed was to get past the tentacles.

Abe tightened his grip around the stiletto as he scanned for possibilities. 

To his right, the outcropping rocks protruded further from the cavern wall. Pressing himself through a narrow passage he made his way to the rock, the tentacle zombie watching in fascination.

“Do you want a piece of this or what, you ugly fucker?” Abe taunted as he shuffled into position.

Tilting its head, the zombie followed, whipping at the rocks whilst walking.

“Yeah, that's it. Dumb as a rock,” Abe mumbled as the zombie sauntered closer.

Lifting itself off the ground with two of its tentacles, the zombie’s body hovered above the ground, searching for an advantage.

That works even better.

Using the rocks as stepping stones, Abe darted out, ducking under sweeping tentacles as he lunged for the zombie—stabbing his stiletto through its right eye. 

Momentum carried Abe straight past the zombie and he fell into a fumbled roll and slid across the ground. Stumbling back to his feet, he created some distance and swung around.

Still standing, the zombie twitched, Abe’s stiletto still firmly embedded in its head.

“Yeah, nighty-nighty, you ugly bastard,” Abe smirked.

The zombie's body had fallen limply, but a moment later it lurched around to face him, tentacles working as legs.

“Huh?” Abe’s brow arched.

The zombie at the center of the monstrosity hung limply with no sign of life, but the six tentacles swirling across its back were alive as ever, and carrying the body effortlessly.

“Don’t tell me I’ve got to kill all of you,” he groaned.

Lurching forward, four tentacles came swinging from left and right forcing Abe to retreat, the remaining two acting as legs. 

A thud hit his side, sending him rolling along the rocky ground.

Clearing his throat, Abe pushed himself up onto his elbows and glared over at the tentacle beast moving toward him.

“Ah, fuck,” he groaned as one of the tentacles wrapped around the stiletto, pulled it free, and then turned the sharp point toward him.

Getting hit by the tentacles hadn’t been fun, but on their own, they weren’t quite deadly–-the dagger, on the other hand, was likely a different story.

Shaking his head, he pushed up and ran. 

To his left was the grotesque zombie mother, and he decided to run along the outer edge of the cavern, following it around to the zombie mother’s rear. 

Hiding behind the cropping ledges of rock seemed like a bad idea now that it had the stiletto. It could likely stab between the rock with a well-aimed strike, and without a weapon of his own, he was only prolonging the inevitable.

As he approached the monstrosity’s back, the scent of sap returned, and Abe steered his attention to a black substance smeared across its back and along a thin line marked in its flesh.

What the hell is that?

A thump pounded in his chest.

Do you want me to go in there?

Abe shook his head and glanced back at the approaching tentacles.

Ah, for fuck sake.

Gritting his teeth, he ran toward the zombie mother’s back and jumped into a flying kick that sent him diving straight into the sap-smeared flesh. The cut parted and Abe found himself submerged in its viscous folds of bloody flesh.

A thump in his chest focused him. It had been the right decision. He could smell it, penetrating through the flesh and rot. Something valuable was just ahead.

Swiveling as he urged himself onward, Abe sniffed.

He was getting closer.

Glowing white penetrated the fleshy surroundings ahead.

That’s it.

Abe reached out, pushing through the folds suctioning around his body, and clawed at the orb. 

The moment his fingers wrapped around it, he felt himself recovering. 

He pulled, and ribbons of flesh pulled back—snapping as he gave it a forceful tug.

Enveloping him in white, Abe could feel the power radiating from the orb. He had no idea what it was supposed to be, but he knew it was important.

Saliva built up in his mouth as hunger surged. His body wanted it. 

His lips retracted and a growl escaped involuntarily.

He might have been able to withhold his impulses for a while if he tried, but in a moment of weakness bit down on the orb.

Energy reverberated through his body and a sensation that felt as if it strengthened his very soul, heightening his awareness.

And then it was over.

Nothing. 

He felt the same as he had a moment earlier.

A muffled shriek sounded from outside, and the fleshy walls around him began to corrode and reek of rot—more so than they already had.

Is it dying?

He wasn’t sure if being inside a dead zombie mother was any worse than a living one, but he didn’t exactly want to find out and hastily began wading back toward the entrance.

Covered in viscous fluids, Abe wobbled like a fish as he slid back out through the wound in the monster’s back.

Stumbling out, he found his footing and straightened.

Where was it? He glanced around for the tentacle zombie.

“Come out you ugly bastard!”

The sound of tearing flesh and gorging crunches turned his attention up to the top of the zombie mother.

It was the tentacle zombie, each of its tentacles possessing a mouth lined with razor-sharp teeth attached to the zombie mother’s head and devouring what lay within—with a cacophony of wet, sucking sounds.

“That’s just fucking great,” Abe shook his head as he backstepped.

Two tentacles perked and turned toward Abe, followed by another two a second later, as the final two propped it up off the dead mother zombie.

Abe stretched his fingers, glancing down in surprise as he realized his left hand had returned.

I’m not complaining but what the fuck? He stretched out his fingers in amazement.

He eyed the stiletto held tightly in the gasp of the upper left side tentacle. 

Leaping down from the corpse of the zombie mother, it came for him.

Abe turned, ran up a ledge of rock, and waited for it to enclose on him.

His senses pounded. Telling him to run, that this thing had evolved beyond him. But there wasn’t anywhere left to go–besides, Abe was sick of running.

Tentacles whipped out, grabbing hold of the rock and flinging the creature through the air.

Eyes widening, he jumped, more out of instinct than thoughtful decision-making. 

Tentacles twisted toward him as he fell upon the monster. 

The stiletto-wielding tentacle shot forth, skewering his gut, and in stubborn determination Abe took hold of it, digging his claws into its flesh and tearing.

The tentacle whipped through the air, slamming Abe back and forth against the rock, but his grip held, and as it slowed, he wrapped his legs around it and dug his claws in deeper, twisting amidst cracking bone and tearing flesh.

The tentacle tried to thrash again, but Abe tightened his grip further, and its flesh tore apart in response. With another forceful tug, he ripped the tentacle’s end off, the part that contained its mouth—ribbons of stubborn flesh stretching until they could no more.

Shrieking, the zombie stumbled back a step, the remaining tentacles thrashing through the air in uproar.

Abe stumbled back, a grin creasing his lips at the sight of its pain.

“Ready for more you ugly fuck?”