I approached John until we were shoulder to shoulder, although it was more like head and shoulder. People had given him a wide berth since the creature focused on him. It moved its head from time to time, threatening the more brave people who tried to flank it. Its growling was like a wave, reaching a peak and then lowering just to start again. I was scared. I didn’t have the courage to walk up to it and contend with the creature. I couldn’t see me getting out of that one alive.

“Attack it from a distance!” Johann shouted from my left, as footstool flew towards the creature. It hit square on its side, but it didn’t do much but annoy it. It glared at Johann with its fangs bared and dripping mouth, but otherwise didn’t move.

Soon, people were grabbing anything from the barricade to throw at the creature. Some of the more heavier pieces of metal seemed to bother it, maybe even hurt, but it just took it all, moving from one side to another when too much stuff surrounded it. It kept looking at John and his bloodied machete.

I was growing anxious as the people got bolder and closer to get a better shot. The creature seemed to move in an inconspicuous way, but when I realized what it was trying to do, it was too late. It stepped right, over a small pile of furniture refuse, and someone stepped left, closer to it, throwing a chair seat with both hands. They must have been around six meters from each other, but that was close enough. In a movement that was faster than I could possibly expect to react, it pounced on the guy. It passed under the projectile and straight onto the exposed chest of its target.

The sight that followed was horrifying. Claws tore through the flesh on the victim’s shoulders like butter. Two long and deep gashes that went all the way down to his abdomen. The jacket was torn like it wasn’t even there, paper thin. The guy tried to cover his face, but exposed his chin and throat. The creature pulled his lower jaw out in a single motion. His tongue hung loose and he bled so much that he started to choke on it. He coughed in a fit with his tongue flapping in the air. The creature stood over him, one paw on the guy’s chest and the other slowly tearing his stomach.

It opened its terrifying maw and dropped the jawbone. The creature no longer growled, but made a different noise. Some sort of deep squeal as the guy under its paw slowly suffocated on his own blood.

“It’s fucking laughing.” I said aloud, more to myself than to anyone else.

Everyone had taken a few steps back after it pounced the guy and even Johann didn’t seem so eager to throw anything at it anymore. Beside me, John was quiet as we all stared in horror as the guy slowly died.

I saw as some of the people were getting further and further away from the creature. A few had outright ran away. I couldn’t really be surprised, a large part of me wanted to do the same. That level of speed and reflex was hard to handle.

“How do we fight it, John?”

“I am not sure… This thing is too fast, and it seems too sturdy. If we had guns…”

‘Guns! Right! How come I didn’t think of them before?’

“You didn’t have one on you when you were taken here, right?”

“I actually do. But it doesn’t work. I tried.”

‘Doesn’t work? Was that something like what happened to the electronics?’

I didn’t have time to think about it much further. The creature started moving again, forward this time. We retreated. It became like a dance, it took one step forward, we took one step backwards. I didn’t realize what it wanted at first. It was slowly pushing us towards the building. It turned and started making its way inside. The people on the entrance moved further in, most of them wounded, Noah among them. A trail of blood led inside the building.

“He is going after the wounded! We need to do something! John!”

“I know! What do you want me to do, Leo? You saw what that thing did, you think you can challenge it?” For the first time I heard fear and doubt in the big man’s voice.

I probably didn’t sound so different, we were all fucking terrified. I gritted my teeth. I had to do something. I took a decisive step forward, and then another. The creature glanced at me. The corner of its eyes reflecting my approaching former. I froze.

Why did I have to do something? There were over sixty people here, why me?

I was no fucking hero! Dying here would do jack shit for me! 

‘What about Mrs Aya?’

She was on the upper floor, and it seemed to be going after the wounded. She would be fine. Attacking the wounded would create chaos and opportunity would arise for us to wound and kill the creature. 

‘What about Noah? What about him?’

Noah was nice. I liked him. But he said himself he wasn’t willing to die, he would understand me, right?

‘He stood ground beside you when you fell. He protected you, and this is the reason he is wounded and in there.’

Oh! Shut up! Shut up! I can’t do this! Look at that fucking creature, look at those teeth! Its fangs are serrated! I…

I don’t want to die!

The creature seemed to lose interest in me, seeing as I was frozen stuck for a while. It started moving again and I felt John’s meaty hand on my back.

“It’s not as easy as they make it seem, right? To jump into the jaws of death.” He gave me a light pat and kept moving as the creature advanced inside the building. 

I trembled. My legs threatened to give up at any moment. I couldn’t do it. I didn’t have the courage to. I saw it making its way inside the building, John was the first one to move after it and then hell broke loose. I heard screams, clattering and the sounds of people shouting commands. I slapped myself on the face, hard. With a deep breath and a surge of adrenaline I ran inside.

The moments that followed were a blur. The creature pounced on the people who couldn’t move fast enough and a few of us charged at it when it got distracted. When met by the charge of a few of us, it moved away. As it tore and rent people, it eventually started to slow down and we caught up to it. I don't know who dealt the first blow, but I remember getting a few solid hits on its ribcage and one on its hind quarters. I also slipped twice, the amount of blood on the floor was absurd. 

The wounds we inflected on it eventually piled up and it started limping, tongue out. We all were out of breath as we slowly cornered it. It tried to jump at Will on my left, but it didn’t have enough of a foothold with its broken hind leg. It whimpered and fell flat ahead of us. A shower of blows fell on the creature. I put all my anger, frustration and sorrow in each blow. I didn’t see when it died, who killed it or when the wave ended. Eventually I was tired enough I couldn’t move my arms. I had shouted my lungs out, most of us did, and the creature was an unrecognizable goop of blue blood, viscera and red fur.

I felt dizzy and lost my footing. Falling on the ground, I let my sledge hammer clatter. I rested my head on the floor and stared at the ceiling. A few messages on the bottom of my vision demanded my attention. I eventually willed them to show themselves in detail.

[The second wave has been cleared.]

[Participants will be rewarded according to their contribution.]

[The contribution ranking is:

Leo - 98 Points

John - 87 Points

Takeshi - 53 Points

Sarah - 41 Points

Somchai - 39 Points]

[You have been awarded 98 points.]

[You have been awarded one free stat point for being the highest contributor.]

Too tired to think about it, I just willed it away. I stayed lying on the floor for a while. I didn’t want to see what this place looked like. I don’t know how many people had died, or how many were dying because of their wounds. I suddenly found myself with a new sense of respect for this. But not only respect, anger.

At some point, I had thought this would be something like a new opportunity. I didn’t know much of what was happening, but the prospect of growing stronger resonated with me. Maybe this could be a new place where we could treat each other better and find true camaraderie. Without the bullshit from society.

How wrong I was, how deeply wrong I was. This place was none of that. What a naive mindset had I allowed myself to fall in. This place had nothing of that. It had pain, lots of pain. Anger, frustration, sorrow. Those were the only things I had found in here. Whatever deranged mind put us in this place wanted nothing else but for us to struggle and suffer.

I clenched my fists and hit them against the floor with all my strength. I wouldn’t roll over and die. I fucking would not! I stood up and grabbed my sledgehammer. I tried to not pay attention to the few corpses sprawled on the floor. Most people were too tired or too shocked to do anything, and in the minutes that had followed the end of the wave not much had been done. Ciara and a small number of others were the only ones moving about and patching a few of the more injured. 

Even though we had survived, a feeling of defeat permeated the air. If we had to pay such a price every time, how long before there were none of us left? We didn’t know how long we were going to stay in this place, maybe forever. 

I was naive earlier, drunk on my own ego, I thought this was going to be easy since we were all working together now. I was sorely wrong. It wouldn’t be enough just to try. I had to submerge myself in this new reality, not merely dip my feet.

I would no longer treat this as merely surviving. I had to do more than that. Surviving alone wouldn’t be enough. I was going all out, diving into it head first. Nothing else mattered but getting stronger. Never again would I allow myself to be paralyzed by terror like earlier. I would be stronger, I would… 

“How you doing, mate? You look like you ate shit.”

“Hey. Noah.”

Senna

This chapter has been reviewed and edited with the help of Densor.

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