“She’s going to get herself caught making that much noise!” Sarah exclaimed, aghast. Sure enough, a hybrid appeared just as the woman was about to break through the last layers covering the door. She glanced over her head and saw the creature lunge its long tentacled arm at her, but just before it made contact, she gracefully leapt backwards with an inhuman swiftness, though the tool she carried remained lodged in the ichor.
Though she dodged the first attack, the creature, seemingly a bit taken aback, had already extended its other arm towards where she was landing. Just as it was about to wrap around her athletic body, the woman hurled a small silver orb towards it. Though the orb didn’t seem to change in any way, the tentacles forming the monster suddenly fell to the ground like liquid, flailing about randomly in a pitiful display.
“Wh-what did she just do!?” Adam asked, his nose inches from the screen.”
“How should I know!?” Sarah replied, her shocked face right next to his. “The entire construct is losing its structural integrity!” They continued to watch as the whole creature was reduced to nothing more than a pool of weakly flopping worms.
The two captive humans, both men, who had been inside of it, also fell to the ground in a wet pile. However, despite their newfound freedom, they appeared either unable or unwilling to stand up and escape, simply lying in the mound of writhing tentacles and panting. Suddenly they seemed to notice one another for the first time and practically swam towards each other’s erections, before locking their mouths around the other’s cock and greedily sucking in a 69 position.
Adam looked a bit grossed-out by this display. Though not a homophobe, he still wasn’t particularly interested in seeing that sort of thing. Though he had certainly witnessed it plenty of times on the monitors, he never quite got used to it. Sarah, on the other hand, had a very different reaction, which she kept to herself.
The mysterious woman seemed to hesitate for a moment, unsure of whether to go save the two men or to return to her task with the door – but her inaction only lasted for a second. Just as she was heading towards the door again, three more hybrids appeared from behind a nearby house. Her pace quickened towards the door, clearly hoping to beat the creatures to it, but it wasn’t looking good and she knew it.
She ran a hand along her belt which carried three more of the silver balls from before, as if considering using another, but she must have calculated that this wasn’t a fight worth attempting, especially as the previously deformed creature on the ground behind her was already slowly starting to build itself back up again from the tentacles that had regained their senses.
She turned to run and abandon her tool, but her previous moments of hesitation had already added up too much. She was blind-sided by a large tentacle arm that suddenly rose from the still-forming pile of tentacles. It sent her flying across the street and slamming into the side of a house. Her limp body slid to the ground and her head slumped over as if unconscious.
“Shit, that’s it for her, then.” Adam said with a disappointed sigh. “I really hoped we could… huh? Who…?”
“STEVEN!?” Sarah yelled, standing up and sending the chair behind her flying into the desk behind her.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS HE DOING!?” Adam roared while slamming his hands against the terminal interface.
“Is-is something wrong…?” Zoey’s worried voice entered the room behind them. “I heard a lot of bangs and yelling, so…” Her face paled as she saw what was on the monitor next to Sarah and Adam. “Oh my GOD! Is that STEVIE!? WHERE IS THIS!?” She scrambled up next to the other two and desperately watched the screen as, sure enough, her older brother stealthily creeping towards the unconscious woman, holding a pool cue in one hand and his smart phone in the other.
“Dammit is that one of my pool cues!?” Adam yelled. “I only have two of those! That little shit!”
“Fuck you! Is that really important right now, professor!?” Zoey screeched at him. “Sarah, where is this!?” Her sharp eyes suddenly focused, taking in the details on the flickering monitor. “Wait is that the college campus?”
“Y-yes.” Sarah stammered, surprised by Zoey’s outburst. “Steven must have heard the commotion going on down the road and thought he could be a hero or something…”
“He’s a fuckin’ idiot is what he is!” Adam snapped. “He was just supposed to go up, check the rain barrels, and come back down. What is he thinking!? He knows we aren’t in the business of saving random individuals right now!”
“That’s because unlike you, he cares about helping people!” Zoey spat back, her body shaking with rage.
“I BUILT THIS SHELTER!”
“WOW how many times have I heard THAT this week while you sit on your ASS!?” She got up in his face, spittle flying. “Congratulations! do you want a goddamn MEDAL!?” It looked like they were both about to start throwing punches before Sarah suddenly interjected.
“ENOUGH!” She bellowed, putting herself between the two. “This is a stressful situation and our thinking ability is clearly impaired. We need to focus. So SIT. DOWN.” She glared menacingly at both of them, her chest heaving.
“Y-yes ma’am…!” Zoey shrunk back and fumbled into a chair.
“But she…!” Adam clicked his tongue. “You’re right…” He lost steam and dropped into a chair as well.
“I’m… I’m sorry professor… I just get protective of my brother. He’s all I’ve got now, you know…?”
“I’m sorry too, Zoey. That wasn’t right of me. …Shit.” Adam sighed.
“Good.” Sarah clapped her hands together. “Now that you both have your heads on straight, let’s return to figuring out how to get our dumb-but-heroic friend Steven out of this mess, hm?”
They turned to anxiously watch the scene unfold on the screen as Steven made his way over to the unconscious woman, inching along as quietly as possible to avoid alerting the several Takers in the area.
“We have to go help!” Zoey piped up. “He has no chance of getting that woman out of there by himself!”
“There’s no way we’d get there in time to do anything…” Adam groaned.
“We’ll have to just hope he knows what he’s doing.” Sarah said, eyeing the phone in Steven’s hand and wondering if he was attempting to do what she thought he was.
“Mngh…” Zoey squirmed in her seat, relenting but seemingly ready to bolt for the door at any moment.
“Hey,” Adam said in a firm voice. “Don’t even think about it. He wouldn’t want you in danger.”
“I guess you’re right…” Zoey murmured. Her fidgeting stopped and she focused on the screen even harder, as if trying to mentally will her brother to turn around and run away.
Despite Zoey’s best attempts at ESP, Steven pushed onwards. The group watched with bated breath as he neared the woman, dropped the pool cue, and crouched down on one knee in an attempt to lift her up into a fireman’s carry. However, it appeared that his lifestyle as a video game streamer had not done wonders for his physical abilities. Just as he managed to position her body into a good spot on his back, his legs gave out and he fell forward, slipping on the pool cue and crashing to the ground.