As the red creature continued to absorb the leftover blood from the other soldiers, the building's ceiling was beginning to come apart, as it had thoroughly wrecked the building's infrastructure with its moldable body.
“Reinforcements- Where- where are they!?”
George brazenly opened the window in his fit of anxiety, peering his head towards the construction site, only to find that the group of soldiers remained stationary, despite the chaos ensuing at the office.
What are they!? GETTING A FEEL FOR THE SITUATION WHILE I’M ABOUT TO BE SLAUGHTERED!? WHILE ALVINA AND THE OTHERS COULD ARE INJURED!? I CAN’T WAIT! I CAN’T!
George shot his head back and forth, desperately searching for some escape. The red creature spotted him, its eyes narrowed as its liquified body began to draw closer and closer to George. Though before It could have the chance to pounce on its prey…
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
An enraged scream shot out from underneath the rubble. It backed off, its liquified body began to lose its fluidity as it struggled to focus on anything aside from the putrid screams filling the room.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”
As his roars intensified the windows of the buildings pierced, the floor underneath George began to form cracks from underneath him, and the weaker parts of the infrastructure began to topple over, some of it landing on the unconscious soldiers outside, exposing the dusk sky, but more importantly alerting the soldiers and construction workers across the street.
“Send backup, the other one is getting serious.”
Soon enough, the rubble on top of the soldier dissipated to mere debris. Then with their remaining strength, the soldier crushed the larger bricks on top of him with their hands, turning it all to dust.
The Red Creature transformed back into its less liquified, more intimidating form, running on all fours towards the soldier with its tongue drooping out, saliva ran from its mouth the faster it accelerated.
“GAH! MAC! MAC!”
Seconds before it could sink it’s fangs through the soldiers defensive armor, into their supple skin, the soldier withdrew their gun, hitting a bullseye smackdab in the middle of the creature's eyes, its blood flew onto the soldier, including their gun. The creature screamed out pointless gibberish in pain as it watched its own blood pour onto the floor.
“WRYYYYY!”
As it desperately clung onto life, fighting back its own death, it eventually toppled over helplessly as its own blood continued to flow between the cracks of the floor, creating a puddle which reflected the masked soldier's shaky disposition.
The soldier lifted their mask to take deeper breaths, obscuring the upper half of their face with their forearm. George stood in astonishment, shaking intensely along with the soldier.
“A-are you okay!?”
As he exited the ruined office, George had begun to think back to Alvina’s earlier behavior towards the soldier.
It makes sense… He thought as he watched the man's body jerk intensely as he began to cough up blood. George had heard rumors of a select few Dead men being retrieved from Europe as a way to show HQ of their humanity, that just like any ordinary human being, they too were capable of saving the world from the wicked supernatural.
Though he had never guessed he was working with one…
Why wouldn’t they tell me that…? AGH!
He shook his head furiously. What does it matter?! He saved my life, he’s just as human as anyone else supernatural or not. As he hammered those thoughts into himself, he had noticed the water cooler behind him still held at least one milliliter of red liquid within it.
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As the man continued to cough exhaustedly, George jogged back into the office,extracted the red liquid into the spray bottle he had kept in his coat pocket, and walked towards him.
“Here…”
He shook up the spray bottle.
“What’re you- No, NO!”
The man backed away in a frightened, sloppy manner, staining his military garbs with the leftover dust he had crushed, backing to the end of the fractured hallway.
“Wait! I don’t mean to hurt you. Deadmen can heal internal wounds through their kinds blood… I added water so it would go down easier, just…”
He paused.
“Think of it as a type of cauterization, yeah.”
“...”
The man begrudgingly stood up while pulling his mask over his eyes.
“I-I haven’t done anything wrong, have I… Sir?”
He asked in a much more vulnerable manner than before. He began to slouch over, making himself seem smaller than George,
“Nothing at all. This isn’t a trick… I swear it.”
George handed the spray bottle to the man. He drank it obediently.
“Hooo HOoOOO!”
The man clasped his hand as he struggled to handle the acidity and extreme heat of the substance. He coughed once more in an attempt to bring up the substance, however, he immediately stopped, as the substance died down. He cleared his throat and slowly began to smile.
“Is that better?”
“Yes I….”
He paused as his breath began to stagger. A burning sensation could be felt across his forearm which traveled across his torso and legs.
“N-NO!”
“H-huh?!”
The soldier extended their arm outward to George.
“What!? What is it!?”
“Not…. Not over!”
Their voice was strained as if they were holding back a yell. They struggled against themselves. What could it have been? Were they attempting to beat back the pain left from the pile of bricks being toppled over them? George thought as he began to wonder endlessly, his eyes entrapped on the Red creature's corpse.
What if…
His eyes widened, as helicopters rang from above, invading the scene.
Tomp tomp tomp tomp tomp!
Both of their eyes anxiously shifted over to the far left of the building near the entrance.
It was a group of soldiers which had emerged from the construction site. Their shoes eerily began to click and clack against the solid concrete, only adding to the masked soldiers' anguish as their groaning intensified. They extended their hand to the oncoming crowd.
“A-AH!”
They fell to their knees. While holding themselves tightly.
George called out to them in a sprightly, intense tone—!
“STAND MEN! STAND! THIS ISN’T AN ISSUE NEEDED TO BE RESOLVED! WE’RE FINE!”
They continued, ignoring George’s order.
“GET OUT! GET OUT! LEAVE! IT’S NOT DEAD YET, IT’S NOT-”
And yet they continued, reaching the front door of the office.
“DIDN’T YOU HEAR ME, THIS IS AN ORDER, LEAVE—-!”
As the soldiers entered the building there was a silence. As they traversed to the second floor however, a subtle ringing could be heard.
“ . . . “
Each of them looked around, greatly confused by the high pitched ringing. As they called out to each other, their voices grew fainter and fainter, soon, they began to panic, some continued to traverse the second floor whereas others collapsed due to some exhaustion. The further those who continued walking eventually stopped. A burning sensation traveled throughout their body.
“A-Ah-! A-Aulak Unrav-!”
Their eyes sunk into the back of their heads, pulling them further into despair. An aura began to emerge from around them. An aura very similar to the crimson red one Andrew had encountered before. Although, in stark contrast to merely a red atmosphere filling the room, this red aura was being injected into each remaining soldier to such a fast rate that the blood underneath their skin began to boil, their faces becoming bloated, as if they were having an allergic reaction, as well as the entirety of their body. After they swelled up like blueberries their skin grew red, and before they could even so much as take another breath…
Pop!
George flinched at the sound from downstairs, though he shut his eyes tightly keeping his mind clear as the burning sensation began to travel throughout his body as well, not cooling down, as if it were waiting for his guard to eventually fall.
Blood traveled from in between the crevices of the cracked floor, towards the red creature. Slowly, it began to fill in the hole left by the masked soldier's bullet.
Without any hesitation or fear, the creature rose from its deceased state in an eccentric frenzy. It threw it’s arms into the air, yelling-
“MAC- A- RONI!”
“No… no…. NO!”
Strangely enough, the soldier's speech was slurred. George opened his eyes for less than a second out of worry, only to have his anxieties, and the warmth crawling up his back spiked up within him. stop. STOP! He thought to himself as he tightly held onto the pants leg.
As George continued to close his eyes and clear his mind, the soldier could not. Its mask had come off, revealing a grotesque, bald man, with the exception of a few lone hairs hanging from the side of his head. His lips were dry yet thin, his nose lacking as it had been entirely gone, only the shape where it once was remained as well as two narrow holes. Though his most jarring feature had been its missing teeth as he was all gums.
Red began to rise in his face, as if he were blushing. He was beginning to swell up from the tips of their fingers, all the way to the top of their head.
The red creature stood on guard,hopping back and forth playfully while raring to fight. Its fangs began to protrude from its gums as its jaw began to widen more and more. Clearly, it’s appetite had not yet been satiated.
“. . . So then… This is it…”
The grotesque looking creature took its final breath. As it grit its teeth, pieces of its skin began to fly away with the breeze, revealing a crimson cheek underneath, at the core of its heart, it let out a final roar.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
As it did, it fell to its fours similarly to the red creature and charged towards it.
