But after looking at us, it didn't roar or make any sudden movements. The head fusion looked a little more complete than before; in its grotesque form, a number of eyes from its incomplete fusions had migrated over to its head, mostly leaving empty sockets on the few faces that were distinct enough to still be identified. It also made sense why it didn't roar on second thought, as the face is only made up of eyes.
Occurring at inconsistent timings, an eye here would blink, or an eye there would. Its gaze froze us for a moment before I noticed one of the massive, hulking arms reaching back behind itself.
Without another word, I took a couple of steps back, all the while grabbing onto the collars on the two people beside me.
Not two seconds later did the sound of wind breaking occur as a loud crash rang out from our room. A desk nearby had been demolished as a body sat in its crater. But what was flung wasn't a corpse; just like before, it was one of those mimics, but it seemed that abomination had flung it too hard. The creature was barely able to move its limbs, and from the angle of its spine it wouldn't be walking straight even if it got up.
"We have to go! Robert, Abby, Let's go!"
Robert especially looked at the creature that was flung over like he couldn't believe what just happened.
"R-right, to the back exit, the truck I took is over there!"
We burst through the back door and over to a white truck nearby. Abby sat in the back while I took shotgun. Robert started up the car, and we started rolling around the building. The abomination was near the entrance, but there was still plenty of room around it.
The abomination wasn't going to be as easy to escape as last time, though. It took large, shaking steps towards us for a couple of seconds before stopping to reach behind again.
Robert noticed the same movements, and before I could even say anything, he stepped onto the gas, giving us a sudden boost in speed and causing the body to miss the truck.
The next second, we had passed through the gates that surrounded the place, and the other gave a sigh of relief. But I didn't; after all, that abomination had not only found us, but caught up to us only around 10ish minutes after we made it here. Even if the distance wasn't that great, its movement speed was still a mystery to us, and for its hulking frame to get here this quickly meant it couldn't be that slow.
Yet a few seconds passed, and I saw no sign of it even coming out. I was about to relax when I saw it; on all fours, it was sprinting to us, and slowly it was starting to catch up.
"It's coming!"
"What!?"
They both exclaimed together. Robert's eyes frantically darted between the road and the rearview mirror, and Abby swiveled her head to look back through the rear window.
The abomination was speeding towards us the same way silverback gorillas did. Their knuckles and feet pressed into the ground with so much force that a small trail of dust was being left behind as it moved.
Looking ahead, I could see a turn we had to slow down in order to make. As I went to check on the distance we were from the abomination, I realized just how much it had gained on us. At first it still wasn't a threat with the distance, but with its current acceleration it'll probably reach us in 20 seconds; that's not even factoring in our decrease from the turn.
Though I didn't really want to use it inside the truck cabin, I got my gun ready. It won't matter if we have some hearing loss or not if we die here.
Yet just as we started turning, instead of attempting to ram into us, it reached behind its back,k slowing down in the process.
"Robert! It's reaching!"
Just as the abomination threw it, we completed the turn, and Robert slammed on the gas. The sudden speed jerked all of us back into our seats, but it still wasn't enough.
A second later, the body crashed into the side of the truck bed, swiveling our vehicle dangerously left and right a few times. Luckily, Robert was a good enough driver to correct our movement, but somehow I ended up flying out of my seat and into the back when that body collided into us.
I was about to land face first into the side of the door, but at the last moment Abby positioned herself in front of me and my face planted straight into her chest.
The sensation was incredible, but I couldn't distract myself from the situation at hand, so I tried to push myself off her to sit straight, but all of a sudden she hugged my head and pressed me against herself. My eyes narrowed and hardened at the act.
'Wha-! Is this really the time to be horny, lady!?'
The next second she released me, and I sat up. When I looked at her eyes, she looked as if she was genuinely concerned, and that softened the look I had.
"A-are you okay?"
'Maybe I'm overreacting; her personality can't just be horny all the time, can she?'
"I'm fine, thank you for catching me."
I took a good look at the damage that the body caused and could see some mildly bent truck wall on the side and splashes of blood from the impact.
'Is it already starting to understand how we accelerate and our trajectory?! Is this abomination that intelligent?!'
As we started speeding off, I noticed that it didn't go pick up that body it used as a projectile. And when it turned at the intersection, I saw that it wasn't dragging bodies behind it either.
Two theories started coming together in my mind: it either had storage on its back I couldn't see or it's been taking itself apart in order to throw itself at us.
If it has spare bodies, it might get faster, but if it's taking itself apart, then it might slow down. Just maybe, anyway, it was just a theory.
I looked ahead to see the straight path we had no choice but to take. In the back, the monster reached behind itself again.
"Incoming!"
Just as another body was flung at us, Robert swerved to one side as the body sailed past us, becoming a meat crayon against the pavement.
"Incoming!"
I yelled once more as the arm reached behind itself again. Once again, Robert swerved, this time to the other side as a body sailed past.
"Again!"
Yet again, Robert swerved, but this time the body flew right over us and directly in front of our path.
*Thump!* *Thump!*
We buckled in our seats as the vehicle ran over it, but the body had acted like a speed bump, slowing down our momentum.
I looked back to see the monster get closer, and it reached back another time.
This cycle of yelling out the monster's movements and Robert reacting was starting to make us lose our momentum over time, but the good news was that my second theory might have been right, as it had slowed its speed to be similarly aligned with ours.
With the same repetitive motion, it reached behind its back, and I called it. The only thing is that this time what flew over had much more mass than all the bodies it's thrown previously.
A massive lump of flesh, skin, and appendages came into our view ahead. For just a moment, we all stared speechless at the writhing ball of mass and extended limbs.
Robert barely remembered swerving past it, but it wasn't enough. The mass had managed to roll itself in front of our vehicle and caused a loud thud against our vehicle. That still wasn't the end, though, as those extra limbs, mostly the arms, managed to grab hold of anything it could.
It held onto the bumper for a second before the wind knocked it back to the shotgun seat. We expected the mass to soon fly farther back and eventually off the vehicle, but all of a sudden it grabbed the door handle and the sounds from outside hit our ears.
The wind curved around past the car into a sharp, steady sound, and the asphalt beneath the tires crunching upon loose pebbles.
The meatball creature, even with the wind trying to force the door closed, managed to open the door, and a foot stepped in.
I immediately started stabbing the creature repeatedly in hopes of it eventually falling off or dying outright.
"W-what the fuck! Robert, you didn't lock the doors!?"
"N-no sorry, I was hoping that we could use them as an emergency escape and I forgot about it when it started chucking things at us!"
After the third stab, I realized that it wasn't really reacting much. Between hoping that I was doing good damage or none at all, I decided on a new plan. Simply push the creature back out; if it takes the spear with it, then so be it.
But unfortunately for our ears, someone else thought of an idea and implemented it before I could.
*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Click*
The meatball clearly felt that as its grip loosened immediately and it fell back out of the vehicle without my spear stuck in it, no less.
I turned towards the ear that had gone the most deaf and saw Abby still pulling the trigger and heaving heavy breaths. I lowered the gun down from her stiff arms, and she slowly started breathing normally again.
"Fucking hell! A little warning would've been nice, you two! Jesus, my ears!"
"I thought you'd be used to this stuff by now? You sure you were in the military?"
"Yeah, that was 6 years ago if you forgot; I've gotten used to ear pro. Besides, don't act like it didn't affect you either! I saw you flinch like a motherfucker in the rear view!"
"Well yeah, I'm supposed to be a civilian; I've never had formal training like you have. Maybe you've gotten too comfortable with civilian life that you've forgotten already. Anyways, keep your eyes on the road; it could throw more of those things!"
I turned to look at Abby, and she had just finished swiveling her head from peering out back. Our eyes met for a moment, and I could still see the adrenaline still affecting her a little, not to mention the tinnitus that was probably still ringing. The next moment she started hugging me with her face smothered against my shirt.
I started patting her back and rubbing her head the way I normally comforted Juni.
'That must have really affected her. I get it. I remembered the first time I shot a gun; I was already shaking all over from the power I held in my hands, let alone shooting for the first time and having to kill something as your life depended on it.'
Glancing out the back window, I noticed the meatball get farther away as well as another puzzling fact. The abomination that threw it was slowing down as well, and eventually it went to a standstill, though it still eerily watched us as we left.
'Woah, Nova! You're doing something intimate with another woman?! And here I thought you only had eyes for that tomboy of yours."
"She just went through a traumatic experience is all we're not… doing anything."
In that moment, I remembered how I agreed to her request from before, and a mild confusion hit me.
'Why did I agree to that again? Maybe I simply misheard her. Even if I did, why don't I feel reluctant to do so? It's almost like I want to do it even.'
As I began thinking my hands slowed down, and I looked down at her. Our eyes met for a moment before she pulled away.
"Thank you, Nova. I feel better now."
The car had an awkward atmosphere for a couple of minutes before we arrived at our destination. The metal turnstiles were all that were left between us and the outside world. A simple glance outside the chain-link fence showed a single scene where a car had collided with another in the distance, and blood smears ran around the vehicle, but besides that, everything else was as it should've been at this time of day. A quiet parking lot filled with vehicles hit by the rays of sunshine up above, reflecting off of hoods, windows, and the like.