"You should've let her stay with her relatives," Izzy muttered, handing Gantsuke back the .357 revolver Meenda had forgotten. She shot a glance at the girl, who was curled up and trembling in the back seat.
Izzy wanted to be angry—hell, she was angry—but Meenda's tear-streaked, blood-smeared face stopped her short.She didn't need to see what had happened inside that house.The pale, broken look on the girl's face told her everything.
"We're not talking about this right now," Gantsuke said between breaths.He hadn't expected carrying her out of the house would drain him like that.
"How's it looking, tiger?" Limo's voice crackled over the radio.
"All good. I think Meenda's seen her parents now," Gantsuke replied, glancing back at the girl hugging her knees, silently sobbing.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
Izzy screamed.
Meenda jolted upright, eyes snapping to the rearview mirror—just in time to see a mangled, half-destroyed face pounding on the driver's window like a jealous husband who'd caught his wife cheating in their own car.
Sweat dripped down Gantsuke's face.He narrowed his eyes.
From the thing's neck… something was moving. Dozens of tiny, tentacle-like tendrils squirmed out like seaweed in a storm.
"Ease it back… slowly," he said, reaching over to steady Izzy's shaking hands.
WHAM. WHAM. WHAM.
The glass cracked under the monster's fists.
"Okay. Okay," Izzy muttered, eyes closed, trying to calm her trembling.
THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.
The thing hit harder—so hard its wrist snapped, bone punching through raw red flesh like a horror show gone live.
Meenda shrieked, like a slasher film victim staring into the eyes of her killer.
"I'm not scared. I'm not scared," Izzy whispered to herself like a prayer.She opened her eyes, took a shaky breath, and slipped the gear into reverse.
"Good. Easy... easy," Gantsuke murmured, squeezing her hand as the Hummer crept backward.
The creature shrank in the mirror—further… smaller… almost gone.
"Stop."
Izzy hit the brakes.Her eyes widened.
"No—don't you dare…"
Gantsuke opened the door and stepped out, the massive Barrett M82A1 in his hands.Izzy and Meenda held their breath. He had to be insane.
The monster was about eighty yards away.
BOOM.
The .50-cal armor-piercing round tore the thing apart in a single shot—blowing chunks of meat and black ichor across the street.
Gantsuke got back in the car, slammed the door, and inhaled the cold AC like a man who'd just climbed out of hell.
"Damn," he whispered, stroking the Barrett like it was forged by gods.That was his first shot with it—and it felt like he'd just wielded Thor's hammer.
"What the hell was that thing?" Izzy asked. Her face was white as a ghost who'd just seen another ghost.
"I don't know," Gantsuke said, reloading with shaking hands.
The Hummer was parked under a massive rain tree.Limo, watching from the drone, had lost sight of them in the shade.
"I heard gunfire. What happened?"
"I think I—"
CRASH.
Something slammed into the back of the truck.
Meenda screamed again—her sorrow over her parents instantly shoved aside by primal terror.
"It's back!" Gantsuke shouted, whipping around.
A pale man in a brown trench coat slowly rose behind the car.Blood dripped down from his chin and chest like a freshly fed vampire.
It was the same mark Gantsuke had seen on the black man infected by the purple giant.
"Hit it!"
Even before he finished the sentence, Izzy floored it.
The turbocharged diesel engine roared, tires screaming across asphalt.
THUMP. THUMP.
The Hummer jolted as it crushed the man under its wheels.
Izzy yanked the handbrake, spun the wheel hard, and executed a perfect drift turn—pointing them toward the arched Greek-style gate.
"Buckle up," Gantsuke said, glancing at Meenda in the back seat.
Still stiff, still pale, she scrambled for the seatbelt and clicked it in.
The Hummer rolled forward out of the tree's shadow.
And there they were.
Five men standing in a line across the exit gate—arms at their sides, unmoving, like mannequins on a soccer field.Each one stood stiff in the blazing sun.
No weapons.
But blood marked their chins and chests.
The same kind of mark.
Limo, Mari, and Molly stared at the drone feed in silence.
"Limo said you were a good driver," Gantsuke told Izzy with a grin.
"Show me."
He lifted a grenade into his right hand.
Hooked a finger into the pin with his left.
He didn't know what those things were—or why they weren't afraid of daylight.
But he had a grenade.
And that, at least, made him smile.