Chapter 5 Don’t Think #3
“Three of them. In Walter’s yard. I think everyone was inside already when they landed,” Jace answered.
Again, he wiped his hands on his pants to dry them. He closed his eyes and breathed. His heart was triphammering in his chest. He felt the bitter taste of adrenaline on his tongue. Auras were flaring uncontrollably and the trilling of the tinnitus was back as a constant background noise.
I can do this, Jace told himself.
You can, Gehenna told him. You were born to do this, Jace.
Jace’s heart rate slowed. His breathing evened out. His head still throbbed. His ears still rang. When he opened his eyes, he still saw auras, but he felt calmer. There was this cold place inside of him that was prepared for this. He let go and allowed himself to simply act.
Jace pressed himself against the building and peered around the corner again.
The front bay window had fancy white wrought iron bars on it, which likely was what had stopped the Khul from simply breaking the glass like they had at the Con-Ve and the laundry.
The curtains were drawn, but Jace saw them twitch as someone looked out.
The nearest Omull raced over to the window.
It popped two of the Happy Birthday helium balloons on its way.
Some of the bright birthday streamers wrapped around the Omull’s back and it wore the streamer like an obscene sash.
One of the tentacles on the back of its neck whirled towards the window, slipped between the bars and hit the glass with a wet smack.
Jace heard muffled cries from inside the house.
That just excited the Khul more and they started to systematically go after the house’s soft spots. The doors. The windows.
Jace pulled back and said to Sami, “There’s only three of them. I can take them out.”
Sami stared at him and simply nodded. Her knuckles whitened on the axe.
“I’m going to surprise them. You two need to hang back, okay?” he asked.
Sami nodded again. “Right.”
She was trusting him. She believed he could do this. He would do this. He reached over and squeezed her shoulder. Then he turned and went back to the corner to take another look.
The sounds of breaking glass and snapping wood, not to mention terrified screams, told him that he didn’t have much time. He had to act now.
Jace found himself moving, keeping himself low, and holding the weapon in both hands.
He moved silently and used the cars on the street as cover as he made his way down the block.
The Khul were making such a racket that they likely wouldn’t have heard him if he’d been playing a tuba and had a marching band behind him.
He crouched behind a car that was directly opposite Walter’s front door. One of the Omull’s shredding the front door as if it were made of tissue paper. Jace was careful not to touch the likely searing hot hood of the vehicle as he took aim at the back of the Omull’s head.
Breathe into it, Jace. Just like we practiced, Gehenna told him, her voice soothing.
He breathed into it and time seemed to slow.
Yes, good. Now squeeze the trigger, she told him.
He squeezed and the Omull’s head exploded.
The creature’s body did this jiggly dance as if attached to an electric wire but then collapsed outside the door.
The other Omull, which had been plucking at some of the other smaller windows on the house’s side, immediately whirled around towards the sound of the weapon’s discharge. Jace was already aiming at it.
Breathe then squeeze, Gehenna told him. It rhymes. That’s how you remember it.
The weapon felt so familiar in his hand then. His heart rate was lower than before he had killed the first Omull as he killed the second. It was as if ice water moved through him. He’d shot the second Omull right through the throat. Its claws reached upwards even as its body went down with a crash.
The Cetix veered around from the back of the house.
It was moving frighteningly fast on its hundreds of centipede-like legs.
The round mouth--showing many layers of fangs--was open and it made a hissing, rattling sound that had the hair on the back of his neck standing on end.
But Jace did not blink. He smoothly moved his weapon to line up with the long, snake-like neck of the Cetix.
He breathed and squeezed repeatedly. The Cetix’s head separated from its body as he managed to hit the thing three times in the throat, severing it entirely. The creature flopped forward. Dead.
Jace continued to remain crouched, weapon out, breathing steadily. The ringing in his ears was so loud that he didn’t hear Sami calling his name. He whirled around and nearly shot her when she tapped his shoulder.
“Jace! It’s me! You did it! You really did it!” There were tears in her eyes.
“You killed the monsters, Jace,” George said around his fingers. He had opened his eyes again.
“Y-yeah, I--”
“Get in here, you three!” Walter cried. He had opened the front door and was gesturing for them to come inside frantically. “There’s more of those things out there!”
“Yeah, we know,” Jace told him.
“I think we should try to get out of here,” Sami said. “That house wasn’t going to hold them out.”
“I agree with Sami, Walter. Let’s get out of here,” Jace said.
Gehenna, is there a safe place I can take these people? Jace asked.
Yes, but--Jace! There are more! Many more! Converging on your location! Gehenna shouted. Get inside the house!
Jace saw dozens of the Khul suddenly appear from between nearby houses and businesses and come slithering down the streets from every side towards them.
Jace grabbed Sami’s hand and hustled her and George past the dead Omull and into Walter’s house.
He slammed the door and locked it with shaking hands behind them.
In Walter’s living room, Jace saw a dozen ten-year-olds clustered around Walter’s wife.
Fear was written large in their eyes. When he turned to see Walter’s face, the old man looked to have aged ten years from that morning.
He was sweating profusely and clutching at his chest. Jace prayed he was not having a heart attack.
“Can you kill them all?” Sami asked, gesturing towards the weapon in his hands.
As the front yard filled with countless Khul, Jace realized he couldn’t.
There’s a way, Jace, Gehenna sounded apprehensive.
There is? How? Jace asked her as another Omull started to pick at the door and the Cetixs filled the windows.
Metal Rain, Gehenna said.
What’s that?
Something that you can call down. But… she paused and said, Jace, this is going to hurt. Maybe even--
Kill me? His eyes went huge as he read that thought from her.
But then he was shaking his head, even as the pain of the migraine sloshed around inside.
The Omull started to throw itself at the door that suddenly let out a frightening crack!
Doesn’t matter, Gehenna! We’re all going to die here if I don’t do something.
All right, Jace, she said sadly. Just like we practiced…