Chapter 8 #4
I knew there was something odd about the light’s presence. Why have one singular light in the arena when it isn’t even lit?
I’d bet everything the ring was up there, at the very center of the space, on the highest point in the store.
“We better get moving if we even want a chance of getting that thing,” Tyler said.
He was right. If I could figure it out, then I was sure Kyle eventually would, too. Even if he didn’t figure things out, once I started climbing up the shelves to reach the light, I wouldn’t exactly be subtle, and I was sure he’d quickly put two and two together and try to stop me.
“Let’s go,” I agreed.
The time it took for us to move from the very edge of the arena to the center was the longest and hardest I’d experienced since we’d been placed in here. Every second that ticked by was another second Kyle might discover the location of the ring and make his way over there.
Plus, now that I knew where the ring was, all I wanted to do was sprint over there and get it, but we had to continue our slow creeping to avoid attention from the still-prowling creatures.
“I think we should call them viscerids.” Tyler’s quiet voice broke the palpable silence.
“What?” I asked as I glanced at him in confusion. I wasn’t sure what he was talking about.
“The small, fleshy, alien creatures,” he said. “I figured we should give them a name, and I think we should call them viscerids. You know, like visceral?”
Viscerids… huh, it sort of fit, actually.
“Okay,” I agreed. “That works for me. Viscerids, it is.”
We continued our slow approach, and we were incredibly close to the center of the store. We had to stop a few times to avoid being caught by the prowling viscerids, but fortunately, they didn’t notice us.
Regardless, I kept my fireplace poker in one hand and a heavy action figure I’d found in the other, just in case we needed to fight them off or create another diversion.
We rounded one final corner, and then we were in the center aisle.
I could feel my heartbeat speed up as both excitement and nerves competed to see which would be the stronger emotion.
The nerves were winning.
I crept down the aisle toward the light fixture, and both Tyler and I continuously watched for any sign of the viscerids and Kyle, but all seemed quiet.
We kept moving until the light was positioned directly above us, and from my current angle, I couldn’t tell if it held a jewelry box or not. I’d have to climb up to see.
God, I hoped I wasn’t wrong about this.
“Okay,” I breathed. “I won’t be able to climb up there while holding my poker, so you’ll have to be in charge of skewering any little bastards that come our way.”
“On it,” Tyler said with a nod, and he carefully set the bat down and accepted the iron poker. “Be careful.”
I was certainly going to try.
I positioned myself in front of the massive shelf and glanced around one last time to make sure there weren’t any viscerids in the area. I was going to have to climb this ridiculously tall shelf, and I was going to have to do it silently.
That was going to be extremely difficult.
I lifted my arm and carefully grasped one of the higher shelf panels, and I set my foot firmly on the base of the bottom shelf before I tensed my muscles and lifted myself up.
The metal shelf creaked slightly under my added weight, and I winced and paused my ascent to see if the sound had attracted any attention.
Shockingly, there were no scuffling noises and no chitters from the creatures. There wasn’t any sort of indication that they’d heard me at all. I breathed a small sigh of relief and continued moving up.
I hadn’t made it very high up when I suddenly heard a sound below me.
“What the fuck are you guys doing?” Kyle hissed.
He still had the two by four in his hands, and he held it ready like he was preparing to take a swing at me. Tyler stepped into his path and held the poker up like a spear, but he only had one good arm.
Neither Tyler nor I made any move to answer him, and I didn’t try to climb up any further.
I wasn’t sure if there was some sort of timer that had to finish for the games to end, or if perhaps they ended as soon as all the jewelry pieces had been found.
But I couldn’t risk grabbing the diamond ring right in front of Kyle because he might try to take it from us.
He’d already proven with Tyler and Zade that he wasn’t afraid to fight dirty, and he obviously didn’t care who got hurt in the process.
“Answer me,” Kyle demanded as he brandished his bloody board. “Or I’ll fucking hit this shelf and bring every one of those things in the store directly to you.”
“Fine, I’ll tell you,” I shot back. “I was just climbing up here to get a better vantage point.”
Kyle looked like he wanted to accuse me of lying, but what I said sounded logical.
So, he stared at me hard for a very long moment before his face finally smoothed out, and an eerie calm replaced his expression.
It unsettled me.
“Okay,” he finally said.
Then he pulled his arms back and drove the side of the two by four directly into the shelf. It rang out with a loud and sharp metallic sound that echoed through the store.
I knew we had seconds before the viscerids swarmed us.
That fucking asshole.
Kyle moved quickly as he shoved at Tyler’s injured arm, which caused the man to grunt in pain and lose his footing so he fell backward.
Kyle turned to run off, and he clearly intended to leave Tyler and I alone to be devoured by the small beasts, but I was done with Kyle’s shit.
I dropped to the ground, launched myself at the traitor, and tackled him to the ground.
The wooden board, Kyle’s only weapon, was knocked from his grip, and it slid across the floor, several feet away.
While he was dazed, I aimed two hard punches directly at Kyle’s face.
I heard the crunch as his nose broke beneath my knuckles, and I saw the warm stream of red blood pool out.
Kyle struggled to get me off him, and he punched futilely at my arms and sides, but I was a man possessed. This fucker had tried to kill Tyler twice now, he’d tried to kill me, and he’d almost certainly gotten Zade killed.
I continued to aim punches at Kyle’s face until his left eye had completely swelled shut.
Suddenly, the chittering was all around us, and we all froze and watched in horror as several creatures appeared.
From where I was positioned, I counted nine in total. The viscerids had us completely surrounded. Some were on the ground while others clambered onto the shelves to sniff at the air, so there was nowhere safe to go.
I was still positioned on top of Kyle, and I’d ceased my punching the moment I sensed the creatures were here. Tyler was hunched on the ground several feet away from us, still clutching his injured arm. Thankfully, the little monsters hadn’t noticed him yet, either.
I tried to come up with a plan in my head. My poker was just a few feet away, so maybe if I could find something to throw as a diversion, I could grab the poker and fend off whatever creatures remained in the area.
I glanced around for some sort of small and heavy item, but there wasn’t anything like that nearby.
Shit.
One of the viscerids moved a bit closer by barely an inch, but the movement made Kyle panic, and he suddenly shoved me off, which caused me to stumble back and into the shelf.
It made a loud banging sound, and every viscerid turned in my direction and prepared to pounce.
Double shit.
I prepared myself for the worst.
The creatures’ attention was all on me, and I guessed Kyle saw that as his opportunity for escape because the moron scrambled to his feet to make a run for it.
But his stupid dress shoes lost traction for a second, and they slid hard against the smooth flooring, which caused an incredibly high-pitched squeak.
I watched as all their little heads slowly turned to face in Kyle’s direction instead.
Kyle looked terrified, and he sent me a pleading look that seemed to beg me to help him, but I wasn’t feeling particularly merciful at the moment.
The fucker had literally just tried to sacrifice me a second ago.
Why the hell would I help him?
One of the creatures jumped down from the shelf above and landed directly in front of Kyle, and it let out a sharp hiss that caused the man to panic even more.
He gasped, scrambled away, and made even more noise in the process.
Tyler and I remained perfectly still and silent as we watched events unfold.
The viscerids pounced, and Kyle leaped to his feet and ran, with all of them in pursuit. A few seconds later, we heard screaming from somewhere in the distance.
“Come on!” I said as I leaped to my own feet. “We need to do this now, while they’re distracted.”
Tyler reclaimed the poker and staggered up to his feet while I returned to my spot in front of the shelf. I still had to remain quiet, but I could still hear screaming in the distance and a bunch of thudding sounds, so I knew the creatures weren’t going to be focused on me.
I climbed as quickly and quietly as I could. Twice, my foot slipped and made a loud thud, but no creatures came to investigate the sound, so I just kept going.
I finally reached the top, and I pulled myself up and balanced on the high shelf. If I hadn’t made a point to go to the gym almost every day, and maintain my strength and physical capabilities, there was no way I would’ve been able to successfully complete that climb.
Once I had both feet on the uppermost panel, I steadied myself and carefully drew up out of the crouch position. The light fixture was within reach now, and I leaned forward and felt inside the glass bowl.
At first, I couldn’t feel anything.
What if I had been wrong? What if we’d done all this for nothing?
I continued to feel around, and finally, once I’d reached into the furthest point of the fixture, my fingers grazed against something soft and velvety.
I closed my fist around the object and drew it out. When I opened my hand to see what was inside, I felt an immense wave of relief wash through me.