The goggles scanning over the environment, sweeping over the shadows. Alvin asks, "what's the toughest fight you've had against these?" For a moment I take some time to think about it.
I reply, "that's a tough one to answer; physically or mentally?" He shrugs.
Alvin replies, "both." The thoughts go on by for what I want to reply with to think of, "to scare him or something that's more tame?" I look at his young innocent face and think, "tame."
I answered, "for physical; I had fought a hybrid shadow of a man and a woman; the two lovers shadows morphed into one, when fighting it; it had me pinned against the wall multiple times but luckily I was able to drop a couple grenades on it." The awe in his face.
The awestruck, "woah." That leaves Alvin's lips.
Then a bit more somber in tone for the other answer, "you know those big gazebos?" He slowly nods. I continue, "well it's shadow morphed and formed; though only one problem it was having." He intently listened and continued further, "it was a big family gathering so each family member dragged in one after another as they're trying to save each other; sure enough the thing tried fitting all of them into the body and well the structure cracked; black puss everywhere, smelled like black licorice. We needed a whole clean up crew to take care of the mess." His eyes sunken, a part of me thinking, "I thought that was tame enough."
I notice this and say, "anyways enough stories; we should be heading out." Were traveling along the grassy terrain; heading deeper into the forested area, scanning over the leaves to find a large twisted structure following us; the structure looked like a collapsed barn with black spidery legs. Alvin carrying the bag shaking like a puppy in the freezing rain. A brisk walk over to Alvin, opening up the bag and digging through it; grabbing a shock grenade, a simply quick toss into the broken structure and it screeches in pain, it whimpers as it crawls back.
Alvin heavily breathing, "eh, that was close."
I sternly speak, "don't show it fear; shadow monsters know they have you when you show fear." He gulps. A quick turn on my heels as I walk forward again. I speak up, "they should've taught you better." He gulps hard.
He sighs, "I... I know."
I remind him, "they're not just ambush predators; they don't usually feed much so they're less likely to go after someone brave or aggressive. However someone displaying weak and cowardly behavior on the other hand? That's a meal worth taking." He nods at this. I look away. We travel further ahead.
He asks, "why are we checking out the scene ahead? Shouldn't we be dealing with the that shadow monster?" I scoff at this.
I reply, "that thing, it can take most of the fire power we have; it doesn't know that though. We'll need a team to deal with it." As we travelled further ahead with the sun reaching high into the sky, we enter the trail to find the bloody rust smell followed by seeing a bunch of tents clawed a part.
Alvin murmurs, "they were tortured."
I scoff, "oh please; tortured? They're shadow monsters, they don't waste energy on torture. Hell; they're not even smart." He points at the bodies that are smashed; not even fed on.
Alvin questions, "why are the bodies not left any deep bite marks? Why are they clawed, carefully torn a part? Now, don't you think they would've heard someone screaming for the others?" To this, I had no response. Alvin starts to take his leave; running away from the crime scene. It's not long until I'm after him.
I shout, "you idiot don't split up!"
He shouts back, "we need to get to our car before it does!" I'm confused by this statement. It doesn't take long for my to catch up and grab him, dragging him to a halt.
I snarl, "you are going to get yourself killed and no it's not smart enough to go after our car! Hell it doesn't even know we drove here!"
Alvin pleads, "smell the air; what do you smell, besides blood?" The sniff of the air to catch a whiff of flowers with a sweet scent until I finally smell it; oil. He points off into the distance something shining, what looks like a crumpled up car. Alvin reacts to something, slamming me to the ground. We both look to see the thing had thrown our car at us; a crumpled up red pickup truck.
I shout, "Maya! My baby! I just gotten you paid off!" Up to my feet a fire in my eyes as I pull out a revolver, firing away into it; however the bullets barely leave a scratch on it. Alvin is dragging me as he runs, he may not be fast but he sure as hell has endurance, I'm coughing my lungs out trying to keep up with him; he's dragging me for miles deeper into the woods. I'm out of breath while he's wanting to keep running.
Alvin sighs, "I'm sorry for not mentioning something earlier; I should've pointed out the smell of the oil sooner." I nod and have us taking a break. Alvin starts digging through the bag. My eyes look on over to see the broken down barn slowly plowing it's way through the trees but getting stuck along the way and having to take a break; slowing down on it's way. We keep moving, keep heading forward with my head held high as we made enough distance between ourselves and the barn but by the time we did, nightfall came; the moon slowly coming out.
I command, "we'll set up right here; I'll sleep first; you take watch and we'll switch from there." Before I sleep, he looks to me.
Alvin questions, "how do they be; they don't breed, how do they do what they do?"
I sigh, "we don't know; we have some theories. Some have theories of every shadow having a demon, a monster or something that it exist but because humans walk through them and the light isn't consistent with things interfering with the shadows. Others thinking they bred without us seeing. Just one day, boom; exist. A preacher in a church had his own shadow come out from the ground and charge at him. The thing ate him whole." With that leaving Alvin shaking in his boots as I slept like a baby.
After four hours I'm awoken to feel my body shaken awake, rubbing my tired eyes and yawn with me leaning against the nearby tree as I watch onward. It didn't take long for me to fall asleep and wake up to screaming with that thing having closed the distance in no less than two hundred feet. On our feet we get a move on, that thing plowed through the trees like it was nothing.
We make our way towards the sound of rushing water. A bridge further ahead. I go towards the bridge until I see Alvin heading towards the water. I shout, "Alvin! The bridge!" He shakes his head.
He commands, "the water! It's going to throw another boulder and at the bridge!" I ignore him, sure I made quite a few mistakes but this isn't one of them. Even then; I had a wind glove and some other elemental gloves in my bag, easily use it like it was nothing. On my left hand a wind glove, sure enough a rock is going to land on the bridge with me blasting a whirlwind at it; however it barely budged the boulder. My life flashed before my eyes, as Alvin stepped across the river he dived into the river after me. I'm not a good swimmer and Alvin struggled to draw my body out of the water, having us lose the bag into the river expect the wind glove. Alvin puts me against the tree.
In between heavy breaths I apologize, "Alvin... I'm just one big fuck up today, I'm... I'm sorry." Alvin showing in hand a fire glove. Alvin picks me up.
Alvin says, "if you're truly sorry; then help me get us out of here alive." He picks me up, as he does so I start to think about who or what I am recommending him to. If he can do this then he can do anything. The two of us move further into the rough terrain with fallen trees. That nearby we hear frogs leaping, shadow beast frogs. We ignore it until I remember.
I say, "we need to find the shadow frogs and slaughter them; we don't need that thing to start hopping around."
Alvin shakes his head to say, "just let me take the lead; we have dealt with issue after issue and I've been solving these issues with ease, just please let me take the lead."
I scoff, "look I fucked up I know but we don't need that thing swallowing weaker shadow beast to keep up." He rolls his eyes. We don't talk while walking ahead. An hour later; what I feared came true. The sour look on Alvin's face to see a leaping collapsed farm house that has frog legs and a frog tongue. The haste to quicken our step. It may seem not all that crazy but shadows can mix and combine into something new, stronger though. Alvin fires off a blast at the creature to see it easily swallow the gloves. The dead look on his face with us moving like madmen. Once we find a spot to hide, were heavily breathing.
Alvin puts his hands on his face with groaning, "I fucked up; I fucked us." He put his head in his knees to look away from me. On my feet, moving towards him with my hand on his shoulder.
A simple comfort with a calm tone, "look; we both fucked up, what's important that you don't give up, we both push on. The fact you did this well is impressive. Trust me; after this you'll be on par with the pros. However; don't let that get to your head, too much at least." Alvin turns towards me, smile and nods. The two of us get a move on. We see a steep cliff side, the two of us look to one another.
Alvin say, "I'll be the bait." I protest. He comments, "I'm younger and stronger; be ready to start climbing down." The relenting nature on my part with him doing so without me letting him do so. I scoff at his actions but some part of me respecting his attitude. The two are charging down the path with the barn hopping with it's frog legs, mooing, oinking, clucking like a chicken and making a noise of a man screaming, inside the barn you can see a hybrid shadow that's forced to have different animal parts combined with it's body very muscular and deformed.
You can't see the look on the man's face but somehow I can tell it's suffering, chained to the barn. The shadow monster pretends not to see me. Alvin running down the path towards the cliff. Alvin shouts, "now!" Then jumps out of the way with me blasting a whirlwind into the shadow barn. I swear I can hear a meek, "thank you." Coming from the barn.
We celebrated, both of us dancing like idiots. He hears something, notice the tongue coming towards me and my life flash before my eyes. Alvin shoves me out of the way, the blacken frog tongue dragging him down the cliff. Every part of me hates him for doing this, every moment I think, "why couldn't it have been me?" Before the sun could come down; I leave the forest by foot, heading to the nearest town and call for help. When picked up, getting the mother's phone number; calling to tell how much of a hero he was with dying trying to save some orphans from a fire.
That story is only half made up; he did rush into an orphanage to save them from a fire. A selfless brash idiot. As the months go by from those events with me working at a desk job until I'm needed elsewhere. I get a call, showing up to a library where one of the book's shadows started to attack people, the book being Moby Dick if that means anything, sure as hell can't find a connection. Anyways when I reach there to find a note left, "they're not eating us; come take a dip beneath the shadows." Sure enough it's Alvin's hand writing.
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