The hypermarket did not feel like a building anymore. The hypermarket was something now. It was a place where people went to buy things. It was not, like a regular building. The hypermarket was the hypermarket. That is all it was.
That place felt like a killing ground. The whole area felt like a killing ground. It was a feeling to be, in a place that felt like a killing ground.
Carts were turned over. They made weird barriers. When you walked on the glass it sounded like you were walking on tiny pieces of bone. There was blood over the white floor in big ugly marks. The blood mixed with fruit and meat that was coming out of broken packages. The lights above us were not working right some were completely dead. Some were making a buzzing sound like flies, around something rotten.
Ethan Cross walked through the thing without stopping. He did not think about it Ethan Cross just kept going.
I am holding my knife low. I take steps. My eyes are scanning everything around me.
Each dead body he walked by whether it was a person or an animal was. Then forgotten. He did not have time to be scared now. The only thing that mattered was keeping moving. He had to maintain his momentum his dead body count was not going to stop him the momentum of his actions was all that mattered.
When he looked out of the corner of his eye he saw blue text. This blue text would. Then fade away every time he got a kill. The blue text was really faint. It was only visible at the edge of his vision. He would see the text pulse and fade, with every kill he made.
[Energy Drain: +3%]
The warmth in his veins was still there. It had not gone away. If anything it had become more intense, like a knife that is being made sharper with every beat of his heart. His muscles felt like they were floating. His senses were really sharp now. They were not perfect. Not just yet. The warmth, in his veins and the sharpness of his senses were still getting stronger.
Screams echoed deeper inside the store. The screams were really loud. They seemed to be coming from deeper, inside the store. I do not know what is happening. The screams are coming from the store.
Not panicked screams.
People are. Fighting.
Ethan turned around to see what was behind him. Ethan was really curious about what had caught his attention. The sound was coming from the side of the room where Ethan had been standing just a moment before. Ethan took a step forward to get a look, at what was going on.
A loud crash happened. Something metal hit something and then a really angry yell. The man changed direction away moving quickly past a big mess of cans that had fallen over. The cans were leaking soup everywhere like something was bleeding.
The sporting goods section came into view. I was looking at the sporting goods section. It was really cool. The sporting goods section had a lot of things, like balls and bikes. I liked the sporting goods section because it had everything I needed to play sports.
And at its center—
The man stood his ground. He was not going to back down. The man was very firm, about this. The man stood his ground. That was it.
This guy was really big. He had to be over six feet tall. His shoulders were wide. He was thick all the way, through his chest and arms. He wore a beat up New York Yankees cap that covered his eyes. He was sweating a lot. It showed on his big gray sweater. The man held an aluminum baseball bat in his hands. The bat was. Had some dark stains on it.
He swung that thing like he really wanted to hurt the world. The world was what he wanted to destroy. He was not holding back when he swung it at the world.
The man yelled loudly "Get out of here!" He was so upset that his voice started to shake. Then he shouted again "Get out of here leave!"
The bat flew fast through the air. It was the bat that made a noise as the bat moved quickly. The bat was going fast that people could hear the bat whizzing by.
Crack.
A goblin flew sideways. Slammed into a rack of tennis balls. The plastic containers broke open. The bright yellow tennis balls went all over the floor. It was like the tennis balls were making fun of the goblin. The goblin and the tennis balls were a silly sight. The tennis balls were everywhere. The goblin was just standing there surrounded by the bright yellow tennis balls.
The man was really struggling to walk. He was breathing hard.
He was strong—but sloppy.
There were three goblins around him now. They were moving really slowly. The goblins had eyes that seemed to be laughing at him. They were small, like children. The goblins had sharp claws that could cut through his skin and hurt him badly. The claws of the goblins were so sharp they could tear his muscles off his bones.
The bird darted low.
The man swung the bat hard. He really swung the baseball bat with all his might. The man lost his balance when he swung the bat. The man was trying to hit the ball with the bat.
The bat hit the tile. It cracked. This made the man feel a lot of pain in his arms. The pain was so bad that it felt like it was screaming up his arms. The bat did not do what it was supposed to do it cratered the tile instead.
"Ah—!"
His stance broke. He stopped breathing for a moment. Panic showed up on his face fast. His breath hitched. Panic was, over the face of the man.
Ethan thought that the man was dead away. That is, unless someone does something to help him.
"Get ahold of yourself."
The voice was really loud. It cut through all the noise, like a gunshot. It was so clear that it stopped everything. The voice cut through the chaos like a gunshot.
The man and the goblins just stopped moving. They were still. The man and the goblins did not say a word.
"Kieee?" one of the creatures said in a voice it tilted its head to the side. The creature looked really curious, about something it was saying "Kieee?" again and again. The creatures were very weird they were saying "Kieee?". Waiting for an answer.
Ethan moved from the shadows that were between the aisles. He was trying to be quiet and stay out of sight. The shadows, between the aisles were a place for Ethan to hide.
The first thing that the man threw was not the knife.
It was a cast-iron frying pan.
The pan really hit me like a cannonball. It was, like something heavy the pan it just came down and hit me. The pan was very loud when it hit it sounded like a cannonball.
Clang!
The thing hit the goblin right, in the face. It broke the goblins teeth. Crushed its skull. The goblin fell down. Started shaking all over. Blue light was already coming out of its body.
Before the others could react something happened that caught everyone off guard. The others were still trying to figure out what was going on. Before the others could even move things started to change fast.
HISSSS.
The black spray paint just went everywhere covering the goblins face in a really thick layer. The goblin let out a shriek trying to scratch its own eyes but it was not doing anything to help. The goblin stumbled backward. Bumped into a rack of badminton stuff, which then fell over making a huge noise, with all the metal and plastic crashing down.
Ethan took three steps and then he was right there. Ethan closed the distance, between them fast it only took Ethan three steps.
Boot to throat.
The man pressed down on it. He kept pressing down on the thing. The thing was not moving when he pressed down.
Hard.
The goblin was really. Making these weird noises then it just stopped moving and went limp. The goblin did not move anymore.
The blue light came into Ethan again. It was even hotter this time.
The third goblin. Did not know what to do. The third goblin just stood there.
That was its mistake.
Ethan said "Attack". He did not look away, from the creature. His eyes stayed on the creature the time. Ethan was watching the creature closely. The creature was what Ethan was focused on.
The word carried weight. This is because the word had a lot of meaning to it. The word itself was very important. When you heard the word you knew it was something. The word carried a lot of weight. That is what made it so special. The word was not any word it was the word that had a big impact, on people.
The big man did not question it. He just accepted the mans situation like that. The big man was fine, with it.
The man let out a roar and swung his arms really hard. He just kept on roaring and swinging. The man was. Swinging.
CRACK.
The bat hit the goblin right on the temple. It made a noise that was, like a gunshot. The goblin fell down immediately its skull was. Green blood was coming out of its nose. The bat really connected with the goblin. The goblin had blood all over its face.
The room was completely quiet. This silence was very thin. It felt like it could break easily. The silence fell. It was a thing.
The man was standing there his chest going up and down fast and he was staring at the dead body. The man could not look away, from the corpse. The corpse was just lying there. The man was staring at it.
The man laughed. He actually laughed. The laugh, from the man was pretty funny. The man laughed at that moment.
A raw, unhinged sound.
He said "I killed it" and then he took a breath. He said "I killed the bastard" and he looked really upset. The man killed something. It was a big deal, to him. He was talking about the bastard. How he killed it.
He brought the bat down one time to make sure. The bat came down again for measure. He wanted to be certain so he brought the bat down more.
Ethan was paying attention to the man. He wanted to see what the man was going to do. Ethan kept watching him. The man was doing something that caught Ethans eye. Ethan watched the man.
Strong. Emotional. Undisciplined.
But alive.
The first goblin—barely conscious from the pan—twitched.
Ethan just stopped things there. He took one step. That was it. Then he stomped his foot like that was the end of it. One step and one stomp that is all it took for Ethan to end it.
Crunch.
The thing was. Then the man finally said something.
"My name is Ethan Cross " he said. He was really calm about it. His voice was flat. It was absolute. "If you come with me you have to do what I say " he told them. "You have to follow my orders. Do not hesitate. Do not argue with me. Ethan Cross is very serious, about this."
The man swallowed. He was the man who did this thing. The man felt something go down his throat. This is what happened to the man. The man had swallowed something.
The hypermarket, around them was really loud. You could hear noises from away. It sounded like people were smashing things and breaking glass. There were voices people were begging for help but then they just stopped. The hypermarket was still screaming around them.
Pride did not matter.
Survival really did happen.
The man said finally "I am Marcus Hale." He tightened his grip on the bat. ". Yes. I will follow the person you are talking about " Marcus Hale said. He looked at the person he was talking to. Then back at the bat, in his hand. Marcus Hale was going to follow this person.
Good answer.
Ethan nodded once and then he turned toward the racks. He said "We need to grab the bats and the gloves and the duffel bags. We should get anything that's useful, to us. The weapons are the important thing. We need to get those first. Then we need to think about mobility. That is the most important thing."
Marcus was moving fast because he was so excited and a little scared. He was throwing bats into a bag and he was also grabbing some tape, protein bars and knee guards. He wanted to make sure they had everything they needed to stay safe for a while longer. Marcus was thinking about the baseball bats and the other things he was packing like the tape and the knee guards. He hoped these things would help them stay alive for one more minute.
Ethan got ready, with everything he needed. He had knives, some rope, a multitool and spray cans. Ethan made sure he was all set with these things, like the knives and the rope and the multitool and the spray cans.
Then—
A sound rolled through the store. It was a loud noise that filled up the whole place. The sound was so strong that it made everyone, in the store stop what they were doing and look around to see what was happening. The sound rolled through the store. It was very surprising.
Deep.
Wet.
Not a goblin.
The floor was shaking badly. It felt like the floor vibrated under my feet. I could feel the vibration of the floor.
A shadow stretched across the aisle. It looked really big and weird. The shadow was massive. It was definitely wrong. It did not look like it belonged there. The shadow, across the aisle was very strange.
Ethans grip got really tight, on the knife that Ethan was holding.
He told me to move. I had to do it.
People slipped into the aisles when the roar of the crowd thundered again and it was closer this time.
Behind the people a huge thing stepped fully into the supermarket. The huge thing was really big. It was now, inside the supermarket.
Ethan did not look back.
Alliances that people made when they were in tough spots were not very strong. But they were still better than dying all by yourself. Alliances like these were pretty weak.. Having an alliance was better than having no one to help you when you were, in a bad situation. Alliances made in times were just not very reliable. So you had to be careful when you made an alliance.
And the hunt—
The hunt had only just begun.