Chapter 29: S#5. The Lloyd (6)
by fnovelpia
The alien muscle mass spread its gigantic wings.
But wings weren’t the only things it produced.
Something popped out from its grotesque muscular surface like bean sprouts.
It was an organ like tentacles, covered with heads.
Faces twisted in pain.
They were the ones still conscious.
“Arghhh! Save me! Save me!!”
“Mommyyy…”
“I want to liveeee!”
“Kill…me…”
“Don’t kill me! I’m still conscious…!!”
“Save me, save me, save me, save me, save me, save me, save me.”
The cries of those possessed formed a harmony of hell.
It was shocking.
“Hahaha, what are you going to do? They are still sane! Are you going to kill innocent people?”
The director said from within the mass.
He thrust the tentacles with people’s faces at me like a shield.
Killing someone pleading for their life was not at all pleasant.
But there was no time to hesitate.
Hesitating here was like hesitating in front of a zombie.
It was not a courtesy to those who could not return to life.
I grasped my bone saw tightly.
“I’m sorry everyone…! I’ll kill you as quickly as possible!!!”
Just kill them as quickly as possible.
Quickly and without pain.
I sawed towards the heads.
Scratch, whoosh, slash, blood splattered everywhere.
Flesh was washed with flesh. Blood washed with blood.
“Stop! Stop it! Stoppppppppppppp!!!”
“You bastard! It hurts, it hurts!!!”
“Arrgh, guuuaaaagh, agh, agh! Ahhhhhh!!”
“Sniff, snifff, sob…! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!!!”
Innocent heads screamed out.
Ignoring them, I swiftly swung the bone saw.
I’m no hero. Just a murderer.
The heads cut by the saw blade rolled on the floor.
The alien muscle mass writhed and then flapped its gigantic wings.
I staggered from the blast of wind.
The director’s voice rang out.
“Mr. Summer! You are much more merciless than I thought!”
“Yeah. That’s my role.”
“How cruel! Dieeeeeee!!!!!”
The mass folded its wings.
And then slammed the tips of its folded wings towards me.
It was a brutal strike.
I barely rolled away.
The tip of the wing smashed the concrete floor.
Debris flew everywhere.
At that moment, I realized something suddenly.
It wasn’t just the alien muscles that absorbed the memory of the muscles of their hosts.
I once was a physical therapist for patients.
The muscles that touched my fingertips were directing me.
Imitating the muscles of a professional wrestler, I threw my body towards the mass.
Imitating the muscles of a tennis player, I swung my bone saw hard against the muscular surface.
Imitating the muscles of a rock climber, I drove the saw blade into the mass and clung to it.
The 20-meter-tall alien muscle mass let out a roar.
I clung tightly to the twisted muscular body.
“Damn human…! Get off!!!”
It swung its wings wildly to shake me off.
The wings smashed the hospital’s outer walls.
The saying ‘A strong body houses a strong soul’ was shattered.
“Phewww……”
Clinging on, I began to saw through the muscle mass as best I could.
The saw blade, already dull from repeated killings, continued to saw.
Whoosh-
Hot, red blood gushed out like a fountain.
No matter how much I sawed, it seemed endless.
Why was it so tough?
There was a calf protruding from the lumpy, twisted muscle surface.
Whose leg it was, I didn’t know.
Reflexively, I reached out, grabbed the calf, and pressed the acupuncture point.
Then, the mass convulsed violently.
The director screamed in agony.
“Aaarrgh, agh, aarrghhhhh!!!”
Pressing the calf was more painful than sawing.
Being connected as one body, it seemed the pain was shared.
This was a good opportunity.
Sorry to those still conscious…
But I’ll give you the ultimate pain!
I pressed down hard on the calf, squeezing it as if to crush it-
My thumb broke through the skin and into the muscle.
“If it hurts, say so!”
“Aarrgh!!!!! It hurts, it hurts! f*ck, it hurts!!!!!!!!”
“You want it harder?!”
I pressed harder.
I squeezed all my strength into the tip of my thumb.
The alien muscle mass writhed as if it was about to turn inside out from the severe pain.
I was hanging on and nearly fell off.
Clenching my teeth so hard they felt like they would turn to dust, I clung to the calf.
My arm muscles went into overdrive. Tendons popped out.
Finally, my thumb reached the bone of the calf.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
The mass, writhing wildly, fell apart.
A crack of pain spread like fire, and the twisted bodies that had been fused together dropped.
Complete collapse.
It was a success.
“Ha, ha… ha……”
I gasped for breath.
The core of the shattered muscle mass was exposed.
The director, who acted as the nucleus, was there.
“Ha, finally got you.”
I lifted my bone saw.
Just as I was about to strike the director between the eyes—
He pushed me.
It was such a sudden counterattack that I had no time to react.
The director flapped the muscle wings on his back and floated in the air.
It was a nimble flight.
“I’m going home…! To my homeland…!”
Crazy.
How could he be so persistent?
I threw two bone saws at the director, soaring into the sky, hoping to intercept him.
But the director dodged them like an acrobat flying, and the saw blades missed pathetically.
“Sh*t.”
I muttered.
If even one got back to its homeland, it could bring its kind back to Earth.
Humanity would be doomed.
A moment of carelessness had led to disaster.
My legs gave out, and I collapsed.
The director, rising high in the air, waved his hand mockingly.
“See you again, Mr. Summer! I’ll go and bring my kind from my homeland…”
But his words were cut off mid-sentence.
A missile, flying from somewhere, struck the director with a beautiful trajectory.
Boom──────────
It exploded.
The director was blown to pieces in the air.
It looked like a spectacular fireworks display, though what spewed out was not sparks but burst flesh.
I looked to where the missile had come from.
Stallone, with an RPG-7 on his shoulder, was on the crumbled hospital wall.
Shattered concrete debris lay scattered.
Stallone sat among it, the RPG-7, known as “Allah’s magic wand,” resting on his shoulder.
I thought he had died in a grenade suicide, but there he was, alive like a true man.
Though he was half dead.
His lower half was completely gone.
His intestines spilled out through the rough cut.
It was a fatal wound from being crushed by the collapsed wall.
“Want a smoke?”
Stallone offered a cigar.
This time, I didn’t refuse.
I took the cigar, inhaling the smoke.
It was harsh. Stallone laughed as I coughed.
“Your last physical therapy session… was excellent…”
Stallone put his hand on my shoulder as he took a puff of his cigar.
His hand had no color of life.
“…You’ve improved beyond recognition…”
“Stallone……”
“You’re no longer… a rookie… Summer……”
His voice was breaking.
For the first and last time, he called me by my name.
The cigar fell from Stallone’s mouth.
“……I also… wanted to go home…”
He spat blood instead of smoke.
And then he moved no more.
The night deepened.
When I arrived home, it was nearly 10 PM.
Nancy Strode was pacing in the front yard, holding something in her hand.
“What were you doing, coming home now?!”
Nancy immediately snapped at me upon seeing me.
“Do you know how worried I was?! Mom went looking for you… huh?”
But then she noticed I was covered in blood, and she was shocked.
“Summer…?! What happened?!”
“I got fired from my job,” I said calmly.
“And I saved the Earth.”
Nancy looked confused, not understanding.
It was a story too long to explain in detail.
So, I decided to summarize it in my own way.
“Today, I killed a lot of people. Maybe even hundreds.”
“What…?”
“They were innocent people who had become hosts for an alien life form. I had no choice but to slice them to death with a saw.”
It was a mindless slaughter.
“On the way back, I suddenly had this thought. If Ellen and Nancy became hosts, could I really swing the saw at them?”
“…”
“I couldn’t do it.”
I meant it.
It didn’t matter about others, but Ellen and Nancy are precious to me, a selfish truth.
“People say all lives are of equal value… but it seems not for a villain like me. Even if it means the destruction of Earth, I want to protect my loved ones.”
In body snatcher movies, the protagonist often faces a critical moment.
The moment they realize a loved one has become a host.
Of course, it’s not really their loved one.
It’s just a monster from outer space wearing their loved one’s skin.
Yet, the protagonist shows indecision.
Unable to make the decisive call to kill, they dither like fools.
And sometimes, they miss the chance and are taken by surprise.
It’s a scene that appears often, almost cliché.
Watching those scenes, I always felt frustrated.
I thought it was just a plot device to create suspense.
But now I know. It’s not just a plot device.
It’s inevitable.
“Thank you for being someone important to me, Nancy,” I said.
I didn’t say I wanted to be someone important to her.
That would be too greedy.
Nancy, who had silently listened to me, came closer.
Her eyes were moist, as if moved.
“Thanks, Summer… Or should I call you Dad now…?”
“What are you talking about, Nancy? Dad?”
“You know what I mean.”
Embarrassed, Nancy poked my chest with her finger.
“You and mom are, you know…”
“What are you talking about? Are you on drugs?”
“Don’t play dumb. What were you two doing in the workshop last night?”
“Massage?”
“Massage…??”
Nancy blinked.
Exactly 3 seconds later, her face turned red as if it was about to explode.
Steam seemed to be rising from the top of her head.
She must have had some ridiculous misunderstanding.
Nancy awkwardly handed me something she was holding.
It was a neatly wrapped gift.
I unwrapped it.
A handsome hand axe was inside.
“…Happy Birthday,” Nancy said.
The night sky seemed ready to spill stars at any moment.
A single starlight beautifully twinkled on the smooth blade of the axe.
That star, surely, was someone’s homeland.
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