Chapter 84: S#14. Pet Shop (4)
by fnovelpia
“What the hell is that…?”
The figure standing at the end of the hallway revealed itself.
A human shape. But it had no facial features.
Its flesh was lumpy and bumpy like a radioactive tomato. It was a grotesque creature, like something out of <Silent Hill>.
It was draped in torn pieces of cloth, which looked like women’s clothing.
Where the hell did that thing come from?
The monster reached out towards Zelda.
Its large hand narrowly missed her head.
Fortunately, Hilda pulled her back, or Zelda’s head might have been taken off.
The hand axe was on the floor.
I had to step in.
But my left arm was pierced by the bars, immobilized as if cuffed.
There was only one option.
Gritting my teeth, I leaned back.
“Sh*t…!!”
I tore my arm free.
Thankfully, the iron bar hadn’t hit bone. Only the skin and some of the forearm muscles were torn.
My arm wasn’t severed, but the pain from the muscle tearing was immense.
A spirited scream came out involuntarily.
“Aaaaaahhhhh!!!!!”
Screaming, I charged at the monster. I kicked it in the groin.
My strong shin crushed its crotch.
But I didn’t stop there. I raised my leg higher. My shinbone acted like a grinder, ripping the monster from bottom to top.
My leg formed a perfect straight line.
The monster’s body split in half along the path of my kick.
Thud—
The monster fell.
I trampled on each piece of the bisected head, crushing it.
“The phone is dead too.”
Ellen sighed as she put down the receiver.
Nancy was anxious. Summer was missing, the house had turned into a cage, and now a mysterious monster had appeared.
Their chances of survival seemed slim.
Ellen, on the other hand, was relieved that Summer wasn’t there.
In situations like this, she always relied on him, never having the chance to show her strength.
It was time to reveal the superpower she had been hiding.
“Nancy, let’s go to the panic room on the second floor.”
“The panic room…? We have a panic room in our house?”
“The architect who built this house was a survivalist.”
Ellen’s superpower was ‘wealth.’
It wasn’t really a superpower, nor had it been hidden, but it was indeed impressive.
The wealth to own a house with a panic room…
The Strode mother and daughter quickly grabbed their weapons and went up to the second floor.
Then, they heard a noise from behind.
The sound of the monster’s footsteps.
“Another one…?”
“Where are they coming from?”
Ellen grabbed a large picture frame hanging at the end of the hallway.
Behind the frame was a steel door.
“Nancy, I’ll handle them. You open the door.”
“Okay, got it…!”
Hearing the password from her mother, Nancy’s trembling hand moved to the keypad on the door.
Ellen held a chainsaw in her left hand and had a shotgun slung over her right shoulder.
The weight was heavy for a woman, but manageable for a mother.
She moved to the top of the stairs.
The monsters were visible on the first floor.
This time, there were two. Their skins were rough and twisted. Pieces of cloth stuck to their backs.
Even without eyes, they sensed Ellen’s presence. Like bullfrogs, they leapt towards the stairs.
Ellen aimed the shotgun. She blasted the first one in the abdomen, sending it flying.
Now for the other one. She pulled the trigger, shattering its shoulder with the shot.
But the monster didn’t stop its charge.
There was no time to reload the shotgun.
Ellen hurriedly retreated down the hallway.
Nancy must have opened the door by now. She just had to dive into the panic room and close the door.
Surprisingly, the door was still shut.
Nancy, crouching in front of it, looked distressed.
“Mom! It says the password is wrong…!”
“What?! Did you enter it correctly?”
“I did it just like you said!”
In desperation, she handed the chainsaw to Nancy.
Ellen tapped the keypad. When she entered the password, an alert said, ‘Incorrect password.’
She felt disoriented.
What was it? When did I change it?
Cold sweat ran down her face.
“Mom…! Hurry!”
Nancy, holding the chainsaw, urged her.
The monster that had climbed the stairs was now running down the second-floor hallway. Its face, looking like a rotten durian, was getting closer.
Ellen finally remembered the password (Summer’s birthday) and entered it, and the door opened.
She dragged Nancy inside the panic room and shut the door.
The approaching monster wedged its arm in the door.
The Strode women used all their strength to push the door closed. But the monster was stronger.
The gap in the door slowly widened. At this rate, the door would open!
“Nancy… the chainsaw… cut it with the chainsaw!”
“It won’t start! I think it’s out of fuel…!!”
“Then just saw it!!!”
While Ellen strained to hold the door, Nancy began to saw the monster’s arm with the chainsaw.
Scrape, scrape, scrape, scrape—
Thick blood splattered everywhere. After a furious sawing, the arm was completely severed, and the door shut.
“Haa… haa…”
The two women collapsed to the floor.
Only then could they breathe a sigh of relief.
The panic room was stocked with survival supplies like canned food, water bottles, and gas masks.
“We could survive here for a year.”
“Really, we could.”
They were safe now.
If they held out in the panic room for a little while, a rescue team or special forces, or even Summer, would come.
Then this mysterious situation would be over.
Exhausted from the intense sawing, Nancy felt hungry.
She got up and scanned the shelves.
“Oh no.”
“What is it?”
“Mom, these are empty cans…?”
The canned food on the shelves was neatly emptied.
All of them were just cans.
Unbelievable… come to think of it, they had never checked the panic room.
Ellen was flustered but kept her composure.
“It’s okay. As long as we have water, we can last for a week…”
She stopped mid-sentence.
The water bottles were also empty.
Her composure shattered.
‘Thank you for saving me.’
Hilda said this with her hands and injected me with painkillers. She was so startled that tears were streaming down her face.
My left arm was in shreds. It wasn’t just pierced by iron bars; I had also ripped it off with force…
Not only the muscles but possibly the tendons were damaged, so I couldn’t move a single finger.
The pain was indescribable. I wondered if this was what it felt like to have testicles on your arm and have them smashed.
Zelda, after listening to Hilda’s explanation, spoke.
“This injury is really severe, Summer.”
“Can’t you just stitch it up?”
“This isn’t something that can be stitched up. You need surgery at a hospital. If it gets infected, you might have to amputate.”
Hilda wrapped my left arm in bandages.
She took off her bloodstained white coat and hung it on a hanger.
What did we need to escape from this house turned prison?
I thought of horror movies where characters escape houses.
The ones that came to mind were <House on Haunted Hill> and <13 Ghosts>.
I went to the hallway in front of the entrance. I examined the monster I had killed. It wasn’t a ghost.
Was this monster the ‘poacher’ Littleman mentioned?
Where had it come from?
I punched the iron bars, but they didn’t break. They were incredibly durable.
“Zelda, can I break the wall a little?”
With her permission, I punched the interior wall of the house.
Through the hole I made, more iron bars appeared. The entire house was encased in steel.
There was no way out.
Zelda sat on the sofa, holding her forehead.
“What do we do now? Should we make a bomb?”
“The bars are incredibly tough. Even a bomb wouldn’t work.”
How could there not be a single person passing by on the street?
It felt like a controlled movie set.
I was worried about Nancy and Ellen next door. Were they safe?
Hilda pressed the remote control and turned on the TV.
Just as the TV screen lit up, it suddenly shattered into pieces.
A projectile flew rapidly from behind.
“Get down!”
I grabbed the Hyper sisters and ducked.
Finger-sized projectiles embedded themselves into the sofa.
Bullets?
Peeking over the sofa, I saw a monster standing by the coat rack.
The monster was holding a gun made of bone and flesh. It looked like a bio-gun from a David Cronenberg movie.
Bang, bang, bang—
Projectiles flew towards my head peeking out from the sofa. I ducked back to avoid them.
The monster reloaded the bio-gun.
Now was my chance. I dashed out from behind the sofa.
I headbutted the monster’s face, caving in its unpleasant features.
The monster staggered. I stomped on its foot. Crack—the foot shattered against the floor.
I finished it off with an elbow to its solar plexus.
The fallen monster had scraps of cloth embedded in its body.
They were parts of the blood-stained white coat. The coat Hilda had taken off ten minutes ago.
A hypothesis formed in my mind.
“…Zelda, take off your clothes.”
Zelda was shocked.
“S-Summer, in a situation like this…!”
“Please listen to me.”
“I’ve heard that men’s breeding instincts get stronger in emergencies, but Summer, I’m disappointed…”
Tearing up, Zelda began to take off her white coat. I also started undressing.
Hilda watched her sister and me undress, bewildered.
I told Hilda to undress as well. She was shocked by my demand.
“Those monsters are coming from the clothes.”
“What are you talking about…?”
“I don’t know how, but they seem to be generated through human clothing.”
“Do you think I’m blind and would fall for such a lie?!”
“Please trust me, Zelda.”
The first monster I killed was wearing torn women’s clothes. They must have belonged to the Hyper sisters.
Zelda, after removing her coat, started to take off her sweater as well.
Tears formed at the corners of her closed eyes. She bit her lower lip and covered her cleavage.
Hilda hid completely behind the sofa.
I averted my gaze to avoid seeing the Hyper sisters’ naked bodies.
Suddenly, Zelda asked a question.
“But Summer… do we have to take off our underwear too…?”
“Uh… that…”
It was their last dignity. We left the underwear on.
Even so, we couldn’t shake the feeling of being like animals.
Animals in a big cage…
Is this what Littleman wanted?
We gathered all the clothes from the wardrobe and threw them into the fireplace.
After burning them, we dissolved the remains with a chemical solution.
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