Chapter 115: S#19. Good Morning Creeps (3)

A red worm, looking like a slimy slug, shot out of my mouth.

My foggy mind snapped to attention.

Watching the worm writhe on the floor, realization hit me.

“…I was the one being controlled…”

“Summer, you’ve been acting weird ever since we got back from the forest.”

Nancy crushed the worm under her foot.

It wasn’t the Strode mother and daughter or the Hyper sisters experiencing the red worm’s delusions – it was me all along.

I thought back to what happened in the forest.

The bloody brawl with Ishikawa Reiko in the mud swamp.

I’d felt something enter my mouth then. I thought it was Reiko’s finger, but now I knew better. It was a worm.

Reiko had planted that worm in me.

The worm’s influence had warped my thoughts. I’d nearly cracked open the skulls of innocent people.

“Nancy, thanks… You were trying to get that worm out of me? Is that why you put on that confession act?”

“The confession wasn’t an act.”

Nancy and Ellen looked dead serious.

“My feelings for you are real.”

“Summer, don’t tell me you still can’t choose between us?”

“Just try saying that. I swear I won’t forgive you.”

Zelda, who’d been quiet until now, chimed in.

“Summer, what about our date?”

That bombshell sent chills down my spine.

Nancy and Ellen glared at me in disbelief.

“Date…?”

“You haven’t even picked one of us, and you’re trying to two-time…?!”

Thank god they were tied up. Otherwise, Ellen and Nancy would’ve jumped me right then and there…

Suddenly, the window rattled.

The whole house shook like it was hit by an earthquake.

An unexpected anomaly.

“What the…”

I looked out the window.

In the dim night sky, among the twinkling stars, was a dark shape.

If I’d had a telescope, I could’ve seen it clearly, but it was hard to make out with the naked eye.

The shape slowly drew closer.

Was I seeing things?

The shape was about the size of the moon. If it was a meteor, Earth was done for.

The phrase “Martian invasion” that Agent Frank mentioned at the pharmacy flashed through my mind.

Martian invasion… If that shape came from Mars.

I quickly untied the Strode mother and daughter and the Hyper sisters.

I apologized for suddenly knocking them out and kidnapping them.

The Strode mother and daughter said if I wanted forgiveness, I’d better choose quickly. The Hyper sisters asked for a date.

There must still be worms around. I might really have to crack open their skulls later.

“Summer, what’s that outside?”

“No idea. If it’s a meteor, we should probably write our wills right now…”

“No, not the sky. I mean on the ground.”

Ground?

I looked out the window again. The ground was red.

It looked like a giant red paint can had spilled all over the street. But it wasn’t paint.

It was living, moving worms. The same red mollusks that had just shot out of my mouth.

Millions of worms were writhing, covering the entire town.

It was a disgusting parade.

“Ugh…”

“They’re attacking people.”

A worm crawled into the mouth of an old man walking with a cane.

A child who saw that horrific scene burst into tears and ran away. But the worm swarm caught up and turned them red too.

The swarm began infesting houses. A two-story home turned into red bricks.

Chaos crawled everywhere.

A manhole cover in the red street popped open. Something climbed out of the sewer.

It was a soaking wet zombie. Looked kinda familiar.

As the zombie moaned and stumbled onto the street, more creatures began crawling up.

Killer dolls, alien muscles, giant maggots, and more.

They were the evil connections that had stained my past with blood. They looked exactly like the blueprints in the forest cabin.

It was clear who was behind this. Ishikawa Reiko’s handiwork.

The monsters burst out of the sewers, churning through the red-stained streets.

The last creature to emerge was a mass of octopus tentacles. Thick, long tentacles revealed a bulky body.

A giant octopus worthy of the name “Kraken” – but its body wasn’t an octopus, it was a unicorn.

A grotesque mash-up with octopus legs attached to a unicorn head. Ishikawa Reiko was riding on top.

Our eyes met through the window.

She smiled when she saw my face. With a gesture like an orchestra conductor, the unicorn octopus extended its tentacles.

It smashed the roof of our house.

CRASH─────────

The roof caved in. The outer walls crumbled. Shattered debris flew everywhere.

Total destruction. My vision spun.

I barely managed to grab the Strode mother and daughter and the Hyper sisters and dodge. A second slower and we’d have been crushed.

Through the destroyed wall, Reiko on her unicorn thrust her face in.

“Hello Summer.”

“Reiko……”

“I’m pulling out all the stops.”

Reiko stuck out her tongue.

The red tongue wriggled disgustingly, then transformed into a worm.

Reiko placed the worm on her hand and stroked it lovingly.

The worms covering the streets were pieces of Reiko.

I frowned.

“You shoved that nasty worm in my mouth in the mud. Tasted like crap.”

“This is a controller. It’s a special tool for creatures that are hard to hypnotize.”

Now I got how Reiko directed her film.

The worms control the brain.

The monster army covering the ground was being puppeteered by Reiko’s worms.

“The grand finale of the massacre has begun. I was hoping my masterpiece, you, would play a starring role. But you removed my controller.”

“I hate worms.”

“Then I have no choice but to use my second masterpiece.”

“Your second masterpiece, is it that seafood unicorn?”

“This isn’t a masterpiece. That blue star blotting out the night sky is my second masterpiece.”

Reiko pointed upward.

Thunder and lightning flashed across the night sky. The dark shape approaching from space revealed itself.

A streamlined body of dark blue. A huge maw and sharp fins.

“…A shark?”

The form leisurely approaching Earth was a giant great white shark.

An impossible size. How the hell was it swimming through the air…?

Something popped out of the shark’s gaping maw.

It was a Gatling gun.

The six barrels spun with a dududududu. Huge flames spewed forth.

As the flashes hit the ground, mountains crumbled. Forests were blown away.

Buildings shattered like sugar cubes. Asphalt streets collapsed.

An incredible shock came with a deafening roar.

Nothing remained where the bullet storm swept through. Everything was shredded.

The shark swam slowly through the air, firing the Gatling gun in its mouth.

Hot shell casings were expelled through its gills. The firing didn’t stop.

Earth’s destruction was imminent.

Reiko stroked the unicorn octopus’s mane as she gazed up at the flashes in the night sky.

“How is it, Summer? Isn’t it like beautiful fireworks?”

“You’re insane… What are you planning to do with us?”

“What do you think?”

The unicorn octopus extended its tentacles.

It snatched up me, Ellen, Nancy, Zelda, and Hilda one by one.

I swung my axe and cut the tentacle.

Just as I was about to rescue the others, the octopus quickly widened the gap.

The women caught in the tentacles screamed. Ellen in particular shuddered, like bad memories were resurfacing.

Having achieved her goal, Reiko smiled wickedly.

“The finale has begun. Now…”

Reiko’s words were cut off.

A shell came flying.

BOOM-

The unicorn octopus’s head burst spectacularly.

Brain matter scattered across the red street. The massive body tilted, then collapsed with a thud.

The women caught in the tentacles were unharmed. However, Reiko’s lower body was pinned under the unicorn octopus.

I looked in the direction the shell came from.

A massive object was approaching, crushing the worms covering the street. It was a tank.

Transport vehicles followed behind the tank.

The rear doors of the vehicles opened, and armed men poured out. They were masked special forces.

Over 30 gun barrels were aimed at Reiko, whose legs were pinned under the fallen unicorn octopus. They pulled the triggers and opened fire.

Reiko was reduced to an unrecognizable pulp.

“Target neutralized.”

One of the special forces reported over the radio as he removed his mask. A familiar face emerged.

It was Agent Frank.

“Frank…?”

“The President’s lost it, Summer.”

Frank delivered some unexpected news.

“Two U.S. states got wrecked by that Martian thing in the sky, but he’s refusing to launch nukes. He hasn’t even declared a state of emergency.”

“……”

“We’ve officially staged a coup.”

The President must have been trolling on purpose. He was ‘W’ too, Reiko’s lackey.

Reiko, who’d collapsed after the hail of bullets, moved.

The special forces aimed their guns again. More gunfire. Once again, she was reduced to pulp.

“Frank, did you know about Ishikawa Reiko’s true nature?”

“I knew she wasn’t from Earth.”

The special forces loaded the Strode mother and daughter and the Hyper sisters into vehicles.

During this process, several special forces members fell victim to the red worms.

Some were grabbed by winged demons, or attacked by deer-headed bears that tore off their limbs.

It was chaos. But Frank stayed cool as a cucumber.

“Look, Summer, now’s not the time to worry about Ishikawa Reiko or those monsters.”

He pointed at the Gatling gun shark floating in the sky.

“We’ve got an alien from Mars right in our faces. If it finishes its invasion, Earth is toast.”

“You’re saying that shark came from Mars?”

“That’s not the point. The Gatling gun’s stopped firing for now, but it’ll start up again soon. When those bullets sweep through this town, we’re goners.”

Humanity was on the brink of extinction.

Frank pointed to the vehicle carrying the mother, daughter, and sisters.

“We’ll get the women to safety. In exchange, you’ve gotta save humanity.”

“Save humanity? You want me to stop that shark?”

“Exactly.”

Just then, special forces members approached, crushing worms under their boots. They carried metal cases.

Inside was a single hand axe.

A hand axe with an axe head glowing faintly purple.

“This is…”

“A plasma hand axe.”

I gripped the handle.

The grip felt perfect in my hand.

Like it was made just for me.

“Our research department cooked this up just for you. It’s a cutting-edge weapon that exists for you alone, Summer.”

“Thanks, but what am I supposed to do with this…?”

Frank grabbed my shoulder.

“Hop on the rocket. We’re launching you instead of a nuke.”

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