Chapter 28: S#5. The Lloyd (5)

A long syringe was jammed into my neck.

The wrestler and the bricklayer sent me a wicked smile.

Like a couple cutting their wedding cake, they placed their joined hands over the plunger of the syringe.

Inside the syringe was pink alien muscle, about to be injected into my neck at this critical moment…

Dududududududududududududu-

Then, bullets rained down.

The wrestler and the bricklayer were riddled with holes.

In an instant, they fell to the ground, reduced to minced meat.

The syringe in my neck fell out.

I looked towards where the bullets had come from.

A man, wrapped with a bullet belt over his shoulder and a red band around his forehead, like Rambo, approached.

It was Stallone, holding a machine gun.

Seeing him, I could roughly predict what would happen next.

“So, I see now. Stallone, you were a national agent who infiltrated this hospital.”

“What are you talking about, kid? I’m not even human. This is just a body I’ve taken over.”

Stallone, too, was a host for the alien muscle…?

My mind went blank.

“Then why did you help me?”

“I changed my mind along the way.”

Stallone reloaded his machine gun.

“While giving a massage, I realized something. Human muscles are a miracle achieved through passion and effort. But all we do is steal them.”

“I don’t understand. You were the one injecting patients with the alien liquid.”

“Yeah. That’s right.”

Stallone nodded without hesitation.

Truth be told, I also cooperated in turning the patients into hosts for the aliens.

I tore their muscle fibers during physiotherapy and injected them with the alien fluid.

Of course, I had no idea about the true nature of the liquid in the syringe.

“But you have to understand. I couldn’t trust you. I thought you were one of us, pretending to be a civilian to test me.”

He thought I was a spy.

So, he continued the treatment (or rather, making hosts) because of that.

From Stallone’s perspective, he had no other choice.

“Stallone. Just one question. Can those who’ve become hosts return to normal?”

“No. Unless all the muscles in their body are torn out, it’s impossible.”

It’s as good as being dead.

Only their consciousness remained.

After hearing Stallone’s story, I turned my back.

I headed towards the window.

“Hey. Where are you going?”

“If those who’ve become hosts can’t be saved, there’s nothing I can do. Have a good trip home.”

I had no intention of holding him back, whether he planned to stay on Earth or return to his home planet.

Sticking your nose in horror movies only leads to death.

Stallone grabbed me as I tried to jump out the window for an emergency escape.

“Didn’t you understand? We have to stop them.”

“Why?”

“Once they return home, they’ll come back to destroy this planet, bringing more of their kind with them. We can’t let even one escape.”

“…”

“I don’t want to see this beautiful blue planet destroyed either.”

Earth’s destruction if even one host is sent back?

I clenched my fist tightly.

“You should have told me sooner.”

“I couldn’t trust you. But I’ve told you now, so it’s fine.”

“Then tell me how to stop it.”

“Kill the director. He’s the queen bee. If you kill him, you can stop their flight back home.”

Kill the director.

That was the only way to save Earth.

“Earth is a good place. Worth protecting.”

Stallone said.

Just then, a bunch of them came rushing down the hallway.

Muscular and naked.

Barely recognizable as human, their forms twisted.

They were hosts controlled by the alien muscles.

Muscle wings on their backs flapped unpleasantly.

“A bunch of patients in need of treatment have arrived. I’ll handle them here. You go find the director.”

Stallone faced the rushing alien muscles.

The eerie background music shifted to a fiery punk rock intro, fitting for a massacre.

The alien muscles converged into a giant, grotesque wave that filled the corridor.

“…It’s time for the last physiotherapy session.”

Stallone’s stance was firm, without a hint of hesitation.

He pulled out two grenades.

Pulled the pins on both at the same time.

Ping-

Ping-

Stallone turned his head to look at me.

“For Earth, rookie.”

The grenade pins rolled on the floor.

“Become a physiotherapist.”

Towards the approaching alien muscles-

Stallone charged with a grenade in each hand.

—
Raei  Translations
—

Boom─────────!!!

The explosion shook the earth.

I prayed for Stallone’s soul as I ran with all my might.

-The alien lifeforms, having taken humans as hosts, spread their red wings.

They were preparing to leap into space.

The axe murderer must stop them from returning home.

To save Earth.

It was a useless narration at the moment.

I had to find the director quickly and send him to his grave, not home.

As I dashed down the hallway, someone suddenly popped out from around the corner.

It was a muscular man holding two medical bone saws.

His entire musculature was twisted.

He was a host.

He swung a bone saw at me without warning.

“Aaaaah…! My body is moving on its own!!!”

The man screamed. He was conscious and even speaking.

It seemed the muscles above his neck hadn’t been taken over by the alien lifeform yet.

He attacked me relentlessly, the bone saw swiftly slashing in a deadly trajectory.

While his body lunged to kill me, his face was crying.

“Please, stop me…!!!”

“Calm down!”

“It’s not me moving!!”

The saw blade grazed my cheek. That was close.

No choice.

I extended my palm and struck him in the stomach.

“Ugh…!”

“I’m sorry.”

My palm pierced through his stomach and went out his back.

I had his heart in my grasp.

The warm beating of life.

I crushed it with a heavy heart.

The man coughed up blood.

A host cannot return to normal.

Only their consciousness lives, enduring hell.

So, I had to kill them as painlessly as possible.

It was cruel but necessary.

This was the best I could do.

The man fell with a thud.

I made sure to crush the alien muscle in his body underfoot.

I took the two bone saws he was holding.

Damn bone saws.

I avoided encountering hosts as much as possible and made my way out of the hallway.

Where was the director?

As I looked around, the scene outside the window caught my eye.

“There he is…!”

I saw the director standing among the hosts outside.

All the hosts were naked, but it was far from a nudist beach vibe.

Their bodies were horribly twisted, and they even had muscle wings, making it look like a demon’s chicken coop.

I threw myself out the window.

Thud.

I landed on the ground.

The hosts’ gazes were all fixed on me.

Muscle-men, deformed.

Their muscle wings, sprouting from the scapula, were red.

They were trying to fly back to their home planet, following their instinct to return.

If even one is sent back, it’s all over.

I had to catch the director quickly.

As if they sensed my plan, the hosts all charged at me.

“Move!”

I swung the bone saws.

Most of the hosts had been my patients.

I knew exactly where their weaknesses were.

With the sharp blades, I cut through their muscles, fascia, and tendons.

It was a violent ‘physiotherapy.’

I killed them as quickly as possible.

The hosts were controlled by muscles, but their brains were intact.

As long as they were conscious, I had to alleviate their pain.

That was the only mercy I could offer.

A host attacked me from behind.

I grabbed its arm and slammed it down.

Then, I diagonally sliced its head off with a bone saw.

Taking a deep breath, I looked up to see the hosts surrounding me in a circle.

I was encircled.

I lowered my stance and, holding the double bone saws, spun around, swinging the blades in a 360-degree rotation.

The knees of the hosts encircling me were sliced off.

I finished off the fallen bodies by stomping on them.

Then, I felt the ground rumble.

A large, muscular host charged at me from the front.

It used to be a bodybuilder.

I charged back.

I thrust the bone saw deep into its abdomen and lifted upward.

The bodybuilder’s torso was split in half.

Blood splattered everywhere.

Flesh and entrails painted me from head to toe.

I turned as red as an ant, drowning in a can of red paint.

I killed as quickly and efficiently as I could.

But the slaughter seemed endless. The hosts came at me like a blizzard.

It was impossible to kill them all one by one.

So, I had to kill the director.

Killing the queen bee would stop the rest…

But where was he?

Suddenly, a shiny bald head caught my eye.

It was the director.

“Over there!!”

I charged with a roar.

The director smiled leisurely.

“What vigor, Mr. Summer. My judgment was correct! Your body will make the finest host!!”

“Shut your mouth!”

I cut through the hosts blocking my way.

But suddenly, the hosts stopped attacking me.

They all converged towards the director.

The grotesquely deformed alien muscles gathered around him.

What were they doing?

It was… merging.

The alien muscles entwined like a nest of mating snakes.

The sound of joints and bones crushing filled the air.

The assembly was over in the blink of an eye.

A giant super-muscle mass raised its head.

“…Wow.”

I stood there with my mouth agape like an idiot.

The alien muscle mass was easily over 20 meters tall.

Its appearance was unspeakably grotesque.

It reminded me of something from <Akira>.

Never thought I’d see something like this in real life.

The massive shadow of the blob loomed over me.

I was overwhelmed.

“We… go… home…!!”

The heavy voice of the alien muscle mass boomed across the hospital grounds.

Something protruded from the back of the mass.

It was a gigantic wing made of connected muscles.

The wings unfolded.

—