"One to ten is fatal, but it can still be controlled. Some aren't even that bad. Body-eating worms are hard to kill, but they'll just sit there and make you cry at them, and the surveillance birds, those birds that look like damn pigeons? They help in good goal exercises.

Are there any? Gosh, they're all nightmare incarnations. —From "Memoirs of a Frontline Soldier" by Stephen Clancy

***

When I heard the first "shit, shit, shit" cry somewhere in front of me, I started running.

I struggled to stand my ground, my shoes still creaking and finding my footing on the slippery floor.

I came around the corner and found a scene from a horror movie.

A pair of monsters are clinging to a makeshift wall of desks stacked on top of each other, with office chairs tucked into the cracks. Behind them, stood a stout monster with six stout legs, its upper body covered with tentacles that whipped forward, grasping at the fragments of the wall.

A pistol appeared in one of the holes in the fence. When it fired, I ducked around the corner. Seven shots. Eight...... Nine...... Then there was a long pause, and then someone swore an oath. Three more followed.

I looked around the corner and saw one of the large beasts bleeding, and the object of Wen's huge tentacles was sliding to the side. But it's not dead yet, not yet.

I bit my lip and raised my trench in an attempt to stabilize my target. My first bullet hit one of the smaller enemy flanks and was just a small pinhole, and when the incendiary bomb began to work, it quickly began to glow from the inside.

What's in this incendiary bomb? But it's cathartic to see what has been shot begin to writhe, flicker and burn inside. I turned around and fired three shots at the tentacle monster. The first hit its center of mass, the second hit the near-dead monster next to it, and the third disappeared somewhere in the far end of the hallway.

Close enough.

The target is destroyed!

Reward...... 35 points!

Current Points: 227!

I know ammo is fairly cheap, but your goal still requires some effort.

"You should be holding this with two hands, aren't you?" I asked.

There are ways to improve your muscle tissue. Or maybe we can replace my missing eye with a proper aiming system?

"Can you postpone an hour before you pitch something to me?" I asked.

As you wish! The timer is on.

Is the AI in my brain sarcastic. What has become of my life? Damn it!

I stepped out of the corner, put my gun at my side, and trotted to the barricaded door while looking at the corpses scattered all over the place. "Stand back! You fucking alien scum, fuck off! ”

I stopped and stared into the crazy eyes of some idiot who was waving a gun at me from the hole in the barricade. "Hey, hey, I'm human!" I immediately shouted back.

"That's what aliens would say!"

I blinked. "Are you a fool?" I asked.

"Come on, Jeff," the other voice said in a much calmer voice. I saw a hand fall on the arm holding the gun and push it down. "No alien will call you stupid. This is what humans should do. Ha. ”

"Probably one of the seven!"

I gritted my teeth. "You're Jeff...... And Storm Thunder? I asked.

The gun was raised again. "How do you know my name?"

I rolled my eyes. "Simmons sent me to save you stupid asses."

A skull appeared in the cave, and I saw a pair of eyes widen. "You're a samurai!"

"And you're idiots. Now are you going to talk or are we going to shoot each other, mine is bigger than a few jokes. I waved my trench machine and saw its head disappear.

"We're going to move things over so you can come in," Storm said.

"No, no," I said. "We're leaving. I'm here to pick up something and run, not to take something and sit down and have a drink. ”

The scratching of something that was moving stopped. "We're hurt," Storm said. His voice was so low that only I could hear it. "If you want to leave them, then go. I won't blame you. ”

I rolled my eyes. "Wonderful. Let me see. I might be able to do something. What kind of injury? Have any of you shot yourself in the foot? Is it Jeff? ”

"We had three girls from the accounting department in several offices who were trapped in this difficult place by a dog alien. One was seriously injured. Storm said.

This made a hole in my frivolous attitude.

"Damn. Hurry up," I said.

The table wall moved to the side, leaving a hole big enough for me to squeeze through. I'm not the most flexible girl, maybe my face is a little red as I pant through the barricades,

Their setup is crude. There is only a pile of furniture leaning against the double-door sized entrance, and some leaning against the wall. The office outside was a mess. Papers were thrown everywhere, posters were torn up, and office garbage was littered all over the floor.

I confronted six people in the area, all of whom were from the office, wearing button-down shirts with confused expressions.

"Over there," Storm said, pointing to the ceiling in the distance, where signs hung for the two restrooms. "We think that's the safest place to be."

"More tentacle aliens are coming," Jeff said. By the time I squeezed through, he had quieted down and might have been embarrassed, but the arrival of more aliens had sobered him up a lot.

"Do you have any ammo or anything else you're good at?" I asked.

"You can use guns, ma'am," Storm said. "Our bullets keep jamming."

I nodded. "Will any of them shoot?" I asked, pointing to the person in the office.

"I don't believe they'll do it."

"Miaris, two foxtooth guns," I said.

New purchase: Foxteeth Model D x 2

Points reduced to... 217

Two boxes appeared at my feet, the same cheap plastic as last time. "Have fun. I'm going to see how the girls are doing. Then we'll go. ”