Get your own Free Home Page
I stepped up into the eating area of the small deli/grocery. There was a lady, two tables down, in a maroon jacket, preparing to leave. Two older men sat talking behind me. I was sketching on a scrap of paper in my journal, while picking at a chocolate-chip muffin and sipping ice water.
The clattering of the door brought me out of my train of thought.
"Erma, did you lock the door? Erma? ERMA!" she screamed the last word in horror. I heard the scraping of wooden chair behind me as the two men bolted upright. I stood, and the older of the two warned me:
"Stay back, miss. We'll take care of this."
I looked toward the front, and watched the woman back herself hysterically into a grocery shelf. A blob of purpleish-green mucus hit her square in the face, cutting off her second scream. Both of her hands went up toward her face, and became entangled in the horrific goop. She sank to the floor, struggled and then ceased. I knew she wasn't dead, for her chest kept rising and falling in even breaths.
The pair were slowly walking toward the counter, preparing to enter into its' service area. I found myself moving toward them.
"I told you, stay back. We can handle this." the lead man snarled.
"What is it?" I said.
"That is not your concern." he replied.
The ichor flew again, smacking the man in the back of the head. I watched in horror as a tendril of it wrapped around his face and covered his mouth and nose. He gasped for air, his eyes rolled deep into his head, and he fell in convulsions, just like the woman. His comrade gestured yet again for me to stand fast. This time, I listened, and my eyes drew toward the horror upon the floor, the man who had been struck fast by the multi-coloured goo.
His entire face was covered with a substance. The outer part of which was firm, hardening like amber. I watched in morbid curiosity as a tendril eeked from the mass, and slithered its' way toward the deli case. My gasp of shock was noticed by the other old man.
"Get away from him!" he demanded. I didn't argue, and stepped back, standing up. I looked toward the woman who had been struck, and saw an identical tendril. It appeared to be pulsing with her every breath.
"Listen to me, girly. There's a back door, a fire exit, through the kitchen at the back of the store. Get your butt out of there, and don't tell anyone anythi-"
SMACK!
The goop struck him. Unlike the previous victim, this man tried to fight it. He struggled, and attempted to scrape off the substance with shirtsleeves, to no avail. Less than a metre away my only ally drops. The only other thing that could possibly make this more gut-wrenching was the obscene gurgling sound coming from the corner of the deli where the goop had been propelled from.
Quickly, I slipped through the kitchen, and saw the door. It was half-covered in slime. If I was going to get out of there, that wasn't the place. I slipped on a patch of wetness on the floor, at the same time hearing a whistling sound. A blob of the gooey crud smacked the door, and slid down. The two substances blended together, covering the door.
I scrambled to my feet, staying crouched, my mouth dry, heart racing. My breath was shallow, and I was beginning to panic. A deep breath. That was better, clear my head, figure out just what the heck was going on. Another smack, just a half-metre above me, time to quit breathing and begin moving, back to the eating area.
My half-eaten muffin lay, my water next to it. I crawled next to the table, as I observed the second fallen man. A tendril was extending from him toward the main counter area. I slipped toward the chairs and looked toward the counter in search of my assailaint. A tenticle, about ten centimetres in diameter, topped with a huge green eyeball that looked like an light bulb, looked around. Right below it was a thin, jagged line of a mouth; it appeared to be full, and I presumed with the sticky substance. Curiously, I shot my foot out toward the chair which I had been sitting in when this entire mess started.
The mouth discharged its' load, and flew with a whistle into the wall, tipping over my ice water. The eye looked angry, it flared wide, and then narrowed as I heard a hissing sound. I glanced, and, smelling a horrible smell, saw that part of the icor was disintigrating before my eyes. The ice water, somehow was dissolving it. A weapon, at last!
I slipped back toward the self-serve case. My only way out was to fight. I opened the self-serve case, and grabbed a bottle of refridgerated spring water, the kind with the sipping nozzle on it. Glancing upward, the eye wasn't looking in this direction, so I let the door close. It slammed shut and then another goey mass flew. When it hit, I sprayed the water from behind a display rack. The mass went smokey and dissolved.
At this point, another mass struck the glass, lower, and closer to me. It, too, went smoking to the floor. What was going on? The display case? It was cold. Since the water was cold it could hurt the creature as well. I went to the back door, and sprayed the door. While the ichor dissolved, I found the fusebox, also covered in goo. Standing well back, I sprayed some of the cold water upon it, the entire fuse box short-circuted in a firey burst of lights. The power died, and I slipped out the cleared door, into the freshly fallen snow. The winter's night, would do my work for me.