Jace pulled back and said to Sami, “There’s only three of them. I can take them out.”
Sami stared at him and simply nodded. Her knuckles whitened on the axe.
“I’m going to surprise them. You two need to hang back, okay?” he asked.
Sami nodded again. “Right.”
She was trusting him. She believed he could do this. He would do this. He reached over and squeezed her shoulder. Then he turned and went back to the corner to take another look.
The sounds of breaking glass and snapping wood, not to mention terrified screams, told him that he didn’t have much time. He had to act now.
Jace found himself moving, keeping himself low, and holding the weapon in both hands. He moved silently and used the cars on the street as cover as he made his way down the block. The Khul were making such a racket that they likely wouldn’t have heard him if he’d been playing a tuba and had a marching band behind him.
He crouched behind a car that was directly opposite Walter’s front door. One of the Omull’s shredding the front door as if it were made of tissue paper. Jace was careful not to touch the likely searing hot hood of the vehicle as he took aim at the back of the Omull’s head.
Breathe into it, Jace. Just like we practiced, Gehenna told him, her voice soothing.
He breathed into it and time seemed to slow.
Yes, good. Now squeeze the trigger, she told him.
He squeezed and the Omull’s head exploded. The creature’s body did this jiggly dance as if attached to an electric wire but then collapsed outside the door. The other Omull, which had been plucking at some of the other smaller windows on the house’s side, immediately whirled around towards the sound of the weapon’s discharge. Jace was already aiming at it.
Breathe then squeeze, Gehenna told him. It rhymes. That’s how you remember it.
The weapon felt so familiar in his hand then. His heart rate was lower than before he had killed the first Omull as he killed the second. It was as if ice water moved through him. He’d shot the second Omull right through the throat. Its claws reached upwards even as its body went down with a crash.
The Cetix veered around from the back of the house. It was moving frighteningly fast on its hundreds of centipede-like legs. The round mouth--showing many layers of fangs--was open and it made a hissing, rattling sound that had the hair on the back of his neck standing on end. But Jace did not blink. He smoothly moved his weapon to line up with the long, snake-like neck of the Cetix. He breathed and squeezed repeatedly. The Cetix’s head separated from its body as he managed to hit the thing three times in the throat, severing it entirely. The creature flopped forward. Dead.
Jace continued to remain crouched, weapon out, breathing steadily. The ringing in his ears was so loud that he didn’t hear Sami calling his name. He whirled around and nearly shot her when she tapped his shoulder.
“Jace! It’s me! You did it! You really did it!” There were tears in her eyes.
“You killed the monsters, Jace,” George said around his fingers. He had opened his eyes again.
“Y-yeah, I--”
“Get in here, you three!” Walter cried. He had opened the front door and was gesturing for them to come inside frantically. “There’s more of those things out there!”
“Yeah, we know,” Jace told him.
“I think we should try to get out of here,” Sami said. “That house wasn’t going to hold them out.”
“I agree with Sami, Walter. Let’s get out of here,” Jace said.
Gehenna, is there a safe place I can take these people? Jace asked.
Yes, but--Jace! There are more! Many more! Converging on your location! Gehenna shouted. Get inside the house!
Jace saw dozens of the Khul suddenly appear from between nearby houses and businesses and come slithering down the streets from every side towards them. Jace grabbed Sami’s hand and hustled her and George past the dead Omull and into Walter’s house. He slammed the door and locked it with shaking hands behind them.
In Walter’s living room, Jace saw a dozen ten-year-olds clustered around Walter’s wife. Fear was written large in their eyes. When he turned to see Walter’s face, the old man looked to have aged ten years from that morning. He was sweating profusely and clutching at his chest. Jace prayed he was not having a heart attack.
“Can you kill them all?” Sami asked, gesturing towards the weapon in his hands.
As the front yard filled with countless Khul, Jace realized he couldn’t.
There’s a way, Jace, Gehenna sounded apprehensive.
