Like demons spawned from the night, my shadow hounds tore through them like paper. They appeared behind them and ripped out the soldiers' throats before they could even fire their guns. The soldier Derrick had grabbed desperately reached for his handgun, but he was left crippled as Derrick tightened his grip around his neck.
Derrick's eyes glowed a deep shade of yellow as he stared into the soldier's soul.
"Tell me, what is happening at the university?"
The soldier desperately tried to struggle, but he couldn't hold back anymore.
"Alright, alright! I'll talk! They're going to bomb it, okay!"
The soldier's words left us in a state of disbelief.
"Bomb the university? Why would they do that?"
"Because it's overrun by monsters. There have been many operations to clear it, but all have failed. The students there are all dead. Plus, the information we uncovered about what was happening at the university left us with no choice."
Derrick and I stared at each other, a look of confusion evident on both our faces.
"What could they have found out that makes them want to bomb an entire university?" I asked.
"I don't know, okay?! Only the higher-ups know what's going on there, and they aren't telling us anything."
"What time are they planning the bombing?" I asked.
"The operation is due to take place at oh-one hundred hours."
Derrick turned to me, clearly not understanding army time.
"One a.m.," I told him.
Sensing that there wasn't any more valuable information we could get from the soldier, Derrick quickly knocked him out and left him on the side of the road.
"We have 8 hours before they blow up the school," I said. "And tonight is also the night of a full moon, so things are bound to get complicated."
Derrick banged his head on the steering wheel and let out a deep sigh.
"Dammit! We have to get to her before anything happens."
Without any hesitation, Derrick leaned back in his seat and slammed down on the gas pedal. The engine roared as we sped through the blockade the soldiers had created. We raced through the empty streets until we arrived at the large gate that marked the entrance to Allison's university.
I expected to see a horde of monsters as the soldier had described, but instead, the place seemed deserted. We quickly exited the truck and stood in front of the gate.
"We should hurry," Liora said, already rushing off, but I grabbed her by the arm and stopped her in her tracks.
"You should stay with Lily."
Her eyes widened.
"W-But why?! I can't just stand by and watch. I'm all healed; it's best if Isabella stays with her instead, or we could just bring her."
"We can't bring her. Whatever monster is on the other side of this gate has got the soldiers spooked enough to want to bomb the university. We can't possibly bring Lily into that. Besides, tonight is a full moon, so she'll need you to be with her."
Liora listened silently to my argument, and though she was stubborn, I knew she understood.
"Fine, but I want you to promise me you'll do everything in your power to get everyone out safely. That's the only thing I ask from you."
I approached her so we were face to face and patted her on the head. During this time, I also placed one of my shadow hounds in her shadow to keep her safe, at least for a little bit.
"I promise I will."
An embarrassed blush came over her face, and for a second, I thought she was going to shove me away, but instead, she wrapped her arms around me and buried her face in my chest. Just like when she was little and cried about the silliest things.
"Be safe, okay?"
"I will," I said as I stroked the back of her head, but soon it was time for us to part ways. But before we did, someone else was feeling jealous and leaped at me. Lily pouted and wrapped her arms around my neck.
"Be safe, okay, big bro Liam?"
I hugged her back and patted the top of her head.
"I will."
Lily then turned her attention to Derrick.
"Be safe too, okay, big bro Derr, and bring back big sis Allison with you."
Derrick smiled and patted her on the head too.
"I will."
Isabella stood to the side, watching us with a somber expression on her face, and as if sensing her sadness, Lily ran over to her and hugged her too.
"I love you too, big sis Isa. Come back safely."
Isabella looked a bit bewildered at first, but soon her expression softened into a smile.
"I will. You don't have to worry about me, okay?"
The two of them stood in an embrace until it was time for us to leave. Derrick, Isabella, and I climbed over the university gate and landed on the campus. The sun was just setting in the sky, so it was still light out.
We walked through the campus, looking for any signs of life, but we didn't see any. Not even a zombie. It struck me as strange. On a campus which was home to thousands of students, there should've been zombies crawling all over the place, but there wasn't even one.
I activated my thermal vision, but I didn't see any signs of life for the first few minutes until I spotted some in a building not too far from where we were. The heat coming off them was slight, as if they were barely alive.
I told the others what I saw and guided them toward the building. Every hair on my body stood on end as we entered the building. My instincts screamed at me to leave, and from the looks on their faces, I could tell that the others felt the same.
We slowly crept through the building until we came to what looked like the entrance to an indoor basketball court. My thermal vision showed that there were several, if not hundreds, of people inside the room.
"This would be the perfect place for the students to barricade themselves, just like we did," Isabella commented, and I couldn't help agreeing with her words, but something told me things were not that simple.
Firstly, just by touching the door, I realized that it wasn't locked. If they were hiding from monsters, why wouldn't they close the door? Putting that aside for a second, I slowly pushed the door open, and my eyes widened at what I saw.
"What is this?!" Derrick exclaimed, looking a bit mortified.
Isabella shared the same reaction, and even I was left stunned. For starters, my thermal vision was correct; there were people inside. Hundreds of students lay lifeless on the ground. I could tell that they were dead since I couldn't hear a single heartbeat among them.
The other thing that shocked us to the core was their swollen stomachs. Each and every one of them had an overgrown stomach the size of an over-inflated balloon. What's more, the thermal energy that I was seeing before all came from their stomachs.
Dead things didn't produce heat, so it didn't make sense. What's more, none of the corpses showed any sign of decomposition. They had all been preserved which was why they didn't turn to zombies.
The three of us looked at each other with a puzzled look on our faces.
"What is the meaning of this?" Derrick asked, but there was no answer to his question.
There was only one thing left to do, and that was figuring it out for ourselves. I walked toward one of the corpses with my claws extended. They were already dead, so there was no reason for me to feel guilty about what I was going to do.
I stood over the inflated stomach of one of the corpses, then without a second thought, I plunged my claws inside its stomach. The room went silent as its flesh made a wet, saggy sound as my claws slipped in.
I frowned as nothing happened, but then in the next instant, a bone-chilling notification popped up.
[DING!]
[You have destroyed a demogorgon embryo]