Heart hammering in his chest Drew spun to the left when he heard the sound of something skittering across the cold tile. His light caught the silhouette of a young boy racing towards them. He was pulling on the trigger of his pistol when the boy disappeared behind the couch. Yue took off running towards the blinds. One of the ‘corpses’ they’d seen by the blinds suddenly sat up and jumped for her. Taken completely by surprise Yue tumbled to the ground with the crawler snapping at her face with its teeth.
Drew gave up on the homicidal tween behind the couch and ran for Yue. He hit his knees and slid across the floor with his pistol extended in front of him. As soon as he got close enough, he rested the barrel on the little monsters head and pulled the trigger blowing the contents of its skull all over an ottoman. A nice leather ottoman that Drew was willing to bet cost more than their entire living room set back at their old house. Somehow, he doubted the owners of a mansion on a lake shopped for their furniture at Rooms to Go. Yue shoved the crawler off her as Drew spun to check on the crawler that he’d left behind. Yue ignored the gore and stood up to help Drew.
The crawler he’d left behind had multiplied into five crawlerz snaking through the living room towards them. Drew pulled his pistol up and dropped into a firing stance. Before he could start blasting away, he heard the sound of ripping fabric and the living room was suddenly a lot less dark. The light exposed the crawlerz in mid leap. Two of them froze to just stare at the light while the other three whirled around like they were being burnt alive. Those three scampered around knocking over furniture before eventually hauling ass up the stairs and out of view.
Behind them LeBron continued to rip the fabric off the motorized device that would’ve normally been activated to open and close the blinds. From what he’d seen as he ripped the coarse material down the view out the back window really was spectacular. Not that he’d had time to really stand back and take it in. Two of the fingers on his good hand were bleeding. He’d torn off the fingernails while ripping the wide room darkening strips of fabric out of the trolley mechanism that took them back and forth across the windows. Ignoring the pain, he continued shredding the window coverings as fast as he could. Opening up more and more of the homes interior to the bright light of day.
“What do we do about those two?” Yue asked in a shaky voice. She was pointing at the two crawlerz who were standing there staring at the light beams. They looked pretty peaceful standing there like that. A complete one eighty from the vicious vibes spewing off them moments before. There was no doubt that as soon as the sun set these two would be back to hunting them though. Drew stepped forward to finish them.
“Wait.” LeBron said.
“Yes?” Drew questioned him. It was obvious LeBron had something to say but was hesitant to spit it out.
“Maybe you shouldn’t shoot them.” LeBron said. He rushed to clarify himself when he saw the look that crossed Drew’s face. Drew had totally misinterpreted what LeBron had said. He thought his younger brother was asking for mercy for the two killing machines currently mesmerized by the beams of light. “I mean you shouldn’t waste the bullets or make that much noise. You already shot the pistol once, so we already have to leave. Maybe kill them a different way?” LeBron trailed off uncomfortably. Shooting the beasts in cold blood was bad enough.
Drew nodded his head as he got what LeBron was saying. He agreed completely now that LeBron had pointed out the obvious. It was the thought of doing it that was making him a little queasy. LeBron stepped forward fumbling with his folding knife like they were going to let him do the honors. Killing them as they stood there defenseless. Killing them in cold blood. That was going to lead to a lot of sleepless nights. Drew put his hand on LeBron’s chest and shook his head.
“Ok. Let’s do it fast and get out of here. We have a few minutes max before some surgers start sniffing around.” Yue said. She gulped and turned her head the other way when Drew stepped towards the defenseless crawlerz. Standing there like that they looked more like filthy people than super powered homicidal maniacs. It was like they were letting their brother kill a couple of stoned homeless people. Yue grabbed LeBron and spun him around to face the lake muttering something about heading to the dock to look for a boat.
Drew caught up with them a minute later. He was scrubbing at the blood on his hands with a piece of the ripped fabric from the blinds. Looking at his face neither LeBron nor Yue thought it’d be a good time to ask how it’d went. It was enough that he’d shouldered the burden and done it for them. Yue put her hand on his shoulder for a second to try and convey her appreciation. Hoping the simple gesture had made him feel better they all walked quickly towards the detached garage on the other side of the driveway.
“There’s a boat coming this way.” LeBron whispered. That halted their progress as they stopped to look out at the water. Headed straight for the dock was a
