1.8

The crawlers moved quickly and scattered around the large parking space of the shelter. The group started shooting at them as they jump up and down, dashing around at unbelievable speed.

‘something about them is different. They weren't as fast as this, so why are they suddenly so fast? Astra thought. Nevertheless, I must stop them from crossing into another part of the shelter. There are helpless people that cannot protect themselves. She reminded herself and changed her assault rifle firing mode to single shots.

She stood for a few seconds and tried to read the movements of the crawlers; she realized they were trying to avoid being shot on the head by jumping around; they became faster than just an hour ago, so it must either be the effect of the larger one that awakened them with a growl or the fact that they have just eaten.

Maybe it is because they ate human flesh, she thought, but realized that it would be best to just fight at the moment, then figure out what is strengthening them afterwards.

She tracked one monster and started following the pattern it was moving in, then started shooting her rifle at him. They have been shooting at aliens but haven't hit them yet. Astra has emptied two bullet magazines, but not a single of her bullets has hit the target yet.

Suddenly, the crawlers change their patterns of movement. They jump around and after a few jumps while running, each will charge at a person and attack for no more than five seconds, then retreat before the other people shoot it.

The crawler she was shooting at was suddenly chasing her, dodging any bullet she shoots at it and tries to get closer at her, using the two clawed limbs in the front of it’s body and throwing a strike, with the sharp edges on the large claws, Astra knows that it is fully capable of decapitating a person should it hit the neck.

The crawler is jumping around, using its powerful legs and leaping around to prepare for an attack. Shen it she was ready to shoot it once it was in the air zooming towards her, standing still to increase her accuracy although it makes her an easier target.

But before she can shoot her gun, she heard screaming in pain of Pete behind her. She let her guard down by instinctively turning around quickly to see what was going on. What her eyes caught, although for a split second, was enough to tell her the situation has escalated into a worst-case scenario situation.

When her attention returned, all she could see was the enormous claw of the crawler in front of her, she instantly used her gun to shield herself. The claw made a clinging sound similar to when a metal is hit against another.

The crawler withdraws back with a jump and at the moment she looks around and realized that she is the only one that isn’t injured. She raised her gun and took aim again, pressing the trigger to shoot but the gun failed to go off, this is when she realized that it has damaged the gun from when she used it to block the crawler’s attack with its claw. From the entrance of the inner section of the shelter, Jada shouted at Astra.

“open the bag I gave you, use the twin blades inside. The shadow wind dance technique, use it.” Jada Astra threw her damaged gun to the side and pulled down the long bag on her, inside it are a set of two Japanese-style swords that have been chained to a small pod that has a bag-like design with strong wired running side by side of the chains. She quickly put the pod on her back like a bag and held the swords in both hands.

Apart from being heavier than normal swords should weigh, Astra also realized a few things about the sword that look a little out of conventional sword design. The handles are a lot thicker than usual, the sharp edges of the sword have two different looking metallic textures and she wonders, ‘why does a sword need two wires connecting to a battery of sorts?’

She pressed the two buttons on each ends of the swords, instantly, the sharp edges  become hot smoking at first and within seconds, started glowing red hot.

The crawlers have circled back and two of them are currently charging towards her. With the newly equipped swords in her hands, she took a posture with both swords raised over her right shoulder, she started spinning the swords slowly and gracefully towards them as well, meeting them halfway through and with a sudden increase in speed, she started attacking them as they attack her too.

The first crawler swung its clawed leg at her, followed with a stab from the long spiked appendage on its back. She dodged the clawed leg and slashed through it just a few inches beyond the claw, to her surprise it sliced through the bulletproof thick skin that her gun could not leave even a dent on like it was just a regular meat bag.

I must not let this opportunity go to waste, she resolved herself and attacked even more using the sword dance technique she is using. It consists of only four moves that include swinging round horizontally and a vertical power slash that follows, bending and swerving entire body in difficult angles and lastly, inclined slashes that go left and right almost instantaneously, creating a slash shield around the user depending on how fast the user is swinging.

Having injured the first crawler since their appearance, even she was surprised when she saw the blood coming out of the sliced off leg colored red, just like that of the animals on earth.

Despite her surprise, she continued her attack, dodging the remaining claw by bending at ridiculously difficult angles and jumping as high in the air as she can, aligning the swords above her head and flipping her body forward, at first with her touching her shoulder at the beginning of the flip, then swinging them down with all her might as her body turns three hundred and sixty degrees and adding the force of the downward slash.

Like a miracle, the two swords landed on the neck of the injured and sliced through it, severing off the head and effectively killing it. Every time the sword comes in contact with the body of the crawler, it makes a sound that resembles one that red hot coal makes when water is poured on it, or the sound that red hot metal makes when it is suddenly dipped in water.

Having killed the first one, she headed straight for the second one and killed it within a minute. The attention of the rest of the three suddenly shifted to her, she is the only one in the only one in the entire shelter that pose a threat to them.

“What are you doing? Gather up and fight as a group, you morons,” Jada shouted again.

Suddenly, the crawlers outside the shelter gates started banging on the gate aggressively, trying to break in. The three currently inside charged at Astra all at once, standing with her purple hair almost glowing from the inner lighting of the shelter, her shirt has already fallen off, leaving her with her high neck sports bra, holding two glowing swords like a medieval warrior with magical powers.

 The crawlers headed towards her, but Khan, Rhoda, and two more people have gathered around her. Using themselves as shields, they block their attacks and create infinitesimal chances where Astra would spin her swords around and attack just before they jump away.

Astra was getting tired because of the weight of the swords. Although she has amazing stamina, her endurance is not limitless and she is quickly approaching her limit. She charged at the monsters, followed from behind by the people helping her. She attacked one monster ferociously, slicing off its legs one at a time, then sliding on the floor underneath it and cutting its abdomen open, and killing it.

As she move to the second one, she realized that the last one is nowhere to be found, it is as it has disappeared out of thin air, there is no trace of it at all. The second monster is swinging its claws with brute force rather than accuracy, at first Rhoda used her gun to block it but was thrown away like a piece of paper in the gust of wind.

Khan was the only one that could withstand the attacks, being the strongest of them all and the largest in size as well. He uses a large iron rod to block the attacks of the crawler and every time he does so, he takes little damage from the sheer force of the attack.

Astra was more concerned about the one that has suddenly vanished than the changes in the attack patter that the one they are fighting is exhibiting. Her guts tell her that she needs to find it or something bad will happen. She charges straight at the crawler attacking khan and tumbled on the floor, suddenly jumping and throwing the two swords at the monster.

The chains on the swords extended, letting the swords to implant themselves on the back of the crawler. It started to screaming at a high pitch, breaking glasses around, then started crawling backwards.

“I don’t think that is a good idea for your back you ugly monster” Astra shouted and pulled on the swords chains attached to the end of the handles of the swords, the monster started screaming even louder because the swords are now tearing through its flesh and injuring it even more.

“Help me!” Astra heard from behind her and she knew exactly whose voice it is, the most important person in her life, Jada. She quickly turned to look at the entrance to the inner section of the shelter, she could not see Jada who is supposed to be right there, even more so; the entrance door has been broken down. She pulled the chains on her swords, which at the moment are stuck on the monster, tearing the monster apart and withdrawing the swords.

With no delay, she left the injured monster for Khan, Rhoda and Jamie to deal with while she rushed to the inner section of the shelter to check for Rhoda and the rest of the people in there.

Once inside, she was met with a sight she will never forget in her life. Jada’s dead body hanging from the teeth of the crawler and a bloodbath all over the place of all the people hiding inside. The alien monster has taken its time to kill the people one at a time and has eaten to its fill.

Having killed the injured monster on the other side of the entrance, Khan, Rhoda, Jamie and the rest of the people came it to meet Astra watching the monster devour what is left of their engineering professor. They all became enraged and charged at it, shooting and slashing it, but none of it seem to be working. Astra on the other hand is just there standing and watching with a broken spirit now that she has lost the only person in her life that she can call family.

With a single swing of one of its rear appendages, the monster threw all of them off.

“this thing is stronger than the ones we just killed, it is as if it has increased in size as well” khan shouted.

Astra’s swords are still in her hands glowing wed hot on the edges, she screamed at the top of her lungs and made a charge towards it, stepping on the large concrete pillar that has fallen and jumping into  the air. She extended both arms sideways, holding her swords at opposite ends and  started spinning with all of her strength, landing a slash on top of the head of the crawler, splitting it open and killing it.

Suddenly, Tom came in running from the parking area of the shelter. “We need to go now, they are about to break down the door” he said.

Astra’s swords have just lost their glow, indicating to her that she has probably run out of battery. She held the swords in her hands and all of them walked through to see what exactly is happening at the entrance of the shelter.

From the screens that have not been broken on the gate, the live of outside the gate shows over a thousand crawlers, including the one that chased them from the city and the larger one that woke the smaller ones earlier, they were hitting the specific part of the gate that has the smaller entrance door on it and the door has already stared bending.

Khan held Astra’s hands and shook his head in disapproval, knowing exactly what she wants to do even though there are more than a thousand of them.

“You cant possibly take out all of these by yourself! She would have wanted you to survive.” Khan said.

“How exactly do I survive this? We are trapped here anyway, there is no other way to escape,” Astra objected.

“There is a place we can hide in for a while, deep inside the shelter there is a bunker that is made to secure the president, should the shelter be attacked when he is visiting it. I doubt even the crawlers can break into it. There is food and enough oxygen for six of us down there” Khan said.

“six of us, where the hell is Lawrence?” Rhoda asked, this is when they realized that Lawrence is missing.

“we need to go now either way, the door wont last any longer!” khan said and they turned and followed him, leading them to a hidden underground entrance on the floor of one of the residential rooms. They heard the door at the entrance of the shelter being broke down and ran down the stairs, at the end of the stairs is a spacious place with a large metallic container that is three times the size of a normal shipping container. Khan input some keys and the door opened.

At the moment, they can hear the sounds of the crawlers running into the shelter.

“there is only one problem, this bunker needs someone to lock it from the outside, it can only be opened from the inside and locked from the outside so we need one person to stay out and lock the door.” Khan explained.

Rhoda was about to complain about the stupidity in the design and how no one would sacrifice themselves when Tom stepped up.

“I will do it! For you, my love!” he said, looking at Kate. He walked to her and held her hands. “lets meet again on the other side, lets fall in love again” he said and kissed her, pushing her inside and slamming the door. He turned the wheels on the door and closed it.

The five of them watched from the monitors inside as the crawlers flood the area, surrounded him but not attack, leaving him for the large one who came in and killed him in a single bite.

Rhoda turned off the monitor for Kate who is watching with tears rolling down her cheeks as the monsters devour the remains of her co-worker and lover.