Walking slowing towards Ricky was a giant green humanoid creature that the boys could only recognize as a monster from a video game. It looked like a man but was taller than any adult they’ve ever seen. They also noticed its head was unusually flat, as if its brain was missing and its skull had sunken in. It also had no hair or shirt. The only thing covering its green skin was a pair of torn up pants. The only noticeable feature on its body was a scar that ran down the side of its face. Tightly gripped in its hand was their baseball, and it didn’t seem happy about the boys being there.
“Guys. What is that?” Ricky whispered frightfully.
The others were speechless. Just as they began to process what they were looking at; the monster threw their baseball at them, barely missing over their heads, and loudly smashing a window behind them. If he hadn’t missed, the ball would have certainly killed any of them at the speed he threw it. It was much stronger than any human adult. It was like it had super strength.
They all screamed and immediately turned around and started running in the opposite direction. As they turned their heads back, they saw it was following them, and not far behind. Thankfully, it didn’t run like a normal man, but had a slight limp, and with its arms stretched forward, similar to a zombie. Dennis and Paul were the fastest in the group, followed by Vance, and the flat-footed Ricky. Dennis tried his best to lead the way and remember which turns to make to get them back to the ladder, but after the fourth street they turned at, he quickly realized that he had made a wrong turn somewhere along the way.
As they kept running, they approached the last thing they wanted to see; a dead end. They all pressed themselves against the brick wall that was blocking them from escaping. Knowing that there was no way they could run around the green monster; they began to brace themselves for what could come next. At that moment, Dennis remembered the makeshift bat that was still in his right hand. Dennis wasn’t one for heroics but knew that he might be the only chance they had of surviving whatever this monster wanted to do next. Without thinking, Dennis ran in front of the group and swung at the monster as hard as he could.
The monster barely flinched. The bat cracked against its chest, right before it snatched the stick out of Dennis’ hands and snapped it in half. Dennis stared blankly at the monster before it grabbed him by the neck and picked him up over it head. They assumed it was either going to break him in half the same way it did the stick or throw him against the wall the same way it did the baseball. Either way, the boys knew Dennis couldn’t possibly survive whatever the monster was going to do, and they couldn’t think of anything they could do to stop it. They just stood there and watched in fear as the monster roared. Just as it began to flex its massive green muscles and prepare to kill Dennis, it was hit hard in the head by the same baseball that it had thrown into a window earlier. The boys and the monster all stopped to look towards the direction the ball came from. There stood two very young girls, they looked older than nine years old, both seemingly unafraid, waving their arms to get the monsters attention. The girls looked like they may have been sisters from a distance, but the biggest difference they could discern from where they were was that one had big curly hair and the other’s hair was short and straight.
“Hey greenie! Why don’t you come over this way and take on someone your own size?” The curly haired girl yelled.
“Yeah! Come and get it!” The other added nervously, only a bit more nervous than her friend.
At that, the monster dropped Dennis on the ground causing him a great deal of pain on impact and began walking towards the girls. The others quickly ran to help Dennis up, while the two girls took off running with the monster hot on their tail.
“Hurry up Dee! We gotta get out of here!” Vance demanded while lifting him up. The others nodded in agreement.
“Give me a second. Let me turn on my map.” Dennis mumbled, still recovering from the fall while trying to process the fact that he almost died a moment ago. As soon as the map came online, the boys heard a scream from the other street that sounded like it came from one of the girls that had just rescued them.
“I think that was the girls!” Dennis pointed out.
“Who gives a crap?!” Vance replied. “We gotta get out of here before we become monster food!”
“They just saved our lives!”
“Yeah, but we can’t save theirs! Did you forget how strong it was?”
Dennis knew that he couldn’t leave the girls behind with a clear conscience. He had too strict of a moral compass.
“I’m going to go after them. You guys don’t have to follow me, but I’m the only one with the map to get out” Dennis replied while pushing through Vance and Ricky and began making his way towards the noise.
“Do you know how to get out of here?” Ricky asked Vance and Paul. They both shook their heads.
“Oh great. I guess we’re all going to die here!.” Vance replied.
“Or we could follow Dennis?” Paul added.
“He’s right” Ricky replied. “It’s the only hope we have of getting out of here”.
“Are you serious?” Vance asked defiantly. The others nodded. “Crap. Fine! Let’s go help Dennis!”
Vance was upset, but he knew they were right. Dennis and his map were the only way they had to get home, and as mad as Vance was at Dennis, there was also no way Vance was going to abandon him like that.
They all began running the direction they saw Dennis go. They quickly caught up to him trying to get the attention of the monster while it stood over the two girls, both on the ground backed up against a wall. It looked like the short haired girl tripped and fell before the monster got to them. Dennis was relieved when he heard the others behind him.
“Come on guys! Help me get his attention!” He yelled
The others quickly joined in, jumping up and down, making as much noise as they could to keep the monster from hurting the girls. It was working, but not well. The monster was still slowly making its way towards the two girls, when suddenly there was a loud bang followed by a bright blinding flash. The girls knew to cover their eyes as if they’d heard that explosion before, but the boys were all blinded. All they could hear were 2 pairs of boots running in from behind them and towards the dazed monster, and the loud thump of something hard hitting the monster’s head.
“Get that thing outta here!” the boys heard from a voice behind them, commanding the people they heard run past them. As their sight slowly began to come back to them, they said what looked like soldiers. One was helping the girls up to their feet, while the other seemed to be chasing away the monster with a rifle in his hands, refusing to use it, but instead intimidating the monster as it fled. The one helping the girls was shorter and looked a little pudgier, while the other was tall and slender. Both had dark skin, and short hair cuts. Suddenly, they heard the loud voice from earlier now right behind them.
“Where do y'all reckon these boys came from?” the man behind them asked in a raspy low voice. He was a lot bigger than the other two soldiers. He wore a rusted, dark green chest plate and had a dirty beret on his head. The beret had some sort of military badge on it that they didn’t recognize. The symbol looked like a fierce mammal of some sort. Similar to the monster, he also had scars that ran down his face, most notably on his nose. It was safe to assume the scars must have been from previous run ins with monsters like the one they just saw.
“I’ve never seen them before in my life” the skinny soldier answered as he walked closer to examine them. As he got closer, the boys noticed he had the same badge, but on his chest. The pudgy soldier also walked towards them with his hands firmly on the girl’s shoulders to keep them from running away. You could tell by the look on their faces that they knew they were in trouble.
“Me neither” the pudgy soldier added.
“They’re from the city” the curly haired girl said.
“The city?!” The general replied. “What are city boys doing down here? I thought they locked those darn gates!”
“They haven’t been locked for years, General. No city person in their right mind chooses to come down here. Only the King’s Guard”
“Clearly these four boys aren’t in their right mind then, are they?!” the general replied.
“What do we do with them?” the pudgy soldier asked.
The large general paused to think for a moment. “Knock them out and bring em to base”
The boys all opened their eyes wide in shock, Vance’s being the widest.
“You’re going to do what?!” Vance yelled
Just as he yelled it, the skinny soldier took Paul and Ricky and bashed their heads against each other knocking them unconscious. The pudgy one walked over to Dennis and looked at him apologetically before punching him in the face to do the same. Vance turned around, knowing what was about to happen, and tried to put his hand up to ask for mercy. The general smirked.
“Go to sleep now, city boy” he growled before punching Vance right between the eyes, putting him to sleep with the others.
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