adjusted her grip on the handle of the knife. Scanned the woods behind her, closely. Slowly. She swore she saw movement twitching around between the trees. Things creeping towards her in the long, damp grass. But the thing had gone. She wasn’t sure where, but it’d gone all the same. That was something to be pleased about. Something to be relieved about. She turned around and fell back when she saw what was in front of her. The thing pushed her down. It had such strength as it jumped on top of her, as it moved its fleshy head towards her. The closer it got, Chloë saw things along its body. Along its chest. Teeth. Little mouths. Chloë tried to push back, doing all she could not to get bitten by this thing. It was strange: it definitely wasn’t a person anymore. But it had the strength of someone stronger than a monster. Like it knew what it was doing all along. The more Chloë pushed back at it, the larger its bulging head grew. The more purple it got. If she could just reach her knife. If she could just… She saw one of the little mouths wrap around Kesha’s tiny arm and she knew right then she had to do something. Just a sense deep inside that she had to act. So she let her grip on Kesha loosen. Twisted the knife around. Stabbed it into the side of the thing’s head. What happened next surprised Chloë. The thing stopped twitching. It stopped moving altogether. The mouths on its body stopped snapping. And then its fleshy head burst all over Chloë and covered her in cold, thick gunk. She took a few seconds to catch her breath. To wipe the fluid away. Push the dead weight of the woman away from her. And then she wiped the goo off Kesha. Cleaned her up as best as she could with some muddy rainwater from the ground below. She still couldn’t comprehend what she’d just seen. The thing she’d just killed. Couldn’t get her head around it. She started to walk away. She had to get back. Get back to the tunnel entrance. But she’d lost track of where she was while fleeing the monsters, distracting them. Shit. She wiped off her knife. Looked back at the lifeless body of the… Wait. She looked around the grassy floor of the woods. Blinked a few times. Her chest tightened. This couldn’t be right. This couldn’t be real. This couldn’t be happening. There was a damp mound where the thing had laid dead just a matter of seconds ago. A damp mound that was now empty. She looked at the trees again. Thought she saw twitching. No. She definitely saw twitching now. Things edging her way. Little movements in the grass. She held on to Kesha and she knew what she had to do. She had to run. She had to keep on running. She had to— The thing stepped out of the trees to Chloë’s left. It was definitely the same thing she’d killed before. She could tell from the black dress on the woman’s body. From the empty bag of flesh resting on its shoulders. Only now, it was lurching forward with its chest spread out. Something was ripping out of its chest. Tearing through the woman’s ribcage. Another fleshy bag exploded out of the woman’s body. The mouths on her skin started moving again. And then in the corner of her eyes, Chloë saw more of these things edging towards her. Worse than the monsters. Far worse than the monsters. Most of them still far enough away not to worry about. But not this one. Not this fucker in front of her. She put Kesha down by the tree. Raised her knife. Saw her dad in her mind. Her dad who’d been taken away from her. The only person she had left. And she wanted to make someone hurt. She wanted to make someone hurt for taking him away. She pulled back the knife. Felt her hands shaking. Felt her fear turning into rage, her sadness turning into anger. She waited for the thing to step within a few inches of her. Then she rammed the knife into the new fleshy bubble on its chest. Again and again and again. The thing stumbled back. Didn’t fall, just tumbled a