14 Back to School

They got to work gathering equipment they might need, such as the sparklers, lighters, bags, a crowbar, some bottles of water, and the like. A'luhr cut the bottom off of her partially destroyed bodysuit and wore it like leggings as her weapons could more easily be carried this way. She simply threw a rather revealing and loose-fitting tank top over her chest, explaining that she appreciated the mobility and breathability of the material. The men didn't seem to mind it too much. Sarah painfully kicked Adam in the shin when she saw him ogling the large blue mounds barely hidden under the garment.

A'luhr's breasts weren't entirely on display, however. Earlier, Sarah had found a sports bra in another house that she eyeballed to be a good fit for A'luhr, considering that both women seemed about the same size. She showed the alien woman how to put it on and smiled bashfully after A'luhr praised the garment, noting that it would allow her to be even more agile in combat.

Sarah was still curious as to why both human and bellus females had permanently enlarged mammaries - a trait otherwise unique to humans - but she figured that A'luhr would have no idea either, so she didn't bother bringing it up.

The team assembled at the front door of the mansion and, after some glances out the windows to make sure the coast was clear, slipped outside into the overcast afternoon. They stealthy shuffled down the sides of the road, expertly ducking between parked cars, fences, and bushes as they went. Sarah nervously watched the skies for any signs of the dragonflies, but the thick layer of murky clouds made it difficult to have complete confidence each time she confirmed there were none of the creatures in sight.

Eventually, the university buildings came into view at the end of the block and they hunkered down behind a fence to get a gauge on the situation. They could see the doorway that A'luhr had been attempting to bash open before. As Steven had claimed, it was no longer obstructed by the ichor, which seemed to have been melted away. All of the other doors they could see were still blocked by the hard substance, however.

"Maybe your tool malfunctioned, managed to destroy the gunk, then fell to the ground and got blown away in the storm?" Zoey suggested.

"That is a possibility," A'luhr agreed, still seeming a bit suspicious.

"Let's go check it out," Adam whispered. "Zoey and Steven, you watch our sides, A'luhr, cover our six, Sarah-"

"Six?" A'luhr asked in a puzzled tone.

"...It just means to watch behind us. Sarah, you keep your eyes on the skies. I'll move in front so if anything happens I'll be the one to bite it and the rest of you will have a chance to react."

"But that's-" Sarah started to object.

"I have complete faith in all of you." Adam cut her off and nodded to the group. "We need to move before something finds us. Let's go!"

They crept out across the street towards the doorway, constantly swiveling their heads around to check for danger. Sarah could only imagine that the Lucky Charms she had eaten a week ago had really worked some leprechaun magic, seeing as they had yet to spot and single Taker all day.

They got to the door without incident and crouched down as Adam peered in through the lightly tinted glass.

"It seems pretty clear inside," he breathed. "Save for some overturned furniture."

"Do any of you have your ID cards to get in?" Steven asked, realizing that there was a card reader next to the door.

"That would have been a good thing to check beforehand, eh?" Adam gave him a look. "I do, but we actually won't even need them. The locks operate on an electric timer - I helped install them myself actually - and if the power ever goes out, they become disabled as a safety feature." He grabbed the door handle and slowly swung it open to prove his point.

"Ah, excellent," Steven coughed. "Just as I planned."

"You never cease to amaze me…" Zoey said, moving into the dark building with the rest of the group.

"Naturally." He winked back at her. She rolled her eyes, which had started to become somewhat of a trademark for her when dealing with her stepbrother.

"Wow this is… eerie." Sarah whispered as they walked through the shadowy interior. She was no stranger to seeing the halls empty as professors often worked in the buildings during the summer months to adjust the curriculum and take workshops, but seeing the campus totally dark and derelict sent a chill up her spine.

"Where is the chemistry storage?" Adam asked her.

"I'm actually not super sure…" Sarah admitted. "I guess it's probably near the bio storage, which is on the top floor at the other end of this building."

"Of course it is."

"It's not like the building planners had 'ease of access during alien invasion' on their minds when designing the layout." Sarah shrugged. They entered into a small cafe area, which was well lit by the large windows lining the wall. Sarah noted with alarm that almost none of the baked goods still on display had mold on them. They were certainly sure to be hard as rock - though whether or not they had always been that way was up for debate. Sarah didn't much care for the college food services.

Suddenly, a loud clang and the sound of falling metal struck the floor behind them, tearing Sarah from her thoughts as she and Adam jumped in surprise and spun on their heels to face the incoming attack that they were sure was heading their way.

"S-sorry! Fuck! Sorry!" Steven stammered. "I didn't even see that!" It seemed that he had bumped into a small table and knocked a food tray tumbling to the tiled floor, sending the silverware skittering away from the light of the windows and into the shadows.

They stood frozen for a second, steadying their pounding hearts, before all releasing a sigh of relief.

"Be careful, idiot!" Zoey hissed at him. "You're gonna get us all fucked! Literally!" Sarah raised her eyebrow at the pun, which was unexpected from the girl. "S-sorry…" Zoey meekly chuckled. "I've kinda been holding onto that one for a while." The rest of them giggled as well, except A'luhr who was squinting her eyes and staring off into the darkness where the silverware had landed. Her eyebrows twitched uncertainly.

Then, out of the surrounding blackness, they heard the sound of a table slowly screeching along the floor. The sickening, high-pitched grating echoed around them before abruptly coming to a stop. Sarah felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end as her legs started to gently shake from adrenaline.

"Th-that wasn't me…" Steven whispered in a barely audible, hoarse voice.

"Nobody… make… a sound…" Adam said through clenched teeth. Sarah desperately willed her heart to stop pumping so loudly. It was deafening in her ears and she was convinced that anyone in a fifty-foot radius would easily be able to hear it. She gulped and felt her mouth become dry with fear.

They all fought to hide their shaky breaths, but it was a losing battle as a sense of dread began to wash over them. Something else crashed to the floor in the shadows, closer than the previous sound had been.

Out of the corner of her eye, Sarah saw A'luhr very slowly draw a sparkler out of her waistband and hold it to the blade of the dagger at her hip, ready to strike it at a moment's notice. Sarah gripped her own sparkler with white knuckles, trying to quietly fumble through her pocket for her lighter.

"Stupid!" She thought. "Why wasn't I on guard!?" She inwardly cursed at her own carelessness.

They stood otherwise motionless for what felt like several minutes without hearing anything else. Just as Sarah was about to take a breath in relief and suggest it was just a rodent or something, A'luhr suddenly whipped her hand away from her hip, igniting the sparkler on the blade of the dagger and thrusting the spraying lights in front of her in one fluid motion. Something humanoid was vaguely illuminated standing a few feet away from them in what had previously been complete darkness.

"UAAHHH!" Zoey shouted as the rest of the group stumbled back in surprise. Their shock only increased in magnitude however, as, at the same time,

"HIIEEEE!!" A woman's shrill voice rang out in fear near where A'luhr was brandishing her sparkler. With an acrobatic motion, A'luhr spun towards the source of the sound, sweeping the woman's legs out from under her and holding a dagger to her quivering throat while another hand held the sparkler up to the panicked woman's face.

"Why do you hunt us?" A'luhr angrily growled. "Speak now or lose that privilege forever!"

"I-I-I-I- Please don't eat me! Oh god! No! Please!" The woman cowered in terror at the unearthly sight of A'luhr's inhuman features, made even more pronounced by the wildly dancing lights of the sparkler.

"W-wait! A'luhr, stop!" Zoey shouted out, running over to the two of them. "P-professor Wilde!?"

"Z-Zoey? Zoey Jones is that you!?" The woman stuttered. "Don't let this thing get me! Please!"

"Thing!?" A'luhr spat in dismay.

"It's okay, A'luhr!" Zoey pleaded with her. "She's my Life Sciences professor! I know her!"

"Hmph," A'luhr snorted, standing back and allowing Zoey to help the woman up off the floor. "And why, exactly, were you lurking in the shadows watching us? Waiting to pounce when our backs were turned to steal our equipment?"

"N-no! Heavens no!" The woman said, flustered. She straightened out her wrinkled dress and adjusted her large glasses as she stepped forward into the light. Sarah wasn't particularly familiar with all of the general education professors, but she did vaguely recognize the women. She looked to be in her late-forties, with long, dirty-blonde hair that was in complete disarray, dark brown eyes that were magnified through her lenses, and a surprisingly full bosom despite here narrow frame… though Sarah didn't want to be impolite and stare. "I was just approaching to see if you were friendly but then I saw this… creature standing there and thought you were all like that! I froze up!"

"Everyone, this is Professor Mary Wilde." Zoey briefly introduced her to the rest of the group, ending with A'luhr, who was still eyeing the frail-looking woman suspiciously. "...And this is A'luhr. As you have guessed, she's… not from around here… but she's been a huge help! You can trust her!"

"I… I see…!" Mary stammered. "A pleasure, I'm sure." She said, shaking everyone's hand, except for A'luhr's who refused to take it. Sarah wasn't sure if she didn't understand the custom or simply had a distaste for the woman. "I've been hiding here all alone for months now! Giant monsters are roaming the streets but they don't seem to find me in here! So I've been surviving off of the food in storage and the water in the toilet reservoirs! Just what is going on out there!?"

"We really don't have time to explain, Mary," Adam calmly said. "We need to get to the chem lab storage as quickly and quietly as possible. Do you know where it is, exactly?"

"Why, yes! Yes I do!" She bobbed her head up and down. "I've passed by it a few times!"

"Awesome!" Steven pumped his fist. "Can you take us there?"

"Of course! Just follow me!"

The group looked at each other and shrugged, walking after the woman. A'luhr seemed to relent and tossed her spent sparkler onto the floor as they went. They quietly winded their way down a few other halls and up some short flights of stairs, heading towards the science wing. They finally got up to a long skywalk that led into the next area, with large windows forming the walls on both sides and offering a spectacular view of the campus grounds below. As the group filed across it, Sarah noticed something strange in the well-lit corridor: Mary seemed to be tracking a thin, wet trail along the floor from underneath her dress as she walked.

"So… Mary… was it?" Sarah quietly spoke up, slightly slowing her pace.

"Y-yes?" The woman in the lead responded without looking over her shoulder.

"How did you manage to avoid being dragged away back on the first day of all this? We saw the school - it was completely overrun…"

"I suppose I just got lucky?" She shrugged and adjusted her glasses. "I'm sure there were several others who got away as well. How silly that we were in such a panic despite being right next to a trove of magnesium throughout the attack!"

Sarah stopped in her tracks, making Zoey bump into her back by mistake.

"How did you know we were here for magnesium…?" Sarah slowly asked in a cautious voice. "We never said anything about that." Mary abruptly came to halt with her back still turned to the rest of the group. Sarah felt her face lose its color as she reached behind her to motion for Zoey to step back. Suddenly, Mary let out a small, giddy laugh.

"It doesn't really matter why you're here." She turned and smiled at them, with a distant look in her eyes. "You will soon know the warmth of the Krinis's embrace, just as I have."

"GET BACK! IT'S A TRA-!" Sarah started to shout, but it was too late.

SMASH!

Several flying Takers suddenly crashed through the glass windows of the skywalk, sending glass flying. Mary laughed drunkenly as she watched the creatures lash out at the group with dozens of nimble tentacles.

"FUCK!" Steven yelled as tentacles wrapped around his limbs, knocking the unlit sparkler from his hand. The rest of the humans weren't faring much better. Adam was grunting and struggling in vain against the powerful appendages tightly binding his arms to his sides, while poor Zoey couldn't even make any sounds at all as tentacles had already completely engulfed her upper. Her flailing legs kicked at the air as the creature started to take flight.

Sarah had managed to ignite her sparkler in time, having already had her lighter ready to go from the earlier scare. She pushed back the Taker that had targeted her and quickly spun around to slice through the tendrils binding Zoey, which turned to ash as the monster shrieked in agony. Suddenly, Zoey's face burst free from the tentacles, allowing her screams to echo around the surrounding campus.

"I knew this woman was a danger!" A'luhr yelled, fighting off two of the Takers at once while dual-wielding sparklers. "She is a thrall to the Krinis, just like your friends!" A'luhr cut down pivoted and vaulted towards the woman, ready to take her down, striking at the scattered Takers along the way.

"They Krinis are kind masters," Mary replied, now lewdly fondling her tits with one hand while rubbing the fingers of her other hand against the crotch of her dress, which was getting damper by the second. "They will show you a happiness that was impossible in our imperfect world before. Do not resist their love! Join us in ecstasy!" As she shouted the last line of her speech, several tentacles suddenly slithered out from under the hem of her dress, as if exiting from her vagina.

The tendrils shot out and caught the surprised A'luhr in midair, holding all four of her limbs in a spread eagle position. Mary laughed gleefully as she watched the alien woman struggle valiantly against the tentacles before staring daggers at her captor.

"A'LUHR!" Steven hollered. Sarah freed him from his captor and he fell to the ground, scrambling to pick up the sparkler he had dropped. He didn't get a chance to do anything though as A'luhr had already made her move.

Looking down at the writhing woman below her, A'luhr seemed to give up her fight, the sparklers slowly beginning to die in her hands. But suddenly, a light gleamed in her eyes and she flicked the glowing sticks into the air above her head using the strength of her fingers alone and deftly caught them with her long eyebrow-like antennae. She swung her head forward and jammed the smoldering ends of the sparklers into one of the tentacles binding her, slicing through it and creating a blistering wound.

The squirming mass between Mary's legs suddenly jerked around in pain, knocking the woman off of her feet. A'luhr had apparently been aiming to completely sever all of her bonds with her last stunt, but one tentacle still remained around her left ankle, leaving her hanging upside down and causing the loose fabric of her tank top to fall over her face, exposing her tightly restrained chest and blocking her vision. She attempted to blindly swing up at the last tentacle but wasn't quite able to reach it.

Steven dashed forward as Sarah and Zoey continued to push back the three remaining Takers with their rapidly weakening sparklers, trying to push past them to save Adam. Steven leapt into the air, his sizzling sparkler outstretched towards the tentacle around A'luhr's leg. She managed to push the tank top out of her eyes and, as if in slow motion, the two of them locked eyes for a moment… before the flailing tentacle holding A'luhr suddenly hurled her violently through the broken glass wall and down to the ground three stories below.

"NO!" Steven shrieked, rushing over to the gap where A'luhr had just been seconds before. As he neared the opening, he heard his stepsister let out a shrill shout from behind him,

"STEVEN!"

He didn't even have time to turn around.

His world went black as a flying Taker blasted through the hole he was standing next to, ensnaring his entire body with one flourish of its tentacles before rocketing off into the clouds on the other side of the skywalk.

Sarah faltered in shock after seeing A'luhr get thrown from the building and Steven taken away by the flying monster. This opening was all that the other Takers needed, especially now that her sparklers were little more than charred rods at this point.

"S-SARAH! HELP M-!" Zoey shrieked as tentacles once again quickly wrapped around her curvy body, dragging her into the sky towards her stepbrother, and leaving her broken glasses on the floor.

Adam had also been grabbed during the distraction and the tentacles were quickly winding their way over his muscular form. He struggled and bit at the appendages, but they failed to react in any way.

"SARAH!" He yelled, snapping her out of her shock. "GET THE MAGNESIUM FROM THE LAB! GO! WE'LL FIND A WAY T-" His voice was silenced by several thick, slimy tentacles that engulfed his head. Sarah watched in despair as her boyfriend got lifted away by the winged abomination, leaving her alone on the skywalk with Mary.

Sarah didn't have time to mourn, she simply swore inwardly at herself for being so foolish as to go along with such a risky plan. She started to sprint down the hall past Mary, who had stripped completely naked during the scuffle and now seemed to be lost in orgasmic bliss as she frantically fingered herself through the writhing tentacles that spread her pussy wide.

Sarah reached the end of the skywalk and grabbed the doors to throw them open, but suddenly she felt powerful tendrils grab her limbs from behind and drag her backwards towards the ceiling.

She was spun around in midair to face Mary, who had regained her composer, adjusting her glasses again. Sarah confirmed that the several tentacles binding her were indeed protruding from the inside of Mary's gushing slit. Her large, sagging breasts jiggled as she laughed up at Sarah's feebly struggling form. Mary reeled Sarah closer to her body and ran a hand up under her captive's shirt, sliding a thin finger beneath the center of Sarah's bra and between her heaving boobs.

Sarah gritted her teeth as Mary teasingly tickled her cleavage with a long fingernail before curling it into her bra cup and playfully grazing her nipple. She ran another hand down Sarah's trembling waist to squeeze at her firm ass, letting out a cheerful giggle.

"You've been with us before…haven't you?" Mary said in a whimsical voice. "Mmm… how I'd love to welcome you back to the family personally…" She moved her hand from Sarah's butt and gently rubbed the bound woman's crotch. "But our mother wants to have a word with you first." Mary's face drooped into a pout. "I'll come visit you soon so we can play though, doesn't that sound nice, hm?"

"Fuck. You." Sarah growled defiantly.

"No, no - didn't you hear what I just said?" Mary grinned. "That comes later." Then, without warning, her tentacles threw Sarah out of the skywalk.

Sarah screamed as she tumbled through the air but the sounds of her distress were quickly muffled as another Taker shot down from the clouds and snatched her up before she could even fall a single story.

The last thing she saw before her eyes were covered by squirming tentacles was a glimpse of A'luhr's crumpled form, shakily rising to her feet far below, with a small silver orb in her hand.

As Sarah felt the tentacles tighten around her immobilized body, she squirmed in terror, but also, perhaps, anticipation.