22

I hoped that threat would deter him. I watched him flex his poor hand a few times before scowling, and focusing his attention on the road once again. I was strong. There was no doubt about that. The thing I was questioning now was how stupid boss boy might be. 

The drive didn't take very long. The parking lot was empty, and the place was much more decrepit then I remembered. The doors, and part of the roof around the doors had been peeled back. Ripped open as if a gigantic cheap can opener had gone to town on that section of the store. There were dozens of old empty webs in the torn opening, and the store was dark. 

I shot a flaming arrow into the blackened maw. It was silent, and still. Nothing reacted to the flames, and nothing came running out. My enhanced senses also didn't pick anything up. We walked closer slowly. 

The men kept throwing me glances. Almost as if they were hoping I'd pick something up. I didn't. There was nothing. The place had an overwhelming air of nothingness. 

It was as if we were looking at what was probably one of many skeletons of a world that had existed only a month ago. We walked through the destroyed door cautiously. The webs that ran along the ceiling had the corpses of many unfortunate souls bound up in them. Many of which were obviously shriveled or bent at impossible angles. Those impossible angles made it clear that these people were dead. 

There was a clear line of destroyed shelves from the back of the store, and whatever had caused that had broken the front of the store to escape. A quick scan of the corpses stuck to the roof revealed there were also many corpses of monsters mixed in as well. Including a few dozen of those little gremlins we'd seen at the other store. I walked forward. Stepping out ahead of the group once again. 

I didn't sense any danger from the store itself. There was definitely a few living things in this store, and they were dangerous, but not enough to give me killer vibes. As long as I was cautious they wouldn't be able to get the drop on me, and that was pretty much the only way they would be able to kill me. 

"We're not alone in here," I spoke aloud as I listened carefully, "They're not very strong. We should sweep the place, and get them taken care of quickly."

I took the lead. Striding through the broken, and scattered isles as I looked for our enemies. My strides were long, and I was fast so it didn't take long for me to get away from the group. I had mana at the tips of my fingers waiting for an opportunity to throw my mana around. I heard a small voice. 

It sounded like a child crying. 

"Mama?" the voice cried out. 

My hairs stood on end. I got along with children, and had a lot of experience with toddlers after practically raising my little siblings. That was not what a child sounded like. It was wrong, but it was convincing enough for one of the men. He obviously wasn't the brightest since he was wearing cargo shorts, and a tank top while outside, and surrounded by monsters. 

I turned my attention to him, and drew my bow. A hundred percent prepared for what was going to happen. He reached under one of the shelves that had fallen, but was propped up a bit on another shelf that managed to stay up. He cooed at what he thought was a child under the shelf. I wasn't close enough to hear what he was saying, and the shelf blocked me from seeing what he was reaching for. 

I wanted to tell him to stop, but he wasn't likely to listen to me. He was yanked in, and shouted out in alarm. Only his legs stuck out from under the shelf. I was at the wrong angle. I couldn't see him, and I wasn't going to fire at him blindly. 

I loosened my string, and put my arrow back in the quiver as I ran. I jumped over the still standing shelf, and landed on the other side. Just a scant few inches from the spider with a human head that was digging it's fangs into the man's arm. Cries of terror, and pain replace his alarm. The spider didn't know I was there yet. 

I pulled my dagger, and ran flames along the blade before slamming the blade into it's big ass. Funneling even more fire into it once it was in. It screeched, and backed into me. Dropping the guy's arm, and trying to turn on me. I gripped the dagger tightly, and filled it's insides with fire. 

It screamed, and thrashed throwing me off of it, but it was too late. It's movements turned jerky, and it stumbled into the shelf before collapsing. It's head looked like the head of a child in the poor lighting, but that was where the similarities ended. The rest of it's body was very much that of a spider. I went to the man next. 

Looking at his bite wound. It was very clear that poison was working it's way up the veins in his arm. I didn't wait. I grabbed my dagger, and cut his arm of at the elbow. Just above the blackened veins. 

The heat of the dagger seared the wound. The wound didn't bleed much since it was burned closed when I slashed him. He goes eerily quiet before wailing in pain, and disbelief. 

"My arm," He screamed. 

I crouched down, and got him up so he was sitting up against the shelf. 

"There's a pharmacy at the back of the store," I shouted, "I need gauze, antibiotics, and painkillers right fucking now."

"You cut off my fucking arm," he shouted at me when he came back to his senses. 

"Feel free to put it back on if you want to," I gestured loosely to the arm that was literally rotting at a rate we could see.