*note* this part and the next chapter have not been edited to take in account the 3 (soon to be 4) chapters recently added, slight edits may happen but I don't think much needs to change here.

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As we step onto the road Beans comes up behind me and presses the nozzle of his weapon into my back, "March," he snickers, pushing me towards the standoff not fifty feet ahead. Piper lumbers even further behind, he has a weapon hidden within his belly rolls but he has yet to pull it out.

Joe and Mr. Pea remain on the front line with their business partners. Joe has his gun loosely in his hand while Mr. Pea's arm is rigid with a revolver cocked at his side. They watch us approach carefully while the sleeveless man and the leader with the AK-47 stand with their weapons across their chest.

One of the men in white has pulled back his hood showing tribal tattoos on his face and neck, the other still has his hood up, and has been keeping his head down as if to avoid his face being seen. The one with his head down appears smaller and a lot younger than the rest, possibly the age of Beans if not even less. The tattooed man has a hunting rifle while his younger friend has only a large hunting knife of some sort.

Beans pushes his gun harder into my back, "It's a real shame they picked me up so soon huh? We coulda had a good time."

"Shut the hell up." Harry snaps, holding still.

Beans gives me a hard shove causing me to stumble forward and points his weapon at Harry's head, "You dead already kid, you just don' know it."

Rage builds up under my skin and I can feel my own heartbeat rise. I slowly scope the situation. Three heavy weapons, four handguns and the useless one with a knife. We're still quite some distance from the junction and everyone has their eyes on Harry.

"Get down kid," Bean says as he waves his weapon. Piper comes up behind Harry and slams the base of his foot into Harry's leg, causing him to buckle and fall to his knees. Beans steps forward and holds the gun between Harry's temple. I look over at Mr. Pea who has moved both his hands to his front. Mr. Pea nods his head and tall Mexican crosses his arms and nods as well. Shit, they're going to kill him right here, was that what the argument was about?

I close my eyes and put my hands out, feeling the cool breeze. I feel my jacket tight against my skin and the jeans on my legs. I think of the ground under my shoes and my hair rustling in the breeze. I slow my breathing and attempt to lower my heartbeat. I think of running water, of wires, of connections, of moving electricity, of blood. Heartbeats, ten in total, blood pumping through them, steak. Juicy meat, undercooked, warmth. I can smell it, I can smell everything. I can smell the smoke on Tall Man, I can smell Tattoo's bad breath, sunflower seeds, ginger, gunpowder. I smell rain, dirt, grass.

A sharp pain comes from my mouth, it feels like all of my teeth rupture at once, I can taste my own blood. It's unnatural to force it out like this, but it's not going to come any other way. I smell salt, only to notice tears under my eyes. I'm crying, however I don't think any of the grunts around me notice that. I wipe my sleeve across my cheek to wipe away the pain and turn to Beans. The gun is inches from Harry, but all that talk has come up short—so far.

I look down at Harry, he looks at me. His eyes grow wide, much wider than they ever were before. Something's changed in me, I know it and he can sure as hell see it. I can taste them in my mouth, coming out from the holes they've drilled through my molars. Hundreds of small threads are wiggling around inside. They snap at everything, at my tongue, it hurts as they bite into it before realizing there's nothing there to drink.

My tongue bleeds, my cheeks bleed, my teeth burn like a day at the dentist without anesthesia. My eyes rapidly dart from Beans to Mr. Pea, to Piper then the heavy weapons. It's a bad spot, I know, everything is too far away. Mistakes can happen. I could die, but Harry will die if it doesn't happen now. Do I have other tools? Dirt, useless, the van's too far away, the truck further. These men, their weapons, their blood maybe, but unlikely, there's no time to prepare that.

Piper looks up, he sees the same face and the same eyes Harry's already noticed, "Dude..." he says, pulling a black glock out from under his belt. I cross the ten steps between Beans and me in two. Piper fires, the bullet whizzes past me like a toy under water. I move out of its way before crashing into Twigs mouth first. As I dig my teeth into Beans' shoulder the strands shoot into his skin like a hundred needles. Beans' gun goes off twice, one bullet into the air the second right into my stomach.

The pain is muffled by the surge of energy pouring out of his body and into mine. I pull my face away from him. Disconnecting abruptly hurts even more than when the worms came out, I move my eyes to the next mark. I see a boy on the ground with his hands over his head, his heart pumping that delicious blood just under the skin. I reach for him as a loud sound rattles from my left. My eyes go for the threat as the dirt around us splatters into my face.

I pry the beautiful weapon out of Beans' dead hands and point it the racket, I squeeze the trigger twice and one of the figures in the distance falls. On a third pull the weapon locks up and I smell fresh blood. The lumbering giant Piper has fallen to his knees with a pool of red building on his chest. He's looking across the road to his boss, Mr. Pea. Such a big body, so much extra blood, I want him. I stand with my hand over the spot where Beans' bullet went in my side. There isn't much blood and I can feel the bullet already etching itself out.

As I stomp over to Piper I hear more gunfire, I flinch in reaction but no bullets come. I look over, Mr. Pea and Joe are running back to their van, and the three remaining gangsters have withdrawn to their truck with Tattoos sprawled out in the dirt. Surprisingly the gangsters have their weapons drawn on our captors and not me. Alone time.

"Please, whatever you want, just please..." I hear Piper, holding his chest to try and keep the wound sealed. They always beg. More gunfire. I hear glass break and bullets ricochet across metal. Joe and Mr. Pea have made it behind the van which is taking heavy fire from Sleeveless. Their skirmish is a big advantage I didn't plan for.

The exchange behind me goes quiet as I stand over Piper, he now has both his hands on his wound and those begging eyes searching mine for any remorse. There is none. I look at him; I look deeper seeing the fluids run their circles, seeing his heartbeat increase and the hole where his blood is leaking out. I put a hand on his shoulder and squeeze hard, watching his entire body contort to the force.

Cracks, several cracks, two bullets miss me by inches as a third connects with my shoulder. My hand drops off him limp as my other reaches for this throat. I squeeze as hard as I can on his neck until I hear a muffled pop and turn around to look at the new assailants. Joe is down behind the van, the front windshield has been spotted with holes, both mirrors are gone and three of the four are tires flat. Mr. Pea has taken running down the road back the way we came.

The three remaining gang members have turned their attention to me. I let go of Piper's throat and his body falls backwards with a thud. I charge at the three remaining attackers. Sleeveless lets off several more shots from his carbine while using a second hand to attempt to get the driver door open and the car started. He gets as far as opening the door before I'm in his face. I push him down onto the seat and hear several gunshots from behind. The young one with the knife has retrieved Tattoos rifle. I feel the holes in my back grow wet and a dull sensation roll down my back.

I slowly turn to the boy, he sees the fire in my eyes burn even brighter and getting the cue drops the rifle and starts running across the field. Tall Man shoots a few volleys at me, breaking the door's window, before following the boy. "What the fuck are you?" I hear Sleeveless as his hands go up in attempt to hold me back. I turn to him, blood from my previous kill drops onto his vest as the threads elongate in attempt to bore themselves into his flesh.

What am I? I am many things, but one thing I'm not is livestock to be sold. I use my hands to deflect his and easily hold him back, even with the damaged shoulder. "M-monsturo..." Yes, maybe that's what I am. I lower my face down onto his chest and the worms stab at him until they start going in, I see the threads fill with red and become dizzy with the feast. His skin starts to pale as I bite down into the leather and skin combination. Once finished I pull away. The world seems to take a second to catch up as I stumble back out of the truck and throw him onto the ground. Sounds echo, three places. Two running the field, one running the road, and the last a heartbeat nearby.

I run after the one first, he's pretty far by now, but my speed is no match for him. I sprint past the van and in twenty seconds am right behind him. The man in the purple suit is so busy with his flight hasn't even noticed me on his heels. I jump onto his back tackling him to the ground. His face hits the road and bounces once as the revolver he had in his fingers slides out in front. I quickly get to my knees and crawl over to the gun. The two.

With the revolver in hand I run across the field after the two. The young one looks around to see me and grabs the shirt of Tall Man. Tall Man unleashes a volley at me, these ones I see coming and dance around the bullets like dodging snowflakes. I connect with Tall Man first, throwing my knee into his stomach. I throw him forward with the momentum and lift the revolver up. Before we hit the ground I pull the trigger, making a hole in his face. We slam into the ground and tumble. I take two rolls before getting back up and pointing the gun at the last man standing.

I pull the trigger, but it clicks empty. The kid swipes the knife across his body and adjusts himself into a wide stance. I drop the revolver. He circles me and I keep my eyes on his. He's terrified, but at the same time strong. It's a real pity we couldn't have met in different circumstances, he could have been useful.

I take in a deep breath and lung at him. He ducks down and swipes the blade across his torso. I grab his shoulders as the blade sinks into my stomach. I gag, blood comes out of my mouth and speckles down his back. He drags the blade across my chest digging in deep. I feel the strength depart from my body as the blade finally makes its way completely across my stomach. I claw at his hood, taking it off him as he takes a knee, holding my body up on his shoulder. His arm swipes in for a second pass as my fingers find his short hair. Desperately I pull his hair back with one mighty heave. It takes the last of my strength but I force his head down his back, causing his neck to snap and the top of it to touch between his shoulder blades.

We both drop to the ground, me on top of him. I roll off and a pounding pain extends from my stomach. I look down to see my jacket sliced in two, there's dark red blood filling the large gash across my chest. Not good. My eyesight fills with darkness and I struggle to keep it out, I force myself back to my feet, using one hand to keep my insides in and the other to push off the dirt. I look back towards the distant road, three heartbeats are left.

I force myself forward. The distance takes what feels like entire hours. I finally make it back to the road, my mouth is dry and I thirst more than ever before. A pair of beady eyes looks up at me, frightened. Food. I look over at a boy. He's between two bodies and flat on the ground, his head barely poking up above the bodies. I go to him and kneel at his side. I run my fingers through his hair, their dirty, filled with muddy blood. He reaches one of his hands out at me and puts it on his leg while keeping his face on the ground. He moves his fingers back and forth across my leg. His fingers shake.

I know this boy; I move my hand under his cheek and lift up his face, "Harry." I say, my voice horse.

"Clare?" He replies, shaken.

"Yeah... you alright?"

"Yes, but," he pulls himself up from the ground and sits in front of me.

"I'm a monster, I know."

He looks at my chest, "You're hurt."

"My bag, the hard one," I tell him as he stands up and goes to the van. He opens the trunk and pulls my bag out, when he returns he has not only my suitcase, but the gun left next to Joe's body as well. Seeing the weapon I ask, "Are you going to help me or shoot me?"

"I really don't know yet," he replies as he sets the case down by my feet. He pushes both the buttons to pop it open. Inside is an entire military first-aid kit, gauze, alcohol, tubes, antibiotics, bandages, anything anyone would need to patch up an innumerable amount of different injuries. I direct as Harry helps wrap gauze around my open wound and strap it tightly in place, red spots bleed through the bandage almost immediately, but at least it holds the wound closed. Once complete we close the suitcase and Harry helps me to my feet. I direct him to the truck. He carries me over his shoulder as I look back at the van, that vehicle is done, holes in the hood, front window smashed, and three blown tires.

The driver side window on the truck is blown out and there are a couple of bullet holes in the planks that hide the bed, but it's otherwise in good shape. "Hello?" I defensively look at those planks as a girl's voice comes from somewhere behind them, "Anyone there? I know I'm not supposed to talk, but I heard gunfire... Hello?"

"Let's go." I say, shifting Harry in the direction of the voice. We hobble around to the back of the truck to find an opened padlock. Harry pulls it off and drops it on the ground allowing the boards to swing open. Inside the trunk are eight vertical cages, all of them are empty except the one in the back corner. Inside that cage is a dirty brown-haired girl. Her body is covered in bruises and she is wearing only a filthy white gown and sneakers to fend against the cold November weather. "Are you here to save me?" She squeals from the corner as she reaches her fingers to the metal.

"Take these two cages in front out, put our stuff in here. We take this one," I say to Harry, not giving the girl in the corner a second glance. Harry guides me around to the passenger seat and when he gets me secured in the chair asks, "What about the girl?"

I look at him coldly and say, "Food."

Lucky for us the keys are left in the cup holder. Harry moves the truck up to the van and transports our stuff into the back of the truck. I also see him grab most the gear out of the van too, that's good, it may become useful. He spends longer than I'd like at the back before closing it. When he gets back he slips into the driver's seat, "Her name's Cassandra." I nod my head once as he pulls the truck back onto the dirt road.

We go about twenty seconds, "There was one more, pull over up here." I point forward, in the middle of the road Mr. Pea is face down in the dirt. Harry pulls to the side and stops the car. I reach into the back seat and find that black beauty that was once Piper's. I open the door and step out. It hurts to walk, but I manage the five steps to the downed man. I rest one foot on his back and feel his chest slowly moving.

I point the gun at the back of his head, I should keep him. I should hold him, he could be useful. Scumbag. He doesn't deserve the time. I already have an extra already. "Good bye asshole. I told you I'd kill you." I pull the trigger and listen to the crack as a hole bores into the back of his skull. The reverberation from the gun causes a splinter to shoot up from my chest, but I keep myself from doubling over. I spit onto the body and listen to the world around us, and then there were two.

Even split this part is long huh?  Yeah, together it would have been a 5,500 word chapter.  Well, what do you think of Clarine now, Good guy, Bad guy, what the hell is she?