Page 9 of A Very Monstrous Desire

“Because we’re grunts,” Julia said, rubbing her goose-bumped arms with her free hand. “Our job is just to kill the munchers. The whys and the wherefores are someone else’s jobs, someone with multiple degrees.”

“I have multiple degrees,” Theo said, and she laughed.

“Of course you do!”

Joel finished up his call and joined them. He was looking quite cheerful now. “No other groups spotted,” he said. “I think we can be confident this is some sort of one off.”

“Can we really be confident on that?” Theo asked. “Given we’ve been here for less than a day?”

“That’s the sort of negative thinking that helps no one,” Joel said.

“Just being a bit of a realist,” Theo replied.

“Being a worrier,” he replied.

“Yeah, but,” Theo looked around the group, hoping to get them on side, “there’s quite a lot of space we haven’t covered yet. Just because the other groups haven’t seen any lone muncher pods doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Perhaps a bit of caution is warranted?”

“There’s no place for caution in an environment like this,” Joel said and before Theo could say that he absolutely thought this environment really was the place for caution Joel gestured to their guns. “Now, all of you, make sure your torches are on straight and your ammo is fully loaded. We’re going in and going in hard before we lose the last of the daylight.”

“You think we’ll make it to the shop before it gets dark?” Julia asked.

“We will with Theo pacing us,” he said, and he gestured in front of him. “And there’s no time like the present. Let’s go, marathon man.”

Chapter

Six

Evening was fast approaching by the time they made it back to the village shop, and the fading light unfortunately made everything look even creepier than the woods had been. The shop was in shadow, including the door which Joel had slammed shut as they’d left. They were not entirely sure if the back door was still open, but Dimitri suspected it was. On that basis, the group were vaguely confident that the munching monsters would have moved on…all but Theo.

Something felt off about this, about the whole thing, and whilst he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was, he was worried about it. He’d read dozens and dozens of monster mission files over the last six weeks and one thing the munching monster ones all had in common was the pattern they followed.

A rip opened up.

A handful of munching monsters came through with their queen.

Then a handful more.

The MDF, who were now able to pinpoint rips in real time, were sent in to patch the thing up. If they got there in time, they were usually able to do so with a simple adhesive that had been developed by an American scientist who had previously worked for a toothpaste company. However, if the rip breached a certain size, then they were stuck with it, it couldn’t be closed. At that point a twenty-four-seven guard was assigned to the rip forevermore. Instructions? To shoot anything that tried to come through.

Trouble was, patchable or not, by the time the MDF got there, dozens if not hundreds of munching monsters might have come through and they quickly settled their queen by the rip and gobbled up everything in sight. The MDF were tasked with exterminating them. In all the reports that Theo had read there hadn’t been any mention of rogue munching monster groups hanging out with other monsters.

Not a single one.

It was just his damn luck that the first time was on his watch!

He scowled as they made their way towards the village shop, wishing for the millionth time that he was not here, but also feeling strongly like he was going to have to do his part no matter what happened.

Joel had already outlined his plan on the jog over and they all responded to the instructions they had been given. Theo was once again teamed up with Julia, which he was pleased about, and he stayed close to her as they approached the front of the shop. Dimitri and Gill headed for the back, and Liam and Simon took watch. Joel accompanied them this time and Theo suspected he was not quite convinced that they’d kept a proper watch before and perhaps had also made a run for it a bit sooner than they should of.

“Just make sure they’ve moved on,” Joel said to them. “Then we’ll do the same.” He gestured to the dozen or so houses farther down the small street from the shop, the entirety of this isolated hamlet. “We’ll pick one of those to spend the night in and first thing in the morning head towards the coast.” He scowled. “Might be a bit behind some of the other groups, sounds like they’re making good progress.” He flexed his muscles a bit as he said that which Theo couldn’t help but admire even given the peril.

“You’re happy staying here, in this village?” Julia asked.

“You prefer camping in the woods?” he responded, and she quickly shook her head.

“No, no.” Theo was quick to agree.

“Let’s get this done then!”

---