There was a massive building that resembled a mall, still under construction a five-story structure of impressive scale. They parked at the foot of the building, not far from the entrance, which was Erick's idea. Distrustful of John, who was leading them, Erick sensed that something was bound to go awry inside. To prepare for any eventuality, he had devised an escape plan, just in case John turned out to be a monster.
As they exited the cars, Erick instructed everyone to take only a gun and a flashlight, while he carried an infrared camera around his neck. Although Erick outranked them all, he allowed John to take the lead. The three of them followed closely behind, slowly sweeping their flashlights around to survey their surroundings. Upon entering the building, Erick activated the camera, positioning it to face John. "What the hell is this place?" Annika exclaimed. "I never even knew it existed," Guion added, astonished.
Before proceeding further, Erick halted their advance, placing a hand on Guion's shoulder to signal him to stop as well. Annika, walking beside Guion, came to a halt too. Unbeknownst to John, something was unfolding behind him. Annika attempted to call out to him, but Erick swiftly intervened. He moved behind her and pressed a sharp knife against her neck, whispering urgently in her ear, "Stay quiet!"
Although Erick would never harm Annika, Guion was taken aback by Erick's unexpected reaction. Carefully, Erick withdrew the knife from her neck, remaining soundless as he retreated to a safe distance of about ten meters.
Guion quickly realized that Erick had harboured suspicions about John all along. Trusting Erick implicitly, he too began to doubt John. "How can you be sure the monster is going to be here?" Guion asked, his voice low. "Isn't it obvious? Because he is the monster," Erick replied. "What! Don't be ridiculous!" Annika protested. "Oh, really?" Erick shot back, then pulled out his small gun and fired twice into John's back. "What the hell are you doing?!" Guion yelled, grabbing Erick by the collar.
"Oh my God, he just shot John!" Annika screamed in panic, rushing toward him without assessing the situation. As she approached, she noticed that John remained still, despite having been shot, even though they were all wearing bulletproof vests. "John, are you alright?" she called softly, fear lacing her voice. He turned around slowly, emitting a bizarre, terrifying roar reminiscent of a dragon. "Guys! To the cars, now!" Erick shouted, his voice rising in urgency. They began to back away, uncertain if the sound had truly come from him. But when John turned, they saw his eyes glowing red like stars.
"Oh shit, he is the monster!" Annika yelled. They turned and sprinted toward the exit. Once outside, they quickly started their cars and reversed at high speed. As they did, they heard rumbling noises, akin to a building collapsing. Suddenly, an enormous humanoid figure with glowing red eyes leaped from the top of the building, causing half of it to collapse instantly.
They swung their cars around and sped away, pushing their engines to the limit. Erick's car was the fastest, leading the way, with Guion right behind him. No matter how fast they drove, the monster continued to close in.
The creature possessed a massive, muscular body, covered in sinewy muscle tissue. It had three arms: a normal arm, a giant muscular arm with bulging veins that was larger than its entire body, and a pointed muscular left arm that matched its own height. Additionally, multiple tentacles with sharp ends protruded from its back, and only half of its face resembled John's.
It pursued them for a while, closing the gap until it was about five meters from Guion's truck. The creature extended some of its many tentacles through the truck bed, preparing to leap onto the vehicle. Annika retrieved a machine gun with an extended belt of ammunition from the back seat, passing it through the small window on the roof and securing it in place, aiming directly at the monster.
She began firing at John with remarkable precision, targeting his face, but the beast continued to thrust its tentacles into the car. It took numerous bullets just to make it flinch; however, it only drew closer. Although the bullets failed to inflict serious damage, John felt the pain intensify as he approached the vehicle until he finally released it, leaping onto the side wall of a nearby building and continuing the chase from there. His tentacles allowed him to scale the walls, piercing through the structure as he ran.
Even from that distance, Annika maintained her accurate aim, forcing him to leap from one building to another across the street in an attempt to evade her shots. Despite his efforts to dodge the bullets, Annika consistently managed to hit him.
To John, the bullets were merely an annoyance, igniting his rage until he could no longer contain himself. He ripped large concrete blocks from the buildings and hurled them at the cars as he chased them. The impact was akin to that of hand grenades when they struck the ground. However, Erick and Guion, both skilled drivers, adeptly dodged each projectile with ease.
Eventually, they made their way into town, where there was sufficient light but no signs of human activity exactly as Erick had planned. Guion followed him blindly, as did the monster. It trailed them into a parking lot of a large mall around two AM, with no other vehicles in sight except for theirs.
As they navigated a long line of towering pillars leading to the exit, Erick turned on the radio and revealed his strategy to trap the creature long enough for them to escape. "Annika! I need you to weaken all the pillars," he instructed. "What! The building will collapse!" she replied, incredulous. "Don't you think I know that?" Erick shot back. "This is on you!"
Reluctantly, Annika aimed her gun at the pillars and shot them one by one, weakening them as they drove past. The moment they reached the exit, the building collapsed onto the beast, mere inches from capturing them. Only the section of the structure supported by the weakened pillars fell, just as Erick had predicted.
However, they didn't have as much time as he had anticipated; he had no idea what kind of monster they were dealing with. Minutes after the collapse, it erupted from the debris with explosive force, lifting the fallen pieces away as if they were nothing