Adam stood still in the awkward position he was in. The eye continued to stare at him and Adam closed his own when he realized he was staring back.
Still, he could feel it, inviting him. Moments later, the eye closed and Adam opened his own as he felt safe. He immediately tried to get up, for even with his newfound strength, he was having trouble maintaining the position he was in. Besides, the rearview mirror wouldn't hold much longer.
Adam propelled himself upward until he managed to brace himself with one arm to the ceiling. Then he tried to propel himself up, but things went wrong again. The rearview mirror gave way and Adam could barely hold on to the car.
For a horrible second he thought the mirror would hit the monstrosity, but luckily it was left hanging on to the car door.
At that moment, Adam felt the stare again. He hugged the roof of the car and went still again. The gaze was not as powerful as when all eyes had been fixed on him, but it was still unsettling.
So, he waited half a minute, but the feeling didn't go away. He soon realized that he would have to move on before a Windwalker saw him. He slowly stood up and avoided looking back at all times, which cost him most of his attention.
The jump to the next car was simple, but Adam couldn't calm himself under the tension he was beginning to feel. He kept looking up at the sky and constantly had to remember not to look at the mass of flesh at his feet.
The last jump proved much more complicated. The next car was standing far away, so Adam had to jump with all his might and crash on the roof of an old van, which was good luck, as the vehicle could take a great deal of damage.
This thought caused a simple idea to cross his mind. He would have to modify his plan a bit, but he was sure it would be worth it. But in order to do so he would have to move the car to the exact spot, which was dangerous
Adam jumped out into the street in the middle of what looked to him like an island in a horrible sea of flesh. He turned to look at the van, the rear of which was stuck in the flesh. He still felt the gaze on him, yet he could not notice anything nearby.
Carefully he approached one of the front doors and after several attempts managed to force it open without making much noise. This took him much longer than he expected.
Then he took a firm grip on the door and began to push. The van moved slowly forward. The mass of flesh around it devoured the new territory voraciously.
One eye suddenly opened and glanced at Adam, who felt a shiver. It didn't take long for another eye to lock onto him, at which point Adam began to sweat. He kept moving the car until he positioned it right on the last remaining point of the trap and, without much thought, climbed inside.
To hold the door in place he used his nail gun. This turned out badly, however, for the faint sound disturbed the nearby monstrosity.
No new eyes opened, but Adam watched, with growing concern, as the mass of flesh changed its direction of expansion and all the space that was clear on the road began to disappear.
Adam looked away and set to work. He touched the floor of the car and channeled his energy. At first he thought he could only use his ability through direct contact with the ground, but he soon realized he was wrong.
From the beginning he had not been in direct contact with the ground as such, but with the upper concrete layer, which ignored his energy. He then thought that the contact of the carriage wheels with the road should be enough.
Adam was right. However, some of the energy was being lost in the way, so he calculated that it should be over in 7 minutes and not 5, as the previous times.
He swallowed saliva and concentrated on controlling his energy. He tried to ignore all other distractions, but it was hard work, as the monstrosity showed more and more interest in the car, as if it knew something was there. Unnoticed by Adam, the lumps of flesh expanded much faster than normal. They surrounded the van from all directions and climbed up the wheels of the car.
Minutes passed and slowly the trap was ending. At last, the two final failures were ready and Adam could feel all the pieces of the trap coming together into a whole. But then he opened his eyes and found that everything was dark.
"Adam... -... well?"
Miguel was talking to him, but the sound was choppy. It took Adam a moment to realize that the monstrosity had completely covered the van and now he was trapped.
"I'm fine, the trap is finished, but I have a problem."
"It's... choppy... Shall I attack? -Zack replied."
"No... wait... Windwalkers. Adam...turn...on...van."
Adam tried to find the car keys, but to no avail. Besides, he had no idea how to start a car without them.
"I don't have the keys."
It took a while for Miguel's reply to come, so Adam repeated the words. Finally, after a while, when Adam was beginning to think he had been abandoned, Miguel replied.
"Listen... attention... follow... instructions."
What followed was one of the most frustrating experiences in Adam's life. Miguel repeated the instructions over and over again until Adam understood how to start the car without the keys.
After many attempts, he was ready, or so he thought. He knew Miguel had a plan, but the interference didn't allow him to fully understand it. Adam waited, while enduring the heat inside the car.
The darkness and the horrible movements he perceived from the mass outside, were getting on his nerves. Then, he heard a gunshot. The whole car creaked as the monstrosity began to move.
Hundreds of eyes opened and glanced fleetingly at Adam before turning, as if looking away from the mass.
Adam sensed the horrible presence and for a second almost turned on the van. But he knew he had to wait for the right moment.
Outside, just after the first shot, the group of Zack, Miguel and Leonard, hid from the sight of the monstrosity. They all dropped to the ground on the roof and lay still.
Miguel had taken a shot at one of the Windwalkers and...missed. Not even the incredible aim he had obtained was able to help him much with a target hundreds of meters away that was capable of flying.
This was unimportant, however, as the shot had done its job. The monstrosity contorted at the sudden noise and hundreds of eyes opened.
The old soldier raised his gun again and fired a second time at another Windwalker. He missed again, but the winged zombies swooped in a flock towards his position, crossing the square.
The abomination looked away from the groups of flying zombies and they soon began to die en masse.
"Get off the roofs!" shouted Miguel, who continued shortly after. "Adam, now!" The old soldier got up and ran towards the stairs inside the building. Leonard followed close behind.
The way off the roof was a narrow staircase leading to a room on the top floor of the buildings. Leonard wasted no time and jumped straight to the bottom.
Miguel stopped and turned to look momentarily, he hoped Adam had heard. In the square, the monstrosity was now fighting the Windwalkers, who kept attacking one after another and dying immediately.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a white spear, faster than anything Miguel had ever seen, struck the monstrosity with tremendous force. Miguel averted his eyes to block 3 and knew at once that the Breeder had become stronger. Still, the attack didn't seem to have much effect, as the monstrosity soon re-formed and continued its attack.
Miguel descended the staircase one step at a time and made sure to close the grate before descending. Zack, in the other building, repeated this action and ran to the lower floors.
Leonard descended the steps two at a time at top speed, but encountered something completely unexpected. He and Miguel had made a serious mistake. When Adam found himself in trouble because of the Crawler in the store, Miguel shot it to save him. At that moment, a lump of flesh began to expand in the direction of the shot, looking for new food sources. Whereupon Leonard found the first floor completely flooded with the horrible mass of flesh.
All eyes in it were open, but luckily for the soccer player, they were peering outside, as if they could see the Windwalkers through the walls.
This situation soon changed. A handful of eyes changed direction and glanced at Leonard briefly before averting their attention. Leonard sighed in relief, but then, the mass came to life and expanded at a ridiculous speed. It didn't take long for the mass to come up the stairs, closing in on Leonard, who backed away at great speed and met Miguel halfway.
"That damn thing is everywhere on the first floor and it's coming up, we have to find another way."
Miguel cursed and kicked down an apartment door to peek through a window.
"Do you have a way to cut through the grille?" he asked Leonard.
Unfortunately, Miguel had a gun and Leonard's soccer ball proved useless for it. They only had to try their new physical strength. Leonard kicked the fence hard and only managed to weaken it a little.
Miguel cursed again, they had overestimated their new physical capabilities. They might manage to remove it at some point, but they didn't have much time. So he stopped Leonard.
"We have to go back to the roof. It's connected to other buildings. We can escape that way."
"But that way will only get us closer to block 2, that Breeder will have us in his sights."
"I'm afraid we have no choice."
Miguel came out of the apartment and turned to look at the stairs. He knew instantly that he had made the right decision. The monstrosity had already reached the floor they were on and was approaching them menacingly.
"Zack! We're in trouble, I'm heading back to the roof. What happened to Adam?"
"I figured it out. Me and my team are on the street, along with the rookies. That thing has spread throughout the block and seems to want to keep going. I don't see Adam, so I don't know if he was able to escape with the distraction."
Ivy, who was standing next to him, overheard the conversation and couldn't help but walk over to Zack and ask.
"Are they okay?"
"It doesn't look like it. I think they're trapped in their building. We'll have to hope Adam made it."
Ivy nodded, but couldn't help but feel a shiver as she watched the mass from afar.
"I think we should move further away," said Anin, "I don't like him being so close at all." Zack nodded and turned his back to the monstrosity.
"Come on, we'd better get everything ready for Adam's return."
"Do you think he'll make it? Because I don't think he has much chance of making it out alive," said Arlem, who rarely spoke.
Ivy watched the Healer for a moment before asking.
"Something happened with Adam?"
"Let's just say he's not in a... good situation," replied Zack, who continued on his way.
Adam was about to die. When he heard the second shot, he started the truck and without even thinking about it, he hit the crochet, shifted into first gear and stepped on the accelerator.
The mass of flesh that covered the van shifted along with it, but it didn't take long for it to tear apart. The monstrosity's full attention was focused on Adam, who felt a horrible shudder that nearly caused him to lose control of the vehicle.
He closed his eyes tightly and shifted into second awkwardly. He didn't know where he was going, so he simply guided himself by the memory of the street and kept going. The lump of flesh covering the van shattered as it let out gallons and gallons of reddish, stinking blood that began to corrode the exterior of the vehicle like a potent acid.
Adam pressed on with his heart in his throat. For a moment he thought he would make it, but something fatal happened. He had clumsily secured the car door with a couple of nails holding it in place, so when Adam, completely blind, partially collided with a parked car, it flew wide open.
In a reflex action, Adam looked out and was met head-on by dozens of eyes. Before he could look away, he was completely immobilized. Time seemed to stand still, as the car was brought to a screeching halt. Adam couldn't look away no matter how hard he tried.
One of the eyes caught his attention with a mammoth force. The pupil looked like a bottomless pit that grew and grew until all Adam could see in front of him was a black circle that seemed to consume everything.
He was pulled forcefully into that pit. Everything around him disappeared, the car, the blood and the monstrosity. Before he knew it, he found himself falling into that hole.