Bang! Jared's gun went off, hitting the creature directly in the stomach, tearing a bloody hole right through it so we could see the wall behind it. But it didn't even flinch. Its eyes seemed to flash for a moment, and the wound was instantly sealed back up.

I fired the last shot in the pistol, hitting the creature directly through its right eye. Instantly, the wound sealed up again.

I heard Jared let out a pathetic wail of despair, and I would have done the same...

Had I not noticed something incredibly vital.

As the creature's wounds were sealing up, the chunks of flesh nearest to it dried up and disintegrated. It could have been a coincidence... but there was no way it was a coincidence. It all made perfect sense in my head. I actually managed to connect some dots for once. For once, something actually made sense. For the first time since this storm had started... No, for the first time in years, even in the face of despair, I felt a minuscule, dim light of hope.

"Jared! Somehow, it can control whatever it kills! When it's hurt, someway, somehow, it can draw energy or something from whatever its controlling to make it regenerate itself like that! When its wounds were sealing up, I saw one of those moving pieces of meat shrivel up and disappear!"

Jared looked a little doubtful, but then his eyes seemed to clear up and he nodded. So, it was obvious what we had to do to; we had to destroy its source of life and then kill it for good. But that was easier said than done.

The creature let loose one of its trademark screams, and tore a hole right through the wall behind it, running off into the next room over. As for the chunks of meat, they made wet sloshing sounds as they crawled towards our feet. I tossed the gun aside and grabbed a nearby wooden plank, lifting it high in the air and bringing it down hard on the nearest "living" chunk of flesh. It made a loud splat as it was crushed under the force of my swing, and stopped moving at once.

"We can't let that thing get away!" Jared yelled as he rushed into the hole made by the creature and I heard another gunshot go off. I heard the creature scream from the other room as five pieces of flesh withered away into nothingness. I swung and swung again at the chunks of gore, reducing three more of them into a stain of blood. But it was too slow. My eyes darted around the room, desperately looking for something that could take out the creature's source of sustaining its life. I heard a loud crash, running footsteps, two successive shots and a scream from the creature. More of the meat faded away.

"Perfect!" I exclaimed as my eyes locked onto the oil lamp on the nightstand. I had matches in my pocket, if I covered the meat in the oil and lit it, it would be gone in an instant. I motioned to rush towards it, but I felt a sharp pain in my ankle. I looked down to see one of the chunks of flesh crawling on me. Even though it was squishy and soft, it pushed with enough pressure to pierce a tiny hole in my ankle. I let out a wail of pain and dropped the plank of wood as I fell to the floor. I heard another gunshot and the sound of glass breaking. The other blobs of flesh squirmed towards me, surrounding me. I cried out in pain again as the chunk of flesh continued to bore into my skin. Three of them actually leaped into the air at me. I swung at them with the board of wood, crushing two of them but the third latched onto my hand. I slammed my hand down hard onto the floor, and it disintegrated like the others. I started desperately slamming my ankle against the floor, trying to do the same to the one digging into my skin, but it didn't relent.

I couldn't kill it.

I shuddered in disgust as I felt the other globs of flesh start to crawl up my body, making their way to my neck. I kept pounding at them with my fists, trying to crush them but to no avail. One made its way up my neck, over my chin and prepared to enter my mouth.