I motioned towards the door that lead to the bedroom and the three of us started to carefully crawl that way when a loud banging noise came from above us, momentarily stopping us in our tracks.

There was a trapdoor on the ceiling directly above us... was there an attic? Was there one of those things up there? Shit, should we run or hide? Maybe we could jump out of one of the windows in the back and make a run for it?

The sound of splintering wood came from the front lawn. Shit, did the eye thing break through the fence? Was it coming for us?

I heard footfalls come from above us. There was definitely something up there.

Just as I was about to make a mad dash for the bedroom with Aaron, the trapdoor suddenly flung open and a rope ladder dropped down next to us. Aaron let out a little squeak in surprise, I jumped back and Jared aimed the gun.

"Come up!" a female voice called down to us.

Another human? Or a trick?

Something banged against the door, violently. It sounded like a huge chunk of meat had been thrown against it.

"Hurry!" the voice called again, urgently. The three of us looked at each other, not sure what to do, but another bang at the front door sprung us into action. Jared leaped onto the ladder first, keeping the gun at the ready in case it was a trick or a monster or something was up there. As soon as he disappeared into the attic, he called down to us, "Come on up!"

The banging on the door grew more violent, I saw the deadbolt start to strain against the force being applied to it.

I let Aaron go next, keeping an eye on the door. It was cracking, the deadbolt was on the point of being torn off. Before Aaron had made it all the way up, I jumped onto the ladder and threw myself up, landing on the floor of the attic with a bang.

It was dark around me, the only light coming from a candle on the other end of the room, which had boxes lined up next to it. I could just barely make out the shapes of Jared, Aaron and a female figure that hauled the ladder back up. As soon as she closed the trapdoor, I heard the front door shatter, and something landed with a wet noise in the entrance.

We were all absolutely quiet as we heard the thing make its way through the room, making gross sloshing noises as it did so, making me think of bloody meat being dragged across the floor.

"We're safe as long as we stay up here," the girl said, making no attempt to muffle her voice.

The sloshing sound was directly below us.

"Shouldn't we be quiet?!" Jared half whispered, half hissed.

"No, trust me, it's alright. As long as it doesn't see us, we're fine. It can't hear anything. I've... encountered it a few times before, so I know."

My eyes adjusted a bit more, and I was able to partially make out her features. She appeared to be in her early twenties at most. In the dim light it was kind of hard to tell, but her hair almost looked completely white. Something about her gave me a sense of deja-vu, like I had seen her somewhere before. But where? I couldn't imagine how I'd know her... Something was knocked over downstairs.

"I'm glad I won't be alone again..." she continued, which was jarring considering how nonchalant she was being in the situation, "I was alone for so long... until I met Emma, but then she..." she stopped, her expression darkened, "Well, maybe you saw what happened to her... she went outside when that thing came along..."

I heard a window shatter downstairs, the sloshing noises began to sound almost frantic.

I cleared my throat, still wary to speak, "...Yeah, it's a relief to finally see someone else. I was almost starting to think we were the only people left alive..." it was a little hard to talk when there was some deadly thing just a few feet below us, searching for us.

"I'm Sarah," the girl introduced herself, "What's your names?"

Sarah? Her appearance had been vaguely familiar, and her name was too... but from where?

It was suddenly uncomfortably quiet downstairs.

"Erhm, my name is Markus..." I put my hand on Aaron's shoulder, he was shaking and intently looking at the floor, no doubt fearing the thing below, "And this is my son, Aaron."

"...I'm Jared."

"Where did you co-" Sarah started but was interrupted as the sloshing noise picked up again, and the thing rapidly dragged itself out of the house, bumping into the table as it did so.

Jared, Aaron and I sighed with relief.

The girl spoke again, "It probably won't come back for a little while..."

For a little while? Did it always come by here?

"What was that thing?" I asked.

She shrugged and shook her head, "I only got to see it once, but it was only a quick glance. It looked kind of like a big slug or something, except it had one big eye and a bunch of small ones poked out of it. I first saw it about two weeks ago... it's been sweeping by this street every now and then. It usually only comes out during the day... it's definitely the creepiest of the creatures I've seen, but luckily, as I said before it can't hear you or anything. So as long as it doesn't see you with one of its eyes then you're good. As weird as it seems, I've gotten almost used to it coming by now... I guess you aren't, sorry about that, I'm sure I came across as a little weird... I'm not exactly well adjusted anymore, you know, being locked up in here in the dark for weeks, without any human interaction, not knowing if anyone else is alive, not knowing if you're going to wake up or if some thing is going to come bursting in..." she shuddered, then looked up at us, "Emma... I met her just two days ago. Saw her wandering around on the sidewalk aimlessly, like she was sleepwalking. She's the only person I saw besides you guys. I tried to help her out... She didn't speak much at all though, I don't know if she was just freaked out or completely crazy... she ran down there and... she's gone isn't she? I tried to stop her..." she teared up a little, "I didn't know her that well, but still... What are these things? Do you guys have any idea? Where do they come from? Is there anyone else out there?"

Jared spoke up, "Sorry to hear that... and your guesses are as good as ours... We have no idea what the hell these things are, either."

So she didn't know anything about the creatures. But maybe she did know something we didn't?

"Is this your house?" I asked her.

Embarrassed, she shook her head, "No, I holed up in here with as much food as I could find the day after the storm hit us. You see, I'm not from around here, but I was staying in Crestland because of work..." her voice trailed off and she shuddered, "God... I'm so glad I don't have to be alone again... just remembering about those things makes me shiver..."

"We're from Arborline," I started, "We escaped and holed up in a house we found in the countryside. Then, we were forced out of it by these things and ran into one monster after another until we made it here."

Her eyes widened, "Arborline! But that's where the storm reappeared, right? God, you're soooo lucky you made it out of there!"

Jared, Aaron and I exchanged knowing glances.

We sure as hell were lucky, but luck wasn't the only thing that let us survive. Without each other, there's no way we would have lived.