You pick up Morgan and run into the kitchen just before the beast leaps into the living room and lands right where the two of you were standing. The creature sniffs the air once, turns towards the two of you and leaps just as Morgan puts the gun in your hand that she had yanked out of a nearby drawer. Still holding the girl in one arm, you fire with your free hand. The bullet strikes the monster in the throat and the beast slams into both of you, knocking you to the ground.
The creature staggers up and backs away, clearly stunned by the wound you inflicted upon it. You are repulsed by the glowing red blood that bursts from its ruined throat with every wheeze from the horrible beast. Not stopping to think, you fire again, this time into its head. Brains and glowing gore splatter the rear wall of the living room as the beast lands back on its haunches and collapses on the floor, dead.
You pick up Morgan and hold her close. She is crying, and there is a nasty gash on her forehead, but otherwise she seems unhurt. You clean her wound as best as you can by the sink and grab some paper towel to help stop the bleeding. Assured that she is Ok, you give yourself a once over.
When the alien (is there really any doubt now that that's what it is?) knocked you down, you landed on top of Morgan and took most of the impact yourself. Several of your ribs are very tender, but only one is probably broken. You are also covered with the alien's incandescent blood. Your shoes and pants are fairly well splattered, but your shirt is simply drenched in the sticky fluid. You are unsure what to do about that when Morgan quietly speaks up.
"Mom kept some of Daddy's shirts in her closet after he died. They're still there." This is the first that she's mentioned her father and a sharp pain pierces your heart as you turn to the newly orphaned child.
"Thanks. Are you sure you don't mind if I wear one of them?"
"No, Daddy would want you to…and Mom would have wanted you to also." You are anguished again as you realize from that response that Morgan has seen through your subterfuge and understands the fate that befell her mother. Sensing your hesitation, she replies, "It's Ok, I'll wait here. I'll be Ok."
Nodding, you walk past the alien's corpse, down the hall and reenter the master bedroom. Averting your eyes from the first of two massacres to take place in this house tonight, you quickly make your way to the bathroom just off to one side of the room. As you prepare to wash up, you get an idea. Eventually, people are going to want to study these creatures. Since you are covered in alien DNA, it might be a good idea to keep some of it. You search the storage area under the sink and find a glass jar full of combs. Dumping out the combs, you try to scrape as much of the glowing blood as you can off of your hands and clothes and into the jar. Once you figure you have as much as you are going to get, you wash up as well as you can in the sink, dry off with a nearby towel and examine the red fluid. Although you felt as if you had bathed in the stuff, it wasn't easy to collect very much of it in the jar. What you have managed to salvage will have to do.
Next, you head to the walk-in closet. The closet door has been ripped from its hinges and you realize that this is where the alien was hiding when you came to the room the first time. Had you fully entered, there is no way you would have survived the violent ambush that awaited you. Grabbing a clean sweatshirt, you exit the room quickly and change in the hallway.
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