The fire raged. The gas station was an inferno, flames licking the sky, black smoke curling into the night.
Mia, Reaper, and Evelyn stood at a safe distance, their bodies battered from the explosion's shockwave.
"Tell me that thing's dead," Mia gasped, reloading her pistol with shaking hands.
The fire crackled, consuming everything inside. Glass shattered from the heat, metal groaned as it warped. For a moment, there was nothing but destruction.
Evelyn's stomach clenched. No way.
The flames shifted. A shadow rose within the fire.
Mia took a step back. "You have got to be kidding me."
The Alpha wasn't just alive. It was changing.
Its golden flesh blackened, molten cracks forming along its body. The muscles twitched, bubbling under the intense heat. The skull-like face twisted into something even more monstrous. The exposed brain pulsed rapidly, like it was adapting—evolving.
Then, it let out a scream.
The sound was inhuman, distorted, filled with pain… and fury.
With one massive leap, it burst out of the flames.
Reaper tackled Evelyn out of the way as the creature landed where they'd been standing. The asphalt cracked beneath its weight.
Mia fired. Three shots, dead center.
They sizzled against its charred flesh but did nothing.
The Alpha turned its head toward her, its eyes—if they even were eyes—glowing with raw hatred.
A blur of blackened muscle and fire.
Mia barely dodged as a clawed hand smashed into the ground beside her, sending asphalt flying.
Reaper lunged, his combat knife slamming into the Alpha's throat.
Nothing. The blade melted on contact.
The monster backhanded him into a car.
Evelyn's heart was pounding. Think.
The fire made it stronger.
She looked around—what else was left?
The water tower looming above the ruins of the gas station.
"Get it under the tower!" she shouted.
Mia scrambled back, unloading her pistol to keep the thing's attention. Reaper groaned, getting to his feet.
"Hope you've got a plan," he muttered.
Evelyn grabbed a rusted crowbar from the ground. "Just get ready to move."
Mia bolted toward the tower's base, the Alpha charging after her.
Reaper ran toward the supports, his hands tightening on his last grenade.
The monster lunged at Mia. She threw herself to the side—just as Reaper pulled the pin.
The explosion tore through the tower's base.
For a split second, everything was still.
Then, the water tank buckled.
Thousands of gallons came crashing down.
The Alpha screeched as the deluge engulfed it, steam hissing as boiling water drowned its burning flesh.
The creature thrashed—then stopped.
And the Alpha was gone.