Later Never Comes | Lee Eun-Hyuk|

A Force To Be Reckoned With

This was it. This was the end. This was the day they died.

There was chaos in the lobby. Most residents ran for their lives, but some were frozen in fear. The woman holding her dog collapsed to the floor when she saw the creature's tongue shoot into the man next to her, lifting him into the air and consuming part of him. Everyone was too scared to know what it was doing to him but it looked like it was drinking his blood. The woman saw this as her opportunity to get away as the creature feasted on someone else.

Just as she was crawling away, it dropped the body. The man was bone dry, there were no more fluids in him as his body lay, lifeless on the floor. That was when the monster started looking for its next meal. The woman slowly turned around to see it staring at her, she was shaking and could barely move. She could only force out two words.

"Help me."

Just then, white smoke started shooting towards the monster. It shielded its face as it stepped backwards. Eun-Hyuk had grabbed the fire extinguisher from earlier and was using it to fight against the creature. Ae-Cha took this as an opportunity to run over to the woman, helping her to her feet and pulling her out of danger for the moment. Eun-Hyuk got closer to the creature, making it step closer to the front door.

"Sir." He said, trying to get the store owners attention, but he was too scared.

"Sir!" He yelled, making him snap out of it. He turned to look at Eun-Hyuk, listening to what he needed. "When I give you the signal, lower the gate!" He instructed.

The man was shaking with fear, but Eun-Hyuk didn't budge. He stood his ground, keeping the monster at a distance. The store owner finally forced himself to move as he nodded, running towards the maintenance office.

Eun-Hyuk continued to get closer, pushing the creature closer and closer to the door. Once it was close enough to be trapped by the shutters, Eun-Hyuk called out.

"Sir! Lower it now!"

The store owner's hands were shaking aggressively as he tried to hit the button in time, he heard Eun-Hyuk calling for him to hurry which pushed him to hit the button. The shutters began to lower, making a loud clunking sound when it did. However, because of how old and rusted everything was in the building, the shutters were taking a while to lower.

As it slowly lowered, the fire extinguisher ran out, it puffed out a couple more times before completely dying. Eun-Hyuk's eyes widened as the only thing keeping him safe had stopped, he was vulnerable. He stared up at the creature as it opened its mouth wider to eat him.

Just then, Yi-Kyung sprinted towards it, tackling it through the front door at full force. She was so strong that she ended up crashing through the door and landing outside, just like the monster did.

Not wanting to let anyone die, both Eun-Hyuk and Ae-Cha ran to hold the shutters up. They wanted to give Yi-Kyung enough time to make it back and save herself. They could only watch as she grabbed her bag and got up to run before getting her leg slashed by the creature's tongue. Although she fell to the ground in pain, she forced herself to keep moving, seeing Eun-Hyuk reaching out.

"Hurry!" He yelled.

Yi-Kyung got close enough to grab his hand. He pulled her inside and they dropped the shutters. The weight of the shutters, plus the force and effort it took to pull Yi-Kyung back inside, made Eun-hyuk and Yi-Kyung fall backwards. The fall was actually beneficial as it got them a safe distance from the shutters as they watched the creature's tongue shooting towards the gaps in the shutters.

However, that was when Eun-Hyuk realised that Ae-Cha was still dangerously close to it. He leaned forward, grabbing her wrist to pull her down. She landed on the ground with a thud as the monster's tongue forced its way through the gaps, almost grabbing Ae-Cha's shoulder. Eun-Hyuk had to pull her closer to him so that she didn't get hurt.