The last bone creature collapsed in front of him, breaking apart like dry wood. Its skull cracked in half and sank into the slime, ribs scattering across the floor as the black residue inside it spilled out like smoke and dissolved into the air. The boy stood there for a moment, breathing hard. His chest rose and fell; it felt like he had just run a marathon. His arms trembled. His ribs felt like they were being crushed from the inside. The boy gave the bones a look, and then his hands.

  The black residue still clung to his skin. It crawled across his knuckles and forearms. It stuck to him like soot that refused to wash away. It didn’t just feel like it was on him though—It was as though it was in him. His skin crawled as he felt it had seeped under his skin and settled into his veins.

  His weight pulsed again, deep in his chest. It was a slow throb near the pain in his ribs—like a second heartbeat. The boy wiped blood from his mouth with his sleeve, but it only smeared across his face. He didn’t care. His eyes drifted forward into the tunnel of flesh that stretched deeper into the grub’s body. The stink was worse the farther it went.

  The boy swallowed spit that had been forming in his mouth. The smell was truly horrid, but he couldn’t let that dissuade him. After all, outside, they were still fighting. He could feel it.

  The grub shuddered violently as another shockwave hit from the ridge. The walls around him tightened, then loosened. The slime beneath his feet trembled like water. The boy bit down on his tongue as his thoughts swirled. They were buying him time. And if he wasted it, they would die for nothing. He took another step forward.

  His ribs reacted immediately. Pain shot through his side so hard his vision blurred. He stumbled, caught himself on the wall, and forced air into his lungs. The wall of flesh was warm and wet. It was pulsing a little as the boy took a short break on it. He didn’t much like the feeling of leaning against the wet slimy walls so the boy pulled away quickly. His face was filled with disgust but he continued forward.

  His footsteps made sick noises as he walked. Every step sank into the slime. Sometimes his foot hit something hard underneath. Remnants of the things this beast had consumed—Pieces of people and creatures that had been swallowed whole and ground into the creature’s insides. The boy didn’t want to look too closely. But he couldn’t stop himself. He passed a corpse lodged into the wall. Half-crushed, twisted into the flesh like the grub had absorbed it. The corpse’s face was frozen in terror. Its eyes were open, staring into nothing. The boy just simply stared at the sight. His throat was tight and made it hard to breathe. The corpse wasn’t even fully dissolved yet. Meaning it had died recently.

  Meaning… it could’ve been someone from the camp. Someone he had talked to. Someone who had eaten beside him. Someone who had run with them just moments ago. Could it be Knell? He instantly pushed the thought out of his mind. He hoped the mutilated corpse was not her and refused the possibility. She was dead and the boy hoped he never had to see proof of that.

  The boy stared at the body for a moment, then forced himself to look away. He stepped deeper into the grub.

  The tunnel narrowed, the walls tightening and loosening in waves. The air in the moist cavern was thick and hard to breathe, every breath felt like it carried poison.

  The grub lurched violently. Something must have happened outside as the grub began to shift rapidly causing the boy’s surrounding to lurch backwards. The floor beneath him tilted sharply and the boy lost his footing instantly.

  “SHIT—!”

  He slipped in the slime and slammed forward, hitting the ground hard. Pain erupted through his ribs like fire. His breath was stolen. His vision flashed white. For a moment he thought he was going to pass out. Then another tremor hit. The walls squeezed before relaxing to a somewhat normal state.

  The boy dug his fingers into the slime and pulled himself back up, coughing. His ribs felt much worse now as his breathing came out ragged. But he forced himself upright anyway. He didn’t have the luxury of staying down.

  Outside, the voices were faint and muffled.

  But he could hear them— the sounds of distant shouting, like echoes through thick water. They were still alive and they were still fighting. He had to hurry.

  The boy stumbled forward again. Step after step. He didn’t know how far he went. It felt endless. The inside of the grub twisted like a maze of flesh, the walls rippling with muscle. But then he noticed something.

  The tunnel opened into a wider space. It was some sort of chamber. The floor was thicker here, less slippery. The walls seemed darker and more layered. The grub’s body seemed to be reinforced here.

  Stolen story; please report.

  The boy’s eyes narrowed.

  Something about this area felt… off.

  The boy’s gaze shifted across the chamber until he spotted it. A patch of flesh on the wall. It looked different and seemed thinner than those around it.

  It bulged slightly and had a different hue. Some sort of weak point perhaps. I can use this to my advantage, thought the boy stared at the strange patch. The boy’s breathing slowed. He stepped closer, eyes narrowing. This could be it. A way out of the stomach area. A way to reach something more vital.

  The boy, who had taken out his club during the fight with the bones, gripped his weapon tighter. His hands were slick with slime, but the residue made his grip feel stronger. He felt confident in his strength with this strange blackness around him. So he raised his club. And slammed it into the wall. The impact made the flesh ripple outward like rubber. The boy grimaced. It didn’t break. He swung again. The club smashed into the wall harder this time. The flesh dented inward. A faint crack-like sound echoed through the chamber, but it wasn’t bone. It was muscle tearing.

  The boy’s eyes widened. Now we are getting somewhere, thought the boy as he swung again. And again—and again some more. His ribs screamed with every motion, but he ignored it. Pain was irrelevant now. It didn’t matter how much he hurt if he died anyway.

  Outside, the grub lurched again. The chamber shook. The boy stumbled, caught himself, then kept hitting the wall. His club sank deeper into the flesh. The wall had begun to split. A thick black fluid oozed out. The smell was as horrible as the rest of the grub’s stomach—utterly vile. The boy gagged but didn’t stop.

  He struck again, tearing the opening wider. The grub let out a defiant scream. But it made no sound—it screamed with the vibration that shook through it’s whole body.

  The entire chamber shook so violently the boy was thrown backward, landing in slime again. His ribs cracked with pain. He coughed up even more blood.

  The boy pushed himself up slowly, panting. As he looked up he saw something. Behind the torn wall, beyond the chamber…something was beating. A slow rhythmic pulse. Thump. Thump. Thump.

  The boy froze. His eyes widened. That was impossible. Grubs weren’t supposed to have a heart like that. He didn’t remember his past, but he remembered basic things. Things that should have been instinct. Grubs didn’t have organs like this. It wasn’t a mammal, grubs didn’t have a true hear like a mammal, not like a human. Not like…this.

  The boy stepped closer, cautious now. The opening he made led into a darker cavity. The air inside was hotter and much thicker. It had the sensation of breathing in steam.

  The boy stared at the heart for a moment. A pulsing mound of muscle hanging in the cavity like a living engine. Thick veins ran across it like ropes, pumping dark fluid through the creature. It looked wrong. Much too developed for a grub. The boy stared at it, chest tightening.

  What the hell are you?

  His weight surged violently, reacting to the heart. The boy swallowed. This was it. If he destroyed this… The grub would die. He raised his club before striking the heart.

  The moment his club hit it, the heart pulsed violently, like it had been shocked. The grub let out a horrid scream. This time it was real and had a sound. The boy heard it through the flesh, through the walls, through the chamber. A roar so deep it shook the bones beneath his feet. Then the cavity trembled. The veins around the heart bulged.

  And suddenly—acid poured from above. A thick yellow-green liquid spilled into the chamber like a waterfall. The boy’s eyes widened in shock.

  “WHAT THE—?!”

  The acid splashed onto the floor, sizzling instantly. The slime began to bubble and melt and any bones touched dissolved. The smell turned from rot to the stench of burning chemicals. The boy jumped backward just as acid splattered near his boots. The floor hissed. The acid ate through flesh like it was paper. The boy’s stomach dropped. This was a defense mechanism. A defense mechanism in its heart? What type of grub is this?

  The acid rose quickly, filling the chamber in seconds. The boy’s boots slipped as he backed away. The heat was unbearable and the fumes burned his throat. He coughed violently. His eyes watered and he could barely breathe.

  Outside, the grub lurched again. The chamber shook, causing acid to splash upward like waves. The boy stumbled, nearly falling into it. He caught himself at the last second, pressing his back to the wall, heart pounding. He stared at the heart again. It was still beating. Still filled with life. Yet outside… They were dying. He could feel it both from his weight to the chest and because the vibrations were changing. The grub wasn’t just shaking randomly anymore.

  It was winning. And the screams from outside—faint as they were—sounded worse and much more desperate.

  The boy’s jaw clenched. He couldn’t leave. He couldn’t retreat. If he didn’t kill this heart, everyone outside would die.

  But if he stayed… He would surely melt alive.The acid was rising. His lungs were being tortured by the fumes from the acid and his ribs were shattered and have probably been healing incorrectly since the day he broke them against The Leviathan. To put it simply—his body was failing.

  But his chest weight pulsed harder than ever. Like it was screaming at him. Use me. The boy stared at the heart, eyes wide and bloodshot. Then he whispered through clenched teeth. “…Fine.”

  He raised his hand. Black residue crawled up his arm slowly engulfing it. It twisted around his fingers, thickening, hardening. The boy stepped forward, toward the heart. Toward the acid. Towards what might be his own demise, and the demise of everyone outside.