Alright, two of them, no, three. A decent amount, dealing with this many should be fine, I was used to this by now. Besides, they couldn't do much damage. I could tell their batteries were practically drained, the blinking lights centered around their bodies proved that.

All I had to do was get behind them, there wasn't much but I could somewhat see a half-broken shop up ahead. It had to have something, anything. 

Even a god damn sprinkle would be enough for me at this point. Only problem was the Parasites blocking me, I had to figure out a way to deal with them. 

“I am-Parasite. Would you like assistance?” a buzzing sound said. 

My foot slipped back, how the heck was it, speaking?  What, it was just on mute for the last year? 

“I am Parasit-, would you like assistance-?”.

I looked around, not many options for me. The “Parasites” were standing in front of me, they blocked my only way to the shop. If I was in this situation a couple months ago, I would be running for my life by now. Experience does really matter.

Behind me were buildings, some broken, some still standing. They were always a good way to lose the Parasites, but they were too far away from the shop right now, damn it.

I could try fighting my way through them, but I would still be screwed overall. 

Setting up a trap was possible, but doing that hasn't worked well for me before. Besides, looking around the area, all I could see was the shop, some structures in the distance, and the Parasites themselves. On the ground around me was the usual, some blood mixed in with water, empty bags flying around and a few bodies. 

Yea, not much to work with, that leaves me with the most common option, out-running them. 

Their low battery along with my totally unrealistic speed should be enough to get past them. So, I took a single breath, and I began dashing. 

Damage from previous incidents was still here, it was everywhere. It feels like one of the many factors representing this messed up world. I pushed myself to go faster with each step I took. 

I had to, because the Parasites were already behind me. As expected, their low charge made sure they were pretty slow. But still, I kept my guard up. I couldn't afford to get stung, that would mess up quite a lot of things. 

I had to keep running. A few minutes later, they were still behind me, but it was fine now. 

I already covered enough distance to be safe, for at least thirty seconds. I continued covering ground until I was close enough to the remains of the shop.

There was no door, just a massive hole in what used to be the wall. What a perfect entrance, I ran inside quickly and started looking around. 

The shop itself was in surprisingly good condition, most of it seemed destroyed and blown up, but however much remained was surprising. 

I couldn't see much, but I could pick up a scent, food was close. I moved up slightly, and the scent was stronger. I moved up again, and the scent began fading. I turned around, and there it was. a bottle of milk, a muffin, and most importantly, a box of donuts. 

Everything was probably messed up and expired, but eh. It's not like we were eating any better anyways. 

I grabbed my bag, pushed all the food in, and got up. 

“Assistance, would you like assistance?”. 

Alright, parasites had caught up to me, that meant my limited time was up. Time to go, one of them was extremely close, its light still had a decent glow, so that did make sense. I wanted to run seeing this, but I was tempted. This one was right in front of me, was low on charge, and was half my speed. What if I tried killing it? 

It was a stretch, sure, but if I found a way to destroy it, I could find a weakness. It would help out for sure, I had almost no damn info on these things anyways. 

This was important, it could pay off, or it could get me killed. Either way, it was worth it.

So instead of running away as was my plan, this time I pulled out the metal baseball bat I had been carrying. This was going to be risky, it was what I had been too scared to try for all this time, but it would help me.

The two Parasites far back were slow, but they were still going at a steady pace. The one right in front of me was fast, if I didn't get far enough, the two at the far back would catch up. They were slow, sure, but they weren't dead. And if they did catch up, I would have to dip. I couldn't fight all three of them at once, there was no way. 

Honestly, I was just glad the battery was still pretty low. I knew if the battery was even a bit more, it would start firing, and then I would pretty much be dead. I already knew the thing was loaded with bullets, lasers, missiles and just, a lot. 

That info was clear to me probably after my 50th encounter with these things. And I don't even remember when that was. 

I ran a few meters up ahead again before I finally stopped. The one behind me stopped as well, it was getting ready to do it. It was about six meters away, just like I wanted. Without wasting another second, I ran towards it. 

The Parasite did the opposite thing however, it stood its ground in one spot, changed positions and opened up its stinger. Yep, it opened up the huge, electric-filled piece of crap that gave everyone nightmares. 

What it wanted to do was clear to me, that stinger told the entire story. I dashed a few more meters again until I was finally close enough. I then pushed my knees down, got myself ready, and I did it. 

I smacked the stinger hard with my bat. It went flying, and the rod connecting it to the body of the Parasite was also basically destroyed. 

I couldn't believe it, I just destroyed the stinger, the one thing threatening my life for the past year. But things can't be that easy, they never can. Somehow, out of nowhere, the Parasite pulled out another damn stinger! 

Another one! I had a panic attack, straight up, everything in my body just felt numb. This Parasite just pulled out another frikin stinger! 

I had never seen this before, horrified, I kicked my leg on the ground pushing myself backward. 

But it didn't matter, the Parasite was still coming, with the stinger pointing towards me. 

Damn it! I'm screwed! 

The parasite came closer, I moved backward. This cycle continued until my back hit a wall. 

That's right, the cycle continued until the thing that only happens in movies, happened to me. 

“Parasite, assistance? Parasite, assistance? Parasite assistance?” it buzzed. 

“What the heck does that mean?” I screamed. No reply, of course. I forced myself back up on my feet, and I did what I could to calm myself, I had just never been in this situation before. 

BOOM! 

The Parasite threw its stinger forward, and it barely missed me.

I expected it to do the same thing again, but when I looked at the stinger, I noticed it was stuck, the stinger was pushed in the wall too deep. 

This was my chance, I had to do something quick! BOOM! The Parasite broke free, its stinger had been released. 

I freaked, so what did I do? Well, I shut my eyes and swung my bat. It was legit one of the dumbest things I could do, but it wasn't what I planned. I just couldn't stop my arm from moving. 

My arm continued swinging forward until I heard my bat smash something. When I finally pulled myself together and looked at what happened, I saw something pretty unpleasant. 

I smashed the Parasite’s eye! It was literally gone. The Parasite itself wasn't moving. Curious, I moved up a bit closer. 

I took a peek inside, the huge socket which used to hold the eye was empty. 

There was just nothing there. Even more curious, I looked past it to try to find whatever the “brain” was in it.

I pulled out my flashlight and stuck it up close, most of the area behind the eye was empty. But then I stuck the flashlight in deeper, aiming it towards the back of the other eye, the left eye. 

Over there I could see what looked like a huge chip connected to wires. The wires ran down deeper into places I couldn't even see. It was a mess, a clear, simple mess. 

“Assistance, would you like assistance?”. 

Wait what?!

I threw the flashlight back in my destroyed pocket and stared in disbelief. 

The Parasite was up, it was still alive! There was just one thing, at that point, I figured it out.

I knew what I had to do, so I grabbed the bat, and smashed the left eye of the Parasite. 

Instantaneously, it went down, the big light glowing in the middle of the disgusting, crawling machine had turned off, it’s eyes had shut down and that meant one thing, it was dead.

Finally, after all this time, I had killed a Parasite.     

I actually did it, what the heck. Now I just had to get back to the others, they were waiting for me, and the food.