I stood open mouthed, staring at the carnage I had wrought. There was blood and body parts scattered from where I stood, clear back to the far wall. But, again, I had scant time to think about life and death, as the creature whose legs had nearly been removed was still alive! With a spine-tingling cry of rage and pain, the Unlucky began to pull itself across the blood slick floor, straight at me, even as its life--what little there was left of it--poured forth from the shattered stumps as they dragged along behind it.

The pure animal hatred was obvious in its expression as it pulled itself closer and closer to me. I was transfixed--unable to move--by the extent of the horror before me. I almost felt a twinge of regret at having caused such destruction, but that feeling was short lived, as I knew that if I had not acted as I did, it would have been 'my' body lying on the floor in a pool of blood, while these two creatures enjoyed a feast of my flesh.

I was pulled away from that horrible thought when I felt a trembling hand grab hold of my pant leg. I looked down to see the Unlucky reaching up toward me, its bloody mouth wide open, flashing yellow, broken teeth. I shook the grasping hand loose with a disgusted shiver of loathing and stepped back. It kept reaching for me, even as I could see it was growing weaker, the unbelievable hatred it carried for the living forcing it to continue to seek my destruction.

Again disgusted by what I beheld, I kicked the thing in the chest, flipping the carcass over onto its back. It flailed its arms at me, spewing blood and unintelligible curses as it tried to right itself. I raised the shotgun to dispatch this hideous thing, but then thought better of wasting another shell on it. Slinging the gun over my shoulder, I pulled the sword from my belt. It was a reproduction of a medieval hunting sword; short, but with a wide, heavy blade, used to put down hunted animals which had been wounded, but were not yet dead. This seemed a perfect chance to put the sword to its proper use.

I straddled the creature's head and as it tried to claw at my legs, I raised the sword up with both hands and brought it down swiftly, point first, striking the heaving chest just above the heart. Black blood gushed up around the blade as the creature spasmed beneath me, its arms twitching in the air. My hands still around the hilt of the sword, I twisted the blade forcefully to the right and heard ribs crack as the sharpened steel tore through muscle and bone. The creature shuddered and finally lay still, its sightless eyes glaring up at me with undiminished hatred.