The Final Act Approaches

“Scatter!”

The group of six police officers (including the Chief) split into two groups of three at the intersection, the lava monster which was chasing them for the past while stopped cold in response. Its primitive mind unable to decide in the moment which group it should chase. This indecision cost the creature its life, as its indecision made it blind to the fire men holding a hose getting closer… and closer… and closer still, until they unleashed a heavily pressurised blast of water.

The Creature roared in immense pain, at first it tried to get away from the water, only for another blast of water to hit it from another angle, as a few more fire fighters got closer with a different hose. After more and more blasts of water hit the creature from all angles, the creature attempted one last desperate strike, but it was too late. Its movements had slowed down considerably to the point that any time it got closer, the fire fighters would simply walk backwards while keeping up the pressure.

Eventually, the creatures' very color changed, from the bold colors of before, to a dull grey. Once it let out a single final roar, punctuating its death, it crumbled to dust.

“Ok… how many more are there?”

This could technically be taken as a joke, but the Chief was quite serious. There was not much celebration to be had after this victory, as many more of the lava monsters still roamed the town.

“Uhh, at least twenty five sir.”

“Ok. Y’all hearing me alright? Good. I don’t think there's an easy way to deal with this, just one of these things took a whole bunch of planning and manpower, and their boss ain’t even here yet. Anybody got any suggestions or better ideas…? I got a couple myself but I want to hear some thoughts first.”

A single fire fighter meekly raised their hand.

“We’ve umm… we’ve been ordered to form a safety perimeter around the community center.”

“Huh? When? WHY?”

“Ah, I’m sorry!”

“Don’t apologize, just tell me. Ain’t that place made o’ wood?”

That’s where the board of directors have their meetings to… don’t tell me…

“Y-yes, but the monsters are avoiding it.”

“Eh?”

“For some reason… all the monsters are avoiding the community center, so people have been going there for safety. While you were being chased the board of directors ordered all of us (including you) to go there as well to secure the area further.”

The Chief went pale, he had a horrible thought.

“Are there… a LOT of people there?”

“Practically half the people that didn’t escape the town in time.”

“But… I ordered folks to hide in the old stone basements?!”

“A bunch of people did go there, but those basements weren’t perfectly defensive like the community seems to be for some reason. Besides, the community center has a stone basement as well, remember? It was the old order's base of operations.”

“The monsters… they already have us practically surrounded.”

“Yes sir, umm, did you not think we knew that?”

“Do ya? I mean if we all crowd into a smaller area, then the monster's perimeter will just get harder to escape, that ain’t forming a defensive line that's… that's gettin' herded into a slaughter house!”

The tension in the air was palpable, the Chief knew he had little time to decide. Even the person who relayed the orders looked quite pale now.

“Ok… I presume the board and other folks inside ain’t leaving for anything… In that case… ah jeez, I think it’s best if me and a couple other folks go over and try to convince them to spread out more. The rest of you should either try to find more folks around town still frightened and advise them to go anywhere OTHER than the community center, or try to make a breakthrough yourselves. Luckily a fair number of folks already escaped, so at least someone will come to help us… eventually. Just try your best to survive, if you can’t do that much you're fired. Understood?!”

There was a terse nod from all present, as they made their separate ways to continue dealing with the ongoing crisis. The Chief himself gave a grim grin, he knew at the very least, that he was not going out quietly.