The first casualty was so sudden for the group that they were stunned in the process. Seeing the dead body of number 1, number 3, who was quietly seeing the scene unfold, could not hold his stomach and vomited, leaving only Hubert, who could move and function quickly.
The scene was gruesome but since Hubert have worked on various fields of jobs that requires the strongest wills and even the strongest tolerance for various things that could make someone vomit on the spot, this was not something he would be too affected. Still, seeing someone had their head separate from their body in front of them is traumatizing and what's worse is that the thing that caused the incident is out there in the dark. Sure, he was scared, but being scared in that situation is a death sentence.
Remembering the briefing's words, Hubert quickly pulls out his stopwatch and quickly press it to stop the time. Although it won't stop whatever it is lurking there, they have time to react and fight it while it is happening.
The guy who was called as number 3 seems to be quick-witted and quickly pulls out his Plasma Gun and immediately shoot it on an unknown entity lurking in the dark.
"SQUEEEEEE!"
An inhuman shriek occurs over at the place where Number 3 shot something followed by more gunshots. Number 2 covers her ears and crouch while Number 3 continued to open fire at the entity.
Around 3 shots later and a weak shriek can be heard not too far from them. Number 3 stops firing his gun and pulls out his Executioner's Blade and looked at Number 2 and Hubert.
"Come with me and let us check if I have killed it properly."
Hubert nodded while the cowering Number 2 reluctantly stood up and pulls out her blade as well.
The three slowly head over to the location of the entity and they were shocked when they saw what the entity looks like.
It's body looks like a hazy shadowy figure, with only its head looking like the solid part of its body. The hands of the entity looks like two scythes attached to its limbs, which became its hands. Perhaps it was the monster's method of killing Number 1 seeing how sharp it was.
Number 3 did not waste his time and immediately decapitates the monster using his Executioner's blade. As soon as he did, the entity's body seems to break into pieces and dissipate into the air. Not even blood or any single trace was left behind.
"It's gone?! Is it still alive?!" Number 2 glance around nervously while her hand is shaking, still clutching the Executioner's blade tightly.
"I think that was its true death. Perhaps it was because it is an anomaly that it never leaves any kind of body or traces behind once it dies," Number 3 deduced.
Hubert looks at Number 3 and asked as his curiousity is nagging him.
"You worked in military before?"
Number 3 shook his head. "No, but I worked as security guard. Got fired after getting complaints about my behavior at work which I had no idea what it was about. If you are asking about my gun skills, its not something I am just skilled about, I wanted to be a police officer but since it is hard for me to become one, I have to work as security guard as a way to get experience. You can say my expertise comes from constant gun practice I did."
After his answer, their watch once again beeps and another anomaly notification appeared.
"Extra Object, Kitchen."
"Pretty vague? And what did it mean as Extra Object?" Hubert frowned.
"Might be something weird. In any case, we should look at it. Now that there are entities lurking around, I don't think moving around i solo would be a good idea. Let's stick together instead and watch our backs as we deal with this job. The sooner we finish this, the sooner we can get out of this hellhole."
Hubert and Number 2 nodded in agreement. With someone as Number 3 capable at fighting those monsters, they can rely on him in case those entities once again appears.
Using their only flashlight attached on their chest, they scramble through the surroundings to find their way to the kitchen.
Although the place looks like ordinary household, with how things are happening, they all doubt that it is a normal place to begin with.
When they arrived at the kitchen, they were surprised to see a lot of items scattered all over. Plates and forks scattered around, bowls tumbled over on the kitchen counter, knives misplaced and stuck on the table, and many other mess.
"What a mess, should we clean it up?" Number 2 asked as she was about to pick up one of the plates on the table.
"No! Don't do anything about this mess. It would just make us have a hard time finding the anomaly we are looking for!" Hubert warned as he remembered the words of the driver.
"He is right. If we mess things up even though it is already a mess in here, we will have a hard time looking for what we are looking for. Let's get looking on what is currently the anomaly."
Number 2 retracts her hand and calmly glance around. Hubert pulls out his scanner and look around the kitchen for the anomaly. Since it is very vague, it was not a good thing that they didn't inspect the place beforehand. Now, they have to guess which was out of place in the kitchen.
The problem is that the kitchen is in a big mess. And every mess has a chance that it was an anomaly. And with how their scanners will stop working if they made a mistake at scanning the wrong thing three times, they can't just afford to make a mistake.
As they are looking for the anomaly in the kitchen, the watch beeps again and a new anomaly notification appeared.
"Missing Object, bedroom."
"Crap, we can't afford to dawdle here, look harder everyone," Number 3 is getting impatient already.
Hubert checks the mess every single one of them. He opens a few of the drawers to check what was inside before closing them to ensure that there are no problem with the mess.
As he was glancing all over the kitchen and the utensils, his eyes landed over at the knife rack. All of the knives on the knife rack are placed cleanly and very much looking prestine. One would not feel any problem there, but then he noticed something that would make a bit of a contradiction to the mess.
There is a single knife stuck on the table. But on the knife rack, there were no empty slots on the rack.
There is a possibility that the knife was just another mess and it was just misplaced but he did remember that there are no knives on the kitchen utensils inside the drawers. Majority of them are spoon, fork and ladles placed but there are no knives there.
Hubert now has a hunch on what the extra object is and that would be the knife. However, there are two of them and that also means two possibilities on where the anomaly was placed. It could be one of the knives on the knife rack or the knife on the table.
Seeing the problem, he decided to solve it logically without wasting one of his scans on a dud. He went to the position where he can scan the knife on the table and the knife on the knife rack and that is by facing behind the knife rack. The knife was located on the
kitchen counter while the table is nearby. He can scan the two objects at the same time at this angle.
He pulls out his scanner when his watch beeps again, signalling the next anomaly spotted.
"Damn, we are running out of time, have you seen the anomaly guys?!" Number 3 is getting more and more impatient.
Hubert aims his scanner and quickly scans the knife rack with the area behind the knife rack also included.
At first, there was nothing. But then, the knife on the table suddenly turned bright red in color meaning it was the anomaly as the rest of the scanned object didn't have the color change reaction happen. Hubert quickly head over at the knife and tries to terminate it using the scanner but for some reason, the knife does not disappear.
"I found the anomaly!" Hubert exclaimed.
The two quickly head over at Hubert and saw the knife glowing bright red.
"What are you waiting for? Terminate it!" Number 2 points at the knife.
"It doesn't work. It seems to remain there."
"Then that means it is one of the objects that cannot be terminated. Number 4, take the knife and put it on the container we carry to place items. Let's hurry to the bedroom, wr need to terminate the remaining anomalies before it piles up!"
The three hurries over at the bedroom and they are baffled to see what was the anomaly. It wasn't something hard to find since the missing object was so obvious. It was none other than the bed. The only thing that made things peculiar was that the pillows, the quilt and other objects on the bed were currently floating.