Several seconds later, he was able to look past the corpse and see that the others had exited the gates and were walking toward him.  Amanda caught sight of him and dashed forward, Nancy right behind her.  The two of them scooped him up, each one ducking under a shoulder and supporting him as they walked him back toward the group. Each step sent pain lancing through his arm, but he just gritted his teeth and tried to accept the pain. Nancy coughed once and said, “What the hell is that smell?”  Amanda appeared to be holding her breath.

Sam was laughing and hopping up and down as they approached.  “You killed it!  I can’t believe you did it!  Holy shit, man!”  He reached out to shake Allistor’s hand, noticed he was covered in ichor about the same time he caught wind of the stench, and changed his mind.  “Way to go, guys!”

Allistor turned to see Ramon and Michael walked toward them.  Ramon had a grim look on his face.    Allistor looked past the two men at the monster.   “Where… where are the others?  Sean?” he asked as the two ladies set him down in the grass and started to work on him.

Michael shook his head.  “When it began to thrash and rolled over, they were too close.  It crushed the three of them.”

“Oh, god.” Nancy began to cry.  She set down the jar of salve she’d been opening and bowed her head.  “I’ve known Sandy since grade school. We just keep losing people! Why are they doing this?” Her shoulders shook as she sobbed.  Chloe came running over and wrapped her little arms around her mother’s neck.

Amanda grimly kept working.  She poked at his elbow and tried to straighten it, causing him to hiss in pain.  “It’s broken,” he informed her through gritted teeth.

“No shit, captain obvious.  I’ll put it in a sling for now.  Let’s hope the system has a quick way to heal it.”

Meg and Sam were holding each other as they faced Ramon and Michael.  She asked quietly.  “All three of them?  Gone?  Sandy, Sean, Robert Edward?”  Ramon nodded his head, not speaking.   They’d all lost too many people over the last week.  A sort of numbness had set in.

Sam broke the silence.  “We need to burn their bodies.  And do something about this beast.  We can’t have it rotting outside our doors.  Or let it be eaten by other beasts and making them stronger.”  He looked at Allistor.  “You need to loot it.”