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Sterling had been ambling back towards the original manhole where Jonah had vanished down and he looked up at the sound of running. He recognized the silver hair and ears heading in his general direction at a good clip.

He broke into a run, adjusting his course to intercept the kid. And just as their paths crossed, attempted to collar the kid--grabbing for his sleeve.

Jonah tripped a bit and ended up running straight into the hunter from before, much to his dismay. "Gah.. This really isn't my day.." He tried to pull away from the hunter, growling and showing his rather sharp teeth. The sludge that he had ran from began to ooze out of the manhole, coming straight towards them. "Oh crap.. it followed me!" He tried to run away, tucking his tail again.

Sterling collared the kid, his hand latching onto Jonah's shirt collar. "I don't think so, kid." And then seeing where the kid looked, glanced there too.

It was habit, just as much as it as habit to run from anything oozing toward him. He didn't release Jonah however, grabbing his arm instead of his shirt and trying to back away from the encroaching sludge.

"What did you do?!"

Jonah realized he couldn't get away so he decided to use the hunter as a shield by slipping behind him. "I didn't do anything! That thing suddenly came after me down there so I ran, I didn't think it would follow me!" He started hyperventilating, the first sign of him about to have a panic attack. At this rate he would pass out, leaving himself in a very bad position.

The sludge seemed to grow bigger as it oozed after them, leaving a moldy looking trail behind it. It smelled awful, worst than when in the sewer itself. It shot tendrils of its slimy self towards them, attempting to grab them.

[Edited]

"Calm down, kid," Sterling ordered, but if Jonah hadn't been hyperventilating enough for the both of them, Sterling would have been doing so.

He backed up, keeping himself between Jonah and the ooze and looked around for someplace uphill where the ooze wouldn't seep. But the flicker of movement darting at him sent every instinct screaming at him and Sterling dodged to the left and back, trying to avoid the slime as well as tripping over Jonah.

"This way," Sterling said, leading the way up a hill. "Hopefully gravity affects it still..." he could only hope.

Jonah followed him, though his instincts told him to run away from the hunter AND the sludge. "First you and now that thing. What the heck did I do to deserve this?!" He growled and glanced back at the sludge creature.

The sludge continued after them, unaffected by the gravity or the sloping hill. It was determined to get them, they would serve well as its dinner. The grass shriveled and died as the sludge oozed over it, sending up little spouts of foul gases.

"You think this is fun and games for me? I could say the same thing." Sterling grumbled. "I don't like sludge and I hate chasing down kids. I especially don't like sludge." Why was he telling this kid his weakness?

He looked over his shoulder to see the smoking, toxic gaseous trail left by the ooze. "And now I really don't want to cross that. If we can find a water source, we might be able to dilute it out."

Jonah rolled his eyes and growled at the sludge. "We're screwed if that thing touches us." He growled some more, even though his tail was still tucked between his legs. "At this rate I'm gonna die.. Dammit.." He glanced at the hunter for a moment and then at the sludge. "It can't move very fast, so I think we can outrun it. But it'll probably chase us some more or go after the other humans in this area. And the only water source big enough to deal with that thing is to far away. So, any more bright ideas?" He was shaking with fear.

The sludge moved closer to them, lashing out with its tendrils, desperate to grab them.

Sterling nodded. "As a matter of fact, yes. Higher ground is necessary. You got anything you want to share, kid? Or are you gonna put all this on my shoulders?"

He could feel the kid's tremors, but there wasn't a whole lot he could do for the kid right now. And since diluting the goop wasn't a probable solution, they needed to get to higher ground and find a way to get rid of it.

"Did you see anything that could be the source of the goo?" Sterling asked as he redirected their course back to the abandoned building.

Jonah followed and thought about it for a moment. "Well I have one idea, but we could get arrested for it. Know how to break a fire hydrant by chance? If we can get a steady flow of water from one nearby we could use that to dilute it or whatever. And as to what the source is, no idea." He managed to make his tail act normal, even though he was still scared.

The sludge followed, moving as fast as its slimy form could. If this prey got away it would have to find food elsewhere.

A flurry of ideas passed through Sterling's head as he considered what he could throw at the hydrant to break it. None of his stakes or bolts would do the damage he needed, however, and he really didn't want to resort to brute strength. His eyes landed on a car parked not too far away, right next to a hydrant even.

"Yes. Keep running but don't go too far." He released the kid and changed position, aiming for the car at a dead run. If he could hot-wire the vehicle, he might be able to drive it into the hydrant. "Kid, you know how to hot-wire a car?"

Jonah followed after him, knocking some trash cans in the path of the sludge, hoping to slow it down more. "No but find me some small and strong enough to be used as a key." He started looking around for anything useful, like a screw driver or a knife. He had to admit it, the old man was brilliant for thinking of the car.

The sludge slowly reached the trash cans, touching them with its tendrils. The slimy liquid that dripped from the tendrils began melting through the trash cans, making passage possible once more.

"Can't you use a sliver of metal or something?" He could hear the hiss of slime hitting metal and eating its corrosive way through it. It made his hair stand on end.

He started to raised his elbow, intent on smashing the window in, before pausing and checking that the car door was unlocked. It actually was...but there were no keys. He kicked the control panel beneath the wheel to find the wires.

"Alright, maybe we should just try to find something to try to start the car with..." he looked around for scrap metal as the goop inched closer.

Jonah shoved his way into the car, going through the glove box and any other compartment looking for spare keys or anything that could help. "Aha!" He picked up a thick metal nail file from under the seat and shoved it into the ignition. The car sputtered for a moment and then cranked completely. He grinned wildly. "Floor it!" He looked toward the sludge, it was almost at them.

The sludge could hear the car but paid it no mind, it would take more than a car to stop it from catching its prey.

Already in the driver's seat, Sterling grabbed the wheel, put the car into drive, and then floored the gas pedal. The car jerked forward, the RPMs racing into the red, as he steered it into the hydrant.

They collided with a jarring impact, the car's hood denting and the airbags deflating. Sterling groaned as he slowly beat the air bag down and away and then looked for Jonah.

"Jonah! You okay?"

Jonah covered his face with his arms at the right moment, blocking most of the airbags force. "I-I'm fine.." He mumbled, looking at his bruised up arms. He was used to wounds like this, from the beatings he received on a daily basis as a child, so this was nothing. "Did it work?" He looked at the hydrant and water slowly started spewing from it, drenching the car and growing stronger. "Heck yeah!" He grinned some more as the sludge oozed right into the water.

The sludge felt the sting of the water covering it, melting it away. It sizzled and sputtered as the water killed it and washed it away.

Seeing that the kid was fine, he let out a breath that he hadn't been aware he was holding. But he didn't really relax until he saw the sludge dissolving in the water. "Yes! Alright then."

With that problem taken care of, that left one more. Jonah. He grabbed the kid's arm again, to keep him from running away.

"Alright, spill, kid. Tell me who's looking for you and why you don't want to go back."

Jonah winced as the hunter grabbed his arm, the bruises stinging. "Hey hey, let go. I'm not gonna run." He muttered, pulling his arm away and rubbing at the bruises. "You really want to know? My family, probably. But not for good reasons." He looked away, growling quietly to himself.

"What reasons would those be?" Sterling asked, crossing his arms. But he could see the bruises on the kid's arms and the obvious fact that home probably wasn't high on the kid's list of places to return.

"You can't be running your whole life out here in the wilds, on your own, Jonah. At least at home you have a bed and meals." And if he went home, Sterling would have a nice fat paycheck.

Jonah busted out laughing. "A bed? Meals? I slept in a cage in the attic! And they only fed me when I was on the edge of starvation!" He hugged his knees and growled more. "Theres no way I'm going back there, I'd rather die than go back." He gritted his teeth. Thinking about all the horrible things his family did to him made him so angry.