"And the walls kept tumbling down in the city that we love... but if you close your eyes does it almost feel like nothing changed at all"- Pompeii by Bastille

Ryan was falling head first into the chaos below at incredible speeds. He opened his chute to land safely on the ground on one knee, his fist plunged into the earth. He got up, "Now that's a superhero landing" He said with confidence.

He was dressed on a black tactical spec ops outfit. He had high tech goggles designed to sense the alien DNA of his otherworldly foe. His suit was covered in a light weight, yet very strong armor, made out of an almost plastic material, designed to protect him from the Thing's acidic attacks.

He was armed to the teeth with plasma launchers, plasma grenades, and even a pair of swords that shot plasma through their blades. He also had a grappling hook strapped to his wrist, to help him get around faster.

He was on a mission to save as many human lives as possible, before the government had to resort to its last chance at containing the alien outbreak.

Two creatures, resembling humans but with spikes and tentacles growing out of them, rushed toward him from either side, letting out an inhuman screech. Ryan aimed one of his hand gun sized plasma launchers at each of the creatures, and pulled the trigger. Scorching hot blue flames bellowed out of the guns and vaporized the creatures in a matter of seconds.

A huge tree trunk sized tentacle swung toward him. He took out his sword and sliced through the tentacle. Each half of the tentacle burst into flames from the plasma flowing through the blade, and became ash.

Ryan heard a deep growl from behind him. He turned around to see a red dog-like creature.

The creature opened its mouth, and a tentacle shot out of its mouth and grabbed Ryan by the arm. The tentacle wrapped around his arm, and thick gooey acid stated to ooze from the tentacle. The acid couldn't eat through Ryan's armor so it just harmlessly dripped to the ground.

"Nice try" Said Ryan. The he noticed how tight the tentacle was squeezing his wrist. It was making a dent in his armor that was designed to protect against high caliber bullets.

"Man" He said, "have you been visiting the gym? And eating the weight lifters?"

He then walked over to the creature, which seemed confused at Ryan's lack of fear. Then he shoved his fist into its mouth and ripped out its tentacle-like tongue. Then he blasted it with his plasma launcher, blowing it to oblivion. He looked at the severed tentacle wrapped around his arm. He tried to pull it off, but it was holding with the strength of an anaconda.

Ryan pressed a button on his suit, sending an electric current through it, zapping the tentacle and forcing it to let go. The tentacle fell to the ground and Ryan torched it.

A gigantic pterodactyl-like creature flew over his head and landed behind him.

"Oh aren't you a pretty bird" Said Ryan "Polly want a cracker?"

The winged beast opened its mouth and a large tentacle shot out of it, and grabbed Ryan by his chest, and pulled him into its mouth.

The creature swallowed him. He slid down its throat and into its stomach. He fell face first into the creature's strong stomach acids. Luckily for him the acid couldn't eat through his armor. He got up and drudged through the stomach. He looked around, it was pitch black, but his goggles had night vision so he could see just fine. The fleshy cave was full of dead bodies with their faces melting off, and their entrails spilling out.

"Jeeze" He said "it's like the world's worst hot tub in hear"

"I sure hope no one peed in the water" He continued "That would be disgusting"

Then one of the slowly digesting people grabbed Ryan's leg. Ryan looked down to see the man that had grabbed him. The man's skin around his mouth was hanging off the bones, his eyes had turned completely white and bulged out of his face. The man's entire face looked as though it had been turned into thick fleshy wet clay, he also had a Mohawk.

The man spat up some blood, made some gurgling noises, and fell back into the acid.

"Yeesh" Said Ryan. "Remind me to never get a facial at this spa."

He aimed his gun at the walls of the stomach. "Time to give big bird, the worst case of heart burn in his life" He shot blue flames at the bottom of the stomach, burning a hole to the outside world.

Acid and chunks of dead bodies poured out of the creature as it screeched in pain. Ryan fell to the ground. He shot his grappling hook at the creature's neck to propel himself upward. He took out his sword and sliced the monster's head clean off. In mid air, he threw a plasma grenade into the creature's neck.

In a flash of light, the monster exploded into ashes.

When Ryan landed, he looked at the creature's head, it was still moving. Ryan torched it in blue flames, from his gun.

Meanwhile...

Lincoln and Ronne Anne were walking into the school.

"where'd you get that cross bow?" Lincoln asked.

"I made it in shop class" Said Ronne Anne.

"They taught you to make a cross bow in shop class?"

"Well no, not in the actual class" She said, "just in the class room, I made this after everything went down. Well not just me, I'm not the only survivor here"

They got to the main hallway where they met up with Lori and Leni. Lincoln's two older sisters were now joined by Lincoln's friend Clyde, and his other friend Rusty. With them also was Dana, one of Bobby's friends.

"Lincoln!" Clyde rushed over to hug his best friend "Your alive!"

"Oh, hey Clyde" Said Lincoln.

"Buddy where'd you get that sweet jacket?" Clyde asked.

Lincoln thought back to how he had let Chandler get killed by The Thing, and took his black leather jacket from his liquefied corps.

"Oh I uh... bought it the other day." Lincoln said nervously. "It's pretty cold out, and leather's a good insulator. And it looks cool"

"So is this everybody who made it?" Asked Lori. She turned to Ronnie Anne. "Did Bobby make it?" She asked.

"I... I don't know." Said Ronnie Anne, with concern in her voice. "I haven't seen him since yesterday. I hope he's ok, he's all I have left"

"What about your parents?" Asked Lori.

"I went looking for them once things started to get out of control." "Ronnie Anne's voice was starting to crack, and she was tightly hugging herself, "They... they didn't make it." She clenched her eyes shut, and tears started to roll down her cheek.

"Oh, I'm... I'm so sorry" Lori knelt down to hug Ronnie. "we've lost a lot of people too"

"I'm sure we all have" Said Lincoln, "Right Clyde?"

"My Dads" Clyde confirmed

"My little brother Rocky" Rusty added.

"All my friends" Said Dana.

"Lynn" Lincoln said quietly. He put his hand on Ronnie Anne's shoulder. He too started to cry.

Lincoln Loud wasn't just sad, he was angry; angry at that Thing for what it's done to him and his friends. But mostly he was also angry at himself for everything he's done in the past few days, especially what he did to his beloved sister Lynn.

It was around noon on Sunday, Lynn Loud Sr, and his Wife Rita, were returning home from a relaxing vacation. This past weekend was one of the best weekends the couple had had in months. However, as much fun as they had that weekend, they couldn't wait to get back to their 11 beautiful children, who meant the world to them.

The 11 children of the loud house may make life chaotic at times, but Mr. and Mrs. Loud couldn't imagine life without their 10 daughters and 1 son. Their kids were the most precious things in their lives.

"Man I can't see a darn thing in this blizzard!" Said Mr. Loud.

"Gee, I really hope the kids are alright." Said Mrs. Loud.

"Don't worry" Mr. Loud assured his wife, "I'm sure they are just fine"

"This whole weekend I just couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen" Said Mrs. Loud, "I've been trying to call them, but I haven't gotten an answer all weekend"

"Don't worry" Said Mr. Loud, "Remember when I told them to lock the doors at night, and they rigged the house with high tech security systems?"

"Yeah" Mrs. Loud was starting to calm down.

"I think they can handle a little blizzard." He said, as they passed a burning car. "Well looks like somebody wasn't quite so lucky"

"Should we help" Asked Mrs. Loud.

Lynn Loud Sr. stopped the van next to the blazing car.

He slowly opened the car door. "Hey! You guys need any help?!?!" he yelled in the direction of the smoldering vehicle.

No answer.

Rita got out on the other side. She heard something in the distance, but all she could see was white.

The two slowly walked toward the burning wreck.

Rita herd something quickly scamper behind her. She moved closer to her husband "Lynn, did you hear that?"

"Now honey, I'm sure it was nothing"

They reached the car, they didn't see any one else.

They looked around but aside from their van, they couldn't see anything for miles in this intense blizzard.

"Lynn, let's go back to the van" Said Rita, "funny things, I hear funny things out hear"

"Yeah, I'm not sure that we can do anything here" Said Lynn Sr.

Just then they saw a little girl standing in the snow.

While she did somewhat resemble Lucy, this was not a girl they recognized.

The girls skin was almost grey, her hair was jet black, with strands hanging down in front of her face, and her eyes were dark. The only thing she was wearing was dirty white dress.

"Are... are you lost little girl?" asked Rita "What's your name? where are your parents?"

"We've been waiting for you Mr. and Mrs. Loud" Said the girl.

"How... how do you know our names?" Asked Lynn Sr.

"Oh I know lots of things" Said the girl, then her voice turned into a low growl "LOTS OF THINGS!"

The girl's eyes turned black, she opened her mouth, her jaw unhinged, revealing rows a sharp teeth.

Three inch long claws grew out of her fingers. Long spider-like legs grew out of her back. She let out a screech and leaped toward the couple.

Mr. and Mrs. Loud held each other and let out a terrified scream.

Just before the creature could reach them, a blue flaming sword cut the Thing in half, and the creature burst into flames, and became ashes.

The Louds opened their eyes, to see the man who was wielding the sword, and had saved their lives. The man was about averaged height, and wearing what looked like some sort of high tech ninja suit, covered in space age armor. He was wearing a mask, with glowing green goggles.

The man took off his mask, revealing his face. He had short brown wavy hair, dreamy brown eyes, and a five o clock shadow. Rita was at a loss for words, the man who saved them was the type of dreamy hunk you only read about in romance novels.

"Hi" the man said "I'm Ryan" he reached out to shake their hands.

"Well ok Ryan" Said Lynn Sr. "Can you tell us what the HECK is going on? Who... or what was that thing? and how did it know our names?"

"Ok" He said. "I'm sorry to tell you this but, your town has been infested with an alien parasite, that can take human form."

The Loud couple became silent with confused looks on their face.

"We need to get to the extraction point, I'll explain on the way"

"We need to stop of at our place first" Said Rita, "we need to get our kids to safety"

"Here's a picture of them" Lynn Sr. said pulling out a family photo from his wallet, "Please Ryan, you have to help us"

Ryan took a look at the photo of the loud family, "HOLY FUCK!!" He exclaimed "What is this? 11 kids?!?! How the fuck do you stay sane? I have two girls, and it's a handful!"

"Well" Said Lynn Sr. "It's actually pretty easy when you love them as much as we do"

"Please Ryan?" Said Rita "Our poor little angles must be so scared"

"Well" Said Ryan, "I was going to tell you that they're probably dead but, 11 holy shit. They do say there's power in numbers, one of them is bound to still be breathing."

"YOU REALLY THINK THEY COULD BE DEAD!?!?" Lynn Sr.'s voice became panicked.

"Come on Ryan, we'll give you a ride" Said Rita.

Lincoln, Lori, Leni, Ronnie Anne, Clyde, Rusty, and Dana had fallen asleep on the floor in the main hallway of the school.

Dana had gotten up to go to the bathroom. On her way to the bathroom, she passed the gymnasium, the lights were out, it was pitch black, Dana could hear strange noises from the gym. Dana took her phone out of her pocket. She may not have been able to get a signal with her phone to call for help, but at least her phone had a light on it she could use.

She turned the light on, and gasped at what she saw. The walls, floor and ceiling were covered in fleshy red goo, with pulsating purple veins that gave off a thumping sound like a heart. Hundreds of students and faculty were cocooned in the red goo, moaning in agony as they were slowly dissolved.

Dana no longer had to use the bathroom.

Dana threw up her arms, screamed and ran back to the others.

The other survivors were sleeping, huddled together on the cold hard floor.

"Guys wake up!" Said Dana, "We have to get out of here!"

"W-what's going on?" Lincoln uttered as he woke up.

"That thing... in the gym... people... eating" Dana was frantic.

As Dana was trying hopelessly to get the words out through her fear to warn her friends, a locker slowly opened behind her. As the locker slowly opened, the group could see that the locker was lined with razor sharp teeth.

Red tentacles shot out of the locker and wrapped around Dana. The tentacles swiftly yanked Dana into the locker. Dana slammed into the locker with a bang, teeth punctured through her stomach, her arms, and her legs.

The locker slammed shut, locking Dana in darkness.

The group could hear Dana's blood curdling cries of pain, as the locker shook wildly, and blood sprayed out of the holes in the locker door. After a few seconds, the screaming and shaking stopped.

Lincoln and the others looked out the front door. It was day now, but the snow was still falling so fast all they could see beyond the glass doors was a thick layer of white, with a few flashes of yellow from the explosions and fires outside.

It wasn't safe inside or out.

"Where do we go now?" Asked Leni.

"Well," Said Clyde, "We made that crossbow in the shop class. So I think it's safe there, we've been in there a while, so you'd think that if any of those creatures were in there we'd know it"

Rusty then chimed in, "But what if it got in there while we were out he..." before he could finish his sentence, another locker opened up, grabbed rusty, and pulled him in.

"Well the shop class might be our best shot right now!" Said Lori.

Lynn Loud Sr. and Rita Loud were frantically trying to get home, to make sure their 11 kids were safe. There was now a third passenger in their van, a mysterious agent named Ryan, who had previously saved the couple's lives.

"So who exactly are you?" Lynn Sr. asked his mysterious guest.

"I told you" the man said "my name is Ryan, and I was hired by the CIA to rescue as many people as I can from this alien parasite."

"Well what exactly is this uh... thing anyway?" Said Mr. Loud. "You said it's an alien? Is it, I don't know, like intelligent?"

"Well first of all' Ryan started to explain, "We believe it operates on some sort of hive mind, all these monsters you see out there are actually part of one organism"

"Wow"

"And as far as if The Thing is intelligent, the answer is both yes and no" Ryan continued. "This Thing is quite clever indeed. In fact it may be one of the smartest predatory organisms in the universe. However we are not sure if it's actually sentient. We don't know if it's intelligent in the same way as you or I. See humans like us are smart enough to be able to question our place in the universe, were did we come from? Why are we here? Are we alone in this universe? Which by the way, recent events have told us that the answer to that is a big fat NO. However this creature does not seek knowledge the way humans do, The Thing is only motivated by one basic need, and that is to feed, and assimilate other organisms into its hive mind. You know come to think of it, that's kind of two basic needs isn't it? Point is, it operates on basic instinct. It has no conscience, no morality, no rhyme or reason, all it ever wants is to eat. It's less like E.T and more like the aliens from the movie Alien, except with shape shifting powers."

They reached their house, and gasped at what they saw. The Loud House had been incased in a thick layer of ice.

"Oh. No" Said Rita "You think the kids are in there?"

"Well, only one way to find out" Said Ryan. He then took out a futuristic looking gun, aimed it at the ice, and shot searing blue flames at the ice.

The instant change from freezing cold, to blistering hot, caused the ice around the house to shatter, launching huge chunks of ice in every direction. The three duct down to avoid getting hit. The van was totaled by the ice, as well as a few of the houses on either side.

"Maybe I should have thought that one through" Said Ryan.

The couple quickly ran to the front door. They had found that it had been smashed open, not from what Ryan had just done, but from something, or someone else earlier.

They walked in the door and were horrified at what had met them on the inside of the house. The living room was trashed, the coffee table was shattered, and the couch was drenched it blood. But worst of all, in the center of the room lay the body of Lisa Loud. She was lying in a pool of her own blood, and her arms were ripped off. Next to her was Luan Loud, Luan's body was in even worse shape than Lisa's. She was completely charred from head to toe. Her once light brown hair, was now singed black, and ashy white, her stomach and chest were ripped open, and the charred remains of some, thing was sticking out of her, as if it exploded from her chest.

The couple ran over to their dead children. Lynn Sr. picked up Lisa's body and held her tightly against his chest. He started to violently sob. Rita knelt down to Luan's body. She gently caressed her singed hair. She looked into her daughters still moist eyes, starring up at the ceiling with no expression.

The grieving mother ran her hand down Luan's face to close her eyes. Lynn Sr. went over and hugged his wife. They both sat there crying for a few minutes.

"How could this happen?" Said Rita "What have we done to deserve this?"

The Loud parents held each other tighter.

"Hey listen" Said Ryan, "I can't imagine how you two must be feeling right now. I have a family of my own, and I don't know what I would do if anything ever happened to them. When I'm out there fighting aliens, or monsters, or evil super villains with some over the top scheme for world domination, it's the thought of my own little girls that get me through it." Ryan looked away for a second, thinking of his wife and daughters back home. "I truly am very sorry. If there is anything I could do..."

The two grieving parents continued to cry. Something in the hallway caught Ryan's eye, and he moved toward it.

"Hey guys come in here!" He said.

The two parents walked into the hallway and were downright puzzled by what they saw.

There in the hallway, directly under the hole in the bathroom floor, was what looked like a bed of homemade wooden spikes sticking up from the ground. At the bottom of the spikes was a pool of sticky green goo.

Mr. Loud noticed something floating in the goo. He knelt down to pick it up. It was a black sports shoe.

"Lynn" Said Lynn Sr. with sorrow in his voice. "This was Lynn's"

"Wait aren't you Lynn?" Ryan asked.

"Lynn Loud Jr." Said the mother, "Our daughter"

Ryan was about to ask why they would name their daughter after her father, and not her mother, but he decided that that would be in bad taste.

"Lynn's a strong girl" Said Rita "I'm sure she's fine, she has to be."

Mr. Loud flipped the shoe upside-down and some sort of pink jell fell out of the shoe.

"She has to be alive" Rita repeated.

Ryan looked up through the hole in the ceiling. "What's up there?" He asked.

"That's the bathroom" Said the parents.

"I'd like to see what's up there" Said Ryan.

The parents led Ryan up the stairs. As they walked down the upstairs hallway, Ryan began looking at all the rooms.

"So are these your kid's rooms?" He asked.

"Yeah" Mr. Loud answered.

Then Ryan noticed something in one of the rooms that caught his eye, and he walked in.

"Oh that's Lisa and Lilly's room" Said Mr. Loud.

Ryan walked in to find an assortment of computers and other high tech science equipment that was way too advanced to be in a little girl's room. Ryan was starting to think that there was more going on here than he had originally thought.

He was about to call bullshit on the couple, when he noticed something sitting on a shelf in the room. He walked over to the shelf and picked up a diploma from Harvard with the name Lisa Loud. Next to the diploma was a picture of the little girl who's body the parents were grieving over just before.

He looked to the other side of the room and saw a baby crib. The crib was full of toys, and balled up blankets. He walked over to a trash can in the room. He opened it to find it was full of dirty diapers. Most people would be grossed out by this, but Ryan had just spent the morning in the stomach of a giant alien bird. So a few poop filled diapers didn't bother him.

"How old was Lisa again" Ryan asked.

"four" The parents responded.

"This is some pretty advanced stuff for a four year old" Ryan noticed a computer in the middle of the room. It was on

Ryan walked over to the computer. The computer was full of data about the very creature he was hunting.

"This is incredible" He said. "your daughter must have found the Thing and was... studying it" He scrolled through the data on the little girl's computer. "The agency could really use this data. You guys mind if I Email this research to the CIA?"

The couple looked at Ryan, puzzled "Uh... yeah I guess... sure" They responded.

"great" Said Ryan "Mr. and Mrs. Loud, I know this is tough for you, but your daughter's death will not be in vein. Her research could help millions. The data on this creature could not only help to stop it, but it could also be used to research treatments and even cures for countless diseases" He took out his cell phone and dialed a number to call someone.

"Yeah Bill" he said as the person on the other line picked up. "I'm about to send you something pretty fucking mind blowing" He then Emailed the data.

The three continued down the hallway toward the bathroom. They stopped at another room.

"hey what's the hold up?" Ryan asked.

Mr. Loud walked into Luna and Luan's room. In the center of the room was a beanbag chair soaked in blood, next to the chair was a broken guitar. He dropped to his knees, and picked up the broken instrument with tears forming in his eyes, and rolling down his face.

"Luna's guitar" He said as he started to sob, "man I can't even count how many times I've yelled at her for playing too loud." He started crying some more "what I would give, just to hear her play one more song"

Mrs. Loud knelt down and placed her hand on his back. "Don't worry, we'll find them" She assured him.

Ryan walked into the bathroom. He looked at the empty oil drum lying on its side, next to the hole in the floor. He looked down the hole and saw the spiked trap covered in green goo.

He took out a pencil and touched the eraser end to a bit of goo left on the rim of the oil drum. The substance made a sizzling sound at the pencil touched it.

The parents soon joined him in the bathroom.

"Well" he said, "I'm guessing that this oil drum used to be full of acidic waste from your daughter's little science experiments."

"We keep telling her not to play around with all those chemicals" Said Mr. Loud, "It could be dangerous"

"Well" Said Ryan, "it seems it was especially dangerous for The Thing, see those spikes down there?"

"yeah"

"Well I think" He said "that your kids, your brilliant kids Home Aloned this fucker! They set up a booby trap, by placing spikes under the hole in the bathroom floor, so the thing would fall on it. But they knew that simple spikes wouldn't be enough to kill the Thing, so they dumped this highly corrosive acid on it, to destroy it completely"

"So what now?" Asked Rita.

"Well I know one thing's for sure" Said Ryan, "At least some of your kids are still alive"