The three Klounhs were just as colorful as the one we'd met, clad in similar colors of red, white, and yellow, although they weren't drenched in blood, one had a huge clown afro and seemed to be much bigger than the others, like 12 feet tall but bent double to glare at us though the darkness as they moved from the trees, I jumped when I saw them, holstered my revolver and patted Edge's shoulder, "2 medium and 1 extra large just beyond the treeline at 5:00."

  Wolf patted my shoulder, her back to us, looking back I saw she'd taken out her contacts, screwing the lid shut on their container, "3 more over here, approaching fast from 10:00, 2 medium one small."

  Singleton opened his duffel and pulled out A deconstructed Barrett 50cal sniper rifle along with four small silver spheres, "everyone, get back."

  He threw the spheres in each direction indicated, they immediately began to release copious amounts of gas, "the hell is that?" Asked Green, Singleton smirks, "tear gas grenades, these things have to breathe, right?"

  Immediately after Singleton tossed them, the Klounhs began to hack and cough, looking around, I could see the smaller Klounhs making a beeline deeper into the woods, but the larger one inhaled, it kept inhaling and the tear gas got sucked up into its massive lungs, it coughed like an 80-year-old chain smoker but it didn't seem very bothered otherwise.

  "Fuck." Was all Singleton could say as everyone but Love pointed guns at the monster and started emptying their clips into the thing.

  Green however decided to start humming and rushed it with our sword poised to strike!

  Green dodged under a swing from one of its massive arms with a twist of his body and with the ensuing momentum, used his body weight to drive our sword point first, hilt deep through the thing's hide (currently resembling a colorful clown suit) into its thigh muscle (this creature was bent double, remember I said) which made the creature holler with laughter, oddly enough I think that's just how they scream in pain, but it began to immediately gush more red scarves, ropes, and ropes of the stuff, spouting everywhere.

  Green grunted and with a savage twisting pull, he opened one of the thing's arteries in its leg, once he pulled the blade from its thigh we were COVERED in red scarf ropes and glitter.

  The thing wasted no time falling over exaggeratedly with a massive thud, giggling a bit more before it stopped moving altogether.

  While Singleton was staring at me, incredibly shocked, Edge had a sniper scope he was using to look for more, "One of them this big means we're close to the big top, its up that way, its where the other Klounhs ran off to!"

  "Come on let's go then!" Green shouted, now eager to get this over with so he can wash the glitter off.

  Everyone, now armed and ready began to rush in the direction indicated, except for Love, who hung behind still looking sad as she was carrying the dead child.

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  A child whose dry exsanguinated eyes had begun to move, looking at her as she sobbed, Green saw it, he agreed that something was wrong.

  Green stopped and walked up to her, pulling the kid out of her arms, and dropping him in the undergrowth, Love looked at us like we'd killed her grandma, "You're worth nothing in this fight if you refuse to even draw your gun, arm yourself and follow them, I'll be right behind you." Green said slowly, cautiously, he knew she could snap us in two if she wanted.

  She looked at the kid, then back at me as Green tried to look as empathetic as possible.

  Then the child's mouth sprang up into a rigorous smile, startling Love and I both!

  Once she saw what we had seen, she drew her shotgun out of the holster she had on her back and trudged after the group.

  As she left, I saw the child seize, looking at him, I saw his skin beginning to turn white, colorful shapes manifesting all over his arms and legs like boils, so THIS is how they do it, THIS is how they procreate...God dammit.

  As the change became more and more pronounced, I began to realize that I'd need to act quickly, or I'd have another one to deal with.

  Green positioned the blade tip over the Child's chest, watching as the once dead eyes waxed a sickly piss yellow, gaining an unholy fervor to them, panting from both the corpse and me getting louder until he plunged the blade through the child's chest, the crunching of bone and gushing of fluid meant we had killed something human, the child's half turned body went limp and Green placed his boot firmly on the kid's head as he forcefully pulled our sword from his corpse.

  Without words Green watched as the swords Riven blade buzzed away the blood that was smeared on it, all we needed to do now, was get to that big top.

  I followed the trail left behind by my group, when I reached the end, I ran into them, standing on the edge of a huge clearing where, visible in the darkness, there was a massive big top tent in the center, the whole clearing might have been about a mile from one end to the other, so it was pretty far away.

  "Hey guys what's up?"

  Wolf shushed us and pointed, there was a procession of Klounhs going to and from the big top, carrying bodies in and walking out empty handed.

  "A huge tent." Says Singleton, "They bring the bodies in and... what? Do they eat them?"

  Green shakes our head, "No, that's a conversion tent...they kill people, infect them, and the dead...become Klounhs."

  He sounded so certain of it, even though we'd only just learned how it was done.

  Suddenly there was a loud WHOOSH and Love was charging full tilt toward the tent, she was screaming as loudly as she possibly could, firing her shotgun in random directions!

  Bibs growled as he aimed his sniper rifle, "fucking...you guys get her under control, I'll cover you."

  We all began to rush after Love who was now tearing down the tent with her bare hands, she'd dropped the shotgun and had succeeded in tearing a whole section off the tent, revealing at least twenty dead bodies, all in various stages of conversion.

  From where we were running, we could see this as well as the twenty something Klounhs of various shapes and sizes closing in on her from all sides, a loud buzzing noise resonating through the dark trees, Edge was pumping up his Adhesive gun, Wolf had reloaded with a full drum clip of Riven rounds for her Assault rifle.

  The Klounhs turned to see us charging, some broke off to intercept us but were stopped in their tracks by a volley of adhesive which Edge sprayed on their feet!

  My sword created a deadly arc as Green cut their legs out from under them by slicing their knees open, Wolf emptied her rifle into what was left, and the rest of the Klounhs began to move away from Love, still emitting that loud buzzing noise, like static in the air.

  Coming for us.