"If it is a PERSON, it should be DEAD RIGHT NOW," Gus snaps right back, struggling to reload, because it had enough life left in it to raise its arm for the second shot, and it's still moving and making noises. "Christ, what the hell ARE you?!"

Croach is already answering him, or more responding to the girl, and it doesn't help much. Gus lowers the gun, finally feeling defeated, staring in shock and horror and imminent regurgitation at the display.

"I ... I don't ..." He drops the gun entirely. "I don't understand."

Distantly, he hears voices downstairs, high-pitched, drunken laughter, which he ignores because it makes little sense, and there is no more room in him for things that don't make sense.