[ Kinship ] They Call It Matt

Jiosh watched as tentacles were slithering out of storm drains, and out from under manhole covers.  Earlier in the evening there had been a huge infestation of zombies, probably close to 50.  Most of the remains of the zeds were littering Main Street and the Town Square.  The Kinship Defense Force had made short work of them.  Jiosh had killed 10 himself, giving him the number one spot on the zombie killing leader board.  However, he was only two ahead of the Sheriff.

Pulling out a clove cigarette, he lit it with his "new" Zippo lighter.  A wonder of technology!  Jiosh was amazed at how well it worked, well, as long as the flint was good, and it still had lighter fluid.  He sat down at his usual perch on ledge around the clock tower, and watched the tentacles work.

Some were similar to octopus tentacles complete with suckers that pulled zombie parts down under the street.  Others seems to have sharp, crab-like claws that chopped apart the larger parts.  Some seemed to have "mouths" that punctured the zombie bodies, and sucked out the insides.  Matt, as the children of Kinship had named it, was good at cleaning up zombies.  It really saved the townsfolk a lot of work.  There usually wasn't a drop of goo or a bit of gore left.

Jiosh laughed out loud at it's name, Matt, which stood for, Many Awesomely Tentacled Thing.  Upon the initial discovery of Matt, many of the people in Kinship were worried it was a threat.  However, they soon discovered that Matt rarely ate living things, aside from the occasional rat.  So it was left alone.

As Jiosh watched the tentacles work, he was startled when a large tentacle rose in front of him.  It ended in a large eye.  Shocked at the appearance of the tentacle, he started to draw his sword, but another tentacle came up beside the other, and it held something.

Jiosh gasped.  It was an amulet he had lost months ago.  How had Matt known it was his?  He held out his hand, and the tentacle placed it in his grasp.  The eye did sort of a nodding movement, and lowered back down.  Jiosh looked down and yelled, "THANKS!", wondering if hearing was one of it's senses.  He also wondered if it was intelligent?  He would tell the Sheriff what had happened tomorrow.  Jiosh looked up at the star filled sky, and pondered the mystery that was Kinship.