The Dredge

Chapter Three

This was it... he was going to die! Kyle knew there was no escape, the creature was now only seconds away from digging its jagged teeth into his neck. He wanted to close his eyes, and pretend he was somewhere- anywhere else! But he couldn't... his eyes locked onto those golden red-ringed orbs, unable to look away from his death.

"Please... Anyone... Please save me!"

Then, the world fell away from him. He was falling backwards, a blinding light erupted in front of his face, his ears rang with the piercing sound of a shotgun. He had just enough time to see the creature go sprawling sideways to his left from the blast. Soon, his head came crashing down hard on the pavement and everything went black.

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"Drew! There's more coming, it's too dark, we ain't making it!" the large man called to the other man desperately.

Drew turned around, dropping the now unconscious male. Looking back he could see the disgusting mass of abominations now roaming freely in the night's shade.

"Fuck it then."

Drew retrieved two semi automatic pistols from his belt, passing the guy off to Alec. He launched himself over the big man's shoulder, squeezing off several rounds of headshots. Some of them fell- a lot of them, actually... but not enough. He could see more of them coming in swarms.

"Drew! Get your ass back here! We need to move, now!" Alec screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Git that kid behind some cover Alec..! It's time for damnation!" Drew then called over his shoulder to his friend to move it. But he already knew without having to look that they were well enough away by now.

Rain started to pour down. "Ain't no better time than now I guess," Drew thought to himself as he pulled out a medium-sized package from his jacket. Flipping a switch on the side, he tossed the brick with so much force it impaled itself into one of the creatures' heads.

Drew haul-assed his way back toward the shed, leaping over the waist-high hedges in a single bound. He was almost to the makeshift barricade, but he wasn't fast enough, the bomb went off, sending a huge shock wave that sent Drew flying forward slamming hard into the gas station's cinder block wall.

"Drew!" Alec screamed as he ran over to him. "Damn it, man what the hell were you thinking using that thing so close to the shelter!?" He grabbed Drew by the arm and helped him stand up.

He noticed when trying to stand up straight, Drew winced in pain and hunched over to spit out a little bit of blood. He looked up at Alec and asked, "are they still out there?"

Alec took a quick assessment of the area.

"No, it looks like the blast scared 'em off for now."

"There ya go then." That was his only reply on the matter.

"Where's the kid? How's he doing?"

"He's safe, don't worry man, you should be more concerned about yourself, you hit that thing pretty damn hard... let's get you to Nord"

Alec said as he offered his hand and shoulder to lean on, but Drew just waved him away.

"Stop pestering me ya big oaf. I'll be fine, it's nothing... I've dealt with worse, now git the kid so we can go inside before more of 'em show up.

"Yeah, you have been through worse man, which is exactly why I'm pestering you. What if you reopened something!? Quit being so stubborn!" Alec yelled back as he made his way over to the unconscious young man, hidden just behind the bush line and picked him up.

As he turned back he could see Drew was having a hard time putting up with his front.

He was leaning heavily against the wall with a scrunched-up expression of pain. Alec shook his head at him, and gently readjusted the young man to his left shoulder, so he could help his friend.