Granite City; A Manaverse Novel, Book 1

1.04 - Mad Dash

Granite City Streets
3:17 p.m.
Granite City

Kyle's heart thundered as wildly as his legs did on the pavement. He was lucky so far because Lily had kept pace with him and he'd not heard the sounds of pursuit. So, he'd kept running as hard and as fast as he could.

Kyle was not in the best running shape he could be. Sure, throwing freight had upped his stamina a bit but not enough for an all-out mad dash to safety. Soon, he had a stitch in his side and was having a hard time breathing.

He wasn't sure how many streets he had gone down, or how many turns he had made. All he knew was he was still heading North and West. Kyle had decided to go to Diggy's house.

Kyle knew the Digsbys had a bomb shelter in their backyard that was spacious enough for at least fifteen people. Diggy's parents had both been a touch paranoid about the unusual natural disasters, so Diggy's dad had built it by hand. He wasn't sure if they'd let him in, but it was the only place he could think to go. The only problem with his idea was Diggy lived equally as far away from the store as he did but in the opposite direction.

Kyle turned down another street when he saw a pack of dog-like monsters up ahead. When he reached the next intersection, he turned back the way he was going before he spotted them. When he got to the point where he could look down once more, he peeked around the corner and could see the monsters. They were sniffing around an SUV that had a family inside it.

Kyle felt his stomach clench painfully when he saw them. He wanted nothing more than to try and help, but he knew he couldn't take on three or four of the monsters at once. So, he led his pets the other way, continuing on the path he had originally chosen. He wasn't going to play superhero only to die in the attempt.

Before he could make it around the corner, Kyle tripped and crashed into a car. He managed to catch himself and straighten up but he had lost all of his momentum. He snuck a glance back at the monsters and all of them were looking in his direction.

"Damn it. Let's get out of here." Kyle yelled at his pets as he tried running harder. It wasn't very effective. He quickly scanned the street he was on. The monster dogs were only a block away and they were getting closer too quickly.

Kyle crossed his fingers when a plan came to mind. Ahead was an underpass with space underneath on each end that may help. There was also a different pack of monsters just past the bridge. They were a larger group of mutated insects. Scorpions with the armor of a peal bugs and a mace head stingers. They all looked up as the small group approached.

With a quick yank, Kyle lifted Lily by her harness and caught her, guiding Gunther to jump behind cover at just the right moment. The monsters pursuing him had been mid leap while the insectoids had charged forward into them.

To Kyle's delight, the two groups did begin to fight one another. The bad news was there more scorpions than was needed to preoccupy the dogs. So, he kept running, threading through the guts of the underpass and going back the way they had come.

Kyle turned off, going north once more, and had to slow down to catch his breath. Gunther didn't seem tired but on edge. He gladly slowed down so he could look and sniff around. Lily clung to Kyle's clothing, doing her best to remain curled up. Kyle did his best to not jostle her any more than necessary.

When he wasn't bludgeoned by a mace stinger, Kyle looked back. He could see the claws of the scorpion who had chased him clamped around another man. Kyle felt dirty turning and picking up the speed once again before ducking around the next corner and reassessing their situation.

Working hard to catch his breath, Kyle leaned into the shadow of the ally.

"What the absolute fuck." He rubbed his eyes and face with one hand, starting to feel tired.