The Cannibals

Chapter 3

(Ari's POV)

Luke and I sprint away from the tunnel and keep going until I can hear Luke struggling to catch his breath.

"Do you need to stop," I say to him.

"Sorry not all of us were the track star in school," he jokes trying to lighten the mood.

"Come on, we can stop here," I pull him into a large alley, and he bends over breathing heavily. I pull out my phone and call 911.

"hello 911 how may I help you?" the operator asks.

"Hi! please help us, these guys hit us with their car and are chasing us," I say quickly into the phone.

"Okay calm down, and tell me where you are," they say.

"I don't know, somewhere downtown," I reply. Then I hear a gun shot echo through the alley ways. "Oh my god, I think they are trying to kill us," I inform them while freaking out. From behind me I hear a crunch noise and Luke moaning. I turn around to see him drop to the ground and one of the men starts punching him. "NO! Get off him!" I scream, throw my phone to the ground, and launch my body into his. He falls over and rolls on top of me, the air leaves my lungs as the wind is knocked out of me. I lay gasping trying to remember how to breathe. The man stands up and gets back onto Luke. I roll over and see Luke's face all bloody. He mouths "I love you." He takes his last breath as a clot of blood comes out his mouth. The man starts to get off him. I crawl faster then I ever have in my entre life and stand up while grabbing a chunk of wood. "Get back!" I swing.

"Calm down. I'm not going to hurt you," he says.

"I don't fucking believe you," I yell and swing at his head and smack him to the ground. I take off sprinting away, and hear two more gun shots. They were way closer this time, I could tell they were from where I just was. My face feels like it's burning off. My mind is racing, I can't accept Luke just died. He can't be dead, there is no way the love of my life that I have know since the 2nd grade is gone forever.

My train of thought is interrupted by footsteps from a man coming out of the same alley I was in a few minutes prior. "Shit," I say to myself and start running again, hearing him follow behind me. I'm sprinting as fast as I can, but I hear his footsteps getting closer to me. I abruptly turn and enter a building. I sprint through a room that looks like some kind of old, abandoned, theater lobby, until I reach the counter where you would buy tickets and food. I jump over the counter and lunge into the back room. I turn, slam, and lock the door just before the man gets to it. He slams his arms into the small window on the door. I back up, startled, and hit the wall on the other side of the room. I quickly look around for another way out, but there is only one door out of this room. I'm trapped, I slide down the wall and hug my knees to my chest.

I hear the man talking to someone, then more voices quietly echo into the room. I hear a familiar voice, and I stand to look out the window. I see Megan trying to pull her arm out of the grip of one of the men. She's yelling, I can't make out words though. I watch as they throw Megan to the ground, and they all jump towards her. She's screaming and moving her arms and legs frantically. What the hell are they doing? One mans face comes up and I see blood covering his entire face and what must be a chunk of Megan in his mouth. I jump towards the door and bang my fists into the door's window.
"Megan!" I scream, a couple of the guys look over to me. I look around the room for a weapon. The only thing that looks as if it would work is a metal pipe still attached to the wall. "Come on," I whisper to myself as I pull as hard as I can. It moves slightly, but not all the way off the wall. I put my foot onto the wall next to the pipe to help pull harder. As I breath in I pull backwards and the pipe comes off the wall. I go back over to the door and open it slowly. They all stop and look over to me, some wiping blood off their faces. Megan doesn't even resemble a human anymore. I hold the pipe out in front of me, ready to smack them. One takes a step towards me and I swing at him. He jumps back and holds his hands up.

"We aren't going to hurt you, trust me," The guy with his hands up says with a smile.

"Fuck you," I say while I hop over the counter and take a few steps towards the exit, while keeping my eyes on the men. He steps in my direction again, so I swing faster. "Back up!" I yell and he doesn't move, so I go closer to the door.

"Go ahead," he says and gestures towards the door. I look back and forth between the men and the door, and then sprint to the exit. I slam my body into the door and leave the building. Then all of a sudden strong arms rap around my waist and rip me up in the air. I spin back around to face the building, and see all the men coming towards me.

"No! No! No! Please!" I scream attempting to tear my body out of his grip. I look around at the men now surrounding me, and I just feel like they are all looking down on me. "Why are you doing this?" I yell and wiggle around.

"Because we can," the man says. A tear rolls down my cheek, and look down at the ground. A dizzy feeling engulfs my mind, and I start struggling to keep my eyes up. I feel my knees give out and everything goes black.