The mutts crept out of their holding tank like the locust, slowly, confidently, devouring everything in their path. The screams outside the room were no longer only fear and desperation, now an unnerving inflection of pain was there too.
Riley ran to the door, locked the latch, shoved a stapler between the two handles and butt a chair up to it. His entire body shook as he looked out to see men and women being hunted by naked human-like creatures with jarring motions. For now, at least, he and his father were safe in the glass room.
An older woman noticed Riley and ran towards the protected room, pushing and shoving her way through the crowds, white tailcoats flapping about as she waved and cried, begging for Riley to open the door.
Riley pretended not to hear her, but the mumble of his father's rushed prayers pierced his heart. He wasn't the only one that was scared.
"We have to open the door," said Riley. "We can save some of these people."
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Mr. Kilhan nodded, then hung his head and continued praying. Riley turned back to the door; his shaky fingers hesitated before the lock. He looked towards the lady in time to see a thick spray of red splatter across the windows. Riley gasped and dropped to his knees, his heart pounding at his ribs. The red spread like fingers down the pane, and through the streaks, just outside of his reach, Riley saw the severed head of the older woman. The woman he could have saved if he hadn't hesitated.
A mutt lowered its body over the detached head, it sniffed and nudged at it. Blood dripped from the creature's gaping jaw as it opened its mouth and began to eat. Bile rocketed up Riley's throat and he doubled forward clearing the contents of his stomach on the floor.
When he calmed enough to look up, he saw that the mutts were closing in on a group of scientist, they huddled together to fight them off. Despite their efforts, they were no match for the strength and speed of the human-like creatures.
"Lord forgive me my sins," Mr. Kilhan said as he stood and looked out the glass at the massacre before them. He shuffled over to Riley, coxed him up from the shoulders and pulled him into his arms.
"Lord deliver us from this evil," he prayed.
Riley studied his father, as the large man searched through the windows into the madness. After what felt like an eternity his dad's troubled gaze came to rest, fixated on something past the glass -- a smile briefly picked up his features. Riley opened his mouth to ask what his father had seen when he was interrupted.
"Promise me you will live," Mr. Kilhan said.
"Don't talk like that, dad."
"Just promise me, son," he pleaded, as he shook Riley firmly.
Riley had never seen the sorrow that he now saw in his father. It was different than when his mother died and different from the silent trance after the car accident. Was this goodbye?
