Crow's Call

Chapter 4- Dogs

   Hours passed, and Clive was too cozy to move. It may have been the best sleep he'd gotten in a very long time. The fire went out sometime during the night, but he hadn't noticed as he was bundled up in the blanket. Though slightly scratchy and a bit torn apart, the blanket was by far the softest thing Clive had touched in years. He could sleep about anywhere as long as he had a blanket to wrap himself up in. Not even a hint of a nightmare tried to break his mind that night, until he awoke suddenly and aggressively to a loud cracking noise beneath the floorboards.
   He looked around quickly, a bit dazed from the shock. He noticed he'd been tucked in, almost in a ball in the blanket, and Albi was no longer with him. It seemed as though the surprises never ended with this odd character. Albi was, instead, pointing his rifle down at the trapdoor and standing extremely still. He motioned for Clive to stay still, noticing he was awake. Clive listened, confused as to what was happening and not wanting to take any chances. The silence continued for a few minutes before there was another creaking bang from beneath the trapdoor. Clive didn't reach for his knife, instead staying perfectly still.
   His heart rate picked up speed. There was just a level of fear that he hadn't felt before. He couldn't place why. Was it the presence of someone else this time that suddenly made him afraid? He wasn't certain, though at the thought he decided that must be the case.
   Eventually, after a while of silence and extreme tension, there were no more crashes. Neither of them were relieved, however. Something was definitely beneath them, and they knew they needed to leave, quickly. They moved very quietly, packing together their stuff and rarely ever taking their eyes off the trapdoor. Albi slung his pack over his shoulder and went to carefully grab his rifle. Clive went to the door, however with the slightest misplacing of his foot, the floorboards creaked slightly beneath him. He froze instantly, not daring to move and holding his breath.
   It seemed as though nothing was wrong, but as Clive lifted his foot back up, a pair of snapping jaws crashed through the floorboards and snapped down around his calf. With a startled scream he was yanked downwards, his leg being pulled under as the rest of him was stuck above. There was feral yapping and barking below as the cluster of sharp teeth and demonic screeches tried to rip at Clive's leg.
   Albi, in a panic, ran over and grabbed onto Clive, trying to pull him up enough to see below. He kept being dragged down, and the first pair of jaws had refused to leave his skin. Albi acted quickly and fired his rifle with upmost precision at the flailing beast attached to Clive, and with a painful yip the dog dropped dead on the ground with a bullet hole through its brain. Albi dragged Clive back up, not wasting any time before grabbing his stuff, picking up Clive and dashing out of the shack as quickly as possible. The howling and screaming of the dogs faded as they got further away, and the noises were soon replaced with Clive's miserable whining.
   Albi knew they had to stop and get the wound taken care of, he just didn't know where would be safe enough. Once they came up on an open dirt road, almost overgrown itself, Albi helped Clive sit and dropped his pack beside him. Clive's pant leg was ripped in half, torn to shreds by the dogs, and there was a deep torn bite on his calf. It was bleeding vigorously, and some of the blood had already turned black from the Plague's infection.
   Albi pulled a slightly thick glove, a large lighter and a role of bandages he'd snatched off of other survivors from his back and pulled on the glove. The glove had an outer layer of woven steel, making it a non-flammable glove that could be extremely helpful in situations such as this exact one. Albi used the lighter and heated up the bottom of the glove. He apologized to Clive quickly before pressing the glowing glove into the wound and used the fingers to dig inside and not only burn the wound shut and stop the bleeding, but also burn away the Plague virus before it can spread and actually cause an infection.
   Albi was no stranger to hearing screams, but for a reason unexplained it felt different coming from Clive. It was a scream of pure shock and pain, and though this was entirely normal for Albi the dusk arsonist, he still felt horrible about being the one that caused it. Luckily the procedure didn't take long and eventually Albi threw the glove off and wrapped up Clive's calf tight in bandages.
   Clive showed no signs of recovering from the shock any time soon, so Albi unwrapped the blanket from his pack and set it over him so he could relax and try to rest. Soon Clive simply passed out and entirely disconnected from the waking world. The dirt path was nicer than the wooden floors, and he was exhausted already after only a few hours of being awake. Albi watched over him, making sure he had what he needed and starting up another small fire to offer some more warmth. To his relief, Clive eventually calmed down and relaxed into the warmth. He kept him close this time, holding his rifle in one hand and Clive in the other. An overwhelming sense of protection had overcome him in a span of a few hours, and all he wanted to do was make sure no one harmed his partner.
   It was unexplainable to him, but it was obviously there, and it was sending him into a downwards spiral of confusion. However, though confused by his actions and emotions, he wasn't going to stop them.