Town Darkness

Chapter Eight

       The group took a while to settle down before getting back on track. They needed an escape plan, time wasn't on their side and they knew it. The exhaustion had begun to set in from the little time they've been stuck there. Their adrenaline had faded along with all their positive energy.

       They were up against nightmares and the unknown with three guns, a steel baton, and four flashlights that may be on the verge of dying with no backup batteries. They could see it on each other's faces, the dying hope that they'll make it out, in a way, they all knew. The worst was still ahead, they were nowhere near the end of the nightmare.

       "We need to make it to the hotel... then we can figure out what to do from there." Mat sighed, grabbing the map to examine their best possible route. Curiosity flooded Felix's face as he shoved his right hand into his pocket. "I almost forgot-" he fished the key from earlier in the interrogation room from his pocket.

       He held it up for the others to see, the number 219 on its rusty looking surface. "Maybe, we're supposed to go to the hotel, and use this." Nate shrugged, "It's worth a shot, we're done here anyway." Everyone prepared themselves for heading out. Mark and Nate were equipped with the pistols, Felix with the rifle, and Jack with the baton. They clicked on their flashlights, Mark in the front, and Jack taking up the rear of the group, they headed out into the unknown.

       The flashlights shone dim beacons of light through the never ending darkness, as everyone huddled together to see. They began walking forward away from the station. The hotel was just a ways ahead, followed by a few turns. The air hung with a deafening silence, not even their footsteps were heard, until the first right turn, then the growling began.

       "What's that? Where?" They were turning frantically, shining lights in every direction to find the source of the ever-growing sound. Nate's light landed on a half mauled dog. It snarled at them, teeth bared and dripping with frothy, bloody saliva. It's injuries oozed blood from them as the red eyes stood locked onto the group.

       Nate raised the pistol and aimed it towards the creature, his index finger trembling on the trigger as his breathing was ragged. More growling began as more of the dogs started surrounding the group. Then they charged.

       Gunshots echoed through the air as Mark, Nate, and Felix shot at the dogs, the smell of copper beginning to fill the air.  Jack swung at the one charging towards him, striking it in the head, causing the blood to splatter on him.  "Fuck!" Felix fumbled around in his pocket for a bullet to reload into the rifle as a dog came bounding for him. 

       He swung at it with the butt of the rifle, missing it narrowly.  It used the opening to its advantage, knocking Felix onto his back as it sank its teeth into his arm.  He cried out in pain as the dog pulled on his arm, its teeth ripping through his skin, blood spilling onto his face and blond hair. 

       He screamed as pain seared through his arm like acid.  "Felix! Hold on!"  A gunshot echoed in the air just as the dog's blood sprayed through the fresh bullet hole in its left eye.  

       A ringing in his ears was all that he could hear.  He could feel his chest rising and falling rapidly, along with the fire flowing through his arm from the wound.  Nate and Mat's faces were in front of him, fear and concern apparent.  Their lips were moving, but he could hear nothing, he felt their hands pulling him from the ground. 

       Felix felt separate from his body, as if he was no longer in control.  "We need to get there, now! He's in shock!" His hearing was coming back faintly, enough to hear Mat's sentence.  Mat pulled him along with the group as they quickened their pace away from the corpses of dead monstrous dogs.