Ignited, page 7
He knew he was second away from death now. His arms shook, and images of Sasha rushed through his mind like a film of regret that he’d never see her again.
“Hey shit face!” Niles yelled from much closer than Bruce thought he was. He poked the alpha’s hind leg with the knife in his left hand. “I killed your stupid kid too ya know!”
The twinge of pain and shouted angered the alpha. It turned to face him, raising its head, looking down to intimidate the young man into submission. However, Niles didn’t really care at that moment. Instead, he jumped up at it’s head, surprising it while not quite completely turned. His right hand extended and opens once it reaches its snout.
A few dozen of tiny shards covered in Niles’ blood got forced into the alpha direwolf’s nose, making it reel back. Its eyes tear up and it sneezes blood. The massive frame steps back as it flails trying to shake the miniature knives out desperately.
Bruce couldn’t believe it. That nightmare fuel of a hound panicked just because it got glass in its nose, but it was so much more. After a minute of flailing, blood started dripping from its mouth. A beast over twice their size, is crying and throwing itself into a corner confused.
“What the hell did you do?” Bruce asked Niles who was still trained on the trembling monster.
“Canines rely on their sense of smell and primarily breathe through their nose. Without it, they’d be unable to track prey and read the pheromones that their pack mates give off. Losing it all of a sudden, plus the cuts, would make any dog freak out.”
“And the blood in its mouth?”
“It probably shook some glass loose, but inhaled at the same time, sending the glass down its throat, maybe even its lungs.”
“So... why aren’t you finishing it off?” He asked, still dizzy from expelling all his stomach contents.
“Cornered animals are scarier. You never want to get close, especially if it’s bigger than you.”
Bruce stares at him. “Okay, so what then?”
Niles pulls out his bow and aims carefully for a few seconds. His hand quivered from cuts and glass pieces in his right hand, but he had no intention of letting go until the shot is near perfect. That moment came when the closest eye opened and scanned the room, despite its impaired vision.
The arrow flew, sliding through the eye socket and with its spiraled metal tip he got from the sporting goods section at the previous store, burrowed into the skull. With one last whine, falling down and flailing some more, accidentally pushing the arrow deeper, it stops.
Niles immediately headed to the small medicine section and looks for bandages. Leaving Bruce to stand there at the entrance, speechless.
Leaving through the backside of the store they split from Niles and Bruce, Dominic and Nadia made a B-line to McKinley Avenue and in the direction of English Public School. The orange bricked building was one of the targets the group hoped would make a good winter shelter, and fortifiable fortress for future defenses.
Following their previous pattern, the two stuck close to the ruined buildings on the side they started. No surprise attacks or sudden appearance of monsters made the duo silently hopeful that nothing would go too poorly for a short while. They quickly jogged to the main entrance back to back, keeping a lookout in all directions. Once there, an attempt was made by Nadia to open the door, but it appeared to be locked. Not only that, sneaking a glance inside, it looked like a few filing cabinets and a desk are pressed up against it. Odd considering they were outward opening doors.
Either way, this sight seemed to be a great boon. Dom and Nadia shared a split second of hope. Perhaps the school went into a lockdown of sorts when monsters started showing up. This was a shocking revelation that neither of them could think to overlook. The only thing was, how were they going to get inside?
If they broke the window, whoever was in there might run out a back or side door thinking they were monsters. So, they choose to knock.
*Tap! Tap! Tap!*
“Hello? Anyone in there?” Dom shouts. If there were any monsters nearby, they might’ve be alerted to his calls. But only silence answered him.
After a few minutes of waiting, the pair got worried that maybe they missed the survivors. Either moving locations, or something on another side of the school happened and monsters got in. Uncomfortable about this, they began to take a perimeter of the school. At the second of the gym doors on the north side, they knock again, seeing as there’s nothing out of place. No answer.
The backside of the school building looked undamaged, but the turf and walkways were a total disaster. Holes and cracks dotted the landscape. A lone vehicle, a red sedan, rested upside down with a crushed cab.
Knocking on the rear doors, still no response. Disappointment showed through their faces.
“We’ll come back on our way from the hospital. We still need to think about those we know are alive. Plus, we can call the others after the fact and they can help us get in and search inside.” Dom noted with a solemn expression, patting Nadia's shoulder as he walked back to the gym side.
“Yeah...”
Stepping off the school grounds, they crossed the street where a small corner store sat. Dominic had fond memories of grabbing dill pickle flavored popcorn with his dad for their movie nights every few weeks. Niles hated it when Dom would trick him into eating it thinking it was just normal buttered, since he doesn’t like the taste of vinegar.
A small sigh escaped his lips as they continued passed it.
The houses in the area had seen better days. It looked almost like many had their siding ripped off, while others were missing windows and doors. Claw marks and dark crimson, almost black, splatters across the road. A horrific decoration which was present all over the streets and sidewalks. It was difficult for them not to feel upset and melancholy at this portrait of death painted everywhere they went. Still, they pushed on. The job had priority over emotion, no matter how hard it may have been.
Down two more blocks, they arrived on Algoma Street and at the last church in this small town. To the east, the sight of Wawa lake and the grandiose mining rig stretching over the nearby buildings in bright orange was enough to take anyone’s breath away. Pristine water shimmering and reflecting the pinkish red hues from the sky in random spots across it’s nearly motionless surface. Embraced by the cliffs and trees that still retained their verdant luster. The only thing that would have made it more beautiful was the gentle breeze which always rolled over the basin and forests to give them more life. In its absence, a cold stillness had taken hold, and felt as though it might never release.
Walking down in that direction, Nadia and Dominic arrived at the intersection of Algoma street, Broadway Avenue where the shops they visited are, Mine road which leads down around the lake to the closed amethyst mine and Moran Lake, and Government road. Mine and Government both meet at the edge of the Hospital’s property. So the two walked along the side of Mine Road, staying beneath the trees as far as they can before hugging the wall of the small town medical facility.
The Parking lot had many vehicles neatly placed between the lines. The hospital is a humble place, but with some luck, there should be plenty of good supplies inside. The front doors were unlocked. Slipping through, brows furrowed in confusion. The place was mostly spotless. No blood or signs of struggles. It was almost like everyone just up and left.
To one side of the entrance was the clinic, behind which was the Emergency Response department, and further in were the many different wards. To the opposite were offices and patient rooms, along with a set of stairs to go down into the physiotherapy section.
Sensing that whatever was inside would likely be highly dangerous, the pair drew their weapons. Nadia’s spear had gotten a much appreciated upgrade. Niles split the tip and used duct tape and rope to affix a knife to it. It looked more like a real weapon. The splitting ax Dominic picked up was held in his right hand, while his left held what looked like an aluminum snowshoe wrapped with a seat cover and modified to be used like a shield.
Moving down the hallway, beyond a couple of offices and a sign which read ‘Cardiac Ward’, the two ended up at a room with a code lock to enter. Though, that lock had been busted into. Inside, they can hear rummaging and heft snorts from a handful of creatures. Definitely not human.
Peeking in, they see several small but familiar forms. Pink, leathery skin on round bodies. They would be reminded of the elephant size corpse they found beside Niles only a handful of days ago upon a quick glance. This was their first time seeing the heads of these monsters, these ‘eldridge hippos’ as they were called by their companion when he detailed his run in and near death experience. Sweat immediately streamed down their faces. The way their tiny heads twisted and stretched as they took chunks out of the patient bed, counter, really anything they can reach with their height similar to a beagle.
Both of them stepped back, not wanting to confront those little hell spawn monsters. They turned, making their way back out of the ward where they wouldn’t be heard.
“What the hell?” Dom whispers. “Niles stared down at one of those things? A bigger one at that?”
Nadia just broke out in a cold sweat and huddled in a corner.
“Let’s not go back there. The other side should be the clinic and ER. All else fails, we can see if the other places we passed up have anything before we call up the others.”
Eyes closed, she only nodded and replied with a quick “Mhm.” Her shoulders trembled, unable to imagine how scared Niles and those who couldn’t run from them felt.
There was no way they could call the hospital safe. Those little things looked very bulky for their size. Not to mention seem happy eating anything and everything in sight. Metal or otherwise. They had no choice but to grab anything they could from the clinic and run as far as possible from that place before those things got bored and wanted to look for living prey.
Inspecting the ER and clinic, they filled their bags with plenty of gauze, medical tape, cold medicine, painkillers and any generic solutions they could keep at room temperature or colder. From asthma inhalers to simple muscle ache creams. Besides that, they didn’t have much room for anything else. Nadia grabbed some tools out of the check up rooms, like a stethoscope, a wall mounted manual blood pressure reader and an ear thermometer.
Content with their findings, they rushed out and back into the streets as two of those little creatures walked into the lobby and began to nibble on the walls and metal window frames.
On their way back to the school, Dominic took out the handheld radio device and held the button on the side. “English Public School looks promising. I repeat. English Public School looks promising.” he speaks into it quietly. Half a minute goes by before they get a reply.
“Good, cause we can’t even get close to ours. *Boop*” Niles’ voice mentions with frustration.
“Meet us there, we need to check inside and I don’t think Nadia and I will be enough.”
“Roger. *Boop*”
Before leaving the grocery store with bags of canned goods that the monsters didn’t seem to know how to open, Niles got an earful from Bruce. He wasn’t upset that they ended up fighting the monsters, but rather, he was pissed because he figured out that if Niles’ plan didn’t work, he was going to distract the alpha in order for Bruce to run away. He also wasn’t too happy with the fact that Niles wasn’t taking his hand bleeding seriously, instead just putting a couple plastic bandages on the worse glass cuts, and closing the tooth cut by cauterizing it using a cheap lighter and a metal piece from the destroyed carts.
Niles accepted the criticism, but didn’t take much of it to heart. To him, it was better if Bruce walked away from all this than himself, since he’s the one with a loved one back at the camp. Of course, that’s just what he thinks, out loud, he expressed a heartfelt apology and explained that if they ran away, the angle they were at would have given the younger direwolves line of sight to them. Fighting out in the open would have been bad, since the uproar and barking of the monster might attract others, and worse yet, Harpies. Contending with predators on ground and in air would have meant they’d be killed for sure.
Leaving things at that, they left via the back exit employees used to go for their smoke breaks.
A couple more minutes down Mission Road they’ve been following, they passed by the a motel, the beer store and the another motel motel after that. Crossing the Churchill intersection, it was only a few seconds until they got to the community center.
The guys round a building just in front of the center, but jumped back at twice their pace. Both of them give off airs of confusion and expressions that scream “What the hell did I just see?” When they peered back at the building and stare in awe. Massive horse sized, insectoid monsters crawling around the outer walls of it. They almost look like ants, only they have eight legs instead of six. What would be a hard exoskeleton seemed to be replaced by this dark navy blue grass-like texture. The limbs don’t hold solid shapes, rather, they are more like wiry tendrils which adjust themselves to make sure the body is parallel to the surface they stand on.
One of the dozen currently visible seemed to lower itself to the ground. Spreading it’s entire body mass covering it like someone buttering toast. The heads didn’t appear to have mandibles, or even eyes for that matter. Nevertheless, they don’t look like they’re blind.
Obviously outnumbered by these things, Niles and Bruce immediately agree with silent glances that it isn’t worth the risk. Their next target being only two blocks down, they headed up Churchill Avenue to get to the two schools. Either one would have been a great place to stay, with plenty of rooms and full view in all directions, much like the school which Dominic and Nadia were scouting.
Sadly, one problem was keeping them from getting close to those as well. Familiar, unblinking eyes and the sound of flapping wings made the hairs on the back of their necks stand on end. Overhead, one full grown harpy flew in holding a bear cub in its talons. The poor thing’s whining was terribly sad, but as soon as it got close to the rooftop, hundreds of harpy squawking and chirping drowned it out.
“What the f-! How are we supposed to deal with this!” Bruce exclaims in a whispered shout.
“We’re not. Let’s see if we can meet up with the other two and figure out anywhere else we can go. Maybe they had more luck.”
Frustrated by the clear pointlessness of checking out those possible shelters, They rapidly cut through the properties to the east, a block south of the schools, in order to get back to the grocery store parking lot.
Around the time they reached the apartment building again was when Dom called them. It took them a bit of time to get the walkie talkie out of Niles’ bag since he accidentally put it under the clothes when he was filling up with canned food. Thankful for the prospect of an actual decent option, the two men once again skipped through several properties as quickly and quietly as they could. Due north, they used the trees on Queen’s Park hill as cover to get back up the hill unseen by the Harpies. All that remained was to cross Third Avenue and walk down McKinley.
They bobbed and weaved to dodge a few direwolves and goblins on the prowl. Ducking into bushes and having to hold their breath more than a few times. Sudden patrolling of the streets they didn’t see before made them feel both lucky about earlier and worried. What if Dom and Nadia got found after the call? They couldn’t know.
The distance to the school wasn’t far, but it was an open property. They would have to wait a while for the scouting monsters to leave. Bruce got the feeling that the goblins ware smarter than he’d originally given them credit for, but Niles already got that impression with the few he killed before getting to town. They were using weapons and wore loose fabrics like clothes. This was a complete contrast to the stark naked ones he saw That day and the two that attacked their camp.
Finally, once the patrols seemed far enough and the coast clear, they made a break for the school and tried to hide in the plants that were placed at the front. Squeezing themselves against the inner part of one and the brick wall, they heard a tiny yelp from the bush next to them.
Nadia, who made the sound and covered her mouth, and Dominic, who tried to hold back laughter from her surprise, stood there, no worse for wear.
They all stayed as still and silent as possible while another couple of patrols walked by. Giving a sigh of relief when the monsters are out of sight, they turn to each other, then down. While they were busy focusing on the ones walking in the streets, they hadn’t noticed the one goblin who had been walking on the school grounds. It stood between the bushes with a blank expression and didn’t move.
Niles took a deep breath, not wanting this thing to signal the others, and jumped at it with his knife that he pried out of the wolves mouth with great difficulty. It was dulled, so he held it in a reverse grip and had the point barrel down at its head. The goblin, which kept still for a long time compared to the sporadic and energetic movements they normally displayed, locked eyes with Niles and Nadia, the two closest on either side of it, and shrieked as the blade punctured it’s face and brain.
Shaking, Niles pulled the knife back out. His breathing matched the rhythm of his rapid heartbeat. Eyes widen behind him as hundreds goblins and direwolves, came out from the sides of the school and out from the street corners. One of the goblins that came out from their right, was riding a direwolf which looked identical to the alpha the two men had encountered. It walked calmly all the way to the front of the four humans, who slowly began walking out from the bushes, weapons in hand.
