Red Pack

it was 9:30 in the morning. there were currently forty five students facing the gate entrance of the campus. each of them wore their backpacks and wielded makeshift shield and a hollow metal tube as their weapon.

"okay, guys when you're in your destination report immediately, proceed cautiously, only take what's needed the most like food or water and materials. if you see any red monster, report, don't provoke it and get back immediately."

standing in front of the forty five students were Annie, John and Nathan, they are the leaders of each group of fifteen students. Annie said this and the students nodded in agreement. then they grouped up and went outside.

the students saw the cars parked in the middle with blood marks on the car's body. there were even one jeepney that has a dried pool of blood inside of it. the same can be seen on the ground, dried pool of bloods were everywhere like it rained blood.

the public wet market was pretty close to the campus. it is a big complex building with three parts standing side by side, the first part was the cafeterias. the first part is wide enough to house several cafeterias side by side. it didn't even take three minutes to reach their destination. there they started splitting up. John's group went inside the cafeteria.

"take care, John"

"you too"

Nathan raised his hand while John smiled to him before proceeding.

after that in the middle was the second part where the wet market and sari-sari stores and bakery are located. this is the place where Annie was assigned. she looked at Nathan and said

"be careful, Nathan"

"you too, Anne"

the two went the opposite ways while saying goodbyes to each other using their walkie talkies. finally the last part of the complex, the third part. grocery stores, drug store and hardware store are located on it.

the drugstore and the hardware store was located at the front so Nathan's team easily reached place. they checked the place if there is any danger. after confirming it was safe, Nathan reported to Annie.

CLICK

"all clear here...so far"

CLICK

"here too, John also say's they're clear too"

CLICK

"good, okay, stay safe"

"okay, lets start now, you, you you... and you help me with the drugstore"

Nathan pointed at five students including Ren. since he was injured he needed medicine. nurse Josephine told Nathan what medicine she needed.

Nathan, again split his group into three which two of the three teams have five members each while the last team has six members. each team went through their assigned locations and looted every thing they deemed needed. each member quickly opened their backpacks and filled it with foods, medicine and hardware materials. after they filled their backpacks, they meet up in front of the drugstore. then they met up with other groups in front of the cafeteria who are also have their backpacks filled.

"did you get everything?"

Annie asked John and Nathan

"there's not much in the cafeterias, most of the food there are perishable foods so we can only get some canned foods and snacks"

John said with a disappointed expression on his face.

"there's still plenty on my part so we might have to go back again"

Nathan said while Annie was nodding.

"on ours too, there's still to many supplies there. especially in the wet market. there's a lot of vegetables and fruits that we can still eat. we will have to come back a few more times"

Annie looked excited on their trip to wet market and looking forward to loot more food from there.

"okay, let's drop what we got first."

Nathan paused and said.

"wait, i might have a good idea. who here knows how drive?"

"me?"

a student from Annie's team raised his hand. a guy with black hair with a small stature, he didn't looked like he knows how to drive. but since they needed him they don't have a choice.

"okay, i want you to drive that jeepney between the market and the grocery store. we will our loots there so we don't have to go back to unload. but we don't have a key hmmm"

Nathan pointed at the jeepney in front of them. it was big enough to carry all of the supplies they could find. but he realized that they didn't have a key and fell into a deep thought. at this moment the student said proudly.

"hehe don't worry i know how to hotwire a car and i think this jeepney will be easy"

"what's you're name again?"

Annie asked the shy looking guy. Annie didn't really had the time to memorize her team member's team.

"ah, Joseph"

Joseph smiled and scratch his head while reaching his hand out to shake hands with Annie. Annie gladly shook hands with Jonathan.

"let's get started"

Joseph nodded at Nathan and approached the driver's seat and started hotwiring it. after a few attempts, the engine finally started running. the jeepney let out a loud sound. Joseph maneuvered the jeepney so it can face its back a few seconds later it turned to the right and parked in between of the two buildings.

"nice, now don't turn off the engine."

"okay!"

Nathan placed his bag full of supplies inside he jeepney. he opened it and started pouring the contents out. the rest of the members did the same. after they poured everything out, the jeepney was still barely half full.

"this won't attract any of those monsters, right?"

Ren asked nervously. he still clearly remembered that time when his hands was nearly crushed just from a single blow by that red man.

"no, i don't think there's any, i mean we didn't even see any body around here which is really weird in on itself. so it's possible that there's no monsters here"

"yeah, lots of blood but no body"

Annie shuddered at the thought. it's making her more curious as to what happened to the bodies here.

"okay, let's split up now. John, get back to the campus and wait us there. Joseph, stay at here. always be ready in case something happened"

"yep"

"what? why do we need to go back? we can still help looting you know"

"hah, okay. help Annie get the remaining supplies there."

"good, okay!"

the two teams went their separate ways. Annie's team has now an extra sixteen members so she thought they can get all the supplies faster.

CLICK

"hey, Nathan. what do you think happened to the bodies here?"

CLICK

"honestly, i don't really know. maybe those monsters ate their victims until there's none left or they just carried the bodies somewhere"

CLICK

"yeah, I thought so too."

Annie and his team reached the vegetable and fruits section. just one glance and John's team exclaimed in excitement. they saw the green vegetables and the colorful fruits lying on the stands ready to be picked.

'jackpot!'

it was the only thought that came to John's mind. the team hurriedly rushed and quickly grabbed fruits and vegetables and stuffed it inside their bags. after filling up, there was still lots if supplies left enough for one more trip. they came back to their jeepney and poured their loots. then they quickly came back.

the second trip went exactly as the first one. as they were filling their bag, Annie's walkie talkie clicked and the sound of Nathan's voice can be heard.

CLICK

"Annie, are you done? hurry up!"

Annie was bewildered. Nathan's voice was low and sounded scared. like he just seen a ghost

"Nathan? whats happening!? is there a monster? we will go there quickly!"

CLICK

"n-no, it's too dangerous and this one is different. it's a dog and have a pack of four dogs. were surrounded! just go, Annie! I cant have more people injured or killed! RUN!"

"Nathan! let's go help them!"

Annie rushed to the building where Nathan was in. she's got a worried look on her face.

'dammit!'

earlier

after clearing out the drugstore and grocery store, Nathan lead his team inside the building. He wanted to get some chargers and power banks from this one store. first of all, Nathan was running low on his phone battery and secondly, he wanted to charge as much power banks as possible before the electricity cuts off. Nathan and the team quickly grabbed what they needed and left the place in a hurry.

as they were walking on a narrow path leading outside, something suddenly walked in front of them. the team stopped their movements and readied their weapons. they first saw a very large paw on the ground. it was much bigger than a lion's Nathan saw in a documentary talking about lions. its claws was six inches long, red in color and looked so sharp that every time the paw moves, it left scratch marks.

STEP, STEP

then they saw the terrifying sight of a large red dog. it was bigger than a male lion. about six feet tall, it was taller than Nathan! the fur of the dog was also red and stiff. the fur looked like an oversized porcupine needles. the red dog's fur was pointing upwards like a cat's fur when it felt threatened or angry.

Nathan looked at the back only to see a bunch of smaller red dogs the size of a normal aspin. they looked the same as the bigger dog that seemed to be their alpha. each dog brandished their large bloody fangs at them.

'SHIT!'

CLICK

"Annie, are you done? hurry up!"

Nathan wasn't planning to drag anymore people in to this mess, specially Annie and John.

CLICK

"Nathan? whats happening!? is there a monster? we will go there quickly!"

Nathan felt desperate. at this rate, many people will die and he can't add anymore people.

CLICK

"n-no, it's too dangerous and this one is different. it's a dog and have a pack of four dogs. were surrounded! just go, Annie! I cant have more people injured or killed! RUN!"

Nathan yelled to his team and they went to their left side. there was no red dogs there but the path was also narrow. they run as fast as they could but one of the students still got caught and got ripped apart by the smaller red dogs. the student couldn't even scream. surprisingly they didn't eat him but instead just killed him and continued their pursuit towards them.

one of the red dogs jumped at Nathan's right side. it let out a loud growl. the jump was fast, almost instantly the red dog's fangs was almost at Nathan's neck, but he was faster. he immediately raised his shield to his head and pushed it while the red dog was still in the air.

the red dog flew a few meters away because of its momentum. it landed on its back and whimpered like a normal dog. Nathan ran faster and faster and he reached the outside of the building. his team caught up to him one by one.

PANT PANT PANT

they were already exhausted from running and defending from the red dogs' attacks.

"lets go!"

they went to their left where the front of the building was located. Nathan didn't think that the Alpha red dog was still there as he saw it going different way, it didn't go inside. then when he remembered where it went, he froze and came to a realization. his eyes were shaking, his mouth wide open and his face was deathly pale.

'oh no, no, no, no! please. just fucking get back!'

Nathan and the team reached the front of the building still with the red dogs chasing behind them. them Nathan saw them, the Alpha red dog and Annie's team getting massacred. two was already dead and several was injured.

Nathan placed his hands in his head grabbing his hair. he shuddered, tears started to form on his eyes. then his face crumpled, he was really angry and ready to rush not caring at the smaller red dogs anymore.

'FUCKING SHIT'

"NOO! ANNIE, JOHN, RUN! NOW!"