Chapter 4

The twelve foot chain link fence topped with razor wire shook hard but stood as the gate was struck by the immense impact, and the lock was destroyed as the car plowed into the junkyards entrance. Inside was a path between the mauled cars that they would have to travel on foot. "Cole grabbed the shotgun in the back. All the shells you can find too. We'll need them." Cole reached into the back seat and picked up an M3 shotgun with a tactical stock attached. There was a red box of shotgun shells spilled out next to it. The two creatures cried out in the distance. Cole couldn't see anything beyond the fence. He bent down, grabbed the rest of the shells and turned to Delton. "We've gotta get through this to get to the old treatment plant." "I know the way, my pal Vic owns the place. Showed me how to get through that maze of scrap. He specifically arranged it to trap people who break in looking for car parts." Delton spoke weakly as he reloaded his revolver "so you're saying he could be here?" "it's possible. But we have to hurry. If those things are on us, we wanna bring them to that building and trap them, maybe kill them if we're lucky. Use that grenade. Amber's small but it's not small enough that we can just have a shootout with those things and not have a civilian get hurt, least of all chucking a damn grenade." Delton opened his door and was clutching his wound as he readied his revolver with his free, but bloody hand.

Cole got out holding the shotgun with his pistol loaded and holstered. The grenade in a pouch on his belt with several of the shotgun shells. "Cole this way!" Delton was limping towards what looked like a path walled with scrapped vehicles. Cole ran towards him and he turned a corner. "Keep up, Vic made this place a maze to fuck with robbers." "should we try and find him?" Cole asked, chasing after the quickly limping Delton. The question made Delton stop. "First we gotta get through this, it ain't far. We get Vic and head to the treatment plant to help try and kill . It's a straight shot from Vic's place." Delton turned a corner and the two were met with two paths one going straight and one left. The scrap cars had been meticulously stacked with a massive crane that loomed overhead in the night sky, cutting through the full moon. "This way." Delton said holding his gun shakily out in front of him as he turned left down the maze of scrap. The police car's alarm suddenly triggered in the distance behind them. Followed by a loud inhuman howl that pierced the air."Shit. Come on. We've got a little ways to go. Delton sped up limping and making pained grunts every couple steps, slowing down and leaning on the scrap to catch his breath. "Are you gonna be alright?" Delton let out a chuckle and quickly resumed his pace catching up to Cole as he held his wound. "I'll be fine Cole. I've survived worse than this, keep moving." Delton spoke as though he was trying not to think about his injuries. The two came to another intersection. This one had three paths laid out to their left, right, and ahead of them. Delton stopped for a moment before walking straight and taking the path directly ahead of them. "You sure that's the way?" "I'm positive."

An intensely loud howl sounded from around the corner they just turned. "Agghh!" Delton yelled grabbing his wound as pain throbbed in his body from the immense incision like slash made near his lower intestines though miraculously his organs were still intact. Something collided with one of the cars around the corner. Delton didn't look back and pushed through the pain, running while clutching his wound. Up ahead and right around the next turn was Vic's trailer, he didn't forget. "Come on!" Delton yelled as he reached the turn with Cole close behind. They weren't alone either. "Delton get down!" Delton ducked as fast as he could. It sounded like a massive cannon ball struck the metal directly behind where his head would've been and then let out a horrible noise before landing right in front of Delton snarling with yellow eyes that burned into his brain. The creature let out another horrible howl and Delton stepped back raising his revolver. Bang!K-Chk! Bang!K-Chk! Bang!K-Chk! Bang!K-Chk! Cole emptied the shotgun into the creature whose head was now just a bloody neck stump and most of its torso had been riddled with buckshot as it's body twitched on the ground. Delton lowered his gun. "Is it dead?" He asked, breathing heavily. "Jesus Christ what is it doing?" Cole asked, poking it with the shotgun. The bone sticking out of the creature's neck was bubbling with some sort of grey fluid and hardening and self replicating, the liquid was reforming the bone! Soon within a minute the bubbling stinking liquid had expanded enough to regenerate most of the creature's skull. "Come on hurry damn it!" Delton yelled to Cole, now doubting his plan altogether and had no idea what else they could do besides continue, maybe blow them apart so they can't regenerate. Cole turned the corner past the creature's body which was twitching and making unnatural noises. Up ahead Cole Saw a clearing and a dirty silver Trailer with a light on parked at the bottom of a fenced in hill. To the right of that was a dirt road leading towards a large dark building in the distance, the dirt road appeared to drift down into a small valley where a hundred feet away was the fairly small water treatment plant. Around the size of a small elementary school with a few towers. Though it could barely be seen.

Cole Approached the steps with Delton who was banging on the trailer door. "Who's out there? What do you want." "Vic it's Delton! We need your help, something is chasing us. We can't kill it and we need your help!" "What the fuck am I supposed to do?" Vic spoke as the trailer door swung open. He was wearing dark green cargo pants with combat boots and a matching dark green t-shirt. His hair was long and dark and appeared to have a beer in his hand. "We have a plan to kill them." Cole held up the grenade. "Well that's just fucking great!" "Vic calm down. We're gonna lure them to the water processing plant through the junkyard-" "and blow them up? What the fuck are you two being chased by?" two, deep monstrous howls filled the air. Setting off Vic's two large german shepherds into a barking frenzy. The howls outside were close, the creatures were stalking their prey from vantage points, the first from the direction they left the creature they shot at. The other came from directly above them high on the crane towering over the junkyard. "What the fuck was that?! okay fine follow that foot trail over there." Vic pointed his beer bottle to Deltons right. "Water treatment plants that way. Get out of here." "Vic we could use your help." "I just want to keep my dogs safe! You're the ones who went ahead and tracked god knows what into my junkyard!" Vic was right and they both felt incredibly shortsighted and guilty putting him in harm's way like this. "Fine, you stay here Vic. we'll head to the plant. You stay safe." "yeah I'll fucking try officers…" the door slammed in their faces. A moment later the lights inside went out.

And the trailer was silent. Cole and Delton were already making their way down the path, the water plant directly ahead of them. It looked derelict and nearly destroyed in some parts of the building. "All we need to do is bottleneck those two fucks in a doorway and blow them to kingdom come." Delton spoke feeling woozy from the blood loss but he still felt functional. "That's easier said than done." Cole said making his way to the front entrance and stopping. "you're telling me. Stay close I've gotta plan to keep those things away from Vic. they're watching either him or us right now and we need their undivided attention." "what is it?" "the crane. Look up but don't turn your head. The massive bar of the crane crossed the moon. And out of their peripheral vision they could both make out a dark object in the truss beams of the crane that shouldn't be there. Something that was giving off two very noticeable, yellow lights. "That's one." Cole muttered. "Where's the other?" Cole said in nearly a whisper." trying to scan the surroundings. He didn't even see where it could've been when Delton outstretched his arm and fired his handgun five times before turning to the padlocked chain around the water treatment plants double doors and fired, shattering the lock, dropping the chain to the ground.

The two officers put all their strength into kicking open the boarded up doors which swung open easily from the boards being rotten and splitting like nothing. "Quick inside!" Cole yelled loading his shotgun from the inside of the door as he backed further into the building. Narrowing their attackers options. They had to come from this entrance. The two terrified police officers could do nothing but wait for their attackers." Cole passed the grenade back to Delton and they took a defensive position behind an old reception desk. They were looking straight out the entrance and could hear the creatures snarling and howling as they circled the small decrepit building. Though nothing moved in front of the door, they waited a good while. "Do you think they're trying to fuck with us?" Cole asked not moving with his shotgun propped up on the desk aiming out the entrance they crashed through. "they have to be, how long has it been?" Delton said clutching his wound which luckily had stopped bleeding but could start again if he isn't careful.

"feels like we've been here almost an hour, and my radio ain't working is your's?" "no mine isn't working either." "They aren't going after Vic which is good." "yeah they have us surrounded in a junkyard, we've got no radio reception and they might know exactly what we're trying to do. I would honestly say we're pretty fucked right now Cole." "we can still get out of this. Stay calm." "Stay calm? Stay calm! Look at our situation right now. God dammit screw this." Delton got up with his loaded pistol and walked towards the doorway and outstretched his gun and fired several times. "COME FUCKING GET US ALREADY!" Delton shouted as loud as he could out the door. The incessant howling stopped for a couple seconds. Delton turned to walk back to Cole and a dark shadow fell silently from a beam above the entrance outside, readying itself to pounce. Cole saw the creature's nasty yellow gaze and readied the shotgun. "Delton dive!" Cole yelled and Delton threw himself out of the way landing on an old ripped up couch that had been used to barricade off the rest of the water plant. "What the hell happened here?" Delton silently asked himself before being pulled back to reality by the sound of Cole firing the shotgun into the beast when suddenly the second leapt down from somewhere high up and quickly dodged two shotgun blasts before Cole had to reload.

"Delton, throw the grenade! Throw it now!" Delton spun his back to the barricaded couch and locked his eyes on the two dark beasts whose lips were pulled back and bits of flesh and bone exposed. Delton pulled the grenade pin and threw it hard at one of the creatures which reached out a clawed hand, catching the grenade and examining it while Delton dived behind the reception desk with Cole. After a deafening explosion filled and shook the room the two officers wasted no time readying their weapons again but on the other side of the desk was a bloody crater with body parts strewn about the room and the floors walls and roof all dripping with blood. "Holy fuck we did it we blew them to fucking shit! The plan fucking worked! Coles saw one of the creature's heads which had been decapitated. It made eye contact with Cole, he even thought it started to snarl again when he raised the shotgun and fired again turning the monstrous wolf head into a pile of blood and bone. "Let's get you to a damn hospital jesus christ." Cole said reaching out a hand and pulling Delton to his feet. His wound was appearing to swell but his bleeding appeared to have stopped when he lifted his shirt and felt like he was soaking in blood. Cole and Delton wasted no time getting back to their cruiser, and starting back towards Bradley memorial hospital. "Stay awake Delton we're gonna make it." Delton had been drifting in and out of consciousness the whole way back through the junkyard but was able to make it to the car before nearly collapsing. He caught himself by putting his hand on the hood of the car. Catching his breath and getting in the passenger side door while Cole got in the driver seat which was covered in mostly dried blood from Delton.

In minutes they were back at the hospital as traffic was pretty much nonexistent. When Cole and Delton arrived Cole carried Delton with a bloody arm over his shoulder. He didn't notice officers Bradley and Bernard come rushing outside of the hospital when Cole and Delton were almost up to the doors. The two pudgy middle aged men had serious looks of concern as they helped Cole get Delton safely inside. "What the hell happened to him?" Bernard asked Cole while Bradley was helping a Doctor get Delton onto a stretcher. "You believe in weird shit Bernard?" "I believe in a lot of things that i've seen with my own eyes, now what are you telling me you saw? What did this to the poor man?" "I'm being completely serious when i tell you this, it was… well it looked like a werewolf." the doctors wheeled the stretcher with Delton into the elevator and the door closed. Bernard was staring at Cole completely drained of colour.

"Cole, in this town nothing is too crazy. You're not pulling my leg right now and I can tell you this. I believe you. Meet me in the darkroom at the police station tomorrow. We'll discuss this more. Nine tomorrow morning"

"what do you mean? Do you know something about this?"

"I know I've got enough to open a real case between this and a file I've been compiling. Like I said Tomorrow, right now I'll try to get a hold of the sheriff and let him know Delton's in critical condition. That thing. Is that what got him?" Cole just nodded." The streets outside were empty and dark. For the moment.

Meanwhile at the police station the sheriff was sitting in his office with the main lights turned off and instead the room was dimly lit with an old lamp with a faded green light screen that sat on his desk next to his computer. He smoked a cigarette as he read the text file he had been sent in an anonymous email, alleged evidence of the Nocturnis Infernis and their activities, origins. Things sheriff Ben Aster didn't know and was more than curious to read up on. Ben opened the file which opened about five other tabs on his computer and he started reading. 'They own a massive compound north of Amber, way outside the city, deep in the forest. People don't like to fuck around that far north because of wolves and bears. The cultists armed and isolated themselves in one of the most dangerous environments available Hunters, and local natives say they've been verbally threatened and even shot at for approaching the compound. A few people have been killed near the complex with machetes or rifles. Four separate attempts to raid it have ended in police casualties and one day they just went quiet. Disappeared. All this over two decades ago, in 2000. There was a ceasefire and talks of negotiating with the cult leader, the Amber Sheriff at the time, Lisa Grisham was sent in and never seen again. Shortly after police stormed the building and didn't find a single body. An altar in the basement was found covered in blood, symbols drawn on the walls in blood but no bodies to go with them.'

The sheriff stopped reading. Beside the text were photos from the Amber newspaper from the time and an article written by a local named Abe Wilhem on the 'Tragic Standoff' as it became known to everyone in town. Below was a photograph of the sheriff from twenty years earlier. Lisa Grisham, thirty three years old, blonde hair brown eyes. Disappeared off the face of the earth with about five dozen other people all at once. Ben stopped reading and Lit a cigarette pulling an ashtray out of his desk and sliding open the window behind him to air out the smell 'They've been gone for twenty years. Why or more importantly how? How are they back? Where did they go the first time?' the sheriff asked himself these questions amongst others as he went over the information. Suddenly the door opened. A woman with long maroon hair, glasses and an earpiece opened the door. "Sheriff I'm sorry to bother you but there's been some kind of incident. A few officers are injured at Bradley Memorial Hospital I think we've been getting calls about strange animal noises and officer Cole Winters said he saw what it was. He's at the hospital now."

"is Everyone alright?" The sheriff asked. "Officer Delton is in critical condition from the sound of things. You'd better head over there quick. 'I'm on it thanks for letting me know. Any word on my desk radio being fixed?" "Eddie in tech says it should be done tomorrow." that's one good thing about this police station, they maintain everything. No sending anything out for repairs. "All right tell whoevers at the hospital now that I'm on my way." Ben finished his cigarette and put on his hat and jacket and walked with Lydia down the stairwell from his office under on the second floor of the police station. The dispatch office was the first door at the bottom of the stairwell with about six other people inside receiving 911 calls. "Stay safe sheriff. Things have been strange tonight." "I'm hoping everything will be fine. I smell a long night." 'between the cult returning and this sudden burst of animal attacks things couldn't get much worse' Ben thought to himself walking down the well lit though eerily empty police station, which was usual at night. Only half the dispatchers are in so three. Four or five officers out on the street.

The sheriff pushed open the glass door at the front of the station and stepped out into the night being hit by a cool breeze as snow fell lightly. Ben walked down the steps and made his way through the dark police station parking lot lit by the moon and one street light at each corner leaving most of it, pretty dark. When Ben got about halfway to his car he heard a noise like a loud dog, a big dog barking from far away. Whatever kind of dog it was, it sounded pissed. The sheriff wasted no time getting in his car and getting on the road to the hospital was just as lifeless as the police station. The building was beyond what it needed to be and only had staff working in half the building. The third and fourth floors are essentially storage rooms or extra break rooms other times. The first floor had the dispatch office, the detective office and the deputy lounge. The second floor had the sheriffs office and a lab on the far end of the floor. The basement held a massive armory, and evidence room. When He took the job he was expecting one floor, maybe two. Ben pulled up to the hospital as his reminiscent thought's left. He could see two more cruisers, one was turned off, the other had it's lights on and spinning with the door left open.

A trail of blood dragging through the snow from the drivers side door to the alley across the street. "What the fuck?" Ben pulled his cruiser to a dangerously fast stop swerving his car across the ice through the bloody snow trail to a halt next to the curb out of the road and between two cars. A damn near perfect fit. but he didn't think about it as he opened the door to a harsh gust of wind. The other police cruiser was thirty feet away. The hospital entrance was in between. The sheriff raced to the front but was met with a discomforting sight. All the furniture from the Lobby had been piled in front of the doors. The sheriff grabbed the radio clipped to his coat and hit the talk button. "Do any officers at Bradley Memorial Hospital read me this is sheriff Ben Aster. I repeat, are there still officers at Bradley Memorial, respond now!" Suddenly what the sheriff thought was the police siren twisted and deepened in pitch to a raspy howl like a massive wolf. After twelve seconds the howl turned into a guttural series of barks. It sounded like it was coming from the rooftops across from the hospital, or maybe the alleys in between. Suddenly another joined in from the sheriffs left. From the dark behind his car he could hear a growl building. Ben unsnapped the leather strap of his forty fours holster with a sweaty hand and steadily gripped the handle.

The sheriff in a flash had his gun drawn towards the hidden source of the snarling. He couldn't see it but he could tell he locked onto it when the noise began to fade. A loud crash came from one of the buildings ahead and across the street. "Who's out there?!" Ben shouted, cocking back the hammer on his revolver. The wind fell silent for a moment and the night felt dead around Ben but he felt surrounded. Suddenly and very loudly breaking the silence, Bens radio crackled to life. "Sheriff, this is Cole! The hospital isn't safe-." his voice was suddenly drowned out by static "Yeah i figured that out Winters, where is everybody?" The sheriff kept his gun ready as he slowly walked back to his cruiser. "Fourth floor of the hospital with some doctors. The stairs are all blocked off. You should try the emergency elevator. One of the doctors mentioned it. We can all get out of here but there's a problem. It can only be accessed from the basement., there's a way inside around the back of the building." Ben opened the trunk and pulled out his sawed off pump action shotgun, two feet long and loaded with six shells, Ben stuffed several loose shells in his pockets. When he slammed the trunk he saw something move on top of the roof above him. And the snarling was closer. "I'm coming Cole." the sheriff held the revolver in one hand and the shotgun in the other. As he quickly walked around the back of the building the ferocious barking noise suddenly resumed.

This time closer, he was definitely surrounded but by what he didn't want to think about. The sheriff observed every angle he could be surprised from while moving back to the hospital and keeping his back to the wall with the guns outstretched shakily. Turning left around the back of the building, the sheriff saw two doors set in a concrete foundation. Presumably the basement. Looking up the sheriff could hear whatever was making the horrible noise. It was watching him from the rooftops. above, he caught flickers of yellow eyes beneath a dark silhouette before disappearing. The shape these eyes belonged to darted out of sight. Ben kept his back to the wall of the hospital so nothing could get the drop on him as the basement door creaked open. Ben slowly lifted it with the barrel of his shotgun, while his revolver was stretched out looking for anything that moved. The sheriff wasted no time getting inside, quickly pulling the door shut as the barking became closer and louder. Inside were seven stone steps that led down to a concrete floor. Ben almost tripped over a heavy mechanics wrench as he pulled the doors shut while something on the other side snarled and fought to rip the door open. The sheriff quickly holstered his pistol and ducked to grab it as fast as he could. When it was in his hand and turned he saw the door being pulled open by a dark figure. The sheriff raised the shotgun and fired. The sight he saw in the muzzle flash kept him awake at night for days but he tried not to freeze, he acted as fast as he could and yanked the door shut, jamming the wrench inside the bar door handles, locking it in a crude, temporary way. The doors yanked three more times before whatever that thing was had given up. "That, what the... " the sheriff stumbled against the stone basement walls.

"Cole did you see… What the hell is that thing Cole?" "Sheriff. Where are you?" "Basement, answer the question." Cole explained the situation to the sheriff from the guy getting eaten outside the hospital all the way to him and Delton being chased by two more in an attempt to lure them to the junkyard and throw everything they had at them without civilians getting in the way. "So that thing I shot was a werewolf?" "I'm not an expert sir but if i had to go out on a limb and guess, then yes. I think they're werewolves." "so guns don't kill them?" "hard no. shotgun will buy you a minute or two." "well you said you and Delton blew two of them up with a grenade surely that had to have killed them!" The room was small, but he could see a door. When he walked through it he was in a long hallway lit by orange emergency lights. "Sheriff I'm not a fucking werewolf expert okay? Did you find the elevator?" The main elevator lights were off, behind him was a set of orange double doors in the wall across from where he entered and at the far end, a small red light was on at the top of the doors.. "I found it, I'm coming." Ben pressed the button and a small chime went off and the door opened. The sheriff could hear something loud outside. Like a body colliding with ground followed by an eerie dragging noise the sheriff holstered his pistol and held the shotgun with two hands until the doors closed. The sheriff was surrounded by the dim orange emergency lights beneath the elevator roofs plexiglass panels.

The sheriff hit the number four button and felt the elevator start to move upwards. Ben held down the button on his radio as he raised it to his face. "Officer Cole I've reached the elevator I'm on my way up can you hear me?" no response. Probably just the elevator walls cutting the reception. Nothing uncommon. When the elevator reached the fourth floor he felt the large metal case stop and it's doors opened with a similar chime as when he got inside. "Officer Cole, I've reached the fourth floor. Where are you?" The lights were all off. Nothing made a sound. "Is anybody here?" the sheriff walked slowly still holding the shotgun in case some towering creature turned a corner, not that it would save him based on what he'd heard. "Hello?" the sheriff asked walking down the dark white hallway. "any doctors?" the sheriff called out as he reached for a door and pushed it open " any patients…" the question died as soon as the word left his mouth. It was a patient's room. To his right were several beds with torn and shredded curtain dividers around each one. Just about every bed had an unidentifiable pile of what was once a person in a position of anguish or fear. Filling from the dozen beds and pillows covered the entire floor. To the sheriff's left was a massive window. With a massive hole. Most of the glass was mixed in with the bed stuffing on the floor. The sheriff made sure a shell was ready in his shotgun and slowly stepped into the room. The glass cracking beneath his boots. "Hello?" something made a noise far in the room. "Sheriff? That you?" "Officer Bernard you're alive." "Yeah, Delton and Cole got out when that thing showed up.

Just crashed through the window and started tearing through everybody." "where are the others?" "when the chaos started Cole and Delton ripped the barricades off the stairwell with some doctor lady, someone else I didn't recognize." "How did you survive whatever did this?" "all hell broke loose. None of us knew what the hell we were looking at. Before I could pull my gun, I was thrown across the room, knocked out in this closet." Bernard pointed over his shoulder with his thumb at a closet behind him, the wooden double doors were in pieces on the floor and the boxes inside smashed from where Bernard landed. "When I woke up it was gone and everyone up here was like this. If we're lucky, the others are still alive. Bernard walked with a limp into the hallway with his handgun ready. They were back in the main hallway. "Hey you okay?" Ben asked as he followed Bernard into the hallway. "Yeah I'm fine just a scratch is all." "you sure?" "yeah I'm fine trust me." Bernard heaved clutching his leg and wincing as he stepped over the torn apart barricades made of tables and a janitors cart. He pushed the door open and stepped into the dark stairwell. Ben was right behind him with his revolver holstered and a flashlight in its place while still holding the short shotgun in the other.

"Bernard, wait up." "We gotta keep it down sheriff. They'll hear us." Bernard winced as he made his way down the first steps. Ben followed. Together the two silently made their way through the dark stairwell to the third floor below, not knowing what was waiting for them. Bernard pushed the door open. They immediately noticed a breeze from another broken window somewhere on the floor. The hallway was empty except for a male nurse, he appeared to have been torn in two. a trail of blood down the dark debris filled hallway suggested what happened to his legs. There was also a knocked over gurney and wheelchair. Upon close inspection the sheriff noticed claw marks going deep into the tiles every few feet, ten thick circular divots were plowed into the tile. "Stay ready." the sheriff said to Bernard who was sweating but nodded back at the sheriff and raised his weapon covering the sheriffs back as they silently crept over the knocked over hospital equipment which must have been thrown down in some sort of struggle or chase. After they crossed the fallen equipment they had two paths to choose.

One where the dead nurses legs had been dragged. And the other clear, dark and empty. They chose the latter and moved silently with Ben leading the way and Bernard watching behind them down the dark trail of blood where Bernard thought he heard something. They came to a set of metal double doors. They appeared to be locked from the other side as Ben tried one of the doors. Bernard raised his weapon and aimed it down the hallway. A shrill high pitched static caught them by surprise and Bernard nearly fired his gun off. "Oh Jesus christ." he said, catching his breath as Ben picked up his radio off his jacket and listened as Cole's voice came through the static. "Sheriff is that you? I'm on the third floor with some others. I just heard a noise outside. Is that you?" "Cole it's us, Sheriff Aster and Bernard. "Bernard's alive? Thank god. I'll unlock the door." the static crackled loudly as he finished speaking and they were alone in the silence for a moment before they heard things on the other side of the door being dragged out of the way and then a soft click from the door unlocking.

Cole pushed the door open with the tip of his gun and could see the sheriff and officer Bernard, and in the distance behind them. A black shape crawling along the roof. He pretended he didn't see it until it was almost six feet away, a dark humanoid shape crawling along the roof "Cole your alive We-" he was cut off. "Sheriff get down!" Cole shouted as he pointed his gun, Ben's eyes widened and he dived out of the way. Cole fired seven shots, Bernard turned and joined in by the fourth picking up Ben by the shoulder as a large dark silhouette dropped from the ceiling and rose nearly seven and a half feet tall and snarling.the sheriff being pulled up by Bernard pointed his shotgun at the creatures houndlike head with lips pulled back snarling. Ben pulled the trigger and fired a buckshot into the creature's head destroying nearly a quarter of it's head. Ben cocked the forestock and fired another round completely obliterating what remained of it's head and the body dropped to the floor with a loud thump. It's claws twitched and its body flailed for a moment, as all signs of life appeared to drain from its body. "It won't be dead for long." Cole said cautiously. "Let's toss it out the damn window like it came in." Bernard said as a sarcastic joke "Sounds good." Cole said, holstering his gun.

"One of those things broke through over here as well as on four." the massive wide window had been shattered and much of the glass was scattered around them. All three of them heaved the body up and over the window sill where it crashed and splattered across the empty parking lot below. Cole turned into the room he was locked in "Come on we gotta get out of here now!" Nurse Gina, Sarah Baker, Officer Delton who had been heavily bandaged and had no shirt as his uniform was shredded and soaked in blood, he fished the bloody cargo pants out of the trash so he had something as the chaos ensued and the old man who locked Cole outside, who he later learned was named Dave Rosenthal. The four people, staying close, walked out of the room with fear in their eyes, their hands trembling, knees shaking. Dave had a heart attack when they got the room barricaded but he recovered with the help of the medicine in the room and Gina's expertise.

"Should we make for the stairwell to get out?" Bernard asked, wincing and holding his leg. "No. we should head back up to four and use the emergency elevator. We should avoid the rest of the building if we can." "But what about survivors?" Ben asked sternly. "Sheriff, I don't think it's safe. We only got up the stairwell because those things were taking their time on each floor." "How many are there?" "three I think." "the one from the junkyard has to be dead, we blew it the fuck up!" Delton yelled clutching his wound. "It should be, but what about these things do we really know? Movies? Comics? Be real. We are out of our depth if we think we really know anything about these monsters! "Cole is right. None of us know what to expect from these things. "Let's get moving. I'll lead the way with Bernard. Cole, Delton, you cover the rear. Everyone else stay between us. Here's the plan, we're gonna take the stairs back up to four, we all get in the emergency elevator and once we get to the bottom we'll need to use the squad cars to escape to the police station." "sir…"

Delton spoke struggling to catch his breath as he held his wound. "What is it officer Delton?" "they can keep up with the cars. They're faster sir." "they will follow us right back to the station. That's how they found us here." "we're gonna have to take a chance." Ben said to the small group of survivors. "We're right behind you Sheriff." Cole said readying his gun as something heavy and large began growling from the direction of the staircase. Bernard and Ben raised theirs as well. The Sheriff quickly reloaded the shotgun and spoke. "Which one of you ladies knows how to shoot and load this thing?" Gina Wilhem and Sarah Baker spoke almost in unison. "I can." Gina said quietly. "Yeah I can shoot too." Sarah said. "Okay who wants to shoot?" this time Sarah looked at Gina who took the shotgun and the extra shells reluctantly. "What about me?" said Doctor Rosenthal. "Don't worry doc we'll keep you safe." Ben said to the doctor who wore thick glasses and probably couldn't hit the broadside of a barn from the sheriff's guess. Ben pulled out his revolver. With him, Gina, Cole, Bernard and Delton all pointing guns down the hallway ten feet to the stairwell.