Rabid Hounds Pt.5

Isaac led the three survivors, but he wasn't able to keep his composure since walking out the kitchenware store. His anxiety has kept him on the edge the entire time, resulting in him not remembering the path back. Thankfully, there was the trail of blood footprints left by Nick, so he simply followed it.

But the footprints didn't lead back to their hideout, it leads back to the clothing department. Granted, the hideout is right next to it, that still leaves Isaac with two choices, the left door or the right door.

"Is this it?" One of the survivors asked seeing as Isaac stood still in front of the door where the footprints end, contemplating with his chin propped on his fingers.

"No, um...no."

"Then where is it?" Another survivor asked confused.

"Um..."

"No..." The male survivor desperate for survival lunged forward to Isaac, grabbing him by the collars of his shirt, "You're not lost are you? YOU'RE NOT, RIGHT?!"

"Shut up! The dogs might hear us."

"You don't know where everyone else is, it's only us, and it's a matter of FUCKIN' TIME BEFORE WE'RE FOOD!"

Isaac pushes the man away from him aggressively, unintentionally sending his ass to the ground, "It's either this door or that one okay? We just have to carefully peek into one of them and then the other."

The man sat on the ground pulls on his own hair from anxiety, he breathes heavily while muttering to himself repeatedly, "I'm gonna die...I'm gonna die..."

Isaac ignored it, but averting his gaze elsewhere doesn't help, the other two survivors were also shellshocked and utterly terrified, standing still with their face paralyzed.

"Fucking hell..." Isaac exclaimed then walked towards the left door for a peek through it.

Before opening the door which knob is already in his hand, he swallowed a mouthful of saliva to calm his nerves. Then slowly and cautiously, he turned the knob and pushed the door forward inch by inch.

When the door slit is finally wide enough, he took another deep breath before taking a peek through it...

"Oh I'm fucked." Is his first reaction in his head, his pupil constricted at the scene behind the door. Incredible misfortune lead to him making eye contact with a blood thirsty rabid hound on the other side.

The hound growled, showing it's blood covered teeth, almost like a satisfied smile saying it has found it's prey.

"RUN!" Isaac yelled while immediately shutting the door.

"Wha-"

Before the word 'What' was fully articulated, the shut door flew off it's hinge and straight towards him with a "BOOM", knocking him down to the ground.

On the other side of the door, the hound pounces forward with frantic movements and started feasting on the man. One bite, and the entire skull of the man was torn clean off like it's made of paper.

"Oh shit." The female survivor who were far more composed managed to react and sprint amain just behind Isaac. Both sprints like hell with their lives at stake, each kick of the feet forward was powered by a huge spike of adrenaline and survival instinct.

The man who were on the ground muttering "I'm gonna die" however, was completely cornered by the hound with nowhere to run.

"ARHHHHHHHH-" an agonizing scream was the last thing both Isaac and the female survivor heard from him.

Below their feet, are blood footprints...

Clink clank clink...

Attracted by the noises of striking metals, two hounds pounced towards the source, an ice cream store, where the door towards the back of the store was already opened.

The hounds pounced over the counter and through the opened door into it's storage room, where they found yet another opened door, this one leading to the corridor behind the store.

"Alright, they're here." Nick was behind that door frame, he takes a few steps back upon noticing the two hounds.

"Grrrrr..." The hounds growls gutturally before pouncing through the opened door with deep barks.

First one that pounced through hit his head on the wall due to the amount of force it packed into the leap into the corridor, Nick lands a clean stab on it's neck, so did the middle aged man in the team, one from the left, one from the right.

The hound cries out in agony, but it wasn't ready to give up, it turns it's head frantically and bit Nick's arm.

"ARGH!" Nick collapsed onto the ground with his right arm in the hound's jaws.

With one back kick, it managed to deflect the middle aged man off itself too.

"I'll get it off you!" Samantha comes rushing to save her father, whose right arm was elbow deep in the hound's mouth.

Samantha stabs the hound in the head and finally kills it, all while the teenage female volunteer stood far away from the fight, frozen, she had completely underestimated the situation.

The second hound pounces through without giving them time and bit the middle aged man's head right off him with a deep guttural growl.

"NOOO!" The middle aged woman cried while swinging her kitchen knife frantically and aimlessly, hoping to kill the hound but she was far off, missing every swing.

With a simple yet forceful kick on her face, the hound knocked her unconscious while still feasting on the brains of the middle aged man.

"No...no..." The teenage girl mutters in fear.

Thump thump

Both body collapses, the hound landed on top of both, growling gutturally and menacingly with it's blood red eyes at the next closest targets, Samantha and Nick.

Samantha didn't have time to react, the hound was already charging towards them furiously in a state of frenzy. Samantha flinched from the scene and covered her head instead of preparing her knife.

Thankfully, right before the hound was able to reach the two of them, Nick grabbed the knife the woman dropped when she fell unconscious with his remaining left hand and shoved it through the throat of the approaching hound with perfect timing, killing it.

Blood from the hound's throat smeared all over Nick's face and Samantha who's on top of him, bathing them in red.

"Puh...puh!" Nick spits out some blood that got into his mouth, then relaxes his left arm after making sure the hound's red eyes weren't glowing anymore.

"Ah fuck..." Nick exclaimed in pain from losing his right arm, there was nothing left on his right arm from the biceps down, but that wasn't his first concern, "You okay back there?" Samantha was standing behind him, having just killed the hound that ate his right arm.

Samantha nodded in response, she accidentally dropped the knife she used earlier due to trembles. There was also tears of guilt running down her cheeks, this was her plan, to lure the hounds into the corridor so that the fight wouldn't be noisy and attract more hounds, but it had cost two sacrifices and Nick's arm.

"Hey, it's not your fault. I underestimated them..." Nick said attempting to comfort Samantha.

"I'm sorry..." She apologised anyways.

"It's alright..." Nick turns to the teenage girl who's stood idle this whole fight, "Hey...go get him...in the washrooms across..." But she didn't hear it, Nick's voice was too weak.

"Dad you're...you're losing too much blood." Samantha knelt down, tore her pajamas to get a piece of cloth and cover the bleeding wound on Nick's right arm.

"That won't stop the bleeding, Sam."

"It's better than nothing."

"Aw man..." Nick rests his head on the wall while Samantha bandages him up, "I fucked up bad..."