There was the back door again, with its three locks on the inside, each key able to bring her out into whatever lay beyond. Arelia looked at the keys and then back at the door. Her grandmother's house had a door like this, but it had been the front door, with many more locks. Her grandmother had not been much of a people person.
She slipped the first key into the first lock and twisted it. Snap. The second for the second. Snap. The third for the third. Snap-click. Arelia left the keys in their locks and opened the back door, stepping out in to pitch black.
The door closed behind her. It would not open again.
It's dark again already? Arelia wondered. She fumbled for the clip-on light and turned it on. There were two medicine bottles on a table in the backyard. She took them and approached the gate that led around the chasms, but paused before unlatching it. She climbed up the gate and looked out over top of it, her light coming to rest on the muzzle of a dog. It was waiting for her. So were others. She could hear their wheezing coming from the sub alleys. Damnation.
Arelia let herself slide down from the gate and cursed several times to herself. She checked her handgun, then reloaded it to fifteen shots. She turned off her flashlight and waited. Waited. Waited. The dog left. She opened the gate.
Barking to her left. Arelia ran hard down the alley, alternating the gun from left to right and firing shots into the sub alleys. She was moving fast; a dog leapt from the left and just barely missed her. She felt it skim her jacket with its skin. Another dog from the right did the same. Two dogs on her right retreated as she shot at them. She ran until she reached the main road.
On Matheson, she turned right and headed for the intersection. She jogged to a stop at the crossroads and turned on her light to check her map. She was breathing hard and her legs were shaking. She stretched her calves a little while she determined what direction she was supposed to be going in.
After a while of serious backtracking, Arelia turned left and headed toward Midwich Elementary.