Hello, readers!

This is the last chapter for this group of updates. Please let me know what you think, even if you have to PM me! This was so much hard work lmao. I have a small group of chapters already rewritten, I just need to go through and give them a final round of edits and final touches before I can post them. Look forward to it, and remember to ask if you want me to let you know when they're up!

This chapter is updated as of 11/13/2015

~ Crayola


Chapter Four

See the Dogs

"Keep up!"

"I'm trying!"

I lost track of everyone but Jess, my hand super-glued to hers. She was slower and less athletic than me, but I spurred her on at my pace anyway. It was cruel, maybe, but I was going to keep her alive this way.

"Michelle?" I shouted into the darkness, casting fleeting glances around. We had all sprinted in the same direction—away—but at varying intervals and distances.

Her response was an unintelligible squawk from ahead, but at least she answered.

Unearthly screeches followed behind us. Whatever was out there, it was the only noise they made. There was no pounding footsteps as they chased, no scrape of claws on bark as they climbed. They blended with the shadows as created from them.

The world dimmed, narrowing until all I saw was the path ahead of me. All I heard was the beat of my pulse in my ears. Jess' hand was warm in mine; my speed suffered from her lag and she huffed and puffed behind me, breaths ragged. I hoped against all odds she would be able to keep up with the help of adrenaline.

Let go, a voice needled from the back of my mind.

No. No. She would never make it. We were falling behind, but there were others still at our backs. If I held on, we could both make it. I was at point, I could drag her with me . . . .

A scream stabbed through the air behind us, then silenced with an abrupt end. Jess and I shrieked, so I urged her onward with encouraging shouts. Too close. We were too close to the end of the pack. If we didn't speed up, we would be in a position for them to pick us off.

Let go.

"What are they?"

"Just run!"

"Faster!"

Another scream from one of my friends, so close it made my ears ring. However, this one wasn't cut off like the last. It continued well into the woods; it ricocheted in my skull.

"James!"

"Don't look back!"

Let go.

My grip slackened by a margin when the voice gained strength. Jess' fingers tightened in reflex and I redoubled my efforts to keep us ahead. I didn't have to let go, there was still a chance. I could do this, I had to do this. I could save us both.

The path ahead was littered with fallen trees from the crash, making running perilous. Navigating through the trunks and over fallen branches was difficult while towing Jess.

But I had to.

We would both live.

Michelle was with Jake—I knew he'd keep her safe. Everyone else was on their own, but I could take care of Jess.

I chanced a glance behind me. Jess' eyes were wide, her face flushed.

My gaze flickered from the path ahead to the forest around me. My situational awareness would see me through the obstacles, I was sure. Years of sports and video games would guide my path through the woods and see me to the end. I saw trees in my peripheral, rocks laid out in my path. Like enemy players or cones during practice. It was child's play, and it would lead me to the goal.

To safety.

Around us the shadows moved and writhed. They hissed and pounced on those unfortunate enough to stray from the herd or fall behind. Faster. We had to move faster and catch up with our friends—they were ahead of us.

We were the last.

Let go.

Somehow we cleared the crash zone, skirted the fence, and moved into untouched forest. Our speed picked up as the ground beneath us sloped further downward. My footing was less sure, but I kept my balance and prayed that Jess would be able to keep hers. If she couldn't, it would mean both of our lives. . . .

It wasn't long before someone else tripped and tumbled down the hill. My muscles tensed for a fraction of a second as my body warred with my brain.

Help. Run. Help. Run. Help.

Run.

I skirted our fallen friend, their identity not registering in my mind. It would be better if I didn't know who I was leaving behind. Who's life I was valuing as less than mine.

Jess became dead weight against my pulling. I jerked to a stop and found her trying to double back to help the person to their feet—Michelle. She had been the one to lose her footing. She was the one I had been willing to leave behind.

The screeches were once more upon us. The wraiths were in the trees, crawling shadows with glinting, chrome fangs.

"Michelle!" Jake shouldered past me.

Let go. Run. Don't stop.

"I cracked my knee on something—"

"Can you walk? We have to run," Jess whined, pulling me toward Michelle. Toward danger.

"Babe get up! Come on!"

"Nichole, help!"

Let go.

Black death descended from the trees.

Time slowed to a crawl. My vision tunneled and my breathing echoed in my ears. I tore my gaze from approaching doom and focused on Jess' pleading look, then to Jake picking up Michelle. Teeth and claws threatened to rend and flay.

A nails-on-chalkboard squeal.

Run.

Heat pulsed behind my eyes and my breath hitched. I ripped my hand free of Jess' and fled down the hill to catch up with the rest. I had lost so much ground.

"Nichole!"

"Nichole wait!"

Their appeals morphed into screams that curdled my blood and tore out my still-beating heart. Soon they melted with the cries of the monsters. I wiped tears from my eyes before they could compromise my vision. Guilt twisted a knife in my gut and almost brought me to my knees, but adrenaline pushed me forward.

It crooned pretty words—that I had done well. That this was right.

That I had only one directive.

Survive.

*:・゚✧

After what seemed like hundreds of miles of sprinting, we saw the lights. Flashes of blue and red against the jet-black sky, the blotchy treeline silhouetted. The police were still so far away, so many more miles of running . . . .

We would never make it.

The beasts had stopped their raucous screeching. Part of me knew it was because they were busy feasting on my friends. I could see them in my head, torn apart by the things and gutted like fish with talons so sharp and teeth too pointed.

My fault.

"Is that the police?"

"Thank god!"

I settled into the center of the remaining group, keeping pace without overtaking. If I was nestled in the center of the group, I'd be fine. The police were a tempting hope to cling to-any punishment they gave us would be pittance compared to dying by demons.

Monsters? Aliens? They had to be aliens. I had never seen anything like them.

A spaceship had crashed. I had no doubts about it anymore.

We sprinted toward the lights, using them as beacons to sanctuary. That is, until they disappeared behind the crest of another hill. I was gasping for breath, legs like jello, and I knew I wouldn't be able to go on much longer. Others in the group had all started screaming, hoping the cops would hear.

Hoping they'd come and save us.

No matter how tired we were, though, we didn't dare stop. Not when the creatures could be right behind us. There weren't many of us left: four if I looked hard enough to count.

I'd lost them. I'd lost Jess.

My fault.

Five minutes after we lost sight of the police car's sirens, we saw pinpricks of lights in the trees. They flickered in and out of view, heading west to our south. Our screams intensified and the lights swung in our direction.

At last.

"Hey! You kids can't be here!" one of the officers yelled. I lifted my hand against the glare, but he swept the light over the others.

"Help! You have to help us!"

As soon as we were close, we flung ourselves at the two officers. One held me by the bicep while I shuddered and sucked in air, another one of my classmates held in his other hand. Each breath I took drove icy needles into my over-taxed lungs. My muscles burned as if filled with napalm. I wanted nothing more than to collapse and make the officer hold me, but adrenaline wouldn't let me relax.

They're gone.

Monsters are coming.

"Calm down, children! What happened? We thought we heard screaming."

The strength seeped from my veins and a frantic sob slipped past my defenses. I choked and spluttered on half-formed words, everyone trying to explain at once.

"They took them—"

"They're dead! They're all dead—"

"There were these things—"

"Calm down! One at a time!"

A single noise saturated the cold and silenced us all. It wafted over on the breeze and promised a painful death.

The officer released me and my classmate, then pulled his gun from its holster. He motioned for us to move back where his partner corralled us behind him, his own weapon drawn. My trembling body itched to move, to run away.

But I was safe with the police. I had to be. I'd come too far not to be.

They're gone.

My fault.

Alone, the officer inched forward, sweeping his light through the brush. The beasts made no more sounds, but the hairs on the back of my neck was on edge. They were out there in the darkness, lurking and waiting.

"Where is the National Guard?" he called over his shoulder in a hushed voice.

"They weren't here when we came in," the boy next to me offered.

Another added, "We found their base. They were all missing and there was blood."

He stalked forward step after step. None of us made any effort to follow him. I took careful steps backward, every muscle tense and ready to spring.

"What was it you guys said you saw out here?"

As if in answer, something disturbed the branches of a nearby pine tree. The four of us cried out an anguished warning as he approached the tree, but were too late. A spine-covered tail struck from above, penetrating the officer's chest. He sputtered and gagged, body stiff.

His partner opened fire into the tree, and we remained frozen in place behind him.

He would protect us. He had to protect us.

"Kids, get out of here!" he commanded, pushing us back. "Hurry! Don't look back and don't stop, no matter what!"

No. We were supposed to be safe with him.

At his behest, we turned tail and fled back into the woods. How far could we go? Their cruisers were a couple miles away, still. Gunshots popped behind us, punctuated by screeches. We had to try.

Why? I thought as I struggled to keep up the race. Why did we think this was a good idea?

My friends were all gone, and we were running from an unidentified species. We would all die out here, tired and scared and ripped to pieces.

We should have turned back hours ago.

Ear-splitting screeches from all directions scattered my group. The creatures split us up, and I found myself alone in the dark. When I tried to spot someone, all I saw was a nightmare black creature running parallel to me. I choked back a sob: quadrupeds. I couldn't hope to out-run something that was on all fours.

I had to try. I had to try.

The creature sounded off at my left and my head jerked in that direction. It was for a mere heartbeat, but it was long enough. My muscles were hot rubber, lungs shriveled. I lost my footing on the slope and lurched forward with an undignified wail. The ground reached drove what precious air I had from my lungs, leaving me a coughing and wheezing mess.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. How many times had I chastised the bimbos in horror movies for doing the exact same thing?

A victory screech rattled my bones and I struggled to stand. I only managed to rise in a half-crouch before something heavy landed not far behind me and I twisted around. There were no more scream, no more gunfire.

It was me and the demon, alone.

Glistening fangs and a sleek black hide rose to fill my vision. The thing was the size of a small bear with an emaciated form made of a bio-mechanical exoskeleton. Elongated claws scored divots into the dirt, its back legs exaggerated digitigrade stilts. A long, segmented tail stretched several feet behind it, tipped with a sharp blade.

And those teeth.

They were at the forefront of my mind; silver, glistening, deadly. It was an unholy spawn of serpent and insect, demon and shadows.

Not anything like the aliens from movies. It wasn't a small gray man with big eyes. It wasn't a green man with big, pulsating brains. I wasn't even sure if I believed that these aliens could fly a ship. They were too bestial, too feral; there was no way it was smart or dexterous enough to pilot anything.

Attack dogs, maybe?

It's oblong head stretched back between protrusions from its spine, swaying as it regarded me. I didn't see any eyes, only a smooth carapace. Lips drew back over those fangs, twitching and slavering with viscous saliva. Behind it, its skeletal tail lashed like an angry cat.

Then, with a high-pitched whine, it lunged.

There was no air left in my lungs for me to scream. It landed atop me and I wheezed once, then tried to curl inward to protect my core. Stars danced across my vision and I rasped out a pitiful croak of pain. Its claws dug into my body, and then it yanked me away.

Sticks and stones snagged at my clothes and scratched my face. My green coat tore open in several places, caught up on any manner of forest litter. All the while I grabbed at whatever I could, trying to hold onto anything and keep it from dragging me. A sob tore free of my sandpaper throat and tears squeezed from my eyes.

Somehow I found my stolen breath and screamed at the top of my lungs. I shouted and wailed for someone to please help.

My face stung from its cuts, my fingers ached and bled from attempting to dig into the ground. But I didn't want to give up. I couldn't give up. I didn't know what this hellish thing had in store for me but I didn't want to find out.

I just wanted to go back home.

Crawl under my bed, hope this was a dream—

Wake up. Wake up wake up wake up.

This was my penance, I realized, for leaving my friends. For running when I should have helped, for trying to save myself instead of them.

The thing was stronger than I ever would have given it credit for. Even when I managed to get my hands on a root and stall my kidnapping, it wrenched me free. It dragged me along behind it, squealing and hissing. Its tail swished overhead and I watched it, afraid it might spear me at any moment.

Something struck me in the side of my head. White-hot pain flashed through my nerves, and then I knew nothing.

*:・゚✧

An acrid stench roused me from my stupor. Moldy mildew and hot, wet air. Soon after, muffled sounds reached my ears; a steady drip, rustling, and ambient static. My head throbbed with a dull pain behind my eyes. I couldn't remember why—had I overslept?

For a blissful moment I thought everything had been a horrendous dream. I thought maybe I was at home. And my pillow case needed a desperate cleaning.

I was warm enough. But I was also upright instead of horizontal on my bed.

After some attempts, I peeled open swollen eyes and peered into the darkness. Someone was moaning next to me and I was damp.

Not a dream.

That was just the maybe-concussion talking.

My sight faded in and out and when I tried to move, tried to lift my arms and rub my head, I could not. My damp hair clung to my face, and for one terrifying minute I thought it was my own blood covering me. Every part of me felt sticky.

Nothing else hurt, though. My body was sore, yes, but that wasn't the same as an injury. Not like my throbbing head or stinging cuts. If it was blood, it would be a lot of blood. Too much blood, and I wouldn't be awake, let alone alive. It felt instead like the slime from the log and the convoy.

After wiggling around and taking in what surroundings I could see, I came to a conclusion. I was encased in some sort of cocoon.

Whatever had me pinned to the wall held fast no matter how I struggled. I gave up soon after my first attempt, accepting that I was still weak and tired from running. When my eyes had adjusted to the dim red light of the room, I spotted two other people next to me. They were plastered to the wall in similar manners. Across from me there were even more.

None of them were moving. I couldn't see them well enough to recognize them. My mind cleared little by little and my vision focused enough to pick out details. One at my right was wearing military fatigues, and I assumed he was with the squad that disappeared.

It was the same with the man on my left. I thought perhaps the rest of those present were part of the Guard, but I had to squint and strain to see across from me.

One was missing his entire chest cavity.

I sucked in deep, noisy breaths and fought to keep calm. The sight of his blood and the entrails dangling from the gaping hole had me dry heaving. Tears poured down my cheeks and I looked around for something, anything, that would help me.

There was nothing.

Absolutely fucking nothing.

Instead, I started screaming for help. The man next to me stirred at the noise and I halted to look at him with wide eyes. Relief manifested in a hysterical laugh. There was one person who was alive.

"Hey! Hey you're alive! Hey!" I called to him in desperation, leaning as far as I could toward him. I shook my damp hair out of my eyes, it only slapped against my cheek. Without hands, I couldn't move the strands far.

He inhaled a deep breath and lifted his heavy head. It took him a second, but at last his eyes fell on me. For a moment I thought that maybe he couldn't see me in the dark, but his eyes focused after a second. He stared at me for the longest time, as if unable to comprehend what he was seeing. After some time, his face contorted in dismay.

"Hey!" I whispered at him again, eyes wide with hope. "You okay?"

"No—no you weren't supposed to come. I told you to stay out of the woods! Who—who else?" he demanded. He sounded as if his throat was made of sandpaper.

It was then I realized that this was the same man from the school assembly. I couldn't recall his name; it stuck at the tip of my tongue. For a second I hesitated, terrified of a lecture, but I brushed the though aside.

This was so much bigger than a lecture.

"All my friends, and their friends. I don't know—there was a dozen or more of us," I finally admitted. "It wasn't supposed to be, it was just supposed to be a small group, but . . . but everyone kept inviting more people . . . and then we were attacked! It wasn't supposed to—what do we do? What do we do!" My voice cracked into a shrill wail and I fought against my restraints again. It was a thick, solid layer of resin that kept me glued to the wall.

"Calm down," he urged, head bobbing with the effort. He heaved a cough.

I took in a few more breaths and swallowed my tears. It lasted another few precious moments before I managed to calm down, but then I nodded and kept my eyes on him. "Okay. Okay."

"You just have to be calm and you can get out. What's your name?" he asked. His voice was subdued and he kept grunting and bending in at the waist as much as he could, as if he had a bad stomach ache. Concern knit my brow together.

"Nichole," I replied, voice wavering. I eyed him and tried to figure out what was wrong.

"Alright Nichole. I'm Lieutenant Anderson. Do you remember me from your high school?"

That's right: Anderson. I did remember, and I let him know with a few jerky nods.

He grimaced and wheezed. "I don't—I don't have much time. But you have to get out quick, okay?" He scrunched up his face in pain and grit his teeth.

"What do you mean?" I whimpered. Was it his stomach pains? "Are you okay?"

Anderson inclined his head toward the ground and I followed his gaze. Right in front of him was something like a dead spider the size of my chest. It had a long tail coiled around it and was belly-up, many-jointed legs curled in on itself. My eyes wandered north and widened at what I saw.

Eggs. Dozens and dozens of eggs. They were all clustered in the center of the room, swaddled in a lazy mist drifting along the ground.

"That thing—it . . . it stuck something inside me. I can feel it—trying to get out."

The hyperventilating started again and I looked around the room. Now the darkness had revealed so many more people, all stuck to the wall. Most of them seemed to be National Guard, but I recognized one of the cops from the hill. Only a few had holes in them, others just seemed unconscious.

Some had a spider-thing stuck to their face. They had tails wrapped around their throats and finger-like legs embracing their heads.

Hugging their faces.

Then his words sank in and I turned my head toward him molasses-slow. Tears left dirty streaks on my cheeks.

"It stuck something inside me."

The gaping holes in those people's chests—that was what it was? The spiders—they put something inside them? And then they—oh no. Oh god.

Me. I was . . . next.

"Nichole you have to stay with me," Anderson demanded when I started to whimper and sob. His breathing was more labored and his coughing fits more frequent.

I nodded and forced myself to calm down, but it was a losing battle. The tears trailed down my face uninhibited, and I ground my teeth together. Sobs formed hot rocks in my stomach. I swallowed the lump in my throat and pursed my lips, breathing in and out through my nose instead. I shook my head and tried to clear the tears from my eyes so I could see.

"More will come out of those eggs and when they do, you cannot be here. Do you understand?" Anderson was trying his best to enunciate through grunts of pain.

There wasn't much room for interpretation. I had no choice but to understand.

"Just thrashing around isn't going to get you out of this stuff, okay?" I didn't even mind that he was speaking to me like I was five. Somehow it was soothing.

"I know, I know, okay. I can do it." Can't panic. Can't lose control. Can't give in to despair.

His head bobbed and he took in a deep, pained breath. "You gotta do it smart. Take deep breaths, lean against it. The only way you'll get out is if you work at the same spot and wear it down." He managed a small smile and demonstrated for me on a section he'd been working at before . . . .

Before he was face-hugged by the parasite.

I thought for a moment, then picked a spot on my right. I pushed against it over and over, leaning and bumping into it as hard as I could.

When it started to create some slack, I choked back a laugh. "It's working!"

"Good—just keep doing that. When it's loose enough to get your arm free, you'll be able to pull or push the stuff away and have more freedom. You have to work fast, but do not panic, okay?" he advised. His voice was heavy and his body bucked.

"Okay, okay. I think I can do it. I'll do it," I amended, shoving against the spot I'd picked with more vigor. It slackened further and I could almost feel fresh air on my hand. "What about you?"

"Forget about me. Forget about them all unless you can without a doubt save them, okay?"

"What?" I stared at him in horror. Was he asking me to leave my friends again? I had done that once already and it had landed me in the spot I was in. Sure, he didn't know what I'd done, that the guilt still wheedled at my insides, but he couldn't ask me to ditch them.

Not again.

But he was. He was sitting there, telling me to leave them.

First the voice inside my head, and now this guy.

"Do not stop for anyone. Their best bet at survival is you getting out and finding someone to come help." Anderson's body heaved and he choked on air.

"Lieutenant?" I whimpered in a small voice, stopping my movements.

He said nothing, and his body began to convulse. My eyes widened and a fresh batch of tears spilled past my eyelids. I was unable to look away as the area around his chest bulged. His bones cracked and splintered like ice, his flesh tore like fabric, and then he let out a haunting scream.

With one final, sickening snap, the cocoon burst and his blood misted the air. I watched on, horrified, as a slick head slipped out from the hole. It hissed and peered around with a sightless, gray head. I gawked as the little baby alien thing squeaked and climbed out of Anderson' chest cavity. It tumbled to the floor, peered around again, and slithered off.

I made no sound for a few seconds, sitting in abject terror. My chest heaved with mounting intensity until I was wheezing in fits.

Though I gulped air, my lungs refused to absorb it. All sounds warped and my vision blurred as if I'd was in a vat of water. Nausea turned my stomach and I retched, losing the dinner I'd eaten hours ago. No part of my brain could process, wanted to process, the scene I had witnessed.

My mind threatened to pull me back into the darkness. It didn't want to deal with what it was seeing. But I knew that would mean death. Even though my heart was about to beat itself out of my chest, I couldn't go under. I closed my eyes tight and fought to control my breathing. I struggled to dispel the dizziness and nausea.

It took several minutes of crying and groaning through clenched teeth, but I did it. My hearing returned and my eyes focused. The fuzzy feeling went away, and the heat behind my eyes cooled.

I had to stay conscious. I had to stay lucid.

Have to get out.