Julia ran through the streets, back the way she had come. He shoes made a slight patter noise on the pavement and she had tears in her eyes. They were tears of someone who knew that death was coming for them. Everything she had seen in the past several minutes had seemed like a horrible nightmare. All she wanted to do was wake up, wishing it would all end. She was exasperated to find that this wasn't a dream and she wasn't going to wake up. This town, the creature, the dead person, the blood and gore and all the other sick and twisted shit. It was all real, every last bit of it. Julia screamed at her self internally.

"What did I do to deserve this?" she thought as her chest burned and her legs turned to stone.

She took a look back and shined her flashlight through the fog. The rotting meat bag thing was still behind her, at least several feet away. There was no way that thing could catch up to her. It was unreal. She could practically hear the slurping and squishing noises it made as it walked. It was coming for her and she knew it wanted her blood. Julia prayed to God that she lived through this. A small part of her told her not to put her faith in a higher power. There was no God in this place. This place, this town that she had stumbled into, it wasn't just some small hamlet that had gone to hell. This place, it was Hell.

Julia broke her gaze away from the creature and turned back towards the inky darkness of the street. She tripped over something and fell face first onto the pavement. The flashlight flew out of her hands and into the darkness. It made a small series of sounds as it rolled away. Tasting the salt from a nose bleed, Julia looked to her right. Through the darkness, she could see what she had fallen over.

"No way, NO WAY!" her mind screamed.

Rolling into the darkness of what had to be an alley was something that shouldn't be out in the streets. The small squeak of wheels, the glint of metal, and long flat shape resting on top of the wheels. All this formed a perfect picture in her head of a hospital gurney. A hospital gurney in the middle of a deserted street. A gurney, with a cadaver lying on it. A limp arm fell to the side of the gurney

"Oh my god!" she yelled.

She couldn't afford to let that thing get any closer to her, but she had to get her flashlight back. Otherwise, she would be blind. Clawing at the ground and to her feet, she huffed and puffed her way in the direction that she thought the light had gone. The wet sounds of the creature got closer.

"Arrrrrrgggggsshhhhhh" it screamed.

The sound only provided more incentive for her to move her ass. She ran until she could make out the flashlight on the ground. If she could have seen her way, Julia would have been able to make out the small café to her right. Dropping to the cool pavement on all fours, she reached towards the flashlight. She was within inches of it when all of a sudden, something grabbed her leg. She screamed as the meat thing pulled her away from the flashlight, her fingers lightly touching it. Then in a cruel twist of fate, the flashlight dropped out of sight. It fell down the storm drain it had been resting near and made an audible splash in the sewers below the street. And that was it. She was going to die.

III

Ryan ran through the dense fog. He didn't really know where he was running to. The screaming was inconsistent, which made determining the location of the person difficult. Not to mention that he was scared shitless. That didn't help matters much either. Upon exiting the gas station, Ryan ran East on Bloch Street, carrying the pipe. His legs were tired, lungs burned and the near constant rush of adrenaline made his heart pound in his chest. Stopping at the intersection of Bloch and Backman and gasping for breath, he tried to listen for the screaming again. His ears were met with initial silence, putting him even more on edge. Then a sound rang out from far away. He strained his ears to pinpoint the source. What registered in his memory made his blood turn to ice.

It was a dog howl. Then there was another. And another. Soon, the whole town was filled with the ghostly calls. There had to be a ton of those dog things in the area. And they didn't sound happy. Failing to remain calm, Ryan started to talk to himself again.

"Do not show fear. This is me without fear" he paused and looked at the pipe in his hands. "And a seven and a half pound metal pipe"

"Oh my god!"

The sound came from a ways ahead, up Backman street. It made him jump out of his skin before he collected himself and set out running again.

"Please don't be dead, please don't be dead…" he kept saying to himself as he ran for all he was worth.

The flashlight he had in his hands made navigating the pitch black area a little bit easier, but this didn't put his mind at ease in the slightest. Whatever was up ahead that could make a woman scream like that had to be bad news. And here he was, running head on to meet it.

"I must be the dumbest asshole on the planet" he thought as he pumped his legs faster.

Before long, he made his way up the entire length of Backman. He swept the flashlight to the left and right, trying to see where the person was.

"WHERE ARE YOU!?" Ryan called out. "COME ON! LET ME KNOW YOU'RE STILL HERE!"

As if on cue, another scream rang out into the air. Along with it came the white noise from his MP3 player. Ryan didn't completely understand, but the white noise must have meant something. Why did it keep going off? It didn't matter. He'd worry about it later. If he lived through this.

He swept his flashlight through the street, looking for the woman. What the light fell upon was something completely unexpected and otherworldly, making him lose focus on the task at hand. Standing in the middle of the street was an old man. He wore a hospital gown and was hanging onto an IV stand. The small bag of saline solution glowed a transparent glow as the light hit it and there was a subtle sound of the wheels squeaking as it was dragged across the pavement.

"Okay. That's a new one on me" he thought in startled confusion.

Did this old man not know how dangerous this place was? Even more perplexing was why a hospital patient would be walking around the streets at night, with an IV. He looked at the man, dumbfounded as he turned and started to walk away. As he did so, Ryan could see heavy burn markings on the man's back. They were third degree burns at best. The skin was horribly charred as were what he could almost make out as bones. It was impossible. The man shouldn't even be living, let alone walking around with those type of injuries.

"What the hell. This isn't right. He's gotta be on PCP or something to not feel that" Ryan said, a little bit of fear creeping into his voice.

The old man looked back at Ryan.

"All your fault. You're going to die here" he said, raising one ancient finger and pointing at Ryan.

He started to walk away into the darkness.

"What the Christ?" Ryan said under his breath.

Ryan ran in the direction the man had headed, but it was no use. He had disappeared. Then realization dawned on him. He shook his head and blinked several times.

"Jesus. I'm seeing things" he said, running a hand over his forehead.

It seemed so real. Stuff like this didn't just happen to people. There had to be something seriously wrong with him if he was seeing things this vividly. Much less hearing them.

"Someone, please help me!" the voice rang out.

Ryan snapped his head up. The scream wasn't far ahead. It was so close it made his ears ring. He wasn't too late. Whatever was happening to this woman, he was going to stop it. He was going to stop it and make damned sure that the culprit experienced some intense pain. Ryan ran farther and shinned the light into the darkness. What he saw made him want to empty his bladder. Standing a good ten feet away was some sort of hideous thing, worse than the dog thing he had seen. Words couldn't describe it because there were no words in any language on the planet that could describe what he was seeing. It was like something out of someone's worst nightmare. A big walking bag of rotten meat and flesh, with impossibly long arms and an equally long neck. Ryan couldn't grasp what it was doing to this woman.

It was beating on the her. She was trying to shield her self but the thing just kept hitting her and hitting her. Her cries echoed out into the unforgiving night. Ryan let instinct take over and ran to help the fallen woman. He held the pipe like a baseball bat, ready to strike. Closing the distance he started hitting the creature. The pipe impacted with its flesh and made horrible squishing sounds. None the less, Ryan could tell it was doing some damage.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" he screamed as he wailed on the meat thing.

It screamed and inhuman scream as the blows connected with it. It was definitely feeling it. Turning its attention away from the woman on the ground, it semi-turned towards Ryan and swung at him with a massive appendage. Its arm, if it could even be called that, drove right into Ryan's chest like a cannon ball and lifted him off the ground. Somehow he lost his grip on the pipe as an incredible pain poured through his chest and he was sent flying backwards. It was horrible. Even as he was propelled like a rag doll, he knew that the wind had been knocked out of him. That pain was replaced with something worse. Within seconds, Ryan crashed through the display window of the little café on the side of the street. The window impacted and shattered as his body met with it. Shards of glass fell everywhere and created a shimmering orchestra of noise. He rolled to a stop underneath the pay counter. Gritting his teeth, he cradled his ribs in pain and tried to catch his breath. Everything in him hurt like hell and he wanted to die.

Something deep in him screamed for him to get back up and finish what he'd started. Struggling to his feet, his head hit the underside of the counter, making him fall backwards. Something that had been fastened to the counter fell on top of him. It was long, metal and heavy. Ryan just looked at it with wonder in his eyes. What had fallen into his lap was probably better than all the Christmas and birthday presents in the world combined.

"Oh what? What the fuck is this?!" he said with an insane sense of glee.

III

Julia was going to die. The thing had already broken her arm. She could tell it was broken because of the immense pain that came from it as well as the odd angle it was at, like a chicken wing. This thing was going to kill her. Not only that, but someone had tried to help her. She had heard him screaming and hitting the thing. Now he was gone, probably dead. And she was next. Her mind couldn't grasp what was going on. Why was this happening? Why was this happening to her? Now? Here? She had never been a bad person. She didn't deserve this.

Julia tried to shield herself but it did no good. The meat creature just kept hitting her, breaking her down. Julia cried, tears streaming down her face, and prayed that it would all end. Prayed that something would make the meat monster die or disappear or drop off the face of the goddamn planet. Anything. Just so long as it stopped hurting her.

BLAM!

The meat creature was sent back several feet as a thunderous blast ripped through it. It fell to the ground with a deep smacking sound and screamed in agony. Deep, red blood poured out of the wounds that had been made in its form. Julia looked up, tears making her eyes difficult to adjust to the sight she was seeing. A bright light shown down at her. Was this God, coming to save her?

"No, not God" she thought as she could see what was walking towards her.

A man stood a few feet away, carrying a pump action shotgun. He pumped it and ejected a spent slug. The small piece of metal and plastic fell to the ground with a noticeable hollow ping sound. All she could do was watch in profound astonishment as the man walked past her and towards the withering form on the ground a ways away. The man didn't even look at her, just kept his mind set on the creature ahead. He strode up to it and stopped, looking down at it. The thing tried to lash out at him, albeit weakly. With his back to her, there was no way she could see whatever expression was on his face. Julia fought to her feet, attempting to drive out the aches in her body and the shooting pain in her arm.

"What is it?" she asked, crying and terrified.

The man aimed the shotgun at the creature.

"Dead" he replied and pulled the trigger at point blank range.

BLAM!

Something wet slapped at him as the creature's spasms and roar of the gun died out. It stopped moving and its form settled on the pavement. A stinking smell filled the air as death came for the creature. Julia could hear the man mutter "yuck" as he held his arms out to the sides and looked at himself in utter disgust.

Setting the shotgun down, he took off his scrub shirt and let it drop to the ground. It fell quickly, making a wet mushy sound as it connected with the pavement. As he turned around, she saw his flashlight shine across the pavement and his shirt. It was soaked with the thing's blood. He picked up the weapon and retrieved the fallen steel pipe from earlier. Then the man came towards her and held out his hand. Hesitantly, she took it and he helped her to her feet.

"You okay?" he asked in a concerned tone.

Julia was so scared and so glad to see another human being that she threw her arms around the man and cried into his chest. He soon put an arm around her, holding her for a few minutes and saying "It's alright" over and over again. Then he released her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I don't know what the hell is going on in this town but we should leave, now!" he said.

With her good arm, Julia wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at the man. He was young, at least a year or two older than her. Earplugs for an MP3 player hung around his head along with a bandana secured around his temples. There was blood on it and she couldn't tell if it was coming from him or the meat thing he had just killed.

His frame was tall, had a decent build and without the scrub shirt, was dressed completely in black. Strong brown eyes looked at her with concern, making her feel a bit better about her current predicament. She didn't want to admit it, but he was also pretty handsome. Julia silently chastised herself for acting the way she did. Letting her emotions get the better of herself. But who was she kidding, she had almost died.

Nodding, she said "Alright. Are…are you from around here?"

He shook his head "No, came here for a vacation. Had no idea that I'd be walking smack dab into the middle of Hell" he said as he loaded a few slugs into the gun and cocked it. "Man, I'm gonna kill George and Sam when I get out of here"

"Who?" she asked sniffling and cradling her arm.

"Friends of mine who said this was a perfect vacation spot. Boy were they wrong"

"Do…do you have… a car we can use?" she asked

"Yeah" he said as he turned and looked in every direction of darkness "…but unless you want to try and flip it back over, work on the engine, the axles and the gears for a bit, we're stuck here"

"What?" Julia asked, wiping tears from her eyes.

"I was in an accident just outside of town" he said as he pointed in a direction that he thought was out of town. "My car is totaled and sitting upside down. That's how I got this" he said, pointing to the bloody bandana around his head. "So my question to you is 'do you have a car we can use?'"

Julia nodded. "Yeah, but it stalled just up the road. It won't run"

The man pondered this for awhile, putting a hand to his chin.

"Well, it sure beats standing out here in the opening waiting for some walking cadaver thing to come out and eat us. We can wait there until this fog lifts or morning comes. Then we beat it the hell out of here"

"What about a phone?" she asked pulling hers out of her pants pocket. "Mine doesn't have any service"

The man reached into his own pocket and pulled out two objects, shining his light on them. They were the two halves of his own cell phone.

"Neither does mine" he said, depositing the items back into his pocket.

Julia noticed the shotgun in his hands and pointed at it uneasily.

"Uh, where did you get that?" she asked.

"It was in that café that I flew through, of all places" he said with a jerk of his thumb. "Fully loaded with a box of shells lying near it. About forty rounds tops"

From somewhere in the darkness, the howling rang out again, making the two jump. The man pointed the shotgun and flashlight into the darkness before lowering it and turning back to Julia.

"What the hell is that?"

The man turned and started walking.

"You don't want to know. Come on. We can play twenty questions later. Right now I think we should get to your car" he said, leading her by the hand.

The two of them set off running up Backman road. It wasn't getting any easier to see in front of them. The man held her wrist as they ran through the street, her hand grasped the steel pipe that he had been carrying. If he was going to have a weapon, so was she.

"Okay" he said, breathing heavily. "How much farther is your car?"

"Just a few more feet, I think" Julia replied as she looked behind her.

Something happened and she collided into the man's back. A sharp pain shot through her arm. She cradled the appendage and looked at the man. He had stopped.

"What? What is it?" Julia asked looking beyond the man.

"The road" he said in a disbelieving voice.

"What about the road?" Julia asked, perplexed.

"The road is completely gone" he replied.

"That's bullshit" she said, pushing past him before he yanked her back.

"Look!" he said, shinning the flashlight on the ground.

Julia looked beyond the man and saw where the flashlight was pointing. It traveled across the pavement and then into a dark, foggy void. He swung the light from side to side, traveling the entire stretch of road. It all just stopped and dropped off. The road broke apart, a jagged mess of concrete and rebar ended the street. The rest was a cliff which went straight down into nothingness. It was like something had come and tore up the entire town before dropping it into space. There was no way out of town