Chapter 10 The pit of despair
Humphrey trudged through the dark feeling the proximity of the walls and ceiling around him pushing closer with every step. Struggling to keep his hopes up he pushed forward growling as if his rage could keep the closing walls at bay. Sighing to himself he thought, "What am I going to do?..."
Suddenly and without warning the walls opened up into a brightly lit... Stadium? Humphrey squinted hearing yelling and howls all around him. The human stadium as he could only perceive it as such had old tanker trucks crashed inside it and human cars with what he could see had to be human remains still buckled inside. Skeletons, with the sinew muscles and flesh torn off. The stadium was even littered with scrap metal all around giving the stadium the appearance of a gladiatorial arena.
Humphrey breathed heavily as his eyes adjusted to see just out of reach behind the barricades ten feet up surrounding the stadium, wolves. Hundreds of them he thought, beat up looking bloodied starving wolves on their last shred of sanity.
A voice boomed out from the other side of the stadium. Humphrey caught a few words hearing, "I do this for all of you, and if you cross me that will be you down there! Now enjoy the festivities!" Humphrey shook his head thinking, "That must be the "great" leader the other she wolf had mentioned."
A great grinding and clanking noise shook Humphrey from his stupor. He looked up to see on the other side of the arena a grimy and loosely secured gate pulled up and out of the way causing jeers and catcalls to fall upon him from the stadiums occupants.
The gate removed the wolves went crazy, yelling and pushing each other trying to get closer to see the blood bath that they knew would come. Suddenly Humphrey saw something out of the corner of his eye, three wolves had gotten to close to the barricade and one had lost his balance.
His "friends" made no move to help only laughing as he toppled over the side of the barricade ten feet down and into the arena. Humphrey watched shocked as the wolf slowly got up giggling to himself when a flash of darkness flew by and the wolf yelped in shock.
As the thing disappeared behind a small rusted truck Humphrey saw that when the creature was moving impossibly fast it had torn off a chunk of the wolves flank. The crowd cheered and continued yelling as the wolf struggled to climb back up and over the wall to safety in the stadium seats. Two more shadows whizzed by this time the wolf was missing an ear and a tail. Five more now and soon the wolf was nothing but a pile of sticky red bones in the dirt his cries lost to the crowds yells for blood.
Humphrey backed up shaking in fear realizing that there was no fighting these beasts, they were much too quick to hit or even see. Quaking in fear Humphrey rolled onto the dirt and crawled under a slab of rusted metal searching for signs of attackers or just a stray shadow.
A blur flew by inches in front of his face disappearing over a rotted rusty car but not before Humphrey let out a yelp of fear. Suddenly three shadowy blurs appeared in front of him out of nowhere. Humphrey frozen in shock studied the creatures seeing they were small maybe three feet in height and had small piranha like teeth looking like much smaller faster versions of a human child covered in an inky black soup like all the monsters Humphrey had seen so far.
Humphrey closed his eyes shivering in fear hearing the cracking and gnashing of their teeth rubbing together before they disappeared into the arena continuing to search. Humphrey opened his eyes fearfully thinking, they have no eyes… They use sounds or smells possibly? Grinding his teeth together Humphrey thought, "It doesn't matter, if I make another noise I won't be that lucky next time..."
Stowing his fear he began to crawl through the dirt under the rusted metal and through the broken glass. Humphrey whimpered as one of his paws was cut open by a shard of glass. Cursing at his mistake he continued pushing forward and he saw only a few meters away a small car tipped onto its side.
Being careful to not cut himself he pushed through the open front window falling into the passengers seat breathing heavily. Images of the creatures flashing through his terrified mind. Humphrey heard the jeering of the crowd yelling, "COWARD! Die right! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO LIVE!"
He then heard objects, rocks possibly being thrown at the car. The jeering increased and Humphrey shut his eyes knowing if he stayed hidden the sound would draw the creatures directly to him and he would die in the tiny space.
Frantically shoving glass out of the way Humphrey pulled himself out the driver window spilling onto the crusted dirt of the arena. Pawing forward away from the car he began to hyperventilate crawling through the debris scanning for any sign of the creatures.
Whether it was just plain luck or Humphrey had a guardian angel he emerged near the rusted gate seeing nothing but darkness beyond the arena. The fog ahead had obscured the land helped by the darkness of night. Not even the moon was shining overhead to offer some point of hope or a direction to flee.
Humphrey looked back at the arena seeing blurs of darkness sweep the area looking inside of cars and under the debris. Taking a deep breath he closed his eyes and willed himself to think. "What can I do!? I can't leave my friends here, but if I don't escape now I'll surely die."
Before he could make a decision a streak of darkness sped past him. Humphrey breathed a sigh of relief…. Suddenly a indescribable agony tore through his body and his left eye erupted into red hot pain. Humphrey closed his eyes, no eye. He felt his now empty left eye socket and horrified realized the creature had grabbed it before disappearing out of the gate.
Howling in pain and fear he collapsed as the crowd continued yelling, "DIE! DIE! DIE!" "NO HUMPHREY!" A feminine wail pierced the crowds insanity. Humphrey opened his good eye struggling to stay conscious his head pounding searching for the source of the one who had yelled his name.
Homing in on the source he had hoped it would be Kate but Humphrey was surprised to see that it was the she wolf that had sent him here in the first place. She ran along the stadiums barricade and began hitting a large metal bell.
Instantly the ringing of the bell froze the shadowed creatures. They covered their ears and wailed in agony before disappearing out the gate in a flash of darkness. The crowd instantly booed and began throwing rocks at Humphrey.
The she wolf gracefully leaped down into the arena as the gate clanged shut mere inches away from Humphrey's face. She knelt besides him and pressed a wad of crusted leaves into his bleeding eye socket.
Humphrey with one last effort before the pain knocked him out wheezed, "Why?" She smiled sadly and answered, "Because you're my brother, and if they kill you. They're going to have to kill me to." Before he could pass out he muttered, "Sister I don't have a...a..." She smiled sadly and said, "I know you don't believe me, but I'm sorry Humphrey I shouldn't have let my fear of death almost condemn you to it. But I'm your sister Katrina. If they kill me before I can explain...I-I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you. Stay strong my brother...I'm so sorry... For everything."
The pain was too much for Humphrey, and the shock didn't help as he drifted away into his shattered mind thinking, "Katrina... my...sister!?"
"Humphrey…." "Humphrey….." "HUMPHREY!" Humphrey sat bolt upright slamming his nose into Kate's. "What!? where am I? what's happening!? Where…" Kate cut him off yelling, "YOUR OK!" She hugged him fiercely and asked, "What happened to you!? They threw you in here and I thought you were dead!"
Humphrey rubbed his head and muttered, "The arena, my...Sister?" What happened to her?" Kate stopped confused and asked, "The arena? And your what?" Humphrey coughed and answered, "I was thrown into an arena with some new kind of creatures…One of them tore my eye out...I didn't even know until it was to late. Thankfully before they could kill me the wolf that put me in the arena rang a bell and the creatures fled. She treated my eye injury and claimed to be my sister...Katrina...Before I passed out that is."
Kate teary eyed bit her lip and asked, "You lost your eye?" Humphrey hung his head and whimpered, "They tore it out, I couldn't leave you so I stopped and they tore it out." Kate's tears began to drip onto the dirt encrusted floor as she whispered, "I'm so sorry Humphrey…" He quickly shook his head and said, "It's a small price to pay to see you safe and sound." Humphrey gave a sad laugh at his attempt at a joke before asking, "Did they treat your infected injury?"
Kate nodded and answered dejectedly, "Yeah, they treated me and said something about you being just fine in their care." Humphrey shook his head and muttered, "Bastards, they lied when they said you might not make it...where's Garth and Lilly?"
Kate hung her head even lower and answered, "I don't have a clue, they must have been put somewhere else in this labyrinth of corridors. I don't know where though." Humphrey nodded as if expecting this answer and pushed on the wooden door but it held firm.
Kate raised an eyebrow and asked, "Did you really think that would work?" Humphrey smirked and answered, "Well at least I tried something." Kate teared up again and whispered, "How can you stay positive after all this?"
Humphrey answered solemnly, "I have to because for the first time in our lives we're facing something that we can't give up against. Something actively waging total war against us and everything still alive on this scarred and beaten planet... Do you remember how every so often someone like Tony used to or another pack would declare total war against our own pack. Do you remember Kate?"
Kate nodded and Humphrey continued, "Well that wasn't true of course, it's impossible for any group to actively wage total war or commit one hundred percent to it. We had peace from time to time. No attacks and the the hunts were good before the fighting was continued. And before long they would leave us alone and peace would return."
He continued, "But now we face an enemy that will always want to kill us, that is always waging total war and will never stop until every last living thing is dead. These creatures have no limits. Everyone still alive has their limit though, us, the wolves keeping us captive. But not the monsters and creatures out there. We can't break them or convince them to give up, but we can break."
Humphrey took a breath before stating, "War is two sides trying to push each other past the emotional breaking point. Even an omega like me is aware of the fundamentals of war. The true nature of war, tactics, supplies. It doesn't matter if your spirit breaks, if you give up."
He sighed turning and told her, "Your father told me of a great war long ago between humans, much like this one. He said their technological prowess was unmatched and the two sides were the Axis and the Allies. The Allies had the logistics and support of the entire planet, while the Axis had to rely on what scant assets they could dig up within their own borders. The Allies won because they could make more bullets and bandages then the enemy."
Humphrey shivered and said, "This time we're the Axis because we can't surrender and we have no help, and even as we are facing an enemy that is completely devoted to eradicating and consuming all life on earth. We must survive against them, and we will. Because we won't give up, we can't focus on the betrayal, the cruelty, the bottomless evil in some hearts because that's what will make us decide we should just give up and life isn't worth living"
Smiling Humphrey sat down next to Kate and asked, "Do you still believe we'll make it Kate?" She nodded taking a deep breath and answered, "I know we will, we have to keep going. We only ever lose if we give up." Humphrey nodded content and whispered, "There's a word for that kind of lie, hope..."
Well that's another chapter done, next one coming sooner then you'd expect. Thanks for reading and I hope all of you are still enjoying the story!