This Was Home [h.s.]

| 5. RUN |

  His gaze darted from behind me back to my face. I was too scared to see what caused that look on his face. It didn't matter though because I already knew without having to look.

He was mouthing something, yelling something actually. Everything was moving in slow motion. Words seemed impossible to form. I was still running, that was all I knew what to do.

Harry's eyes kept flashing from behind me and back in front of him as he grabbed for my arm, dragging me faster with him. I could tell he was still trying to yell something, but I couldn't understand anything. The rain surrounding us was too deafening and I felt numb. A loud clash of thunder seemed to bring me back to my senses.

I finally was able to hear Harry yelling, "Brin snap the fuck out of it!"

I blinked hard and took a sharp inhale in as if I just took my first breath of life.

That was when I remembered what was tucked in my waistband.

Duh you idiot, be useful!

My left arm was still being forcefully pulled by Harry as he sprinted. My hand was beginning to go numb from the amount of force and pressure he was pulling me with. My legs could hardly keep up, I was almost worried I would trip.

My right hand finally felt the cold, wet metal of my gun. I had to turn around to look where the Crawler was. I took one deep breath, as good of one I could manage given the circumstances. Then lifted my chin up, gun now aimed ahead.

The rain was distorting my vision, but I could still see it. I'd never seen it this up close before, not even last night. It was grotesque, almost wolf-like but still with human characteristics. It was much bigger than a human though. It had fur on its body, flowing with each stride. I could make out the snarl that was etched from one corner of its face to the other. Its sharp fangs stared back at me.

The Crawler wasn't running as fast as I thought it would, but it was still gaining enough speed to catch us if we didn't hurry. I had to act quickly.

I fired the first shot. It missed and went right past its head on the right. I'd never practiced shooting while running and with one hand restrained. I shot another. It still missed, but grazed its shoulder this time.

A howl left its mouth, almost making me lose my footing beneath me. I glanced back at Harry who continued to pull me by the side. He looked straight ahead as we worked our way closer to the gas station.

It had to be about 30 feet from us. I was getting desperate and fired multiple shots at once. One went directly into its shoulder and it stumbled a little. At first it slowed and then started back again to its normal speed, completely unaffected.

I knew I was running out of bullets. I should have had one or two more left. I looked back towards the gas station again. The creature was gaining too much speed against us, we wouldn't make it there in time if we didn't kill it or distract—