Misery County

Chapter 16 - Part 3

The werewolf on the stage began to saunter toward her. She was now well and truly surrounded. She supposed she could have gone for her gun and started firing on the wolves, but there were so many of them, that by the time she'd gotten rid of the one in front of her, the ones behind her would already be tossing her around like a doggy treat. She closed her eyes to wait for the inevitable, but instead of that, a loud series of pops were heard, and the view when she opened her eyes consisted of an old theater with a good number of dead wolves around her, slowly transforming into their human forms.

Like a guardian angel, Eric had appeared on one of the balconies, rifle ready and taking pot shots at all of the monsters closest to Cassie. The wolves coming up from the theater floor had already turned to face Eric, glancing around wildly for the quickest way to get to the balcony and failing badly, judging by how quickly they were getting put down.

The red-eyed beast was not impressed. It was now looking up at Eric, possibly communicating to the other monsters to get up there but getting little response since they were all either dead or dying.

Cassie broke into a laugh. No one man could take down an entire platoon of monsters like that, but Eric was no ordinary man. No, he was worth at least ten ordinary men, and that was being conservative.

"Nice work, partner!" Cassie yelled over to him. "You've really got them on the –" Her words were interrupted by a shove from behind. It knocked her to the ground, and as she looked over, she was met with a pair of jaws and the foul breath that escaped between them. "Eric!" she began to yell, but a glance in his direction saw him firing shot after shot at the red-eyed monster that was climbing up the curtain to get to his balcony.

She tried to reach over to either of her two pistols, but the wolf that had mounted her kept her arms pinned down with his own clawed paws. Before she could try to wriggle free from the creature, he leaned down over her and bit into her neck. Tearing out a lump of flesh, Cassie felt the searing pain of the separation, followed by the sensation of blood running down what was left of her neck and left shoulder.

Becoming weak and dizzy, she glanced back at Eric to see him impale the tall beast right in one of its red eyes with a flagpole. It fell down the curtain and crumpled into a lifeless heap, the American flag sticking out of its face.

How patriotic, Cassie thought as her consciousness faded. A faint voice called out her name, but due to blood loss or confusion, she could not pinpoint its source. The last thing she saw before she closed her eyes was Eric recovering his rifle and taking a single shot at her assailant. The weight on top of her body told her that his aim was true, and with that sensation, she embraced the void.