NOVEL NEXT 74) Dogs gone
74) Dogs gone
The entrance to the Dungeon was in what according to the bullet riddled sign had been a European deer enclosure that was now surrounded by some kind of barbed wire made of a flat ribbon with sharp edges, and several small cargo containers with holes cut into them shaped like crosses.
Looking down the collapsed side of the enclosure as two men cut away at the wire and pulled it back with gloves made of links of metal, I saw Ebler walking up beside me, a green bag in his hands.
The inside of the bag was filled with little drab green balls with dull yellow lettering on them, each of them no bigger than a pool ball, with something that almost looked like the top of a fire extinguisher on top, right down to the pull ring.
“Only use them in the Dungeons. I will be lucky not to die of old age behind bars if anyone can prove you got them from me. They can kill you from as far as fifty feet away, but the inside is supposed to be fairly open. Don’t count after you pull the pin, just pull, throw, yell out a warning and get something between you and it, or lie down flat.”
He looked at the coyotes. “Keep them close, and keep track of where the others are. I want to see all of you walking out of there.”
I took the bag with a nod and shoved my hand into it to begin pulling the grenades one by one into my storage, then the bag because… free bag.
Standing outside the Dungeon, I secured my revolver around my waist, and checked the shells in my shotgun. The gun guy, Sanders walked up next to me as he stared down at the hole.
“Is that what the Fear Hi puts out feels like?”
I grimaced at how the Fear Essence made the hole look darker and meaner. “Yeah. But this is a lot weaker. Might be worse inside.”
The old womnn with the healing power in yet another hideous sweater walked around, briefly touching each of us and then all three of the coyotes, giving each of us a bit of healing just waiting to take effect the moment we got hurt. Nothing all that strong since she didn’t want to exhaust herself just before we went in, but it was something.
As were the brownies Brad passed around. “Chocolate isn’t bad by itself, in fact, it’s even good for your heart. But this is made with alcohol sugar, not a lot, but it’s still sweet, and it will help us inside. Better, stronger, faster.”
I took mine with a nod and slowly ate the almost bitter baked good. It was dark as sin and loaded up with bits of apple laced with cinnamon. Each bite seemed to melt away as it went down and spread out from my middle to my finger and toes, making the tension I was feeling from the Fear coming out of the entrance to the dungeon fade away.
The coyotes got light brown cookie colored brownies Brad told them were Blondies… Wylina gave me a questioning look as Chubby scarfed his down. I could only shrug, it must be a dog thing.
She ate her after glancing at Brad one more time, and Blue followed suit.
Making my way down the collapsed section of the exhibit I had a thought, then another one as I bent over to pick up a chunk of cement. With an almost forgotten skillset, I pitched it in a fastball at, and into, the entrance to the Dungeon.
Looking back to grin at Hiram, I saw a few dozen people looking back at me. “What, I needed to make sure that if I threw something in there it would still go through.”
Pulling out a grenade, I heard Ebler start to shout before Hiram called him off. “It’s fine, Dungeon Dan already tried it with dynamite. Explosions don’t cross over.”
Oh. Good to know before I threw it.
I pulled the pin and threw, the metal part on the top of the grenade spinning around the ball part as it flew across the gap and over the heads of the pack of Bale Hounds rushing out of the Dungeon.
Trying to turn, and run back at the same time just left me falling over sideways onto the rubble with coyotes rushing forward to stand over and beside me snarling, as all hell broke loose.
Monster dogs running out of hiding spots all around the Dungeon entrance and into a bunch of scared young people with guns meant that the hounds could get in close enough to everyone to get in some bites, the pack trying to do the same thing while running across open ground into a bunch of angry young people, half of who were already aiming guns your way… well, it goes a lot differently.
As the yells for “Check Fire” got yelled out, all I could think of was the bloody mess in front of me as I started to calm down the coyotes were, ‘Ew, I got to walk through that now.’
Hiram raced, or rather stumbled, his way down the rubble beside me. “Let’s go old man, you cleared the front door so we should get in there before more of them gather up to jump us as we go in!”
A few soldiers followed him down to help the other old people make their way down the uneven ground, not me though, I had helper coyotes to lean on, was already halfway there, and had a mean glare for the little redhead when she tried to take a hold of my arm.
“Just trying to repay the favor Mr. Bright.”
Dam it. She remembers my name. Now I got to get to level five to fix my brain. It used to be I could at least remember the pretty girl’s names.
I was the third one through the entrance and almost turned around to head right back out again.
Not because stepping into the dungeon was like walking into a solid wall of creepiness, not because the inside of the Dungeon was like nightmare version of the zoo with higher and more close up exhibits and ruined buildings that were all under a starless void of darkness above.
But because Hiram was holding what looked like a low budget seventies science fiction tv show version of a flame thrower, that was throwing out a twenty foot long steam of flames out of its end.
The heat coming off of the flame hit me worse than the Fear Essence inside the Dungeon, and Hiram’s mad laughter was even worse.
Turning around to leave, it was only seeing the sheer horror on Beryl’s face as she started screaming at the laughing mad man that made me decide to stay.
This outta be good.