5 Chapter 5: The Hunt Begins....

The hooded man dragged Bronte down the hall urgently as his head twisted and turned violently whenever one of the horrifying howls rang out from seemingly all sides and areas outside the high school. Growing closer every time....

Bronte tried to break his grip a few times, but the man's hold was like an iron clamp.

"Can't you run any faster? Come on dammit, we have to go!" He snarled back at him as they approached the end of the hall, the lockers clinging to the walls passed his peripherals in a blur as they moved faster.

Suddenly they skidded to a halt, causing Bronte to faceplant into his back. He really did feel like a wall.

When he regained his focus, he found that they'd made it to the end of the hall on the opposite end. It only led downstairs. The massive glass window showed the sky was still clear outside. It felt almost unfitting as the threat of the unknown continued to grow increasingly closer.

"Has your healing come in yet?" The hooded man asked.

Bronte was still trying to gain his breath after the tiring run.

"Well?!!" The man urged.

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Bronte snapped in between ragged breaths.

"If I throw you out this window, will you die..... or will you regenerate?" The man asked.

Bronte took a step backward, "Y-you're tripped the fuck out right now, right? It's no way you're serious...."

"No y--" Before the hooded man could continue speaking, another howl broke out.

Right outside the window.

"Shit!" The hooded man snarled and grabbed Bronte by the arm, "Don't move and don't come out until I open the door." He said before rushing Bronte over to one of the closed off classrooms and throwing him inside.

As he closed the door, the sound of glass shattering resonated from outside and a black blur smashed into the hooded man with a feral snarl. And then he was gone.

Bronte's heart beat hard enough that it felt like it's own secondary sound. He could feel it's pulse in his fingers. His fingers..... they shook uncontrollably.

For a small eternity, he stood frozen facing the door. Broken shards of glass spread across the floor outside along with deep scratch marks that marred the tile surface. Every few seconds an impossibly loud bang would resonate through the halls and shake the classroom hard enough to make glass beakers and petri dishes fall out of the cabinets as if two wild animals were going to war just outside the door.

That's exactly what they sounded like. Wild animals. He could hear jaws snapping. A horrifying clicking sound. He could smell them-- wet fur and blood. Hear their snarling obscenities as bones snapped an inhuman number of times and flesh tore effortlessly.

Then, it was over-- with a final ear-splitting snap. Bronte flinched as a canine yelp filled the silence. The whole school had gone quiet as if every floor-- every corner was listening in terror. At the thought of another Summer Midtown High Attack.

Bronte couldn't help but think this was worlds worse....

Thud.....thud....thud....

Bronte's blood ran colder than ever. His head and neck muscles tight as iron as he slowly found himself looking up at the ceiling.

Another hole. This one gave way to the clear mid-day sky above. It would've been a nice sight if the sound of heavy footsteps weren't slowly inching closer to the opening.

Something was coming. He could hear its guttural breaths. His nose bunched up in response to the pungent odor. Something akin to wet dog.

He wanted to move. He wanted more than anything to reach for the door that was only a dozen feet away. But he felt like if he moved-- it would all set the chase in motion. He was paralyzed by the sound of the creature on the roof. And it new it. He could hear it..... laughing.

Tears filled Bronte's eyes as a shadow was cast over him. It was right overhead.

Thud!

The Monster hit the floor. It landed right in front of him. It's back seemingly as wide as his vision could take, each muscle hard and sinewy beneath thick dark grey fur. When it turned to face him, two wolfish yellow eyes peered at him atop a thick canine muzzle. It had to be seven feet tall.

"haHAHA...COme WItH mEeEEe...."

It's teeth were still dripping blood.

"Oh hell no..." Bronte whispered before his mind was shaken from it's frozen stupor.

He didn't even know where he was going, he just ran. The window was all that stood in front of him above the desk and fire extinguisher. He suddenly hoped the hooded man wasn't so out his mind, because he was about to jump. Healing or not.

His tired legs carried him over desks and chairs as he ran. The window his only sign of escape. He lunged for it, his fear carrying him higher than ever.

"RAGHSH!" The monster snarled loudly and Bronte felt a massive rough skinned hand wrap around his ankle. It stopped all motion with zero effort.

"No!" He yelped and clawed at everything in an attempt to reach the window as he was pulled from the counter.

When he hit the ground all that lay beside him was the broken glass slicing open his skin and the fire extinguisher.

His panicked mind could only think of one alternative as the monster dragged him, dripping foamy saliva onto his shoes and pantleg.

He'd tried flight and freeze. Neither worked. He had one more option. Fight.

He rolled over, fire extinguisher held firmly in both hands.

"....No RunNinGgggahhh...." The monster said in a slurred tone.

"Tell that shit to somebody else, stinkmouth." Bronte replied before he blasted the beast with the extinguishing fluid. Luckily it didn't require a lick of accuracy as the white foam burst from the tube in a shotgun blast that filled the creature's mouth, nose and burned it's eyes.

"AHHHHHH!!!!" It screamed in pain before it began letting him go to claw and scratch at it's face.

During that time, something smashed into the door behind them hard enough to blow it off the hinges. In it's wake, the hooded man stepped into the room. His chest and abdomen was exposed.... and torn so violently that he could see broken bones.

Bronte wanted to puke.

The hooded man seemed to want blood.

He lunged over the desks and chairs and slammed his bone claws into the creatures back with a wet flesh tearing sound. He didn't stop there. He stabbed it in rapid succession six more times before the creature spun around wildly to swing at him.

The hooded man moved like water, slipping out of the way while also ripping open it's stomach. The tearing sound was only outweighed by the plop of intestines hitting the floor.

"RAGGGHSHSSH!" The monster yelled and swung at him again, worlds slower than before.

The hooded man stabbed his bone claws into the creature's arm to stop the blow with a rageful yell before kicking it in the chest.

The creature flew backward towards the window.

"AA--SHCK!"

It stopped right at the window where a pair of metal blades protruded from its throat.

It stayed there for a long moment until suddenly the metal blades were torn out with a wet ripping sound. And then the beast was left to fall out of the window. When it finally hit the ground, a human hand fastened over the windowsill. Knuckles bloody and straining as the individual pulled themselves inside.

A woman.

"No way...." Bronte muttered from the floor as he realized it was the same woman that he'd seen outside his window and on the train. The same black hood, overcoat and jeans.

Following behind her a smaller girl entered through the window. The one he'd run into at his apartment.

"Next time how about a heads up, Daken?" The taller woman said to the hooded man-- who's bones were crunching as his body seemingly stitched itself back together.

"You seemed fine without it, Laura." The hooded man, named Daken, replied, unfazed by his injuries.

The two began talking while Bronte tried to avoid fainting at the sight of Daken's horrific state. He watched for a while until he realized somebody was staring at him.

He turned and found the smaller of the two women staring straight at him. She'd even pulled down her hood, revealing a young girl no older than eight. Freckles were sprinkled across her small button nose and stopped just below her chocolate brown eyes. A pair of goggles held back her thick curly brown hair and made her seem almost comical in comparison to the others.

"So you're the new brother.... hmm .... I don't see it. But you're healed, so you have to be like us, right?"

Bronte looked at her like she just ate a car tire.

A snarl from the other side of the room drew his eyes to Daken.

"God dammit, Laura. Get the runt away from the malnourished before he has a brain aneurism."

"Call me a runt again, and I'll show you just how little size matters, you shitface."

Bronte rose to his feet in a flash. If he stayed on the floor any longer, he'd really faint. Especially if he kept looking at his arm that was perfectly fine, as if he didn't just get cut a dozen times by thick shards of broken glass.....

"Aye...aye, what the hell is happening!!" He yelled loud enough to give himself a headache.

Silence fell and bizarreness ceased for the time being.

The one Daken called Laura approached him. Bronte walked backward. She stopped suddenly, noticing his discomfort.

"Listen, I'm sorry we have to meet under these circumstances. I'm sorry we have to meet at all, but you and your family's lives are in danger. And right now, everyone in this school is in danger."

"Why?" Bronte asked.

"It's too much to explain right now-- there isn't enough time. But, all we can say is you're being hunted. Because you're like us."

"....And what does that mean?" A chill ran up his spine.

Before he could get a reply, the loudspeaker clicked to life over the intercom.

"Dear students of Midtown High, the school is official going into lockdown at the behest of local law enforcement in response to the possibility of an attack on our....SCRSCHHHH-- Oh god.....please-- PLEASE! RAGHSH!"

The group listened in horror as the principle's message to the school was interrupted and the sounds of dogs fighting over food filled the intercom.

It seemed like chaos descended immediately after. Windows shattered downstairs. Students screamed. Alarms sounded.

Laura grabbed him and shoved him out of the room. As soon as he stumbled out into the hallway, the windows all around the classroom burst to shards as furred monsters broke into the building. Laura, Daken and the little girl popped their claws and engaged in a war of blood, claw and fangs.

Down the hallway, a roiling mass of fur and saliva burst through a classroom door and slammed into a pair of lockers. They broke off into a pile of more monsters. They got up onto all fours and howled before setting their eyes on Bronte.

"Holy shit!"

"CoME wITH uSssSSss...."

This time, Bronte ran. He ran hard, as if his life depended on the steady increase of his speed and separation between him and the monsters.

And as he flew down the hallway, passing the destroyed lockers and holes in the ceiling, he found that it had started to storm. Harder than ever...