Page 74

T he shot rang out, a thunderous boom that could barely be heard over the sound of the crashing waves and the relentless shrill of the alarm that never ceased.

The ringing in my ears and pounding of my heart intensified as the bullet sailed into the night and buried itself in flesh.

Matias yelled out, gripping his shoulder even harder, causing my free hand to fly to my mouth as my greatest fear came to fruition.

No!

The beast yelped, releasing its hold on Matias’s shoulder.

It went falling, thrashing, howling down, until its body smacked a jagged edge of rock, flipping it over before it hit another, and then finally splashed into the ocean below.

My hand came to rest on my chest, pushing back against my beating heart that was threatening to break through my ribs.

“Matias! Are you okay?” I called back to him.

He shifted in his harness and then lifted his hand and gave a thumbs-up, before going limp again in a moment of total exhaustion.

I exhaled long and hard, finally releasing a breath as my lungs screamed for air.

Matias was fine. I hadn’t hit him. I thought I did, but I hadn’t, and the relief I felt was so intense, so gratifying, that I almost collapsed to the ground.

“Mara! Go!”

The voice came from behind me, and as I whirled around, the memory of wave after wave of hellhounds with Wes being the only thing that held them back, hit me like a train.

And then memory became reality as I watched dozens and dozens of those things racing toward the fence as Wes desperately searched for another mag.

Then the color drained from his face as he came to a frightening realization.

He was out of ammo.

He dropped the gun and started rushing for the fence toward me, but several of the mangy hounds were right on his tail.

“Wes!” I screamed, and I rushed toward him, through the gaping hole in the fence, and pulled up to aim.

Three shots.

Three blasts through the night.

And each bullet struck true.

Headshot, headshot, headshot.

The three beasts fell limp to the ground, one right after the other, sparing Wes and giving him just a few more seconds of leeway.

He kept running, never looking back. I watched as the pack growled, snarled, yipped and yapped, as their crazed eyes zeroed in on their target.

One pulled away from the pack, coming in hot and fast as it gained on him. Then it leaped into the air.

“Wes!” I screamed, aiming my gun and firing again.

But this time…I missed.

The creature slammed right into Wes, causing him to fall face first into the graveled dirt.

Oh my god!

The beast pulled its head back, jaws wide open in a victorious snarl as it struck down, teeth ready to tear off Wes’s head.

BANG!

The shot rang out, through the space between gaping teeth, and blew out the back of the hound’s head, sending brain matter everywhere, as it fell limp on top of Wes.

I watched as smoke curled up from the end of my barrel, stunned and frozen in place by fear and sheer surprise.

Wes pushed up off the ground, causing the beast to flop off him, and then he was back on his feet, racing toward me.

I blinked several times, trying to get my mind back in the game, gratitude filling my soul.

As Wes reached me, he grabbed my wrist, twirled me around, and then we were both consuming the few feet left between us and the safety of the fence.

As we reached it, Wes pushed me through first, and followed in after me.

I whipped around and watched as he tried to pull back the curled ends of the chain link fence back together, closing the space as best as he could.

The fence would be of no use if there was a massive hole for these monsters to get through.

A quick glance beyond the gate showed me we had all of twenty seconds before we would be shit out of luck.

Crap … I tried to help him, pulling on the left side, uncurling the fence as best as I could while he yanked on the right.

Ten.

Wes pulled out several zip ties and slipped one through a link.

Nine.

He zipped it closed as best as he could.

Eight.

I heard the snarling of a hound coming right up on us.

Seven.

“Get out of here!” he ordered. But I ignored him, just grabbing another tie from his hand.

Six.

I looped it through and tried to cinch it close to the bottom as best I could.

Five.

“Hurry up, Wes,” I urged as I saw one of the hounds leap toward us.

Four.

Wes glanced up as he pulled out a third tie.

Three.

He looped it through fast, twisting the tie to cinch it.

Two.

“Wes!” I screamed as I watched the beast fly through the air at the fence.

One.

“Done!” he yelled as the creature slammed into the fence, the zip ties stretching, but holding against the force of impact.

We only had three of those stupid, plastic things in place when the pack of mutated dogs slammed themselves into the fence, causing the whole thing to bow out toward us.

We leaped backwards out of instinct, and I felt as my foot hit the edge of the cliff, slipped, and caused me to fall to the ground as my foot flew off the ledge.

Oh my god…too close. Way too close.

I scrambled to my feet as the beasts kept piling up against the fence, causing the entire thing to lean toward us, consuming more and more of the very little precious space we had left.

“Fuck,” Wes growled. “This thing’s going to give any second.” As if on cue, one of the zip ties snapped off, creating a big enough hole that one hound got its entire head through, snapping its jaws at us.

I tried to take another step back, but there was nowhere left to go. Nowhere left to run. And those yellowed teeth were only a few feet away.

“Get your harness on,” he scowled as he grabbed one off the floor to the side of him, barely missing the snapping jaws as he did.

I turned to see the other set, and grabbed it, making quick work of slipping my legs through the straps and shimming it up to buckle everything in place.

Wes started attaching the safety anchors, doing the best he could to find suitable spots in the rock.

With my harness in place, I grabbed the lengths of rope and began attaching them to the safety anchors.

Wes snapped his carabiner to the main anchor, and then attached the opposite end to his harness just as we heard another snap.

I turned to look, but I really wished I hadn’t.

The second zip tie holding back the hound snapped, and the nasty thing lunged through, maw open wide, right at my face.

I lifted my arms up instinctively, trying to keep the red stained teeth from biting my face, but it wouldn’t matter in the end.

His teeth sunk into my forearm as the entire weight of his massive body—all 150 pounds or more of him—slammed into me, throwing me backwards through the air and into the night sky.

I heard Wes yell. Heard him call my name. But it all sounded muffled and far away. All I heard with perfect clarity was the steady beat of my heart as I fell into the night. The hound released my arm, falling past me as I watched Wes grow smaller and smaller.

It was then that I realized one thing… One fatal mistake.

I attached all the ropes to the safety anchors, but…

I never attached them to my harness.