Beyond The Walls (NOW ON AMAZON!!!)

The Cafeteria

Hadley kicked up gravel as she slid to a halt. She caught herself before falling to the ground, twisted her body and sprinted back to the room of monitors. She had to get back into the Compound. Had to warn the others. Had to kill the monsters she'd brought with her. Her mind was on overdrive trying to formulate a plan. She'd find Aunt Zee first. She was the strongest person Hadley knew. Aunt Zee would have a plan.

Hadley froze!

In front of her, standing next to the button that open and shut the gate, was Ruqwik. Hadley was stuck in a nightmare! She watched in horror as strands of skin were stitching back together Ruqwik's decapitated head and torso. The vampire's eyes were neon blue and green, with the thinnest sliver of red close to the pupils. Hadley shifted her gaze to Hiltro, the other vampire. That body was still a pile of shredded meat and bones. Her eyes went back to Ruqwik.

How...?

"Run!"

The vampire's voice was a gargling, nightmarish sound that would haunt Hadley for years to come. It did snap her out of her stupor! That and the growling barks behind her. Hadley sprinted through the room of monitors and down the hallway Ruqwik was pointing at. Ruqwik followed, slamming shut the barred door that separated the hallway from the room of monitors, just as the dogs made it into the office. Hadley ran down the hallway. At the end of it was a door. Hadley burst through it and tried to catch her breath as she found her bearings.

The building ahead of her was the Compound cafeteria. To her right side was the Compound Clinic. Hadley looked back at the door she'd used, confused, and gasped. She knew she was looking right at it, but she couldn't see the door, blended seamlessly into the wall. It was only because Hadley was looking for it that she found a door handle. She gingerly pulled the door open and stared down the hallway.

The door shook in her hand.

An ungodly screeching uproar followed.

The monsters would be here soon.

Hadley turned back to face the Cafeteria. She had a plan. Hadley ran back into the hallway and towards the bloody room full of monitors, now full of monsters. She found the vampire staring down the monsters on the other side of the barred door. The creatures slammed themselves against the locked door, shaking the building around them. Cracks slithered from the door's frame with each slam. That door wouldn't hold much longer.

"Follow me!" Hadley screamed at Ruqwik.

The vampire turned around, clearly surprised to see Hadley.

"What are you doing back here?" Ruqwik demanded.

Her voice was still horrific, stilted and scratchy like sharp gravel deeply scratched over glass, but the words were clearer than before. Hadley grit her teeth against the horrendous sound as it ran through her.

Pure nightmare fuel!

The beasts slammed against the door once more and snapped Hadley back into action.

"I have a plan!" Hadley yelled, turning around to run, and motioning for Ruqwik to follow.

As she ran, Hadley picked on the fang bites on her forearm from the attack, wincing when the wounds opened wider, dripping blood.

"You're bleeding!" Ruqwik said the words more like a cuss than anything. In combination with that terrifying gravely sound her healing throat was making, the words twisted Hadley's insides, ratcheting up her fear faster than the darkness could drain it away.

"We need to make sure they follow us." Hadley said, running down the hallway once more, making sure blood dripped heavily from her arm to mark the path. They exploded through the camouflaged door into the Compound. She, once more, made sure the blood drops made a heavy trail as they ran to the Cafeteria. Once inside the empty room, Hadley raced to a medical kit on the cafeteria wall, pulled out a small, pressurised canister and sprayed liquid bandage on her bleeding forearm wounds.