by Angela Foxxe
Tasha could feel the panic rising inside of her.
That glass wasn’t going to hold and they were going to be coming at her from two points. She didn’t like this at all. Walking backwards toward the staircase heading down into the basement, she knew that she was going to need to bottleneck them. She decided that it would be worth it to stick around and get one shot off.
Put one of them down and then retreat. She hoped that Dane was still alive and that he was out there, defending their daughter, because it wouldn’t be long now until they were on top of her. She could see more shadows at the corner of the windows, more of the creatures lurking around to find a way in and to kill her. She took a deep breath as the rams pounded a second time. The glass buckled and she could hear it splintering, tinkling across the hardwood floor of the cabin. Getting ready, she held her shotgun level, anticipating where the ram creature would land.
They both stepped back and charged. They moved like lightning and they hit like thunder. Both panes shattered and the first ram dove right through the glass and sprawled out across the floor of the living room, knocking over tables and skidding into the couch. Tasha fired, putting everything she had into the back of the ram and making sure that it wasn’t getting up easily.
It flailed in agony, while she watched the wolves descending on that broken chunk of the pane. The other ram was skewered on the jagged remainder of the glass hanging around the edge of the window’s frame. The wolves crawled over it, pushing it down onto the glass. The ram shrieked in agony as Tasha retreated, firing at the nearest wolf and catching it in the face.
As she made her way into the stairwell, she fired at anything that appeared in the doorway. She could hear their paws moving across the floor of the main level, hunting for any sign of Addy. Tasha knew that she was the one that they were all least worried about. They were there for Addy and Dane before her. If they didn’t kill Tasha then it would simply be a loose end that they would probably try to tie up later. At the bottom of the steps she fired at the face of another wolf that was too slow to get away. She dropped the exhausted shotgun and scooped up another.
One of the wolves sensed the moment of weakness and bolted for the stairs. It dove, not even bothering to waste time on taking the stairs cautiously. It flew through the air as Tasha raised the barrel of the shotgun and squeezed the trigger. The shotgun kicked familiarly and she saw red and black as the wolf slammed into her, paws kicking and jaws snapping.
Writhing and growling in agony, the wolf tried to get on its footing as Tasha hit the ground, refusing to let go of her shotgun. She hit her head, but forced herself to recover. Shoot it! She screamed to herself. Her mind was a flurry of flashing lights and swirling confusion. She saw the wolf finally get its footing and she squeezed the trigger just as the gaping jaws turned in her direction, foaming and dripping bloody phlegm. The wolf’s face snapped away from her and the creature dropped.
Scrambling to her feet, she blinked several times, trying her hardest to recover from the blow. She knew that she was bleeding from her C-Section, but she was going to survive. She had to survive. Edging her way back toward the doorway, she could hear the creatures still above her. They weren’t leaving. They were trapped up there and they knew that they were running straight into a kill zone if they tried to rush Tasha. If they left back the way they came, then they would have Dane to deal with, assuming that he was still alive.
As far as she was aware, he was dead at this point. Tasha hadn’t heard a roar for a long time and that meant bad things for her. She was stuck in here, the last survivor until the police showed up, but they were apparently taking their sweet time.
“I’m going to tell you all this once,” Tasha shouted up the stairs. “You try and come down here and I’m going to put you down for good. I know you hate the Matterhorns and everything they were going to do to you, but my baby and I have nothing to do with that. I don’t want any part of your Clans or your wars. I just want my baby and I want my family to be safe.”
She could hear the footsteps coming closer to the stairwell and she knew that they were thinking it over. She didn’t know how it worked with these things, whether they could hear and comprehend things like normal creatures, or if they were just as savage and as feral as they seemed, but she liked to think that she had a captive audience right now.
Glancing around her, she knew that she had five shells left inside of her shotgun and that was it. There were two shotguns still loaded upstairs, but down here, she had nothing. There were clearly more than five of those things upstairs and that meant that her death was inevitable if she didn’t find some other way out of this. She swallowed her fear and decided to keep trying at diplomacy. There was no sense in resolving herself to death just yet.
“How many do you think have died today?” Tasha asked them. “How many have your Clans lost trying to kill a baby? Do you think it’s worth it to keep fighting? It’s not like you’re gaining anything. The Matterhorn Group is all but destroyed. You got what you wanted. My daughter will never know them and she’ll never be a part of them. So just leave her alone. We all know how this is going to end. I’m going to take as many of you down with me as possible and once this baby is dead, you’re just going to turn on each other, just like you always do.
"Look around, how many of you have died? Who was the most expendable? How many more do you have left in the area? Someone is taking advantage of this situation and I guarantee, whoever has more of you up there, they’re going to be the real winners today.”
That hit a nerve.
She knew that they could hear her, because suddenly there was tons of growling up above her and she could hear barking from the wolves, shrieks from the birdmen and the sounds of the entire menagerie of horror that was up above her. It was something of a miracle that they could understand her and she wasn’t going to waste the opportunity.
She was going to give them everything that she could. If she could survive this, then she was going to make sure that Addy was safe and happy for the rest of her days. There were only going to be sunshine and sparkles from here on out.
But she had to survive.
She could hear the wolves making their way toward the stairs and she knew that they wanted to silence her before she could fill their allies’ heads with more of her propaganda. Maybe it was them trying to prove themselves to the other creatures that were there with them.
But three of the big, hairy creatures came charging for the stairwell, slamming into each other and knocking against one another as they tried to squeeze down the narrow space together. It was a kill zone and Tasha took advantage of it. She fired at each of them, giving both of them a shot in the face where blood and horrors unlike anything she had seen exploded across the stairs, giving an opening for the third to charge.
It bounded up and over the other two that were as dead as the stairs that they were on and the creature landed at the bottom of the stairs near the body of its fallen comrade. Tasha stepped back, not falling for the same trick twice. She knew that she was in a predicament. She had lost her kill zone and as the wolf stood in front of her, growling and snarling, she knew it was faster than she was. She could squeeze the trigger and that creature could be on the other side of the room in a heartbeat. It looked at her with smoldering eyes with raw fury and primal hatred. It was a thing of legend and it wasn’t afraid to remind her of that. She looked at it, praying that this ended well.
She figured that there were two options right now. There was the option that this wolf could charge her and kill her, but it was looking down the barrel of her gun and she knew that she had a pretty good chance at killing the wolf as well or at least hurting it mortally.
Again, however, if that creature attacked her, it would hit her, even if she shot it with the shotgun, it would still slam into her and knock her down. She would have two shells left and the gun probably wouldn’t still be in her hands. If that were the case, then she didn’t doubt for a second that the rest of those abominatio
ns upstairs would come raining down on her with fury and hatred, ripping her to shreds for every one of their kind that she had killed that day.
There was, however, another possibility that she was praying for. There was the chance that this creature was not nearly as brave as it thought it was and that it had finally found a situation that it knew it wouldn’t survive. If that were the case, then it would call for help, recoil, or slip back out of here.
After all, it was looking down the barrel of a gun and she knew that these things were cognitive on some level. They understood things and that meant that it knew the kind of predicament it was in. So, if the creature was a coward, then that meant that she would have a chance to kill it and maybe reclaim the kill zone.
If all of this came together, then that would mean that she would demoralize those bastards and she will have killed the wolves of the group. She didn’t know what other kinds of horrors there were up there, but she doubted any of them were as terrifying as a living wolf that was taller than she was.
It was taking too long.
Tasha was tired of waiting.
She squeezed the trigger of the rifle and felt the familiar recoil assuring her that she was sending countless little balls of rage and hatred at the creature, close range and that it was going to hurt badly. In fact, the wolf seemed to sense this and started to throw back its head to call for help, to call for anything that would not let it die in vain. It was too late.
Before the wolf could call for help or make any sort of noise, the shotgun ripped open the creature’s chest and knocked it backwards, throwing it to the ground where it whimpered and twitched a few times, blood running in a large pool around the creature. The damage was so severe that Tasha knew that this thing wasn’t going to make it or be any kind of a threat to her any longer.
Trembling, she made her way back to the stairwell, which was full of bodies at this point. It was packed with the dead wolves and there were two more down the stairs with her. She was shaking and she knew that if these things didn’t surrender, that she was only taking two more down with her. The thought of that was nauseating and she hated the thought of what would happen to Addy if she wasn’t around. She would never know the truth. She would never know how much her mother loved her and would do for her.
She wouldn’t die whimpering like these wolves. She wouldn’t die with despair or sadness in her eyes. She would die with fire and steel and she would die doing what she had to in order to save her child. That was what she would want to tell Addy. She would want Addy to be a fighter who would face the end of her days with rage and strength. These things were monsters, but they weren’t prepared for what Tasha was willing to do. They had been so prideful and smug that they thought they would stroll in here and kill her without so much as a decent fight.
They had been expecting the girls in the horror movies, but Tasha was more than just a pretty face. She was more than just a hot body. Tasha was a woman and she was a mother. She pumped the shotgun and dropped the empty shell.
“Any more of you assholes want to die?” Tasha shouted up at them.
In the distance, she could hear the sounds of sirens approaching and there was a moment where she didn’t understand what it was that she was hearing. She listened to the sounds and suddenly there was silence throughout everything. There was nothing that made sense to her. It was just like the world had been engulfed in water and that the sirens were above all of it, muffled and muted by the sound of her own heartbeat and her own fear. She looked up the stairwell, watching the shadows creep up the wall. The creatures were contemplating it.
They were thinking over one final rush. After all, she only had a gun and there were so many of them. Why wouldn’t they try for one more rush? She felt her stomach tighten. She could take two of them down. That much she knew. She could take two of them down and then it was all over for her.
But the shadows didn’t come.
The creatures didn’t charge and they didn’t try and overwhelm them. They were cowards or survivalists at heart. Either way, the fact that the shadows crept back and she could hear them all rushing toward the south wall of the cabin, filled her with satisfaction, but it wasn’t enough to make her drop the gun.
She kept her shotgun raised, trembling with the adrenaline that had been coursing through her veins for the past half an hour or so. However long it had taken the police to finally show up and save her. She could hear the police officers pulling up. There were multiple vehicles, something she had only dared to hope about.
Their voices were muffled by the walls and of the ringing in Tasha’s ears. She stepped backwards and tripped over the bodies of one of the dead wolves, falling backwards on her ass and splashing in a puddle of warm blood that was just under her. She was too tired to do anything about it. The exhaustion was settling in all over her and the adrenaline was starting to fade. She had just done the impossible. She was surprised that she was still alive. How was she still alive?
There was a warmth spreading out across her abdomen. Looking down, she saw that she had torn her stitches and staples. She was bleeding through her bandages and it didn’t look too good. She couldn’t feel anything, but that was probably just from the shock that was settling in her. If she didn’t find a way to fix herself soon or if the creatures were now going to take on the police, then she wasn’t going to make it for sure. She didn’t want to die.
She couldn’t die yet.
Reaching out, she clamped her hand down on the ledge of a table, and pulled herself up with all of her strength, letting the shotgun fall freely on the body of the wolf at her feet. She walked slowly toward the stairs to the bunker and made sure she didn’t slip. She suddenly felt very dizzy, like there was something outside, spinning the world like a top. It made her want to vomit and it was something she didn’t get used to. Reaching the bunker, she keyed in the right password and listened as the locks rolled and rattled.
Pulling the door open, she looked into the bunker where Addy was still nestled safely in her little rocker, sleeping like a little angel. Just under a week old and she had been through more chaos and insanity that Tasha had been in her entire life. She looked so peaceful sleeping there, bundled up like a little burrito. She smiled at the sight of Addy and couldn’t help but feel like she had done right by her daughter.
Shuffling her feet, she could hear the patter of blood following her wherever she moved. Reaching out for the side of one of the bunks, she slowly lowered herself onto the bed and wondered what would happen if she just closed the door and stayed down here for a while with Addy.
What were the odds of the police being able to save her after all? She had no idea what was happening. Was she bleeding to death or was she simply in shock? It was hard to tell. She wasn’t a doctor.
“Mommy and Daddy saved you,” Tasha whispered to her daughter who was as still as a stone. Her tiny little chest was barely moving as she breathed. She looked so peaceful that Tasha found herself envious.
Everything started to get blurry and she looked toward the doorway. She could see lights on the walls of the stairwell and suddenly she remembered the fact that she had forgotten the shotgun out on the roof. What if the police were evil? What if they tried to stop her or to take away Addy? She couldn’t allow that to happen. She had to stop them. She had to lock herself in here with Addy and make sure that everything was safe.
Her grandfather would be home tomorrow. He would be here and he would open the bunker for the police and she could entrust him with the care of Addy. No one would dare take sweet Addy from her grandfather.
Pushing herself up from the bed, she tried to make it to the door. She could see the lights of their flashlights shining in her eyes. She held up her hands, hearing their voices as the light blinded her. She couldn’t make out anything that they were saying.
The world kept spinning.
Spinning.
Suddenly, everything was falling into the sinking blackness.
*
Hones
tly, the police were more than willing to accept the idea that Tasha was the beautiful woman in the horror movie who survived the terrible attack that had claimed so many other lives. Honestly, they weren’t sure what to make of any of this. It was the kind of thing that no one is ever ready to stumble across.
When Tasha woke up, she was pleased to find out that she had only been out for a few minutes. When she opened her eyes, there was an officer standing next to her with her baby, rocking Addy who had finally woken up in all the commotion. She was not happy at all, but when Tasha reached out and touched her precious little baby’s hand, there was a stillness in Addy that was tangible. The paramedics didn’t waste any time with her.
“Ma’am, we’re going to fix your stitches here,” the paramedic said. “Tell us if you feel any pain or discomfort.”
“I’m bleeding,” Tasha said.
“We’ve stopped the bleeding,” the paramedic told her with such a soothing voice that she found herself smiling at it. It was such a nice voice, the kind of voice that you wouldn’t mind listening to on the radio reading the news. She liked it so much that she wanted him to keep talking, but he was busy. He was far too busy doing things that were supposed to save her life. She decided to leave him alone and appreciate whatever drugs they had given her.
“What’s her name?” The officer asked her as he rocked Addy next to Tasha.
“Adelaide,” Tasha said with a smile on her lips. It was warming to her heart to say her name. It was the name that was worth everything to fight for.
“She’s precious,” the officer said to her with a kind voice.
“She is,” Tasha agreed with him.
As the minutes ticked by, the police began to grow in number and it wasn’t long until there were more here than she could keep track of. The exhaustion started to fade and there was a whole lot of talking about what had happened. The police here were clearly shaken and they should have been.