by William Bebb
Billy gradually heard the grunting and snarling become more distant behind him as they ran on trying not to crash into anything.
A simple thing to do if I'd been smart enough to bring along a stupid flashlight, he thought while picking up speed. Glancing over his shoulder, provided a brief glimpse of the moonlit clearing a moment before he ran into a grocery cart that someone apparently filled with yet more empty beer cans. The boy tumbled and landed in the midst of a huge pile of cans and made a horrendous amount of noise. CRAP! There must be a million dollars worth of aluminum in this stupid park, Billy realized as he got up and continued to run.
Up ahead, he caught a starlit glimpse of something in his way and tried to swerve around it but tripped on a rusty chain that hung from some short metal posts. The chain had an old rusty sign hanging on it which even in daylight would have been too rusty and illegible to read.
Boris yelped as Billy stumbled forward and, carried by momentum, landed partly on the dog and partly on some old wooden boards. The boy was momentarily stunned as he laid there listening to the old boards creaking under him and felt the dog’s wet tongue licking his face. The phone! He felt around in the backpack, found it, pulled it out, and flipped it open. The light from its screen was feeble yet enough for Billy to see the dog looking warily back the way they had come.
Both of Boris' ears twitched as he growled softly.
The signal meter was still showing NO SIGNAL as Billy sat up slowly on the creaking boards. He saw his BB rifle and was reaching for it when the beer cans they had run through seconds earlier clattered in the darkness behind him. While picking up the rifle, he flipped the phone shut then tried to stand.
Boris growled louder in the darkness as Billy shakily stood up feeling the bending boards creaking and cracking ominously. The boy whispered, “Come on Boris,” and took a single step before a board his left boot was standing on broke apart with a sound as loud as a gunshot. Slamming face first into the dirt, he felt his nose start bleeding. DANG IT! He thought while trying to stand but his boot was wedged tight between some wooden boards. As Billy pulled and wiggled his boot, attempting to free it, Boris growled then barked and ran back the way they'd come.
“No Boris, come back here!” the boy shouted in equal parts fear for dog's safety as well as his own, while still struggling to free his boot. Sharp edges from the wood were painfully cutting his ankle as he moved it. He was sprawled mostly on the dirt with his lower left leg still trapped firmly in the splintered wooden planks.
Boris sounded like he was busy and Billy heard additional growls that he was certain did not belong to the dog. Flipping open the phone once more, he quickly saw how his foot was stuck. It felt and almost looked as if the planks of wood had grown sharp nasty teeth that were trying to chew him up. But in spite of the pain, the boy kept pulling and twisting until he saw a shadowy figure approaching from where Boris continued his fight. The light from the phone allowed him to watch the shambling creature come closer.
It had once been a man. Billy was certain of that, but most of its face lacked skin and the hands were filthy with many large missing patches of skin. Oh crap, I'm dead meat, the boy thought before yelling, “BORIS!” as the thing that once had been a man looked directly at him and shuffled forward faster.