Capítulo 35: Campfire
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The wolves tapped on the glass. One of them got on all fours and began to sniff the ground outside of the window. Lucas carefully lifted. The table and grabbed the gun, and made sure to put the table back down as carefully as possible. The ears of the wolves twitched.
The muffled growls of the wolves could be heard. One of them kept tapping the glass. The other ones started fighting in the street. But this one kept tapping the glass.
Lucas looked behind the counter. This building had multiple stories. That means there is a stairwell somewhere. Maybe there is an emergency exit.
Lucas started walking slowly toward the counter. He looked at Stella and signaled her to follow. She looked at the wolf tapping on the glass. Her eyes were still wide.
Lucas approached her and helped her pull her seat back without it making any noise. She stood up and Lucas pushed the seat back in. They went behind the counter and they found a door on the right side. There was a sign next to it. It had an image of a person going down stairs. Lucas tried to open it slowly, but it creaked. He snapped his head back toward the wolf. It was staring right at him. The two wolves had stopped fighting and were also staring. They were drooling.
Lucas had opened it enough for Stella to slip through with the baby. But he kept watching the wolves. And they kept looking his way. Their blind stare was frightening.
The wolf at the window finally got down on all fours and backed up into the street. It was charging a sprint. Lucas didn't stick around to see it crash through the window. He ran through the door and closed it. He searched for a lock in the pitch black room, but there was none.
There was a glowing red light hanging from the ceiling. "Exit." He heard the window shatter in the other room. Lucas ran toward the exit sign and looked for a door. He felt the knob and twisted it open. Lucas and Stella ran out.
There was a sudden blaring siren. White emergency lights flashed and they could hear the barks and growls of wolves in the distance.
They were in an alley, but they didn't stay. They sprinted away from the scene. The growls and barks faded as they ran.
Stella was slightly ahead of Lucas. She ran faster even with Jonas in her arms. A wolf sat on the top of a building. It could hear them running. It jumped off and landed right in front of Stella.
Stella slipped and fell backward, startled by the wolf. She hit her elbow on the road and it got scratched pretty bad.
Stella held Jonas to her chest. He was completely exposed. The wolf tried to stab her, but she rolled to the side, stopping only when Jonas was under her. The wolf got ready to stab her again, but Lucas threw a punch at it. A hole opened up in its stomach.
The wolf stumbled back. It hunched forward and tried to keep itself upright but it fell onto its back. Something came over Lucas. He didn't kill it on the spot. He felt something festering in his soul. This unbridled desire to unleash his anger on a subject. Any subject.
He walked over to the wolf, got on top of it and sat on its chest. Lucas wrapped his hands around its neck and squeezed. His fingernails dug into the skin. He could feel the wolf stab his sides, but he didn't care. He simply squeezed.
Stella looked back at them. She saw Lucas on top of the apostle, choking it. He gritted his teeth, and he had a glare in his eyes. It wasn't an evil or villainous glare. It wasn't even a crazed glare. It was that of pure untainted fury.
The vicious growls evolved into whimpers and coughs. Lucas did not release his grip. He focused all of his anger into squeezing its neck. He could see nothing else. He could hear nothing else. He could feel nothing else. He didn't let go.
Stella called his name. He didn't react. She touched his shoulder. He didn't know it. He was too focused on killing the apostle. Too focused to realize it was already dead with an arrow sticking out of its head. Stella had shot it.
He only realized when he lost his grip on the neck as it flaked. Stella spoke to him still, but he didn't listen. He looked at his bloody hands. He watched as the blood slowly solidified into the black flakes and disappeared.
The pain from the cuts in his sides slowly dispelled. He sat on his knees, his hands rested between his legs. His eyes stared at the spot the wolf had been. He let out a singular breath. His eyes departed from the spot and he looked down to his left. He saw Stella's boot. She was kneeled down beside him. She rubbed his back.
He knew she was speaking to him, but he wasn't listening. His mind was still fixed on choking the apostle. That fury he felt. It lingered. Though he was calm, he still felt that rage in the primal part of his mind.
(Stella: "Lucas!")
Stella called to him. He finally looked up at her. The moment their eyes met, he looked back down. He got up and stretched.
(Lucas: "Let's go.")
Stella watched from behind as he walked carelessly forward. His stared at his boots as he walked. His mind was elsewhere. Stella followed him.
They walked past many buildings. They didn't know where to go. They were just walking. Searching. Looking for an exit in this city.
That's when Stella spotted something. It was far in the distance. Rising into the sky from behind the buildings. Was it… smoke?
She tapped Lucas and pointed at it. He spotted it. His eyes widened. Smoke? Why would there be smoke? It's possible a fire started somewhere, but by what?
The smoke was small, seemingly confined to a small spot in the distance. They walked toward the smoke. They traveled for a while, passing through alleys to get to it. They came across a brick wall behind a store separated it from the forest. The climbed over it. Lucas got on top and Stella handed him the baby. He helped her up and they got to the other side.
They traveled uphill into the dead forest. The smoke was close. Very close.
As they walked, their steps were clear. The leaves and sticks would make a lot of noise as they trekked through them. That's when they saw it. A tent and a campfire.
Lucas gave Jonas back to Stella and went to investigate. The tent was large. It could fit two people in it. He looked up at the sky. It would be dark in a couple hours. They could take the tent and set it up wherever they needed it. But there was one problem. Who were the ones that set it up first?
Stella yelped. Lucas twisted around and saw Stella being held with a gun to her head. A woman held Stella and a man stood beside her, pointing a gun at Lucas.
(Man: "Hands up.")
(Lucas: "Woah there. There's no need to be pointing those guns at us. We're just passing by.")
(Man: "Sure you are. Empty your pockets.")
Lucas stared at the man's gun. He got goosebumps. Lucas clicked his tongue and slowly pulled everything he had out of his pockets and threw them on the ground.
(Man: "Go ahead and sit down right there for me.")
Lucas obliged and sat down where he told him to.
(Lucas: "No one needs to get hurt. We're just a couple drifters.")
(Man: "Is that a threat?")
(Lucas: "It ain't if you take that gun off my head.")
(Man: "You don't have the position to be making any threats.")
The woman brought Stella over to Lucas and sat her beside him. The man spoke to the woman.
(Man: "What do we tell Allen?")
(Woman: "What is there to tell him? They haven't done anything.")
(Man: "I don't trust them.")
Lucas looked at the pile of stuff he dropped. The man and woman were distracted. If he could just take one hostage, him and Stella could get away.
He scooted closer to the pile. He reached for a knife and grabbed it. He rushed toward them. The man swung around and planted a large dagger into Lucas' neck. Lucas was wide-eyed. He felt his spinal cord snap and his entire body went limp.
The man shook his head.
(Man: "Tsk, tsk, tsk. He didn't have to do that. We all could've gone home just fine.")
He pulled the dagger out of Lucas' neck and blood gushed from the gash. He grabbed a leaf from the ground and wiped the blood off of his knife. But then he stared at the leaf. He stared at the blood on it. He signaled for the woman to come to him. They both stared at it. He pointed at a tiny bit of it. It flaked.
(Woman: "You don't think…")
They both turned around and watched Lucas rise. They were stunned. Then the man said something puzzling.
(Man: "Allen was right. We found another one.")
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