Chapter 200: 200-The Secret Cellar
Clementine:
As I tried to run away again, she gripped my hand even tighter, so I spun around and glared at her. She instantly let go and raised her hands at her sides to show she was surrendering.
"Fine, go ahead and waste the chance he gave you. He made those things follow him so you could find a safe place, so he could return to safety," she hissed, slowing me down. I turned and stared at her.
"Come on, isn’t that why he asked those things to follow him? Just find a safe place and then you can look for him," she grunted.
As we stared at each other, I noticed Jack coughing hard.
"Suki, freaking get here," Joshua yelled. "You don’t need to beg her for help. What the fuck? Are you crazy? Don’t you trust me?" he snapped. Suki rolled her eyes at his voice.
She kept staring at me, then slowly backed away and turned to her squadmates.
I looked into the distance for Ian, but I couldn’t spot those things anymore, so I realized they were right. By the time Ian returns, I’ll have a safe place. I retraced my steps and watched Suki acknowledge me.
However, Instead of immediately going back to join her, I sprinted to a dark street and let my wolf take over. It was always quick for me. I needed to heal and once I did, I returned to my human form and came out.
"Ah, she is back," I heard Suki say to Joshua as they have not gone far. They were looking for a safe place while carrying Jack.
Then I rushed ahead of them, searching for a house that might have a basement with a tight door that wouldn’t let a Wendigo slide through.
We started walking, and I noticed one of the houses looked unusually small. I motioned for the two of them to stay back because Joshua was carrying Jack, and Jack didn’t want to shift, that would attract a lot of attention from different kinds of monsters. I guessed that was why none of them wanted to shift into their wolf forms.
Which is what scared me. I had transitioned so the energy might have shifted in the air.
When a wolf comes out, it gives off an energy and a scent that other creatures can pick up as danger. I reached the house, turned the doorknob, and pushed inside with a sword in my hand. It was a tiny house, and everything was kind of a mess.
Someone had already rummaged through it, maybe a monster got here first and smashed a lot of the stuff. At the entrance there was a very narrow corridor with a closet on the side that had tilted over, creating a barrier. I squeezed through the small triangular opening in the closet and forced it upright with my hands. After I cleared the way, I walked in.
Suki gave me a quick glance and then stared at my arm. I had already unbandaged it.
"When did you transition?" she asked, probably wondering how someone could transition so fast and so quietly.
I tried to divert her attention and began inspecting what was in front of us.
The stench was odd, like something dead was lying here. When I got closer to the living room I saw a black tail. I stepped back because of what it might be, then touched it with my sword and realized it was dead.
It didn’t look like the tail of a wendigo. It was huge, a long, wide black tail that shone, almost like a snake’s tail but far too wide. I followed it into the living room and realized it was a snake, but not one you see every day. It had six feet and a very short body, maybe three feet long, and a huge head. The head could open wide enough to swallow a whole person.
"What the fuck is this thing?" I said. Suki came in, clearly shocked at what I was staring at.
"Maybe it’s something we’re gonna face soon," I said, shaking my head in disbelief.
I noticed a sharp piece of wood, like something sharpened into a weapon, stuck in the creature’s open mouth. I figured that was the cause of its death. After examining it for a moment, I shifted my attention back to finding the basement.
I reached the basement door and found the opening extremely narrow. It was a very small house.
"I think this will be good enough," I said, gently touching the door. The minute I touched it and we started talking, something rustled upstairs as if coming up, then a weird thud hit the other side of the door and we both jumped back.
"What is it?" Suki asked. I don’t know why every time something happens she asks me that. I was here just like her, it’s not like I knew everything or had been here before.
"I think something is trapped behind it. Let’s go. We don’t need to unlock the door and find out what it is," I said, patting her shoulder to let her know we needed to leave.
The thing started attacking the door from the other side, but we rushed out. Before leaving, I dropped the closet back into place the way it was supposed to be. Whoever had done this had done it meticulously, they were trying to keep something inside.
Once we were out, I checked another house that had a decent backyard. Instead of going straight inside, I went into the backyard because I could see a pole sticking out. Some grass had been cut in a square shape, it was a latch.
"Okay, perfect," I said with a small smile. Suki watched me with amusement.
"What?" she asked, and I rolled my eyes. "This will be a perfect place to hide from those things," I said, grabbing the latch and opening it. I had to go down and check first. Although the opening was very narrow, other monsters might still fit through.
Even the snake thing had a huge head, so it probably couldn’t get in, but other monsters could. We hadn’t explored the entire north, so we didn’t know how many more monsters were out there.
I was the first to go down. Inside I was shocked to see stockpiles of food. I grabbed one of the cans from the shelves and checked the date, it wasn’t expired. Someone had been using this place to save supplies, but the owner didn’t seem to be around.
It was a small basement, but it looked safe enough for the night.
"Okay, it’s safe," I said, pointing at the cellar. Joshua went ahead first. I jumped out at that point while Joshua carried Jack into the cellar, and I could already hear him gasp.
"They have some medical supplies too," I heard Joshua say, and Suki instantly jumped down, happy. But I had to make a decision, did I really want to go down there and hide till morning?