Hurricane: Day 20, Part Three
I tried to focus... The beast was only 5 or 6 feet away, and it was snarling and slobbering all over the place, no doubt hoping that I would make a tasty dinner. I backed up a little more, and accidentally put my hand on something hard. I looked, and almost threw up. It was all that remained of some kind of small animal. Correction. It was hoping I would be a tasty dessert. That didn't exactly help to improve my focus. I thrust my hand towards the sky again, but still, nothing happened. The beast stepped forward, and I waited to feel it's sharp teeth. Then I heard Jackson yell from somewhere high above, "Not today, beast!" I glanced up, and I saw Jackson swinging from ceiling light to ceiling light, trying to close the distance. Once he was at a good angle, with his free hand he grabbed some kind of long metal dart, loaded it up into another gun he must have taken from the guns area, and fired. The dart had a huge 6 inch needle, which sank all the way into the beast's neck. I backed away, and got a smell of some kind of powerful Knock Out drug. He must have been trying to Tranquilize it. The beast staggered, but didn't fall. Instead, it planted all four paws on the ground firmly, and howled. Immediately, it started to grow. It increased in size, until it changed from the size of your average F250 truck, to the size of a Mack Truck. I originally had thought that it's tail had been all fur, but now I could see that it was covered in short, extremely sharp spikes. If wolves could glare, it definitely did at Jackson. Cursing, Jackson fired again. The beast flicked it's tail, and two spikes flew off, traveling at incredible speed. One sliced his tranquilizer dart in half in mid-air, and the other flew even higher. It sank into Jackson's shoulder. Without a sound, he fell thirty feet from the ceiling, and crashed into the ground somewhere a few aisles down. "Jackson!" I yelled. The beast turned on me.
I unsheathed my sword. "Come on then!" I yelled, taunting it. I charged. It's tail bristled, and four spikes flew straight at me. Time seemed to turn to liquid. I could see the spikes hurtling towards me. I slid under one, deflected another off of the flat of my blade, and leaped to the side to avoid the third. As the fourth sliced through the air, flying towards me, I slashed downwards, and sliced the dart perfectly in half. Both halves flew over my shoulders and buried themselves into the solid brick wall behind me. I ran at the wolf. As I ran, I saw two of Jackson's Tranquilizer spikes lying on the floor. I stooped to the ground as I ran, sheathing my sword onto my back and grabbing the Tranqs, one in each hand. I leaped at the beast, adrenaline giving me extra strength. I grabbed around it's neck, sinking both needles into it's neck, and I used my force to hurtle to into the air, above the beast. As I flew upwards, I yanked the needles out of it's neck, flipped in midair, and came down onto the beast, stabbing both needles into it's neck again. It howled, and arched it's back, throwing me into a shelf. I slammed into the ground, and looked up. The beast was staggering towards me, baring it's teeth. It's front leg gave out on it, and it toppled sideways. It rolled over onto it's back, and started to snore. As I watched, Dark Matter flew upwards out of the wolf's nose, and dissipated into the air. Immediately, the beast shrank, shrinking down to the size of a normal wolf. It almost looked cute now, except for the fact that it had just tried to eat me. I stood up slowly, making sure nothing was broken. I walked to the dog and slowly withdrew the needles from it's neck. It snorted in it's sleep, but didn't wake. I ached all over, but I managed to jog down a few aisles until I found Jackson in a heap on the ground, next to some shattered pickle jars. I grabbed the spike in his leg, and pulled it out. Immediately, Jackson had a knife to my neck, wide awake.
"You mind?" I asked.
"Sorry," he said, and dropped it to the ground. I grabbed the end of my shirt(Which was already peppered with burn marks, scorch marks, and holes) and managed to tear off the end. I tied it tightly around Jackson's arm. "There, that should hold off the bleeding until we manage to get back to the apartment. You packed a first aid kit, right?"
"Yeah," Jackson mumbled after a few seconds, "but I left it back at the apartment when we first got here."
I helped him stand up. "Can you walk?" I asked.
"Yeah, my legs are fine," he responded. "We should get back to Chloë and Evan. Let's pack a couple of bags for them, the car will be at our apartment by tomorrow night. We walked around the store, packing two more bags of equipment and clothes for Chloë and Evan. I glanced over at the sleeping wolf. It was still snoring contently. My heart felt pulled, even though it had just tried to kill me.
"We're taking the wolf with us," Jackson said before I could say anything. I raised my eyebrows, but said nothing.
"I'll carry my bag, and the wolf," I offered. "You carry Chloë's bag, Evan's and your own."
With a snoring wolf in my arms, 4 bulging backpacks, and quite a lot of guns and combat knives, we left the strange Walmart behind...
