Chapter 4: Terror

***A FEW MINUTES EARLIER***

When Josh rushed to the bedroom window he heard those familiar growls but this time there were sounds of struggles coming from inside. Josh cautiously glanced inside to scout the situation but only to see Tim trembling in fear as he was backed into a corner, desperately struggling to hold back the aggressive wolf against a chair. The wolf fangs didn’t reach the boy but he had already been scratched several times as the wolf constantly kept clawing at him.

“Oh F*CK! TIM!” said Josh as he briskly climbed through the window. He dashed forward and kicked away the wolf\, in doing so Josh’s dagger slipped from its sheath. The wolf was average-sized but became more belligerent by the second. Reaching for his dagger\, Josh realized it wasn’t there. The dagger had dropped behind the wolf\, “Just F*cking Great!” Josh knew that the hostile canine would pounce at him any second now. He glanced around to see a pile of old wooden planks\, he quickly took one and as the wolf lunged at him\, Josh held the plank horizontally. With its jaws wide open the wolf bit the plank instead of its prey.

In an abrupt struggle to push back his canine adversary, Josh lost his balance and fell out of the window with the wolf. Josh called out to Tim, he was pissed on himself for losing his trusted dagger when he needed it the most. “TIM! TIM! Ugh!” But the wolf kept clawing at him with full force.

Tim was still hiding in the corner, horrified with the predatory ambush but he mustered up the courage to get up whilst still quivering with horror. He noticed Josh’s lying beside him. “Oh NO! Josh…” He knew what he had to do. He grasped the dagger and rushed towards the window to see Josh desperately trying to hold the wolf back. “JOSH!” Tim called to his friend as he tossed the dagger toward him.

The dagger fell beside Josh, almost within his reach. Fortunately, Josh was able to reach the dagger in time. He gripped it firmly and stabbed it in the wolf’s chest, shoving the beast back. Josh wasted no time and repeatedly stabbed the wolf until it ceased to move.

But before he could even recover his breath he heard Luke’s furious warcry and then a mournful scream. He and Tim rushed back inside only to see a massive wolf brutally impaled on the protruding wooden stake and the blood gradually dripped from its jaws.

“Holy Sh*t…” said Josh as his eyes were wide open from the dreadful sight. He witnessed the brutally gnawed corpse of the young boy resting in Luke’s arms. Luke kept apologizing to the lifeless body with tears continuously streaming down his eyes, it was almost as if Luke had lost his mind. “I’m sorry...I’m sorry...it wasn’t...it wasn’t supposed to be...like this, ugh…” He gritted his teeth and clenched his eyes shut.

Tim sharply gasped and fell down to his knees on the dreadful sight of blood and gore. “No...it can’t be…” He simply couldn’t accept that little Kevin had met such a horrifically cruel fate. “I’m pathetic! I couldn’t...I couldn’t even do one damn job, I failed to protect him...it’s my fault…”

“Dammit… we got f*cked really bad this time...” Josh faintly said as he approached his numb friend. “Luke? Hey? Luke?” Josh kept calling Luke but there was no response. “LUKE! F*CK! Get your sh*t together! We need to go...now! You said yourself this place isn’t safe.” Josh said that in order to get Luke to respond to prevent him from falling into despair. “Wait\, where the hell is that Fatso? Hey Tim? Where’s Ben?”

“He...he hasn’t returned yet…”

“F*ck\, he better not have been devoured by those wolves.” Josh rushed outside\, looked around and called out for the chubby kid. “BEN! BEN?!” Josh became vigilant as he noticed movement in the dense bushes. “What the…?” Ben came out of the bushes with a horrified expression and shaking with fear. “Ben? Well\, sh*t...”

“Joh-Josh...hey…”

“There’s no need to be afraid we got rid of them...but Kevin, he, uh...damn it…”

“I saw it...I saw it, JOSH! But I was frozen...I was so scared!” The satchel half full of fruits fell down from his weak grasp.

“I know...it’s a shame that it had to be like this...but at least you’re fine, right?”

Several minutes later…

As the others mourned the child’s untimely demise and recovered their breath, Josh went back inside and examined the massive wolf impaled on the stake. Judging from its size and savagery Josh suspected it of being an Alpha. “Holy Sh*t...you really did it, Luke. You slew the big bad alpha itself…”

“What makes you so sure that it's the actual Alpha?” asked Tim.

“Because...only an Alpha could be capable of such barbaric ferocity. And this one seemed vicious enough to brutally tear apart a human on its own. It’s only natural that the others followed it out of fear. And now, if the Alpha’s out of the picture the rest of the pack might not ambush us anytime soon. But it’s also possible that they may be out for blood now. In any case, we should get hell out of this wretched place while we can.”

“I hope you’re right, Josh....”

“This place is splattered with blood, we’re gonna be really screwed if some pack of hyenas showed up or hell it could even be a big f*cking bear…But don’t worry I’ll get rid of this carcass.” A wicked smug emerged on Josh’s expression as he took the carcass of the alpha wolf down. “Well…let’s put this to good use then shall we?”

*** Author’s Note ***

“The copyrights of the pictures do not belong to me but to its respectful owners. The pictures do not represent actual characters or objects in the novel but show similarity to them and are merely used as a close reference for the story, to strengthen the Environmental Details.”

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