Highway to Hell

5-Survivors

Aden and the others, in the absence of Adrianna, ran down the street being tailed by the dead. They all once again came to a stop; up ahead of them a herd of corpses was marching towards them. They were coming at them from both ends, leaving them nowhere to run. They all began looking around franticly for an escape.
“There!” Jaina shouted as she pointed. There was an alley off to the side, a steel barred wall at its opening with a gate. On the other side was a dumpster, a fire escape, trash scattered around, and a single skeleton. No partially rotting corpses.
At once they all ran for it, Felix reaching it first. The gate was already partially opened, and swung open until it hit the other side of the wall. Once everyone was through Felix slammed it shut, the latch closing automatically.
Not long after the corpses caught up, banging on the steel bars and reaching between them. Everyone backed up from it a little, pretty certain that it would hold, but still being cautious. The latch could be opened from the other side, but the dead didn’t seem to notice, or care.
“We should keep moving, there might be more of those things back here,lix lix said, turning and beginning to head down the alley. Sera and Jaina followed, then Aden, and then Connor. Night was beginning to fall, the city getting darker and darker by the minute. None of them wanted to be stuck here during the night, but from the looks of it they had little choice.
They didn’t know, but they weren’t the only ones in the alley. High above them something moved along one of the walls. It was a brownish color, had a long body and a head shapede a e a humans. Like a crown, it had numerous horns sticking out, all leading to a point at the base of its neck. In between each of them was a thin flap of flesh. Its eyes were thin, blue slits, horns rising up at the corners of them. The one on the left forked off into three points, the one on the right only two. Its jaw opened wide, razor sharp and spiked teeth lining the top and bottom. The bones of its jaw weren’t attached to its chin, and allowed each of its cheeks to open wider, revealing yet more razor sharp teeth and a much wider bite. In place of arms it had four tentacles, each ending with three bone-like claws that came together to form a point. When they opened they revealed yet more teeth running down each one, and in their center smaller tentacles that extended in and out of mouth-like holes. Each of the smaller tentacles had three pincers on the end of them as well. It had four legs, long, curved horns sticking out from the knee joints. It didn’t really appear to have feet; instead the legs grew thinner and bent, claws sticking out of the ends and sides, as well as smaller ones at the back of what could be called its heels. It had two tails, each ending in bone points that were flat, capable of opening at each side and containing yet more teeth.
It used its pincer hands to stab into the concrete of the wall, gaining a strong enough hold to support its weight and allow it to crawl along in stealth. Once it was close enough to its unsuspecting prey, it released itself from the wall and fell down towards them.
All five of the group cried out when the creature came crashing to the ground amongst them, easily twice the size of a full-grown man. It landed between Connor and Aden, separating Connor from the rest of the group.
The creature stood tall on all four of its legs, facing Connor. Its tails swayed back and fourth behind it, and its arms snapped at the air in Connor’s direction. Its two jawbones opened up away from its face as its chin dropped down, letting out a deep hiss.
Connor froze, staring at the monster’s face as saliva oozed from its gaping maw.
“Connor run!” Aden cried out, but Connor didn’t seem to hear. Even if he did run, the only way to go was back down the alley, and the corpses blocked that way.
“Connor!” Aden repeated.
The thing didn’t pay any attention to the others, only Connor. One of its tentaclms pms pulled back, and then lunged forward towards Connor. Just as it was about to hit him, he seemed to get his senses back. He ducked down at the last minute, avoiding the attack by inches. Another quickly followed it, Connor having to leap to the side to avoid it.
He didn’t have time to act before the next attack came, the open clawed tentacle striking Connor at the base of his ribcage. He cried out as the teeth lining the insides of the three claws stabbed into his flesh. The teeth were too short to cause fatal wounds, only enough to keep him from pulling away without ripping away flesh.
The blow knocked him back against the wall, the creature holding him up about a foot off the ground. It hissed again, moving in closer to him, closer to his neck with an open mouth.
Connor screamed as it came in closer, unable to do anything about it. It stopped however, when a brick came sailing through the air and bounced off sid side of its head. It seemed to affect it little aside from distracting it. It turned at the same time as a pain ridden Connor did to see Sera, Jaina, Aden, and Felix all standing at the ready, armed with whatever they could find on the ground of the alley.
Aden, armed with a metal pipe, yelled in rage as he charged towards the thing, “Let him go!” He lifted the pipe back over his shoulder, preparing to swing. When he was close enough he let loose, the pipe whistling as it cut through the air and slammed into the creature’s back.
It didn’t budge. One of its tails swung around and whipped into Aden’s chest, knocking him back against the wall. Aden grunted as the wind was knocked from his lungs, gasping in pain.
The thing released Connor, now focusing on the others. Connor slid to the ground, leaning back against the wall, and he covered the bleeding wounds with his hands.
Sera had a brick in each hand, and one after the other she hurled them at the creature. One missed, the other hit its open jaw. It let out a cry of pain as the left bone of its jaw snapped back, now broken and hanging loose.
Once unarmed, Sera ran around the creature and to Connor’s side. She knelt, pulling back Connor’s hands to see the wound. “How bad is it?” she asked him.
“Not bad, I’ll be fine,” he responded. He was bleeding pretty heavily, but the wounds didn’t go too deep. Sera pulled one of his arms around her shoulders, and placed her hand over his wound to help slow bleebleeding. She wrapped her free arm around his back, and together they stood. They kept as tight to the wall as they could, trying not to get noticed by the creature as they passed.
Felix and Jaina were standing ahead of it, keeping its attention. Jaina held a two by four, Felix a broken broom handle. They knew they wouldn’t stand a chance against it with those as weapons, but they only planned on distracting it until the others could get away.
Just as Sera and Connor made it past Jaina and Felix, Aden was joining them. He had his hand over his chest in an attempt to comfort the throbbing pain.
The creature lunged one of its tentacles for Felix, instead catching the pointed end of his broom handle. He pointed it at the snake-like extension just in time, piercing it deep inside the tentacle before it exited a good foot down from the pincers
The creature recoiled with another cry of pain, clearly getting agitated. The handle slipped from Felix’s grasp as it pulled back after he stumbled forward a bit. He then stumbled backwards, eager to be away from the thing.
Now Jaina was left all alone, the only thing standing between the creature, and her friends. And all she had to fight with was a two by four. She was trembling, and beads of sweat were forming over her.
With a quick snap of its tail, treatreature splintered the wood in Jaina’s grasp, making her scream and flinch back.
“Jaina, r Fel Felix cried out to her. She was happy to obey, turning and breaking into full sprint. The others had already started running, and were a few feet ahead of her.
The creature was right on her heels, and gaining. Connor and Sera were falling behind, not able to run as fast with Connor injured, but they were far enough ahead that it didn’t matter m Th They were almost at the end of the Alley.
Jaina was so exhausted, her legs were numb and felt like she was dragging concrete blocks with them. Her lungs burned for more oxygen, she was nearly spent. The creature was close enough behind her now to reach her. It was in the process of preparing to strike at her with one of its tentacles when the wall beside them erupted in an explosion of brick, dust, and broken mortar.
Jaina screamed, the added scare enough to give her a slight boost in speed. She was barely missed by the flying rubble. The others all turned to see what had happened, and seen what looked like a bulldozer crashing through the wall. It was painted black, and the area where the driver sat was welded into a steel box with only a tiny slit to see through, and a closed entrance. The front bucket part of the bulldozer had numerous steel spikes welded to it, random in length, but mostly four or more feet. They were made up of three flat pieces of steel welded together, edges jagged and filed into blades.
It slammed into the creature, stag itg it in numerous places with the spikes and ramming it into the opposite wall. The noise was immense, the loud engine running, the walls being destroyed, and the creature shrieking in pain as it was crushed, stabbed, and killed.
Jaina continued running until she slammed into Aden who had stopped, flinging her arms around him and crying. He held her as she did him, staring in disbelief at what had happened. The others came up to join them, carrying the same expressions on their face.
It became suddenly quiet as the bulldozer’s engines were shut off, the creature silenced in its bloody heap of death, and the bricks stopped falling. Aden released Jaina, as the group began approaching the machine.
Out of the hole in the wall where it first made an appearance, a group of three people came forth. They were dressed in all black and carried automatic rifles. Most of their bodies were covered in manufactured steel attached to their clothing, painted black. They wore steel masks, two gray circles where their eyes would be, and a tiny slit over their mouth were the only anomalies in the smooth rounded steel.
The one who stood in the middle of the three spoke, his voice depicting him a male. The metal covering his mouth altered it some, but he was still understandable.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Jaina was the closest, so she answered. “What do you mean?”
“You know how dangerous it is to leave the compound, we can’t afford any more losses. People get killed out here, don’t you kids understand that, you think you can fend them off with sticks and stones?”
“What are you talking about? Fend what off, what are those things? Where are we, what’s going on here?” Jaina was shouting at the man, unintentionally; they had been through so much, they just wanted some answers.
The man didn’t respond for a few moments. “…Outsiders?”
The bulldozer door opening interrupted him; a woman sitting inside dressed in all black as well. She had a rifle at her side, but wasn’t clad in all the steel like the others were. had had dark hair tied back in a French braid, and looked to be in her thirties. All around her in the bulldozer small screens were lit up, illuminating her in a blue glow.
“Sir, we’ve got to get moving. We’ve got more mutants closing in on our position, all of the commotion got their attention. I have a small force of vamps on screen as well.”
The man sighed before turning back to Jaina and the others. “There’s no time to explain now. Come with us, we’ll take you to safety and fill you in there.” He turned to the woman in the bulldozer. “Go on ahead Lou, let them know we’re bringing home company for dinner.”
Lou nodded before closing the bulldozer door, the sound of the latch clicking followed shortly after. The engine started up once again, and it began moving. It continued on its path straight through the wall in front of it.
“This way,” the man said as he motioned to the hole he’d come through. Not waiting for a response, he turned and walked back through it, followed by the other two that came with him. Jaina glanced back at the others before following, no one objected, and were right behind her.
Aden would have been the last to pass through the hole in the wall, but something dropped down to the ground behind him. A cold hand wrapped tightly over his mouth, preventing him from calling for help. Another closed around his middle, trapping him there. His captor whispered into his ear, revealing to be a male as well.
“Evening, why don’t you join me for a little chat, hmm?”

It was dark inside the building at first, but one of the strangers leading them cracked a flare, lighting up the area in a green glow. They were in a department store, or at least it used to be. It was completely empty, an escalator in the center of the floor leading up, and one beside it leading down.
After making their way down to the basement they were led off to the side of the room, to a maintenance door, which led to a small hallway, made of concrete. Electrical wires and pipes lined the ceiling and upper walls, never to be used again. Sera and Felix were at the back of the group, Sera still helping Felix to walk. No one noticed Aden’s ace. ce.
The hallway made a few turns, and then led to a more open area. There, a round tunnel was carved out of the wall leading back into darkness. At its opening was a vehicle, two seats in front with one to drive, a bench seat in the middle, and another bench seat behind that one. It was low to the ground, easy to step into. At the back there was a ledge to place items in.
Two of the men sat in front, the one who spoke to them in the driver seat. Jaina sat beside the third in the middle seat, Felix, Connor, and Sera sat in the back. Only then, when Jaina looked back at the othersd shd she notice Aden was missing.
“Wait … where’s Aden?”
The others all looked back, as did the man in the driver’s seat.
“We have to go back for him!” Jaina said frantically.
“There’s no point, he’s dead already. If we go back out there we’ll be dead too. I honestly don’t know how you kids made it so far in the first place,” the man said.
“But … you can’t just leave him out there!”
“He’s dead, there’s no use. The sooner you accept that the sooner we can move on. It’s a lot of trouble running into mutants in the tunnels, I’d like to be out of here before they arrive.”
Jaina didn’t respond, a single tear sliding down her cheek. She didn’t believe it, she wouldn’t. She’d lost too many already.
“What about Adrianna? One of our friends, she made it with us into the city, but these dead things chased us and we got separated.”
“She’s dead too,” the man said nonchalantly.
He turned the key to the ignition, starting the vehicle and driving into the tunnel. Numerous lights turned on in the front and back of the vle, le, creating a small area of daylight in the dark tunnel.
Jaina and Sera both shared in tears as they traveled along, Felix’s head sunk low, and Connor was drifting in and out of consciousness.