The First Steps of Survival

It started like a normal day, any other day in Calous; it started to rain heavily. But this was no regular storm; cracks of lighting filled the sky in bright vivid colours and gloomy clouds encased the sky in darkness. Men and women ran through the halls of the hotel, blood smeared up the walls and soaked into the carpets and internal organs hung from the lights and thrown across the floor.

As the hotel room door creaked open it knocked over a corpse that had been propped against the door and grabbed the attention of a wolf on its hind legs, it looked almost like a man; was it possible that this was a werewolf. Turning to face the human the wolf’s yellow piercing eyes stared into Ash’s, its mouth opened and a deep growl rumbled from within. Snapping its jaws shut as it barked, the werewolf dropped onto all fours and charged down the hall towards the living mortal. With its razor like claws in front of it and its mouth wide open it leaped towards Ash with great speed; attempting to grab him with its claws and tear open his throat with its teeth…

As the human rolled to the side the wolf flew over him and into the doorway of his hotel room, the beast’s claws dug into the wooden frame and held firmly until a foot was driven into the lower spine of the werewolf. Its claws tore at the wood creating giant cracks and holes as the man sized dog was propelled into the room with force. It rolled as it hit the floor with a mighty thud, its growls now mummers as its bloody front paws were left clawless. As the door slammed behind it, the creature clambered to its feet and began to bang on the door not knowing how to use the door handle.

Ash barged the door to the stairs open to find the horror of a pile of corpses that had been thrown down the stairs and left to bleed. At the bottom, knelt over the corpses and gnawing and tearing at their flesh were two more werewolves; it looked like this was a small pack, and at the bottom of the stairs was their feeding pit. The two wolves at the bottom had yet to notice the living human... but behind him the clawless wolf broke down the door and looked towards him; anger filled it’s eyes and saliva dripped from its vice like jaws. Snarling at its prey, the beast got ready to charge again. This left Ash in a bad situation; he was surrounded and it looked like the only way to go was up to the next floor unless he had any bright ideas...

The loud bang of the door slamming into the frame echoed through out the stairwell and it was followed by the sound of growling and barking. Unexpectedly it all went silent and there was no sounds from the wolves at the bottom of the stairs, or from behind Ash; what where they doing? Planning something else...were they actually smarter than what Ash first thought? Then the sounds of their claws scratching against the concrete steps as they raced up the stairs began to fill the air like nails on a chalkboard; getting louder and louder as they got closer, but there was still no sound from the wolf behind the door.

The wolves soon made their way to the floor with Ash on, and as he leapt over the banister one of the wolves reached out with its razor like claws trying to grasp Ash. Its claws barely missed his torso and slammed into the plaster of the wall tearing a chunk out. All of a sudden the wolf from behind the door smashed through and followed in Ash’s path; jumping over the banister and attempting to pounce on to the fleeing human to pin him down and tear open his neck with its vicious blood thirsty teeth...

As the wolf landed it crouched with its clawed hands on the floor, a foot then buckled the wolf’s ankle with a violent kick from Ash. Its ankle twisted and made a loud crunch as the bone cracked under the pressure; broken and shattered bone tore through the thin hairy flesh of the wolf’s ankle and stuck out. The wolf let out a deafening roar as it fell to the floor in agony, its body writhing as it lay on the steps.

The two other werewolves began their chase again, sprinting down the stairs after the human, their claws scratching at the steps with every quick step they took. Their barks became louder as they gained up on Ash. As he reached the bottom of the stairs he found the door open and in front of him another werewolf; this one holding a young woman against the wall, its teeth dug into her throat and ripped violently into her flesh. Tearing away the wound began to spray blood against the walls and floor and her screams became gargles and then silence.

Dropping the body, the werewolf looked over to Ash, its face covered in blood. Behind him the other wolves had reached the same floor, but they stopped; their ears pricked up and they stepped back. The blood covered wolf growled and faced the wall to its right, a loud thudding came from behind the wall, getting deafening as it seemed to get closer. A giant club then burst through the wall knocking the wolf into the opposite wall.

Whimpering the wolf clambered to its feet before being grasped tightly in the hand of a large humanoid looking monster. The giant monster was hunched over in the hallway; placing its club on the floor it grabbed the werewolf in both hands. Shaking it violently it then began to pull with one hand holding its head and neck, the other holding it tight by the hind legs. The wolf tore like paper in the hands of the large creature, dropping the two halves of the dog the monster then turned to face Ash; the two wolves from behind him had already scampered off. Only one eye stared over at Ash… because that thing only had one eye… The Cyclops then looked down at its club, then back over to Ash; it was clear that the thing was thinking about grabbing it again and crushing the human with it… What was Ash planning to do about this? The Cyclops was blocking his path to any exit other than back the way he had just came…