�Come on help, Cadence!� Star yelled as she threw a bale of hay toward Glenn. Glenn stacked the hay in front of the door as fast as he could. In the front of the store, they heard the sound of shelves overturned and growls of determinant possession, the sound of spattering rain and wild tempests howling in delirious search.
They had the hay stacked to the top of the door when one of the creatures attempted to gain entrance. Furious hands and rivers of blood dripped through the hay bales, amber and scarlet hued glistening, descrying an inhuman magic. A slender arm, once delicate but now bruised and slicked with scarlet, reached in between the hay bales. The creature screamed and tore at the hay, knocking down one of the bales to reveal a ghoulish grimace.
The wind and red rain poured through the opening and Glenn stumbled, falling to the floor just as the hay pile tumbled down around him. The mystery of life and the probability that they would all die ran through Glenn�s mind as the creature climbed on top of him. He heard Cadence screaming and� what? Gunfire? A sharp report of automatic fire� Pop, pop� pop!
The creature lay still, silent atop his chest, the crimson shower and the wind abated as a camo-clad figure pushed away the piles of hay and the body of the wolf-thing. �Come on!� the soldier said to the three of them. �I don�t know how long I can hold them off.� Glenn stood on shaky legs, dripping the blood of a thousand nightmares. He read the name patch on the soldier�s breast, it said �NEGGY.�
Neggy ushered them through and around the desk and broken glass doors into the waiting Hummer. He gunned the engine and headed west toward Rapid Zaine the next closest town.
He had stopped the gold metronome, its rhythm still, quietly waiting. The breach had closed but maybe it was too late. Negee looked to the open fields of sorghum before them, here and there were rain showers of blood, some distant some directly to the left and right of the two lane blacktop.
They followed the road to Rapid Zaine and in a haloed harvest moon, a breach in the dark shadows, the future beckoned to the survivors.
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