As the shock of being stabbed through the hand wore off it was replaced by a searing ache. Channie’s whole arm pulsed with her heartbeat as blood continuously spilled into the wrapping of gauze.

Landon was more convinced of the necessity of Channie’s trauma than she was. The pain made it hard to even think. Silent tears formed in her eyes as she stumbled lightheaded behind Landon and Steph. Channie felt like chopped liver as Landon’s attention zeroed in on Steph and never came back.

Admittedly, Steph did look more pale than usual, having experienced some sort of fright in her brief moment away from the hospital lobby, but Channie could hardly believe whatever had happened to Steph was worse than being stabbed by a stranger out of the blue. Landon seemed to just expect her to get over it.

Channie stopped walking momentarily as the wooziness turned her legs to jelly.

“Hurry up,” said Landon, voice void of sympathy.

Channie leaned against the wall to steady herself. She shot Landon an unmissable glare.

Landon stopped when he realized Channie wasn’t going to start walking again immediately. He frowned slightly as he observed the bright red spots forming in the gauze on both the front and back of Channie’s hand.

The classically attractive boy unzipped his backpack and pulled out another strip of gauze. He lifted Channie’s damaged hand gently in his own. Channie grimaced from the pain his touch caused, but allowed him to continue. Landon’s expression softened as he unwrapped the gauze and took in his handiwork once again. He moved like a trained nurse, quickly wrapping the fresh gauze in its place.

Landon’s gentleness surprised Channie after the aggressiveness of the stabbing.

“Here,” he said, shoving the bloodied gauze into Channie’s good hand. Next, he pulled a pair of surgical shears out of his pack and stuffed them into her hand as well. “I’m going to need you to cut off squares as we go, one every hundred yards or so. The vamps will follow, they’re like sharks with blood.”

Channie wasn’t sure why Landon’s lack of empathy for her pain bothered her so much. He was a stranger to her, but she just felt like he owed her better treatment after causing her such distress.

Down the hall, the elevator dinged again, stopping on the ground floor. Landon’s expression became distant for a moment. “It’s time to run…” he said, snapping back to his surroundings.

A terrified scream sounded from around the corner behind them. It ceased suddenly.

Steph bolted down the corridor without looking back, fear pushing her onward as fast as her feet would carry her. Landon grabbed Channie by the elbow and yanked her forward with him. The slap of footsteps against the linoleum sounded from the direction of the elevators. Channie didn’t have to look back to know they were being chased.

The lights in the hallway began to flicker. Another scream started and quickly ended in a gurgling cry.

“Faster!” pleaded Landon.

Channie stumbled over her own feet, her body faltering in her weakened state.

She chanced a glance back as they reached the waiting room. The hallway had gone mostly dark behind her, but she could distinctly make out three dark shapes moving in pursuit. Only one of their pursuers was on the floor—the other two defied gravity, scampering along the walls and ceiling like berserk monkeys through a canopy.

Channie screamed as she nearly tumbled over a chair in the waiting room. Landon pulled her onward in his own panic.

Steph reached the door first, tripping the motion sensor.

“To the left!” Landon yelled up to Steph. He threw the key to his scooter at her.

Steph snatched the key out of the air and dipped left as she passed through the doorway.

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The reanimated ghast victims moved with singular intention: To consume warm blood. Channie’s pulse pounded in both her ears and her damaged palm as she stumbled forward. She was starting to feel faint. They were barely to the door when her vision began to slip. The corners of her sight darkened, closing in around the edges. Channie felt herself tumble over her feet in slow motion, almost as if she were dreaming. The all-too-real implications horrified her as her body failed.

She hardly even felt the ground as she bounced against the concrete of the walkway.

Her eyes were suddenly pointed back into the hospital. The ‘Vamps’ as Landon called them, had reached the waiting room. They crashed through the furniture, sending the flimsy chairs flying in every direction. Their faces remained dead focused on Channie—black eyes never blinking; expressions of primal hunger.

A puttering engine sparked to life nearby. The sound was muffled in Channie’s ears. She felt dazed as a wobbling sensation rippled through her body.

Before she realized what was happening, Landon was pulling her back up to her feet. The engine sounds drew nearer. Steph, with a big white helmet that looked like a smooth bowling ball on her head, whipped into view driving a yellow Vespa scooter. The tires screeched as she made a sudden stop in front of Channie and Landon.

“I don’t know how to drive this thing!” cried Steph.

“You’re doing great!” said Landon as he climbed on behind her and practically dragged Channie up onto the tiny bumper of the scooter, facing backwards. “Just go!”

They lurched forward as Steph twisted the throttle. The cold expressions on the vamps’ faces never changed as they continued moving towards the children at a full sprint.

“You dropped the gauze and scissors didn’t you?” asked Landon, over his shoulder.

Channie had in fact dropped everything in her fall.

Landon didn’t need her answer. He unzipped his backpack, which he already had held at his side and withdrew a second pair of shears. “I always take precautions.”

Channie gasped as Landon placed the new pair into her injured hand—her other hand was too preoccupied with holding on to the Vespa for dear life. They turned out of the hospital parking lot, cutting through the thickening mist at dangerous speeds.

The sputtering moped was just barely able to outpace the frighteningly fast vamps. Channie hardly had time to breathe a short-lived sigh of relief before she noticed more creatures scampering across the rooftops of the buildings on either side of the street.

Landon awkwardly hooked one of his arms around Channie’s anchored arm. “You can lean against me with your elbow,” he said. “You’ll need both hands to cut up your bandage.”

Channie gulped down a thick glob of saliva. She tried in vain to steady her heart as she let go of the Vespa entirely, relying on Landon’s support to remain balanced. She grabbed the scissors out of her other hand and began fumbling to remove her fresh bandage. Fortunately—or not, depending on how she looked at it—the bandage was already soaked through with more fresh blood.

This boy better not bleed me out.

A whole line of ungodly things followed in their wake, screeching and growling, barely visible in the mist.

Channie began dropping little bits of gauze like a toddler with a fistful of construction paper. It felt an awful lot like dumping chum on her own feet before swimming in shark infested waters. Passing the bloody morsels only seemed to invigorate the vamps amongst the gathering crowd of beasties.

Steph swerved around a parked car, continuing at a dangerous clip deeper into the fog. They had to slow down after Steph nearly ran into a mailbox. They had only barely established enough of a lead that Channie lost sight of the monsters in the mist.

“Keep dropping bits,” ordered Landon. “Everything has to follow us.” His voice was dead serious.

Channie complied, even as her vision began to slip again from the blood loss. She breathed deeply to steady herself.

The road shifted—they were suddenly going down a steep hill. Steph was driving completely blind now as the dense clouds enveloped them in a sea of white froth.

“Just let it roll,” said Landon as he reached up and turned the key to stall out the engine. The Vespa went silent as they descended through the billowing clouds.

Channie ran out of gauze as the lengthy downgrade leveled out and the scooter coasted deeper into the strange hot plumes. To Channie, it felt like hell itself. The wet heat made her face sticky.

Channie’s skin suddenly went clammy cold. She’d simply lost too much blood. As she lost consciousness, her slumping body threw off the weight distribution on the Vespa. Steph clipped the curb a moment later, and all three children were bucked off, tumbling through the air in despair.

The horde descends into the mist just as Landon intended, but nothing is easy when you’re being hunted by beings with superior agility and singular intent. So many lives affected by the Agares’ will…. Years later, Mrs. Davis refuses to acknowledge this day even happened. To her it was all a bad dream, with a lingering hospital bill. The funny thing about most adults is that even when something happens right in front of their faces, if what they experience doesn’t fit into their world view, they will find all sorts of creative ways of explaining it away so that they can ignore it. People will often do this when confronted with terrifying possibilities, but the most terrifying possibilities are those that don’t care whether you believe in them or not. That is to say, monsters exist, even if you close your eyes. Remember folks, existence doesn’t rely on perception, only survival does!

Keep vigilant,

-Mr. Gray