11.6

Everyone in the room, Solomon included, was blood-smeared and terrified.

But it seemed they were looking to him for guidance.

He cursed again as he realised that he had near to a dozen dogs out of their cages and looking to tear him a new one.

Again, the answer seemed simple.

‘Listen,’ Solomon said, his voice booming in the darkness.

He was surprised how composed and commanding his echo sounded.

The others turned, not saying a word, already prepared to obey anything he told them to do.

They were terrified and looking for a leader.

Reluctantly, he was it.

‘All of you run round your cages going to the left. Get back into the cages – an adult and a kid together, safety in numbers – and hold the doors shut. I’ll deal with the dogs. Go. Go now.’

Solomon shouted, whistled and slapped his legs to attract the dogs.

They all raced to be the first to him.

He swung the metal bar hard, knocking a seemingly endless hail of dogs away.

Until he hit one of the mutant dogs and it was like hitting a brick wall. He felt certain he’d only pissed it off.

He quickly assessed the room.

There was an old lady and two kids in one cage. Both kids were crying.

Another cage housed an old man and two other kids, one of whom was a little girl who was scared out of her mind. The old man was holding the other kid – a young boy – to his flabby chest.

Both the old man and the boy sobbed.

A middle-aged man – wearing an immaculate bespoke navy suit – was by himself in another of the cages.

Solomon thrust the bar deep into the throat of the mutant dog and let go. He sprinted for one of the cages.

He squeezed through the door of the cage containing the little girl. He barely made it as the dogs began to slam into the bars of the cell door.

Solomon crouched down next to the little girl and got a proper look at her. Her left arm was a raw, bloody mess. Blood ran down the back of her head too.

She was pale where she wasn’t bloody. The sick bastards had even stapled some meat fillets to her too.

Her entire body shook, Solomon noticed with equal parts rage and despair.

‘Hey, little girl,’ he said.

Her head turned and he saw the heartbreak and terror in her little eyes. She couldn’t have been older than six.

‘What’s your name?’

Her lips quivered but no sound came out.

‘You look like a princess from a TV show I used to watch when I was a little boy. Princess Tia.’

She smiled a little, just for a split second, but it was enough for Solomon to want to risk his life for her.

‘It’s going to be ok, you know,’ he insisted.

She said nothing, just stared blankly at him.

‘OK, get ready to hold the door shut again,’ Solomon told the old man he was sharing the cage with. I’m gonna do a lap of the room and see what our options are for getting out of here. I’m gonna get another few steaks loose first though. Anyone else want to pull some of their steaks off to help?’

No one, not one of them, volunteered to contribute.

Other than Tia, who began tentatively pulling at one of the fillets attached to her right shin.

‘No, Tia, I meant the adults,’ he hastily explained.

‘I want to help,’ she said, shaking her head, her voice barely audible.

Tia gritted her teeth and pulled the steak loose with an almighty effort. The pain made her gasp. Tears welled up in her eyes and ran down her cheeks, cutting a path through the grime and blood. Solomon pulled her into a bear hug then put his forehead on hers.

He stared into her eyes and said, ‘Princess Tia, I promise I’m going to get you out of here, even if it kills me.’

Solomon’s hands worked all the while to prise some of the steaks loose from his back.

One came free in a burning wave of pain, causing him to hiss curses under his breath.

He hoped the pain wasn’t for nothing.

He took a deep breath and threw one of the steaks off to his right, the opposite way to where the cage door opened. The dogs all went for it and began fighting over the bloodied meat.

He knew he didn’t have long, so he raced through the gap in the cage door, shoving it shut. Pale hands held it closed from inside.

As soon as he left the relative safety of the cage, the pack were hot on his heels.

He threw the other steak he’d just torn from his back to the snapping mouth by his right calf.

It gave up the chase, however temporarily, and began chowing down.

Solomon was maybe a quarter of the way round the room and as yet his bulging eyes had seen no sign of another way out of here.

He tried a steak on his thigh, but the pain that it brought as the staple began to rip apart his leg made him reconsider.

He got another steak loose, this time from his belly.

Hurled it, just as he felt the dog’s fetid breath on the back of his knees.

It dropped away, content with the morsel he had provided.

He could hear the others, but he was getting a lead on them now.

Things were looking up.

Right up until one of the mutant dogs – he swore it was the one that he had locked eyes with earlier – had charged him from the other direction.

It was such a horrific surprise that his body refused to respond to it for a few vital seconds. It was like his feet had been nailed to the floor.

By this time it was already too late as the misshapen monster was crashing into his legs, sending him flying up into the rancid air.

He landed with a jolt that knocked the air from his lungs.

The world was a blur of terror and pain, like the waltzer from hell.

The dog descended on him, all hot breath, muscle and teeth.

He felt the power in its jaws as it dug into his upper arm.

It tore the steak loose. The pain of the staple tearing chunks of his flesh out was forgotten in his terror.

He thought fast.

He could see the other dogs were almost upon him.

Once they landed, he may as well lay back and wait for death’s clammy hand.

The solution came to him out of the blue.

He pulled another steak off, not caring as the barbed staples rived away some of his pectoral.

Bending up at the waist, he carefully tucked the steak behind the mutant dog’s collar and shuffled back as fast as his battered body would allow.

He ran, taking a quick look back to see the other dogs fighting for the steak on the dog’s collar.

The mutant dog had already torn out the throat of one of its brethren as it attempted to claim the meat.

Most of the dogs were already feasting on the fallen carcass.

A dumb few were still risking life and limb trying to get the steak from the mutant dog’s collar.

The remaining three were still in search of a fresher meal and had already set off after him.

Solomon pumped his legs harder than ever before.

To slow down now was to invite death.

He reached the cages, finally, though he had never thought he would.

The dogs were hot on his heels.

‘Open the fucking door,’ he bellowed.

The door to the Tia’s cell popped open and he moved himself inside.

The door opened out over, but the dogs he was dealing with were clever, so he knew it would only be a matter of time before they figured it out.

As he scoured the cage for a solution, the light gleaming from the businessman’s gold belt buckle caught his eye.

‘Hey, give me your belt,’ he said.

The man looked at him like he was talking another language.

‘What?’

‘Your belt, lad. Give me your fucking belt.’

He fumbled with the buckle.

‘Come on,’ Solomon bellowed.

He slid it from his belt loops and passed it through the bars to Solomon.

Moving fast, he fastened it tight around the end of the cell door and the first metal bar.

Grinning, he moved away from the bars.

The little girl looked up at him, with terror in her eyes.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

‘I’m scared of dogs,’ she said, before bursting into tears.

Solomon instinctively held her close, stroking her hair.

He’d never had kids of his own, he’d – very briefly – been a stepfather, but he was a natural.

‘Shhh, Princess Tia, it’s gonna be ok, I promise,’ he said, fixing the girl with a stare.

The sorrow on her face was even worse up close and he vowed to punish Craven for putting her in this situation.

She looked up at him again.

He thumbed the tears from her eyes. ‘Trust me, Tia. I will get you out of here.’

‘They already ate my mammy,’ Tia bawled, pointing to a bloody carcass abandoned in one of the other cells.

Solomon held her close while she sobbed. His eyes were scanning for the dogs.

Sure enough, one hit the door like a speeding freight train, jolting the entire cage.

Tia nearly jumped out of her skin.

The next couple of dogs landed simultaneously.

The girl’s screams went up an octave upon the reappearance of the dogs.

Solomon looked to the old man.

‘I think I passed a lift at the other end of the room,’ he said. ‘But I’m not sure how we all get there in one piece? Any ideas?’

The old man – Solomon called him Martin because he bore a striking resemblance to Frasier Crane’s dad from the old TV show from before – shook his head frantically.

His hands quaked as he reached into the pocket of his bloody, ripped grey slacks.

‘Gotta take my meds,’ Martin said. ‘My heartrate is off the fucking Richter scale.’

Solomon grabbed his wrist before he could gulp down the tablet.

‘Whatcha got there, Martin, my friend?’

‘Sedatives. Why?’

Solomon grabbed the back of the old man’s head and planted a smacker on his forehead.

‘How many you got?’

‘Hundreds. Doc said I need three a day. Fucking quack! Some days I don’t need them at all. I’ve been saving them up cos other days I need a coupla dozen. Days like today I might need a hundred.’

Solomon grinned. ‘I think you might have just saved all of us, Martin lad.’

He let Martin pop four in a row.

Then he said, ‘May I?’

Martin nodded, thinking Solomon intended to take one himself.

He took half a dozen tablets and used a rock from the cell floor to crush them up. He then shoved the powder deep into the steak on the end of his right arm.

Martin smiled in recognition.

‘Oh, you’re a clever one, lad,’ he grinned.

Solomon smiled. ‘I just hope it fucking works,’ he said.

The first dog went for the next steak up, but Solomon ensured he pulled back enough to make sure it only had one steak to choose from.

It tore it from his arm and began to chew it down greedily.

‘Well, now we just wait,’ Solomon grinned.

While they waited he crushed up more tablets and shoved them into the other steaks nearest his wrist.

He carefully doled out the steaks to the dogs as they poked their heads through the bars in an attempt to snap at the terrified kids.

Not all of the dogs were asleep, though they did seem pretty docile.

One of them was definitely out, snoring contentedly at the outer corner of the cage. In spite of the tension that gripped him, a smile played across Solomon’s lips when he realised it was the mutant dog that had almost ended him.

The others he couldn’t be sure of, but it didn’t seem as though they would pose much of a threat.

‘I’m going to take a look out there,’ he said.

‘NOOOO!’ Tia screamed, clinging desperately to his legs. ‘They’ll eat you too.’

‘They won’t, little lady. I’ve already been out there once, remember. I’ll be fine. Promise,’ Solomon said.

She sobbed and screamed, despite his best efforts to console her.

In the end, Martin, the old man, dragged her away while Solomon undid the belt from the bars.

She fought, wanting only Solomon, but he knew he had to step up and do this.

He poked his head out of the cage, ready to step back inside and slam it shut if needs be.

The eerie silence made his flesh creep.

His body felt turbocharged.

The closest dog was definitely asleep. He could hear it snoring.

The ones behind it weren’t snoring, but they were laid down, their eyes half-lidded and rolled back to expose the whites.

He smiled.

It was going well.

He checked the rest of the area, seeing that the other dogs were similarly sedated.

‘It’s ok,’ he said, returning to the cages.

He led Tia by the hand. The others followed behind them.

The other kids were almost as terrified as Tia had been.

He vowed to get her out of this, even if it meant his own death.

They were on edge the whole time, but they reached the other end of the room safely.

There was a lift panel concealed in the wall, hidden to all but the keenest of eyes.

Solomon pressed the button and was amazed when it came down.

They all got in, Solomon making sure he was last, in case any of the dogs came back for them.

Tia still clung to his hand like it was the answer to all of her prayers.

Solomon pressed the button to go up.

But the lift would not move.

They stared at the lift panel in mute horror for a few seconds then Solomon pressed the button again.

It still didn’t work.

‘Fucking thing,’ he roared, smacking a huge palm into the metal panel, venting all his fear and worry on this inanimate object.

His finger jabbed the switch repeatedly until Martin, the old man, pulled his hand away.

‘It’s over capacity, lad,’ he said, not daring to meet Solomon’s eyes.

The words made no sense to Solomon’s fear-addled mind.

You gotta keep it together, for these poor kiddies, he thought. And especially for Tia.

‘I’m not following you,’ he said.

‘There are too many people in this lift,’ the old woman said. ‘Some of us are going to have to get out.’

‘Ah shit,’ Solomon said. ‘I think we’re safer in one big group.’

‘Me too,’ Martin said.

‘So who gets out?’ the businessman said.

Tia tapped Solomon’s leg.

He bent down. Her eyes stared up into his.

She leant in close enough for him to feel her breath against his ear, and his heart melted for her. ‘I want to stay with you,’ she whispered. ‘Because I know you’ll keep me safe.’

Her hopeful look after she’d imparted this wisdom filled him with strength.

She was counting on him and he refused to let her down.

‘Sure thing, princess,’ he said, carefully stroking her cheek.

She smiled and hugged his legs tight enough to hinder his movement.

‘I wanna go with him too,’ one of the boys said. ‘He’s like the fucking Hulk.’

The old women eyeballed him for his language.

‘Sure thing, buddy,’ Solomon said.

‘I think the rest of us should stay together,’ the old woman said.

‘What do you think?’ Solomon said, addressing the businessman. ‘Do you want to stay with me and the kids while Martin and the lady scout out upstairs?’

The businessman said nothing, just shook his head with a disgusted look on his face.

‘He’s right. I think we should give him another adult. One per child,’ Martin said.

‘Shut up, Mart— I mean Clive,’ the old woman hissed. ‘You’re just trying to save his skin. Look after your own for a change.’

Solomon stepped out, the two kids clinging to his hands.

‘I’m sorry,’ Martin said, again not meeting Solomon’s eye. ‘We gotta look after our own here.’

Solomon shrugged. ‘No skin off my nose, Martin lad.’

The lift door shut on them.

Solomon could hear Martin and the old women arguing about their decision until the lift began to rise up to the next floor.

Solomon looked around, making sure the dogs on their level weren’t waking up.

Nothing approached from the gloom.

Still, it was a long, tense wait for the lift to come back down.

‘Bastards have probably sabotaged it to stop us getting out,’ Solomon muttered, shaking his head.

The two kids looked up at him, terror in their eyes, but also hope.

They figured they’d picked the best man to protect them.

He just hoped like hell they were right.