Chapter 18 Man Versus Nature

Aaron POV
 
I raced forward, trying to catch up with Mal and Parker but terror was gripping them both and they were fast. I was keeping them in sight though not bothering to shout after either of them and wasting the precious little breath I had in my lungs. I was sweating and every inch of my body was pulsing with ache. I wished that Parker would stop. I wished that Mallory would tire of Parker's pulling and demand to rest. But that was stupid I knew they wouldn't stop, at least not Parker. Mallory was due break her stride the second she realized that Warren wasn't on her coat tail. They made a sudden sharp left at the end of the alley I had just turned down and I realized I was falling to far behind. I sped up reaching into my reserves and then I was tackled to the ground. Dust from the alley filled my face and I gagged on the grit in my mouth. I coughed and felt the sudden pain tear into my shoulder. Something was on top of me. I pushed off the ground and rolled over throwing my body weight on my attacker. It let go immediately with a yelp and when I staggered to my feet. I made eye contact with my enemy briefly a large half breed German Shepard and behind him a mixed array of new canine enemies. I instinctively reached for a broken broom handle that was discarded next to a small trash can, but my first foe snapped at me, which sent the others careening forward with ferocity. I spun around and bolted straight ahead, the pack of wild beast quick after me. I was in a race for my life.
 
When I reached the end of the alley I didn't turn left as Mallory and Parker had I stayed on the straight and narrow. My sneakers hitting the ground evenly and the adrenaline pumping through me with strain. I was going to drop where I was soon. I had to think. A small hole in a chain link fence offered me an escape, the fence was high maybe a good seven feet, odd for a backyard fence but I wasn't complaining. I slid forward like they had taught me to in baseball (rather Scotty had though his specialty was hockey he had excelled in a number of athletics and I had never taken to any like a duck in water so he often aided me in that department). I reached the fence and clambered through just as my first opponent's jaws enclosed around my ankle. I screamed out and in an instant I saw the discarded Heineken bottle laying on the ground shattered it against the concrete walk way and then drove a shard of glass into the neck of the animal. It shrieked in pain, and tried to retreat. However I grabbed a hold of it's ears and pulled it through on my side of the gate and slid the remainder of the shattered bottled into the dog's soft under belly. I yelp and then lay still. I let out a sigh of relief and looked at the gapping hole. There was a shed next to it and when I stood up ( I placed as little weight as I could on my now wounded left ankle) I tipped it over and blocked it up no barbaric dogs anytime soon. I thought and turned to the house in front of me. It was big and that was when I realized two things, 1) I had lost Mal and Parker, 2) I was lost.
 
The back yard wasn't very big but it was nice, with a paved walk way all the way up to the back porch steps. I started to limp my way up to the house trying to ignore the pain in my ankle. Thats when I hit my next problem the stairs. I sighed and then held onto the banister for support and pulled my way up awkwardly, until I was finally at the back door of the what was definitely and upper middle class home ( just like the one that Kevin and I lived in). I raised my hand about to knock on the back door, then stopped myself. It was probably best if I let myself inside. After all though it had been two months since The Day, psychotics still had a tendency of not answering back with a 'who is it?' but with a battle to the death something I was not in the mood for at the moment.
 
I turned the large silver painted door knob and pulled the door didn't budge. I twisted the door knob and pushed still nothing. I looked over at the windows on either side of the door and went to the one to my left. I peered inside, it was dark and dust seemed to cover ever surface including the window but, thats when I heard it. The song drifted to my ears and I was almost paralyzed. I lifted the window and sure enough whoever had locked the door had forgotten to worry about the windows. The music was louder now, and Sally's (the character from a Nightmare before Christmas) was coming from somewhere near by. I trudged out of the abandoned kitchen and toward the hall, bracing myself up on the wall. I was practically dragging my foot as I stepped into the living room and there he was.
 
He was small maybe around ten but I could tell by the look of him he hadn't changed clothes in a while. He had long hair probably because it had not been cut since The Day (unlike myself and the others who were forced to submit to either Parker or Mallory's will, and sometimes Lacheya they definitely liked to keep hair tidy) and from behind he looked dirty. In front of him was a small portable DVD player, where Sally seemed to be singing from. "Hi." I said after a minute of just staring at the strange boy.
 
He turned and looked at me with big dark charcoal colored eyes, which to tell you the truth scared the shit out of me. I wish at that moment I had the ability to run but my ankle hurt way to much to even think about it. The little boy stayed where he was and after about three minutes he went back to watching his movie. I looked over and walked rather lamely to a love seat and plopped down, giving my ill fated ankle some much needed relief. I pulled up my pant leg and took a look it seem alright but it hurt like hell, I definitely knew I had to clean it out and then the small boy was in front of me. I hadn't noticed but he had left the room and he had come back with (God bless him) a first aid kit. I smiled sweetly at him and started to open the kit that was very well stocked. I cleaned my wound with some alcohol and then wrapped it with some gauze. I put everything neatly in the box and the placed it on the floor beside my seat. When I glanced up the little boy was looking at me again and holding up his DVD player. "What?" I asked softly trying to sound nurturing, "Do you want me to watch it with you?" I asked. He nodded and jumped up onto the love seat along side me.
 
"My name is Aaron. Whats your's?" I whispered. He took my hand and with his finger spelled J-A-C-K. "Jack?" I asked and he nodded happily, "Can you talk Jack? I asked hopefully I really was never good at charades and if this was going to be an ongoing thing I wanted to know about it now.
 
Jack nodded his head as if talking was something only he could do, "Then why are you so quiet?" I asked and just then his eyes grew wide and he gripped my arm tightly, "Are you scared?" He nodded again even more furiously then the last time. I looked around the strange room, in the unknown house, away from my family and friends. "I'm scared too." I said and his grip tightened and the movie started from the beginning.