“Oh my God, Oh my God!” Reggie shouted in his mind as he knew that less than two inches of wood separated them from each other.
Although he couldn’t see it, he knew his hands were shaking and the bat was quivering in front of him. His senses became more potent and acute as he tasted the dampness of the tunnel’s air and heard the scrapping of the creature’s feet on the short berber carpeting from his room. Reggie’s heart was pounding harder and faster as he waited for the inevitable attack to come at him through two inches of building material that was purchased by the lowest bidder.
Because each second felt like a year, Reggie wasn’t sure how much time had past before he heard the creatures make some growling sounds and then trample away from his room. As he heard them leave his suite, he began to feel relief come to him in waves of exhaustion. Each wave revealed new things; how heavy the bat felt in his hands, the shaking of his arms, and the tightening of his shoulders as he tried to keep the bat out in front of him. Slowly he lowered the bat, calmed his hands, and then let out a large breath.
After many minutes, he fumbled with his backpack and went for the half bottle of water that he had left. His mouth had become dry and scratchy and what water actually made it into his mouth felt and tasted like it came straight from an ancient glacier. Once it he had emptied the bottle he replaced it in his backpack and sat quietly against the wall taking in how close he had just come to death.
Unlike his previous episodes in the car and on the road, he had been awake for all of this and the intended prey of the creatures. But unlike the rooftop, he was trapped with no real place to go, he was cornered and out of options for escape. He knew this even as he had returned to his room still in shock, as he showered, changed clothes, and calmly used his computer to search the Internet. What he should have been doing was getting as far away from civilization as he could, but now that was too late.
The realization that he was going to die here on campus turned his thinking to his family and friends that he would never see again. His parents; who had tried for years to have him, their only child, and worked hard and sacrificed all their time and personal dreams to provide him with the opportunities to chose his own path- it was all for nothing now. Reggie could feel the tears sliding down his face as he knew he’d never smell the cheap lavender scented soap and perfume his mother used whenever she hugged him and told her how proud she was of him. Every activity that his father ever did with him that eventually turned into a lesson or a fable, that bored him and drove him crazy, now seemed to be the most selfless and important thing that his father had passed on to him. He would miss them as much as he missed his father's love of puns or dreams of one day sledding across the cold barren landscape of Antarctica.
It made him think of his friend Keith, who had parents that gave him everything he wanted, and forced him to follow a career that he didn’t want. Keith had always been his anchor whenever he had a fight with his parents, or broke up with a girl. They were friends because Keith admired the freedom that Reggie had and Reggie admired Keith’s ability to see people for who they were and what they were worth. He would probably never see Keith again either.
And then there was Kara McCowell. She was the closest friend he had at school and he had loved her more than he thought was possible. She was unbelievably tall and wide, like a Valkyrie, and had the appearance of a librarian, as though she was the awkward and less than perfect sister of some supermodel. He had been drawn to her instantly, but never had the courage to tell her how he felt and now that too was taken from him. As the world was dying around him, he felt he had lost every thing in his life.
Slowly Reggie realized that he was mourning and falling into hopelessness and pity. He recognized that no matter how bad he felt or how alone he was, the fact that he was alive meant that there had to be others out there as well. At the very least, even if Satan himself now walked on the earth, he was determined to personally determine if his parent’s were dead or not. But before he was going to do this, he was going to need some supplies if he was to try and escape the university. That meant he would have to go back into his room.
The sounds of the attack were almost completely gone now. Every now and then he could hear someone moaning and crying as they slowly and excruciatingly died due to the fact these monstrosities ate their victims alive if possible. Saying a silent prayer to his parents and loved ones, he gathered his meager collection of belongings and moved towards the door.
The door opened silently, but only moved about 6 inches as the other side was blocked with debris. Reggie pushed slowly but firmly on the door and managed to eventually to push whatever was blocking it out of the way just enough so that he could squeeze through the wider opening. Stepping through, he saw that what weighed on the door was part of his desk. From there he saw the room was utterly destroyed. Most everything was torn apart or in pieces. There even looked to be slime, blood, and defecation strewn about the floors and walls from the creatures and maybe past victims. The cliché “it looks like a bomb went off in here” sure applied in this instance.
Reggie inspected the rest of the suite and the rooms of the other guys and they all looked very similar. There seemed to be nothing that remained intact. Depressed, he went back to the common room and decided that it might be a long night, so he thought he would see what he could find that was still edible. The refrigerator was ripped open and laying tipped over on the floor, and the cabinets were torn apart and off the wall. His search produced 3 more bottles of water, a half eaten hamburger from one of his roommates, a few breakfast bars, a couple of apples and bananas, and a box of pop tarts.
He took out his empty water bottle and was lucky enough that the water in the suite was still working and he filled that up and placed it back into his backpack. He also grabbed a cup and filled that with water to drink now. Scanning the area for anything else that might come in handy, he took a dish towel, a steak knife, the breakfast bars and water, and then headed back into his own room again.
He could still hear an occasional scream and scuffle from the floors above, so he did his best to remain silent while he searched his room for anything of value or use. The continued sounds convinced him that he might have to hide out here for quite awhile and he wasn’t sure how long he might be trapped inside the tunnels. With that in mind, he grabbed the remains of his bedding and threw them into the tunnel along with an extra denim shirt and jogging pants.
What he truly wanted to find was his flashlight. It was one of those black mini-maglite lights that would come in really handy while sitting in the dark. It took him awhile and he had to tear up most of the common room, but he found the flashlight and some extra batteries, along with a lighter and a candle in one of his friend’s rooms. Thinking this was probably the last chance he’d get, he went to the bathroom. It took him awhile, but he forced himself to do everything he possibly could. When he was finished he grabbed the remaining roll of toilet paper and was about to head back to his room and enter the access panel when he made his first mistake of the night; he flushed the toilet. This alerted anything listening that someone was alive and moving around in this suite. He also realized that he had left the bat in the access tunnel.
He hurried back to the tunnel and threw his backpack inside and quickly grabbed his bat. He was so focused on making sure he was equipped should he run into trouble that he didn’t hear any of the noises behind him. As he slowly turned around to check his room one last time before shutting himself in, he found death standing in front of him.
Almost as tall as Reggie’s six foot frame, the creature looked at him through yellow eyes and green pupils. Two forked tongues came out of each of its mouths and their tips twisted and danced with each other while the creature bared its sharp rows of teeth to him. The light in the room gleamed powerfully off of the bright red blood on this horns and tusks, with its tail swaying softly and controlled from left to right behind him, making a swift cutting sound with each flip.
Reggie tensed and gripped the bat tighter as the creature began a low gravely hiss and brought his hands up and bent its knees to pounce.
