I stopped dead in my tracks. Mike tugged on me but our hands slipped away from each other. I sensed something was wrong, very wrong. He had taken a step through the entrance and a can fell over, startling him back a pace. He pulled the shotgun from the loop on his jeans and pointed it at the place where the tin can fell but hesitated, that's when I grabbed a hold of his biceps, staring dead ahead. A rat scurried out from under the box the can had been on, Mike relaxed, "fuckin' rat," he seemed to growl.
"Mike," I whispered his name, removing a hand from his bicep to point at the creature in front of us.
It screeched and lunged for us. I screamed, grabbing back onto his bicep with the hand I had removed. Mike shot at the Wendigo as I tugged him toward the stairs that lead up. He shifted to wrap the arm that held the shotgun around my waist and pulled me forward.
'RUN!' Wolfie barked, following at our heels.
Mike stopped, unsure which way to go but ultimately decided to choose left into the room. He shoved me inside and slammed the door. I fell to my hip upon the ground, quickly shifting to face the door, in terror, holding my torso up. I wasn't mad at him for shoving me inside, he was just trying to protect me, get us inside safely. I was breathing hard, my heart pounding rapidly.
Suddenly the torch went out.
"Oh fuck!" I cried.
"Shit," Mike muttered, "God, damn it," he moved to pull the locker down to block the door.
I tried to sit up at that moment to help him but he got it by himself. I was already on my feet, the machete from before was sticking out of my backpack, easy for him to rip it out and use it if need be. I moved to his side, taking his arm with my fingers as we stupidly looked out through the broken door window.
BOO!
The Wendigo was sticking its screeching head through the window!
I screamed, "GO AWAY! GO AWAY! NO!," as if that would do anything good then I felt Mike grab a hold of the machete from my backpack and rip it out, I ducked as he hit the Wendigo in the head with it.
"VANESSA! RUN! RUN!" He told me as I turned and ran toward the next room, waiting for him.
When he was inside, we both slammed the door shut and I locked it. I leaned my back against the door a moment, breathing hard and just trying to calm my heart down, it was pounding so hard I thought I was about to explode. Mike leaned against the door with me, facing me, his shoulder against the wood. My back was against the door, so I shifted my head to look up at him fearfully with my mouth open, lower lip quivering, my teeth chattering.
"You gonna be okay, Vee?" Mike asked me in a whisper.
I couldn't answer him. My breath was erratic, faster than it should have been. I shook my head and winced, gritting my teeth. My hands flew up to hold my head for it had started to hurt.
Mike merely pulled me to him, holstering the machete back into my backpack for safekeeping. I brought my arms down and wrapped them around his torso, my face was in his chest. I could breathe again! Damn, what is it about him that makes me feel so safe? Why do I feel like I'm dying until he's holding me in his arms? Questions that would have to be answered later because there was no time to ask him.
We heard a soft bark, it was Wolfie. We pulled apart to acknowledge him, I knelt to allow him to come closer to me. I wrapped my arms around him, he put his head on my shoulder and I held him fearfully for only a moment before kissing his head, "thank you, Wolfie," I whispered smiling as he licked my cheek once.
'Anything for you and him," I heard his voice again but this time it made me smile.
I stood back up to my feet, looking to Mike as did Wolfie, who proceeded to gently pat the wolf's head, "good dog, shh, shh, it's okay, I'm fine," he assured the dog, and me as we slowly continued.
There was the sound of creaking floorboards and we crouched down behind the desks at our left side, my hands immediately grasped onto his jacket and I placed my left cheek on his lower back, not wanting to look at the thing I sense in the room. Wolfie was behind me, hiding, keeping watch behind us.
"What the hell was that?" Mike whispered his question to me.
"A Wendigo," I whispered back fearfully.
He watched the Wendigo scout us out but when a rolling bottle came toward us, Mike had to act fast. He caught it before it could hit the ground and shatter, giving away our position. He handed it to me and I gently set it down somewhere it couldn't make any noise before we slowly moved forward, shifting to face where we had come, praying that the Wendigo didn't spot us or come near us. We watched it jump down away from us, its attention on something over there. We made a run for it and made it away from the room to a new area.
Mike checked each side before choosing the right path, following the wolf who had led us to that point. I was still attached to Mike and right now it was for the best. We slowly moved forward, he was quietly antagonizing. I smacked him, quietly telling him not to antagonize or we would die. He whispered an apology and we continued, ever-so-slowly.
We came to a corner, not quite ready to go down the new path but a Wendigo came up to the gate. It was screeching at us as its arm reached through the bars to try and grab us but we moved away, exclaiming in surprise.
Mike pointed the shotgun at the beast but he realized that it was in a cage and that he didn't need to waste bullets. I also told him that when I realized that it was caged up. We were safe, from that one at least. It moved away only to come back and force us backward onto our backs.
'I'm outta here! Be back for you later,' Wolfie ran ahead, leaving us behind.
The two of us quickly got to our feet, Mike being extra ready with the shotgun.
"Wolfie! Come back!" I called grabbing a hold of Mike's jacket again.
Again, we continued but another hand came toward us, toward me and Mike caught sight of it, pulling away from the outstretched hand as I gasped. He held me tightly to his back, keeping me safely tucked against him. Though there would be no issues since I was already stuck to him like glue at this point. So he was able to hold onto the shotgun with both hands.