Anne heard a howl echo through the door. She told the others that she could hear claws scratching at the wood.
With the exception of Kate and Rudy they all seemed physically frozen, their attention completely focused on the door, listening for any signs of an imminent attack.
"Did somebody smuggle food in with them?" Rudy turned and asked the group.
All eyes turned to Georgie.
"No, I did not!" Georgie all but screamed his denial.
"Okay, I believe you." Rudy might believe Georgie, but the rest of the group wasn't convinced.
They started tossing around ideas. The most prevalent one being that whatever the creature was it had followed them with a purpose.
"Why would it do that?" Griffen asked shakily, all these strange happenings were new to him.
"Lunch." Rufus suggested. Lucy giggled, encouraged Rufus added. "Then dessert."
"Knock it off." Rudy felt responsible for bringing them here. He silently berated himself for not taking better precautions. He and Kate knew firsthand how dangerous the Hive could be. This wasn't the first time they had been forced to move because of a catastrophe. Bradley Jones was the second in their string of bad luck...if you can call the bloody massacre of your roommates bad luck, Rudy thought wryly.
He and Kate had been introduced to the Hive, by Mr Christie, when they were just 6 years old. The twins had been traveling with their parents, strapped in the back seat of the car, singing to pass the miles, when a transport truck crossed the grass median and struck their car, clipping the driver's side fender, flipping the Ford over, rolling it across three lanes of traffic into the ditch. Kate woke still strapped into her car seat. Rudy's side of the car was empty. Kate didn't know it at the time, but she had transported Rudy out of the car, high over the road to the safety of the overpass above, seconds before impact. Rudy was in shock. He watched as people stopped and gathered around the crushed Ford. Out of the crowd came a balding, slouched man, his hand holding Kate's smaller one. The pair walked up the steep incline to where Rudy stood. "Hi, Rudy. My name is Len Green and I'm going to take you somewhere special." His soft voice and gentle demeanor seemed the perfect solution to the mayhem below on the road.
Rufus suggested. "Hey, Griffin, whats say you go out and take a look?" Griffen paled at the suggestion.
"Definitely not." Kate snapped. "No one is going out there until we figure out what is on the other side of this door. She turned to Anne, her voice gentle. "Is there anymore you can tell us?"
Anne shivered. "It's basically the same vision playing over and over. It's like a loop. We are all torn apart, bit by bloody bit, by some animal who kinda resembles a wolf. But, it's eyes are human. It's very tall. Taller than Rufus."
Ethan mused aloud. "Definitely not a hybrid. Wolves have 78 chromosomes, while humans have 46. Too difficult to engineer." The others didn't agree or disagree.
Rudy mulled over Anne's description. "I've never seen a creature like that in the Hive. You, Kate?"
Kate gave a negative shake of her head. "Seems unlikely."
The loop bothered Rudy as well. He signaled for Griffen to step up beside him, then leaned down and whispered in Griffin's ear. The boy paled, but nodded his agreement.
"It's Psychokinesis!" Rudy declared and threw the door open.
Anne fainted and Ethan barely caught her before she hit the floor. Griffen disappeared. Lucy threw both hands over her face.
Rufus and Georgie both reacted physically. Rufus shot static charges through the open doorway, while Georgie flung books from the shelves in the same direction.
"Just as I suspected." Rudy crowed. "Nothing here. An image sent to our Precog to frighten us and keep us here and stop us from returning to our pod."
"But why?" Kate looked up from where she had joined Ethan, leaning over Anne's prone body. The younger girl moaned. Her eyes fluttered.
"Don't know." Rudy admitted, "But I am going to find out." He seemed to recall when he and Kate had moved into this pod that either Sybil or Vera, he didn't remember which, had bragged about how she could not only see into people's minds, but project images into people minds that were susceptible to visions as well.
"Hey, guys, where's Lucy." Rufus yelled.
Rudy cursed, long and loud. "Rufus, Georgie come with me. Now."
The three of them tore through the room into the living area. Rudy crashed into the door, it smashed loudly against the wall. The twins, still on the sofa where they'd left them, cringed when they saw Rudy's furious expression.
"They made us do it!" Sybil cried throwing up her hand in a weak defense.
"They threatened us with horrible things." Vera backed her sister.
"Edgar and Allen carried her through there." They pointed to a door off the living area.
That was all Rudy needed to hear, he threw them a disgusted look before continuing on to Edgar and Allen's door. It was closed and locked. Rudy banged loudly, yelling for the brothers to open up.
"Stand back!" Rufus yelled. Once Rudy and Georgie were clear he zapped the door lock with one hand, the other hand shielding his eyes. The lock exploded into tiny metal fragments. The door flung forcefully inward.
Like all sleeping quarters in the Hive, the room was simply furnished. It didn't take long to search.
The room was empty.