The Hunt

Simmons Airport, New World City.

"Not a large airport, huh..." Alan Fischer looked around as he was standing on the escalator. "That's a surprise, considering the size of the city."

"The airport was the first to be built as part of the futuristic remodelling process of the city." Raphael explained. "I'm guessing they never bothered to improve upon it."

"Huh. Is that so?" Alan yawned. He'd been aboard the airplane for about ten hours, and he was only able to sleep for two hours. Plus he had a mild headache as well. 

They picked up their bags and headed outside, where Lewis was waiting for them, standing next to his convertible car.

"Gentlemen." Lewis stretched his hand forward, and said. "You must be Special Agent Alan Fischer and Doctor Raphael Hernandez."

"That's us. And you must be detective Lewis." Alan pointed at themselves before shaking Lewis' hand and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you two as well." Lewis lied as naturally as he breathed. He was busy all night yesterday and was not able to get a good night's sleep. And now, he was forced by his superiors to chauffeur around agents from the Federal Investigation Department. So unlike what he said, he certainly wasn't feeling any pleasure. "So what do you want to do? Do you wish to go to your assigned hotel, or leave straight to the crime scene?" Lewis asked.

"Well..." Alan turned to look at Raphael, who simply shrugged his shoulders. It would definitely be best if they were to head straight to the location of the murder. However, they had just completed a ten hour flight, and were exhausted. "Let's head to the hotel first."

------------ BEAST SOUL ------------

"Hey," Billy said, "What the hell was that? A wolf?" 

"How on earth am I supposed to know?" The basketball guy replied as he stared in the direction the noise had come from. He seemed uncomfortable. "Should we leave?" He turned around and asked the rest of his teammates. He was clearly tense.

Billy looked at him blankly and said, "Hey! What the hell are you talking about? We have a deal, remember? I paid you, and now you're talking about leaving?"

"It could be a wolf," the basketball guy said, shrugging his shoulders. "You've heard the rumours about the murders, right?"

Billy's eyes flicked across the four teammates and came to rest on the main guy. "Are you being serious right now?" Billy gritted his teeth. He looked angry.

As they were talking, Noah, who had also heard the loud howl, felt a chill. 

He was familiar with this feeling. He felt it before. Back when he abruptly woke up in the middle of the street at night. When he saw Wolfe for the first time. 

Except this was different. It was even more menacing and ominous. And it was moving right toward them. 

"We have to leave," Noah murmured under his breath. He could feel his heart pounding. It felt as though it wanted to burst out from his chest. 

"We have to leave!" He turned to Adrian, who was still lying on the ground, groaning. "Listen to me. We have to leave this place right now!"

"Leave?" Billy, who heard his words, turned to face Noah. "You think you can just leave? You think I'll let you leave so easily?" 

"Listen to me, Billy. We don't have time to argue. We can do this another day. But right now, it's best if you listen to me!" Noah walked up to Billy and spoke. His tone was urgent. The basketball players who were standing behind Billy looked at each other with an expression of uncertainty. 

"Oh, I don't think so," Billy said coldly. He looked irritated that Noah wasn't giving him any face. "I'm not going to let you walk out of here so easily. No one's leaving this place unless I allow it, and I ain't allowing it!" He stomped his foot on the ground.

BAM!

But before he could continue speaking, Billy heard the ear piercing loud howl once again, except this time, it sounded extremely close!

And then, he saw it.

On top of the pile of junks, stood a giant wolf-like creature, with its sharp teeth clearly visible even as its mouth was closed. Although it's figure resembled that of a wolf, its flattened face reminded him of a crocodile. Except for the fact that it had fur. Its eyes glowed red, and it was looking straight at Billy.

SHAAAAA!

The attack came suddenly. The creature howled loudly before it shot forward, and then leapt onto Billy, who screamed at the top of his lungs. "AHHHH!"

SLAM!

Noah, who wasn't able to identify the location of the creature, only saw a shadow descend from above and onto Billy, but it was enough for him to realize what had happened. He yelled out, "RUN!"

The basketball players, who saw the creature jump onto Billy to attack him, immediately turned back around and ran. Noah then turned to look at Adrian, who had only gotten up from the ground right now. "Ugh… wha- what the hell is that thing?" He clenched his head and pointed at the wolf-like creature that was on top of Billy.

"We can think about that later. Right now, we have to go. Move!" Noah pushed Adrian, who although not in the best of condition, nodded his head and turned around to leave.

Before he ran away, Noah turned his head back just for a second and looked at Billy.  He couldn't get a good look because the creature's body was blocking his view, but he was able to get a glimpse of Billy lying under the creature's feet, eyes still open and blood dripping out of his nose and mouth as the creature continued devouring him. Billy's head tilted, and for a brief second, he made eye contact with Noah. He was looking at him with pleading eyes, as if he was asking for Noah's help, but Noah looked away, unable to maintain the eye contact, and dashed off.

"I'm sorry, Billy." He whispered under his breath, but he didn't stop running. He didn't have time to contemplate whether or not he made the right decision by not choosing to save Billy. He just dashed as fast as she could, heading toward the exit of the junkyard.

Whoosh!

As he moved, he saw the figure of Adrian in front of him. Noah had caught up to him. Noah glanced at Adrian's face. He seemed pale, and his nose was bleeding. He didn't look too good.

"What the hell is that thing?" Adrian, who saw Noah had caught up to him, asked. He pressed his hand against his forehead, squinting his eyes as he looked ahead.

Noah shrugged his shoulders.  "I have no clue." 

Adrian nodded his head, as if he had already known his answer, and focused on his running. "It didn't look like a normal animal...." He murmured softly, but Noah heard it. Perhaps it was meant for him to hear?

"We can think about its origins after we escape from this junkyard in one piece." Noah replied. "Do you know of any safe location where we can hide?"

"My dad's old workshop is nearby." Adrian responded. "It's a small shed, but the door is metal."

Noah nodded his head. Adrian groaned, and he gripped his head once again. 

"I feel like I'm going to throw up." He said. 

"Me too." Noah whispered softly. He did feel sick, except for an entirely different reason.

After a few more seconds of running, both of them reached the exit, and Adrian stopped in his tracks and called out to Noah. "Let's close the gate."

Noah stopped running and turned around, before running back to help Adrian close the gate to the junkyard. 

It was one of those giant chain link gates. Not exactly hard to break through, especially for a monstrous creature. But it could buy them some time.

"Alright." Adrian nodded his head after making sure that the gate was locked, after which he turned back around to resume running. "The shed is just a couple of blocks from here. Let's go." He said to Noah, who nodded his head and followed him.

Back inside the junkyard, the wolf-like creature, who seemed satisfied with its hunt, raised its head high up in the air and let out another loud howl before yanking another piece of flesh from Billy's corpse underneath its leg and hungryly devouring it.