Chapter 10

It had been a while since everything happened, I sat in the room of a small hotel on the outskirts of the town of Arnoville which was few few miles away from my hometown and my house. Everybody was holed up in the room while me and Bright occasionally went out for supplies. Bright told me that the people we'd run into were members of the Foundation called a retrieval team, their job was to catch SCPs that weren't contained.

We were on the run to who knows where and because they'd seen me I couldn't just go back to my house. I'd lost my phone, my house, and everything else, but the clothes on my back. Yet, despite everything I didn't feel bad, I had a purpose and that was to help my friends. I started by writing down my story online from a computer in a library. After that me and Bright picked up some supplies and got to work. We planned for somewhere new to go, we had to run and we hadn't yet figured out where to go. After two days I returned to the library and posed the question to the people reading my story: what should we do? Where should we go? Were their others out their that could help us? Now, I thought, we wait.

* * *

"How, in Gods name did they escape," Alonzo said loudly, waving his arms. Galen frowned, "they had help, we weren't expecting that."

"Help," Turner said. "It was a freaking kid. He couldn't have been older than my own son."

Gray sat silently while the other talked about the mishap in an abandoned building they'd found. "That phone he threw was modified somehow to transmit a high frequency noise intended to incapacitate us. It worked and the phone seems to have been completely wiped," Redford said holding it in his hand. "We should contact the Foundation," Galen said.

"No," Alonzo said. "This is our mission and it just got personal."

"Alonzo..." Galen began.

"I agree," Gray said.

"What?"

Turner walked up next to Galen, "I agree with Galen." They all turned to Redford. He put down the phone and turned turned to them, "I think—" DING. They all turned to the table where the phone sat. Redford picked it up and turned it on. The phone had a new message that had somehow come through. It was a picture of a strange dog-like creature that they all recognized, it was standing next to a hotel that they hadn't seen before, Gray grabbed the phone, "were going after them."

"No, we're not," Galen said.

Gray pulled his pistol, "I'm not gonna let you stop us."

Galen stood unsurprised, "I knew you were after my position. If you do this you will not get out of here alive."

Gray smiled, "then that makes two of us." Then he pulled the trigger. Galen dodged, knocking Turner out of the way and Redford jumped back instinctively and Alonzo just stood staring for half a second before he too pulled out his pistol. Galen pulled his pistol and fired of a few shots, one of which grazed Gray's ear and made him flinch. Alonzo seemed to not know who to shoot at before he fired off his pistol and a bullet thudded into Turners leg. He screamed as the bullet ripped through his flesh and the bullet bored a hole right through next to his femur.

Redford grabbed at his pistol only to realize he'd sat it on a dresser across the room, instead he pulled out a Bowie knife and went at Gray. Alonzo saw him coming and turned and raised his arm blocking Redford's downward stab. Turner writhed on the floor as Galen flipped a table and jumped behind it. As he reached out to grab Turner, Gray reloaded, chambered, and shot again at Galen, however he was successful in getting Turner behind the table.

Redford clenched his fist and with a wet crunch punched Alonzo in the face, Alonzo screamed and grabbed at his nose with one hand while he raised his pistol towards Redford, but he was too slow. Redford spun backwards and plunged the blade into Alonzo's hand, pinning it to the wall, and making him drop the gun.

I've got to stop Gray, he thought as he was suddenly confronted by the man who'd realized a new threat. Gray's pistol was aimed down sight at him, when Galen got a luck shot from behind the table, not knowing that Gray had turned away. The bullet hit Gray's gun and ricocheted off and into an old gas can sitting on a shelf. The shot Gray fired missed and hit a window, shattering it. Redford ran up and tackled Gray. Galen pulled Turner up and helped him out the window then turned and yelled to Redford, "GO!" He grabbed the gear and jumped out himself with Redford trailing behind him, then he turned and threw an incendiary grenade in the window.

The grenade went off and ignited the old gasoline and rotten wooden floors, the house went up like a matchbox. Redford, Galen, and Turner stood watching as the house went up in flames. Turner was leaning on Galen's shoulder as he said, "let's get out of here." With that the others nodded and turned to walk away.