Chapter 5

“Let me in there,” Sansia screamed. She hated every bone in the pretentious Raydon Payne’s body but somehow she was unwilling to see those bones broken.

“Mr. Payne doesn’t want you in there,” Robert said stubbornly. “You could get hurt.”

“He needs our help.”

The door flew open and Raydon stepped out.

“Close the door you can’t let that thing get out,” Sansia shouted.

“It’s gone,” Raydon said.

“Gone?” Sansia peeped into the room behind Raydon. “Gone where?”

“It must have escaped through one of the other doors or something,” Raydon said.

“It was a wolf, how could it get out of one of the doors?” Sansia questioned.

“I have no idea, all I know is when I went in there the room was completely empty, except for dead bodies.”

“What about the owner and his son?” Robert asked.

“They must have managed to escape through one of the other doors,” Raydon suggested.

“Where did that thing come from?” Someone yelled.

“It came from one of us,” a response came back. “We’re turning into wolves and killing each other.”

There were panicked screams all about the room.

“Please stay calm, only one person has changed…” Raydon started to say.

“Who knows who could be next? You could change or that girl, we could all be locked in here with a bunch of werewolves,” a young man shouted.

There was more panicked shouting after that comment and people started racing towards the door.

“What do we do boss? They want to leave,” Robert said.

“Then open the door, it’s their choice,” Raydon said.

“Mr. Belle said at one pm,” Sansia reminded him.

“Look at this crowd, if we don’t let them leave now they’ll tear us all apart,” Raydon said grabbing the keys from Robert and hurrying towards the door. “Just remember,” he shouted in a voice that boomed above the noise of the crowd. “Leaving here is final.”

“We want out, we want out, this building is a trap,” someone screamed slamming there body against the door. Raydon gripped his shirt by the collar and shucked him away.

“These people have a right to be afraid,” Sansia said.

“You want to go with them too?” Raydon growled.

“No, I just want to find Anara,” Sansia responded.

Raydon opened the door and what looked like the entire crowd burst out. Raydon grabbed Sansia’s arm and dragged her up against his body.

“You don’t have to keep protecting me,” Sansia said defensively.

“If I don’t who will?” Raydon demanded as a large man went rushing through the door and Raydon had to push him off of them.

“I can look after myself,” Sansia insisted. “What happened in there just caught me by surprise.”

“They’ve all gone,” Robert muttered walking up to the door and watching staff and visitors scamper down the steps.

“Not all,” Raydon said glancing about the room at the few persons remaining.

“Hhhhhhhhoooooowwwwwwwwwllllll…”

“It’s coming from outside,” Robert said.

“What was that?” Sansia demanded unable to stop her body from shaking against Raydon’s.

“I don’t know but I think it’s about time to draw the line, whoever’s out will have to stay out and whoever’s in will stay in,” Raydon said.

“It’s that creature,” Sansia screamed dragging the door in with Raydon but she needn’t have bothered the monster was busy lunging at people as they raced down the steps.

“It must have been hiding and waiting outside until we came out,” Raydon muttered.

“Aaaaaaaaaaagghhh….” A woman screamed as the creature’s teeth sunk into her throat and tore away viciously.

“What do we do?” Sansia asked her face pressed against the glass.

“We do what the authorities told us to do. We stay inside.”

“It’s killing them,” Sansia pointed out fighting to hold tears back. “We have to help them.”

“It can’t kill all of them,” Raydon pointed out. “Some of them will get away.”

“What about the ones who don’t!” Sansia screamed angrily. “Must you always think only about yourself?”

“We could…” Robert started to say.

“That creature isn’t after who’s out there,” Raydon said turning the lock firmly in the door. “It wants to get in here.”

“You don’t know that,” Sansia insisted.

Raydon shrugged.

“No I don’t. I do know that this glass building is going to look less and less attractive as this situation gets worse,” Raydon said. “The safest place for us would be the upper or lower floors, there is too much of a direct entrance from here.”

“Maybe each of us should lock ourselves in an office alone until the authorities get this matter sorted out. Maybe the offices on the top floors,” Annemarie suggested. “That wolf wasn’t in the room when we first went in; it means someone in the room changed while we were there.”

“Some of them are escaping,” Sansia said still staring out of the glass door.

“The creature isn’t even chasing them,” Robert pointed out. “He’s coming back up the steps.”

“Come on, we need to get ourselves together and make a plan. We don’t know how long this is going to last, we can’t just lock ourselves in rooms with no water,” Raydon said.

“So what now?” Robert asked.

Raydon stared through the glass of the door at the creature who stopped advancing and stared back at him.

“Now,” Raydon said slowly. “We secure this entrance and meet downstairs in the science lab to figure out the best way forward.”

“I’m going for Anara…” Sansia started to say but Raydon had gripped her hand and was walking towards the elevator. “You can’t force me to go with you!” Sansia screamed trying to wriggle her hand out of his but his grip felt like steel.

Raydon bent his knees slightly and with what seemed like no effort swept Sansia into his arms.

“I promised you I would help you find your friend but right now we need to get down stairs and establish a home base of operation; and if I have to – I can and will force you to go with me.”

“Jerk!” Sansia screamed.

*****