Jon and the rest of those stuck in small kitchen jumped a foot in the air when the door to the kitchen burst open and slammed against the wall. Jon turned quickly, shaking and fumbling at the handles of the knives held in his belt. His hands stopped shuffling franticly when he noticed what had burst into the room.

“You’re alive!” Jon’s eyes widened and his brow arched.

“Get the fuck out of here!” Denis didn’t skip a beat as he moved to the nearest oven and frantically pulled on it.

“What the hell are you doing?” The diner’s chef stepped away from the rest of the crowd and eyed Denis up as he struggled to move the bolted down stove. “You’re never going to move that thing.”

Denis let out a loud grunt, and in one final pull, the floor to which the stove was bolted ripped away. Any excess gas lines and power cords either ripped in half or pulled themselves from either the socket they were plugged into or the large range. Denis’s muscles tensed as he carried the heavy object to in front of the kitchen door. A relieved sigh escaped his lips as he dropped the stainless steal hunk of metal right to the ground, blocking the door from swinging open.

“So… I’m assuming you didn’t kill them?” Jon questioned Denis.

“We have to get out of here.” Denis looked around at the crowd of people and frowned. “Where’s David?”

“We don’t know. He just kind of ran out before we could stop him.” Andria pushed herself through the crowd of civilians to step up to Denis. “Kind of chickened out before.”

“His loss.” Denis sneered, then turned his attention to Jon. “I want you to get these people out of here.”

“And take them where; outside, where I’m going to guarantee more of those things are stalking around?” Jon’s voice turned a bit defensive.

“What about the school? Do you think anyone else would have gathered there?” The diner manager piped up.

“Not after what happened there.” Jon shook his head.

“What do you mean?” The manager moved towards Jon, pushing patrons out of his way to get there.

“Does anyone know any type of safe house, maybe… a bomb shelter or something?” Denis looked around at the crowd of people, hoping for an answer.

Before anyone had the chance to even answer, something banged against the kitchen door. A slight indent, the size of a baseball, bent in at the middle of the metal door.

“That door won’t hold for long… someone think of something!” Denis grew impatient, moving himself towards the barricaded door.

The door indented again, this time pushing against the heavy machinery that was set on the ground in front of it. With another crash against the door, the oven started to move against the floor, grinding and shifting slowly.

“God damnit!” Denis pushed back up against the oven, and then turned back to the crowd of people. “Just go; we’re fucked either way!”

Jon was about to refute Denis’ previous comment, but was interrupted by the sound of a deep roar emitting from behind the diner, where the kitchen would exit outside. Following the roar immediately was a loud thump and the screeching of tires, and then immediate silence.

“What the fuck?” Jon began to push his way through the crowd towards the kitchen’s back door. As he approached the door, the sound of a horn blaring broke the silence.

“It’s David!” Andria grew slightly relieved.

“Everyone get out to him. See what the fuck he’s got up his sleeve.” Denis nodded towards the back door.

Without any hesitation, the entirety of the people stuck in the kitchen started to pile out the back door to greet David and the vehicle he had commandeered.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

David waved frantically from the drivers seat of the mini-bus at the people running out of the diner’s back exit. His left foot was pressed hard against the break, but his right hovered over the gas, in case he had to punch it to escape danger.

Jon was in the front of the panicked crowd of diner patrons and employees. As he approached the main door of the bus, David swung the door open.

“Good timing, ass!” Jon snapped before running to the back of the bus and unlatching the handicap ramp door.

“Hey, no problem buddy.” David spoke softly, yet full of sarcasm, as he shook his head and watched as people piled onto the bus from both the front and the back.

The mini-bus filled up quickly, and as the eighteenth person piled in, David noticed that the only space left was the set of stairs next to him.

“How many do we have left?” David called back to Jon.

Barely audible over the mumbling and rustling of passengers, Jon hollered back. “About a dozen more!”

“Shit.” David mumbled to himself. “I’m gonna have to drop these guys off!”

“Drop them off where?” Jon started to push himself through the tight crowd on the bus.

“The high school. The whole town kind of went insane at the sight of these dogs… and the school turned into a kind of safe house.” David explained briefly.

Jon hesitated for a second, than gave David a questioning look. “Why did you go to the school?”

“I figured we’d need something to cart the people in the diner around in… and this was the closest large vehicle I could think of.” David sighed and then continued. “That… and I saw the lights of other cars turning into the school down the road… so I ran to where there would be more people.”

“Well… thanks for comin’ back.” Jon nodded and stuck his head out of the bus’ door. “We only have room for one more!” He yelled out to the remaining five people that stood waiting for their escape.

“Just go! If David could make it on foot… we can to.” Andria waved at David to get the bus moving as she answered Jon. “Anyway… we have the guy with the guns!”

Jon nodded in agreement and turned, slapping David on the shoulder. In an instant, the bus was moving forward to turn around in the parking lot. As it drove forward, its massive weight rolled over the still body of the hellhound that David had hit.

Andria sighed as she watched the bus drive off towards the school, which was no more than a thousand feet away from the diner. She turned her attention back to the group of people she had caused to be left behind with herself.

“It’s alright. Denis will get us out of this.” She tried to reassure the majority of the nervous that made up the remaining group of five, including herself.

“Speak for yourself… I was willing to hop on that bus and get the fuck out of here!” A male patron shook his fist in the air as he scolded Andria.

Andria recoiled and felt her eyes water up slightly. She wanted out. She wanted life to be normal again. She wanted Mark. Before she could respond to the patron’s comment, the echoed sound of gunfire erupted from the diner.

“Everyone run!” Andria ordered as she watched the back door burst open and David walked outside backwards, his handguns firing at unseen targets.