The Manaverse

Granite City Streets

Granite City

Kyle's heart thundered as wildly as his legs did on the pavement. He was lucky so far because Lily had kept pace with him and he'd not heard the sounds of pursuit. So, he'd kept running as hard and as fast as he could.

Kyle was not in the best running shape he could be. Sure, throwing freight had upped his stamina a bit but not enough for an all-out mad dash to safety. Soon, he had a stitch in his side and was having a hard time breathing.

He wasn't sure how many streets he had gone down, or how many turns he had made. All he knew was he was still heading North and West. Kyle had decided to go to Diggy's house.

Kyle knew the Digsbys had a bomb shelter in their backyard that was spacious enough for at least fifteen people. Diggy's parents had both been a touch paranoid about the unusual natural disasters, so Diggy's dad had built it by hand. He wasn't sure if they'd let him in, but it was the only place he could think to go. The only problem with his idea was Diggy lived equally as far away from the store as he did but in the opposite direction.

Kyle turned down another street when he saw a pack of dog-like monsters up ahead. When he reached the next intersection, he turned back the way he was going before he spotted them. When he got to the point where he could look down once more, he peeked around the corner and could see the monsters. They were sniffing around an SUV that had a family inside.

Kyle felt his stomach clench painfully when he saw them. He wanted nothing more than to try and help, but he knew he couldn't take on three or four of the monsters at once. So, he led his pets the other way, continuing on the path he had originally chosen. He wasn't going to play superhero only to die in the attempt.

Before he could make it around the corner, Kyle tripped and crashed into a car. He managed to catch himself and straighten up but he had lost all of his momentum. He snuck a glance back at the monsters and all of them were looking in his direction.

"Damn it. Let's get out of here." Kyle yelled at his pets as he tried running harder. It wasn't very effective. He quickly scanned the street he was on. The monster dogs were only a block away and they were getting closer too quickly.

Kyle crossed his fingers when a plan came to mind. Ahead was an underpass with space underneath on each end that may help. There was also a different pack of monsters just past the bridge. They were a larger group of mutated insects. Scorpions with the armor of a peal bugs and a mace head stingers. They all looked up as the small group approached.

With a quick yank, Kyle lifted Lily by her harness and caught her, guiding Gunther to jump behind cover at just the right moment. The monsters pursuing him had been mid leap while the insectoids had charged forward into them.

To Kyle's delight, the two groups did begin to fight one another. The bad news was there more scorpions than was needed to preoccupy the dogs. So, he kept running, threading through the guts of the underpass and going back the way they had come.

Kyle turned off, going north once more, and had to slow down to catch his breath. Gunther didn't seem tired but on edge. He gladly slowed down so he could look and sniff around. Lily clung to Kyle's clothing, doing her best to remain curled up. Kyle did his best to not jostle her any more than necessary.

When he wasn't bludgeoned by a mace stinger, Kyle looked back. He could see the claws of the scorpion who had chased him clamped around another man. Kyle felt dirty turning and picking up the speed once again before ducking around the next corner and reassessing their situation.

Working hard to catch his breath, Kyle leaned into the shadow of the alley.

"What the absolute fuck?" He rubbed his eyes and face with one hand, starting to feel tired.

Kyle was normally asleep by now, getting up around eight pm. Add in the booze and frantic cardio and he had almost nothing left. Gunther whined softly and flicked Kyle's hand affectionately. Kyle scratched the dog softly, using his other hand to support and stroke the cat clinging to him.

Lily stopped shaking and lowered herself to the ground but stayed huddled around Kyle's feet. When he was able to press on, Lily refused to be picked up but remained within scooping distance. Kyle wasn't sure if he had squished her in his escape or if she could sense how tired he was and was giving him a break. Either way, she made it easy for him to sneak around the next corner.

Kyle beheld a glorious sight. The Granite City Grocer was across the street. The parking lot looked normal enough except the security gate was down over the front doors.

"It's the store, guys. Let's go." Kyle said excitedly. He tried his best to stay quiet though.

Lily scowled directly at him and sat down on her haunches. Scowling back, Kyle tipped his head when she wouldn't budge.

"Okay, okay. Guy and gal. Happy?" He asked sarcastically, about to pick her up. To his surprise, she got up and started towards the grocery store.

Shaking his head, Kyle caught up and carefully led everyone out of the alley. As soon as he was across the line of the building's cover, another weight hit him from his left.

Kyle fell to the ground and could only see blue and grey fur. The next thing he knew, he had the wind knocked out of him with a heavy weight atop him. It was that damn cat from the apartment complex.

He struggled to keep the claws away from his vital areas, taking cuts along his arms. Just before the cat was about to try and maul his face, Kyle was saved again. Gunther had tackled the cat off of him.

Only, it wasn't as effective this time. Another cat tackled Gunther and the first cat leaped at Kyle almost immediately.

Fortunately, Kyle felt something like this might happen and pulled a hunting knife from his belt. He thought the item was stupid when he got it from a friend as a gift.

Proving to himself again that he needed to be more appreciative of those around him, Kyle lined the knife up with the leaping cat. He allowed the creature's own weight to assist the knife through its fur and hide, using the momentum to push the body off of him quickly. He knew Gunther was in trouble, so he got up quickly, ignoring the pain. He didn't look back to see if he had killed the first cat.

The sight he turned to had Kyle nearly fainting in relief and vomiting in disgust.

It looked like Lily had jumped on the second cat's back and ripped its face up pretty good. Gunther had used the distraction to his advantage and struck at his attacker's throat with his jaws. They must have succeeded in killing the beast because both of his pets were feasting on the creature's soft stomach meat.

When Kyle tried to get them to stop, neither would listen. Not until they were completely sated. Instead, Kyle kept watch until they were done. That's when Kyle noticed it. His knife was laying a few paces away. A trail of blood led away, back towards his apartment. There was no small little stone to be found. Maybe that was just something that came from that particular dog?

"It might still die, right?" Kyle asked aloud. Gunther had returned and sat next to him, tilting his head the way dogs do. He then whined softly. Kyle smiled at him fondly.

"Yeah. You're right. We best get inside, eat, then get moving again. I don't know how long we will be safe here."

They looked around carefully as they approached the front doors and made it without incident. Kyle knocked on the glass and waited. It took four attempts and all most giving up for Kyle to get a response.

The Store Manager, Linda, poked her head where Kyle could see her. She pulled the glass doors open but didn't open the security gate.

"Jaxon, why are you here. Haven't you seen the monsters?"

Her tone made Kyle feel like she honestly assumed he hadn't noticed. Like she thought he was that dense.

"I'm on my way to a safer location than my apartment and needed to stop and rest. Let me in." Kyle said quickly and quietly. He thought it best to not respond to her assumption.

Linda's mouth pulled tight and she frowned grimly, almost apologetically.

"Can't do that, Jaxon. We aren't risking opening that gate for a moment. Not with the beasts out there."

"Linda, you're really going to leave me out here? There aren't any monsters close by. Open it quickly and I will help you fortify this place before I hit the road again."

Linda shook her head. "No. My apologies, but no." Then she shut the glass doors and locked them.

"That bitch." Kyle yelled. This made Gunther shift and growl.

Looking up towards the roof, Kyle had another idea.

That bastard Jaxon only wants to let more monsters in. How dare he ask for the gate to be opened? Linda thought to herself frantically as she returned to the group of people who were inside when she had closed and locked the gate initially.

A giant bird with vicious talons and fangs had flown in through the open door and begun rampaging. One of the customers had shot it in the eye, killing it. For the first time in her life, Linda was glad there was an open carry law in her state.

"It was just an employee. I sent him away." Linda declared when she walked into the backroom.

The survivors she had locked in with her had dragged all of the patio furniture they had on display back to the large backroom and many were lounging. Everyone looked terrified.

"Who was it?" Her assistant, Dan, asked. "Maybe they could help."

"It was that lazy freight boss, Kyle. He would do us absolutely no good." Linda said, rolling her eyes. She hadn't liked the man for a while now.

"What?" Dan said, getting to his feet. "He's the best on the crew, why would you turn him away."

"Best? How is he the best? All I see is him running that register." Linda sighed and said loudly and skeptically.

Dan's teeth ground together as he avoided hitting his boss. She had saved everyone here after all. It took great effort to keep his temper under control.

"You mean the register you demanded someone on his crew operate so you didn't have to higher another person?"

Linda shook her head. "If he was that good, why is he not throwing the load and letting his weakest member do run the registers?"

Dan scowled in disbelief. "No matter your personal opinion on how he ran the crew, you still abandoned another person. That's terrible." It was all he could say.

That's when another staff member spoke up. She ran the registers after Kyle left each freight night.

"He's the only one who was capable of increasing his pace enough to still get his share done and have enough time to run the registers. He also straightens up the front end while helping customers. He has more regulars than Cindy."

The silence turned awkward as the fifteen people in the room all turned and looked at Linda.

"Based on what I've seen on my way here, I don't really blame her."

Staff members gasped and Linda flinched when they recognized Kyle standing amongst the back of the group. He tossed a dead monster bug at Linda's feet.

"Oh, you're still a bitch for it and I quit, by the way." Kyle added in a dry tone.

"Ho-how di-did you get in?" Linda squawked.

"Remember how you made me make a pulley system on the roof so you could have furniture up there for the fireworks last season? Well, I used that to get Gunther and myself up on the roof. I still have a copy of the key to the latch too. I didn't need it though. You left it open. That's where I killed that guy." Kyle pointed to the bug. "You're welcome, by the way."

Looking at the dead bug, Linda fainted.

Dan took Kyle's hand and shook it. "Thank you, Jaxon. I'm sorry about her. She's been a little off since the monsters appeared."

"You're support is noted. Thanks, Dan."

Dan smiled and nodded at Kyle expectantly.

"I'm still quitting, though." Kyle said flatly.

Dan deflated.