Day 319 - Wolves Story

Wolves Story

Matthew Ryan Fischer

The howling interrupted the night. A cold moon rose to preside over a cold night with cold winds. The dark shadows in the woods grew as the night lingered on and they made their way unnaturally close to the road. The stars were hidden and the winds whipped up into a frenzy. The owls sat on their branches and watched and waited. There was something coming. The woods could feel it. It was an abnormal night with precarious consequences.

It was an older car and it was just one of those things that happened. It had odd sounds and didn’t run well when it was too hot or too cold. And this night was one of those cold and lonely nights out in the middle of nowhere. There had been flurries all day, but the night was supposed to be clear. It wasn’t. It snowed harder and harder as the night continued.  Bill normally liked traveling at night. Tonight he realized he made a bad decision.

The car stalled and wouldn’t start. There was no heat and there was too much snow still falling. Bill had seen a rest stop a few miles back, and while a midnight walk in the snow was less than ideal, staying and freezing to death seemed a whole lot worse. And so his trek began.

There was something scratching off in the distance. The wind moaned a low and dark groan.

Undeterred, Bill crunched along in the snow. Somewhere behind him, he heard the sound of something else crunching along.

Bill paused to listen. The sounds didn’t. He didn’t like that. He wasn’t afraid, yet, but he didn’t like it. Something was following him. Something in the woods was tracking him and coming closer. He had no way to defend himself or ward off predators. He had to hurry. Every thought and chemical in his body was telling him he had to hurry.

The shadows were all around. It didn’t seem right for a night that had so few stars.

His car broken down. It was a piece of junk, but it never broke down.

There was something else, crunching though the snow. Something else was out there, after him.

It was an unnaturally strange night.

Bill got to the rest stop. As he ran across the parking lot the lights began to flicker. He didn’t stop to think about that. He had to get inside. The sounds of growling grew as he ran. Something was coming and it was coming fast.

Bill got to the door. Someone on the inside had pushed a vending machine in front of it to block the doors from opening.

Bill pounded and pounded and pounded. The growling was getting closer. The howling was getting louder.

Finally the vending machine was pushed aside and Bill was pulled inside the rest stop.

There were several people – a family there. “Did you see them?!” “Were you attacked?” “Are you okay?” “Do you have a phone?” “Can you protect us?” There were so many questions, Bill couldn’t hear them all. Everyone was afraid. No one was quite sure what was happening.

There was nowhere to go. There were no phones. There was no help that was on the way. No protection. No way to get out of there. All they could do was wait for the night to pass and the sunrise to arrive.

The wolves appeared out of the shadow of night and circled the rest stop.

“We can’t stay in the lobby – the glass – they can break through. Maybe the restroom. Maybe we can lock it shut. We should figure out what can be used as a weapon.”

Bill was too busy figuring things out to look around and notice what was really going on. He didn’t see what was creeping up from behind.

The wolves approached the glass doors, but they made no attempt to break inside. They sat at the doors and watched. The family attacked Bill from behind. It was a strange and deadly night, but as it turned out, the wolves weren’t the problem at all.