Sacrifice Moon

 

We were sitting at the beach with a few friends have the best time of our lives, the sun setting and the drinks flowed. I was sitting on chair watching the day end, it was glorious with all the warm colours and the wind on my face. I finished my drink and joined the rest at the bone fire and we revelled till we had the energy to. My friend Melissa pointed something out later, she was looking up and saw something not possible, there were two moons in the sky. I thought she was drunk until I looked up and saw for myself, there was the moon I always knew but below it was another smaller one that was a shade of red. I stood there with her looking up and soon everyone else joined us to stare. Some laughed while others were getting freaked out. I tried to calm who I could until we heard the howls in the distance, they were loud enough to be heard over the noise.

I sobered up fast when I heard them, they weren’t the ones I had heard before from my experience with other wolves. These were guttural howls of wolves that must have been larger and more aggressive. I wanted to get back to the hotel and figure this out, everyone else had the same idea and we scrambled for the hotel. At the beach entrance we could see there others trying to get it, the guard at the gate was trying to control the influx of people while shouting to others to keep some order. The howls were heard again and this time they were closer, beach was lined with other hotels, and it was the same at their gates.

Nothing prepared for what happened next, sounds of people just shouting and cursing turned to screaming and crying in an instant. I tried to push myself away from the crowd to see what was going on and saw something being hurled in the air at the beachside resort next door, next I saw something move through the place. People were screaming and running in every direction, it was complete chaos everywhere. I saw a few cars driving on the beach, they were not looking where they were going and people running for their lives were being run over. I could not see my friends in the madness and when I tried to shout for them I saw something at the resort jump up a wall, it was big. The thing stood up and looked down, what hit me was that I was looking at a massive wolf. Not a normal kind of wolf but something that stood like 8 feet tall with a massive head and legs that held more muscle than my body. People saw this too and were running from that, I looked down and saw more skulking in the shadows, their eyes were red like the second moon.

I wanted to run but could not figure out where with those things so close, blood frozen with fear and my throat dry I stood there mesmerised by the sight. It looked down and pounced on a woman running some distance away from its position, the massive mouth easily bit down on the upper half of the poor woman. With a massive pull it ripped the screaming woman in two, biting down further it threw its head back and tossed the upper remains in the air. The remains turned mid air and it bit down on the head and began chewing on them. My trance broke and turned to run, not bothering with my friends now, and ran towards the sea. The sand was uneven with so many feet and I had to pace myself to keep from falling. The howls began coming from everywhere and I was looking around to see those things emerge from the buildings and people getting eviscerated by them.

Turning sharpy to my left I ran on the beach with many others running in different directions trying to get away from the massacre, I let my fear control the direction. I remembered my friends now and tried to stop but found my legs did not want to and I was running. I saw police firing on the things only to be ripped apart by the monsters, they were so many and I trying to figure out where they were coming from. I was too scared to stop and kept running. Finally after what felt like hours I came to the end of the hotel beach and entered a more private area. There weren’t many people left here and I tried to see if there was a place I could find shelter. The houses were dark and when I looked back I could see that the power had gone out and now only the moon, or rather moons, were illuminating the landscape.

I bent down to catch my breath and tried to figure out what I was going to do next, I remembered my friends and was caught in a wave of emotion. My stomach lurched and I threw up where I stood, I abandoned my friends. I was sick of what I did but I could not stop myself then from running away from the carnage, I saw people being torn up by those wolf-like things. The blood that showered the beach like the rain, my feet were caked with sand that was darker in colour which I knew was blood. I heard a sound and when I looked up it was a woman signalling me to go to her. I began hobbling my way to her, my feet were unsteady now as the adrenaline was wearing out. She looked relieved to me, a human, from her eyes.

“Are you from the hotel beach?” I nodded, I wanted to ask her what was happening but she began moving. I followed unable to speak, she moved through the houses looking around to see. There were few people here and I could see that most were looking for a place to hide. The howls that I heard at the beginning were distant but I knew that it was only a matter of time before they came to this place. We finally reached what looked like a police station and there were more people trying to get in, the police were trying to hold them as more and more joined the push to enter the station. The woman pulled me away to move deeper into the labyrinth of houses, this was the older section of the city and I could see people running in every direction to find shelter. Why was this woman helping me I began to wonder as we ran from one alley to another, the sand that caked my feet had all but gone and now I could feel the ground under my feet.

The air was thick with fear but there were no shouts or much noise of any kind I realised, these people were like mice trying to run from the cat. We then reached another large building that was some sort of bank, the front door had a couple of people standing there looking out and ushering people in as they came. I thought we would be going there but the woman pulled me to another direction and there we came to a parking lot, I could not see what she was trying to do. We found an open car and she got in first and I followed.

“What the hell is happening?” I asked as she was trying to find the keys of the car. “The second moon was a sign, I did not believe until I saw the wolfmen. We must run, you know how to start without key?”

I looked at the interior of the car then under it, I then pulled the lower cover and found the wires to start the car. I spent some time as a mechanic when studying so this ended up coming in handy, “wolf men, what the hell? Also why are you helping me?”

“You helped me when some man tried to grab in bar, remember?”

I thought back and vaguely remembered helping someone, but I had a few drinks in me and that ended up looking at a blurry video in m mind. “I think so, I had a few drinks sorry. But I did not like his attitude.” She nodded and then put the car in gear and we were off.

“My friends, I… I think..”

“If the run then maybe they survive. I lost my family so I must now run.” Her English was broken but I understood. I sat back was we made our way out of the city, “where are we going?”

“Other place, they will kill tonight then when moon set they go back to sleep.”

“Wait those things were sleeping all this time?” she nodded then tried to explain.

Centuries ago the civilisation that ruled the place cursed the gods or something and in that they themselves found out what results when you curse a god. A second blood moon would rise and dead soldiers would rise as wolves to kill and eat the people, this had gone on for so many years after but stopped and it seems people forgot. Now it seems that something woke that old god and the cycle starts again. I had never heard about this before but now I wanted to get away as far away as I could.

The drive took us further away from the city and I could see that more and more people were either doing the same in their cars or just their own two feet. I had no idea how many of those things there were but I did not want to find out. As we moved I heard the howls again, this time they came from ahead and we saw several of them running out from the forest, the old fear rushed back and I was about to scream when something hit the car from the back. The woman tried her best to keep the car steady while avoiding more ahead, I was holding on the car for my life. Another strike at the car, she kept it moving like she knew what to do. The monsters were trying to tip the car and she was doing all she could to keep on the road, I was panicking in the passenger seat.

The back window shattered from an attacked and then the back passenger window, I was trying to think of something fight in case I needed. The car roared forward and we hit one of them, then another and finally we were free. The car was moving but there was a slight wobble to it, I did not care and neither did she. “Where are all the other cars, I would have thought there would be more.”

“Most of those who could drive left when they see second moon, shaman say to everyone that sacrifice moon is returning, no one believe him. Now they do but it is too late.”

“How far do we need to go to get away from them?” I asked.

“No idea, we need to just go.”

We kept on the road and I finally asked her name and she told me it was Analisa. I asked if I could drive if she was tired and she said she was good, she was a truck driver before she got fired. We talked a little more about each other and I got know more about her but she did not know more about the sacrifice moon.

After a few hours the car ran out of gas and we had to find a place to fill up, the wobble in the car was still there but I doubted it was a flat. We came across a gas station that was busy with cars and had to stop. That the gas station I finally saw the damage we took, those things managed to gouge many parts of the car body and the wobble was the result of the back wheel taking some damage. I knew the car would not go any further so I told about it, she had thought about it and pointed to a pick up and said we would have to get a lift from it. With no money we were out of luck, the driver of the pick up agreed to give us a lift. We left sitting at the back with a few survivors, I kept thinking of my friends now, until this point I did not think much about them only survival. The guild of leaving them behind weighed heavy and hoped that they survived.