The Ravine

Night came quick like before, bringing the end to another sweltering day and the start of an icy night. The two were surviving on two-to-three animal crackers a day and what little water they had left was gone. Carol and Jameson both slept. A lot: A solution that both kept Carol’s mind off her famished condition and her aching, drying body. She awoke from a hearty shiver to the sound of one of the monsters sniffing and licking. Carol could hear it in its step. It was the big one. The instigator. The alpha. She looked down at Jameson, who was sleeping soundly in her lap, curled into a ball. She had taken off her sweatshirt and wrapped it around him and, though she was shivering, his body warmth was steady enough to keep her a bit warmer and him without much exposure to the night’s chill. Her concern for him, however, was great. His skin had dried and his lips were starting to bleed a bit between chapped cracks, when he moved them in any significant fashion. The rash had gotten worse, too.

Outside the licking continued. Carol could hear it just outside the window feasting on her blood, occasionally stopping to press its nose against the window to suck in the scent of its prey; checking to see if they were still inside their metal cage growing weaker by the hour. Another shiver traveled up and down Carol’s spine. This time, it was from fright.

Silence.

Then, shortly after, the sedan rocked back and forth and the rooftop sunk down in towards them as the alpha slumped down upon it. Tears broke free under Carol’s eyes and rolled down her cheeks. And, in dead silence, predator and prey sat waiting in the lingering darkness. Occasionally, the silence would be broken by the alpha tending to its fur or scratching itself or sniffing the night air. It seemed to happen whenever Carol would try to get some sleep and then only when she would try to get some sleep. As Carol adjusted, she felt the poking of her car keys. Above, the alpha howled. Below, Carol pulled the keys out of her pocket.

Slowly, Carol took each key to the ignition hole until one fit. Her arm pulsed with pain almost as bad as her leg still did and her head didn’t seem too much better. They seemed to be working together. It was pitch darkness like before, but Carol had to check on her arm. And she needed light. She turned the key.

“Today in history—”

“Shit!”

She turned the radio off in a hurry. Jameson tossed in her lap and the alpha growled and scratched and sniffed above her. Carol froze, pricking up her ears until the rousing of the monster above her settled. In the darkness she fumbled for the switch for the secondary dash lights, which currently hummed a soft, barely useable glow. She needed more to see how her monster bite looked. She found one that seemed promising and pulled. The inside of the cab lit up brighter than before and she removed the torn piece of shirt she had used to keep pressure on her wound. She groaned in pain as she unraveled the fabric, leaving bits of fiber stuck in the dried blood and mending tissue. The light revealed a condition not much worse than before; serrated tear marks, primarily centered on the top of her forearm, leaving fleshy grooves of mangled, bloody skin. It was bad, but it wasn’t too bad. She hoped the thing didn’t have rabies. There was no water to wash it out and she could only use as much of her saliva as possible in the effort to clean the wounds before she had initially dressed it shortly after the attack. The underside of her forearm was of less concern; a few puncture marks and small tears. It was clear that the other side had taken the brunt of the beast’s fangs.

Carol adjusted the cloth, allowing its clean part to cover the wound and retied it. She winced in pain as the band constricted against it. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that the right headlight was on and, directly in front of it, the monster betas stood silent, still, and intimidating. For what seemed to be an eternity the two parties stared each other down. The beasts’ eyes glowed as if they had come from the moon and brought it out of hiding from above the canopy that had once concealed it. Carol saw a betraying beauty in that picture. Finally, someone made a move. It was the betas. They stepped forward. But then something strange happened. The alpha howled abruptly and scratched against the roof of the car, growling in between drags of its claws. The betas stopped in their tracks, then retreated out of sight of the headlight behind the trees. Carol swallowed hard and turned the key and removed it from the ignition. The alpha settled down again like it had before. Carol hear a rustling to her left and saw the two betas, sitting patiently, their eyes glowing with moonlight in eerie orbs of patience and hunger, reflecting the predator prerogative.

Alpha eats first.