Sector 54 (INTERACTIVE BOOK)

Riley tripped over his feet as he turned to run. From the ground he could see the hall table legs shudder under his dad’s pounding steps. As he struggled to stand the glass window behind him shattered, sending shards over his back and knocking him down. He scrambled backwards as he watched the naked man climb through the window on all fours. The mutt cocked his head from side to side in quick jarring motions like a bird--Then he climbed up the hall walls by placing one hand and one foot on each side of the hallway, three feet off the ground.

            “Uh guys?” Riley called. He couldn’t take his eyes off the man crawling on the walls towards him.

            A hand grabbed Riley’s shoulder. He turned to see the Sector-54 girl. “I said run!” she snapped, as she pulled him back onto his feet and pushed Riley before her down the hall.

            Riley didn’t have time to panic. He needed to get through the back door and find his father. As he focused on running he could hear the mutt climbing after him and Sector-54 as she screamed into her phone.

            “Red, he’s found us. Send the chopper.”

            Riley stumbled out the back door and desperately whipped his head around looking for his dad. His father was staking chairs trying to make a makeshift step to help them climb over the fence. Riley took off down the stairs towards him. When he got to his side, his father tried to lift him over, but he struggled in his dad’s grasp.

“No, you first,” his father warned.

Riley knew not to argue when his dad gave that look, so he let his dad give him a boost, but rested on the top of the fence so he could help the other's over. Once his father was safely on the other side he reached down for Sector 54. The naked man was at her heels.

“Hurry!” Riley shouted.

The mutt dove for her, she jumped and clutched Riley’s hand, using a chair as a foot hold. Riley fell backwards, the momentum of his weight pulled Sector 54 over the fence.  She landed on top of him with a humph and took off after his dad, leaving Riley on the ground.

“Run!” she screamed.

Riley managed to his feet in time to see the mutt break through the wooden fence.

“Holy shit!” he said as he pushed into a fullout sprint.

He caught up with Sector 54 and his father, who was yelling at the people in the street to get out of the way. Some of them went into their houses and closed the doors. Others didn’t move until they say the crazed naked man running after them.

Riley heard a young child scream. He glanced over his shoulder and saw a boy and his bike in the way of the mutt. He took a few more steps before guilt washed over him. “Keep running dad,” Riley said as he turned around.

The boy was on the ground with his bike on top of him when Riley made it to his side. The mutt stood over the child, slowly twisting its head and staring at the frightened boy.

Riley used his momentum to push the mutt out of the way. The naked man, grabbed Riley’s sleeve and pulled him to the ground with him. In an inhumanly motion, the mutt twisted and landed over Riley. Riley struggled under his grasp, but the mutt had no problem restraining him. He confidently held Riley as he sniffed his skin. Slowly licked his cheek. Riley held his breath and turned his face. Time froze, sound stopped, it was just him and the mutt. Nothing else existed. He would fight to the final second. He struggled and kicked hoping to free an arm or leg.

Fear slivered through Riley's body when out of nowhere the mutt snaped his head up, beared his teeth and let out a deep throated growled.  Out of the corner of his eye he saw a man dressed in black holding a long metal rod.

The mutt flew off of Riley giving him the opening to scramble to his feet and back away. That's when her noticed not one, but three men, head to toe in black war attire,with long metal rods pressed against the mutts neck. Each time the mutt tried to move they would poke him, sending jolts of electricity into his body, it growled and circled wildly like a trapped animal.

Riley felt a pat on the shoulder and turned to see his dad, doubled over breathing heavily. He opened his mouth to say something and was stopped when Sector 54 stuck her finger inside, propping it all the way open and examining him like a child playing doctor.