The Things We Bury - Part 1: In Anticipation of the End of the World [Completed]

Chapter 8: Sacrifice (Part 3 of 6)

The portal opened up on a scene that would seep into her subconscious and stain her nightmares for years to come.

"Good lord.  I don't think I'll ever eat pork again."

Somewhere far above, on the surface, the sky was brightening and the morning took hold.  But deep in the bunker night still ruled.  Emily's fatigue made the spacesuit feel heavier than usual.  She lumbered into the enclosure with a tower of plastic containers balanced precariously in one arm and dragging a shovel behind her with the other.

Horus chuckled.  The laugh came across the intercom like a staccato of interference.  "My doctor would love to hear me say that.  Maybe I should have been the one to go in there."

"Dude, if what you're seeing isn't putting you off your lunch, I doubt anything will."

The girl wolfing-out always left the pen in a disgusting mess, but this was the first time that blood painted the walls.  The pig hadn't just been eaten—it looked like it had been detonated with a bomb.  Little Porky hadn't stood a chance against the big bad wolf.

R.J. had been hoping that introducing live prey to the monster would stir it up.  The plan had worked without a hitch.

Emily had watched through one of the small monitors in the OC, and the attack was no less horrific on the grainy video image.

Around 10:30, Amy was cowering in a corner as far from the animal as she could get.  She had exhausted herself with her pleas and her crying.  Her face was in her arms and she may have been sleeping when the change took over without warning.

The girl was collapsed against the wall.  Her body almost folded in half with her knees up, her arms crossed, and her head down.  The pixels on the screen blurred, unable to capture the rapid transformation.  Then the beast was standing there, ready to launch into action.  Its ears twitched as it became aware of the new reality forming around it.  Perhaps if the screen had been larger, a flicker of the nostrils would have been seen as it sensed the pig.

The creature's huge head swiveled toward the little animal.  It lowered as it turned until the snout was only inches from the ground.  The wolf crossed the room in a blur.  No hesitation.  No pursuit.  It simply lunged for the defenseless creature.

The jaws caught the piglet around its midsection and snapped it in half.  The pig's mouth widened in pain.  The sound from inside the pen was turned off to protect the observers from the monster's terrifying howl, so Emily's imagination had to fill in the horrible shrieks of pain.  It was a task her brain was only too willing to do.  The broken animal kept trying to open its mouth wider and wider as though making more noise might save it.  Bloody foam began collecting at its lips.  Its front paws flailed dragging it slowly across the blood slick concrete.

The monster wasn't so quick to go in for the kill.  It circled the prey, while entrails dripped from the carcass in its vain escape attempt.  The wolf leaned in and took a nip at a long scarlet strand of tissue and yanked the pig back with it.  The pig responded with frantic convulsions. 

The werewolf spent another few agonizing minutes playing with its food before digging into the throat and ending it.  Then it scarfed the animal down energetically, spraying gore around the room.

Gore that Emily had to clean up.

She was regretting her decision to bag the evidence instead of cleaning the girl.  It seemed like the right choice when she'd been given the option.  She only felt marginally safer around the girl than she did the wolf—she still dreamed of that fucking beast all the time.  Emily had already been in the cage with her once that night—and that was enough.  Besides, cleaning the pen wasn't anything unusual.  Normally it just meant hosing it down.  But lucky her: today was special.