Winter Horror-land

The future seemed grim for Garret and his friends. The cold winter had shut them inside for the last month or so, and the blizzard outside didn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. With a week of food left between the three of them they knew one of them would need to go out looking for supplies. Julie was the only girl in the group, Garret and Samuel found her a few months back beaten and left in an old run down restaurant, she is lucky to be alive considering the condition she was in. Julie wouldn't be fit to go out in the harsh climate, Samuel was the only one who knew first aid, and was vital in keeping Julie from dying. Garret knew he would be the one to leave, he was six foot and was pretty strong, being able to lift about 200 pounds. That night Garret put on as much layers as he could, he hugged Samuel before heading out into the snow. The city was about three miles east, Garret wasn't a fan of walking, and he knew what lay in the city would require his full strength. As the sun started to rise Garret set up a small camp about fifteen minutes away from the city, started a small fire and let himself drift into a deep slumber. Garret dreams were invaded by images of what awaited him back in the darkness of those buildings. The people were bad enough but the creatures, the ones that hurt Julie as much as they did and left her to die. These creatures weren't normal, they didn't hunt for food, they hunted for sport. Garret could only imagine what these things would look like, he had seen many fall victim to them Julie was the only one Samuel and Garret found still alive. Garret imagined long fangs, huge claws, white pupils and horrible pale skin. After properly scaring himself for the trip he had ahead, Garret got up and started walking. The city was the same as the last time Garret and Samuel were there, tall grey buildings that go up to the clouds. What horrors lay in wake for Garret were still unknown. Whatever is in those upper floors of those buildings isn't anything that Garret wanted to find out about, but after consulting his map, it seemed the only place he had to go that would have any supplies would be up. Garret was a brave soul, and after a few seconds of consideration, stepped into the tallest building on the street.

Samuel was not very good in conversation, him and Garret had been friends since they were ten, and Garret always kept the conversation going. Samuel was going to med school and hadn't seen Garret in about 5 years, he got a text from Garret saying that he was heading over to where Samuel lived and he couldn't wait to see his best friend again. Garret had recently obtained the deed for a cabin about six hours away from any town, and he thought it would be a great idea to have a week long vacation out there with Samuel. Samuel agreed and the two of them had a blast, little did they know this would be the last time in awhile that they would have this much fun. Samuel woke up after remembering his time with Garret. Garret had left Samuel about two hours ago, the wind was howling outside and the fire had gone out. Samuel still wasn't used to having to wake up in the middle of the night to rekindle the fire and make sure Julie was still okay. The area that they had set up in was a old abandoned warehouse, some windows had been busted out which allowed for a few piles of snow to build up around the walls. The darkness was almost unbearable, power had been out since this whole thing happened, and the moon hasn't shown in the sky for the past few months. Samuel started the fire and sat awake for a few more minutes, hoping that Garret would return, his only friend was out there in the cold to keep them alive. Samuel thought to himself about what he would do if Garret were to not come back, before he could get to deep into though Julie started moving around, Samuel hopped up to see if she was okay.

Garret was climbing the stairs, he reached the tenth floor and decided to head into the space that lay being the iron door. he was expecting it to be brighter than the dark stairway he had just spent the last few minutes climbing up, but the darkness stayed, and the air got heavy. The office space was kept surprisingly clean, all the cubicles were still lined up, stacks of paper remained in order, and picture frames were still standing. The only thing that would let anyone know that the space was abandoned was the dust covering everything, no one had been here in a long time. Garret poked around the space for about twenty minutes before hearing a sound from upstairs. Garret froze in place, scared as to what could be lurking upstairs. The only thing Garret had brought for protection was a hammer that he had found on his first trip into the city. Leaving the bag of supplies he had found so far next to the door, Garret began the climb to the next floor. Garret was counting the steps up to the next floor, in case he had to run, tripping down stairs would not help in an escape, and knowing how many stairs there are can be helpful for him. Once at the top of the stairs Garret had counted twenty-three steps, the air was hot up here and there was a small shuffling sound coming from behind the door. Garret took a deep breath, gripped his hammer in one hand and the door handle in the other. Due to his large frame, Garret was not going to be able to sneak in, and had to try and intimidate whatever was behind this door, and then try talking them down, if words would even work. After what seemed like hours Garret finally pushed the door open, a rush of air hit him in the face and he was blinded by a bright light. A large window had been smashed open, and the wind was blowing papers and chairs around. The shuffling Garret had heard was most likely due to this window. As he scanned the area he saw a small glint coming from the broken window, Garret walked over to it and saw small necklace caught onto one of sharp edges of the window. Garret picked it up and looked it over, it was half of a heart, it looked like it would connect to another, the words were faded. Garret was trying to get a good look at the words when he heard a loud shriek come from behind him.

As Samuel approached Julie he saw that she was crying. Samuel wasn't prepared to deal with what was wrong, Julie seemed scared of something. Samuel just sat next to her for a few minutes, before she started to talk. "I can see them, so many of them. They climb the buildings, they watch over the city, they own what's left of humanity." Samuel went pale, he didn't want to ask, nut he did, "Who are they?" Julie looked at Samuel in the eyes and before whimpering out a "The creatures, the ones we let out, them." Julie immediately passed out after. Samuel felt like he was going to throw up, she had to just having strange dreams, she had to. Samuel eventually calmed himself down enough to fall back asleep, only to be woken up a few hours later to Julie shaking him awake. Samuel was tired, and the sun was blinding. Samuel asked what was wrong, all Julie could say is "They know about your friend." Samuel was confused, Julie wasn't being very helpful in calming Samuel down about his friend being alone out in the city. Julie shoved a necklace into Samuels hands and told him to shut his eyes and focus, she pleaded with him to just do as she said, and he would understand what was happening. Samuel closed his eyes, and soon another's vision began to fade into his mind, he saw a view of the city from the top of a building, he saw Garret going into a building, and then the vision started moving towards the building. Samuel opened his eyes in shock, and began questioning Julie about what just happened. Julie was calm and simply explained that her necklace was connected to another, and they could look into the others vision. Samuel's stomach couldn't handle this anymore, he threw up in the corner of the warehouse. This world was getting to him and he couldn't understand it anymore. For the rest of the day Julie sat with her eyes closed and watched whatever was happening. Samuel had went out to get some firewood so that they could keep warm, when Julie told him something that unsettled him even more. "The vision is gone, they smashed a window, and are in the building your friend went into." Samuel dropped the firewood, and fainted.

Garret spun necklace in hand, and saw something worse than he could have ever expected. A small four legged thing looked at Garret from the ceiling, it had three spikes on its back, it's skin was white and stained with blood, the teeth were sharp and jagged, its legs were short and muscular, it had small black eyes that looked straight into Garrets soul. It leaped down and slashed Garrets face, warm blood gushed out of the wound and he could hear a laugh come from the creature, it looked up at him and bit his leg, tearing a good chunk out of Garrets calf. Garret yelled out in pain and smashed the tiny creature with the hammer. A loud crunch and squeal came from the creature before it stopped moving. Garret started to cry as he felt his life leaving his body. As he closed his eyes to think about what to do he started to see a vision. The vision was of Samuel running around grabbing coats and supplies. Garret opened his eyes and wiped his tears, he knew that Samuel was depending on him to bring back these supplies, he stuffed the half-heart necklace into his pocket and limped towards the door. A shrill scream came from behind him, he glanced back to see three more of those things coming out of the dark. Garret got to the door opened it, and began to run, those things didn't want to let him go. One, two, three he counted in his head as he ran as best he could down the stairs, ten, eleven, twelve, just eleven more to go, he could hear the creatures laughing behind him, they got through the door. twenty, twenty-two, twenty-three, he was back on the tenth floor, he grabbed the bag of supplies and began the rest of the descent.

Samuel was rushing around grabbing blankets and medical supplies. Julie told him about the attack on Garret. Samuel rushed towards the city supplies in hand, Julie followed after him. Garret got to the ground floor, very little life left in him, he rushed towards the temporary camp he set up that morning. The sun was setting as he collapsed in his tent. His vision filled with an image of Samuel running in the snow, then it went black, and Garret was gone. Samuel arrived at the camp, found his deceased friend, and threw up in the snow. Garret was still warm. That's all that Samuel could think of as he drifted off, and life faded from him. All three were dead within minutes of each other. The future looks grim.