A savage howl sounded in the night.
He ran faster when other howls answered the first from either side of him.
Private Billy Wilson turned and looked to the rear as he ran, terrified, through the darkened fields.
They were still following him, hunting him.
Billy knew he had to find the rest of his regiment. Then he might be safe. Maybe.
He’d been fleeing with his comrades of the Fourth Maine Infantry Regiment ever since the Rebs turned the tide at Bull Run earlier in the day. Things had started out in the Union army’s favor, to begin with at least. But they’d run up against hard resistance after they forded Bull Run.
Colonel Berry ordered them to pull back from the line of advancing Rebs. When the units to either side turned and started to run, that orderly retreat had turned into a rout, and the Colonel had been hard pressed to keep the regiment together. Back at the beginning of the retreat, he’d been running from men.
Billy had lost sight of any of his friends hours ago when the creatures dressed in scraps of rebel uniforms had attacked, leaping at them out of the darkness. He had escaped the initial attack and run off into the woods. He hadn’t stopped running since.
He could still hear the screams of his fellow Mainers as they fell under the fangs and claws of the attackers.
Now he’d entered an area of farmland, and he ran through fields of wheat and corn trying to escape his pursuers. Another howl sounded off to his right, and Billy gasped. He turned to his left, trying to put some distance between himself and the creature behind the howling.
Billy realized the mistake when he ran into a wooded area and heard movement all around him in the darkness.
He reached down and pulled out his small belt knife. It was all he had left of his kit. He’d dropped his rifle and bayonet miles ago.
A growling laugh from behind him caused him to spin around. Then he looked up. A gigantic figure towered over him. He could see its outline and knew it wasn’t a man. The pointed ears outlined against the night, the glowing yellow eyes, and the dripping white fangs proved he was facing a monster from his worst nightmares. The creature had to be seven feet tall.
“You led us on a fine chase, boy. Maybe we’ll not kill you outright. Perhaps you’d like to become one of us?”
“Never, hell spawn,” Billy shouted, trying to sound braver than he felt.
Lunging forward, Billy took a swipe at the wolf-like creature with his knife. He cried out in pain when a clawed hand batted his blade away, sending it spinning into the darkness. He heard grunts of laughter from the shadows.
Billy turned and started to run again.
He took exactly two steps before he felt the clawed hand tear into his shoulder and pull him backward. The last thing he saw was the yellow eye’s of the beast staring down at him as the claws and teeth began to tear into his flesh.
