The creature book 1

chapter 3 the encounter

I walked to the kitchen and had my cup of coffee. Then after showering and getting dressed I headed out the door. I got in my car and drove to work. I parked and walked into the store. I suddenly felt my phone vibrate and when I checked it it was a text message from Mr ransohoff. It said ‘eric won't be in tonight he called in sick so its just you ‘ I replied with a simple thumbs up then continued on with my duties. I locked up the store and began tidying up. It was so eerily quiet in the store. I walked up to the circulation desk by the front door and found the community radio connected to the p.a. system and turned it on. All I could get was country music. Yep that's Hillsdale I thought. Around midnight I was sitting at the circulation desk by the front door when suddenly I heard what sounded like a faint roar. An animal roar like one of a bull. I shut the radio off and listened. I heard it again. It was coming from an air vent next to the elevator on the back of the building. I slowly walked over and put my ear up to the vent. And there it was again. Clear as day. Only unlike the real life sound of a bull this one sounded just like the mighty powerful ones you hear in movies. I was honestly scared by this. Had some animal gotten in the basement? I thought. Well I needed to go check it out. But I needed to arm myself first. I went to the hunting section and grabbed one of the rifles and loaded it with some ammo. I just hoped someone hadn't left a radio or something on in the basement otherwise I'd have to explain to Mr ransohoff why I tore open a pack of Bullets. But then again part of me hoped it was just a radio or something. I hit the elevator call button and after the door dinged and opened i stepped in. I hit the button for the basement and the doors closed and I began to descend. And that's when another fact hit me. There was no stairwell to this basement. Just this elevator. This realization horrified me because if I needed a quick get away that wouldn't be possible. The elevator dinged and the doors opened. I cautiously stepped out scanning my surroundings. I began checking the rooms 1 by 1 and found nothing. I then heard the roar again. My blood turned to ice and I froze. It was coming from the set of blood red double doors at the end of the hall. I slowly walked up to the doors and froze. I had no idea what was in there. And no way to see in. But my curiosity was getting the better of me. I remembered Eric had mentioned one of the computers in the security office had the ability to bypass the keypad for these doors. And before you knew it I was in front of the computer looking through it's files. The computer was old. Running windows 98. It didn't take long to find a program titled ‘control panel ‘ I opened it up and saw a tab for ‘lab doors’ assuming that was it I clicked on it. I saw an option that said ‘unlock doors’ I clicked it and heard a loud clang come from the doors. I stepped out of the office and back towards the doors. The keypad light glowed green. The doors were unlocked. But I still didn't have clue what was inside. So I readied myself with the rifle drawn. And shakily I pushed the door open. When I stepped inside. It was like stepping into a sci-fi movie. The room was a massive brightly lit laboratory with computers and equipment everywhere. Various machines and breakers holding god knows what everywhere. And in the center of the room I found the source of the roar. And my heart froze when I saw it. Laying on a large exam table hooked up to all kinds of equipment was a massive creature. It looked to be part bull part dog and part lizard. It was orange and red and had massive horns coming out of its head. It had a long lizard like tail and the face of a dog. Its body was very muscular and it has ornate designs seemingly burned into its arms. I quickly realized it was a he when I couldn't help but notice he had some very broad parts down there.I stepped closer once I stepped out of my trance gun still drawn and I froze again. The creature was looking right at me. With those blood red eyes and it's black pupils. I felt like I was starting right into a Lazer beam. I couldn't look away. I felt hypnotized. Like I was looking right into his soul. But as I snapped out of my trance I noticed the way he looked at me wasn't a look of pure anger or rage or even pure evil.it was one of pure terror and desperation. I noticed he was extremely dirty and his breathing was labored and he seemed malnourished. And then I nearly jumped out of my skin like tom the cat when the creature began to speak. In a low deep dry voice that struggled to escape his lips he said “you… please help me… I've been trapped here for so long…there killing me” I snapped out of my trance again and walked closer to him. He looked at me and it looked like he was holding back tears. “Please…they've kept me here for years….I'm running out of life… I really need your help” he said. “What? What the heck are you?” I asked “I…I don't have the energy to explain now…. But if you can free me I'll explain later. Now I'm not gonna lie this creature looked pure evil. But the way he looked at me with pure fear, sadness and desperation in his eyes. I felt like I needed to help him. I didn't know what to do. Either way I'm sure I'd get in trouble or fired. They'd know I was in here. This was obviously some sort of government secret. “If you can help me… I can give you everything you want and need….. just please help me…and I can explain everything later “ he said. And I don't know what came over me… but something about the way he was acting told me he had been severely abused by these scientists the ones Eric told me came and went every morning. “Well how do I unlock these restraints on you?” I asked . He weakly tilted his head to look at a large control panel on a nearby desk “the big red lever …. But once you do…we need to move out of here quick….they will know I've been let go” I walked up to the control panel and saw a big red lever. Well this was it no going back. I would have to escape here and run far away with this creature I knew nothing about. It was crazy but I wasn't the smartest cookie ever. So I pulled the lever and with a loud clang the restraints retracted. I walked over to the creature ready to shoot him. I was expecting him to get an evil smile on his face and lunge at me and tear me limb from limb but instead he reached out a hand “help me up please” he said. And I couldn't believe it but I used all my strength to help pull up his massive strong body. And after hearing a loud noticeable crack in his back and seeing the obvious pained expression appear on his face he stood up on his massive 2 feet.he took a minute to get his bearings and then turned and locked his soul piercing eyes on me. He wrapped his massive arms around me gently and gave me a hug. Completely frozen and shocked I didn't know what to do. And oh boy this guy absolutely reeked like he hadn't showered in years. I nearly gagged “thank you so much….I'm just sorry you had to see me like this “ he said as he stepped back letting go of me “now listen theres no time to explain anything now…we need to get out of here…the people that run this place are dangerous… I need you to help me though I'm still pretty weak on energy and I haven't eaten in a long time” he said. And so with that I led him out of the Lab and back towards the elevator. I couldn't believe I was really doing this. I honestly felt like I was in a dream. Just as we stepped into the elevator I nearly jumped out of my skin again when a klaxon alarm started going off. I knew we were running out of time. some gov agents were most likely already on there way here. I hit the button for the main floor and the doors closed and we began to go up. Meanwhile this creature beside me was holding himself up and had his hand resting on the tail in the elevator. He definitely wasn't looking so good. He was clearly running out of energy. I kinda felt bad for him. Whatever theyd done to him has clearly taken a toll on him. His awful scent filled the elevator and I used my shirt collar to cover my mouth and face. He noticed and seemed a bit embarrassed. “I'm sorry I haven't had the chance to clean in a long time those horrible people never let me do anything” he said. At this point though I was more concerned about getting far away from here. I had definitely made some big discovery and I can only imagine what the government would do to me as a result. The elevator dinged and the door opened. We were on the main floor now. I led the guy through the store until we reached the front door. I unlocked it and it swished open and we stepped out into the cool crisp night air. Once we were outside the creature stopped and took a long deep breath. “Oh man it's been so long since I've been outside..it feels so good…..but no time to rest yet we need to keep going” he said. “Where exactly do we need to go?” I asked. “Anywhere as long as it's far away from here” he said. We walked to my car and when we both stopped and looked at it 2 things became very obvious. 1 there was no way this big guy was gonna fit inside of it. 2 if we were running away taking this car would easily get me caught. s**t I thought I really hadn't thought this through. The creature looked at me “I think I can help” he said. He walked over to an empty parking space and made a slight waving motion with his hand. And just as I walked over to him I heard a zap of electricity and a bright light blinded me briefly. And there in front of the creature in the parking spot was a mint 99 red Ford f350. My jaw hit the parking lot ground. “This will do nicely now hop in and drive me out of here we need to get as far away from here as possible” he said as he lumbered over to the passenger side and climbed in. I still had so many questions but now wasn't the time. He was right we needed to get out of here. I opened the driver door and climbed in and seeing the keys already in the ignition I started the truck. The diesel engine fired up and I turned the lights on and began driving out of the parking lot. As we drove down the long driveway back towards the main road I felt like I was in a dream. We reached the main roads. If I went left it would lead back to town and if I went right it would leave town. I'm going right I thought. And I'm never looking back. And with that I turned right and began driving out of Hillsdale. And didn't look back