Thursday night, right as we finished eating supper, I heard something that sent shivers down my spine. Something was howling somewhere in the distance, and my immediate thought was that it was that dog-thing I had seen before we locked ourselves up down in the basement. But maybe it was just a normal dog or a wolf, right? I mean, with all that's happened, it wouldn't be unlikely for a dog's owner to leave it somewhere and for it to become a stray, right? We were far from any urban areas too, so it just being a wolf or something wouldn't be unnatural, even with wolves being as uncommon as they are nowadays. The thing is though, I only now realized that this howling was the only noise from an animal I had heard since the storm had reached Arborline. I hadn't noticed it until now, but I hadn't even seen a single animal since the start of the storm. Not even a bird or a rodent.

I waited for the howling to stop.

I waited and waited.

But it didn't stop.

Jared and I slept in shifts again.

The howling went on all through the night, all the way into the next day. It still didn't stop.

Jared's eyes were wide, "...I think that whatever that is, it's not a normal dog or wolf. It might be that dog thing you saw."

"I think you're right... It still sounds pretty far away, but it followed us all the way from the city. What if it tries to get in here?"

Jared motioned to the shotgun, "Well, I guess we'll have to fight it. We managed to take out one of these monsters," he glanced at the stump where his arm had been, "albeit just barely. Maybe we'll get lucky again."

I glanced at Aaron, who was looking cautiously out the window.

I didn't want to take any chances. Not with Aaron around.

I shuddered as another beast joined in with the constant howling. And then, another. There were at least three of them somewhere out there.

Though we tried to sleep in shifts that night, I don't think either of us slept much. Aaron was restless too.

The howling just never ended.

Even worse, it started to sound like it was... closer?

Were they slowly closing in on us?

More and more new beasts joined in with the howling, occasionally letting out what sounded like off-tune barking.