April 13, 2025 12:01AM

Flee Out the Window (50%)

Whatever creature was making that noise, Elliot knew he didn’t want to meet it. Those claws sounded like they were tearing through parts of the building with every step. Even the sturdy fire-doors separating each dorm would not likely survive for long under that assault.

“We can’t stay here,” Elliot whispered, as low as he could. “We have to make a break for it.” He stood, leaving Ruby momentarily on the floor while he crept over to the window. These were huge, on a crank that allowed them to pivot out of a frame. He twisted rapidly, extending it as far as it would go.

Not nearly far enough. It stopped short at a shallow angle, maybe 30% away from the wall. Perfect for getting a nice breeze running through your dorm on a hot day, not so much for jumping out the building. Yet if they could make it out, there was a two-story drop into a planter box filled with small bushes and shrubs, packed into dark soil. Hopefully soft enough to break their fall.

But they would have to get through the heavy screen first, and the stubborn window. “Sam, can you take a look at this?”

She scampered over, still holding her makeshift weapon in her arm. “You can’t be thinking of jumping from up here. Land wrong, twist your ankle, and you’re lying on the ground in pain while that thing finds its way back out.” She whispered harshly, one hand on Elliot’s shoulder while she spoke. But if she thought her size was going to make him change his mind…

“No. We’ll climb.” He waved towards the pair of bunkbeds, each with sheets. “We don’t have to go far. IF we can hold on for a short way, that will break the fall.”

The stopping steps outside came to an abrupt halt, not far from their door. Elliot and Sam both froze, staring at the door. Maybe it can’t hear us.

A low growling banished that hope in seconds, followed by scratching at the door. It didn’t sound quite the way he expected, more like wood grinding on wood. Then it shook, as something heavy battered up against the wall.

Ruby whimpered, rolling away from the door. But she couldn’t keep going very fast. She’d never escape an attacker like that.

“Alright, escape it is!” Sam gestured behind them at the beds. “You know knots better than you know engines?”

He nodded nervously. “Got my eagle when I was…”

BANG!

No time to justify himself. The door rattled in its frame, but held fast. The creature outside went from growling to an angry howl, loud enough to echo down the hall.

Elliot hurried over to the nearest bed, tearing the comforter to the floor. He went right for the sheet, then did the same to the second bed.

Another banging joined the one from outside the room: Sam, hammering up against the screen with the base of someone’s lamp. Her strength bent the metal in a few seconds, opening far enough to get her fingers under the gap.

“Is that a fucking wolf?” she yelled, her voice somehow getting deeper for the fear, instead of higher. “How the hell is there a wolf on campus?”

“Maybe it wasn’t a wolf before?” Elliot called back. He had three sheets now, spinning one in hand until it had coiled into a “rope” of sorts. No telling how much weight this thing would take, but it wouldn’t have to last for long. Any distance they could get out through the window was space they wouldn’t have to fall. “Like us, but…”

“If it was like us, it wouldn’t be trying to rip us apart!” Sam countered. “I don’t feel homicidal! Might change my mind after tonight!”

Elliot no longer saw what she was doing, but he didn’t have to. Metal groaned and buckled, then something heavy smashed and shattered against brick. A sudden rush of warm air flowed in through the opening, replacing the strange chill.

The sound at the door got louder, battering heavy enough to shake the floor under his boots. Or–socks. He’d lost the boots somewhere. Whatever, I’ve got bigger problems.

“You almost done over there, Blue? All you had to do was tie a few knots!”

He hurried, tying off the sheets on the nearest bunkbed. He tested the knot, yanking on it with all his strength. The bed slid slightly away from the wall, dragged towards him a centimeter or two. But the knot itself held. “Good as we’ll get,” he said, tossing the “rope” out through the opening.

Lucky for them, the whole outer window had been removed, so there would be no getting cut by shards of glass.

The door bucked again. The deadbolt held firm, yet the frame shook, sliding a short distance out from the wall. Whatever was on the other side wasn’t going to run out of energy before the door ran out of strength.

Elliot made his way over to Ruby, getting his hands under her shoulders. “I’m gonna get you out of here,” he said. “Sorry if this gets a little rough.”

Ruby opened one eye, moaning quietly. “Who are… Erica? Is that…”

Erica. His little sister, who Ruby had met during Christmas break with his family last year. But if occasional Facebook conversations between them were enough to make her trust him–

“Sure, yeah. Erica. Easy does it.” He grunted, body shaking with the strain. Ruby was a lot heavier than he remembered. Taller too, he was only just tall enough to keep Ruby’s feet from dragging on the floor. He took one step, then another, fighting his way to the window. The door kept banging behind him, the frame rattling and hinges bending a little further with each blow.

Samantha was waiting by the window when Elliot made it, looking exasperated. “Cool, you got to show how strong you were,” she said, exasperated. “I’ll take it from here.”

“Elliot?” Ruby asked, her head turning weakly towards Sam. “Is that…”

He would’ve refused. But he wasn’t strong enough to push her hands away. “I… I got it.”

“Yeah, sure you do. So your hands can go out as soon as you start climbing, and you both get to break something. Not happening.” She was just too strong–too strong to push away, while she settled Ruby up around her neck.

Some feeble part of Elliot’s pride still wanted to argue the point. But before he could do something stupid, the door banged again, sending crunches of wood rattling through the door. “Time to go!” he said instead, giving them both space.

Ruby didn’t do much, other than wrapping her arms around Sam’s neck and squeezing. Clearly Samantha was the one for this job, because she managed to heave over the edge of the window, holding Ruby with one arm and wrapping the other around the rope. “Follow… right behind us!” she grunted, through obvious effort. She retreated out the window, vanishing into the night.

The bed rumbled, sliding backward towards the wall. It clattered into the bedside table with a crunch of Ikea’s finest “wood.”

“Sam!” He leaned out the window, and found Samantha had somehow held on, only a few feet above the ground.

She let go, landing with a grunt. Somehow, she kept on her feet. “Well… princess blue? Let down your sorry ass!”

He didn’t need the yelling, desperate howling at the door was more than enough to get him moving. He wrapped the “rope” around one arm, then retreated out the opening, clutching for dear life. Unlike Sam, Elliot’s grip strength proved inadequate, and he started sliding, friction burning at his fingers as he slid. He whimpered, tightening his elbow around the sheets to slow his fall.

He hit the ground a few feet from Sam, with enough speed for a mild pain against his rump. He whimpered, feeling the growth there that fear had banished from his perception for a time. Yes, there was still a tail in those pants.

But there was barking and banging at the open window on the floor above, so that was a little more important. “Any ideas?” Sam asked, gesturing around the darkened campus. “If that thing jumps out after, I don’t like our odds of outrunning it.”

“D-don’t…” Ruby whimpered, lifting her head off Sam’s shoulder. She pointed up a wide sidewalk through the grass, up towards campus. “Bio… informatics… has something.” She wasn’t looking at Elliot while she said it, but Sam.

Come on, we look nothing alike!

“Remember the… journal? Have some… base. Data.”

Elliot circled around them both, scanning their surroundings for any easier means of escape. There were several other dorms, probably locked just like the one Ruby was hiding in. At least the student center was open 24 hours.

But something far closer stopped him up short; a golf cart covered in “LANDSCAPING” logos, with a tub of rakes, clippers, and other tools in a tray in back. He hurried over to it, then hopped into the driver’s seat.

Whoever had been driving this had left in a hurry, swerving off the grass and into the planter-box. More importantly, they hadn’t bothered to remove the key.

“You ain’t leaving us!” Samantha called. “Don’t even think about it!”

Something crashed from the open window, an enormous roar and shake of splintering wood. They were out of time!

“I’m not!” he yelled, reversing onto the sidewalk. He drove directly towards the two of them, pulling up a few feet short. “Get in!”

They did. At least Samantha did, dragging Ruby into her lap.

Elliot shoved the cart into motion, speeding up the sidewalk. He shouldn’t look back, it wouldn’t help to know what was following.

But he had to know. He glanced briefly back, towards the single broken window along rows of identical others. Something emerged from within, a lupine face cloaked in shade and shadow. There was something unpleasantly wrong with the beast, as though its different parts somehow didn’t fit together quite right. How could bits of the creature not match with the rest?

“Eyes on the road, blue!” Samantha yelled, just as the ride turned bumpy. Elliot darted back, securing both hands on the wheel again. “Like an… animatronic. Broken pieces.”

It howled again, much louder than before. The sound echoed over the campus, blasting back into Elliot’s ears from the nearby buildings. Like a wolf, yet off, just like his glimpse of its features. It wasn’t just a roar, but the sound of wind rustling through broken branches.

“Is it following us?”

He resisted the urge to look back, instead swerving back onto the sidewalk. Besides, the seating wasn’t built for someone his height. He had to lean forward to reach the pedals.

A second later, the howling stopped. The awful silence stretched, without the thump of some heavy creature leaping down from the window.

“No. Ran back inside. Probably on its way out right now, so drive!”

“Bio… informatics,” Ruby groaned, barely audible over the hum of the motor and the crunch of tires. “They had… from the base. Something in there.”

“Why would we want anything from the base?” Samantha asked, much clearer. “We don’t give a shit what they brought! Just loop around to the parking structure so we can get out of here.”

Why would we want anything from the base? Sam didn’t know the truth about the disease, but Elliot did. Or–some of it.

Elliot had a choice to make:

1. Drive to the Bioinformatics building. He was in CS once, so he knows exactly where it is. Two minutes across campus, and they’re there.

2. Find an indirect route home. The farther he can drive from the dorm, the better!

3. Find the nearest safe shelter and hide until morning. What if that wolf-thing can outrun a golf cart?