Devil's Apocalypse

*CRACK*

The head of a dog was bludgeoned by a metal pipe and made a sickening noise as the attacking dog died.

*SPLAT*

A metal crowbar dug into the side of another dog and splattered its blood across the pavement

*BANG*

A gun went off as another dog hit the ground mid run

"DAMMIT JOEY, WHAT HAVE I SAID ABOUT CONSERVING AMMO! WE DON'T HAVE MANY SHOTS LEFT FOR THAT DAMN THING!" A man screamed out in annoyance and exhaustion.

"SHUT UP! WOULD YOU PREFER ME TO LET THE DAMN MUTS TEAR US APART?!" The man named Joey replied, equally as tired and just as annoyed.

"BOTH OF YOU STOP FIGHTING! JOEY, TRY TO BE SPARING AS THE NOISE CREATED BY THAT THING WILL JUST ATTRACT MORE ATTENTION AND MICHAEL, SAVING BULLETS WON'T HELP MUCH 'CAUSE, YOU HEARD THE RUMOURS, GREAT MONSTERS RIGHT OUT OF YOUR NIGHTMARES THAT GUNS BARELY EVEN SCRATCH ROAM THE EARTH NOW, WHAT'S A FEW LEAD BULLETS GONNA DO AGAINST A LITERAL DEMON!" The last man called out, fed up with their bickering.

The three men had been constantly fighting for their lives for the past twenty minutes and all of them were exhausted and craving a moment of rest. However the dogs just kept coming, slowly overwhelming the three with their seemingly endless numbers.

"YOU TWO, WE'RE NOT GOING TO WIN AT THIS RATE BUT I HAVE AN IDEA, LET'S MOVE TOWARDS ONE OF THE HOUSES AND BARRICADE OURSELVES IN." Cried out the third man as he was panting for breath.

Lacking any other choice Joey and Michael immediately agreed and the three of them moved towards the closest brick house. Upon reaching the door Joey kicked the door in and the three dashed inside and slammed the door shut in the faces of the oncoming hounds, and as Joey and Michael held the door the third man rushed into the house to look for something heavy and found an old carved cupboard that had a bit of weight to it.

He quickly dragged it in front of the door and pushed it into place as the other two moved out of the way and helped him.

"Good. Thinking. John." Wheezed out Michael in between breaths.

Joey quickly looked around the house and was satisfied when he found no other entry points that weren't already barricaded. They then each took a nutrient bar out of their packs and started slowly nibbling on the ration as they waited for the dogs to give up.

"I knew coming here would be a bad idea. Doesn't matter how good the experience is, being the first to explore an area always leads to trouble and a very high mortality rate." Groaned Joey

"I agree, it doesn't matter that it has been 12 months since the collapse and we are some of the only people who have yet to get a class, being alive is more important." Agreed Michael.

"Coming here wasn't the problem, it was entering that damned church and getting afflicted. Now our luck stat has gone negative and we gotta get the hell out of here before whatever came through that gate finds us or else we can kiss our lives goodbye." John reminded as he was inspecting a specific part of his status sheet.

[Name: John Hilde

Gender: Male

Age: 22

Level: 13

Strength: 16

Endurance 13

Soul: 2

Luck: - 2

Current Effects: Soul Corrosion

Soul Corrosion:

Stacks a random debuff every three hours with a base debuff of -10 luck.

Current debuffs:

-10 luck

If left unpurified for an extended period of time, your soul will collapse.]

The three men had decided to take on the task of being the first to explore this area since the collapse and had been having a pretty favourable journey. That was until they stumbled across the church though.

"Dammit, I told you I felt something off about that creepy ȧss church but you two didn't listen did you? Now we're stuck in here with a guillotine hanging on fraying rope above our heads until we can get to a priest, and worst of all, the longer we take the harder this will be." Michael complained.

"Doesn't matter though does it? Complaining won't help. The only thing we can do is wait for the muts to lose interest and then see if we can get back to the settlement before something else finds us." Stated Joey matter of factly.

The three were on edge and waited until the sounds of the dogs had completely disappeared before peeking out through a crack in the door and then calling the all clear. They had to wait 5 hours and it was now night time, but they didn't dare camp out and immediately started heading back.

[Soul Corrosion:

Stacks a random debuff every three hours with a base debuff of -10 luck.

Current debuffs:

-10 luck

-4 strength

If left unpurified for an extended period of time your soul will collapse.]

The three quietly but quickly headed back in the direction that they first came from and decided to not use their electronic torches in fear of the light attracting attention.

Surprisingly they didn't run into any enemies. They were glad that the massive pack of dogs hadn't found them but they couldn't help but worry that there might be a reason for the absence of dogs.

"I don't like this at all." Michael muttered.

"Please stop saying that, I'm fairly certain that none of us like the current situation." Responded Joey.

"That's not what I mean, I'm worried about why we haven't seen anything yet. It's dead silent apart from the light footsteps that we are making, and I'm starting to get a bad feeling, similar to the one I got when we approached the church."

"You sure that's not just your fear?" Replied John.

"Whatever guys, you can ignore me if you want but you know what happened the first time I mentioned my bad feel-"

*Clatter*

Halfway through Michael's ramblings he picked up on the very faint sound of a pebble skidding across pavement, so quiet that he questioned if he actually heard it. But he was sure that he did and what unnerved him was that it was produced from almost right behind him.

Michael spun around, quickly turning on his torch that he had left off until this point and he glimpsed something long and white disappearing around the corner, but it was too quick to make out any details.

"What did you turn around for? And quickly turn off that torch, we don't need every nocturnal predator in the damn town coming for us." Stated John in a slightly annoyed tone.

But Michael didn't reply, he was focused intently on the corner but when nothing happened he started to think that he had imagined it.

"Sorry guys, I think I'm going crazy. I swear I heard some clattering behind us and when I looked I thought I saw something dash around that corner."

"It's probably just your imagination, we've been here for a few days now and have yet to see anything but dogs and we are all on edge. Just hurry up and turn off that torch or you'll be the distraction when we have to run away from whatever comes for us."

"Guys, no joke. I seriously think something is wrong."

"Please just stop your whining and if you're trying to make all of us die from fright then you're on the right track. Just look at the stars or something." Came the agitated reply from Joey.

Fed up that his warnings were not being taken seriously by his companions he looked up in resignation. However out of the corner of his eye he could've sworn that he saw something moving and when he looked over he caught a glimpse of two glowing red eyes on the top of a nearby building that ducked out of view immediately.

Now terrified he once again turned on his torch and shined it up to where he saw the eyes, much to the annoyance of his companions.

"I swear to god if you don't turn that damn thing off right now I will take it from you and beat you over the head with it." Joey said in a pissed off tone while glaring at Michael.

"I swear to you I saw something that time and that we should really pick up the pace. Even if it wasn't anything I'm sure we all want to get out of here quicker."

"Whatever, we'll go a bit faster, but don't you dare turn on that freaking torch again."

Three minutes after this interaction they suddenly heard a growl that did not sound like a dog at all. So they all started moving a bit faster as it sounded close by.

Then not long after this they heard an agony filled scream that chilled them to the bone. It sounded like something mixed between a girl and a beast and as curious as they were, they definitely did not want to meet the source.. So they started running as quickly and as quietly as they could while promising to never again come back to this place.