Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse-Chapter 302: Barking Up The Wrong Tree

Tank felt the tremors under his feet long before the humans did. Dropping his head to the ground, he snarled low as he heard one small explosion after another, far deep beneath the surface.

It took moments for the surface of the earth to catch up with what was going on under it, and the shock waves knocked the earth and metal power users off their feet. Cries of fear echoed around the Hellhound as everyone seemed to be racing to find a safe place to be.

Only Eric stood his ground, standing beside Tank with his feet braced apart.

"Why do I think Lucy had something to do with that?" asked Eric under his breath as he looked off in the distance. The ground evened out for a moment before another shock wave, even bigger than the first one, hit, sending the humans into the air.

Tank let out a ferocious bark as he lunged toward the direction he last felt Hattie. However, before he could get very far, someone grabbed his leash, stopping him dead in his tracks.

"I wouldn’t do that if I were you," called out Eric as he shook his head, but the man holding Tank’s leash simply gripped the leather strap tighter as he dug his heels into the ground.

"Don’t let him go!" called out Jonas from where he was sprawled out on the ground. His leg was bent at an odd angle, and a thorn from one of the veins was pierced through his calf. "Fuck the girl, she probably ran. But him we need!"

Tank froze, his entire body almost quivering as he slowly turned his head to look at the man with his leash. The man was so big that he had to have been a fighting power user, but his size wasn’t going to keep him alive.

"I’d put the leash down if I were you," said Eric, his voice soft as he held his hands out to the side. After being pulled into Hattie’s house, he and Tank had reached an uneasy truce, but that didn’t mean he was dumb enough to hold Tank back from where he wanted to be.

"Don’t you dare!" screamed Jonas as he dug his fingers into the ground, pulling himself forward one inch at a time. "Everyone else is expendable; we need that fucking dog."

Tank cocked his head to the side, his eyes fixated on the man holding his leash.

Without any warning, Tank sprang on the man and ripped his head off in one vicious bit. There were several gasps as people stepped back, looking for a way to escape from the rabid animal. However, none of them were willing to risk running just in case it sent off his predator instincts.

"I tried to tell you," sighed Eric as he went to stand beside Tank. The hound’s entire face and fur were covered in sticky blood that he was now trying to clean off with swipes of his tongue. "Go find her. I’ll be right behind you."

Tank stared at Eric for a long moment before coming to a decision. Nodding his head, Tank bound away from the clearing and toward the one area that smelled like apples and smoke.

----

"We need healers and doctors in the inner compound," cried out a nurse as she raced through the checkpoints and to where Doctor Camille Hart was sitting at a table with two men in front of her.

"There has been an earthquake," announced the nurse, her eyes wide as she tried to control her panic. "We have almost a hundred people injured, and 26 that are in serious condition. We can’t keep up."

Camille looked down at her notes before looking up and narrowing her eyes at the two men. "It’s listed here that you are both healers," she said, her voice somewhat distrustful. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe Tarek at the gates. He had never been wrong with his gift, but the fact that they had two healers walking in together was unheard of.

In fact, the odds were so minimal that people had a better chance of being attacked by sharks on land than there was that two healers would arrive together.

"Dat’s what de guy said," smiled the man named Damien. "But whether we use dat gift or our others really is a roll of de dice."

The man beside Damien, Eliah, simply stared at her. He had yet to speak since he arrived, and Camille was more inclined to believe that he was either unable to speak or Damien didn’t shut up enough for him to do so.

"You aren’t allowed in if you don’t contribute," said Camille with a sigh. Pushing back her chair, she rose to her feet. "You will come with me now, and I’ll test your powers out myself. If you can’t keep up, I’ll toss you out into the outside world."

"Of course, Cherie," purred Damien, his eyes flashing gold for a second before standing up. "Let’s just hope you can handle us, oui?"

Camille snorted but spun around, walking out one of the side doors that led directly to the inner compound. These two men might not have been able to go through the other two checkpoints, but at least she knew that they had already been inspected by the male doctors before they were called away.

"Flirting doesn’t work with me," she announced, her eyes rolling even as she walked into what could only be described as absolute chaos. "I am not interested."

Elijah snorted at that statement, and she quickly spun around to glare at them. "Yous barkin’ up de wrong tree," smiled Damien with a smile that wasn’t a smile. "We’s already got our girl, and you don’t hold a candle to her."

Just as Doctor Hart was about to respond, there was an ear-piercing scream as the crowds parted. A low growl cut through the noise, and both Damien and Elijah straightened at the sound. Before either one could say a single word, a black dog raced through the crowd of people, killing anyone who stood in his way.