Chapter 5: Junkyard Dog

Kid and Michelle wind up in a thought-to-be abandoned junkyard.

A mile into the shady area, Michelle let go, nervously straightening her hair. “That was pretty scary, huh?” her trembling voice broke through the still air.

“Yeah, kind of, but not really. I mean, I've been through worse,” he replied nonchalantly.

“Okay, well I haven't, so it was a little freaky, alright?” she said in a panicky tone.

“Alright. Look, just calm down, will ya? I'm not used to having another person, especially someone like you, with me. I forget how crazy things might be to other people.”

She just stayed quiet.

They kept moving, ducking into shadows at the slightest hint of any noises. As they plunged deeper into the neighborhood, more and more of the houses had motion detecting porch lights, which was surprising for how poor the area seemed to be. It was getting increasingly difficult to hide from the occasional civilian and squad cars that drove by. “We're gonna have to find another place to cut through,” Kid said as they slid out from behind a bush. “This is getting way too risky.”

Glancing around, Kid spotted a rusted sign with an arrow pointing to a path on their right. Under the arrow, 'Junkyard' was crudely printed, although most of the letters were scratched off. “That junkyard doesn't sound like too bad of an idea,” Kid mumbled.

“Yeah, but knowing our luck so far tonight, it probably IS a bad idea.”

“Probably. Let's go.”

Following the sign, they eventually came upon the fenced in, and incredibly dark junkyard. Razor wire gleefully danced along the top of the weathered fence. The entrance was locked with a mostly damaged padlock. “It doesn't look like anyone's been here for years,” Kid said, studying the lock in his hands.

“Can you break it?” Michelle asked, trying to peer through a hole in the fence.

“Yeah,” he quickly responded, grabbing a thick rock that was lying beside his foot.

He gave the world behind him a hasty once over, then smashed the lock to pieces in one swift slam. They pushed through the door, and happily closed it behind them. The delved into the yard's seemingly never ending black. Passersby would assume nothing was amiss, that nothing ever occurred there, save for bits of the shattered, and very easy to miss, padlock scattered about.

Inside the hauntingly empty yard, they could make out mountains of rusted cars and scrap metal all around them. Its maze-like structure made it appear to be some sort of obstacle course that had to be completed in order to exit through the back. “Stick close,” Kid whispered. “I don't need you getting lost.”

She scoffed. “I bet you'd get lost way before I ever would.”

“I'll gladly take you up on that bet another day, you know, when I'm not being hunted,” he quipped, surprised to find that he was actually smiling with the remark, though no one would ever have known through the heavy darkness.

The pair entered an empty shipyard container that opened up into what resembled a trench, due to the walls of cars on either side of it. The path was strictly a shortcut for the owner to get to his office, but the duo weren't really in a following regulations sort of mood. The trail managed to be darker than the rest of the junkyard, as their ever decreasing luck would have it. “I don't much enjoy wandering around like some blind rat,” Kid said, his arms held out in front of him.

“When our eyes get a little more adjusted to it, we'll be able to see where we're going a lot easier.”

“Hopefully we'll be outta this hellhole before that can happen. I'm already sick of this place.”

The trench eventually broke up its monotony, and started making left and right turns. Much to Kid's dismay, their eyesight started to adjust, but as Michelle had stated, it did help greatly.

The path finally opened up into another part of the yard. They could see the owner's office just across the way. Everything on the mostly wooden building was horribly uneven. The roof was way too big, and made up of different pieces of rusted metal, all different colors. It was no doubt a custom job done by a very inexperienced person. Inside, the lights were off, and it appeared to be very empty. Behind the office was the fence door that led to the streets. “Well, there's our way out,” Michelle let out a sigh of relief.

“Yeah, just a little farther now.”

They looked through the cracked plexiglass window on the side of the office. Upon scanning the room, it was clear there wasn't much to behold: a portable television, a few dirty magazines, stacks of legal papers yet to be filled out. Backing away from the window, a twinkle caught Kid's eye. A key wedged between the papers had reflected the faint moonlight. He looked closer at the exit and saw a thick chain clumsily entangled around the door.

The fence door itself wasn't too tall, and the razor wire that swirled around the top of the rest of the fence, skipped it and continued along. Opting to finally take the somewhat easy way out for once, he moved around to the office's entrance. “What are you doing?” Michelle asked.

Kid was in his own world now. The door was locked. He looked it up and down. If he kicked it open, it'd be pretty loud, alerting anyone nearby, assuming, of course, there were actually people around this late. The window wouldn't break easily, if at all. There were no other visible ways in. “Alright,” he finally said. “Back up, I'm going to kick the door open.”

“The hell you are,” a calm, gravelly voice manifested behind them.

They turned to see an older man walk forward into the moonlight a few yards away. He was wearing a grease stained jumpsuit with a trucker cap hiding most of his stringy gray hair. A thick leather leash was tightly wrapped around his hand. There was no way any blood was left in his hand from how white the skin was. The worn leash was attached to a cliché spike collar that belonged to a very menacing, yet oddly docile, rottweiler. The man raised his other hand to show them that he was gripping a double barreled shotgun. His cracked lips formed a crooked smile.

“Wait,” Kid said, moving over to stand in front of Michelle. “We're not here to cause trouble, we're just looking for a way out.”

“You were going to kick my door down, boy. You know how long it took me to find a door that fit that tiny frame?”

“Look, I'm sorry, but we've had a hell of a night--”

“And he wasn't thinking clearly,” Michelle intervened, trying her hand at playing peacemaker. “We apologize deeply. If you can just let us out, we can put this whole thing behind us, and be out of your life forever,” the huge smile on her face couldn't hide her growing fear.

The man lowered the gun and put his finger and thumb to his chin. “Hm,” he groaned after a few seconds. “I could do that, or I could just say, 'Daisy kill'!”

Any signs of calmness the dog had once displayed had melted away into pure anger, hatred, and other emotions animals should never possess. The now savage Daisy was making ferocious sounds, as she tried her hardest to tear away from the leash. The man kept his creepy smile pasted on as Kid and Michelle started backing up towards the locked exit. It was almost amazing the way he held the dog at bay with little effort. “Go, go!” Kid yelled over Daisy's psychotically excited barking.

Kid kept his hand on Michelle's back, leading her to the fence, not daring to break eye contact with the beast. As soon as Michelle's fingers touched the chain link, the man let the leash drop, and in a second Daisy bolted. Kid helped Michelle climb up the fence, making sure she was high up enough before he tried following. Daisy was only a foot away now, looking more ferocious than Kid thought possible.

When Michelle made it to the top, she lost her grip and fell backwards. Kid used all the strength in his left arm to catch and push her back up, seconds before Daisy leaped at him, sinking her sharp teeth into his forearm with no plans to let go anytime soon. The half angry, half pain-fueled scream that escaped Kid's lungs had the dog's owner laughing like a giddy child. “Are you okay?” gasped Michelle, who's shock made the man laugh even harder.

“I'm fine, keep going!”

As incredibly agonizing as the bite was, Kid didn't take his hand off of her back until she was steady again. The moment Michelle swung over the top, Kid slammed his fist into Daisy's head. He almost felt bad for hitting the dog, but feeling bad would only get him killed. Or his arm torn off. When Daisy still refused to let go, he punched her a few more times, throwing in elbows here and there. The owner wasn't laughing anymore. He had his gun raised, and was carrying on about how he was going to shoot if Kid didn't stop abusing his baby. Kid threw one last devastating punch, and Daisy relented, dropping to the ground like she had just gone twenty rounds in a boxing match.

He scurried up the fence, and dropped down beside a still shocked Michelle. When they looked back at the man, he fired at them, screaming as loud as he could. The scatter shot hit part of the wall behind them. Not taking their first and only bit of luck for granted, they were off in a second, leaving the crazy man alone with his even crazier dog.

Author's Note

Chapter 5. Hope you enjoy, any feedback of any kind is greatly appreciated, as it helps me improve, and lets me know my story has possibly entertained, or even wasted your time. (hopefully that's not the case though)