Night was settling over the monastery. Brothers Paul, Phillip, Chris and Pedro were on guard duty this night. Checking all the windows and doors on the ground floor and working their way up the levels as they planned. They did not want to be too far from anyone at any given time. They were the only four among them that had any military training at all, other than Father Marcus, but he was out of commission at the moment. The Brothers insisted on being a night watch team each evening, sleeping sporadically throughout the day. Lives were at stake. Luckily for them, a few of the men that had come to the church to seek sanctuary from the outside had brought weapons and ammunition. It still wasn’t enough to defend against any major attack.
Making his pass near the basement door, Brother Chris is taken aback , his eyebrows furrow as he looks at the floor. He cautiously approaches the door to check the locks, it is secure and in tact. “We’ve got a problem here boys!!! Basement access, now!!!” He shouts as loud as he can as he quickly turns 180 degrees to scan the kitchen. Not too many places for someone to hide, but still don’t want to take any chances. Brother Chris switches the safety off on the Glock 9 millimeter semiautomatic he is carrying and loads a round into the chamber. He would never admit it, but feels somewhat relieved when Brothers Paul, Joshua and Pedro enter the kitchen, weapons at ready.
“What is it??” Brother Paul asks, a quizzical expression on his face.
“Look at the floor” Chris says.
The other Brothers notice the muddy, wet foot prints tracking from the door through the kitchen towards the dining hall. “But how can this be?? There are orders no one is to go in the basement. Surely these things haven’t adapted to walk through solid objects. So what is going on here?” Brother Pedro asks as he bends over to inspect the prints. “Looks like some blood mixed in here too.”
“We have to secure everyone. Pedro, Phillip, you two go and make sure everyone is safe. Chris and I will follow the breadcrumbs to see where they take us.” Brother Paul orders.
Pedro and Philip take off towards the make shift medical ward designed to tend to the ill; where everyone should be.
“Well Hansel, are you ready to find the witch??” Brother Paul teases. Chris rolls his eyes at Paul’s ever corny sense of humor.
Paul and Chris start tracking the footprints through the kitchen, out the side door into the dining room. Weapons raised, they swiftly scan the room, checking both sides of the door working their sights inward towards the center of the room. They each take a side and canvas under the long oak dining room table where they used to have their meals. Empty.
They continue to follow the tracks through the room towards the study. Walking over the multi-colored area rug they notice there are no more tracks on the other side. They glance at each other, “What now Sherlock??” Chris asks Paul “Elementary my dear Watson, we continue this way and back track if we don’t find anything in there.”
They both raise their weapons, tense with the knowledge that the study has no other doors. Either they are going to have a confrontation with a beastie or they have been fooled by a brainless wonder. Worse yet someone might have been down in the basement doing something criminal like letting a creep or two in. None of these conclusions seems to make either man feel at ease.
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