Lost in Los Angeles- Chapter 2
#2 of Lost in LA
Lost In Los Angeles- Chapter 2
I kept running until I couldn't run any more. After more than three miles of absolute sprinting, my body could give me no more and I collapsed mid-stride.
I fell to the hard ground with an 'oof', the impact knocking the wind out of me as my solar plexus struck a rock.
I lay there, panting heavily, sure my heart was about to pop from the intense adrenaline buzz. I'd barely escaped with my life, managing to get myself entirely lost in the big city. My mind kept going back to earlier, when I almost died. I could still hear the sound of my claws puncturing the zombie's skin, the sick smack of the other one falling to the ground in front of me.
I gave myself five minutes to recover before dragging my exhausted frame back to my feet. My tongue lolled out of my mouth as I panted. I needed water.
It took me a lot of effort to raise my head enough to scan for water, squinting in the bright light of the rising sun. I had no clue where the hell I was, only that I was in Los Angeles, California.
At least, that's where I last remembered myself. Before the dream that I wasn't so sure was a dream anymore.
My ears flicked up at the sound of dripping water. I turned my head to see what the humans called a "gas station", where they would frequently stop their transports and put more fuel into them. I'd heard that this fuel was called gasoline, but I wasn't quite sure. But the place seemed secure.
I took a long, hard look around, scanning for more of those zombies. I saw no one, nothing moving. Even the wind had stopped sometime during my mad sprint.
Reasonably sure that I was safe, at least for the moment, I stepped quickly towards the station. My ears continuously swiveled around my head, searching for any odd sounds.
As I approached the building, I saw that the double doors that provided entry had been knocked partly off their hinges, hanging at a drunken angle. Glass was strewn across the ground before them, razor blade-like shards stabbing up into the air. The lights on the interior of the building flickered and sparked, the ceiling tiles hanging from the roof and scattered across the floor. The contents of every can, bottle, jar, and box in the place were scattered across the tile, mixing in an unattractive blend of food and drink unfit for even a dog.
I was starting to have second thoughts about waltzing into this decrepit place, but my body was crying out for sustenance, and I couldn't ignore it. I gingerly stepped over the broken glass at the entrance, paws edging their way around the blades. My eyes scanned the shadowy darkness, searching for anything out of the ordinary.
After a few minutes, they alit on a pipe that was steadily leaking water onto the floor. The liquid was crystal clear, and I couldn't resist my urges any more.
I bounded over to the puddle and sank my muzzle into it, slurping up as much as my stomach could hold, pausing only for rapid breaths. After several minutes, I was finally sated and slumped over onto my side, my muzzle slick with water.
I lay there, unable to think clearly. My breathing slowly settled into a steady breath every few seconds as I relaxed, taking the opportunity to rest before I had to continue on. My eyelids grew droopy, and I forced myself to move into a cabinet in the gas station's office to take a short nap.
The last thing I remember was pulling the cabinet door closed behind me and settling down on an old discarded human sweatshirt before falling into a deep sleep.
* * *
When I opened my eyes, I saw nothing but darkness. My mind went into worst-case-scenario mode, my body flailing around as the memories of the past few days rushed through my mind. My paws brushed up against unyielding wood and I panicked. I lost all conscious thought, my paws smacking around and beating against the wooden interior of the cabinet before striking the door and knocking it wide open with a long loud creak. I frantically escaped the cabinet, scrambling across the tile until I crashed head-first into the opposite wall.
"Ow."
The blow knocked some sense back into me, bringing me back to reality. The truth is, it wasn't a reality that I wanted to be part of. All I wanted to do was be with my person in our little house in Nebraska.
That thought made me tear up. It was depressing, being in this shithole that used to be Los Angeles without my person. A tear dripped from my eye and splattered on the ground, followed swiftly by another.
The floodgate let loose.
I took one step back towards the cabinet and fell over, bawling. The tears kept coming, dripping down my muzzle and over my nose. God, I hated this. Just being here was a nightmare, and it got worse with each passing minute.
I put my head down and covered my eyes with my paws. At that moment, I really welcomed the thought of being one of them, one of the zombies. Anything to be released from the pain.
When a small furry paw tapped my shoulder, I flipped out. A loud yelp came out, followed quickly by a ferocious pounce that trapped the newcomer beneath my muscular frame. I bared my teeth, showing off my formidable incisors.
The strange canine, a small collie with black and white fur and a bushy tail, quailed under my stare. Her bottom lip quivered and I could tell that she was about to cry.
After scanning her to make sure she was one hundred percent canine, I let my lips drop and hide my teeth.
"Who are you and what do you want?" I snarled, pressing my paw firmly into her neck. I kept it light, to allow her the breath to respond.
"C-Carly... " she stammered. She was shivering under me, the ends of her fur visibly vibrating. "I-I just w-wanted to see i-if you were okay..."
I kept her pinned. My stare was intimidating enough to make her start pleading for her life.
"P-please, don't kill m-me! I-I'm just a dog! L-like you!"she yelped, struggling futilely to push me off her.
I let her struggle for a moment before relenting. I could tell she was normal. I let off the pressure on her neck and stepped aside, expecting her to scramble to her paws and bolt.
She didn't.
She stood up, shook herself off. The dust on her fur flew off, filling the air with little particles that floated around on the drafts. The look she fixed me with made me regret pinning her down like that, but, hey, I had to make sure, right?
"My apologies," I said softly. "I just had to make sure... You know... That you weren't-"
"A zombie?" she scoffed. "You really don't know anything about them, do you? You must not have been paying attention at all for the last couple of weeks, have you?"
My fur bristled at the attitude, but I held myself in check. My plan was to pump this pup for information.
"I've only been here for a day. Besides, I know a little," I admitted. "Mostly from watching zombie movies with my person, Penny."
"Ha! Those movies are so fake!"
I couldn't help letting out a soft growl.
"Don't go getting all tough and edgy, Bolt," she snapped.
The look of surprise on my face was such that she laughed.
"What, did you think I wouldn't recognize you? Every dog in the country knows who you are! Though, I must say that you're looking a little worse for the wear, aren't ya?"
Suddenly self-conscious, I glanced down at my paws, noticing once again that they were covered in bloodstains.
Her gaze dipped down as well, her eyes widening.
"What happened?" she asked.
"I don't know... I woke up a few hours ago like this..."
"Here? Because I don't remember seeing you here when I dropped by an hour ago." Her ear flicked, indicating her confusion.
"Not here... I don't know exactly where, but I got attacked."
She jumped away from me so fast that one would have thought she'd been bitten by a spider or something.
"You mean..."
"No, no... I'm not a zombie. They didn't lay their disgusting hands on me."
"What happened?" She fixed me with a look of rapt fascination.
"I..." I blushed, embarrassed. "I howled, not on purpose, but I howled. I was sad, I didn't know what to do, and me and my person have this thing where if we're separated, then I howl and she finds me. But she didn't. A zombie found me. It lunged for me, and I dodged it. A second one showed up, and I had to escape. All I could do was knock it over, but when I tried that, my paws got stuck in its rib cage. That's where some of this came from. I had to pull my paws out and then I just ran. This is where I ended up."
"Wow."
"I just want my person back." I sniffled, unable to control the emotions that were starting to overcome me again.
"What's your person's name?"
I chuckled halfheartedly. "I thought you knew who I was?"
"Well... I... Uh..." She blushed, smiling.
"Nah, don't sweat it."
All of a sudden, I felt air under my paws and a sharp stab of pain in my side as something crashed into my side, sending me flying through the air. I yelped upon landing, colliding head-first into a wooden wall.
"Carly!" shouted a male voice.
I looked up through fuzzy vision, kind of spotting a large furry shape through the blurriness. It grew worse, and I found myself fading out into blackness.