The mutts crept out of their holding tank like the locust, slowly, confidently, devouring everything in their path. The screams outside the room were no longer only fear and desperation, now an unnerving inflection of pain was there too.

Riley ran to the door, locked the latch, shoved a stapler between the two handles and butt a chair up to it. His entire body shook as he looked out to see men and women being hunted by naked human-like creatures with jarring motions. For now, at least, he and his father were safe in the glass room.

An older woman noticed Riley and ran towards the protected room, pushing and shoving her way through the crowds, white tailcoats flapping about as she waved and cried, begging for Riley to open the door.

Riley pretended not to hear her, but the mumble of his father's rushed prayers pierced his heart. He wasn't the only one that was scared.

"We have to open the door," said Riley. "We can save some of these people."

Mr. Kilhan nodded, then hung his head and continued praying. Riley turned back to the door; his shaky fingers hesitated before the lock. He looked towards the lady in time to see a thick spray of red splatter across the windows. Riley gasped and dropped to his knees, his heart pounding at his ribs. The red spread like fingers down the pane, and through the streaks, just outside of his reach, Riley saw the severed head of the older woman. The woman he could have saved if he hadn't hesitated.

A mutt lowered its body over the detached head, it sniffed and nudged at it. Blood dripped from the creature's gaping jaw as it opened its mouth and began to eat. Bile rocketed up Riley's throat and he doubled forward clearing the contents of his stomach on the floor.

When he calmed enough to look up, he saw that the mutts were closing in on a group of scientist, they huddled together to fight them off. Despite their efforts, they were no match for the strength and speed of the human-like creatures.

"Lord forgive me my sins," Mr. Kilhan said as he stood and looked out the glass at the massacre before them. He shuffled over to Riley, coxed him up from the shoulders and pulled him into his arms.

"Lord deliver us from this evil," he prayed.

Riley studied his father, as the large man searched through the windows into the madness. After what felt like an eternity his dad's troubled gaze came to rest, fixated on something past the glass -- a smile briefly picked up his features. Riley opened his mouth to ask what his father had seen when he was interrupted.

"Promise me you will live," Mr. Kilhan said.

"Don't talk like that, dad."

"Just promise me, son," he pleaded, as he shook Riley firmly.

Riley had never seen the sorrow that he now saw in his father. It was different than when his mother died and different from the silent trance after the car accident. Was this goodbye?

"Alright, Dad, I promise," Riley said. The thought of goodbye was too much, but talking about it was worse, especially with mutts pressing down on them.

Mr. Kilhan pulled the chair from the door. "This isn't helping any," he said, as he ushered Riley to sit. "Will you sing a hymn with me?" He didn't wait for a response; instead, he closed his eyes and began Amazing Grace.

Riley smiled, the memory of his father singing to the church flashed like slides in his mind. He closed his eyes, drowning out the drumming at the wall by focusing on his dad's voice.

"Riley," Mr. Kilhan called, breaking the flow of his song.

"Yeah?" Riley asked, jolting alert and feeling thrown back into the hell that surrounded them.

"Remember your promise, son," he said, and then he opened the door.

Before Riley could protest, his father shoved his way between two mutts and pulled the door closed behind.

"Dad!" Riley screamed as he dove forward.

A mutt pushed at the door, teeth barred ready for a fight. Riley used his weight, slammed into the door, and pushed the mutt back. He struggled to secure the latch as he searched the crowd for his father. Now he was alone, locked in a glass room with a front-row seat to his own father's death. The mutt beat at the glass, pushing Riley forward each time. But Riley stayed, waiting for his dad's return. As time went by Riley tired and slid down, he kept his eyes fixed on the tangled web of limbs for any sign of the large preacher man.

Just as he thought all hope was lost he saw a man, his father, crawling through the beasts.

"Dad!" Riley cried as he scrambled to unhook the latch. Before Riley could unlock it, his father slipped a key under the door. Their eyes met, peace washed over Mr. Kilhan's face, he smiled at Riley and stood tall. Then, in a moment so quick, like the blink of an eye, Riley watched as his father was pulled into the multitude of the blood-crazed creatures.

"Noooooo!" Riley beat on the door. Each breath stung as he sharply inhaled. A plan began to form, a plan to retrieve his dad. The first problem was getting past the horde at the door. Moments ticked by as he tried to think of anything he could do, but no plan came. He was trapped. Helpless.

Hands, coated in blood and vile, pounded on the windows, smearing remnants of life like finger-painters to a canvass. The door shuttered behind the horde. Riley knew he didn't have much time. He bent down to retrieve the golden key and noticed a small silver chain wrapped around its base. His father's cross necklace. He unwound it and laid it over his fingers, trying not to think about what it meant. The key his father risked his life for was clutched tightly in his fist. He choked back tears as he ran, tripping over his feet, towards the glass panel that housed the red button.

His chest, like a yoyo, rose and fell alongside his breaths. He threw the key in and unlocked the housing-cover for the button. A red light began to flash. Riley's hand hovered, ready to push. The cries of the scientists stopped, all he could hear was a slow dull roar of the mutts hunger. He searched through the glass, between the bodies, for any trace of his father. The promise he made weighing heavily on him. Could his father survive?

The mutts climbed over each other, a constant river of red naked bodies, smashing into the wall, blocking all the light except the flickering strobe.

He rolled the silver cross between his sweaty fingers, a tear escaping down his cheek. "I love you Dad," he said. "But you were wrong. Some things don't deserve to live." And he pushed the red button.

The glass room rocketed into the air, bellow him a cloud of fire spread over the chaos, smothering everything in its path -- mutt or human. He clung to the desk and watched the lake of flames as it washed over his father. His lips mouthed the words to Amazing Grace, but he couldn't bear the courage to sing. He was alone. Rising out of the ashes. A Phoenix.

Walls of stone blocked his view as the glass room continued its ascent. He caught glimpses of other floors, where scientists hurried about like mice, some noticed him pass and stopped for a brief second before they continued their scurry. A contraption in the floor opened and a rack with weapons, guns, ammo, food, an electronic device, knives, and camping equipment lifted out. Riley wondered what they were for. Either way, he felt safer having them there. Like he was no longer alone.

The device turned on as the glass room smashed through the ceiling and into the open sky over Miami. Riley looked up to see a large balloon chained to the top, pulling him higher into orbit. The beeping continued until it was all Riley could focus on. He went to the rack of weapons and picked up the device. Its black screen showed one red dot, flashing, in a central location, it also had numerous green dots, speeding past the red dot and spreading like lice across the screen. He started to count the green dots, 1...2...3 and then he stopped, noticing the inscription on the bottom of the device's screen. It read "Genetically Engineered Tracking System II." And he knew what the dots where. They were mutts that had somehow escaped the blaze.

Riley glanced at the guns on the rack, he ran his fingers down one of the barrels. Peace washed through him, and with that peace a feeling of purpose. This was how he would keep his promise to his father and get his revenge. He would live, but he would track down each and every mutt that escaped-- and kill them.

THE END

***WATCH THE VIDEO FOR MORE INFORMATION ON BATH SALTS*** (Promise me you will never-EVER do them!)

https://youtu.be/sTdxH-pJf5Q