Shadow Descends

ONE

Put them in fear, Oh Lord;
Let them know that they are but men


The night was darker than the hounds of hell. The car, lights off, moving at a crawl. The two men strained their vision to keep the car in the middle of the road. Focusing their attention outside the windows as the nights cool air slipped in. “I think it's on up, drive up to the top,” he motioned. The car making it's way up the gravel incline behind the industrial plant, at the top, they turned down left and stopped at a wide spot.

The driver removed a duffel bag from the backseat. Dressed in all black, they pulled their hooded masks down. Walking single file through the woods, their feet trampled over limbs and rocks. Outside of the woods, on a hill, they staked out the building. A chain linked fence wrapped all the way around and it must have been ten feet high. They slid down threw the weeds to a spot where the fence was attached to a pole. Dropping the bag to the ground, reaching in and removed the bolt cutters. He cut the links one by one and made a section big enough for them to crawl through.

The building was huge, twenty foot metal walls. It sat on twenty-five acres of land. Loading docks down one side where the trucks would transport merchandise throughout the day. The lights lit up the parking lot, but in the back it was pitch dark. This was their plan, make it to the back, cut a hole in the metal wall, get in, take the laptops and get out.

The shorter of the two men had worked there before, he knew of only one security guard at night and he slept most of the time. This should be an easy job. The taller thief is Bobby. He has a long criminal history. Everything from theft, to drug possession, to you name it. The shorter man is Timmy. He has a crime record too, but only because he hangs with the wrong crowd...he's a follower. Timmy doesn't know it, but Bobby was just using him for the information about the plant. After the job, Bobby's going to make it look like he was robbed, then he's leaving town with the merchandise.

Feeling his way around in the bag, he brought out a battery powered saw. Re-positioning his mask, eye's bugging out through the holes, “watch out for me,” Bobby said. “This thing is going to make a hell of a noise.” He lifted the saw up to the wall, sparks started flying, lighting up where they stood. Timmy watched, stopping him periodically to listen. “ Do you see anything?” Bobby asked. Timmy shook his head. They both leaned out and scanned the parking lot area, nothing, back to cutting. Timmy glanced over to his right and standing ten feet away was a dog. Hands shaking, he grabbed Bobby's shirt. “Oh shit man, there's a big dog behind us.” They jumped back, placing themselves against the building. “ I didn't know they had a guard dog?” Standing motionless, “They don't,” Timmy responded. “ Then what the hell is that?” Bobby said.

The dog was strong looking with a thick neck and a big head. His fur was solid black, matching his eyes. He just stood there watching them, no growling, no barking, just staring at them and wagging his tail. “Maybe that's not a guard dog,” Timmy whispered, “he could be someones pet.” Walking slowly towards the dog, pulling half a beef stick out of his back pocket, holding his hand out, “good boy, are you a good boy, come on take it?” The dog never moved, it just licked his lips and sniffed. “Be careful Tim, he'll eat your damn arm off.” He threw the beef stick on the ground in front of him. The dog never looked down, it just walked slowly towards Timmy, tilting his head with each word he spoke. The dog stopped, dropped his head and sniffed the ground. Timmy moved closer, looking back, “I think he's friendly, he's not growling or anything.” The dog started licking on his fingers. Timmy was now petting his head, “See man he's a good dog.” Timmy smiled under his mask while scratching both sides of it's big head. Bobby relaxed. The dog backed away, raised his head and looked Timmy straight in the eyes. It was a cold stare. His hackles raised, ears went back, mouth open barring his teeth, a low guttural growl coming from his throat. Timmy froze. The dog pounced, knocking him down and going straight for Bobby. The man threw his arms up with the saw in it, but the dog was quick and sank his teeth into his arm pulling him to the ground, the saw flew somewhere. His bite was like a vice locked down, he shook viciously. Bobby kicked and punched at the dog, screaming “get something dammit, get this thing off me,” but Tim was gone, running up the hill, giving it everything he had, not looking back and going for the open fence. The dog let go and backed up. Bobby scooted towards the bag, there's a wrench in there big enough to beat that damn dogs brains in he thought, reaching out his fingers just touching the bag. The dog jumped straight out, grabbing the man by the head, ripping his mask off and taking a piece of his scalp with it. His arms went up gabbing his bleeding head. He screamed “help me Timmy, dammit help me, he's going to kill me!” Tim stayed back behind the fence, no way was he going back in there, sorry about his luck. The dog circled around and sniffed the mans leg, opening his mouth he bit down on his calf, but ever so slowly and deliberate. He could feel the large canine's going in deep. He lunged for the bag, but the dog remained fixed on the calf, ripping flesh and muscle. He threw his head back, the pain was unbearable and he screamed at the dog, “Let go of me!” The dog backed off, then walked around and went up to Bobby's face. He turned his head to the side, feeling it's hot breath. “Don't, I'm begging you.” Bobby pleaded. The dog licked the blood pouring down Bobby's face, he was torturing the man, bite by bite.

The light beams were bouncing all over as the night watchman came running around the building. Bobby seeing the light hollered, “help me mister!” The security guard getting closer. “Who's back there?” He yelled. Hearing a voice coming from the back, he shined his light towards the sound. A man was laying on the ground. He looked like hell. Up by the fence another man yells down, “Mr. call your dog off, he's hurt my friend!” The officer walks over to where Bobby is laying, shining the flashlight in his face. He was trembling, blood and sweat running down his forehead. “Get your dog mister, get your dog first, ” He pleaded. The guard knelt down next to Bobby , “Keep cool man, just relax, we ain't got no dog.” He stood up and shined his light all around, the beam went along the fence line, then across the field, It was empty, no dog anywhere. The guard said, “I'm going to get you some help, your hurt man.” Pulling on the handle of his walkie talkie clipped to his shirt, the guard turned and was about to make the call, when he was struck across the back of the head, he hit the ground with a thud. Timmy standing there, wrench in hand. Bending down, grabbing Bobby by the shirt and arm, “Come on man, we gotta get the hell out of here.”

Standing back in the darkness of the large oaks, the dog watches. He blends in with the surroundings. The men are climbing back through the woods towards their car. The dog stands quiet, just watching, when they are out of site, he turns and runs up the ridge.