“At last! It is my time to shine!” Casey swung his backpack around to the front of his body and dug around, a variety of rustling and crackling erupting from inside the bag. He triumphantly pulled out a half a bag of chips, a box of crackers, some cheese and a jar of pickles, handing each item off to Kirk. With a triumphant, ha! He brandished a stick of pepperoni, waving it at the dog hypnotically.
Herb was dumbfounded by the array of snacks.

“Did you think we were going on a sunday school picnic?”
The dog sniffed the air, drawn in by the smell of meat.

“That’s it, little one. The power of meat compels you. Don’t worry about the Mr Grumpy No-Snacks over there. I’ve got your yummy distraction right here. You can have the meat stick if you’ll be quiet.”
The little dog approached and Casey tore off a chunk of meat and tossed it to gain its trust. The dog snatched up the morsel and came closer.

“Ha! We’re best friends now. I’m the dog whisperer. Lucky for all of you I’m well versed in the art of charcuterie, or we’d be the midnight snack of a psycho right about now.”

“You’re well versed in the art of something, alright. I’m fairly surprised by how you seem to be taking all of this in stride. Your pragmatism makes me think you don’t understand the seriousness of our situation.” Cassandra watched her brother entice the dog closer as the pepperoni stick got shorter.

“Well Cass, it’s like this. We’re all going to die at some point. Do I want to? Not really. At the same time, I don’t really have anything going on at the moment and this is likely my one chance for a noble death, avenging the memory of a damn fine human and friend. Also, I’m really high so there is every possibility I’m not processing what’s happening in a way that errs on logic. That said, does anyone else think it weird that a psycho killer would have a dog?” At this point he was crouched down, the last of the pepperoni in his fingers.

As he looked around the group he suddenly noticed something.

“Hey, has anyone seen..” and was cut off by the sensation of sharp teeth sinking into his hand.

Photo by Bonnie Kittle on Unsplash