Alcatraz may be a nice place for tourists to visit during the day, but Scarlet doesn't find it quite so pleasant at night...
The night was black and bitter. She had to keep her mind about her at all times. Sometimes the wind sounded so much like human screams...
She rounded a corner, gun first, hearing the rage of the storm outside the desolate concrete building. She passed down the cellblock, peering into each empty cell, glancing all around. She had seen a shadow, if only briefly. Someone stalked the dismal halls with her. She was not alone.
The tourists had all gone for the day. The night guard was on the other side of the island. What am I doing here, she thought? Alcatraz was uninviting enough in the daylight hours. At night, in a tempest, it was dreadful.
A shuffle and a flicker of some darker form on the wall snared her attention. She swallowed and pursued the shadow, not knowing quite what she'd see. She reached the end of the cellblock. Nothing. The minute hairs on the back of her neck were standing rigid at attention but she forced herself forward. She needed a strategic point. Some place where she could be safe from an unexpected approach. Her imagination worked furiously. Behind any door, around any turn, in any shadow could lurk death incarnate. What form that death had taken, she did not know.
Her mind screamed for her to run, to get away, to move! She knew that sense too well. Never had it failed her. The feeling of dire, impending disaster had saved her life more than once. She'd run...yes. She'd obey her instinct of terror. But...where to run?
The feeling was shrieking now, horrible silent cries of panic almost as desperate as the gale outside. Where to run? She lashed around in staggering circles, eyes prying the dark corners in vain. She did not know where the danger was. It could be all around her. Closing in on her, pursuing her, taunting her feverish, agonized mind. Where to run?
She ran. Down the middle of the cellblock at a dead sprint, feet hardly touching the floor. It had been wild, primal instinct that had driven her to flight the instant before a bullet buried itself in the wall just behind her. A faint trail of smoke hung in the air as the shadow moved swiftly on, hounding its terrified prey. Fear hung like a fetid stench in the ghostly halls. It was on this fear the predator thrived.
She found the door to the outer courtyard. It was not locked, and she slipped outside, mouth dry and throat stinging, into the driving rain. She needed to hide. There were more places to hide on the island. She'd hide until daylight, or until she found the night guard. She'd be safer out on the island grounds...
She cast an anxious glance at the water surrounding the island. Massive swells and vicious breakers unlike any she had seen on the bay barred her from the mainland. There would be no boat ride back tonight. She shuddered and moved on, streaking from shadow to shadow, heart pounding in her ears. She was used to being the hunter, and now, she was the hunted...
Racing down the path, she began to think. Where could she hide? Not in any building-she'd had enough of the relentless, deadly tango through cellblocks and hallways-she'd have to hide somewhere out in the open. Between the stinging rain and piercing wind, the low bushes and trees should cover her until morning. She began looking around, looking for a thicket to take refuge in. Gradually, as she took several switchback turns in the path, she came to a sickening realization. There were many steep drop-offs on the island. To wander off the path could be a fatal mistake. But she had to hide!
She came to an abrupt halt at another switchback turn. There, in the middle of the sandy pathway, lay a black form. She approached it with her gun ready. It did not move. After several tense seconds, she kicked a rock at it. It still did not move.
A flash of lightning broke its fury across the troubled scene. She stifled a scream of horror and stumbled backwards. It was the night guard, lying in a pool of blood. He was shot through the temple, face turned to her in a blank stare. A chill ran through her veins. She was alone with a killer. Her breathing accelerated until she felt faint. Driven by wild, unhinged panic, she fled down the path, never noticing the figure that stalked her slowly behind.
