Hell Difficulty Tutorial - When Hell Freezes

There's a lot of cars here, though most are on my half of what used to be a highway, and a bus on each side. It looks like a lot of people are still in their cars, but I spot Mateo amongst a small group of people who aren't a few cars ahead of me, so I start walking over. Some of them are just standing around with a blank expression, listening while the others loudly 'debate' about what they think happened, and what they should do now. A woman with red hair and a green coat is sitting against a tire, sobbing into her knees.

Nobody acknowledges me as I walk up and stand next to Mateo, which is fine by me, I'm in no condition to 'debate' with them.

"...fuck do you mean 'aliens'? You sound like goddamn lunatic!" a balding middle-aged man in a polo-shirt shouts as I approach. His eyes are wide, face flushed red, and sweaty strands of loose hair plaster his forehead.

Aliens? I don't see why he's so against it, honestly that's as good a guess as any right now. Whatever happened though, it doesn't matter to me. This must be what happened to my brother. He's gotta be here. Unless this is some kind of fucked up coma dream, he has to be here.

Shit, what's Mom going to do though? I can't exactly tell her where I am, and she's for sure going to freak out. And once I find my brother, how are we going to get back anyways? Fuck. One step at a time, I gotta find him first.

Across from Mr. Polo, a younger man in a red hoodie confidently says, "This whole situation is fucking crazy, but you saw that light too right? That must've been the tractor beam. That's why it only took the cars and…" 

"Please just SHUT UP, you're not helping!" the green coat lady screams, bursting into tears.

"My kids—" her voice cracks as she wipes her tear-streaked face with a sleeve, "My kids are at school… their dad is— is a…" She sobs and takes a shuddering breath, "What am I supposed to do?"

That breaks a few people out of their daze and they move to comfort the woman.

"Maybe if we climb one of these trees we'd be able to get a signal, or figure out where we're at." A guy in his 20s wearing a blue long-sleeve shirt says. He might've also been a student at my college but I don't recognize him.

I pull my phone out of my pocket and check my battery, which is still at 89%, and my signal strength, which is empty.

Mateo flinches at the movement, "Oh shit! I didn't even hear you walk up. Ben, right?"

Mateo is wearing a NASA T-shirt and some worn jeans, along with some sports shoes.

I've got on a gray hoodie with a white tee shirt underneath, a pair of baggy jeans, and sneakers.

"I just got here, what do you think happened?" I ask Mateo.

"Right, well for one I don't think we're on Earth anymore. I mean, just take a look at the suns in the sky, plural." 

He's got a point. While everything looks like it would belong on Earth, the trees, grass, even the wind feels familiar, but I don't think it's possible to fake a second sun in the sky. Not like this. So we can't be on Earth. And if we're not on Earth, where the hell are we?

"And I don't think I'm dreaming, or if I am, this is the most lucid dream I've ever had." He'll pinch himself, "And I feel pain still too! Without waking up."

I'll pinch myself too, extra hard. 

Nope, not a dream. 

"Let's start looking around, maybe we aren't the first…" I start saying.

"DAAAAD!" A kid shrieks, cutting me off, "THERE'S WOLVES OVER THERE!"

He's hopping up and down near the edge of the cars, not too far from where we are, while pointing at the not so distant tree line.

That must've gotten the group by the bus nearby to notice, because there's suddenly a lot of screaming coming from that direction. Mateo pales and his breathing goes wild when he hears this, saying, "I-I can't deal with wolves man, fuck this, I need to get out of here s-sorry." 

He then turns and starts running back to his car. A lot of people are doing something similar and either trying to get on a bus or go back into their cars. Some people, like myself, walk over to where the boy cried wolf to see what we're dealing with. What must be the dad is already dragging him past us back to their car. Some people scream when they see what's waiting in the trees.

"...is that even possible?"

"Goddamn how big…"

"Get back in the car, now!"

I've only seen wolves in documentaries and movies, so I don't really have a good scale for this, but aren't those things way too massive? They're gray and pace along the treeline a good 300 feet away, but even from there they are just way too big to be wolves. One of them walks back into the trees out of sight, but the other one continues to pace, stopping every so often to glance at us before pacing again.

I don't want anything to do with this anymore. Nope. No way. No thank you. 

I'm clearly not the only one thinking this and a lot of people are already hurriedly walking back to their cars or onto the bus. I'm also about to walk away when a short stout man with a beard wearing an orange high-visibility hoodie shoves past me. What the hell, dick? I can see a knife strapped to his belt as he walks to the front of the group.

"It's just some wolves? He roughly asks with a confident voice as he pushes through, "Everybody just take a step back and I'll scare em' off then."

He takes another step forward, walking past the front of the group, and freezes when he seems to actually spot them in the distance.

"What the… that ain't no goddamn wolf…" He says, sounding much less confident, taking a step back as he fumbles a hand under his hoodie. 

So he's probably got a gun too. That's probably a good thing but I can't help but feel nervous about it. I wonder how many other people around here have one?

"Get on the bus you idiots!" Someone calls out, waving people over to the bus.

 "Hey!" The High-Vis man shouts out, taking another step backward and raising a pistol into the air, "Git outta here, git!"

BANG

My ears are ringing and my head is throbbing again, people are screaming again nearby. The wolf stops pacing and stares at us. It doesn't really seem scared in the slightest. Damn it! Why didn't you just shoot at it! Not only are you wasting ammo, but bullets come back down you know! I turn to start running back to my car when more screams suddenly erupt from the other side of the highway.

People are running and trying to get into cars or onto the bus over there. Some of them run towards the treeline to my right. Why are they running to the right? The wolf is directly behind me shouldn't they be… 

"Help!" A man shouts from right over the median barrier. He's stumbling for a car and screams in fear and frustration, scrambling onto the hood when the door he tries doesn't open.

"HELP ME! OH GOD, HELP!" He yells, putting his arms up in front of him defensively.

A massive grey wolf leaps onto the man, previously hidden from view by the barriers, latching onto his arm and pinning him against the windshield.

Now that a wolf is close, its size is undeniable, at least three and a half feet tall and seven feet long. This thing is bigger than any wolf on Earth. Blood mats its fur and stains its teeth. Its mangy rear, missing ear, scarred body, and visibly shrunken ribs make it look like something out of a nightmare.

"PLEASE!" The man shouts, turning his head towards us. 

I hear the High-Vis man yell, "Get outta my way!"

Everything seems to freeze as the wolf lets go of the man's arm and lunges, clamping onto his neck before shaking its head like it was tearing a toy apart. Nobody can move, or even breathe, as the man's screams rapidly fade into wet gurgles. 

His fists pound weaker and weaker against the wolf as his eyes stare wide open at us, at me. Blood is pouring out of his neck and running down the windshield. A woman in the bus behind him shrieks in muffled horror, breaking people out of their trance.

Floating above the wolf's head is a single line of text.

[Wolf - lvl 1]