When the dots paused and began to mill about at the spot where the titan had died, Allistor said, “It looks like a pack.  Sniffing around where we killed the titan.  Probably followed its scent.”

As they reached the gate, Michael shook his head. He spoke quietly.  “Nope.  We came from the other direction with the titan.  But they might be following our scents from when we went out to the creek to wash off.  Though how they could pick us up over the stench of that thing, I don’t know.”   Allistor grimaced at the memory of the combined armpit and blood stench.

Meg whispered, “Maybe the smell of the titan will scare them off?  You know, like small predators fear big predators?”

They all waited impatiently, standing at the gates with weapons ready while staring at their interface maps.  The dots all meandered around in roughly the same area for a while.  Then one dot ranged toward them.  It moved maybe twenty yards, then paused.  A moment later, the other dots all moved in unison, following the first.  Which moved right up to their gates.

Allistor put an ear to the metal, as did most of the others.  He could hear scratching and snuffling on the other side.  A series of yips told him what was out there.

“Motioning for everyone to step back down the ramp, he waited for them to gather close.  “Canids, I think.  There was evidence that a pack of something killed everyone at the hospital.  This might be the same one.”

“So what do we do?” Lilly’s eyes were wide with fear.  She’d seen what a few canids did to the unfortunate family at the campsite.

Allistor said, “There are eight of us that can fight.  No offense, Chloe.” He smiled at the little girl holding her mom’s hand.

She smiled back and shrugged.  “I know, I’m little.”

Allistor continued.  “So they outnumber us by about half.  We can’t just open the gates and charge out there.  We might win with the weapons we have, but I doubt we could do so without losing somebody.”

Sam said, “We could use the trucks.  Run over a few of them to even the odds?” Several people nodded their heads at that.

“The trucks, yeah.  But I don’t think we’d actually be able to run them over.  And when we open the gates, they’ll charge in.”  Allistor thought about it. “What if we use the trucks, and the trailer, as sort of a defensive wall?” He pointed toward the gates.  “We could turn the trailer on its side right in front of the gates.  Then when we open them, the canids have to go around it to one side or the other.  We park the trucks across both gaps.  We’ll be up in the beds firing down at the canids.”