If you missed CHAPTER 4 you can read it here.

A big, dark Rottweiler was leading the pack, teeth bared, ready to strike. I took a frantic step backward, but I was trapped. There was no escaping this.

The Rottweiler sunk his razor sharp teeth into my left leg. The pain lanced through my body as I yanked my leg out of the beast’s jaws, ripping a hole in my jeans. I lost my balance and fell backwards into the dirt. With the rest of the pack closing in, I covered my face with my hands and curled in on myself.

I waited for the inevitable attack, for the moment when the entire pack would rip me to shreds.

I heard the growling and the snarling around me, but the attack didn’t come.

Suddenly, the growling began to fade, replaced by laughter.

What?

“Mr. Peterson, what on earth are you doing on the floor?”

I removed my arms from my face and looked up. I was no longer lying in the dirt in my decimated neighborhood.

I was lying on the ground in the middle of my algebra classroom. My teacher, Mrs. Lewis was staring down at me.

“What happened?” This was apparently the wrong thing to ask, as the rest of the class laughed even harder.

“Evidently you fell asleep Mr. Peterson and fell out of your chair.” Mrs. Lewis gave me a pointed glare, though the corners of her mouth twitched, like she wanted to laugh but knew better.

I sat there stunned. It all felt so real. The run-down, abandoned town. The woman in my house.

The man and his pack of dogs. Had I dreamt it all?

“Mr. Peterson!” Mrs. Lewis yelled.

“What?”

“Please get back in your seat so we can move on with the class.”

“Right. Sorry.”

I climbed back into my seat. The show was over and the rest of the class slowly returned their attention to the front of the room.

“You okay?” My best friend Will whispered from his desk beside mine.

“It doesn’t make sense.” I whispered back.

“What doesn’t make sense?”

“I fell asleep in history class, not math class.”

He looked at me like I was crazy, and maybe I was.

“Dude, you don’t have history until fourth period. You must have dreamt that.”

“Right.”

But I was certain, I’d fallen asleep in history class. I remember having this math lesson. I remember going to lunch. I remember going to history.

The two swollen bug bites were still on my arm and still itching.

My left leg was itching now, too. I looked down and my mouth dropped open. My pant leg was torn, just like it had been the Rottweiler attacked me.

I moved the shreds of fabric aside, already knowing what I’d find. Right where that dog had bitten me, was a circle of bright red punctures marks that looks an awful lot like teeth marks.