What's that noise?

In the early 90s when I would deploy I'd go to a place called Eskan Village. It wasn't a bad place, but there was the area where most of the people lived. Another area of Eskan was called the High Rises.

Now there was much mystery and danger surrounding the high rises. No one lived in them, and there were rumors of strange sounds coming from them and such. Your typical ghost story kind of deal.

One day my friend and I were out roller blading and we noticed we were getting closer and closer to the High Rises. We both kind of gave each other a nervous look, then we laughed and kept on going. We made it to the High Rises and found a pretty awesome spot to blade and have a good time.

Since we were having such a good time, and nothing odd had happened we didn't notice that the sun was starting to set.

What happened next ended up giving me a huge scare. It starts to get dark between the buildings and in the area where we were blading so we decide it's time to head back to our villa. Only we realize that the electricity if off in that area, and it's really dark now. Then we hear this weird growl/howl thing coming from back where we had been. Then it's answered a little closer to us.

At this point my friend takes off like a rocket. She was much faster on the blades than I was, and apparently the thought of being eaten by some unknown terror in the dark didn't appeal to her at that very moment.

That was when I saw the eyes the first time. When you're not expecting something like that it scares you pretty bad. But there they were looking out from under some stuff that was piled in an alley. Now being the mighty man that I am what happened next caught me completely off guard. In my rush to get the heck away from the crazy growling/howling things and the eyes glowing in the dark place I failed to realize that I had gone down to the end of a loading ramp type area. So I'm looking back over my shoulder and the next thing I know I'm flying! At least that's what I thought for about 2 seconds before I crashed into the street below narrowly missing busting my skull on the curb.

I flip over and looking down at me was one of the worst excuses for a dog I had ever seen. It was skinny, dirty, and looked rather hungry. One dog? Really I was running from one dog. I get back to my feet and keeping an eye on the dog I start to make my way back to the main roads. Then I notice another dog, and another, and another. I stopped counting at about 6, but there were more.

I take off as fast as my blades will move me. But the dogs keep getting closer. I'm thinking of all the other crap that has happened to me up to this point and I'm gonna die and get eaten by a bunch of wild dogs in Saudi Arabia. I wonder if they would give me posthumous purple heart or something so my Mom doesn't have to think she raised a dummy for the rest of her days.

Just when I think I'm gonna run out of breath I pass under a street light that is actually on, and glance back over my shoulder. It was like the dogs knew that they were back in the part of Eskan that men lived in. They stopped just short of the light...gave another growl or two and slunk back off in to the High Rises.

I do a goofy little dance of victory, and head back to my villa. Never did see those dogs again. Also never went any closer to the High Rises than that street light.