by Mia Archer
Kirsten looked at the guy and then rolled her eyes.
“Could you call your chief please?” she asked, clearly over this shit.
“I said drop your weapons!” the guy shouted.
Kirsten held her hands up, but she also moved towards the guy. He frowned like he didn’t like that, but he also didn’t stop her.
“Trust me. We don’t want any trouble here. All we want is for you to give your chief a call. He’ll let you know we’re working with him, and this is all on the up and up.”
She’d moved closer. His gun was wavering. As though he’d never conceived of a situation where he’d have to use that gun, let alone use it on a college student who was advancing towards him, and he really didn’t want to do it.
“I’m serious!” he said. “Don’t take another step!”
“Do you really want to do that?” Kirsten asked, moving even closer. Slowly, but moving closer.
“I…”
She got close enough that she could reach out and grab the gun. He looked down at the spot where he’d held his gun in amazement. She looked at the thing, her mouth compressed to a thin line, then shook her head.
“You know it really would help if you took the safety off before you pointed this at someone.”
“I…”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Kirsten seemed like she was a tough badass, but I had no doubt a well-placed bullet would’ve done some serious damage.
“Now please call your chief and let him know that you just threatened me with a gun? He’ll fill you in on everything going down here tonight.”
The cop looked defeated, but he got out his radio and started talking into it. Meanwhile Kirsten walked over to her cheerleader friends, and I followed. She grabbed her duffel bag and tossed it down in front of the cheerleaders where it landed with a loud thunk.
“What’s going on here Kirsten?” One of them asked, looking nervous. “Are there seriously more of those things here tonight?”
“Nothing good Angie,” Kirsten said. “And yes. I was serious when I said there were werewolves getting ready to attack tonight, but I don’t think they’re attacking here. Not yet, at least.”
“More of them?” One of the basketball players said, looking like he was about to either puke or piss his pants. Or maybe a little bit of all of the above.
“Yes, more of them,” Kirsten said. “I thought they were going to attack here. They made it sound like they were going to attack here, but there was only the one. Like…”
“Like they knew you were going to take that bait and they set a trap,” I said, finishing the thought.
“Exactly,” Kirsten said, her face grim.
She looked up to windows at the top of the arena that showed the darkness outside, split occasionally by the moon coming out from behind clouds waiting out there.
“Son of a motherfucking bitch,” she growled. “Those motherfuckers seriously are doing this!”
“What are they doing?” the girl, Angie, asked.
“They did this all to distract me,” Kirsten said. “They knew I’d take the bait if they mentioned something to do with Buffy, and so I came here.”
“I still don’t understand what’s going on here,” Carrie said, glancing down at the duffel bag full of weapons like she was still wondering whether or not she was about to get her ass shot off.
“The werewolves are attacking the rest of campus while Kirsten is occupied here with one werewolf who was sent to distract her and maybe get in a sucker punch,” I said.
“So you’re saying…”
“What I’m saying is we’re looking at what happened at that house party the night before, only it’s going to be happening everywhere,” Kirsten said. “I should’ve realized what was happening.
“You can’t blame yourself,” I said, sensing that she blamed herself for this and hating it. “You had no way of knowing.”
“Except I should’ve known,” Kirsten growled. “I should’ve known the moment those things started trying to attack me that they would’ve eventually given up and done something that got me out of the way without having to risk the pack confronting me directly.”
“I mean it is a pretty smart plan,” I said, though there was something about the glare she hit me with that told me that wasn’t making her feel better about what was going on here tonight.
“Right,” I said. “I’m going to shut up now.”
“So what do we do now?” Angie asked, looking down at the duffel bag full of weapons.
Kirsten looked at the arena full of people who were going to be ripped to shreds by daybreak if the werewolves managed to go through with their plan.
“I don’t know,” Kirsten said, sounding defeated.
Which was just a touch worrisome. This was a girl who had seen it werewolves coming at her for the past couple of nights and fragged them all. This was a girl who’d killed one of her friends in cold blood when she realized her friend was about to become a werewolf herself. This was a woman who didn’t take any shit from anybody, and yet she was standing there looking utterly defeated.
And I wasn’t going to let her pull that bullshit. There were too many lives on the line. Including ours.
“Get ahold of yourself,” I said.
Kirsten turned and looked at me. Stared, dumbfounded, like she wasn’t used to getting that kind of attitude.
“What’s your problem?” I asked. “We have an arena full of people who are going to die if you don’t do something, and you’re feeling sorry for yourself? What the hell happened to the girl I fell for?”
“I…”
“Yeah!” Angie said. “What happened to the girl who killed an entire house full of werewolves? Are you just going to lie down and take it because they’re taking the whole campus now and not just one little house?”
“She has a point,” Carrie said. “That doesn’t sound like the kind of bullshit you’d take from anyone, and you’re going to let us all get killed now?”
That earned Carrie a couple of irritated looks from people who didn’t care for her reminding them of their impending doom, but she shrugged.
“What?” she asked. “You expect me to be all friendly and bubbly when we’re facing down death? I don’t think so!”
Kirsten looked at each of us like she was surprised we’d talk to her like that. Then she took a deep breath and let it out in a long and slow sigh.
“I suppose I deserved that,” she finally said.
“You’re damn right you deserve that,” I said.
That earned me a sharp look, but then she very quickly went back to looking at everyone like she was weighing options. Finally she looked back at me.
“You’re the one who always has a plan for a horror movie scenario,” she said, a twinkle to her eye. “So what would you do in this situation?”
I looked around and weighed my options, and then down to the duffel bag of supplies and ammo we’d grabbed. Then I looked to the cheerleaders and basketball players.
“We’ve got a cache of weapons and silver ammo, and we’ve got a group of athletic people have some endurance,” I said. “I’m also willing to bet most people around here have some shooting experience since this college is a regional hub.”
That earned some nods from a few cheerleaders and basketball players alike. It was good odds that there were always at least a few people who knew their way around shooting in a largely rural area, even if the university was in the city proper.
“The obvious thing is to use the people you have here to defend this place. There are only so many ground level entrances, and you only have to hold out until daybreak,” I said. “I say we barricade those entrances and shoot anything that tries to get inside.”
“That’s actually a pretty good plan,” she said, turning back to the cheerleaders and basketball players. “This duffel bag is full of enough weapons to what overthrow a small Latin American government. That means you should have enough to hold off the werewolves if you’re strategic
about how you block the place off.”
She turned and looked at everyone else in the arena, and then finally she looked back at the campus cop who was looking more and more grim as he spoke into his radio. I couldn’t hear exactly what was being said over that radio, but I got the feeling it wasn’t good.
“What about Barney Fife over there?” another guy said, smiling at Kirsten.
There was something about that smile that sent a pulse of jealousy running through me. Especially when Kirsten smiled right back at him and threw her arms around the dude. The only thing that kept that jealousy from turning into something ugly was the sure knowledge that she couldn’t actually be interested in the dude.
“I’m glad you lived,” Kirsten said.
“You and me both,” he said, laughing. “So what are we going to do about the cop?”
“I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t call me Barney Fife,” he said, jogging over to join us. “I like to think I’m a little better at my job than that.”
“Not much better,” Kirsten said, rolling her eyes and looking down to his gun that she still held.
The cop also looked down at the gun that had been so easily taken off of him earlier. When he looked back up it was grim.
“What’s the situation?” Kirsten asked.
“There are emergency calls coming in from all around campus. People talking about monsters in the darkness.”
“I was afraid of that,” Kirsten said.
“Any idea what you’re going to do about it?” the guy asked.
“I have no clue,” Kirsten said. “I’ve never seen an outbreak this large before. I’ve never…”
Again she looked like she was on the verge of giving into despair, but this time she obviously took control of herself and stood a little taller. She shook her head. That worry was replaced with grim determination.
“I need to talk to the chief,” she said.
“Can’t get ahold of him,” the cop said. “Everyone’s trying to reach him, and he’s gone complete radio silence.”
Kirsten rolled her eyes. “Just fucking great. The one campus cop who could handle himself in a fight got himself killed.”
“Tell me about it,” the cop said, though he did look a touch insulted by her assessment of campus cops and their abilities.
“Okay,” Kirsten said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do about what’s happening out there, but we’re going to get this place ready for a defense.”
“What good is that going to do?” the cop asked.
“The good it’s going to do is you’re going to barricade yourself in here and you don’t have to worry about werewolves coming in until the sun goes up and they transform back to their normal human selves,” I said. “And Kirsten doesn’t have to worry about an arena full of people while she tries to figure out how to save everyone else.”
“No pressure or anything,” Kirsten muttered.
“Right,” the cop said, licking his lips as he no doubt thought about all the unpleasantness he’d be seeing before the night was through. “Let’s get on with it, then.”
34
Kirsten
“Are you sure it was a good idea leaving all those guns with them?” Cara groused.
“Why wouldn’t it be a good idea to leave them with all those guns?” I asked.
I glanced to Cara who was touching the guns at her side as though to remind herself they were still there. Which I could totally understand.
We were in hostile territory, after all. Sirens were going off all around us, and the night was continually being pierce by screams and the occasional gunshots.
Like there were a lot of terrifying somethings running around campus tonight finding people and ruining their night, and running into second amendment enthusiasts from time to time.
“I’d just feel a lot better if we had more weapons, is all,” Cara said.
“And I feel a lot better knowing my friends are armed,” I said, thinking back to the people working together to pull down soda machines and other heavy things in the arena and use them to blockade the doors.
That’d also meant blockading us outside the arena, but I needed to be out here where the werewolves were.
As though on cue, a snarling hairy something appeared out of the woods and charged us. It looked like a guy in a polo shirt and khakis, and he looked more like Lon Chaney than David Naughton, which meant he’d only just been bit.
I pulled my sword out and twirled around. A moment later the dude didn’t have a head, and I didn’t even get any blood on me.
“Showoff,” Cara growled.
“I try,” I said.
“So do you have any idea where we’re even going?” she asked, looking around campus like she’d rather be anywhere but out here.
She did step past the twitching dead body of the former werewolf like it was nothing, though. She was starting to get used to this even if she wanted to pretend it was still bothering her.
“We need to find the pack alpha,” I said.
“Alphas aren’t even a thing in the real world though,” she said. “I read on the Internet that was based on a flawed study or something.”
“Yeah, but we’re talking about humans turning into wolves and they’re totally into calling their leaders alphas now,” I said.
“What does that do if we kill the leader? Does that lift the curse for everyone who got bit tonight?”
She turned and looked at the poor asshole I’d just offed. Like she was wondering if maybe I’d killed him prematurely.
“First off I’d like to see you come up with a nonlethal way to deal with a feral werewolf who just turned,” I said. “And second no, of course that’s not going to happen. We’ve been over this. Of all the movies for you to take cues from, An American Werewolf in Paris should be at the bottom of your list.”
“I figured, but you know more about this than I do,” she muttered.
I held up a hand to stop her, because we’d reached the first big open area of the evening. I’d been keeping to the wooded areas for the most part.
Sure the werewolves could sneak up on us more easily in the woods, but we could also move without running into the roving bands of werewolves that were out ripping people to shreds or biting them if the person they came across looked like someone they wanted added to their pack.
We’d seen a lot of half-transformed hot people running through the woods. It certainly seemed that the pack alpha had a preference.
“What’s wrong?” Cara asked, looking out on the open area.
It was a big fountain in the middle of campus that acted as a spoke that ran out to various buildings. The quickest way to any point on campus was through this circle.
The problem with that being the werewolves also seemed to know that. No sooner had I held my hand up to stop Cara than a group of girls dressed for partying appeared in the circle, followed by giant hulking shapes that chased them down.
The girls were hotties, so of course they were thrown to the ground and bit, not torn to pieces, which jived with what I’d seen so far.
“Pretty girls,” Cara said. “Shame about the whole turning into werewolves thing.”
The girls started twitching as the moonlight did its thing and had them undergoing their first transformation. There wasn’t going to be any month long mystery about whether or not they were werewolves that culminated with Bad Moon Rising playing ahead of one hell of a special effects showpiece.
“I really don’t want to go the long way to the theater,” I growled.
“Why would you want to go to the theater?” Cara asked. “That’s on the other side of campus!”
“Because that’s where this all started, and that means that’s where she’s going to be waiting for me.”
“Where who is going to be waiting for you?” Cara asked.
“The alpha bitch,” I said. “I met her once already. Creepy girl in a red hoodie who liked to act all big and bad.”
Cara shivered. “I saw her
.”
“You did?” I asked, turning away from the horror show in the fountain circle.
“At the house party,” Cara said. “She was waiting out there. Watching me from the street right before I got locked out.”
“Damn,” I said. “I didn’t know she was there that night.”
Though it made sense. If she was going to send her pack to try and kill me then of course she’d be out there somewhere calling the shots.
“What makes you think she’s going to be waiting for you at the theater?” Cara asked.
“Because that’s where I killed the first werewolf, and the house we had that party in is a smoldering crater in the ground so it’s not like we can have a huge fight there,” I said.
“Makes sense,” Cara said. “I still don’t want to go through the fountain circle to get there.”
I frowned. I didn’t want to go through there either, but taking a detour would mean traipsing through even more of campus. Which was an inconvenience during the day when I was trying to get to class, but a pain in the ass at night when campus was overrun with werewolves.
“We have to go through the fountain circle if we’re going to get to the theater,” I said. “If we go any other way we’re going to run into a bunch of werewolves before we have a chance to get there, and I only have so much ammo.”
Cara hit me with the kind of look that said she thought I was full of shit. And maybe I was full of shit to some small degree, but that didn’t mean that I liked being called out for being full of shit.
“What?” I asked.
“I’ve seen what you’re packing,” she said. “You’re wearing a fucking bandolier of silver bullets that you pulled out of that bag before we left.”
I looked down at the bandolier that was somewhere between Chewbacca, Mr. Worf, and those dudes from Dog Soldiers.
Better than the dudes from Dog Soldiers, when you got down to it. I had actual silver ammo that could do something against werewolves, and they didn’t.
“What’s your point?” I asked.
“My point is you’ve clearly come out here tonight ready to take down a werewolf infestation, but you’ll excuse me if I’m not all that eager to go out there and draw that entire werewolf infestation down on us rather than taking them out one by one by sneaking around campus.”
