The First Ones

by Michael Weinberger

  Again the child spoke, although in little more than a whisper, “You don’t need those right now. They won’t find us in here.” Then the child slid over and rested her head on the woman’s lap while encircling her small arms around the woman’s right thigh.

  The woman was about to protest when she felt a small thrum or vibration undulate through her body before everything went silent all around her. The woman looked down in surprise at the girl as a sense of calm washed over her and convinced her to holster her guns, thereby freeing her hands in order to cradle the girl in her lap.

  The whole world seemed to go quiet in that moment and only the slight cool breeze that softly swayed the smaller branches and pine needles gave any animation to the scene.

  The sound returned in an explosive cacophony as the man burst into view, hotly pursued by two of the creatures as he desperately loaded more rounds into his shotgun. The beasts were huge and hardened with muscle that rippled as it contracted under their furred flesh as their wicked claws ripped the ground with every stride. The woman’s eyes locked onto the multiple glints of moonlight that shone off the wolves’ elongated white fangs as the beasts closed the distance and leapt to pounce on the man. He surprised them by jumping forward and spinning in the air while bringing the shotgun to bear. The shotgun fired with smoke and fire that billowed from the tip of the barrel and the first creature’s head literally exploded from the impact of the slug to its skull. The beast’s body jerked in the air before falling wetly to the earth, but the second beast managed to get one of its strange hand-like claws around the man’s ankle. It tried to pull the man in close as they fell back to earth, but the force of the impact with the ground separated them once more and they both rolled awkwardly, trying to regain their footing.

  The man came into a crouch and raised the barrel of the shotgun, but the creature was too quick. It shot in low, slapped at the barrel of the shotgun and knocked it safely out of harm’s way as the shot was fired. Unfortunately for the beast, it hadn’t realized how it had left itself open for the swift and powerful kick the man launched with the steel reinforced toe of the work boot that he wore. The kick landed exactly where it had been intended and, what would have been a fatal blow to a human being, bent the creature over as its rib bones cracked. The beast let out a sound that very much resembled the yelp that would have come from the average injured canine, and the man used the momentum of the kick to turn the stock end of the shotgun around, slamming it upward under the chin of the beast. The impact forced the beast’s jaws together and appeared to disorient the creature as it staggered backward. In one fluid motion the man whirled the shotgun end over end and fired point blank into the center of the beast’s chest blowing a six-inch hole through the center of the monster.

  The man let the weapon drop to his side as he watched the creature fall lifelessly to the forest floor. His other hand moved to his pocket and removed some more cartridges as his eyes scanned the forest for more of the creatures. Then, as if drawn to the hiding place that covered the woman and child, he hesitated and turned toward them as a smile stretched across his face. He began to take a step toward them when a bloodcurdling snarl ripped through the silence and a blur flashed past the woman’s vision before the man simply disappeared from view with only a fine hovering cloud of red mist in the place he had stood a mere moment ago. Then the sound of thrashing, snarling and wet gurgling cries came from just outside of what the woman and child could see from their hiding place.

  Chapter 3: The Guardian and Child

  The girl hugged the woman’s thigh and the woman encircled one arm around the child as she turned her head from the direction the ensuing carnage. Unfortunately, she couldn’t impede the sound as together they were forced to listen as the man was savaged by the beast that tore into him with tooth and claw. More of the creatures sprang into the area and joined their fellow as the cries coming from the man quickly went silent only to be replaced by an even more terrifying sound of ripping and chewing.

  The woman finally had to release the child to cover her ears in a desperate attempt to drown out the horror of what was happening only a few yards away. Then a voice called out to them in a soft soothing tone that practically dripped with empathy.

  “Guardian,” the voice began conversationally, “I know you can hear me and I know that you are hiding somewhere nearby. I think you realize by now that, as formidable and capable as you believe yourself to be, you are not going to get out of this forest alive. I think you also know that when I take the child from you, and it is a foregone conclusion that I will do so, the kind of power I shall acquire will shift the balance of this world over to me.

  The child’s arms held on even tighter to the woman’s thigh as one of the beasts moved within ten feet from their hiding place.

  The voice continued and the woman realized that she wasn’t hearing the words with her ears as much as in her mind.

  “Everything is about to change Guardian and I can see to it that you have a place in my new world, an important one worthy of you.” The voice paused, possibly for effect and emphasis, as the voice went from soothing to stern, “Or we can keep up with this foolishness, delaying the inevitable, until I eventually catch up with you and make you suffer your end in a most unpleasant manner.”

  The beast near their blanketing, concealing canopy of branches moved away and joined a group of several others that came out of the brush nearby as another creature came loping out of the forest and stopped in front of Kaylanna with its head bowed low. Kaylanna nodded to the beast in response and the creature raised its head to speak with a voice that was more of a collection of snarls than articulated words.

  “Mistress, the tracks we followed end here.” The creature seemed hesitant to reveal the news and averted its eyes as it continued, “They simply vanished and we can find no sign of the Guardian or child.” Kaylanna’s face remained expressionless as she listened, “They must have slipped through our…”

  Kaylanna’s face suddenly scrunched into a mask of intense rage and she lashed out with a hand that struck the beast kneeling before her and sent it into the air with a strange jerking twist, before it fell back to the earth in an unconscious heap.

  The entire collection of canine eyes went to the still form of their unconscious brethren before turning back to their Ancient Mistress. One of the other creatures, who had crouched down even lower as it spoke, asked, “Mistress, how is it they could be so close, and yet we can’t find any trace of them on the ground or on the wind?”

  Kaylanna was still glaring at the creature she had struck, as if trying to decide whether or not to finish off the unconscious beast. Then her features relaxed as she averted her gaze to the forest in front of her, seeming to consider the words that had just been spoken.

  “The power of the First Ones courses through the child. It can conceal her from any adversary.” Then Kaylanna’s face screwed into a frown of confusion as she continued, “The Guardian is another matter and the First Ones power could only do the same for her if…” A smile broke out across Kaylanna’s face, as she appeared to have suddenly understood some mystery that had eluded her.

  The voice sounded again in the woman’s mind as she held the child close to her body.

  “Ah I see, so you are not simply a loyal Guardian of the child and a servant of the First Ones, are you? Very well, I can make you another offer.”

  Kaylanna sounded confident as she continued, “Give me the child and I will take every pain to see that the infant vessel remains unharmed as I remove the visiting First One’s spirit. Then you’ll have my pledge of safe passage for you and the whelp, to live out your lives somewhere safe and secure from what will come to pass.” Kaylanna’s mouth did not move as her voice echoed in the woman’s head, “Refuse my offer and I will rip the flesh off the child as I tear the power of the First Ones from her core.”

  The woman began to tremble at the threat and aimed one shakily held handgun directly at the Kaylanna’s forehead. Accept
ance that there would be no escape settled on her, but she would see to it that this Ancient, this monster and destroyer of the world, would not survive either. Gently the woman began to squeeze down on the trigger as she steadied her hand and sighted down the length of the handgun’s barrel.

  A small hand looped tiny fingers around the woman’s outstretched wrist that forced the woman to immediately lift the pressure off of the trigger.

  “That won’t do any good.”

  The child had whispered the words out loud and the woman’s face went white as she looked out to what she was sure would be every head turning in the direction of the sound. But no head, neither beast nor Ancient, turned toward them as the voice of Kaylanna sounded inside her mind once more.

  “Come now Guardian, why make this more difficult and painful for both of you. We have you now, and there is no escape.”

  ‘They didn’t hear you?” The woman said the words in her head instead of out loud and the child’s voice responded as easily as if they were having a casual chat, “I have heard enough, and it is time for us to leave.”

  Before the woman could stop her, the girl simply stood up, brushed herself off with one hand and began to work her way out from under the canopy of branches while always holding onto the woman’s hand as she moved.

  Initially the woman was reluctant to so much as get onto her knees, but after one look into the girl’s eyes, an overwhelming sense of calm and confidence came over her and she followed without further hesitation.

  Together the pair crawled, hand in hand, to get clear of the canopy, nearly bumping into the hind legs of a wolf creature trotting by, but it never noticed them. Slowly the two walked among the creatures as if invisible, making their way around and between them, while the beasts sniffed the air and twitched their ears for anything that might reveal their prey.

  Then, to the woman’s amazement, they were clear of the monsters that were hunting them and they began a steady jog toward the road where the woman had planned to rendezvous with her other partner and their vehicle.

  The woman and girl had traveled nearly half a mile, and for the entire distance the girl never removed her hand from her own. Then, as fate would have it, an exposed root tripped the woman mid-stride, and she let go of the girl’s hand in a reflexive attempt to protect her face from the fall.

  In that moment, half a mile away, every head swiveled to the source of a sound too faint to be heard by human ears. The smell of the woman and the girl wafted through the air and into the searching nostrils of the beasts while Kaylanna howled in triumph as all pinpointed their prey. Powerful legs burst into explosions of speed and they darted toward their quarry with a renewed fervor.

  The woman looked to the child, who once again looked as little more than the two-year-old she had been before the event that had changed her. An expression of dread spread over the girl’s face and she began to wring her hands together.

  “We need to run now,” the girl said as if she were about to cry.

  “What? Can’t we just hold hands again?”

  “No, it takes me time to prepare and they will be here in seconds. We need to run,” then the child shouted, “We need to run now!”

  That was all that the woman had to hear. Leaping to her feet she scooped up the girl and ran as fast as she could, while the sounds of the wolf creatures once again began to rise in volume as they closed on her position. The woman willed her legs to go faster, praying that another exposed root or loose stone didn’t send her to another fall.

  The woman knew that the road was close once the ground began to rise in a steep incline. The woman had scaled halfway up the rise when the glow of headlights began to illuminate the forest around her. Relief washed over her as the woman knew the headlights belonged to the Range Rover that her other partner was guarding for their getaway.

  For the first time since the event at Mother Earth’s Fingers the woman had the slimmest of hope that they might actually make it to safety.

  Then a blur of fang and fur flew over her head, landing in a crouch between her and the road, effectively blocking the final fifty feet of her path to safety.

  Chapter 4: The Driver

  The Driver paced next to the silver Range Rover with a certain amount of impatience and anxiety. He knew the seriousness of what his two comrades were undertaking in the middle of the Redwoods, including the ferociousness of the powers that would be aligned against them. Perhaps he had been foolish to think that the ceremony would commence without incident, but when the trees failed to muffle the sound of the Mossberg he knew that the worst had happened.

  When he saw a beast leap out of the forest, landing with its back to the road not thirty feet away, he had been ready. He was disappointed, disheartened, and even frightened, but he was ready.

  The Driver leveled his own shotgun at the creature’s back and fired. The enormous bullet struck true, parting the flesh and severing the beast’s spine exactly as he had wanted. The Driver watched to see the creature fall with the lower half of its body limp and immobile, from where the sabot had struck. He was about to call out when the upper half of the beast whirled and began dragging itself right toward his direction. The sight of the beast dragging its lip lower half was as horrific as any the Driver had ever witnessed, as the beast snarled and gnashed its teeth in a rage as it came for him.

  The Driver fired again, but missed and he felt his fear grow within him as the beast quickly drew closer. He fired another round, this time hitting the beast in its flank and tearing away more flesh, but the wound did nothing to slow the creature down. The Driver aimed the barrel between the beast’s eyes as it closed, and this time the slug struck the upper portion of the creature’s head, blowing away brain, bone and finally stopping the creature no less than two feet from where he stood.

  The Driver stared down at the ruin of flesh and fur, initially oblivious to the woman and child that ran out of the forest and were now climbing into the vehicle. It wasn’t until the woman was finished securing the child within the SUV that the Driver awoke from his shock.

  “Get in!!!” the woman screamed again.

  “How many more are there?” the Driver yelled as he stepped back into the Range Rover.

  “Too many, and Kaylanna is here as well!” the woman called back as she secured her own seatbelt.

  The Driver felt something turn very cold in his core, as her words registered in his mind. The Ancient Kaylanna was practically a myth, but if the horrors he had heard about her had even the tiniest bit of truth to them, then she was far worse than any nightmare he could ever imagine.

  Just as the Driver reached the door the woman’s eyes got wide and she leapt back out of the vehicle, drawing both of her guns and pointing them right at his head. His mouth quivered in confusion as he looked at the cold gaping muzzles of the twin hand cannons the woman wielded… until he heard her scream, “Down!!!”

  Instantly the synapses in his mind made the right connections and he flew into action, dropping down and falling to one side as the woman began firing the weapons. The explosions of the fifty caliber rounds were so loud that it deafened him and left the whole world completely silent, except for the high-pitched ring that pierced his eardrums.

  The world may have gone silent, but it had not gone “still” because when the Driver turned to see what the woman was shooting at he found the large furred form of a beast being driven jerkily back with each round that burst into and through its body. Then another beast appeared, as it leapt from the tree line to the road, only to be met by the huge .50 caliber slugs that the woman sent into the center of its chest. The twin bullets slammed into the beast and it immediately fell limp as if something vital had been torn away, but any triumph the Driver may have felt was quickly numbed by the appearance of three more beasts darting out of the forest and using quick zigzag patterns to close the distance to their vehicle. The Driver fired his shotgun, but missed with his first shot, and the creatures covered nearly half the distance to the Range
Rover before he had the chance to chamber another round.

  Behind him he could feel the concussive force of each shot fired by the Desert Eagles and knew that the woman was having a similar difficulty connecting with the incredibly fast creatures. Then one of the beasts jerked and fell into an out of control roll as one of the bullets tore away a significant chunk of its hind leg. The creature had been moving so fast that its momentum carried it forward until it skidded onto the pavement. The Driver couldn’t hear properly after all the explosions of gunfire but he did smell the sickening stench of burned hair and blood from the beast as it finally stopped in the center of the road. It didn’t move, and evidently the fall had caused every bit as much damage as the bullet, and the Driver could turn his attention back to the remaining two werewolves.

  No longer able to feel the concussive force of the Desert Eagles firing behind him, the Driver correctly assumed that the woman was reloading. He knew she could accomplish the task in seconds, but he had to keep the reign of fire coming down on the other two monsters or they would be on them even sooner. He raised the shotgun, aiming at one of the beasts, but couldn’t locate the second, until he caught the stink of the beast’s breath in his nostrils.

  It was right behind him.

  Instinctively he ducked to the side, but it was too late to escape the attack completely. The beast’s jaws slammed shut against empty air, missing the Driver’s throat, but the clawed hands dug deeply into his thigh muscles, shredding his flesh into hamburger. Blood, bright red and pulsating, shot over three feet in the air from his right thigh as he shrieked, more in fear than pain, at the realization of his mortal wound. Falling onto his side, he tried to cover the wound and stop the surge of blood with one hand, but still managed to hold tightly to his shotgun with the other, as the attacking beast went into a frenzy at the sight and smell of the blood gushing from his thigh.