FULL MOON COUNTRY (FULL MOON SERIES (vol. 2))

by Terry Yates

  “I lost my pistol!” he screamed, searching around in the mud.

  “Come on!” Lauren yelled at him, pulling him to his feet.

  “All right, I’m out of here, Cracker!” Jefferson shouted, subconsciously searching the empty truck bed for any lollygaggers. Seeing none, he adjusted his pistols, then stepped over the tailgate, and jumped, holding the radio in one hand.

  “Your turn!” Jordan heard Jefferson say a few seconds later.

  Thank God, Jordan thought. The mountain range was huge now, and he was pushing it. He looked down to make sure he had everything, stuck the radio in his belt, and then started to open the door. Suddenly, there was a jolt, and Jordan found himself flying through the air.

  “He’s wrecked!” Sam’s voice shouted from the radio.

  “Dammit!” Potts cursed. “Pull away from him before they get there!”

  Sam hated leaving Jordan, but Potts always seemed to know what he was doing, so he pulled the steering wheel hard to the left and began to pull away from the truck, which was almost imbedded in a dirt bank, its back wheels up in the air and spinning. Sam didn’t like the fact that the lights were still on in the wrecked truck. It would act as a beacon for the werewolves, and if anyone were still in there, they would be toast. What if Potts was wrong about what he was doing? He’d been wrong before. Screw it! He would just have to trust him. He just hoped they didn’t hit anything in the darkness. They were going fast enough to cause damage.

  “Oh no! Oh no!” Williams lamented. “He’s gonna kill me! I lost my gun!”

  “Shh!” Lauren put her finger to her lips. Even Joe, covered in mud, seemed to be giving him a disgusted girlyman look.

  “Hey!” The three heard over the rain. “Hey!”

  Lauren, Joe, and Williams turned around to see Peter, his arms around the twins, sloshing through the rain and the mud toward them.

  “Is everyone all right?” Peter asked, letting go of the twins.

  “We’re fine,” Lauren answered.

  “I lost my gun!” Williams continued, still searching the ground around him.

  “Here, take one of mine,” Peter told him, holding out the two rifles. “AK-47 or Uzi?”

  “Ooh, the agony of choice!” Williams chuckled, rubbing his hands like a mad scientist, the lightning behind him aiding in its affect. “I wish they let us use these in our Army!”

  “They do,” Peter replied, handing the corporal the Uzi. “You just don’t know about it. Now come on! We’ve got to hide!”

  “What about M.P. Jefferson?” Lauren asked, looking up at the big man.

  They heard a noise from their left.

  “Come on…behind the rocks!” Peter whispered, moving the children toward a group of boulders that littered the ground.

  The group sloshed through rain and mud, reaching the rocks just as two werewolves came into view. They ducked down behind the rocks as the werewolves lumbered quickly by them. With the wind beating so hard to the side, the rocks provided decent shelter from the wind and rain, but since it was blowing against them, it was blowing their scents away from the beasts.

  As the creatures passed them, Joe let out a low growl. The werewolves stopped in their tracks and raised their noses to the sky. They sniffed the air, their mucus-filled nostrils pulsating back and forth.

  Peter lifted his rifle. He didn’t want to shoot if he could keep from it. He didn’t want to bring the others down on them. Everyone was lying as flat as possible behind the rocks. Lauren kept her hand over Joe’s snout as Peter and Williams peeked around the rocks. The werewolves saw the taillights from the wrecked truck and began to run toward it.

  “Stay here, while Cpl. Williams and I follow the monsters,” Peter told the children softly.

  “What…?” Williams started.

  “Let’s go. We can’t leave the others to fend for themselves.”

  Williams started to open his mouth, but quickly closed it, and then nodded his head. Peter smiled, stuck out his hand, then helped the fat corporal to his feet.

  “You heard Mr. Valkenberg,” Williams told the children, wiping the rain from his face.

  Lauren and Joe looked up at him. Lauren smiled and nodded her head for the both of them. The twins were too busy looking up at Peter nervously to notice Williams. The big German smiled and said something to them in their own language. The children nodded their heads in return.

  “Let’s go!” Peter said, clapping Williams on the shoulder.

  Williams clasped the Uzi, smiled, and then nodded his again.

  The two men crouched low, rifles at the ready, and then trotted away, leaving Lauren, Joe, and the twins alone. They were alone, but probably in the safest place…as long as it kept raining.

  CHAPTER 78

  The wrecked truck was hard to move because of the mud, but the lone werewolf was gradually doing it. There were no two-leggers inside the vehicle, so maybe there was one under it. The vehicle had hit a large dirt bank. The front plastic window was torn out and the hood dented.

  After letting out a large grunt, the beast moved the truck away from the dirt bank and looked down to find one of the two-leggers lying immobile, eyes closed. With the wind and rain beating on it, it was having trouble with the thing’s scent. It wasn’t sure if it was dead or alive. It growled down at the two-legger, but it didn’t move. The creature pushed the truck all of the way back, after one, last, big shove. Now it could see the two-legger’s entire body, which was intact. Its stomach was moving up and down. It was alive! As it started to bend down and sniff the two-legger, it opened its eyes!

  “Howdy,” Jordan gasped, the wind knocked out of him. “You’ve got a red dot on your head.”

  Jordan looked the creature in the eyes. Sure enough, just above its left eye was a circular dot, moving slightly back and forth. He then heard the crack of a rifle, followed by the sound not unlike something hitting a melon. In the blink of an eye, the werewolf above him slammed into the front of the truck, and slid down the grill, its eyes still open in confusion.

  A few moments later, Jordan looked up to see Jefferson standing over him.

  “How ya’ feeling?” the M.P. asked, smiling.

  “Great!” Jordan gasped, still short of breath, the rain falling down his face. “If the windshield had been glass instead of that plastic shit, and had this been a rock instead of a big mound of dirt…it might’ve hurt a little.

  Jefferson laughed and reached his hand down to the private, and pulled him off of the ground, Jordan letting out a loud grunt as he came painfully to his feet, then doubled over for a moment.

  “You know, there’s a lot of pain involved in that,” he said, trying to straighten up.

  “We’ve gotta get out of here! This storm is the only thing keeping those things from chomping our assess!” Jefferson yelled over the rain, putting Jordan’s arm over his shoulder. “Come on!”

  While Jefferson and Jordan limped toward the mountains, Peter and Williams were making their way to the truck. Their hearts soared when they found nothing but a werewolf with a hole in its head that was gradually becoming human again. Williams leaned over for a breather. He wanted to take five…the big German hadn’t slowed down since they began to their trek toward the mountains.

  “Can you make it?” Peter asked, placing his hand on Williams’ shoulder.

  “I don’t know.” Williams’ panted, his hands and head on his knees. “You might just have to leave m…”

  Before he could even get the ‘e’ out, they heard several howls through the storm.

  “They’re close. We’ve got to…” When Peter looked back, Williams was nowhere to be seen. All the German heard was a “Splash!” “Splash”! Splash!” in the darkness.

  “Floor it, Fong!” Potts yelled into the radio. “Just follow your trail back to the other truck, and don’t stop unless I say otherwise. We need to go to silent in case the others are hiding from ‘em! Over and out!” Potts handed the radio down again to Kyler. “I just hope I haven’t
gotten them into trouble already.”

  “They’ll be all right, Colonel,” replied FranAnne, looking up at Potts. “They’re well-armed.”

  “Yeah…and so are the hairy-asses.”

  “Can you walk?” Jefferson asked Jordan as he laid him down against a boulder. They were in the rocks at the base of the mountains. The two were sitting behind the rocks, away from the storm.

  “Shit yeah, I can walk. I don’t need any help from a mook,” Jordan replied grinning, his hand held out.

  “Then get your honky ass up, White Trash,” Jefferson came back, taking Jordan’s hand and helping him to his feet.

  “Seriously, you all right?” Jefferson was serious now.

  Jordan nodded his head. “Don’t have a gun though.

  “I got plenty.”

  “Good, that’s white of you.”

  “That’s exactly how I feel.”

  “What are we gonna do, Bro?” Jordan asked, looking up at the moon, which was twice and big and twice as bright as it had been just an hour before.

  “Let’s climb up these rocks and get some shelter, Jefferson replied, looking up at the mountain. “It might give us a little bit of an advantage on them. Maybe we can see them before they see us.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Jordan came back, starting to climb. He didn’t go very far before Jefferson grabbed him and pulled him back down. Jordan shrugged his shoulders. Jefferson placed a revolver in his hand. Jordan inspected it, then gave it an “okay I guess” shrug”, and stuck into the back of his pants, before beginning to climb again.

  “Wait!”

  “What!” Jordan grunted, climbing back down.

  “That wasn’t me!” Jefferson told him, shielding his eyes while looking behind them.

  “Wait!”

  “There it is again!” Jordan was now trying to find the voice.

  “Over here!”

  Out of the darkness came two figures, a large one and a fat one, both running with rifles in hand. Jordan pulled the pistol back out of his pants.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Jefferson asked, a confused look on his face. “Are the werewolves talking now and carrying rifles?”

  “Reckon not.”

  Jordan put the pistol back in his pants as Peter and Williams were reaching them.

  “Where are the kids?” Jefferson asked, looking behind them, as the two plopped down, Peter to one knee, Williams to both hands AND knees, panting like a pregnant dog in August.

  “We left them in the safest place we could,” Peter answered, a little winded. “We need to draw them away from the children.”

  “We gotta find ‘em first,” Jordan told him.

  “There are several not too far behind us,” Peter said, nodding over his shoulder.

  “We best get up in the rocks,” Jordan announced, beginning to climb up and around the boulders, looking for some sort of trail or path between the rocks.

  “Stay low, fool!” Jefferson yelled softly, climbing up behind him. “We’re lit up like a Christmas tree with that moon out!”

  Jordan ducked behind a rock, then raised his hand over the rock with his middle finger sticking up. The others began to climb up after him. Peter kept looking back to make sure Williams had not fallen behind. He needn’t have bothered. Williams was having little trouble keeping up, after having heard the creatures howling.

  Several howls tore through the storm. The four ducked behind two giant boulders, Jordan and Jefferson behind one, and Peter and Williams behind the other. The group slowly and gradually raised their heads above the rocks. At first, they didn’t see anything, but after a lightning bolt flash, they saw them, two at first, but they were quickly joined by two more. They were all gathered at the bottom of the mountain, only a hundred feet or so from where the four sat. They watched the werewolves grunt and snarl at each other, as if they were planning something. They looked up into the mountains, their yellow eyes looking like hazard lights in the rain. The men ducked their heads behind the boulders again. Peter held up four fingers to the others, who all nodded. One by one, they quietly cocked their pistols, and looked at one another. Peter mouthed, “One…two…three…four…” On four, they jumped up from behind the rocks and simultaneously aimed their revolvers at the place where the werewolves…had stood. Only their four laser beams criss-crossing each other, shone through the rain. The men looked at one another in confusion, and then quickly spun around, searching in all directions for the werewolves. Suddenly, they heard noises from above them.

  “They’re pushing the rocks down on us!” Williams screamed.

  Lauren, Werner, and Astrid, had become cold and were huddling together behind a single rock, which had been great protection when the wind was blowing the rain sideways, but the wind had decapitated greatly. The rain was still falling hard, but now it was falling straight down, soaking them all. Joe stood next to the rock, but kept his ears and eyes glued to the mountain. Once in a while, his hackles would rise and he would emit a low growl. Lauren would try to shush him, but Joe was on alert, his nostrils pulsating back and forth. He didn’t like staying behind. His instincts told him that he was supposed to be up in the rocks with the masters fighting the monsters, but he also knew that he wasn’t going to leave Lauren’s side again if he could keep from it…not since he’d gotten her back. But he felt he was made for fighting the giant walking dogs, and he felt the tug of his love for Lauren against his instinct for duty.

  First he heard the gunshots, then the sound of several of the masters screaming. Joe began to march in place, whining, his hackles as high as they could get without coming loose. After more gunshots and more screaming, Joe turned to Lauren, who he found looking back at him.

  “Go!” she told the dog, waving her hand toward the mountain. Joe started to run, but suddenly turned back to Lauren, ran up to her, and gave her a lick on the nose before taking off for the mountains.

  “Repeat! Over!” Potts yelled into the radio. They’d received what seemed like a distress signal. It sounded like Jefferson, but he wasn’t sure because the speaker had his mouth too close to the radio. That was probably because all Potts mostly heard was the sound of revolvers and growling. “Repeat!”

  “We’re up in the rocks! There were five…we got one of ‘em, but we need help!”

  “We’re on the way!” Potts screamed. “Fong!”

  “I know,” Sam interrupted, “Gun it!”

  Silently, Potts began to check his guns, grenades, and knives. He took the hatchet out of his belt and inspected it closely.

  “It’s silver now!” Denny shouted over the din, now noticing that Potts’ hatchet blade was the shiniest silver he’d ever seen.

  “Quicksilver.” Potts came back, looking at the boy. He reached down into the wooden box that he’d kept the grenades in and retrieved a small, round, silver vial. He looked at it for a moment, and then pitched it to Denny. “Mercury.”

  As frightened as Denny was with the prospect of actually going toward the werewolves, he had become intrigued with the fact that he was now living all those graphic novels that he’d read. He turned the small, silver vial over in his hand. The vial was silver in color, so he could see the mercury inside. He started to hand it back to Potts, but Potts waved him off.

  “Almost there!” Sam shouted into the radio.

  FranAnne and Mary Sue stood up and began to inspect their weapons.

  “Kyler, stay back with the young ones!” Potts said, replacing the hatchet.

  Kyler, still sitting, nodded his head silently. He understood Potts’ order, but his mind was on what Jefferson said about the werewolf count.

  “Colonel?” Kyler finally asked, looking up at Potts.

  “What is it?”

  “They said that there were four werewolves left after having killed one of them.”

  “So?”

  “I recall there being six of them at last count.”

  “What?”

  “Hey, he’s right,” agreed FranAnne. “Th
e last time we drove by them, there were…”

  Before she could finish, something crashed into the side of the truck, sending it crashing onto its side. All Kyler could think of as he landed on top of FranAnne was that had gotten T-Boned by another vehicle, which he knew didn’t make much sense, but still…

  The vehicle was lying on its side with everyone lying on top of each other in the dark. There was silence for a moment, each trying to see if they were okay. The silence was broken by the sound of something smashing the side of the truck, which was now above them. Whatever it was, and they all secretly knew, that it was the unaccounted fifth werewolf, was trying to smash its way through the metal, and seemed to be doing a damn good job of it.

  “Out of the way!” Potts grunted, trying to get over Anthony and Mary Sue who’d both landed on top of him. When he had room, he pulled out his pistol. “Cover your ears!” he screamed before blasting holes in the metal above them.

  The blast of the .44 didn’t help anyone with their ears covered, much less Kyler, who hadn’t had time to cover his. The sound was deafening.

  “Shit, Colonel!” Kyler screamed, one finger stuck in his ear.

  “Quiet!” Potts shouted. “Everyone!”

  Everyone kept quiet, listening for the sound of the missing werewolf, but mostly all anyone could hear was a loud ringing in their ears.

  “Do you think you got it, Colonel?” Denny asked, trying to untangle himself from Meredith and Mary Sue. He blushed when both he and Mary Sue realized that he had a hand on her right breast, which he quickly pulled away.

  “I don’t know. I didn’t hear it yelp or anything.”

  “What were you thinking, Colonel?” Kyler asked tersely, while removing FranAnne’s knee from his back. “Those bullets could’ve ricochet back at us!”