by Terry Yates
“Lauren! Stop it!” he had screamed several times before she stopped.
As soon as she realized that it was Kyler, she stopped and hugged him hard around the waist.
“What’s going on, Lauren?” Kyler asked her, wiping her wet hair off of her forehead, and looking down into those green eyes.
“Everyone went up into the mountains!” Lauren cried.
Kyler looked up into the rocks as he pulled Lauren to his side.
“Let’s get back to the other truck!” Kyler yelled, pulling her along with him. “It’s leaky, but it’s a heck of a lot better than out here!”
As they made their way back to the truck, Kyler glanced up into the part of the mountain that was behind their truck. He started to look away, but not before something caught his eye…something yellow…just a hundred feet of so up into the rocks. Oh shit, he thought, reaching into the back of his pants, only to discover that he’d lost the gun. He’d probably lost it in the crash.
“Lauren…” he started cautiously.
“I see it,” Lauren interrupted, her arm still around him as they walked.
Kyler was hoping that they were both wrong about what they were seeing, but found this not to be true when a lightning bolt flashed. There was a lone werewolf, probably The Leader of the Pack…the one whose mate FranAnne killed. They were probably thirty yards from the truck.
“Let’s take it slow and easy,” Kyler said softly, easing his hand up and wiping the rain from his eyes.
The two began to walk slowly toward the truck, both pretending not to notice the werewolf, but both keeping their eyes glued to the spot where the massive werewolf still stood, eyeing them. Another lightning bolt flashed. Kyler looked away for a moment. When he looked back up into the rocks, he still saw the monster, but he was prepared to swear that it was a little closer. When they were at the twenty-yard mark, he looked up to see that the thing had crawled up onto a boulder, and was sitting in a crouch, its huge yellow eyes cutting through the rain.
“Lauren, when I say run for the truck, you run for the truck, okay?” he told her, trying to keep his eyes on the wolf, but he was having trouble looking from the werewolf to the truck, and back.
When they got to the fifteen-yard mark, Kyler took his arm from around Lauren, and placed it against her back.
“Take off,” he told her, giving her a gentle shove. “Go.”
Lauren began to slowly walk away from Kyler. When she got enough space in front of him, she took off running for the truck. Kyler watched as the creature looked from Kyler to Lauren. Kyler couldn’t see very well in the rain, but it almost looked like the werewolf was in sprinting position. It looked like the thing was on top of the rock, on its stomach, with its rump in the air.
“Well, here goes nothin’…” he said nervously.
Taking one last look at the werewolf, whose rump looked even higher now, Kyler did a small hitch-step, and then sprinted for the truck. Before he’d taken five steps, he found himself looking up into the rocks. He didn’t see anything…even when the lightning flashed. He was only a few yards from the truck, when he saw Lauren slip into the back. When he reached the overturned truck, he blindly dove into the back, not too concerned with whomever he might make contact with.
“The gun!” he screamed. “My gun! Any gun!”
He blindly groped around on the floor/passenger wall for the revolver. The floor was covered with a half-inch of water, because of the bullet holes, plus it was hard to see inside what was basically a box, lightning or no lightning. As he swept his hand across the floor, he thought he felt something metal…and he also thought that he heard something splashing in the mud toward them. He made a back sweep of his hand until he felt it again. It felt like his pistol.
“Dr. Kyler!” Denny cried out nervously, listening to the splashing getting ever louder.
“Stay against the wall!” Kyler screamed, retrieving the pistol.
The next thing they heard were two big splashes and a growl. The group braced themselves for a collision, but instead the thing was running around to the back. They heard the werewolf running down the length of the truck to the only exit that they had.
“Cover your ears!” Kyler cried, cocking the pistol, and pushing the laser.
Just as he did, the monster rounded the corner of the truck, slipped for a moment, regained its footing, then sprang at the tail section. Time stood still for Kyler as the beast jumped toward them. He was able to take in the size of the thing. It had to be nine or nine-and-a-half feet, with a head the size of a mastiff and the angriest yellow eyes that he’d ever seen from any of the werewolves that he had happened upon in the last few months. All four fangs, upper and lower, gleamed against the bright moonlight.
As the beast was about to enter the back of the truck, Kyler aimed in the general direction of the thing, and pulled the trigger. He’d seen the laser, but as usual, he was so shaky that he couldn’t tell where it was landing, so he just shot toward the blackness. Immediately there was a yelp, followed by the closing of the yellow eyes as the force knocked the thing backwards. The pistol itself slammed into Kyler’s chest, sending pain shooting into his chest cavity. He had also aimed the gun with both hands, and had not been able to cover his ears, so the blast deafened him. That was two blasts in two days. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to be deaf…that is, if he survived the next few minutes.
The Werewolf got up, opened its eyes, and howled angrily at the sky. The group huddled together as they watched the lightning flashing behind the thing, making it look even larger…and deadlier.
“Cover your ears!”
The thing twisted back and forth for a few seconds, before stopping, and looking back into the truck, its eyes murderous now. They could see that it was holding its shoulder, and smoke was seeping out of the wound. After a moment, it took its hand/claw away. Its claws were humongous as it turned the appendage over and looked at its own blood. It snorted, steam coming off its head that was now turning toward them again.
“Oh Shit, Dr. Kyler!” Denny yelled.
“Ode thit’!” Anthony echoed, putting his own two hands over Meredith’s ears, which her own two hands were covering. He turned her away from Kyler and buried his face in the nape of her neck.
If years of bullying had taught Kyler one thing, it was that if you had an opportunity, no matter how small, to win a fight by catching your opponent off guard , you took it…you didn’t wait for them to attack you. That’s basically what he’d done on the island, when he’d kicked Potts in the balls.
Kyler pulled the trigger twice. They heard the beast yelp out in pain, then slink to the side of the truck.
“What’s it…” Denny started to ask, but before he good, the truck was jolted hard, sending everyone toward the passenger side of the truck.
For a moment, there was nothing, not even a sound from the group. Then the werewolf began to beat on the top/side of the truck. This time, everyone began to yell as the creature pounded on the metal. It pounded and pounded until the metal began to cave in.
“Lauren!” Kyler shouted. “You and Denny help Anthony and Meredith out of the back! Stick to the other side of the truck as long as you can, then move away! Stay low and stay quiet! Go! Go!”
Lauren started to climb over him, then looked down.
“Dr. Kyler,” she tried to shout over the rain, trying to form the right words.
“Go, Lauren! I’ll see you in a little while!” Kyler attempted to assure her. “Get up in the rocks! You go now! All of you!”
“Come on!” Lauren yelled helping Meredith over Kyler.
The truck was close to looking like a wadded up piece of paper.
“Go!” Kyler screamed again.
He looked to see Lauren, outside of the truck in a low squat. She flinched every time the creature pounded on it. Anthony pushed Meredith outside, where Lauren took her arm, and the two of them disappeared around the truck.
“Wamona! Wamona! Wamona!” Anthony said quickly an
d nervously as he crawled out of the truck, and around the corner.
The truck was beginning to give way as Denny climbed over Kyler, his head hitting the roof.
“Take care of them!” Kyler screamed, grabbing Denny’s arm, and making him look at him.
Denny nodded and then crawled out of the back. Kyler watched as the teen made it out, and then began to crawl toward the back of the truck himself. He could feel the truck coming down around him as he scurried toward the back, the bending metal closing off his only means of escape. He could feel the metal scratching his back as he reached the ever-closing hole, and wormed his way through it. After exiting the truck, he stayed as low as he could, which wasn’t very, because the werewolf had beaten it until it looked like a flattened pancake.
The monster roared in victory seeing that it had beaten the truck as much as it possibly could. It was stooped over the ex-truck and snarling at it as if it were another animal. Kyler remained as flat as the truck, watching the thing enjoy its spoils. There was a sudden noise off to his right in the direction that the children had run. The werewolf looked up quickly, its ear cocked to one side. Kyler pulled the gun out of the back of his pants, and pushed himself up into an almost pushup position, while never taking his eyes off of the beast, who now had its nose up in the air, sniffing the wind for any signs of life. The thing’s head suddenly stopped moving, and its bright eyes went into a slit. Kyler heard the thing snarl once, then place a foot on the battered vehicle. For Kyler, it was time to shit or get off the pot. The thing was about to go after the children. Kyler held his breath, and then jumped up off of the ground just as the werewolf was starting to run after the children. Kyler managed to land the red laser on the back of the creature’s shoulder as it ran away, then pulled the trigger. Lightning flashed as he saw the thing pitch forward onto its face. His ears still rang from shooting the gun inside of the truck, but he could’ve heard the next sound if he’d been deaf and in another country. The beast raised its head up. Kyler was behind it, so he couldn’t see its face or eyes, but he did see it open its mouth and let out the loudest, shrillest, scream that he’d heard from any of the dozens of werewolves that he’d crossed paths with. The scream made every hair on his body rise up. Joe’s hackles had nothing on Kyler’s at the moment.
The creature pushed itself up to its hands and feet…if it had hands and feet. Kyler didn’t care, because once he saw the thing look over its shoulder, and he could see the werewolf’s much-pissed face through the silver mist that was coming from all four bullet holes that he’d personally put in it, he took off toward the rocks. He ran up into the rocks, both trying to draw the werewolf away from the children, and because he was scared shitless, and up into the rocks seemed the safest direction to go. He shot his pistol over his shoulder as he ran, not expecting to hit the werewolf. He just needed to make sure that the thing knew that the person that it was after was running behind it. He looked over his shoulder as he continued to climb into the mountains. He needn’t have worried, for he could see the monster through the storm headed straight up after him. Kyler could only hope that the children stayed hidden and quiet.
CHAPTER 82
The children climbed up the mountain, Anthony leading the way, holding Meredith’s hand. Lauren followed behind, but she was having trouble keeping up with Anthony and Meredith, who were just going too fast for her. Denny brought up the rear. He could’ve run up the side of this mountain in nothing flat, as frightened as he was, but the doctor had told him to look after them, and he was going to do his best. He’d never really been left with responsibility before, other than say…mow the lawn or to clean up his room.
“Guys, wait!” he screamed up at them. He was falling behind, because he was constantly looking over his shoulder for werewolves, plus dodging the massive rocks while running uphill after being a pack-a-day smoker. He stopped for a moment to both catch his breath, and get his bearings by waiting until the lightning bolts brightened the sky. He peered down the mountainside as a half-dozen small bolts of lightning flashed. He saw nothing in that direction, thank God. When he looked back up into the mountain, he was just in time to see Anthony and Meredith reach a large ledge, and then disappear around the corner of it. They were still in the part of the mountains that were actually more like hills, except hills lined with extremely large boulders and even larger werewolves.
Lauren looked back at him once, before disappearing onto the ledge and around the corner. Denny didn’t have the energy to yell, he just continued trying to get up the hill.
When he reached the top, he fell once, then scrambled to his feet again. What he saw made him freeze in terror. They stood on the side of the mountain…the five of them…Denny, Lauren, Anthony, Meredith, and a werewolf, which were all standing in the middle of what looked like a hiking trail, Denny wasn’t sure…he didn’t hike.
The creature stood in front of Meredith, who was now crying. Lauren was trying to get to her, while Anthony sneaked up behind him, a large rock raised over his head, which he subsequently smashed down on back of the monster’s neck. The beast screamed out in pain, then spun around and swatted an arm/foreleg at Anthony, which sent him flying backwards into the shadows. The werewolf then turned its attention to Lauren who had just been about to grab Meredith’s arm. Meredith was crying and wailing as the werewolf reached out for her. Denny began to run toward the melee, reaching into his pocket as he did. He felt around until he found the silver vial, which he pulled out of his pocket. As he neared the three, Denny began to unscrew the top of the vial. When he looked up, Lauren already had her back, turned and was almost tucked into a ball, awaiting the werewolf’s blow. He removed the cap just as he reached them, dropped it, grabbed the bottom of the small tube, and tossed its silver contents toward its face. It looked up when it noticed Denny running at it, and caught much of the mercury in the face and chest. The wind from the storm had been the only thing that had kept it from taking it full on in the face. The werewolf roared as the quicksilver began to burn its face and skin. Denny suddenly felt a stinging sensation, first on his neck, and then near the crook of his arm. The wind had blown some of the poison back at him. He knew that if it stung a werewolf half as much as it stung a human, this son-of-a-bitch was in some kind of pain.
The creature took a step toward Denny, who had no place to go but down the way he came…in the rain and in the dark, but he would be willing to do just that if the fucker got any closer. The thing was almost on him when something blindsided the werewolf from its left side, knocking it up and sideways at the same time. It was Anthony, blood dripping from the side of his head and down the side of his face. Anthony had plowed into the beast, and used his strength to push the werewolf sideways. Since it was caught off-guard, it didn’t have time to brace itself, allowing Anthony to lift it up and then push, causing one foot to come off of the ground, and making it almost impossible to keep its balance, especially with its one foot turned sideways. The only thing it could do to defend itself was to claw at Anthony’s head and face, which it did, but to no avail.
“Wamona! Wamona! Wamona!” Anthony screamed in pain as the werewolf dug its claws into his face.
Denny stood transfixed as Anthony began to push the creature toward a ledge. The monster tried to push back, but had no chance. Anthony was too far up under it and too strong to stop in the next few feet.
“Wamona! Wamona! Wamona!” he screamed again as the werewolf tried to clamp its teeth down on top of the boy’s round, buzzed head.
Anthony kept pushing up on the thing until they were no more than a foot from the ledge. Denny came to and began to run toward the ledge, the vial still in his hand, but before he could get there, both down-syndrome boy and werewolf disappeared into the darkness that bordered the ledge.
“Wamona!” he heard loudly, as both he and Lauren reached the ledge at the same time.
Denny held his arm out in front of Lauren, who seemed about ready to jump into the darkness. They both peered down into the blackn
ess for any sign of Anthony and the werewolf. After a couple of seconds, several quick flashes of lightning lit up the darkness. For a split second, they saw both Anthony and the werewolf rolling down the mountain, still entangled. Denny had needed to see if the two had fallen downhill or straight down.
“Stay here!” Denny yelled, turning to Lauren, the rain running down his face. “Take…”
“Meredith,” Lauren finished.
“Yeah! Take Meredith and find someplace to hide and stay there until daylight if need be…okay!”
Lauren nodded, then looked down into the darkness, but no lightning was forthcoming at the moment. When it flashed again, Denny began to slowly move down the hill, counting on the lightning to be his guide.
Kyler ran up into the rocks as fast as his legs would move. He’d only looked behind once to see the werewolf hot on his tail. Kyler had held off on shooting his revolver, because he had no idea how many bullets he’d shot, he had no idea how many the gun even held, or how to even check, and lastly, he had no backup clip, so he decided that since he was the worst shot since Mark David Chapman, he wasn’t going to shoot at ANYTHING until it was within six inches of him.
As he found himself reaching more level land, he looked behind him again. He caught a quick glimpse of the werewolf ducking behind some rocks. With the sky as bright as it was, Kyler guessed that the creature was about twenty yards behind him. He’d been at least thirty the last time that he looked. He waited for a couple of seconds, the pistol at his side. Through the storm, he kept his eyes glued to the rocks that the beast had ducked behind. As he was about to turn away, he caught something move off to his right. There was another group of rocks and he would’ve sworn that he saw movement behind them. Maybe, while he was watching the rocks that the werewolf had hidden behind, the wily bastard crawled away, and was now even closer…or perhaps there were two of them.
