Wolf Hunting (A Wolf in the Land of the Dead Book Book 3)

by Toni Boughton

  A large piece of wood had been affixed to one side of the building. The wolf looked at the sign and her human read the words. Thus befalls all those who would consort with the enemy. We are here to cleanse the earth. Humanity’s Savior. The grey wolf was next to her, she realized, studying the sign also. The grey wolf gave her a look from his single copper-colored eye and then turned away from the bodies.

  This time she followed him back to where they had first seen the horses. The grey wolf searched along the ground for the plastic bag but it was gone, dragged away by the wind. He looked at the Nowen. Too bad we can’t read minds. I want to look around a little more. The wolf moved past the interloper and down a side street.

  The streets and sidewalks here lay under a smooth and undisturbed blanket of white. The wind was still blowing strongly, lifting skeins of snow into the air. The shafts of sunlight that poked holes in the cloud cover lit the dancing flakes with a shimmering light. There was no sign of anything alive anywhere. Or anything dead. Hmm. Revs are slowed by the cold, but are they killed by it? The grey wolf barked and the black wolf looked at him. He stood about half a block away, his shaggy head turned away, his large ears twitching at some sound. She trotted over to him and listened.

  She heard a strange, light sound, like water over rocks or leaves rustling in the night wind. Wind chimes. A lot of them. She looked at the grey wolf. He dipped his head in agreement and she led him toward the sound. It took some time to narrow down where the wind chimes were coming from, but eventually a foray down a narrow side street brought her to the source.

  Another snow-shrouded park lay before the wolf. A corridor formed of wire fences led through leafless trees. Hanging from the fence at irregular intervals were hundreds of wind chimes. The noise they were making as the breeze moved through them was almost deafening. The wolf shook her head and backed away. No. We need to see where this corridor goes. The wolf growled and continued to back away. She had done enough of her human’s bidding for one day. Something about the noise and the corridor and the silent park was setting her nerves on edge. The grey wolf moved past her, giving her a sideways look as he trotted along the outside of the strange path. The black wolf’s hackles went up. She would not show this interloper fear! She ran after the other wolf, and as she passed him she heard her human laugh. She growled again, not liking the feeling that she had been manipulated as easily as a pup.

  The fenced-in corridor ran in a straight line through the park. Half-hidden stumps showed where trees had been cut down to make the path. The wind chimes rang constantly as the wolf ran alongside the fence. Wait! What’s that? She stopped and looked at what had caught the other’s attention, rising up on her hind legs to get a closer look. A long bone, mostly bare but with a few leathery pieces of flesh still stuck to it, hung from a wire on the inside of the fence. The wolf sniffed the bone. The scent was faded and hard to decipher, but she knew she had smelled this before. A memory of a cage, a human male with light-colored fur, the hated Vuk standing behind the male...human? This is a human bone?

  The grey wolf had moved past her and was examining another hanging bone, about fifty feet from where she stood. He sneezed and shook his head as he backed away. The black wolf caught the interloper’s eye. There was no need for words; she understood that his find was also from a human.

  She moved on down the fence, followed closely by the grey wolf. Now that the black wolf knew what to look for she noticed more collections of bones, strung up along the fences at ever-increasing intervals. A dull silver building was now visible among the pines and evergreens. The corridor ended at the building, the ends of the wire fences flush against the walls, bracketing a large set of double doors.

  The black wolf stopped and looked at the shed. The only windows she could see were set high up on the metal walls. The grey wolf chuffed and moved down the side of the building. Looking for a way in. She watched him go and then turned her attention to the large double doors. The wire fence was made of interconnecting squares, and she moved up as close to the wall as she could get and shoved her head through one of the squares.

  The wolf examined the door. No easy way for us to open it - at least, not as we are right now. Doors are set in a track...probably iced over. No lock on the doors, though. She leaned into the fence, pushing hard, feeling the cold wire give a little beneath her weight. She pressed her nose against the edge of one of the doors and inhaled.

  A sour, bitter, decaying smell flooded her nose. She knew that smell - the dead-not-dead. Revs? The wolf tilted her head and concentrated on listening. She heard the soft shuffling of something - or many somethings -moving. The grey wolf barked, urgently, and she yanked her head back, leaving dark tufts of fur on the wire. The wolf found the interloper at the back of the building. There was a smaller door here with a window set just above the door latch. Hanging from the door latch was a heavy-looking metal lock. The grey wolf was on his hind legs, front feet braced on the snow-dusted door. He was licking the window, and for a moment she wondered if the interloper had gone mad. Ice. He’s clearing the ice.

  The grey wolf paused in his cleaning and looked in the window. For a moment he was still. Then he gave a startled yelp and jumped back. The black wolf flattened her ears at the growl that emerged from the grey throat. She moved up to where he had stood and looked in the window.

  The building was full of the dead-not-dead. They milled about slowly, the cold hindering their movements but the shelter provided by the building keeping them from stilling completely. There were too many to track in the dim light and, like the interloper, she dropped back with a growl. They were unnatural, these creatures, humans that died and then didn’t stay dead. She was torn between running as far away as possible and breaking into the building and killing all the unnatural things.

  She looked at the grey wolf for a moment. Again there was that understanding between them. The black wolf turned and left the park and then the dead city behind, and the grey wolf followed in her wake.

  “But, what were all the Revs doing in that building?” Sage asked.

  Nowen looked out a window of the massive RV that had been chosen for their night’s shelter. She didn’t like being in things like this; too many unpleasant memories. Still, it was relatively warm and comfortable, and with the storm having moved on the night was very cold under a star-filled sky. Sage nudged her and she drew her gaze back to the lantern-illuminated interior. “What?” she said.

  Sage sighed and rolled her eyes. “I asked, what were all the Revs doing in the building?”

  “Standing there.”

  The girl huffed and gave her a look. “I’d say you were being funny, but I don’t think you have a sense of humor.” The dark eyes moved from Nowen to Everett.

  “Well?”

  “They had been led there, or drawn, I guess, by the noise and...food. And then, shut away in the building.” Everett said. There was a moment’s pause as he stripped flesh from the rabbit leg bone he held. “New Heaven does something like that. Move the Revs out of the way so you can scavenge in peace.”

  Nowen looked at the cooked rabbit haunch she held, then offered it to Sage. The girl eagerly accepted, tearing into the meat with alacrity. She looked back at Nowen with something like guilt in her eyes. “Aren’t you hungry?” she said.

  Nowen shook her head. “No. Before I caught that rabbit I filled up on a mouse nest.” She looked at Everett. “I saw that, back in Montana. A couple of New Heaven patrols, drawing the Revs behind them with loud music and noise.”

  Everett nodded and stretched. “It makes sense. What I’m concerned about is this ‘Humanity’s Savior’. Who does he - or they - consider their enemy? What are they ‘cleansing the earth’ of?”

  “Revs?” Sage said.

  The grey-haired man shook his head. “I don’t know. The signs called people ‘consorters’ and ‘traitors’. How could you betray humanity with a Rev?” He nibbled thoughtfully on the end of the rabbit bone he held. “My guess is there is something e
lse out that that has pissed off this “HS”.

  Nowen yawned. The pile of blankets on the floor was looking very inviting. “But does it affect us? I don’t see how. Let the humans kill each other over nonsense.”

  At a gasp from Sage she looked at the girl, but the russet-colored head was turned away. Puzzled, she shifted her gaze to Everett, who was staring at her in amazement. Before she could ask him what was wrong the expression was gone and now he just looked thoughtful again.

  “It could affect us, Har - Nowen. We don’t know what sets these people off. It could be skin color, religion, nationality. Hell, it could be something as silly as how you wear your hair. People, when everything they know has been taken away, will turn to someone - anyone - who can provide a sense of normalcy. One of the best ways to do that is to encourage a sense of ‘us vs. them’. Choose something that is different from yourself, no matter how small the difference might be, and then tell your followers that that difference is what makes the ‘them’ your enemy.” Everett paused, and then shrugged. “Humanity has never needed a good reason to turn on itself. We’ll need to be very careful as we head south.”

  Nowen looked at him for a moment before she turned her gaze back to the night outside. Humans. Everything is so complicated with them. The light in the RV dimmed and she glanced over her shoulder to see Sage and Everett getting ready for sleep. Blankets, some from the backpack that Nowen carried, some from the RV, were piled on the floor. Everett was already under a particularly gaudy quilt of reds and oranges, and as Nowen watched he turned to face the wall. Sage looked at her from the blanket pile with a questioning expression.

  She spared one more glance at the stars and then joined the girl. Sage curled up next to her and, in a few moments, was gone in sleep. Nowen lay on her back and listened to the soft sounds from Sage and Everett for a while before sleep took her too.

  She stands before the door which is outlined in light. The dark and bloodstained hallway stretches behind her. There is no need to look back; the black-as-night wolf stands next to her. She runs her hand over the thick fur and reaches for the doorknob. The door swings open on a blindingly white light. Someone is standing there, facing her, a featureless outline. The figure stretches out a hand.

  “Harper.” The voice is female.

  Nowen sat up abruptly, shedding blankets as she did. Wildly she looked around the interior of the RV, searching for the source of the voice, the voice that was so familiar. In the dim lantern light she saw only the sleeping shapes of Sage and Everett. Everett. Damn him and his insistence that I’m this Harper. The name means nothing to me. That voice was not familiar. “Really?” someone said, very quietly. Nowen a few moments to realize that she was the one who said it. Oh, enough! I need to get away for a little while, just away. She rose quietly and moved toward the door. Hell. How do I open the door after I change?

  “I’ll get it for you.” Nowen startled at the soft whisper from Everett behind her. She didn’t look at him; just a sharp nod of acknowledgement as she slipped out of her clothes and let the wolf out.

  The interloper opened the door and the wolf shot out into the deep cold of the night. She plunged through the snow, leaving the humans behind as she swept away beneath the moonless sky. The snow shimmered faintly beneath the starlight, and the wolf ran. In a few minutes the highway was far behind and she was moving through the forest.

  The scents of pine and loam, damp leaves and new grass, mice and deer and fox - a whirlwind of smells led the wolf first in one direction and then another. She startled a fox from its hiding place and chased it through the dark trees. Its fear was almost palpable, an exciting sensation that drew the wolf on. Her teeth snapped shut on the fox’s tail but it pulled away, leaving her with a mouthful of hairs. The fox turned at a sharp angle and disappeared into a tangle of undergrowth. She rooted among the leaves, trying to pick up the prey’s scent, when another tantalizing odor caught her attention.

  She tracked the new smell through the forest and back down to the prairie where a herd of pronghorn had taken shelter beneath a rock outcropping, and she plunged into their midst. The animals took flight across the snowy earth and she followed.

  The wolf had no plan to hunt them; a glance showed her they were all healthy and strong. She harried them just for the joy of feeling her own strength and power. The wolf could feel her human encouraging her as she raced even faster, moving up alongside the herd of frenzied pronghorn. She caught the lead animal and for several paces they ran in a perfect unison of pounding limbs. The wolf grinned in the sharp wind of her passing and stretched herself even harder, sweeping past the pronghorn and out onto the empty prairie. Her human was there and they were together in a way that had rarely happened before.

  The wolf ran until she could run no more. She slowed to a walk, her sides heaving and her limbs trembling. Her rapid breathing shrouded her head in a warm cloud. The night was hers, hers and her human’s and for the first time in her life she tilted her head up to the endless sky and howled. She listened for the echoing return and howled again and again until it sounded like a massive pack of wolves had gathered beneath the stars. The wolf turned toward the forest edge as the last trembling notes died away. She sought shelter at the base of a pine, digging deep into the thick undergrowth and curling up, nose to tail, to sleep.

  She woke to the sounds of birds rustling and chirping in the tree overhead. A yawn and a stretch later she walked out onto the prairie. The sun was just over the horizon, shafts of sunlight spearing the early-morning clouds. The wolf looked wistfully back at the depths of the forests. No, I’m sorry. I’d rather stay out here, too. But we have something to do. The wolf huffed and trotted across the snowy ground.

  We ran further than I thought. Where the hell is the RV? The wolf shrugged. She knew the way back, and either the interloper and the pup would be there or they wouldn’t. She moved into a smooth lope and headed for the highway.

  Less than an hour later she saw the parking lot where they had left the other humans. Off to the right was the city Sheridan where the building full of the dead-not-dead was. An involuntary shiver ran through her at the memory of those creatures.

  Whoa. Slow down. The wolf looked at the RV. The door was open and the interloper stood in the doorway. There was tension in his stance, directed at the two people who stood near the door. There were both heavily bundled against the weather, and one of them held the rope handle of a sled. The strangers’ backs were to the wolf, and she swung wide to come up behind them unnoticed.

  The bigger stranger was talking. His voice was male and angry. She tensed in response. Wait. Let me listen.

  “Come on, dude! Look at the size of this thing - you gotta have all kinds of stuff in there! I’m just asking for a little food!”

  The interloper drew himself up even straighter in the doorway. “I already told you, I have nothing to spare. You’ll have to move on.”

  The strange male stuffed his hands into the pockets of his coat. The wolf stalked closer, placing each foot with delicacy and precision. She glanced at the shorter stranger; the human’s posture spoke of defeat and an unwillingness to fight.

  “Man, that’s gotta be bullshit! Now, look! Me and my wife here are hungry! We ain’t had anything to eat for days - that goddamn storm trapped us in a cow shed and we ate up everything we had. I’m just asking for a little bit.”

  The wolf watched the grey-furred male’s eye slide from the angry human to the other stranger and then back again. “Look, I’m sorry, but I have barely enough for me.”

  The stranger pulled his hand free from his coat. He pointed a gun at the interloper and screamed. “Give me what you got or I’ll blow a hole in you so wide you can drive this camper through it!”

  The wolf leapt forward and sank her teeth into the stranger’s wrist. She heard the grey-furred human shout but his voice was swallowed by the gunshot. The bullet plowed into the ground. Snow kicked up in a hazy puff and the wolf planted her feet and dragged the stranger ar
ound in a half-circle. The male was screaming.

  She bit down harder, grinding her jaws back and forth until she heard the soft ‘thump’ as the male dropped the gun.

  “Nowen!” The wolf rolled her eyes to look at the interloper. “Nowen, let him go.” She grinned around the thick wrist. The strange male was sobbing now, begging the interloper to call his dog off. “Nowen, please.” The wolf stared into the single copper eye just long enough to let him know that she would do what she pleased. Then she opened her jaws and the strange male backed away, crawling through the snow like a frightened pup.

  The interloper pointed at the male. “Get out of here, before I turn her loose again.” The strange male nodded his head and rose to his feet, cradling his hurt arm against his chest. He reached for the gun; the wolf growled deep in her chest and the male stepped back quickly. He seemed about to say something, but instead turned and stomped back to his smaller companion. He slapped the smaller human on the head, and then together the strangers trudged away through the snow. The interloper sighed and looked down at the wolf. “Thanks for the save, I guess.” She curled her lip at him and shoved her way into the RV.

  Chapter Seven

  The wolf blinked as a bundled pair of socks bounced off her head. She looked at Sage just in time to be hit by another bundle. The young human stormed across the RV to stand in front of the wolf, where she shoved a trembling finger into the wolf’s face. “Where the hell were you all night, Nowen?” Sage shouted. The wolf shook her head at the shrill tones of the human’s voice and decided this was nothing she was interested in.

  Nowen rose from the floor, a little disorientated at the rapidity of the wolf’s disappearance. She ran her hands through her short hair and reached for her clothes. She glanced at Sage as she pulled a sweater over her head. “Everett knew I was out. Didn’t he tell you?”