by Terry Yates
“What the shit’s going on down here!” Potts screamed.
“What the shit’s been going on up there?” Sam screamed back, noticing Potts torn face.
“That thing’s up there!” FranAnne came back. “I just hope Hawkins is all right on the roof.”
“Well, there are three, maybe four of those things down here!” Zora shot back, picking herself up off the ground, then retrieving her gun.
“Where’s my father?” Lauren asked, looking into the elevator.
“We’re not sure,” FranAnne answered her. “The last time we saw him, he was heading out the front door. We’re hoping he’s out there hiding somewhere.”
Kyler was immediately at Potts’ side, trying to look at his face, but the colonel kept pushing him away.
“Get away from me!” Potts yelled.
Kyler was adamant though, and kept walking back up to him, trying to look at the wound.
“I said, get away from me!”
“Will you two be quiet?” Sam told them, looking around nervously for any sign of the werewolves.
Kyler reached up and pulled the rag off of Sam’s head.
“Now be still, Colonel,” he said as he unknotted the rag.
Potts relented and let Kyler wrap the rag around his forehead, eye, and cheekbone, tying it in the back.
“You look like a pirate,” he told the colonel.
“And you’re gonna look like a big bucket of my boot up your ass if you don’t get away from me!”
“What are we going to do?” Sam asked. “We’ve got one above us and three or four on our own floor. Personally, I’d rather take the single one on rather than a whole clan of them that are pissed that you stole their kid.”
“We go up then,” Zora said, starting to get into the elevator.
“You might want to think twice about that,” Potts said, adjusting the rag on his face.
“Why?”
“Because we’ve used clip after clip of the special cartridges on the thing and they’re only hurting it. We also used eight hand grenades, four of which blew Sgt. Cohen into a million and four pieces, and its still walking around.
“Sgt. Cohen is dead?” Lauren asked, looking up at Potts.
“I…uh…I’m afraid he is, Kid. Sorry.”
“My mother’s dead, too,” Lauren said, looking at the floor.
“So’s my dad,” Zack threw in.
“We haven’t seen Gringo or Sylvia in hours,” Kyler said.
“Your parents are dead, huh…eh…tough break…the both of you. Sorry. Anyway,” Potts said, looking up at Zora. “That thing won’t go down for good.”
“That’s strange, because Zora killed one with the special bullets,” Sam told him. “I think he was one of your men…a Private Martinez.”
“Martinez?” FranAnne, shocked. “He was a werewolf?”
“Was being the operative word,” Kyler said. “Zora got him with four shots.”
“Then what’s with your pal Klefka?” he asked Kyler bitterly.
“Who knows?” Zora answered for him. “Maybe this Nicholas Klefka is older and stronger than the ones down here.”
“So where does that leave us? Up or down?” Kyler asked.
Their decision was made for them when they heard a growl coming from the next hallway.
“Get in the elevator!” Potts told them.
Lauren, Kayla still in her arms, was the first into the elevator, followed by FranAnne who held the door open. Sam went next as Kyler and Zack picked up Michael and moved him into the elevator.
“We’ve got a bogie!” Potts screamed as a lone werewolf rounded the corner and started sprinting toward them. Zora and Potts both shot at the beast, Zora hitting the thing in the thigh. It screamed as it fell backwards.
Potts was having trouble aiming with one eye, but he shot anyway, missing every time. He and Zora continued shooting at the beast as it got up off the floor and began to scramble away, back toward the corner.
“Get in!” FranAnne yelled.
“No. I’m gonna run this one down and kill it!” Potts told them.
“You might want to rethink that, Colonel,” Sam told them.
“Why?”
“Turn around.”
Potts and Zora spun around to see Papa, Mama, and Baby Werewolf headed straight at them. Zora grabbed Potts and pulled him into the elevator as FranAnne let go of the doors. As they closed, they could hear the three werewolves reaching the doors. The beasts howled as the elevator began to move.
“What now?” Kyler asked.
Sam reached out and flipped a small, metal switch and the elevator came to a sudden stop.
“Every elevator has a stop switch,” he said, smiling.
Kyler and Zack sat Michael down.
“Well?” Zora asked.
Everyone looked at Potts who was readjusting the bloody rag.
“How many bullets do you have?” he asked Zora.
“About a clip and a half,” she answered. “You?”
“A clip”, Potts answered. “Of the special ones, anyway.”
Everyone continued to stare at him, waiting for a decision.
“We’ll go up,” he said.
“Why up?” Kyler asked.
“What the shit do you want from me, Kyler!” Potts screamed. “We’re going up! Okay? We’ll go up to the first floor and make our way to the roof. We held the bastard off once from up there, plus Hawkins has extra guns. We’ll try to hold it off again until morning. Then,” he started, glaring at Kyler with his one good eye. “We’re gonna find this Klefka and kill him. Understood?”
Kyler nodded his head.
“Good. Now, when we get up there, the stairwell will be off to our right. Fulton will lead the way, because I can’t see very well right now. Just follow her.”
With this, he took two pistols from his belt and handed one to FranAnne.
“That’s the one with the special cartridges,” he told her. “I’ll keep the pistol with the regular bullets. All right, Fong. Let’s go.”
Sam nodded, and then flipped the switch into the up position, and the elevator began moving again. When it stopped at the first floor, Potts stood in front of the doors and turned around.
“Remember…Fulton leads the way. Miss LeMarque, you’ll cover us from the rear. Got it?”
Everyone nodded in unison as the doors opened.
Upon opening, they could see that the werewolf had torn off the outer doors.
“Go!” he told them softly.
FranAnne walked quickly out of the elevator and began to move toward the stairwell. Potts went next and positioned himself in front of Lauren and Kayla, who were followed by Kyler, Zack, and Michael, then Sam, and finally Zora.
“Damn, how many hallways does this place have?” Kyler asked.
“Be quiet,” Potts whispered.
The group walked quickly, not wanting to run. They wanted as few footsteps as possible to be heard as they moved. Kyler’s back and legs were tiring quickly. He’d been running and carrying and running and lifting and running and shooting for the last two hours. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could go on.
“There are the stairs!” FranAnne exclaimed excitedly.
The group began to pick up the pace. Another thirty seconds and they would be at the staircase, then another two floors, and they would be on the roof with Hawkins and weapons, but with mostly a great sense of relief.
As they drew nearer to the stairs, something jumped straight in front of them. It was the werewolf, entrails and all. Its crooked mouth roared, almost causing Lauren to drop the baby.
“Shoot it!” Potts ordered.
FranAnne raised her pistol and aimed at the thing, getting off two shots, both penetrating the creature’s chest. It screamed as it fell against the steps. Nervous, FranAnne missed with the next two, but shot it once in the neck as it tried to get up.
“Outside!” Potts screamed, turning around. “Outside!”
The group turned around an
d began to run back toward the elevators. Zora moved from the front of the line to the rear, letting everyone by. Potts grabbed Lauren and put her and Kayla in front of him. Kyler and Zack moved as quickly as they could, but Michael seemed to be getting heavier with every step.
Kyler looked over his shoulder to see Zora approaching the werewolf as it was standing up. She pulled the trigger three times, two of the bullets hitting both its shoulders and the other bullet hitting it in the forehead, causing it to fall back onto the steps. Smoke was again rising from the wounds, as the beast writhed in agony. Zora raised her gun and began to move toward it.
“Don’t!” FranAnne yelled as she ran backwards, watching Zora. “It doesn’t always kill it! Come on!”
“I just put one in its forehead,” Zora yelled back.
“I blew him to Shitsville with four grenades!” Potts screamed. “Now come on!”
Zora turned back to finish the creature when she found that it was standing right in front of her and snarling straight down at her, smoke billowing out its forehead. She aimed her gun up at the thing, but it slapped it away, its giant claws raking across the top of her hand as it did.
The werewolf roared again and took a swipe at her, missing her by inches. FranAnne and Potts ran back toward her firing their pistols. Lauren had already rounded the corner that led down the last hallway with Kyler, Michael, and Zack close behind her. Kyler wanted to set the boy down and go back for Zora, but he couldn’t just drop him.
“Sam!” he said to Fong as he rounded the corner. “Here! Help Zack get Michael outside and…”
Before he could finish, FranAnne, Zora, and Potts had rounded the corner.
“Go! Go! Go! Go!” Potts screamed as he pushed everyone forward. “It’s down for now, but not out! When you get outside, run for the trees! Go!”
The group sidestepped all of the debris in the hallway and ran toward the large crater that had once been the front door and wall. The group split as it skirted around the large pile of rubble that the werewolf had been lying under.
They ran through the doorway and out into the grass, running blindly toward the grove of trees. Suddenly, they heard the sound of gunfire and felt bullets flying all around them.
“Stop right where you are!” they heard a voice scream.
The group immediately froze on the spot. As they turned, they saw at least fifteen men and one woman, machine guns raised and aimed.
“What the shit?” Potts exclaimed, seeing that they were obviously military, but not really dressed in any type of military outfit that he’d ever seen. They were in caps and wearing night-vision goggles.
“I saw some people…well, some dead people dressed just like that in the werewolves hideout,” Kyler whispered as he and Zack set Michael down.
“Dead…hideout…shit, Kyler, you didn’t feel the need to tell me this earlier?” Potts asked angrily.
“Let me see, Colonel…we’ve been chased by five werewolves since we met up again, and now we’ve got a bunch of men pointing and…might I add…shooting guns at us. I can’t imagine how it could’ve slipped my mind,” Kyler shot back sarcastically.
The leader of the group approached them followed closely by two more men and the woman who all carried machine guns that were aimed straight at them. The leader stopped in front of them.
“Who are you people?” he asked, taking off his night-vision goggles. “And what are you doing here?”
He looked to be in his early thirties and stood at least six-three and was extremely muscular in his one-piece uniform. His face was pock marked and there was a small scar running diagonally across his cheek. He had what looked like a Batman utility belt around his waist with a holstered pistol hanging down at his side.
“You,” he said to Sam. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Col. George Potts,” Potts interrupted, taking a step up. “I’m commander of the military base here.”
“You are, are you?” the man asked smiling down at Potts.
“Yes, I am,” Potts answered, staring at the man with his one good eye.
“Jesus, what happened to you?” the man asked, reaching for the bandage, but Potts grabbed his wrist and held it.
“The same thing that’s gonna happen to you if we don’t get on that chopper and get the hell out of here right now,” Potts retorted, letting go of the man’s wrist.
“I see,” the man said.
Before Potts could react, the man threw a hard punch that landed squarely on the wounded side of Potts’ face, sending him straight to the ground. Zack took a step forward, trying to intervene, but before he could say a word, the man hit him hard in the solar plexus, sending him straight to the ground, too.
“Anything else you’d like to say, Gentlemen?” the man asked sarcastically as he watched them roll on the ground in agony.
Kyler and FranAnne dropped to the ground, Kyler to attend Potts and FranAnne to help Zack.
“Get up!” the man told the two of them.
Seeing that they were ignoring him, the man grabbed FranAnne by the hair and yanked her up off of the ground, and held her face in front of his, her hair still in his balled up fist.
“Well, what the hell do we have here?” he asked, smiling. “Well, it looks like we’ve got a she-male on our hands now, don’t we? And what’s your name, Ma’am…Sir…whatever?”
FranAnne remained silent. She had dropped her gun on the ground in surrender, but it appeared as if he hadn’t noticed. Neither he nor the other three had bothered to retrieve it from the ground. Come to think of it, they hadn’t even looked for any weapons. As the man held her by the hair, FranAnne began to feel around with her foot, trying to find the revolver, but she had moved several feet away from where she had been standing when she had moved to assist Zack.
“Disgusting,” the man snarled through gritted teeth. “It wasn’t enough that they started letting women into the service, but then they had to start letting queers in as well. And here…well, I’ve got one of each. You must feed these people well, Col. Potts. This one here’s a real heifer.”
He pushed FranAnne roughly away, almost causing her to fall, but she regained her balance at the last moment and looked him in the eyes.
“Get them up off the ground. Now!” he shouted at Kyler, “Or I’m gonna shoot ‘em where they lay!”
Kyler began pulling Potts to his feet while Sam helped Zack to his. Potts stayed bent over for a moment, holding the side of his face.
“Now, I’ll ask you again, Colonel…what are you doing here?”
Potts silently glared at the man.
“So that’s how it’s gonna be,” the man said, putting his hand on his pistol.
“We all live on the island,” Kyler said, stepping up. “The EVAC copters never came back for us. We had to ride out two hurricanes…and…uh…”
Kyler wasn’t sure whether to say the word “werewolf” or not. The man would probably stretch Kyler’s balls from the Earth to the Moon, thinking that he was being a smart ass. He could see that this man didn’t play games…or if he did play games, he played roughly.
“And…uh…what?” the man asked, his piercing blue eyes looking right into Kyler’s.
“And…uh…it was scary,” Kyler came back.
“So you’re refugees from the hurricanes, are you?” the man said, as he walked back and forth in front of them as if he was inspecting his troops. “Those hurricanes really did some damage around here, didn’t they? Well, you guys ought to see Miami right now. You wouldn’t recognize it…mainly because it’s under water. It got hit so badly that they had to declare marshal law for the time being. That’s right, Colonel. The military is in charge now. Ain’t it great? Unfortunately, it’s not so great for you people, though, because once you went into that building, you committed a serious crime.”
“What sort of crime?” Potts asked.
“Espionage,” he answered.
“Espionage? How did we commit espionage?”
“This building
is one big classified secret, and now you know its contents, and you have every intention of telling people what you know about it.”
“We have that right,” Kyler told him.
“Not anymore, you don’t,” the man said. “Espionage is treason and treason is punishable by death.”
“Death?” Sam asked. “Death?”
“That’s right, Slope,” he came back, smiling at Sam. “Death. Take ‘em over to the wall!” he ordered the three soldiers, who instantly raised their guns and waved for them to start walking.
Kyler and Zack picked up Michael and began to follow the group, who marched silently to the wall. Kyler looked up to see Zora walking next to him. She looked over at him and smiled. Damn, she was one cool customer, he thought to himself. Smiling on the way to the gallows.
“Move it!” the woman soldier ordered, prodding Zora in the back. Kyler watched the rifle hit Zora’s back, which gave a little. She grimaced in pain, but didn’t make a sound. She merely turned her head around and smiled at the woman who then prodded her again.
“Halt!” the man ordered as they drew close to the building.
The group stopped and turned around.
“Are you going to execute children and babies as well?”
“Well,” the man answered, stepping up to Lauren and looking down at Kayla. “Normally, I wouldn’t kill an infant, but in this case, I’ll make an exception. She’s a little zebra, ain’t she?” he asked Lauren.
“No, she’s a baby,” Lauren answered, wondering why this man didn’t know the difference between a baby and a zebra.
The man tilted his head back and let out a hardy guffaw.
“Are they going to kill us?” Michael whispered to Kyler.
“I won’t lie to you, Buddy. It doesn’t look good for us,” he whispered back.
When the man had finished laughing, he surveyed the group.
“You know, it’s too bad that you didn’t make it off the island. Strange how fate works, isn’t it? Had you made it off the island, you would be far away from all of this…but as it is…well…”
He motioned for the three soldiers to put them against the building wall, and then motioned for the other dozen soldiers to join them. The group was gun prodded against the wall, their backs to the stucco. Kyler found himself between Zora and FranAnne, who pulled Lauren in front of her and gently placed her hands on her shoulders.
