by Mac Flynn
“Then will you tell us what we wish to know?” Luke asked her.
“About that place across the border? Sure yes. You go down the road outside of town to the south and follow it when it turns westward till you hit the swamp forest. You can’t miss it. My great-great grandson was hunting out there a week ago and said he saw a big line of trucks riding down the road leading to the place and followed them to a bunch of big buildings. He was about to get a sneak closer, he’s a curious sorts like me, when a group of werewolves jumped him. He didn’t even smell them coming, but maybe he was upwind. Anyway, they told him to git, and he got real fast. They were a mean-looking bunch and he was all alone. Well, he came back and told me what happened, and won’t go back there.”
Luke smiled, stepped onto the porch, took one of her hands in his own, and planted a gallant kiss on the ancient skin. “Thank you. You’ve helped us far more than you know.”
She blushed and pulled her hand from his grip. “Bah. Wasn’t nothing for the gossip you gave me. Now git along while I make a few calls. Ah I have to get this one worked around.” There was a muffled mutter from Stevens, but Rick still held his hand over the werewolf’s mouth.
“Well, thank you still.” Luke stepped off the porch and we followed him toward the truck.
“It is a little strange, though.” We paused and glanced back at the old woman as she rocked. “You’re the second group to be asking about that place yonder in a week.”
Luke paused and half-turned to her. “Was there a woman and two men in the first group?” he asked her.
She nodded and a soft smile graced those wrinkled lips. “Aye, and she was a pretty one, too. Gossiped with me for a while.”
Luke bowed his head. “Thank you for that tidbit.”
She waved her hand at him. “Wasn’t nothing, now git along with ya.”
We piled back into the truck and bumped back down the road. After a mile Rick glanced over his shoulder at us. “You think that was Stacy and them others?” he asked Luke.
“Undoubtedly,” Luke replied.
“That means they have a head start on us,” he pointed out.
“Then we will force ourselves to hurry,” Stevens spoke up.
“Hurry to where from here?” I asked him.
“We go to the swamp forest and cross the region border,” Luke replied.
“Sounds easy. Think we’ll get killed doing it?” I teased.
He smiled. “Perhaps, but we have our friends ahead of us to clear the way,” he pointed out.
I leaned back against the side of the truck and sighed. Then my teeth chattered when we hit a bump. “I hope I can walk straight when we get to this compound.”
3
We came upon the entrance to a murky bit of woods that spanned several hundred acres across the border between Manutia and Scientia. The road led into the dark woods and I glimpsed large puddles in the tracks that were the first indications of the swamp. The second was the scent of rotting limbs and foliage that wafted from the trees.
“Stop here,” Luke called to Rick.
Stevens turned in his seat with a frown on his face. “But why? We have yet to reach the border and Stacy is far ahead of us,” he pointed out.
“We should leave the truck here and travel on foot to the border to see if we can find any recent patrols,” Luke replied.
“Then Steve and I’ll stay here with the truck,” Rick offered.
The color drained from Steve’s face. “Can’t we go with them?” he squeaked.
“We can’t keep up with ‘em and I’m not leaving my truck,” Rick told him.
“We won’t be gone long,” Luke promised as he climbed from the bed.
“See that yer not. I don’t want to be having trouble without ya,” Rick replied.
“I will come with you,” Stevens offered.
“It would be best if one werewolf remained with the truck,” Luke argued.
Stevens nodded toward me. “Then let your mate remain here. She is a poor fighter,” he countered.
I growled at him, but Luke stepped between us. “Fine, we will all go,” he acquiesced.
“We’ll be fine with ol’ Bessie,” Rick piped up. He hefted the shotgun into his arms and patted the butt. “Nothing can get through all the spray shot from this, but if something does try you’ll know from the shot,” he told us.
“Do not fire unless you are threatened by werewolves. We don’t need to be attracting attention,” Luke advised him.
Rick frowned. “I won’t, and don’t ya bring any guests with ya, either,” he retorted.
Luke smiled and bowed his head. “We will be as careful as we can,” he promised.
We three werewolves set out on foot, our human feet, that is, into the woods. Luke led us along the road for a half mile and then into the brush and trees. Stevens wasn’t kidding when he said nobody would want to patrol that place often. It was a mixture of heavy brush growing over ground that was swampy enough to make the bayou jealous. Every step I took was like walking on a slightly leaky water bed, but with the added fun of mosquitoes nipping at my skin and brush whipping at my face. Luke led the way with me behind him and Stevens bringing up the rear like the ass he was.
We tiptoed through the ugly tulips and trees, and far out of sight of the truck. Luke would periodically stop to sniff the air, and I plugged my nose. The stench from all the rot was nearly overpowering, even for my untrained sniffer. I wondered how the others handled the smell. Our path led us at a south-westerly angle and after a mile or two Luke paused and tilted his nose up.
“How close are we to the border?” he asked Stevens.
“Only twenty yards in front of us. Why?” he returned.
“I smell a hint of a patrol that passed this way a few hours ago. Four werewolves, all male,” Luke explained.
Stevens sniffed the air and frowned. “You are not mistaken. A group of four passed by here not more than four hours ago.”
Luke’s stiff shoulders visibly relaxed. “This is good news for us,” he commented.
“What? That they are four hours off?” Stevens guessed.
“No, that we can smell them at all. This suggests that Lance cannot supply all his followers with the de-scent pills,” Luke pointed out. “That gives us hope that we may yet be able to stop any massive exports or manufacturing of the product.”
This hopeful conversation was interrupted by the sound of shots, and they came from behind us. My eyes widened when my ears judged the distance. “Rick and Steve!” I shouted.
“We must help them!” Luke agreed. He turned around, but Stevens blocked our path.
“We can use this opportunity to infiltrate the region. The facility is only a day’s run away from the border,” Stevens informed us.
Luke growled at Stevens, and I noticed my mate’s teeth and fingernails were a tad long. “We won’t leave anyone behind,” he argued.
Stevens scowled. “I am the senior wolf in this pack, and I order you to lead on into Scientia,” he commanded us.
“You may be the eldest, but I won’t recognize you as the leader,” Luke bit back. He grabbed my hand and pushed us past Stevens, who sputtered his indignation.
“You would risk saving my daughter for a few humans?” he yelled at us as we hurried down the road.
Luke ignored him and I noticed the hand that held me was quickly changing to a claw. “We must transform to reach them,” he told me.
Luke and I got furry and raced toward the sounds of the gunfire. We covered the ground in a few minutes and arrived at the entrance to the woods to find that Luke’s sniffer was right about the patrol. The truck was surrounded by four werewolves, all male and transformed as we were, and on the top of the cab stood Rick and Steve armed with their shotguns. Though the truck was surrounded by the four werewolves, one of those attackers lay on his back in human form and wasn’t moving. There was a lot of blood on his bare chest.
“You just keep coming! I’ve got plenty of silver buckshot for all o
f you!” Rick shouted at the wolves.
“Y-yeah, what he said!” Steve agreed.
The werewolves growled and snapped at the humans. Their fur was matted with blood from grazes of buckshot, and their eyes flitted between their prey and their fallen comrade. Blood and revenge were in their dark yellow eyes. Luke threw back his head and howled. The werewolves had been too distracted with their blood thirst to notice us, but now we had their full and undivided attention. Rick took the opportunity to aim his gun and shoot one of the werewolves in the chest, felling him and increasing the body count to two.
The remaining two werewolves, tired of being shot at with boiled-down silverware, sprang at us. One jumped Luke and the other tried to jump me, but I leapt out of the way. He was a large werewolf and when he landed on all four paws I felt a tremor vibrate through the earth. I decided a one-on-one would mean one less me in the world and raced for the trees. There was a particular tree that looked good to climb, especially with my pursuer literally chomping at my tail eager for a chance to say hello to me with his teeth.
I reached the edge of the woods just as a shadow sprang from the brush in front of me. The form flew over me and landed on the tailgater behind me. I skidded to a stop and turned to see it was Stevens who had flown over me. He and the other werewolf rolled around and around biting, clawing and gnashing at each other. Stevens gained the upper hand when he slammed their heads together. The other werewolf was dazed, and Stevens grabbed his head and gave it a quick turn. There was a horrible snap and the werewolf went limp in Stevens’ arms. Stevens dropped him to the ground and snarled at him.
“Blasted pup,” he growled.
While Stevens did away with his enemy, Luke was hard at work on his own. His was a little more experienced, but Luke managed to get beneath him and kick him in the gut. The kick shoved the werewolf closer to the truck where Rick was waiting with a silver bullet, and that werewolf was killed.
We all met at the truck, tired, furry, and dirty, and with four bodies around us in various states of reverting back to their human forms. Luke noticed Stevens and raised one of his bushy eyebrows above his yellow eyes. “Why did you follow us back?” Luke asked him.
“I cannot infiltrate an entire facility on my own,” Stevens pointed out.
Rick knelt down and glanced over us. “You all right?” he wondered.
Luke stood on two legs and slowly transformed back into his human form. Stevens and I did the same, though I first made sure I had enough clothes to change back. “Yes, but what happened?” Luke returned.
Rick nodded at the four dead werewolves. “They came out of the woods to the west there all gnashing their teeth. Not a bright idea because it gave us time to get on the roof with a box full of bullets,” he commented as he indicated the box between where Steve and he stood. “Didn’t try to take us hostage or nothing, just wanted to drag us off the roof and eat us.”
“Humans wouldn’t be worth their time to take as hostages, not when Lance wishes to have us as a great prize,” Stevens commented.
“That’s what I reckoned, so we gave them all we got until you showed up,” Rick agreed.
Luke glanced at the woods and tilted his head to one side listening. “We had better on our way. The noises may have been heard by other patrols,” he commented.
4
We moved the bodies from the road, piled into the truck and bumped on our way. I leaned against the back of the cab and glanced over to Luke. He had his attention on a healing wound on his arm. “You okay?” I asked him.
“I will be fine. The wound will heal in an hour,” he replied.
I scooted closer to him and glanced off the side of the truck down the road. The woods passed by with the branches of the trees scraping against the rusted metal of the vehicle. The noise grated on my ears, but we had bigger worries than sore eardrums. “So what’s the plan now? We keep running along these roads hoping they don’t find us?” I wondered.
“We travel as far to the facility as the road will allow, and walk from there,” he explained.
“And then?”
“And then we infiltrate the facility and destroy the samples of the de-scenter, and find the chemical used to control Stevens and destroy that.”
“You make it sound so easy, like we’re not going to be as holey as swiss cheese before we find the de-scent stuff,” I commented.
Luke chuckled. “I will guarantee nothing like that will happen to you,” he told me.
I rolled my eyes. “I know those things only happen in cartoons, but seriously, this isn’t going to be as easy as you’re making it sound,” I argued.
The humor slid off his lips. I wasn’t glad to see it go. “No, it won’t be. We have no idea how many allies Lance has gathered, nor where in the facility we are looking for the formulas and samples,” he admitted.
“I was afraid that was the truth,” I murmured. I sighed and leaned the side of my face against his shoulder. “Well, if we’re going to go out in a hail of silver bullets at least it’ll be for a good cause.”
“And not for another night. We will spend the day at the outskirts of the facility and see how best to infiltrate the perimeters,” he replied.
“Then where are ya going to want me to stop?” Rick called through the open cab window.
Luke turned to Stevens stuck in the middle of the cab. “You told us the facility was a day’s lope for a werewolf. How close can this road take us?” he wondered.
“It joins with the main road about a mile away from the facility, if it’s where I think it is. After that mile the road narrows and the sides of the roads are built up because they tore out hills to make the road,” he told us.
“Then we will park the car as close as the road swings to the facility and walk the rest of the way. We’ll have to find cover for the truck to keep it from being visibly seen and smelled,” Luke surmised.
The swamp road wasn’t any smoother than the other parts of the road, and by the time we stopped for the night my butt was hardened into diamonds. When I stepped out my legs still shook with the tune of the shaky road, and I vibrated over to Luke and my blanket. The darkness of the night pushed against us and the stars were blotted out by the thick canopy of trees. There would be no fire tonight. We couldn’t risk the smoke being seen or smelt by any patrols. Rick and Steve were already asleep, and Stevens was quiet in the cab of the truck.
As I plopped myself down on the blanket beside Luke I noticed his eyes were wide open and his nostrils were flared. “Something wrong?” I wondered.
“We made it this far much too easily,” he commented.
I snorted. “You call the fight at the truck easy?” I reminded him.
He shook his head. “The patrol was small. Rick and Steve may have destroyed all of them without our help,” he pointed out.
“So you’re saying what? That they want us to reach the-” Luke jumped to his feet and the driver’s side door swung open as Stevens jumped out. Their eyes scanned the woods as my hackled rose. I rose to my feet and glanced into the forest, but my wolf eyes didn’t see anything moving. My sniffer wasn’t telling me anything, either. “What is it? Foe or food?” I whispered to Luke.
“Quiet,” he hissed.
The danger came not from the brush but from the canopy above us. Luke’s eyes widened and he pushed us far apart as two forms dropped to the ground where we had stood only a moment before. His push felled me to the ground and I turned toward Luke to see Ian and Emily standing between us. They were still in their human forms, but their yellow eyes glowed brightly in the darkness.
“What do we have here? Some unwanted guests?” Emily teased.
“We should gift-wrap them and take them to Cranston,” Ian suggested.
Emily turned to me and smiled through her sharp teeth. “That sounds like a wonderful idea. I get the girl and the old man,” she offered.
Ian turned to Luke. “I will fetch their leader,” he agreed.
“We won’t be fetched, and we have n
o fight with you. If you will leave us alone we won’t be forced to kill you,” Luke warned them.
Emily laughed. “We’ll see who kills who,” she growled.
As promised, Emily jumped at Stevens and me while Ian lunged at Luke. I remembered the last time Emily had tussled with our group. She’d handily defeated Stacy, who was a far better fighter than I. That meant my frantic mind could only hope this two-against-one would win the day. I scrambled back on all fours as she rushed me. Stevens jumped over me with his claws out to strike her, but Emily was too fast. She jumped to the side clear off the ground and landed on the side of the pickup bed.
The truck rocked, and above the side of the bed appeared the sleepy faces of Rick and Steve. Their eyes turned upward at the she-wolf perched above them, and Emily turned to them and snarled. Rick grabbed the top of Steve’s head and plunged them beneath the side of the bed just as she swiped her claws at the empty air where their heads had been.
Stevens raced over to the bed and tried to grab her legs, but she jumped off and over his head to land between the pickup and me. She glanced between Stevens and me, and grinned. “This isn’t much fun. I thought you would be more of a challenge, but I find you’re just inexperienced fighters and cowards.
I wasn’t going to take that insult lying down, and neither were the others. Rick stood from the bed with his shotgun in hand, but he couldn’t take aim with me in the line of sight. I tried to dodge out of the way, but Emily matched my movements and raced toward me. She grabbed my arms, pinned them behind my back, and pinned my back against her chest. Then she faced us towards the pickup.
“Our orders were to bring her alive, but if you don’t put down the weapon I may ignore my orders,” Emily warned them.
Oh hell no. She was not going to be using me as the damsel in distress to get them to surrender. Not while I had my strength and hard-headed stubbornness. Speaking of hard head, that gave me an idea. I growled and jerked my head back so it collided with her nose. There was a sickening crunch as skull met soft nose bone. Emily howled and let go of me to stagger back. I swung around and my fist collided with the side of her face.
