The Lure of the Pack

by Ian Redman

  Lana Franke smiled again, her tongue slowly moistening her lips.

  “My Fuhrer!” Claude Bescann ran up Feldtberg Castle’s main hallway stairs.

  “Claude, what is it?”

  “The Tiger, it’s down.”

  “WHAT!” Otto Von Kurst growled, his thoughts moving to the lone wolf of his dreams, the lone wolf who now hunted him! “He is stronger than I thought! Very well, leave him, let him go, the time will come when we will meet each other, face to face.”

  Bescann looked concerned. “But my Fuhrer,” he said, numbly.

  “What?” Von Kurst felt uneasy. He knew the look on his Standartenfuhrer’s face, it did not bode well, “don’t tell me the guards are near him?”

  “They have moved to the crash site, still with orders to take the intruder alive. We did not expect this to happen.”

  “GET THEM OUT,” yelled Von Kurst, “NOW!”

  “Teams Two and Three stay with the two of us, we’ll check the wreckage, the rest of you spread out across the area. If there is any sign of movement let me know through your Com-links and remember…stay calm.” Split in twelve teams of two, twenty-four armed security guards moved deeper into the dense, moonlit forest.

  “Shit, look at this,” whispered one of the men from Team Two, who along with their colleagues had just arrived at the wreckage of the Eurocopter. “Look…in the rear cockpit, the naviga…OH FUCK!”

  The six men of Teams One to Three, including the burly team leader, viewed the smashed cockpit, or what was left of it, their faces grimacing in horror. “He’s lost his face and his throat, oh God, the blood…” the guard felt like vomiting, “look at all the blood!” With their stomachs tightening into knots, the men’s gaze moved from the bloodstained cockpit to the broken, charred, landscape.

  “Shit, this is unreal!”

  As if adding to the surge of fear entering the men’s minds, the main radio suddenly began transmitting, infringing upon the eerie quiet, the handset being passed to the burly man. “Yes!”

  Amidst the static over the airwaves, the message from the main control centre was clear enough, “it is imperative you return to the facility, forget the intruder.”

  “WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN,” the burly guard yelled angrily, “RETURN TO THE FACILITY? THE BASTARD’S JUST DOWNED THE TIGER! HE’S NEAR, WE CAN TAKE HIM!”

  “Negative, this is a direct order from Standartenfuhrer Bescann. Return immediately, do you understand?”

  The burly guard did not reply. Fuck the orders, he thought, I’ll personally beat the shit out of the bastard when we find him.

  “DO YOU UNDERSTAND?” The angry voice over the radio shouted for acceptance of the order.

  “NEGATIVE! WE’RE TAKING HIM, OVER AND OUT!”

  “YOU FUCKING IDIOT, YOU DON’T REALISE…” Abruptly, the radio was passed back, its line of communication closed.

  “Are you sure about this,” asked a very nervous guard, “we should go back, you are showing a lack of discipline, Standartenf….”

  The guard was savagely cut short by the outburst from the burly man. “I AM SHOWING COMRADERY, AND I AM IN CHARGE! OUR PILOT IS MISSING AND THE BASTARD WHO DID THIS IS GOING TO PAY, NOW FOLLOW MY FUCKING ORDERS!”

  Suddenly there was movement over to the right, away from the wreckage as Team Four appeared through the treeline, their moonlit silhouettes looking distinctly surreal. With a trembling, fearful voice one of the team’s guards spoke, “you’d better come and see this.”

  “He’s just toying with them,” Jeanette Descard was mesmerised with the view on the main overhead screen.

  “Yes,” said Colonel Mann, “fear is Piper’s main weapon at the moment and he knows it.”

  CEATA’s Senior Command team continued to watch the fascinating events unfolding in the forest as Jean-Paul spoke, “they’ve just found the pilot’s body.”

  “ASH IS MOVING, LOOK, HE’S HUNTING,” Nick yelled, his fearful emotions getting the better of him.

  Jeanette slowly shook her head in amazement as she viewed the overhead satellite’s imagery of the large wolf on all fours moving closer to its prey, it’s powerful, furred, magnificent form low to the ground. “My God,” she whispered, “they don’t stand a chance.”

  “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “Me neither! The poor bastard’s been ripped apart, but look at the position of his body,” the guard glanced back at the mangled wreckage of the helicopter and the traces of blood and flesh strewn across the dirt and broken branches. “No footprints and no signs of him being dragged either, it’s my guess he was thrown over here.”

  “What! But that’s around ten metres, who the hell could do that?”

  “We need to go,” another guard said, “let’s clear out! There’s nothing more we can do here.”

  The burly guard looked at his men, the horrifying, sickening scenes at the crash site bringing him to his senses. “I think you’re right, this is shitting me up too, okay, let’s…”

  “Look! Look here,” another of the guards shone his high-powered torch at the forest floor, “look at these prints, FUCKING HELL, LOOK!”

  A sense of tension enveloped the teams, wrapping around them like some hideous, invisible noose, for the canid paw prints they all viewed…were overly large.

  “This doesn’t make sense, these are a dog’s prints, but…shit, the fucking thing is walking on two legs,” the guard who spoke looked terrified.

  “They’re not dog prints, they’re too large…they’re a wolf’s!”

  “What,” said the burly man, “are you sure?”

  The guard nodded his head, his throat feeling tight as he muttered his reply, “definitely.”

  Once again, in the eerie glow of the moonlight, the men nervously scanned their surroundings. Now, they were genuinely frightened! “THIS IS TEAM SIX, WE HAVE MOVEMENT, I REPEAT WE HAVE MOVEMENT, APPROXIMATELY FIFTEEN METRES AHEAD OF US IN THE TREELINE. THE DOG’S ARE GOING FUCKING CRAZY!” The voice on the guard’s Com-link sounded anxious.

  “Hold position Team Six, we are returning to…” The burly guard was interrupted.

  “THIS IS TEAM EIGHT, WE ALSO HAVE MOVEMENT, OVER TO THE LEFT, APPROXIMATELY…NO! IT’S GONE,” There was a pause over the Com-link, then the same guard’s voice whispered, “what the hell was that?”

  “Say again Team Eight, say again,” there was no reply. “I’m recalling the teams, let’s get back to the warehouse and…” the burly man’s sentence never finished as the sound of machine gun fire and terrible screams sliced through the forest.

  “HELP US, HEEEEEEEEELP!”

  “TEAM EIGHT, TEAM EIGHT, DO YOU COPY?”” the burly man yelled as static invaded his Com-link. There was no reply! “SHIT! ALL TEAMS, CONVERGE ON TEAM EIGHT’S POSITION, REPEAT CONVERGE ON TEAM EIGHT’S POSITION.” Hastily, the men ran further into the dense canopy of trees. “TEAM SIX,” shouted the burly man, “LET THE DOGS HAVE HIM, REPEAT LET THE DOGS…”

  There was something behind them, something large and powerful, “BEHIND YOU, LOOK OUT!”

  The guard standing behind the burly man froze in terror as the four-legged beast hurtled into him like an express train, biting and clawing its way through his flesh. The man screamed like no one had ever screamed, the wolf biting hard into his leg as it upturned him! “FOR FUCK’S SAKE, HELP ME!”

  He was gone! Dragged into the night!

  “OVER THERE! IT’S TAKEN HIM,” shouted another, “OPEN FIRE, OPEN FIRE!” Molten lead sprayed into the forest, a forest echoing with screams.

  “CEASE FIRE YOU FUCKING IDIOTS,” the burly man yelled, “YOU’LL SHOOT YOUR OWN MEN.”

  Clamping its jaws around the man’s throat, the wolf bit deep, tasting the blood of its enemy. With a muscular shake of its overly large, muscle laden, canid form the beast ripped the man’s head from his torso, the prey’s blood spattering across several already shattered tree trunks.

  Another down!

  Amidst a myriad of panic stricken yells furthe
r shooting erupted, the guards’ MP44s spewing bullets at the wolf, but to no avail, the beast’s body and senses being naturally attuned to the bullet’s flight. Licking its blackened, gore ridden lips with anticipation of the next kill the wolf kept low, streamlined, running swiftly then launching itself at another guard. The prey wailed in pain as his right arm was severed, the jaws of the animal crushing the man’s muscle tissue, bone and arteries.

  How he screamed for his colleagues thought the wolf, but not for long, the beast’s bloodied canine teeth biting deep into the man’s throat as air hissed from his vocal chords. Blood, thought the wolf, my enemy’s blood, my enemy’s flesh. Hunt again! KILL, KEEP KILLING!

  “ALL TEAMS CONVERGE ON TEAM ONE AND CLOSE IN! ALL TEAMS, RESPOND!” The burly man yelled once again down his Com-link as outright, gut wrenching panic set in.

  Hurriedly, pitifully, the surviving VKE security guards joined up, their faces radiating fear, like frightened children. The facts were now all too obvious, their situation having been totally reversed. The overly large, nightmarish beast was now hunting them…one by one! “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?” The man’s yelling was terror stricken, his question, in a way…unanswerable.

  “How many of us left?” said the burly man, his terrified voice struggling against his chattering teeth.

  “Twelve of us.”

  “What!” The burly man couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  Another guard fell to his knees, whimpering, “it attacked the rear teams…tore them to pieces! I saw Dieter and Klaus fall. They were screaming in agony, I couldn’t help, the thing just ripped them apart. OH GOD,” he yelled, “IT’S EVIL, PURE EVIL! WE’VE GOT TO GET AWAY!”

  “SHUT UP DAMN YOU, JUST SHUT UP!”

  “WAIT, HERE’S KARL!” Out of the night another, bloodied man came running towards his colleagues. “At least we have another gun hand! Quickly Karl, we’re over here! OH NO, KARL, FOR FUCK’S SAKE RUN!”

  The guard named Karl had seen his colleagues in the torchlight, but had not seen the wolf. It was ten metres behind him, running through the treeline, five metres, three…

  “RUN KARL, CHRIST, RUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!”

  Snarling with savage intensity, the wolf leapt at its terrified prey, the others screaming in horror. “OH GOD PLEASE, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

  In a bloodcurdling scene of savage, unbridled ferocity, the wolf eviscerated Karl in seconds, the bloodied beast vanishing from view like a carnivorous spectre into the ethereal, moonlit silver blackness of the forest. Panic stricken, the men fired their weapons, “YOU FUCKING BASTARD THING,” but to no avail.

  “CEASE FIRING! CEASE FIRING! CONSERVE YOUR AMMO!”

  “WHY? THE BULLETTS DON’T DO ANYTHING, WE’RE FUCKING DEAD!”

  “I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP!” Tempers were rising, fear quickly embedding itself into every man’s thoughts, the fear of death, a savage death, agonising and vicious!

  “Where are the dogs?” the burly man shook the guard next to him, “WHERE ARE THE DAMNED DOGS?”

  “They’ve gone…ran away!” The fitful guard was shaking with cold, intense fear, “THEY’RE AS FUCKING SCARED AS WE ARE!” The young man was distraught. At only eighteen years of age he had wanted to join the grenadiers, to fight against the immigrants, to be a soldier trained to Waffen SS standards. But this was different! This was horrific, terrifying! Oh God, he didn’t want to die! As he continued to cry, the young man’s bowels suddenly emptied.

  “FUCK! IT’S OVER THERE, FIIIIIIIIIIIIIRE!” Further hot lead scythed through the air, the forest becoming alive again with the ear splitting cracks of gunfire. “KILL IT! FOR FUCK’S SAKE, KILL IT!”

  The wolf stayed low as the bullets passed by, its tongue dripping blood, human blood, its claws and fur, covered in dirt…and flesh. This is too easy thought the wolf, its sleek, powerful body manoeuvring to the rear of the enemy, stalking them, watching them, enjoying their panic…their fear!

  Time to take another!

  From within its deep red field of vision, the wolf scanned its panicking prey.

  Another terrified guard quickly turned to his left, towards the sound of growling speeding towards him. Then he screamed, his voice cut short as the wolf’s jaws clamped across his throat. He was dead in seconds. The others fired, trying to kill the wild animal slaughtering them one by one, but the wolf seemingly vanished again, its speed incessant, ghost like, its powerful lupine form blending with the dark imagery of the forest. Hopelessly, one of the guards dropped to his knees, vomited fitfully then whispered, “we’re all finished!”

  “All he can smell is their blood! As of this moment Red Haze is uncontrollable.” Jeanette Descard felt slightly nauseated as she viewed the disturbing satellite images, “he will continue to kill until every last one of them is dead!”

  “I agree,” Maurice Hertschell voiced his opinions. “We have no communication with him, no way of contact and no way of defusing him.” CEATA’s Commander in Chief glanced nervously at Charles Mann, “I have been proven correct in my assumptions Charles. My worst fear regarding our newly acquired field agent has become a reality. Red Haze is now uncontrollable.”

  “But he is a supremely lethal weapon Maurice,” Colonel Mann’s eyes were wild with excitement, “you have to admit it!” The Colonel paused, his gaze once again totally focused on the hunting wolf. “Lethal symmetry,” he whispered, “that’s what Red Haze has! Such incredible, powerful…lethal symmetry!”

  Within the bloody, tumultuous chaos consuming the prey, the beast once again fell upon them, the guard firing his MP44, the wolf moving with precision, its jaws biting down, hideously clamping onto human flesh, its muscular, fur-laden body like an image from hell itself. The guard screamed pitifully, painfully, dropping his assault rifle onto the forest floor, its mechanism jamming as it continued to fire. The wolf bit deep as the prey’s blood gushed into the cold night air.

  There was another scream, over to the right as his companion, hit in the leg by a stray round, crumpled to the ground. “OH SHIT,” he yelled, clutching his damaged, bloodied leg as he viewed the horror in front of him. The wolf snarled, spitting pieces of flesh from its mouth, its blood red eyes focusing on the wounded guard before it swiftly returned to the forest.

  The burly man ran over to the injured, screaming guard as blood quickly seeped from the large bullet wound in his leg. “IT’S MY ARTERY! I CAN’T STOP THE BLEEDING,” he yelled. Without hesitation the burly man aimed his MP44 at the man’s head…and fired!

  “WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE? YOU PIECE OF SHIT,” screamed another guard as he ran forwards, knocking the burly man to the ground. Rolling in the dirt they frenziedly punched at each other, gripping hair, biting, scratching, the look on both men’s faces that of terror and confusion.

  Good, thought the wolf, now they fight amongst themselves!

  “HE WAS MY FRIEND!” The punches were hard, bruising jaws and shattering teeth. The burly man wrestled the other onto his back then pulled out his razor sharp hunting knife. Without hesitation he held it to his opponent’s throat. The two men ceased fighting, both panting heavily.

  “Listen to me,” said the burly man, “he was dead anyway! This is a fight to the death, AND RIGHT NOW WE’RE FUCKING WELL LOSING!” He paused for breath, mentally fighting for calm as he continued to speak, “he was weakened, that’s what that thing wants, to weaken us…”

  “Listen,” another guard spoke, his voice rising in desperation, “LISTEN!”

  The two battered, bruised men picked themselves up off the ground and shivered in the cold night air. There were only nine of them left!

  Then came the howling! Like ghostly music, scything across the forest, rising and falling in pitch, monotone and surreal.

  “It’s toying with us! It knows we’re dead meat!” Still panting heavily, the burly man looked around at the last vestiges of his team. “We retreat carefully back to the facility. Watch each other’s backs. If you see the damned thing, yell and shoot.”

&n
bsp; “But our bullets don’t fucking harm it!”

  “It’s all we’ve damned well got, now get moving.” They moved stealthily, on full alert, watching, waiting for the beast to attack again. But the howling continued, the wolf now waging psychological warfare as well as physical. Yes, it was toying with them thought the burly man, not just with their bodies but also with their minds.

  Then…the howling ceased.

  “Nine of them left,” whispered Nick.

  “Out of a total of twenty four,” replied Jean-Paul.

  “Colonel,” Jeanette Descard spoke urgently, “it’s time we brought the retrieval team in and quickly!” There was no reply from Colonel Mann who hadn’t taken his eyes from the screen. Was he enjoying this thought Jeanette, this horrific bloodshed, this wholesale slaughter? “Colonel,” she spoke again, “the retrieval team, its time to bring Red Haze out of the combat zone. The survivors are no match for him. You know that!”

  Charles Mann turned his head slowly towards Jeanette. “No Doctor Descard, this is not the time to retrieve Red Haze.”

  “I agree with the Colonel,” the Commander interrupted, “we let Red Haze finish the hunt!”

  The eighteen-year-old guard sobbed, his thoughts dolefully returning to memories of his childhood, and to his mother telling him never to forget the Lord’s Prayer. “When you need help,” she had said, “always say this prayer and the good Lord will protect you.” As his body shook pitifully in fear, the boy’s hands came together as if wishing himself away from the nightmare engulfing them all. “Our Father, who art in heaven” he whimpered, “hallowed be thy name…”

  “HERE IT COMES,” yelled the burly man, “PREPARE TO FIRE!”