The Spiked Wolf

by David Shiels

  She scanned her options for hiding and decided that hiding in her wardrobe behind the clothes would be the best option. She was short and the clothes inside were made for the average male height; she would be unseen behind them she hoped. She slipped into the dark wardrobe and closed the door behind her.

  Winston’s screams continued. He sounded like he was being tortured, like he was having all his fingers and toes removed one by one whilst also being set on fire. The even more worrying part was that Winston’s scream was only accompanied by a remaining few, and along with this now could heard the howling of wolves. Was Winston going to transform into a wolf? Angela did not want to comprehend the thought but she could not deny what she had just witnessed. The sound of wolves above just made it that much more easily comprehendible.

  Winston’s painful shouts went on and showed no signs of ceasing, when he suddenly he let out one final squeal and…silence. No noise from the wolves, no screaming. She questioned if it was it all a dream? A nightmare? Had she been knocked unconscious during the physical abuse? Was that even real? Was she still in her peaceful slumber?

  This naïve hope was shattered as her adrenaline lowered and the pain from her assault and the fall on her knee came back all at once to attack her senses. She lowered herself down in a ball in the corner of her haven as the agony began to overwhelm her. And to top it all off; the screams and growls did continue, but further away, into the city…

  Angela closed her eyes and attempted to sleep away the physical and mental pain of what had happened but she had a thought, a strong vivid one, of her kids. She couldn’t just sit here feeling sorry for herself; her two kids were at home and by now her husband would be at work so all that was protecting these children was a young babysitter only just out of high school.

  Angela wanted to just sit in the closet and cry it all away and hope that help arrives. But she knew she had to get to her home before the wolves did and get her children as far away as possible.

  She stood up and changed into her colourful summer dress, she anticipated that it would enable her to move more freely. She thought about how many of those things were pouncing around outside and all it would take was for one of them to get on top of her and she would be dead within seconds.

  She exited the wardrobe and hurried to open the cabin door when it hit her; outside the room was Winston, but not the Winston she once knew and respected. This Winston would most likely kill her, or even worse turn her into one of those creatures. Angela contemplated going back into her safe haven; the thought was very tempting and she could feel her body willing her towards it. But the thought of her children was much stronger, but what use would she be to her children if the creature outside was to kill her? She doesn’t even know what manner of creature is outside.

  She cursed herself for always hiding from her problems. It had ruined so many chances in life.

  Not this time.

  Angela placed her ear to the door to listen; she hoped that the beast had gone with its friends to attack the city…but that hope was soon dashed as she heard footsteps outside the room. It sounded like a monster on four legs, it was walking up and down the hallway, and apart from the sound of its footsteps hitting the steel floor…it was completely, eerily silent.

  She scanned the room for any weapons to defend herself; she didn’t want to make too much noise because of alerting the beast to her location, so she scavenged as quietly and quickly as possible throughout all the drawers in the room. She found nothing that could be used as a weapon; she was just going to have to make a run for it.

  She started to plan her escape in her head: There were two doors in the hallway which lead to the deck of the boat. The one Winston had fallen down was closer but he had left behind a trial of blood which could be a slipping hazard, and if she was to fall it would mean certain death. She could not predict what it would be like on the deck or what would be there, but she knew it would not be a pretty sight.

  She put her ear against the door again and waited for the wolf to pass her room once more. The adrenaline in her body started to kick in again and the pain she was feeling vanished. Her hands were steady. She could not let nerves get in the way, like they usually did in her life. As soon as the wolf had passed she waited five seconds, took a deep breath, opened the door slowly and darted out of the room through a tiny gap.

  She took a quick glance to her right and noticed that the animal appeared to be, unsurprisingly, a wolf; its fur was dark brown and spiky; the spikes resembled the spike that was lodged in Winston’s throat. The wolf heard Angela open her door and became immediately alerted by it. It quickly turned around, let out of low growl, and gave chase. She sped down the hallway as fast as she possibly could; her heart was pounding so hard she thought it might explode.

  As she got to the end of the hallway the wolf pounced at her; it was a fierce, large pounce. Angela quickly grabbed the railing leading up the stairs and turned to run up them, when suddenly she tripped. No time to panic. One hand was still holding on to the railing and she landed sitting down on the third step up. The great pounce the wolf had performed had left it at a disadvantage as it smashed its head into the metal wall just as Angela had turned. The collision had left the beasts’ dazed head near to Angela’s feet. She took this opportunity and quickly ran up the stairs; she ran up them like a child would and used both her hands and feet on each step, being sure to avoid the blood trail. The wolf regained its form and gave chase yet again.

  Angela grabbed the bar on the large metal door and pushed it; the door was similar to that of a fire escape door. The large metal door opened and Angela slammed it shut behind her, pressing both her hands against it. The wolf reached the door and slammed itself against the door, but the door was too heavy for it to open, yet this did not stop it continuing its fruitless assault on the door.

  Sweat pouring down her face, Angela placed her back against the door, put her hands on her chest and tried to regain her breath and calm her heart rate down. But the sight she saw did anything but calm her down.

  Bloodbath

  While the walls and floor of the deck were smothered in blood, there were only two bodies on the deck; their throats have been torn out. More alarming than this was the sheer amount of ripped clothes scattered around. This made Angela’s heart sink as she knew this meant that the amount of wolves that are currently attacking the city would be a tremendous number as the amount of crew that is usually on the deck is upwards of twenty to thirty. Angela spotted the torn fishing net that was now only housing a few deceased fish. She remembered the voice shouting ‘it was amongst the fish!’ They must of captured a wolf in the net the night before and it was biding its time in the net, waiting for them to dock.

  The screams from the city were getting worse and sounding less like panicked screams and more like Winston’s screams. Angela’s time was running out to get to her children before the wolves did, the longer she takes the more wolves that will be rampaging throughout the city making the journey even more impossible.

  The wolf trapped in the lower cabins was still crashing itself against the metal door, growling after each failed attempt. Angela was confident that the door would hold the wolf but she did not want to chance having the wolf break out and attack her. She ran off the boat and onto the docks; it was a small, yet long, old fashioned wooden dock. It was mostly used be fishing boats. Currently Angela’s boat was the only docked boat; she could imagine that the main dock of the city would be filled to the rim with private boats and cruise liners.

  The sky was still bright blue and clear. The sun was still beaming its strong rays. It would have been a perfect day under different circumstances.

  She jogged down the wooden dock; some planks were missing so she had to watch her step. She approached a small wooden building as she reached the end of the docks; it was where a security guard is usually stationed. She noticed the window was smashed and blood was on the remaining shards. She resisted her curiosity and carried on past the sma
ll building and onto the large car park: Here is where the fishermen usually parked their cars before venturing out to sea. Next to the car park was a huge warehouse where the fish were usually processed before being sent out to various shops around the town.

  She continued her journey throughout the car park; it was full, and surprisingly, the cars were untouched apart from the odd car having small red footprints on their bonnets, most likely from the wolves stampeding through the area eager to get to their next victims in the city and broaden their army.

  Passing swiftly through the car park, Angela came to a large dual carriage way. She put her hands over her mouth and gasped in shock at the scene in front of her; it was like something out of an disastrous action movie. Cars had collided causing a massive pile-up, some were completely crushed between other cars and some people were trapped in their vehicles screaming for help.

  Some people were limping amongst the wreckage holding their wounds where they had been most likely impaled by one of the wolves’ spiked needles. Angela recognised this from Winston when he was ‘dying’ and she came to the conclusion that the needles must infect people and turn them into wolves so she didn’t have long before these people transformed. She was going to need to run through the city centre; using a vehicle right now would get her nowhere.

  No wolves were in the immediate area, but screams, cries and shouts could be heard from both ways up and down the dual carriage way, Angela began her jog through the maze of immobile vehicles.

  “Help us, please!” The desperate plea came from a woman trapped in the passenger’s seat of her red BMW. The backseat was occupied by, presumably, her two daughters. In the driver’s seat was an unconscious male. The car was trapped between a lorry and a bus; the back of the car was completely flattened by the lorry which had mounted it. Angela without even thinking ran up to the car to try to help any way she could.

  Even though deep down she knew it was futile Angela could never leave a person in need. The woman had a large slab of metal impaled into her stomach from the bus and Angela gasped when she noticed that the two girls in the back were dead; their faces had been smashed into the back of their parent’s seats crushing their skulls; killing them instantly.

  When Angela got to the woman’s side door the man in the car started screaming, then she noticed a spike in his arm…he had been infected.

  “Please, save my children! Please” The woman screamed.

  She placed her hand so strongly on the glass that Angela thought it was going to break through and hit her. The pain on her red bloated face was that of extreme mental anguish.

  A strong orchestra of screaming nearby filled Angela ears with dread, alerting her to the people amongst the other nearby wreckages as their bodies began to transform. She shook her head and whispered an extremely heart felt “Sorry” to the woman and ran as fast as she could through the rest of the wreckages with thick tears racing down her face. She kept her head down as far as possible to the ground; she didn’t want to see the agony on any more faces, nor be assaulted by visions of ravaged corpses.

  If she got through this alive she promised herself she would never forget leaving that family in that situation; but she also knew she had her own children to think about.

  At the side of the road were a small set of blood splattered dark stairs which lead to an underground passage that lead directly into the city centre. She paused for the moment thinking about what it would be like there. It was a Saturday, so it would be filled with people at this time of the morning especially with the weather being so vibrant.

  She knew the scene would be a bloodbath, she was not far behind the wolves now at all, and they would still be in the city centre, ravaging their prey and infecting those they deem worthy of joining their army. She knew she had to get ahead of them and to do that she needed to go through them. Stopping was not an option.

  Angela cursed herself for yet again overthinking the situation, took a deep breath and ran down the subway. Inside it was dark and smelt of urine and sex. Lights were flickering which gave off brief glimpses of people slumped against the walls holding various parts of their bodies in agony; it was like a war shelter from the old war films on television after a large battle with all the mutters and screams with people tending each other’s wounds.

  Angela ran through with her eyes to the floor ignoring all pleas for help, until one man grabbed her by the arm. He held on tight.

  Without looking at him Angela tried her hardest to free herself. The man was trying to speak to Angela but his words sounded ‘wet’ and garbled. She tried to pry his hands from her arm but his grip was cold and clamped onto her like a vice.

  She began screaming for help herself but everybody else was busy with their own life or death situation. No one came to aid her. The world already wasn’t how she remembered it.

  She looked at the horrifying face of the man. A spike had penetrated directly through his mouth and had stuck fast into the wall behind him. He couldn’t move. He wanted Angela to free him.

  Angela didn’t know her body could produce so many tears but they continued to pour. With one quick thought of her family she grabbed the spike with her free hand and stuck it further into the man’s face. She let out a bellowing scream as the man’s grip weakened and his eyes became lifeless. She continued down the deathly hallway.

  She ascended the steps on the other side without any hesitation and arrived right in the epicentre of the chaos.

  A police car raced towards her. Angela starred at it in frozen shock; as much as she tried she could not move her body. The driver of the car had a needle in his forehead and looked to be in intense pain. He had one hand on the wheel and one hand trying desperately to remove the spike.

  The car suddenly turned, skidded and flipped over Angela barely missing her head; she could feel the police siren brush against the top of her hair. This all seemed slow motion to her. It crash landed behind her barely missing her. She stood still in shock as she took in the recent event and the scene lay out before her.

  The city centre was in chaos; smashed shop windows, people penetrated with spikes. Corpses; both wolf and human, scattered all over. The sound of sirens, gunshots, screams, howls and growls were overwhelming Angela’s senses.

  Each direction she looked had the same trail of corpses and people holding their wounds. Some injured people were even taking advantage of the situation by looting shop windows that the wolves had smashed open. Angela was disgusted at such behaviour but knew that they would not be around long to enjoy their spoils.

  It seemed like the wolves had spread out to attack the city in every direction; nowhere was untouched and it had not yet been twenty minutes since the outbreak on the boat.

  She knew a fast route home but by foot it would take at least twenty minutes. The wolves were moving much faster than she anticipated. It would not take them long to reach her neighbourhood at this rate. She heard grows from behind her; they were from the underpass; the fresh wolves from the dual carriageway were making their way.

  She ran down a few streets, the roads were scattered with police cars. Paramedics in their ambulances were arriving to tend to the wounded people but had trouble getting far because the roads were blocked with cars. Angela thought about stopping to tell them about the transformation but they would not believe her.

  It’s something that needs to be witnessed to be believed.

  Even though the city was in turmoil a majority of the people that had been infected were banding together helping each other, tending to each other’s injuries and giving grieving people a shoulder to cry on. It was a sweet scene but one that would worsen very soon.

  Angela was passing by a park when she heard a familiar voice shout her name.

  Friends Amongst Foes

  “Angherlaaah” Squealed a female voice.

  It was Silly Sally in her wheelchair; one wheel of her chair had fallen in a small groove in the pavement, resulting in her being stuck. Somehow she had avoided being att
acked. Angela wanted to just run past her but she had known Sally since she was just a baby when she was abandoned by her family for being born with down syndrome.

  She ran up to Sally, grabbed the back of her wheelchair and began to push it forward without using much technique, and because of the high amounts of adrenaline gushing through her body, she used too much force. This caused the wheelchair to flip over and Sally landed on her face with the wheelchair crushing her.

  “Angherlah what is googing on her” Sally spluttered with her terrible grammar. She was a big girl, at least twenty stone. She was wearing a large pink dress and was bald. She would be hard to get back into position.

  “Oh no” Angela said “I’m so sorry” Angela started to panic; There was nothing she could now do to save Sally. Growls from behind came closer.

  “You have to help me push yourself up Sally, please hurry”

  Sally with all her might began to push herself and the wheelchair back up. Angela grabbed hold of her and helped push her. Sally had exceptional strength considering her weight and syndrome. They managed to get Sally back upright and sally let out a small cheer and clapped her hands.