by Martha Woods
“Oh,” I snickered, “Is that what you planned to do?”
“I was hoping, but he kept turning me down. I’ll respect that, even if they were terrible parents I can’t blame someone for still having lingering feelings for them, you can’t just switch that off overnight. But if they come anywhere within a mile of him without a white flag waving high in the air then I swear to god I’ll tear them apart right then and there, no hesitation. He understands that too.”
“There’s limits to feelings,” I said, thinking back to the days that I used to work alongside Rick, now long passed, “I can understand that.”
The larger buildings were now behind us, the scenery around us turning so much greener and so much more vibrant, trees peppering our view more than buildings at points. While normally I would have been glad for the sight, and indeed a part of me still was, now that I knew what was out there and waiting for us my enthusiasm for seeing the forest had somewhat dampened, expecting to see a small army charging at us just to tear us out of the car and rip us to shreds. No doubt Christine wouldn’t be eager to go easily, and if you really push me I’m not going to have any qualms about defending myself either, but I could still hope such a situation wouldn’t present itself.
But soon enough there it was, the small house, more of a cabin looming ahead of us, nestled nicely between a patch of trees and a small lake, the picturesque little homestead that so many novels and movies have romanticized to the point of nausea. When you see one though, you can’t help but be transported back into the body of some little homestead wife, waiting for her husband to come home from the trail before they both die of dysentery by the time that they’re twenty three. Simpler times I suppose.
Stepping out of the car I could almost feel the temperature dropping around us, my nerves still wired from the encounter that morning that I was about ready to see shadows jumping out from behind every tree, my fists clenched and my energy focused in case I had to make an emergency defense out of nowhere. You can call me paranoid, but given the circumstances I think that “Prepared” is more appropriate.
“Come on,” She said, tone clipped and serious. She sniffed at the air, narrowing her eyes at the cabin and stepping forward. “I can smell blood.”
“The normal amount?” I asked, “Or a worrying amount?”
“Is there a normal amount?”
“Maybe he cut himself shaving?”
She snorted, a short noise that you could mistake for a cough, “He’s seventeen, what’s he got to shave?”
Stepping onto the porch, we could see that the front window had been smashed in and the door had been left slightly ajar. That just about ruled out every possibility that this was in any way normal, so it was with added caution that we pushed it open slowly and stepped inside the cabin, our heads on a swivel to be certain that we weren’t going to get our eyes gouged out by any shifters in hiding. By now even I could smell the blood, and it wasn’t long before we saw it either, flecks of it splattered along the walls from where someone had been punched, dark pools on the floorboards that spread slightly along, likely from a slashing wound that was bleeding pretty badly, but they were still able to move slowly. The walls were trashed, deep crunches in the wood from where bodies had been slammed and thrown, lights smashed and wires torn out of the sockets, whoever had come here to attack him hadn’t gotten away with no struggle. In all likelihood just as much of this blood was theirs as it was his.
And then we stepped around the corner, to see him propped up in a chair in the middle of the room with his hands tied behind his back. The subtle rise of his back showed that he was still breathing, labored though it was, though when I went to walk to him to assist him Christine placed her hand on my shoulder and held me back.
“Nitroglycerine,” She said, sniffing for emphasis, “He’s trapped.”
“C-Christine?” He said, lifting his bruised and bloody face to stare at us, “And… who are you?”
“My name’s Amy,” I said, placing my hand against my chest, “I’m the one who’s more or less in charge of the alliance, I’m surprised that we haven’t met.”
“Me too… I guess I didn’t get the chance to go to any meetings yet.” He let his head fall back down, hissing at the pain from his arms and legs, skin torn and broken from claws and teeth alike no doubt. “Don’t come any closer. They… they did something, I don’t know what, but I know they did something when I was out.”
“They strapped a bomb to you,” Christine said, frowning and kneeling so that he could still see her, “Do you want us to help you? Or do you want me to just make it quicker for you?”
He laughed, making it about a second before it turned into a violent cough and a mouthful of blood spat onto the floor. “I’m… not gonna turn down the help. Why don’t we wait until it gets to taking too long before we kill me?”
Christine nodded, ears twitching slightly as she searched the surroundings for any sign of movement. I felt like we were being watched, so she absolutely could feel that too, both of us wanting to get this finished as quickly as possible before we ended up not being able to walk out at all.
“Can you do anything?” She asked me, pointing down at my hands, “If this explodes can you… stop it for a few seconds?”
“I… I’ve never tried that, but I suppose I can.” Kneeling next to her, I tried to hold the breath in my lungs as she reached down and lifted the can from behind the small of his back, being careful not to pull out any of the wires and trigger an early explosion. I held my hands up, ready to form a forcefield or some kind of shield around it if anything felt like it was going wrong, like I’d done back at the hotel. I still wasn’t completely sure how I did that since I’d hit my head pretty hard, but I’m sure that if I get stressed enough I can do just about anything.
“It looks like this was supposed to go off when we moved him, it doesn’t look like there’s any transmitters or timers on it…” She hummed, turning it over in her hands, “I think that as long as I don’t cough and drop this then we should have all day to be able to defuse this…”
“Well, that’s good,” I said, “I mean, not for my heart, I don’t think I’d be able to handle spending a whole day around a live bomb but…”
She snapped her head up, narrowing her eyes at the wide windows looking over the forest before her eyebrows rose into her hairline. “Can you put that shield around it now?”
“W-what?” I stammered, before clenching my teeth and forming the barrier around it, “Yeah! I can hold it for a few seconds!”
“Good!” She snatched up the bomb, now more of a ball with the shield, before taking two quick steps forward and hurling it with all her might through the window, diving backwards and dragging both Archie and me down to the ground, a long second passing before the explosion finally escaped the shield and shattered the windows around us, scorching hot air blowing over us and shrapnel punching holes through the walls only inches above where our heads lay.
“What the fuck was that?” I screamed, still struggling to get the breath back in my lungs as she rose up and snarled at the now burning hole where a window had been, “What are you doing?”
“Shifters!” She yelled, leaping forward just as one sprinted through the window, all fangs and swiping claws, before she caught it around the throat and slammed it down into the ground hard enough to rattle my bones. “Get up! This was a trap!”
I pushed myself up onto my hands, first noticing the scattered figures outside surrounding the crater, some of them clearly not in one piece, before I saw the half dozen other shifters filtering through the trees and coming towards us, anger in their eyes and hunger in their jaws. “Oh shit.”
In the blink of an eye they had disappeared from the tree line, spreading out to catch us by surprise from every angle, no doubt having the means and skills to hit us from every side at once. It was with a belated moment of realization that I remembered exactly what kind of shifter these were, and why that was generally bad news for anyone who w
asn’t also some kind of shifter, right before a vicious growl accompanied the remains of the front door shattering and scattering across the ground.
“Shit, shit shit shit!” I grabbed Archie, untying the bonds around his wrists and doing my best to see if there were any dire injuries, before I dragged him back against the wall and placed myself in between him and the open doorway, just as Christine snapped the neck of the shifter that had been in her grasp. “Christine, have you ever fought bears before?”
“Bears? Yes, once or twice, wh-” She looked to the hallway, just as two bears stalked in with drool dripping from their jaws at the sight of us. “Oh shit.”
One thing that I always forget when I watch any sort of documentary is just how fast bears are, and there is no ruder awakening than when one of them starts sprinting at you full bore with no warning while you can barely exhale. Not for the first time I was glad that I didn’t have full control over my powers just yet, I’m sure that’s the only thing that kept my head from being crushed between a set of powerful jaws as I thrust my hands out, hitting it with enough force to propel it upwards through the roof and into the air at least twenty feet. Well, when it landed if it wasn’t dead it was going to be supremely injured, given the circumstances I’m not exactly sorry for either outcome. Sue me, it’s self-defense.
“Keep him guarded!” Christine shouted, taking the second bear by the jaws and gritting her teeth in pain, its teeth pushing through her palms and trying to tear her hands right off at the wrist. “You… don’t… win!”
In hindsight I probably should have looked away, but how many times are you going to see a half-transformed werewolf tear a bear’s jaw completely open and leave it dangling grotesquely. Yep, I definitely should have looked away, that was just too much. Even she seemed to think so, wrenching its neck around just as the first howl of pain started up before it could get much worse, it was hard not to think of it as a mercy at that point.
“How many are left?” She asked, pupils dilated with the thrill of blood and combat and her hands twitching with pain. Sniffing at the air, she bared her teeth again before snarling deep in her throat and hunching over, her muscles bulged and tore the fabric of her shirt, already straining at the best of times if I’m being honest. It wasn’t even a full moon, it wasn’t even long into the afternoon, but werewolves as far as I knew could reach this sort of… hybrid state that isn’t quite full werewolf, but definitely isn’t full human. They have to be sufficiently wild to do it though, and given what I knew of Christine… I’d say they pissed her off badly enough to warrant it.
“Four left!” She howled in a voice not quite her own anymore, fur pushing through the rips in her clothing and her teeth turning even more sharp and vicious, thumping her hands against her chest and welcoming the next fight. The next two bears evidently learned by watching, rushing her both at once and latching their jaws around her arms, dragging her down to the ground and swiping at her with paws that just emanated strength, their sharp claws tearing open her skin and opening gashes along her scalp, the welcoming snarl of her own the only thing that kept me from just blasting the lot of them and hoping she was fine.
“I… I can fight,” Archie said, trying to push himself up before collapsing down to the ground, tearing my eyes away from the sight of Christine rising up with either of the bears still latched onto her arms to try and assist him.
“Don’t get up!” I said, pushing him back against the wall, “You need to rest, you’ve been hu-”
Pummeled to the side, I almost didn’t realize what had hit me before another bear growled right in my face, swiping down across my bicep with its claws and tearing me open, its other claws slashing into the wall where my head had just been before I ducked down. It hit me once again, right between my shoulders, and I can say for a fact that I’ve never been hit by anything quite so hard in my life, at least two ribs cracking, one definitely breaking, I wasn’t going to get out of this without at least one or two new scars.
But I could at least give it one or two of its own.
Rolling away as it snapped its jaws down, I wrapped my hand around its powerful leg and focused as hard as I could, feeling the heat welling up inside me before I pushed it all out through my hand, its fur bursting into flame and spreading like it was covered in gasoline, its vicious growls changing instantly to yelps of fear and pain, all but jumping away and sprinting out through the window in search of some escape from the flames that were coating it. The sight of flames frightened the bears that were still fighting with Christine, the moment of distraction taken advantage of as she sent her foot sailing right into one’s temple, shattering bone and snapping cartilage, its form going limp instantly and slumping down to the ground. Grabbing the other, she lifted it up above her head in what I could only imagine was a show of supremely pissed off strength before snapping it down against her knee, leaving it to gasp and flail for a moment before she stomped down on its head and ended it right then and there.
“One… more…” She hissed, turning to face the hallway, “Come on.”
“We don’t have to do it like this…” The last shifter said, stepping out of the hallway with his arms held out, “When it comes down to it, it’s not you that we want to fight, we just want the people that you’re holding.”
“Our territory. Our rules,” She snarled, stepping forwards until her face was only an inch away from his. There was still at least two foot of difference, she was absolutely massive, but to his credit he didn’t shy away too much, just flinched a little. “You dare to attack my people, our youngest, and you think I’ll listen to you?”
“We know that you think that we’re the worst, but some of those people that you’re helping are far worse than us,” He said, “That spy, Anthony? Do you know what he’s done?”
“Yes, he told us himself,” I said, “He also lost an arm trying to protect his people, while you’ve just been attacking innocent people and running away before anyone can fight back against you.”
“I… just want to offer the both of you an out,” He said, taking a step back once he realized that the plan to wear us down hadn’t exactly been a success, “Give us the shifters, and we’ll leave you alone, no questions asked.”
“Hmm…” Christine growled, stepping forward and crowding him until his back thumped against the wall. He didn’t dare try and change forms, he was smart enough to realize that he wouldn’t make it half a second before she ripped his throat out and shoved it into his mouth. “Amy, how many hunters died this morning?”
“I think… three or four? Probably closer to three.” I narrowed my eyes, recognizing that tone that someone always got when they got an idea. “Why?”
“Well, I was just thinking,” She said, sweeping her arm out behind her at the chaos that used to be a living room, “There’s three dead shifters here, I’d say that makes our groups just about even, don’t you think?”
“I guess so,” I said, “Eye for an eye?”
“Eye for an eye,” She agreed, leaning down to the shifter, “That’s what you go and tell your masters, for every one of us that you hurt and kill, we will hurt and kill one of yours, until there are none of you left to even defend yourselves from us. We’re never going to give up the shifters, the only thing that could possibly be given up is your endless pursuit of them that is only going to get one of you killed, understood?”
“They’re… they’re not going to like that.”
“And we’re not going to like any answer other than ‘Thank you for understanding, we’ll move on with our lives now’, so you can see how much I care about their approval.” I pushed myself up against the wall, hissing at the open cuts on my back. “Now get the hell out of here and go back to them, before I let her do what she’s so clearly dying to do to all of you.”
He nodded, hatred briefly flashing across his face before sense won out, trying to push himself out from between the wall and Christine before she trapped him with her arm.
“Hold on,” Sh
e said, “I said an eye for an eye didn’t I?”
He watched with slowly dawning horror as she closed her hand around his wrist, placing her other around his neck and snarling, “You owe Anthony an arm.”
I didn’t look away this time, and unlike last time… I didn’t really feel bad for watching this one. But the scream that echoed out through the trees, long after he had stumbled out clutching at the bloody stump of his shoulder… I feel like they heard it exactly where he’d come from.
I guess now we just had to wait for a response.
Chapter 5
To be honest, after the ordeal that we’d just been through, and the pain that was throbbing through my back, I just felt like passing out and letting someone else handle whatever it is that needs to be done. I’ve had a hard couple of days, no one would really blame me for shifting it onto someone else, I just want to have an actual break for once.
Unfortunately the only break I was going to have anytime soon seemed to be my rib, which was making it much harder to breath than normal, which would have been bad under normal circumstances but given that we’d just gotten out of a life or death fight against a bunch of fucking bears… yeah, this wasn’t exactly making me feel that good.
“Are you alright?” I asked Archie, patting his shoulder and pushing him up into a sitting position, “You look like they worked you over pretty badly.”
“Made one of them earn it though, knocked his teeth out.” He smiled, grimacing at the gashes that were starting to mend but were still leaking blood onto the floor. “I think that was the one that you set on fire.”
“Oh, that’s good,” I laughed, letting my head fall back against the wall, “What about you Christine, how are you… oh my god you look awful.”
“Thank you for the compliment,” She hissed, grabbing a finger that had gotten dislocated sometime in the struggle and snapping it back into place, “I suppose that peace is out of the question now, isn’t it? We’re going to have to be on the lookout for more ambushes, I have a feeling they’re just getting started.”
