by Selina Woods
“Shit,” Barney exploded. “We have to get them out of there.”
“But we don’t know for sure,” Jonas protested. “All we have is a sense of something not being right.”
“I don’t care,” I snapped, turning for the back door and following the few shifters trotting among the rows of seats to the back. “My instincts say to get them out, and I’m going to do just that.”
Galloping past the line, the shifters staring as I pushed past them, I shoved my way out the rear door and down the darkened alley. I heard Skyler and the others following close, and I almost spun around to order her to remain behind. Not knowing where safety was, I chose to keep her with me.
Reaching the warehouse and its nearly invisible guards, I hesitated long enough to peer through the darkness at the rooftops above. I saw nothing, but that didn’t reassure me at all. Loping in, finding the big warehouse nearly full of the hundreds of shifters and humans waiting for me, I roared, “Everyone out! Go! Out the back!”
“What’s wrong?” yelled a tiger nearby.
“Just get out,” I snarled. “Go now.”
While they may not be used to obeying precisely me, they were used to following orders. Instantly, the crowd rushed toward the rear exit, streaming fast through the big double doors, and I feared they would trample one another in their haste. Like water flowing down a drain, the place emptied more smoothly than I feared.
“Where do we tell them to go?” Nigel asked.
“We don’t,” I replied, gazing around, searching for anything that might be the source of my gut’s warning. “If any enforcers hear where I tell them to go, then they’ll run right into another trap.”
Only fifty or so, plus my small group, remained inside when the first explosion hit. The building shook, flames burst from the ceiling as broken chunks of rafters fell all around us. “They’re throwing them from the nearby rooftops,” I yelled, even as more explosions rocked the structure. “Go, go, go.”
Screams and yells accompanied my shout as the grenade throwers now took aim at the openings in the roof. The warehouse quickly caught fire as the old dry wood burned, the fresh bombs hurling flames and smoke everywhere. It didn’t help matters that the place was filled with pallets and ancient crates, feeding the flames at a rapid pace.
Pushing Skyler in front of me, I rushed toward the rear doors where a panicked group had jammed it closed with a tight knot of bodies. Fire spread toward them, burning the walls, licking at the coughing, choking shifters who fought to escape. Not bothering to waste my breath trying to calm them, to get them to back off for the moments needed to free the only exit, I leaped past them.
I struck the burning wall near the door with my head and heavy shoulders, my eyes closed to protect them from the flames. The wall, weakened by the fire, collapsed outward, shattering like glass. Shedding wood fragments and flames, I hit the alley outside and rolled to press up against the wall of the building opposite.
“Ragnor!” Skyler screamed, pouncing on me. “You’re on fire.”
She and Nigel used their paws to force me over, smothering the flames in my mane and along my back, smacking my body hard. I barely felt the burns, and half wondered if their fast work prevented me from being scorched. Catching a rapid glance past them, I saw the shifters streaming out of the burning warehouse through the hole I’d made.
“We gotta go,” Nigel yelled in my ear. “It’s gonna collapse.”
Scrambling to my feet, Skyler at my side and Nigel behind, I raced down the alley with others who had barely escaped the inferno. My rebels had scattered as they fled, spilling out into nearby streets, many stopping to watch as the warehouse did indeed fall in upon itself.
“Motherfuckers,” I swore, also stopping to watch the conflagration. “They were watching us.”
“They knew we planned to move them from the hall to the warehouse,” Nigel growled, pacing angrily. “We have a spy in our midst.”
Jonas and Barney raced down the alley under the light of the fire. “Ragnor,” Jonas gasped, sliding to a halt in front of me. “They are in that apartment building across the alley from the warehouse. They knew we planned to move the people.”
“We just guessed that,” I snarled. “Can they escape?”
“Not now,” he replied as I charged down the street toward the five-story structure, gathering angry lions and wolves as I went.
“We have them trapped,” Barney informed me as we galloped to the front of the building. “We have the rear doors covered, and shifters as well as armed humans inside working their way up to the roof.”
“Do we know how many?” I asked, slipping through the front hallway.
“No,” Jonas replied, “but I don’t think they are many of them. We think they were to simply drop the grenades on the warehouse and then run down the fire escape. But we figured out the plan and blocked the alley before they could.”
“Are they on the roof?” I demanded, halting long enough to direct shifters into the stairwells.
“That we don’t know,” Barney answered. “They went from the fire escape back up but may be trying to come down the stairs or hide in the old apartments.”
“Search the entire place,” I yelled as shifters and humans continued to pour in from the street. “Catch them alive and bring them to me.”
Gunfire erupted on the floors above, making me charge into the nearest stairwell. With Skyler, Nigel, Jonas, and Barney at my heels, I raced up the stairs, following the sounds of the shots and the yells. Hitting the fourth-floor door, I rushed forward into chaos. Humans with rifles fired at the doors to the apartments across the hall, their bodies protected from return fire from the doorways of rooms. Choking smoke filled the corridor, the place echoing from the gunshots. Lions and wolves flanked them even as bullets from both directions splintered the wood and plaster.
“Cease fire!” I roared. “Cease fire!”
My people obeyed instantly, lowering their rifles. From the apartments, a few more shots erupted before finally tapering off. “You enforcers,” I shouted, “listen up. This is your chance to live.”
“What do you want?” replied a voice from inside. “You’re gonna kill us.”
“Not if you drop your weapons and surrender now,” I demanded. “We’ll not harm you if you come out peacefully.”
Low growls of protest rose amid my people but were silenced when I glared around at them. “We will keep you imprisoned until this is all over,” I continued, “then after that you will be set free at the city limits to go where you want as long as it's not here.”
“I don’t believe you,” the voice yelled. “You’ll tear us to pieces the minute we come out.”
“You have my word.”
“Forget it.”
Instantly, shots exploded from the rooms, but as my people were covered and safe, no one was hit. I gestured for them not to return fire, to wait until they ran out of ammunition. And given the rate they continued to fire, that time would be soon. I met Skyler’s concerned eyes and then shrugged, silently informing her I tried to give them a chance to stay alive. She dipped her chin once in understanding.
At long last, the enforcers inside the apartment ran out of ammunition, and the gunshots tapered off once more. My people ventured cautiously out of hiding, glancing uneasily at one another, slinging their rifle straps over their shoulders. Leading the way with a dozen lions and wolves, armed humans at our backs, I charged straight through the door and broke it down.
Five lions stood within, terrified, fangs bared and ready to fight and die. Courageously stupid, the leader rushed me, a lion nearly as big as I was. As I fought him tooth to tooth, claw to claw, I knew the others had also engaged my forces. Maddened by fear, the gangster struggled hard, desperate to stay alive, yet he made a fatal mistake by trying to use his weight against me.
I gave way, retreated slightly, knocking him off balance. Not by a huge margin, but enough that I struck his shoulder hard, and threw him aside. He staggered, grantin
g me the opening I needed. I clamped my jaws and fangs onto his face and skull and killed him instantly by crushing his head. He went limp, and I let him fall to the faded carpeting.
His fellow enforcers fared no better and were torn to pieces as they feared might happen if they surrendered. I stared around at the dead and the blood seeping into the floor, wondering if there ever were such things as peace or freedom. Skyler padded quietly to my side as Jonas, blood on his muzzle, approached.
“You gave them a chance,” he told me quietly. “It was more than they deserved.”
“I had hoped that if I showed mercy,” I replied, gazing at the lion I killed, “that maybe, just maybe, I could entice Kanata’s people into turning against him.”
“It might still work,” Nigel added. “Others may not be as foolish as these guys.”
I shook my head and turned for the busted door. “Is there any chance of rounding everyone up? We need to see to any injured.”
“Already underway, Ragnor,” Jonas answered. “I have Gibson and a few others getting people back into the concert hall. And yes, don’t ask: I have wolves sniffing out any more trouble. They’re searching for blocks in all directions.”
“Good job.”
Despite the heartiness I put into my voice, I certainly didn’t feel anything of the sort. Striding out of the apartment building, I felt I were leading these people straight into the fangs of destruction. Your first real attempt to lead and look what happened. The war almost ended with everyone under your command killed in that warehouse.
Chapter Nine
The warehouse slowly burned its way to the ground without spreading, smoke and ash filling our lungs as we made our way back down the blocks to the concert hall. Rebels continued to trickle in from all around the streets, armed humans standing only feet apart for a full block surrounding the big hall. Skyler and I entered with the others behind us, seeing several prone forms on the floor by the walls. Shifters and humans bent over them, tending to their wounds.
“Will you see what you can do for them?” I asked Skyler.
Skyler shifted forms and planted a quick kiss to my muzzle. “I will.”
I made my way among the rows of seats to the front of the hall, half-listening to the comments, the anger in their voices, the word of a spy for Kanata spreading through them. With Nigel, Jonas, and Barney, I stood upon the elevated stage even as Gibson prowled below with two other lions.
“Do we know how many were killed and injured?” I asked as the vast hall quieted.
Constantine, his face dark with ash and soot, stepped forward from the lines of folks on the floor, Skyler on her knees beside one. “Two dead and about a dozen with serious injuries. Others have minor wounds and say they can continue.”
“Do you have enough help seeing to them?”
“Yes, I think so.”
I nodded briefly, gazing out at the eyes watching me intently. “I heard you all talking as I walked among you,” I began, pacing slowly back and forth across the stage. “We all know now we have a traitor in our midst, one who knew we would not meet here but at the warehouse. Before you start growling at your neighbor, inciting suspicion and making accusations, just know that I will find the spy in due time, and he or she will be executed.”
Angry rumbles greeted my little speech, fierce nods at the word “execute,” even as eyes stared around as though able to spot the traitor then and there.
“Calm down,” I said, sitting on my haunches, coiling my tail around my paws. “Our luck was with us tonight, but we can’t count on that happening again. As gathering in groups this large is, obviously, very dangerous, we will not be here long. I see folks are still coming in, but we dare not wait any longer to get organized.”
I paused, too restless to continue to sit, and paced the stage again. “Our best chance to win this fight is in stealth and secrecy,” I continued. “We greatly outnumber Kanata’s enforcers, but while we are hunting them, they are hunting us. Divide yourselves into units of twenty-five soldiers, and a mixture of lions, wolves, deer and humans in each. We will need the skills of each species for every unit. When you have done so, stand with your group.”
Jonas and Barney left the stage as strode among them as the rebels stood up from their seats and called to one another, quickly forming themselves into huddles. With Jonas and Barney helping, they created their units faster than I expected. When the hall quieted again, each set of twenty-five stood apart from the others. As they did, I swiftly counted fifty-six of them. Stragglers still came in, and there were those could not get into a unit before the twenty-five were selected.
“Barney, bring those others up here,” I called, estimating there were about twenty of them. “As well as all the others who are still coming in.”
He herded them toward the stage while Jonas stood near the doors to guide more who arrived toward me. I wasn’t sure how many were out on guard around the neighborhood but planned to incorporate them into my own personal unit of a few hundred rebels.
“Now take a few minutes and choose your commander,” I told them. “Pick one whom you know and understand you will obey without hesitation, and to whom you will be absolutely loyal.”
Murmurs abounded, echoing through the hall as they selected their commanders. That, too, happened quickly, and each new leader of his unit stepped forward.
“Now, as we found out not long ago,” I said, “we must not remain in a single large group for very much longer. Kanata may already be planning a new surprise. Take a moment and agree on a place to meet an hour after sunrise. Remember, we need to remain secret and in hiding, so choose a place carefully where you won’t be seen or heard.”
After quick discussions, their decisions were made, and once again, silence reigned until I broke it. “Very good. Those with units, disperse now. Find places to sleep in safety and meet your commanders tomorrow to get your orders. Commanders, you stay behind, and you rebels who have no unit will become a part of mine. Go, and be careful. Stay alive.”
The vast crowd in the hall melted away through the doors, slinking in their animal shapes to vanish into the night. Within moments, only the injured, the start of my small army, and the new commanders remained in the echoing hall. As Jonas approached with another thirty shifters and humans, I changed into my two-legged self.
“We’ve stayed here too long,” I told them. “We need to find a place where we can meet that Kanata won’t know about.”
“There’s an old empty mansion about two miles from here,” said a wolf. “It’s only got three walls and a roof, but no one lives in it or near it. It faces the river, so it also has some protection.”
I nodded. “Excellent choice. How do we find it?”
He quickly told us where it was and the quickest route to it. “Gibson, Jonas, and Barney,” I ordered, “you all gather in the guards outside and tell them how to get there, then you come back. The rest of you, spread out and go, but don’t let yourselves be seen. Stay to cover, watch your backs, protect the humans who don’t have our predatory skills at not being seen. Go.”
Like smoke, the shifters changed into their two-legged bodies and vanished out the doors until the place was empty, save me, Nigel, Skyler, and Constantine, and those helping him and the injured. Striding to the area where the wounded lay, I gazed down at them, realizing I couldn’t leave them, yet not knowing what to do with them.
“They have to come with us,” I muttered.
Nigel half-turned away from them and spoke in my ear. “We also could be seen if we try to carry them out.”
“I know.”
Walking among them, I inspected their wounds, seeing burns, broken bones, bloodied clothes. Reaching Skyler, I took her arm, murmuring in her ear. “How many can shift and walk?”
Frowning, she glanced down at them. “Not many.”
I chewed my lip, thinking. “We have to find a place or people who can take them in, care for them. Any ideas?”
Constantine heard the question and ap
proached, his hands bloody. “I think I know of a place,” he replied. “There’s a convent of nuns close by. Kanata leaves them alone because they have nothing and he’s superstitious.”
I nodded. “Yeah, he has a fear of holy people. We use Barney’s truck to get the injured there. We’ll repay them by sending crates of food, as right now I’m broke.”
That brought a smile to Skyler’s face and a few chuckles. “They will need the food more than money,” she said.
“Okay, let’s start carrying these folks to the truck.”
A few managed, with help, to walk to it while we carefully carried a few others. “Not all will fit,” I said as some sat in the seats while we lay three side by side in the bed. I pointed to a couple of Constantine’s helpers. “Go with them and stay with the nuns to not just look after them but also protect them. If Kanata learns they are there, his fear of holy people might cease.”
Constantine slowly drove away through the empty streets, and I wondered if I was doing the right thing. Skyler, Nigel, a lion named Silas, and me hid in the shadows near the doorway of the hall, watching for anything at all. Nothing at all happened until three lions strolled out of the darkness, pausing now and then to sniff the air.
“Where’s my truck?” Barney asked.
“Constantine took some wounded to a place where they can be cared for with it,” I replied. “Is everyone headed for the mansion?”
“Yeah, we’re just waiting on you.”
Leaving Gibson and Silas to watch from hiding, the rest of us went back inside to wait for Constantine to return for the rest of the wounded. Skyler walked among them with smiles and soft words, and as I observed her, I also noticed how they smiled despite their pain, reached for her with their hands.
“They love her,” Nigel muttered in my ear. “Maybe she should stay with the nuns if she has healing skills.”