by J. J. Jones
“I know,” he looked at me graciously, “I wish it wasn’t that way. I wish I didn’t have to look over my shoulder. Wouldn’t that be nice?” He says with a little sarcasm.
“Someday,” I put my hand on his cheek. “Someday we will live in a world where you don’t have to. I promise, Logan. We will find a way to make that happen.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Tanisha,” Logan said trying to keep the tone light, but with an undertone of seriousness.
“I know, you’re probably right,” I replied knowing it’s a promise I don’t know I can keep. I start to pull my hand away before he clasps his own around it.
“Thank you for the promise anyway. It is nice to know you care, even if it is a promise you can’t keep,” Logan replied and I could see all the emotion tied into his comment.
“Maybe we should find a place we could get some rest before moving on?” I suggested.
“Yeah that sounds like a good idea,” Logan agreed holding my gaze. “I’m sure that GPS device has a category for hotels, right?”
“Yeah, I’m sure it does,” I replied.
But we never get that far. Logan reached over the passenger seat and interlocked his hand with mine. He pulled my face toward his and kissed me passionately on the mouth. All the emotion and adrenaline of the last few minutes drained from my body and into the kiss.
It felt like electricity running between us. His hand slowly played and danced with my fingers while his other hand ran through my hair, sending shivers down my spine.
Only we were snapped out of our beautiful moment in the worst possible way.
The shattering of glass exploded into the car like when I had shot the gun in the forest. I screamed and pulled my hands over my face to protect myself. I pulled them away only when I realized that nothing was happening to me, but I could hear muffled sounds of someone in pain.
Chapter4
“Logan!” I cried reaching out for him, but quickly drew back my hands as a black arm with claws sharp as knives swiped at me.
He growled low and pulled Logan tighter around the neck with his other arm, signaling his triumph over his prey while he stared directly at me. “Just let go, Snowflake, do the right thing.”
His voice was raw and cutting like a knife in the pit of your stomach. It made me want to cry just hearing him speak. Our eyes met, his a ghastly yellow that made me want to vomit just looking at them. He was half man half wolf. His skin was as dark as the darkest midnight with fur to match. Deep in the pit of my stomach a scream developed at the sight of him that only the truest part of fear could produce. He was honestly the scariest thing I had ever seen. He was like the nightmare that I could never remember. This was definitely the Lone Wolf and he was one ugly motherfucker.
But I had to be brave for Logan. I had to look the monster in the eye and pretend that I wasn’t terrified and frightened. So instead of looking at it, I looked at Logan, knowing that he would give me strength.
Our eyes met, and he looked to the keys of the car. I interpreted his instructions. Drive. He wanted me to drive.
Without even thinking about it again, I turned the keys in the ignition and started to drive. I backed out of the car park and didn’t stop. The Lone Wolf was relentless. He hung on through it all. He hit other cars, barriers, gates and fences, until finally we reached the exit where he hit the pillar at the exit and fell to the ground.
“Logan!” I cried, now that the Lone Wolf had finally released Logan. “Are you okay?”
“Drive back over him!” Logan said coughing, trying to catch his breath.
“Oh,” I said, reversing, finding the Lone Wolf lying on the ground stunned or at least shaken up. So I ran him over again with the car. I heard a thump as I ran him over with the car. I threw the car in reverse and backed over him again for good measure and to make myself feel better for what he had done to Logan. I heard the familiar thump, thump as the body rolled under both sets of tires.
I drove far enough back to look at the Lone Wolf. He was motionless on the ground.
“I think we killed him,” I turned to Logan waiting for a congratulatory smile or a kiss or something.
The look on his face told me I wasn’t going to receive any of those. Logan wasn’t convinced the Lone Wolf was dead. Although the Lone Wolf wasn’t moving, Logan, was going to make sure he wasn’t going to get up. He reached into the back of the car and grabbed the handgun we had found at my father’s house. I was surprised to see that we had brought the gun at all. I had thought we had left it behind since Logan had said we would need stronger weapons.
Logan got out of the car and walked over to the Lone Wolf. I watched in horror as without hesitation, Logan shot the Lone Wolf at point blank range three times in the head. The bullets entered his skull, but then I noticed that the Lone Wolf began to squirm a little. Logan blocked my view of the Lone Wolf as he jumped back and ran to the car.
“Go, Tanisha,” he yelled. “Now!”
Although I didn’t argue, I felt convinced the Lone Wolf was dead. “Logan, there is no way someone could have survived that. You shot him three times!” I said as I continued driving quickly weaving in and out of traffic.
Logan was continually glancing behind us and looking extremely worried. “I know that it seems that way, and normally I would agree with you, but this is not a normal situation. It’s just tha-”,Logan is interrupted when it sounds like a meteor just landed on the roof of our car.
From the pure shock of the noise, I swerved off the road practically throwing all of us into a ravine. I managed to regain control and kept driving as I saw in the rear view mirror the Lone Wolf punch a hole through the back window of the car and reach in for Logan. Logan was able to dodge him at first, but the Lone Wolf was fast and cunning. I worried for Logan. I swerved making it difficult for the Lone Wolf to continue to keep his balance while also making grabs at Logan.
Finally Logan called to me, “Pull over, I want to end this.”
I pulled over and stayed in the car. I didn’t know what else to do. Logan got out of the car and shifted into his full Polar Bear form.
I watched on in horror knowing there was nothing I could do. At first I thought they were evenly matched, the Lone Wolf was smaller, but he was agile and was able to move quickly against Logan. But the longer they fought, the more I realized, the Lone Wolf, would beat Logan. He was skilled, trained and cunning.
They fought in an abandoned school yard that looked like it hadn’t been used in at least a decade. The playground equipment was old and falling apart. Nothing had been maintained in years.
The moved in circles around each other walking on all fours like animals not humans. When they moved or attacked it was always at the throat of the enemy. It must have been where the other was must vulnerable.
I couldn’t stand it any longer. I could see that he wouldn’t be able to withstand the weight of the wolf many more times. The wolf would soon be too much for Logan to handle and Logan would lose this battle.
I went back to the car and dug in the backseat for the gun that Logan had shown me. I hadn’t fired it before, but I knew that it was a special gun. Well this was special circumstances, so I figured it was the right time to use it.
I pulled it from the car and ran back to fight. I waited for the perfect moment when the Lone Wolf wasn’t close to Logan, knowing that I didn’t have the best aim and I would never forgive myself if I hit Logan instead of the Lone Wolf.
The gun felt different in my hand, less like the shotgun and more like the handgun. I was grateful it wasn’t like the shotgun, big and bulky. I thought the handgun was easier to shoot, especially because it didn’t have as much recoil.
The Lone Wolf was so focused on Logan that he didn’t even notice me or the fact that I had a gun pointed at him. I had to wait for ages until Logan noticed I was poised with a gun. Logan knew what I was waiting for and decided to give me the opportunity I was waiting for. With all the energy he had left. He put both of his
legs against the Lone Wolf and pushed him hard in the stomach. It didn’t do much damage to the Lone Wolf, but made him stumble far enough away from Logan that I had my shot.
I pulled the trigger five times, hoping that at least a couple would hit my target. I watched the Lone Wolf move as he was hit. His body jerked backward multiple times, at least three, giving me the satisfaction that I had done my job.
The Lone Wolf collapsed to the ground in a heap shifting back to his human form and seemed to be dead. I ran to Logan and quickly tried to help him to his feet.
“Are you okay?” I asked knowing that was a stupid question.
“I’ll survive,” he replied shifting back to his human form and looking warily at the Lone Wolf.
“And him?” I asked looking over to the Lone Wolf as well.
“I wish he was dead,” Logan replied. “Thank you.” He looked up into my face making short eye contact with me before quacking looking around.
“You mean he’s not dead? Even now with all of that?” I asked feeling overwhelmed.
“I know,” Logan replied sounding exhausted as well. He walked back to the car and grabbed a pair of handcuffs and came back to the Lone Wolf. He handcuffed him to some of the old playground equipment. “At least this should buy us some time to get a little distance between us and him.”
“I can’t believe he’s still alive,” I said staring at him, unconscious handcuffed to the railing.
“I can, anyway, let’s go,” Logan said limping back toward the car.
“Yeah, okay, let’s get out of here.” I quickly followed Logan to the car.
Chapter5
In our relationship I had realized that I drive more than Logan drives, which may seem odd to some people, but it has become more of a necessity for us most of the time. And here again, we found ourselves, I was driving, because Logan was healing himself. It didn’t even seem odd or different, even though our lives are vastly different from the rest of the world.
“Logan,” I asked as we continued to drive, “can you explain to me more about the Lone Wolf?”
“Yeah,” he replied as he sighed relief from healing some of his wounds from the fight. “What would you like to know?”
“Anything?” I said “Everything? I mean I know there are things about your kind and your history that you think I am not ready to understand, but I am in the middle of all this,” I raise my hands in a circle, “so I guess I feel little entitled to know a little bit more about it all. That’s all.”
“I suppose that’s fair.” Logan replied, but didn’t continue to say anything else, but proceeded to heal to himself.
“I mean I just found out my father was a werebear, and I didn’t know. I have had all these bad feelings for him all these years. I feel so terrible about it now. I harbored terrible thoughts and feelings about him for so long and it was unfair of me. He was doing it just to protect me and mom, and I was blaming him for things like her illness and addictions.” I shook my head in shame.
“Tanisha, I know you feel bad about those things, but you didn’t know any better, and your dad couldn’t have done things any differently. If he had told you the truth, your safety would have been in jeopardy. It had to be done the way it was and if that meant you were angry with him, then it was the way it was. Your forgiveness will come in time. It is too bad that I was able to spend so much time with him and you so little. Life is unfair sometimes. When all this over, I will share with you my memories of him. I think you would like that.” Logan turned and smiled at me.
“I would like that,” I smiled in return.
“In the meantime, don’t beat yourself up over things you couldn’t control. Your anger is something that will dispel with time. You can’t expect that to leave overnight. You father would never hold that against you, and you shouldn’t either.” Logan reached across the car and squeezed my hand gently before resting his hand on my thigh.
“Okay so more about the Lone Wolf,” I asked changing the subject.
“Alright, It’s a government project. They created it years ago, but then after we all escaped their little training army I think they decided it was time to perfect it. There were about ten of us that escaped, and initially it was designed to hunt us down and bring us back in, but as you can see, we aren’t being brought back in. I believe the mission has been changed slightly. I think we are just being terminated instead, which isn’t that surprising.” Logan stopped and laughed a little manically that almost scared me.
I continued driving and listening intently.
“The big problem is, it is invincible. There is no way to kill it as far as I know. Once it has a mission, it doesn’t stop. It just keeps going until it accomplishes its mission. I haven’t ever heard of anyone or anything succeeding in avoiding or escaping the Lone Wolf. I know that sounds terrible, but I’m trying to be honest here. We need to keep running. I’m really concerned at how fast the Lone Wolf found us even after I used to spray. The spray is supposed to mask my scent from the Lone Wolf. It’s like our only defense against him but somehow he still found me......”
Logan stopped talking and seemed lost in thought for a few minutes as he contemplated the idea of the spray and how the Lone Wolf found them so quickly.
“Stop the car,” Logan said quickly.
I quickly pulled over the car. Logan jumped over and started walking around the car and bending over every few feet. I couldn’t see what he was doing, so I jumped out and walked around with him, trying to figure out what he was looking for underneath the car. After walking around the car twice he sighed and pulled out a small blacked bug from underneath the back driver’s side tire.
“We were being tracked,” he said holding up the tracking device. “No wonder it found us so quickly. And it’ll find us again if we don’t get rid of this fast.”
Logan ran to another car and stuck it underneath the frame. After a few moments the driver came back out to his car and drove away.
“Well that should buy us some more time, too.” Logan said feeling even better about our position now.
We jumped back in the car. Immediately, Logan doused himself with the spray in the aerosol can to mask his scent. I plugged my nose, and started to drive. “Drive in the opposite direction, of wherever our newly tracked friend just drove,” Logan suggested.
“Alright,” I smiled.
I jumped on the freeway taking the opposite direction of the tracked car and drove for at least a few miles before we decide to get off for some food.
“Let’s find a quick drive-thru for some food and then head to the hotel. I’m starving and I’m exhausted,” Logan said.
“I couldn’t agree more,” I replied.
We ran through a quick drive thru, but going through a drive thru with Logan never takes only five minutes, it’s more like at least a half an hour, because he orders at least twenty things on the menu.
“Drive thru’s are supposed to be fast,” I joked.
“Well they are still probably faster than going to a sit down restaurant would be for me. Plus I would get a lot of funny looks considering how much I eat.” Logan poked back.
“I suppose so, but I can’t even begin to imagine what your monthly grocery bill looks like,” I looked over at him.
“I don’t know,” Logan admitted. “I’ve never really kept track.”
“You’ve never kept track of how much money you spend in a month?” I asked a little surprised.
“Not really,” he replied. “Money is not an issue to my people, so I’ve never really worried about it.”
“Oh to have that kind of life,” I replied.
“Well it’s not that simple,” he looked over to me and smiled. “I would take your human money problems any day to the problems I face.”
“Alright, alright, I wasn’t trying to cause an argument.” I try to change the subject.
“We can move on to something else,” Logan also seemed to not want to fight.
Luckily just then someone walked out
of the restaurant with seven large bags stuffed to the top with food.
She came to the window. I rolled it down as she handed in each bag separately. “Thanks,” I said as she continued to hand the bags in.
“I half expected a bus or something, but just two people?” she was expecting an explanation.
“We go feed them to the homeless,” I said thinking quickly on my toes.
“Oh, that’s awesome. Good for you, have a great night.” She turned on her heal and jogged quickly back into the restaurant.
“The homeless?” Logan asked raising his eyebrows.
“Hey, I didn’t see you coming up with an explanation,” I retorted.