The dune buggy rolled down the hill, end over end. Wax held tightly to her weapon, but was crushed beneath the back bumper. Her lifeless body was hooked through the handles of the heavy machinegun, tossing her around like a rag doll as the car tumbled to the bottom of the hill.
They landed upside-down against the side of a tree. Apple hit her head hard, but was quickly awakened by Skunky.
“You okay? You okay?” Skunky said.
Apple nodded.
“We’re still alive,” the skunk girl said. “We’re going to be fine.”
Then the black wolf skulked down the hill toward them. When Skunky saw the wolf, she froze.
“Don’t move,” she whispered.
As the wolf arrived, it sniffed at the vehicle. Neither Apple nor Skunky moved or made a sound. They noticed something very wrong with the creature. It had long wires sticking straight out of its face, whipping around like they were full of electricity. The wires were the same creatures as the snake that was pulled out of the feces, only the heads were buried inside of the beast’s flesh like long metal ticks.
The monstrous wolf continued to sniff the overturned dune buggy, but it wasn’t the blood of Apple or Skunky that it smelled. It was Wax’s blood.
The wolf followed the trail of blood away from the vehicle until it found Wax’s body six yards away. Apple watched as the wolf stepped onto the corpse and then bit into it, ripping the upper torso into its mouth. The muscled flesh was flexible, and stretched like jerky.
“Okay, let’s get out and sneak away very slowly,” Skunky whispered.
Apple crawled out of the wrecked car first, sticking close to the ground. Skunky came out second, her automatic rifle getting caught on the door for moment until Apple helped her out. Once they got to their feet, the black wolf looked back at them, one of Wax’s severed legs dangled from its mouth.
Both of the women opened fire on the wolf. Apple couldn’t keep her gun steady as she fired, spreading the bullets everywhere else but on her target.
“Separate,” Skunky yelled. “Run!”
Apple ran back up the hill where they came from. Skunky didn’t go anywhere. She held her ground, firing her AK-47 at the beast as it charged toward her. As Apple continued up, she was passed by Talon and Bunny roaring down the hill on their motorcycles. Apple stopped running and turned around.
As the beast charged her, Skunky fired at it until the very last moment. Then she turned to run away. Bunny skid her bike to a halt as she saw the wolf coming down on her lover.
“No!” Bunny yelled, as she revved up her chainsaw boomerang.
Skunky looked back at Bunny. Their eyes met. The skunk girl just stared at the woman she loved for one last moment as the black beast chomped down into her.
Bunny screamed as she saw her girlfriend thrashing inside of the wolf’s mouth. Talon jumped from her bike and ran toward the beast with her axes raised. Impaled on one of its fangs, Skunky cried out for help, blood gushing from black fur.
Bunny threw the chainsaw boomerang into the air as the skunk girl slid down the wolf’s throat. The chainsaw blade grazed one of its eyeballs and severed an ear. Just before Talon could leap at the wolf’s legs, it ran away, whimpering. Bunny caught her boomerang as it returned, then roared forward on her motorcycle.
“Wait,” Talon yelled at Bunny, as she ran back for her own motorcycle.
Apple jumped on the back of Talon’s bike, and together they chased after Bunny and the wolf. They flew through the forest, dodging trees, going as fast as they could. Ahead, they saw the black mass running through the woods, with Bunny following close behind. The enraged wolf girl was screaming at the wolf, tossing her boomerang at it, missing, catching it, and then throwing it again.
“Fire,” Talon yelled at Apple.
Apple aimed her sub-machinegun over Talon’s shoulder and fired at the wolf. The bullets sprayed in the wrong direction.
“We’re going to have to teach you how to actually shoot that thing,” Talon said.
Apple didn’t bother using the gun after that.
Bunny went up a slope in the grass and hit a jump. In midair, she was level with the beast’s face. She just had to toss her boomerang sideways for the chainsaw blades to slice right through its skull. The beast went down.
When Apple and Talon arrived, they found Bunny frantically cutting open the beast’s belly with one side of the chainsaw blade.
“Batty?” she yelled at its stomach. “Bat Girl?”
When the stomach contents emptied onto the forest floor, Bunny tossed her boomerang and dove into its foul-smelling guts.
“Bunny,” Talon yelled, worried about the state of her hysterical soldier. “Cut it out.”
The rabbit girl pulled a wet black body out of the opened belly and cradled it in her arms. Apple couldn’t tell if she had been chewed to death or suffocated in the creature’s stomach, but the skunk girl was dead.
Bunny however couldn’t accept that fact. She cradled her lover’s body in her arms. “It’ll be okay, Bat Girl,” Bunny cried. “Your Bun-hop is here. I saved you again, just like the time you saved me.”
Then the rabbit girl bawled. She cried louder than Apple had ever heard anyone cry. Seeing such a strong, tough woman as Bunny cry like that was something Apple would not have expected.
“Bunny, get out of there,” Talon said.
Then Talon saw metal worms slithering through the guts toward the rabbit girl.
“Bunny,” Talon screamed. “Get out of there!”
But it was too late, the worms darted out of the muck and bit into Bunny. The rabbit girl jumped to her feet, screaming, still holding Skunky’s body as if trying to also protect it from the creatures. The worms burrowed beneath Bunny’s skin, a dozen wiry snakes whipping through the air like a dozen kite tails.
Talon hacked through the metal worms with her axes, then dropped the weapons and began ripping them out with her bare hands. Some of them had gotten most of their bodies inside of her, but Talon managed to pull them all the way out.
She took Bunny away from the dead wolf, not sure if she had gotten them all.
“Are you okay?” Talon said.
Bunny was obviously not okay. She was weak. She couldn’t even hold Skunky’s body up anymore and let it go, plopping in the mud next to her.
“They injected me with something . . . some kind of poison,” Bunny said.
Then Bunny fell into Talon’s arms and the alpha wolf lifted her off of the ground. She left Skunky’s corpse where it lay.
“Let’s get her back to the others,” Talon told Apple.
Apple nodded her head.
They met up with the others and set up a camp further down the road, in the woods. They knew the other wolves were in the area, probably relaxing somewhere after eating a meal of mutant men, so they didn’t plan to stay long. Just long enough to check on the conditions of Bunny and Kockwick. Plus, they knew the coast wasn’t very far away and they wanted to get there long before dark.
Bunny was shivering and coated with so much sweat that her fur was flat to her muscles. She was still crying, her face buried in her hands.
Kockwick had lost so much blood that it didn’t look like it was possible for her to pull through. Talon was at her side, inspecting her wounds. Talon wasn’t the best at first aid, but she knew enough to stop the bleeding.
“I’m not worried about those,” Kockwick said, her voice rough. “What I’m worried about is my life support.”
Talon looked at the engine on Kockwick’s back. It was making an odd rumbling noise. The bullets that had hit Kockwick passed through her body and pierced the machine on her back. If the machine were to break down, she would die. It wasn’t functioning at full capacity anymore.
“Can you repair it?” Talon asked.
“I would need to use my spare to fix it,” she said. “Unfortunately, I gave my spare to the boy over there.”
They looked at Sam.
“If I removed it I’d kill him.”
Apple and Sam looked at each other, then back at Talon. Talon looked at them, as if debating what should be done. They all lowered their eyes, contemplating their situation.
“What’s to think about?” Bunny said through her fingers, a delirious voice. “Trading the life of a crippled piece of meat for one of our most essential sisters? It’s an easy decision.”
Kockwick shook her head. “No, I couldn’t do that.” She pointed at Apple and Sam. “Look at them. They’re in love. I can’t take that away.”
“Warriors can’t love Meat,” Bunny said. “They are just for using and throwing away. The only true love is the love between two sisters.”
Bunny started crying again.
Talon looked back at Kockwick. “It’s your call. If you want me to take his life to save yours I will, but if you don’t, I’ll respect your decision.”
“I don’t,” Kockwick said.
“Bullshit.” Bunny pulled a handgun from the holster on her thigh. “I’ll kill him myself. Then you won’t have a choice but to use his machine.”
Before she could aim it at Sam’s head, Talon brought the back of an axe head down on her hand, slamming the gun into the dirt.
“Bunny, it’s not your call,” Talon said.
Bunny looked up at her leader, her eyes red and wet, shaking her head. “I’m really messed up, Talon.”
Apple couldn’t tell if she meant the poison in her system had messed her up, or if it was Skunky’s death, or both.
“I can hear a voice in my head.” Bunny poked at her temple. “It hurts when I try to block it out.”
Talon kneeled down, recognizing Bunny’s condition was worse than she thought.
“What is it saying?” Talon asked.
“Not exactly words,” Bunny explained. “More like emotional sensations, attacking my brain.”
“Relax, Bunny,” Talon said. “You’re just in shock.”
“It could be some kind of mind control,” Kockwick said.
Bunny began to cry again, covering her face. “It’s trying to make me forget my Bat Girl, my Skunky. Don’t let it take my precious little skunk girl away.”
Hyena, standing on the other side of her motorcycle, shook her head at the condition of her two wounded sisters. She motioned to Talon to follow her away from the group. When Talon went to her, they didn’t walk far enough away to prevent Apple from hearing.
“What are we going to do?” Hyena asked Talon. “I don’t think we have a chance of pulling this off with just the two of us.”
“Not two.” Talon looked over at Apple. “Three.”
“She’s not going to be of any use,” Hyena said.
“You have to have faith in your sisters,” Talon said.
“You know me,” Hyena told Talon. “I never do.” Then Hyena walked away.
Apple noticed Kockwick was watching her as she eavesdropped on Hyena’s conversation.
“Pay no attention to Hyena,” Kockwick said. “She’s a lone wolf. . . I mean lone hyena.” Kockwick chuckled a little until she gagged on the blood in her lungs.
“Kind of like Bunny?” Apple asked.
Kockwick looked over at the rabbit girl, who was so wrapped up in her tears that she didn’t know they were talking about her.
“Bunny’s no lone wolf,” Kockwick said. “She’s a gamma wolf who needs a lot of attention. She might act like a toughy, but she’s actually the most sensitive of us all.”
Bunny stood up and staggered drunkenly to the woods, then began wildly slashing at the bark of a tree with her claws. When she was done, she howled angrily at the sun.
“Just don’t get on her bad side,” Kockwick said. “People that sensitive are easy to piss off, and slow to forgive.”
Bunny jumped to attention as a red blur flew through the camp. Her eyes were wild with lust at the sight of it. Another brown blur came through the camp, a giant wolf running past them at top speed.
“That’s them,” Talon yelled.
A third wolf with blonde hair came through the camp and snatched Sam up with its jaws as it raced through. Apple’s face dropped with shock as she saw her boyfriend dangling out of the creature’s mouth. He grabbed tightly to its nostrils to keep from being sucked further into its maw.
“After him,” Talon said to Hyena and Bunny, who hopped onto their bikes and took off after the blonde wolf. Bunny was moving much slower than Hyena, her head wobbled as she rode through the trees.
“Help me get her in,” Talon said to Apple, as she lifted Kockwick to her feet. Apple looked around in a panic as she helped carry the wounded woman into the remaining buggy. She couldn’t believe what had happened.
“Who’s driving?” Apple asked.
“You are,” Talon said, tossing her the keys.
Apple looked down at them as if they were something from another planet. But before she could protest, Talon was on her motorcycle heading after Hyena.
Apple took the wheel and breathed a deep breath before starting up the engine.
“I really don’t have much time left,” Kockwick told Apple, loading her homemade launching weapon. “Get me close enough to that blonde wolf and I’ll be able to save your boyfriend before I die. I didn’t choose his life over my own for nothing.”
Apple nodded her head, confident that they could save her boyfriend . . . if only she knew how to drive. Once she figured out all of the controls, she floored it. They raced through the woods, avoiding trees and rocks. Apple hit a jump and the buggy flew through the air over a ditch.
“Have you ever driven one of these before?” Kockwick asked.
“No, never. Am I doing it okay?”
“Well,” Kockwick tried to smile. “You haven’t killed us yet. That’s a good sign.”
Apple caught up to the others, trailing closely behind the blonde wolf. Sam was still alive in its mouth, his lower metal frame preventing the creature’s jaws from biting through him. He was assaulted by a dozen metal worms curling out of the beast’s muzzle at him like electric whiskers.
Hyena fired into the wolf’s backside, but that only made it run faster. Bunny was too focused on keeping herself on her motorcycle to even contemplate an attack. Ahead, the other two wolves in the pack could be seen. Apple knew if they turned around to assist their blonde sister, she would never be able to rescue Sam.
Apple looked in her rearview mirror to see another brown blur behind the buggy.
“How many wolves are in this pack?” Apple asked Kockwick.
“Six, originally, including Baal and the two we killed.”
“So that’s four left?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, because I think I’ve found the fourth. Behind us.”
Kockwick turned her head and then turned back calmly. “Well, whatever you do, don’t slow down.”
Apple ran over a large rock with one tire, tossing the vehicle to one side for a moment.
“Or crash into anything . . .” Kockwick continued.
Ahead of them, Bunny was beginning to act funny on her motorcycle. Her body was jerking and spasming. Then three tendrils emerged from her shoulders, long metal worms whipping through the wind.
“What’s happening to her?” Apple asked.
“She’s infected,” Kockwick said. “Like our big sisters.”
Bunny straightened her body as if she had just snapped out of the delirium, her body went stiff and she rode in a perfectly straight line. She sped up, flying past the blonde wolf toward the alpha, Baal. Talon and Hyena both could tell what was wrong with her. They sped past the blonde wolf to catch up with Bunny, leaving Apple to save her boyfriend by herself.
“It’s just up to us now,” Kockwick said.
When they got up alongside the blonde wolf, Apple found Sam still alive in its jaws. He was in shock, looking at her with a frozen gaze of terror. For some reason, he waved at Apple. For some reason, she waved back.
“I’ll get him,” Kockwick said.
She pointed her launcher out of the
window and fired a spiky black ball at the creature. Blood splashed into blonde fur, as the ball stuck into its neck. There were three beeps, then the ball exploded.
The wolf’s entire neck burst into hundreds of tiny bloody chunks, launching its head through the air. The giant blonde head rolled in circles, then landed on top of Apple’s dune buggy.
Apple continued to drive, now with a giant wolf head on her roof, which contained her struggling boyfriend within its jaws. The brown wolf behind them was gaining ground due to the extra weight, but Apple didn’t know what else to do but to keep going with the head on her roof.
Ahead, Hyena and Talon continued chasing after Bunny. As they passed one of the brown wolves, Talon pulled out one of her axes and hacked through the tendon on the back of its ankle. The beast fell to the ground. Without the tendon, it could no longer walk on that leg. The thing attempted to continue on, but could hardly move. When Kockwick zoomed past, she had her launcher pointed at its face but she didn’t fire.
“Why didn’t you kill it?” Apple asked.
Kockwick looked back at her. “Because she’s one of us. We only kill them if it’s absolutely necessary.”
Apple nodded her head and continued on her path.
The chase ended up back on the highway and then continued for another twenty miles, but not even Talon could catch up to Bunny or the alpha wolf, Baal. Then they came to the end of the highway and hit another forest. And on the other side of the forest, was the coast.
Hyena and Talon stopped as they hit the edge of the beach. Apple slammed on the brakes just in time to avoid smashing into them. The giant wolf in the back did not attack, but instead leapt over the vehicles to catch up with its leader.
Apple’s eyes widened at the sight of the vast ocean. She had heard of it before, and had seen a couple pictures, but she had no idea it would look like this. The sight overwhelmed her and made her heart sink in her chest.
Talon and the other wolf girls did not seem overwhelmed by encountering the ocean for the first time. They seemed more focused on Bunny, who was riding her motorcycle on the beach alongside the giant wolves.
Barbarian Beast Bitches of the Badlands Page 4