Ravage

by MacCraw

  Meanwhile inside the vehicle, Hannah and Riley were still in a predicament, and to make matters worse, the crash had puffed up the airbags. Although the airbags had saved them from a brutal concussion, they were suppressing them and preventing their escape.

  “Pack!” Hannah wearily shouted.

  Captain Pack climbed on top of the truck, standing above the passenger-side door with his knife in his hand. Pack opened the door, and used his knife to slice up the airbag on Riley’s side, before grabbing the boy’s hand and pulling him to safety. Hannah, meanwhile, was still deeper inside the car. She wasn’t slowly being killed, but she was immobile and vulnerable.

  “Riley, grab my ankles and hold tight”, Pack ordered. For once, Riley listened, and firmly held onto Pack’s ankles as Pack was lowered down towards Hannah. He destroyed the airbag pinning Hannah, before taking her hand and lifting her up. Everybody dropped down from the top of the truck, and turned to face their destroyed transportation.

  “Well shit…” Hannah sighed.

  “What do we do now?” Riley asked.

  “Base camp’s too far away to walk”, Hannah stated. “I suggest that we keep moving and attempt to reach another town or settlement.”

  “We’ve got no other options”, said Pack. “I’m sold.”

  Hannah looked at their supplies. “We’ve got to travel lightly. Take as much food as you think you’re going to need to keep yourself going. We have blankets, weapons, ammunition, and Logan’s grappling gun. Everything else, I’m afraid we’re going to have to bin.”

  …

  The perk with driving 23 miles was that Hannah, Pack and Riley didn’t have to walk, so they had endurance and near-full stamina on their side. Being out in the wild again was concerning to Captain Pack, who had narrowly escaped a wolf attack about four days previously, and since he was traveling with only two other people instead of three, he felt more vulnerable, and if the wolf men picked off so much as one of the three humans, the other two would be absolutely defenseless. The one advantage over the previous woodland encounter was that there was a road, which lead one of two ways – to Fort William, or to an undiscovered settlement where there might be a truck that could be used as an avenue for escape. Riley was whining like a tired 8-year-old child at an amusement park, and Hannah was moaning and rolling her bold, soulless eyes in disgust, ready to shoot the obnoxious little goober. Captain Pack was irritated with both of them, and finally decided to speak his mind.

  “Will. You. Both. Shut. The. Fuck. Up”, Pack said, word-by-word.

  “Keep on marching, soldier boy”, Hannah said cynically.

  “You know something, Hannah?” asked Pack, “How is it that you’re all friendly and extroverted in the presence of Kirkley, but you’re all antisocial and hateful around me and Riley?”

  “Because I’m a mirror of emotions”, explained Hannah.

  “And what exactly do you mean by that?”

  “What is this, 20 Questions? Jeopardy?” Hannah groaned, “What more do you want from me, Captain Pack? Some sort of confession or childhood sob story?”

  “That would be nice”, Pack remarked. “It would break up the monotony of this march, and certainly the constipation of your emotional bowels.”

  “Alright, here’s your answer”, said Hannah. “My mother and father were both abusive people that made my childhood even worse than this wolf plague. I went to numerous schools full of bullies, whores and stoners, and made very few friends; the friends I met either moved away or betrayed me to join the hordes of popular kids, which, by the way, remind me of our wolfish friends. At the age of 15, however, I met my boyfriend, Jason. He was a great boyfriend – he dried my tears, kept me fed, and offered me emotional shelter from the bullies, but he suffered from bipolarism. He was like a lightswitch, going from happy and gentle to cold and rigid, and my mood switched back and forth to keep up with his. He was tragically killed by the dog soldiers, leaving me alone in more ways than one, and the next thing I knew I was in company of Riley, Logan and Connor.”

  “So why are you mean to me, then?” Pack asked.

  “Because some people are just that way, Captain Pack.”

  “You can’t just be mean to people who are nice to you. It’s not right.”

  Hannah lightly snorted. “Very well. I’ll take your opinion into consideration. It has been noted.”

  “Uh, dudes and dudettes?” Riley asked.

  “Riley, I swear to God, if this is another fucking potty break…”

  “No, Hannah”, said Riley, pointing ahead.

  “The road forks…”, sighed Pack.

  The straight line that Pack, Hannah and Riley had been following had split into two paths: one heading straight, following the route they’d been on, but the second option went right. There was a road sign, but it was incomprehensible and the wood was worn down from years of decay.

  “Anybody bring a quarter?” Riley asked jokingly.

  “Oh, shut up, Riley”, Pack and Hannah replied simultaneously.

  “Alright, lads”, Hannah said, temporarily overcoming her social block, “Rock-paper-scissors. Pack and Riley go against each other. Whoever wins goes against me. Whoever wins the second match picks the direction. Sound fair to you?”

  “I accept those terms”, Pack nodded.

  Pack and Riley prepared for their match, and executed their moves. Pack won, much to Riley’s chagrin. Pack then took on Hannah, while Riley pouted like a child, and Hannah beat him.

  “I’m better than you two”, Hannah smirked, crossing her arms and altering her posture. “Simon Says we go right.” Following Hannah’s lead, Riley and Pack followed the snippy blonde.

  …

  About three hours of continued marching paid off, and eventually the trio began to see buildings. Not any significant buildings, but houses, multi-story tenements and other structures.

  “This place looks like a small town, not a city”, Captain Pack commented as he scanned the town through his binoculars, “But there is a chance that there could be something here.”

  “Well, let’s get packin’”, said Hannah, gesturing towards the town.

  Hannah and the two men walked down the hill from the woodland roads and towards the small town in a valley surrounded by two mountains. After over 25 miles of marching in search of a truck, they were bone-tired, literally. Their ankles were so tense and tight, it felt as if they were imploding. Their stomachs ached, their backs incredibly sore; both from the truck crash and from carrying backpacks loaded with canned goods, a fuel can and spare ammo. Going down a hill may not have been as agonizing as going up a hill, but it still wore them down.

  Hannah, Riley and Pack reached the first house and carefully treaded through the space between it and the neighboring house. “Remember, we aren’t here to loot”, Hannah admonished. “We’re here to get a truck. So don’t take anything you don’t need. Got it?”

  The town felt like a ghost town in an old Western film; completely vacant, sterile, and empty. No birds chirping, no other noises, just an unsettling silence. The town definitely looked the part – the grass was well overgrown, weeds had begun to reclaim the walkways, the blacktop on the roads were chipped and cracked, windows were stained, and there was no sign of life.

  “Look at this old place”, said Pack. “Looks like it’s been dead a long time.”

  “And the inhabitants along with it”, Hannah added.

  Not deviating from their objective, the three scavengers continued walking through the ghost town, passing through what used to be the city center. Rows upon rows of deserted businesses lined the roads, and it looked as if the shopkeepers had actually attempted a defense against the wolf men: the security shutters had been lowered, and the doors had been boarded up. Even with these defenses, the wolves still smashed through them and devoured the helpless humans. The security shutters, solid metal security shutters, had gigantic breaches in them, but the majority of the wooden boards on the doors held intact.

  “
This little town is a hell of a lot bigger than I give it credit for”, Riley remarked.

  “You’re right”, said Hannah. “We need a much better viewpoint than this.”

  “There’s your viewpoint”, Pack answered, pointing up to the rather tall town hall.

  “Should we scale the side or go through the front door?” asked Riley.

  “The building has to be at least four stories tall”, said Hannah. “They’d more than likely have elevators, but that would be just way too dangerous. If the elevator were to break down with us trapped inside, then we would be completely screwed. And chances are good that the building got locked down tight, so the stairs to the upper levels might be inaccessible.”

  “So we’re climbing it, I suppose”, Riley concluded.

  “Yes, indeed. Prepare the grappling hook”, ordered Pack.

  Riley handed Pack the grappling gun and he passed it to Hannah. Hannah crouched down and took aim towards the balcony of the highest floor, and fired the hook. It loudly smacked as it locked into place, and Hannah gave it a light tug to ensure that it wouldn’t come loose. Hannah gave Pack a thumbs-up, and handed him her rifle before she began to wiggle up the line. The higher up she got, the more nauseous she got, due to her acrophobia. The old doctrine of climbing and heights, “don’t look down”, was tugging at Hannah, who pushed it aside and looked down, much to her terror. Hannah squealed in fear, totally locking up.

  “You can do it, Hannah!” Pack called up to her.

  Hannah gulped her anxiety down and continued to ascend the side of the mammoth building. At long last she made it to the roof, before giving Pack the all-clear signal. Pack began his climb, and reached the top in about 15 seconds. Riley soon followed, no problems caused. Once everybody was up at the top of the building, they began to look around at the town, which was rather large. It blurred the line between a town and a city.

  “See anything with potential?” asked Pack.

  “Mmhm”, Hannah murmured. She pointed to a rather large police station. “They might or might not have ammo, but if they have a garage, then they should have some vehicles. Perhaps a van, definitely at least a cop car or two.”

  “It’s worth investigating”, said Riley. “Let’s head back down.”

  Riley, Hannah and Pack roped down, and Hannah gave the grappling gun a firm yank, untethering the hook. Once she finished reloading the grappling gun, she slung it over her shoulder and continued walking through the ghost town towards the police station.

  “How much further is it?” Riley complained.

  “We aren’t going to Sea World, Riley”, Hannah growled. “Shut the fuck up.”

  “Cut the lad some slack”, said Captain Pack. “We’re all just tired.”

  “Once we reach the police station, we can get some sleep”, said Pack. “Trust me; I’ll probably sleep for about a month.”

  Eventually the team made it to the police station, which was pretty large, though not as big as the town hall. They walked up the steps and into the main wing, which wasn’t locked down. The lobby was deserted, and the counter was stained with old blood. There were a few carcasses spread through the lobby and behind the desk. The doors to the other rooms, cells and upper levels, were locked down.

  “Okay, what now?” asked Riley.

  “We get through the security doors”, Hannah answered. “Question is, how?”

  “We brought a bomb, didn’t we?”

  Pack checked his hip-strapped satchel. “Yeah, we do. Okay, here’s the plan: I’ll go around with Hannah, plant the bomb on the garage door outside, opening it up to get a vehicle out. Now Riley, we need you to try and get into the inside of the police station.”

  “Hey, how come I can’t help you blow down the door?” Riley whined, “I never get to cause huge explosions.”

  “Well pardon-fuckin’-me then”, Pack scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Okay, then you come with me to blow down the goddamn door, and Hannah, you break inside of the station.”

  Riley and Pack walked around the building until they found a pair of large doors. “These must be the garage doors”, Riley said.

  “Are you wearing ‘DUH!’ cologne?” Pack asked rhetorically.

  Ignoring Riley’s stupidity, Pack pulled out the charge and planted it on the door. Before they were back far enough, Riley energetically snatched the detonator out of Pack’s grasp.

  “Riley, wait a minute!” Pack shouted, his voice rising. “Aah, Riley, wait! Riley!”

  Completely ignoring Captain Pack, Riley clicked the trigger, setting off the bomb and blasting the door open with a loud, thunderous boom. The blast knocked Pack and Riley back, and had both of them dizzy and weary for a couple of seconds before they fully recovered and got back up on their feet. Pack picked up the now-useless detonator and angrily threw it at Riley.

  “What’d you do that for, dude?!” Riley shouted.

  “Because you nearly killed us, dumbass!”

  Hannah ran around the corner with her rifle aimed. “What the fuck happened?”

  “We got the door open”, Riley grinned with a dumb look of false pride on his face.

  “And he nearly blew us open, as well”, Pack groaned. “Might’ve also alerted the wolf packs to our presence.”

  Hannah, Pack and Riley carefully stepped through the smoking breach in the garage door, looking around for what they had came for. The few remaining police vehicles in the vehicle bay were in pretty poor condition, much like the rest of England. Most of the tires had lost their air, the windows were broken and blood-stained, and there were decaying remains of the cops who had put up a futile last stand against the dog soldiers with pistols, batons and the occasional shotgun scattered about.

  “Well, looks like these idiots were just about as useful as the Gotham City Police Department”, Riley remarked, disrespectfully nudging the skull of a dead cop.

  “Fuck off, Riley”, Hannah growled angrily.

  “Seriously, kid, shut up”, Pack sternly ordered.

  “Who put a pineapple in your vajo-jo, Hannah?” Riley antagonistically replied.

  Hannah lost her temper and angrily slugged the insolent little scrub in the face. Riley fell backwards, landing on the hood of the cop car behind him with a loud thud. Riley moaned in pain as Hannah moved to finish teaching him a lesson, but Pack intervened. “Simmer the fuck down, Hannah!” shouted Pack. Hannah reluctantly backed off.

  “Now listen up here”, Pack snapped, “We’re not here to beat the crap outta each other, we’re here to find a fucking SWAT van, so we can drive back to the rest of our lads, get our shit loaded aboard it, drive down to London, and get out of this horrible, horrible place. Killing each other isn’t going to yield any progress, Hannah.”

  “Looks like there’s no progress to be made”, Riley sighed, looking around as Hannah and Pack growled at each other.

  Hannah and Pack briefly put aside their petty squabbles to glance around. To the shock and despair of the trio, there wasn’t any sort of police van capable of transporting 8 survivors and their supplies. There was a single police cruiser, but the glass was broken and the tires were slashed, much like the officers themselves; it was pretty obvious that it wasn’t an option.

  “So do we lie down and die in here, or do we keep searching?” Riley commented.

  “Take a fuckin’ guess”, Hannah snarled sarcastically.

  “We’re going to have to keep looking then, mates”, Pack said, beginning to walk out into the abandoned streets.

  …

  The lack of a SWAT van was a major punch in the face to Pack, Hannah and Riley, and the fact that they had lost their original truck which could’ve at least ferried the survivors themselves to London was added strength to the blow. It turned a punch in the face to a smash with a sledgehammer.

  “So, uh, does anybody have a Plan B?” asked Hannah.

  “There is always a backup plan, Hannah”, Pack nodded.

  “And what might that be?”

  “Well, if this to
wn follows the structure of every other town: a town hall, a police station, a fire department, residential homes, etcetera; then maybe it has other public services with ample transportation”, explained Pack. “Perhaps a school-“

  “Fuck school”, Hannah snarled, still bitter and full of resentment from her miserable years in school.

  “Fuck death”, Pack quickly retorted. “A school, or a post office, or just a plain old bus station. One of those might have a bus or something that we can utilize as a revenue for escape.”

  So they kept marching through the abandoned town, which echoed of death and solitude. The wind blew firmly, and it carried the distant howls of the wolf men towards the three humans, who thought of their comrades’ safety during this period of separation. The wolves that had been haunting both Kirkley’s group and Hannah’s were still concentrated towards Fort William, but it was only a matter of time until the dog soldiers figured out where their prey was trapped. As far as Hannah, Riley and Pack could tell, there wasn’t too much of a dog presence in their area, but the fact that they had rammed and killed one of the beasts during their journey to find more transportation was evidence that there were wolves in the area surrounding the town.

  “Guess the food dish ran out in this place”, remarked Riley.

  “Shove it, Thomas”, Hannah growled.

  “His name is Thomas?” Pack asked.

  “His last name is, anyways”, Hannah explained. “What about you, Captain? What’s your name?”

  “My full name is Patrick John McGregor”, said Pack, “But my friends and allies call me Pack. I’d advise you to do the same.”

  “Okay, okay, sheesh”, Hannah said defensively.

  “Spotted the post office!” Riley shouted triumphantly. Hannah and Pack looked towards where the loud-mouthed little irritant was pointing, and to their frustration there was no post office. Both Pack and Hannah turned towards Riley with a sharp glare in their eyes.

  “That’s what it’ll sound like when we see a post office”, Riley chuckled. Hannah clenched her fist in frustration.