Ravage

by MacCraw

  “I swear to God, Riley”, Hannah groaned, “One. More. Fucking. Comment. And you’ll need the best dentist in England to fix your teeth.”

  “Both of you, keep your heads in gear, and outta your rear”, Captain Pack ordered.

  The boring dialogue between Hannah, Pack and Riley was ripped up with a wolf howl. And it sounded close.

  “Hide, hide, hide!” Hannah urged through a hushed tone. Looking around in panic, completely caught off balance, the trio had no idea what to do. Pack ran over to the door of an abandoned convenience store, and violently jiggled the handle. Luckily enough, the door wasn’t locked, and the door flew open. Hannah and Riley dashed inside, and dove behind the counter. Pack carefully, but swiftly, shut the door, and hid behind the counter with his compatriots.

  “You see what you do?” Hannah growled. “Your shouting and childish bullshit lured those monsters into town with us. If those wolves don’t slaughter you, I will.”

  “Shhh!” Pack snapped. Everybody dimmed the chatter, and carefully listened. The dog soldiers were not howling any more, but they were snarling, snorting and grumbling. Their individual breaths could be singled out, in an ABC pattern, which let Pack know that there were three wolves outside the store. Using sign language, Pack gave Hannah and Riley the “I’m-watching-you” gesture, and gestured upwards. His teammates nodded in understanding.

  Pack slowly leaned over the counter to see where the wolves were relative to them. Three dog soldiers stood just outside of the display window, carefully scanning for prey. All of Riley’s noise had confirmed to him that there was food in the abandoned human settlement, and they were determined to find it. A dog turned its furry head clockwise, and very nearly made eye contact with Pack. The man’s heart was pulsing rapidly, as if it were about to fail catastrophically.

  Pack’s heart wasn’t the only one racing, though. Riley, the annoying boy wonder, was having a rampant anxiety attack, and he finally couldn’t take it. Cocking his weapon, he sprung up from beneath the counter.

  “Riley, wait!”

  “Surprise, motherfuckers!” Riley roared, squeezing the trigger of his gun and sending a hellstorm of bullets flying towards the dog soldiers. With no other options, Pack and Hannah were forced to fire alongside the wannabe wolf slayer.

  The wolves roared, and they howled. They were completely devoid of emotions, except for a bloodthirsty desire to kill. They were even further aggravated by the fact that they had the strength to surge in and slaughter the humans, but the guns were equally powerful, and they were keeping the wolves at bay. The wolf men were supernaturally strong, but they still registered pain.

  “Don’t… stop… firing!” Hannah wailed as the gunfire hailed on.

  “Keep ‘em at bay!” hollered Pack, “I’m going to throw a frag!”

  Pack frantically dug through his bag and felt around for a small sphere with a rectangular top and a chained pin. He found the grenade, and yanked the pin out. “Fire in the hole!” Pack shouted, pitching the fragmentation grenade at the feet of the wolf men. The dogs looked down at the strange ball at their feet, which detonated and barbarically dismembered them. Blood splattered every direction, spraying in a full 360 degree radius.

  The three human survivors’ ears were ringing, and their heads throbbed and pulsed in agony. They were very dazed, and slowly rose up from behind the counter. There weren’t any more wolf men, just bits and pieces scattered across the street in front of the general store.

  “Good aim, Captain Crunch”, Hannah remarked, punching Pack on the shoulder. Pack presumed this to be a compliment or a show of affection, but with this bitchy girl, he’d never know.

  “Well, they didn’t crunch on us like sticks of British jerky”, said Riley, “And I don’t know about y’all, but I’d rather not let them get a second attempt. Let’s go steal a bus.”

  …

  Kirkley and his allies were still safe in their bunker, but Kirkley’s mind was on the security of their comrades out in the wolf soldiers’ territory. He stood observant, staring through the reinforced door as if there were a window; waiting like a dog waiting for its master.

  “Kirkley, relax”, Logan said in a relaxing tone, placing his hand on Kirkley’s shoulder, “They’re going to be okay. Hannah’s an exceptionally good fighter, and I assume your captain is as well. Riley, not as much, maybe he can talk those things to death. He very nearly killed me that way, more than once actually.”

  “Thanks, Logan”, Kirkley remarked, “That’s totally refreshing.”

  “He’s got a point, Logan”, said Connor, who was polishing his war club. “Not only are their lives at stake, but our lives are, too. If their mission fails, we’re down three men and one truck, and no other way to gather supplies.”

  …

  Hannah, Pack and Riley knew they had to make a more determined effort to salvage a vehicle and leave town as swiftly as possible. The gunshots and the explosion had surely alerted the wolf soldiers to their location, to the point where firing off a flare would be redundant. After he’d discharged his excess energy in the heat of battle, Riley had begun to simmer down, and as a result, Hannah was controlling her temper and subsiding her internal fury.

  The mood took an emotional turn for the worse, when Riley made a horrific discovery. “Folks”, Riley said, slowly raising his arm, “…Look.”

  It was a daycare center. Firm Embrace Daycare. And there was a small bus parked there, which meant that there were people inside prior to the town being overrun.

  “Oh, no”, Hannah moaned, beginning to weep. “Oh no…”

  “Those furry motherfuckers”, Pack snarled, kicked the asphalt in anger. “They murder husbands, wives… and children.”

  “No, goddamnit!” Hannah cried, succumbing to a full-on emotional tantrum, “It’s not just that! Those parents didn’t care about their kids, so they left them to die away from their mummies and daddies. Their last moments on Earth were wishing that, if they were going to be killed, they could at least die with their parents.”

  Riley gently placed his hand on Hannah’s shoulder, as she cried in emotional agony. “Hannah”, Riley whispered, “They may be gone, but we will avenge them. We take this moment to honor the fallen, and then we must push on. They would want us to complete our mission, and save the world from the wolves.”

  Hannah made the first physical contact with Riley that wasn’t her punching him in the face: she hugged him. As the dirt and dust on Hannah’s cheeks ran with the constantly streaming tears, she clenched his jacket, bear-hugging him to the point where he was having trouble breathing. During this moment, Pack had also set his rifle at his feet, and removed his helmet, to show respect to the poor souls of the town, who had been transformed into grotesque wolf-like creatures bound to the will of the evil spirit Sat.

  After about three minutes, Hannah stopped crying and pulled herself back together. “To the bus”, Hannah growled in a determined voice, with focused eyes that smoldered with rage. “We are going to kill all of those furry cunts.”

  …

  “Try running it now”, Riley said from beneath the school bus. Hannah pressed her fur boot on the gas pedal, and the engine began running and rumbling.

  “Good job, kid”, said Hannah, giving the dirty, greasy and oil-covered boy a thumbs-up from the driver’s seat. “Captain Pack, have you checked the tires?”

  “All full of air, no flats”, Pack replied as he wheeled a spare tire onto the bus. “Brought a spare and a toolkit for changing the tire should one go out.”

  “Let’s head home, gents”, Hannah ordered. Riley and Pack gathered into the school bus, and Hannah began backing out of the parking lot, before shifting the stick forward and gunning it through the town. A single wolf happened to cross the intersection that the bus was blasting through, and the moment the furry monster came into sight of Hannah, she slammed her foot on the gas pedal with the might of a god. The creature stood helpless for about a second before the bus smashed into it. The wei
ght of the bus overpowered the smaller and lighter dog soldier, knocking it down and smashing its body into a bloody pulp of grey fur, red blood and white bones. Hannah smirked in satisfaction.

  “Nice roadkill, Hannah”, Pack smiled.

  “That bitch deserved it”, Hannah said, attempting to justify her unnecessary brutality. “They all do.”

  …

  For the past few dozen hours, since days were somewhat of an irrelevant concept, Kirkley found himself sleeping up against the bunker door, waiting for Hannah, Riley and Pack to return. Kirkley was the kind of man who always viewed his allies more valuable than himself. And waiting impatiently for his friends to return home safely gave him plenty of time to rearrange his thoughts and feelings.

  The most prominent figure in Kirkley’s mind was Samantha, who he thought he had fallen in love with. She had been at his side for years, and as friendly, outgoing, positive, and sexy as before. He had made love to her, losing his virginity, and reinforcing his feelings for her. Kirkley thought of sex as a way to provide a jolt of spiritual energy to somebody’s soul, making them feel alive, and as if one was making love to another’s heart. Not literally, of course. But the thing that had Kirkley conflicted and losing sleep was that he loved Samantha, but he was trying to rid himself of her. Since the battle at the farmhouse, there was something different about her that he couldn’t figure out. After the erotic moment, she just seemed more irritable and aggressive. She seemed like she wanted to kill somebody. Was it because she didn’t really think about what she was doing when she eagerly got laid? Or was it something else?

  Kirkley felt a sense of disloyalty, too; especially since he became attracted to Hannah in a love-at-first-sight occurrence. Hannah was pretty harsh, and seemed to be kind of bitchy at times, but based on how often he had been leading the group, he understood Hannah’s leadership style, even though it conflicted with his. Hannah was also beautiful, much like Samantha, and it was kind of difficult to gauge which girl was more attractive; though Kirkley knew and believed that looks weren’t everything. When Kirkley was a boy in high school, he had pretty low luck with the ladies. He never understood a lot about girls, but his way of thinking was that, if a girl looked nice, then he would want to forge a friendship with her. Not just so she would be a potential candidate for romance, but so he could make a good female friend, and so he could continue to understand what went on socially on the other side of the gender fence.

  Kirkley was drifting in and out from a lack of sleep, but during the mental cycle where his brain was awake, he heard the rolling of tires and the crunching of gravel.

  “Well I’ll be a dog man’s daughter”, Kirkley smiled, “They actually made it.”

  Connor, Poet, Samantha and Logan walked downstairs from the bedrooms. “What is it, Kirkley?” asked Connor.

  “The bandwagon’s here, lads”, Kirkley announced, “Once we get our troopers back in for some R&R, and a little campfire storytelling, we’ll all need to work together to refuel their vehicle and load all our shit onto it.”

  There was a knock on the door.

  “What is the creed of the wolf slayer?” Logan asked to whoever was behind the door.

  “Do or die, there is no what, when, or why.”

  Logan raised the bar and opened up the door. Hannah, Pack and Riley were on the other side, thankfully enough in one piece.

  “Did they let you out of class early?” Logan joked, “Where the hell did you get this thing?”

  “Fuck off”, Hannah playfully replied, lightly slugging Logan in the shoulder. “We found it in a town several miles away from here.”

  “Any human survivors?” Kirkley asked.

  “Negative”, said Captain Pack. “Just bodies, blood, and the wolves that caused them.”

  “It’s a good thing that you’re back, Pack”, said Kirkley. “The wolves are close to discovering our location. Since the escape, they’ve been stalking us, but they don’t have a specific idea of where we might be. It’s like a deadly game of hide-and-seek, and they’ve searched most of the hiding spots.”

  “That’s not good. We’ll need to mobilize as quickly as we can.”

  “Alright, lads”, Logan announced after Hannah, Riley and Pack had walked into the command center and sealed the door, “Our scouts have made it out, and they have the perfect transportation vehicle. It has at least 12 rows of seats, so we can either sleep on the seat individually, and the ones we don’t sleep on can be used to store the supplies we have. Things are looking up for us, folks.”

  “Agreed, but we need to act fast”, said Kirkley. “Poet, Logan, Connor; help me muster as much of our supplies as we’re going to need for the journey. Samantha, take these fuel cans and go refuel the bus. Hannah, Riley, Pack; you three get some rest. That’s a direct order.”

  The tired trio nodded, more than relieved to get some well-needed and well-deserved shuteye following their sleepless trek out into the forest and through the abandoned city. As Kirkley and his co-workers began to load up the loot in preparation to store it aboard the bus, Samantha crept outside with the canisters of fuel. At that point, the primal urge that had been bottling up inside of her was about to blow the lid, and she then decided to embrace the way of Sat, the Spirit of Fright. She finally understood that the wolf men were living how they were supposed to be: humanity was a destructive and inferior species, and it was a food source, and the dog soldiers were now the true rulers of the planet. The world was now their hunting ground, and she was now determined to enforce it. Samantha twitched and twerked violently as she poured the gasoline out of the jerry can, pouring it in a line around and inside of the bus. She flung as much as she could under the vulnerable underbelly of the school bus, and placed the second can beneath the bus, for additional explosive firepower.

  There was an abrupt silence, just the strong wind blowing. Samantha sensed a disturbance, and turned to face Kirkley, who stood motionless, holding his rifle and staring at Samantha with a look of horror and a sense of betrayal.

  “…How?” Kirkley asked.

  “The dog soldiers are an embodiment to the beast within us, and a physical incantation of strength. You may think they’re all bitches, but trust me, Kirkley, I’m the real thing”, Samantha smirked, panting and sweating heavily. Kirkley raised his rifle, and aimed for the dead center of her forehead. Although Kirkley’s love for Samantha was now long gone, his emotions prevented him from pulling the trigger instantly, and this gave Samantha the upper hand. She howled loudly and slowly, alerting the rest of the pack. The moment she finished, Kirkley furiously tackled her against the side of the school bus, and began slugging her in the face, punch after punch as her eyes began to sink deeper into her skull, and her teeth began to sharpen into grotesque daggered teeth. Kirkley reached for his gun as he violently struggled around, desperately holding back the rabid Samantha with his forearm as she growled and snapped. Samantha’s arm smacked Kirkley’s gun, causing it to slide a few feet away. Kirkley reached into his handgun holster with his spare arm and whipped out his pistol. Kirkley snarled aggressively as he spammed the trigger, rapidly striking the transforming Samantha with bullet after bullet. Samantha threw a surprise punch, her furry knuckle slamming into his face and sending him tumbling back. Kirkley stumbled backwards, smacking up against the wall of the command center. Kirkley watched in horror as Samantha stood upright, slowly shivering as the rest of her body succumbed to the transformation.

  Samantha’s feet had swollen and gotten a lot hairier, and her nail-polished, finely-trimmed toenails had become dirty talons. Her clothing had ripped apart entirely, because it could not cover the large, buff dog soldier that was once wearing it as a human woman. All of the womanly parts that Kirkley had enjoyed were now gone entirely: her crotch was covered in fur, making it difficult to tell that she was once a woman, and her breasts were no more; just replaced with smooth, lightly-furred grey muscles. Her short brown hair had gone into overdrive, now pouring down her neck, past her ears, and slightl
y in front of her eyes. Her face had been completely remolded, looking like a wolf man’s, and with one long, frightening howl in front of the menacing eclipse, Kirkley knew that the transformation was complete. Right when Samantha prepared to finish off the man she once loved as a human, the cavalry arrived in the nick of time. The warriors surged outside; rifles armed, and immediately began blasting relentlessly at Samantha. The wolf’s accelerated regenerative properties prohibited it from being killed by the bullets, but they were still agonizing, and Samantha still went out of her way to desperately try and block off the shots. The Samantha wolf decided to finish what it had originally set in motion, and quickly darted right as the humans kept firing on her. Because the school bus was saturated in oil, it turned it into a gigantic powder keg. A fatal shot struck the oil, igniting it. Immediately the humans realized what was about to happen. “Run for it!” Kirkley hollered as he and the others dashed back into the base.

  The bus exploded loudly, blasting and booming multiple times. Explosions rocked through the bus, and the subsequent blasts capsized the bus, which still continued erupting in flames and sending scorching shards of metal flying everywhere.

  “That throws shit into that fan!” Pack yelled.

  The shit did indeed hit the fan, for the next stage of the Samantha wolf’s diabolical plot to betray and slay her former companions took effect. The wolf pack had, at long last, caught up with their prey. They were confused and vulnerable, and with no source of transportation, they had virtually no options, and would only stay alive as long as their ammunition held out. Through the blazing bus, the 7 humans could see a pack of ravenous monsters sprinting across the perimeter of Fort William towards their prey.

  “Seal it!” Kirkley shouted, his voice cracking.

  Hannah slammed the door, and immediately lowered the bar. Riley and Connor prepared chemical lights to provide additional visibility, and tossed them in the foyer before grabbing their weapons and getting into position. His original weapon, his trusty L85, either destroyed or unreachable, Kirkley quickly ditched the magazines for it and scooped up the closest weapon, which was ironically Samantha’s SPAS-15 shotgun. Connor readied his battle club and stacked up against the wall with Kirkley behind him with the shotgun. Hannah and Logan rearranged the crates and containers into a makeshift barrier, hiding behind it with their weapons aimed towards the reinforced door. It was the most tense moment of the whole ordeal, with everybody almost eagerly waiting for the wolves to try breaking down the door.