Wolf Pack_Invasion and Conquest

by Rob Buckman

  “From what I’ve seen, I believe you.”

  “Good.”

  “My daughter, Freddy… Frederica and I would like to go with you when you leave.”

  “Welcome.”

  “I also have another young girl staying with me, a friend of the family. Her parents were killed a couple of months ago so I took her in. Her name is Michelle, Michelle Gray.”

  “She's welcome to come with us as well.”

  “Thankfully all your people are female… well, except you, as she’s a little skittish around men after she almost got raped by those assholes up on the road block.” Decker gritted his teeth.

  “Had to shoot a couple of them before they got the message.”

  “Pity you didn’t shoot all of them.”

  “I would have if I’d had the chance, but being out numbered as we were, they called a truce and left us pretty much in peace.”

  “Guards out, Sir.” Grace announced as she walked up. “Three man teams on a rotating schedule.”

  “Thanks Sergeant Major. Anything out of the ordinary to report?”

  “Nothing unusual, sir. We did shoot a couple more assholes who thought girls wouldn’t shoot them.”

  “You just shot them!” Clare asked, sounding a little shocked. Decker did the introductions then.

  “Of course, we shot them. The team has a standing policy to shoot first and ask questions after… if any survive to ask that is.”

  “You threaten the Pack, you die.” June added as she walked up.

  “This is June Landers, my second in command and that’s Grace Lowery my command Sergeant Major.” They shook hands but they could all see the puzzled look on Clara’s face.

  “You’re a military outfit? No, wait, the US military doesn’t have any female combat units.”

  “Who said we were US military.” June chuckled. “We’re 22 Special Air Service Regiment.”

  “Better known as the Wolf Pack.” Grace added.

  “Explanations later, ladies. Grace, you are on me. Let’s go inspect the perimeter and talk to the Doc.”

  “With you, sir.” Clara watched them walk away with the two dogs in tow and shook her head.

  “Someone better tell me what’s going on. I’m totally confused.”

  “Come back in about half an hour and have dinner with us and I’ll explain, also fill you in on the rules.” June smiled at her.

  “Rules?”

  “Oh yeah, lots and lots of rules to follow.” She laughed at the look on Clara’s face. “Yeah, lots and lots of rules to obey.” She laughed as she walked away. Clara stood there looking puzzled, shrugging at last and walked back into the house.

  Clara and the two girls did turn up for the evening meal, still looking a little unsure. It took a while for June to explain what was going on, and where most of the girls came from. She also told them what it took to get here, and the people they’d lost along the way. The moment Joann came into camp, she took an instant dislike to Clara’s daughter Frederica, and said so.

  “Are we accepting boys into the Pack now?” She snapped, glaring daggers at Frederica. She had a point, with her slim figure and short, boy’s haircut and clothes, she did look a little like a teenage boy.

  “You want to make something of it, bitch?” Frederica shot back as she clenched her fist.

  “Think you’ve got the balls to take me, kid?” Joann growled, hefting her rifle.

  “Oh shit!” Grace muttered to June. “Girl fight!”

  “No shit! Knock it off you two or I’ll bang your heads together!” Grace snapped.

  “She started it.” Frederica yelled.

  “Shit! He’s a she.” Joann laughed. “Guess she’s not sure what she is.”

  “I won’t tell you again, Joann! Knock it off.” Joann glared at Grace, but one look at the expression on her face told her she'd better behave. The Sergeant Major was not one to make idle threat. She’d just as soon take her behind the woodshed and paddle her butt as argue with her, much as she’d done with young Jackie Carpenter when she got uppity with her. In a way she was sorry she was killed, as she was starting to like the young woman.

  “Yes, Sir.” Joann muttered.

  “I’m making it your responsibility to get Frederica settled in, Joann. Tell her the rules and make her understand the pecking order, if she still wants to come with us that is.”

  “Me!” Joann spluttered in protest.

  “Yes you!” They had a glaring contest for a moment until Decker came back.

  “Problems, Sergeant Major?” He asked.

  “No, sir, none at all. Just getting the new people squared away.” She eyed the two girls who stood there angrily eyeing each other, looking sullen.

  Just then, a wolf cry sounded in the distance and the team lifted their heads and answered. Clara and her two girls stood in open mouth shock, wide eyed as they looked around, seeing the team grinning at them.

  “What the hell? What was that?” Decker scratched himself behind the ear, grinning.

  “Forgot to tell you, we have a real wolf pack with us.”

  “The hell you say.”

  “Yeah, and we be wolves as well.” Joann chuckled. Decker sighed and shook his head.

  “Inside joke. We call ourselves the Wolf Pack and we sort of adopted each other.” Even as he spoke, Max took off at a run, heading toward the sound. “Oh yes, and Max is their pack leader, their Alpha male.”

  “You have to be kidding me… what about my horses, are they going to attack them?”

  “Shouldn’t think so once they understand they are with us.”

  “Hope not. A couple of the ladies have foals.” Clara answered, looking uneasily toward where the wolf cry came from.

  “We’ll have to figure out a way to introduce the horse herd to each other.”

  “Too right. Horses get a little nervous when wolves are about.”

  “They okay with dogs?”

  “Sure.”

  “Good, we’ll just have to introduce them in small groups if Max can round them up and bring them in.”

  “Round up a pack of wolves? That sounds as practical as herding cats.” Clara snorted.

  “Oh, they come in at dinner time like typical free loaders looking for hand outs. The girls adopted them, and can bring them over to meet your horses a few at the time.”

  “That tame are they?”

  “Tame? I wouldn’t go as far as to say that, but the girls take care of them, feeding them, brushing them down, and taking care of their pups. Up until now, the pack had taken to sleeping next to the person or group that adopted them. Max takes care of discipline, you might say and keeps them in line.” Clara shook her head.

  “You are the strangest bunch of people I have ever met.”

  “Still want to go with us?” Grace asked.

  “Hell yes. My… our chances of survival just went up a notch.”

  “Then welcome to the pack, Clara, Michelle, Frederica.” All thee nodded and seemed to relax a little. Once dinner was ready, they took a plate and got in line with the rest, finding it was beef stew and mashed potatoes and canned peas with peaches on the side as desert tonight. They found a place around the fire and ate in silence, listening to the talk around them. As each finished, they went off to wash up their plates and pack everything away. Coming back to the fire, they sat there with their weapons on their lap.

  “Who’s up?” CC asked.

  “I am.” Kim Drummond answered and stood, checking to make sure her weapons were loaded, and she had one up the spout before taking a position facing away from the group around the fire. Clare looked and found the same going on at each fire, her face pulling into a puzzled frown. Grace saw it and smiled.

  “Weapon cleaning time, and we hate getting caught with our knickers down.” Clara smiled and nodded in understanding.

  “One on guard with a weapon ready while the others strip and clean theirs. Good idea. Who’s was it?” Grace pointed to Decker as he walked from fire to fire checkin
g on each team.

  “Someone want to tell me about him?” She asked, looking in Decker’s direction. That brought a few smiles around the fire and a chuckle from June.

  “Him? He's an evil, stone cold, sadistic killer and a son of a bitch to boot.” June volunteered.

  “Oh, come on June, you’re just being kind. He’s a lot worse than that. He’d walk off and leave us in a heartbeat if we don’t do things his way.”

  “Yeah, and he’s told us that a few times.” Joann put in.

  “He thinks we are nothing but a pain in his ass, and a bunch of weepy, weak, worthless women.” Krista added with a chuckle. By this time, Clara’s jaw was hanging open.

  “Wow… so… so… so why is he hanging around if you all hate him that much?” The whole group laughed.

  “Hate him, good god woman, most of the girls here would die for that mean bastard.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  “When he dropped out of the sky, really, I mean he fell of a transport aircraft sent to get us. When he did find us, as they said, he told us that we were nothing but a bunch of worthless females and he shouldn’t even bother wasting his time with us.”

  “I see.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  “He told us he’d take us with him and anyone that fell by the wayside he’d leave or shoot.”

  “He saved your lives?” June shook her head.

  “Like he said, he’s not here to save our lives, we have to do that ourselves, he’d just teach us how.”

  “Good god… where did you come from?”

  “Tehachapi, about 300 miles south of here.” Clara blinked.

  “And you’re going to?”

  “A place called ‘Soda Springs’ up near ‘Truckee’. About two hundred miles north of here.” Clara blinked again and shook her head.

  “And you’re doing this because?”

  “Because sitting on our asses in Tehachapi waiting to get slaughter by the fucking aliens didn’t seem like a good idea. We also have to deliver a package to the scientist at the base up there.” June could see Clare, and the new girls were having trouble getting their heads around it.

  “That package he was sent to get might just be the weapon to kick these alien assholes back off our planet.”

  “But… but how do you know?”

  “Because, Clara, we’ve seen it work. Nothing else we… or I should say the military has thrown at them works. This works, and with the right equipment and tools it could… will, turn into a game changing weapon.”

  “But two hundred miles. Do you have any idea what’s between you and there?”

  “Don’t matter. We’ve walked and rode three hundred miles so far, so what's another two hundred.”

  “And have you met up with other… well, as you say assholes along the way?” That brought a few smiles around the fire.

  “Yeah, we ran into a few. We’re here, they aren’t.”

  “You said there were lots of rules earlier, June. What are they?”

  “Oh those. Well, the first rule is the pack is everything, your life, your protector, your family. Anything that threatens the pack dies. Rule two, if in doubt, refer to rule one.”

  “That’s it?”

  “That about sums it up. Since Tehachapi, we have been in the enemy's battle space and on a combat footing ever since. We don’t take prisoners and we shoot first. We don’t even bother asking questions after anymore.” It suddenly dawned on Clara that she wasn’t looking a bunch of no nothing women walking around with weapons and looking tough, she was looking at a company of battle hardened soldiers on a mission.

  “Those guys at the road block didn’t stand a chance, did they?” June smiled thinly and shook her head.

  “No, they didn’t.”

  “When you’ve finished weapon cleaning, all team leaders and Clara on me.” Decker radioed as he came back to the fire. It took a little while before they all showed up and he nodded to each.

  “Anything to report?” They all shook their heads. If they had something out of the ordinary, they would have said so. Decker left it up to June as 2-IC, and Grace Lowery as Squadron Sergeant Major to take care of the day to day running of the Pack.

  “Change of plans, ladies.” A few prerequisite groans went up, but that was expected and most just grinned. “I took a look at the map and I don’t fancy trying to go through Carson City and Reno. Both are large cities and could cause us more trouble than we can handle. Our best bet is to go up the other side of Lake Tahoe and up route 89. It would give us a better shot at ‘Truckee’ than going straight up I-395. At some point, we’d have to cut over, anyway. Route 89 gives us a straight shot and will save us a few miles.”

  “We’ll need to stop and find us new boots, Boss. A lot of the girls need them bad.” Decker turned and looked at June.

  “I’m on it.”

  “Right, we’ll mount up and move out at first light. Can you have your horses ready by them, Clara?”

  “Can do. Me and the girls will get everything ready.”

  “Tell the girls they might have to carry their own packs for a while, until we can round up more horses.”

  “Oh, that’s just going to go over like a fart in a space suit.” Krista muttered. Kim jumped as someone fell off the log laughing so much.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: ROAD BLOCK

  As a wintery dawn broke the eastern horizon, the Pack moved quickly down rout 88, and in many ways, Decker was glad to be getting back into the mountains. The cloud cover that protected them so well over the winter was gradually starting to break up. That meant more UMF air patrols, and the chance of being spotted. Now spring was on the way they had to be getting ready for phase two of their invasion plan. The harsh winter would have killed off a lot more humans, and sent many more huddling together in towns and cities, small and large. That meant they’d be easier to scoop up. There was no way of telling how many they’d use as incubators for their ground troops and UAV operators. It chilled Decker thinking about all those humans he couldn’t save, possibly his own wife and daughter if they were still alive. In one way, he hoped they were dead. Having to suffer through a bug eating away your inside while you were still alive wasn’t something he’d wish on his worst enemy. He pushed away the thought of what might have happened to his wife and daughter, and concentrated on getting to ‘Norden’ as soon as possible. The thought he could move faster without the Pack didn’t enter his mind. They were his people now, his troop and the SAS didn’t leave any of their mates behind unless they had no other choice.

  Behind them at the junction, a group of hopeful residence of Minden decided to rebuild the roadblock, and reap the rewards as the others before then had done. They thought themselves safe now the crazy female troops were gone. The spotter radioed that a group of strangers were coming up the road on what looked like headless horses. The bandits hunkered down behind the new, formidable barricade, and waited for the oncoming party to reach killing range. They weren’t going to make the same mistake as the last bunch and let them get within talking distance. The odd-looking headless horses came to a stop a quarter of a mile away and several people dismounted.

  “Anyone got an angle on these yahoos?” The leader asked.

  “Oh shit!” Was all he got in reply just before an RPG slammed into the center of the junk pile, followed a moment later by a second, blowing the roadblock apart, and scattering it and the bodies of the luckless bandits across the surrounding countryside.

  The spotter immediately left, remembering he had a distant aunt he desperately wanted to visit. The fact she lived on the east coast didn’t slow him down a bit, and was last seen hightailing it into the distance. Once was misfortune. Twice was just bad luck, and a good indication that other, meaner people would be along soon. Colonel Remington looked down at the wounded man with little compassion, as he had even less sympathy for these people than Decker.

  “Where did the other group go?” Colonel Remington asked, kneeling beside the wounded m
an. “T… they went south, down rout 88.” He sobbed, pain from his shattered legs making him grit his teeth and squeeze the words out between them. “They got horses.”

  “South?”

  “Yeah, south… you’ve got to give me something for this pain man, anything.” He sobbed.

  “Now why would Mr. SAS go south?” He mused, looking around at his Command Sergeant. He shrugged.

  “Beats me. You’d think going straight up I-395 would be the best bet. That would be the better rout.”

  “Unless he wanted to bypass Carson City and Reno.” Taffy Henderson pulled out his map-pad. “Yeah, if he took 88 down to Woodford he could cut over on 89, they could go up the other side of Lake Tahoe; he’d miss both of them.”

  “Will that give him a better shot at ‘Norden’?” Taffy pursed his lips for a moment and then nodded.

  “Yup, sure would. Route 89 to route 97 would give him a straight shot.”

  “Smart, very smart. What we have here is a thinking man, Taf, not your usual knuckle-dragging grunt. Maybe he’s SAS after all, and not just a wannabe.”

  “If he is, I don’t want to tangle with him and his ladies, thank you very much, sir, if you don’t mind.”

  “Come on, Taf, how good could one SAS trooper and a bunch of girls be?” Taffy laughed.

  “You’re joking, right. Look what they’d managed to do so far. That ain’t just luck.”

  “On that I have to agree with you my Welsh friend.” Colonel Remington stood and dusted his hands.

  “You’re going to help me, right?” The bleeding man asked.

  “You know, you could have done the decent thing and helped people instead of robbing and killing them, asshole.”

  “You gona give me something for the pain, man?”

  “Yeah, I suppose so. Got just the thing right here. It’ll cure all your aches and pains.” Colonel Remington turned to face him and shot him in the head. “Fucking asshole.”

  “So, what you want to do, go after him or?” Taffy didn’t bat an eye. If the colonel hadn’t shot him, he would.

  “Let me see the map.” Taffy handed over his map-pad, and the Colonel moved it around and chewed the inside of his cheek, a bad habit when he was thinking.