by Terry Yates
With Shelly over Sam’s shoulder and Kyler holding Kayla, the group began to running back to the sleeping quarters. Once again, led by Zora, they sprinted right down one hallway and then left down another, until at last, they rounded the last corner. There, off to the right, and halfway down the corridor, was the sleeping quarters, the lights still off.
“There it is,” Sam said.
Thank God the baby wasn’t crying anymore. It had stopped just as soon as Kyler had handed her to FranAnne and hadn’t started back up again.
As they began to run the final leg, they saw Joe rounding the far corner, and sprinting their direction.
“Joe!” Kyler exclaimed.
The dog ran straight toward them, hackles still standing up, only stopping when he reached them. FranAnne squatted down to pet him. He was panting hard, his pink and black tongue sticking out as far as it could go. The bandage that had covered his side was now hanging down, and the stitches had been ripped open. His face was covered in blood, the hair matted to the skin. There was also blood on his chest and his legs.
“Poor boy,” FranAnne cooed. “He’s all beaten up.”
“I’m not sure all of the blood on him is his,” Zora told her, bending down and petting the dog.
Joe’s ear was torn and his nose had two large claw marks on it. The gash that he already had above his eye had reopened, and there was a new gash on his left flank, but other than that, there were no more new wounds.
“Do you think that blood was from the werewolf?” Kyler asked.
“It must be,” Zora answered, rubbing her hand along the dog just to make sure.
“He’s one tough hombre, isn’t he?” Sam said, looking down at Joe.
As they began to move toward the sleeping quarters, they heard a snort, like a train that’s getting ready to depart. The snort was followed by a low rumbling growl.
“Uh oh…” Kyler moaned, not even realizing that he was doing it.
Joe began to growl as they looked down the hallway toward the corner where he’d just appeared. They saw a shadow moving across the wall. There was no doubt in any of their minds who or what it was. As the shadow lengthened, telling them that it was about to round the corner, they heard it gasping as if it were tired and out of breath.
Joe’s mouth curled up, showing his canine teeth as the beast rounded the corner. They had forgotten the sheer enormity of the creature, which had stopped at the end of the hallway, and stood silhouetted, watching them. They could see that it was breathing in and out heavily.
Joe tried to pull away from FranAnne, but she held on to his neck. The beast began to move toward them. It moved slowly and they could see that it was dragging its left hind leg behind it. Its long white mane was bloody and matted to its fur. It was hurt.
Joe escaped FranAnne’s clutches, and moved slowly toward the oncoming werewolf, his hackles as high as they could possibly get. FranAnne slowly stood up and pulled her pistol. The four stood frozen.
“What are we going to do?” FranAnne asked.
“Well, its obviously hurt,” Sam said, shifting the still unconscious Shelly to his other shoulder.
“We’ve got to keep it from going into the room,” Zora said.
“Maybe…nah…” Kyler started.
“What?” Zora asked, looking up at him.
“No…it’s stupid.”
“What?” Zora, FranAnne, and Sam exclaimed at once.
“It’s just…” Kyler started, “if the thing is hurt, and moving as slowly as it is…why can’t we just outrun it till it turns back into…eh…the burn victim guy?”
The three stared at Kyler stunned.
“That’s the best idea I’ve heard so far,” Zora said, keeping a close eye on the werewolf.
“Sounds good to me,” Sam grunted, “but I don’t think I can carry Shelly on my shoulders for the next eight hours.”
“You don’t think that maybe its faking, do you?” FranAnne asked, gripping her pistol tightly.
“I doubt it, since so much of that blood on Joe isn’t Joe’s,” Kyler answered.
The three stayed glued to the spot though as Joe inched up closer to the beast. The werewolf was getting closer to the sleeping quarters, and Joe was trying to keep its attention from the room. No one had bothered to close the door.
The creature was only a few feet from the darkened room, when Joe stepped up and moved in front of it. The creature snorted as it slowly came toward Joe. Kyler and the others could see the werewolf clearly now. One eye was swollen and closed and a loose flap of skin hung from its jowl. It was dragging its back leg because Joe had ripped out its Achilles heel, the tendon hanging off the now useless leg.
Joe began to slowly move backwards away from the door.
“Stay down in there!” Zora yelled down the corridor toward the room. It was too late for her to tell them to close the door.
Joe began to growl louder as he moved backwards. The creature growled back weakly, pulling itself closer to the open doorway.
“Keep him busy, Joe,” Kyler said softly, slowly taking a step back as they all had been involuntarily doing as the beast moved down the corridor.
The werewolf was no more than three feet from the door when Joe began to bark.
“That’s it, Joe,” FranAnne said softly, taking another step backwards, her pistol shaking in her hand.
As the creature began to move across the open doorway, Joe stopped, and began to yap loudly. The creature turned its blood-encrusted nose toward the ceiling. It caught a whiff of something. It was having trouble breathing, because one nostril was caked in blood, but it still smelled something…something close. They knew that if the beast turned its head just six inches to its left, it would probably figure out that there was a whole group of people in the room. But the creature didn’t turn its head, it simply lowered its nose and growled loudly at Joe.
“Come on…move away from the door,” Kyler said.
But the beast continued to stand in front of it. It was growing weaker, dropping to one knee while the useless leg trailed behind. It was now on all fours and slowly crawling toward Joe who had moved a few feet forward. The two canines were now no more than four feet from each other, Joe careful to stay out of the thing’s long reach.
It crawled past the doorway toward Joe as the dog began to move backwards again. It had just cleared the doorway, when something fell inside the room…something metal that clanged when it hit the floor. The beast spun around and began to crawl back toward the room.
“No!” Kyler shrieked.
“Hey!” FranAnne screamed at the beast. “Over here!”
They all began to yell at the beast. It stopped and looked back at them, its white mane swinging behind it, but it knew it was being baited, and turned back toward the dark room.
“No! No! Over here!” They continued to scream, but it continued crawling back to the room. Zora gasped as the thing began to slither through the darkened doorway, its front half disappearing into the room.
“No!” she screamed.
Before anyone knew what was happening, Joe ran up behind the thing and clamped his teeth down on the werewolf’s lame leg. It screamed in agony and turned back around, swiping at the dog, as it pulled backwards on the thing’s leg, careful to stay out of its reach.
The werewolf howled in pain as Joe yanked and pulled on the injured back leg, growling and shaking his head back and forth trying to tear the skin off of it. The monster roared and shook its leg loose, but not before Joe pulled away a large chunk of flesh. It began to move quickly toward Joe…quicker than it had been moving, startling Kyler, Zora, FranAnne, and Sam, who hadn’t expected it to pick up speed.
They moved slowly backwards as Joe joined them, still barking. The thing crawled as quickly as it could, panting and rasping, its rib cage expanding with every torturous breath it took. It wanted only Joe now.
As it cleared the doorway, the four jumped as something white flew through the air and landed on top of the werewolf
, causing it to grunt as it hit the floor. The thing that had flown through the air was Gringo, still in his bathrobe, and he was straddling the monster and stabbing it with a knife, cursing it as he stabbed. The four stood in shock and awe as Gringo stabbed and stabbed at the beast. For all of his bullshit, Gringo was no coward.
The thing roared and stood up quickly, causing Gringo to drop his knife, but he grabbed onto the werewolf’s white mane, and scissor locked his legs around it. The thing spun around trying to shake him, but it was proving fruitless. The only thing that it shook off was Gringo’s robe. Kyler had been right when he had suspected that Gringo wasn’t wearing anything under his bathrobe. The man was so hairy that it was hard tell where one of them ended and the other began.
The beast began to ram itself against the wall, trying to crush Gringo between itself and the wall, but the man held on, grunting as his breath was being knocked out of him. The thing managed to reach over its shoulder and rake its claws over Gringo’s shoulder. The four watched as blood began to seep from the man’s shoulder. He cried out in pain, but still hung on.
Finally, the beast turned itself around hard, slinging Gringo off its shoulders and sending him crashing hard into the far wall. As the thing began to limp toward him, bloody claws out and forearm raised, Joe ran up behind it and grabbed its good leg. The werewolf screamed and turned on Joe. It took a swipe downward, but the canine was too quick, and ran away from the beast. As it turned back toward Gringo, Joe ran up behind it again, and nipped at its leg, but missed. The werewolf turned and swung again, but again, Joe was too fast and retreated.
Without warning, FranAnne walked toward the beast, her gun still out. It turned on Gringo again, but before it spun completely around, FranAnne unloaded her pistol in the werewolf’s side and back. It screamed again in agony, but instead of turning and taking a swipe at FranAnne, who was dangerously close to the monster, it began to limp down the hallway that it and Joe had so busily occupied minutes before. Gringo eyes were shut tightly and his face contorted, waiting for the thing to kill him as it walked by, but it didn’t have the strength. It was defeated. It simply dragged itself back down the hallway. Joe started to chase it, but FranAnne held him back by the nape of his neck.
“Let it be, Joe,” she said softly, shaking now from having stood so close to the thing and firing at it almost point blank. “We’ve beaten it for now.”
Joe tried to pull away from her, but she had him tight this time. The others moved to FranAnne’s side and slowly peeked around the corner just in time to see the werewolf’s white bloody mane disappearing around a second corner. It was out of sight, but they could hear its labored breathing.
Confident that the thing was gone, Kyler bent down to tend to the naked Gringo while Zora began to slowly follow the blood trail that the animal was leaving.
“Zora,” Kyler said, looking at her.
He noticed that she looked antsy as if she wanted to follow the creature and kill it.
“Zora!” Kyler repeated, a tone of authority in his voice this time.
She continued to watch the beast for another moment before finally turning to Kyler.
“Come back,” he told her.
She took one last look down the corridor, and then walked back to the group, where they were soon joined by the O’Hearley’s, the Olsen’s, Samantha, and Sylvia. Only Michael Blum was missing from the room. His leg was in too much pain, not to mention the fact that he had been the one to make the noise that the beast had heard. He had accidentally knocked over a chair while he was crawling around in the room, so he remained inside.
Kyler patted Gringo on the shoulder, then stood up.
“Way to go, Private Fulton,” he told FranAnne whose hand was shaking worse now then it had before.
Kyler reached over and gently took the gun from her hands.
“You okay?” he asked her.
“Actually…I’m good…I think.”
Kyler smiled at her. Then…either because of her ordeal, or seeing Gringo naked, FranAnne vomited.
CHAPTER 57
Kyler had just finished bandaging Gringo’s shoulder while Samantha held his hand. Kyler watched her. She smiled down at him, but her eyes were vacant. He still smarted from her little game of Doctor Toss.
“There you go,” he said after taping the bandage down.”
“I guess I’m lucky the thing didn’t bite me, eh Doc?”
“Yeah,” Kyler answered, looking over at Samantha as he did so. “Lucky.”
Samantha returned the gaze. She smiled that lifeless smile at him as if they had some big secret that they were sharing, but the only big secret as far as Kyler was concerned was the she was scaring him worse that Opal had. He thought of Opal and Wilbur. He couldn’t help but think of Wilbur, because some of him was still on the doctor’s clothes. He hadn’t had a chance to shower and change clothes again like Zora had, who had just finished mopping the corridor floor.
He had started to patch Gringo up, but Gringo had demanded that he take care of Joe first.
“He saved my life,” he told the doctor. “And you did too!” he yelled to FranAnne who was across the room. She smiled back at him. “Glad you left your knife in your boot.”
It had taken over an hour to fix up the dog. He didn’t have time to patch him up completely. He cleaned his torn ear, and sutured the new wounds, but he’d only tightened up his earlier stitches, and then replaced the bandage that had covered the dog’s side. He had already checked over the baby. He didn’t really worry about Shelly. Sam had placed her on one of the beds and he could see that she was still sleeping, so he left her for the time being. Zora’s sleeper hold had really done a number on her.
He had just given Joe’s and Lauren’s heads one last scratch…he couldn’t part her from the dog…when Potts, Cohen, and Hawkins entered the room, looking wired, but exhausted.
“It’s about God damn time!” Gringo said loudly from his cot. “The cavalry once again arrives too late!”
Potts looked at the man’s bandaged shoulder, and then sneered. Kyler shot up off the cot and charged up to the colonel.
“Where the hell were you when we needed you?” he asked angrily. “Out cleaning your guns? You’re supposed to be in charge here and you…”
Before he could say another word, Potts reached up, stuck his four fingers in Kyler’s mouth, clamped down and put his thumb under his chin and pulled him down to his level.
“Now listen to me carefully, Doctor,” Potts said softly, almost inaudibly. “Sgt. Cohen, Private Hawkins, and I…oh…about an hour ago, stood on the roof, and fought off our friend. See these little splatters of blood on my uniform?”
Kyler nodded. Drool was dripping down on Potts fingers, but the colonel didn’t seem to notice.
“We almost got ourselves killed trying to keep that thing out of this building.”
“Whegl…ooh…lidn’t…thoo a lewwy…doog…lob…” Kyler answered as best as could be expected from someone with a hand in his mouth.
“What do you mean we didn’t do a very good job?”
“Loo thoo thlee thlis lud theer?” Kyler asked, pointing to the blood on his shoulder.
“Yes, I see it,” Potts answered, peering at the blood. “How’d you get it?”
Angrily Kyler pulled Potts’ hand out of his mouth. The skin around his mouth was red and sore. He rubbed his mouth. He was angry and embarrassed.
“For your information, Colonel, we were fighting the thing ourselves with one pistol, a dog, and an…” Kyler stopped. He wanted to say “orangutan”, but he chose not to, not wanting to hurt Gringo’s feelings.
“What do you mean you fought the thing yourselves?”
“WE FOUGHT THE THING OURSELVES!” Kyler screamed at the top of his lungs, causing everyone in the room to jump with a start.
“When? Where?” Potts asked.
“Right there in that hallway…about an hour ago!”
Kyler’s face was red with fury, and he was moving his jaw
back and forth.
“That’s impossible. We saw the thing running toward town.”
“It’s true,” Sam Fong said.
“Where is it now?” Potts asked.
“We don’t know! It crawled away! There’s a blood trail out there…maybe you can follow it,” Kyler answered. “Oh yeah, I forgot…it ran to town!”
“Hawkins! Sgt. Cohen!” Potts bellowed.
The two men ran to his side.
“Follow the trail of blood. Find the thing, but be cautious. Take a lot of ammo.”
The two men nodded and ran out of the room.
“What about Private Fulton?” Kyler asked. “She’s the one that sent that creature packing!”
Potts looked over at FranAnne.
“Fulton!”
FranAnne turned around.
“Sir?”
Potts waved her over. FranAnne ran to Potts side and saluted. He didn’t return the salute.
“I want you to go with Hawkins and Cohen. Find that monster and come and get me when you do. I’m going to kill it myself.”
FranAnne looked to Kyler, who nodded to her.
“Yes, Sir!” she said, saluting again, a smile on her face.
“Get out of my face, Private,” Potts told her.
FranAnne put her hand on her holster, then turned, and ran out of the room.
“Happy now?” Potts asked.
“Not really, Colonel,” Kyler answered him.
Potts was about to say something to him, but he didn’t get the chance, because Kyler kicked his right foot hard into Potts groin, causing the colonel’s knees to buckle, sending him red faced, to the floor. Potts grunted as he grabbed his crotch, crawled up in the fetal position, and began to rock back and forth on his back.
“I don’t like bullies, Colonel,” Kyler said, and walked away, passing a smiling Zora as he left the room for a badly needed shower.
“Shit!” Potts grunted. “I didn’t think he had it in him!”
Sam reached down and helped Potts up off the floor and onto a cot. He sat doubled over, both hands still on his crotch.
“Are you okay, Colonel?”
“Do I look okay, Fong?” he answered, rubbing his genitals through his pants.