by Terry Yates
Refugees, soldiers, and werewolves were all over the yard in what appeared to look like something out of a biblical depiction of Armageddon. There was Zora and two soldiers holding one werewolf at bay, while Potts and FranAnne joined another two soldiers, including the woman, and were shooting at another. Zack and Sam were with the commander and the remaining soldiers and were trying not to let another two werewolves outflank them. Bullets were flying all around. Hawkins had to pick and choose his shots from the roof. All of the werewolves had smoke pouring from their wounds as they screamed and howled. It looked to Kyler like the whole group might disappear into a fog.
As one of the werewolves clawed at a soldier, Zora managed to get close enough to shoot it in the forehead. The beast lumbered for a moment as she put two more rounds into it. It fell to the ground and didn’t move. Kyler wasn’t sure, but it looked like the thing was dead. Kyler watched as Zora and the other soldiers moved over to help the others. He watched as the commander and the woman tried to hold off the little werewolf, Oliver Dixon. They shot bullet after bullet at it, but it was so small and so quick that nothing was hitting it. And like a dog, the thing would try to nip at their legs and ankles.
As Kyler and Lauren watched, little Kayla decided to let her presence be know by letting out a loud wail.
“Not now!” Kyler whispered frantically. “Not now!”
He saw two of the werewolves, plus Oliver Dixon, prick up their ears and begin to look in his direction. Not wanting them to see Lauren, Kyler jumped up from his hiding place, Kayla in his arms, and began sprinting toward the grove of trees.
“Stay there!” he told Lauren.
He looked over his shoulder, fully expecting to see three werewolves chasing him, but there was only one. Oliver Dixon was running on all fours and gaining ground. He didn’t know what he was going to do when he got to the trees, but he supposed it was enough to get them away from Lauren. If his theory was right, Kayla wouldn’t be harmed. She was the reason that Little Ollie was chasing him.
Kyler’s legs were about to go. He just couldn’t do it anymore. He thought how strange it was that he wasn’t nearly as frightened at the prospect of death as he thought he probably would be. By the way he was growling, Kyler could tell that Oliver Dixon couldn’t be more than a foot and a half behind him. He could hear and feel the thing snapping at his heels, howling as it did so. It was literally tearing at the canvas on the back of his left shoe.
He couldn’t keep it up. His legs were starting to cramp, and he felt like his lungs were about to explode. That’s it…no more. He was just going to have to stop and face the thing. Hey, maybe he would be able to fight it, but he also knew the chances of getting away without getting bitten would be slim.
When he could absolutely take no more, he began to slow down. As he was in motion to lay Kayla down, he heard a noise behind him. It was growling, followed by yelping. He turned around to see the little werewolf rolling on the ground in cloud of dust, but it wasn’t rolling around alone. It was Joe! He had blindsided the thing and knocked it off balance. The werewolf yelped and howled and scratched, trying to get away from the dog. It took a swipe at Joe’s nose and connected, tearing a bit of flesh from the tip of it.
Seeing that it was outgunned, the werewolf yelped, howled, and then took off running through the tall grass that was just now beginning to pop back up after the two days of hurricanes. Joe stopped for a moment, blood running down from all of his wounds, old and new. He gave Kyler a look as if to say “I did what I could, Doc”, and then ran off through the weeds after the little werewolf.
Kyler stood panting. He set Kayla down, and then dropped himself. He couldn’t run anymore. He just hoped that everyone was all right, but he knew that they probably weren’t, because he could still hear gunfire and werewolves roaring.
Sam, and Zack were holding off the large male that was Nicholas Klefka, unloading bullet after bullet into him, the smoke still rising from its wounds, making it scream in pain. FranAnne and a few soldiers shot round after round into what had been Shelly Dixon, FranAnne with tears running down her face. Shelly was almost completely covered in smoke and writhing on the ground clawing at her wounds.
The big male that had been Marcus Dixon was trying to get to her, but Potts, Zora, the commander, and the woman soldier were standing between them, and shooting at him. Zora looked to her right and saw a naked body on the ground. It was tall, blond, and female. It was Samantha Gould, lying in the fetal position, but with her head almost turned around, and her lifeless eyes, the beautiful blue that they had been before she had been bitten.
They continued to pump bullets into the three werewolves, the smoke from their wounds was thick all around them. They were all out of the special cartridges, but Potts seemed pretty confident that they had done their damage. The one that had been Marcus Dixon stumbled into the building, howling as it disappeared. Shelly was now completely still on the ground while Klefka sank to his werewolf knees, and then fell flat onto its back. It tried to sit up, but a half dozen more bullets in its body sent it back to the ground where it exhaled in and out a few times, before its body quit moving all together. Potts kept watching it for any sign of movement. The son-of-a-bitch had survived half a millennia and Potts wanted to make sure that it was dead. He raised his pistol and aimed it at the beast’s forehead. He was going to shoot it until the thing’s head was turned to mush, and then cut it into a hundred different pieces. As he raised his pistol, he saw something move past him. It was the werewolf that had been Marcus Dixon running away.
“We’d better get it!” Potts yelled to Zora who was checking to see how many bullets she had in her last clip.
Before they could follow it, they heard a noise from overhead and looked up to see lights no more than fifty feet above them, and descending fast. It was another helicopter.
“Is that one of yours?” Potts asked the commander.
“No!” the man yelled through his swollen face. “It’s not one of mine!”
Potts looked back up at the helicopter with his good eye, and then turned to the commander and clubbed him over the nose again with his gun, knocking him hard to the ground. The woman soldier began to run toward him, but was met by a solid uppercut to the chin from Zora, which also sent her to the ground, unconscious.
“See if a bulletproof vest can stop that, Bitch!”
As the helicopter began to land, Potts, Zora, FranAnne, Sam, and Zack, along with two surviving soldiers…other than the commander and the woman, who were both still out cold…gathered, hands in the air, trying to shield their eyes from the bright lights.
“Anybody got any ammo left?” Potts yelled over the din of the helicopter.
“A few rounds,” one of the soldiers said.
“Me too,” replied the other soldier.
“Three bullets,” Zora told him.
“None.”
“None.”
“None,” said Zack, FranAnne, and Sam.”
“I’ve got two left,” Potts said.
They watched as the helicopter landed, and out jumped more soldiers…but real soldiers this time…recognizable soldiers…at least ten of them, with khaki uniforms and helmets. Potts and the others raised their weapons. One of the soldiers raised his hands into the air as if surrendering. He laid his machine gun on the ground, then turned and said something to the other soldiers, who didn’t drop their guns, but at least lowered them. The man ducked as he ran like all people do when they leave a helicopter, but he kept his hands where they could see them. As he reached the group, they could see that he was young, no more than twenty-six or twenty-seven years in age, and rather short, but carried himself well.
“Colonel Potts?” the man asked, saluting.
“I am,” Potts answered, returning the salute.
“I’m Lieutenant Dorsey, Sir. What in the hell went on here, Colonel?” he asked looking around the yard at the dead soldiers, and the dead…what were those? Bears? But it was Potts’ face that made him
really wonder what had happened there.
“Never mind that, Lieutenant,” Potts shot back. “Why are you here?”
“Sir?”
“Why are you here?”
Because of the helicopter, the two men were having to shout back and forth.
“I don’t understand you, Sir? We were sent here to evacuate anyone that might still be on the island!”
“Let me see your orders!”
The lieutenant reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper, which he handed to Potts, who handed it to FranAnne. He continued to stare at the lieutenant while FranAnne held the paper up into the air, trying to read it.
“Looks legit, Colonel,” she said, handing it back to him. Because of the one eye, Potts had to reach for it several times before he made contact with the paper, grabbed it, and handed it back to Dorsey who slipped it back into his pocket.
“You’re a day late and a dollar short, Lieutenant! We’ve been fighting for our lives for four days now!”
“Sorry, Sir, but a major shit storm hit Florida! Half of it is gone!”
“What?”
“Yessir! Those two hurricanes hit so hard that we haven’t been able to do a thing till tonight! We were shocked to find out that the island was still here!”
“Then who the hell sent these people!” Potts yelled, grabbing one of the surviving soldiers by an arm and pulling him over.
“Don’t know, Sir. Who are they?”
“We don’t know either, but they were sent here to kill us!”
“Is that true?” the young lieutenant asked the man.
The man didn’t answer, but dropped his gun, as did the other surviving soldier.
Dorsey turned around and waved for his troops to join him. The soldiers began to run quickly toward them.
“Take these two men into custody!”
The two men raised their hands as the soldiers raised their guns and motioned for them to walk to the helicopter.
“Take these two as well!” Potts told him, pointing to the commander and the woman who were just then coming to.
Dorsey nodded and several more men ran to the pair and roughly pulled them to their feet and motioned them with their guns to follow the other two soldiers.
Dorsey stepped past Potts and walked over to the werewolf that had been Shelly Dixon.
“What the hell are these?” he asked looking around at the battlefield.
“We don’t have time for that right now, Lieutenant!” Potts told him. We’ve got injured and sick that need to be tended to.
Lt. Dorsey turned around to see Lauren walking toward them from one direction and Michael hopping on one leg from the opposite direction.
“Where’s the doctor?” Potts asked.
Zora tried to peer into the darkness but saw no sign of Kyler.
“There he is!” Zack yelled, pointing toward the grove of trees.
Zora broke into a wide grin when she saw a silhouette walking through the grass, carrying something in its arms.
“That sumbitch must have nine lives,” Potts muttered to himself.
Zora ran to him while FranAnne ran after Lauren and Sam and Zack went to retrieve Michael.
“We’ve got one on the roof.” Potts told Dorsey.
Potts turned to see Hawkins standing on the roof leaning on his gun. He waved for the private to come down. Hawkins shook his head at Potts, who waved at him again. Again, Hawkins shook his head, and then took the index and middle fingers on one hand, and pantomimed them walking down a flight of stairs.
“He can’t get down.” Potts said. “The staircase must’ve collapsed.”
“We’ll throw him a ladder, Sir.”
Potts turned and looked back up at Hawkins and gave him the thumbs up, which Hawkins quickly returned, smiling a toothy smile.
The two men watched as the rest of the group made their way toward the helicopter. Lauren went in first, followed by Michael with help from Zack and Sam, who followed after him. FranAnne held her hand out for Kyler and Zora to go inside, which they did. Finally, FranAnne herself looked back at the colonel, before entering the helicopter herself.
“I think all your people are in, Colonel!” Dorsey said, looking at the helicopter. “We best get going…I mean…if that’s okay with you, Sir!”
Potts nodded and the two ran to the chopper. They both got inside with the rest of the soldiers, the prisoners, who were sitting on the floor, and the islanders. Potts ducked down and moved to the middle of one long seat, with Dorsey sitting down directly opposite him.
“Get the ladder ready!” Dorsey told a soldier who nodded and rolled the ladder to the edge of the door. “Tell the pilot that we’ve got one on the roof!” he told another soldier, who moved toward the front of the helicopter.
After a moment, the helicopter began to lift off the ground, blowing the grass in all directions. Kyler sat next to the window and Zora sat next to him. They were holding hands in silence. Michael and Lauren were being attended to by medics while FranAnne held Kayla, and Zack and Sam both sat, heads down, beat from exhaustion.
“Where’s my daddy?” Lauren asked the commander as he sat on the floor, rubbing his ankle.
“Was he big and wore a white lab coat, Honey?” the commander asked smiling, looking even more evil with his nose swollen and bloody.
Lauren nodded her head. The commander smiled and ran his finger across his throat. Lauren pulled away from the medic and began to cry into Michael’s chest. Michael was still fairly stunned, but managed to put his arm around Lauren and pull her to him and let her cry on his shoulder. He watched as the man sat on the floor and began to laugh. Before he knew what had come over him, he raised his good foot and smashed it straight into the man’s nose, causing him to grab his face and scream out in pain. Dorsey reached over and put his hand on Michael’s knee, as he was preparing for another kick.
“That’s enough, Son!” he yelled over the noise. He’ll be dealt with properly, I promise you.
“We’re over the building!” the private yelled, throwing down the ladder.
Potts got up from his seat and squatted across the floor toward the window. He looked down in time to see Hawkins smiling as he reached for the ladder. As the private put one foot onto the ladder, Potts saw something moving on the roof behind him. It was a werewolf.
“Hawkins!” he screamed, pointing behind him. Hawkins just smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “Get this thing up!” Potts screamed at Dorsey!
“Go! Go! Go!” Dorsey screamed to the pilot.
Kyler and Zora looked out the window to see the werewolf that had been Marcus Dixon moving up behind him.
“Oh no…” Kyler moaned, feeling helpless to do anything.
Hawkins had only managed to get one foot on the ladder before helicopter began to rise into the air.
“Whoa!” he screamed, still smiling.
As the helicopter rose into the air, Hawkins grabbed the rungs with both hands and hung on tightly, his back foot dangling into the air.
“Slow down!” he screamed still smiling as he looked up at Potts who was now frantically pointing behind him.
As the chopper pulled away from the building, Hawkins turned around just in time to see the werewolf lunge from the roof and grab the private by the legs, both sets of claws digging into him. He hung on to the ladder as he screamed in pain.
“Shit!” he screamed as he looked down at the werewolf, whose weight was causing him to lose his grip.
The private looked down and watched as the creature opened its mouth and tore a large chunk out of his leg.
“Shit!” he yelled again in agony.
He reached down to his belt and pulled his knife from his pocket, trying to hang on with one hand, but the weight of the wolf was too much for him. Hawkins pulled his knife from its sheath as the chopper continued to rise higher into the air.
“Damn, Cpl. Dixon!” he said through gritted teeth. “Now, is that any kinda way to treat a brother!”
<
br /> With this, he let go of the ladder and plunged the knife into the monster’s head as they both fell away.
“Hawkins!” Potts screamed, watching the two falling back toward the roof. He saw Hawkins hit the edge of the building hard and tumble to the ground, while the werewolf fell completely through the roof of the building, its weight making a hole in the ceiling.
“Hawkins,” Potts repeated softly, lowering his head.
Dorsey nodded for the private to retrieve the ladder as he put his hand on Potts’ shoulder.
“Colonel?” Dorsey said, as soft as he could over the din. “Come back in, Sir”
For the first time, since Kyler had met Potts, three months ago, the man look defeated. He couldn’t see much of his face through the bloody rag that covered half of it, but his shoulders slumped as he sat down next to the door, pulling up one knee and putting and resting his arm across it.
Kyler stared down at the ground as the helicopter continued to rise high into the air.
“Wait!” he screamed.
“What?” Dorsey asked, still kneeling beside the door with Potts.
“There’s another survivor!”
The surviving members of the group looked up at him in confusion.
“What was that?” Dorsey asked again.
“We’ve got another survivor!” he screamed at Dorsey, but was looking at Potts.
Potts looked out of the doorway just as the private was starting to close it. Down below them, he saw Joe limping into view and looking up at the helicopter, the bright moonlight making his coat look even more golden.
“Take us down!” Potts yelled to Dorsey, pointing to the ground.
Dorsey looked at the window.
“I don’t see anything!” he said to Potts.
“There!” Potts said, pointing even harder at the dog.
“The dog?”
“Yes!”
“Colonel, we can’t go back there for a dog!”
“Lieutenant, I’m ordering you to take this helicopter down! Now!”
“Colonel, my orders are to…”
Before the lieutenant could finish his sentence, Potts pulled his pistol and put it under his chin.