The Lure of the Pack

by Ian Redman

  “HAVING FUN MISTER?” They attacked again, more crashing branches, more red-hot lead and ear shattering sounds assaulting his lupine senses as Piper ran, weaved and dodged through the broken tree line. The bastards are forcing me to hold position he thought, wherever I run they can cut me to pieces. Yet again, deftly, with precision, the Eurocopter circled ready for another assault, the thumping from its rotors deafening Piper. “FUCK YOU” he shouted, a torrent of anger now flowing through his lupine veins.

  “We are approximately ten minutes from your position Tiger One, keep him pinned down.”

  “Don’t worry, we’ve got him boxed in, but hurry!”

  The burly guard shouted to his men, “KEEP MOVING AND REMEMBER, WE TAKE HIM ALIVE!”

  “His heartbeat is dangerously high sir.”

  The CEATA medic’s warning was all too clear, but there was no heartfelt reply from Colonel Mann, only a whisper, “come on Red Haze, now’s the time!” The CEATA team continued to watch the view from the overhead satellite as Ash Piper continued to fight for his life.

  With its cannon blazing yet again, the Eurocopter attacked. With an almighty roar Piper leapt behind a section of tree line as all around him ripped branches crashed down to the floor, the forest exploding with another tumultuous cacophony of hot lead.

  Then he felt it, the searing pain, his heart racing like never before, his blood pounding through his veins, his perspiration pouring from his raging body as his vision changed to red.

  Deep red! He growled! The wolf spoke; it was time to fight back! Piper leapt again as the helicopter roared overhead, but this time they hadn’t fired. Yes you bastards he thought, you need to conserve your ammo, don’t you! Piper quickly surveyed what was left of the decimated, forested area around him. He needed to find cover and fast.

  The change was upon him, the wolf was ready to appear.

  “He’s wondering what the fuck to do, ha!” The Eurocopter’s navigator smiled, they had him trapped.

  The pilot spoke, “we need to conserve the ammo, so be careful.”

  Franz laughed aloud as he continued monitoring his target through the Tiger’s thermal imaging system. “Hey don’t worry, keep her hovering for the moment, I’m watching him closely, he won’t…hey? Where the fuck…? WHAT THE HELL!”

  “What’s the matter?” The pilot sounded concerned, agitated.

  “HE’S FUCKING VANISHED OUT OF SIGHT! QUICK, PEEL OFF TO THE RIGHT AND HOVER.”

  “Heartbeat irregular, blood pressure rising dramatically.”

  Colonel Mann’s gaze quickly moved from the CEATA medic to Commander Hertschell, “this is it, he’s hazing.”

  There was no reply as Jeanette Descard looked worriedly at both men.

  With his lungs gasping for air, his body screaming in pain, Piper ran through the forest, the ethereal sounds of the night assaulting every nerve of his canine senses. Suddenly, he stopped and turned around. There it was, once again, the Eurocopter now hovering, waiting for his next move. With hateful rage cascading through his genes, Piper yelled back at the metal beast, “ALRIGHT YOU BASTARDS! HOW ABOUT A GAME OF WOLF AND MOUSE.” With his eyes now blood red, Piper’s jaws began to elongate. He growled at his hovering enemy, his body’s DNA exploding inside him as the wolf’s snout erupted from his jaws, his drop suit tearing at the seams as his ears, hands, legs and feet elongated, his newly released tail becoming rigid, dominant. Piper screamed as his body jerked in wild spasms of agony, for the beast was raging. Within seconds, the wolf erupted from Ashley Piper’s human flesh.

  The transformation complete, Piper fell on all fours and howled into the night, his powerful canid form ready…for the hunt!

  As he gazed in horror through his thermal imaging system, the Eurocopter’s navigator began to panic, “FUCKING HELL, I DON’T BELIEVE WHAT I’M SEEING!”

  “Why, what the hell is going on?” A sense of dread began to grip the pilot as he became acutely aware of the fear in his navigator’s voice.

  The wolf stood on its hind legs, snarling, its blood red eyes glaring defiantly, its canines and claws ready to strike back, to tear, slash and maim its adversaries.

  It was time for Ash Piper’s wild, aggressive, canid form to take the offensive!

  “My God,” said Jeanette Descard, “look how swiftly he’s moving.” The CEATA team watched in stark amazement at the amazing, yet disturbing satellite imagery on the screen.

  “He’s going to attack the chopper,” said Nick, “look, he’s on all fours, he’s heading for the tree line opposite them. OH SHIT, HE’S CLIMBING THE TREES!”

  “PEEL BACK, PEEL BACK!” The navigator was panic-stricken; never in all his life had he witnessed anything like this. “IT’S UNDERNEATH US, IN THE TREES, CLIMB FOR FUCK’S SAKE, CLIMB!”

  “WHAT’S FUCKING UNDERNEATH US?”

  “A FUCKING WO…” The navigator’s words were suddenly cut short as he heard a heavy thud on his left side, the Eurocopter tilting sideways, its rotors straining in metallic agony as it seemingly spun out of control, the fearful pilot wrestling with the stick.

  “TRYING TO COMPENSATE! SHIT, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT THERE?” The navigator was speechless with terror! He had seen the wolf leap from the trees and knew what was hanging on to the underneath of the Tiger, the pilot continuing to struggle with the controls, his voice now a panic stricken yell! “THIS IS TIGER ONE TO CENTRAL CONTROL, WE ARE UNDER ATTACK,” he shouted, “REPEAT, WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!”

  The security guard with the communications pack held out the handset, “it looks like Tiger One’s in trouble.”

  “What? Don’t be stupid.” The burly guard took the handset from his colleague as away in the distance they listened to the sound of the helicopter’s whining rotor blades. He placed the handset to his ear and listened to the terrible yelling over the static, trying to make sense of the distorted dialogue. “What the hell? Tiger One, do you copy, DO YOU COPY?” There was no reply, only further screaming. “FUCKING SHIT,” he shouted to his men, “C’MON, MOVE IT.”

  Even in his wolf form, Ash Piper knew the Eurocopter’s rotors could easily decapitate him. With his overly large canid body relishing the thought of the hunt, his claws gripped the helicopter’s framework as he hauled himself up to the navigator’s window.

  As the sound of tortured rotors engulfed the cockpit, the shocked navigator watched in horror as two piercing red eyes and a snarling hairy snout, exposing razor-sharp incisors, appeared at the window. Without hesitating he screamed as the wolf roared, drawing its right arm back, ready to strike. With a terrifying growl the wolf punched through the canopy of the cockpit, its huge, clawed hand gripping the hapless navigator’s throat, dragging his helmeted face towards its saliva-ridden mouth. “HEEEEEEEEEEELP,” he screamed.

  With its rotors whining, the Eurocopter twisted sharply to the right, the pilot trying desperately to throw the creature off, the toughened perspex of the canopy continuing to disintegrate under the hideous beast’s insidious assault. As a dark blanket of mind numbing fear wrapped itself around the navigator, he let out his final scream, the beast’s canine teeth biting deep into his helmet, tearing into the man’s face.

  “GOOOOOOOOOD,” screamed the pilot, the crotch and legs of his flying suit staining with urine as his bladder succumbed to gut-wrenching fear.

  Still the Eurocopter spun, the wolf continuing its ravaging onslaught, but now it was tilting further over to the right, the pilot having over compensated. With another gut wrenching snarl, the wolf released its blood-drenched prey and prepared to jump.

  “OH SHIT,” yelled the pilot, “THIS IS TIGER ONE, I’M GOING DOWN, I REPEAT, I’M GOING DOWN.” With the sound of whining, straining rotors echoing across the forest, the Eurocopter plunged downwards, the wolf swiftly launching itself into the trees. The helicopter spiralled out of control, crashing through branches and smashing into the ground, its rotors breaking off, scything through the broken foliage like lethal elongated knives. The pilot screamed again, not just in
fear, but in agony as pain tore through his body, the canopy of the cockpit completely disintegrating as the mangled wreck hit the ground with an almighty crash.

  Tiger One was down, but so too was the wolf, bloodied, powerful…and craving for revenge.

  “THE BASTARD’S BROUGHT THE CHOPPER DOWN!” Deep in the forest, the guards were dumbstruck, their contact over the radio having ceased, only the waspish buzzing of static now emitting over the airwaves. “TIGER ONE DO YOU COPY? TIGER ONE…SHIT!” Under the silvery darkness of the full moon, the burly guard glanced around at his men. “How the fuck can one man down a helicopter? It doesn’t make sense.” They were all uneasy. Something was wrong. Very wrong! “We need to get to the wreckage; the crew may still be alive.”

  “What about the spy?” The guard who spoke was shaking, and it wasn’t from the cold.

  “We’ll find the fucking shit! SPREAD OUT, TWO IN A TEAM, TWENTY METRE SPREADS! WE MOVE TOWARDS THE CHOPPER, LET’S GO!”

  “Utterly incredible,” Maurice Hertschell sounded truly amazed.

  “He seems to be more powerful and quick witted than we thought,” replied Colonel Mann, his eyes not leaving the satellite image of the wrecked Eurocopter.

  “So what now?” asked Jeanette Descard, her voice slicing through the adrenaline soaked atmosphere in the CEATA Communications Room.

  “Just wait a minute Jeanette…Nick?”

  “Yes sir,”

  “Give me an overhead view of where the guards are located with reference to Piper’s position.”

  “Yes sir.” Within a few seconds, utilising thermal imagery, the field of view on the large screen showed an enlarged, detailed analysis of Piper’s predicament.

  “There they are,” said Nick, “they’ve spread out, obviously expecting trouble.”

  “I’ll bet they are,” Colonel Mann smiled with relish.

  “They’re only minutes away from Red Haze Colonel, what do we do?” Nick was once again seriously worried as Charles Mann deliberately ignored his question.

  “The pilot seems in a bad way,” said Jeanette “and there’s no sign of movement from the navigator, I presume he’s dead.”

  In a cloud of dirt and dust, the Eurocopter’s pilot quickly unbuckled his safety belt, pulled out his handgun and slowly crawled out of the mangled cockpit. He yelled in pain, his right leg broken, but he had to get out, the chopper could explode at any time. He was frightened, incredibly frightened. Where are the others he thought, where the hell are they?

  “Look, there’s Ash! Oh shit, what’s he doing,” Nick’s fists were clenched, the CEATA Command team continuing to watch, fascinated at the man crawling out of the shattered cockpit, and the large wolf standing on its hind legs…waiting in the shadows.

  Within the realm of its blood red field of vision, the wolf surveyed the wreckage and its prey, its greatly enhanced olfactory senses savouring the pungent aroma of blood, urine and fear.

  It was time to kill again!

  With searing pain wracking his body, the pilot continued to crawl away from the mangled wreckage. Could he risk shouting to his colleagues? He glanced around! There was no sign of the thing that had attacked them. Perhaps it had been injured? Yes, it must have been. Then he heard it…a low rumbling growl, over to his left, behind the wreckage! Gritting his teeth as agony swept over him the pilot crawled faster, painfully dragging his injured leg, his helmeted, sweating, dirt encrusted face creased in pain, his eyes wide with unbridled terror.

  As the eerie light of the full moon continued to irradiate the forest he saw the shadow-like form of the large dog-like creature behind the wreckage. Then it appeared, moving slowly towards him, walking upright on its hind legs, its growling increasing in intensity and ferocity. “Oh God…please God, no…” he whimpered. With the pain from his broken leg forgotten, the injured pilot crawled faster and faster, not daring to face the furred, muscular, blood red eyed creature walking up behind him, its heavy breathing seemingly snorting in the silence of the forest. “Please God help me…please,” he whimpered. Then his whimper became a scream, “HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

  “Did you hear that?”

  “COME ON! ALL TEAMS MOVE IN, DOUBLE TIME, WEAPONS READY, SHOOT TO KILL!”

  “BUT WHAT ABOUT OUR ORDERS?”

  “FUCK THE ORDERS!”

  “GET BACK! GET BAAAAAACK!” The pilot fired at point blank range but the wolf kept coming, its snout peeled back, its vicious canines ready to tear, its powerful jaws ready to clamp down on flesh and bone. With a hideous roar the wolf’s clawed hand reached down and grabbed the man by his throat, slowly crushing his windpipe. As the Eurocopter’s pilot began choking to death, his face just inches from the beast’s saliva-ridden jaws, he screamed silently, the scream quickly becoming a gurgling sound as the wolf’s red eyes scanned the twisted, terrified look on the face of its prey. Effortlessly, without a hint of mercy, the wolf’s jaws opened wide and with a sickening, crunching sound bit deeply into the prey’s face, its incisors tearing into the prey’s helmet, then throat, its powerful claws holding the pilot’s twitching body in a vice-like grip. The wolf roared bloody defiance then, with tremendous force, threw the broken, blood soaked, lifeless corpse into the trees.

  “Shit, what was that?” the VKE guard whispered to his companion, “it sounded like some sort of animal.”

  “I know,” said the other. The two of them, now twenty metres apart from the rest, looked around as they continued to move quickly towards the wreckage of the Eurocopter, the radiance of the full moon casting an ethereal, spectral, silvery glow over the remnants of damaged forest.

  “KEEP FORMATION, ADVANCE WITH CAUTION!” It was the burly guard’s voice, still shouting instructions to his men and still confident of success.

  “No mercy,” Commander Hertschell’s voice was a whisper.

  “None whatsoever,” replied the Colonel.

  “Nick, are you alright?” Jean-Paul had noticed the look on his friend’s face, a look of forlorn horror and deep sadness as Nick slowly took off his thick-rimmed glasses and began cleaning them.

  “I’m sorry Jean-Paul, I just feel a bit…sick, I…I just can’t believe what Ash has done to that pilot, he’s…” Nick shook his head in disbelief, “he’s murdered him.”

  “Nick,” Jeanette Descard placed her hand lightly on the tearful lad’s shoulder, “the creature we are viewing is not the Ashley Piper we know. This is a werewolf, part man and part wolf. You have to accept this fact Nick because believe me, there is more bloodshed to come.”

  “Doctor Descard is right Nick,” said the Commander, “Ash is now a wild animal utilising human intellect and cunning. The creature we are watching is a natural predator and as you are well aware, Sergeant Piper is highly trained in the art of killing, this makes the two together, a lethal combination.”

  Nick paused a while before speaking. “I understand sir, but…” he sighed as he turned to the Colonel, “…what do we do now?”

  Charles Mann gazed inquisitively at the large screen and the thermal images of the guards moving ever closer to the waiting wolf. “It’s very simple Nick,” he said quietly, “we let Red Haze hunt.”

  1

  LET US PREY!

  “No Otto,” Helga Zeist pleaded, “you don’t understand, please, no…”

  “I do understand Helga, that is why Lana must sedate you, now lie still and trust me.”

  Otto Von Kurst cast an apprehensive gaze across the bedroom as Lana Franke prepared the injection. “This is a strong sedative Otto; she will sleep soundly for a day or so.”

  “Very well.”

  “Please, NO!” Helga struggled as Von Kurst held her down. He had to be careful he thought, show no emotion, not now!

  “This won’t hurt Helga and you will feel much better when you wake up.” Lana Franke walked slowly, almost gracefully towards her patient and applied a damp swab over a small area of Helga’s right arm. As she gently inserted the needle, Lana looked deeply into Helga’s blood red e
yes, barely attempting to conceal the malevolence in her own, “there now, sleep Helga, sleep.”

  “NO!” With an outburst of fitful energy Helga struggled on the bed, tightly gripping Von Kurst’s arm. “Otto,” she said, as if in a desperate attempt to speak urgently, “he…” she faltered, her speech slurring as a helpless feeling of weightlessness overtook her, her body quickly surrendering to the sedative. As thoughts of sleep entered her mind, Helga gazed reflectively at the man she loved, her blood red eyes welling with tears. In a pitiful, almost child like voice she whispered, “he will kill you…Otto.” Helga’s grip weakened as her body slowly relaxed, Von Kurst gently lowering her back onto the bed as sleep claimed her restless mind.

  “What did she mean,” the tone in Lana Franke’s voice was distinctly troubled, “he will kill you. Who is…HE?”

  Von Kurst gazed piercingly at his mistress, “you will need to clean her, Lana.”

  “You haven’t answered my question Otto and you HAVE been hiding something from me, haven’t you?”

  Von Kurst did not reply as he walked over to the bedroom door. He turned around, his gaze fixed on the angry looking woman who he knew, required an explanation. “I am going to get dressed, then we will talk. Do what you can for Helga.”

  Lana Franke nodded as the bedroom door slowly closed. With a look of sheer hatred burning in her eyes, her breathing heavy with sadistic, violent thoughts, Doctor Franke looked down at her sedated patient. You stinking, vomit-ridden piece of filth she thought, if you think you are taking him from me, think again! Slowly, a malevolent smile formed on the physician’s face. There is no one watching, she thought, and you’re so helpless, so weak, aren’t you…my darling. Yes my dear Helga, it’s time for me to clean you…every little, intimate part of you.