by David Shiels
She felt a sense of fulfilment come over her as she realised it. The words of her father had delivered it to her. She had reached her dream, the world was talking about her, her name and face was on every news website worth anything. She was trending on Twitter and Facebook. She was on everyone's lips everywhere and would remain as the last huge piece of world news. She knew this day would come. She placed her head on her folded arms, smiled, then rested her eyes. It had been a long day and she wasn’t sure how long she would feel this level of safety for. She would dream of many things while she slept, many good things.
Claudia awoke from the best sleep she had encountered in a long time, no longer did she feel the aches and pains throughout her body, she stretched without a single ounce of the past abuse attacking her senses . She woke up with a fresh perspective on life, having one's dream achieved really does wonders for that person's mood. She was eager to return to her laptop and read all of the new stories that she would encounter and she secretly hoped her wolves didn’t kill everybody too soon.
The World’s Two Powers
She lifted the laptop lid and noticed a video of a girl giving make-up tips about how to achieve the perfect Claudia appearance, the girl in the thumbnail actually looked attractive so Claudia felt relieved to receive confirmation that her only fans were not only fat ugly computer nerds.
As she hovered the mouse cursor over the video thumbnail, in preparation to double tap the little black touch pad beneath her hand, she saw something bright and silver in the corner of her eye. She immediately looked to her left and saw something that would still be engraved in her memory fifty years from now when she reflected back upon her life: It was the great silver wolf.
It stood strong and tall, almost twice as big as the other wolves, and gave a presence that Claudia knew too well; the aura of a leader. A slim glow from beast reflected onto the wolves near to it.
For a creature so terrifying and pretentious it gave off such warm, gentle vibes. Claudia was internally puzzled by what to feel.
It gracefully walked to Claudia; it’s face bowed down low to Claudia’s seated position, and stroked it’s head against her bruised arm, and despite it’s extremely spiked skin, felt wonderfully smooth against her cold skin.
She looked beyond the silver wolf, noticing the room was now completely full to the brim with wolves; the entirety of the floor spaced was covered with spiked fur.
She looked back to the wolf, its eyes at the same level as hers in her computer chair’ if she was to stand up then the beast would surely come to her shoulder length. She slowly raised one hand, brushing it through its long hair. The wolf showed it enjoyed this by raising its head into the air, much like a cat does when it is having its chin rubbed by its owner.
A splutter and a burp came from the other side of the table in front of Claudia; it was Studley. She again forgot that he existed.
“What’s for food breakfast? me so hungary” Studley picked his nose, wiping the abundance of green slime that came out down onto the crystal white table he was seated at.
“Gross” Claudia said out loud. “Fucking. Gross”
The silver wolf walked away from Claudia, it’s eyes fixated on Studley; as it walked towards him it seemed to eye the young man up and down multiple times.
When the wolf reached Studly it gave him a long sniff; it particularly seemed interested in sniffing his right shoulder, the shoulder which was impaled.
“Aww bootiful shiny puppy hehe” Studley rubbed his hand vigorously around the face of the wolf while giggling like a happy child.
The wolf raised its large spike edged metallic looking tail in the air, then, without warning, stabbed the tail hard into Studley’s shoulder, where the barely healed would was, piercing it so it almost came out of the other side.
The quickness of the action caused Claudia to jump back, startled in her seat, almost tipping it backwards; the wolves behind her jumping to provide her with the balance she needed.
Studley stood up, his face looking like that of a child who had just been told off by his teacher, looking down into the eyes of the wolf as he did so.
“Claudia, it really hurts” He sniffed his nose as tears crawled down his slim face.
The great wolf tensed it’s face. Studley’s body shot up straight like a surfboard, his hair standing on edge as far as it would go up, almost ripping itself from the root.
He felt as if he was being constantly jolted with small surges of electricity that rendered him unable to move his body even a centimetre. His pupils disappeared leaving just pure whiteness in his eyes, the tears he was shredding completely evaporated.
The wolf’s body shook as its face intensified, its leg quivering beneath its hulking body. It looked as if it’s legs were ready to snap.
The tail released itself from Studley. He collapsed onto the floor. The great silver wolf walked off and stood in line with the rest of the wolves as if nothing had just happened.
Claudia looked on baffled, unsure what to make of the events that just happened. She looked at the silver wolf, noticing it had now lost its leadership aura.
“Studley you retarded bastard, what have you done?!” She shouted and cursed as she walked around the table to get a look at him.
As she reached his side of the table he shot up and looked Claudia in the face, he placed one hand on the table and put his face close to hers.
“Oh I always wondered how it felt to have these limbs you call arms“ Said Studley in the most normal tone of voice ever heard, looking all over his body as if examining it. “it’s good to finally be able to talk to you”
“It’s a shame about the missing hand, but I’m sure I can fix that”
The Wolf’s Voice
Claudia didn’t respond. She had never heard her brother talk like this. Ever since he learnt to talk at the age of five he has never spoken a proper sentence, he either cuts them short or pronounces the words completely wrong. Her face showed his confusion with her mouth being ajar.
“Ah, I see you are confused. Let me explain” Studley walked past Claudia, clumsily at first but soon straightening up, placing himself between her and the horde of wolves.
“In this human body I have placed my soul, and my spirit.”
“Who are you?!” Claudia responded sharply almost interrupting him.
“I am the great silver wolf, the one you freed from imprisonment, and for that I am eternally grateful.” He slowly bowed to her, taking it only halfway down, before pulling himself slowly back up “You can call me Reinwolse”
“Wait, you placed yourself in the body of my retarded brother?” Claudia smirked and folded her arms “Great choice.”
“His mind may have been broken beyond repair, but his physical unit is in fantastic condition”
Claudia could not deny that, he was her twin, she looked good, so he had to look good, to deny this would be like insulting herself, her father passed on some fantastic DNA, she had to assume that the DNA from her vile mother had destroyed the brain of Studley.
“And what do you mean, I freed you?” Claudia quizzed.
“Ah, on that island with the thuggish ugly men” He placed a hand on his chin and looked thoughtfully towards the ceiling “Do you remember cutting yourself on a statue? Your blood made contact with it, causing me to be freed from the stone prison I was encased within”
Claudia remembered. She remembered the sharp pain as she rolled down that hill fearing for her life, the agony as she collided with the strangely placed statue at the bottom, the bright light came, and then her assailants were killed.
Since then she has been followed and protected by wolves. It all made sense.
“I remember. After that, my life was saved many times by the wolves. It was nice to have someone understand how important I am”
“Yes. I couldn’t have you dying. As you now know, if you die, me and my creations all die with you” He walked back and forth in a small routine.
“What do you mean by you
r creations? how do they function?”
“Simply put, they are like blank states. I send my thoughts to them and they act them out. They are like blank canvases and I use my thoughts to paint on them”
“Incredible” Claudia responded. She didn’t know what else to say, she wasn’t really taking it all in, it was like something from a cheap sci-fi film “But the important question is: Why?”
“For war” The wolf Studley stopped in place, his face turned to that of a doctor about to diagnose some bad news.
“I was banished from my home world for attempting to overthrow the current ruler”
Again with the planet talk, Claudia thought. A week ago she would have taken this for mad talk from a resident at a mental institute, but this being inside her brother, it spoke with such confidence and believability, and after all that she has been through...she couldn’t not believe it.
“I was amazed myself when I saw that my spikes could transform your fellow humans into my mindless drones. It was incredible and I instantly knew what I had to do.” He paused, taking note of how intently Claudia was listening, he knew this would interest her so. “I had to create an army. I wanted my revenge, I killed those of your people I deemed too weak and feeble, and transformed those who I felt would be strong allies”
“Makes sense, but how do you get back to your planet, with millions of wolves in tow?” Claudia sounded truly interested. This creature was amazing. She admired how he set out to do something, and has accomplished just that. He reminded her of herself, determined and always getting what she wants.
“In this lab, there is incredible equipment, the most incredible you can find anywhere on your world, or maybe any other” He began walking, signalling Claudia to follow him. She did not even have to think about it. She followed him closely.
“There is a transporter here. It is so advanced by your species known standards that hardly anyone knows it exists.” As he walked, the wolves blocking the way moved instinctively out of the way, like flame receding when water courses through it.
“I will use that device to transport myself and my army to my planet, and enact my revenge” He stopped and looked at Claudia.
“And you are wondering how I can do this, I will explain it simply” He leaned in close to Claudia, as if whispering a secret to her. “Whenever I kill one of your kind, I obtain all of their thoughts, memories and knowledge, it has given me unlimited insight into the human life. Every time I transformed a scientist the clues slowly built up, but I couldn’t quite find it until you were sent here”
He waved his right arm out wide, as if acting out the role of a presenter on an old TV show revealing a wonderful prize to the contestants.
Claudia’s eyes followed his arm and saw the gigantic machine before her, it was a large circular dish flat on the ground. Around it were four large pylons with large balls on top of them. They were all linked by a series of hundreds, if not thousands of cables, so thick in number that they could pass for one incredibly large cable.
He clasped her hands gently within his, bringing them close to his hard chest “We both know you’re too good to be just a queen for one planet, come with me and rule my planet as well, with me” He spoke with more charisma than Claudia has ever seen before, with a confident grin that spoke more to Claudia than any words could.
She looked into deeply into his eyes as he spoke the words, she had never noticed that her brother had such beautiful blue eyes.
She excitedly spoke her answer “I’ll do it”
“Wonderful, and do not worry about food, I have had the pack gather plenty of food to last us a lifetime and my planet also has a large variety of foods that grow in the wild.”
Two wolves pushed through the crowd with a single metal bar in between their mouths, behind them they were pulled a large trailer that contained hundreds of bags of food.
“I need some time to give myself a new hand, and prepare the device. Give me a few hours and it will be ready.” He looked at his hands “These phenomenon’s make all this possible”
“Can we return here?” Claudia asked.
“I’m positive we can. I got here myself after all” Replied Studley, with such confidence that could not be doubted, even if it were a lie.
The next few hours passed at a brisk pace. Claudia continued her ego boost by viewing the increasing amount of articles and posts about herself. She decided an even better boost would be to post videos showing her amongst the wolves and how they were like putty in her hands. These videos collected millions of views within an hour of her posting them, but as the hours went by, the views dwindled as did the news articles and posts. The internet started to become a shell of its former glory. The wolves were demolishing the American population.
She was so into her narcissistic adventure that she never heard the loud bangs of electricity that would often invade the room as Reinwolse continued testing the transporter.
Eventually, Claudia was satisfied that she has left the world with her mark truly imprinted on it forever. She looked at Reinwolse as he tapped away on various computer terminals, eternally grateful that he had entered her life. More hours passed.
Outbreak: Day Seven
To A New World
“Claudia, it’s ready” Shouted a voice. A voice that would normally send a grim shiver down her spine, a voice that would embarrass and shame her. Now the voice sent the right kinds of shiver down her spine. She looked at large picture of herself on the main page of Google, the one with the caption below it begging for someone to end her life, smiled to herself that the most popular website of all time would forever show her face, then closed the lid of the laptop for the final time.
She walked over to Reinwolse; his new prosthetic hand was so lifelike that she forgot which hand had been removed, who was standing by the transporter that was now buzzing with life. The four pylons were no longer just connected by cables, but now electrifying light as well. If she was to set her pupils directly upon them for more than a second then it would have burned out her retinas with ease.
The room flashed from illuminating brightness to gloomy darkness then back again as even the titanic power generators struggled to power the mighty futuristic machine. The floor beneath Claudia’s feet would shake and shimmer as each surge of power reached the pylons.
The pack of wolves began walking two at a time into the transporter. As they set their entire body on the circular plate they turned into blue outlines of themselves, like simple drawings on an artist's sketchbook, flying up into the sky through the ceiling of the lab.
Reinwolse looked at Claudia and gave her a big, sexy smile. Claudia felt her heart jump.
“It’s time to go.” He held out his hand to her, retaining that sexy smile on his chiselled face.
She never thought she would see her brother in this way, not in a million years, but this being inside of him made her see him as a different, vastly improved person. She put her hand within his, looked all around the room she was in, glancing one last time at the laptop.
The two human beings placed both of their feet onto the circular pad, their bodies tingling as their mass was converted into light energy, their vision turning to pure non-blinding whiteness, Claudia’s body shaking and stiffening with anxiety of the unknown, tightening her grip on Renwolse as she felt her body lighten.
Their bodies floated up, out and away into the atmosphere of earth as they beamed away to a whole new world.
The Planet Of The Wolves
Claudia felt herself stop. She felt the ground beneath her. It felt like she was still asleep, combined with the feeling of being not long from waking up.
This feeling persisted for thirty more seconds when a sudden burst of red light covered her vision, then as if everything had happened instantly, she was fully aware of her surroundings and where she was and she never remembered the feelings she felt when her astral body was catching up to her physical one.
Claudia immediately felt the humidity cling to her fl
esh. It felt good to her. Russia was always such a cold country. The lab she was taken prisoner in was no warmer either.
She looked around herself. She was in a forest; the trees were tall and slim like palm trees, yet these were much taller. There was not a single hint of a breeze to make the trees sway in any particular direction; they were as still as a picture.
The sky was a shade of light red, a stark contrast to that of the blue sky that surrounded earth, but here it had much more of an effect as everything had a tint of red hue to it; the trees, the ground, the mountains in the far distance. She felt as if she was stuck in at the moment dawn appears during an early morning.