The Spiked Wolf

by David Shiels

  She spent most of the journey enthralled by the mesmerising blur of trees. Then it struck her, physically. She went flying off of the back of the wolf at a crushing speed.

  She was winded by the fall but she felt no physical pain. When she looked down at her torso she noticed that a huge spike was sticking out of it, penetrating the suit by a mere centimetre, a spike that was much larger than any she has seen before; The suit had saved her life.

  She saw it near the peak of the trees. It moved fast like a blur jumping from tree to tree. Again a spike flew at Claudia at the speed of light. Again it failed to penetrate the suit but sent her flying further back.

  The wolves began firing up into the trees but the volf was too large. It fired spikes back in retaliation, each one hitting its targets. One spike is all it took for the wolves to fall down dead, Instantly. It turned out there was two of them.

  Claudia knew it was time to run, her legs now well rested and ready. Before she could even move the volves jumped down in front of her, blocking her escape.

  The volf was gigantic; it was even bigger than the silver wolf that Reinwolse resided within. It had the white tribal marks all over its body that Reinwolse mentioned. These volves were from the tribe that banished him from the planet.

  Claudia turned to run in another direction but its head was fast, it clasped its mouth tightly around her arms with such a determined grip. The suit prevented it from breaking through to her skin. She could feel the terrifying force behind the bite.

  Wolves ran to aid Claudia but as they got close the other tribal wolf would shoot them down, never missing a shot.

  The white striped wolf flung Claudia around left and right like a dog does his chew toy.

  “Get off me” Claudia screamed.

  The volf released the grip on Claudia and she fell to the floor.

  “How can I understand you?” The volf replied.

  “Because I will soon rule you” Claudia replied with a bitter tone.

  Claudia was as surprised as he was that they could understand each other, but she had to say something to distract it.

  More wolves arrived; hundreds more. They pounced on the bewildered striped volf while its guard was down. Hundreds of pairs of teeth tore at the flesh. It did not go down without a gruelling fight; its large claw effortlessly crushed a wolf's skull without any effort. It eventually gave up the fight but not without taking thirty wolves down with it.

  The other wolves continued shooting spikes at the other volf in the trees. More blurs in the trees arrived.

  Claudia did not want to hang around to be thrown around anymore; she only let certain, privileged guys do that. She quickly jumped onto a wolf that was firing into the trees, commanded it to continue riding, and it did so. A large pack of her wolves followed her. Thousands more of her wolves soon arrived to aid in the battle, and more would come as more of earth's population is continually converted.

  She knew she had to do as Reinwolse told her and clear the trees. They had too much of an advantage and she had no idea that her wolves were so weak and pathetic. It made her truly realise just how weak the people of earth had been to be demolished by them in a mere week.

  Two volves gave chase amongst the trees. They were fast; they jumped from one tree to another with their paws barely even touching the tree they were bouncing off of.

  The wolves running with Claudia continued to fire at them as they ran, both parties aims were severely limited while moving, so no causalities were being added to the death counter.

  Claudia lay flat on the wolf driver. She could take only so many blows from those wolves before either the suit would break or she would obtain a concussion.

  Twenty more minutes she was chased for. It was probably the most uncomfortable, adrenaline filled twenty minutes of her life. She couldn’t see what was happening but she could hear the pinging and swooshing of spikes whizzing past her, she could hear the sound of breaking wood as the wolves aggressively jumped above her. Eventually the trees began to thin. The amount of wolves behind Claudia ever growing; she now had the upper hand.

  The two tribal volves jumped down to chase on foot, knocking the small wolves out of the way like a monster truck riding down a congested main road.

  One of the volves jumped far at Claudia, its front paw landing on the back of the wolf she was riding; breaking its back legs in half.

  Claudia jumped from the broken wolf before it could topple over and crush her. She landed safely; she was finally getting used to falling over.

  The large volf approached her.

  “Your kind not welcome here” It spoke in slow broken gritty English.

  It moved closer. It licked its lips knowing she was unable to escape. It cherished these moments.

  Claudia backed up slowly, the large volf’s one step equalling five of her steps.

  The usual last-minute save wasn’t happening. The other wolves were being fought off by the other large volf.

  Claudia could smell its breath.

  “How you taste? Mmmm” as it spoke it reached its long, wet tongue out towards her.

  Claudia suddenly remembered the gun that Reinwolse had given to her; she reached for the small pouch on the side of her suit and aimed it at the wolf.

  Claudia’s hands were shaking in front of the beast that was almost four times larger than her. The gun looked pathetic in comparison. She might as well have been swaying a stick in its face.

  “Nice toy. Let play” The wolf made a deep grinding sound as it laughed.

  Claudia had never shot a gun before. She held out the gun in front her, close to her chest, clasping it tightly with both hands. She held her finger on the trigger.

  The gun began to vibrate in her hand, softly at first then quickly shaking with intense violence; it began getting hotter.

  The volf felt nothing. The laser went directly through its skull.

  The gun emitted a thick red laser that reached about six feet; it looked like a large fiery sword, the edges sparkling like a chainsaw does when it is cutting through metal. The laser pierced effortlessly through the wolf’s skull. Claudia aimed the gun towards the floor, the laser followed, slicing the volf completely in half. Its organs fell out one by one, followed by the two pieces of its furry empty shell caving in. Claudia released the trigger, causing the beam to vanish.

  She had never felt so badass.

  The other volf witnessed this. It began jumping from tree to tree. It wanted to warn the rest of its pack of the weapon that the small white creature had bought to the planet.

  Claudia used the laser gun like a normal gun, tapping on the trigger. Small thick red discs fired from the mouth of the gun. They initially missed the volf but instead sliced through the tree he was attempting to jump to; the gun cut through the tree like butter, making the top half of it fall fast to the ground. The wolf landed delicately on the floor.

  It turned quickly to plan a new route through the trees but before it could even make the first move it lost its tail. Then it lost both its front feet. Its face fell to the floor, resting on the naked floor. Its back legs scratched futilely against the earth, unable to move its hulking body.

  Claudia walked up to the face of the large beast.

  “What you are?” The wolf’s voice sounded muffled as its jaw struggled to support the weight of its skull. It wanted to say more, but lacked the strength.

  “The eradication of your species” Claudia spoke coldly.

  She kicked the helpless wolf in the face multiple times. An army of her wolves gathered around in silence, watching their queen humiliate her opponent.

  She held the gun to the face of the wolf. Its dark eyes followed the gun as she raised it. She held down the trigger.

  The beam obliterated the brain of the wolf. Not a single speck of the flesh remained. It’s memories, its instincts, it’s love of the hunt. All gone in an instant.

  Claudia grinned to herself. She was so utterly impressed at the hole she had made through her target's he
ad. She looked back at the volf sliced in half with even bigger pride. On earth she had gained fame and stardom and the envy of all. On this new planet she had floated to a new level. She was powerful. She would be feared. She had the taste for death and she wanted more of it. She wanted more of the large beasts to appear. She wanted to slice them into tiny pieces.

  She got on the back of the closest wolf to her and rode off through the shrinking trees.

  The Mountains Of Spike

  As she reached the edge of the forest the trees slowly shrank to a size smaller than her. She guessed it must be something to do with this side of the planet as she also noticed it became a lot colder.

  The forest finally ended as it reached a large stream of water. The current of the water was so still that not a single ripple emerged on the top of the liquid.

  The stream led into what looked like the ocean of the planet. The water was a dark blue now that night was nearly here.

  There were mountains on the other side of the water; they were intimidatingly large looking, dark and rigid; if not for her suit then Claudia would not even attempt to travel through them as she could be torn apart each step she took.

  The gap was large and Claudia did not want to enter the water for fear of what happened previously. She did not know if that lake had unique properties or the water on this planet was like a powerful drug. But soon she would need to drink.

  She told the wolf to jump over the stream. She would never have thought a wolf could jump the length of a football field, but now she has seen just how agile they can be, she had no doubt.

  The wolf backed up. The horde of wolves behind did the same. It ran forward gaining speed faster than a top tier motorbike. At the very last moment with its front paws half way off the edge of land it leapt effortlessly over. Claudia felt like she experiencing everything in slow motion as she glided over the sparkling waters below. She felt air cushion across her face. She looked over at the now darkened sun of the planet, it’s once bright red edges now a dark blue; yet bright enough to keep Claudia from being unable to see anything.

  As she reached the height of the jump she could experience just how vast the mountains were. They looked like thick mutated spikes on the back of a hedgehog.

  Then she was back in real time as the wolf landed on the other side. The landing was so smooth, Claudia felt as if she just landed in an airplane that had a ten out of ten landing sequence, but with the extravagant airlines she flew with, she was more than used to smooth landings.

  The other wolves followed behind, all landing perfectly behind Claudia without barely a sound. Not a single wolf collided with another.

  Claudia decided to remain on the back of the wolf as they approached the mountains. They were enormous; each spike of earth was as large as the largest building in the largest of cities. Claudia felt small.

  She told the wolf to continue on. It walked at a cautious steady pace as the floor began to look like it was covered in brown broken glass. It reminded her of the time that a young man who fancied her, almost obsessively, smashed a bottle of alcohol into a face of a girl who was attempting to attack her one time in a nightclub, leaving the floor covered in brown shards with a red tint.

  If Claudia was to go on foot then it would surely tear through her feet, leaving her stranded as she slowly bled to death while her pack look helplessly on. The wolf did not appear affected.

  There looked to be many entrances into the mountains as a large gap was in between each gigantic spike; the wolf simply went through the one that was opposite them as they landed.

  The passageway was large enough for 20 wolves to walk side by side. Claudia was in the centre of the line. The blue light faded as they walked further into the crumbling abyss. Each spike of earth blocking the blue sun from sharing its rays to the area; complete darkness was all that was allowed in this structure of earth.

  Claudia held her new favourite toy to her chest; the heat from the gun was still potent enough to be felt like a soft tingle through her suit. She was ready for combat at any moment, her head constantly turning to look at each sound that the giant crucible created, her finger constantly pressed to the trigger. She was ready for an aerial assault. She kind of even wanted it. She wanted to shoot off the legs of more wolves. A small part of her had an urge to shoot off the legs of even her own wolves that were walking with her. She never knew if the urge was real as her vision was too impaired to see the floor. All she could see was the top halves of the spiked spires; even they were soaked in a dark blue light.

  Nothing happened. The mountain was just seemingly endless corridors of varying widths. Some required a number of wolves in the line to back up and form a second line behind, whereas some were so large that even 40 wolves could walk side by side.

  Time went by slowly in these silent, echoed caverns.

  In the distance Claudia could see light; Vibrant light. It seemed to have come out of nowhere.

  Blinding light assaulted her eyes. The large passageway she was in lit up like a house ignited by vicious flames.

  On the walls above were large bulbs clinging to rocks in the walls like small octopus binding a helpless target.

  Her eyes adjusted. On a ledge at the end of the corridor Claudia could see the silhouette of a beast. It was smaller than the volves that she just killed, but larger than her low tier wolves.

  The Banished Wolf Village

  “Who goes there?” Said a husky, dark voice.

  Claudia’s vision adjusted even more, it as if she was in the most perfect of summer sunlight.

  The wolf looked more rugged than the other volves. It’s spiked fur was dark, ruffled and messy, it looked like a contemporary stylist had gone through its fur with cheap hair gel from the supermarket, trying to create something beautifully unique, but only managing to create a unique mess.

  Its face was scarred. Its body was covered in red painted markings similar to the other volves, but more numerous.

  It was the bolf.

  Claudia aimed her gun towards the talking animal.

  “How about you tell me ‘who goes there’” Claudia said.

  “I am Burrock, but what manner of creature are you?! How do you speak our tongue?!” The wolf’s heavy voice lightened as confusion surrounded its words.

  Claudia’s pack of wolves continued to edge forward.

  “Let’s just say that I am soon to be the ruler of your people and you better learn to speak to me with some respect. How would you cope with two legs?” Claudia spoke with a confident tone topped with a sprinkle of sadism.

  Two more similar looking bolves joined the husky wolf at his perch.

  “We don’t want any trouble, why not just turn around and go back to where you came from” Spoke one of the bolves, his voice much gentler than the other bolf.

  “How do you expect to win a war with attitudes like that? No wonder you were banished you pathetic creatures.” Claudia scowled at the sight of the beasts as they whimpered. She wasn’t going to win any war if all of the banished wolves were of this quality. Her finger was so close to pressing the trigger of her gun.

  “What war?” Spoke Burrock.

  “With the other wolves of the island, of course. Reinwolse sent me here while he prepared some surprises for them. He will be here soon.” Claudia explained.

  The wolves head’s all jumped up upon hearing the name of Reinwolse.

  “You should have said that at first strange creature! Come in, come in” Said Burrock excitedly. The other two bolves jumped down to lead Claudia and her wolves into their camp.

  The camp was no camp; it was more like a city and lit as bright as a fun ground fair at peak hours during the night. Claudia wondered how she could not see the light from outside the mountain.

  There were small building everywhere, all made out of stone, and placed in no particular order. They reminded her of the buildings in an old cartoon she used to watch with her father that was set during prehistoric times.

  Bolves of all s
hapes and sizes stared at Claudia; their black eyes followed her every movement. Families of bolves would leave their small houses to look at the strange being that was like something out of children's stories.

  Claudia walked without an ounce of self-consciousness. She was used to having eyes following her. She had it every day of her life since she was of legal age, but probably much longer than that, yet she doesn’t like to think of people looking at her in her tender years.

  Burrock lead Claudia to a large house at what she assumed was the back of the city; it was a large simple building that was merged into the side of the mountain. It had no shape; it was just a large piece of rock with a few holes for a door and windows. This must be where the king of this city resides. Claudia was unimpressed. Every moment she spent on this planet was making her regret coming here. She was fit to rule places of a much higher calibre.