The Spiked Wolf

by David Shiels

  “My beasts will come for me” She said with a snarl.

  “No, they will not” He said mockingly “They follow my rule and my rule only. It was my command that they listen to you. You have been nothing but a pawn since the beginning.”

  “You bastard!” She spat on his face.

  “You bitch!” He lunged at her, grabbing and squeezing her face hard in his hand “You were willing to die knowing full well it would mean the end of me and everything I had worked for; everything!”

  “I wanted to go home” A few sprinkles of tears chased down one after another down her soft cheeks as she remembered parts of her dream, stopping at Reinwolse’s firm unmoving fingers.

  “You were never going home” He released his grip off of her face.

  “The teleporter was never broken. I still have billions of wolves on Earth. I plan to let the human race rebuild so I can then mutate them all again, leading me to having an infinite amount of wolf followers”

  “Your race will live in constant fear for the rest of time” his face turned dark, then he turned around began walking to the cave entrance.

  “Get back here you fuck!” Claudia shouted as she tried her hardest to pull her hands and feet from the vines “i will refuse to eat or drink!”

  Reinwolse turned his head around and grinned wide.

  “Oh, no need to worry about that. This tree you’re merged with will instantly give you all of the nutrition you will ever need. You won’t need to ever eat or drink a single thing ever again. Nor will you have the pleasure of it” He howled with laughter as he walked out.

  Claudia shouted every obscenity she could think of as he disappeared up the earthy slope that lead to the outside world. A vine wrapped around her neck and head, holding it in place. She could only move her fingers and feet. She wondered why she deserved such a cruel fate, and if she would ever see anybody ever again as she cried herself to sleep.

  She did see someone again. Reinwolse came back an unknown amount of time later but no words were shared between the two. He came in and the vines lowered Claudia body closer to the ground. He ripped her dress at the groin and penetrated her there and then; he never once looked into her eyes as she shouted for it to stop. She couldn’t move a muscle as the vines dictated how far her legs spread. He would leave straight after he finished.

  He came back like this many times over a period of unspecified time. These later times she didn’t speak or scream, or feel anything. She just accepted what was happening.

  She spent her days staring at the brown muddy walls. She never had an urge to drink or eat but was always full of energy. At first she thought of ways she could get out of this situation, but as the vines kept their immovable grasp just as stoic no matter how much time passed or how hard she tried she eventually gave up the fight. Her mind began to go blank, days would merge into weeks. She ran out of things to think about.

  As months went by she felt something growing inside of her; a child.

  More months passed by and a child was born. It was a painless birth. It just popped out. It cried and it felt good to her dulled ears. But before she could lay an eye on it; it was gone.

  Time passed again and the cycle of sex and birth continued. She gave birth four times then it stopped. He stopped. Time fortunately did not stop. She felt herself age. She felt her body sag and her skin wrinkle. She felt every line appear as her mind had nothing else to focus on during the long endless days. There was no night and day. There were no weekdays and weekends. There was just time. She slept but it was difficult as she never felt tired and she had no idea how long she would drift off for.

  In the early years, sometimes years apart, she would think of her life. Her childhood, of her father, of the things she had said and done, of things she wished she had done and of the things she missed. But as her hair became a dull grey these thoughts faded and she remembered things differently, she carved in her mind a completely different life. She sometimes believed she had only just come here. She became delirious. Demented. Quietly insane.

  After that... she just stopped thinking.

  Seventy years passed when the door to her soiled prison finally opened.

  In walked Reinwolse, not looking a day older than when he was last here, and he was with a beautiful red haired woman with a stern expression. She held a knife in her hand.

  Claudia looked at the girl and felt like she knew her. Like she had seen her some place before many years ago. She was striking. Her hair was thick and long and full of life, her eyes a piercing blue and her body hard and voluptuous.

  “Long time no see, Claudia” Said Reinwolse as if talking to an old friend.

  “She’s absolutely disgusting” Said the girl as she winced and turned to look away.

  “This, my darling granddaughter, is why you must replace her. She does not have much life left in her, and you must take it. You have been prepared for this from birth. It is your destiny and birth right.” Reinwolse spoke calmly as he placed a hand on her soft shoulder.

  “I understand grandfather, let us continue” The girl maintained a serious face as the pair approached Claudia.

  She looked at them with empty, weak white eyes. Her face was old and failing. Her hair had mostly fallen out.

  “Ah Claudia, I’m afraid the tree cannot stop time from destroying the body. I was so hoping I could have left you here forever.” He looked at her with a forlorn expression. A small part of him felt a twinge of guilt. He had tried to erase her from his mind over the long years.

  The tree released Claudia from its grasp. She fell flat to the floor. Her body had completely forgotten how to use its limbs.

  “It’s time for your journey to end, and our beautiful granddaughters to begin.” Reinwolse nodded at the young flame haired girl and she knelt down to a floored Claudia.

  The girl lifted Claudia’s face to her.

  “Your journey is now my journey” The girl whispered with her eyes closed tight. She slid the knife across Claudia’s throat, piercing the skin and drawing blood. Claudia’s arms began remembering how to function as they reached for her own gushing throat.

  The girl cupped her hands under Claudia’s throat, gathering as much blood as possible in her palms then raised her hands to her mouth and drank it without any hesitation, blood melting over her lower face and chest, like a vampire feasting.

  Reinwolse quickly led the young girl to the hungry vines while Claudia looked at her younger doppelganger as the great tentacles grasped her in the same position as they did her, many many years ago. The girl looked happy and proud to be in the situation.

  Claudia’s body was rapidly draining of life. Reinwolse grabbed her by the legs and dragged her towards the exit of her seventy year long prison. A trail of blood soaked the ground behind her.

  Pulses of red light scorched into her vision framed by wolf silhouettes as he pulled her up the muddy incline. Flashes of her early life appeared quickly before her eyes. She smiled as her vision turned black for the very last time.

  Epilogue

  It’s speculated that it’s been five hundred years since the outbreak, but nobody knows for sure.

  I was three years old when the last culling occurred. My father was taken and my mother eaten, her half-rotten corpse left in the streets with the rest.

  That was twenty-five years ago.

  Sometimes they come every one hundred years, sometimes fifty years.

  Each time they come they destroy every advancement we’ve made, while taking the knowledge with them by killing or infecting our most intelligent people.

  The beasts constantly roam the wilderness outside of our encampment and leaving is always a risk. Seeing the rest of our world is just a mere dream for each and every one of us.

  I’m tired of living in a civilization that just sits around in fear waiting for them to come.

  I know there is nothing I can do against them other than take my own life. I’m clever, like my scientific father, and they will want me and my k
nowledge.

  Well they can’t have me.

  This is my last diary entry which I’m sure will be lost to time.

  - Jodie.

  Words from the author

  First off, thank you for purchasing The Spiked Wolf and making it all the way to the end!

  This novel was created over a period of six years. I started it when I was twenty-four and finished when I was thirty.

  It mainly started out as a joke and I would show friends some of the things I had written and we would laugh about it, but then it became more serious when I found myself really enjoying writing it and the ideas for the future of the story came to me.

  Pretty much every aspect of the book was influenced heavily by B-horror movies and video games.

  The book was created completely by me. There were no editor’s or proof readers and maybe this was a mistake but this book was purely just made for fun and not to make money or become a well-known author.

  I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

  Will there be a sequel? Maybe!

  When writing the book I entirely planned it so the entire story would end in one book. I wanted it so there were not many questions remaining or end so ambiguously like many horror novels do. I wanted a clear, complete ending.

  However, I decided to add in an epilogue, and perhaps there will be a sequel that focuses on the far future of the world dominated by wolves.

  But if there is… it won’t be for quite some time.