I moved my rifle, but by the time I sighted him in, he was looking straight at me. I fired, feeling the oh-so-old familiar buck of recoil as my shoulder absorbed the shock of the bullet being sent downrange. It felt good. I’ve actually got to admit it felt really fucking good. Normally I would have gone for the head, but it had been a long time since I’d shot a rifle at an enemy. I decided center mass would increase my chances of actually hitting the monster and not exposing myself to unnecessary risk, although from this distance I could have pegged him with rocks. The shot had been true, at least according to the sights. The problem was that either the thing had never been sighted in properly or it had lost it sometime during the battle of Wheatonville. That was most likely it; the thing had probably been used as a club at some point. I would have been better off holding it to my hip and going all Rambo. I’d known the sites were off when I bagged the deer. There just wasn’t much I could do about it, without extra bullets.
The bullet did strike him in the chest but far to the right, ripping through its pectoral muscle and blowing out the side after most likely ricocheting off a rib. The beast howled in rage and pain. The Lycan next to him dove off the rock and the one that had been pretending to be human had transformed and was looking around, not quite knowing what the threat was. I shot two more times, even as the injured Lycan was moving. The first missed completely, the second hit in his thigh. Blood pumped from the wound. I’d severed an artery and the weird angle his leg was at let me know I’d broken it as well. He collapsed as he jumped off the rock. The scream he issued ripped through the air. I would have expended another bullet just to shut him up if the things weren’t more precious than gold. The people pulled in even closer if that’s at all possible. The Lycan, by the group of captives had taken one step towards his fallen comrade and then bounded off into the woods. Giving chase was not an option. I did not know where the other one had gone off to, and I could not leave these people alone. In all likelihood, the Lycan had not gone too far from their food stores. Plus, I still needed to finish off the howler.
Well, I’d made myself known, might as well show myself. As I stepped out of the woods, the people looked petrified, while the Lycan on the ground looked pissed. He snarled at me viciously, his huge teeth-laced maw was snapping, opening and closing violently. To get anywhere near him would result in a lost limb. He was mortally wounded, but he wasn’t giving up. Not any time soon.
I moved in closer, the barrel of my weapon trained on him. The Lycan was not scared or scrambling to get away. He stood his ground, well, maybe that’s the wrong expression since he was lying on the ground. Let’s just say he wasn’t yielding his position. He did finally shut up though. If he had an “S” on his chest, and was Super Lycan, he would have burned holes in me with his eyes. He watched my every movement, not with concern, but as if he were looking for an opportunity to strike.
I would constantly glance up at the rock, fully expecting the other Lycan to come bounding over the top and on to me. I needed to get rid of the one in front of me before moving on to the next. I was just out of any leg kicking reach. I pulled the trigger, the sound of an anticlimactic dry fire assailing my ears. The Lycan must have known facial expressions and seen the disappointment on my face because he upturned his face and howled. He could have been calling for his momma or, more likely, was telling his friends I was ripe for the taking. I didn’t even think as I pulled my hand-axe free from its holder around my waist. The Lycan’s head twisted to see me approaching. For the first time since I’d had the unfortunate luck to meet the beasts, this one showed what I had to figure was fear as I brought the blade down to bear on him.
He put his arms and paws out in a defensive gesture. My left hand was moving his arm out of the way, as my right was swinging for all it was worth. The blade cut through his forearm and lodged deep into the center of his chest as I brought my full weight to bear. Where I couldn’t put the bullet I’d landed the axe. With his good arm, he launched me off a good six or seven feet. I was happy to land on the relatively soft ground as opposed to the unyielding rock. He was looking down at the handle embedded inside of him. He whimpered a couple of times, his chest at first expanding and contracting quickly then slowing considerably. His head fell back and he was still. I was already up and moving back in to get my weapon.
“This a trick?” I mumbled. “Does a Lycan even know how to hold its breath?” I pushed myself up off the ground.
I doubted it. Predators are into stealth not trickery. I pulled the blade out. A stench of foul lung air was wetly emitted as it came free. I wanted his buddies to have something to think about as I hacked at the Lycan’s incredibly huge neck. It took me five good chops before I was able to remove his head. I had to grab onto his ears at the end and twist back and forth, ripping and rending the tendons and gristle that would not let go. The woman screamed as I held the head aloft. I was covered in all manner of Lycan detritus.
“Not looking so good, are you?” I asked him, face to muzzle. One of the Lycan howled not too far off. “It’s a party! You’re missing it! People are losing their fucking heads over here!” I’d momentarily stepped over that imaginary line in the sand between sanity and whatever was on the other side. Escape, insanity, freedom, you name it.
Chapter Four – Lycan
Panthros was the leader of his small trio of Lycan. He very much liked the new freedoms Xavier’s reign allowed them, but he just didn’t want to sacrifice for them. To roam the countryside and kill without impunity intrigued him. Playing with his food, making them suffer; he’d found an undiscovered satisfaction from this. He would often ask his comrades why Lycan had ever been so afraid of humans.
“They are weak, pathetic beings. I could kill twenty of them before I began to overheat. The mighty moose or grizzly bear are much more of a match than these screaming little things.” He had been holding one up by the foot, swinging it about to punctuate his points before biting its arm off. “Look, it’s already dying.” He was looking into the pain-stricken face of a terrified little girl. Like all Lycan he and his Cycle mates had been tasked with rounding up humans for the war. At first he had done his part, ranging far and wide to do as his self-proclaimed king had demanded.
Then, one day as they were scouting, the weather having been unseasonably hot, he was tired and hungry when they came across a small human habitat. He’d broken down the door before the male could grab any sort of weapon. Instead of marking and corralling the humans he began to feed relentlessly, slaughtering everything that got within range. Lycrow and Phaelan had quickly fallen in with him, the smell of blood overpowering any reservations regarding retribution they may have had. They’d left the main pack at that point, doing and feeding as they pleased. They did not know it then, but they were becoming much like the species they despised. They were no longer killing just for sustenance, but rather because they enjoyed it.
“This is how life is supposed to be lived,” Panthros said as he sucked on a femur. “None of this slinking around in caves, hunger gnawing through our stomachs like a wild animal.”
“We’ve all heard the stories, Panthros. How is it possible these humans have hunted us?” Phaelan asked.
“I do not know. It is more difficult to catch and kill a mountain goat or the wild sheep than these things.”
“It is unfortunate for them that they taste so good,” Lycrow replied.
“What about Xavier?” Phaelan had asked one night after a particularly heavy feeding.
“What of him?” Panthros had grunted.
“Will he come looking for us?”
“For what? His war? His war!” Panthros shouted. “It is not worth it. All he does is waste our food stock infecting the humans to kill other humans. I would rather eat them as I please, when I please. The day will come when there are no more humans, and we will be forced to eat the stringy horses. We are nothing to Xavier. He will not send anyone to look for us. All that matters to him is his coalescing of power. He is hungrier for that
than for the food we eat.”
“What will we do if we are not to go back to his rule?” Lycrow asked.
“For now, we will shun the old ways. We are the masters of our domain. Nothing out here is our equal. We will do as we see fit.” Panthros’ face was as close to a smile as a Lycan’s features would allow.
***
Lycrow had heard the incredibly loud noise just before he was struck by the spray of blood from his Cycle mate. He had been startled by the sound but shocked by the warm spray. The instinct of self-preservation kicked in as he jumped off the rock. He was bounding off deeper into the woods even as he heard two more loud reports. He did not stop until he heard Phaelan’s cry of attack. That was as big a primal urge as the one to survive. He stopped mid-stride and twisted his body to go back, loping at full speed. He cried out when the bigger Panthros tripped him up, sending him sprawling. He bared his teeth and then relented as Panthros asserted his dominance.
“We need to attack,” Lycrow said.
“Something is not right.” Panthros crept closer to the clearing with the humans.
“Panthros, a human has attacked us,” Lycrow said as the two watched the mad man cut off the head of Phaelan.
“It looks like a human and moves like a human, but it is not one. It is somehow more of one and less of one simultaneously.”
“Does he also have the ability to cloak himself within human skin like us?”
“I know of no other creature that can do this,” Panthros answered.
Lycrow howled as he watched the head of his friend hoisted into the air. “I will kill him for that!” Lycrow bounded off toward the man-thing.
“Stop, Lycrow!” Panthros demanded.
Lycrow paid him no heed. Panthros crept forward a bit, not wanting to get any closer than he needed to. If the opportunity presented itself he would attack, but he would not risk himself needlessly. The man placed the head on the rock that only moments before Phaelan had been sitting on. Panthros watched with interest as the man grabbed the black stick he was holding. Something small glittered in the dying sunlight as it fell to the ground. The man spun faster than he knew humans had the ability to do as Lycrow emerged from the woods. The black stick created the thunder clapping noise they’d heard earlier as long licks of fire emerged from the front of it. Lycrow once again howled, this time in extreme pain.
Chapter Five – Mike Journal Entry 4
I had placed the mangy mutt’s head down on a rock and cleared my rifle’s chamber of the dud round. My next step was going to be to find an adequate stick to use as a spike and place the ugly beast’s head upon it as a further insult and potential enticement for my enemy to come and do something about it.
“I was wondering when you would show.”
I spun when I heard something like a herd of water buffalo storming towards me. We could have shaken hands if we were so inclined. Instead, I shot him three times at pointblank range. His paw-hands tried to cover the wounds as best they could. That was an opportunity to move in closer for the kill. Just as I was pulling my axe free, I heard the third monster howling, either in warning to this one or in a frenzy of impotent rage as I killed another of his kind. I took two steps, getting as much speed as I could before launching myself up, simultaneously swinging my axe down. The blade sunk deep into the cranium of the Lycan. I was rewarded with the gratifying splintering of bone and the wet contact of silver laced steel on brain. A massive paw came up instinctually and pushed me away. The Lycan hit the ground before I did, dead, his eyes staring up to the darkening sky.
“Two down, one to go. Come out, come out wherever you are!” I shouted. Willing the third monster to show itself, it was then I realized I had no more bullets.
Chapter Six – Panthros
Panthros watched with deep agitation at the ease and speed at which the human-like thing had dispatched of Lycrow. The black stick was powerful, and he would be careful to avoid it. His ears perked up as he watched the man place the stick down.
“Is this a trick?” Panthros wondered aloud, stealthily moving closer.
It was not revenge that spurred him on. It was the removal of the threat and the retrieval of his food. Lycrow and Phaelan were only as good as their ability to protect him and to help in the hunts. Finding more like-minded Lycan would not be problematic. Lycan did not want to live the ordered regimented lives that Xavier demanded. Panthros just needed to show them the alternative. The freedom the world could afford.
“I will wait.” Panthros looked to the sky. His allies would be out soon enough. Two of the humans had been bitten by him to keep them hampered as the trio had rounded up the rest of the humans. Panthros and the other two had intended on eating them before the moon came up and spoiled their meal but now that missed step appeared to have worked out in his favor.
“The man will not expect that, and when they attack, I will finish him. Then I will eat until my stomach is content and leave this accursed place.”
Chapter Seven – Mike Journal Entry 5
The people cowered as I got closer. Looked like the world’s first clothed orgy. “You do realize I just helped you, right?” Nothing, not so much as a whimper out of any of them. “No, no it’s okay, you can thank me later. Wait, what? You want to shower me with gifts? I couldn’t possibly accept this medal as a token of your town’s undying gratitude.” I was being a dick, plain and simple, I knew it. They’d just been through some of the worst few days of their lives, and I wanted my back patted for saving them. Ungrateful bastards.
I kept waiting for the third Lycan to make himself known. I could feel his cold eyes upon me like the greasy scales of an eel brushing up against my skin. Yeah, he was out there, what was he waiting for? Then it nailed me, almost in the center of my forehead. He was waiting for the advantage. I’d thought at first that the huddled mass of humanity in front of me was afraid of the approaching night because of the darkness it would bring but that wasn’t it, not entirely anyway. It was the oncoming moon that they were concerned with.
“Who among you was bitten or scratched?” I asked gruffly. “What’s the matter with you!” I yelled, their timidity infuriating me.
Of the four people, there was only one even looking at me. The rest had their heads down as in solemn prayer or in hopes I would stop looking at them. This wasn’t the fifth grade and I wasn’t their teacher so they could not avoid answering me. I could find myself extremely outnumbered and soon.
“I won’t ask again!” I raised my axe above my head. I did not even stop to ponder my decision and subsequent action to kill all of them. If it came down to them or me, I would choose me; especially if they were going to turn into werewolves. It was not lost on me that I would kill them even if there were only a chance they might turn.
“Stop!” one of the women finally said, looking at me with a defiance that had not yet been beaten out of her.
“Start talking. You don’t have much time.”
“My name is Ilysse. This is my sister, Anna, her husband, Buell, and his mother, Gretchen.”
“I don’t care. Giving me your names will not prevent me from killing you all before the moon rises. I have killed two of the Lycan, and I know they look alike, but chances are some of you weren’t infected by the one missing. Some of you could be saved.”
“What does it matter?”
“It matters little to me. You will all be much easier to dispose of in this fashion than the next. Do you speak for the rest as well? You do realize the virus in you dies if the one that gave it to you dies as well, right?”
“Breealla, Nemmon? Mommy is coming!” she wailed, her head falling into her hands.
“You have got to be kidding me. Those are your kids?”
“What have you done to them?” She sprung up so quickly and violently that she caught me off guard.
I had to grab her arm and threaten to lodge my axe in her forehead to get her to stop swinging at me. “Besides feed them, nothing.”
“Where are they?”
She pulled away and started calling out for them.
“They are nowhere close, they are with my...” I paused. Could I call Bailey my friend? “They are with my traveling companion,” I answered with as accurate description as I could come up with. “She is taking care of them while I am out here trying to save them. So before you go all Mike Tyson on my ass again, I need to know who is still infected and who is not.”
Ilysse was stone silent. She was either protecting herself or someone in the group.
“You’re not getting this, Ilysse. I’m not much more human than those things I just killed. I will not be hampered by feelings of guilt if I kill you all. I’ll give you a moment to let that sink in.” It was less than a minute, most likely felt like an eternity as I walked back towards them. “Got anything for me?”
She shook her head. “Please promise me you’ll take care of my children.”
“Do I look like a fucking orphanage?” She was sobbing uncontrollably. I’d love to say that some of my humanity bubbled to the surface and I assured her that I would care for her children. It didn’t happen. Those fragmented pieces of me stayed cemented to where they were. There was a time a woman crying would have broken me down and made me as pliable as tin foil. That time has long gone by. “How about this? If they don’t turn, and my traveling companion doesn’t have to kill them, I’ll bring them to someone I know so they can have a somewhat safe place to live. That’s the best I can offer.”