The wolf was more angry than hurt by the first poke, but as the girl started hitting him repeatedly the pain quickly became too much. It pulled back its head while keeping Edwin's wrist clenched in his jaws.
The little boy saw his skin being peeled back like a glove being removed and howled in agony. Edwin's other hand still held the plastic soda bottle. Most of its contents had spilled out as the SUV rolled down the hillside, but he splashed the wolf with the rest. The fizzy drink got into one of the wolf's eyes and nostrils. It was at that point it released him and backed completely out of the car.
It sneezed violently. Its vision was blurred and the pain from the multitude of tiny stab wounds on its snout only made it more angry. It shook its head and whined angrily, but then heard the two pups howling in pain from the other side of the SUV. It wasn't sure where its mate had gone to but hurried toward the cries of their offspring.
The man in the ICE uniform had been wandering in a semi conscious state for the last few hours. His name was Keith Dudley and he'd been a part of the raid at Albuquerque Springs Trailer Park earlier that day. It was supposed to be a typical thing; round up the illegals and ship them back to their home countries, but there had been some rather horrific unexpected problems. Namely, a trailer park inhabited by insane homicidal people and an even greater number of undead.
He wasn't sure how he got shot but knew for certain it had happened at some point during the raid. An odd collection of rapid nonsensical images had been running through his mind since he'd left the park. Fellow agent Crawford's smiling face was the one image that he tried to hang onto as he stumbled into the high desert beyond the trailer park.
When Dudley first decided to leave he'd been somewhat less confused. He awoke in the dust and dirt as a big septic tank draining truck roared past. Turning his head with great difficulty he saw dozens of infected homicidal people chasing after it. He waited until they had gone by before shakily getting to his feet. Staggering toward a burning house (that had belonged to the trailer park's owner) he had a vague idea of hiding there until more police arrived.
It had been farther than it seemed and by the time he reached it his mind was spinning in confused circles as he stared back across the trailer park. He'd paused to rest in the backyard of the house and drank from a bird bath. The water tasted foul but was so thirsty he didn't care.
He even briefly eyed the comfortable looking patio furniture contemplatively until there was a grunting noise.
Two men had apparently caught his scent and tracked him.
The closest figure looked like something from a freak side show. Dudley had thought of a carnival barker shouting, “Step right up and see the gutless wonder!” The man's entire midsection appeared to have been torn or ripped out and yet he still continued toward him with a single mindedness and a terrible leering expression on his dark gaunt face. A cloud of flies surrounded him but the insects seemed to have no problem keeping up as the obviously undead thing moved faster than the second man but not by much.
The second one was more broadly built and seemed genuinely pissed off at the ICE agent.
Dudley stared at the angry looking man that was wearing a dirty Corona beer T-shirt and jeans and tried to imagine how he could have pissed off a man he didn't even remember seeing before. He reached for his gun and was bewildered by its absence. (It was still laying in the dust where he'd been shot)
The Corona fan grabbed Dudley's arm and yanked him closer as the agent disjointedly tried to remember what had happened to his gun. When the strange man tried to bite him and wrapped him in a bear hug Dudley had instant recall.
His squad of fellow agents had all been decimated, infected, and or killed by the residents of the trailer park. He kicked the big man in the knee, grabbed his stun gun hanging on a retractable cord on his belt and pressed the metal probes against the big man's neck. There was a brief crackling sound that accompanied the big man shuddering and collapsing. When he fell his body knocked over the stone bird bath.
Unfortunately, the gutless wonder hadn't been satisfied just to watch. He leaped onto Dudley's back and gnawed on his tactical bullet proof armor.
Keith swung around but couldn't get the skinny man off. Had he been thinking rationally the agent might have realized it would take 'gutless' a hundred years to chew through his body armor and tried harder to dislodge him. But he'd already had a long bad day and limped toward the hills giving the undead man a piggy back ride.
By the time he reached a stone hillside 'gutless' had begun running his fingers up toward Dudley's neck and helmet. The agent slammed the undead man against the rocks until the hands finally released him.
As Dudley caught his breath he heard a not too distant fairly loud explosion coming from somewhere in the trailer park. The agent decided he'd be better off heading away from the sounds of explosions and undead things before continuing to stagger down the narrow path that led toward the hills.
Gutless' spine had been snapped in the repeated smashing against the stone hillside, but his head still worked relatively well. His glazed over eyes watched as Dudley staggered away.
A few minutes later the eyes turned the other way and saw the man in the Corona shirt coming down the path sniffing at the ground. When he reached 'gutless', the man kicked his head out of the way and continued following Dudley into the wilds of New Mexico.
After Dudley heard the children screaming his head cleared enough for him to realize whatever was happening he had to do something. He did an odd staggering trot until spotting the SUV's headlights illuminating a patch of barrel cactus plants and two fairly small wolves trying to squirm inside through the partially open driver side window. The screams were obviously coming from inside the car and the agent slid the canister of pepper spray from his belt and clicked off the safety switch.
He sprayed both pups and the effects were instantaneous. Both young wolves howled in pain and ran off, while the man inside the car began thrashing around and yelling in a choked and blinded fury.
Henry regained consciousness to the sound of his children screaming, He hadn't even noticed the wolves as he struggled to release the seat belt, but when the pepper spray hit the pups a fairly large amount hit him as well. Coughing, blinded, disoriented, and having suffered a blow to the head after the airbag deflated while the car was still rolling and flipping down the hundred foot hillside, he pitched what his wife would sometimes call “A shit fit.”
He savagely beat at the steering wheel and the horn sounded as he hollered and swore every curse word he could think of. This went on for several seconds before he recovered enough to finally find a way to unsnap the seat belt. He was still unsuccessfully attempting to wipe the pepper spray out of his eyes while turning to the back of the SUV. With his vision badly blurred he prayed the bright red splashes on his young son wasn't blood.
There were growls, howls and loud yells of profanity coming from outside, but Henry's only concern was getting into the back of the SUV to help his family. He made it most of the way into the backseat when there was the sound of breaking glass a moment before something grabbed a hold of his leg through the driver side window and yanked him backward.
Edwin and Megan both screamed, “DADDY!” partly because from the light coming from the DVD player his red teary eyes (caused by the pepper spray) scared them almost as badly as his body being abruptly yanked back into the darkness.
Dudley was about to ask the driver if he was okay a moment before a huge wolf nimbly bounded around the SUV and didn't pause even momentarily before leaping on the agent. Weight-wise Dudley had a few pounds advantage, but the wolf was quicker, angrier, and much more ready for a fight. It knocked the agent down and sunk its sharp teeth into the agent's arm that had been holding the pepper spray canister.
Damn it! I survived all the shit from zombies just to be killed and eaten by a damn wolf! He thought angrily while feebly hitting at the wolf's head with his free hand. By the light coming from one of the headlights he spotted anot
her almost equally large wolf coming toward him and Dudley closed his eyes thinking, No more! I don't want to witness my own death.
The she wolf was leaping to join her mate when the crazed man wearing the filthy Corona beer shirt grabbed her in mid leap. He threw her toward the patch of cactus plants as if she weighed almost nothing before dropping down to seize one of Dudley's legs.
The alpha wolf growled and pulled the agent's arm that was clenched tightly in its jaws.
It was a very unusual form of tug of war.
Dudley opened his eyes, saw the man in the beer shirt and reached out for anything to hold onto with his free hand. He smashed the partly broken driver side window and grabbed onto Henry's foot without realizing what it was.
The wolf released the agent and leaped over him at the crazy man as he was bent down over Dudley's calf and they rolled together in a heap of biting and growling fury.
Deputy Bo Autry arrived near the scene at just that moment. He saw a big man rolling across the ground gnawing a huge wolf's ear while apparently trying to strangle the extremely agitated animal. The wolf was growling while biting and clawing back at him.
One of the unbroken headlights of the overturned SUV spotlighted a fairly large patch of Barrel Cactus plants and as Bo watched, the man and wolf rolled toward them. But a chorus of terrified yells coming from inside the car drew his attention away from the savage bloody fight. A man dressed in an ICE uniform was crawling inside the SUV.
Bo heard the sheriff’s voice sounding equally mad and worried coming over the radio, and somewhere behind him there were the sounds of an approaching helicopter. “Autry! Where are you? We’ve spotted the flares. Where are you? Answer me, damn it!”
The deputy knew he was already violating orders by not waiting for back up, but couldn’t stand by in the face of the screams coming from inside the car. Unfortunately, Bo had very limited experience with horses or he would have known the one he was riding was already badly spooked. Most of his experience on horseback was limited to the occasional patrol in the parks of Albuquerque or in even more rare instances when they needed someone to ride in parades while wearing his uncomfortable but impressive looking dress uniform.
The overpowering scents of blood, disease, and the close proximity of wolves already had the horse prepared to bolt.
The overturned car was close to a hundred feet away and he felt riding over would be faster than climbing down and running over. Bo dug his boot heels into the horse and loudly said, “Hyah!”
The horse was not inclined to go any closer and instead danced nervously to the side and back a few paces.
Thinking the horse was more confused than scared, Bo kicked it harder in the sides shouting even louder, “Giddy-up!”
This resulted in the horse starting to wildly buck and whinny loudly.
Bo grabbed onto the saddle horn and squeezed the horse’s sides hard with both legs. The thought of rodeo cowboys trying to stay atop a bucking bronco filled his mind as the horse attempted to throw him off. They were moving closer toward the fight and wrecked SUV, but halfway there Bo lost his grip on the rifle and dropped the reins before clutching tightly the saddle horn with both hands.
Less than twenty feet from the SUV a helicopter appeared overhead. The sudden powerful rush of wind and spotlight from the aircraft only made the horse even more frightened. It galloped toward the left, hit the side of the narrow canyon, which caused it to rear up on its hind legs.
Bo flew backward and landed in the midst of the barrel cactus plants. He screamed as hundreds of very sharp needles pierced his back, butt, and legs.
Aboard the helicopter Sheriff Guiteriz was leaning out through one of the open side doors and holding a rifle. “Keep this damn thing steady!” He yelled to the pilot while aiming down at the scene of confusion. Less than a hundred feet below Bo appeared to be in a world of hurt as a big wolf and another man were rolling through the cactus plants in the midst of a savage bloody battle.
Bo pulled his sidearm and aimed unsteadily at the wolf and man, but he was uncertain if the man was infected, undead, or possibly neither. Shooting the wolf might be a bad idea, especially if the man was infected and homicidally insane.
The helicopter suddenly jigged to the left and the pilot pulled up as a second chopper arrived on the scene.
Guiteriz angrily looked up and saw the new arrival had giant letters CDC painted on its side and the chopper was dropping down lower. This caused quite a bit of turbulence and the sheriff’s pilot swore as their helicopter was tossed around.
The pilot shouted through the headset intercom, “The CDC says we have to leave! We’re inside the quarantine zone! What should I do!?”
Guiteriz saw two men wearing National Guard hazardous material suits in the open doorway of the other chopper; and they both held what looked like machine guns. They were aiming down at the chaotic scene. The sheriff was about to say “Pull back” until the men began firing at everyone below. When flashes appeared on the metal undercarriage of the SUV wherever the bullets struck he got mad. “Fly us down lower. Get between that car and those trigger happy dip shits!” He shouted and leaned forward to flip the radio microphone to his helmet.
“This is Sheriff Guiteriz! Cease fire! One of my deputies is down there as well as possible civilians! And we’re not in any fucking quarantine zone, you assholes!”
Inside the SUV all was pandemonium.
The two kids screams were drowned out by the rotors of both helicopters above as their red watery eyed father (who'd lost his eye glasses during the wreck) kicked back at Agent Dudley as he scurried inside the SUV.
Dudley had no desire to put up a fight with the man inside and retreated to the front passenger side of the vehicle and in doing so brushed against the GPS navigation system. A pleasant sounding woman's cheerful voice could barely be heard over all the other noise saying, “You are not on, nor near any road. Please turn around at your earliest convenience.”
Henry ripped off his shirt and wrapped it around Edwin's heavily bleeding wrist to try and staunch the flow. He kept glancing warily back at the front of the vehicle but the stranger appeared content to stay there. The sound of music reached his ears and he turned to see the colorful opening graphics for a cartoon running on the upside down DVD screen. He'd always hated the goofy show about the yellow sponge and his undersea friends, but as he saw both his children staring at the screen and their looks of terror somewhat temporarily distracted the program seemed, for the first time, not so bad.
After unbuckling his son's seat belt, he pulled him to the back storage compartment of the SUV where he saw his bloody faced wife sitting up and crying. When all four of them were back there his wife slapped him. It was a powerful blow for someone in such a seriously injured condition to deliver.
Despite the noises from the helicopters above, the capering yellow sponge on the television screen, snarls, growls, yells, and both whimpering children he could easily make out what his wife yelled after slapping him. “You asshole! This kind of shit never happens at Six Flags!”
Loud metallic thuds echoed inside the SUV as the bullets rained down.
Bo saw the wolf wrestler wearing the beer shirt had countless lacerations all over his body and was most likely the barefooted man he'd been tracking for the last twenty minutes. He lifted his gun and was trying to decide which to shoot when the gunfire erupted from above. As the bullets pinged off the SUV as well as around him, he felt tempted to shoot back at whoever it was that was firing.
But instead he crawled as fast as he could toward an overhanging rock sticking out of the canyon wall. Every little movement hurt like hell as the cactus needles wiggled in his skin. He'd almost reached the overhang when a bullet hit him in his upper right thigh.
“SHIT!” He bellowed into the dark space beneath the rock.
A low growl answered him as the she wolf came forward from her hiding spot.
Bo stared at the wolf's eyes that were shining and reflecting the light comin
g from outside.
Shit, shit, shit! was the only thing Bo could think as the glittering eyes came closer.
“Is there room to land this thing down there?” Sheriff Guiteriz asked the pilot.
The pilot expanded the spot light mounted below the helicopter from narrow to wide and looked doubtfully at the rocky ground below. From his perspective, eighty feet up, it was impossible to judge how tall some of the rocks were below. There was plenty of room to land but if the spinning blades struck something the odds of surviving the resulting crash were not good.
“Can we do it!?” The sheriff demanded as yet another CDC helicopter appeared in the distance and was heading their way.
“Maybe, but-”
The sheriff cut the pilot's answer off by shouting, “Maybe is good enough! Land this damn thing now!”
As the chopper slowly descended Guiteriz got on the radio again, “Come in Lopez, what's your ETA? We need you here right now. Some National Guard troops and CDC jerk offs are trying to make Swiss cheese out of a wrecked SUV, Autry, and God knows who else!”
A few seconds later Captain Lopez's voice answered, “We can see the choppers a few hundred feet ahead. ETA less than a minute. What are you doing?”
“I'm being the sheriff and doing my job,” Guiteriz answered before slipping off the flight helmet and grabbing his Remington rifle and hat. He saw they were less than ten feet from the ground and could see outcroppings of rocks very near the spinning rotor blades. “This is low enough, I can jump from here,” he said to the pilot before leaping through the helicopter's open side door.