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The Pack defends humanity when vampires try to conquer the planet. 2nd in the series |
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The Pack War “This is the best one yet!” Hershel Baxter shouted to his brother, Harry. “This here is gonna be fun!” He banged on the back of the truck cabin where the woman lay bound and gagged behind the seat. “It’s rabbit hunting season,” Harry said and gave his brother a friendly punch in the shoulder. The Baxter’s were big. Hershel weighed three hundred pounds and his younger brother was even bigger. It was not fat. They spent almost as much time at the gym as they did at work. They were handsome men, in their early forties, and always with a smile on their face. The smile never reached their eyes, eyes that constantly scanned the area, as if searching for either prey, or something ready to attack them. The Baxter’s were indeed having fun. Ever since they moved to Western Montana six years ago, they brought a woman every four to six weeks to the Tabacco Mountain range. It was a one-way trip for the woman. They owned an auto repair shop in Bozeman and when a young woman passing by needed auto repairs, the Baxter’s were more than willing to offer a helping hand. Hershel was proud of his younger brother. Harry had a way of finding out all sorts of interesting facts, such as if the woman needing the vehicle repairs traveled alone, if people knew she was in town and other information. Most of the time they made the necessary repairs and sent them on their way. Every so often the conversations told Harry no one knew she was in town. In those cases, the woman was asked to come and look at a problem. While Harry pointed at the engine and explained the problem, Hershel locked the doors and put the CLOSED sign in the window. He would pull down the shades and go to the garage. While the woman had her attention on the engine, Hershel grabbed her around her waist, pinning her arms to her side. Harry turned on the air pump they purposely made loud to cover the screams, and then caught the woman’s kicking legs. He was kicked every so often, but Harry considered it part of the game. The woman was tied, gagged, and tossed in the back of their tow truck. They had a space between the seat and rear of the cabin perfect for hiding a rabbit struggling to escape. That afternoon, a woman called and said her car broke down. When Hershel arrived at the site, there were several other tow trucks there. One of the strangest things was going on. The woman called every towing service in the area. As each truck arrived, she walked to it, gave the driver two hundred dollars and sent him away. The woman had to be crazy. Two hundred dollars was more than the tow would cost. When she got to him she said, “You’re the one I want. Wait here a moment and I’ll be back.” She ran to the truck stopping next to her car, handed him two hundred dollars and hurried back. “Go ahead and tow it please,” she said and opened his door and sat in the passenger’s seat. Hershel loaded the car and drove back to the station. His passenger never said a word the entire trip. He off loaded the car and he and Harry pushed it into the garage bay. “What seems to be the problem?” Harry asked. “I don’t know what happened. It simply stopped running.” Harry spent several minutes asking about the van and looking at various engine parts. Then he asked, “Do you have someone that can come and get you while I work on the van?” “I’m all alone. I woke up yesterday and decided I had to get away from everybody. I guess we got on each other’s nerves. I snuck out and started driving. Everything was going okay and then it died.” “I know what you mean. There are times I wish I could run away for a few days.” Harry turned away from the van. “Hey, Hershel,” he called out. “Yeah, what do you want?” his brother asked. “It’s hot over here. Can I get you to bring me a soda?” “Be right there.” Hershel walked to the door, locked it and put the CLOSED sign in the window once his brother gave him the signal they had a rabbit. On the way to the garage bay, he put the telephone on answering machine. “Ma’am, I think I know what the problem is. Look at this,” Harry said and pointed to the distributor cap. The woman stretched across the engine to see where the mechanic pointed. Then a pair of arms grabbed her across her arms and chest. She at once began to struggle, but Harry grabbed her legs. She screamed, but it was drowned out from the air compressor. Harry almost had her legs tied when she pushed him with her feet and knocked him back. “Damn it, Harry, grab her. She’s struggling so hard I can’t hold her much longer.” Harry ran back and captured her legs again, getting kicked in the stomach in the process. This time he held tight and she soon had a rag stuffed in her mouth and tape put over it so she could not spit it out. Her hands and feet were tied together and she was tossed into the tow truck. “We got us a winner this time,” Hershel said to his brother. “You only see women as pretty as her in the movies.” “You got that wrong brother. I ain’t ever seen a woman like her before, movies or no movies. Did you see the way she pushed me away? That’s never happened before. We’ll have a lot of fun running this rabbit down.” They had driven for several miles when Harry said loudly, “Hey, Rabbit, you okay back there?” When they received no reply he said, “Guess our rabbit don’t feel like talkin’.” They both got a laugh out of that. It took them ninety minutes to reach their destination. They pulled the truck over to the side of an abandoned logging road. Their truck was the only vehicle to come down it in years. They got out, stretched, and pulled the seat forward to haul the rabbit out and begin the chase. They both jumped up to grab her as she scooted out. The ropes and gag lay on the floorboard. “How the hell did you get loose?” Hershel asked. “It wasn’t hard,” she said. “I snapped the ropes and pulled the gag out of my mouth. I was free by the time you put the truck in gear to drive me up here.” “Yeah? If that’s so, why didn’t you try to escape?” “I didn’t want to escape. I wanted to come to your playground.” Both brothers tightened their grip on her arm. “Who the hell are you, Rabbit?” Harry asked. “Friends and family call me Miranda. Since you are neither, you can call me Ms. Skinner.” “I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, ‘Ms. Skinner’.” Hershel stressed her name as he said it. “But you’re playing our game now. You play by our rules.” “Yes, tell me the rules. I need to know what to do.” “The rules are simple. Me and Harry head into the woods. I go one way, he goes another. If you’re smart, you take off. Head into the forest and try to loose us. Twice we had rabbits so petrified they didn’t even take a step. They were no fun. We set our watches so after fifteen minutes they beep. Then we come after you. You won’t have a lot of luck with getting away because Harry and me are outstanding trackers. You’re over forty miles from the nearest person so screaming won’t do anything but help us track you down. When one of us catches you, we rip your clothes off. Then we screw the hell out of you. After whoever catches you first finishes, we let you go. Then the other one of us catches you and you get humped again. You’ll love that part of the game. “The next part is not as much fun for you, but we get a hell of a kick out of it. You take off running again. We give you another ten minutes. This time when we catch you, we pick up a rock or limb lying around and whack you in the head or maybe across the back if we want to drag it out for a while. Usually after that first hit, you can’t run so good and the game slows down real fast. Every minute or two we whack you again. We keep doing that until you’re all whacked out.” Harry added, “Eight months or so ago, this one rabbit only got whacked once. After we partied with her, we sent her off. Gave her a nice head start too, about fifteen minutes instead of ten. Anyhow, I caught up to her and instead of hitting her with a stick or rock, I whacked her with this.” He held his fist up to show Miranda. It was almost as big as her head. “She fell down and shook for a minute or two and then went still. I could hardly believe it.” “It sounds like you have a lot of experience doing this.” Hershel said, “Hell, I lost count a couple of years ago. Harry keeps track. What number is she, Harry?” “Ms. Skinner is our forty-sixth rabbit.” “Hear that lady, we’re getting close to four dozen.” “You must be proud.” “You know, I’ve read books about serial killers and those writers get all excited when some guy gets a dozen people and talks about how bad the dude is. By the time we retire, I bet you we’ll have over a hundred, maybe even two hundred. Not too many people can top that.” “Yes,” Miranda agreed. “I’m probably one of the few who can.” Both brothers started laughing. “You kill a lot do you?” Hershel asked. “Yes, but like you, I stopped counting. The difference is you stopped counting two years ago and I stopped over three hundred years ago.” “Damn, Hershel,” Harry said. “What kind of nut job did you tow in?” “She’s a Looney alright,” Hershel agreed. “But definitely a good looking one.” “Alright, Rabbit, you got me interested. How could you be killing people over three hundred years ago when you’re no older than twenty-three? What are you, some kind of time traveler?” Harry asked. “No, nothing that exotic. I’m only a run of the mill werewolf.” “A werewolf, huh? You getting ready to get great big teeth?” “In about forty minutes, yes. It will be Premoon and my Wolf will have an appetite.” “What the hell is Premoon?” “Premoon is the day before the full moon, then there is the full moon and the day after I call Postmoon. I transform on all three of them.” “So tell me this, Ms. Werewolf. The moon is already up. How come you ain’t a werewolf now?” “The sun is also up. The moon has to have the sky all to itself. Every so often, the moon rises at the exact same time the sun sinks below the surface, but usually there is an overlap. Soon the sun will below the horizon and I will change.” “So you’re telling us we have forty minutes to kill you before you become a werewolf and eat us? That’s mighty kind of you to give us a warning. We’ll make sure you’re dead in less than forty minutes.” “That would be the smart thing to do. Unfortunately for you, you can’t do that.” “Why not?” “I was hoping you would ask.” Before either brother had time to react, Miranda pulled her arms free from their grips. She grabbed Hershel and tossed him into a thick batch of bushes. While he struggled to escape, she rapped Harry in the face. She had to be careful doing that. She did not want to hit him so hard she killed him. She estimated his strength and tried to hit him as hard as he said he hit the girl. Blood spilled out from his broken nose and a tooth flew out of his mouth. He fell to his back and screamed while grabbing hold of his face. Hershel escaped from the bushes and charged her. She backhanded him and two teeth fell from his mouth as he spun around. It took them a couple of minutes to recover enough to stand. The brothers gave each other a quick look and nod and attacked her together. They swung their fists at her, using every ounce of their power. Miranda ducked under their arms and captured the little fingers of the other hands. She twisted and each one snapped. They both fell to their knees, a look of astonishment on their faces. When they tried to stand, Miranda slapped them. The force of the slap twirled them halfway around, and they fell again, both of them barely hanging on to consciousness. “Please, it was only a joke, we would have taken you back to town in another minute. We were only goofing off. We like scaring women like that. Show a little mercy,” Harry pleaded. “I not into mercy with you guys,” Miranda said. She looked the area over and found a tree limb about three inches thick. She picked Harry up and bent him over the hood of the truck and jerked his pants down to his ankles. “When you raped those young girls did they scream like this?” She rammed the tree branch up his butt. Harry screamed in misery. After three minutes, she tossed him aside and went after Hershel. While Miranda was toying with Harry, Hershel ran into the woods. It was the fastest he ever ran. When his brother went silent, he figured the woman would be after him, but he had at least an eight hundred yard lead. Like they told her when they first arrived, they were good trackers and Hershel knew how to cover his trail. He was running along rocks to keep from leaving footprints when he was yanked off the ground. Hershel could not believe what was happening. The woman found and caught him in only twenty seconds, and now was hauling him back as if he was nothing more than a paper doll. When he was thrown across the truck, he began to beg. “Please don’t hurt me, I didn’t mean it really. I’m sorry. I promise I’ll never do it again.” “Tell me this, Hershel. Did any of the women you played with beg? Did they plead for their lives, trying to tell you about their children and husbands? Did they ask for mercy?” “Lady, we couldn’t help ourselves. It was as if the devil was pushing us. Please, we’ll go to the police and turn ourselves in, I swear we will.” “Too late for the cops now, Hershel. You’ve been tried and found guilty. I’ve been sent to carry out the sentence.” Miranda tossed the limb away. “You’re letting us go?” Hershel asked. “I’m afraid not. My Wolf looks forward to the hunt even more than you do, so I’m going to play a game with you rabbits. Half an hour before I change, I’m letting you go. You take off into the woods and try to keep me from catching you. You won’t have a lot of luck with that because I’m an outstanding tracker. Hershel, like you said, the nearest person is forty miles away, so don’t bother screaming for help.” Harry starred at her and stood back up. He was crying and moaning in pain but managed to ask, “You really are a werewolf?” “Card carrying member of the werewolf club for three hundred fifty years.” “How did you find out about us?” “A few weeks ago you assholes kidnapped a young girl named Carol. Carol lived in Missoula. A good friend of mine, Sheriff Johnson, got a call from Carol’s mom. It seems after you two got her, you forgot to search her. She had a cell phone. Unfortunately, her battery was almost dead. Young eighteen-year-old girls being chased by rapists-murders don’t always think clearly. Instead of calling 911, she called her mother. All the mother could understand before the phone died was she was abducted by two tow truck guys from Bozeman. She called Sheriff Johnson and told him what she knew. “Sheriff Johnson and I have an understanding. My pack and I don’t eat people in his county, and whenever he finds someone like you that needs a special kind of justice, he fills me in. Carol’s mom gave him one of her dresses. He let me smell it and I picked up Carol’s odor. I called all the tow trucks in Bozeman. As each one arrived, I sniffed it to see if I could detect the smell of young Carol. I gave two hundred dollars to each driver to pay for their time, and sent them on their way when I discovered she had not been in their truck. Your truck however had her odor in it, along with that of many other women.” “Are you really going to eat us?” “My Wolf will. Since she doesn’t care if the person is saint or sinner, she’ll chow down. If I could make her understand how disgusting you two are, she would throw up afterwards.” “Please, I’m begging you, let me go,” Hershel pleaded. “Harry is even bigger than I am. Won’t he be enough for you?” Miranda began to laugh while Harry began cursing his brother. After a minute she said, “I’ll make you a deal. If I tell my Wolf you hurt me, she will make your deaths slow and miserable. On the other hand, if I just sit back and enjoy the show, she’ll only take five to ten seconds to kill you. If you tell me where you put Carol and your other victims so their bodies can be returned to their families, I will take the fast route. If not, what you went through with me will be nothing in comparison to what she does.” “Screw you lady,” Harry said. “I’ll tell,” Herschel shouted. He told Miranda of a cave four miles north of where they were. “Okay, Herschel, you go fast and furious. Harry, my Wolf is going to play with you.” She reached in Hershel’s pocket and removed the truck key. “I’ll need this to get back to town tomorrow.” Miranda looked at the eastern sky. “Thirty minutes to show time, Rabbits. You take off now because soon the big bad Wolf is gonna eat ya.” **** “Isn’t this fantastic?” Roy Holloway said to his friends, Larry and Mick. “Yes,” both his friends agreed. “I cannot remember the last time I breathed air this clear and fresh,” Larry added. “This is what the Earth must have been like before the industrial revolution. In some ways I envy the people of those days.” “What about you, Mick,” Larry asked. “You have been quiet since we got here.” “I believe this is one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen,” Mick said. “It reminds me of the time my parents took me to the Grand Canyon. We stood on the edge of the canyon and marveled at the colors and scenery. This matches it.” “Wow, I think that is the most words I have ever heard you say at one time. You must really like the view.” “The view is only part of it. I’ve been thinking about telling you since we got here. I promised Linda I would keep it a secret until she told her family, but what the hell, you guys are my family. I asked her to marry me and she said yes.” “Congratulations,” both of his friends said. “You two were made for each other. I knew it the first time I saw you together,” Roy added. “When’s the big day?” Larry asked. “This September. I want you both to be there.” “You couldn’t keep us away,” Roy said. They were at the top of one of the mountains in the Clearwater Forest in Idaho. The view was indeed fantastic. Below them stretched the forest for as far as they could see. On both sides of them, other mountain peaks rose from the Earth. In the distance, they could see a winding road and occasionally a car moving along it. “What do you think?” Larry asked. “Do we head back down or stay here tonight?” Roy looked at the sun nearing the horizon. “Let’s stay here. We don’t have time to be down before nightfall. I don’t want to be walking around without light.” That night they slept on top of the mountain. Even though it was early summer, the night was cold. They were up by dawn the next morning and watched the sun as it rose. Below them at the base of the mountain was their main camp. After a small breakfast, they started back down. They planned to spend the night at the camp and return to civilization in the morning. It was past two o’clock when they finally tossed their backpacks down next to the tent. They made dinner and sat around and talked about their futures. “It’s been a great run, guys. I have to say that the last four years with you have been the best of my life. Dad told me college would be good for me, and I have to agree. Damn, I wish we could have found jobs together. Can you believe the luck? All of us have great jobs waiting, and they are all in different states,” Roy said. “Listen,” Larry said. “We’ll meet again, there will be a reunion in ten years.” All of them were silent for a short time as they contemplated that time span. “Come on dudes, we’ll meet sooner than that,” Mick said. “Yeah, what the hell was I thinking? Of course we will,” Larry said. They were silent for a short time as each of them thought about the chances of that actually happening. It was twilight and another beautiful night was on the way. They looked at the moon as it rose, its orange glow lighting the sky and blocking out the stars closest to it. It looked so huge as it took the sky. In the distance, they heard the howl of a wolf. For the past four days they had listened to the howls, always far off and never coming close to them. This time the howl was different. It had a lower tone and sounded more powerful, as if the animal that produced it was larger. They turned away from the moon and looked to the south, the direction the sound came from. “That was different,” Larry said. “Have you ever heard a wolf that sounded like that?” Mick asked. “It sounded like it’s in pain, or else it’s rabid,” Roy said. “Well, there’s nothing we can do about it. Maybe we can tell the game warden when we get back there might be a rabid wolf in the area.” They returned to the campfire and spent several more minutes planning the next week. Larry was stirring the dying embers of the campfire when he jumped up from his chair. “What was that?” he asked. His two friends stood and looked in the direction Larry was staring. “What was what?” Roy asked. “There is something out there. I heard it rumble.” “What did it sound like?” Mick asked. “Have you ever stood next to a diesel while it was idling?” “Yes.” “Well, that is what it was like. I could feel its energy. It made my skin crawl.” “Are you trying to pull a joke on us?” Roy asked. “No, I swear I heard something.” All three men spun around. This time they all heard the rumble and it was in the exact opposite direction from where they faced. In five quick steps, Roy was at the tent. He pulled out the flashlights and hurried back to where his companions slowly turned in a circle, looking in all directions for whatever was out there. He handed them each a flashlight and asked, “Do you think it’s a bear?” “No, something bigger,” Larry said. “There is nothing bigger than a bear around here.” “Something is,” Larry said while shining his light into the forest. In the beam of the light, the three men saw a pair of eyes looking at them. The eyes glowed yellow and were ten feet off the ground. All three of them took an involuntary step back. “What the hell is that?” Mick asked. Before the question was completed, the eyes disappeared. Roy said, “The car is a mile and a half away. If we start now, we can be there in twenty minutes.” “What about our gear?” Larry asked. “Forget the gear. We come back in a day or two when that thing has left the area and get it.” “Let’s do it,” Mick said. He turned and started to trot down the trail. “Don’t run,” Roy said. “We walk fast, but we do not run.” They started down the trail together, each shining their light into the forest, searching all around them for danger. They had gone a quarter of a mile when a shadow jumped across the trail ten yards in front of them. They skidded to a halt and shined their lights at that spot. “What was it?” Larry asked. “I’m not sure,” Roy responded. “Whatever it was, it was big. It could be a bear, maybe a cougar or panther of some sort.” “That was no cat, that’s for sure. It’s bigger than one of them,” Larry said. “No, I saw it, it was a tiger,” Mick said. Both his companions stared at him. “There are no tigers here, this is North America, not Asia,” Roy said. “I’m telling you I saw a tiger. I’ve seen enough of them in zoos and on TV to know what they look like.” Roy looked all around him, hoping to catch another glimpse of what stalked them, then said, “Okay, maybe one escaped from a circus. We have a mile to go to the car and safety. Let’s stay huddled together so we look like bigger prey. Maybe we can fool it.” They moved side by side and started for the car once more. They had gone three hundred yards when the howl they heard fifteen minutes earlier as the moon rose was repeated. The sound was deafening. “Whatever that was, that was not a tiger roar, and whatever it is, it’s in front of us,” Larry said. “What do we do?” As during their college days, they looked to Roy for guidance. Roy was silent as he considered the options. “It’s like this guys. We can stay here, leave the trail and go into the forest, return to the camp, or continue to the car. I think staying here or going into the forest are bad ideas. So what do you say, the camp or the car?” They did not have time to decide before Larry screamed out as he was snatched from the ground. Mick and Roy ran at the beast that held him and hit it with their flashlights. The bulb in Mick’s light burst from the force of the strike. The beast did not flinch. As Roy pounded it with his fists, he saw why Mick confused it with a tiger. The color and pattern of the beast’s coat was exactly that of a tiger. It was orange with black tiger stripes. That is where the similarities between the beast and a tiger ended. The thing ripping Larry open was over twice the size of a tiger. It was on all fours when it bit into Larry’s shoulder and was longer than a tiger, but when it rose to its hind legs, holding a screaming Larry in its teeth, Roy recognized it at once. It was a werewolf. For a split second, he wondered if he was hallucinating. “RUN!” Larry screamed right before his chest was ripped apart. Roy and Mick took Larry’s last bit of advice and ran down the trail to their car. They were in shock. Larry had been as dear as a brother to them. They both clamped their hands to their ears as the beast howled again. They made it another sixty yards before the monster was with them. It leaped onto the trail directly in front of them, so close they did not have time to stop and both men ran into it at full speed. Roy was dazed as he bounced off. His nose and mouth bled from the impact. He fell to the ground and was able to turn over in time to see Mick picked up. “LEAVE HIM ALONE!” he screamed. He grabbed a large branch at the edge of the trail and charged the monster as it tore Mick open. He smashed the limb into the monster’s head. The beast grunted and turned its back to him while it fed on Mick. Roy did not stop. He kept hitting the thing that murdered his friends, smashing the limb across its back until it broke. He dropped the useless stub of the limb and charged with his bare hands, smashing his fists into the tough hide. The thing dropped Mick’s corpse and pushed Roy away. It snarled at the human facing it down, its eyes glowing like miniature yellow suns. Roy snarled back and charged. He only took a step before the monster swung a massive arm, knocking Roy’s head from his torso. His body did not have time to reach the ground before it was lifted up. Like his friends before him, Roy’s chest was ripped open. **** It was an hour after sunrise when a woman arrived at the site of the slaughter. She was nude and crying as she looked at the bodies. She gathered the three of them, weeping the entire time. Their chests were torn open and their heart and lungs were gone, consumed by the Wolf she became three nights every lunar cycle. “I’m so sorry,” she shouted as she grabbed fistfuls of her blond hair. She yanked and the hair was pulled from her head. It immediately started to grow back. “I tried to turn her, I promise I did,” she cried out over the corpses. For fifteen minutes she wept before regaining a small amount of self-control. Once back on her feet, she carried them to their car a mile down the trail. What was left of them was placed in the trunk. The next part of her task was to hurry to the campsite and tear it down, putting it in the backseat and trunk. It took four trips before the camp was gone and all traces of the three men erased. She drove the car to an abandoned mine and parked inside of it. When she was back at the entrance, she placed her hands on a support beam. She shoved and the beam snapped. Before the first rock fell she was out of the cave. Five minutes later when the dust cleared enough for her to see, the entrance to the mine was gone. “I don’t know your names,” she said, facing where the entrance to the mine used to be. “I wish I did, because I would hold you in my heart for all time. I would pray to God for your souls, but God stopped listening to me two years ago.” She put her fingers to her lips and then touched them to the boulders blocking the entrance. Then she was gone, racing into the woods at cheetah speed. |
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#11. A task force is created to track down Angel Force
ID #813223 entered on August 26, 2014 at 5:23pm |
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