Chapter 8: 8. From Bad To Worse

Alexander

Alexander shivered uncomfortably under the tree where they'd set up camp. It had stopped raining, but everything was damp and the cold air seemed to have set up permanent residence in his bones. The howling of the wolves didn't make things any better. They seemed to be a ways off, but it was hard to tell in the pitch black forest.

'Do you want me to come out?' Dela asked.

'No. When we run I want you to be fresh,' he thought back.

Samantha who was looking out into the forest for all the good it would do, turned back to face him and Dwayne. “Ok,” she said, “I don't think they know where we are yet. And if they do they're still a ways off.”

“So what's the plan?” Dwayne asked.

“Stay here for now. If we try to move through the dark, we'll probably twist an ankle or fall and spear ourselves on a branch. Dwayne, if Lycaon or his pack gets close, make a portal back to where we came through. It will buy us time to find a way out.”

“What if we get separated?” Alexander asked.

'Don't say that! You'll jinx us!' Dela snapped.

“Try to back track to the rest of us. However if you're being chased and see a crack, get through it. I'd like us to stick together, but don't get yourself killed if you don't have to,” Samantha said.

“Just how tough is Lycaon and his wolves?” he asked. He didn't really want to know, but the howling was setting him on edge and he needed to hear human voices.

The two Wardens looked at each other. Samantha motioned at Dwayne, “You're the one who likes studying.”

“I don't really know, I've just read the basics,” Dwayne said. “He was from the Canadian Arctic, and raised a huge pack of werewolves and other chimeras around ten years ago. After he slaughtered a few villages, the Canadian military and the Wardens went after him. It took a few months to pin him down and between Lycaon and his creations. Over a few hundred soldiers, along with a dozen or so Wardens were killed. They finally cornered him by setting a forest fire all around his known location and directed it inwards. He still almost escaped by running through the flames with his strongest werewolves. Without the cover of the forest, they were able to send him and what was left of his pack here.

“He has super intelligence, possibly from having a computer implanted in his head. He's half machine, which regenerates. Super strength, endurance, metallic fangs and claws that can rip open a tank, and senses that are unbelievably powerful.”

“So if we get into a fight with him, we're dead,” Alexander said.

“Yep.”

The howling seemed to be coming closer.

Samantha put on her backpack. “On that cheerful note, lets get ready to leave. We'll wait another minute or two, then go. That should should buy us some extra time on the other end without cutting things too close.”

A tree branch moved above them, sending drops of water onto their heads. He heard a bird fly off into the night. Alexander peered into the night trying to find it. Most birds didn't fly at night, so why had that one taken off? Maybe it was afraid of the wolves.

A minute or two later the howls were still a ways off, but it was clear the werewolves were getting closer. Dwayne opened a portal, and they made their way through it.

Looking around, Alexander sighed in disgust and tiredness. The woods looked identical to where they'd just been, nearly pitch black, wet, and trees pressing in all around them. At least the howling was farther away. If Dwayne could keep making portals, they could probably survive until morning and have a chance of finding a crack.

“What no-” Dwayne started to ask, only to stop. “Is it getting brighter?”

Alexander was about to say it was as dark as ever, but tiny spots of yellow light were forming all around them. The spots moved along the tree branches, some of them seemed to jump between the branches, forming small groups that grew brighter the larger they became.

“They look like beetles,” Samantha said, looking at one of the nearest lights.

“I don't like this,” Alexander said. “These don't look natural.”

“Could they be fireflies?” Dwayne asked.

“They don't get this bright,” he replied, pointing at a group that was about a foot in diameter and glowing bright enough to let them see each other from several feet away.

There was now enough light to see all around them as if it were late twilight. The distant howling changed, becoming louder, longer and deeper.

“They're a searchlight for Lycaon,” Samantha said. “They're pointing us out to his pack.”

“HERE!” something cawed above them.

Looking up, they saw a horribly mutated animal. It was the size of a turkey, with brilliant blue and red feathers that sparkled in the light of the bugs. The thing would have been pretty, but the feathered body became bald and greyish near the head, instead of a graceful bird neck it had a thick human neck. A twisted, childlike head with oversized black eyes, peered down at them. Red feathers rose from its scalp.

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It opened its mockery of a beak, made by stretching the lower half of the human face, and cawed, “HERE!”

“What do we do?” Alexander asked.

“We've got light, run and look for a crack,” Samantha said, heading away from the rapidly approaching howls. “Dwayne be ready to create a portal. We've got to wait until they're close or we could end up right beside them.”

'Switch?' Dela asked.

“Switch,” he agreed.

Dela

Dela ran alongside the two Wardens, helping both of them when they stumbled on the slippery ground. The light bugs lit up the area all around them, helping them see, but making it so they couldn't get away as well. Up above a whole flock of the horrible harpies were shrieking. Their cries made it hard to hear the howling.

“They're catching up,” Dwayne shouted, trying to be heard over the shrieks.

“I know!” Flamer shouted. “Get ahead of me. It's about to get hot.”

Flame erupted from the girls hands, turning the freezing, damp air into a warm sauna almost instantly. The wet wood resisted the flames for a few seconds, then lit up into a bonfire. The sap covered, spindly branches of the pine trees popped and crackled, spreading the flames to their neighbours.

The bugs nearest the flames popped and turned black from the heat. The rest hopped away trying to escape the flames, breaking up the groups that had been lighting the way. The harpies screeched in fear, flying high into the sky, where they formed a flock that circled above them.

Behind them, the howling grew louder. It sounded angry, and it was coming closer very quickly.

“Dwayne! Make a hole.” Flamer said.

A portal appeared and they jumped through it.

“Where are we now?” Dela asked. Off in the distance she saw a reddish glow on the low clouds.

“Back where we set up camp,” Dwayne said. “It was the first place I could think of.”

A twig snapped.

Dela didn't have time to think, she reacted on pure instinct, launching herself at Dwayne with all of her strength. Her shoulder hit his waist, and they went flying through the tree branches, landing on the moss covered forest floor over ten feet away.

A werewolf leapt from the bushes and tore at the ground where Dwayne had been half a second before, snarling from its misshapen muzzle. Raising its oversized head, it howled, slapping its broad, fur covered chest as it did.

Flamer raised her hand, sending a wave of flame over the monster. It roared in pain, and leapt at the Warden, swinging its long gorilla like arm at her.

Jumping to the side, Flamer barely dodged the three-inch long claws. She hit the ground and rolled to her feet, sending out another gout of flame at the werewolf. The flames washed over it, burning away its thick fur and blistering its skin.

Dela was about to jump in to help when another werewolf came charging out of woods heading right for her. She wanted to switch with Alexander but there was no time. She ducked under its claws, feeling them brush against her back. Then she had to jump straight up to avoid a slash that would have taken off her leg.

Grabbing hold of a tree branch she saw the werewolf twenty feet below turn on Dwayne who was only just getting to his feet.

“Alexander get ready,” she said, launching herself at the werewolf.

She and Alexander switched. Watching through his eyes, she saw his fist rise up, ready to take the monsters head off.

Then a portal opened up directly under the werewolf.

The werewolf fell through it, and they followed.

She and Alexander both screamed as they found themselves high above the forest and falling fast.

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