I grinned from ear to ear, but the joy wasn’t over yet. Around the bend, a good half mile behind Rick’s driving, came a long line of trucks. No two were the same. There were small ones with short beds, large ones with short beds, short beds with medium-sized cabs. All sizes of trucks and twenty-four of them, and mostly-transformed werewolves ran alongside the convoy. In the lead truck was Burnbaum at the wheel and Mr. Stewart beside him.
We rushed forward to greet them and halfway there we were joined by Callean. “You know these guys?” he asked us.
Rich stuck his head out the driver’s side window. “We’re the cavalry!” he shouted.
I ran up to him, jumped onto the running board and pecked a kiss on his grizzled, unshaven cheek. “And you came just when we needed you,” I told him. His cheeks blushed as red as the armbands of our foes.
Burnbaum stopped his truck just behind Rick and Luke with Callean walked up to him. “I didn’t believe you would make the war,” Luke teased.
Burnbaum chuckled. “We would not miss this party. There is too much fun to be had.” He nodded at the wounded and dead on the first battlefield. “It seems you have started it without us.”
“But you’re not too late to join in the fun,” Luke assured him. He pointed at the road ahead of us. “Two-thirds of the convoy have escaped. We need your trucks to reach them and have a fighting chance against their guns.”
“Then let’s not waste any more time here,” Stewart spoke up.
“My men will salvage the trucks here and bring up the rear,” Callean offered.
Burnbaum glanced past Luke and raised an eyebrow at the stranger. “Who is this we have here? Another Green?”
Callean grinned. “I’m on my own side and have a personal dealing with Lance.”
Luke stepped between them. “He’s Callean, but formal introductions will be later. We need to hurry. Those trucks were traveling far faster than we can run for long, and I’m sure not only is Lance in one of them but so are the formulas.”
“Then climb in,” Burnbaum invited us.
“I’ll go with those crazies,” Emily spoke up as she pointed a rifle at Rick’s truck.
Burnbaum frowned. “I loaned him my truck and see what he does? He drives like a madman.”
“That would be because he is a madman,” I chimed in.
“I resemble that!” Rick shouted.
“We haven’t time to bicker,” Luke reminded our little ragtag group. He climbed into the rear of Burnbaum’s truck and I followed suit. Adam and Emily took the bed of Rick’s truck.
Rick let out a holler and Steve let out a whimper. “Let’s get them!” he screamed.
He pressed on the gas and burned a little rubber before the truck jumped forward. I heard Burnbaum mutter something about maiming and we followed with the truck convoy and transformed werewolves at our backs. Rick sped around the damaged and abandoned vehicles of Lance’s convoy and whipped around the corner. We kept up as best we could and I enjoyed the wind through my hair as we zoomed past the trees. The coming part of the road was carved from gently sloping hills on either side of us so there was a tunnel effect ahead and behind us.
Before we saw our prey Luke grasped my hand. I glanced over to him and saw he faced forward and his lips were pursed together. “Whatever happens keep yourself safe,” he instructed me.
I smiled. “Only if you do,” I countered.
He didn’t smile in return. “I mean it. If either of us doesn’t live through the battle then the other must go on,” he insisted.
My face fell and I nodded my head. “I promise.”
Luke smiled and squeezed my hand. “Good, now prepare for bloodshed. Lance no doubt has his best men ahead of us and-”
He didn’t get to finish his sentence before four shadows swooped out from the darkness on our right side. two of them landed in the bed of Rick’s truck, and the other two in ours. Luke and I turned around and our eyes widened. The shadows behind us were Alistair and Stacy, and the shadows in the other truck were Stevens and Baker. Their empty eyes told me they weren’t here for a happy reunion .
Luke pulled me behind him and growled at the pair. They growled back. In the other truck the fight had already started, and fortunately Stevens and Baker weren’t winning against Adam, Emily, and a screaming Steve. Alistair was the first to attack us. Luke pushed us apart and I clawed at the cab to keep from falling off the edge onto the fast-moving ground beneath the truck tires. The men grappled, and I heard a growl and turned in time to see Stacy lung at me.
Stacy knocked me against the side, but I grabbed her outstretched claws and avoided having my face rearranged for me. “Snap out of this!” I yelled at her. She growled and snapped her jaws at me. “That’s not what I meant!”
“Knock them unconscious!” Luke yelled at me. “If we are unable to reach them then we can at least ensure they won’t be a hindrance!”
“Easy for you to say!” I yelled back.
Luke had a firm grasp of Alistair and the old wolf’s fighting abilities, but Stacy had age and ability up on me. Her powerful jaws chomped closer to my face. I turned away to avoid losing my semi-useful nose. A few inches to my cheek. One inch.
Stacy was wrenched away from me and thrown against the tailgate. Stewart stood over me and offered me a hand. He’d climbed out of the cab and gotten behind her. I smiled and had him pull me up. “Thanks. Another second and I would’ve known how the Donner party dead felt like,” I told him.
Stewart opened his mouth, but Stacy tackled his side and slammed him into the back of the cab. The whole truck shook with the force of the blow and I heard a few of Stewart’s ribs crack. I snarled, jumped onto Stacy’s back, and did what any intelligent, combative woman would do; I grabbed a chunk of Stacy’s long, luxurious, golden hair and gave a good yank. She howled and stumbled back with me still her backpack. Her claws tried to grab me, but I wrapped my legs around her middle and pulled first the left side of her head of hair, then the right, alternating between which claw was closest to me.
Stewart pulled himself out of the impression he’d made in the back of the cab and returned the favor by rushing Stacy and grabbing her around the middle. He pushed her to the bed floor and rolled so they landed on my side. My right leg was pinned beneath Stacy’s body and the bed, and a sharp twang in my leg muscles told me Stacy was heavy and I’d just torn something. Stewart and Stacy clawed and bit at each other, and since I was a trapped audience I decided to upgrade myself from spectator to competitor. I grabbed Stacy’s hair and knocked her head against the bed. She went limp and I pulled myself free from her body while Stewart hurried the whole four feet over to Luke who still had an Alistair problem.
Alistair faced away from us, so Stewart grabbed his arms and pinned them to his sides. Luke frowned and pulled back his fist. “Sorry, old friend,” he spoke before he slammed his fist into the side of Alistair’s face. The force knocked Alistair’s head to the side and he slumped in Stewart’s arms. Stewart lowered his prisoner and himself to the bed while Luke came over to and knelt beside me. I sat beside Stacy’s prone body and massaged my leg. “Are you all right?” he asked me.
I grimaced, but nodded. “Just a stretch or something. Remind me to tell Stacy to lose some weight.”
At that moment Burnbaum honked and waved his hand out his window. “Look!” he yelled at us.
We looked at where he pointed and beheld the rear lights of Lance’s convoy. The final battle was about to begin.
25
Luke frowned and turned to me. “You will remain here and watch over Stacy and Alistair.”
I snorted. “Like I’m going to listen to that, and you know it. I’m coming with you and going to see this mess to the end.” I proved my statement by rising to my feet. It hurt like hell, but I clenched my teeth and bore my pain in silence. “See? I can fight,” I squeaked.
“Let her choose to fight or not. I will remain with your friends,” Stewart spoke up. We looked to him and saw he lay against the back of the cab. One of his hands clutched at his side and there was a blood stain on his shirt beneath his coat.
Luke rushed over to him and opened wide his shirt. “You must speak up if you’re injured,” he scolded our friend.
Stewart smiled. “It’s only a flesh wound, but I am no longer fast enough to dodge a fist.”
Luke pursed his lips, but nodded. “All right. If any of our friends appear to revive then knock them out whether you believe they are under Lance’s control or not. We can’t risk their joining the fight.”
“I will,” Stewart promised.
Luke stood and glanced over the cab at the approaching trucks and semis. I limped over to him and the wind whipped my hair back. In Rick’s truck Adam and Emily had Stevens and Baker knocked out, and waited with Steve for the final confrontation. “What surprises do you think Lance has waiting for us?” I wondered.
Luke shook his head. “With my brother there is no telling.”
I sighed. “I hate surprises.”
Our trucks flew over the hard-packed dirt road and the hills on either side of us grew taller so that the tops of the mounds sat above the tops of the semi trailers. The road widened so two trucks could easily race abreast. Burnbaum stepped on the gas and edged alongside Rick’s truck.