Animal Heart(55)

“Those stupid fucking people,” he spat out to the others. “They've confiscated all our containers to get forensic evidence!”

“Shit Ade, what the hell are we gonna do?” Shane asked him with panic in his voice.

“Chain ourselves to a tree. That's what I've done before,” Cal suggested. “Never had a problem yet.”

“That's probably all we can do,” Aden agreed. “But unfortunately it's getting late and we don't have any chain.”

“I'll go get some from town,” Ben suggested.

Aden grabbed his arm.

“Look at the sun... There's no time. We need to get away from here fucking fast.”

The sun was waning rapidly and time was so precious.

Maddy could see orange eyes beginning to glow all around her. She assumed hers were too, but of course she didn't know. She still felt calm. She couldn't understand it. Surely she should feel strange, nervous... something different? She stared at the sun. It was so low it would be gone in ten minutes.

“Let's go,” Aden said in a loud urgent voice. They all piled back on board and he drove like a mad demon, off towards town for a few hundred yards, and then hurtling right, up the mountainside, along a small dirt track, between the trees.

“No one lives up this way. We'll be out of earshot at least,” he explained.

Five minutes later he pulled up at a large clearing in the trees. They jumped out and spread out around the clearing as darkness descended.

Then it started… The transformation began to take them over…

For a minute or two she sat in the truck, staring at the beautiful full moon, which she had always loved to look at before. How she hated it now. She prayed to God with all her heart that they would survive this night.

The half-human howling, shrieking sounds they were making caused her hair to stand on end all over her body. Bravely, she left the truck, in her human form, and grabbing a flashlight, she walked around the clearing looking at them all, one by one. She was mesmerised by their emerging ferocity. Their eyes were evil, orange and harsh, nothing like the normal wolf transformation at all. Their claws were slashing wildly and blindly around their half-changed forms. Aden was no longer the Aden she knew. Mia was not Mia. Shane was not Shane. She could see nothing of her new family inside them. Nothing at all.

A long ear piercing howl filled the air ahead and Lucas stood up, taking a few long strides, moving straight towards her. She started to run, back to the truck in terror, but it was too far... How completely fucking stupid of her... She turned to face him, armed literally with only a flashlight.

“Leave me alone, you bastard...” she screamed loudly as she shifted into her wolf form, her clothes ripping and falling off her, as she prepared to fight the savage creature that was almost upon her, baring its massive fangs. She braced herself for the fight, but to her astonishment, he swerved and shot straight past her, ignoring her completely, bounding off to do his evil in the night. She jumped up on the back of the truck and stood high on the roof, waiting nervously to see what would happen next. Would the pack attack each other... or try to kill her? One she-wolf couldn't contain a raging pack of a dozen others. She knew her limitations. She was ready to leap down and fly like the wind if one of them made a move towards her.

Suddenly Aden's wolf form came out of the darkness towards her, menacing, wild and huge, his long legs carrying him fast towards the lights of the town, already twinkling below them. He belted past her, unconcerned or unseeing of her presence. The next wolf ran and then the rest of them swarmed past the truck, setting off together. It was a horrific scene. A howling, baying, deadly pack of orange-eyed monsters, snarling, growling, and full of lethal slashing claws and long sharp bared teeth. Only one good thing was evident, they didn't seem to be intent on killing each other, at least not yet.

Her mind was full of horror at what was being unleashed on Heart this night. They would rampage and kill. Dozens of the innocent townsfolk, their little children, beloved pets...

She couldn't allow it.

How she could stop this impending carnage, she had no idea, but she could at least try. She set off after them, fast.

She flew like the wind. As fast as she ever had.

She saw the last one of them far ahead, Jamie, crossing the railway track and heading off into the trees behind the main street buildings. She desperately needed speed, and pushed herself hard. Soon she was there right behind him.

What the hell could she do now? She growled at him, trying not to think of the danger she was in...'Stop right there, you devil!'... And to her astonishment he did, skidding to a halt and turning to face her with his orange eyes burning a hole in her head. He made no attempt to attack her, he just stood and stared, evilly, with a low growling noise emerging from his throat, as if he wanted to strike at her, but somehow he was held back by an invisible barrier. They faced each other for a few seconds.