Savage Beasts - 6. Something Wicked This Way Comes

“Has anybody seen Axel?” Rusty-Pete called out to the bears beginning to crawl out of their tents and stretch in the early-morning sun. “It’s our turn to cook breakfast, and I haven’t seen hide nor hair of him since last night.”

Gunnar was just stepping out of Ezekiel’s tent, holding the flap open for the old bear and giving him a peck on the cheek.

“I think when we find my cub, Mike, we’ll find Axel,” Gunnar said with a grin. “Till then I’ll pitch in with breakfast. That seems to be my calling these days.”

Gunnar took his place in the camp kitchen with Sal, Marty, and Rusty-Pete, and before long they had a breakfast feast fit for twenty-seven bears.

As they all got seated around the assembled picnic tables and began to eat, Axel finally came strolling out of the woods with a grin on his face and his arm around Mike. Many of the bears hooted and teased the pair as they walked over to the tables to sit down. Mike’s face was bright red when he sat next to his Papa.

“Did you manage to calm that big ‘ol bear down, Cub?” Gunnar asked Mike with an elbow in his ribs.

“Oh, yeah,” Mike replied. “Mr. Grouchy should be pretty relaxed the rest of the way to West Virginia.”

“I can hear you, you know,” Axel grumbled from across the table, still grinning.

“Is he as big as he looks below the belt?” Gunnar asked.

“Let’s just say that If I didn’t have a werebear’s magical healing powers, I wouldn’t be able to walk this morning!”

Gunnar chuckled. “I know what you mean, Cub. Grand-Papa Ezekiel may look like the smallest bear here in the camp, but he’s plenty big where it counts! If I weren’t a werebear I wouldn’t be able to sit for a week!”

They quickly finished their meal and began to clean up and break camp. Gunnar gave Joshua a quick call to ask him to keep an eye on the house for the next two weeks or so. Within an hour, they were on the road to West Virginia in a caravan with the four bikers at the front and Gunnar’s Jeep in the rear.

****

Christopher stood at the peak of the mountain, overlooking the small town nestled in the valley below. The cluster of homes and buildings were situated along the banks of a lazy river that wrapped around the base of the mountain on which he now stood, so the town was arranged in an almost boomerang shape as it followed the natural contour of the river.

Christopher knew, of course, that it was no ordinary small town tucked away in the Allegheny Mountains. It was the home of the Hacker Valley wolf pack. Ninescore years ago, Christopher had sought refuge and sanctuary among these wolves, and they had turned him away, forcing him into the cold wilderness alone.

He had already gotten his revenge against Gabriel, the vile brother who was his Papa’s favorite in last week’s attack on the werebear village. Gabriel thought he could hide his pedigree by living a simple life among the common bears, but Christopher was relentless in his search. It was a pity that the other eleven innocent bears were made to pay for Gabriel’s crimes, but he could allow no witnesses.

After today, there would be no witnesses among the Hacker Valley wolf pack as well.

He turned to his children, who stood behind him on the mountain peak, waiting his instructions.

“Pelorus, Damysus, Asterius, Enceladus… You four descend the mountain to the west and enter the town from its western end.

“Alcyoneus, Echion, Porphyrion, Eurymedon… You four descend the mountain to the east and enter the town from its eastern end.

“I want you to kill every living thing that you see until you meet each other in the middle of the town. You must not leave any man or beast alive. Do you understand me?”

The eight creatures whined and growled to indicate their understanding of the instructions. They began to salivate and drool at the thought of the killing that was to come.

“Go, now!” Christopher exclaimed, and the monsters split into two groups, preparing to catch the townsfolk in between them like the jaws of a bear trap.

****

Alpha Nelson sat in his office, going over the figures for the lumber mill that provided the main source of income for the Hacker Valley pack, when the two-way radio sitting on the side of his desk suddenly came to life with a loud squawk.

“Alpha, Alpha,” the voice on the radio began, “This is patrol unit 1A. We have four unidentified figures descending the mountain, heading toward the eastern end of town. We are approaching to intercept.”

Nelson was about to respond when the radio squawked a second time.

“Alpha, Alpha,” the next voice said with a tone of panic, “This is patrol unit 2B. We have four figures heading toward the western end of town fast. They’re big, I’d say eight feet in height. They look like deformed bears, except they’re running on two legs. Alpha, these are the creatures that Alpha Apollo in Chicago warned us about. We’re going to shift to our wolves and try to hold them off as long as we can. Recommend implementing Hide and Seek Protocol immediately.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Alpha Nelson shouted. He spun his seat around, grabbing the painting on the wall behind his desk and tossing it aside revealing a large red button. He slammed his palm against it and a set of civil-defense sirens immediately began to wail out a warning from one end of town to the other.

He ran over to his office window from which he could view most of the town in both directions along the curve of the river. His wolves were performing their designated functions as expected. The hunters and warriors were assembling along the main street and forming their individual units that would engage and battle the enemy. The rest of the pack were quickly moving to the old nuclear fallout shelter underneath the school building. Once they were secure in the shelter, the blast doors would be closed until they received the all-clear signal from the outside. This would ensure the survival of the pack even if every hunter and warrior were to fail.

He picked up his phone next and flipped through the notebook on his desk looking for the number that Apollo had given him. He quickly dialed.

“Hello?” Thomas said, answering the call.

“This is Alpha Nelson of the Hacker Valley pack in West Virginia. We are under attack from the bipedal bear creatures that we were warned about from Alpha Apollo. My hunters and warriors are engaging them while the rest of the pack is taking cover in the town’s old fallout shelter beneath the schoolhouse. I will be joining my troops in the defense of the town momentarily. If none of us survive the attack, please give the all-clear signal to the wolves in the fallout shelter once it is safe by tapping ‘M-O-O-N’ on the blast doors in morse code.”

“I understand Alpha,” Thomas replied. “I am less than an hour away from your pack, I will head there to lend assistance as quickly as possible.”

“Just make sure that the wolves in the shelter are safe,” Nelson said. “The future of the pack depends upon them.”

****

Patrol unit 2B were in their wolf forms, all four standing in a line, blocking the road at the town line. The horrifying monsters ran directly at them, but they held their ground. When the creatures were within striking range, the patrol leader gave a quick bark, and all four leaped at the monsters, aiming for their throats with their jaws.

The creatures snatched the wolves out of the air as easily as if they were catching a ball and tore each wolf in half. Three of the monsters threw their wolves to the ground and continued their advance on the town while one creature paused to take a bite out of the haunches of his slain wolf. The lead monster turned to growl at the straggler, and it quickly threw its snack aside and ran to catch up with its brothers.

Alpha Nelson stood in wolf form in front of the ranks of wolves preparing for battle. His Enforcer ran up to stand at his side.

“Xander, report,” Nelson said.

“The rest of the pack are secure, and the blast doors are sealed,” the Enforcer reported. “Beta Andrew is with them to maintain order and assume leadership if we do not survive.”

“Have you analyzed the monsters’ attacks on the advance patrols?” Nelson asked.

“Yes, Alpha. It appears that one-on-one combat with the monsters is futile as they can easily overpower and kill a single wolf. We will have to attack each beast with coordinated efforts. If we can simultaneously hit each of them with no less than five wolves, one for each limb and one for the throat, we may be able to overpower them through sheer numbers.”

“Make it so, Enforcer,” Nelson replied, and Xander quickly ran to give instructions to the squad leaders.

From their vantage point at the crest of the arc-shaped town they could now see the monsters approaching at a run from both directions. They would be converging upon the warriors in the center of town in less than a minute.

“Wolves, hold…” Xander cried out to the assembled squads.

“Hold…”

They could see the creatures clearly now. Mangy fur and deformed heads paired with hugely muscled bodies and clawed hands. Their muzzles were already stained with the blood of the patrol wolves who attempted to intercept them at the town borders.

“Attack!” Xander howled.

The wolves attacked en masse, but even attacking each creature with five coordinated wolves was not effective. The creatures continued to claw and rend even with a wolf’s jaws clamped around each of their limbs. Most wolves were simply battered around like rag dolls until they were eventually shaken loose, but they were determined, and immediately jumped back into the fray with tooth and nail.

Christopher watched from his perch on the side of the mountain. He was proud of his children but not entirely satisfied that they had not finished off the wolf pack yet. The wolves’ numbers were dwindling, but the fight was taking much too long. When the battle had been raging for nearly an hour and there were a mere twenty wolves left standing, Christopher began striding confidently down the hill toward the battle.

When Christopher reached the town, he walked slightly around the bend in the road to the site where the conflict had drifted. His children were the victors, of course, and as they ripped and tore the remaining wolves to pieces, Christopher recognized the last two surviviors.

“Children… Halt!” Christopher shouted as he walked around the bodies strewn in the street and joined them.

At his command, the monsters ceased their attack and stood staring at the remaining two wolves, who shifted back to their human forms out of sheer exhaustion and attempted to crawl away naked from the creatures who had destroyed their town and pack.

“Alpha Nelson and Enforcer Xander!” Christopher exclaimed. “How lovely that you are the last two wolves remaining in your pack. It pleases me so that you were able to witness all of your packmates torn limb from limb before your cowardly eyes.”

“Do we know you?” Nelson asked, bloody and exhausted, struggling to get to his feet.

“Of course you know me,” Christopher replied. “I am the bear that you banished from your village in the freezing cold of winter. I am the bear who came to you begging for sympathy and shelter, and you turned your backs on me. I am the bear who had nothing and nowhere to turn, and you threw away like so much garbage.”

“Christopher?” Nelson said, finally standing up and helping Xander to his feet as well. “Christopher Arnold? The insane werebear who consumed our winter supplies and threatened our pups with no remorse? You were a spoiled child and we tried to teach you how to be a responsible member of the pack, but you wouldn’t listen. After you raided our winter stores of food like a selfish brat, we barely had enough to survive the winter.

“That was nearly two hundred years ago. You are still holding such a grudge against us after all this time that you’ve finally come to finish the job you started?”

“It was one hundred eighty years ago, Alpha.” Christopher replied, “And it took me that long to figure out the process of turning non-kindred humans into my children here.”

“Children?” Xander spat, staring at Christopher through the blood running from his forehead into his eyes. “How can you call these monsters your children?”

“Because I made them, and I am their Papa. They will do anything that I tell them to do. Now, since I merely have to give them the word and they will tear you to bite-sized pieces, I’ll go ahead and explain the triumph of how I was able to turn them before they set about the process of turning the two of you into steaming piles of shit.

“The last non-kindred human turned into a half-breed creature such as these was a hulking Viking prisoner in Russia who was raped by a Slavic werebear as vengeance for the death of his Papa. The problem they had back then was that the Viking was too wild and dominant and had no respect for the werebear or his Slavic captors, so once he turned, he destroyed them all.

“The first step is to find humans who are big and extremely muscular. Bodybuilders. Only the ones who have pushed their bodies beyond the limits of normal human physiology will be capable of surviving the change. The second step is to find those big muscular humans who are naturally submissive. Once I breed them, they become psychologically dependent on me, and then once they’ve changed, their memories and free will are erased and only their subservience to me remains.”

“Christopher, that’s barbaric,” Nelson said, shaking his head. “Only a true monster can be the father of such horrible creatures.”

“That may be,” Christopher replied, “But once I’ve reclaimed my birthright, I will be the Lord of these mountains once again. Now, do you have anything else to say to me before I allow my children to turn you into their dinner?”

“Yeah,” Xander replied. “Watch out for that truck.”

Christopher was so consumed in his dramatic speech that he completely ignored the large pickup truck that sped around the curve in the road and headed straight for him. He barely had a chance to turn and finally see it before it slammed into him and sent him flying thirty feet before hitting the pavement and rolling to a bloody stop against a pile of wolf bodies.

The truck came to a stop next to the surviving wolves and the passenger side door opened.

“Get in if you want to live!” Sam cried, and the wolves scrambled into the vehicle as the monsters tipped their heads back and howled in rage and confusion, uncertain of what to do without their Papa’s command.

As soon as the wolves were inside, Thomas hit the gas and sped back out of the town.

“Bears to the rescue,” Xander muttered as he collapsed and passed out in the back seat.

The Alpha regained his composure and spoke to the bears.

“I am Alpha Nelson. Thank you for the excellent timing. I assume that one of you is Thomas,”

“Present,” Thomas said raising his hand as he swerved around the last of the bodies and left the town of Hacker Valley in his rear-view mirror.

“This is my Enforcer, Xander,” Nelson explained. “We were the only two warriors to survive the assault. He kept us alive just long enough to gloat. He was just about to feed us to his monstrous children when you showed up.”

“Children,” Thomas repeated. “Gods, what a psycho. Are the rest of your pack in the shelter going to be okay until we can go back for them?”

“Yes,” Nelson said, “That shelter was built to withstand a nuclear war. Those creatures are strong, but even they can’t get inside. There is enough food and water for the pack to survive for a week. We must be sure that Christopher is gone before we go back.”

“Christopher?” Thomas said, “You were able to get that sick bear’s name.”

“Yes,” Nelson replied. “Christopher Arnold. He came back today for revenge because we were forced to exile him from our village one hundred and eighty years ago.”

“Christopher Arnold, as in the Mount Savage Arnolds? The snooty werebear industrialist family who think they are ‘royalty’?” Thomas asked.

“The very same,” Nelson said. “And I don’t think that the Hacker Valley wolf pack is going to be the last name on his list for revenge. We need reinforcements. He has to be stopped.”

“We’re in luck,” Thomas said with a sideways grin pulling out his phone. “Help is on the way.”

****

Gunnar and Mike listened to Thomas’s account of the attack on Gunnar’s phone through the Jeep’s speakers as they sped along behind the werebear caravan.

“Take the Alpha and his Enforcer to your cabin, Thomas,” Gunnar instructed. “And wait until we get there. We should be arriving sometime tonight, late. Do not attempt to extract the rest of the pack from the shelter today even if you think that Christopher and his monsters are gone. We’ll go and handle that tomorrow as a group.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Thomas replied cheekily. “Our guests are in no shape to do anything tonight but sleep and heal anyway. Hopefully, they’ll be back up to speed tomorrow. They seem to have more backstory to spill on what happened to this Christopher Arnold werebear two hundred years ago that still has him on a psychotic rampage today. We’ll have a nice talk with them tomorrow morning over a cup of coffee.”

“Right on, little bear,” Gunnar said. “Good job today, by the way. I’m proud of you and your Cub. We’ll see you tonight. Leave a light on for us.”

****

Christopher regained consciousness surrounded by his children. They had moved him from the street to a soft grassy lawn and sat whining with tears dripping down their horrible muzzles.

He tried to sit up, but he clearly had several broken ribs that had not yet healed, and both of his legs were broken as well. The monsters had treated him carefully, but they had not bothered to straighten out his legs so that the bones could set and heal.

“Eurymedon, take my left foot in your hands. Pelorus, take my right foot.” Christopher instructed. “Now both of you pull my leg until it is straight and my toes are pointed upward.”

The monsters did as they were told, and there was an audible crunching sound as the broken sections of bones snapped back into proper position.

“Thank you, my children,” Christopher said. “Papa is going to need to rest and heal for several hours before we can leave. Until then I invite you to feast upon the bodies of our fallen enemies!”

The monsters tipped their heads back in a victorious roar and scattered across the town, rending flesh from the bodes and beginning a long night of feasting.