DARK SHADOWS

 

CHAPTER IV:  BACK UP

 

“What the hell was that?” Brock inquired, awestruck at the open manhole, of which steam was spewing profusely.

    

Hailen was still staring at the Werewolf that now lay breathless in the middle of the street. She heard the shots and now she saw the aftermath.

    

Ash definitely knew now that that figure was no human. Besides the leap of death and plummet beneath the sewers, he knew the figure couldn’t be Shadow Hunter because of the ammunition they were equipped with. Every Shadow Hunter in the city was only given rounds filled with silver nitrate. But the Werewolf was still dead, meaning they had some kind of silver. Then, Ash saw disintegrating vapor from the Werewolf’s chest.

    

Another howl echoed.

    

“Shit!”

    

Three more.

    

No.

    

Four more.

    

Hailen reached for her Walther, but touched only the empty holster. That was right, the Werewolf slashed her pistol away. But to her luck it was lying next to the Werewolf that slashed it out of her hand.

    

Five more howls.

    

Ten howls!

    

Most likely ten Werewolves!

    

If there were ten, and there was a good chance with the fact that Werewolves hunted in packs, she knew her, Ash, and Brock needed better weapons, and those said weapons were within the confides of the totaled Lexus’ trunk.

    

“Cover me!” Hailen ordered to Brock as she readied herself for the blitz.

    

“Got it!” Brock fingered his pistol’s hammer and then flirted with the trigger with his index finger.

    

Hailen charged toward the car. As she dashed across the street she could see two Werewolves closing in on her on the opposite side of the street. But they weren’t running on the street or jumping from atop a building. Rather, they were crawling alongside the building.

    

With the two Werewolves closing in on her, she needed ammunition, even with Brock covering her.

    

Two shots were fired. Both Werewolves collapsed to the ground with excruciating roars.

    

Another jumped from behind the totaled wreckage of the Lexus. Brock shot it also, directly in the heart.

    

Brock continued scanning Main Street. He had only fired off three shots, so he had enough before a reload. All this thought caused him to lose consciousness of his surroundings. And in a brief moment, he was forced beneath a Werewolf’s heavy body that pressed him into the cement sidewalk that cracked under the weight.

    

Yet again, Pikachu was unable to strike with an electric attack. If it did, Brock would be harmed as well and most likely killed.

    

Ash was still resting against the light post. He didn’t even know what was going on. He was nearly unconscious.

    

Hailen could hear the screams dripping from Brock’s lips. The roar came later, but made her stop in her tracks.

    

Taking her eyes off where she was going was perhaps the most idiotic move. Within one second flat, a Werewolf dived over the Lexus and glided toward her.

    

“Hailen!” Ash let out one more scream before drooping his head in unconsciousness.

    

Hailen turned around only to see a Werewolf fly toward her. But she narrowly dodged it with a dive and roll to the right. The Werewolf rolled itself just a foot or two from her. But as she rolled on the tar street, she grabbed the two-tone Walther P22 and shot the Werewolf in the heart. And just as it collapsed to the hard tar she took another shot at the Werewolf attempting to rip Brock’s throat out.

    

Brock screamed in agony and then in stress with the weight of the Werewolf on top of him.

    

“Go! Get the weapons!” he demanded, still under great pressure.

    

Hailen nodded.

    

She suddenly turned around as a crash echoed. She could see, in the shadows, dozens of Werewolves dash into a building. Each roared, or growled; some even howled. And then there was screaming.

    

Hailen cocked her head to the massive full moon lighting Main Street. She could still hear the screams of civilians.

    

Screams of terror.

    

Screams of pain.

    

“Full moon.” She whispered in sheer terror. Then she looked back at the buildings to hear more screams yet.

    

But not just any screams.

    

It was a full moon, like she said.

    

They were screams of Turning.

    

They were now infected.

    

And tonight was there first full moon.

    

Hailen finally ran toward her once gorgeous Lexus. The trunk was slightly pried open so it would be no trouble to rip the hinges and pull it open fully.

    

And she was right about getting the trunk open. It was easy. But as the trunk was propped up, most of the boarded on the windows were forced off the buildings. Werewolf after Werewolf jumped out of the buildings and headed for fresh flesh and blood.

    

Hailen.

    

She was fast with guns. In the time it would take a person to pull back the slide on a pistol Hailen had already slapped a magazine into a nickel plated AR33 assault rifle, loaded the chamber, and aimed it at the leading Werewolf.

    

Seven Werewolves had fallen dead from the time that she pulled the trigger. But they were still running out of the buildings.

    

“Fuck!”

    

Now there was no chance there were only ten!

    

Werewolf after Werewolf after Werewolf leapt from atop the row of buildings lining Main Street Lavender Town. They leapt from the rooftops, through broken windows, from alleys.

    

But the worst was yet to come.

    

The assault rifle dry clicked.

    

“No!” Hailen tried pulling the trigger again to only hear another dry click. “No! Not now!”

    

The trunk of the car was full of weapons. But that wasn’t the problem. The problem was time.

    

But Pikachu finally had an open target; one that wouldn’t pass the electric attack onto the humans. “Pika...chu!” An immense jolt of electricity surged from the yellow rodent’s red cheeks.

 

Not one Werewolf was affected. They were too powerful.

    

“Pika?”

    

For some reason, Hailen didn’t even know why, she kept pulling the trigger to only hear the dry click. The magazine was empty but she didn’t have enough time to reload. So she hoped she could keep firing. But that wasn’t the case.

    

Finally, a Werewolf grabbed the long muzzle of the assault rifle. Hailen screamed and let go of the weapon. She screamed again and backed away when the same Werewolf bent the weapon like an old penny.

    

“Shit.”

    

She hated not having a way out.

    

And now she, Brock, Ash, and Pikachu were surrounded.

    

The Werewolf that bent up her assault rifle roared loudly at her. Its gigantic jaw opened up and it lunged at her neck with its three inch longs fangs.

    

And then it was spun around and collapsed onto its back.

    

Hailen looked down Main Street and followed a silver spear that was being pulled toward a shadowy figure standing just beyond the open man hole.

    

It wasn’t long before the Werewolves went for that figure. But as each one approached the figure they were speared by the silver stake that was attacked to a line. And that line whipped around, being flung toward the oncoming Werewolves.

    

Then the figure began running toward the pack. As it advanced, two blades were thrown toward Hailen. She didn’t have enough time to move, but then discovered that they soared just over her shoulders and went into two Werewolves’ chests.

    

Her coat was whipped behind her slender, tight leather clad legs. Hailen could see now that the figure was a she, a she with nearly perfect curves. And this she was well-equipped to take on Werewolves.

    

Dangling against her legs were two holsters with pistols that Hailen couldn’t identify yet. She was also equipped with Pokeballs, knives, extra magazines, and on her hips between her holsters and her knees were sais...silver sais.

    

The woman pulled the weapons out and slashed them professionally at the Werewolves’ chests, dropping them like flies. She went through the pack, not being struck once.

    

But now Hailen noticed that the Werewolves weren’t going after her anymore. The woman must have posed a greater threat. It wouldn’t be hard to believe with the way the woman attacked. And she was quick as Hell. She could stab a Werewolf through the jaw with a sai, another through the heart, another in the back, and another in the temple before the first touched the ground.

    

Then came the jaw-dropping twist. Other than the kick ass moves the woman was strong. Hailen witnessed this first hand as a Werewolf leapt from atop a two story building and was about to land on the woman when she countered with a roundhouse kick that sent the Werewolf soaring across the street and through a brick wall.

    

More moved in and the woman lost control of her sais. They skidded across the tar street and stopped against Hailen’s boots.

    

What now? She has no weapons.

    

Hailen was wrong.

    

The woman has her hands and legs.

    

There was a roundhouse kick, duck beneath a Werewolf’s massive clutches, front kick to the back and then a back flip over another Werewolf that tried attacking from behind. The aftermath was the Werewolf sinking its long fangs into the other’s spinal cord. Blood was streaming down the bitten Werewolf’s back.