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“Let’s go,” I said and pulled her up. I threw the flare to the ground and started walking. I couldn’t take it along because it would give away our position. It had done its work. We distracted them for a while, and needed to cover a distance before they reoriented themselves. We started westwards, going deeper into the woods but not keeping to a direct route. We ran hard, using the trees to push ourselves forward. I got the urge to climb into the trees, but that might make us an easier target. Ormaybe not. I looked up at the trees, confused. We had to make a plan.
The gunshots resumed behind us, but they sounded a bit distant now, and we were safe from them.
“Where?” she asked.
“Away. We have to run. We can’t fight them. They have guns.”
“But they’ll be right behind us. They will keep attacking us even if we remain on the run. Can we outrun their guns?”
“I don’t think so, but what other options are there?”
We can’t go up against men with guns, our heightened senses, and strength or not. A bullet will kill us, just as it will kill a human. Besides, I have been hit. We need to go.
“We need to cut them down,” Hayley said.
“We can’t even see them,” I pointed out.
“No, and they can’t see us either. But we can hear them. We are werewolves, not mere humans.”
I stopped and considered what she was saying. She was right. We might have a chance against them. Cut down their numbers. We looked at each other, and the message was passed without even speaking.
“Wait,” I said and reached into my pocket, removing one of Bonne’s vials, taking a dose out of it, and passing it to her. “Take some of that.”
“What is it?” she asked, looking at it skeptically but took it anyway.
“Just take it. You’ll see.”
She did, and her eyes went wide as it kicked into effect immediately.
“Let’s go,” I said.
I grabbed onto the trunk of the tree closest to me and pulled myself up. When I got to the top and balanced on the highest part of the tree, I listened for Hayley first. She was at the top too. Then I listened for the gunshots. They were coming just north of me, and if we spread out wide enough, we could get them trapped between us. They won’t hear us coming because we’ll be above them and moving through the branches almost with no sound. This could work. I could make out about three different guns which meant there were at least three people up there shooting at us, at most, maybe ten. Ten with guns will be a tough number to contend with.
But not impossible.
I lunged through the trees, spreading my weight about as I jumped from branch to branch, and wondered how Hayley was faring. I was good at this. I have done it a thousand times before with my old pack, and I can do it with my eyes closed, even with a bullet stuck in my shoulder—which also helped me focus better. Hayley was new to this, but she is fast and lithe, so I guessed she’ll be fine. And she has Bonne’s concoction running through her.
Voices started to carry to me, and I knew I had to flank them further. Increase the girth between us so that I could have room for an attack. I moved to the side some more before continuing further again, and soon, I could make them out. I glowed my eyes and saw four of them. They were about fifty feet from meand about half of that below me. Four in number, and they had night vision goggles hanging on their necks. One of them was putting it back on to see better, and they were talking about their next line of action. A couple of feet from then, I noticed Hayley close the gap to them. She saw me and gave me a thumbs-up. The men were oblivious to us and we were about to drop from the trees. They either were about to call it quits or go in search of us. I didn’t give them that chance. I jumped at the ones closest to me, and Hayley did the same thing. I caught one by the shoulder, my claws dragging him down with me.
We both fell to the ground, his gun dangling around him. He tried to reach for it, but I kicked it off and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, throwing him against a tree. Before he even hit the tree, I jumped at him and smacked his head against the tree. He screamed out in pain.
“Who hired you?” I asked, but he said nothing. He was covered in leotards, and the leotard smelled of the woods. That was how they had kept themselves from detection. They used mud. Now, they’d advanced.
I hit him against the tree again and was about to ask him the same question again when shots rang out behind me. There was still at least one up there shooting at me.
I grabbed the one I was fighting by the neck and snapped it. His neck gave way very easily. I turned around and started back up the tree, but my shoulder gave way, and I fell to the floor.
The pain from it rang through my body like a zap of electricity going through me. I tried to pull myself up, but could not move with that shoulder. I must have fallen on it when I landed from the tree earlier. I didn’t even notice.
I couldn’t remain on the ground, though. I would be a sitting duck there.
I pulled myself with my other arm, looking to grab onto another tree, but it was just out of reach. I heard more gunshots go off and a high pitched scream. I thought it was Hayley for a moment, but another person clothed in black leotards, fell beside me. I could see it was a woman. I shook off the fatigue from the pain in my shoulder and forced myself up. I had just one useful arm left. That would make climbing a tree harder, but I wasn’t about to give up.
I am a werewolf and would heal. I just need a good rest.
I grabbed onto the tree closest to me, and with my good arm wrapped around it and the bad one, used for barely support, I started up. Using one foot to push myself up at a time, I was beginning to make progress. I could hear Hayley fighting with one of the men up there, and I wondered if we should have simply just made the run for it. I don’t think this group is as highly skilled as other human hunters I have met before. They were distracted and didn’t pick up our movements in the tree, and they looked and smelled green. I continued up, and just as I was a couple of inches from the branch, which I planned on using as a lever to pull me over to another tree, I saw a face look down at me. It was wrapped in black dressing and had a slight grin in the slit for his mouth. He pointed his gun at me.
Damn!
