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Chapter Twenty-Six
Esteban
In the morning Santuario was bustling with activity. People gathered in the square, and Gabriel and I stood by the warehouse, arming everyone with weapons. We didn’t have enough cars to drive everyone to Fort Torres, but the walk there was only an hour so we would go on foot. Bears couldn’t carry guns and ammunition, and our plan was to start the attack by shooting. So only later, when the gate was down, would we shift into animal forms.
Some people were staying behind to protect the children and our home in case Victor came after them while the siege was ongoing. We doubted he would do so, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
When everyone was equipped with guns and the battering ram was loaded on a car’s semitrailer, we walked out of Santuario. We would meet the Bloody Claws first at the first intersection, then we would be joined by the Starry Banes further north.
We marched. Nobody was in the mood to talk, so we wandered up the road in silence.
When we arrived at the intersection where Bloody Claws stood waiting, Oswaldo joined us.
“What’s the plan?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I will tell you when we’re together with Kella.”
Oswaldo nodded, and we continued to walk in silence.
About twenty minutes from the Starry Banes’ border with Victor, we met Kella and her sleuth. We stopped then, and Gabriel pulled out the notes from yesterday’s meeting. I filled in the Alphas and their Betas on the plan. They gave their own opinions, but overall they agreed with our strategy. With everyone in agreement about how we should proceed, we were ready to start.
The car with the battering ram drove off first, and we followed.
When we were ten minutes away from Victor’s territory, I had our men take the siege equipment down and carry it by themselves. The car remained safely by the road. Vehicles were an important commodity on Isla Paraiso; I had to avoid the chance of ours getting destroyed if I could.
We continued walking until the trees gave way to the open plain and the hill on which Fort Torres sat. The prison facility we had busted Daphne out of was closer to us. The guards there had already been alarmed and stood at the top of the wall, their rifles ready to shoot at us if we came into firing range. We could walk past them and go straight to Fort Torres, but if we tried they could shoot at us from behind.
Thankfully we had included a way of getting rid of the guards in our plans.
“Get ready to fire!” I shouted.
The sound of dozens of men readying their rifles resounded around me.
“Fire!” I commanded.
People stepped before me, guns at the ready, and the shooting started. Soon the guards at the wall fell, our resistance way too strong in comparison to their own capabilities to hurt us.
Once we were sure there were no more people attacking us from the direction of the prison, I commanded the battering ram to be brought to the front again. We continued walking up the path to Fort Torres.
The castle was old, dating back to when the first Spanish colonizers came to Venezuela. It was bulky, with small openings for windows and two towers. Made of sandstone, the walls looked warm to the eye, although the actual temperature inside them was rather cold. I remembered Fort Torres as a not entirely comfortable place to live, even despite the modern facilities installed within. The village hugged the castle from the other side. Luckily we wouldn’t have to walk through there.
When we approached the castle itself, Victor’s goons appeared on the walls. Without asking any questions, they opened fire. There really weren’t any questions to ask, after all. We were a force of over hundred fifty armed men marching on the castle with siege equipment. We clearly weren’t here on a stroll. Our goal was to destroy.
Our people covered the advance of the battering ram with gunfire. The castle gate was sturdy but not exactly new. It had fallen once already, during Victor’s uprising, and as far as we knew this gate was still the same one just with new hinges. They wouldn’t hold for long.
While our men rammed the gate, we continued shooting at Victor’s people. Some screamed as they fell from the wall, killed by the overwhelming gunfire. Everyone carried belts of additional ammunition, so when they ran out of one round, they switched quickly.
We only needed ten minutes to make the gate fall. It collapsed inside the courtyard. More men poured out now. I gave Gabriel and Daphne a look. They nodded, and we started our shift into bear forms. The crunching of the bones of twenty other men followed. They had orders to begin to transform once they saw the three of us do so. Together we would enter Fort Torres, and our people armed with guns would cover us.
In our animal forms we ran inside the courtyard. The place looked so familiar, despite the fact that I hadn’t been here in three years but I had lived most of my life in Fort Torres. I couldn’t forget the place where I had grown up. In this very courtyard I had played with Gabriel and Hanny as kids. Here I had also trained in shooting guns too; the shooting range that was in one corner still existed. Victor didn’t seem to have changed many things around here.
We let our people fight Victor’s goons in the courtyard. Jaime and Hender were in human form. They ran up to the main door and opened it for us. We entered the castle, leaving the sounds of battle behind us.
We guessed we would find Victor and his most capable men inside the throne room of the castle. So we followed the corridor towards that chamber, which was located at the back of the building.
The red carpet which Gabriel’s mother had loved still lay on the floor of the main corridor. It soon became a darker shade of red as we mauled a few of Victor’s goons to death as we passed. Their blood stained the carpet deeply; no one would be able to wash out the color. They would have to be replaced.
The fact that the carpets had survived the uprising in the first place was a miracle. Mother and father had pulled all of our people to the throne room, to be able to better defend themselves. The strategy hadn’t done them any good though, as Victor’s criminals had been merciless in their assault. The whole Torres family had been murdered that day.
