Kill? She's lost her mind! I need... I need to get on my feet. I tensed my muscles. Heavy, but I could still feel solid ground beneath me. I looked around again.
Where the hell did snow come from in the middle of summer?
The pine forest was so thick that only now did I notice this weird natural phenomenon. Two suns? And one of them's gray!
"Wolf, we don't have much time!" the woman screamed. I wanted to yell back, but again heard only a muffled roar. "Listen, listen to me..."
I caught a sharp, strange smell. Its source was far off, but my nose picked it up... My nose, just like my jaw. They... they're like... Like what!
"Yes, you're no longer human. You're a werewolf, if you want to call it that." The mysterious woman read complete confusion in my eyes. "You'll get answers, but first we need to survive!"
That smell again. Getting closer. My ears twitched, picking up someone's voice.
"This way! The tracks lead this way!"
Definitely a man talking. And I could also hear heavy footsteps from a bunch of people, getting closer and closer.
For some reason my heart started hammering in my chest. Am I panicking? No... yes... damn, what's happening? Thoughts piling up on each other. Just a minute ago I was bleeding out in... I died from... I... Can't remember. So, my name is...
Not far from us a signal flare shot into the sky. Whoever was coming, they're almost here—apparently signaling someone else.
It was getting hard to breathe. Is this a dream? No, I feel cold, hunger, rage eating me alive from the inside. Feels like a little more and I'll explode!
"Pull yourself together, soldier!" the wounded woman barked. Two simple words, but it was like getting hit with a bucket of ice water.
Inhale, exhale. Taking a few steps, I dropped to one knee. My whole body was covered with black fur... No! No, get a grip.
"Now you must tear out my heart and swallow it."
What the hell?!
"Wolf! The people coming here will kill us! Either you do this, or you die a second time and it's permanent!"
Self-preservation kicked in full throttle, but this wasn't my instinct—it was something wild, untamed. The claws on my left hand grew even bigger. Want to live? Learn to spill blood!
With a vicious swipe I brought my paw down on the woman. Her flesh gave way like butter under a hot knife, and my fingers found a beating organ. Why's the heart still pumping?
I ripped it out fast—one scream—blood poured in a stream onto the dead witch. I was breathing hard. I remembered the last instruction...
Don't think, just do!
I opened my jaws... warm blood dripped onto my tongue. I swallowed the pulsing chunk without chewing. So sweet, so damn tasty... My eyes involuntarily turned to the dead body. I want more, I want... Gunshot! A bullet, whistling past my ear, chipped off a piece of bark from the nearest tree.
"Damn, missed!"
People dressed in cloaks and coats, probably from the Victorian era, with faces hidden under leather masks—some with laces, some with buttons.
"The witch summoned a werewolf! Prepare the Wagner guns!" commanded a gruff voice.
I saw sunlight glinting off rifle barrels pointed at me... I need to run!
One last look at the dead woman. All I had left was to survive! Under a hail of bullets.
I tried to run, taking cover behind tree trunks. Strangely, my legs felt incredibly light—I'd never run this fast before. My head, though, kept buzzing, and sounds that human ears couldn't pick up, I heard as clearly as if I was standing right next to them.
"Bill, Rheinker, you've got the leg prosthetics. Catch up and finish off the half-beast, the village is real close."
Agreeable shouts came back, way too cheerful. These people... they're like hunters just having a good time.
But—again!—I don't have time to think: two scents broke off from the others and closed in at incredible speed. I glanced back.
What kind of black magic?! Two hunters at inhuman speed were making what looked like steps or jumps. Their legs: a mess of gears, metal, pipes shooting out steam, the sound of a noisy engine reached me even through the wind of the chase. One of the pursuers stopped, building up power for a jump, and... his body shot ten feet up, snow from under his feet swirling into the air like a tornado. Right in mid-flight the jumper fired two shots from twin revolvers. Lucky for me, I dodged again, but stumbling over a root, I crashed into another tree while running.
No big deal.
I tried to breathe through my mouth.
Don't stop! Keep moving!
Again that weird feeling—intuition, a hunch: my hands are way bigger and stronger than my legs. Worth a shot!
Pushing off with my hands, I really did pick up speed. I'm pushing off with my hands and running on all fours, damn it... I don't know, feels like now all my limbs are paws.
"You won't get away, mutt!" One of the pursuers caught up. With a sharp click, a silver blade popped out from the handle he gripped. Another steam blast, strike!
I managed to block with my arm, but pain shot through my whole body. Falling, I rolled through the snow. Why? Why such god-awful pain?! Like molten iron being poured into the wound. Blood from my arm mixed with something white... poison? I don't get it... I want to talk to them, explain that this whole thing's insane.
"Look at this creature! It's even fighting back!" The hunters stayed alert, but apparently I wasn't a threat anymore. Indeed, my vision was starting to go dark. I wanted to black out, but couldn't.
"Anyway, this werewolf isn't the real deal. One shot from the Wagner and it's toast."
"Cover me..."
They're talking to each other, but behind their voices someone else is screaming, someone quiet. Real quiet, but I hear them.
A woman. That woman I killed, she's screaming. They don't hear her... yeah, they can't hear her, she... She's screaming in my head. I felt blood trickling from my ears. Too much pain, just kill me...
No! No, damn it!
A furious roar and snarl made the men step back.
"Alright, that's it, beast!"
The hunter in goggles like a welder's unfolded a cannon on his arms in two quick moves, pulled a small crystal from his pouch, and hooked it to the contraption. Blue energy slowly built up in the big barrel, and two pistons kept picking up speed. One turn of the handle, one switch—a screech filled my ears: the energy turned into a long sound wave, I actually saw how the noise cut through the snow in tunnel rings and slammed into me. I'll admit, this time I squeezed my eyes shut, thinking my head might blow apart, or I'd go stone deaf. But... Nothing. I feel nothing! Yeah, that nasty screeching cuts through my ears, but that's it.
"What the hell?!" The hunter cranked up the volume, but nothing changed.
"This can't be a real werewolf! There's nowhere for one to come from around here!"
The second guy aimed his twin revolvers at me again. The red scarf around his neck hung loose, and his green eyes burned with fury.
Again searing pain tore through my arm. White liquid... It flowed out of the wound, and real quick I felt relief. The wound started healing.
"Get up, wolf!" I hear her, I hear her. "Fight! You must fight!"
Inhale, exhale.
Slowly, under the crushing waves of sound, I got to my feet. Rage took over, my claws grew bigger: in front of me was an enemy—an enemy who wouldn't show mercy. This is just like war. Either you or them.
"He's poisoned with silver! How..."
A bone-chilling roar tore from my chest. Too bad I can't say this normally, but that roar meant: "Now it's my turn." Yeah, now I'm not human, that's obvious, but this body's strong and fast. With one lunge I closed the gap. The trigger mechanism emptied both revolver cylinders into me—painful, but nothing compared to the agony from that silver blade. The hunter tried to jump, but my claws shredded his face. Die!
The second blow hurled the corpse away with such force that the body's spine snapped when it hit the sturdy tree trunk. A trail of blood—the final path of the failed gunslinger.
"This can't be!" Tossing away the Wagner gun, the survivor drew his blade again, making me back off. Now genuine confusion showed on the opponent's half-covered face. I watched that silver sword, understanding its danger, and this is exactly what had the hunter stumped. "You're too dumb to remember stuff like this," he muttered under his breath.
What's he talking about? But I can't just charge in blind: who knows what other trick weapons this bastard's got ready. And here, apparently, is one of them. With his free hand the creep grabbed some kind of disk from his belt and chucked it my way. The metal circle sprouted legs and, drilling into the ground, started giving off a sweet smell. I covered several bullet holes in my chest with my hand, though the bullets themselves had already popped out and were cooling on the ground, melting the snow around them. I waited for this thing to do something else, and then it hit me. This is... a mine? And judging by how good it smells, also bait. Sorry, pal, I don't know how... stupid your werewolves are around here, but this ain't gonna work.
Crouching, I grabbed a handful of cold mud. How much strength do I have in these hands? The growing roar like a revving engine. Jump, jump... the trap stays behind, chunks of frozen dirt fly into the hunter's eyes. Despite his goggles, he still covered his face. Rookie? Or just rattled? Either way, it was his last mistake. My claws punched through his chest, skewering the light body on my paw like a rag doll. The sword dropped onto the snow, fresh blood flowed from the corners of his mouth. Behind those dark lenses I couldn't see his eyes, but I felt life draining away... How his heart slowed... Last breath, an incredible feeling. Victory.
My ears twitched. Right, the others will show up here soon. Shaking off the dead man, I ran again, using my hands to help. I ran, ran as far as possible, didn't matter where, every so often hearing that quiet scream, but now the main thing is to survive! I only stopped when my lungs started giving out, and the burning cold began slicing my throat like a blade. Leaning my back against a tree, I slid down the trunk. My hands were covered with dried blood... are these my hands or not? What should I do? Where should I go?
"East..." A sharp whisper made me jump to my feet, ready for a fight, but around me was only the ringing silence of the thick forest. If I think about it, I've definitely lost my marbles. But to hell with it! For some reason what was said sounded like an order, and a soldier follows orders... So all I had left was to head east.