The Wellington Supernatural Summit and Team Building Retreat

Chapter 2 - Escape

"Get down, Viago!" hissed Anton.

"What? What is going on?" Viago tried to peer past Anton, but the werewolf was blocking the little sliver of curtain over the window that looked out at the fire pit in the middle of the round of rickety cabins.

"The hunters are searching each of the cabins." Anton looked back to Viago. "We need to hide. We're outnumbered."

"Where are we supposed to hide? It is a very small cabin," Viago whispered.

The pair looked around the cabin. Anton started pacing around until his foot hit a loose floorboard. He jumped up and down on it. "Here...come on, help me with this." He stooped over and yanked up the floorboard around the nails.

Viago followed suit and tugged up another board. Given their respective supernatural strength, it was a fairly easy task. Before too long, there was a small opening where they could shimmy beneath the cabin's foundation.

Anton helped Viago gingerly negotiate the shards of wood as he lowered the vampire down. Then he crawled down himself. They managed to pop the floorboards back into place just as the door to their cabin opened.

"You clear this one yet?" came a gruff voice.

Viago winced as he laid flat on his back, staring at little slivers of light between the floorboards that shifted as two heavy-footed hunters made a round of the cabin.

"Must've. Or they buggered off. Or maybe no one was ever in this one. Mikey found one cabin that was locked."

Anton was glaring at the gap between floorboards and Viago saw him bare his teeth. He had never noticed before that the werewolf had visible canines. When Viago's sharp ears caught the start of a growl, he reached out to squeeze his shoulder.

Anton whuffed and then bit his lip. He clearly wanted to bust out and tear the hunters to pieces.

Eventually, the hunters left the small cabin.

"Is it safe? There is a rock right in the middle of my back," whispered Viago as he tried to shift. There was barely enough room for the two men to lie on their backs shoulder-to-shoulder.

Anton lifted his head and sniffed the air. "Just wait a bit for the wind to shift..." and then, a breeze cut through under the cabin and the werewolf nodded. "Come on." He rolled over into a soldier's frog crawl and shimmied out from under the cabin's foundation.

Viago had a more awkward time of it and he gave a little yelp when he realized the thing poking in his back was not a rock, but was in fact, a sliver of wood. "Oh that was a close ca...aaaalll..."

Anton was standing just ahead of Viago. There were bodies all over the clearing, some hunters, but at least four supernaturals, including a zombie, two witches and a werewolf. It was the wolf that he approached and knelt down. He placed a hand against his forehead. "I'm sorry, brother," he murmured."

"Oh...dear." Viago stood on the edge of the clearing, looking at the mangled remains of two of the four documentary crewmembers. Then he turned and shuffled back towards Anton, fingers touching together in front of him. "I am sorry about your friend, Anton. But it looks like most got away, ja? At least half from the looks of things. So I think what you should do is find somewhere to hide, and I turn into a bat and fly for help."

"I don't think that's such a good idea," said Anton as he stood up from where he was kneeling over the body of his fallen friend. He was holding something in his hand.

Viago scooted over and peered at it, then let out a little yelp. "Oh...oh no."

In Anton's hand was a bat with a hole through its sternum. The wolf shifted the little body and then hissed as something small dropped into his hand. There was a flash of metal and a trail of smoke as something dropped to the forest floor.

"Silver bullet," gulped Viago.

"Yip. Ah..." he sucked on a finger and shook it. "As deadly to you as it is to me. My guess is they've got sentries somewhere and possibly motion cameras and they're shooting at anything..."

Just then, there was a crack of a gun.

"...flying."

"Ah, yes...that is a good point. And to be honest..." Viago motioned vaguely, "I am not the best at direction. I am not confident I could fly to help before the sun comes up."

"Fuck. The sun."

"Yes that is what I say every morning," said Viago matter-of-factly.

"No, I mean...we need to find you shelter before the sun comes up. Come on." Anton grabbed hold of Viago's arm.

"Ah wait...one second..." Viago trotted over to the downed documentary crew and searched around until he picked up their camera. "So we can see what we are dealing with."

Anton looked impressed. "Good thinking."

—-

Anton seemed to know where he was going. As Viago definitely did not, he trusted the werewolf to move through the brush and keep them out of the way of hunters. And although he could see in the dark better than any human, the wolf's eyes were better still than his.

Eventually though, Viago started to get anxious. "Oh Anton, can you maybe tell me where it is you are taking us?"

Anton sniffed the air and subtly changed their route. "There's a trapper's cabin somewhere nearby. We used to come out this way to transform before my pack learned to do it safely closer to civilization. It's where we used to store our clothes."

"Ah, yes. But...if we do not get there soon I fear..." Viago swallowed and motioned behind him where the sky was getting lighter.

"Sh....crap," Anton self-censored himself. He looked around. "We need to get you indoors."

"Yes, unless you would like a crispy bonfire to curl up next to," Viago laughed nervously.

Anton glanced around, then sniffed, then grunted. "We're not close enough. Here..." he unzipped his puffy jacket and opened an interior pocket. He pulled a granola bar out of it and transferred it to another pocket. "Get in."

Viago looked confused. "Get in...to your jacket?"

"Yes. Turn into a bat and nestle in there. It has a zipper and it should be light-tight."

"I do not know if this is such a good..."

"Viago..."

Viago sniffed, then looked down at his arm which was starting to smoke. He let out an undignified yelp. Then he jumped and transformed into a bat, then clumsily flained around untl he found purchase against Anton's jacket.

"Don't worry, my friend. I'll look after you."

Viago looked up at the werewolf with little batty eyes, then shimmied into the warm, down pocket.