What Happened to Normal?

Chapter 4

B.J’s POV

I’m running and there’s people chasing me. They have guns and are shooting at me. The hunters seem familiar, like I’ve seen them before. I keep on running; I’m running to somewhere particular. Somewhere safe. I reach an incline, it gets steeper and steeper until I fall I tumble down the hill towards the hunters and I hear them laughing and shouting at me. I stop rolling and open my eyes, the hunters are above me, I can’t see their faces. Just their hunting gear and something that the one on the left is holding. It’s a wolf skin. Recently taken off its owner. It looks familiar, silver and white. They tilt the head towards me but I already know whose skin it is. I howl and howl, hoping Josh or someone would come in time. The hunter on the right laughs and points his gun at my forehead. He says something I couldn’t hear then his trigger finger moves and I wake up.

I gasp for air and my arm reflexively covers my forehead, blocking it from the hunters gun. I hear a gasp of relief, mums voice. I open my eyes and see her and my dad leaning over me.

“Thank God!”  Mum moaned in relief, “I thought you’d end up like Brook and the others!”

My eyes widened and I looked over at dad, who broke eye contact and looked down at the ground. “Mum, Dad…” I said, fearing what the answer to my question would be, “Where’s Brook?”

Mum looked to her left and I followed her gaze. A few metres to my left was a large wall of the packs medics, they were rushing around a bed and as one of them jogged to the end of the it I saw Brook, unconscious and pale, barely breathing. I sat up rather quickly then and regretted it as a sharp pain went through my arm, “Sit down, son. You might open the stitches.” Dad said. I looked at him in disbelief.

“Brook’s lying there and dying dad! I have to get to her!” I screamed at him. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood, rushing over to meet the doctors.

“What’s going on? Is she gonna be okay?” I asked one of the doctors.

“Back off and let us work otherwise she won’t be fine. Go see Josh, he’ll tell you everything.” One of them said before rushing over to a new spot next to the bed and yelling some orders. I did as he said and ran full bolt out of the tent, mum screaming to stay here so I could get checked out. I looked around when I left the tent and saw it was day, about lunchtime, and there were people crying and looking very rattled. I ignored them and ran forwards, seeing the tent that Josh should be in. I barged through the thin, zip up door and noticed I’d walked right into a meeting. Apparently one I wasn’t supposed to be in looking at the ages of the people inside, everybody was nineteen and up. I didn’t care. I spotted Josh, staring at me like the rest of them and speed-walked towards him. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

“This is about Brook isn’t it? I’m guessing you’ve only just woken up?” He said, looking down at me. I followed his stare and saw that the doctors must’ve put me in a white top and tracksuit pants, our packs medics weren’t actual doctors and didn’t have any use for gowns that opened up to show your backside.

“What happened? Is she going to be alright?” I asked, not caring about what I had on.

“I was going to ask you the same question. But I can tell you that you’ve both been shot, you in the shoulder and Brook on the left side of her stomach. She’s bleeding quite a bit and needs surgery, hence the army of medics in your tent. We also know that you must’ve been on the other side of the hill, the border of our territory and the entrance into hunter’s territory. Why were you there?”

“She’s been shot? Is she okay? She has to be okay!” I said, realizing that I’d just screamed at the pack leader in front of everyone.

“Why don’t we take a walk, I’ll answer all of your questions if you answer mine.” Josh said reasonably and started towards the door.

I followed him, waiting until we were outside the tent to start asking him questions again. “Is she going to be alright?” I asked, voice trembling.

“As long as nobody interrupts the work the doctors are doing on her she’ll be fine. At the time we found you she seemed to be recovering, fast like a werewolf should as we are fast healers. We got her into the tent but she took a turn for the worse this morning, the hunter’s bullets were silver and, as you should know, silver slows the healing process. She needs to have the bleeding stopped and the bullet taken out of her.”

“You didn’t take the bullet out of her last night? Isn’t that the first thing you should do? You took it out of me!”

“We were under the impression the bullet had gone straight through her, which it did, but fragments of it were stuck inside her, opening more serious wounds as it burned her insides.”

I stared at him in awe, “So, have they gotten the fragments out of her?”

“They got every last one out of her at around ten thirty this morning, they’ve been checking for any more and stitching her up ever since. Now for me to ask you a question, where are the others?”

“What others? Why does everyone keep talking about others? It was just me and Brook on the other side of the hill”

Josh cursed then, “There was no one else with you?”

“Nope, just us and the hunters, who else would be there?” I asked cautiously.

“You don’t know, do you?” He said slowly.

“Know what?!”

Josh sighed, “All of the underage wolves have gone missing, the cubs and the teens. We don’t know where they went or possibly who took them.”

I stopped walking and stared at Josh. “Jared and Emily…?”

“Missing.” He said, “Sorry, Ben but… Every cub and teenager has gone missing. You and Brook are the only two left, so, in some ways, getting shot was a good thing; it means you weren’t there to be taken. Which is why it’s bad as well, you don’t know who took them.”

“They were definitely taken? They didn’t just run off and get lost?” I asked hopefully.

“Whoever took them covered their tracks by dragging them away. The drag marks covered their footsteps.”

“So, it could have been anyone?”

“It was most likely the hunters or, even more likely, the other wolf pack who recently lost their territory. I heard they’re looking for a new territory and may have targeted ours.”