Dear Earth, We Now Depart

Daunting Promise

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Terran was curled up in the back seat of his van when he heard the sound of gunfire. The wolves scattered in all directions, vanishing into the dust storm. Macy's team moved quickly back into the Jeep and drove closer to Terran. Quintin covered Macy as she opened the van's door to find her dear friend. She grabbed him, pulling him into an embrace. Macy's eyes veered up; she immediately noticed that the van was empty, but there was no time to ask why.

"The van won't move anymore. Those 'things' broke something." Terran exclaimed.

"It's fine, let's just get out of here!" Macy led Terran out of the van and to the Jeep. Her eyes darting around looking out for the wolves. She couldn't imagine that their gunfire scared them off that easily. Yara opened her door and pulled Terran inside. Macy climbed back into the passenger seat and told Quintin to get them out of there.

"Aw, no meat?" Quintin whined.

"Well, they scattered. You want to go hunt them down? Be my guest."

"They're fast." Terran said.

"He's right." Violet added. "They'll catch up with us for sure. They probably haven't eaten in a while."

"Maybe we will get our meat then. Let's keep our masks on. I'm turning off the oxygen. We'll need to open our windows." Macy ordered. They prepared for the worst, and kept a vigil eye. Howls began to sound. Macy hit the button to roll open the sunroof window.

"Yara, it's your time to shine. I'm going to need you to kill the alpha."

"How will I know which ones the alpha?"

"The alpha is the smallest member of the pack."

"Why is that?" Yara asked.

"The other members of the pack are the fighters. Large and strong. The smallest is the brains and controls the pack. Once the alpha is dead, the rest of the pack will retreat. Can you do it?"

"Yeah, you got it." Yara was confident. Macy didn't want to risk one of her citizen's life like this, but it was their best shot at survival. It was necessary. Yara turned the power up on her weapon. It would use up the energy faster, but the shots would be fatal. She stood up and her upper body was exposed to the outside. Everyone else pointed their weapons out of their windows, ready to fire at will. Yara took in a deep breath and as she breathed out, she fired. Just as she did, a wolf leaped at her. The shot pierced its left eye and it stumbled to the ground, dead.

"Whoo! Ten points!"

Macy believed Yara when she said she was a good shot, but seeing her in action was truly impressive and chilling.

"It's likely that the alpha will attack last after the rest of the pack has been injured or died. So, be prepared for that." Violet said.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm ready. I'll kill them all. I'm hungry too."

The group waited for another attack. A couple minutes passed and they continued to wait. There were some howls, but they seemed distant. Yara lowered herself back inside and sat down.

"I think they left." She said. Suddenly there was a boom of thunder.

"I think I know why." Louis said, studying his weather reader. "The storm is early." Lighting struck a few feet from the Jeep.