Strange Aeons [Book 1]

19. A Hairy Situation (part II)

Banshee, with years of instinct on her shoulders, jumped up and brought her hand where usually her gun should be.

There was no one with her, in the empty class she had chosen to take a power nap before launching herself in the lessons of the day. She had just drifted off when the piercing sound had woken her. Cursing under her breath the modern tendency of drilling the students, she peeked out in the corridor.

She was suddenly awake.

Everyone was running around in the fiercest panic. The corridor gleamed with spells, any kind of spell, mostly misspelled, missing, or simply wrong, impacting here and there wreaking havoc on an already messy situation. Students were running like wild beasts, trying to reach the main door, or the windows, but blocking the only path to salvation there were four, enormous figures.

Two bears, one lion, a rhino. Their anthropomorphous bodies clad in black, strange-looking suits.

Werepeople.

They were slowly advancing, hitting, crushing and biting. Blood had started to stain the walls and the pavement, and there already were some people on the ground, not moving. Some teachers were trying to put on a line of defense, while others were desperately collecting the students to lead them to the safety exits.

Two lionesses and two hyenas exited two classrooms, roaring, fending the crowd from the sides. Noises came from the stairs, as people tried to run from the upper floors, some of them falling badly.

Banshee darted out of the classroom, she charged through the corridor, avoiding the writhing mass of students and impacted badly into the couple of lionesses, taking them by surprise and propelling them towards the hyenas with a neat Displace spell. They tumbled down, giving some respite to the group of students they were attacking.

«The bathroom windows! Go, go, go!» Banshee screamed at the students, putting herself between them and the four werepeople, who were already standing up, with eyes shining with hatred and rage. One of them launched himself towards her, and she just had the time to put on a barrier to let him crash against, before moving a hand in the air and setting their hair on fire. It wasn't much more than a parlor trick, but very effective on fur. The four started rolling on the ground, leaving the students time to leave the corridor. Meanwhile, in front of her, even more animal shapes were entering the corridor, and the screams were just increasing.

It was a mess.

A light blue shone on her skin and then left her body with a flash to crash on the lionesses. Showy but effective, they blinked, and then their eyes were filled with even more will to kill.

«Follow me now, bitches!» she hissed and started running along the corridor. The lionesses followed, as on a leash, and the two hyenas followed them, probably worried. The corridor got a little roomier, and the teachers could fend for themselves, letting the students go.

«You don't mess with kids.» Banshee growled, exiting in the sports field with a bang of the double doors. The field had been the first thing to be evacuated, and it was thankfully empty. Just the sad sight of three corpses on one side spoke of the small battle that had already finished there.

She had just left the darkness of the corridor, when she felt something hitting her right in the back, pushing the air right out of her lungs as she landed face-first on the grass with something quite heavy on her back.

Banshee felt something cold around her wrists, a click and then she skipped a heartbeat and some breaths. The world was suddenly covered by a strange dull filter and the air became heavier. Her whole body felt heavy and awkward. She coughed a couple of times, trying to wiggle her way out from under whoever she had on her back, but whoever it was, it was strong.