The People's Alpha ✔

39: Petrichor

We charged down the main tunnel, snarling and howling. Wolves were already streaming in from further down. The water was still ankle-deep, and we kicked up quite a spray as we ran along. Overturned vehicles and drowned Thunder Falls personnel lay everywhere, and it took clever footwork not to trip.

We emerged from the tunnel into the night, a seething tidal wave of wolves. Upturned armoured cars filled the Arrowhead, bobbing in the newly-swollen river like rubber ducks in a bathtub. We leapt over them like stepping stones.

The thick shrubs on the other side were already heavily trampled by the time we got to them. I leapt over a Thunder Falls wolf, his body splayed, his neck at an unnatural angle.

It was even more humid outside now than when we had gone into the tunnels, and now faint peals of thunder could be heard in the distance as we made for the cover of forest. 

***

The clouds were getting darker by the minute as we approached the Thunder Falls pack territory. The battle was already well underway as we arrived. It must have been three or four o'clock by now. The rumbles of thunder in the distance were getting louder and louder. Rain was approaching.

Dead wolves littered the blood-slick ground as we found the position where we had been assigned beforehand. Mind links were not going to work over such a huge distance, so we were using less sophisticated methods of signalling. The other packs had already gone in. All part of the plan.

We crossed the river at the narrowest point, a few hundred metres above the Falls. The water was colder than I expected. I tried not to fight the strong current, letting it carry me to the reedbed that was our target, which was some way downstream. Into an eddy.

I could sense the presence of the others close around me. We all knew staying together was paramount.

We parted our way through the reeds, trudging through the soft mud. We could hear the sound of clashing in the near-distance, then the orange glow of flames. They had set the greenhouses on fire as per the plan, as a distraction. It was our cue to advance.

It was our time to shine. As one we broke into a sprint, stealthily coursing through the long reeds at the riverbank, The long grass gave way to trees, the trees to open ground as we approached the pack settlement. We could smell blood, which only made us run faster.

The onslaught came out of nowhere. One moment the wolf leading in front of me was there, the next he had disappeared into a thicket of juniper, bowled over by a flash of grey.

I managed to duck just before another assailant sprung out of the undergrowth. In a split second that felt like an eternity, I felt the hairs on my back tingle as he sailed over me and hit the ground. He recovered in a moment. I tensed and we turned towards each other, sizing each other up through the grass. Behind me, the rest of the battalion split up, in search of the enemy.He was a tawny gray wolf, with pale blue eyes. He was roughly my size. That was about what I'd gathered before he let out a guttural growl and charged at me.

We locked jaws. He'd somewhat misjudged his attack angle, and the contact was awkward. He backed off and I did the same, running in circles in the grass.

We ran at each other again, fangs bared, snarling. We were on the edge of tearing into each other when a blur of fur crossed squarely into our vision, knocking us to the ground. Another enemy wolf, and someone I quickly recognised as Brian. The other wolf quickly moved to help his fellow pack member, I moved to help mine, and the duel quickly became a four-way battle.

The wolf Brian was fighting was matching him blow for blow, and their fighting style was remarkably similar. Sensing the disorder, more wolves moved in, as if drawn by convection, wolves of every type and description. Soon it seemed the whole battlefield had moved in. Tearing and growls filled the air. Claws slashed and fangs bit down. Flesh and muscle and sinew tore. An old wolf leapt through the ranks, nearly tearing his first target from limb to limb. As wolves wore out, more and more moved in from seemingly nowhere in an endless wave to replace the wounded.