CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Ray, G, S and I stood huddled atop of G’s Fairlane, watching the huge wolf pace in ever-narrowing circles around us. S had finally stopped screaming and was pressed against Ray, crying softly. The rest of us were also yelled out and simply waited for the inevitable.
"What are we going to do?" Ray asked.
"Start kicking if it jumps up on the car," G said.
"What if it’s a werewolf?" Ray asked.
G and I just stared at him and S began crying harder. "What difference does it make?" G asked. "We’ll be just as dead if he gets us."
"But won’t we come back as werewolves?" he asked.
"That’s vampires, you nitwit," G said.
"I have a plan," I ventured.
S quit crying a looked at me. Her tear-stained face was white and seemed bloodless in the cool light of the full moon. "Well tell us," they said as one.
"The car is metal, slippery footing for the wolf. If it makes it up here, we push it off the side. That side," I said, pointing away from the little logging road. "While it’s confused, we run back to the tree. We’ll be safe there."
"Uh huh," Ray said, unimpressed with my plan.
Impressed or not, it was the only plan we had. It didn’t matter anyway. With orange eyes ablaze as they reflected in the light of the moon, the wolf leaped to the hood of the Fairlane.
"Get ready," I said, my heart in my throat.
Up he came, claws slipping on the car’s finish as I had predicted. S began screaming again. We were all yelling as it lunged at us from the hood, slipped and slid back. Gathering itself, it leaped, this time clearing the windshield and landing on the car’s roof along with us. It was G that quit screaming and took action. Dropping to her knees, she gave the wolf a push. It wasn’t much but it was all that was needed. The wolf’s claws simply had no traction on the slippery metal and it tumbled off the side of the car.
"Run!" I yelled, jumping to the other side of the car.
G pushed Ray and S and the four of us began racing up the narrow logging trail. The tumble from the roof had confused the wolf. It quickly regained its senses, howled and came after us. We were almost to the safety of the tree when Ray and S, running hand-in-hand in front of G and me, tripped and slid face-first into the dirt. G and I tumbled on top of them. We could feel the specter of the beast behind us, almost feel its hot breath. S began crying again. Helpless, I felt like joining her. We turned to watch the monster stop ten feet from us, crouch, lick its lips and growl. A horrible growl.
As we waited for the inevitable, we heard another growl. The wolf also heard it. As we
watched, a beast even larger than the wolf attacked it with the full force of its gigantic body. For all the world, it was huge black panther. As the two angry animals tore up the loose ground in front of us, we could only watch. G was the first to react.
"Back to the car," she yelled. "Now!"
She stood, grabbed S’s hand, jerked her to her feet and started back toward the
Fairlane. Stunned, Ray and I followed, hurriedly.
"I can’t find the keys," she said, her voice growing desperate. "They’re in my purse."
"They can’t be in your purse," I said. "You drove back here to look for your purse. Turn on the dome light and look on the seats and floor board."
We could hear the sounds of a tremendous and likely bloody fight not far away as G switched on the dome light. "Here they are," Ray said, tossing them to me. "They were in the back seat."
"Then lets get the hell out of here," G said, cranking the engine, spinning the car in the road like an experienced NASCAR veteran and heading toward the lights of town.
"What’s in your purse that was so important?" I asked as I clutched the door and held
on for dear life.
For the first time that night, G began to weep. "I’m going steady with a boy at Louisiana College. When S and I saw you and Ray I took off my ring and put it in my purse. I didn’t want you to know. Now it’s gone and I could just die."
"Here’s your purse right," Ray said. "I found it when I was looking for the keys. It was under the seat."
Things finally seemed to be going right for the first time that night. Except that we had reached the main road, were approaching ninety and the flashing lights of a cop car were right behind us. G pulled to the side of the road and rolled down the window.
"You could have killed somebody," the policeman said when he reached the window. "Why the hell were you driving so fast?"
G glanced briefly at me, shook her head and said, "Officer, I know this is going to sound hard to believe, but —"
Happy Halloween
http://www.ericwilder.com http://ericwilder.blogspot.com http://justeastofeden.myblogsite.com http://energyissues.modblog.com
No comments:
Post a Comment