The lobby of the offices looked like a tornado had wrestled with King Kong right before we had gotten there. Desks were strewn about the front offices like discarded dollhouse furniture. As the four of us moved through the debris I felt something hit my shoulder. I looked up and only just got out of the way of a stool falling from where it had been lodged in the ceiling.
“How long ago did you say the attacks started, George?” Mara asked, moving around a fallen piece of wall that had severed a desk in two.
“First alarms were sounded a little under an hour ago.” George looked around the devastation and seemed to briefly reconsider his decision to come in with us.
“We better hurry.” Lisa got to the far end of the room leading further into the building. “If this much damage could get done in less than an hour who knows how long unc’ and anyone else can stay safe in here.”
I nodded and went through the door ahead of her. Mara followed us with George bringing up the rear when the whole building shook like an earthquake hitting. The ceiling collapsed clipping Mara’s shoulder and sending her to the ground with George still on the other side of the rubble. Lisa and I stooped to help Mara to her feet and through the collapsed section we could see one of the were’s had torn its way through the ceiling behind George and fell, dazed down to the first floor with us.
What I saw then surprised me, the security guard didn’t panic like I expected but instead, a look of determination came over his face. It was as if a question in his mind finally got answered but he had known all along what that answer was.
“George! Get out of there, we’ll circle!”
“No worries, Hunter, I got this.” George removed his thick glasses and loosed the tie around his neck in one quick motion. With the sudden change in his demeanor, I doubted I would be surprised if he pulled open his shirt to reveal a red ‘S’ on his chest. What he did do was just as shocking. He cried out as his entire body grew taller and wider.
The werewolf had recovered enough to pay attention to George and charged him. George, now, appeared as a seven-foot tall coal creature that glowed from within like it was burning. The two creatures met in a clash, their hands gripped as each tried to get leverage over the other. George seemed to be winning as he brought the weres arms down and held them there, the beast howling in fury. He snapped at George uselessly a time or two before taking a more direct approach and driving its head into George’s with a force I could feel from across the way. I didn’t really seem to phase the now rock-man but it did loosen his grip enough for the were to get free and rip its claws viciously up George’s side and face. Rock parted beneath those lethal claws and exposed the glowing core beneath.
“Don’t just stand there watching, Hunter, help him!” Holly screamed in my ear, desperately breaking my stunned reverie. Then I heard much softer. “Oh Kun, what have you done now.”
There wasn’t time to ask what she meant by that as the three of us began tearing rocks out from the collapsed debris separating us. George meanwhile had gone on the offensive, pounding the bricks of his fists over and over into the the were. His face… what was left of it after the monster’s claws had torn half of it off, was a mask of fury. The internal fire that glowed from within shone brighter with every blasting punch that rocked the were’s body. He definitely had the power advantage but the wolf had much better agility.
It dropped to the ground sweeping George’s legs out from beneath him and tossing him off balance. Instead of letting him fall though the creature rushed him shoulder first taking him off his feet and running him back the ten feet into the wall. The building’s structure shook as cracks spread out behind George from the impact. I mentally hoped at least partially being made of rock took some of the force from the blow but George still struggled on grabbing the were by the arm and the back of its neck and driving it head first into the wall behind him. He pushed the wolf out a few feet and then dragged it forward again and again into the wall. The cement of the wall cracked, splintered, and began to give way as he drove the were’s head into it again and again until George, the wolf, and the wall all collapsed into a heap where they stood.
~ * ~
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
It took a few minutes to even clear out a smallish hole in the rubble blocking us from where George lay. Lisa scrambled through the hole before I could realize what she had planned.
“Lisa wait!” I heaved a rock out of the way and grabbed after her ankle. “There might be more… and she’s gone,” Mara smirked as she helped move another rock.
“Impetuous little imp, isn’t she?”
“I heard that, Mara!” She walked over to the fallen forms of George and the were. “Yeah, this guy is out like a light… well, a light that’s been hit into a wall several times and broken anyway. George… George, wake up Rocky, don’t want moss growing on you from laying here too long, man!”
The blackened form that was George shifted a little as Mara and I opened the hole big enough for us to get through. George’s remaining eye, or glowing orb set deep in his skull was open. I supposed that was a good thing but my exobiology was a little rough… I wasn’t sure if biology even counted when it came to rock.
“Well, I think my male modeling career may have to be put on hold after this.” George’s voice now was deep and rumbling like rocks falling down a mountain. “Maybe I can look into professional fighting? Gods that stings.”
“Thanks for stepping in there, George,” Mara said, her voice forcibly calm. “I know what doing so likely will cost you.”
Her words took me a moment to fully process. ARC had a strict no alts policy on their employees, how George snuck through was anyone’s guess. But even if he could change back, which was doubtful with part of his face missing, there would be witnesses as to his nature. He would definitely be fired, maybe even prosecuted depending on how this new regime decided to run things.
“You didn’t have to do that for us, George. We hardly just met.” A feeling of guilt flooded through me, he had given up his life to help us with barely a moment’s thought. “Can you move, you’ve got to get out of here before people realize who you are.”
“It’s too late for that, they will already know.” He chuckled to himself, a deep ringing inside his chest like hammers in a mine. “It was the right thing to do, Hunter. Despite your reputation, I heard you were a good man, trying to make right. It felt good to finally do something after turning a blind eye towards things for so long.”
He shifted his weight as if to stand but fell back against the wall. I could barely make out the shape of his partner outside, furiously talking into his cell phone. So much for the honor of the battlefield, I guess. A large crack opened in the rocky head of George that almost looked like a smile. “Guess Chris is determined to keep his job. I just need a minute and I’ll be gone, if you are really here to help then get going.”
I stood up looking over George’s prone form. “He’s right Hunter. I’ve got another were on the first floor and two upstairs in the same area as several survivors. They probably don’t have long.”
I looked at the dead werewolf for a long moment, something twitching in the back of my mind but not really being able to put a finger on it. Then it dawned on me in just a rush.
“Why is he still wolfed out? By now we should be able to tell who he was before this all went down.” I double-checked his pulse and he was certainly no longer among the living.
“Good question, we were’s find human or wolf forms equally normal but the mixed warrior form is different. It’s not unlike flexing a muscle, if we are knocked out or killed the muscle naturally relaxes. This stuff that’s changing people is making them appear as true were’s but not actually making them into true were’s. Maybe the formula they are using isn’t quite perfected.”
“Nate changed back after I killed him, does that mean he really was Lycan?”
“So either yer pal got changed normally or someone other than the vampires perfected their own formula?” Lisa pondered out loud. “Do we have another enemy? Between ARC and the vampires our plate is full enough but now… it must be a three-pronged attack from ords, alts, and… aliens! We have to call the president immediately, people have to be told!”
“Calm down, Lisa, I’m sure it’s not that... mostly sure.”
“Or maybe invaders from another dimension that we have to travel to and defeat using some sort of giant robot!”
“Okay, I think Lisa definitely checked herself out of the hospital too soon. Holly, can you do some checking once we’re clear here? Maybe we can figure out what’s going on or even how the attack started.” Lisa kept rattling off conspiracy theories behind me. Her newest one involved the bullet that killed JFK traveling to the moon with Buzz Aldrin.
“We’ll see what we can do, Hunter. I think there are still a few people willing to talk to me out there. You haven’t exactly been the easiest person to be friends with.”
“Is that what we are, Holly, friends?” I knew in my heart that there was no way she was part of ARC by now but who she was and who she worked for… there was never time to ask. I had become reliant on a resource I wasn’t even sure I could trust because all she told me of herself was lies.
“Yes, Hunter, no matter what else… I am most certainly your friend. The rest is incidental right now. Now go and save those people, they need a friend like you right now.”
I knew she was avoiding the question, but I also knew she was right.
“Alright, we don’t want to leave enemies behind us so we take care of the wanderer down here and head upstairs to get the survivors out. Let’s move, we don’t know how much time they have. George… thank you. I underestimated you and I’m sorry. Keep yourself safe.”