IT'S A BOMB!

29 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, CONTINUED

And then something landed on top of our car. Something that sounded like a heavy human. EJ upped from his bike and pounced but whoever was on our roof threw the redhead across the road. Gunshots ensued, but it wasn't my wolves. It was from across the road and my security detail dived off their bikes and to the sides.

Neil turned hulk and threw a bike at EJ. It only took the nimble red head a second to dart behind and take shelter from the pattering of bullets.

"Harvey!" I flared, but my good beta was already on it. He switched the car to reverse and stepped on the accelerator. We shot backwards, and a dark clad thick set wolf rolled forward, down our windshield. I caught sight of his smirk behind a dark bush of beard when he turned to face us. Why was he smirking? Wasn't he about to be thrown off our car? The bearded rogue pulled out a black box and slammed it onto the hood of the car.

And then someone shot him and his face convulsed and another two shots sent him off our car. My security detail was shooting from behind their bikes. The red ants, a whole bunch of them had run over, rifles in hand. But on the rogue's side, there were other gunners too.

Plain clothed rogues shooting at us from the panicked crowd. Of course we hadn't seen them mingled in the mixed community earlier, but they were pretty obvious now though. Mainly because everyone else was panicking and running away.

"Please remain in the car, alpha." Harvey said tersely. The gate was still closed. We we pretty much trapped between the panicked stampede of civilians who have broke out of the plastic safety barriers to run away, and the school gate.

And there was a bomb. The numbers on it flashing in our faces, "00:07, 00:06, 00:05..."

Omg it was counting down! (Yes, I only just realized what the numbers meant.) Something hit our windscreen and my hair flared immediately to shield Harvey and me from the broken glass. WTH.

By now, there were screaming and gunshots all around us, or perhaps it was because we could actually hear what was happening outside our car.

"Should've taken the merce." Harvey gritted to himself.

Seriously, this isn't the time to mourn the Porsche! Just be thankful it wasn't your truck!

"Pardon, Princess!" Neil's weight tilted our car as he climbed on our hood from one side. He reached over for the bomb.

"00:04"

Someone shot Neil, I was sure the bullet hit him, but Neil didn't stop, he grabbed the black box and pulled. The metal of the hood creaked. The box was stuck fast.

This car was going to be totalled.

"At least the merce would be bullet proof." Harvey grumbled. He took off his jacket and draped it over my head, "Neil abort. Alpha, we need to go."

"00:03."

"Just a bit more!" Neil yelled at us.

"Neil, let go." I pretty much alpha commanded. It was way too late for a bit more.

Neil let go, but instead of running for cover, he fell over. Wait, why did he fall? This isn't the time to be clumsy. Get away from the bomb!

Harvey unbuckled me and grabbed me to go. No matter what, he was determined to drag me out of this car.

"00:02"

I pretty much moved by instincts, pushing Harvey away and out of the car, I threw his jacket back out at him, "Go, get Neil away."

Using my hair to cover the glass, I crawled out through the broken windshield.

Let's hope this bomb wasn't something my hair couldn't take. And then my hair wrapped itself into a dense shield around me and the bomb.

Wait, wouldn't this put me and the bomb together?

Omo I'm such a dumb pup!

And then, BOOM! Before I could figure out exactly what had happened, something blasted at my face. My hair formed a second shield within my shield, but I could still feel it whip back at me. I flew backwards, up into the air. My skin felt hot. I went up and up, and then my hair flared and wrapped around me into a tight cocoon.

Then I felt myself fall down and down, and with a thud and a roll, I landed and came to a stop.

Okay. Breathe. I was alive.

Outside I could hear sirens, or that could just be my ears ringing from the boom. My hair was wrapped in a tight cocoon so everything sounded muffled. I felt like a caterpillar, but I decided to not be too hasty to pop out.

It's not that I wanted to dally in my cocoon. Who knew where I had landed! And I was worried about the wolves outside. I might have blocked them from the explosion, but there were also a lot of guns going off - mostly from the red ants who had definitely taken the shoot from afar position.

Actually, those last few seconds were crazy. Like there were way too many bullets on the fly just now. If every bullet hit its mark, the rogues would have been riddled with holes.

Actually, my wolves even more so. There were only a handful of us. It felt more like the gunshots were just to pin everyone down.

I see, they were just holding us down so the bomb could explode and kill whoever was in the car. Which meant their target was either Harvey or me.

Guess who.

Wait, why me?

No really! I mean, it could have been for Harvey. Maybe my good beta had some dark past. No?

Two smart raps on the wall of my cocoon startled me, and then of course I recognized who it was and let my hair down. It fell over my shoulders and pooled around me.

Harvey took one look at me, opened his mouth and then shut it again. He took of his jacket and draped it over my shoulders, "Please wear this for now, Alpha."

Huh? The jacket was way to big for me, but the moment I put my arms through, I realized my sleeves were missing. I could feel the smooth warm fabric of the inside of Harvey's jacket on my chilled skin. Wow, this was some quality jacket, and then my eyes widened. Wth! What happened to my school uniform? I was sure I had on my button up blouse, school jacket, AND an outer coat! Why were my arms bare? Was I NAKED under all my hair?

It took all my self control not to flare.

I looked down and to my relief found my shoes, socks, and skirt still intact.

After a careful inconspicuous self check, I could confirm I was just missing clothing on my arms and chest. Wow. It's a good thing I didn't have very much to hide. Nothing to stick out of the curtain of hair! Since I had no idea when exactly the clothing disappeared. Here's hoping that in all my earlier movements, all my overflowing locks had strategically covered my modesty. I pulled Harvey's jacket tighter in front of me and looked down to check again, yes good, I just needed to button up. My hair was covering everything anyway, even over Harvey's jacket. For some reason, it hadn't retracted all the way like it usually would. Instead, it hung limpidly down my head, past my shoulders, and even though I was standing upright now, the back of it pooled on the floor behind me. The front was a bit shorter, falling down to my knees.

I looked like a blue Rapunzel who got lost in her own mane.

But now that I felt more securely covered, I tucked a long lock of blue hair behind my ear temporarily take stock of the situation.

The school gate was finally opened. There were red ants and the local warriors (in dull khaki - let's call them brown ants.) So there were red ants and brown ants swarming around.

Owen was kneeling over Neil next to our Porsche - or whatever was left of it. Meanwhile, I was standing the empty street more than ten paces away. I must have really shot up pretty high to fall all the way back here. I found myself walking back to the car, I wanted to know if everyone was okay.

"Hang on, Neil." Owen was saying.

"Grrrr..." Neil grimaced.

"Don't die!" EJ begged anxiously from the side.

"He won't die." Fluffy smiled at his red-haired friend, but he added to Owen, "He might lose a leg if you don't heal it soon though."

Owen smiled a tight smile, "I could treat it, but my abilities are crude at best and Neil might be stuck with a limp. I've stopped the blood, Neil I promise you, you won't die. Just bear with it till Rebel gets here."

"He won't come." Neil growled, "Just heal me. It hurts like hell."

I looked at the palour under his skin and worried.

"He's coming Neil. Ki too." Harvey spoke from behind me, "Just hang on and you'd be good a new."

"Since when did Rebel ever rush down to save cannon folder?" Neil looked like he was trying to smirk, but he was trembling visibly and he sounded alarmingly weak, "Anyway, tell him thanks. But he's too late."

And then his head dropped back.

EJ gasped loudly, clapping his hands to his mouth.

"He's not dead." Owen quickly assured everyone, "He just passed out. It's probably a good thing. He was in a lot of pain."

Yeah? No kidding.

And then Owen looked determined, "My methods are a little rough, but he won't die as long as I'm next to him. I guarantee it."

Okay. I looked back up at the rest of my wolves. Fluffy was wearing his usual smiling mask. EJ was bouncing up and down so I knew he was fine. Harvey looked okay too.

"Reporting to Alpha and Beta." The rest of my blue wolves came out of the school in a half jog.

Just in time.

I looked to the side where a single rogue body laid on the cold road. He was huge, and bearded, like some kind of werewolf.

I don't mean a werewolf like us, I meant like what the humans liked to cast as werewolves in their movies. Like my Uncle Andre when half shifted, but this guy was bigger, and rougher, and stinkier. I resisted the urge to cover my nose. The Alpha NEVER covered his nose. I just breathed quietly with my mouth.

But there was only one body. I was sure he had quite a lot of friends helping him just now. And even if we got the giant, the other rogues were getting away.

"Hunt them all down." I felt my hair flare ever so slightly as it finally decided to retract back to its usual length.

Maybe my hair and I had been a little shell shocked, but we've since recovered. This was no time to be standing around. There were armed and dangerous rogue - I was sure the red and brown ants weren't just checking on the civilians, they were searching for the fugitives - and there's nothing more dangerous than a desperate fugitive with a gun in his hand. At least that's what Beta Lucas told me. I don't know, in all his stories, the fugitive never got away.

My blue demon warriors took pause at my command. They looked like they wanted to go, with every fiber of their being, they wanted to get out there and drag those rogues down for a beating. How dare they hurt Neil!

"We have orders to stay and guard you, pretty alpha." Fluffy smiled and explained on everyone's behalf.

What, all of them? I flared again, no prizes for guessing who would give such an inane order. Then I let Boo rise up, my alpha dominance seeping out like dropping dry ice into a pail of water. Even though my dominance couldn't be seen physically, my wolves flinched.

"Go." I said quietly, pointing out randomly to where my lucky sense of direction felt was most appropriate, "I want each and every one of my attackers here in an hour."

"Yes, Alpha!" My wolves shouted in unison.

And my good beta went into action, "Owen, you stay with Neil. Fluffy take a team and head west. EJ, follow Barry's team. William, you take a team out southwest, seal all the exits from Winderhill. I'll coordinate with the local warriors from here. Mission starts in five!"

That was better.