2 Prologue Pt2

2 MONTHS AFTER THE TOWERS APPEARED

Just a few miles outside of a certain city, a small portal the size of an average double doorway finished stabilizing into a still black sheet of interdimensional light. The portal had previously gone unnoticed due to its low readings, going beyond the point of safely clearing its contents to close it. Now, a large black and wet nose half the size of a fist poked its way out of the portal.

Soon after came a long and broad furry snout that grew into a broad and bulky furred head with two large round ears similar to a rat's. The sets of three exposed teeth on either side of the top and bottom at the end of the snout were notably canine, however, similar to its short whiskers and the shape of its bulky but sleekly elongated wolf-like face. Its neck alone was two feet in length and as big around as a grown man's waist before broadening into a pair of shoulders and stocky chest like a prized pit bull.

The paw print created by the first foot to stretch out from the portal was larger than the average person's hand, creating a deeper impression than most boots in the loose forest topsoil from its immense weight nearing three hundred pounds. The full length of the wolf's body was six feet from nose to ass with several feet of long and fluffy collie-like tail behind. That was simply the FIRST wolf to make it out of the portal.

After this young male soon came several young male and female wolves of the same generation who only varied slightly in size. After them came the fully matured adults. These wolves were only a couple of feet bigger all of the way around, but they were still BIGGER than the first wolves.

The younger wolves were all the size of the great arctic wolves of Earth while the matured adults were the size of Earth's alpha arctics.

Next came a group litter of almost two dozen 'puppies' all around the body size of large bulldogs. Even as puppies, at that size they easily weighed fifty pounds WITHOUT their thick and plush coats. Then came the actual alpha.

The alpha of this otherworldly wolf pack could barely fit through the portal, standing a full shoulder above its largest underlings and reaching an incredible eleven feet in length with over five feet of plumed tail. Unlike the other wolves who were various shades of gray and tan with block spots and speckling, this wolf was almost entirely black except for speckling and stripes and gray and white.

Its exposed canines were even five fangs on either side where the others all had three impressive five-inch teeth.

While the others all sniffed around and examined the surroundings while watching the pups, the alpha raised its head before deeply scenting the air. After a single deep breath, it turned its head in the direction of civilization and sniffed again. After confirming the scents of plentiful prey, the alpha once again raised its head and loosed a thunderous howl into the sky to check for competing predators.

The howl lasted for almost two minutes and spread out for tens of miles around in all directions. A few minutes after the echoes faded away there was no response from anywhere in the world. The night had gone completely silent with fear of these apex creatures who had just laid claim to a territory of at least fifty square miles.

Eleven miles away just inside the city limits was a sprawling trailer park with over a hundred lots and most of them were taken up by trailers and RVs. In one of these trailers a young boy of fourteen years was sitting in his living room far passed his bedtime playing video games. Even though it was a school night, both of his parents worked long hours during the day and he often stayed up late playing quietly.

However, tonight he was wearing headphones while playing to better enjoy the experience of casting spells and slaying monsters.

Unbeknownst to him, after finally entering the final levels of his game, a large pack of ten giant wolves slowly crept up to the trailer park.

With their superior senses, these wolves could pinpoint the position of nearly every living being within a hundred yards of them based on movements and breathing. The entire facility was surrounded in a five feet tall chain-link fence with street lights distributed evenly all throughout, but the place was so old that fence had already been replaced three times so only a handful of old yellow streetlights actually worked.

Those lights left plenty of shadowed gaps in the perimeter for the wolves to divide into three groups of three while the Alpha moved first and alone. Right to the main entrance. Just as it was nearing within thirty yards of the highway entrance, though, the winds changed direction from blowing toward the wolves from ahead to blowing into the trailer park.

A once silent night with only a few human disturbances suddenly came alive with the barking and running of dogs and even the yowls of threatened cats. Everything that lived with an instinctual drive based on enhanced sense of smell suddenly experienced and expressed the most primordial of fear and survival urges. Any dog that was capable was currently blocking a door with its body and crying for help or fighting their outdoor restraints.

Cats, after coming to their senses a few seconds after the winds changes, went deathly silent and just ran with the wind.

After having its presence announced, the alpha simply trotted swiftly and silently into the trailer park. Once inside, it turned toward the closest human and animal presence and pounced. The 'presence' had been a double-wide trailer at whose door a shaggy retriever was yelping and pissing on the living room rug.

The sheet metal and two-by-two framing of the building put up little resistance to the alpha's flying five hundred pounds of weight, causing the wall around the door to cave inward while the door warped from the pressure and sprang free from its locks.

What had once been man's most loyal best friend had half of its head sheared away by the strength of the door flying open into its face. The human it was loyal to was originally rushing into the adjacent kitchen wielding an aluminum softball bat. Now, as the giant head of the wolf reached its head in the misshapen doorway, that man was cowering back into the hallway in fear.

The wolf was originally going to bite off a piece of the dog and move on to make more noise, however it caught sight of a better smelling prey. Something about the intense scent of fear and adrenaline mixed in with that crawling figure's sweat made it seem so much more enticing. It growled lowly deep in its throat, letting the prey know it was marked and inspiring a quiet gasp and startle from the sheer bass of the noise.

Shouldering into the doorway with the loud snapping and groaning complaints of wood and metal, the alpha easily forced its way into the building and smashed through the walls in its way to get at the human in the hallway. When it opened its mouth after bursting through the hollow walling of the kitchen, hallway, and hallway bathroom, the human was holding a small device in its hand with a brightly lit surface.

When the alpha snapped its jaws closed with its canines lined up with the man's ribs, the glowing object flew through the air just as it started making noises similar to the human noises it had heard while approaching the trailer park.

His body was only that of the average hardworking laborer over the age of forty with plenty of complaints despite a strong spirit, so his ribs easily crumbled under the force of the alpha's vice-like jaws. The emphasized sets of fangs ripped straight through the man's lungs and closed together in his once rapidly beating heart. Within the next second after the man's body was bitten almost completely in two, he was dead.

His phone that had been thrown in the air was loudly buzzing questions about the situation and assurances that help was en route. The alpha, despite hearing the voice coming from the glowing box, simply swallowed the food in its mouth and sniffed around at the building. Because the smell of fresh death was strong around its face and in the air, it disregarded the human scents coming from the next two rooms and turned around to rip off a leg and leave.

Just a few houses down, the young boy playing video games was only just getting up after FEELING the repeated heavy crashing in a nearby building. The first one was permissible as something like a drunken accident, which happened quite often, However, the second sets of multiple crashing and smashing sounds could not be ignored.

It had honestly seemed like a driver was unconscious and plowing through a trailer.

Sadly, when the boy opened his front door to look down the street, it was to find the ruined front side of a neighboring building with a massive furred body dripping in blood stepping outside. Because it clearly heard the opening of a door, the wolf looked up to meet the boy's gaze and growl. That vague baring of its teeth looked terrifyingly similar to a smile.

Like any smart young man would do, the boy immediately ran back inside while slamming and locking the door before running to his parents' bedroom. Despite his age and lack of experience, he knew better than to scream and continue attracting attention to himself. Like the cats who earlier fled without making anymore noise, the boy ran to 'safety' while keeping his mouth firmly shut.

Once in his parents' room he immediately jumped on the bed like a small child while shaking his parents awake and hoarsely whispering at them to make calls and that a giant monster wolf was coming. The parents who had originally gone to sleep with their TV on and an action movie playing were immediately dubious of the situation and upset at being awoken at this hour.

However, the boy could not have cared less and was rushing about the room looking for anything that could be used as a weapon. From under his parents' bed came a small metal lock-box that only his parents' had a key to and from their closet came a machete and wooden bat. His father was just starting to angrily yell at him and get out of bed when the wolf finally showed up.

Just like with the last trailer, the wolf bodily slammed into the front of the building where it had seen the door open. Just like last time, as well, most of that side of the forty-foot trailer caved and the door burst open with deadly force. Luckily, nobody was in the living room to continue drawing attention after the father was silenced.

Unluckily for the boy, though, the father had been yelling and already confirmed the presence and location of 'prey'. Even as the father scrambled in a bedside cabinet to find the key to the lock-box.

Maybe if the parents had taken the boy seriously and gotten up when he needed them to, things would have gone differently. Maybe the father would have found the key before the wolf had already forced its way into the building. Maybe the mother would have been off to the side of the room with the boy instead of still lying in bed.

Reality, though, was much harsher. The wolf was already brushing its shoulder through the hallway walls by the time the father found the key and opened the box. The mother was only just getting up and out of bed to run to her son when the father picked up and held out a large .357 revolver.

The alpha's enormous head was already entering the room when the man flicked back the hammer and blindly pulled the trigger. If he could have had time to aim, he might have been able to shoot the wolf in one of its baseball sized eyes. As it was, he simply shot it through its large round ear and into the top of its shoulder.

Coming from a different world with different biological needs and settings, not only was the wolf's muscles several times denser than an Earth wolf's but even its skin was thicker and sturdier. That .357 hollow-point might have been strong enough to punch a hole through the wolf's inch-thick earlobe but after that it only had the strength to travel a couple of inches into the meat of the wolf's shoulder before breaking up.

Enraged at the pain of its sudden injury, the wolf filled the room with its immense body and snapped its jaws shut on the man's torso. With the man's body pulped and out of the way, the wolf turned its attention toward the mother and son only for the mother to shove her son toward the door while throwing herself at the wolf with a hysterical shriek.

Knowingly sacrificing herself, the woman had left the better weapon with her son and clutched the wooden baseball bat in both hands while swinging it down at the wolf's head.

The wolf barely even dodged, simply leaning its head to the side so that the blow was directed down the side of its face and to the floor. After putting her all into the single attempt at wounding the beast, the mother lost her balance with the direction of the attack and fell to her hand and knees. Just as the boy was leaving the room and looking back at his father's gun on the ground, he saw the wolf snap its head back toward his mother with its mouth open.

Her head and arms disappeared into that wide open mouth as he dove for the gun in the doorway.

Fighting the room itself to turn its immense body around, the wolf was slow to react toward the son who dared not stay any longer. Because the walls had been broken inward into the room, the misshapen framework had to be pushed back through from this side and broken all over. This allowed the boy time to run out of the trailer with the gun in hand.

Once outside, the boy simply ran back toward the large brick building at the front entrance. It was the closest, largest, and safest structure in the area because it was both a home and the main office of operation for the trailer park. Plus, some circumstantially warped part of his fear-addled brain thought the house a brick would keep out the big bad wolf.

Inside, the park manager was already on the phone reporting information and yelling that she could not be calmed right now because of a 'giant fucking mutt' wrecking the homes and families in her trailer park. Sadly, the boy only realized too late that he was mistaken. The woman yelling on the phone was in her late fifties, the big bad wolf got grandma in the other wolf story.

Just as the woman was noticing the terrified and raggedly breathing boy holding a gun in her doorway the boy was looking back outside for somewhere else to run to. The alpha, however, was already out in the street and loping toward the office building. The boy had no choice but to rush inside and start throwing furniture in front of the glass doorway.

By now the other wolves had already begun attacking places with larger numbers of prey, filling the night with the screaming and shouting of people and animals alike.

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