Chapter 13

The forest was suddenly quiet. Everybody looked towards Fergus and where he pointed, there really was not anything as far as the could see, but they felt it. The ground was shaking. They all felt the tremors. This was not due to an earthquake.

As they stared at the horizon, they finally saw, a massive, gigantic amount of grey dots that were rushing to them! Fear gripped all of them as they heard the shaking ground.

Dhum Dhum Dhum Dhum

There were so many that it was impossible to miss them! It was like a wave of wolves was trying to sweep on them.

"Fall back!"

"Run for your lives!"

"Wolves!"

Each and every one of them began running to the outpost without any concern for the rats. Fuck the rats, those wolves would devour anything in their path!

"Alex, come here kiddo! Don't waste any time!"

Alex dropped what she was holding.

"Fergus, let's go!"

She pulled Fergus back, but he wouldn't budge.

"Fergus!"

"Go."

"What?!"

"I said go!"

"Are you out of your fucking mind?!"

"Go. I'll be back."

Fergus turned around, grabbed her by the waist and pushed his lips onto hers. Alex trembled at the sudden kiss. His lips were cold and smooth. They tasted sweet. She sensed the force and urgency as well.

Her first kiss. The whole forest was quiet now. Her ears were ringing. Her tears started to flow.

"Go!"

Fergus pushed her back to Blake who carried her and ran too.

"Fergus!"

The last thing she saw was Fergus grabbing 3 rats in each hand and running towards the beast tide.

"FERGUS!!!"

She broke into tears as she realized he was trying to slow them down.

They ran as fast as they could, all of them.

Blake carried her on his back and hurried.

Fergus was tired.

He was tired of people.

He was tired of betrayal.

He was tired of living.

But......

Alex. He still heard her voice in his head, her blonde hair, her warm touch. He couldn't bear to part with it. He couldn't, so he decided to sacrifice himself, maybe buy them some time to reach the outpost.

He was sweating. His clothes were drenched. His hands were tired, holding the dead rats.

Honestly speaking, he himself didn't know what to do. He could see the wolves now, they were closer. They were howling, stamping, snarling while running forward. In their eyes, there was a wild gleam, a ferociousness, that made his skin crawl. This was something inhumane.

When he reached close enough, he threw the dead meat high in the air towards the wolves. Many wolves sprang from below and bit the meat. They tore open the bodies in seconds. In mere seconds, the body had been devoured whole.

Alex took out his two longswords and ran forward, he ran like his life depended upon it.

He ran till he was no longer able to stop himself. And as soon as the wolves were near, he jumped. With a magnificent jump, his body curved as he reached his hands as back as he could, then while coming down, he brought the swords down with maximum force. Instantly two wolves had their bodies pierced. His body became a machine with throbbing veins and muscles popping. He would swing the longswords and they would pierce a wolf. But the wolves also bit on him. They sank their teeth in, even ripped some flesh out. Fergus grit his teeth and continued to cleave down on the wolves.

The bodies piled up, as Fergus' condition also deteriorated, he was limping, one of the swords had broken, and now he had only one. His white hair had been dyed red. His clothes were torn into shreds, and deep cuts were strewn on his torso. Both of his hands had gripped the remaining longsword. The blood was making his vision red, his hands were starting to slip as well. All around him was a circle formed by the bodies of wolves he had just killed. Wolves snarled as he limped, shrieked and screamed in pain and continued to swing his sword as much as he could.

"Die! Aaah!!!"

He screamed while he cleaved down on more and more. He forgot everything, he forgot the pain, he forgot the snarling beasts around him. He continued to cleave down and kill, or at least drag his blade into their bodies.

And when he couldn't anymore, he knelt down, and the wolves, like water droplets filling a cup, surrounded him and pounced on him.

They only had the most primal instinct of killing and eating.

He lied there, in between the bodies of the beasts, and in his mind only one thing played again and again.

'Live on.'

He remembered his purpose, he hadn't got revenge yet. He wondered if he would. He wondered if he could still 'live'.

The bodies that he had killed had piled up on him. The other wolves paid him no heed and directly attacked on the rats that were not far away.

His blood seeped down onto one of the wolves and his body slowly opened up. It was like his body was eating the wolf. His clothes tore and he slowly crept up on the dead wolf. It was like he was an outer covering on top of the dead wolf. Fergus was tired and unconscious.

It was about 15 minutes later that a new wolf emerged from the pile. It was white, smeared with blood and dirt. It was hard to see his face.

He looked entirely like a new wolf. He had green eyes and walked into the pack, silently.

Fergus was stumped, he knew that something was wrong, he was on four feet, and he was like a wolf, but, it felt natural. He could see the wolf's life. It was like he knew everything that the wolf did. He had somehow become one himself.

His head was hurting, he tried to hold the act. His paw scratched his head, and he felt awkward. Right now, he needed to stick with the others and figure out a way to sort this out.

He didn't want to be stuck as a dog his entire life. The wolves were actually in a very big pack. They were the ones chasing the dire rats. The pack was huge with about 600 or so of them.

Fergus was feeling weird, when some wolves grunted or howled, he understood them. He could understand that they meant simple commands and leaders pointing the way.

A low grunt meant 'fuck off'.

A loud howl meant 'there is food this way'.

And so on.

When Fergus tried to speak, he found that he still spoke like a human, but could also grunt and howl like the wolves.

The most curious thing was that the wolves only ate some of the meat, the rest they just carried back in their mouths. Fergus followed them for 2 days, before they reached a big stony hill. He could see that all around the hill, there were countless number of wolves that were either sleeping, eating or fighting.

On top of the stony hell, there was a cave that was visible and had a big opening.

Surrounding the hill was a group of black wolves, they were larger than the average grey ones. Most of them had hideous scars. They formed a line separating the forest from the hill.

All of the wolves carrying meat would drop it in a big pile that was in front of them, and then they would go do whatever they wanted.

Fergus stared at the whole place in wonder. This was really quite different than what he expected. These wolves actually had intelligence and were storing food, or whatever.

Then, he heard a long howl by a black wolf. He saw that from the cave came out a larger wolf, it was the largest he had seen, and its fur was pure white. The wolf was no doubt the boss around here. All the wolves in the area joined the howl, and the whole area was echoing with a big joint howl, Fergus awkwardly joined them and howled to the best of his ability. The white wolf's eyes were sharp and were constantly darting around. Fergus felt an unspeakable pressure when the wolf stared at him.

The wolf, for no apparent reason, continued to stare at him. Then it raised its paw, seemingly pointing at Fergus. All the other wolves suddenly started to grunt while looking at him. They were growling. The ones in front of him moved away, and so did the black ones.

Fergus grunted as he understood, the white wolf was calling him. He slowly went up on the hill. From down below, the white wolf looked as if it was towering on him. As he reached underneath of the white wolf, it grunted and shook its head, pointing inside.

Fergus was afraid and reluctant, but didn't dare disobey the large animal.