While Caesar was on his bike riding hard to his mansion, Priest Rupert opened the front door of the church house where he lived, entered and hung an overcoat and his hat on the hall stand. Right behind him was Nedric, a Fur Hunter assigned to protect him. Rupert yawned, and walked into the living room. He stretched and yawned again. His back arched from the exertion of walking, running and walking from the town square to his home. He was getting old and he damned well knew it. Nedric said to him.
“This is nuts, really nuts,” he blurted. “How can human beings turn to animals? This is beyond me. God must be really mad at us, right?”
Rupert offered him a thin smile and inclined his head in agreement.
“The Lord is angry at us humans for our sins, son. That’s why all these strange things are happening,” he pointed out. He went to sit on a couch and crossed his legs. He picked up a bible on a small stand beside him and pointed it to Nedric. “It’s all here. In this book. When God is pissed at us humans, all these things you see begin to happen. It's his way of telling us that we are bad people and we should be punished for the bad things we do.”
Nedric snorted, cradling the Wolf Stopper in his hands comfortably.
“I’m sorry Father, but I’m not a believer. I don’t believe in the bible and I don’t believe in God.”
Rupert shrugged indifferently.
“That’s alright son. God holds no grudges against no man. You see…..” then the the Wolf Stopper in Cedric's hands turned a full green, then red. The priest saw it………he damned well saw it. His skull like face became a mask of terror and he looked more uglier than ever. “Christ!” He muttered, his throat paralyzed with fear.
The expression of terror on Rupert's face chilled Nedric’s blood. His eyes followed the old priest’s gaze. He gasped when he saw the red light on the WolfStopper. A werewolf was nearby. The weapon in his hand began to whirr and vibrate. Training took over fear, and he yelled at the fear stricken priest who sat on the chair, hypnotized with terror.
“Get up, father! Get the hell up,” and he moved towards Rupert and lifted him up violently with one hand……..with just one hand. The priest screamed out, not out of pain, but out of fright. “Move father! Move!” and just as he began to drag Rupert away to the other room, the window billowed in with a shattering blast and two big werewolf leaped in smoothly into the room, baring their fangs, their paws stretched out. The werewolves saw them and lunged at them. Nedric, with sweaty both shaking hands pointed the snub nose of the gun at the incoming beasts.
The Wolf Stopper went off with a loud crashing sound that rattled the small room.
The first werewolf took the whole impact of the firearm. The laser beam tore into his body, blowing its chest into pieces. It dropped down like a stricken elephant, squealing with excruciating pain. The second werewolf got to Rupert and Nedric. It swiped up his paws at Nedric’s neck. The Fur Hunter’s head went off his head violently. Father Rupert screamed. Nedric's headless body sank to his knees, his ripped off neck spouting blood everywhere. The Wolf Stopper was still in his hands. The werewolf grabbed the weapon and smashed it violently against the walls. It broke in half. The red full light on it went out. The beast howled in triumph and turned to the priest. Rupert stood there, his heart beating wildly, his face wet with sweats, his eyes wide with alarm.
The hairy arm of the werewolf groped for him. Rupert in his jittery, almost paralyzed state heard a low, snorting grunt. Then he perceived a faint terrifying smell – like something you smell in the gorilla house of a zoo. The beast claws at the priest’s face, ripping away his cheek, exposing his dirty, yellow teeth. Blood splattered everywhere. He could feel blood gushing over the shoulder of his garment, sinking in warmly. His priesthood white garment begins to absolve the blood that was running into his trousers, his shoes, pooling gradually at his feet. Rupert screams; he screams out of his goth esque mouth, out of his disfigured face.
The scream jeered on the ears of the beast. It sank its claws into his stomach. The pain was so much that Rupert went limp and fainted. The beast powerfully jerked out his claws, scooping out the priest’s steaming spleens and guts. His lifeless body crumpled to the floor in a heap. The beast tossed the guts away. He released an ear shattering roar and glared around the bloody room. His eyes fell on his comrade which lay flat on the floor, its fur, brutally zinged burnt. He padded towards the room door, glanced at its dead comrade with a last longing look, and bounded away into the pitch darkness of the night.
********************************
Caesar got to his mansion, cut off the engine, and jumped off wildly from the bike, his Wolf Stopper strapped to him. He ran inside the house. He ran into the hallway, then the living room. The whole room was in the state he had left it. Everything looked perfectly fine. He began to scream.
“Anna! Jess! Anna.” He got no answer. Where the hell were they? He swore under his breath and flew up the stairs that led to the upper room. He jerked open Marianna’s room door. He regarded it. Everything looked organized. Nothing had been touched. He heard a sudden idea that she might be in the bathroom. He crossed the room to the bathroom. He opened the door. She wasn’t there. He was really worried now. He cursed again and grimaced. He walked out of the room, down the stairs and into the living room. His face was heavy with anger and worry. What could have happened? Had the pack Alpha taken them away? Then suddenly he stiffened. What was that? He listened and heard a bang – that bang a big gun makes when it goes off. It was immediately followed by a high scream of terror.
Quickly, Caesar darted out of the house. He looked around. Then he heard another bang. It was louder this time and it had come from the garage. Caesar swung the Wolf Stopper off him, held it tightly in his hands and ran around the house to the garage. He got there and stopped short abruptly as if he had hit his head on a wall. His eyes looked like two big holes on a white paper.
The electric lights of the garage flickered on and off as if it had a faulty connection. The cold tiled floor was red and messy with blood. A strange powerfully built man was holding what looked like the Wolf Stopper – it was actually the WolfStopper. The man was dressed in checkered shirts, gabardine pants and leather boots. He stood over a big werewolf, which lay spread out on the floor. In a corner of the room, was a black clad man who half lay, half sat against the wall, his head on his chest, his massive chest ripped open. Blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth to the floor.
Caesar recognized Jess immediately. The Fur Hunter was dead. No one could look like that and not be dead. Warily, Caesar began to walk towards the bloody scene, his hands gripping the Wolf Stopper tightly, his eyes looking searching for the man. The man heard footsteps and he swung around, alarmed. He pointed the Wolf Stopper in his hands at Caesar, his face hard set and deadly.
“Who the fuck are you?” He bawled, his head cocked along the barrel of the WolfStopper.
“Caesar!” He roared back. “I owned this place,” he saw the big man relaxed and lowered the gun.
“I know you. Mr Davenport huh?” The man said. Then he directed the snub nose of the Wolf Stopper at the werewolf on the floor. “He’s dead. I fixed him. He won’t bother anyone no more”
Very slowly, Caesar moved forward until he was within a few feet of where the man was standing over the werewolf. A narrow ribbon of blood ran from the beast to him, twisting like a snake across the cold tiled floor.
He stood like that, watching it as the blood ran close to his booted feet and changed course. He dragged his eyes to the werewolf and moved closer to it. He paused by the body. The beast, from its neck downwards was a mess of blood and smashed bones held together by its furs. Only its face was intact.
Surprisingly, it had a human face. The blue eyes glared sightlessly up at him. The handsome, upturned face seemed defenseless and bewildered. Blood dribbled slowly from the corner of its opened mouth. The beast was as dead as a soused mackerel. The Wolf Stopper had done devastating damage.
The toxins in the big gun ray flash must have stopped the werewolf’s body from reaching its complete human state. Caesar regarded the werewolf’s human face thoughtfully. Then his lips curved into a smile. He knew this face. He damned well knew this face. He had seen this face a year ago in the woods. He lifted his eyes to look at the man who had been watching him all this while.
“You should be pleased,” he said solemnly. “You got the Alpha. The leader of their pack.”
“Oh yeah?” The man said, arching an eyebrow. There was no surprise or shock in his voice.
“Yeah! You nailed the bastard! You took a huge load off my hands,” he said it, really meaning it. “When the man didn’t say anything, he asked. “Seen any girl around?”
The man nodded.
“Yeah! She’s in there,” he inclined his head to the garage closet.
“Anna! Anna! Come out! I’m here,” Caesar bawled.
There was a pause, then a scuffling noise a door made, and Marianna appeared from the room, white faced, hair tousled and little blood stained on her cheeks and hands. Other than that, she looked perfectly fine. Caesar was relieved and it showed greatly on his face.
“How are you holding up?”He said, giving her a faint smile.
She shrugged weakly.
“Pretty good,” she muttered and turned her face away.
Caesar eyed her and turned to look at the man.
“Care to explain what happened here?”
The man shrugged indifferently.
“I was just coming into town when I heard the news on the radio about the werewolves attack and how you’ve come into town to fight them off. Then just as I was about to drive into the town I saw this werewolf right here running towards the cliff side. I figured you might need some help getting rid of it. So I followed it in my truck. He was faster so got here before me. By the time I got here, he had fixed that man, standing over him,” he jerked his head to where Jess was. “This girl over here was screaming and crying. The beast did not hear me come in. I saw this Wolf Stopper on the floor. I read about it in the newspapers and I pretty well know how to use it. I picked it up and it blasted this fool wide open. I didn’t even have to do anything. All I did was hold it and it ripped away.” He finished, heaving heavily from all talking he had done.
Caesar beamed and stretched his hands for a handshake. They both shook hands.
“You did pretty good,” he commented. “Well you are going to take Jess' place. I want you on my team. I need men like you.” He turned to Marianna. “Let’s go sister. The war is over. At least for now.”
“What do you want me to do with this?” The man suddenly asked, pointing to the werewolf on the ground.
“Burn it to hell,” Caesar snarled and turned to go. Then he remembered something and stopped in his tracks. “You didn’t tell me your name?”
“Name’s Dvorak! Dvorak Zimmerman,” the man replied.