Fiction

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Ch 1

Sandra woke suddenly. The beams from the moon faintly illuminated her room, while the wind gently fluttered her floor-length curtains at the open window. Something was awry, however. Then she heard it again: the ominous howl of wolves in the distance.

"Wolves again?" The thought breezed through her mind. "I thought there weren't any in our region anymore." She lay there and listened to the howling for a bit, which seemed to be increasing in intensity. "Man, they really are still about. I hope everyone's animals are in."

Then a startled recollection shocked the drowsiness from her being. "The girls! I think their camp-out in the forest was tonight!"

She climbed out of bed, stumbling over furniture legs in the dark.

"Ash. Better call Ash," she mumbled as she fumbled her hand about the table, groping for her phone. "Where is it?"

Finally finding the device, she pushed a couple buttons and listened for the ring on the other end.

"Hello?" Picked up a groggy voice on the phone.

"Ash! Hello! Sorry for waking you up."

"It's okay." He said sleepily, "What's the occasion?"

"The girls! The camp-out's tonight. I just wanted to make sure that they're all ok. Have you been in contact with any of them?"

"Why? They all left their cell phones in my car. I haven't heard from any them."

Just then, the eerie wail of the wolves sounded in the background.

"Ash, listen."

There seemed to be more now.

"Wolves." He said. "Oh my goodness. Wolves!"

"I know. I think those girls should be picked up."

"Yes." His voice took on a clearer pitch as alarm woke him up. "I know where they are."

"Good. They wouldn't even tell me where they were going, just that they'd be in the park." Susanne responded. "You want me to come?"

The wolves continued howling.

"Yeah, be there in ten. Good thing the park is like, right there."

"I'll be ready."

Sandra hung up and opened the blinds. The night looked so calm, except for those continuing tell-tale cries that brought a shudder to her shoulders. She thought back to her childhood, twenty years ago, when she had first heard those cries.

It had been in the dead of a particularly long winter, weeks with only light snow but bitter cold. Horses had been found dead in their pastures, slaughtered, their carcasses half-eaten by the ravenous wolf-packs that invaded the surrounding towns, searching for sustenance. This happened so many times that there seemed no way to protect the livestock except to keep them cooped up in their stalls. As the occurrences continued and more and more sightings were made, parents were advised to keep their small children indoors. There were guns, but no fear of death would prevent these wolves from attacking or returning

Finally, after three years of hard winters and wolf incidents growing, the town had developed a defense plan which involved fencing in all livestock as well as establishing watchmen, traps, and a hunting party. Little by little the incidents with wolves decreased, and finally so much so that the policies against wolf attacks as well as the citizens of the town themselves became more relaxed. If there was no reason for extreme vigilance in following the rules, why not ignore them? There were no crises for several years, and the little town rejoiced and forgot. That had been years ago. The wolf tales were all but buried under the busyness of the present until now, when they all came rushing back to Sandra.


"I pray those girls will be all right," she thought as she hurried to prepare herself.
~~~~~~~~

The girls had evidently had a jolly time together, eating s'mores, chatting, giggling as girls are prone to do. Some were a little wary of wild animals, but they shrugged off niggling thoughts in light of the excitement that a night out in the forest without their parents would bring.

"The park is huge; we'll be safe," they figured.

When it was time to go to bed, they put out the fire so as not to burn down the forest, and, as they had been instructed by their elders, they had all crawled into the tent and zipped themselves in. Then they fell back on a tried and true camp-out activity: telling horrific ghost stories. All of the girls were sufficiently scared when one of the girls had had a suggestion.

"What if," she had said with a strange gleam in her eye, "we invite the wolves. There out there, you know. We should invite them."

Some of the girls got even more scared and protested, but the majority, always up for a good scare, prevailed. So they started to howl, tentatively at first, but then, as they caught the spirit, with more gusto, completely unawares of what was happening outside.

Little did they know what this nighttime tomfoolery would illicit. The first one that appeared came almost immediately; from the dark of the shadows. This shadow slunk slowly from one shadow to the next, until again, after some time another set of eyes gleamed from the darkness, and then another, and then another, until one by one the whole forest full of gleams in the night. The whole pack emerged from the forest into the vicinity of the tent, approaching as one, drawn by the invitation of the teenagers.

The girls continued to howl. All of a sudden, it seemed that there were more howls among them.

"Wow, we're good!" They exclaimed as they laughed.

But the howling continued. They listened for a bit, becoming more and more tense as awareness of the situation began to dawn on them.

"Who is that?"

Linda, the one closest to the door's zipper, poked her head out of the tent, then drew it back in quickly. Her face had gone white.

They all grew silent, and she whispered, "I think there's something outside."


~~~~~~~~~
Ash and Sandra arrived at the gates of the national park. To their surprise, there was a forest ranger at the booth, guarding the entrance.

"Sorry folks. Entrance to the park is prohibited. We had someone report a wolf sighting about a half hour ago, and are working to get them under control. No worries though, they should be taken care of within 48 hours."

Ash frowned a bit and asked, "did you get everyone out of the park?"

"We've warned the recreational and camping facility. Everyone's been told to either stay inside for the time being or evacuate themselves for their own safety. Don't want any accidents."

"So you're sure everyone's out?"

"Well, we've just let everyone know to be on their guard. These wolves shouldn't be too dangerous. Haven't had too many bad incidents in recent years."

Ash gave an exasperated sigh. "Our girls are camping in the southwest section! None of them have a car or a license--we need to go get them."

The ranger sighed in return, looked around, and pushed a button in his booth. "You better not make a ruckus in there. This isn't your private property, you know. But go ahead. Be safe."

Ash wheeled into the park as Sandra peered into the dark ahead of them. The moon was shining but the looming forest above them obscured nearly all sight. They drove in silence for a time, the SUV hitting roots of trees and potholes, making the ride very bumpy. The howls ceased and resumed at irregular intervals. They also seemed to be coming closer.

"Hurry, Ash," said Sandra with a tremor in her voice. "This is not a good place to be out in. They're all around."

Ash gripped the steering wheel tighter. They continued in tense silence, passing trees and boulders, the forest getting more and more dense with every turn.

"All right. The girls are somewhere around here."

Sandra looked around through the windows. "I don't see anyth--oh, my gosh. Ash."

He turned his head around to see where she was pointing.

" A wolf."

~~~~

The girls all drew back in shock as the howls continued. They began to cower and the youngest of them began sobbing softly out of fear. Her sister put her arm around her and said, in also a strained voice, "I want to go home."

"What do we do?" they questioned each other in whispered whimpers.

"Maybe they'll go away." one suggested.

"Just be quiet!" whispered Linda furiously. They all fell silent and held each other for support, until all of a sudden, Linda remembered.

"Melody! Where is she?"

"She went to the bathroom! She never came back!"

Just then, a wolf attacked the tent with a snarl, with the others following. Inside, the girls screamed and backed into a corner, only to have that corner also attacked. It was mayhem, limbs flinging all over, the girls screaming and crying, trying to hold onto each other for dear life.

"Get out! Get out! There's wolves! Yell and scream!" Commanded Linda from memories of girls scouts.

That was useless advice since they were all doing it already. Everyone poured out but screamed all the louder into fear and shock, backing up when they saw what they were up against.

~~~~


There were eyes glowing just five yards ahead of Ash's truck. Then another set appeared, a little distance from there.

"There's at least two," he said.

In that instance, an ear piercing wail shattered the air, and then another one followed. Suddenly there was an eruption of howls, as if the wolves had found something. They were communicating, with yelps and howls combined. Then, a scream. A human scream.

Ash hit the gas and shouted, "they found someone! Let's get over there!"

He put the car in gear and followed the sound of the wolves. Driving into a clearing where the moonlight was strong, they spotted a solitary tent, or specifically, the ripped frame of a tent.

"What happened here?"

"Ash!" Cried Sandra, "they're right there!!" There were the girls, a few yards off in front of the tent, huddled in a circle, facing outward. Around them, crouching, creeping inward, was a ring of wolves.

"Stop! Stop!" Yelled Sandra in panic. "Stop!"

She couldn't seem to get anything else out.

Ash was a little more adept. He hit the gas, spurring the truck into the high gear and sped in full speed in the direction of the wolves, blaring his horn, shouting out the window, "get out of the way!!!"

There was utter chaos. The girls fled in one direction, their cries hardly detectable under the noise of the ford's horn. But it served it's purpose; the wolves scattered, tail between legs, in every direction into the night.

"Stay in the car and keep blaring the horn!" yelled Ash. "I'm going to go collect the girls!"

Sandra switched on the long lights as Ash swung the car around and screeched to a halt near to where the cluster of girls were. "Get in, get in!"

They all, as one, scrambled into the four passenger car.

"Sit on each other if you have to! They might come back!"

"But what about Melody?" cried one of the girls, Susanne by name.

"Melody?"

"She left!"

"O my goodness, where!!"

"We don't know!! She left and went out on her own!

"Where did she go? In which direction?"

"That way," pointed Sandra, in the direction of the trees to the right.

Ash was already on his way. He reached the shadow of the first tree, stumbled over a root, but regained his balance, desperately searching through the darkness to see if he could spot Melody.

He heard a whimper to his left and rushed in that direction.

"Melody! If you're there, holler!!

All he could hear was a faint cry, but he followed it. There she was, bleeding from a bite to her appendages, which one, Ash couldn't tell because of the blood. There might have been several.

"Mel, it's Pastor Ash. Don't worry. I'm here to save you. You'll be alright."

She just cried. He told her to lie still as he checked her for her vitals and for broken bones, but as he did a quick and thorough examination, he sensed something to his right and quickly turned, only to be hit in the face with a furious ball of grainy fur, sharp teeth and anger. He reacted in surprise and threw the object off, but the painful rip of flesh leaving his arm caused a roar of agony to spew out of his lungs. It was a wolf, panicking by fear and drawn by the smell of blood. Ash nevertheless kept his mind on Melody, sheltering her with his body. The wolf, in fury, attacked again, but Ash, thanks to years of taekwondo, had reflexes enough to evade the wolf, using his left hand to whip out his pocket knife, which conveniently snapped into place, the wolf whirling around to attack again in a matter of seconds. Again Ash flung him off. He stood there, knife upraised in hand, watching as the wolf snarled and turned to jump, also noticing the ring of other shadows running towards them from a distance.

"Jesus, help" was his only desperate thought as he brought the knife down to slash at the deranged animal. He hit well, as they both doubled over, the animal's weight throwing Ash also to the ground, the wolf scratching and writhing in pain. He was injured but not dead, and there were more wolves mere seconds away. With a burst of adrenaline, Ash picked up Melody with both arms, with no resistance from her, ignoring the pain in his right, and began running through the trees towards the clearing. Despite his efforts, the angry pack of wolves reached him, surrounded him, and all leaped at him at once, vicious teeth bared, with Melody still in his arms. He couldn't fight back, and there were too many. He fell, making sure Melody was under him for protection, and lost consciousness, a blinding light flashing before his eyes.

~~~~~

"Wolf Attack in National Forest," "Girl Mauled by Wolves," read the newspapers of the following weeks. This incident drew lots of attention, being the first wolf attack in a couple of decades with so many people affected. It was a great tragedy, one that unfortunately could have been prevented. Thankfully, most of the pack responsible for the incident had been captured and euthanized, but the humans involved still remembered the night with horror. Linda, Susanne, and the rest of the girls still had problems sleeping. Melody had recovered, having been badly shaken with years of physical therapy ahead of her as her shoulder had been badly wounded. The wolf had evidently aimed for her throat but had thankfully missed, gaining hold of her shoulder instead. The trauma of the attack as well as the resulting wound hospitalized her for a good month, but in the end she bounce back as youth are prone to do. She had lost almost all movement in her right arm, but thankfully had friends who were willing to transpose her dictations onto paper for her classes, having gained a lot of sympathy at school and had even had an interview with the press, which she was shy about, hating to relive that night.

Ash had been deemed that "Hero of the Hour" by the newspaper, but relived the trauma every night. He couldn't sleep. When exhaustion did overtake him, he would dream of wolves, especially of the moments before Sandra, in the truck, had come wheeling into the forest with her high beams on to rescue him and Melody out from under the wolves. He could no longer go into forests and even sold his truck. At times, though he had been elevated to semi-celebrity status in the small town, it felt like he couldn't relate to any of the comments they made to him. He refused all interviews.

Finally, he'd gone to see a doctor, who told him he had a pretty clear-cut case of PTSD, that he needed some time to recover, just to take it easy. Still, the dreams and memories haunted him. With this realization, he instead began taking a proactive stance toward his recovery. He accepted interviews and even got into the politics of the town, something he'd always previously avoided. He became an advocate for the town, strongly persuading the leaders in the city council to rethink their own laziness in adhering to what they knew was right.

"We cannot slack off. Historically, these occurrences have plagued and hounded us. We cannot let it happen again. We must be vigilant."

Sandra also caught the vision and ran with it. She took her memories from days gone by and the lessons she had learned as a child and began training the youth at her church, the girls and guys of which were completely ready after the occurrence at the park. Others followed suit.

In the end, the town was reminded that a lack of vigilance can lead to disastrous results. Laziness had opened a door to harm, and the county decided unanimously that that was no longer an option. They would wholeheartedly throw all of their efforts in to ensure that such an incident would never again be repeated in their town.

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