The shallow gate to the bower creates a pathway to everything. The plants and the beautiful flowers in pots ensure their aromas pace around making them fully aware of what it takes to be there. The hound sat beside the door eating a broken bone.
"What do we have here?" Damien said. He trotted towards the hound and ran his fingers through his head.
"Lovely," he said and walk away from him. He remember the last time he saw the hound but what he couldn't remember now was how he felt then.
"Let's get in." Said Sam. "We have so much to do."
The walls of the bower remained intact even though the rain entered through some of the holes in the roof. Martha had collected them to run experiments and she indeed got results.
"Come this way," said Sam. "She's somehow strange and when you meet her for the first time you'll feel like running away. Her eyes are something else."
Catherine ran her fingers on the bust clipped to the wall. It felt rough like from an unrefined grain and she laughed because it was a bust of Medusa.
Sam entered a room. It is tinier than the other three they've entered. He held a goblet in his right hand and walked in with his back.
"I'll be right back." He said. "Feel free to look around."
***
Jenn continued walking between two realms. Our dimension and another. She's the only one seeing them. She's programmed to break things apart. Planting thought in minds, making them end it. Taking their egos away. She walked into a house. The family turned into werewolves, with claws larger than tongs. They ran towards her, she swerved and laugh. At that point, the mother turned toward the husband and start devouring him. He was made weaker and couldn't escape his death from his wife.
Their daughter ran out into the street and growled. She was barely thirteen years old but understands nothing. She stood on the road and a car ran her over.
Jenn cried. Her eyes were redder than everything and bloodstain, and death pang made her smile. She's not talking again. She's not thinking and she's no longer anything.
***
"We will use the shirt to bring her closer. Martha has a way of doing that. We'll have to figure that out."
"So you are saying my aunt is now a demon?"
"A demon that moves between two realms. She's very powerful but unaware of anything."
Damien couldn't listen further because he was becoming angrier. He wanted a solution faster. A solution to end the menace. He sat back resting his back on the wall with paintings of ancient civilizations and thought about times when they were children. When they could play around without thinking much. Adulthood comes with so much. Some much to weigh you down.
"The potents used are a combination of many things. The molecules are at war." Said Sam.
Damien started smelling them. They're closer. Werewolves are coming to the bower. His senses became stronger. He stood up and walked to the door.
"I'm coming," he said. He placed his ear to the door, it became more acute and he knows what to listen to. What's happening to him?
Then they started hearing gunshots again. He stumbled back and suddenly started transforming. Sam rushed to grab him, to pin him down. He shouted.
"Bring me water. He must not go out."
Catherine rushed into the room. She saw a tap and came back with a bowl of water. She dropped it on the floor when she saw Sam bleeding from his chest. Damien's claws carved into his cavity. Damien was gone.
"Sam," she called. "Sam. Wake-up. She reached for a cloth and smooched in to stop the blood. Though it was not that deep.
"Sam," she called again.
Damien is now on the street leading to the hospital attacking people. Twilight got nearer and the attacks weren't only from him. Other werewolves are out too devouring humans. Not even bullets could stop them. They look gnashed and mashed like a single pack with one goal in mind. To kill humans.
"Sam, Sam, please wake up." Sam muttered, "Call Sarah to know what's happening over there. This thing is turning into a pandemic affecting mostly the werewolves."
He stood up gently, Catherine holding his back. "Sorry," she said.
"Thank you. We need to get things done faster."
***
After the call, they knew Alpha had run off but before he did, he and some of his men devoured the humans, children, breaking their bones into confetti and running up. Sarah had managed to run into the bunker and locked herself in. Everything is crumbling Catherine said to herself then shouted it out.
"Everything is crumbling. Smallsvile, I think, is going down."
"Let's see to the end of this together. We can find the solution."
"What if they come for us?"
"They won't. We are protected."
"Protected? It's not about that. It's about stopping this. Look, my aunt is out there causing all this. She never for once wanted to harm others but look now."
"We'll get to the end of this."
They hear something climbing the roof. It's moving faster than slower. It is towards the chimney.
"Stay here," Sam dashes off towards the mantlepiece connected to the chimney. He threw in more wood and started a fire.
"We are gonna burn it down. I don't care what it's."
The hound came over to him and sat closer to him. He continued feeding the fire then another step landed on the roof. This one is stronger and it seems the bower shake for the first time.
"What's that?" Catherine said agitated
.she ran towards the mantlepiece and joined Sam and the hound.
"This is getting out of hand. You have guns, right?" Catherine asked.
"Sure. In that bag over there."
They loaded the guns and got ready for whatever it's coming inside. They patched there waiting. The steps became stronger like coming from an elephant matching on crickets.
"I'll call, Sarah." She took her phone from her pocket and dialed her number. Sarah picked on the first ringing.
"I'm in the bunker. How are you doing?"
"Can't say we are completely fine. You have any way out of this too?"
"Could think of any. I'm not in the lab. You guys came up with something?"
"Nope. We're still ideating. Hoping something comes up soon…"
"There are some legs at the door, Catherine."
"I have to go now. I'll call you back."
"Alright."
They broke down the door and rushed in to get them. Catherine aimed at them shooting rounds of bullets faster than Sam. She seemed to have embraced a no mercy time. That's what chaos does. Times are uncertain. The werewolves looked larger and their claws were dirty with blood.
"Move this way. I need to get that…"
Growl. Gnash. Death. They continued shooting. Flower pots falling, the hound hid behind them. They couldn't move from that spot. It's the hotspot for gunning down the werewolves.
***
Alpha strolled the streets. Dead humans all around. Some ran away. But he continued strolling in his wolf form. Those words were still in his head. He growled and gradually turned back to human.
"I have obligations," he said. A black motorcycle with two older men on it passed him. He ran after it and yanked them off the bike. He took it, whimpered, and drove off.
"Or under the premise that life is a turd. Then fine." He didn't look back at them. They managed to stand up and started running towards the road. He looked back and said:
"My bad, right? You're fucked."
***
"We need an exit."
"I don't think so. These things are coming from all angles…"
"That shows we are dying here if we can't run," Catherine said. She never stopped shooting and it's been going for over fifteen minutes now.
"Let's see if we can hold them out."
"Alright."
"Yes, we can do it." Sam stood up and walked towards the door. He scanned outside nothing but all the pots were scattered. And the bulk of nature in them are dead. Spooky. Smoky and bloody.
"Clear. Let's get to the bunker. Martha built one. Over there."
They moved out quietly. It's getting dark. The werewolves might come back stronger.
***
"Smallsvile is going down. It seems there is a psychological pandemic going on there…"
"The Figma P followed Batök. They are going on lock-down…"
John Dikkorp said in an interview last night concerning the situation in Smallsvile: "We have to close the airport. It's better no plane fly in from there because we still don't know the nature of what's causing this…"
"Protest at the airport. Humans want to escape to the islands…"
"The elites are enforcing the stay in Smallsvile for those there till a solution is...
***
"Damn it," Alpha said on the motorcycle. "We all gonna die a slow death. Life is hellish." He smiled. "We gonna make it fun."
***