CHAPTER 6: WOLVES, BLOOD AND BULLETS
1503 Words
They came fast!
They were coordinated, primed, strong and deadly.
The leader leapt for Eli's throat, and the others moved around him in a sinister formation. Some came for his torso, others for his groin, and moved for his calves.
Eli pivoted, grabbed one of the leader's front legs, used its momentum and slammed it to the hard ground. They swarmed over him, biting viciously and causing him pain. He slammed a blow into the head of a wolf whose jaundiced teeth were snapping close to his balls. The wolf's head obliterated under the force of Eli's blow, and it crashed down on the ground, and disintegrated into bones soon after!
Eli pivoted, snapped two wolves from the sky, and crashed their heads violently together. Their skulls broke, and they dropped lifelessly.
The leader lunged and slammed into Eli's belly, biting through the material and clamping its long teeth into his flesh. It dug its heels into the ground and shook its head savagely as it tried to tear out the bunched meat in its mouth.
The pain was excruciating and brought sudden tears of anguish to Eli's eyes. For a moment, he froze, unable to react to the savage attack on his body, afraid that any wrong move could make this beast kill him by tearing out his intestines and part of his stomach.
The wolves snarled all around him and attacked in a frenzy.
He felt their sharp fangs sinking into his calves and thighs. Some came flying high, aiming for his face and neck. The leader was still tearing through his stomach, and Eli could barely react.
Fury!
Once again, as his body was racked by agony, Eli felt his fury rising like bitter bile in his guts. With a grunt of fury, his stiff forefingers dove down, and he jammed them into the purple eyes of the leader. It yowled with intense pain as a gooey mess of purple juice poured out of its shattered eyes. Its snout came out of Eli's stomach, and it tried to beat a retreat.
"No, you don't, you vile beast!" the young man hissed with wrath, grabbed the leader's snout with his right hand up and left hand below, then he began to pry the beast's mouth open. It struggled wildly but vainly because Eli's grip was stronger than a thousand steel vices. He felt the sharp pain in his back as more wolves attached to his body.
With raw fury, he broke the jaws of the lead wolf, and it crashed to the ground as blood poured out of his mouth and its tongue lolled out. Its body thrashed violently but briefly, and soon it became still.
As the lead wolf began to explode out, Eli threw wild punches at the other wolves trying to tear his back and legs off. His blows shattered the heads and ribs of the beasts in front of him.
With another roar of fury, he jumped backwards, travelling at great speed, and slammed the bodies of the wolves on his back into the building of the supermarket. They yelped and dropped from his back.
Eli fell to his hands and knees for a moment, horrified by the blood pouring off him and the ghastly wounds all over his body, wounds that looked like he had been pushed through a shredder. The meat in his arms, thighs and calves were torn and hanging and bleeding terribly. His stomach was in flames, and he could barely stand.
He felt bouts of dizziness and knew it could be because he was losing too much blood too soon. The remaining wolves had formed an ominous arc of seven, their snouts pulled back to reveal their horrible fangs!
And that was when Eli's eyes fell on a rusty axe on the ground with a faded price tag still tied to its handle. He rolled and picked it up, every little action causing him excruciating pain. He glided to his feet as the first onslaught came from the vicious animals.
He held the handle of the axe in both hands and spun it, then he jumped high over the heads of the advancing predators, landed, and attacked. The wolves made yelping sounds of pain as Eli went into a mad mode, smashing through them with the axe and sending them flying. His hits were measured and deadly, and soon only two wolves were facing him.
They were not snarling now, and their tails were not held out stiffly like at first. Their tails were down now, and there was something close to fear in their soft growls.
They were not in control of their actions, so they charged at him. Eli spun around and crashed the axe into the head of the first one, then he grabbed the other, raised it, and tore off its head with a vicious snapping movement of his hands.
Eli collapsed on one knee as a bout of dizziness rolled through him. He knew he was losing a lot of blood and that could be fatal. He needed to stop the bleeding, and he wondered idly why his wounds were not closing as they had done at the Sports Complex. Was his body changing? Was he becoming a normal man now? Why did he feel so weak and in such pain?
"Now that was some damn s**t show!" a cold voice said suddenly above him. "Man, you're a bomb! Ain't he a bomb, guys?"
There were other voices of assent above him.
Eli looked up slowly and saw five men facing him. They were lined up, and he saw that the one who had addressed him was holding a pistol. They stank horribly and looked gaunt and savage.
The one with the gun pointed it at Eli's head.
"Now, I thank you for clearing the area of the filthy wolves, buddy. That supermarket will keep my community fed for some time, aye. And those two laden bags over there, why, thank you so much brother for your sacrifice."
"Bags are mine," Eli said weakly as he collapsed on his butt and tried to stay up. "More… inside… for you."
The man, looking hazier now, laughed raucously and pointed the gun at Eli's face again.
"What planet do you think you're living on, man?" he asked nastily. "There's no word like 'mine' anymore, you f*****g bastard! Everything is finders' keepers, asshole. But, s**t, you're an amazing guy, I give you that. A veritable foe, if you like, one we shouldn't leave hanging around. So, adios, mister. Once again, thanks for the help with the wolves! Ta!"
And he fired twice into Eli's chest!
Eli felt the bullets smashing home, felt the sharp, horrifying pains, then darkness engulfed him.
The five men grouped around him.
"s**t, f**k looks like he got barbecued," the leader said, and the others guffawed.
"Could have used him, Cap," one said and spat on the ground near Eli's head. "Looked capable."
"Nah, fella got the devil eye, you sod," the leader said. "Anyone fights wolves like that ain't normal, cunt. Guy's bad news. s**t, get the sacks. Let's see if he got something edible. Let's have some chow first and see what else we can get inside there."
Four of them trudged towards the huge burlap sacks Eli had dropped. One remained for a second, then as he began to turn away he stopped suddenly with a gasp of shock when he saw two bullets emerging out of Eli's chest, and then they rolled and plopped on the ground.
"Hey!" he screamed, causing the other four to pause. "Come quick, Cap. Hey! f**k s**t! The bullets just… just fell from his f*****g chest!"
The four men looked at each other, then the leader waved his gun at the man who had spoken.
"Told you to lay off that f*****g glue, Teddy. That s**t is surely messing up your chicken brain!"
Teddy bent to pick up one of the bullets, then he screamed and stepped back with a wail.
"Hey!" he shouted again, and his voice shook badly with terror now. "Captain! s**t! His wounds… damn, the flesh is closing over! They're disappearing! Cap!"
"Cut out the crap before I fill you with lead, Teddy, you piece of stinking menstrual clot!" the Captain roared.
That was the last thing he ever said.
Eli suddenly got to his knees, causing the men to gasp and remain static with acute shock. One moment Eli was on the veranda in front of the supermarket, then he appeared in front of the Captain in a flash.
The only chance the Captain had was the change of expression on his face from shock to stark terror. He tried to bring the pistol up again, but it wasn't more than a twitch before Eli's uppercut rearranged everything in his skull, and the Captain fell down dead.
The others took to their heels and Eli let them go.
He picked up his sacks and leapt into the air.
- Writer
