When a Fox loves a Wolf

Their hearts pounded as heavy as their footsteps. Bodies bumped into each other while rounding corners in the maze of packaging that was both their saving grace and incarcerator. Twenty five foot tall shelves towered around them. To the right a pallet stacker was abandoned mid way during its task- either retrieving or placing a box on the bottom shelf. An opening. “Here!” The two terror stricken people crawled through the gap and emerged on the next door aisle. A ground-floor office door hung half open invitingly. Stumbling as quietly as their current states would allow, they slipped into the room and gingerly closed the door. Finally both fell to their knees and gulped air. Hands covered mouths in anxious attempts to choke any sound. Felix was the first to regain speech, “What the foxtrot are they?!” “Oh mother me did you see their eyes? They were glowing!” the girl gasped. Felix personally was more concerned about their obviously inhuman jaws. An image flashed in his mind and he felt his stomach turning. “It’s the same people -creatures- we’ve been seeing the past two weeks, I’m sure of it!” Felix was in agreement. For the last fortnight he and Desi had both been getting the feeling of being stalked. Hair on the back of the neck standing up, movements out the corner of one’s eye, a car following for a block too much. “This has to be a joke. A stupid prank some pea-brained screwball made up.” Felix did not feel confident in his words. “Let’s call the police Desi.” “Yeah let me just – Oh that’s right you had to go and chuck my phone at that thing!” “Don’t blame me that society never taught me how to react properly against three bastards with tails!” It had been late when the employees finished an overtime shift. Felix’s phone had already died hours before. He had asked Desi if he could use hers to check for the next available bus, before he had even memorized the times a figure landed a few feet from them. In a second two more had appeared flanking it. The co-workers had taken a step back and gawked. They were supposed to be the last people on the property, except for the night security guard at the gate. You needed either a security check or company card to enter the premises, and all the gates had spiked tips. Not an easy feat to get in. “Hey kiddies” the one in the middle rasped. Felix took them in. Humans in most aspects, but Desi was right; their eyes had a sickly green glow to them. Two had very deformed facial features, as if they were wearing Halloween masks. Felix thought they were just that at first, but the mouths moved too fluidly. Their bodies were strange to. Very muscular. Shoulders hunched forward. The third had a relatively normal face, but they all shared long fangs jutting from the top and bottom jaw. Not to forget long tails flicked between their legs. The third one spoke, “Nice no witnesses this time. Get them-” that was when Felix had impulsively chucked the phone in his hands at the intruders. Not really the most appropriate response, but in the surreality the threat had still felt real. They had dashed for the warehouse which they thankfully hadn’t locked yet. A lazy game of cat-and-mouse had ensued. The three didn’t really seem bothered, maybe just a little annoyed. Those three trespassers were now busy prowling through the warehouse. “Kiddies, I have a bowl of chow waiting for me. I’m gonna need a take out at this rate” Felix could swear he heard a deep growl follow. A deep purr echoed through the building in advance of a silky female voice, “Dearies, sorry for the rude appearance we made, my mate is an i***t,” snarls, “We obviously haven’t come to hurt you. We will find you so please come out, purr.” “Their voices are getting closer.” Desi shut her eyes. “I know. Listen, we’re rats in a trap here. We need to-” “You’re not suggesting we make a run for it? They’ll fricking see us.” “Maybe,” A thought had started occurring to Felix now that the initial adrenaline has ebbed. Yes the inside of the building was confusing with shelves blocking off some parts and many twists and turns, but all the lights were still blaring on full, high-lighting every angle of the place. How did they shake their pursuers in the first place? Had they really? Sitting and waiting to be discovered didn’t feel comforting either. Felix had trouble keeping still alone safe in his apartment, this made him want to explode. “We’ll wait for the security guard then. He should be wondering why the lights are still on. He probably has a gun.” A howl shattered any false confidence he’d built up. “Screw it ankle biters! They’re ours” “You can think of a better insult than that Leander. Waste of a good collar, Rubber Claws… You’ve Really overused the ankle thing.” This fourth intruder’s voice was also feminine but with more of a growl than a purr. “There are two of them, so...” A fourth voice. Felix bit his lip, how many of these creatures were there? “You proposing we go halfsies?” “Yeah no I’m actually proposing we tear holes into your abdomens, then while you collect your guts we calm and collectively take the two back to Den.” Felix couldn’t combat his curiosity any more. He crawled to the door on his knees and with a shaky hand took hold of the doorknob. Desi widened her eyes at this and started voicing a bunch of ‘no’s’. Felix’s sense of judgement had apparently boycotted as he opened the door and took a peek. He did not see anything off the bat, but looking through the gaps between packaging and steel he made out the three original figures. The tails hanging from the end of were their tail-bones would be looked like those from lions, the yellow color of dry grass with black tufts of fur on the tips. Their heads seemed to be canted upwards. “We outnumber you.” “Cute.” Desi was behind Felix, fingers on the door. She started pushing it open ever so slightly. He followed her lead. Back and forth quarrelling from the two violating groups continued as Felix and Desi slipped out of the office room and moved in the direction of the hole in the shelf. The middle beast, who Felix assumed to be Leander, held his hands to the sides and something sickly glinting came out. They reminded Felix of the grim reaper’s scythe blade he’d seen in movies. A mini scythe each finger. “Oh my claws have been itching for some mutt meat!” With that he leaped to the shelving and started climbing. “Aww our talk is over? ‘Bout fricking time.” Two explosions were heard. Next thing black smoke filled half the room where they were located. “SON OF A FRUITSTICK!” Felix slapped his mouth shut. “FELIX!” Desi realized her mistake and followed his example. “Ey it’s our pickup. Think it’s time we go, don’t you?” A guy that looked about the same age as Felix emerged from the smoke. Felix vaguely wondered how he had gotten to them so quickly. Something more critical stood out to him however: this guy has a normal face. That was enough to convince them to go with him. Immediately the three started running for the exit, trying to utilize paths that weren’t too engulfed in smoke. Loud crashes echoed behind them as objects got smacked off. A Shelf started a menacing cascade directly towards them. Boxes fell left to right. “Hold on!” Normal face guy scooped them both up and sprinted to the open cargo door. Metal crashed behind them as they were vaulted out into the night air. Felix felt weightless for a second, then felt everything as he hit the ground and tumbled. His wind was knocked out leaving him breathless and in pain. He sat and tried to recover. While he tried to get his lungs to work again, more figures appeared out of the open doorway. The two monstrous mugged ones who had flanked Leander came out staggering. In the next instance Leander and a woman burst through them, clawing and biting at each other. Biting, yes. Felix notices the woman’s face was also beastly, but different. It seemed to be much longer, and she dug sharp canines into the other’s shoulder. She was smaller than her opponent, but that didn’t stop her from making the opposition roar in pain. “Salem.” the guy who had carried them coughed out. The other two were starting to get up and getting ready to help their boss. Leander was now on top, pinning the wolf woman to the ground. She bit at his face and kicked. Movement to his side caught Felix’s eye. Normal face guy just lost his name as Felix watched in horror as his face started elongating. Immense fangs emerged. His shoulders bulked out and black claws grew from rigid fingers. When he opened his eyes they were golden. He darted to cut of the advancing two. They growled at him and he growled back. Felix couldn’t get himself to move or even look away. His brain didn’t know what to believe, and he could feel his body shaking. The beasts pounced towards each other. Movements were quick and blurry. Snarls, growls and yelps accompanied bodies slamming hard onto the parking lot. Before the fight could escalate more alarms started blaring. The brawl broke apart as rapidly as it had started. Leander chucked the woman to the side and the newly turned wolf man went to her side. The other man with a lion tail rushed toward Desi and rag doll threw her over his shoulder. “Felix!” “No!” he started to reach out for her but felt his own feet leave the ground for the second time that night. Wolf face guy had him slung over his own shoulder, running in the opposite direction as the others. The woman was right next to him. Put me down! We need to help her! Is what Felix wanted to shout but could only hit the big guy on the back without much result. These people, if one could still call them that, must be immensely strong as he vaulted the gate with him on his shoulder like he was jumping a puddle with an empty backpack.