Blood and Gears

Blood and Gears extract

Suddenly, Zach and Vincent heard howling in the distance. An icy feeling of dread went down the two men’s spines.
“Vincent? Do you hear that?”
“I do! Fuck! Get to our guns!”
The two rushed over to fetch their weapons but Zach looked back to see glowing yellowish eyes. However, before they could reach their weapons, a giant shape leaped out of the darkness and pounced on Vincent. Zach gaped with pure horror at what looked to be a giant wolf with spines.
“Zach, run! Get your gun!”
Vincent punched at the wolf, scrambling away from the beast. Reaching for his pocket, he brandished his knife. When the wolf leapt at him, he jabbed the knife into the wolf’s paw, barely wounding it, yet it still bought him time to escape. Horrified at what was happening, Dimitri got up and ran over to the rest of the team who were still asleep. More of these spiked wolves showed up.
Zach and Vincent reached for their weapons but just as Zach was loading his gun, a wolf pounced at him, knocking him to the ground. Zach then tried to use the butt of his rifle to wallop the wolf in his face. A wolf approached Vincent, but he blazed his gun at the wolf killing it. He then wounded the wolf that was attacking Zach, forcing it to retreat. The howls were getting louder and louder however, as more wolves were approaching. Dimitri ran to the sleeping Alexi and tried shaking him awake.
“Wake up, wake up, monsters are coming! Lots of them!”
Alexi groaned at first until he eventually said, “Eh, what? What is it, kid?”
“Your friends need help! They are being attacked by the monsters!”
Alexi slowly started to get up. His frustration at being woken up vanished when he saw the wolves.
“Wolves. Wolves! WOLVES!” Alexi yelled.
The sound of wolves woke everyone up from their sleep. Eventually, Vincent and Zach managed to retreat to the campfire while the rest of them had just opened their eyes to see the glowing eyes of the wolves starring right back at them.
“Form a circle! Don’t let them near!” Michael yelled.
The team scrambled to get their weapons and readied them for the oncoming attack. The wolves began their own encirclement but they seemed to keep their distance from the campfire. Dimitri kept as close to the campfire as possible, hoping that the blazing heat of the campfire would keep the monsters at bay. The spotlights on the guns illuminated small patches and the wolves seemed to stay away from them. A wolf slowly started to approach.
Its saliva drooled as it looked Michael in the eyes. It was most likely the Alpha male of the pack because it was the biggest and toughest of the creatures.
“What is with these wolves? What do they want?” Zach asked curiously.
“Meat,” Michael began to explain. “We are meat to them, not often that you find meat in the Badlands. As for spikes well, lessons to be learned from WW3, don’t experiment on wolves. If you do, you get these bastards!”
The Alpha approached closer to the campfire, but Dermot fired a shot. It didn’t hit the Alpha, but it did cause him to growl and start to back off. They were waiting for the team to come into the darkness. However, the mood suddenly changed and the wolves seemed to be alarmed.
What sounded like a foghorn bellowed through the night. The wolves stopped what they were doing, and the eyes of the Alpha widened. He howled, ordering his pack to retreat from the area. Though a brief sense of relief went through the men, they started to get uneasy as the horn sounded again. Hearing the horn again and seeing the wolves retreat, Dia asked Chang, “Where are they gone?”
“I don’t know, but they must be retreating. I suggest we do the same!”
It was then that they all felt the ground shake very rapidly, causing all of them to start shaking. As they readied their weapons, they could see red lights in the pitch-black distance of the night.
“Sir?” Zach said to Michael.
Michael knew all too well what was coming.
“Take the kid, there is a nearby bomb shelter, get him there, right now and just stick with us.”
“Eh okay.”
The rest of the group gathered together and began to run; they did not want to fight what was coming.
“Wait, guys, what in the name of God is going on?” Zach asked as he grabbed Dimitri.
“The Black Mouth, Zach if you lose that little mutt, our little mission would be for nothing…oh and I’ve just got to love you…so don’t die on me!” Vincent replied.
“I don’t intend on doing that anytime soon!”
“Good boy.”
The horns sounded again as a giant foot stamped on the ground and emitted steam. Much to his horror, Zach suddenly found himself looking up at the most gigantic machine that he had ever seen in his life.