The Wolf Code

Chapter 18

“Let’s go!” the Sheriff said, yanking her off the ground and onto her feet.  Erica squinted as the flash went off, tears still running down her face.  “Look up!” the man shouted.

She didn’t move, preparing herself for another blow. 

“Are you deaf?” the Sheriff yelled in her face, his breath reeking of coffee, his eyes wild.  “Look.  At.  The camera!”

“No,” she muttered.

She hit the floor before the pain registered, but she didn’t care.  She and her friends were going to die here; she knew it.  There was no way she was going to give him the satisfaction of following his orders.  If he was going to kill them, he was going to have to work for it.  Erica was not going down easily.

He yanked her up again, and this time, she threw her head back and smiled when she heard a crack and he stumbled backward.  He dropped her, covering his nose and squealing like a stuck pig.  But Erica stayed on her feet.  She ran up to him, kicking him hard in the groin and again in the face, then running out the open stall door with her hands still cuffed behind her back. 

She ran to Danni’s stall, turning around and trying to open it with her hands behind her back.  The handle was so high that she had to stand on her tip toes to reach it.  She screamed in frustration, but the rusty latch would budge.

“Erica, run and get help!”  Danni shouted.  “Don’t waste time, run!”

Erica looked at Danni, then at Jessica, who was still lying unconscious in the stall next to Danni, then she looked back at the stall she’d escaped from.  The Sheriff’s was still groaning and retching, his whimpering almost pitiful.  But she knew as soon as he recovered, he would be on his feet, and he would kill her.  It was only a matter of how long he would drag out her suffering.

She had to run.

“I’ll come back for you,” she promised, then turned and ran with her arms behind her, trying to stay upright despite the drugs that were still coursing through her veins.

She ran out the open barn door and skid to a stop just in time to avoid being seen by a man getting into her car.  She pressed against the barn door, hoping the dark shadows and the moonless night would work in her favor.  The man didn’t appear to notice her, getting into the car and driving off without a backward glance.  Erica felt sick when she realized that he was probably taking it somewhere to ditch it, making certain that their families would never find them and never know what happened to them.

Stop thinking about that, and stay calm! Erica thought angrily.  There was no time to freak out.  She had to stay calm and pay attention or they would end up dead.  She had the upper-hand right not, and she wasn’t going to mess that up by freaking out like a little kid.  She had this.  She had to believe that she could get away and stop getting into her own head.  There were a lot of them, but they weren’t immortals.  They had weaknesses, and she had to capitalize on those flaws.

The Sheriff roared from behind her, but he was far away, and as soon as he yelled, he started retching again.  She didn’t have much time, but he was still incapacitated, and this was her chance.

She ran into the woods, taking her chance with the forest since instead of the road.  She didn’t know who she could trust in the town, and the guy who took her car had gone that way.

She tried to stay upright, leaning back a little so she didn’t pitch forward when her hands were stuck behind her back and unable to break her fall.  Running as fast as she could, she ignored the branches and leaves that clawed at her body and slapped her in the face.  She had to find someone to help, and she was hoping that there was a neighboring farm on the other side of the wooded area, or a ranger’s station.  Anyone that might help her and stop the Sheriff from killing her.

Her foot caught on a rock poking out of the ground, and she pitched forward at full speed.  She closed her eyes, preparing herself to hit the ground hard, but the impact never came.  Huge arms encircled her in the darkness, stopping her fall and yanking her off the trail and into the trees.  Before she could scream, a hand went over her mouth from behind, and a woman’s face appeared in the darkness in front of her.

“Don’t make a sound,” the woman whispered.  “Nod your head if you understand.”

Erica nodded.

“Good.  Turn around, and I’ll uncuff you.”

Erica did as she was told, the man’s hands on her shoulders to steady her as she turned.  Her eyes landed on the man’s face, and then she saw what was behind him.

She took a breath to scream, backing up into the woman who  was undoing her cuffs in the dark and almost stumbling to the ground.  The man holding her covered her mouth before she could scream, and the cuffs came loose and dropped to the ground.  The woman behind her turned her almost roughly, shaking her a little as she trembled and shook her head.

“You have to get it together,” she said in a hissed whisper.  “We can’t sit here and coddle you until you can handle this.  Yes, there are werewolves in the woods.  But the man you ran from is more dangerous than anything you see here.  I need you to stay calm and listen to me, got it?”

Erica nodded.

“Good.  Now, how many girls are in the barn?”

Erica closed her eyes and thought back, knowing she’d seen more than just her friends.

“My two friends, and there’s another girl, maybe two.”

“How many men guarding the barn?”

“I didn’t see any.  The Sheriff came to take pictures of me, and I headbutted him in the face and ran.”

“Good for you,” the woman said.  “How many cars in the parking lot.”

“Five?  Maybe six?”

“Well go with six.”  The woman looked up and over Erica’s shoulder.  Erica fought the urge to look, too.  “I need you to stay with Hannah and Laken.  We can’t risk you two being in the way when we do this, okay?”

“Hannah?” Erica asked, looking into the woods, shocked when she saw a girl a few years younger than herself astride a massive wolf in the darkness.