4:30 AM. Ahnah was helping load something into the bag on Walter's back.
"Here. That should keep ya."
"Thanks."
"Just get that wolf away from our territory. The villagers worry enough about it."
"Don't you worry. Walter and I've got this handled." Chuck elbowed Walter's side.
"Well, God bless you. Now, this could just be a typical wolf, so don't get your head full of those make-believe urban legends."
"Understood, Sergeant." Walter joked, along with a fake salute.
She laughed.
"I'm not playing with you Walter," Ahnah joked as well. They laughed, only for a short time though, seeing Wallace make his way over.
"So, who's ready to slay some meat?" Wallace boasted. Walter groaned as Chuck hit Walter's arm twice with his knuckle, laughing under his breath. "C'mon, let's go," he spoke, the men walking over to board the Humvee.
It was some time now, the soldiers riding past the border for about half an hour. The area was thick with snow, and a bit chillier. The soldiers bundled up with comfort to protect themselves from the ice-cold conditions.
"Okay, NOW. Men keep an eye out. You're watching for a moving gray figure on four legs in the background, understand?" commanded the Colonel.
"YESSIR!!"
Chuck looked back at Walter. "Do you think this will work?"
"I don't know, man," Walter let out an exasperated sigh. "I just want to head back."
"So then, why did you agree?"
"Because, I assumed by now we should've seen something," Walter replied.
"Y'know, you're right when you're right," Chuck said as he stood in the Humvee. "Ey, let's speed this slow sonnuva gun up more, huh? BOOST IT UP!"
"Yessir!" A lower rank soldier obliged.
The rest of the Humvees followed suit. They jetted through the powdered snow which ran off the sides of the vehicle like rushing, splashing rapids.
"SLOW IT DOWN A LITTLE!"
"I saw something!" A soldier screeched.
"DON'T MAKE ME REPEAT MYSELF!" The Colonel roared at the soldiers. The Humvees hit their breaks, soldiers jerking forward. The Colonel took out his binoculars, all Humvees coming to a complete stop.
He looked ahead, needing total silence.
The soldiers were silent.
"...Nothing," he stated, lowering his binoculars.
"OVER THERE!" someone yelled, pointing at a flicker of gold shimmering in the distance, next to the edge of the forest.
"FORWARD, MEN!" the Colonel roared, the Humvee rocketing ahead at full speed in the distance of the light. It was running fast too. They drove by fresh paw prints in the snow. "FASTER, BOYS!! We got THIS!!"
Could it be? Walter thought, thinking for a little more than a moment if this urban legend could be real. Moment of truth. They finally drove by the one responsible for making the paw prints. Turns out it was the ordinary gray wolf they were looking for in the first place. BAM. The Colonel's Humvee crashed into a tree. It gave way to some cracking ice, which it revealed they had travelled onto.
"MEN, GO AHEAD!" The Colonel shouted, emerging from his Humvee. Another Humvee spun out of control. The ice was cracking and breaking at an unsteady pace.
Exactly as being on the army front, a show of unsettling nightmares occurred. Soldiers crying out in fear, trying to regain control and bring their Humvees to a stop. Pre-cracked edges of sharp ice shards positioned itself upward for Humvee #4 to slam into. Its passengers were thrown into the freezing water. Even though the ice was bitter cold, the stinging sensation felt hot. The four army men splashing in unavoidable freezing water cried out in agony. "ROY!" Another soldier in Humvee #7 yelled out as his partner drove them away from the chaos, only to not look where he was heading.
They drove over much looser, thin ice than what their buddies faced. The Humvee brought the soldiers underwater as they struggled to unstrap their seat belts. The ice sheet from the breakaway thin ice resurfaced on top of the hole, imprisoning the army men below.
"This can't be happening..." Chuck murmured as he witnessed eight of the men go under ice, four per Humvee. There were eight Humvees total, meaning eight men decided to stay back at the camp. What smart men they were.
"Chuck, we need to get out of here, now."
"Walt, we can't just-"
"I'm no fool when it comes to danger, but even then I'd do my duty. This was nothing but a wild goose chase, and we're supposed to be protecting the Village, not losing our lives like fools!" Walter retorted as Chuck drove faster. "There are worse dangers than a lone gray wolf. God knows when those rebels could show up and gun down the whole town!"
"I hear ya, Walt. Let me just press a little gas on this old thing."
Too much gas. With the acceleration benefits of the ice, it seemed as if they were going a hundred mph.
"Chuck, get your lead foot off the gas! We're on ICE, man!"
"I'm trying, I'm trying! This STUPID thing's not responding!" Walter's nerves began to surface, because of anticipation. He saw an upcoming tree.
"GET IT OUT OF THE WAY!" Walter shouted, putting his hands on the wheel, helping Chuck steer Humvee #3 to the left. Success, but it was now riding vertically on its two right wheels, the two men struggling to stay in. Thank God for those seat belts. The Humvee landed back down with a bang, a loud crack sounding as it drove vertically on its left side. It landed down again. This happened a few more times, but like the ripples of a pond, it was smaller each time. The Humvee landed back in the center, normal mode, but still at the same speed. The crack in the ice was spreading in seconds.
"We're going to make it! We're going to make it!" Chuck shouted.
Too soon. A bump in the smooth plains of the ice they were driving on sent them flying into a gaping hole of water, landing the Humvee on the edge of it. They began sinking in. Walter undid his seat belt, and tried to help Chuck with his as they sank at a slow rate. Chuck was still trapped in the seat belt. Before Walter could completely help out, another Humvee, reading Humvee #5 on the side, landed close by. The collision sent Walter flying further into another gaping hole further down.
He opened his eyes to find blood trickling down his forehead, a mist surfacing across the whole area. He must've been out for about five minutes, looking around to find nothing, seeing no one. This mist came at a bad time.
Walter was in the hole of water, hanging on the edge of the ice with edges too steep to pull himself over. Sighing a sigh of contempt, he tried to hoist himself up again. No progress.
"This was nothing but a waste of time..." he sighed.
Looking around once again, his eyes scanned trees on the edges of the Clearing. Trees. More trees. An ice sheet over the entire area. The cold white sun. More trees.
At that moment, a flicker of gold. The same one from before. He knew he wasn't seeing things at that time. He waited, practically begging in his mind to see that flicker of gold once more to know that he didn't imagine it.
He got something more.
A golden creature that only the sun chose to shine upon approached. The physique, the face, snout and ears. Everything was that of a wolf. Those eyes must've been the most purple things Walter had seen in his entire life. He was wrong. The sun shone upon those pupils, and the color spread like wildfire. Such a sight that could only be imagined in folktales. A mix of magenta and purple, mulberry.
It was too late to admire the creature face to face, the beast sinking its jaws into Walter's exposed shoulder.
So this is it? I'm going to be killed by a beast from a folktale?
Grimacing through the pain, he felt himself being powerfully hoisted up over the edge. The Alabaster wolf saved his life.