A few moments later, the wolf was outside the door getting ready to ram its way inside. The small chairs and tables haphazardly tossed into place did little to stop the alpha from shouldering into the building. The hollow aluminum framing in the glass wall around the glass door did even less, tearing apart and shattering the thick glass out of the wolf's way.
What did cause the wolf to take its time, though, was the boy standing on the other side of the furniture pile holding up a familiar shiny metal object. Even though the boy had time to aim, he did not know much about guns and did not hold the weapon with the barrel level while aiming. Instead, he ended up shooting at a downward angle. Missing the wolf's head, the boy shot it instead low in its chest.
The bullet traveled through several inches of super dense muscle tissue while mushrooming and breaking apart before finally coming to a stop after smacking into one of the wolf's ribs. That rib, though, only cracked a little under the pressure. However, blood began running freely from the wound and dripping inside.
Knowing he had done little more than draw blood, the boy started drawing back the hammer once again as the wolf leaped into the building. Knowing another attack was coming, the wolf made sure to keep its head and neck above the weapon while in the air and simply slammed bodily into the boy while eating a third bullet to the chest.
Unlike the other two bullets that had ended their traveling by striking bone, the third shot struck low in the chest and traveled superficially just under the wolf's skin for ten inches down the length of its body before breaking apart and stopping. Even though the first bullets had struck much more vital areas, the third bullet ran amok through connective tissues in the wolf's chest and solar plexus
Staggering a little off to the side after ending its mad tackle, the wolf regains its balance with a loud growl that shudders the entire room before turning its head back to the boy. The boy was dazed on the ground with the revolver lying nearby but out of reach. The boy was barely even aware of the gun after smacking his head on the wall on the opposite side of the room from the door.
Just as the wolf was opening its jaws wide open to finish the largest threat it had encountered, an older woman's shrill screaming split the air a split second before a large and heavy computer monitor when flying through the air and smashed into the side of the wolf's head.
The monitor was heavier than the strike was strong and happened to push the wolf toward the side of its wounded shoulder which caused it to take a slight sidestep to catch its balance. By the time it turned toward the new threat another large and heavy object was already flying over and smashing into the wolf's snarling face. By now, though, the viscous crimson fluid draining out of the wolf's chest was flooding onto the boy like buckets of hot water to wake him.
Opening his eyes blearily to see a large bullet hole a little bigger around than his thumb in the wolf's black fur, the boy barely even thought about what he was doing before jamming the full length of his middle finger into the wolf's chest. Coincidentally his finger smashed into the first bullet he had fired, shoving the shrapnel even deeper around the damaged rib while he clawed about the inside of the wound. The wolf finally displayed real pain by yelping and hopping backward toward the door, but not before the rest of the office manager's front computer was thrown through the air to smash down on one of the wolf's paws.
No matter how big the wolf or where it came from, the bones of its paws and toes were still only so strong and could barely resist the crushing force of a computer tower shattering on its foot. A few of the bones quickly broke, causing the wolf to limp backward even further. The boy was still struggling to lay eyes on the gun with blurred vision but the elderly lady was shamelessly ripping drawers from her computer desk and lobbing them at the wolf in the simple hopes of buying time.
This grandmother was giving the big bad wolf a run for his money.
Until the alpha decided to disregard the wounded boy and turn its attention toward the elderly woman, baring its teeth once more and starting forward across the front room. Just as the wolf was lunging forward to ram its head into the elderly woman's body from over the office counter there came the sounds of numerous wailing sirens not far in the distance. Right after sending the elderly woman flying, it turned its head to look outside in the direction of those sirens.
Believing that this was the answering cries of competing predators in this world, the wolf carelessly turned around and made its way back outside even as the boy finally found the revolver by the time he got to his feet, though, the wolf was already outside and slowly trotting forward toward the entrance. The boy could only lean against the outside wall while watching the wolf head out towards the distant lights and sounds of police cruisers rushing over from the city.
With only two shots left, the boy drew back the hammer and leveled the gun barrel in the wolf's direction. His hand was shaky from the fear and pain and exertion he had gone through over the past few minutes but still he kept his arm up and steadied his breathing. The wolf was already thirty yards away when he pulled the trigger but with a body that big it was nearly impossible to hit.
The shot hit low in the wolf's back right haunch, causing the leg to buckle slightly and the enormous wolf to yelp the same way it had when its foot was crushed. However, the speeding cruisers in the distance were steadily coming closer and closer into view and there were still other wolves at work on the opposite side of the trailer park. For the sake of his pack, the alpha simply turned toward the boy and loosed a thunderous howl that caused the bones in the boy's body to shiver and shake.
The boy quickly found himself falling on his knees while his body continued thrumming and vibrating with the reverberation of the alpha's impossibly deep and booming voice. A second later, several softer howls sounded off like echoes in the neighboring areas. The other wolves clamped their teeth on their closest kills and started running away in the opposite direction of the highway.
Unable to do anything but watch as the wolf disregarded him, the boy simply knelt there covered in blood while the alpha walked calmly down the highway despite its multiple injuries. A few moments later, a group of five law enforcement SUVs parked in the road like a blockade a hundred yards out from the wolf who also came to a stop. Behind the SUVs were several smaller cruisers from which several officers got out wearing full tactical gear to approach the SUVs.
Seconds later, pairs of canine units were rushing out from around the SUVs to fill the road twenty or so yards ahead of the blockade. Even though they were specially trained tracking and combat animals with greater numbers, even these dogs could only wait back with their hackles raised and bark as if they were at the end of their chains. Seeing the fear in its 'competition' the alpha started forward once again while loudly growling.
Even from a few dozen yards away that growl was enough to make the front line of canine units take an involuntary step back as their husky barking rose a little in pitch. Now, though, one of the SUVs began broadcasting the voice of the officer inside. They asked for everybody who was able to get on the ground to get on the ground and stay as small as possible before getting out of his vehicle.
Once this commanding officer was in the road wielding a large shotgun, the alpha started to pick up more speed which belied its wounded front paw and back leg. Even though I was in the line of fire, all I could do was crawl back toward the doorway of the office building while every present officer took up positions around the front of the SUVs. Then, after a light shout, every gun that was trained on the alpha loosed a quick volley.
Lead slugs bigger than a common thumb all blasted through the air with the wolf's center of mass as their target. Even though some of them hit one another and created a shrapnel barrage among the others, most of the others still punched through the alpha's thick skin and muscles to shatter its bones while meandering toward organs. The spray of shrapnel even caused the wolf's neck and face to start bleeding from all over.
Canine units rushed forward after the alpha was staggered by the initial volley but the alpha was still alive enough to fight back against these smaller creatures. Two dogs that rushed in head-on to the wolf enough up rent apart by its massive jaws. Then the next volley of shotgun fire resounded.
The alpha's front legs buckled to bring it to a howling bow as the slugs ripped through most of its body, splattering the surrounding area with blood and bits of gore. Still, the wolf had the strength left to turn its head and rip the hind end off of a canine unit that had jumped on its back. Then, it simply lay there while huffing its last breaths while looking back in my direction.
If the alpha was smart enough to think, it was probably thinking about how things would have turned out had it taken its previous prey more seriously. If it had rushed through my own home to get things done quickly, it would have never been shot. If it had ignored my fallen mother to take me out in the doorway, it would have never been shot again.
If it had never been injured, it could have probably met the officers on the road before they ever let the dogs out or got into position and taken out most of their numbers.
Even I could not help but think about the what-if's while staring its its immense body that finally went still even as canine units continued tearing apart the hide of its chest, neck, and shoulders. If I had allowed myself to actually pay attention to my mother's last moments, I would have never left the doorway. As well, if I had never gone outside to check a 'drunken accident' my parents would probably still be alive.
Following the smells of the alpha's blood and wake of death, several injured canine units and a few anxious officers soon made their way over to the office building. The gun was left by the roadside when the boy retreated to the office building so there were plenty of questions. However, he was in no condition to give them any answers.
Eventually more law enforcement and even government agents showed to study and contain the situation. The boy eventually found himself in the back of a small armored vehicle where a nice and pretty lady was trying to help him recover and relax with food and drinks while talking to him. They had already examined the damage in the area which led them to his home.
From the traces of gunpowder residue left on the hand and arm of his father's ruined body they had already identified the boy's family based on the gun and could roughly guess the events that took place. She even tried to make a point of talking about how brave and strong the boy was to keep his wits, seek help, and continue fighting through everything that had happened. Sadly, the boy just slowly nodded along and would hoarsely croak out a few words now and then.
After a while of carefully gleaning bits and pieces of information, the boy was taken into temporary custody with the lady agent and then to a nearby hotel. Having the boy clean himself up, more agents with cases of equipment similar to those used at the trailer park were brought in. The boy was then given a full physical before being scanned with several different devices.
Despite being heavily bruised on his back and left shoulder from smashing into a wall, the boy was overall fine with normal blood pressure and sonograms for internal damage. However, one of the agents scanning his body with a large handheld device similar to a Geiger-counter soon frowned and performed a second and third scan with two other devices.
This drew the attention of all the present agents and even caused the lady taking responsibility for him to show worry.
"Is it bad? What numbers was he getting?" The female agent asks while trying hard to keep her voice level without any inflection.
Pursing his lips in thought as he reads the different scanners, the man says, "He was just bathed in the dire wolf's fluids earlier, so it's possible to mess up the reading. However, the first scan had three spikes at around twenty while the other two had matching spikes of fourteen, fifteen, and sixteens. His levels are all above 'natural', though."
Upon hearing this, the boy could not help but look up at the clustered agents on the other side of the room. He tried to keep his face smooth and calm but his thoughts were all over the place. The strange alien 'energy' reading from portals and the creatures that came from them were obviously what they were talking about.
That same energy was discovered in several people from his city who could now do things like jumping on top of a small house or dropping the temperature in a closed space to almost zero degrees. It became pretty clear from the way the group of agents all looked over at me that I now gave off the same energy signature as the big bad wolf. To some extent, anyway.
*