The night is here and the moon is full. The colorful lights of the wall construction, with the sound of heavy machinery, make it feel like a funfair. The way they are building the walls makes it look like an endless gigantic apartment building when it's unfinished. The area is barren with sand, anywhere within the gradients between white, red, and black. Beyond the wall, visible through the exposed skeleton is the eastern forest, where the gray wolves live.
That's why Adalia and Catrina are here. To make sure no D-type bothers the process. They meet with the agents from the previous shift and exchange area assignments with their watches. Adalia is on Catrina's back the whole time.
As they approach the wall construction, Adalia sees a bright green light at the edge of her sight. She catches it and it moves to her shoulder. It runs away, she follows it and finds Kaiden waving at her behind a concrete pillar with a finger over his lips.
"Hey kitty, I think I'm gonna walk now," says Adalia.
"Okay," Catrina puts her down. "Off you go. Well, this is quite nostalgic, isn't it? Last time we're here this place is only grass and the wall is just a bunch of metal pillars." She looks up at the exposed part of the wall and its sparkling lights.
"Yeah, it is. I'm gonna go to the toilet real quick, wait here."
"Okay."
Adalia goes to Kaiden behind the pillar. She looks back, making sure Catrina isn't looking. "Hey, Kaiden!"
"Hi, wow you're big!"
His comment tickles Adalia. "Yeah, I'm 199 now. Just a little bit more and I'm there. Talk about a near miss."
"You're 2 meters in my book." He notices the ring she's wearing. It glistens from the many lights around them. "Cool ring. Catrina got it for you?"
"No, I took it from..."
"You stole it?" Kaiden looks unimpressed.
"It's not stealing. The owner turned, I killed him, he won't be looking for it."
"You're talking like Catrina right now."
Adalia doesn't want to continue the topic. "So, how's the thing?"
"Oh, yeah, yeah, the thing. Everything's good and ready, but the cake. Nobody has the cake." Kaiden moves and gestures as he explains. Adalia nods at every word. "So, now I have to make it myself."
Adalia tilts her head and squints her eyes. "You know you can buy something else, right? It doesn't have to be red velvet."
"I know, but you ask for her favorite and red velvet is her favorite and she's my sister so technically you're my sister and this is important for her and for you so I want to give the best and..."
"Ok, ok, ok. We'll do it your way. So, what's the plan?" Adalia smiles.
"Right, I told Matt to just buy the ingredients with the money..."
"Wait, is the money enough to make one?"
"It is just about for a medium one. So, it'll be smaller and less fancy."
"And that's fine. What do I do?"
"So, it's gonna take a bit more than 2 hours, so it'll be ready at about 10, maybe 11. So just keep Catrina away from that side, that part of the district, the north side." Kaiden makes big exaggerated gestures with his arms pointing in the general direction.
"Really? It takes that long to make red velvet?"
"Well, I have to make a Dutch oven too."
"Why not just buy one? It's fine if the cake is small. It doesn't have to be much. I know you love us. We know you love us, Kaiden. You don't have to push this much."
"But I want to. Besides, it's free to make one, almost. Aliks is my friend, they work at the foundry here."
"Ok, good luck then." Adalia pat's his shoulder before leaving.
Catrina is sitting on a barrel, hammer on lap. There are 2 other agents sitting beside her on a log. One has a spear and the other has a mace. "Hey Addy, this is Henry and Jeannie." Adalia shakes their hands. "How's the toilet?"
"I hope I never have to go back there." They both chuckle.
Their watches beep and flash, all 4 of them. "Attention agents, a C-type has fled into the north side of your assigned zone. Please dispose of it immediately."
Catrina stands. "We'll take care of it. Come, Addy. Let's finish our homework."
Henry gives a thumbs up. Jeannie nods.
"Shit," Adalia says in her head. "Ok, let's do this."
======================================
Novalie drops Kaiden at the foundry not too far north. She leaves him to wait for Matt at the gate. Kaiden goes inside. It's hot and bright red. Just a few seconds and he's already sweating. Aliks is pouring molten iron into a mold. They notice their friend.
"Ayo, Kai!"
"Hey, Ali."
They do an overly convoluted friendship handshake that looks like a dance of flurry of slaps and claps.
"So, what got your ass up in here?"
"Alright, can you make me a Dutch oven, please?"
"A Dutch oven? Sure thing, bro. I'll do it after I finish this batch." They pour down another mold.
"How many more, exactly?"
"About like..." They look back at the batch of molds. "60 maybe 70 more."
No, He cannot waste time. He won't let himself to. "Alright, no. How do I make a Dutch oven?"
Aliks looks at their friend. "Is this for the shit everyone's talking about, about your sis?"
"Yes, it's for the surprise party thing and I can't waste time."
"Alright, you know how to make a mold, right? Do the sand bit yourself, I'll help with the rest of the thing."
"Alright thank you. I love you." Kaiden leaves.
"I'm not into dudes," they say.
"Neither am I," Kaiden replies. It's an exchange they do every time they help each other.
It takes a while to make the molds. Aliks guides Kaiden through the process and in the end pours the metal for him. After about 1 and a half hours the oven cools down enough, and Aliks finishes their work, for them to do finishing work. The Dutch oven is ready to use.
Novalie is already waiting outside with a bag of ingredients on the passenger's seat and a bag of coal on the back. They go a little further north into the parking lot of a half-finished building. No one seems to be around. They set the oven and coal on a metal plate to not leave any burn marks.
They have to improvise a lot for the utensils. A bowl is easy to get. Wire mesh can be cleaned and folded to be the sieve and they use forks taped onto a drill as a whisk. Because they only have an oven, they have to do the baking 3 times.
Kaiden squats beside the fire, watching and turning the oven. Novalie collects all the dirty materials no longer used.
"Hey, dude. I'm going to clean up all these over there." She points at the unfinished building. He looks at her and nods.
The building is cold and dark. The pipes, though exposed, are installed so the sinks should be working. She hears running water at the end of the hallway. She follows the sound.
The door to the toilets is broken. Novalie can feel some sort of presence from inside from the irregular noise. The floor is wet. The closer she gets to the doorway, the quieter her footsteps are, and they feel somewhat sticky. She peeks in.
A werewolf, wearing tattered shirt and trousers, is standing in the middle of the wrecked toilets, growling. Its eyes glow blue. The stalls all broken down and all the pipes on the ceiling are sliced open, raining water on the beast, washing its massive numerous wounds.
It sniffs the air. Looks at the doorway. finds Novalie standing there. Pounce her. Pins her down. It snarls.
Novalie screams. Claws dig into her flesh, squeezing out her blood. Her face is wet from its drool.
The monster backs its head, charging for a bite. It opens its fanged jaw and Kaiden smacks its face with a wrench and stabs a crowbar into one of its eyes. The beast flails back in pain.
"Get to your truck, I'll be there!"
Novalie says nothing. She picks herself up and starts running.
"Thank you, Catrina," he says under his breath, reminiscing all the time his sister asked him to spar.
The werewolf stands up and growls at him. Kaiden looks around for something, anything. There are pipes. He smashes one of them, shooting pressured water at the wolf's face. He takes the opportunity to run.
Novalie rushes out of the building and goes in her truck. Her hands are shaking, giving her trouble putting in the key. The engine rev just as Kaiden gets out.
"Come on!" Novalie shouts.
Kaiden picks up the batter bowl, puts it on the passenger seat, and runs back.
"Where are you going?" Novalie shouts.
"Getting the cake!"
"What?" She hears him, she just doesn't believe him.
Kaiden grabs the metal plate where all the business is happening. It is scorching, but his adrenaline is charging into battle he feels nothing.
The beast is at the door, barking and howling at them. Kaiden runs to the truck and throws himself onto the back. The monster rushing in.
"Go, go, go, now!" Kaiden panics.
Novalie floors it. The engine roars and the wheels spin in place, shrieking, a few moments before the truck moves. The beast is just a hair too late, pouncing at the ground. It hasn't given up; it chases the truck.
"How do you know there's a werewolf there?" Novalie shouts.
"Adalia! She texted!" He shouts back. "Have you sent a wolf alarm? I can't do it now; my hands are burning."
"Shit, fuck!" Novalie stabilizes her truck to give herself a chance. She pushes a button on her watch and twists it until it clicks and beeps. Adalia and Catrina, some distance away, receive the signal and follow the marker on their watches.
The truck is roaring and shaking. The items on the back are dancing and rattling. The embers from the coal fly off into the air. The beast is getting closer by the second.
"Nova, he's getting close!"
"Alright, hold on, let me try something!" She slams the steer to the left and drifts her truck into a concrete skeleton.
The wolf tries to follow, but it crashes into a scaffolding. However, it recovers and goes back into pursuit.
Novalie does her best. Passing and slipping through and between walls, pillars, and all sorts of other construction instruments that are lying around. The wolf pursues still. The stormy wind from moving so violently blows into the coal. Fueling and enraging the flames.
"Fuck! Ouch, ouch, ouch. Calm down! You're burning my hands!" Kaiden cries.
"Just fucking throw it away will you!"
"No fucking way I'm doing that!"
"Then it's either your hands or our lives!"
Novalie's phone rings.
"Fuck!" She curses.
"What? What is it?"
"It's my son."
"Can't you hang it up?"
"Shut up! You have your cake; I have my kid!" Novalie places her phone on the holder and answers.
"Mommy! Mommy!" Her son jumps around.
"Hey Felix, what is it? You're not in bed?"
"I draw this." Felix holds up a paper scribbled with crayons.
Novalie isn't looking at it. "Wow, that's amazing! You drew that? You're so talented. You really are mommy's boy." Her driving becomes clumsier. She bumps and scratches several things on her path. Kaiden is jumping on the back just like everything else she keeps back there. "Is that all you're calling me for, honey?"
"Nova, he's getting closer." Kaiden's voice is shaky and melodic.
"No."
"No? What is it then?"
"Um..."
"What is it, Felix? Please tell mommy what you want." She's getting impatient, nervous, and jumpy. Like a spring being compressed or stretched to the max and beyond to the point of deformation.
"Ah, ah! I know! I know! Mommy, I want pizza."
"Pizza? You want pizza?"
"Yeah."
"Why don't you ask your dad?"
"Daddy say ask mommy."
"He's getting closer, Nova."
"Is that so, honey?" Novalie mutes her mic and takes a massive breath.
"FUCK YOU, RODRICK!!!" She screams her life out of every fiber of her being, cursing her husband.
Novalie smiles and unmutes her mic. "Yes honey, you can get pizza."
"Really? Yay! Can I get meat lovers with stuffed crust?"
"Yes, Honey, you can get anything you want."
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Thanks, mom! I love you!"
"I love you too, honey." Novalie kisses twice before closing her phone.
A cement truck is ahead.
"FUCK!!!"
She slams the steer. Too late. The truck crashes with enough momentum to throw itself spinning. It turns the wrong way forward. She catches the beast's glowing gaze. Their eyes lock. She cannot avert her vision from it.
"Kaiden! Be my eyes!"
"Alright! Got it!" He looks over the blazing inferno he's holding. The light makes it difficult for him to see. "Shit," he says under his breath. "Uh... Left, right, right, left, right, left, left, left, I mean right!"
They barely miss all the various random things scattering around the field.
"Focus, Kaiden!"
"I know, I know." They're heading into a brick wall. "Hard left! Turn left!"
Novalie looks at the side mirror for a second to make sure. She holds the gear and spins the wheel. The truck breaks left, but there's plenty of momentum still. Enough to spin the truck back the right way forward.
Novalie switches the gear. Balls to the walls.
Too late.
The truck slows down enough for the wolf to catch up.
Kaiden is frozen cold. Cold sweat, cold air, rushing wind, lack of sun, and the fear of the beast. Everything piles on top of one another. It's like he's drifting in space in a collision course with an ice comet.
The wolf grabs onto the truck.
Adalia drops down from a nearby building onto the back of the truck, breaking the suspension. Her flaming sword cuts the beast's arms clean off. Its shoulders fall down and it spins. In the split second she has left, Adalia cuts off one of its legs. All the blood would've smeared her if the truck isn't going so fast.
"I don't think Catrina sees you. You ok, Kaiden?" Her hair waves like a golden flag, reflecting the lights from the truck and burning embers below her.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Thank you." His voice is very breathy. There's still so much tension in his nerves.
"That's good. You finish that cake, ok? I can't wait. Your cooking is our favorite, after all." Adalia jumps off the truck, leaving Kaiden and Novalie.
"Hey, dude, is he gone?" Novalie asks.
"Yeah, yeah, Adalia took care of him. You can stop." His body feels weightless and heavy as lead at the same time.
The truck slows down and stops.
The wolf loses its arms and one leg. It drags and spins on the rough rocky asphalt and sand, pushing the crowbar deeper into its skull and through its neck. Bones crack in every rotation. It loses momentum after it's covered in blood and bruises. The glow in its eyes disappears.
With the scarce energy it has left, with its broken body, with its elbows and one foot, it crawls. Somewhere. Anywhere. Every inch is a mile of pain.
A black leather shoe steps on its bleeding elbow. "You're Makoto, right," Catrina says.
He turns his eyeballs up. All he sees is a black blob silhouette in the middle of a deep crimson background. "Where... Am... I..?" His voice deep, gargles, wet, muddy, coarse, windy, and hollow, but, most of all, bloody. Blood sprays out his lungs with every syllable.
"You're in the wrong place, at the wrong time, buddy." She presses her foot down on his elbow, twisting it left and right.
"I... Am... Sorry..."
"Don't worry, you're going to a place where your sins will be cleansed." Her hammer beeps and activates.