Chapter 50 - Birth of WULF
Canyon leapt for the male in a flying tackle, but like Six, this guy disappeared into thin air, leaving his clothes in a heap on the ground.
Canyon tucked his arms and spun to the left, avoiding the brick shed.
He hit the ground rolling, then was up and moving, looking all around.
A deep rumbling noise caught his attention, spinning him that way.
From deep in the forest, something was coming, big and fast. It snapped branches and flattened small trees like a hurricane, heading straight for them.
Uh, Timber, he said.
But Timber was in motion. He kicked at the clothes on the ground, then ripped the door to the shed open. Thirteen stood there, totally naked, in front of a floor to ceiling stack of army-green crates. He had an evil grin on his face and a grenade held over his head, with the pin in his other hand.
“Oh shit,” Timber said.
The rumbling, invisible hurricane was almost on them, pushing debris in front of it, sounding like a freight train.
Wood, dirt, and leaves peppered Canyon, and a thin beeping sound made him look twice.
Thirteen opened his hand and dropped the grenade straight down to the ground.
The safety lever sprang free, and Thirteen disappeared.
“RUN!” Canyon roared, turning and sprinting away. The shed would mostly contain one grenade, but if there were more—
We gon’ die! Timber shouted in ruhi, making Canyon run faster.
BAM.
The first explosion sounded flat and unimportant, like a car backfiring.
BA-WHOOMP.
The second explosion started a cavalcade of blasts. Canyon sprinted for his life, planning to shift relentlessly at his first injury, knowing it wouldn’t be enough. He and his brother were going to be turned into Swiss cheese—
A wave of cool pressure rushed in, seeming to tamp the still-exploding shed to the ground.
It picked Canyon up, carried him through the air like a leaf, and deposited him safely and right-side-up onto a tree branch thirty feet away.
Canyon grabbed tightly onto the tree trunk, while Timber was placed in the same tree on another branch, just as gently.
Canyon sat shakily down on the branch, checking he still had all his body parts. Timber began to laugh.
What are we doing up here? Canyon said, relief making him giddy.
Your guardian angel must be working overtime.
Another explosion. Trevor’s not going to believe this. Or like it.
I don’t fucking believe it—especially the mouse part.
The what?
He turned into a mouse.
Sounds painful.
Looked painful, too! I’m freaking out here—how do they get so small?
Hold up—are you serious? There’s no such thing as mouse shiften.
I’m telling you, I saw it, Timber insisted. He hooked an elbow around a tree branch, then pointed at his face. With my own eyes.
Must be a trick.
No trick. I saw it. I smelled it. One minute man, next minute mouse… then big explosion.
Yeah, I remember the big explosion part.
Canyon gestured to the explosives shed which was now a loose collection of shattered bricks in the middle of a deep, smoking crater.
The shed hadn’t so much exploded as it had…
collapsed like a giant lid had been dropped onto it, squashing it into the ground, containing the heat and the blast in a small area.
Six’s computer setup lay in the crater, the metal melted and bent, and the electronics misshapen and strewn around.
“Miracle,” Timber said.
You ain’t lying. There’s no way we should have lived through that. He gestured widely. There should be bricks everywhere.
Canyon jumped to the ground. He patted himself down. He really was in one piece. His uniform wasn’t even burnt.
Thank Rhen, he thought, but something inside—his wolf maybe—said it wasn’t her who saved them. Who then? Canyon thought. He couldn’t think of anyone powerful enough to contain an explosion like that.
Timber jumped to the ground next to him and pulled out his phone, mashing buttons. He swore and held it up. “No communications still. I can’t even make a phone call or send a text.”
Canyon grunted and headed for the crater.
“This sucks,” Timber said, following him. “We’ve got to tell Trevor about the mouse shiften.”
Canyon stopped walking and faced his brother. Are you fucking with me?
“No way, wolf. Swear. He turned into a mouse.”
Canyon shook his head slightly, not ready to believe it. He headed to the crater instead.
I heard beeping right before the blast, he said. Sounded like Predator rolling in.
“Hope not.”
I’m not too worried about Predator, the software can go in any tablet—but that was my best trike.
Canyon spotted a tiny wheel dismayingly close to the crater.
Here it is, he said, with little hope the trike would be reparable. He knocked detritus out of the way and picked the trike up by its robot arm. Surprisingly, it was still in one piece. One tire was askew, the robot arm looked bent, and Predator’s screen was dark.
Canyon fixed the tire as best he could without tools, then examined the robot arm. He held Predator up to the sky, looking at it from underneath. Is it… bigger?
“Nah,” Timber said, but he looked again, a dubious expression on his face.
Canyon tried to pull the tablet that housed Predator off the trike, but it wouldn’t come.
It melted to the docking station.
Canyon pressed Predator’s power button. Nothing happened.
He held the button down. Still nothing happened.
He turned it over in his hands and then held down several buttons at once, trying the reset combination.
Still no response. He put the trike on the ground and stared at it, running through options in his mind.
“Fuckdamshitfuck,” he muttered.
The black screen exploded in blinding white light that seemed to sweep the forest like a giant laser scanner, and then it was gone. The tablet made a tiny beep, then a whine sound, then a normal beep. The screen turned on, showing the glowing black wolf’s head with silver fire for eyes.
“Well alright,” Canyon said, surprised but pleased. He picked up the trike and examined the docking station again.
Words flashed across the screen and were said in a deep monotone male voice.
:Unhand me—
“Predator, what?” Canyon said.
:I am WULF. Unhand me—
Are you seeing this shit? Canyon asked Timber.
“I see it. You better do what it says.”
Canyon put the trike down on the ground.
:Systems check—
The trike turned in a circle. It drove forward, then it drove backward. The robot arm reached down and tugged on the gimpy tire, pulling and prodding it into alignment.
Timber snickered. “That’s pretty cool.”
I never programmed it to do that.
The robot arm bent mechanically and stuck itself deep into the ground, then it lifted its chassis straight up off the ground until it looked like it was doing a one-armed handstand.
Timber laughed. “Now you’re just showing off.”
Canyon stayed silent. He crossed his arms over his chest and watched, disturbed.
Predator wasn’t programmed to do any of this.
Predator righted itself, then sat silently, the wolf head blazing bright on its screen.
Canyon gave it one last look, then headed for Six’s computer setup, meaning to pick through it for any recoverable data.
Predator zoomed past him. Using its robotic arm, it picked up a mangled piece of debris that looked like it could be a hard drive, opened a metal compartment on its chassis, dropped the thing in, then closed it.
It motored forward a few feet and picked up something else.
“Predator, what are you doing? Give me that,” Canyon snapped.
Predator turned in a slow circle until the screen faced Canyon.
:I AM WULF—
Canyon crossed his arms over his chest. “What commands are you running from? List them.”
The screen went black.
“Do you hear me?”
:I am Wulf running my own internal commands—
“What?” Canyon looked at Timber, confused.
Timber shrugged his shoulders.
Predator drove away, seeming to examine the debris on the ground. Canyon watched it darkly, his mind whirling.
Timber walked carefully around the crater, then he headed past it to the forest, saying. “I’ve got a scent. Mouse-boy is this way.”
Canyon found his rucksack and put it on his back, watching Predator.
Predator seemed to be watching him. Canyon didn’t say anything, he just took after Timber, following him into a trailhead.
After a moment he turned around. Predator was there, wheeling along the dirt trail behind them.
Canyon turned around, his mind working over Predator’s behavior.
It didn’t make sense, he didn’t like it, and he was going to get to the bottom of it.