Viper grinned a little. “A motorcycle club in Minnesota, your riding time is limited to about six months a year. So, every Christmas we go visit our friends in Jacksonville for a week of riding.”
“You ride your bikes to Florida in December?”
“No, we load them into a trailer and a couple of the guys drive them down. We get a block of hotel rooms near the beach, most of us fly down there and back. Most of the club goes, we leave the day after Christmas and come back on January 3rd.”
That actually sounded fun. “So I have to buy my bike soon, then.”
Doc shook his head. “Actually, it’s a good way to try out a few. There’s a rental company down there some of us use if we don’t want to haul our bikes down. You could try a few, ride them hard for a day and see what you think. That way you don’t have to make your decision until spring.”
I had fun, and before I went to bed I had one more thing to do. “I need to call a friend back at the compound, let her know I’m all right and see what happened.”
“I’ll take you, Vivian. I’d rather not see you out in your car in case the license plate is being watched for.”
We drove to the suburbs, finding a pay phone outside a Burger King near I-94. I had a pocket full of quarters, and I put a bunch in after dialing the number. After a few rings, Beta Charles answered the phone. “Charles, it’s Vivian. Can you talk?”
“Just a minute.” I heard him close the door. “Don’t tell me where you are, I’m under Alpha command to find you. Just tell me you are safe.”
“I’m fine, Charles. How is the Alpha?”
“He’s in the woods, we’ve got a few warriors watching just in case. He flipped when he got back and found you gone. He took it out on Jessica before we could stop him.” My heart dropped. “She’s going to be fine, he lashed out and knocked her across the room. Her cuts and broken ribs will heal in a few days.”
“Tell her I’m sorry. Is she manning the clinic now?”
“Yes, for what it’s worth. We don’t have any pregnant females, so there isn’t much going on.” I resolved to call her when things settled down. “Keep your head down, the Alpha is calling around to other Packs, letting them know you’re not under his protection and offering a reward for your return. They all either know you or have your picture now. It isn’t safe to be anywhere around here.”
My heart sank, it was going to be longer than I thought. “Thanks Charles. I’ll call again in a week or so.” I hung up the phone, tears dropping down my face. I needed to talk to my parents. Dialing another number, I put more coins in and waited.
The phone rang and rang and no one picked up.
The next morning, I asked Viper if there was a way I could access the Internet without them being able to tell where I was using it from. He recommended using the computers at a public library. The next morning, after Snake and I cleaned up from breakfast, I had him take me downtown to the main library in St. Paul. I didn’t want to use my car, and I felt better if I was around one of the club members.
I logged onto my AOL account and went to the bulletin board that Were doctors had developed to trade information. I spent a while reading and catching up on the threads, and it was frightening. The disease or whatever it was, which we named Sudden Placental Ulceration/Detachment Syndrome, still had no known cause or cure. There were no known survivors, and no one had updated in days.
I tried calling Doctors I knew in Packs around the country, with no luck. Some phones weren’t answered, others were answered by someone who told me the Doctor was dead or had left. I tried my father again, several times, and no answer.
“Snake, can you do me a favor?”
He looked up from the magazine he had pulled from the shelf. “What do you need?”
I sat down on the arm of his chair. “I can’t get ahold of my parents, no one is answering at the clinic. It’s not like them, I’m worried. I want to go see them.”
“Where are they?”
“Zumbrota.” He nodded, it was about forty minutes south on Highway 52. “It could be dangerous, though. They could be staking out the place, if I’m seen it could be trouble.”
“We shouldn’t go alone, then.” He stood and pulled me after him. “Let’s see who’s at the Club.”
We drove back and found Moose in the garage, working on his motorcycle. He was what we used to call “big-boned” in school, he was about six-foot-two and three hundred pounds of intimidation, topped by an epic mullet. Hockey hair was a thing up north, and he fit right in with his blonde locks. “Feel like a road trip, Moose?”
“Where to?”
“Zumbrota, Dewalt here needs to check in on her parents while staying out of sight.”
He tossed the wrench back in. “I can do that, I need to go to Rochester anyway.”
Rochester was another half hour south. “I just need you there until I know it’s all right, then we can come back on our own.”
“No problem. Are we expecting trouble?”
“I don’t know, Moose.” Truly, I had no idea. I was hoping that being with humans would provide me some protection, they wouldn’t shift in front of them, but that didn’t mean it was safe. If they decided to kill the humans, they could do anything. “We should be ready for anything.”
“Cool. I’ll grab my stuff,” he said.
“Me too. Wait in the bar for me,” Snake said. When they returned a few minutes later, they each had a long bag with them, and Snake had a 1911 Government pistol in a shoulder holster. Bikers learned to shoot left-handed and carried on the right side, that way they could draw and fire while riding if needed.
Moose went a little farther, he had a pistol under each arm. “You know how to shoot, DeWalt?”
“Hell yeah,” I said. “What did you bring for me?”
“You can choose from Colt or Springfield,” he said. Opening up his bag, he had two more pistols in belt holsters.
The Springfield was blued, but the Colt was nickel-plated. I pulled it out, ejecting the magazine and pulling back the slide to eject the round. I caught it in the air as I released the slide. I sighted along the top. “Oooh, mama like,” I said. “I need to get myself one of these.”
“I’ll make you a deal,” he said. “I get an employee discount at the range, I’ll replace it.” I set it down on the bar, threading the holster into my belt where my sweatshirt would cover it. I put the magazine in, racking a round into the chamber before engaging the safety. I ejected the magazine again, pushing the last . 45 ACP round in, before slamming it home. I put my new pistol into my holster, and a spare magazine in my back pocket. “Do you have a permit to carry, Doc?”
“No, never needed one.”
“You should get one. I can give you all the forms tomorrow, you can file it by mail and have it sent to my gun shop. If you say you’ve been getting threats from patients, that should be enough for the Sheriff up there to sign off on it.”
“That isn’t a bad idea.” I was going to be spending a lot of time near humans, I couldn’t shift, and a pistol would even the odds if I ran into a wolf. He handed me a radio. “What’s this for?”
“Well, I figured you would want to stay out of the way until we know it’s clear. You and Snake can hang back a half mile or so while I check it out, and we can keep in touch on the way down so you can give me directions.” It worked well, we kept up a conversation on the way down, letting Moose drive ahead of us. When we got to the exit, we followed the road out of town along the river. We stopped a quarter mile before the turnoff to the Pack compound; if everything was all right, Moose would be stopped and turned around before he even saw it.
“Doc, the gate is wide open, no one here.”
My gut sank. “Drive down the road, the third driveway on the right is my parent’s house.” Never had I prayed so hard to be wrong. “Let me know if you see anyone.”
“I don’t see anyone, just a bunch of dead dogs. Your parents have some kind of kennel out here? Damn things are huge, they look like wolves, but they are bigger.”
“Get out of there, Moose. Something’s wrong.” A few minutes later, he drove back out. I looked over at Snake. “I need you to trust me, Snake. I’m getting out, I need you to come back and pick me up at,” I looked at the clock, it was just after noon, “five o’clock. Give me a call on the radio before you drive in.”
He looked at me. “I can’t leave you alone, DeWalt. Viper would kill me.”
“Then just stay here and keep the radio on. I’ll call if I need you.”
“Wait a minute.” He opened his case, pulling out an AR-15 with collapsible stock, it had a reflex sight and a carbine-length barrel. “Take this. Fire three times in an emergency.”
“Thanks, Snake. Stay here, please trust me.” I shouldered the rifle after getting out, closing the door I pulled on gloves as I prepared myself for what I would find.
No one could be prepared for what I saw. My heart broke as I saw my friends, pack mates and parents dead and broken in the snow, on the porches and in the homes. Mixed in among them were a half dozen wolves I didn’t recognize, probably from whatever Pack overran my own. I was crying as I carried the dead wolves one by one into the Pack House. The nights were cold, the bodies stiff and frozen. I had to use shovels to break some of them out of the snow and ice.
The doors to the houses had been broken down, and the safe room breached. The safe was missing from the Alpha’s office, along with all the drugs from my father’s clinic. They had taken their time, ransacking each house for valuables and taking the newer vehicles with them.
If there were any people left alive, they were females that had been carried off, destined to be force mated and bred.