TEAM FORTRESS 2 IS A VIDEO GAME BY VALVE
The cover image is called Time to hunt (n.º 2) and it belongs to Emi-Ookami, from DeviantArt
Soldier never slept more than five hours, but that was more than enough for him. He was the first to wake up and also the first to go to bed. So, while the boys were watching T.V, reading or busy with their own business, he prepared all necessary for the next day, took a while to smoke a cigar calmly, put his pijamas on, laid in bed and closed his eyes.
It didn't take him long to fall asleep. That night he dreamed about the battlefield, but instead of fighting against men with blue uniforms, he was battling delicious pies and tarts, making them explode, filling all the land with strawberry jam and chocolate, and he pounced on them to eat them raw.
As always, he woke up feeling fresh as a rose. He couldn't remember a thing about his dream, but he was happy. He then took the clock on his night-table and was surprised to see that it was three in the morning. There were probably teammates who hadn't gone to sleep yet. It was maybe too early, but he felt he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. That would have been lazy, nevertheless, and if there was a sin he despised, that was sloth. So he got up and was careful not to make a sound.
He crossed the corridor towards the teleporter. He could hear Scout's snores and Spy's too—that frog pretended to be affected, but he sure snored like a damned pig! Once at the kitchen, he served himself a nice cup of coffee. He drank it alone, watching the tiles, arranging all the pending matters in his head.
A howl was heard so suddenly that it made him jump. He looked around.
"Scout, if this is one of your stupid pranks, I'm gonna...!"
But the boy didn't laugh at his own joke, so he was not around. Soldier checked the area and didn't see him. When he approached the door of his bedroom, he found him dangling over the side of the bed, snoring with his mouth wide open and drooling, and didn't even notice that he had come into his room.
Back to the kitchen, he found Demoman looking through the window with a frown.
"Wolves." Soldier muttered. "Reminds me of the months I spent in the woods of Poland, chasing Nazis...Ate quite a few..."
"That's not a wolf." Demoman said.
"What is it then?"
"I don't know...But that's not a wolf. It sounds like one...but not really..."
Soldier shrugged and sat again.
"Wolf, coyote, fox, whatever it is it didn't let you sleep, right?"
"Yeah, I just got to sleep when I heard it. That fucking thing..."
"I'm surprised it didn't wake the whole base up."
"It's here, around...It probably rummaged the trash can..." Demoman muttered, narrowing his only eye as he glanced again at the window.
They remained in silence for a short while.
"I'm going to end with that thing" Soldier announced, standing up and leaving his cup on the table. "We don't need any beasts around the base."
"Yeah, I'd sleep if it weren't for those critters. Let's blow it up." Demoman nodded.
Since they couldn't go back to sleep and simply forget about it, they immediately made a bet: the first to kill the creature would pay the other a drink. So they went to take their weapons and torches and got out of the base in silence.
It was a beautiful night, but they were in no disposition to admire the moon, the stars or the shadows of the mountains. Both men listened. They caught the cry of the crickets, the wind, their own steps, but no sign of the animal they were looking for. They walked around the base together but found nothing at all. There were a few tracks but it was hard to tell if they belonged to that night visitor or anyone from the team, left during their numerous shifts, or any other animal from the desert. Those old torches didn't help either. "It's great to have updated weapons, but they should invest a little bit in this stuff," Soldier complained.
Both men stopped half an hour later. They had looked around the base like two times and there was no sign of any living creature apart from themselves.
"Guess it bothered us for a while and left." Demo shrugged.
"Well, you can go to bed. I'll stay around for a bit longer, in case it's back."
"Nay, after this I won't be able to sleep. What about a poker game, laddie?"
"Let me have a shower first."
They headed back to the base, bothered about having lost time in such a stupid way but in a good mood. They decided to pay each other that drink anyway, just because.
"I thought it was Scout, really."
"Awaaawwwooooo! Pfft! Yeah! But he sounds more like a chihuahua."
The sound of their steps and their conversation blocked the sound approaching them. They were so sure that there was nothing around that they didn't notice the shadow which came to them, attracted by their voices—and most particularly, by Demoman's howl—, until the creature, recognizing them as a prey and not a member of the pack, pounced on them until Soldier fell to the ground.
Demoman was quick to react. Since using his explosives would result in his partner's death, he resorted to hitting the attacker with it. He just hoped he was hitting him and not Soldier, because the torches had fallen to the ground and he could barely see a thing. With a growl, the beast turned around at the human which was attacking it. It let Soldier go and jumped upon the Scotsman in order to get rid of that annoyance before ending with the one who's blood was already tasting. Demoman fell on his back and had to use his left arm, as painful as it was, as a shield, because the thing had the obvious intention of ripping his neck. Soldier had been bitten in most of his torso and had very ugly scratches in his arms, but lost no time once he was free. He grabbed his weapon from the ground and fired. Demoman's face was stained with blood.
Silence. Soldier walked to his teammate, shotgun in hand so tight it seemed it was part of his body.
"You okay?"
"Bloody hell!" was Demoman's response, which Soldier took as a 'yes'.
He helped him stand up and both came close to see the confounded beast closely.
Unless it could live with its brains out, it was dead, lying on the ground with its mouth open, still dripping blood. Soldier whistled with admiration when he approached, torch in hand. That thing was bigger than him. Its fur was long and greyish-black, concentrated mostly in its back, head and crotch.
"I've seen a few wolves in my life, but none as big as this one."
"Seems the Big Bad Wolf wanted a fight, eh?"
Demoman looked for some light to watch it better. Since his torch was broken he used Soldier's and crouched down. He frowned.
"...Too big for a wolf...Hold the light..."
Once he had his hands fee, he took one of its paws and was surprised to see its shape. It didn't even look like a paw.
Funny, but that had more like the shape of a human, big, clawed hand.
"...Soldier...I think I know what this is...And were sc-"
The light flickered and then fell to the ground. Demoman turned around. The torch had dropped from Soldier's hands because they were trembling. His whole body was trembling violently. Demoman stood up quickly. He tried to speak but before words could come to his mouth he felt his breath stop, as if he had jumped into freezing water. The trembling that affected his partner soon invaded him too.
With such a dim light and his helmet obstructing the view, Soldier could barely see what was happening. All he knew was that something felt very wrong, as if every fiber in his body was tensing, twisting, breaking. His nails were growing longer and sharper. He had shaved the previous morning but he felt hair sprouting in his face. He turned to look at Demoman, and found him hairier than usual, but he couldn't be sure, it was getting harder to think. He couldn't know what to do. He couldn't even bring himself to scream. None of them could do a thing, but feel.
Then, everything went black.
Two creatures, no men but no wolves either, ended the silence with a howl.
Demoman was the first to open his eye. He closed it immediately, because the sunlight hurt him, and took him a while to open it again. He touched his forehead. Oh, goodness. What...? He looked around, and the first thing he found was Sniper's long legs.
With the cup of coffee in his hand, the Australian contemplated the scene with a pretty much blank expression.
"Morning." he said.
He sipped again, as Soldier got up from the ground without a helmet on his head, and then he pointed at them.
"What did you guys drink last night?"
Soldier realized he wasn't pointing at them but at what they had been using as a pillow. The remains of a mule deer, whose guts were spread all over the place. Demo and he had its blood on their hands and mouths—darn, he could taste it, even. His partner stood up with a jump and contemplated the corpse with horror.
Sniper sipped again calmly. He had also eaten raw meat in the outback, but at least he was sober when he did so. Oh, well. At least someone had had fun that night.
He turned to leave when Demoman grabbed him by his shoulders.
"Sniper! Sniper! Oh, hell! We did it! That beast bit us! It was a werewolf! A bloody werewolf! And we turned too!"
Sniper tried to draw a smirk. Or not. What he showed to him was more like a meaningless lip movement.
"Sure."
"I'm telling you!" Demoman insisted, almost shaking him. He had spoiled his shirt with the blood.
"Werewolf?!" Soldier faced him. "That thing was a werewolf?!"
Memories from the night came to him. It was strange, they felt more like vivid dreams. He retained some feelings which confirmed they were real. The smells, his heart racing at the sight of that deer, the fury with which Demo and he killed and devoured it. Darn, he remembered now. Where was that wolf? He couldn't remember where the body was. Anyway, what had happened to them seemed like a good proof.
"Shit!" was all Soldier could say at that realization.
Sniper made his way back to his van, rolling his eyes. Werewolves. Well, at least they didn't wake up in the enemy base dressed up as women that time.