Bloody Roar
Predator and Prey
Tuesday - 5:24 A.M.
The wheels of the Mercedes screeched across the gravel as it traveled down the road alongside the city park. It seemed to be driven almost mechanically by its operator, a burly man clothed in black from head to toe along with his black hat to match. Another man, almost identical, sat beside him just as silent. They appeared determined to get to their desired destination as the car slowly rose above the speed limit. In the back seat sat another of the black-suited men and one other: a middle-aged man wearing a shirt of dark red with a tie to match, brown pants, and a brown overcoat on top of it all. In his right hand he fumbled with a black computer disk, flipping it over onto one side and then back to the other. The sound of the rain pattering on the roof of the car gave him a steady beat for his activity.
The silence started to make him feel uneasy as he pondered about the future. Without looking up from the disk he spoke to the man seated beside him in a deep tone of voice that, along with the outfit he was wearing, would probably make him seem like a typical stereotyped private eye of the 1920's.
"How long until we arrive?" he asked abruptly.
The man seemed all too happy to answer. "Don't worry, Mr. Goldstein. We're about twenty minutes away now. Once we get through the park, we'll take Thorn Street and be there a short time after that."
"Good," Damon replied. There was still something bothering him, though. He could not help imagining the thought that he would end up like all the others. All of their past attempts at getting any ounce of information led to some strange disaster leading to the death of informants and investigators. This man, Damon Goldstein, had gotten farther than any hired investigator ever had. He had the information in his hand, a feat that no ordinary person could have pulled off given the situation. Damon was a master at work and was renowned for it as one of the best. Yet even though he was already with his pickup and was on his way back at that moment, he knew he was not safe. Something was following them; he could just feel it in his gut.
As the car continued on its journey, it came around to the other side of the park and remained alongside it. Damon always marveled at the sheer size of the place. It was a massive recreational area that consisted of multiple groves. At such an early time in the morning, though, there was no one around there except for the occasional hobo. He believed that someone could hide a body here and nobody would find it for days on end. As he slumped farther back into his seat, he knew the thought of that did not make him feel any better.
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Two shadowed creatures glided silently and swiftly from one tree to another, following the car from above.
"I'm getting tired of waiting," said one to the other as the car came to a stop at a cross-section, giving them time to converse. "I want to do it now."
"Don't be an impatient fool. Wait for the right moment and then you can have your fun."
The car rolled forward once again and the tailing creatures picked up speed in their pursuit.
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With a sense of tension in his action, Damon watched the man seated next to him reach one hand into the inside pocket of his black jacket and extract a cellular phone, which had almost seemed to perceive his desire for conversation by ringing.
"Yes, sir. We have him now. Yes, sir, I'll put him on." The guard finished his brief talk with the caller before handing the phone to Damon.
He took it into his grasp and pressed it to his ear. "This is Damon. You wanted to speak with me?"
His question was received by a gruff and familiar voice, which he immediately recognized as the voice of his client. "Damon, good job. You have the disk, I presume?"
"Well, Andy. It's good to finally hear from you. I've got the disk right here in my hand. You've got absolutely nothing to worry about now," he answered confidently.
The caller continued his questioning. "Good, good. Then everything went as planned?"
Damon suddenly sounded less confident. "Well, no. The informant was already dead when we arrived. He had been shot in the head. You could say he was executed. I managed to slip in and make off with the disk, though. At least the guy didn't die for nothing." Damon continued his report in a more comfortable tone as he stared at the disk in his hand. "We've been on the road now for over two hours and there's been no sign of any pursuit." He suddenly felt less duty-oriented. "Hey, Andy. You don't seem like your regular worrisome self."
"You don't know what that little disk means to us. With this information we can finally have a real lead in our investigation," Andrew, the client, explained.
As Damon began to feel the stress leave his body, a large branch shattered the windshield of the car and sent it spiraling out of control. He let the phone drop to the floor as he gripped the back of the front seat for support. Luckily, all of them had been wearing their seat belts, which kept them secured in their seats as the front end of the car slammed into a tree. Damon shook his head to relieve himself of any lasting dizziness before checking on the others' conditions. The man beside him was slowly regaining his bearings, as were the other two in front. The entire front of the car had been smashed inward due to the head on collision. Before he could ask what had happened, the roof of the car was suddenly peeled back like the top of a sardine can. Damon glanced upwards and reached for his gun, which had unfortunately slid under his seat. As he finally got a hold of his weapon, an arm reached in and brushed the side of his face as it grabbed the man beside him by his collar.
Fur? Yes, it was definitely fur; he was sure of it. In that split second, Damon was positive that the arm that had grazed his face was covered in fur. His quick lapse of thought cost the man his life as Damon witnessed the arm snap his neck with almost no effort. Without thinking, Damon raised his arm and fired a few shots at the creature, which had leapt away only moments prior to his assault.
Damon turned to the two remaining men in front of him and gave them his commands. "We have to get away! That thing is after the disk. We can't let it get its hands on it!"
The guards agreed and kicked open their doors, for they had been wedged very tightly due to the collision. Damon did the same and scanned the area for the enemy, but it was nowhere to be seen. He turned to face the other two, who had also armed themselves with handguns.
One of the men stepped forward. "You have the disk, right? Get going. We'll make sure you're not followed."
Damon nodded and remembered that he had instinctively placed the disk into his inside pocket moments before the car crashed. Knowing that it was extremely important that he should get the disk to his client, he made the decision to run. He knew that those men were sacrificing their lives for him to get away since they stood little chance against whatever that thing was. He turned to dash deeper into the park when he was abruptly halted by a powerful kick to his chest, knocking him onto his back. Looking up, Damon could barely make out his attacker through the mixture of pale moonlight and eerie street lamps nearby. He was right about the fur part, but it was not what he had expected. The creature was humanoid in shape but it was not wearing the fur like a hide. Instead, the fur was attached to its body. It looked like some sort of human and animal hybrid. He could see it had a snout and its fur was of a brilliant orange color. It was also wearing clothes, but Damon did not have enough time to see them clearly. He knew that the second he had taken to examine the creature would cost him as he noticed it was about to strike. But the attack had been interrupted as Damon thrust the barrel of his gun into the gut of the waylaid beast, which had not expected such guile from his victim.
The creature loomed over him, frozen in an attack position and awaiting the gun to fire a shot into its stomach. Its arm was extended outward with its palm open and claw-tipped fingers prepared to slash at his face. In that slight pause, Damon saw his attacker's face momentarily. To him it looked like some kind of a wild dog like a wolf or a fox. "What the hell are you?" Damon asked, partly to himself. He found himself unable to pull the trigger, mostly due to the shock and intense fear he was experiencing.
As an answer, the beast grabbed his arm and twisted. Damon yelped instinctively at the sudden pain and twisting of muscles. His palm was opened and the handgun slid out onto the ground. A shot rang out from behind and the creature. With its grasp still on Damon's arm, it looked up and focused its attention on the two men left that had been in the car. With pleasure and ease, it slung Damon at them, halting their assault. As soon as the three had gotten back to their feet, the beast had already begun its attack. One of the men aimed his weapon at it, ready to fire. But the attacker had already gotten too near and it grabbed his arm and squeezed mercilessly. Raising its other arm, it slashed downward and almost burst into mad laughter at the sight of the man's separated arm tumbling onto Damon. Without giving the second man a chance to act, it spun around and gracefully kicked him away.
My God. It's actually having fun, Damon thought at the sight of the creature's enjoyment. His ribs ached horribly and his head swam from all the commotion. All of his common sense abandoned him and he had been put into a state of panic. His training had taught him otherwise, but there was never a thought in his mind that he would come up against something like this. It was an enemy beyond his imagination; something that was driven by wild instinct and monstrous atrocity. There was nothing rational he could think of doing. His options had been exhausted.
"Okay, bastard! You want a fight, I'll give you one." Damon never thought he would lose control in a predicament like this. He was in a frenzy driven by adrenaline. Everything was a haze, as though he were looking through the eyes of someone else. "Come on! Fight me!" Grabbing the largest branch he could obtain, Damon swung it menacingly at the creature, threatening it. The beast, in response, watched him and burst out laughing. Laughing…, Damon pondered. He expected a blow to come from in front of him, but even that was a false expectation. It instead came from above, striking him fiercely in the neck and dropping him to the ground. Brought to his knees, he gazed frantically at the new attacker. He was a creature similar to the dog-like attacker, but this one was shorter and had brown fur. It looked like a creature he had never seen before and its claws were humongous compared to its body size. Fighting the two of them was definitely out of the question.
"What's the matter, tough guy? I thought you were going to give me a fight, hmm?" The orange-furred creature taunted him, leaning forward a bit. It chuckled as it spoke. "Run, coward. Run for your measly little life!"
Damon gritted his teeth at the humiliation, but he had no choice. This was his chance to make a quick plan and perhaps a getaway. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a handgun lying on the ground. He didn't care whose it was; he only needed a weapon. Also, the wrecked car was still nearby. A strategy formulated itself in his head in the few seconds that he had to spare.
"Just try and catch me, you goddamn freaks." Damon smirked, then somersaulted backwards, rolling himself over the gun and snatching it up. He fired a few rounds at the creatures, scattering them. Upon making a clear path to the car, he dashed madly towards it, aware of the two pursuers behind him. Just a little further. He knew he would not reach the car in time. Those inhuman creatures were faster than anything he had ever seen. They caught up behind him and were about to spring forward, but Damon had timed everything just right. Dropping harshly to the ground on his stomach, his attackers sailed straight over him, landing gracefully beside the car. Without hesitating, Damon quickly brought his gun out in front of him, aiming solely for the car's gas tank. "Go to hell." With that said, he unloaded every bullet that was in the gun's clip. One of his shots hit its target, sparking for a second then igniting the entire vehicle into one huge fireball. Even these enhanced creatures could not withstand such a blast as they were hurled away, hitting the ground hard and laying there lifelessly.
Damon got to his feet and dropped the gun to the ground. His body ached and he had entirely forgotten what all this chaos was for. Reaching into his inside pocket, he was reminded of his objective: he had to get that information disk back to his client. Luckily it was still there, undamaged within his coat pocket.
"Mr. Goldstein!" One of the men, the one who had been kicked away, quickly approached Damon. He held his chest and coughed momentarily.
"You really got the wind knocked out of you. You okay?" Damon held his shoulder for support.
The man nodded in response. "We have to hurry. The building is only a block from here."
"We can make it on foot, then. You lead the way."
The man nodded again and started to move away. Damon waited for a moment and turned to face the burning car, watching as the fire continued to rage on. He had not expected all this to happen. Two men were dead now and he had no idea why. He was only hired to get this damned disk and nothing else; he was expendable. Sometimes Damon Goldstein hated his job. Then his heart stopped for a moment and he gasped. Those two creatures were slowly getting up in the distance. What?! How could they survive that explosion? Damon shook his head in frustration. It was all so incomprehensible. But he had no time to waste. He had somehow survived, which meant he still had a job to do. He quickly departed the area, trailing behind the only other surviving person.
The smaller creature made its way out of the wreckage. "They've escaped…"
Following behind him was the dog-like creature, licking the blood from its claws. "It doesn't matter. I'll kill them all next time."
"There will be no next time!" the smaller one exclaimed. "This has been a failure due to your irresponsibility! You are a failure, Fox. Go back to the streets. You are not a worthy assassin." After dealing out his humiliation, the smaller creature leapt into the trees and vanished.
The fox only stood in place, staring in the direction of the ones who escaped. "You ugly mole. I'll still kill them, anyhow." A lunatic smirk played across his sly muzzle. "And perhaps I'll kill you as well, ugly creature." The fox grinned, speaking as if he was informing the entire world of his plans. His enjoyment suddenly fell silent and he turned to leave, slowly walking deeper into the park.