The death of the Freebooter
By Øjlen Berchowich AKA Mårten Kjærulf Krammer
The world is changed?
The world was changing, in the same direction that was started more than a hundred years ago. After the naturefighters had failed, pollution filled every river and brook, the trees of the mighty forests around the world stood grey and dead or where cut down, never to bloom again. At the same time more and more of human where corrupted by greed and lust for power, and helped destroying the world even more. In there search for gold and control, minor nations was mistreated and in the following wars, destroying the earth was used as weapon. Black liquids killed the fish and poison filled dust covered fields and some times hole cities. People cried out to there leaders, but they seamed bound by the everlasting war, there own greed and the powerful industry. The only answer the leaders could come up with was the Megacities, giant fortresses defending the population against the enemy: pollution and terrorism. While the few lucky flourished in there glass and concrete domes, the rest, who's primary task now was to send supplies to the cities, sow the earth slowly dying and races becoming extinct by handfuls every month, except a few, the obvious like humans and rats was seen all the times, but a others was not even known and would properly never be, was never discovered to breed. Some of them was not known because no one had ever survived an encounter with them, others where not mend to be seen at all.
Dark rooms and telephones.
The man was sitting in his comfortable leather armchair, many laughed behind his back and said he looked like a pirate from centuries ago. He was perfectly aware of this, but did not care. And there was truth in this postulate, the man had a slim, but muscular body, short dark hair, large beard, a gold earring and a scar from his right forehead to his upper lip. He was wearing a perfect fitting and extremely expensive grey suit, he lit a cigar, also looking expensive, and listened to the dull sound of a machine thumping some place not so far away. It was music in his ears, knowing that all those people had only one reason to keep the machines working and that was making money for him, and the best thing about it was that they did not know. He giggled while he walked to the big window and the lights of his plant. As the telephone rang a little tablelight turned on and the man slowly picked the telephone with a noble attitude, but his face changed and he fast put his cigar away, when he heard who it was. "Yes I will take care of them . off course master . i´m sorry master . only three? . that should not be a problem, I will set my best people on the case, master . always, master . thanks master". His cool look had now changed to deep fear and relief when the other part put the receiver down. The man sat back in his chair for several minutes before he had got enough control over his feelings, he took a deep breath and lit another cigar before he opened a drawer and searched for a scrap of paper. After a couple of minutes he found it and with shaking fingers he dialled the number, it was way longer then usual telephone numbers. A militant, but tired, voice answered with a "Yes", "Orlando" the man said harshly "we have situation, gather your team and I´ll fax you the details when I get them, but at this time it seems that they have three new recruits." "Yes Sir," Orlando answered and the man could almost feel how the soldier was clicking his heals "are there any of the bad ones among ´em?" "As I told I don´t have the complete file, but there seems to be one of the bad ones among them, goodnight Orlando", the man said "the bad ones" in arrogant way, like it was words too cheap for him. He made him self a large drink before he left the large office.
At the same time in a much more humble, but even darker room, was another person about to make a telephone call as well. It was impossible to see the person, but some how no one could be in the room with out noticing the person's eyes, them did not glow or show them self in any other visible way, but they were so intense that there gaze pierced the dark. That was not occurring now, because the person was alone in the dark. He or she began dialling with a slow hand, like it was a new feeling, but the pace grow a little and the person patiently waited for the other side to pick up. When the beeps finely stopped and a young man began talking, with the pulse of techno music in the back, the person was delighted. It asked with a smooth, but unfriendly, female voice for a certain person, when he answered she softened a little. "Roar?" she asked, the young man had never heard his name said like that before, but in some way it sounded familiar, so he replied: "yeah, i´m here." The woman in the dark continued: "good, you are one of the olds, listen to me. You have to meet me.", Roar was surprised by her strange accent but had enough self control to break her line of words, "I wanna´ meet you too, babe. We have party over ´ere and you should join us." his voice rose in strength, ending at a shout and a poor impersonation of a wolf "and I have something for you in my pants, whaaaaouuuu". "You´r pathetic" the woman surprised answered "you wouldn't survive minutes in the fights", Roar just continued shouting "I face death every day, so just shut up." Angrily the women in the dark gave him an address and threw the receiver on the phone. An almost unhearable snarl came from her throat, as she dialled the next of two persons who could never have expected it.
The fat bastard.
Qwack, qwack. The irritating sound from a duckshaped telephone filled the smoke filled room. With a moan a man with an extreme overweight problem lifted his enormous body from the old sofa. Qwack, qwack. The man took a candybar from messy table and began unpacking it, before he slowly walked towards the duck, it qwacked another time before he reached it and lifted it to his greasy chin. "What?" the fat man angrily shouted, he had prepared saying that, no matter who the caller was. He had no more icecream and was mad about it, so letting his anger out on people he could not see was one of the only ways he knew to calm down. The female voice had barely answered "hello" before the fat man began shouting again, "I don´t wanna´ buy your books, how many times do I have to say it?", too late he realised that his falsetto voice did not sound as tough as he had hoped and that it had not affected his anger in a positive direction. But he did not continue his scolding, the woman's voice in the other end of the telephone was almost hypnotic and completely hid the emends rage that had filled her moments ago. The threehundredandfifty pond man agreed, to his surprise, and put the telephone back on the duck. For a moment he leaned his weight against the wall and thought about what he had done, going outside, to a little café and speaking a weird woman, just because she had said so. Why should he do this? He had all he needed in this apartment, food, a TV and servants who bought more food for him. Confused the fat man ate the rest of the candybar and walked, with difficulty, towards a closet in another room, in it he found a strange sort of machinery, part exoskeleton, part bicycle. Anyone who did not know about this peculiar, and expensive, thing would properly become confused, but the blimp of a human was perfectly aware that it was a device designed for helping severely overweighed persons, by changing gravity. He blew a little dust of and remembered his childhood, eventhought he had tried as much as he could to forget about it. But the memorys about how the world had hated him and given him a reason to hate it back, gave him the strength to convince his body to drag the heavy machine back to the sofa. The fat man found some pieces of food among the scraps on the table. "Tomorrow I will shout at my maid for not buying icecream" was his last thought before sleeping and dreaming about strange people.
From the poisoned land.
The girl walked out the gate, as she had done so many nights before. But this one was different, she had just received a weird telephone call from a woman, almost moaning or roaring by anger, she had spoken about old blood, great evil and a little café where Freya, as the girl was named, should show up next afternoon. Freya was confused, she did not know if she should follow the order of the mad woman or what? She had shouted about danger if Freya did not show up. But the girl would think until tomorrow, she decided that, a trip to the city, where the café was placed, was no walk around the block; actually it was a four hours trip by car. On her walk around the farm she noticed the land around her, she had liver here all of her life, but never like this. Grey clouds above, black unhealthy and exhausted dirt covered the ground and made crobgrowing extremely difficult, while giant pipes filled the air with smoke, which could be smelled all the time. A part of her mind suddenly realised where she lived and what had happened, and a little splinter of hatred towards the people in the cities, who had banned the family of her adoptive parents from living in the near mega city, grew in her. But soon she forgotten about her sad thoughts, and walked in the farm again to ask the people she called her parents to leave to meet the strange woman. Off course she did not tell the true story, they would never have allowed her going if she had did. The following morning Freya left for the freeway with an old full pack on her skinny back. As always to bus was late and an ugly man gave her a lift in his old pickup truck, they did not speak much, but Freya noticed how he looked at her blond hair in a strange way, but the loud noise from the broken heater generally took her attention. In some strange way Freya was a little sorry to leave the dog smelling and nervous man in the old car. Freya found the café several hours before the meeting was arranged and ordered coffee, the corpulent waitress clearly disliked country people but did not say anything. The girl from the poisoned land looked at unreachable glass and concrete city for almost an hour before the sound of an accident and sirens some where near ripped her out of her dreams.
Death in the air.
Roar felt, if he should say it him self, like shit. He had lost three friends within a week, and though he was smiling and talking in happy young euphoria and his friends had laughted at his joke with the woman who had called, his head felt like exploding of all the thoughts inside it. The party he was sitting at, drinking illegal beer and taking illegal pills, was a farewell party for one of there friends, he had been killed in an accident with an air scooter. Air scooters was a kind of transport, also illegal around the world, because of the high risk of riding it, not only to the one steering it, but also for everybody else around a crash. The air scooter almost looked like an old fashion scooter, except that it had no wheels and that most of its body was big gas tanks, another difference was its ability to fly with a speed around three hundred miles per hour, but most of the air scooters where rebuild to reach even higher velocity. And this week two of Roars friends was arrested after the accident where another friend was killed, along with two pedestrians, in the inferno of the exploding gas tanks. Roar sat back in the old sofa, and felt sorry for him self as his friends was shouting and singing as a salute to there dead and captured comrades. He fell asleep soon after, hearing the voice of the mad woman in the telephone in his dreams. The next morning Roar was wakened by his friends, they gently slapped his face and gave him a green pill, with the words that he looked like he could use it. He felt much better, even tough he had a little hangover, and swallowed the pill with a little difficulty, because of his dry mouth. The boys decided to fly trip around the city to show there respect for the dead and readied there machines, within a half hour they where ready and flew of. In the beginning over the rooftops, just below the inside of the dome, but when there pills started to have an effect, they became more cocky and flew lower and lower, for at last avoiding people and cars on the streets. They followed each other around, making hazardly turns and loops, this was the life, they all knew how many people with was killed every year and they could be the next one, but that was a part of the excitement, how long they could cheat death. The boys were flying in about a hundred feet when they heard a "nooooo" on there radios, Roar clearly sow the panicked expression on face of the boys, a couple of years younger then him self, when his scooters motor stopped, it felt like time moved slower then normal when the scooter dived to hit hard road. It slided down the road before the cement of the pavement ripped a hole in the side of a tank and the compressed and highly flammable fuel exploded. A giant ball incinerated everything around and flying boys flew panicked in all directions. "Death in the air" would the headline of a major paper of the city say next day. Roar fast parked the scooter on a parking lot and threw up, he had just seen his friend die and would properbly get arrested within minutes, the tears ran down his cheeks, but the intense amount adrenaline in his body made him see were he where and he got an idea. The instinct of survival made him run the little café where he should be meeting the woman from yesterday within minutes. Out of his breath Roar walked in the door, and looked around, there where six guests in the room, himself included. A young girl, skinny and blond in an old leather jacket and a boilersuit, a gigantic man eating cake, a little old man with long curly red hair and two men dressed in similar dark coats, these two where the only ones sitting at the same table. Roar ordered some sugary beverage, sat a table in the back of the café and thought about that the girl had to come from the outsides. At the exact time of the arranged meeting the door opened and a tall woman walked in, some would say that she was the most beautiful they had ever seen, others that she looked like gruesome and primitive beast, but no one would not notice her. Within seconds many things happened, the three people she had called yesterday instinctly knew who she was and stood up, a splint second later the darkly dressed men simultaneously also stood up, fast drew heavy pistols and pointed them at the red haired woman in the doorway. Her green feline eyes, almost covered by her hip long hair, showed deep fear. Before the two men could shoot, the sudden silence, of the cafe was destroyed by the intense bang of the double-barrelled shotgun the old man was firing, one of the mens chest exploded in red and the other turned around, pointing his gun at the old man. But the shotgun was already aimed at him and some might have seen a little smile on the face of the old gangrel man when he pulled the trigger, but this changed when the gun gave a "click". Now the woman acted, with almost inhuman movements she threw a knife, it perfectly hit mans should and he dropped the gun with a scream. "Down" the woman hissed and no one had landed on the floor before the windows exploded by the three persons with machine pistols firing trough then, the hissing bullets killed the old man, the man with the large bowie knife in his shoulder blade and café clerk. Before anyone could react an old truck hit the three men and a shout in a long forgotten language came from it. The woman shouted back and jumped up, holding a heavy revolver in her hand. She shouted to the people on the floor to get into the car, and they did so, even the fat man with extraordinary easiness. On the way out, the woman sow one of the men was still living and executed him without mercy, the recoil of the revolver shook trough her body.
Shapes of war and shapes of love.
No body said anything on the back of the pickup, one of the persons remembered it from yesterday, but had other tings to think about. Ten minutes later they arrived at a cheap hotel, they parked the car and were guided into a room on the sixth floor. As soon as the door was closed the fat man started shouting about kidnapping and that he wanted to leave, but kept his mouth closed when he sow the large rifle the man from the truck dragged out from under the bed. The man started controlling the windows to see if there was anybody suspicious outside and the woman started talking, for over an hour a line of confusing words cam from her. She spoke about shape changing, about war, about the enemy, its growled name almost sounding like "Jasotfansprorp", about the ancient people, about the blood in the there bodies end the powers it gave. Confused the three people looked at each other, Roar shook his head and asked what she was talking about, but his voice did not really have any power left. Patiently the woman started talking again, telling every thing again, but slower and in different words. This time she also told her name, with seemed like the only one she could have, for the three young people. After one and a half hour they understood, how people could change into shapes of war which gave them strength and the gift of regeneration, and the shapes of love with was used to breed offspring with strength of the blood, but they did not remember the names and meanings of the many different ways the shapes could manifest. They understood how the few who had these powers fought an evil, how this evil within the centuries had grown and that every hand and claw was needed. They understood that they should have these powers, but none of them believed in it.
After a minute of silence the fat man said with his little voice: "can we go now?", "off course" the woman answered "we wouldn't force any of you to stay, but they'll try to kill you. They would have tried, even if we had not contacted you. You have to believe in me." "How?" the fat man looked a little braver this time, "haven't you all felt different all you lifes? Arn´t you all adoptivechilds? And haven't you all been shoot at and seen Eric getting shoot?" shouted the woman. None of them could say no to anything of this, but did not say anything at all. Suddenly the fat man got angry and shouted about kidnapping again, red faced he walked out the door, into the elevator and outside, telling him self that it was a lie and no harm would come to him, but he had a bad feeling in his stomach. The fat man shouted for a taxi with stopped, when he opened the door he felt a cold metal think on his neck and the pain when the knife pierced his flesh. Everything looked redder when strong hands dragged him into a van. He sow a militant looking woman drying blood of her knife and telling a man that he was dead, the man said she did not know enough about them to be sure about that and several guns were pointed at him. The fat man had never thought it could take so long time to die or be so painful, he was laying in the van, staring into a barrel, when he felt a new sensation. His body was changing, for a short time he looked at the Braun furred snout which grew out where him nose used to be, before the man pulled trigger. The fat man sow a flash of light then everything became black, followed by a light brighter then the shotgun blast.
A multimillion dollar company.
The fore people sow from the window and Roar and Freya understood how serious there situation was. So they gladly followed the others out of the city. They drove to a farm very alike with the one Freya grew up at, but they felt different at this one. Like they were home for the first time, but neither Freya nor Roar had thought about it before in there lives. The people inhibiting the farm were rugged looking people with harsh voices, like the pickup driver and the red haired woman. Roar and Freya was made sure that none knew about this safe house, yet, and that they could sleep without fear. It had been a hard day and they soon did, both of them dreaming about running in healthy woods along with animals. The next morning the two "pups", as everybody called Roar and Freya, were fed. None of them had eaten in a day, and fast emptied the large full plates. Soon after the table was emptied, a crude map was put on top of it, when Freya asked was what it was, the only answer she got was "we're filleting the freebooter" and a laugh. She found the pickup driver and he told her that they had to attack a plant to kill minion of the evil and stop the pollution coming from it, he almost apologies that they had to see the attack before they had found there shapes, but there were no time to do that. That day many preparations was made, weapons and ammunition were distributed among the more then thirty people on the farm, battle plans were made and somebody did something to two old cars in secret. Roar and Freya was assigned to a huge smiling man called Bear, friendly he told then to keep to him to be safer, he told them about his first raid and at some point he relaxed the to young people. The hours passed and the night got closer. The cars were filled with people and after a couple of hours driving they sow the smoke from the pipes of the factory. The cars stopped in a wood a few miles from it and people went out, Bear told them that it would be easier to assume the war form near the evil. Surprised Roar and Freya sow how the people changed, some grew doglike snouts and long claws, some just a tail and some the shape of a wolf. The red haired woman, who had a long grey tail, asked Bear if they were ready and he nodded and growled. Roar, Freya, Bear and a wolf sneaked up to the fence, fast the wolf bid a hole in it, to the pups great surprise, and they went in. Hundred yards further they surprised a guard, his dog tried to run and this gave Bear as much as he needed, he leaped and broke the guards neck before he hit the ground. A few seconds later the first shoots were heard from other places of the factory. When they reached the buildings bullets began hitting the ground around them, the wolf was hit and limped away, the three hurried inside, into a large, but almost empty, storage hall. In here Bear shoot at two men, but was hit a bullet and fell down on the floor, panicked Roar and Freya ran trough the nearest door. For several minutes they ran around, finding nothing but empty bullet cases, magazines and two bodies, both dressed in uniforms and killed with the bare hands of somebody extremely strong. As they ran around a corner, somebody charged them, in time the red haired woman sow who they were and stopped. Her clothes were ripped and covered in blood, both from her own bullet wounds and from her slain foes. She tried to say something to Roar and Freya, but behind her, a door was kicked open and a man with machinegun fired a burst of bullets at them. Freya and woman jumped behind corner, but the woman was hit. Several of the bullets would have caused instant lethality for normal people, even though the war shape tried to regenerate wounds, they were too severe and the woman died in Freyas arms within moments. Freya did first later find out what her last words ment: "Skadi, take me home". Crying and panicked Freya hugged the body of the woman before she thought about Roar, when she looked at him he was gone, but the shattered body of a wolf was laying in the remains of his clothes. This was more then the blond girl could stand, the blood rushed trough her body and she sow pictures of her ancestors fighting the same enemy in her head. She stood up end felt her body changing, but the anger was so severe that she did not think about it. She did not see how her muscles grew to gigantic proportions, how she got a height of over ten feet, how her face changed to a wolfs head, how brown fur appeared all over her body, ripping her clothes to pieces and foot long claws replaced her nails. An inhuman loud growl came from her as she charged the door, breaking it and pieces of the wall down. The last of the human sanity that was not replaced with the beast read the name on the mans jacket, Orlando, before using his body to crush the next door and piece of wall. The man inside this room could not be anyone but the freebooter, she thought this after seeing his scar and beard, but no matter who he had been, the rage was too big to control herself not to slaughter him. As Freya in her shape of war leaped against him he drew a pistol with an ivory handle, but the large calibre bullets did nothing more to her, then a beesting does to a mad bull.
An old cellar.
The battle had been far harder then expected. A group of humans who's greed had lead them to becoming experts in killing, by the order of the evil, had been placed on the plant. But they had not been strong enough, though only seven of the attackers had survived, and the battle ended with the two cars, filled with explosives, blowing up the factory. Bear, who had survived his wounds, found an old blanket for Freya and sat her in a car before driving of. At quite a distance they could see the farm was burning and they drove of for another safe house. It was first in here Freya realised what had happened and started crying, trough her tears she asked: "how can we ever win this war?" The old woman who had been in a wolf shape at the factory answered: "maybe we can't, but if we're going, then I'm sure gonna´ take as many of ´em as possible with me."
The world is changed?
The world was changing, in the same direction that was started more than a hundred years ago. After the naturefighters had failed, pollution filled every river and brook, the trees of the mighty forests around the world stood grey and dead or where cut down, never to bloom again. At the same time more and more of human where corrupted by greed and lust for power, and helped destroying the world even more. In there search for gold and control, minor nations was mistreated and in the following wars, destroying the earth was used as weapon. Black liquids killed the fish and poison filled dust covered fields and some times hole cities. People cried out to there leaders, but they seamed bound by the everlasting war, there own greed and the powerful industry. The only answer the leaders could come up with was the Megacities, giant fortresses defending the population against the enemy: pollution and terrorism. While the few lucky flourished in there glass and concrete domes, the rest, who's primary task now was to send supplies to the cities, sow the earth slowly dying and races becoming extinct by handfuls every month, except a few, the obvious like humans and rats was seen all the times, but a others was not even known and would properly never be, was never discovered to breed. Some of them was not known because no one had ever survived an encounter with them, others where not mend to be seen at all.
Dark rooms and telephones.
The man was sitting in his comfortable leather armchair, many laughed behind his back and said he looked like a pirate from centuries ago. He was perfectly aware of this, but did not care. And there was truth in this postulate, the man had a slim, but muscular body, short dark hair, large beard, a gold earring and a scar from his right forehead to his upper lip. He was wearing a perfect fitting and extremely expensive grey suit, he lit a cigar, also looking expensive, and listened to the dull sound of a machine thumping some place not so far away. It was music in his ears, knowing that all those people had only one reason to keep the machines working and that was making money for him, and the best thing about it was that they did not know. He giggled while he walked to the big window and the lights of his plant. As the telephone rang a little tablelight turned on and the man slowly picked the telephone with a noble attitude, but his face changed and he fast put his cigar away, when he heard who it was. "Yes I will take care of them . off course master . i´m sorry master . only three? . that should not be a problem, I will set my best people on the case, master . always, master . thanks master". His cool look had now changed to deep fear and relief when the other part put the receiver down. The man sat back in his chair for several minutes before he had got enough control over his feelings, he took a deep breath and lit another cigar before he opened a drawer and searched for a scrap of paper. After a couple of minutes he found it and with shaking fingers he dialled the number, it was way longer then usual telephone numbers. A militant, but tired, voice answered with a "Yes", "Orlando" the man said harshly "we have situation, gather your team and I´ll fax you the details when I get them, but at this time it seems that they have three new recruits." "Yes Sir," Orlando answered and the man could almost feel how the soldier was clicking his heals "are there any of the bad ones among ´em?" "As I told I don´t have the complete file, but there seems to be one of the bad ones among them, goodnight Orlando", the man said "the bad ones" in arrogant way, like it was words too cheap for him. He made him self a large drink before he left the large office.
At the same time in a much more humble, but even darker room, was another person about to make a telephone call as well. It was impossible to see the person, but some how no one could be in the room with out noticing the person's eyes, them did not glow or show them self in any other visible way, but they were so intense that there gaze pierced the dark. That was not occurring now, because the person was alone in the dark. He or she began dialling with a slow hand, like it was a new feeling, but the pace grow a little and the person patiently waited for the other side to pick up. When the beeps finely stopped and a young man began talking, with the pulse of techno music in the back, the person was delighted. It asked with a smooth, but unfriendly, female voice for a certain person, when he answered she softened a little. "Roar?" she asked, the young man had never heard his name said like that before, but in some way it sounded familiar, so he replied: "yeah, i´m here." The woman in the dark continued: "good, you are one of the olds, listen to me. You have to meet me.", Roar was surprised by her strange accent but had enough self control to break her line of words, "I wanna´ meet you too, babe. We have party over ´ere and you should join us." his voice rose in strength, ending at a shout and a poor impersonation of a wolf "and I have something for you in my pants, whaaaaouuuu". "You´r pathetic" the woman surprised answered "you wouldn't survive minutes in the fights", Roar just continued shouting "I face death every day, so just shut up." Angrily the women in the dark gave him an address and threw the receiver on the phone. An almost unhearable snarl came from her throat, as she dialled the next of two persons who could never have expected it.
The fat bastard.
Qwack, qwack. The irritating sound from a duckshaped telephone filled the smoke filled room. With a moan a man with an extreme overweight problem lifted his enormous body from the old sofa. Qwack, qwack. The man took a candybar from messy table and began unpacking it, before he slowly walked towards the duck, it qwacked another time before he reached it and lifted it to his greasy chin. "What?" the fat man angrily shouted, he had prepared saying that, no matter who the caller was. He had no more icecream and was mad about it, so letting his anger out on people he could not see was one of the only ways he knew to calm down. The female voice had barely answered "hello" before the fat man began shouting again, "I don´t wanna´ buy your books, how many times do I have to say it?", too late he realised that his falsetto voice did not sound as tough as he had hoped and that it had not affected his anger in a positive direction. But he did not continue his scolding, the woman's voice in the other end of the telephone was almost hypnotic and completely hid the emends rage that had filled her moments ago. The threehundredandfifty pond man agreed, to his surprise, and put the telephone back on the duck. For a moment he leaned his weight against the wall and thought about what he had done, going outside, to a little café and speaking a weird woman, just because she had said so. Why should he do this? He had all he needed in this apartment, food, a TV and servants who bought more food for him. Confused the fat man ate the rest of the candybar and walked, with difficulty, towards a closet in another room, in it he found a strange sort of machinery, part exoskeleton, part bicycle. Anyone who did not know about this peculiar, and expensive, thing would properly become confused, but the blimp of a human was perfectly aware that it was a device designed for helping severely overweighed persons, by changing gravity. He blew a little dust of and remembered his childhood, eventhought he had tried as much as he could to forget about it. But the memorys about how the world had hated him and given him a reason to hate it back, gave him the strength to convince his body to drag the heavy machine back to the sofa. The fat man found some pieces of food among the scraps on the table. "Tomorrow I will shout at my maid for not buying icecream" was his last thought before sleeping and dreaming about strange people.
From the poisoned land.
The girl walked out the gate, as she had done so many nights before. But this one was different, she had just received a weird telephone call from a woman, almost moaning or roaring by anger, she had spoken about old blood, great evil and a little café where Freya, as the girl was named, should show up next afternoon. Freya was confused, she did not know if she should follow the order of the mad woman or what? She had shouted about danger if Freya did not show up. But the girl would think until tomorrow, she decided that, a trip to the city, where the café was placed, was no walk around the block; actually it was a four hours trip by car. On her walk around the farm she noticed the land around her, she had liver here all of her life, but never like this. Grey clouds above, black unhealthy and exhausted dirt covered the ground and made crobgrowing extremely difficult, while giant pipes filled the air with smoke, which could be smelled all the time. A part of her mind suddenly realised where she lived and what had happened, and a little splinter of hatred towards the people in the cities, who had banned the family of her adoptive parents from living in the near mega city, grew in her. But soon she forgotten about her sad thoughts, and walked in the farm again to ask the people she called her parents to leave to meet the strange woman. Off course she did not tell the true story, they would never have allowed her going if she had did. The following morning Freya left for the freeway with an old full pack on her skinny back. As always to bus was late and an ugly man gave her a lift in his old pickup truck, they did not speak much, but Freya noticed how he looked at her blond hair in a strange way, but the loud noise from the broken heater generally took her attention. In some strange way Freya was a little sorry to leave the dog smelling and nervous man in the old car. Freya found the café several hours before the meeting was arranged and ordered coffee, the corpulent waitress clearly disliked country people but did not say anything. The girl from the poisoned land looked at unreachable glass and concrete city for almost an hour before the sound of an accident and sirens some where near ripped her out of her dreams.
Death in the air.
Roar felt, if he should say it him self, like shit. He had lost three friends within a week, and though he was smiling and talking in happy young euphoria and his friends had laughted at his joke with the woman who had called, his head felt like exploding of all the thoughts inside it. The party he was sitting at, drinking illegal beer and taking illegal pills, was a farewell party for one of there friends, he had been killed in an accident with an air scooter. Air scooters was a kind of transport, also illegal around the world, because of the high risk of riding it, not only to the one steering it, but also for everybody else around a crash. The air scooter almost looked like an old fashion scooter, except that it had no wheels and that most of its body was big gas tanks, another difference was its ability to fly with a speed around three hundred miles per hour, but most of the air scooters where rebuild to reach even higher velocity. And this week two of Roars friends was arrested after the accident where another friend was killed, along with two pedestrians, in the inferno of the exploding gas tanks. Roar sat back in the old sofa, and felt sorry for him self as his friends was shouting and singing as a salute to there dead and captured comrades. He fell asleep soon after, hearing the voice of the mad woman in the telephone in his dreams. The next morning Roar was wakened by his friends, they gently slapped his face and gave him a green pill, with the words that he looked like he could use it. He felt much better, even tough he had a little hangover, and swallowed the pill with a little difficulty, because of his dry mouth. The boys decided to fly trip around the city to show there respect for the dead and readied there machines, within a half hour they where ready and flew of. In the beginning over the rooftops, just below the inside of the dome, but when there pills started to have an effect, they became more cocky and flew lower and lower, for at last avoiding people and cars on the streets. They followed each other around, making hazardly turns and loops, this was the life, they all knew how many people with was killed every year and they could be the next one, but that was a part of the excitement, how long they could cheat death. The boys were flying in about a hundred feet when they heard a "nooooo" on there radios, Roar clearly sow the panicked expression on face of the boys, a couple of years younger then him self, when his scooters motor stopped, it felt like time moved slower then normal when the scooter dived to hit hard road. It slided down the road before the cement of the pavement ripped a hole in the side of a tank and the compressed and highly flammable fuel exploded. A giant ball incinerated everything around and flying boys flew panicked in all directions. "Death in the air" would the headline of a major paper of the city say next day. Roar fast parked the scooter on a parking lot and threw up, he had just seen his friend die and would properbly get arrested within minutes, the tears ran down his cheeks, but the intense amount adrenaline in his body made him see were he where and he got an idea. The instinct of survival made him run the little café where he should be meeting the woman from yesterday within minutes. Out of his breath Roar walked in the door, and looked around, there where six guests in the room, himself included. A young girl, skinny and blond in an old leather jacket and a boilersuit, a gigantic man eating cake, a little old man with long curly red hair and two men dressed in similar dark coats, these two where the only ones sitting at the same table. Roar ordered some sugary beverage, sat a table in the back of the café and thought about that the girl had to come from the outsides. At the exact time of the arranged meeting the door opened and a tall woman walked in, some would say that she was the most beautiful they had ever seen, others that she looked like gruesome and primitive beast, but no one would not notice her. Within seconds many things happened, the three people she had called yesterday instinctly knew who she was and stood up, a splint second later the darkly dressed men simultaneously also stood up, fast drew heavy pistols and pointed them at the red haired woman in the doorway. Her green feline eyes, almost covered by her hip long hair, showed deep fear. Before the two men could shoot, the sudden silence, of the cafe was destroyed by the intense bang of the double-barrelled shotgun the old man was firing, one of the mens chest exploded in red and the other turned around, pointing his gun at the old man. But the shotgun was already aimed at him and some might have seen a little smile on the face of the old gangrel man when he pulled the trigger, but this changed when the gun gave a "click". Now the woman acted, with almost inhuman movements she threw a knife, it perfectly hit mans should and he dropped the gun with a scream. "Down" the woman hissed and no one had landed on the floor before the windows exploded by the three persons with machine pistols firing trough then, the hissing bullets killed the old man, the man with the large bowie knife in his shoulder blade and café clerk. Before anyone could react an old truck hit the three men and a shout in a long forgotten language came from it. The woman shouted back and jumped up, holding a heavy revolver in her hand. She shouted to the people on the floor to get into the car, and they did so, even the fat man with extraordinary easiness. On the way out, the woman sow one of the men was still living and executed him without mercy, the recoil of the revolver shook trough her body.
Shapes of war and shapes of love.
No body said anything on the back of the pickup, one of the persons remembered it from yesterday, but had other tings to think about. Ten minutes later they arrived at a cheap hotel, they parked the car and were guided into a room on the sixth floor. As soon as the door was closed the fat man started shouting about kidnapping and that he wanted to leave, but kept his mouth closed when he sow the large rifle the man from the truck dragged out from under the bed. The man started controlling the windows to see if there was anybody suspicious outside and the woman started talking, for over an hour a line of confusing words cam from her. She spoke about shape changing, about war, about the enemy, its growled name almost sounding like "Jasotfansprorp", about the ancient people, about the blood in the there bodies end the powers it gave. Confused the three people looked at each other, Roar shook his head and asked what she was talking about, but his voice did not really have any power left. Patiently the woman started talking again, telling every thing again, but slower and in different words. This time she also told her name, with seemed like the only one she could have, for the three young people. After one and a half hour they understood, how people could change into shapes of war which gave them strength and the gift of regeneration, and the shapes of love with was used to breed offspring with strength of the blood, but they did not remember the names and meanings of the many different ways the shapes could manifest. They understood how the few who had these powers fought an evil, how this evil within the centuries had grown and that every hand and claw was needed. They understood that they should have these powers, but none of them believed in it.
After a minute of silence the fat man said with his little voice: "can we go now?", "off course" the woman answered "we wouldn't force any of you to stay, but they'll try to kill you. They would have tried, even if we had not contacted you. You have to believe in me." "How?" the fat man looked a little braver this time, "haven't you all felt different all you lifes? Arn´t you all adoptivechilds? And haven't you all been shoot at and seen Eric getting shoot?" shouted the woman. None of them could say no to anything of this, but did not say anything at all. Suddenly the fat man got angry and shouted about kidnapping again, red faced he walked out the door, into the elevator and outside, telling him self that it was a lie and no harm would come to him, but he had a bad feeling in his stomach. The fat man shouted for a taxi with stopped, when he opened the door he felt a cold metal think on his neck and the pain when the knife pierced his flesh. Everything looked redder when strong hands dragged him into a van. He sow a militant looking woman drying blood of her knife and telling a man that he was dead, the man said she did not know enough about them to be sure about that and several guns were pointed at him. The fat man had never thought it could take so long time to die or be so painful, he was laying in the van, staring into a barrel, when he felt a new sensation. His body was changing, for a short time he looked at the Braun furred snout which grew out where him nose used to be, before the man pulled trigger. The fat man sow a flash of light then everything became black, followed by a light brighter then the shotgun blast.
A multimillion dollar company.
The fore people sow from the window and Roar and Freya understood how serious there situation was. So they gladly followed the others out of the city. They drove to a farm very alike with the one Freya grew up at, but they felt different at this one. Like they were home for the first time, but neither Freya nor Roar had thought about it before in there lives. The people inhibiting the farm were rugged looking people with harsh voices, like the pickup driver and the red haired woman. Roar and Freya was made sure that none knew about this safe house, yet, and that they could sleep without fear. It had been a hard day and they soon did, both of them dreaming about running in healthy woods along with animals. The next morning the two "pups", as everybody called Roar and Freya, were fed. None of them had eaten in a day, and fast emptied the large full plates. Soon after the table was emptied, a crude map was put on top of it, when Freya asked was what it was, the only answer she got was "we're filleting the freebooter" and a laugh. She found the pickup driver and he told her that they had to attack a plant to kill minion of the evil and stop the pollution coming from it, he almost apologies that they had to see the attack before they had found there shapes, but there were no time to do that. That day many preparations was made, weapons and ammunition were distributed among the more then thirty people on the farm, battle plans were made and somebody did something to two old cars in secret. Roar and Freya was assigned to a huge smiling man called Bear, friendly he told then to keep to him to be safer, he told them about his first raid and at some point he relaxed the to young people. The hours passed and the night got closer. The cars were filled with people and after a couple of hours driving they sow the smoke from the pipes of the factory. The cars stopped in a wood a few miles from it and people went out, Bear told them that it would be easier to assume the war form near the evil. Surprised Roar and Freya sow how the people changed, some grew doglike snouts and long claws, some just a tail and some the shape of a wolf. The red haired woman, who had a long grey tail, asked Bear if they were ready and he nodded and growled. Roar, Freya, Bear and a wolf sneaked up to the fence, fast the wolf bid a hole in it, to the pups great surprise, and they went in. Hundred yards further they surprised a guard, his dog tried to run and this gave Bear as much as he needed, he leaped and broke the guards neck before he hit the ground. A few seconds later the first shoots were heard from other places of the factory. When they reached the buildings bullets began hitting the ground around them, the wolf was hit and limped away, the three hurried inside, into a large, but almost empty, storage hall. In here Bear shoot at two men, but was hit a bullet and fell down on the floor, panicked Roar and Freya ran trough the nearest door. For several minutes they ran around, finding nothing but empty bullet cases, magazines and two bodies, both dressed in uniforms and killed with the bare hands of somebody extremely strong. As they ran around a corner, somebody charged them, in time the red haired woman sow who they were and stopped. Her clothes were ripped and covered in blood, both from her own bullet wounds and from her slain foes. She tried to say something to Roar and Freya, but behind her, a door was kicked open and a man with machinegun fired a burst of bullets at them. Freya and woman jumped behind corner, but the woman was hit. Several of the bullets would have caused instant lethality for normal people, even though the war shape tried to regenerate wounds, they were too severe and the woman died in Freyas arms within moments. Freya did first later find out what her last words ment: "Skadi, take me home". Crying and panicked Freya hugged the body of the woman before she thought about Roar, when she looked at him he was gone, but the shattered body of a wolf was laying in the remains of his clothes. This was more then the blond girl could stand, the blood rushed trough her body and she sow pictures of her ancestors fighting the same enemy in her head. She stood up end felt her body changing, but the anger was so severe that she did not think about it. She did not see how her muscles grew to gigantic proportions, how she got a height of over ten feet, how her face changed to a wolfs head, how brown fur appeared all over her body, ripping her clothes to pieces and foot long claws replaced her nails. An inhuman loud growl came from her as she charged the door, breaking it and pieces of the wall down. The last of the human sanity that was not replaced with the beast read the name on the mans jacket, Orlando, before using his body to crush the next door and piece of wall. The man inside this room could not be anyone but the freebooter, she thought this after seeing his scar and beard, but no matter who he had been, the rage was too big to control herself not to slaughter him. As Freya in her shape of war leaped against him he drew a pistol with an ivory handle, but the large calibre bullets did nothing more to her, then a beesting does to a mad bull.
An old cellar.
The battle had been far harder then expected. A group of humans who's greed had lead them to becoming experts in killing, by the order of the evil, had been placed on the plant. But they had not been strong enough, though only seven of the attackers had survived, and the battle ended with the two cars, filled with explosives, blowing up the factory. Bear, who had survived his wounds, found an old blanket for Freya and sat her in a car before driving of. At quite a distance they could see the farm was burning and they drove of for another safe house. It was first in here Freya realised what had happened and started crying, trough her tears she asked: "how can we ever win this war?" The old woman who had been in a wolf shape at the factory answered: "maybe we can't, but if we're going, then I'm sure gonna´ take as many of ´em as possible with me."