Blood Moon
Chapter 1
I don't own "G.I. Joe." That belongs to Hasbro. I'm only borrowing the characters for the duration of the story.
Author's Note: This was partly inspired by the 2001 movie "Dog Soldiers" about a group of soldiers on war games who run into a family of werewolves in the Scottish Highlands.
Prologue. . .
"Shoot me," he said. "Please."
Falcon's arm dropped, and he turned away, walked from the safety of the fire. He couldn't look Mulder in the eye. Despite his animosity toward the man, he didn't want to have to shoot him. But given the circumstances, he knew he didn't have any other options.
He heard footsteps, steps muffled by the wet grass outside. Falcon didn't greet Alexander McCullen as he entered..
"I'll do it if you can't," Alexander said.
Not a question, not an offer, nothing more than a simple statement of fact.
"With our luck, you probably won't have to," Falcon said, walking away.
Alexander watched him go, knowing the other man was right.
Four hours earlier. . .
The structures at the old military compound were still standing. Lights flickered, showing that at some point over the last day, something was going on. But there was no movement. Only silence.
Sgt. Conrad "Duke" Hauser turned to face his men. "Lowlight, stay here and keep an eye on things. If you see anything, any movement at all, I want to hear about it. Dusty, you come with me. The rest of you, buddy up. I want everyone back here in 30 minutes."
Duke watched them a moment to make sure the orders were understood. He didn't want any heroics. Their mission was clear-check out the compound and leave.
Lowlight showed no emotion at his orders, only nodded. Dusty stood, relaxed. Falcon shot his brother a grin as his gaze raked over them all, and Tunnel Rat elbowed him for it. Duke frowned, but didn't miss Falcon thumbing the safety off on his gun. He knew they meant business, but Falcon never missed any opportunity to send some chaos his way.
"Let's get this over with," Duke said, moving out.
"This looks like a lab," Tunnel Rat said, eyeing the computers and crates with biohazard stenciled on them. Medical supplies were strewn about.
"Yeah, but I don't want to think about what Cobra was testing here," Falcon finished for him.
"You and me both," Tunnel Rat said. "Come on."
Neither said anything about the deep gouges on the wall-gouges that looked as if made by claws, or the door half-ripped from its hinges. Falcon met his friend's gaze. Tunnel Rat needed no prompting. They hurried from the building, making for the outside, not wanting to run into whatever had destroyed lab.
Falcon stopped when they were out in the open, gun at the ready, alert for any threat. Not seeing anything, he shouldered the weapon and turned his attention to his wristcom. He pushed a few buttons, but nothing happened.
"That's weird. . .hey, try yours," he said.
Falcon watched Tunnel Rat, and his com was dead also.
"What do we do now?" Tunnel Rat asked.
Falcon didn't hesitate with a solution.
"Get back to the rendezvous point," Falcon said. "Tell Lowlight what we saw. I'll look for Duke and Dusty."
Duke walked quickly through the stockade. It seemed a likely choice to check out. If there were any prisoners, chances were they were still there regardless of what had happened elsewhere in the compound.
*Click*
That made him stop. His gaze narrowed as he looked around.
"I wouldn't go one step further if I were you."
Duke saw movement at the end of the dark corridor-shapes moving closer. He counted four men. And one was familiar.
"Alexander McCullen. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Duke asked sarcastically.
"I bet you're here for the same reason we came. But don't bother. Mindbender is dead. But his. . .experiments. . ."
"What experiments?" Duke said.
"I think this discussion can wait," Alexander said. "We should get out of here while we still have a chance."
He looked back at the two Iron Grenadiers accompanying him. They stepped out of the darkness and as they did, shoved the fourth man forward. He fell hard to his knees.
"And how could I forget? We caught this snooping around also," Alexander said.
Duke frowned. Considering the circumstances, it was every man for himself. He didn't know what to think of the whole experiment thing yet, but from what he had seen, something was definitely not right. He pushed the thought from his head and turned his attention to the Grenadiers' prisoner.
"Don't mind me," he said, grinning as he locked eyes with Duke.
Duke's finger tightened on the trigger. One slip and problem solved. . .
Alexander raised an eyebrow. An interesting development, but one to be pondered later, under safer conditions. He glanced at one of his grenadiers, who nodded. He walked forward, grabbed Mulder and hauled him to his feet.
"Looks like the party's over," he mumbled.
Duke raised a fist to strike him, but stopped.
Gunfire outside.
A howl ripping through the silence of the night.
The men stood still, guns drawn.
"What was that?" Duke asked.
"Ask him," Mulder said, nodding in Alexander's direction.
"Mindbender's experiments. Let's just say they're not human anymore," Alexander answered. "We should get out of here."
Duke didn't argue.
"We will, but not until I find the rest of my team."
Animal eyes glinting in the dark. A row of sharp fangs, saliva dripping off the gaping maw of a creature that defied logic.
Falcon fired at the thing. It advanced, swiped the gun from his hands, ignoring the bullets that tore into its flesh. The creature then drew itself up to its full height, howling toward the sky. More howls answered, only muffled by distance.
Falcon inched away as quietly as he could, hoping it would forget about him. After the howls ended, the creature looked back at him. Growling, it lunged.
He kicked at it, threw an elbow into its throat, narrowly avoiding getting his throat ripped out. With his other hand, he punched it in the face. The wolf-thing yelped in pain and pulled back for a fraction of a second.
Falcon seized the moment and reached for the knife scabbard in his boot. When the creature fell on him for another attack, he held the knife blade-up over his chest. The beast drove itself onto the full length of the knife. Falcon felt the warm gush of blood wash over his hands, let go of the knife. He started to kick at the thing, managed to wrest free. He staggered away, wiping the blood on the leg of his BDUS.
He looked back, expecting the thing to be lying dead on the ground. Instead, it was looking at him, hunched over, its hand wrapped around the hilt of the knife sticking out of its neck.
Falcon watched in shock as it pulled the knife free. And then he ran.
Duke didn't look back. He could hear the others behind him, didn't care if they kept up or not. Especially Mulder, but that wasn't his concern right now. Dusty, Tunnel Rat and Falcon were unaccounted for now and he didn't want to think about everything that was going on. That wasn't an option at the moment. Find the team. Get them out. Deal with Mulder later.
He finally stopped when he realized he couldn't hear the others behind him anymore. Gun at the ready, he slowly turned around, assessing his surroundings. This part of the abandoned base wasn't like the rest. Signs of a recent battle were everywhere. Burnt outbuildings and the twisted, burnt out metal hulks of military vehicles.
This was where Cobra had made its stand against whatever had gotten loose.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a large, dark shape run past. Duke turned to look, then saw something run back the other direction. More than one, whatever it was. And he was surrounded.
He heard one pad up behind him. He turned to face it, and started to back away, gun trained on the creature.
Duke didn't get far until he backed into a wrecked humvee.
"Nice critter. . ." Duke said, trying to distract it, buy time.
It lunged.
Duke reacted, jamming the barrel of his gun under the creature's muzzle. At the same time, he squeezed the trigger. He pumped several shots into the thing. It fell, dead, he hoped.
More footsteps.
He aimed, then saw it was Alexander.
"Now you see what Mindbender was. . .working. . .on," he said.
"Werewolves?" Duke said, almost spitting the word in disbelief.
"Call them what you will, but the evidence is unmistakable," Alexander said. "My father told me there have been rumors in these mountains for years. If we make it out of here alive, I can tell my father he was right."
Duke shrugged it off.
"That's nice and all, but we need to find my men," he said, starting to walk away.
Alexander stepped into his path.
"We found something you might want to see," he said, looking back at the rest of the group.
"Just me," a familiar voice said.
Falcon. Duke offered up a quick, silent prayer of thanks. He walked over to his brother, checked him over.
Covered in blood.
"Don't worry. It's not mine. One of those. . .attacked me. I didn't kill it. And I lost my gun," he said.
"Got anything left?" Duke asked.
"Just my nine with a couple of clips. A knife. That's it."
"It'll have to do. Wait-where's Tunnel Rat?"
"I sent him back to Low Light to report. My wristcom wasn't working," Falcon answered.
"At least that's almost everyone accounted for," Duke said.
Falcon frowned. "Almost?"
"Dusty. I don't know where he is. We lost contact."
Alexander listened to the exchange, incredulous.
"You mean you don't have any way to call for pick-up
Duke didn't look at him.
"It was all pre-arranged. Drop-off and pick-up at one location. We were only supposed to be here 30 minutes. And it's been more than that. If Dusty and the others follow orders, they'll be well on their way out of here by now."
"Painted yourself into a corner, didn't you?" Mulder said.
Duke quickly crossed the distance between them. He grabbed Mulder by the collar, jerked him forward until their faces were only millimeters apart.
"You do not speak again until you are spoken to. Do I make myself clear?" Duke said, his tone even, belying the growing rage reflected in his eyes.
Mulder only grunted in reply.
Alexander shot a questioning look at Falcon, who shrugged.
"Can we go now?" he asked.
Duke grinned at his brother and nodded.
Duke took the point with the two Grenadiers guarding Mulder, directly behind him. Falcon and Alexander were taking up the rear. They were now away from the base and making their way into the hills on Alexander's recommendation.
The situation was bad enough as far as Duke was concerned, but if he found out Mulder had anything to do with it. . .
He didn't get to finish the thought.
"Duke!" Falcon called. "Alexander thinks he found a cave."
They built a small fire in the back. Duke parked Mulder there, then went outside to talk with the others.
"Just what the hell was Mindbender experimenting with?" Duke asked Alexander. "You said something about rumors in these mountains. Does that have anything to do with his work?"
"Werewolves have been rumored here for centuries. But in the past decade, there have been more than whispers. Stories of people disappearing in the night. There was even a report from the RAF five years ago of a unit being wiped out by an unknown predator. It looks like Mindbender found one," he said.
"As incredible as this may be, how do we kill them? And can those things infect anyone else?" Duke said, wanting a solid answer instead of hokum.
"According to legend, yes, they can be killed, and their bite is how they turn others."
"Great. Anybody been bitten?" Duke asked, looking over the group.
"No," Alexander said. "And neither were my Grenadiers."
He shot a look at Falcon, who was covered in the blood of one of the creatures. "Hey-don't look at me like that. It didn't bite me."
"Well, now that we have that squared away, we need to go see if Mulder has anything to add," Duke said.
Alexander and his men went inside, and Falcon started to follow. Duke grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back. "You're a medic. Check him over," he said.
"Sure," Falcon nodded.
Duke let him go.
Falcon was taking the situation much better than he was. Then again, Falcon had made peace with his experience with Mulder. He hadn't exactly shrugged it off, but it was definitely there, under the surface. Duke knew Falcon didn't like the man, but he wasn't letting it show. He was proud of Falcon for that, it showed how much he had grown.
Duke sighed. Falcon might have grown, but there were things he didn't want him to know. And he would die before they came out.
Alexander came to get him a little later. "You're wanted," he said, a grim expression on his face.
Duke followed him inside, where Falcon was finishing dressing a wound on Mulder's neck.
"He's been bitten," Falcon said.
Duke let out a long, slow breath. It figured. It really did. He leveled a gaze on Mulder.
"Why didn't you tell us?"
Mulder gave him a wan smile. "You didn't ask."
"Would you all mind giving me a few minutes alone with Agent Mulder?" Duke asked.
The grenadiers filed out, followed by Alexander, who looked back, interested. Falcon got up, brushing his hands off.
"Don't do anything stupid, Duke," he said.
Duke clapped him on the shoulder. "I wouldn't worry about me."
He watched Falcon go, then turned his attention to Mulder.
"Just what the hell are you doing here?" Duke asked.
"So, the interrogation finally begins," Mulder said. "Same as you. Checking out a mystery."
"We weren't doing this for fun," Duke said.
"I know that. But I just find it interesting that you of all people would be here checking this out. And you brought your brother along," Mulder said.
"That is none of your business," Duke said, getting annoyed.
"You'd be surprised at what is my business," Mulder said. "Like I know your reputation isn't so squeaky clean anymore, Hauser. I know your secret."
"What?" Duke said, blue eyes blazing.
"I know you made a deal with the devil. A certain cigarette-smoking devil to get your precious team reinstated. Don't lie to me. You've seen things, haven't you? I can tell by the look," Mulder said. "You don't know anything about it," Duke said.
"I know what it's like to have the rug pulled out from under me-to have the one thing that means the most taken away. To have no purpose. Trust me. I know how that feels. I've been there."
"If you tell him. . ."
"Don't worry. Your secret is safe," Mulder said.
Duke turned and walked away. And he didn't look back. He went to find Falcon.
"Go sit with him a while," Duke said.
Falcon nodded, and went inside the cave.
Alexander waited until Falcon was gone and went over to Duke.
"Interesting night, eh?"
"Sure. If your idea of interesting is to be hunted by creatures that aren't supposed to exist while having to join forces with your worst enemy," Duke said.
Alexander didn't have a comeback.
"Look," Duke said. "I've been trying real hard to make the best of a bad situation. I don't care what happens to Mulder, but I want you and my brother to get as far from these things as possible. I know those things followed us. It's only a couple of hours till dawn, but if we split up, maybe somebody can get away to get help. Take my brother and your grenadiers and go."
A simple good-bye from his brother. No theatrics, not the fight Duke was expecting. Just a curt nod from one soldier to another. And a quick flick of the fingers to Mulder, no hard feelings.
"Well Hauser, going to leave me to let the wolves finish the job?" Mulder asked after the others were gone.
"Not on your life Mulder. Get up."
Mulder slowly got to his feet.
"Where are we going?"
"We're going our separate ways," Duke said. He reached to his shoulder holster and withdrew the pistol there. He checked the clip, tossed the gun to Mulder.
"Good luck."
He turned and started to go in the direction the others had set off in.
Mulder looked down at the gun in his hands. Only his hands were no longer as they had once been. The fingers were starting to elongate, and the nails were now more like claws.
He dropped the pistol.
"Oh Hauser. . .you're the one who's going to need luck. . ." he finished as the transformation took him.
His howl broke the silence of the night, answered in return by the singing of the gathering pack.
Duke ran, praying he would live to see the dawn.