Hmm. This might be one of the most interesting one-shots I've written. It's perhaps a little rushed, but that's at least partially intentional. This is based of a series of quests in the MMORPG, World of Warcraft. They take place in the zone of Grizzly Hills, and more specifically, the town of Silverbrook. I took the name and the basic plot, both of which belong to Blizzard Entertainment, but everything else is mine.
This story takes place after the end of the series, just so you know. It's not AU.
Well, this is my hand at trying a few genres I don't normally write. I apologize if it's not the best, but I tried. Be warned now, there's a very open ending. If you like a good, wrapped-up conclusion, this story is not for you.
Silverbrook and the basic plot are owned by Blizzard. Leo, Taylor, and Logan are owned by Disney. Siri is owned by Apple. Edwin, Patience, and the ranger are owned by me. Enjoy.
* * * Silverbrook * * *
. I .
Leo held his arms above his head, his phone clutched in his fingers.
"Any signal yet?" Taylor asked, dangling her own arms off the bed.
"No. Still nothing."
"Do you think he'll be worried about us?"
Leo rolled over onto his stomach and threw his phone onto the pillow. "Probably. He said this would happen, though." He groaned. "I guess I'll head down the mountain in the morning and see if I can call him."
Taylor nodded, her features covered by a look of gloom.
"Hey, what's the matter? Upset you can't get Siri to read your books to you?"
Taylor's face didn't change. "It's not Siri, and no, that's not what I'm upset about."
"Well, what?"
"This."
"This?"
"All of this, Leo!" Taylor shouted, catching both her and her leader by surprise. She tugged at her fingers before mumbling, "I've had a bad feeling since we came up here, and it's only getting worse."
"Yeah, this place is kinda creepy."
"It's more than that, Leo. Something here is . . . off. This whole mission is just . . . wrong. The people here act weird and suspicious, and not like any people I've ever met before. It's like stepping back into the 1700s! It all gives me an awful feeling in my gut. I've learned not to ignore my instincts, and right now they're telling me that this whole town—this whole mountain!—isn't right."
"I feel the same way, but—"
"Leo," Taylor whispered, turning her head towards him. He knew if he could see her eyes, they would convey her desperation. "I don't like any of this."
Leo scratched his neck and looked down.
"Don't you think it's weird that none of our communications devices work?"
"Well, the cell companies, they can only carry in certain ar—"
"But our earpieces! Davenport designed those to work virtually anywhere in the world. Why"—she swallowed—"why aren't they working now?"
"It's a dead zone, Taylor. Big D told us all that before we left. No big deal, all right?"
"I just can't shake this feeling."
"Hey, if any sane person was up on a mountain in the middle of a creepy town filled with people stuck in the eighteenth century, they'd have the same feeling. It's normal, but we have to put all that aside. We have a mission to complete."
Taylor nodded, but she still seemed hesitant. "Is Logan coming back soon?"
"He should be. He went out to see if the townspeople needed any help before we headed for bed."
"You sure he's coming back?"
"What, you think he's gonna get killed or something?"
"One of the reasons we're here is because people are randomly disappearing."
"He's bionic. He can handle himself."
Leo tried to calm Taylor down, using it as a way to calm himself down. He too had an odd feeling about this mission, one which sent them to a remote village on a mountainside to find out the truth behind a chain of robberies and disappearances. The people at the bottom of the mountain—the closest neighbors—were frightened. Leo couldn't blame them; ever since he and his team had arrived, the ominous feeling hadn't left.
Everyone in town acted like living history. They wore clothes that had been out of style for centuries and while they seemed to know about the modern world, they didn't want any part of it. Leo had initially thought them to be Amish, but they scoffed at the insinuation. While they shared many similarities, they was something different about the people of this town—something Leo couldn't bring himself to like.
Logan came through the door seconds after Taylor had decided to sleep. She sat up and turned to her brother, her posture straight in eagerness.
"Anything special happen?" Leo asked, attempting to remain casual.
"Nah," Logan said, sitting down on his sister's bed. "I checked a few store locks to make sure no one could break in. Got to have a good chat with some nice guys in the butcher shop. Did you know that a lot of people think this place is haunted?"
Taylor snorted. "That's not surprising. Come on, Logan. Something's weird about this place, but it's certainly not ghosts."
"I dunno," Leo drawled. "Stranger things have happened."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah. I've seen a lot of weird things in my life; I'm not about to write ghosts off now."
"Well, I know for a fact they're not real, so feel free to 'write them off.'"
"Oh, and why's that?"
"Because if ghosts were real, we'd all be haunted by the vengeful spirit of Victor Krane."
Leo opened his mouth to counter, but finally shrugged. "Good point."
"I don't know how many of the people here think this place is haunted," Logan said as he stood up and got ready for bed, "but they told me that a lot of other people in this area believe it. A whole lot of them won't move here because of that."
"Those people seem sane," Taylor said, crawling under the covers. "This place is straight out of a horror movie."
Logan cocked his head. "Three teenagers in the middle of the woods with no communication and surrounded by ideas that the places they want to go and the people they interact with are haunted? Never heard a plot like that in my life."
Leo groaned and flopped onto his covers. "Okay, enough of this. We've got more disappearances to investigate tomorrow. We're pretty sure it's a band of marauders trying to destroy the farms or something for personal gain. Everyday, run-of-the-mill bad guys. We'll have to see if we can find them tomorrow, but for now, let's sleep on it. Please? I need my ten hours for that Leo Glow."
Taylor rolled her eyes, but nonetheless she turned off the light above her and fell onto the pillow. Logan turned off the light above the sink of their inn room and flopped onto the couch. Without another word, they all drifted off the sleep, nursing their trepidation and remorse.
. II .
The team of bionic heroes awoke, ready for a day of, well, being heroes. No more break-ins had happened in town, and for a moment they felt successful.
For a moment.
"My daughter!" Edwin Jenkins yelled as he ran into the square. The team had met him the day before: a middle-aged man with a thick beard who ran the biggest farm in the area. He spied the bionics and hurried over. "You have to help me! Please! Those fiends took my daughter!"
"Whoa, slow down," Logan said. "And would you quit screaming? You're making my ears hurt."
Taylor nudged her brother and Leo asked the frantic man to repeat himself.
"Last night," Jenkins huffed, "I don't how or when they did it, but when we woke up, Patience was gone."
"Wait, wait, wait," Logan said, waving his hands. "Your daughter in named Patience? Is she a patient person?"
Jenkins stared at him with mouth open and eyebrows raised.
"Don't mind him," Leo said. "Are you sure she didn't just take a walk or something?"
"That's not like her at all. But even so, we did check around, and we can't find her. The missus and I found a ribbon of hers on the tree outside our door. She didn't leave on her own."
"How old is she?"
"She's seventeen. She has brown hair and stands at about your height. Please, find her!"
"Of course." Leo paused for a moment. "You guys know that there's a whole world beyond this mountain, right? With cell phones something like this never would've happened."
Again, Jenkins only stood with his mouth open and eyebrows raised.
"Never mind," Taylor said. "Do you have any idea where they could've gone?"
"Out into the woods, I suppose. That's where they always seem to go. We can never catch them. Oh, please, bring Patience back to me!"
"We will," Logan said. "Just be patient." He snickered while his teammates rolled their eyes.
"And please," he said, "when you find her, and the men who took her—rip their hearts out of their chests and bring them to me."
Heat washed over Leo's face. "Uh . . . that's not really what we do. We're, uh, we're heroes."
"They stole my daughter."
"I know, and we'll deal with them accordingly. But we're not going to kill them."
A strangely dark look overtook Jenkins's face. "Then what good are you?"
Leo took a step back. "We'll find your daughter, I promise you that."
Jenkins looked down. "I suppose you can at least do that."
Leo took another step back, wanting to disentangle himself from this disturbing conversation.
The team saddled up the horses—the only mode of transportation—provided them. Taylor sat with Leo, seeing as how she couldn't guide the horse herself.
"It's like stepping back in history," Leo mumbled. "It was never my favorite subject."
"Makes you wonder why they called in bionic heroes," Logan said.
Taylor's head snapped up and she turned to her brother. "What?"
"What? I just said I wonder why they called in bionics. Seems awfully strange for a town with no technology whatsoever."
"It does, doesn't it?" Taylor mumbled.
Leo gripped the reins. "And we're off!"
. III .
They pulled to a stop several yards away from a small encampment. They dismounted their horses and Leo knelt down to scan the area.
"They've got a girl down there," he said. "I can see her."
"Is she being patient? Then that's our girl."
Leo rolled his eyes. "She looks like a teenager, and she's got brown hair. She doesn't look happy, either. There are two guys with her. That's all."
"Are there more in the trees?" Taylor asked.
"Not that I can see. They don't look like they're expecting anyone else."
"Are you sure?"
"As sure as I can be."
"Then let's move in."
The crept down the hill towards the tents, ready for anything. As soon as they got close, they leapt out of the bushes with fierce cries. The men jumped out and pulled out knives to defend themselves. It did little good against bionic training.
Leo noticed that his laser spheres seemed weaker than usual—and exceptionally harder to control—but his newly acquired skills in hand-to-hand combat served him well against opponents who clearly weren't ready for it.
Taylor and Logan knocked one of the men out, and Leo soon had the other one down and out. That should've been it, but a strange feeling washed over him. He felt dangerous, violent, and before he knew it he had a laser sphere up and ready to hurl at his defenseless opponent.
"Stop!" A hand gripped his wrist and pulled it back to his side. He spun around to see a big pair of brown eyes wild with terror. "Don't do this! You don't have to do this. You're not like them yet."
He lowered his hand and stared at it, incredulous at his alacrity to do such a deed. "I'm sorry," he murmured before the girl's words fully registered in his brain. "Wait . . . what do you mean, not like them yet?"
Her eyes seemed to melt a little. "The people that sent you here," she said. "You shouldn't trust them. My name is Patience, and I have to get out of here."
"Aren't you Edwin Jenkins's daughter?" Taylor asked.
Patience turned to face the other girl, her braids swinging around her bosom. "Yes. I'm Patience Jenkins, and Edwin's my father. But he . . . he's changed. They all have. The virus. . . . They all changed. That's why I need to leave. These men, they were rescuing me, in a sense. They're fighting for survival, you see. They're some of the only ones left."
"What are you talking about?" Logan asked, taking a step closer to her.
Patience backed away. "There's not enough time to explain. I need to leave, and you should, too." She bit her lip. "Head to the northeast end of town. You'll find something there that will interest you. I'm so sorry . . . good luck, and trust no one."
She vanished before their very eyes, leaving behind only the swaying branches of a blackberry bush.
. IV .
Taylor put a hand on Leo's shoulder. "Are you sure about this?"
He sighed. "It may be our only way to find out why this place feels so weird."
"Why is there a tower all the way out here?" Logan asked.
"Let's find out." Leo used his laser sphere to break the lock on the door, leading his team inside.
The room couldn't have been much bigger than a small closet, and in the corner sat a man hunched over with his hands pressed to his face. He looked up, took one glance at the bionics' uniforms, and leapt to his feet.
"You're not with them," he said, almost in a whisper. "You're not with them! Oh, thank the heavens! We have to go. Now."
"Wait, who are you?" Logan asked, studying the man's peculiar outfit. He couldn't have been more than twenty-five, and he wore a raggedy brown shirt with faded spots where patches had been violently torn off.
"I was a ranger," he said. "Came up here to investigate all the strange goings-on. I suppose that's why you're here. I got too close to them—asked one too many questions. All my buddies—they're gone. I'm all that's left. The only one left to tell the world. Come on, we need to go."
He ran to the door and stared to leave, but seemed to think better of it. "Were you bitten?" he asked, his voice cold. When he got no answer, he raised his voice: "Answer me! Were you bloody bitten?"
"What do you mean?" Taylor asked. "Bitten? By what?"
The ranger's face softened. "You don't even know, do you? The people here—they're not human. Come on, we have to go. Do you have horses?"
"Yeah, out front," Leo said.
"No time to waste. This isn't a job for any of us." He paused. "Not even a handful of bionic humans."
Before the three could protest, the ranger ran out and mounted Logan's horse. Logan hopped up behind him and Leo helped Taylor onto their other ride. The ranger took the reins his hands. "Don't dilly-dally, boys. If you want to live, you'll make your horse run. Don't fight, just run. Hyah!"
They took off down the mountain away from town. The sky darkened above them, leaving the forest as dark as if it were night. Not a drop of rain fell, so only the wind chilled their cheeks as they rode.
"We're supposed to help these people!" Leo shouted.
"You still don't get it," the ranger yelled back. "They don't need help of any kind. They're the ones hurting people."
"Uh, Leo?" Logan said.
"They called us here. They need us."
"Leo?"
"No, kid, they want you. They want you because you're powerful. They want to use all of you."
"Leo!"
"What, Logan?"
"I don't think those are ghosts, but they're not human either."
Leo ventured a look back and instantly regretted it.
Behind them, running on all fours, were hideous fiends like those of a fairy tale or a horror movie. They had the size of men and the visage of wolves—a disturbing hybrid Leo had hoped to only view in movies. His stomach turned and he pressed his horse into a gallop.
"What are they?" Taylor asked.
"I don't know, but Logan's right: they're not human."
"Those are the villagers!" the ranger said, pushing his horse forward. "All those tales you hear about this place, they can't compare to the truth."
"None of us were bitten, right?" Leo mumbled to himself.
They pressed forward, but the beasts retained the lithe swiftness of their animalistic nature and kept pace with the horses, who by this point were just as spooked as their riders.
Leo tried to ignore the supernatural creatures running beside him—it couldn't be the oddest thing he'd ever encountered. It made the top-ten list, at least. Still, the thought of turning into one of them, or worse, his friends becoming monsters, shot adrenaline through his veins and heightened his sense of urgency.
He glanced backward and saw same face he and his team had talked to earlier that morning. Edwin Jenkins, his face twisted into something inhuman, crouched behind them, trampling through bushes while his teeth gleamed in the light. Leo didn't know how he recognized the man, so twisted and deformed had he become.
"Leo!" Taylor cried out, and he looked to see one of the beasts nearing her leg. He tried to swerve away, but not soon enough. The claws dug into his friend's pants and threw her from her mount.
"Taylor!" he shouted, and Logan repeated the scream.
"Leave her behind!" the ranger yelled above the noise. "We have to get out of here and get to civilization or we're all doomed! She's a lost cause!"
Leo looked down at his hands. He could hear the clomping of the feet behind him, could hear their snarls as the wolf-men closed in on their prey. He grasped the reins and looked forward toward freedom.
Then he swung the horse around, charging straight into the mass of yellow eyes and yelling the name of his companion.
Originally Leo was going to keep going and leave Taylor behind, but that seemed too out-of-character for him.
Yeah. Not like anything else I've written before, hmm? It's always good to step outside of your comfort zone. How'd it go? Good? Bad? Meh? Feel free to review, like always, and let me know what you thought. I know this isn't the first LR werewolf story, but I wanted to try my hand at it.
Yes, open ending, I know. Feel free to rave at me about it in reviews. And no, I'm not writing a part two or a sequel. Hear me out, though: If one of you readers who has an account would like to take this idea for a spin and work with Silverbrook, the characters, and extend the plot a little, I won't discourage you. If you'd like to write a sequel to this story, please PM me and let me know. I'd love to bounce ideas off you and see how you carry it on, if any of you choses to do so. I'm hoping at least one person out there will take me up on this. XD
Yes, I know I haven't been posting much. First of all, I've had a few things take priority in my life, and depending on how things go, that might become even more true as this year goes on. But never fear, I won't leave you all behind! And again, I'm still working on Mind Gams. I want to make sure it's worth the wait. And if it's any consolation, I'll be updating that story bi-diurnal. ;) (Yes, I'm serious.)
So anyway, even if this wasn't the best one-shot ever, I hope you enjoyed it. Thought I'd give you guys a little something before you all forget that I'm here. ;) See you soon!