Chapter 18 Abundant Werewolves

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The next morning Winky delivered a letter. It was from Dumbledore. They had written to him to let him know that Voldemort was a werewolf. Just like Sirius was worried about, he decided to write back. In the letter it said that Harry should come home to England as soon as possible. Though it did ramble on a bit about where Harry would be able to stay. There was news that everyone was fine, though they were locked up in the castle.

Hermione had also written and was upset about the lack of phones. Not that they worked right now, but she missed being able to call Harry. Harry decided to get Sirius to magic up some mirrors. He only hoped they worked for that great a distance.

"This is why I didn't want to write him in the first place," Sirius grumbled, reading over the letter one more time. For all the words in the missive, it boiled down to 'come home'. He folded the letter up and put it on the middle of the table. He then waved his hand as if to say, 'read it if you want'.

"It's not my fault he's stuck on me. I don't know what his problem is," Harry said, folding his arms over his chest like a sulking child. He really hated that man.

"I told you before that there is a prophecy about you and that's what he's obsessed with," his godfather said, again. They had had this talk many times before.

"I've heard the prophecy and it's a bunch of bullshit if you ask me," the teen stated, going over the words one more time in his head. Yup, bullshit.

"I know that you know that, but Voldemort and Dumbledore don't believe that," was the rebuttal.

"Just write him back and tell him to bugger off," Harry whinged, still carrying on like a toddler.

"I don't think that'll work, but sure," Sirius said, thinking about how to word and hex his missive to the headmaster.

"Any other news?" Remus asked, sitting his cup on the table and watching it refill.

"Not really. Hermione is bored. She said even she can only read so many times. She misses her telly. For her it was a way to relax after months in Hogwarts. She also said she misses phones. Hey, Sirius, can we send a mirror?" Harry asked, turning to his godfather.

"As long as she doesn't give it to Albus," the man agreed.

"I don't think that will be a problem. Well, not intentionally. You know that man knows everything that goes on in that castle," Harry said thoughtfully. He only knew a few places that there were no spies. Even then the house elves were everywhere. Still, for the right price, like kindness, you could get away with anything nonharmful.

"I'll have one done in a few days," Sirius said, putting the letter in his pocket. "Winky can do the post."

"Great. Thanks, dogfather mine," Harry said impishly.

"Well, that's me done. I'm off to start my day," Remus said, getting up from the table and waiting for the other two to join him.

"Better get started with the day," Sirius agreed, throwing his napkin on his plate and putting it in the middle of the table.

"Yeah, hide-and-run again this morning. I think they have got it now, so we're going to need something else soon," Harry warned, joining his dogfathers.

"We'll think of something," Remus said, heading out the tent with the rest of the crew.

As it was, the way things were set up, the children came in the morning, played hide-and-run. Then they would go to the old folks' home to do a bit of schooling or be watched by the older people. Then they would come back in the evening and play hide-and-run again. Then they would go home with their parents, who had spent all day either working in the greenhouses or sorting things or whatever else needed to be done. As it was, they had everything on a good schedule and everybody was participating, even Lori.

Rick had balked at first. Not that he didn't want to work, he was just used to being an authority. Now, he was reassigned to being menial labor. He tried to insert himself as one of the hierarchies, but Sirius didn't go for it. For one thing the man was too lenient. Not that Sirius was a hardass, but he knew that everyone had to be treated equal. No one, not even himself, was above working in the greenhouses.

They did go for supply and survivor runs every day. There was a team of people that raided the city around noon. Glenn was a godsend because he knew the city better than everyone else. The flying vehicles helped immensely. So far, they had lost no one to the zombies.

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That evening the werewolves decided to change in the city. They went to the far side where they were sure there were no survivors. The last time they'd been down there was nothing but zombies. Harry, Sirius and Remus each flew a motorcycle over to the top of the tallest building in the area. They decided to leave the bikes on the roof and made their way down to the bottom floor. This particular building didn't have any zombies in it, because they had cleared it out this afternoon.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? There might be survivors around here," Remus said, looking around.

"You've taken your wolfsbane potion, it should be okay," Sirius said, glancing around as well. Even though they had been there earlier, anyone could have come since then.

"Yeah, Remus, you shouldn't worry so much," Harry added his two knuts worth. He didn't appear worried at all.

"As you can see, Harry isn't worried, Remus. I don't know why you're always so worried about everything," Sirius said, patting Remus' shoulder.

"It only takes one time to turn somebody into a werewolf," was the argument.

"That was Snape's fault. Nobody made him go down into that tunnel."

"No, but you're the one who told him where it was."

"Can we please not have this argument again," Harry said, huffing like he was getting really tired of hearing the same argument over and over again. He agreed with Sirius. If Snape knew there was a werewolf at the end of that tunnel, then he was stupid for going there.

"Sure, I'm tired of bashing my head against the wall anyway," his godfather said, smirk on his face.

"Fine, but we should still be careful," the older werewolf stated.

"We will," the other two said, then smiled at each other.

They got ready for the night. Looking out the window and making sure there was no survivors around. Just about when they were going to turn, Sirius opened the door and they all went outside.

Zombies immediately started to come to their position. The second the moon hit Harry's and Remus' faces, they started turning into werewolves. The transformation was quicker and less painful than it had been before the dead started walking.

Sirius immediately turned into a dog.

As soon as they turned, the two werewolves howled, and the zombies turned and fled. Though there were no emotions in the zombies, they did have a survival instinct and the only thing that seemed to drive them away was a werewolf howl.

What startled the three of them the most, was that there were return howls. The three canines looked at each other confused.

Sirius decided that they needed to find out what was going on. So, they headed in the direction the howls had come from. They were about five blocks away when they noticed that there were other werewolves. These werewolves seem to be chasing survivors. There were four survivors running as fast as they could, but losing the race because werewolves were much faster on their feet than humans.

There were only three werewolves.

Without even thinking about it, Harry and Remus decided to confront the werewolves. Sirius opted to help the survivors. Harry was smaller than the other ones, but he was just as vicious. They didn't actually attack the werewolves, they just lured them away from the humans. Sirius nipped at the survivors' feet and chase them into a building.

When the other werewolves decided to give up chase on the two that were leading them away, they tried to find where the humans were. They sensed them in the building that Sirius had led them too.

Sirius had turned back into a man and used his magic to lock the door. The other men were staring at him as if he was something bizarre and scary.

The strange werewolves were scratching at the windows and howling at the people inside, so Sirius decided to take the men up a couple of floors. As he herded them up the stairs, the werewolves decided that they were no longer easy game and moved off.

"What the hell are you man?" a big burly man asked, after the wolves left.

"Were any of you bit?" Sirius asked instead.

"Yes, Randall was bit before we started running," a smaller man stated, pointing to a young blondish man.

The teen, who must have been Randall, was holding his arm, which was bleeding. It wasn't a bad bite, but it was enough to turn him into a werewolf.

"Does this mean he's gonna turn into a werewolf?" the burly man asked, peering closely at Sirius.

"Probably," the dogman said, going over to the teen. He looked at the bite and sighed. He didn't know what to do. These guys seemed like a gang, and he didn't trust them among his people, but he couldn't leave the poor kid to his fate.

"Well then we don't want anything to do with him," the first guy said in disgust.

"You assholes. Who the hell do you think you are abandoning me like this? I've been by your side since this whole thing started. I'm good. I need to be in this group," Randall said, shouting at the leader of the group.

"No, now you're a liability." And without another word, the other three just moved off and left the building. Leaving Randall and Sirius.

"That sucks man," Sirius said to the very concerned looking man.

"Those fuckers better never see me on a full moon," the young man snapped, already accepting his fate. He was a lot more resigned to seeing weird things after seeing the dead walk. He noted the flying cars and motorcycles too.

"Are you going to be OK with this?" Sirius asked, taking a strip of cloth that he found and bandaging the man's bite.

"Considering it just happened to me, I don't know. I haven't wrapped my head around it yet," Randall said, watching himself get patched up.

"Yes, it is a difficult thing to come to concept with," Sirius agreed. "We have a place to stay, but I don't know if you'll be able to get past our shields. It all depends on if you're a good person or not, or if you intend to hurt people within the boundaries."

"You have a place to stay?" was the confused reply.

"We have three places to stay, but only one of them is open to you," Sirius said, knowing that the only way he'd trust the man was if the wards accepted him. But he still wanted him where he could be monitored.

"Whatever you say, man, I'll try and get past your shields," the older teen seemed eager to be somewhere safe.

"We'll figure it out in the morning. I've got werewolves to find. You need to stay here so you don't get hurt any more than you already are. With you bleeding the zombies are gonna come after you like white on rice. You need to stay here," he reiterated.

"Yeah, man, whatever you say I'll stay right here. You come get me in the morning and we'll see what happens then." With that he looked around to find somewhere to crash. He spotted a chair in the corner of the room. One of those plush computer chairs. That would work. He flopped down and settled for some sleep.

Sirius left the building. He went to find his two wayward werewolves. They weren't far. They were just sitting right on the corner, keeping an eye out. Sirius turned back into a dog and went to join them.

They spent the rest of the night running around the city trying to see if they can find the werewolf gang. They wanted to make sure that they were staying on this side of the city so that they wouldn't infect anybody else. The three men that had left Randall seemed to have taken off to parts unknown. They couldn't smell them anywhere so they could only think that they had found somewhere to hide.

The three other werewolves were not found that night. Harry and Remus decided to keep an eye on the newest werewolf, so they went to the building to get a few hours sleep. Sirius, of course, joined them, but opted to stay awake.

When the moon disappeared over the horizon, everyone was woken.

"We need to get back and see if Randall can get in the wards," Sirius said to the three tired men.

"Any reason he shouldn't?" Remus asked, stretching his arms above his head.

"He was part of one of those gangs," was the casual answer.

"So, some of the Vatos are pretty decent people," Harry said, scratching his shoulder. Everything itched the next morning. Like ants had crawled on him all night.

"Let's just go," the exhausted leader said, waving them to follow him out the building. They went to the bikes, and Sirius had Randall ride with him.

The teen was excited to be on a flying motorcycle. He lifted his arms and let out a whooping sound.

Soon enough, they were at camp. They got off the motorcycles at the intent ward and pushed them through. Like Daryl and Shane, the wards gave Randall pause. He felt it and asked about it. Sirius explained it to him and gave him the same warnings he gave everyone.

At the Health Ward, they had to stop for the healer. She came and fussed over the bite, but there was little she could do about it, but put a better bandage on it. Once that was done, they went to camp.

The first person they came across was Daryl.

"Daryl, this is Randall. He was bit last night and while he passed the wards, I need to keep an eye on him," Sirius said, yawning greatly. "There's another pack of werewolves. They bit him."

"Okay," was all the redneck said around the chew in his mouth, but gave the boy a look like he dared him to be stupid enough to misbehave around him.

"I'm cool, man," Randall immediately said, knowing that look.

"You best be," Daryl warned, spitting his tobacco on the ground, making Remus flinch in disgust. Sirius and Harry just shrugged. The man had raised his own plants in the greenhouse set aside for it. How he could chew was debated, but mostly ignored.

"I'm going to bed," Sirius said, waving to Randall, "Can you show him around? We're tuckered out."

"Yeah, I got him," Daryl said, making shooing motions.

"Take him to Shack when he gets here. He knows what to do," the leader said, walking towards his tent, Remus and Harry quietly following.

"No problem," Daryl said, spitting once more, then grabbing the teen by the arm he went to find Shack.