Chapter 29: The Rogue Pack
Surgery went fine. The other hand next month. Thanks for all the support.
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When the return howls sounded, two motorcycles flew off in that direction. Followed by many cars. It seemed the watchers were going to do more than watch.
The werewolves and dog on the ground did the same. They followed the sound of the bikes, and soon were where they needed to be. The rogue gang of werewolves had grown. There was a kid among them. That gave pause to the main group. There were ten rogues to their three, but Remus and Harry had been werewolves longer than the others and were both dominant males. Harry referring to Remus, in most things.
Shots were fired at the end of the street, there were zombies coming. Not that they were worried, zombies hated wolves. Still the hunt was fun. Many of the new pack took off with Remus and Harry, while Randall joined the other alpha.
As long as there were no citizens to infect, they let them alone. Well, not Sirius, he hid in a building and left a message on the wall. It was huge and written in spray paint. Orange. It said:
IF YOU WANT HELP, COME TO THE CAMPGROUND OUTSIDE THE CITY.
They would try to keep the pack corralled in this area, so they would see the message. Now that he thought about it, he wondered why they hadn't left this message from day one. Oh well, he'd think about leaving more of them.
It wasn't easy keeping the pack in the area, but with the Dixon brothers corralling them every time they tried to leave, it was easier, just not easy. The other watchers helped too, they shouted and attracted the rogues' attention. They were acting as bait. Unobtainable bait, but bait, nevertheless.
They all fell asleep on the street, and as soon as they turned back to human, Sirius woke Remus. "Remus, get up buddy," he said, shaking the man's shoulder.
"Go away," the other man said, grabbing for a blanket that wasn't there, making him sit up and notice where he was. "What happened?"
"That rogue pack is here," his friend said, pointing to the leader of said pack.
"Well, let's go greet him," Remus stated, standing up, uncaring of his nakedness. Everyone here, except Sirius was naked. That's what he thought until he heard the catcalls from the roof. Shite. He conjured up a robe quickly and had Sirius cover the other leader.
They then shook the man awake.
"Who are you?" was the first question from the rogue leader's mouth.
"Remus," Remus said, pulling the robe closer around his body. It was chilly in the mornings. "I'm the alpha of my pack."
"Greg," the other man said, looking around to make sure his pack was all there. They were, and unmolested, just sleeping.
"We've been looking for you. To offer you sanctuary," Sirius said, then added, "I'm Sirius. I lead the community I'm talking about."
"We've heard of you," was all Greg said, sitting up and adjusting the blanket to cover most of him.
"Are you magical?" Remus asked, shifting from foot to foot on the cold cement.
"Yes, I was turned before the whole world went to shit," the other man said, and then added. "The others are too."
"That's good to know," Sirius said, conjuring some bunny slippers for Remus, who glared but put them on.
"We can take care of ourselves," Greg said, not commenting on the byplay.
"Don't you want a safe place to live?" Remus asked, pointedly looking at the kid.
"They're not from my pack," Greg explained, fists tightening on the blanket. "They came about a week ago. I think they were looking for you, but they found us first."
"A family?" Sirius asked, looking at the kid and a few of the adults that could be related.
"A mom, a kid and a teen. According to them they were attacked at the same time. They've been werewolves since the kid was three. They are looking for safety, but are afraid of being rejected," Greg said, standing up and heading to the woman who could be the kid's mom.
"What are you doing?" Remus asked, following along.
"We don't want no kids in our pack. It's hard enough to survive with just us," the alpha said, shaking the woman awake. "Nancy, get up," he said gruffly.
"What about the rest of you?" Sirius asked, looking at the scars on all the werewolves. So it wasn't just Moony. Most of them must have been loners before they hooked up. The only time werewolves scratch or bite themselves is when they are without a pack. The woman and her kids were scarless.
"We can fend for ourselves," was the curt answer.
"If you change your mind, come find us at the CDC, or the campground. We're not sure if we're staying there for the winter, but we might," Sirius said, now that it had been explained to him that the winters here were much milder than in the United Kingdom, they might keep the campgrounds as a living area.
"I'll keep it in mind," the man said, still shaking the very exhausted Nancy. "Get up, girly," he said again.
She groggily opened her eyes. "What?" she snapped. Then noticed the two men, one of whom was holding a blanket for her. Both were averting their eyes. She snatched the blanket and stood up. Putting it on like a beach wrap, she said they could turn around.
"These are the guys you were looking for," Greg said, waving to Sirius and Remus. "Get your kids and go with them."
"Fine," was all she said as she moved to do just that. She never liked Greg anyway.
"I noticed your pack has grown. Did you bite them, or are they like Nancy and found you?" Remus wanted to know.
"We kill those we bite," the man answer, holding up his hands to ward off protest. "Only once, besides the kid you took. We don't bite unless we are attacked," he finished, putting his hands down. "That's what happened to the kid's gang buddies. They attacked us, so we killed them."
"Completely understandable," Sirius said, having had the debate not long ago.
"Do you want to run with us? Our goal is to have the entire city of Atlanta a safe zone," Remus asked, waving his hand to encompass the entire area.
"No, we're going to move on now that you have the girly. I think the boy that we bit wants to run with this pack," Greg said, remembering the kid sticking close to his side the whole night.
"Take him," Sirius said, not even stopping to think about it.
"If you find survivors, send them our way, yeah?" Remus said, thoughtfully. He could fight for dominance over the pack, but they seemed peaceful enough. Well, peaceful as in they didn't go looking for trouble. He noted that they stayed away from the humans.
"Yeah," was all the man said as he turned away. He started waking up his pack so they could move on. He included Randall.
"Let's get home," Remus said, waving to the Dixon brothers, who were standing guard.
It took a bit of organizing, but they all were packed in cars and flew home. The new family was amazed, and the rogue pack just howled at their retreat. Those guys embraced their wolves.
Hphphp
Those that had been up the whole night slept in that day. Except Sirius, he and Mac had a job to do. It was done quickly and quietly. They didn't wake them; it was a mercy kill. Sirius had a few guilty feelings, but in the end knew it had to be done. He made sure to banish the bodies, Mac too. They didn't need zombies inside. Well, the wards were set up to kick the dead out, but why take the chance. That and it was less zombies on the outside as well.
They really needed to do something about that. They had to make sure that the dead disappeared, and not woke up again as Walkers. He'd have to get with Jessi, and Mac on that. They were the better spell casters.
It wasn't until lunch the others stirred. Finally, one by one, they all stumbled into the dining tent. Since everyone was there, Sirius called for a town meeting that night at nine pm. What he had to say didn't need to be said around kids. He looked around the tent for Dale, but the man wasn't there. He wondered if he was at a farm. The farmers only came to lunch if work was done. If there was news, they'd tell those that weren't there.
Sirius spent the afternoon with Remus getting mirrors made. It was a good thing they had a large supply. Larger mirrors were delicately broken into smaller ones. They hooked them all together, and they would act like cell phones. The older version. No apps or anything, just video calling capabilities. They'd hand them out at the meeting. All magicals would get one. They had yet to figure out how to connect the non-magicals.
Still since there was a magical in each group, no matter what the job, it should suffice for now.
Hphphp
After lunch Harry was hanging around with the runners. They had been there last night.
"So, we have another kid werewolf," Peggy said, running her fingers through her hair, which was longer now. She used to keep it short, but since she wasn't running, she liked it longer. Maybe she'd put it in a braid like Sue's.
"Yeah, he's been running with his family for awhile now, so run-and-hide should be easy to teach him," Harry said, thinking about the boy they had brought in that morning. The family slept in one of the tents, but would get an apartment, if they wanted. Or they could have a tent, or RV. They were magical, so a tent was not out of the question. They were werewolves, so they might like to stay near the woods.
"What are their names?" Sue wanted to know.
"Nancy is the mum, Timmy is the kid, and Joe is the teen. He's almost eighteen, so they are considering him an adult," Harry explained, ticking off fingers with each name.
"They're magical, right?" Mike asked, even after all this time, the boy was fascinated with magic. He watched every time he could.
"Yes, Mike, they are magicals," Harry said with fond exasperation. "How are you guys settling in? I never get time to talk to you," he asked, looking at his long-time friends.
"You see us every day," Sue pointed out, giggling at his question. "We teach class together," she added as if he had forgotten.
"Silly, I know that. I just never get to chat," the boy said, throwing some grass at her.
"I'm doing good. I think I'll get to go with Tonks on runs inside the city. She told me that no one under fifteen can go outside," Sue said, tapping her finger on her thigh.
"She told me the same, but she wants me to wait a year," Peggy said, she folded her arms and huffed. "I don't like these restrictions," she complained.
"I know," Harry commiserated. "How do you think I feel? I now have a guardian. I'm so not used to that," he added, frowning a bit at that.
"We all do," Mike huffed, glaring in the general direction of the adults.
"We should have a day free, just for us," Sue said, squinting her eyes in thought.
"You mean not just the day after the full moon?" Harry asked, he too thinking on a day of freedom.
"Yeah, speaking of which, watching you change was a wicked, and scary sight," Mike said, getting excited.
"Just always do it from a roof or up in a tree. I'd rather you didn't watch at all. It's weird having an audience," the werewolf said, running a hand through his hair sheepishly. "It's like someone watching you get undressed," he explained.
"Oh," was the collective response.
"I can see that," Sue said, giving him a wink. "I mean, you're naked when you wake up," she added, not wanting him to think she was ogling his wolf bits.
"See now, that's creepy. You wouldn't like it if I did that to you," Harry said, not meeting her gaze.
"Sorry," she offered, giving him an understanding smile.
"Sure, just don't watch anymore, okay. Once was enough," he muttered, still averting his eyes.
"We promise," they said, all putting their hands in the middle of the group.
Harry added his and they moved up and down three times and broke away.
"So, about that day off," Sue said, leaning forward causing them all to lean in.
This was going to be good. They just had to convince Sirius.