Chapter 3: Massacre

Tsume groaned and woke up. He was lying on a pile of rubble on his back. He heard the tumbling of a small rock and he saw Koji walking up. He had Kiba slung over his shoulder. He had a gash in his left temple and his clothes were a mess. "Looks like Kiba and I aren't the only ones alive." He said, with a smirk

The gray wolf looked around. "Where's Toboe and the others?" asked Tsume

Koji shrugged his unoccupied shoulder. "I dunno." He said, "So far, you and Kiba have been the only wolves I could find."
The black wolf laid Kiba down and sat next to Tsume. "So how are you doing?" he asked

"Bruise in my back and a cut on my leg." Said Tsume, "But I'll be ok."

"Kiba's knocked out and his stomach wound is getting better." Said Koji "But I've got a gash in my left temple, a cut on my side, and I think I cracked something in my right shoulder."

"If you didn't try to cushion Kiba's fall, then you wouldn't be in this much pain."
Koji laughed and then Tsume laughed with him.

Tomoe dragged Hige's body next to Toboe's. She groaned as she pulled him. She had twisted her right ankle and Hige was no lightweight. Toboe was unconscious and she had a time dragging him too. She dragged them into an abandoned water main. It wasn't the best place to live, but it would do until she could wake them. A drop of water fell on her head and she groaned. Her thoughts went back to Selina. The noblewoman should've killed her, but instead just let her live, drugged. She remembered as the woman stroked her fur, it was kinda creepy. She had kept her as a pet and she growled. Hige groaned and woke up with a pain in his side. He hissed and Tomoe whipped around to look at him. He rubbed one eye and looked Toboe, then at Tomoe. "Tomoe?" he asked

"Don't move around too much." She said, "You're injured."

"I've handle worse."
He sat up, but then his pain came back. Tomoe just rolled her eyes. "Told you not to move." She said, "You have a bad scratch across your back, a cut on your thigh, and you've got a nasty bump."

"I can handle it, it's the runt that can't handle it." Said Hige

"I wish you wouldn't call him that."
She crawled over to him and placed a few strands out of his face. She then began licking his wound on his right cheek. Hige looked at her awkwardly. "What are you doing?" he asked

"Well somebody has to help him." Said Tomoe, "We don't have supplies, so we have to do without."

"Can you lick my wound?"

"Hell no, I'm going nowhere near your leg!"

"Aww…"

Tsume lifted Kiba on his back a bit. The rubble had taken out a big chunk of the city. People were trying to find their relatives under the rubble. Haven's Night was buried under and Koji was happy about that. One person spotted the three of them and ran up to him. "Were you in that keep?" asked the small girl

"Yeah." Answered Tsume

"Come on, you need to take your friend to a doctor!"

"He'll heal up by the full moon."
Koji elbowed him in the side. Tsume gave him a death glare. "Let's just go with this." Whispered Koji, "Humans have a good knack for helping."
The girl just pulled at Tsume, and he growled again. He sighed and then walked with the girl, and Koji following. "Why are we doing this?" he asked

"Doctors are a great help." Answered Koji, "Haven't you been to one?"

"Not a day in my life."

"Jun and I used to go all the time when we would escape wolf hunters."

"Who's Jun?"

Koji stopped for a moment and coughed. Tsume looked at him awkwardly. "Old friend of mine…" he answered

"Any chance of meeting him?" asked Tsume

"Sure, if you plan to die early."

Hige looked outside as Tomoe continued to lick at Toboe's wounds. Tomoe could remember doing this as a child. Her brother would curl up and she would lick his wounds to make him feel better. He would find some kind of way to get in trouble. She could remember a time when he had fought a fox and had gotten a nasty scar on his left arm. She licked his wound clean so that their mother couldn't get angry. Of course, she found out and both of them got nasty whaps on the head. Tomoe carefully moved Toboe's arm and the bracelets jangled backwards. What she saw on his arm was a complete shock. There was a scar across his arm, just where her brother had gotten his. She then looked at his face and a tear fell on it. She realized it was hers and she quickly wiped them away. "To think all this time…" she whispered, "you were safe…I was so worried…"

"Are you ok, Tomoe?" asked Hige, crawling in

She looked at him, glassy-eyed. "Hige, he's my brother…" she whispered

"What!" exclaimed Hige

"Shh! Don't wake him!"

"Tomoe, how can Toboe be your brother? He was raised by humans."
Tomoe pulled up Toboe's wrist and revealed a scar on his arm. "This was the scar he got from fighting a fox as a pup." She said, "I remembered how mom got mad at us, whapped us both in the head. All this time I thought it was just mere coincidence that he looked like me and our named sounded so much alike."

"Tomoe…you should tell Toboe as soon as he wakes up."

"No!"

"But Tomoe-"

"Toboe doesn't have to know! I want him to find paradise without him worrying about me. I swore that I would find him and take him to paradise myself."

Tsume's eye twitched as the girl hugged onto him. He had a strong dislike for human children, because they always tended to ask too many questions. This one, the girl named Laura, just wanted to stay with him. She was a pale-skinned girl with blue eyes and red hair. She clung to his arm and hugged into him. Koji just snickered at the scene. Kids usually stayed away from him. He glanced over to Kiba and saw that the sister had done a good job of bandaging his wounds up. "I never knew you had a way with kids." Snickered Koji

"Shut up." Said Tsume

"Tsume-kun, I'll be right back." Said Laura, walking off

"She even gave you a pet name." laughed Koji

"Grr…I said shut up!"

"Now boys, please calm down." Said a voice

They both looked up into the eyes of Sister Felicia, a woman who had bandaged them up. She was an older woman with gray hair and red eyes. She looked to be in her late 50s. "Hmph…" said Tsume

"Don't mind him." Said Koji, "He's not very fond of kids."

"But they're our greatest tresture." Said Sister Felicia "All we humans have are each other, and children are our future."

"Thank paradise Selina didn't have any…" said Tsume

Sister Felicia shook her head and sighed. She then walked over to Kiba and began checking him. "It takes an evil mind to make an evil heart." Said Sister Felicia

"What do you mean?" asked Laura

"Selina didn't have a wolf-obsession until she lost her sister Harmona. Then her other sister was the one who corrupted her with thoughts of how wolves would lead them to a place called paradise. She blames wolves for everything, her sister's death, and her other sister's insanity."

"But wolves aren't bad. Grandma told me that we humans made the world so bad."

"Hmm…you sure are a bright little girl."

Laura laughed and blushed, scratching the back of her head. Sister Felicia nodded to the two boys and walked out of the room. Koji folded his arms and looked at Laura, eyebrow raised. "So it's the human's fault that the world is like this?" he asked

"Yup." She answered, "We humans have made our world so crowded that we don't have nature. Grandma said that she was friends with a wolf when she was my age."

"You're how old?" asked Tsume

"Let's see…um…I turned eight last week." Said Laura

"Right…"

"Grandma said that her wolf friend told her about paradise. She also told me that killing a wolf is like killing your mom. They're not supposed to be hunted."

Hige's stomach growled and he moaned in pain. Tomoe growled and gave him a death glare. "What?" he asked

"Will you control your stomach?" asked Tomoe

"I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry. That's nothing new."

"I am not always hungry."

"You're right; you're either hungry or perverted."

"What makes me a pervert?"

"You tried to a get a feel under my skirt five minutes ago!"

"There was a bug on your leg."

"You expect me to believe that?"

After that, there was a long period of silence. Drops of water fell from the pipe and onto the ground. Neither Hige nor Tomoe wanted to go out there. Toboe was still unconscious, and leaving him alone with just one wolf would be dangerous. A rat came running out of the pipe and Hige's mouth watered. "Dinner is served!" he said, running after it

Tomoe rolled her eyes, knowing Hige's pain would come back soon enough. The tan-furred wolf sprinted faster and then caught his meal. It did, just when he enjoyed swallowing the rat. He howled in pain and Tomoe looked at the top of the pipe. "Idiot…" she muttered

He whimpered and limped back to the pipe. Toboe groaned and woke up. He felt water drip on his nose and he shook it off. "Ugh…where am I?" he muttered

Tomoe softly stroked his head. Toboe was confused, and she wanted to be the one to tell him everything. Then she remembered the promise she made to herself. She never wanted Toboe to worry, so she would never tell him.

Koji looked out the window. He was certain that Tomoe was still alive, but he was worried. Unlike Koji, she had never been in the city by herself. He was very protective of her. His thoughts went back to when she was younger and she was still a bit naïve about the world. He and Jun would have to teach her the ways of human life, sometimes the hard way. His thoughts went back to the last time that Koji ever saw Jun, alive. They had been running from wolf hunters. The two of them split up and Koji made it back to the hideout, but Jun didn't. He didn't realize it until he heard the painful howl of his lover. He rain to his aide, but what he saw was so horrible, that Jun died afterward. Koji shook himself out of his thoughts and looked at Kiba. He was determined to find paradise, something he gave up on a while ago. Over in the corner slept Tsume. Everything was dark, but Koji was the only one who stayed up, who stayed awake. He never slept much, not since Jun was alive, and that was a while ago. Kiba turned and awoke to see Koji sitting in a window. He made a small moaning noise and Koji immediately looked over at him. The white wolf tried to get up, but he felt a shooting pain in head. "Don't move." Whispered Koji, walking over to him "You hit your head pretty hard."

Koji gently pushed Kiba back down on the bed and he sat next to him. His red hair gently brushed over his face and hid his features. "Where's everybody?" asked Kiba "Where are we?"

"We're at a church." Answered Koji, "Tsume's over in the corner sleeping, but I don't know where Hige, Tomoe, or Toboe are."

"We need to find them."

"In the morning. We all need to rest and you need to recover from that nasty bump."

"Don't you worry that Tomoe could be killed?"
Koji tensed up and then relaxed. "She can take care of herself." He said, "She knows her way around, and so do Hige and Toboe."

"Damn…" muttered Kiba, "My head hurts."
Koji snorted. "Why did you think I told you to lay down?" he asked

"I've gotten headaches before." Said Kiba, "This is nothing."

"It's something to me."

"Huh?"

"Don't feed into this too much, but you nearly scared the hell outta me."

"Are you saying you care?"

"A cold day in hell before that happens. You just look like the type who would fly off the handle."

"Fly off the handle?"

"A human saying."

"Where did you hear that?"

"Jun used to say that."

"…."

"What?"

"Jun was your lover wasn't he?"

"….."

"Koji?"

"Yeah he was…"

"Where is he?"

"…he died, a while ago…"

Tomoe's ears perked as she heard something. She poked her head out and a bunch of guys searching around for something. Hige and Toboe were both still sleeping. Whoever these men were, they were going to be nothing but trouble. She went back in the pipe as one of them walked near to where they were. These were guys who held machine guns in their hands, and had sunglasses on. Tomoe had her teeth bared, ready to charge if necessary. She didn't growl, because she didn't want to attract any attention. Her paws were wet and she could feel dirt between them. When he went away, she dropped her guard a bit. "Tomoe?" whispered a voice

She turned around and looked into the serious eyes of Hige. "What's going on?" he asked

"These guys came out of nowhere, and I think they're after something." She whispered back

"Cheza?"

"I dunno, but I think we need to get outta here."

"There's nowhere for us to go."

"The forest. If we run, we can make it to the forest."

"You're crazy."

"And you're a pervert, what's your point?"

"I can take these guys, even with a bad ankle."

"What do these guys owe you?"

"Jun's life…"

Tsume growled as he bit into another guy. All he knew right now was to fight. He wasn't sure if these guys were wolf hunters or not, but they were a threat. They had managed to start killing people in the church, and it was unsettling for him. He watched as Laura got shot in the back as she ran. It made his blood boil as he watch the girl scream out in pain and fall to the ground. He may have not liked being around the girl, but that didn't justify killing her. The blood from the man's neck dripped down his fangs and he went for another one. The humans around him had never seen anything like him. A wolf was amongst them, and they didn't even know it. Koji defended Kiba as he continued to fight. The white wolf was still a bit dizzy from the bump on the head and he couldn't keep balance for long periods of time. The black wolf could taste the human blood that dripped into his mouth as he bit into the person's arm. He was distracted long enough to get shot in the arm. He whimpered and looked up. His eyes widened as he looked at a man with blonde hair and blue eyes load his shotgun. "Oh I remember you." He said, "You're that damn wolf that got me in the eye. You know, your friend was cute. I wonder what it would be like to ravish your body…heh heh…"
He prepared to fire when a white wolf came out of nowhere and bit down hard into his neck. His arms flung all over the place as the blood continued to drip down his neck. He gurgled blood out of his mouth and fell to the ground. Still, Kiba continued to bite and scratch. "Kiba!" yelled Koji

He didn't hear him so Koji got up and pulled the white wolf off of the dead blonde, which was no easy task. Kiba continued to growl and Koji punched him in the face. The white wolf blinked a bit and looked up at the black wolf. "Koji…" he said

"I'm fine." He said, "Just a shot in the arm."

"Jun…he…he…"

"Yeah he did. You need to calm down before you faint."

The two of them got up and Kiba leaned on Koji's good arm. Tsume had finished killing off all the men and he looked down at Laura. The girl's eyes were close to death and he could stand it. The little girl touched his face lightly. "You're a wolf." She said

"Yeah kid, I am." He said

"I always knew you were…"

"I'm sorry Laura."

"Grandma was right…I saw a wolf…"
Laura's fingers fell from Tsume's face and onto the ground. There the three of them were, in a church full of dead bodies.

Hige growled as the guys got closer to him. His side was hurting from the gunshot wound, and both Tomoe and Toboe were wearing themselves out from fighting. Between the two of them, Toboe was fighting the hardest. The tan-furred wolf couldn't figure out what it was, but something was driving him to fight. As the guys got closer, the louder Hige growled. He wasn't about to be a victim. Tomoe went for one guy's leg, while Toboe went for another guy's face. The blood was splattering everywhere as each guy fell. He looked over at the both of them, lost for words. He was bleeding from the side and he could barely stand up from blood loss. Toboe shook all the blood off his fur, and Tomoe wiped the blood from her face. She took up her human form and looked at his wound with careful fingers. When she got close to it, Hige growled a bit. "Hige, let Tomoe look at it." Said Toboe in a worried tone (remember, they're both still in wolf form)

"It hurts like hell…" hissed Hige

"Just suck it up." Said Tomoe, "If I get it now, I'll be able to stop the bleeding and you won't get infected."
She laid him on his side and took a sharp piece of glass. Hige's eyes widened and Toboe started to whimper. 'W-what are you going to do with t-that…g-g-glass?' whimpered Toboe

"I have to cut it out." She answered, "It's gonna hurt, I'm not gonna lie to you."
'"Do you know what you're…doing with that thing?'"asked Hige

"Yeah, Koji used to get shot all the time. It was getting awkward for him to keep going to that doctor as a human or wolf."
Toboe turned to his human form and laid the tan-furred wolf in his lap. Tomoe brushed the fur apart and smirked. "You're kinda fat…" she said

"Shut up." Hissed Hige

All kidding aside, she plunged the knife in and Hige howled out in pain. Toboe held the wolf and felt the tears coming from his face. Tomoe slid the glass across the cuts to dig inside and Hige howled again. "It's ok…" whispered Toboe, trying to hush Hige

"Got it." Said Tomoe, pulling it out

She pulled the slug out and examined it. It looked like a bullet from a sniper rifle than a machine gun. She looked over at the two of them and she realized just how much Toboe cared for Hige. She got up and looked at all the corpses. "Yo Hige, turn to your human form." She said

"What for?" he asked

"I have to dress the deep wound. I can't do that if you're in your wolf form."

Hige did as he was told and she ripped the cloth off of a dead body. Being careful, she wrapped the cloth around Hige's waist and tied it tight. "Are you ok?" asked Toboe

"For the most part, yeah." Answered Hige, "Thanks, Tomoe."

"No problem, now we gotta go." She said

"Where?" asked Toboe

"The forest."

She pointed in the direction that they needed to go. "But I thought you were gonna stay here." Said Toboe

"I can't…" she said

"Why not?"

"…I got my reasons, now let's go."
She turned into her wolf form and started running. "Wait up Tomoe!" yelled Toboe, going into his wolf form and running after her

Hige smirked at the two, and then ran after them in his wolf form. It didn't take that long for him to catch up to them, since Tomoe ran slower the usual so that he could keep up. They could smell human blood and guns. Ever since the noble Selina escaped, there had been nothing but chaos. Tomoe stopped between two large pipes that led straight up the wall. "We're gonna have to jump all the way up." She said

"We'll never make it!" said Toboe

"We will, just watch me!"

She took a few steps back, and then jumped her way diagonally back and forth, using her claws as leverage. She scratched to get to the top with her hind legs, but she was able to manage. She looked down at the two of them in her human form. "Now when I think about it," she yelled, "Jump up in your human form!"

Hige rolled his eyes at what she did, but he did as he was told. In his human from, he found the pipes slippery, but found easy leverage. When he almost slipped at the top, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him up. She panted and give him a smirk. "You really are fat." She said

"Shut up." He said, "Come on runt, we don't have all day!"

"Don't call him that!" she said

"Don't call me that!" he said

Hige rolled his eyes at the twin's scrunched up expression. Toboe turned into his human form and jumped, but slipped and fell on his first try. "Are you ok!" yelled Tomoe

"Yeah!" he answered

"Try in your wolf form! It might be easier for you!"
He nodded and jumped up between the pipes, using his claws for leverage. When he almost slipped at the top, the two of the grabbed his paws to bring him up. "Wait, what about Kiba and the others!" said Toboe, in his human form

"They're fine." Said Hige, "I can smell them."

"I'd bet that's not the only thing you smell…" muttered Tomoe

Hige gave her a death glare and the three of them jumped off the wall and into the forest. Beneath their paws, they could feel ice and snow.