Chapter Ten: The Coming of the Cavalry
Garrett carried Karen in the back door of the hotel, followed closely by Jessica and John. He laid her on the floor and checked her vitals again. Her breathing was better now and the rise and fall of her chest was less shallow. She was still unconscious, however and unresponsive.
Garrett backed away as Sarah came into the room and ran to her daughter, kneeling by her side.
Without warning, the back door opened and five figures walked in, three men, one woman and a red wolf.
Seeing Karen on the floor, the woman rushed to her and placed her hands on her. A glow emanated from her hands as Karen's breathing returned to normal.
"She's going to be okay now," the woman said caringly to Sarah.
A tall, Native American man stepped forward as the leader of the group. "My name is Andrew Windsinger, a galliard of the Wendigo tribe, and this is the silver pack. We have come to cleanse this place of the Wyrm."
He pointed to a large, muscle-bound and heavily scarred man in the corner. "This is Arnold Fest, an ahroun of the Get of Fenris."
"This is Emilio Ragasa, an Uktena ragabash," Windsinger said, pointing to the slim, olive complected man in the corner.
Windsinger continued down the line. "The wolf you see here is Sophia, a Red Talon philodox, so don't take it personally if she doesn't shift to homid." Sophia growled slightly at the word homid.
Finally, he turned to the woman who had healed Karen. "And this is Jemma, our Child of Gaia theurge."
Windsinger turned to the two Bastet and gave them a confused look, but smiled. "Long have our respective breeds been at odds with one another. I don't know what brought you here, but I am grateful for it. If it hadn't been for you two, we may very well have lost this caern. We are aware of your actions at the caern site. You have fought honorably against an enemy you had no obligation to face. For that, we thank you."
Garrett and John nodded. Jemma smiled. Arnold sneered.
Windsinger paused, and then continued. "We have scouted the area according to the report we received from Ms. Miller. We have identified the diner and the mill as sources of taint that will be destroyed. Also, there is a bane spirit at the head waters of the river running through this town, corrupting the water supply. Arnold will take the diner, Sophia will deal with the bane spirit and the rest of us will contend with the mill. I understand Pentex has a 1st Team emplaced there."
Garrett and John nodded, not knowing what a 1st team was, but guessing he was probably right.
"How many would you say are left?"
Garrett thought for a moment and then answered. "I would say at least six, possibly more."
Windsinger smiled. "Okay, here's the plan."
The three Garou and two Bastet arrived at the mill a short while later. John and Garrett were the bait … err … recon element, which would go in initially and draw out any resistance. The Garou, led by Windsinger, would be the reserve element and demolition team, which would prevent the enemy from escaping and add an element of surprise before destroying the facility.
John and Garrett snuck in the front door, the memory of the last night still very fresh in their minds. The stairs leading to the second floor were still in shambles and there were still blood stains on the floor where the two men they had managed to kill had fallen.
With the second floor stairs demolished, there was only one way to go: down.
They crept to the stairs leading to the basement and peered down. Two men stood at the foot of the stairs with their backs to them. They swayed back and forth slightly. Upon closer examination, they appeared to be the same men Garrett and John had killed the night before.
"They're like zombies or something," John whispered.
"Or something," Garrett said.
John crept down the stairs, taking care to be quiet, so he could take a better look at the area below.
The basement area was relatively open, with machinery near the far wall. At least five more men were on the floor, all armed. One of them had what appeared to be a flame thrower with two large tanks on his back. The several supporting columns would hopefully provide some cover from gunfire. At the moment, no one appeared to be aware of their presence.
No time like the present, John thought as he shifted to chatro and bounded down the stairs toward the two posted guards. He swatted them both to either side as he hit the bottom of the stairs. Then he screamed in pain.
The two guards would be of no more consequence, but the silver pins keeping their bones together, now embedded in John's forepaws, were presenting a painful problem.
He shifted to sokto and did his best to remove all the silver from his hands as the gunfire started. He ducked behind a pillar to shield himself.
Garrett shifted to crinos and bounded down the stairs. He rolled left at the bottom as the bullets whizzed past, narrowly missing him. A jet of balefire scorched his fur as he took cover behind another pillar.
Garrett did a quick pan of his surroundings. The bigger picture was worse than the view from the stairs. There were just five men in here, but they weren't the only potential threats. There was a large strange-looking machine on the far wall with a conveyor belt leading to another large machine. A woman, unconscious, was on the conveyor belt, moving slowly toward the machine at the end.
Beyond it was a large steel cage. Perhaps half a dozen fomori were locked inside. They jumped back and forth, fighting the bars that held them. A stray bullet from the 1st Team flew in the direction of the cage. When it hit one in the head, the rest stopped trying to escape and crowded around the dead one, devouring it.
Garrett made his move. Running as fast as he could, he made his way to the woman on the conveyor belt. He grabbed the woman as he leaped over the conveyor belt. He landed on the other side, placed the woman on the ground and took cover from the hail of bullets that rained overhead.
Then she woke up.
The woman took one look at the crinos form beside her and jumped up to run. Before Garrett could react, five bullets tore into her upper torso, dropping her on the spot.
Garrett stared wide-eyed at the dead woman on the ground and fought off the urge to frenzy. Losing control of himself at this moment would likely get him killed.
He ripped a long strip of metal off the conveyor and jumped up, took quick aim, and hurled it at the men shooting at him. The steel strip flew through the air at a 1st teamer armed with an MP-5. He dodged it easily enough, ducking down. The man behind him with the balefire flamethrower had his back turned. The metal strip hit one of the tanks hard enough to puncture it.
The resulting explosion obliterated the 1st team, leaving hardly more than a few burning pieces of flesh and gear strewn about the basement walls and floor. John was also caught in the blast radius but the column in front of him took the brunt of the force. The flames, however, singed most of the hair off his body. The only burns he received were superficial, but damn that had to hurt.
The machine in the vicinity of the 1st team also exploded, creating a large hole in the ceiling, near the front door and sending a large piece of shrapnel toward the cage of fomori. Unfortunately none of the remaining creatures were harmed, but the top of the cage had been mostly ripped off. They scrambled out of their confines. The fomori started climbing through the hole, possibly to attempt an escape.
John, after putting himself out, wasn't about to let that happen. Despite his burns, he pursued and prepared to leap through the hole. Unfortunately, he slipped in a pool of blood or a blood-like substance, and misjudged his angle of ascent. He leapt into the air and missed the hole, banging his head savagely on a steel beam hard enough to dent it. He fell to the ground, unconscious.
From his position in the basement, Garrett could see the Garou element had arrived. Two crinos werewolves jumped down through the hole. One ran to John and the other ran to the machinery. The crinos with John was surely Jemma, Garrett perceived as he saw her lay hands on his unconscious comrade and revive him.
Garrett leapt upward and made his to the first floor through the hole, in pursuit of the fomori. Two turned to face him. One charged forward. Garrett caught the creature by the throat and slammed it hard against the floor. He then flung the creature at the other fomor, which had turned to run. The fleeing fomor dodged at the last second, baring its fang-like teeth and hissing. The airborne fomor impacted a steel column with a wet smack, wrapping around it forcefully.
John awoke seconds after Jemma applied her healing hands. He got up quickly and successfully jumped through the hole this time. The majority of the fomori had ascended to the main floor and was attacking Garrett and Windsinger, who barred their exit.
John made short work of the first one to cross his path, hitting it with enough force to take its head off. He looked in Garrett's direction to see how he was doing. Garrett was currently squared off with a frog-like acid spitter. As he ducked and dodged the corrosive streams aimed at him, he was failing to notice one preparing a surprise attack.
John spotted one with wings swooping down, going in for the kill. John took off running and managed to tackle the creature in mid-air, just a few feet from its mark.
The two fell down through the open hole and onto the ruined cage. The winged fomor landed on the steel bars, impaling itself once through the head and twice through the torso. John was luckier, but not by much. He too landed on the bent and broken bars, impaling himself through the leg.
Garrett turned to see what had happened to John and caught an acid stream in the back. He winced in agonizing pain as the acid ate into his skin. He half jumped half fell down to pull John off his makeshift skewer.
Emilio came running in their direction from the undamaged machine. "We have to get out of here now!" he shouted. "This place is about to blow!"
Garrett managed to pull John off the bar and with Emilio's help, hurled him up and out of the basement. The two jumped up to the first floor as Emilio scooped John up and ran out the door with him. Windsinger was busy defending himself from three fomori. Garrett went to help him. Before he could, a hand grabbed his arm. He turned around.
"He'll be fine. We have to get out, now," Jemma said as she pulled him toward the door.
Garrett took one last look back before running out the door. A few seconds later, the entire mill went up in one large fireball. The shockwave of the blast hurled him face forward to the ground. He turned and looked at the blaze and hung his head. Jemma came walking over, having just finished with John's wounds. She placed her hands on Garrett's back and some of the pain he was ignoring subsided.
Somewhere in the distance, a helicopter buzzed away, headed out of town.
One hour later, they were all back at the caern: John, Garrett, Jessica and the silver pack including Windsinger, who had managed to escape by stepping sideways.
Arnold had had no trouble taking out the diner by himself. He was pissed off because there wasn't much resistance. Sophia had also successful in removing the bane spirit at the headwaters.
Rites of passage were held for John, Garrett and Jessica and a rite of cleansing was performed on the caern site. Fox returned to the caern, now that there was nothing left to fear. The rest of the night was spent spinning tales, reveling and healing wounds.
The next morning, Garrett got a phone call.
"Mr. Rainbird, it's Tony. I have another gig for you. Now before I get into how much it pays or doesn't pay, I'll tell you the juiciest detail. If you do well, you might land yourself a recording contract."
"Where am I going?" Garrett asked, growing very interested.
"Pittsburgh, in three days, at a place called the Barbarosa Club."
"What's the premise?"
Tony gave out a small chuckle. "It's a talent show, of sorts. A competition, if you will. The first night is the preliminaries; the second night is the finals."
"Intriguing … I'll be there."