World's End

Chapter Twenty Three

"Shoot it, damn you!" He yelled at Marissa. Jax and Lincoln lifted their guns at the same time as they came to a stop.

"I can't get a good shot. I might shoot him!" Marissa hissed. Ellie Rae had lifted her gun too and the four of them stood there in a line, facing off with three giant wolves. The front was the one that had Daniel's leg in its mouth and it was growling, staring at them with golden eyes. Daniel was squirming, fighting its ever-tightening grip on his leg. The other two flanked it, baring their teeth at the four of them. Marissa gulped. "What do we do?" She whispered.

"Shoot the damn thing!" Daniel yelled. Blood was dripping down his leg and pooling on the ground. One of the flanking wolves licked it chops as it eyed the four.

"This is... Like Domino. We gotta distract them, make them drop him and then they'll leave." Jax referred to his old lion enemy that Ellie Rae had ended up befriending. They hadn't seen him since the building collapse and brie encounter with Death the Horseman.

Marissa looked at Jax.

"Got any tricks up your sleeve?" Jax gritted his teeth and shook his head.

"All I can really think is shoot them."

'YES! DO THAT!" Jax had said that last part loud enough for Daniel to hear. Ellie Rae shook her head.

"He's moving too much. If we shoot and miss, it'll either force them to kill him or they'll run off with him. Either way, we don't have many options." Marissa scrunched up her nose and looked at Daniel, who was now kicking at the wolf. The other two hadn't moved an inch, as if waiting for a reason to attack. Marissa lowered her gun, quickly realizing.

"Put your guns down." She whispered. Lincoln looked at her like she was off her rocker.

"What?"

"Just.. Just do it." Ellie Rae was the first to do it, evidently curious as to where Marissa was going with this. She didn't take her eyes off the wolves but made sure they saw her putting her gun on the ground. They growled as she started to rise back up again so Marissa raised her hands into the air, showing they were empty and that she was no danger. The moment she did that, their gazes turned to her friends who were still armed. Daniel stopped fighting for a moment to see if they were doing anything to help him. Despite the pain he was probably in, he looked hurt at the fact that they were putting their weapons down.

Marissa gulped nervously as the lead wolf chuffed and one of the flanking wolves started to move towards them carefully. It was making a low grumbling noise but it wasn't baring its teeth. It came to a stop in front of Marissa and sniffed at her. The thing was massive, it's head at eye level with Marissa. It was a tawny colour and looked straight at her, challenging her. She didn't move, she didn't dare blink. It huffed and blew warm air on her face as it did so. She still didn't back down.

The tawny wolf stepped back and the turned around to its leader and made a noise, like it was conversing with it. The lead wolf looked at her with its golden eyes and, with on movement, tossed Daniel into the air by his leg and caught him around the torso. Daniel screamed in pain or in fright, Marissa didn't know but it didn't look like the wolf was actually hurting him. The wolves then turned and bounded away, taking Daniel with them. They could still hear him screaming until it suddenly stopped for some reason.

Ellie Rae began to cry. Marissa released a breath she didn't know she had been holding and sagged to the ground. Jax and Lincoln were too stunned to speak.

"What... What..." Lincoln tried to say something but nothing made it out. Marissa buried her head in her hands and took some deep breaths. She could hear Ellie Rae crying and that was too much. They had.. She had let the wolves take away one of the comrades away to be turned into lunch. How could she have let that happen?