Picture of Alex to the side :)
I was pulled from my peaceful sleeping by a blaring incessant beeping. There were mumbles of annoyance from all around me as I reached out an arm with my face still stuffed into my pillow in an attempt to turn the damned thing off in the hope that I might be able to spend a little longer in bed. Unfortunately as soon as I had silenced the stupid thing, I heard Alex getting up.
"Everybody up," he announced with a chuckle. There were a few mumbles and groans from the rest of us and I pulled my warm duvet over my head.
"What was that?" I heard him ask and I could practically see the smile plastered on his face even though my eyes were closed.
"Immauuuuupppp!" I shouted although it was muffled my pillow. I heard everyone else say something along those lines.
I swear that Alex never ever had any problems getting up, just the rest of us. It was like he was immune to the effects of staying up late and waking up early. It was really, really annoying and seriously unfair!
Suddenly my warm covers seemed to just disappear from on top of me letting the cold air chill me and set goose bumps all over my bare arms. I rolled over so that I was on my back and my eyes snapped open to see Alex smirking at the end of my bed with my duvet in hand.
"Up," Alex smiled but in a stern way.
I grumbled to myself as I sat up on the bed and rubbed my eyes of all the sleepy dust before standing up and pulling my bag out from under my bed. I took out my toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush, jeans, leather jacket, fresh tank top, a hoodie and obviously some underwear.
"Hey!" I snapped my head up as Jade began yelling when Alex pulled the covers off her.
Henry, Nathan, Bree, Jamie and I then got up with a lot less complaints than the ones coming out of Jade and Jamie's mouth which I wouldn't repeat for the sake of me being the one in the group who swears the least.
"Jade if you don't get up now, I'm getting changed right here," Jamie warned.
"At least I'll have a nice view," Jade smiled cheekily.
"Jade!" I exclaimed in my laughter.
It was Bree who dragged Jade from her bed and into the bathroom whilst I grabbed Jade some clothes.
I smiled to myself as I pulled on my hoodie before shrugging on my leather jacket over the top and pulling my short hair into a high pony tail so that the ends only just tickled my neck before glancing at myself in the mirror. My straight auburn hair reached just past my shoulders when it was down however I had to have it up in case it got on my face whilst I was trying to shoot something. My dark brown eyes stared back at me and just for a moment I found myself wondering if I looked like my parents.
A few long and minutes later Bree and I managed to drag Jade out of the bathroom, away from all her makeup and downstairs where we dumped her on the sofa. Suddenly I was grabbed from behind by the waist, I squealed in surprise as I was pulled into someone's chest and tickled like there was no tomorrow.
"Stop!" I giggled through my hysterics. "Stop it!"
"What are you going to do Kayla?" Jamie said from behind me.
Through my laughter I managed to loop my foot around his ankle and pull it forwards, knocking him off balance and ceasing the tickling before I elbowed him in the stomach and turned around to push him away from me. He landed in a casual position on the sofa with a smile plastered across his face.
Shaking my head I walked towards Alex who was making coffee for everyone.
"That looked fun," he smirked, handing me a mug of coffee just how I like it.
"No comment," I answered still smiling as I took the mug from him and taking a sip. I immediately felt the coffee hit my system and my brain become more alert. I grabbed an apple and leaned against the counter facing Alex, studying him. He looked awake, alert and then funny as he looked up at me with a face that meant 'what are you looking at?' "Just being observant," I smiled.
"Right," he said in a voice that suggested I was crazy.
"What's the plan for today?" I asked changing the subject as he finished all the coffees and smiled to himself.
"We shouldn't split up, we don't know how big the pack is yet," he said loud enough for the other to hear and they all turned to face him. "No killing unless you life is in danger, just try and use the immediate tranquilisers so we can bring them back here for information. Any questions?" he asked.
We all shook out heads as this was the usual drill when it came to a pack of werewolves that we had no idea about but it was always good to make sure that that was what we would be doing.
***
We trekked quietly though the woods, keeping ourselves spread out but close enough to see each other clearly. Sight within the group was so important otherwise they might just start picking us off one by one and you wouldn't know about it until you were the last ones left.
My bow was drawn loosely with a tranquilising arrow as I scanned the area carefully not just for actual wolves but for any sign of them, even if that meant a person, scratches on the ground or trees, hidden paw or footprints, maybe even a tuft of fur.
You may have never heard of a tranquillising arrow but they are very new to the market, actually I didn't even think they were available to the market . They work really well as they just piece the skin and inject an immediate anaesthetic. So within four seconds of the arrow hitting the target, they are unconscious. How they don't bury themselves into the skin and kill the target, I had no idea but they worked like magic.
At around two in the afternoon we headed back to the cabin for a late and much needed lunch. We sat on the sofas in silence staring at the map as Alex crossed out all the are we had done.
After lunch, we set out again travelling west instead of east this time. An afternoon breeze had picked up and freeing a few strands of my hair from my face when Jamie raised his hand in a signal that meant everybody freeze. I pulled the arrow in my bow back, ready to let go if I saw something.
A bush nearby moved a little and I aimed my bow towards it, concentrating carefully on my breathing. I could see a dark shape within it but it wasn't definite that it was a wolf. Alex looked at me and I looked back waiting for his signal. The bush stilled very suddenly and all I could hear was my blood pulsing through my ears and all I could feel was my heart thumping wildly in my chest.
Abruptly a huge brown wolf came leaping out of the bush towards us, I let the arrow fly without the signal from Alex, to be honest I couldn't have concentrated on his hand signal with a giant werewolf leaping out of a bush to try and kill us.
in less than a second from when I had let the arrow fly I loaded my bow just in case it didn't hit but I did, just below the shoulder. The wolf turned around, ripping the arrow out of its side before lunging at Bree who skilfully dodged and at that moment the wolf dropped down unconscious and changed into a man.
"Haha, we found one on our first day," Henry smiled picking up the unconscious nude man.
"Well, back to base we go," smiled Nathan as he linked hands with Jade.
Okay, there was definitely something going on between those two. I smiled to myself but then froze as everyone began to walk off in front of me. The hairs upon the back of my neck we prickling, telling me that something wasn't right. This was just too easy. Why hadn't the wolf run when he saw that he was out numbered? They were annoying but they sure weren't stupid.
I turned on my heels to look at where he had come from, just as I did the biggest werewolf with jet black fur leapt from the undergrowth with a huge snarl plastered onto its muzzle. It then lifted its head back up to let out a long howl. I let go of the arrow in my bow immediately which hit its shoulder and dug in deep just as we heard a hell load of replying wolf howls. I could distinguish at least seven different individuals howling. There was no way we could take on more than three, forget more than seven.
"RUN!" I screamed at the top of my lungs to the others who were a little way off now. They all turned around in horror as they saw the huge wolf in front of me that was about to collapse with the anaesthetic ... but that's when I realised. The end of that arrow was silver, only the arrows with back ends had tranquilisers in them.
In less than a second I was running faster than I ever had before in my whole entire life. Even on other chases I had never run this fast ... but then again, I had never been chased by a huge pack of werewolves before. I always had been faster than all of the others in the group but not stronger. I used this to my advantage and ploughed my way through the undergrowth back towards the cottage, managing to catch up with the rest of the group, it was now Nathan who was carrying the unconscious werewolf.
Then I heard a shrill cry from behind me. I looked over my shoulder for just a second in time to see Henry being dragged back whilst the others carried on surging towards us. Alex was lagging slightly but I couldn’t stop now, I was literally going too fast to stop.
The undergrowth clawed at my legs threatening to pull my down and to my death. I ploughed on, despite the pain shooting through me and the blood pounding in my ears. Henry was dead ... Henry was dead! HENRY WAS DEAD!
I leapt over a log nearly tripping but I somehow managed to stabilise myself. I looked up and I could see the cottage with the little wooden door shut in front of us.
Was I going to make it?
Were we going to make it?