Wolves at Sunset

Wolves at Sunset

By: Andrew Ryan Smith





The smell of smoke drifted through the air.  The wind blew the foul smoke in from some place to the south.  Captain Anderson didn’t like it one bit.  Smoke meant fire and fire meant people.  Anderson gently kicked aside an empty cardboard box.  Sargent Oltman reeled around bringing his rifle to bear when he heard the empty box plop against the pavement.  Anderson flashed Oltman a hand sign and the two continued on their patrol.  The two men’s shadows, dancing in front of them, were their only company on the long empty street.  Anderson was beginning to feel nervous knowing people were somewhere nearby, he could only guess what their intentions were. 

As the two patrolled the empty street, Anderson’s gaze drifted to the great cylinder that jutted more than a thousand feet into the evening sky. It was an eerie sight.  It was so large it seemed unrealistic, and out of place.  He had seen it every evening for the last four months but had never dared to venture within three miles of the thing. 

For a moment his mind wandered away from the ruined village and the ominous cylinder.  He thought of his home, a small apartment in Ontario.  He knew who waited for him there and he couldn’t wait to see her again.  Four months was too long, and the phone calls he exchanged with her every other day could never match up to a kiss form her soft lips.

A clatter rose from a nearby alley way.  Anderson snapped back to reality.  The two men halted.  Oltman, in the lead, raised his rifle and side stepped behind an abandon car.  Anderson was several meters behind him and had no cover to take so he lowered himself to one knee and scanned the windows and roof tops for attackers.  Oltman kept his eyes on the narrow threshold of the alley way.  A shape sprang forward from the shadows of the alley. 

Anderson couldn’t see what was happening, from his vantage point the car was blocking his view.  “What is it Sargent?”  Called out Anderson.

Oltman lowered his gun.  In his thick Nordic accent he shouted. “It’s damn dog!”  He stepped forward from behind the car.  Anderson stood up and jogged to Oltman’s side.

A scrawny dog was trotting down the street, moving in their direction but making sure to steer clear of the two men.  As it drew closer they saw the grisly sight of a human humerus with a chunk of flesh dangling at one end clenched in the dog’s snout.  It growled as it walked by them, zealously guarding it’s dinner.

The two men were silent as the beast disappeared behind a pile of rubbish.  “Let’s head back to the base,” said Anderson hot and tired from the long patrol.

The men turned around and began to walk back up the same street they had just come down.  They were walking almost directly into the setting sun.  Anderson pulled a pair of sunglasses out of one of the many pockets on his body armor.  He glanced to his side and saw Oltman gazing at the great cylinder off in the distance.

“Doesn’t look like much form here,” he said as he drew nearer to Anderson.  “Da whole thing is strange when you think about it.”

Anderson didn’t want to think about it, how many death they had caused with their offer.  The strife and suffering they had brought with them to every continent and every race.  “I wish they had just stayed on their own world, and left us the hell alone.”

Oltman hauled and turned to his left, frantically scanning the empty buildings, “Did you hear dat?”

Anderson stopped near a pair of trash cans and ducked down behind them.  He looked up and down the street expecting it to be the same dog they had seen moments before.  Suddenly a man sprang out from a broken window and charged at Oltman.  A hardened veteran of the Georgian War, Oltman was not frightened by a man with a rusty old ax.  He raised his gun and pulled the trigger.  The rifle spewed forth two NATO rounds, both of which found their mark on the man’s chest.  The attacker fell to the ground and let out a feeble “oof.”

“Mad man,” exclaimed Oltman as he stepped up to the still twitching body.  He kicked the bag the man had draped over one shoulder.  He bent down and opened the tan courier bag dumping its contents on to the street.  With a splat a bloody mass landed on the pavement.  It was a human pancreas.

“A cold irony,” said Anderson as he approached the body. “The things men will do to defy death often lead to their undoing.”

“Very poetic ser,” said Oltman as he began to search the surrounding area.  It wasn’t long before he paused at the entrance to a nearby store front.  Anderson walked to his side.  He could see a sight he was all too familiar with.  A freshly butchered human corpse. 

“Why do they keep doing this?  Do they wish to live so much that it drives them to murder?” muttered Anderson as he turned away from the carnage.

“Form da looks of this one. Yes,” said Anderson as he pointed his rifle at the large gash in the young woman’s side.  One more and he would have fulfilled the pact and spent an eternity in their great city.  Oh to live a life of leisure and luxury,”  said Oltman in a lustful voice.

“I have doubts about the whole situation,” said Anderson.  “Besides we both know the UN’s standing on the whole thing.”  He himself had never seen the great city rumored to have high walls and great towers made of copper.  He found it hard to believe they could even build a city in only two months, but he found it harder to believe they could make men live forever. 

“Oh I remember how it all started,” said Oltman. “Who knew six months could feel so long?  Who would of thought what they would have offered us?  And now look at us here for da UN trying to sway over the of the hearts and minds of masses.”  Oltmand glanced form one body to another.  “Looks like we do in a fine job.”

“I guess the world leaders sitting atop their ivory towers never considered how twisted the desires of the masses might be,” said Anderson. The whole incident had become a mad slaughter and to Anderson the aliens were nothing more for monsters for unleashing their plague.

Oltman went back to looming over the man’s body.  “Let’s go,” called out Anderson.

“Why leave him?  There is a fresh pancreas here for the taking.” He then pointed to the lump of flesh next to the man. “And second right there.”  Oltmand drew his knife. 

“Leave him Oltman, that’s an order!”  Anderson felt like a fool trying to persuade him with rank, but he was a reservist not career military and his years in the civilian world as a system tech had left him soft. He knew all too little about leading men, and a man like Oltman could surely sense his softness.

Oltman turned to Anderson.  “Do you want to die…I don’t.”  He didn’t know what Oltman was capable of, but judging with how he had taken out the attacker he feared the worst.

“We’re here to keep the peace under the flag of the United Nations.  If you butcher that man you are no better than him, than all the others who slaughtered thousands in this city and millions across the world.  All for fear of death.  Don’t you see how foolish this is?”

Oltman paused for a moment as if searching for words.  He looked at Anderson with his wily grey eyes and slowly opened his mouth.  With a moan he slouched forward revealing the rusty ax buried in his back.  The corpse wasn’t so dead after all.  The man yanked back the ax and buried it in the back of Olman’s head.  He then struggled to push Olamn’s  bloody corpse off of his own body.  Anderson stumbled back away from the gruesome scene.  He reached to his side for his rifle and brought it to bear on the bloody man.  The man let out a shriek as Anderson unloaded a 30 round magazine into him and everything around him. 

Once the ammo was gone Anderson let the rifle fall to his side, its strap hung heavy on his neck.  Near panic Anderson grabbed Oltman’s shoulder and flipped over his body.  More than a dozen of Andersons rounds had ripped through his flesh, leaving his body little more than a bullet riddled human shaped chunk of meat and bone.  The other man who had attached him had only taken four bullets, only two were from Anderson’s gun.  The disembodied pancreas still lay beside them. 

Anderson stumbled back, his throat clenched and before he could do anything he convulsed and vomited.

***

He didn’t know exactly why he had done it, and he cringed as he thought back to the bloody deed.  ‘I have to stop this, or at least get an answer as to why,’ he told himself over and over, but most of all he wanted it all to be gone and done with.  He only wanted to go home to his quiet and civilized life.

As he made his way across barren fields to the alien ship he started to laugh.  The tan courier bag hung from his shoulder, and it felt heavier than ever.  The sun was beginning to slip below the horizon, he started to move faster. 

His M4 weighed heavy on his neck and shoulder.  He didn’t know how the aliens would react to his weapon, but he figured they wouldn’t take too kindly to its presence.  With a quick motion he flung the rifle to the ground.  He still had his pistol which he pulled form his holster; he stopped himself before he could fling it aside.  He didn’t know what waited inside and decided to keep it as an insurance policy.  He quickly stuffed it under his armor.

As he approached the entrance to the ship he slowed.  The area was still and silent.  He didn’t wait long before he walked up the wide ramp into an opening.  A door slid open and he walked into a blue lit room, the door squeaked as it shut behind him.  Fear gripped his soul for a moment, but he knew there was no going back.

Anderson took a deep breath, the air was humid.  The chamber was silent and there were no obvious exits among the dark walls and cones that rose to a high ceiling.  Without warning a small blue orb lit before him and the echo of a strange voice reverberated through the room.

You have come to accept our offer?  Echoed the hallow voice.

“No, No… I have come to ask why?  Why do you bring war and death to our world?”  His throat was dry and his voice cracked as he shouted the words.

Stars burst forth from dust and worlds flicker into darkness every moment, yet you humans complain for we give you an option to stave off the darkness for a little longer.

“What option did those who were murderers and butchered have?”

A human dies tis murder, and a great tragedy for all.  Tis a crime to use the lying flesh to nourish life.  A cow or fish dies and flesh tis devoured by men and children, all rejoice.  Why are humans held so high above all other beings? 

“Humans are not perfect but we do what we must to survive,” as soon as he said it he knew they would have an all too objective view to foil him with his own logic.

You have power and use it as each sees fit.  You have wisdom but few trifle more than self.

“At least tell me, to what end is this option you bring us.  What will become of those who become immortal?”

They shall live and never know death.

“And what of those around them who age and fall ill and die?”

We offer the option to all who comply with our tasking.

“You’re only breeding murders.  And bringing suffering to our world.”

If we did not arrive, humans would kill humans.  Now humans kill humans and gain great reward, as you seek.

“There must be more, what do you gain from all of this?”

Weak are we, long lived but not immortal, humans we understand and can make strong, strength is needed in soldiers, and a war is drawing ever nearer.

Anderson was lost, he no longer knew what to say.  He had always thought the deal they offered was too good to be true, but this was the worst thing he could imagine.

You have fulfilled your obligation, now come and we shall fulfill ours. 

Anderson looked to his side. The blood stained bag was gone, and the two pancreases within.  He hadn’t even noticed when it left his side or where it was.

The chamber grew brighter and brighter until all faded to a blinding white light.  A great weight lifted form his tired body.  He turned his head but could make out nothing beyond the light.  The only sensation he had was that of floating in a warm sea, he tried to struggle but he no longer had control over his body.  In a flash the light faded and he fell to his hands and knees.  He felt cold.  He lifted his head.  He was no longer within the confines of the alien ship, but now atop a great tower in the center of a massive walled city built of copper.