He looked back—
The wolf charged.
The gun was out of its holster — but the beast had already leapt with shocking speed, knocking Eddie over. Nina shrieked as she jumped out of the way.
The wolf weighed as much as a man, and was easily as strong, claws raking his clothing as it lunged for his throat. Eddie managed to whip up his right arm and force the creature’s head back just as its jaws snapped, twisted teeth mere inches from his face.
He pulled the Wildey’s trigger. The huge handgun’s boom was almost deafening; he expected the noise to scare off both attackers.
It didn’t. The wolf flinched away from the retort and muzzle flash, but then continued its attack with even greater ferocity, bloodlust overpowering fear. The second animal hesitated, only to resume its advance when it saw its companion was not harmed.
‘Nina!’ Eddie cried, struggling to hold off the writhing monstrosity. ‘Get out of here, run!’
Nina stumbled back, caught between the urge to flee and the desire to help her husband. She chose the latter, drawing back a leg to kick the wolf off him—
The other animal made its move, rushing at her. Nina broke off her attempted attack and ducked sideways. Its momentum carried it past her — but it immediately scrabbled around for another try, growling and slavering.
She ran for the overturned snowmobile, but could already hear the wolf closing fast from behind—
Nina dived over the vehicle, landing hard amongst its scattered equipment. The animal veered away to circle the snowmobile for a clear run at its prey.
Eddie yelled as the wolf’s claws slashed at him again, ripping through his hood and gouging his jaw. A couple of inches lower, and it would have torn into his neck. ‘Fuck off, Cujo!’ he growled, clenching his free hand into a fist and punching the animal in the face.
Pinned by the monster, he couldn’t put his full force into the blow — but it was still enough to startle it. The wolf let out an angry growl, pulling back before making another lunge.
The momentary retreat gave Eddie the chance to move his arm. He brought the Wildey to bear—
The wolf’s huge jaws clamped around his hand. Sharp fangs tore through his coat’s thick sleeve. They dug into his skin, about to slash tendons and arteries—
Another Magnum round boomed — and the entire back of the creature’s head exploded.
The Wildey was inside its mouth — and Eddie had pulled the trigger.
The wolf collapsed on top of him. He pulled open the animal’s slack jaws to extract his gun, then shoved the corpse away. ‘Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf now?’ he muttered as he got to his feet — only to freeze at a sound from the void.
A long, keening howl.
More shadowy shapes loomed through the drifting fog. The rest of the wolf pack.
They circled, closing in. Eddie turned, tracking them — then remembered there was another, much nearer. ‘Nina!’
The gunshot had again caused the second wolf to freeze, but now it resumed its charge at Nina, still on her hands and knees beside the wrecked snowmobile. She desperately snatched up a baton-shaped piece of fallen cargo, about to wield it as a club—
It had a better use.
The baton was a flare. She yanked off the protective plastic cap and slapped her palm against the striker as the snarling predator raced in for the kill. The flare sizzled to life, blazing bright red at its tip.
She brought it up—
The wolf sprang.
It slammed her back against the snowmobile with an almost triumphant snarl — which turned to a shriek as she stabbed the burning flare into its neck. The beast leapt away, jumping and spinning as it tried to escape the searing pain, but the intense heat had set its fur alight. With a horrible wail, it raced away into the fog, flames spreading over its body and turning it into a running torch.
Eddie scrambled across the snow, vaulting the snowmobile to land beside her. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Yeah, I think so,’ she gasped, still winded. She saw his torn and bloodied clothing. ‘Jesus! What about you?’
‘I’m fine — the blood’s from Mr Wool-uff.’
‘What happened to it?’
He held up the Wildey, drool still glistening on the polished metal. ‘It bit off more than it could chew.’ A very brief smile, which disappeared as he looked back at the approaching pack. ‘There’s more of the fucking things, though.’
‘Okay, so shoot them!’
‘I will, when I get a clear shot. They’re not daft, though.’ The other wolves had clearly recognised that their prey was far from defenceless, and changed tactics. They were now circling the couple and drawing away to fade into the fog before darting back into view as if daring them to react. ‘I don’t even know how many there are. Three, four — I can’t tell.’ He tracked one of the running shapes, which sensed the danger and retreated into the void, only for one of its companions to appear off to the side, moving in the other direction. ‘And I’ve only got five shots left in this mag — if I miss, it’ll take me a few seconds to reload, and that’ll give them a chance to come at us.’
‘Would this help?’
She had picked up one of the soldiers’ AK-12s and flicked off the safety, raising the assault rifle to firing position. He grinned. ‘And I thought you didn’t like guns.’
‘I don’t, but sometimes they’re useful!’ Nina looked down the sights, following one of the wolves as it ran at her — and fired. The gun was set to fully automatic, unleashing a thudding fusillade of bullets. The monster screeched and tumbled to a stop in the blood-speckled snow.
‘Over here!’ Eddie warned. She spun as two more wolves charged towards the snowmobile from the opposite direction. Another burst from the Kalashnikov brought one of them down, the other felled by a single cannonfire blast from the Wildey.
Nina’s dismay at killing the creatures was tempered by the sure knowledge that they had been about to tear out her throat. ‘Are there any more of them?’ she asked, scanning the emptiness surrounding her.
‘Don’t know.’ Eddie did the same, keeping the Wildey raised. ‘There might— Shit!’
Movement in the corner of his vision — which resolved into a wolf racing towards him at terrifying speed. He whirled as it made a flying leap over the snowmobile—
The Wildey boomed again, but the animal’s momentum carried it onwards. It hit Eddie, bowling him over and sending the gun flying.
‘Eddie!’ Nina cried, pointing the AK at the wolf — but it did not move, lying on its side with its mouth agape. The snow beneath it slowly turned red.
Eddie stood, wincing at a pain in his shoulder from the collision. ‘Aaa-fuckin’-wooo, you bastard,’ he told the dead beast, before looking around. If there were any more wolves out in the fog, they had taken the hint and fled. ‘Where’d my gun go? If I lose another Wildey, you’ll never let me hear the bloody end of it…’
‘I probably shouldn’t tell you that it’s over there, then,’ said Nina, managing a faint smile as she caught her breath.
Eddie tramped to where she had indicated, finding his gun half buried in the snow. He retrieved it, then came back to her, taking a closer look at the wolf’s body. It was just as deformed as the first they had seen, oversized and overmuscled but also misshapen, ugly lumps beneath its skin — and in some cases bursting out through it, lesions visible through the fur. ‘Christ, look at this. It’s like something out of The Thing.’