Chapter 5

~~ Suicide Squad ~~

The woods...

The orange sun finally disappeared beneath the horizon as darkness fell almost immediately. The blue moon hung in the cloudless, star dotted sky, glistering in its illuminated ambience. A serene atmosphere reigned throughout Huntsville like a shower of snow flakes.

The trees in the woods fluttered in rhythm to the cool flowing wind. The crickets made their presence known with their ululating chirps.

The stony-grassy grounds rattled slightly as a Humvee, a police cruiser, and two bikes made their way through the woods, their headlights beaming brightly. Getting to a certain cleared location, the vehicles came to a halt almost simultaneously.

Two policemen alighted the white and blue cruiser. They were clad in Huntsville's police uniforms; starched brown shirts, deep brown trousers and black boots. They both had walkie talkies attached to their shoulders.

Since they parked behind the Humvee, they had to trot forward and meet up with the occupants.

At an instant, the backdoors to the Humvee swung open and uniformed men trooped out with sophisticated guns in their hands. Their uniform was pure black, accompanied with black bullet proof vests and fingerless gloves. In color red, D.O.D.T was boldly inscribed on the left chest side of their vest. The men, five in number, took a turn and marched to the front of the big military vehicle, their steps brisk and uniform.

And finally alighting the Humvee was a man with thick black hair and two scars on his neck and nose each. He was donned in the same uniform as the other five men. What distinguished him from them was a golden plate carved like a hawk with spread wings on his chest. He went by the codename, Scar, which wasn't too far fetched judging by his scars and also the fact that he's left his opponents - those who survived - with an eternal scar to never forget his face.

The bike riders remained seated on their sleek dirt bikes. Their helmets and leather cladding matched in terms of color.

Everyone out of their vehicles, the cops, the five agents and Scar, rallied up in front of the Humvee, which had its headlight beaming straight.

“Thanks for agreeing to come,” one of the cops said with a decent nod.

“Don't thank me, I'm only following direct orders,” Scar replied with an indifferent expression. His voice was thick and held authority. Once could literally feel pride steaming from the way he spoke.

Both cops nodded.

“Let's get to work then,” Scar said, turned and began walking towards the clearing.

The cops were stunned and just stared. The agents were already used to this, they followed him briskly.

At the epicenter of the clearing, were short charred logs of wood. They were as black as the night itself. The almost burnt up logs were surrounded by a sparse amount of black ash. Several parts of the soil were upheaved and red stains could be seen almost everywhere.

“Those that packed the bodies sure made sure not to contaminate the scene,” one of the agents commented as he carefully made his way around the small area that smelt odd.

One of the cops that tagged beside him stuck his tongue out in irritation, “Please don't remind me of what happened here. Watching that clip was taunting enough.”

The agent looked at him with his brows arched down, “How the hell were you accepted to become a police officer? Scared of a little murder case?”

“This wasn't murder, it was a massacre!” the cop clarified.

Yeah, this was the spot were all those campers were slaughtered, decapitated and burnt. D.O.D.T had first sent some medical personnel to clear the bodies only, to make the job of the agents more fluid.

After a minute or two, the agent that commented, spotted something bulged beneath the soil and he squatted. The irritated cop also crouched down and watched the agent dust sand off what appeared to be the forearm of a human being.

”Oh-oh my God!” the cop panicked instantly, retching with his tongue stung out.

The agent only shook his head to his whimsical behavior, “P*ssy”

He lifted his head and tilted it till he found were Scar was standing, “Captain! I found something!!”

“About damn time,” Scar twitched his lips, walking towards his subordinate.

The others also moved closer when they heard what he said.

On reaching him, Captain Scar crouched down and gave a long stare at the blood stained limb. The arm was from the fingers to the elbow. It had gashes and punctures around itself, bones sticking out. It was also missing the two last fingers.

Still with an indifferent expressing, Scar peeled his Walkie talkie from his shoulder and placed it close to his mouth.

“Captain Scar to Hq. Scar to Hq. Do you copy? Over,” he said.

Screech!

A short rustling fluctuation sang from the talkie before a voice came through, “We copy. Hawk Squad, what's your status? Over.”

“We were scanning the perimeter when a detached limb was found...” Scar informed.

“Heh... Seems the medics missed a spot,” the other cop behind Scar chipped in with a smile. His irritated partner smiled, but the Hawk Squad and their Captain shot him weird looks, his lips curved down and his smile faded.

Scar sighed before continuing, “Multiple cuts and broken bones. Aside those, nothing else is absurd here. Over.”

“How deep are the cuts?” the receiver asked.

“Insanely deep...” Scar paused to turn the arm over to the other side. “It bored out of the other side. And the width of the cut mark could only have been done with something sharp and wide. Over.”

“Like a Bear's claws?... Teeth?”

“No, much wider,” Scar objected and stood up. “We'll continue scouting till we find a lead.”

“Okay. We'll be expecting your report.”

Screech!

The communication ended with a loud screech. No. Scar could have sworn to hear another screech other than that from the walkie talkie.

“Everyone stay were you are,” he commanded subtly and they obeyed, keeping mute also.

He wanted to affirm whether what he heard was real or surreal. Well, his question was soon answered as another screech resonated from the deeper parts of the woods .

Everyone remained silent and frozen.

Screech!

Another screech proceeded, with a deeper pitch this time. Then with time - a few seconds, the loud screeches turned to ominous growls as that of a hungry wild beast. The more the growls, the louder and closer it sounded.

The agents still kept their cool, raising their sophisticated guns in anticipation.

Thump! Thump!

The two cops shuddered in fear of the unknown, their hearts beating like drums. The video they had watched had etched fear into their minds. But still, how... naive they were, bringing only one glock pistol each to a place like this.

Exhaling and inhaling loudly, they held up their pistols towards the darkness sprawled before them, their hands fidgeting. Thanks to the headlights of the vehicles, they could see a little farther into the woods.

Continuous rustling of leaves ensued, getting louder and louder by each passing second. Scar slowly drew his golden pistols from their hostlers as the tension rose fast.

With a whoosh, leaves fluttered towards the men as a black blur sped by and disappeared.

Scar frowned, “It's here. Do not let your guards down! I repeat, do not let your guards down!”

Little had he given that warning, when a scream for help enveloped the area and they all turned in the direction it came from. Alas! One of the agents had mysteriously disappeared. Scar and the rest of the squad turned on the balls of their feet, gazing round and round for their lost comrade. The cops barely stood as their legs shook in freight.

“Up there!” the driver of the Humvee yelled, he had the headlight on the roof tilted up at a tree.

Instantly, they looked up and saw something contrast to the green leaves on the tree. They saw something red, it was hairy.

Without waiting to confirm whatever the 'thing' was, they all opened fire sporadically, drilling the tree with their bullets.

After a while, the shots seized and they looked up at the tree again, but the red thing had disappeared. Though they did see another red alright, they saw the missing agent torn up and drenched in his own blood. Only half his body remained, which was drilled into a branch of the tree.

Tap! Tap!

His blood showered the ground with its drops.

“Holy shit!” the stunned driver exclaimed.

Scar shut his eyes and sighed. He opened his eyes afterwards, and by chance, caught a glimpse of the red thing, blur through the men and past him, throwing all of them off their feet.

By the time they got on their feet and turned, they found the windscreen of the Humvee smashed to shards, the driver's lifeless body sticking out of it, poked with various shards of glass.

“This...” Scar lost his words.

“No! No! We weren't here for this.”

“We're leaving!”

The cops ranted out of horror and ran towards their cruiser, only to get wacked against the vehicles, now with headless bodies and obviously dead.

“Damn!” an agent exclaimed.

Scar gritted his teeth in exasperation. He knew retreating was the only option now. But his ego still had a prominent hold on his thinking, so he remained silent, while high on his guard.

Like the bikers could hear his thoughts, one of them spoke, “Captain. Our scanners are showing an extremely high heat signature at 6 o'clock, about 4 clicks from here.”

“That must be the creature,” Scar reasoned.

“Yes. But the odd thing is, we couldn't trace it prior before now. Something's off,” the other biker was worried.

‘That's because it's a trap, dumbass!’ Scar retorted inwardly.

“You guys lead the way, we'll follow with the Humvee,” Scar instructed.

Though he knew that this 'creature' was probably smart enough to lure them to it's territory where it had the landscape advantage, he also had faith in the weapons wielded by the dirt bikes. They had mini-guns attached at the front and behind, that'll fire automatically if any thing threatening came within 3 feet. They just had to activate it, which they now did by kick starting the bikes and zooming into the woods.

The Hawk squad immediately sprinted towards the Humvee. As they got close, they heard rapid firing emanate from the afar, yells and growls also...

Boom!

A rapid explosion ensued very closely from behind.

This made them pause and turn to check what was happening...

Their jaws dropped, their eyes went wide as they saw the exploding bikes in the air, in the claws of an 8ft bipedal beast with red fur and red glowing eyes. It landed with a thud and vanished without a trace.

With a sound akin to that of the spinning blade of a helicopter, the squad opened fire without aim, taking steps back to get into the Humvee. They weren't given a chance to as the beast tore them apart, one by one.

With a growl, the beast sunk its long claws into the last agent and ripped him into two, his blood, intestines and other organs dropping to the floor like rain.

Captain Scar was left motionless as he beheld the gruesome sight, his back against the trunk of the Humvee. Fear and horror was written all over his face as he perspired profusely, his legs shaking as he shuddered.

Growl!

The beast growled as it strode towards its last victim, blood dripping from its fangs and claws. In a flash, it was before Scar and it bit his head off, cracking the skull and spat it out. Its mouth was drooling with blood and brain matter.

Scar's headless body dropped to the floor like an empty can of soda.

The scene looked more gruesome than the previous night; more bodies, more blood and a more horrid atmosphere!

Thanks to the headlights of the Humvee, the body of the 8ft beast was clearly visible.

It had red fur over its taut body, inch long claws and fangs, crimson glowing eyes and pointed ears.

It was a man eating Werewolf!