Wolf Storm

  WOLF STORM

  DEE GARRETSON

  Dedication

  For Dean

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1 - The Lair

  Chapter 2 - Prowling

  Chapter 3 - Break a Leg

  Chapter 4 - Warnings

  Chapter 5 - Strangers

  Chapter 6 - Mistakes

  Chapter 7 - Creations

  Chapter 8 - Echoes

  Chapter 9 - Nightfall

  Chapter 10 - Spatters

  Chapter 11 - Missing

  Chapter 12 - White Coffin

  Chapter 13 - The Cliff

  Chapter 14 - Buried

  Chapter 15 - Wolf Pack

  Chapter 16 - Shelter

  Chapter 17 - Watchers

  Chapter 18 - Darkness

  Chapter 19 - Escape

  Chapter 20 - Hunted

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Credits

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Chapter 1

  The Lair

  Carpathian Mountains, Slovakia, Eastern Europe

  Snow lay thick in the ruins of the castle walls, drifting over the best hiding places. The creatures who lived there didn’t know the broken stone was the work of men. The stench of humans had disappeared centuries ago. Occasional hikers who came to picnic in the summer never stayed long enough to embed their own scent. Those times the creatures faded into the shadows, waiting patiently, knowing the humans wouldn’t linger. Now, in the depths of what seemed an endless winter, summer warmth was just a trace of a memory and food was so scarce, it was time to venture farther afield before starvation set in.

  Chapter 2

  Prowling

  Ice Planet Earth set, Slovakia

  The wolf Boris pushed his nose into Stefan’s hand, his breath warm against the coldness of Stefan’s fingers. Stefan tried to keep his hand very still, just in case the animal mistook his fingers for a chew toy. The animals in the movie were supposed to be highly trained and perfectly safe, but still, a wolf was a wolf. “Um, good boy,” he murmured. “Nice wolf.” Boris licked his hand like he was testing its flavor potential. “Trust me,” Stefan said. “You’d rather have wolf kibble.”

  Jeremy Cline, who played his younger brother, shifted around, bumping into Stefan. “Sorry, your sleeve is tickling my face,” Jeremy said.

  “Hold still,” Raine Randolph hissed. Raine was supposed to be playing their demanding sister, and from what Stefan had seen, it wouldn’t be a stretch for her. They were already behind in the filming schedule for the day because of Raine’s fit about the placement of the metal barrette things in her hair. She’d made the hair person shift them around several times. Then she had complained about the boots she wore, because they didn’t make her look tall enough. He knew famous stars were used to getting their way, but he hadn’t expected a thirteen-year-old could get away with acting like she was queen of the world.

  “The ramp is slippery! There isn’t enough room,” Jeremy said. The three of them, along with two wolves and the actor playing their grandfather, were crammed into the doorway of a mock spaceship, waiting for the director to tell them what to do. It wasn’t even a whole spaceship, just one side of it, held up by wooden supports. Mark, the director, had explained it was too expensive to build a complete one for the exterior shots, but Stefan was still a little disappointed.

  “I just want close-ups on the kids’ faces,” Mark said to one of the cameramen. “Capture their emotions when they see all the snow and the desolation.” He turned toward them. “Okay, kids. Let’s get in the mood here. You’re the first humans to come back to a post-apocalyptic Earth in eons. You’re devastated you were forced to leave your parents and your own planet behind, and you don’t know how long you’re going to be stuck on this frozen world. Earth is now in another ice age, and you don’t know what you’re facing. Up until the spaceship door opens, the reality of it hasn’t hit you. All we want today is the looks on your faces when you realize just how bad the situation is.

  “We’ll put the ramp back up before the camera rolls. Then, when I call for action, the ramp comes down, and Stefan, you’re out first with Boris. Raine and her wolf, Inky, go to your right, and Jeremy to your left. Jeremy, we’ll get an establishing shot of you with your wolf later. There just isn’t room on the ramp for all of them. The wolves will move to their marks, those bits of cloth fastened to the ramp, so follow their lead.” He gestured to the other cameraman. “I want good coverage of the lead wolf early on. Boris is going to rock the screen when we do his fight shots. He is one mean-looking wolf when he snarls.” As if to disprove that, Boris licked Stefan’s hand again and wagged his tail.

  Stefan laughed and patted the wolf again, then acted like he was grabbing an invisible microphone. “You ain’t nothing but a hound dog,” he sang. Boris wagged his tail harder.

  Jeremy giggled. “I recognize that one. It’s the guy named Elvis who wore those sparkly white suits. My grandmother loves him.” Raine didn’t laugh. She hadn’t laughed at Stefan’s Elmo the Muppet imitation either, when they were having their costumes checked. She’d given him that “you’re so immature” look girls perfected early on.

  “Can you teach me how to do imitations?” Jeremy said, looking up at Stefan.

  “Um, maybe,” Stefan said. Jeremy was already showing too many signs of latching on to him, tagging after him and asking questions. The last thing Stefan wanted was some kid following him around all the time. He got enough of that at home from his little brothers. On his very first movie, he was going to take advantage of being on his own.

  “Hold still, boys, please, so we can finish the light check,” Mark said. “Stefan, remember, you’re supposed to be the oldest. Without your father here, you’re the leader of the group. The troops with you are loyal to your family and expect you to be in charge, so look confident.” Stefan liked the idea of being in charge of his own troops, even if none of them were actually on set yet. It was easy enough to imagine a whole squadron of men behind him in the spaceship.

  “Get the snow off the ramp before you take it up,” Mark told one of the crew as he brushed the snow off his beard. The crew were all quickly turning to snowmen. The snow had been falling steadily, fine powdery flakes that coated people and surfaces within minutes. Stefan was glad he didn’t have to be one of the people shoveling snow. That was usually his job back home, so it felt nice to watch someone else have to do it.

  When the ramp was clear, Mark motioned for it to be taken it up. “Okay, let’s try this.”

  Behind the raised ramp, Stefan closed his eyes, trying to envision being in a real spaceship. He heard Mark’s muffled voice from the other side call, “Roll sound.” Then silence. “Roll camera. Action!”

  The ramp came down with a soft thump on the snow and Hans, the wolf trainer, signaled the animals to move. Stefan knew he wasn’t supposed to look at the trainer, but the signal distracted him, and for a split second his eyes shifted to the man.

  “Cut!” Mark said. “Raine, that was perfect. Stefan, maybe a little less dismayed, please, and don’t look at Hans. You are afraid, but you don’t want anyone to know. Put your hand on Boris’s neck; the wolves are the symbol of your family’s power and he’s also your best friend. Hold on just a minute. I want the camera shifted a bit.”

  Stefan tried to think of how someone would look acting brave and confident. His mind went blank. He stared up into the mountains surrounding the set. At least it didn’t take too much acting for the dismay part. The set was in the middle of nowhere, a nowhere buried in several feet of snow. When he’d finally gotten the word he had been cast, and tha
t they were going to start filming on location in the country of Slovakia, in Eastern Europe, he’d had to look it up on a map. The set was at an old ski resort in the Carpathian Mountains that had been closed for years. The whole place was stark and forbidding, a flat plateau halfway up a mountain, surrounded by other mountains and accessible only by a narrow switchback road cut through a cliff.

  The muscles on Boris’s neck tensed underneath his hand and the wolf strained toward the snack truck. Stefan was puzzled. The array of food was incredible, bagels and chocolate and yogurt and granola bars and fruit, but he didn’t think there was anything there a wolf would want, no platters of deer burgers or sheep steaks.

  “Let’s try again,” Mark said. “Once the ramp is up, get the snow off their hair and faces so it looks like they have just arrived.”

  This time when the ramp came down, Stefan moved forward and glimpsed something peering around the side of the snack truck. It looked like one of the wolves but was too shaggy, and it was gray. All the set wolves were black, or at least all the ones he had seen. Had one of the spare ones gotten loose?

  “Cut. Stefan, don’t look like you see something,” Mark said. “Remember, there’s nothing but snow and ice.”

  Boris growled, his attention focused in the direction of the food truck, and Stefan could tell he had seen the animal too. The animal ducked behind the truck and Boris crouched down like he was getting ready to take off after it.

  Chapter 3

  Break a Leg

  Stefan grabbed the wolf’s collar just as Hans came up and ordered the wolf to sit. Boris obeyed.

  “What’s wrong with him?” Mark asked Hans.

  “I think there’s a wolf out there, a wild one,” Stefan said. “Behind the snack truck.” Everyone turned to look, but Stefan couldn’t see the creature any longer.

  “I saw something as well.” Cecil Braithwaite, the actor playing the grandfather, moved forward and pointed. “It slunk off into that stand of spruce trees near the base of the ski slope.”

  “No, that’s impossible.” The trainer frowned. “Wolves wouldn’t get this close to people. They do everything they can to avoid contact, even when people are on their territory. Probably just a dog, maybe even a feral one. If it is, that’s not good. The pack doesn’t like strange dogs.”

  “If that was a dog, it was doing a marvelous job imitating a wolf,” Cecil said. “Large, furry, rather wolfish expression. Exactly the look to be cast in a Little Red Riding Hood production.”

  “The majority of the wolves in the Carpathians are much farther east.” The trainer paced back and forth, looking at the cliffs in the distance. “If a wolf pack has moved into this area, my wolves aren’t going to be happy. They can smell them from an incredible distance.”

  “Maybe there are wolves around here,” Mark said. “We didn’t check on that. I thought wolves were rare everywhere now, since they’ve practically been hunted to extinction in the States. I just assumed the name of the place referred to the way it was centuries ago.”

  “What is the name?” Cecil asked.

  “It’s called Vlk Vrch in Slovak; it means ‘Wolf Mountain,’” Mark said. “That’s where I got the idea to put the wolves in the script, when we found this location.”

  Everyone just looked at each other. Finally, Mark said, “Any of the local crew know about wolves around here?” Suddenly everyone was speaking in English and some languages Stefan didn’t recognize.

  “This man knows.” A cameraman stepped forward, motioning to another crew member.

  “He says of course there are wolves. The mountains are full of them, but he says not to worry. They aren’t seen very frequently.”

  Another man in the back of the group spoke up, his English heavily accented. “My father said he heard from a friend that the villagers claim they heard a child in another village was carried off by a wolf.”

  “Oh, that’s ridiculous,” Hans said, scowling. “Wolves don’t attack people, except in fairy tales. Even if there was a wolf out there, it won’t come back. I’m telling you, there are very few reasons a wolf would purposely seek out people. They hate strange wolves in their territory, but they still won’t come near us. They’ll do anything possible to avoid humans.”

  Even though Stefan had only caught a glimpse of the animal, it hadn’t looked like it was trying to avoid people. It had been watching them, and he didn’t think it had accidentally found itself on a movie set.

  “What do you recommend, Hans?” Mark asked. “We don’t want our wolves distracted.”

  “Let’s wait and see how my group performs,” the trainer said. “We’ve never been in this situation before. I just can’t give you a prediction.”

  “Okay, we’ll keep going.” Mark switched back to director mode. “Let’s try again. Stefan, while you’re walking down the ramp, gaze out into the distance. Narrow your eyes a bit, like you’re analyzing the landscape.”

  The ramp was too slippery, made of some sort of coppery metal, and their boots had no treads on them. On the next take Stefan almost lost his balance and ended up waving his arms around.

  “Cut! Let’s try again.”

  They tried eleven more takes, and Stefan could tell none of them were making Mark happy. It was hard for him to pretend he was on a desolate, dangerous planet when fifty people were standing in front of him, sipping coffee and checking their text messages. His aunt, Heather, on set with him as his guardian, was busy as usual flirting, this time with some guy in a leather jacket and a multicolored stocking hat. Heather’s latest hair color, light pink, was especially distracting, because every time she moved it was like watching a puff of cotton candy bobbing around.

  “Cut! Stefan, remember when you did that imitation for me when you first auditioned?” Mark said. “The one of Gregory Peck that I liked?”

  Stefan felt his face growing hot. He had been so nervous the first time he met Mark, he did a whole riff of goofy imitations of old-time movie actors, everyone from Jerry Lewis to John Wayne. It was something he did at home to make his mom laugh on those particularly grim days when the younger kids and the bills got too much for her. Mark went crazy over the imitations because it turned out he was an old movie buff, which, when Stefan thought about it afterward, was not really surprising for a director. Stefan hadn’t expected him to bring it up in front of everyone though.

  “I remember,” Stefan mumbled.

  “Terrific! That’s what we need. Young Gregory Peck in The Keys of the Kingdom. Resolute, determined.”

  They took their places again. While they were waiting for Mark to yell “Action,” Stefan heard a faint squeaky sound coming from Jeremy.

  “Are you whistling?” Raine hissed. “Be quiet.”

  “I can’t,” Jeremy whispered. “The cold is making my asthma act up. I think I’m allergic to the wolves, too. There weren’t wolves in the script when I auditioned.”

  “We can stop if you need some medicine,” Cecil said. “Actors must take care of themselves. You are the tool of your trade.”

  Jeremy coughed and then said, “There, I’m better. Besides, my dad will get mad if I make them stop. He says I’ll get a name for being unprofessional.” Stefan had already pegged Jeremy’s dad as the intense kind. Even though the man was always glued to his cell phone, he watched everyone like a coach deciding who was going to make the team and who was going to be cut.

  “How old are you? Eight? Nine?” Stefan asked. “You’re just a kid; you don’t need to be professional all the time. I don’t think it would be that big a deal to ask to stop because you can’t breathe.” Stefan didn’t want to see a major asthma attack. One of his friends at home carried around an EpiPen for his asthma, and Stefan always hoped it wouldn’t be needed when they were together. He knew it was wimpy of him, but the thought of watching someone jab himself with a needle pen made his stomach turn. He’d never be a doctor.

  “Everything okay, kids?” Their teacher on set, Amanda Rissert, came up to them. She tutored the
m for three hours a day, and she was also supposed to be what she called their “advocate,” making sure everyone followed the strict rules about what kids could and couldn’t do safely on movie sets.

  “Jeremy?” Stefan said. He wasn’t going to rat the kid out about the asthma if it wasn’t a big deal, but he wanted Jeremy to speak up if he needed medicine.

  “We’re good.” Jeremy gave a thumbs-up.

  “Are you cold?” Amanda asked. “The temperature has dropped quite a bit since you started.”

  “Yes, I’m cold,” Raine grumbled. “It’s freezing here, and I’m wearing a weird furry garbage bag decorated with bottle caps.”

  Stefan hadn’t thought of the costumes that way, but Raine wasn’t too far off. The long overcoats they wore were kind of fun to stride around in, except the fabric was weird. It was futuristic looking, both shiny and soft at the same time, and each outfit was covered with small metal disks etched with an outline of a wolf’s head. He knew the disks were related to some special effect, but they hadn’t seen that yet.

  “Aren’t you wearing long underwear?” Amanda said.

  “I am, but it’s not working,” Raine said. “I hate the cold.”

  “Do you want a break to warm up?”

  “No, let’s just get this done.” Raine looked at Stefan. “Let’s hope it doesn’t take that much longer to get it right.”

  “It won’t,” Stefan said. “I’ve got it now.”

  When Mark yelled “Action” again, Stefan knew he could do it. The ramp came down and he stepped forward with Boris, doing his best Gregory Peck imitation. A high-pitched bark came from the crowd, and both Boris and Inky, the other wolf, growled.