A Small Fight Back
Under a very dark night with no moon, we
finally got to the bottom of the tall tower. We
used Taina's messy notes and bits of human
machines we had found. I started trying to
make the sound that would mess things up.
The air around the tower seemed to shake,
and a low, rough buzzing sound filled the air. It
was a hundred times stronger than the fuzzy
feeling I had felt before. For a scary moment,
nothing happened. Then, far away, a single
howl echoed in the night – a howl full of a
wild, free feeling I hadn't heard in weeks.
Another howl came after, then another. Were
they… waking up? But then, loud alarms
started going off from the tower, and the sky
above us suddenly became bright with strong
floodlights. They knew we were there.
My hands shook as I changed the settings on
Elara's machine, a messy mix of wires, old
speakers, and Taina's special crystals. The air
around the bottom of the tall tower felt like it
had a strong energy, making the fur on my
arms stand up. The rough buzzing sound that
filled the air shook deep inside me, a real
feeling of the sound that would cause trouble.
It felt like holding a storm in my hands.
"Is it working?" Gareth's voice was tight
because he was worried. His yellow eyes
looked at the dark areas beyond the bright
floodlights around the tower.
Silas, his ears moving nervously, walked back
and forth restlessly. "I don't hear anything…
different."
Jax, his face pale in the bright light, stayed
close to the shadows. "Maybe it takes time?"
Time. We didn't have much of that. The
alarms screamed, a loud cry that echoed
through the quiet forest. I could feel the
weakening feeling trying to come back into
my mind, a desperate attack against us.
"Hold on," I mumbled, trying my hardest to
keep the sound going. Taina's notes, full of
her strange mix of our words and machine
words, moved in front of my eyes. 'Singing
bone'… 'broken echo'… 'mind cage shake'. I
had to trust her, trust that she understood
these strange machines enough.
Then, a sound cut through the loud alarms – a
howl. Far away, but clear. A wild, free cry that
felt very strong. It was a sound I hadn't heard
from our group in what felt like forever, a
sound without the dullness of the weakening.
Hope, sharp and bright, cut through my fear.
Another howl answered, closer this time, with
the same strong feeling. Then another, and
another, a group of howls rising in the
darkness, a song of waking up.
"Did you hear that?" Jax whispered, his voice
full of wonder.
Gareth's eyes got wide. "They're… they're
fighting back."
A strong feeling of happiness went through
me, so strong it almost made me lose focus.
It was working! Taina's sound was breaking
through their control. Our group was starting
to wake up. A small fight back, a weak light in
the long darkness, had begun.
But the happy moment was broken by the
harsh truth of what was happening. The
floodlights lit up the area around the tower,
turning the darkness into a bright, open stage.
People moved inside the fenced area, their
weapons shining in the bright light. They
knew we were there.
"They know!" Silas growled, his fur standing
up. "We're out in the open!"
"We need to move!" Gareth shouted, already
changing into his wolf form. "Now!"
But it was too late. The ground under our feet
started to shake. A low, machine-like growl
echoed from the bottom of the tower, getting
louder very fast. The armored creature, its
red eyes glowing with evil intelligence,
walked into view, its huge body making long,
twisted shadows in the floodlights. The
green light on
its 'thought catcher' blinked angrily.
"How…?" Jax stammered, his eyes wide with
disbelief. "We stopped the connection!"
Then I saw it – the thick, strong wire going
from the creature's side, disappearing into
the bottom of the tower. The direct link. They
had expected this, too. They had a backup
plan, a way to control their strongest
weapon even if the main system was
broken.
The old werewolf came out of the shadows
behind the creature, his white fur bright
against the darkness, a mean smile on his
face.
"Did you really think it would be that easy?" his
voice sounded like he was making fun of us.
"Their control is much stronger than you can
imagine."
He raised his hand, and the creature roared,
a sound that was louder than the alarms. It
jumped towards us, its big jaws opening.
We ran in different directions, the rush of fear
giving us speed. The open ground had
nowhere to hide. The floodlights followed
our every move. The creature kept coming, its heavy steps shaking the ground.
"Elara, the machine!" I yelled, looking back
at the messy tangle of wires and crystals.
Elara, her face pale but determined, tried to
keep the machine together as we ran.
Sparks flew from a broken wire. The sound
that caused trouble became weaker.
"It's… it's losing power!" she cried.
The howls in the distance, our small hope,
started to fade, replaced by the scary truth
that we had failed. The small fight back was
being stopped.
Just as the creature was about to catch Jax,
a figure moved past me quickly – Silas, who
was usually careful, now doing something
very brave. He jumped at the creature's
head,
his teeth showing in an angry snarl.
The creature roared in surprise, its big paw
hitting Silas away like a fly. He landed hard,
his body still and not moving.
"Silas!" I screamed, my heart hurting with
sadness and anger.
Gareth, his eyes burning with anger, turned
back to face the creature, a wild roar coming
from his throat. "Run, Elara! Get the
machine out of here!"
He stood there, alone and brave against the
monster, giving us a few important seconds.
Tears ran down my face as I grabbed Elara's
arm, pulling her away. We had to get out. We
had to stay alive. Silas's sacrifice, Gareth's
bravery… it couldn't be for nothing.
As we ran back into the darkness, away from
the bright lights and the monster's growls, a
new sound reached our ears – the whirring
of many spy machines coming closer fast.
They were hunting us.
And then, a final, scary surprise. Above the
coming spy machines, looking dark against
the angry red light from the broken tall tower,
I saw them – other werewolves, their bodies
looking stiff, their movements jerky and
strange. They were flying. Being controlled.
Used as weapons.
They hadn't just noticed our small fight back.
They had expected it. And they had a
terrifying new answer. Our desperate plan
had not only failed, it had shown us how
strong their control really was, a control that
even reached the sky. We weren't just
fighting for our minds;
we were fighting for our freedom, against an
enemy much stronger and more evil than we
had ever thought. And the cost of this small
fight back might be our lives.