WHO: Aidan & Monty WHEN: During the May 7th animal attack. WHERE: Interior of the community. SUMMARY:Rescue bros. STATUS: In progress. WARNINGS: Violence, blood/etc.
Aidan was finishing up repairing a patch of siding on one of the houses when he heard the first few screams. After so many weeks of relative peace, it was a jarring disturbance to hear the elevated cries of the people he had been living and working with.
After a moment of shock came and went, his first instinct was to rush toward the commotion and try to help. Aidan ran out from behind the house and stopped at a dead halt when he caught sight of several people fleeing from what looked like a pack of wolves. Not just wolves, other small animals too. For a split second he wondered if his vision was finally going south, but then the guards came out and others with weapons too - everyone was screaming and shots were being fired.
It wasn’t until one of the wolves loped closer to him that he finally saw the reason for everyone’s panic. Half of it’s face looked like it was melting off; it was making a sick gurgling noise as it moved and there were entrails partially hanging out of it’s side.
Aidan didn’t really have time to properly react to the horror of it, because in the next moment the wolf was charging straight toward him.
“Oh, fuck...”
He turned and sprinted back in the direction he came, hurrying toward the side of the house where he had left his tools. The biggest weapon available was the sledgehammer he’d been using when working on the barn earlier that week; and fortunately, he’d carried it with his other tools today. Very fortunately, because by the time he grabbed the handle of it, the wolf was nearly at his feet.
Aidan staggered backward just enough to avoid it’s snapping lunge, then he lifted the heavy weight of the sledgehammer and brought it down hard on top of the animal’s head, bashing in it’s skull. Blood spattered across his clothing from the mess of the impact. The sound the strike made was nauseating. Blood and bits of flesh covered the head of the sledgehammer as he yanked it up from the animal’s lifeless body.
Then, in spite of the screams and the chaos breaking out; there was a moment where Aidan looked down at it's body and saw it for the animal it used to be - just a wolf or a coyote; and it filled him with immediate remorse. He’d always loved animals.
But this wasn’t an animal, not anymore; he reminded himself. And it was going to hurt him, and everyone else. The thought of everyone else snapped him out of it fully then, as the immediate thought of his friends being in danger spurred him back to action.
Sledgehammer in hand, he went back toward the campfire. As he ran back into the midst of everything, Aidan caught sight of Monty across the field - firing some very well aimed arrows in the direction of the infected animals.
“Monty!” he yelled out, rushing forward to get to his friend's side. In the distance it took him to cross the field, Aidan had to take out two more of the infected the same way he’d dealt with the first wolf. It was messy and brutal and by the time he reached Monty he was breathing heavily; looking left and right as people continued to scatter every which way in their rush to find safety.