After the dragon incident in Boston, Lt. Paul Harper and his squad are taken off active duty. When another team runs into trouble in Mexico, Harper defies orders and leads his team into action. On the run, without support, the team gets closer to cracking the enemy plan that threatens to unleash an unstoppable army of evil upon the world. But a spy within their ranks might end all hope of saving our world...
“But now it’s time to see if you can play with the big dogs.”
Rupert launched himself forward, clothes tearing, wolf form expanding in mid-air. The room filled with a howl. Kent put his hands up and met Rupert’s claws. He clamped down hard on Rupert’s wrists and squeezed. At the same time, he fell back into a roll, planted his boot in Rupert’s chest and kicked.
Rupert slammed into the far wall, yelping in pain. He hit the floor on all fours and charged at Kent a second time. He came up on two legs and swung hard, claws slicing loudly through the air. Kent ducked under the swipe and landed a savage punch to Rupert’s gut.
The wolf flipped into the air and crashed through the transparent door to Davis’ cell. Davis jumped up on the cot as the wolf crunched against the toilet in a shower of tempered security glass. She leapt over it and out into the bay, past Kent, who stalked toward Rupert with purpose. Davis ran for the cell door controls.
Kent grabbed Rupert’s head by the hair and slammed his face down into the toilet, shattering it. Then he pivoted and threw Rupert back out into the bay. The wolf skidded across the concrete. He came to a stop and pounded his fist into the floor, enraged. It spun and charged at Kent once again, but this time ducked low at the last second and swept its leg out, knocking Kent off his feet.
The wolf caught Kent mid-fall, spun, and slammed Kent’s body against the wall.
“Hey!”
He turned just in time for Harper to slug him across the snout. Rupert growled and knocked Harper aside. He couldn’t recover quickly enough to avoid Davis swinging hard with a metal chair, right in the face. Rupert stumbled back, and Kent wrapped his arms around Rupert’s thick neck.
The wolf began to thrash, swinging Kent around on his back.
By now, Rupert’s men had heard the commotion. They poured into the cell bay, weapons ready. Spike had grabbed up an AK from one of the men who’d dragged Kent in and let rip. The spray of bullets tore up the floor and walls and men, spraying dust and blood into the air.
The mag clicked empty, and Flint, with perfect timing, took up the slack. He stitched a line of bullet holes up the side of the door frame, driving back a second wave of reinforcements. Harper rushed past them, yanking the pin on a grenade.
“Where’d you get tha--” Flint began.
“Fire in the fuckin’ hole!” Harper cried. He hurled the grenade through the door then kicked it shut and spun to the side.
Kent jumped into the air and kicked Rupert in the chest with both feet.
The grenade detonated, blowing the door inward.
It struck Rupert mid-air and knocked the wolf face-first into the concrete. Rupert didn’t move.
“Damn, dude,” Harper said, coughing and waving dust out of his face. The smoke in the room cleared gradually. He looked down at the unconscious werewolf. “That was baller.”
“So, are you gonna tell us how you’re suddenly Superman?” Davis asked.
“Um, I was also wondering that myself,” Harper said, raising his hand.
Kent said calmly, “We should get out of here. Mason is waiting outside for extraction.”
“Let’s bag this one,” Harper said, giving Rupert a light kick in the ribs. Kent nodded, bent down and hefted the wolf over his shoulder.
The team scavenged weapons and ammo from Rupert’s fallen guards, and headed out the door.
As they stepped over the burnt, shredded bodies, Davis said, “I guess we should be thankful they weren’t all wolves.”
“Or at least not yet,” Harper said. “Whoever or whatever is after him, he was really scared. He wasn’t raising an army, he was creating a protection detail.”
“Against what?”
They rounded the corner and stopped dead.
A figure stood at the other end of the corridor. It was tall, skinny, wearing a dark coat over simple clothing - dark pants, dark shirt. It had human ears and unkempt human hair. And it had the face of a horse sticking out the front of its head. It’s hands were around the neck of one of Rupert’s guards. The man made wet choking noises. The figure jabbed its right arm into the man’s head, piercing right through the skull. The man’s entire body began to shudder and quake, while the creature’s arm rooted around in its brain.
After a moment, it dropped the man’s dead husk of a body. It turned slowly toward them, and the entire team shuddered. The lights flickered above it.
“Okay,” Davis said, “what in the breakfast-roasted fuck is that?!”
“Not long for this Earth,” Harper said. He took two steps forward and raised his AK-47. He fired a quick three-round burst center mass. Horse-Face took a step back, rocked by the impacts, but steadied itself quickly.
Harper took another couple steps forward and emptied the entire clip into the beast.
It steadied itself again. It poked a finger through the bullet holes in its clothing.
It sniffed. Then, it glared back up at Harper.
“No bueno,” Harper said.
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Jessica: Important questions to ponder. I think if the violence they suffer (and dole out) is equal then it's ok. Still tough though because of how prevalent violence against women is. I would encourage an author's note perhaps that offers a trigger warning?
Nichole: see, in the context that you write the stories in, i don't see it as an issue, because it's not like you deliberately write about women getting assaulted without defending themselves. these women are enlisted in the military or something very similar and get into situations where they are likely to be involved in some sort of violent combat. your female characters are usually rather badass and are more than capable of defending themselves.
Masha: I always understood the phrase "violence against women" to not just mean what the words say, but to refer to a specific set of behaviors where women are targeted because of the uniquely vulnerable position women occupy. For example in domestic abuse, or in cases of rape.
I don't think there is anything inherently more wrong in a man attacking a woman, than a man attacking a man. But when he does so in a context when his violence is not judged, when his violence is seen as acceptable, because of attitudes people have about men and women- "she asked for it" or "she belongs to him" or "he cant help himself, he is a man and men cannot control themselves after all" it becomes something different. It's not just the violent act itself that is wrong, it's the context in which men feel justified in taking out their rage on women, free from blame.
Martin: I think as long as your violence isn't consistently driven by gender then the violence itself in the narrative shouldn't be a problem no matter who it's against.
Karen: Seems to me that violence is part and parcel of being in the military, in a combat situation. Women in combat? They're going to get wounded, maimed, killed. It goes with the job.
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Having a personal crisis after the events in Britain, Becky Davis returns home to Florida to consider her future. But no sooner has she arrived than she finds herself thrust into a new adventure: The locals are being terrorized by a massive, bloodthirsty shark that can spit fire!
With the team still scattered, Davis calls on her only backup - team leader Lt. Paul Harper and pilot Colin 'Rhymes' McCollin - for help. But Weirdo Company are not the only ones hunting this hellshark...
In 1944, a battle between Allied and Nazi soldiers was interrupted by hideous demons that fed on the blood of the wounded. Decades later, this ancient evil has been disturbed once more to prey on an unsuspecting countryside. Weirdo Company, complete once more, heads to Europe to investigate this latest strange occurrence, only to discover a shocking connection to Lt. Paul Harper's family history. Burdened by guilt, Harper heads recklessly into danger.
But as the bodies begin to pile up, Harper and the rest of the team must devise a method to kill the agents of Death itself.
They are the US military's special response unit for monsters and other creepy-crawly creatures that go bump in the night. They are Weirdo Company. Lead by Lt. Paul Harper, the team embarks on a mission uncomfortably close to home: Contact has been lost with a small farming town in the northeastern United States. What the team finds there will set them up for the fight of their lives, as the townspeople have been turned into vicious, bloodthirsty zombies.
But Harper and his team, including a green new recruit Davis, will discover that there is far more danger in this town than just zombies. Because if the people have mutated into something grotesque and dangerous, what has happened to the farm animals?
"Zombies vs Unicorns" is the first story in the 'Weirdo Company' series and features thrilling, summer blockbuster-style zombie-killing action and a few fun surprises.
