Running down the rain-soaked suburban street, his feet skid as he almost fails to negotiate the corner. Hardly slowing his pace, he follows the dark, winding alleyway. Behind, the wolves gain several more metres.
The moonlight, mottled through overhead trees, casts shadows. His deliberately ragged breath pinpoints his position to the wolves who are now already around the corner and accelerating towards him.
He locates the tree, an elm, scarred by disease and overdue for removal, and sprints the final yards. Closing in, the wolves snarl, possibly in delight, as he reaches into a gash on the far side of the trunk, fingers closing onto cold, sharp metal, feeling for the switch. The tug on his trousers subsides as he presses the switch home.
Momentary blackness – cessation of sound.
He is enclosed in a bubble of Between extending thirty feet in all directions. Only the bracelet on his wrist allows him mobility within Between – something they've not discovered for themselves, the advantage that permits this experiment. Outside the bubble, the world goes on as if nothing has changed.
And to most people... it hasn't.
He tugs his jeans free of the wolf's static mouth – the material coming away silently though he feels it tear on the animal's tooth. Sliding aside he observes the three creatures. They certainly resemble wolves; but the hair of their matted coats is wrong, and wolf eyes never looked like that. He walks around one, slicing through the treacle of cold air, looking for the connection point that locks it onto this world.
Grimacing, he finally locates the slightly fuzzy, gold point within the animal's anus. He checks the other two and finds theirs in the same place. Careless, he tuts, but it confirms their suspected ability to copy each other exactly, even if the original copy is flawed.
He knows he will have a few seconds of surprise on the three of them but he has only two hands. He retrieves the device and a small pouch from the tree trunk. From the pouch he extracts a hypodermic syringe and injects each wolf with the liquid infection it contains. Then he sits behind the middle wolf, positioning the main switch of the device under his right foot. Stretching his arms, he places his middle fingers into the anuses of the two other wolves, forcing his fingers in until he can feel the warmth of the connections even in the cold of Between.
He takes a deep breath, the air sliding into his lungs like jam, and presses his foot down on the switch. Momentary blackness passes and sound returns. Quickly, his foot moves to a second, smaller button on the box and a buzz of current flows from his bracelet through his skin and into the two wolves, breaking their connection with this world – his fingers now touch only air. But the remaining wolf is quick, instantly gauging the situation. It tries to fling itself around knowing that its weak spot has been discovered. He rolls to one side, following its tail and thrusts a finger towards its rear but the almost-dog pulls away and his finger merely brushes against its genitals.
He continues to roll, springing back once his feet gain purchase on a tree trunk. The beast, momentarily distracted by the device – the prize it had been sent to retrieve, yelps as he slams into it.
Lying across its writhing back, he grabs its tail and thrusts his buzzing finger home. As the wolf vanishes he pitches forwards grazing his fingers on the gritty, leaf-strewn tarmac.
He is smiling – the trap is sprung.
YOU ARE READING
Eight Excerpts From A Secret Inter-Dimensional War
Science FictionThis story was originally published in a magazine called The Hub in their Winter 2007 edition.
