Rabid warewolf

Write about a vampire or warewolf who moves into a quiet suburban neighbourhood

Rabid warewolf

By Dumisani khumalo

Howling and bowling, in the night ,was as eerie,it woke up most residents .A light there got lit and a curse came down there in condemnation,along the boulevard.

The dog distemper was up and quick ,and everyone was thinking of inoculating their pets. The rabies was on the wind.

Luther was looking at the moon ,trying to relate fact from fiction.The full moon had something to do with these kinds of occurrences ,it came as an after thought ,that he was straying from his normal thoughts,and spinning into the occult ,and imagining things,and the movie," the beast must die" running scenes of a pack of warewolves ,invading the suburb.

In the morning,he was Luther the vet ,up and down the road, checking on the dogs ,cats ,and asking about their pets,and making sure they got vaccinated.

He was also trying to find the epicentre and focal point of the distemper,and there were no victims yet.Teams were organised for vaccinations.

The suburb was having dogs still at a unease and moving around ,something was spreading the disease.A bite would be worse than the saliva ,or anything in the wind,would spread the rabies from its ancestral species ,to domesticated canines .This would only come from the nearby forest ,like in cases he had seen of  foot and mouth ,from buffalo to cattle,or avian Newcastle or avian influenza ,from wild birds to domestic ones,and the more he thought about it ,the more a picture on covid-19 became so vivid a zoonotic spread as of the rabies ,the more he worried .It could get worse,and he drew a perimeter on spots that were the most affected,to check on the path line and movement of the distemper,and he would make a ring vaccination of the area to the centre of infection,in a three kilometers radius.

Those sleepless eyes on some residents at his office ,and the bespectacled curious inquisitions bothered him .Some would jump the gun needing answers,and tell his superiors and raise the heat,before his report on the notifiable disease was even made. How dreary working for government sometimes ,and the press were on to him for answers. The first victim was an old man who was fond of feeding his cat ,and the feral companion bit him before being fed ,attacked him his hand leaving it with scares,after it had gone out.

Human victims were more than necessary to allow the spread to ,and he now knew he had to do something,or loose his job. The cat had to be put down and buried deep ,and literally burnt first.

Areas where blood and saliva was ,were cleansed using coastic soda ,and the old man was taken to the nearest hospital for treatment. So many injections to the navel to stop the virus going up into his nerves and into his brain.

The warewolf was sighted in the evening as he made that unusual call at the local shops,where garbage was strewn ,and thrown from dustbins,plastic pockets ,as if there had been a vicious fight. It was a worry to the night security ,who had spotted the warewolf ,rabid as it charged at them .

It had red blood shot eyes ,raised fur and that cardinal  starry coat and salivating,snarling and growling ,froth sending off the infectious virus onto the grass blades ,and the environs ,they had no choice but to cower for cover and call in the police and the veterinary .They were found in the packing cages of garbage in the back of the store, literally shaken since they were in night watch. Any contact with the saliva would mean they were infected too.

Luther took out his FN rifle ,to make sure his bullets were in the chamber and at the ready. He did not want any surprises . The early morning hours were fair ,and he was looking at the stars and checking them aganist his previous vaccination routine in the cars dim light,and checking on new pets in the area.He had to know about them when the beast paced right in front of him,checked him out and sensed danger,and made for the tall bushes.

He closed his papers maps and notes book,and decided how to corner him or bait him,and he was now photophobic,and obviously hydrophobic,and if he did not make his kill now ,the rabies would spread,and would be advancing into other areas,and any bite on humans would be lethal if not treated in time.

Crouching by the truck and moving closer to the hiding place ,he discovered the warewolf had had puppies,and all were dead now,bitten and strewn out with blood .There were broken branches ,a sight of a vicious fight that had taken place in the vicinity.

Luther knew the advancement of the disease in the manner of the aggression, common with other diseases like battery poisoning ,and heart water, in cattle,with their differential symptoms that put him on the right track .More over it was a canine he was after ,there was no doubt this was a rabies case.

The warewolf avoided spots with light ,water ,and took to the shady areas,and the suburbs trees where the victims were heard screaming and crying for help. It was making a last ditch effort to survive the kill by killing and infecting others and it's luck was running out,and pouncing on unsuspecting victims was sinister and the more vicious .He was at the back of the shops , or at the back of the yard,in the parking lot .He was sighted up the the park ,constantly moving and chasing people ,children ,and cats and dogs that followed into it's movement attacked,scares ,wounds ,and broken limb patients at the veterinary clinic.

The yawn that was his early morning sloth kind moments was tethered to hard work now .The way he was working was determined by his a need to put the warewolf down.

He tracked it up and down the road ,and nothing was happening to corner it. But soon he knew ,he would be dehydrated ,hungry ,and have less energy to move and finally die .Luther looked into his flask for the last drops of coffee,and there was none left.

The high walls cut him off ,and the warewolf was going into trenches ,tunnels ,up into the hedge and now he was making surreptious moves ,so sinister a groundsman was bitten ,his full escape into their dogs kennel and leaving the dog out to die ,was put out in the evening news .

He had seen the beast in the manure pockets snarling at him and finally jumping at him .The dog came to his rescue ,but was involved in a wrangling struggle that he lost and the grounds man escape came ,only when he closed himself in the kennel and the warewolf continued on it's flight out to kill.

Everyone was now aware of the wolf and something quire was happening. The word was out and making the rounds ,if more manpower was needed.

Luther got worried now,and the press was in on to him like flies asking the obvious questions ,he had to face them and be diplomatic as usual.

This had been going on now for two.days ,and the ring vaccinations were successful,as much as the awareness campaigns about the warewolf pathway. Human victims had to be minimised and Luther began to track him down himself to quial the anxiety. This was worse than he had imagined.

He began his hum and smile out of his mouth" You can dance around in a ring and suppose ,but the secret lies in the middle and knows" and his words faded away when he wanted to say die. He was literally praying,and asking God for answers now, if ever he was going to be successful in catching the warewolf.

In the late hours as he sat dosing off ,a car came to his side to tell him he had been sighted again .He was in a corner in their yard,and it was in a nebulously shady area ,you could barely see him and his dark coat,save by those groaning and disquieting barks that rang out into the streets, fangled paws and bloody grin at the ready. He was in the dark spot out of the light,and he came for them when the cars appeared,and made a sudden retreat,ran back into his corner.

Luthers eye was in full sight of him ,and aimed at the dripping froth ,red daring eyes ,as it decided to take a lounge at him,but the bullet had already gone ,hitting the heart and lungs and collapsing both lungs ,as is usual with canines .Hitting one led to the collapse of the other lung too. He hit that point of weakness and the warewolf died.

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