Having blasted myself in the face with what may as well have been shards of ice, getting redressed, eating some of the rabbit the girls had cooked up, and spending ten minutes picking bones out of my teeth, we soon managed to get out on the road.

“I’m just saying I called it,” Gwen said for the umpteenth time as we got on the final road to the steel mill, eliciting a little laugh from Millie in the passenger seat, “to put on your boots and splash your face took the better part of forty minutes.”

“Most of that was picking bones out of my teeth, man,” I scoffed defensively, “I swear that rabbit was some kind of rabbit-tuna hybrid.”

“Yeah, we caught it kind of… rough-like,” Liz explained embarrassedly, “but it was good, right?”

“Good meat, for sure,” I agreed fervently, “I just wasn’t expecting my mouth to play the part of a boneyard in the dinner show.”

“God, you’re prissy,” Gwen scoffed with a smile in the rearview, “but I love you anyway. Nice rifle, by the way, clean.”

“It’s new,” Liz explained, “Nolan got it for us.”

“He’s a good one, eh?” Gwen chuckled, “How about the shotgun? You find that in the woods?”

“That’d be Nolan’s loaner,” Millie chimed in, “doesn’t look like much, but I’m pretty sure it can’t be broken.”

“It will be if you load these into it,” Gwen replied, waggling one of the incendiary shells, “why’d you even buy these?”

“They’re fun,” I said assuredly, “nothing wrong with a bit of fun.”

“On New Year’s, maybe,” Gwen laughed, “but in a firefight? May as well bring one of those fire-breathing stage performers. At least you’ll get a second shot out of him.”

“You have opinions on everything, don’t you?” I pointed out lovingly.

“Just the important stuff,” Gwen replied with a wink, “how far off are we?”

“Not far,” I said, having trouble making out much more than the road against the pitch-black night we were in, “unless we’ve overshot it. Can you see anything out there?”

Millie shook her head, “Not with the headlights on, I can try sticking my head out the window and having a look?”

“We’d know if we passed it,” Gwen clarified, “no need to ping your head off a sign. Might be an idea to turn the headlights down a smidge though, don’t want to let ‘em know we’re coming.”

“We’ll just pretend we’re going past,” I said, “better than hitting a tree at seventy.”

“See? This is why I like having you along,” Gwen chuckled, “I don’t think about shit like that and… well, now I’m a Wolf.”

“You wish someone was watching your back?” Liz asked, unintentionally making me feel guilty.

“I did for a while,” Gwen replied unsurely, tilting her head, “but, if I’m being honest, it works for me. At first it sucked pretty bad, but now? A few weeks back I punched a Ghoul so hard I literally took his head off. Plus, immune from sickness and infection, so there’s that.”

“Really?” I blurted out, “Like, no colds or anything?”

“No sniffles, coughs, or weird rashes.” Gwen said, nodding proudly, “No heart disease either.”

“Did you really have to worry about that?” I asked.

“I do now,” Gwen scoffed, “I suck down red meat and roadhouse burgers like Tic Tacs.”

“There it is.” Millie said, pointing to something in the distance that I couldn’t see at first.

“I see it,” I replied after a few seconds, a white van catching my eye moments before we passed it, “goin’ to go a mile or so up the road before we double back. Get ready.”

“Last chance to bail,” Gwen pointed out, handing Millie the rifle, “I’ll totally understand.”

“Sure thing, I’ll just leave all those girls to get sacrificed.” I said with a confused expression, “We’re good to go, right?”

“Right.” Liz and Millie replied in unison as they looked over their weapons.

Making the call, I turned the headlights down and slowly turned around, lining us up as best as I could before turning them off all together.

“Going to need you to be my eyes, alright?” I said.

“Sure thing,” Millie replied, turning her full attention to the road, “looks like you’ve got this though.”

“Thanks.” I chuckled distractedly, focusing on the feel of the road as we slowly trundled along, “How hard we going in?”

“No real point going for a sneak attack with these ones along,” Gwen humorlessly half-joked, “no, our best move’s going to be throwing everything we’ve got at them as fast as we can.”

“Steel mill’s a big place,” Liz pointed out, “you know where they’re going to be?”

“Probably somewhere close to the van,” Gwen replied, “you see any sort of warehouse or anything when we passed?”

“A few,” Millie whispered, her eyes still locked on the road, “there was a toolshed as well. Or, like, a shipping container with windows.”

“Anything stand out about it?” Gwen asked.

“The windows were blacked out?” Millie replied hesitantly, “But they could’ve just looked like that because it was dark.”

“I trust your eyes,” Gwen said reassuringly, “how close?”

“Wait…” Millie murmured before using her head to direct me, “There, go left.”

Coasting off the road and onto gravel, I took a few calming breaths, trusting Millie but still worried I was about to roll into a pole.

“They’ll know we’re here now,” Gwen pointed out, “might want to go ahead and flick those lights on, Allie.”

Barely leaving room for Gwen to finish her sentence, I turned on the high beams and blasted the abandoned mill with light.

“There,” Millie said as I put the van in park, “that’s the one.”

“That it is,” Gwen agreed, climbing out of the van, “I can smell them from here.”

“Any idea why they aren’t coming out?” I asked.

“Not the faintest,” Gwen replied, shaking her head as we met in front of the van, “maybe they’re dumber than we give ‘em credit for.”

“Or not…” I trailed off after noticing the first set of yellow eyes peering down at us from the mill, “You guys see ‘em?”

“Now, yeah,” Liz said under her breath without looking, “I count three.”

“Same,” Millie added, “there’re four, right?”

“Yep.” Gwen sighed.

It took me a second to figure out what had frustrated her, and when I did, I have to say I felt equally annoyed at the Scooby Doo-ness of the situation.

“She’s on the van, isn’t she?” Liz grumbled, having reached the same conclusion.

“Yep.” I groaned, tightening my grip around my axe.

“Probably going to take a swing at us the second we turn around, right?” Millie asked, the beast’s hot breath having just reached us.

“Most definitely.” Gwen replied almost disappointedly.

“Only one thing for it then, yeah?” I said.

Again, Gwen let out an exasperated breath, “Yeah… this is going to suck.”

Boy, was she right.