We charged down the main tunnel, snarling and howling. Wolves were already streaming in from further down. The water was still ankle-deep, and we kicked up quite a spray as we ran along. Overturned vehicles and drowned Thunder Falls personnel lay everywhere, and it took clever footwork not to trip.

We emerged from the tunnel into the night, a seething tidal wave of wolves. Upturned armoured cars filled the Arrowhead, bobbing in the newly-swollen river like rubber ducks in a bathtub. We leapt over them like stepping stones.

The thick shrubs on the other side were already heavily trampled by the time we got to them. I leapt over a Thunder Falls wolf, his body splayed, his neck at an unnatural angle.

It was even more humid outside now than when we had gone into the tunnels, and now faint peals of thunder could be heard in the distance as we made for the cover of forest. 

***

The clouds were getting darker by the minute as we approached the Thunder Falls pack territory. The battle was already well underway as we arrived. It must have been three or four o'clock by now. The rumbles of thunder in the distance were getting louder and louder. Rain was approaching.

Dead wolves littered the blood-slick ground as we found the position where we had been assigned beforehand. Mind links were not going to work over such a huge distance, so we were using less sophisticated methods of signalling. The other packs had already gone in. All part of the plan.

We crossed the river at the narrowest point, a few hundred metres above the Falls. The water was colder than I expected. I tried not to fight the strong current, letting it carry me to the reedbed that was our target, which was some way downstream. Into an eddy.

I could sense the presence of the others close around me. We all knew staying together was paramount.

We parted our way through the reeds, trudging through the soft mud. We could hear the sound of clashing in the near-distance, then the orange glow of flames. They had set the greenhouses on fire as per the plan, as a distraction. It was our cue to advance.

It was our time to shine. As one we broke into a sprint, stealthily coursing through the long reeds at the riverbank, The long grass gave way to trees, the trees to open ground as we approached the pack settlement. We could smell blood, which only made us run faster.

The onslaught came out of nowhere. One moment the wolf leading in front of me was there, the next he had disappeared into a thicket of juniper, bowled over by a flash of grey.

I managed to duck just before another assailant sprung out of the undergrowth. In a split second that felt like an eternity, I felt the hairs on my back tingle as he sailed over me and hit the ground. He recovered in a moment. I tensed and we turned towards each other, sizing each other up through the grass. Behind me, the rest of the battalion split up, in search of the enemy.He was a tawny gray wolf, with pale blue eyes. He was roughly my size. That was about what I'd gathered before he let out a guttural growl and charged at me.

We locked jaws. He'd somewhat misjudged his attack angle, and the contact was awkward. He backed off and I did the same, running in circles in the grass.

We ran at each other again, fangs bared, snarling. We were on the edge of tearing into each other when a blur of fur crossed squarely into our vision, knocking us to the ground. Another enemy wolf, and someone I quickly recognised as Brian. The other wolf quickly moved to help his fellow pack member, I moved to help mine, and the duel quickly became a four-way battle.

The wolf Brian was fighting was matching him blow for blow, and their fighting style was remarkably similar. Sensing the disorder, more wolves moved in, as if drawn by convection, wolves of every type and description. Soon it seemed the whole battlefield had moved in. Tearing and growls filled the air. Claws slashed and fangs bit down. Flesh and muscle and sinew tore. An old wolf leapt through the ranks, nearly tearing his first target from limb to limb. As wolves wore out, more and more moved in from seemingly nowhere in an endless wave to replace the wounded.

The battle dragged on. Eventually, I was able to break away from the fighting. I headed straight for the centre of the pack settlement, now deserted. 

The big iron gates to the main complex were wide open. The windows of the pack house were dark. I was about to enter, unsure of exactly what I'd find, when I saw a portly figure, pale in the moonlight, slip out through a side entrance and disappear into the bushes.

I willed myself to shift back. I felt twinges of pain through the mind link, but I forced myself to ignore them. I needed to make sure he didn't escape. 

***

Thunder rumbled in the distance. The smell of petrichor in the air was getting stronger with every footfall. Fires burned in the distance as the pack territory was plundered.

I passed some dead wolves. There were more as I went along. Some of them almost looked like they were asleep. Some of them were mutilated in various ways, limbs missing, gaping wounds spilling entrails onto the dry earth, bodily fluids pooling on the bone-dry earth. Some of them were barely recognisable piles of gore.

I tried to ignore them as I hurried along the path to the waterfall. Shrubs blocked my path as I entered the riparian corridor of the river, and I had to fight my way through the dark shrubbery. I had taken some clothes from a fallen Thunder Falls fellow who hadn't had the time to shift when we struck, but in the darkness I had barely an idea of what I was wearing, other than the fact that it was sticking to my body in the oppressive humidity under the rain-swollen sky. My wounds were stinging and seeping blood, but that was the least of my concerns.

The undergrowth fell back as the river hove into sight, the white rapids falling off into oblivion at the edge of the falls. The rocks on the banks were slick with spray, and I had to be careful not to lose my footing.

Adlai was standing on a small promontory of rock, at the very edge of the waterfall. All around us, water thundered, a wall of white noise making it only possible to yell.

"Adlai." I yelled. "Don't jump."

"Me and you, Jim. We're going to change this place up." His clothes were still pristine; he had not fought. He made a broad gesture with both of his hands, gesturing across the land. "The people's alphas. Me and you."

"It's over, Adlai. Come with me." I stepped forward slightly on the slippery rock shelf, holding out my right hand, towards him. "Your men have surrendered."

I was bluffing. I had no idea how things were going. There was still fighting going on in the distance. But it was true that most of the Thunder Falls forces had been neutralised, and Adlai's grand project was no more.

There was a booming clap of thunder. Behind us, a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, I very briefly wondered if it would strike down on us, awfully exposed in the middle of the river.

"Why?" He edged backwards a little further. "I have nothing of value to give you anymore. I was only trying to bring peace to this fractured land. I have failed. Hopefully you will be a little more successful than I was."

He looked almost wistful, regretful now. "The common touch was something I, unfortunately, never possessed. I was far too bookish and sheltered for that. You have it, Jim. Use it."

"What are you trying to say?"

"That I wish you all the best, Jim. I don't hold anything against you. Or any of your mongoloid peers. And I never will. My right-hand man, on the other hand, was not nearly as inclined. He had some bad dealings in the past and he never forgave them."

"Then why didn't you stop him - Stevenson?"

"I tried, Jim. You wouldn't believe me, but I tried my hardest. His was profoundly damaged by his childhood, and no amount of persuasion on my side could sway him. And I could never pressure him too hard, or he'd snap. He was useful to me, Jim. He could weave miracles I had no way of replicating. He had the common touch. But he was too powerful." He sighed. "He was too powerful for me. I let him control me, and he got too powerful. It's my fault."

There was another thunderclap, so forceful that I felt the ground shake slightly. The flash of lightning was so bright that for a very brief moment it seemed to be daylight, and I could see a grey foreboding sky, the green of the forested hills around me, the raging, frothing water, and Adlai in full colour in front of me, the white of his shirt and the softness of his face.

He turned his back to me and walked forwards, towards the falls. "I must go, Jim. I have failed. And I must bear the burden of what I have caused. Tell the others I forgive them."

"Adlai! You don't have to do this!"

He didn't reply to that with anything other than a thin smile. The smile of a man accepting his death.

He jumped.

I looked down into the darkness at the thundering water, watching the edge of the roiling pool below, but there was no sign of Adlai. He had been swallowed by the endless white froth. There was another boom of thunder, then a flash of white light that seemed to envelop me whole. As if a tap had been opened, the downpour began. Soon it was hard to distinguish between the roaring of the falls and the pelting rain.

I stood there, looking down at the frothing abyss below, as the water drenched my thin clothes, washing the sweat and the blood and the decay from my body.

Thurgood appeared from behind, battle-weary. "Where'd he go?" He looked down at the roaring water and quickly came to the obvious conclusion. "Crazy motherfucker. Did he say anything before he jumped?"

"He said that he forgives you." I stood looking down at the dark abyss below.

"What in Monagh's name does that mean?" He had never been one for cryptic sayings.

"I don't know." In truth I knew full well what he meant. But that didn't matter right now. We needed to find him. 

"We'll get the Zirconians to keep a lookout for a floating body." We scanned the waters below us for any sign of a body for some time, but to no avail. 

We walked back to the main settlement in silence. Bodies lay strewn around us, increasing in number until there were practically piles of them. Medics were busy tending to the wounded.