11 Phase two - Part four: Hyena attack

"Stop here Piet, Frits, jump out and head up that crest, look for movement then report back"

"Copy" Frits hopped out and headed up the small hill, he came back soon and nodded "All blown to compost"

"Thought so, Piet, drive up the crest and park the Ratel inside those bushes, there we'll have a good vantage point"

Piet followed the order. Koos opened the top hatch then stood up out of it, looking with binoculars over the wasteland, Frits was out the back hatch.

"Yoh, this was our artillery?" Piet asked looking through his driver window.

"Yup" Koos said, making Piet whistle "Really blew the fokkin shit out of them hey koos?"

Koos came down again, Quintin was looking out through a peep hole "So Roof? whats your plan? we're here"

"Uh well, i need to go inspect the bodies, but, i think its better to go at night fall, since this is a war zone right?"

"Heeey, the troepie grew a brain, good idea, since we blew these tanks sky high, someone will no doubt come and investigate, so going at night is the better option"

Quintin nodded. Come night time, Quintin started feeling uneasy. Frits opened the side hatch slowly, allowing Quintin to exit, before he headed out he turned back to Koos and Frits.

"Uh, any tips on what to do if the shit goes down?"

"At this point troep, the only thing you need to worry about are predators, but thanks to our bombardment last night, they might have cleared this area for now. We'll keep a close eye on you, if we see something well shoot" Koos said.

"Here" Frits said handing him a pistol "You know how it works right?"

"Yes"

"Good, if its lions or hyenas, shoot into the air, it usually scares them off. If its insurgents, well come for you. Now, listen to me boy, you move from cover to cover, go to a tank wreck, kneel down, look and listen. Are you left or right handed?"

"Right"

"Ok, so when you scan your surroundings, you scan from right to left, moving right will cause you to easily miss something due to you being right handed, moving left is unnatural to you, so your brain will automatically slow you down, which means you'll notice shit easier, got it?" Frits asked.

"Yes, i think"

"Another thing, if you stop kneel look and listen, and the area is too quiet, fokkin pay attention! because that means a predator is in the area" Koos said.

"How quiet, is too quiet?"

"Trust me boet, its like the silence is trying to pull your soul out, birds, bugs, any creature making noise at night will shut silent, So don't forget to listen before you move! got it!?"

"Yes sir" Quintin swallowed hard then headed out down the hill, Frits shut the hatch and smiled as he sat down again "He looks scared"

"Thats his fokkin problem, i bet you a hundred bucks hes counting on this Ratel to draw those hyenas, otherwise that 'bang gat' wouldn't have left the safety of this thing"

Piet laughed "I swear if you pop a chappy behind him now he'll shit in his pants"

The two with him laughed aswell "The thing is boys, that roof failed to take into account the wind direction" Koos said handing out beers "The wind is coming from the blast area, blowing this mok smell of the Ratel away, which means what ever's comming, will find him first"

***

Quintin moved as the soldiers told him to, slowly, stopping to look and listen. He heard an owl hooting in the distance, then moved again. Soon he reached the blast site and that smell of rotting flesh entered his nostrils, but instead of it being overwhelming, it had a slight cooked smell to it. He slowly went to a tank wreck then kneeled, scanning the area, there was ash everywhere, he couldn't see much, so he took a branch and started digging in the ash where he saw rises and shapes. Not long and he found flesh, but it was human... human? How could this be? didn't the soldiers say they shot at hyenas? Quintin moved to the next wreck and dug, again, human remains, he gagged seeing it was intestines. He heard a soft 'rrr rrr' behind him, he flung round, there something small moved in the moonlight, he squinted, an animal he has seen on the insignia of Koos's uniform, a honey badger, probably the only animal brave enough to be out here, he reassured himself. Now the question remained, why are there human corpses here? Did the soldiers lie to him?

"Whaddya looking for kiddo?" A voice behind him spoke, Quintin went cold, if a demon had a voice, that was it! he slowly turned to face seven werehyenas standing together, watching him, the front one leaned forward, the growls it made sounded like the rumble of an elephant "Bit strange for a boy to be sniffing around here like a scavenger? Whaddya looking for?" It spoke again, Quintin was so frozen with fear his body was in pain.

"You know who blew my tanks up!?" It asked loudly, the sudden rise of its voice made him go into faint, but the hyena caught him, bringing him back up, this act brought him back to consciousness.

"I huh! huhh!" he tried to speak, but the hyenas found this funny and laughed, their laughter so loud Quintin's ears went deth, only wistles, Quintin felt the hotness on his pants as he wet himself, these things, made Naomi and Cleopatra look like traines dogs, they had a vicious temperament, snarling and growling, snapping at each other for no apprent reason, just as a real wild pack of hyenas would do.

"Now now kiddo, is that fear i smell? or the piss on your pants?" It said laughing again "We wont kill you... yet, all you need to do, is tell me who destroyed my tanks!?"

Quintin completely forgot about the pistol in his hand, but remembering it now was useless, what could a nine millimeter pistol do against a beast like this? just piss it off most likely. Quintin looked up to the hill, to where the Ratel stood, but to his dismay, it wasnt there, all hope left him, they ran like cowards, Quintin knew this was the end.

The hyena infront of him swung its head in the ditection he was looking, but also saw nothing "You know dont you boy? you know who didit!"

"I uh, uh"

"Relax, think of me as a normal hyena, but just bigger, and i can talk. this cant be all new to you right? i mean... you already met the wolves" It said, bringing the tone of its voice down to such an extent that he heard a female pitch, Quintin didn't bother looking down to see if she had breasts like Naomi and Cleopatra had, he was stuck on those black lifeless eyes staring down at him.

"What?" The first clear word he could speak, how did it know of the wolves?

"It speaks!" one of the other hyenas yelled and again they all burst out with laughter, so loud in fact, they didn't hear the roar of an engine approaching.

***

"Answer me this Piet? The top speed for a Ratel is about one ten on tar roads, a hundred to ninety on dirt, its not fast enough to hit a person so hard, that it leaves these blood smeers behind?" Koos asked.

"Apart from being a driver, im a mechanic aswell, i know every engine of our fleet in and out, dad always said 'Learn to fix your own engine, you never know where you might break down' So naturally knowing how the Ratel engine works, i took the limiters off, tweeked the boost on its turbo, and add a cup of aviation feul with every refill"

"Aviation feul!? you mean were driving in a bomb!?" Frits asked.

"Nah, the Ratel engine is resilient enough, it can handle it, but now because of my extra attention to it, it goes like stink"

"How fast?"

"Not sure, i never look at the speedo when i drive, i focus on driving, but its quick, i struck a tur in half once, he was standing on a termite mount"

"Fucksakes!" Frits said. Piet saw movement through his window, then stood up "O fok!"

"What!?" Frits came over to him.

"Are those the fokkin hyenas you spoke of!?"

"Thats them! fuck!"

"They got frikkie cornered" Koos said looking through the aim scope of the turret.

"What do we do?" Piet asked, his right leg vibrating on the accelerator pedal.

"Its a tough call, we don't have artillery this time boys" Koos said.

"I know, but we cant just leave the kid like that" Frits said.

"I know" Koos said thinking.

"What do we do!?" Piet wailed again in a dramatic way "Poor frikkie's going to become hyena shit!"

"Cool it Piet!" Frits yelled .

"I got it" Koos said "Lets see if your ramming skills are still sharp after three weeks Piet"

"Ram them?" Piet frowned.

"Yup"

"It might work, i mean, this thing weighs twenty five tonnes, and those hyenas are only flesh and blood, its worth a shot" Frits shrugged.

"Drop the E-brake Piet, let this thing roll down this hill, when its speed is good, run start it in third then floor it"

***

It happened so suddenly, Quintin couldn't really comprehend, the Ratel plowed through the group like a missle, one got struck into the air, two got torn in half, the one infront of Quintin got struck in the back in such a way that it collapsed, the rest, driven into the ground like weat. Quintin shook and looked down, the grazed hyena's back was torn open, the spine clearly sethered, it was immobile, blood streamed out of the wound... blood! Quintin opened the vale and allowed it to fill with blood "Success! O fuck!"

He yelled as the once airborne hyena fell to the ground again, it stood up and roared, only to be pile drived by the returning Ratel again, sending it flying back helplessly, Frits had the side hatch open "Come! Frikkie! Jump!" The spark of hope shattered Quintin's shackles of fear, he ran and dove in head first, Frits slammed the hatch shut again "Go Piet go!" Piet stomped the accelerator and the Ratel roared, speeding off.

Inside the Ratel Quintin was in tears "Fuck, you have no idea how glad i am to see you guys! i love you!"

"No need to wet yourself troep, oops, too late" Koos said and the three soldiers bellowed with laughter.

"Its not funny!"

"Mind telling us now whats with those things!?"

"Kontak ses!" Frits yelled from the rear hatch and started opening up with the fifty caliber.

"Fok! how many!?" Koos yelled swinging the twenty turred backwards, but realised with Frits on the fifty he couldn't fire.

"Atleast a dozen, they're gaining on us! Piet faster!" Frits yelled, he was firing so vigorously the barrel of the Browning started glowing orange. Piet forced the gas and the Ratel gained more speed.

"How do you kill these things!? they're not going down! i mean this is a fokkin fifty for fucksakes!" Frits yelled. Quintin only listened at the horrors of what's happening, he didn't respond, clinging to the backrest of a chair.

"Quintin!!" Koos yelled, he opened his eyes "How do we kill them!?"

Quintin realised Cleopatra never told him how to kill werewolves, he only heard from Naomi about how they can't heal from silver weapons.

"S! Silver! silver bullets!"

"What!? oh yeah! whe just happened to have some fokkin silver bullets lying around!" Koos roared.

"Silver is to soft to be effective bullets! who the fok makes bullets out of silver!!?" Frits yelled but screamed louder 'O FOK!" He came falling back into the Ratel, pistol drawn and firing up to the hatch rapidly, one hyena had jumped onto the back of the Ratel, and was now reaching down after Frits, the nine mil bullets like water drops, it barely made the beast flinch.

"Fokkin Foook!!!" Frits screamed when the pistol ran empty, but now with him down inside, Koos squeesed the trigger of the twenty millimeter cannon, a thunderous crack sprayed the entire back half of the inside of the Ratel red with blood, Quintin saw the large blown off arm of the hyena lying on the now completely red Frits, then shreeked madly.

"Shutup Quintin!" Frits screamed vigorously wiping the blood off his face "Shutup jou bliksem!!"

"Get back on that fifty Frits!" Koos yelled. Frits happily obliged.

"Fok! julle! almaaal!" Frits screamed firing again.

"Piet! how well can you slide this thing sideways!?" Koos yelled.

"I recon with enough speed you can do it but it has to be in open space otherwise this thing will fok over and barrel roll!" Piet yelled excitedly.

"Ok, find open space and do it!"

"Copy!"

"Didn't you hear him say barrel roll!?" Quintin still shreeked.

"Whell unless you have a better fokken idea! i suggest you shut your fokken trap frik!" Koos yelled.

"I see a clearing ahead! brace yourselves! were turning right!" Piet yelled.

The Ratel was flying now, Piet eased it right into the clearing then turned harder, untill the back end started to fishtail, he then geared down, counter steered and floored the gas, the Ratel went into a dirt powerslide, broadsiding like a battleship, both Koos and Frits could now fire together.

"Shoot their legs Frits! they might not die from the fifty, but i bet you it will mame them, then ill finish them off with te twenty!"

"Copy that!"

Quintin heard the symphony of the two guns going of together, the fifty rappid and deep, the twenty slightly slower, but sounded like thunder everytime it fired.

"If i dont correct well spin out! im going to lift the gas, when the Ratel corrects im going to slide it into the opposite direction!" Piet yelled.

"Copy!" Both Koos and Frits yelled.

Quintin clung for life and death as the Ratel viciously swerved straight again then continued to slide into the opposite direction, still the two guns roared away on top, untill "Thats it! that was the last one!" Frits yelled. Piet drew the hand brake up, the Ratel spun and stopped with its nose in the direction of where te hyenas was last seen, an echo of thunder still heard from the last few shots the twenty mil released, then silence fell, that dead silence of total absence, the men sat in tensed up for a wile, waiting, listening, watching, that feeling of death lurking somewere out there in the bushveld was driving Quintin insane.

"When in doubt" Koos said eventually "Shoot, untill theres nothing left to shoot"

"Amen" Frits said and looked down into the hatch, the sethered hyena arm was now human, he frowned "Uh, Koos, check this fokkin shit out"

Koos looked back, he saw the arm, then looked at Quintin, who was also lost for words "Listen here jou fokken poes! what the fok! is going on here!? tell me!! or ill shove you mouth first onto the twenty and blow your fokken guts out your ass!"

"Movement front!" Piet yelled shoving the Ratel into first gear.

In the settling dust they saw something limp, then collapse to the ground.

"Piet, slowly drive there, keep it wide so i can nail it with the twenty if i have to" Koos said.

Piet let the clutch pedal go slowly, the Ratel started crawling forward, untill they were close enough to see what was laying on the ground.

"What the fuck?"