Attack Miniphany!

I got it! The biker gang does not attack Kier, itself, which is idiotic. They attack an outlying farm.

I have already established that at least some of these farms have radios to talk to the sheriff. From chapter 13:

“Nice to meet you, sheriff. I’ve got to ask, do you often stand on the edge of town waiting for visitors?”

Ken snorted slightly. “No, only when I get a call that two blood soaked men, one swinging a maul, with a wolf are on their way.” That and he had a pretty good idea who they were. It seemed unlikely there were a lot of ‘huge, scary giants, but nice enough’, as Pete had put it, men roaming about.

Lupa yipped, happy to be included.

“A call? You have working phones?”

“Shorthand. It was radioed in.”

Digression: I’ve read that any number of times since I wrote it. It’s broken. “That and” and “men” both need to be deleted, which means “giants” needs to move to after the “but” clause. Done.

I’ve already decided that Ken gives Tom a radio (and presumably a solar charger for it or something; maybe battery swap at the station). I don’t remember where I put that, but I can make sure it’s before the biker gang attack.

This will also be good to reinforce the idea that the outlying farms need to consolidate into the town, at least for the winter.

I haven’t decided if the victims live or die, yet. Or who they even are. We already have Pete & Eileen as a (very small; undefined but in the 40-80 acre range, I think) farm of two and Brian, Stacey, and Marcy as a (not large; undefined but in the 120 acre range, I think) farm of three. Maybe a bigger family on a bigger farm that holds them off long enough for the pack to arrive?

The on-screen human death toll is zero, so far. I think it may be time to kill someone. The father or one of the sons seem the obvious candidates. Add in a few threats of rape toward the wife and daughter(s) and we have a good reason to feed the survivors to Bob.

I think I’ve finally got enough background figured out to start writing again. It’s about time.

Update: I’m posting a lot without a “featured image”. I think I’ll fire up the AI and generate another couple thousand images for potential covers.

Update: Now that it’s after work and I’m fed, some more details. BTW: This is what I usually put in the text and replace it bit by bit as I write.

This will be the first time any of the werewolves kill a human. Not just as werewolves, but ever – aside from Zeke. Presumably, he killed someone(s) in Iraq, although it hasn’t come up. Someone needs to hesitate and get injured to motivate the others. Quin or Luke are the obvious candidates; with Rick or Juan right behind.

Need a family. The Wiggins. John 42 and Rita 40 are husband and wife. John Jr “JJ” 18, Barbra 17, Kevin 15, Susan 14, and Molly 8 are the kids. Levels are low, but with some good skills with decent levels (“decent” is about five, right now).

Need a biker gang with a truck for hauling gas. Since they’re not attacking the town, a much smaller group will work. Ten men (the “rape” part of “pillage, rape, and burn” works better if there are no women in the group; not that it is a hard constraint). I’ll name them as it becomes relevant. They will have higher levels (killing does that). To make it interesting, the leader has a class, so level 12 at least. I’ll give them skills as that becomes relevant. I’m thinking someone has Dodging high enough to dodge bullets (with good perception and dexterity).

Timeline:

• Farm
  • Bikers arrive. John radios for help without much expectation.
  • JJ does something impulsive, if only just standing up, at the wrong time and is shot.
• Town
  • Wolves gather. “only we can get there in time” Tom suggests that Luke goes ahead since he’s fastest, can Identify them, then let everyone know what’s going on while they’re still on the way. He turns it over to Zeke for details. Reilly isn’t werewolf, yet, so getting left behind will add incentive.
  • Zeke: “Luke, go now; we’ll plan on the way”
  • Radio back “help on the way; don’t shoot any wolves”
  • Deal with weapons. Rifle would be super-handy. Luke’s gone, so Tom takes it? gives it to Zeke? They don’t have the spears, yet. Zeke must have a rifle. Has he moved to the Den, yet? Does the Den exist, yet?
  • “People, not animals. Fight different. Kill fast before surprise skill or weapon can get into play. It’s going to be hard.” “anyone alone first”
• Farm
  • Family holed up in house.
  • Gas tank is (conveniently) out of line-of-sight from house, so they start pumping it out.
  • “burn them out?” “getting their supplies would be better.” Short argument to eat time.
  • Leader finds something to use as a shield and walks into gun fire. The shield slows bullets down enough that his skin handles the rest, but rifles hurt.
  • Underling tries the same thing and dies (not F-grade, yet).
  • Luke arrives and reports.
  • Zeke: Keep an eye out for more that you can’t see, right now. Tom or Luke need to be the reserve. Not only for reserve purposes, but because they can heal everyone else. A bit of argument, but very short: “You wanted my experience; this is my experience.”
  • The fight
• Aftermath
  • Does JJ get wolfed? It’s not the plan, but that might be the only way to save him. Or he can be dead.
  • Take the truck to haul survivors back to town.
  • “Keep them in cells, for now. I have a plan, but give me a couple of days”
  • Some conversation about “move to town” and “werewolves”.

That seems sufficient to dive in. It also seems as if it may be large enough to split into its own chapter. We’ll see.

Update: For this, I’m going skip over the different radio types. Something that reaches from “outlying farm” to Kier’s police station is definitely not a Walmart walkie-talkie. It’s probably going to become relevant at some point, but not here.