2/8/99

                                A Visit from Herman
                                A Blood & Fur story
                               ---------------------
   There were six of them crowded into the Ford. The battered old car
was ten years old and had seen better days. The black paint was now
scratched and pitted. The fenders were twisted and torn, and all the glass
was missing. William found himself squeezed into the rumble seat with two
other people. One was a navy captain, the other was a Marine sergeant.
Corporal Harper noticed that his two fellow passengers had pushed themselves
as far from him as possible. Not that it did much good in the cramped
confines of the rumble seat, less then a foot of space separated them.
The captain had pulled rank and forced the NCO to take the seat next to
William. Sergeant Hamilton had made no secret of his dislike of riding with
"That furry thing." It had taken a direct order from the Major to get him
into the rumble seat. 

   In the twenty minutes they had been driving the sergeant's hand had never
strayed from the holster on his belt. The man sat with every muscle tense,
ready for William to suddenly lunge at him with claws and teeth bared.
William ignored the two. He had too much on his mind to worry about a
paranoid NCO and captain. He brought his hands up in front of his face and 
stared at them. Like the rest of his body, his hands were covered with a
thick black fur, and long sharp claws tipped each finger. Just the night
before, those claws had shredded a dozen Japs with no problem.

   Just thinking about that night made him shiver. He remembered the blind
rage that had filled him, and how he had wanted to kill every stinking Jap
in the world. He also remembered how easily he had used his claws and teeth
to rip apart at least twelve enemy soldiers. "What am I?" he asked himself.
"I'm not really human, but I'm not really an animal either. I look half
human, half mink. I look like something out of a horror movie. How did I
change? It had to be that strange gas attack that did it. Surely the Japs
didn't intend to change me into this," he thought to himself. "These claw and
teeth make me a better at killing then before the change. Maybe the chemicals
were supposed to change me completely into an animal. Or maybe that shell was
supposed to land on the enemy and change them into killers. What if the shell
had nothing to do with me changing? Maybe I'm a real lycanthrope and the
shock of the gas just brought it to the surface?" He had a thousand ideas but
no real answers, just wild guesses. Harper dropped his hands into his lap and
watched as both of his fellow passengers jumped at the sudden movement.
"Maybe I'll get some answers when we arrive on Corregidor," he told himself.

   William closed hie eyes and tried to get some rest. Unfortunately the
road seemed to be made up of equal parts of ruts and potholes with the
occasional bomb crater thrown in for good measure. So the private who was
driving seemed to spent all his time swerving back and forth to avoid the
worst ones. The car was old, and in dire need of a tune up. They all
combined to make any rest impossible.

   Over the loud noise of the badly maintained engine Harper picked out
a faint sound. At first he thought it was from the car or its passengers
but he hadn't heard it before. Something about that sound left an uneasy
feeling in the back of his mind that he couldn't dispel.

   Unable to sleep, he concentrated on the sound and tried to identify it
to pass the time. It was a vaguely familiar noise, but it was too faint
for him to identify. He listened to it over the squeaks and rumbles of the
car. It was slowly getting louder. William realized that it was a rhythmic
noise of something mechanical. It didn't sound like it was coming from the
Ford or the truck that was behind them on the road. It sounded like some
sort of engine. He finally realized why the noise caught his attention. The
motor he was listening to had a faint knocking whine. Like it had a bad
piston or something. "If it's an engine it has to be in a vehicle. I wonder
what type could it be?" William asked himself. "Truck, car or ..."
He opened his eyes and sat straight up in the seat. He swiveled his head
back and forth looking for the source of the sound. Without realizing it
he was also swiveling his ears as well. Those large sensitive animal ears
flicked back and forth as if they had a mind of their own. The sound
seemed to be coming from the left.

   Looking to his left William spotted them in an instant, six black spots
flying low to the ground several miles away. He pounded his fists on the
hood of the car. He tried to shout a warning but all that came out was a
loud chittering sound. He turned to the sergeant sitting next to him and
found himself looking down the barrel of a .45 caliber pistol. The look of
fright on the NCO's face was plainly visible. William gestured towards the
approaching objects and struggled to form the right words. Behind him he
could hear the sound getting louder and louder as the six objects got
closer and closer. Panic began to rise in him and shaking in fear he tried
to put his tongue in the right places. "JAP PLANES!" he finally managed to
scream.

   The captain stood up and looked in the direct William was pointing. The
color drained from his face. "We're being bombed!" he screamed and jumped
out of the still moving vehicle. The car suddenly screeched to a halt and
William's head slammed into the headboard stunning him.

   Confused, the corporal just sat there not knowing what to do next. In the
Back of his mind he heard the sound of the plane grow louder. After a moment
he heard the loud chatter of a machine gun firing. Looking the direction of
the gun he saw a plane swooping in low.

   William panicked. He let a scream of terror and tried to scramble from
the car but he couldn't get his new body to work right. Trying to climb out
he slipped and landed headfirst on the hard earth. He looked up at his
attacker and saw a black cylinder detach as the plane passed overhead. He
froze in terror as it started to drop towards him. A part of his mind was
screaming for him to get up and run, but he couldn't move. He was like a
deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck. Too terrified to move
the animal just stood there until the truck smashed it into a bloody pulp.
He imagined the bomb landing right on top of him blowing him to pieces, and
splattering blood everywhere. Then someone was standing over him, grabbing
him under the arms and pulling him off the road.

   When he woke up William found himself lying in a muddy ditch next to the
road. The naval captain was leaning over him. "Lay easy Furry," he said.
"You were knock out by the concussion from an exploding bomb."

   "I don't remember an explosion," William thought to himself.

   The sergeant sat down next to him and smiled a big toothy grin. "Next
time fuzzy, when you jump out of a car try landing feet first," he said
and laughed.

   "I'll remember that," William said speaking slowly and carefully.

   The NCO clasped him on the shoulder and in a serious tone of voice said
"Thanks, you saved our lives."

   "What?" the furry soldier stuttered.

   The sergeant didn't speak but just pointed toward the road. William
looked in that direction. There in the center of the road were the burning
remains of the Ford. There was little left. "Twenty more seconds and Herman
would have gotten us all," he said.

   "Who's Herman?" William asked.

   "Did you hear that one Jap plane with the engine knock?" Hamilton
asked.

   William nodded.

   "He's been harassing us for over two months," came the explanation
from the soldier.

   The captain laughed, "with that knock, you can't confuse him with any
one else."

   "Why do you call him Herman?" William asked.

   Sergeant Hamilton shrugged, "What else would you call him?"

   End