9
The grit of a crumbling concrete foundation bites into the pads of your paws as you lope easily up the slope of a dilapidated wall, masonry chipping off twisted steel beams. You rise to a pinnacle of freedom, gazing down at the labyrinthine twists and turns of roads and alleyways that once played host to thousands of men and women going about their daily lives, blissfully unaware of the havoc that the Purge would one day reap.
You cast an idle glance to the west where you find the sun prepared to settle gently into a soft bed of cloud for the night. Good. There's still time, you think to yourself. You coil the muscles of your legs together tightly, springing with acrobatic grace to a higher platform, a leap that no human would have considered.
From here the ruins of the great city spread out below you in intricate detail, and you idly fancy yourself a giant, gazing over its dominion with a faint sense of pride and belonging. Lord of all you survey.
Haven. The refuge is all you've ever known, from your birth in the squalor of a small waterfront apartment to this very moment, perched atop the ruinous hulk of a long-abandoned office building.
Yours is the first generation of werewolves born and raised in captivity, a stark contrast to the green wilderness and freedom your elders speak of in the hush of the evening as they huddle in groups around the fires to keep warm. You've seen trees before, struggling for life between the cracks of empty patches of roadway. Scraggly bits of wood hardly worth the mention.
Let the elders lament the passing of their great wilderness. You're a new breed of lupine explorer, having traded in the forests for an urban jungle of steel and concrete.
Without warning, the floor beneath your paws crumbles, sending you tumbling into a free fall. It's quickly arrested by a bone-jarring crunch when you land on your back amid splinters of wood and stone. You manage to sound out a brief bark to alert your companions to your location before a cloud of blackness swallows up the sky and all becomes nothingness.
Claw Back the Darkness