Chapter 5 The Unraveling Begins

"This new batch of humans is almost ready to be sent to the doctor," spat an aging Slaver as he limped across the room of cages.

It wouldn't be long before his short life of ten years was up.

"Shall I get them ready for transport?" asked a much younger Slaver, who had just arrived.

"Transport, transport, yes, get them ready," grumbled the older Slaver. He was tired and knew he needed to train his replacement before he died. The Masters would be angry with him if he didn't train the new guy and he didn't want that to happen. They were his gods. Without them, he would never have been born.

The new guy reached for the door to the cage and paused, turning to look at the receding back of the old Slaver. Inside the cage were three men, barely conscious after having been used as blood donors for the past several years.

"How long have these humans been here? Aren't we supposed to take them to the doctor as soon as they are picked out?" he asked.

The old Slaver paused and turned back. "Do you want to eat? We always keep them around and drain them to this point before sending them on. The doctor kills them and we never see them again. If we sent them on immediately, we would starve!"

"But," continued the new guy, scrunching his face in confusion. "Why keep them so long?"

The old Slaver sighed again and said, "When you are done taking those to the doctor, see if you can find any humans to capture on the way back. There's nothing out there anymore! Our cages are empty! If my life wasn't almost over, I would probably die soon anyway from starvation!"

"So, we don't have food saved in the freezers while we hunt for more humans?" he asked again, opening the door and grabbing up the first limp figure.

"That food in the freezers is there only because we do this with them!" growled the old Slaver, motioning to the limp form he was carrying. "Once it's gone, it's gone. We can't keep the women like we can the men. The Masters want them shipped immediately, and they keep a much closer eye on things than the doctor does."

"I haven't seen women. What are they like?"

"Like the men, but they smell sweeter. I remember tasting the blood from one once…" he paused in remembrance.

"Do the Master's drink from the women, like we do the men?" asked the young Slaver as he dumped the first figure in the transport wagon.

"Heavens no! The blood from the humans hurts the Masters. They use the women to make more of us," said the older Slaver, thinking about what he had learned over the past nine years. "The doctor takes the men and does something to them, turns them into werewolves I think, and then the blood is safe for the Masters to drink. I think the humans did something a long time ago that made it impossible for the Masters to feed from them, so the Masters made us to capture them all as punishment."

The new guy nodded in understanding, content with the explanation, and went back to work moving the other two figures over while the older Slaver continued out of the room. A vampire stood in the corner, having watched the two in their conversation, amused. He wasn't going to tell them that the birth of Slavers was just a side effect of raping human women. Something in the viruses that were released made it possible. If they were so content to work their entire lives as slaves themselves, he was content to allow them the luxury of thinking they were special.

New humans did need to be found soon though. The doctor was running out of werewolf blood to send out, and he was hungry. Drinking Slaver blood was taboo because it was known to cause side effects, but as the blood hunger within him grew, he was starting to wonder if it might not be alright short term? Who would notice the premature death of an old Slaver, one that was about to die anyway?

He had already been stealing from the Slaver's blood supply, but they were bound to notice that soon. He was running out of options and the haze that had settled over his mind was already starting to cloud his judgement. Cracking his neck, he left the room in search of his next meal.

Hearing a noise, the new Slaver glanced up, but the room was empty. He must be hearing things again. Time to leave if he was going to get to the doctor's base before the sun came up.

XxxxX

Faith frowned at the condition of the three men but didn't say anything to the eager young face of the slaver who had delivered them. He must be a new crop as she didn't remember him from before. He also hadn't lost that worshipful puppy look yet.

"Where would you like me to put them?" he asked eagerly, setting the last one down on the floor in a limp pile after unloading them from the wagon.

The werewolf the slaver was using was cowering away from her as much as the chains keeping it contained allowed. She remembered it well. It had such a short harvestable period before the second mutation occurred making the blood inedible that they had gladly handed it over to the slavers for their use. It's original mutation into the werewolf form had been particularly painful for the creature which probably explained its current attitude. She was amused.

"Right there is fine," she finally replied, making a last note on her clipboard before setting it down and picking up the limp form of the first man.

Nodding aggressively, the slaver stood next to the wagon wringing his hands as she placed each man in a separate cage.

"You may rest in the spare room over there until night fall," she said, raising an eyebrow.

"Thank you," he said several times, giving her a little bow each time and moving over to guide the werewolf away.

If the werewolf hadn't been so cowed by her, it would have ripped into the slaver with his distraction of her. She didn't understand how they were born with such reverence towards vampires.

"This one was chosen to be brought here years ago," said Dr. Achak in surprise.

She turned to see him examining one of the unconscious men.

"Then why has it been so long?" she asked in confusion.

"I imagine with the lack of wild humans in the area, the slavers are draining them almost to the point of death before sending them over. I knew about it, but they've never kept one this long before," he said thoughtfully. "Be sure to give them iv's of fluids and nutrients before the serum, otherwise they might die from the initial transformation."

"We've never had one die from it before," said Faith, making some notes on her clipboard before heading over to fridge where they kept the fluids.

"And I don't intend to lose any now," he responded. "Make sure you keep an eye on this one. He was sexually aggressive in the holding cells, which is why I wanted him brought over. It will be interesting to see how the change affects him."

"Yes, Dr. Achak."

XxxxX

"Xun, get in that hole!" Gabriel panted, glancing behind them at the quickly approaching figure.

The werewolf would reach them any second now.

"But dad," began Xun, scrambling into the hole between the heavy pipes.

Gabriel had intended to train Xun here in this ancient construction yard, but the monsters that had been tracking them had finally caught up.

"I'm right behind you," he urged, giving the boy a shove before jumping quickly to the side to distract the werewolf.

He'd killed lots of these things before, but he didn't have any of his weapons. When he left the compound to run away with Lola and the kids, he had to leave everything behind.

The werewolf ran at him full blast, hitting him with its front leg and throwing him across the yard. He hit a stack of rotting wood and tried to roll back to his feet. The wolf jumped at him and he felt his body finally respond. Surging to his feet, he deflected the wolf to his right, waiting for it to shake its head and swing at him again.

Jumping back, he evaded the blow. Its red eyes narrowed in fury. The next couple of moments were a blur as it swung at him and he evaded or deflected each hit. Hope was starting to bloom in his chest, but then he heard a second wolf behind him. They never traveled alone. How many times had he repeated that to Xun?

Dodging to the left, he rolled out of the way, and immediately jumped to the side again. His body knew this maneuver well, as he had repeated it countless times with other werewolves. Spotting a protruding pipe, he ran for it, dodging to the side just as one of the wolves jumped at him. Hearing it squeal from being impaled, Gabriel turned to check on the second wolf. It was old and seemed to be wounded, so he still had a chance.

Another pipe caught his eye and he grabbed it up as the other wolf charged him, jumping up to pounce. Stabbing the end of the rusted pipe into the ground, Gabriel jumped away and turned to see the second werewolf impale itself as well.

Standing up, panting hard, he turned towards were Xun was hiding. They needed to get away from here. There might be more nearby, attracted to the noise.

Teeth sunk into his side and Gabriel's eyes went wide as he realized the first wolf had gotten free. The world spun around him as the beast shook him like a rag doll. Pain erupted along his side as he felt his skin tear, bones break, and organs rupture. He caught one last glimpse of the hole where Xun's face was peeking out before the wolf ran off with him.