Chapter 15

By the time they reached the door had already been blasted open.

"Wilde!"

Wilde dropped his huge machine gun, unsheathed a big jagged machete and jumped onto a drooling grey dire rat that was standing guard at the door.

Killershot spent no time looking at him and ran inside.

Her heart was pounding. The house was dark. The door of the room beside hers was creaked open. She took out her revolvers and kicked it open.

There he was, the man. In his arms was a small girl. The girl was strange. She was an exact copy of Killershot. She looked to be around 15 years or so. She was still asleep in the stranger's arms.

He kept one hand to support and used his other hand on her hand.

"You animal! Leave her or els-"

"Shhhhhhh!"

He motioned with his hand.

"Don't wake her. Speak softly."

The fires and lights around the outpost gave a slight illumination in the room. She saw the stranger now. His hood was off.

His skin was fair and pink. His hair was white but his most noticeable features were his green eyes. They were.....glowing. Killershot was breathing rapidly as she aimed the revolvers at the man's forehead.

"Too loud."

The man snapped his fingers. All the noise vanished, the screaming, the guns, all of it came to a silent stop. Killershot felt her ears were ringing in the eerie silence.

"Better."

The man's face was stone cold without the trace of any emotion.

"Drop her!"

She cocked her gun.

He raised his hand and touched her throat, almost soothingly.

"Oh, no no no. I wouldn't do that if I were you. Drop the guns and kick them here. I don't want this little, soft and sweet kid to suffer, but, you're forcing my hand."

He caressed her face lightly.

Killershot grit her teeth and almost bit her tongue off in anger. She gripped the guns in a vice. She dropped her revolvers and kicked them towards him.

"Good. Now let's go down, shall we?"

"I don't know what you are talking about!"

"I'm not a fool. Open the tunnel now. I don't like waiting."

The stranger spoke in a soft and straight voice.

Killershot took unsure shaking steps and went outside.

The whole outpost was silent. Now she knew why. Everyone was dead, the dire rats were nowhere to be seen. Outside was Wilde's body, his throat was ripped out and his lifeless eyes hung open. Killershot suppressed her rage and went towards the tunnel in the back.

"I'll go in first. If you don't mind."

Killershot grunted and the stranger stepped in first. The kid still slept like a baby in his arms.

She stepped in after him and pressed a button and the elevator started descending.

Killershot stood before him. She suddenly jerked her elbow back wanting to hit him. The stranger with amazing speed grasped her arm and pushed her, while kicking on the back of her knees.

"This will be your last mistake. Another will not be tolerated."

The stranger caressed the girl in his arms and she too, in her sleep wrapped her arms around his neck.

She was smiling in her sleep while Killershot was shivering in fear.

The elevator stopped and opened. Killershot gasped behind her mask. The whole base was destroyed. Just like in the outpost, all the men were dead and corpses were littered everywhere. But, there were no dire rats here, there were only wolves. The wolves were everywhere, looking savagely at her. Their mouths were drooling, but they didn't move. In front of the wolves was a big white wolf surrounded by black wolves.

The man looked towards the white wolf.

"Everything's been arranged. Let's start."

He gave the sleeping girl to Killershot, who willingly hugged her and caressed her.

"Hold her. And don't even think about escaping."

The man walked forward. The wolves dragged five men in black as well as white clothes to them and held all of them down.

"Now, let's begin. You, number one. Where's the old man in white?"

"Huh, f-fuck you bastard!"

"Hm, not a talkative one I see. Kill him."

The wolves dragged him back and devoured his flesh like rabid animals.

"Number two. Same question."

"H-he's not here! H-he went away 4 months ago! He didn't mention where! I swear, that's all I know, please-"

"Kill all of them, except for him."

The dire rats all pounced on the men, their screams soon died out and the silence continued.

The only man left was a scarred man who was too familiar. He was the one who had killed Fergus. Now, the beast had awakened, and come to haunt him for his death.

"You! You savage man! You, I'll torture personally, but first, business needs to be attended to. All of you, eat his hands and legs only, and everybody gets only a small piece. Make sure he stays alive."

"No! Noo! NOOOO!! AAAAAAAHHHHH!!"

His screams reverberated in the base and the wolves like obedient dogs, did the strange man's bidding. Killershot was now sweating profusely and was scared.

"Let's move to a quieter place, shall we? Lead the way, the old man's room."

The three of them moved to the old man's office. It was completely empty.

"Sit."

The man was doing this like it was normal for him.

"Remove your mask."

She obediently took off her mask and sat on the ground while shivering in fear.

"Look, I'll do anything, ju-just let us go. I swear! I'll go away, I'll never tell anyone about you. I swear!"

"Be quiet, and I'll think about it."

Killershot breathed out a breath of relief, but her vigilance didn't drop.

The man walked out and locked the room.

Fergus was feeling ecstatic. He had finally figured a way to undo the thing that had happened to him. Now, after a lot of time, he had finally realized that the effect wasn't permanent. He could now transform from human to wolf at will. It was a weird feeling. It was extremely painful, it felt like his bones were breaking and his skin was tearing apart, so he didn't try to do it often.

It was like a dream come true. He remembered some part of his memories. They were still a bit hazy, but he remembered the woman somehow. He felt....good while seeing her. But, there were more important issues at hand.

He walked back to the wolves.

"Human, has everything been taken care of?"

"Yes, for now. What about your side?"

"These puny ones have been more than willing to answer after they saw one of theirs getting eaten."

The white wolf was grinning wildly while showing its fangs.

"Why don't you ask them yourself?"

"Sure."

The wolf and Fergus entered a room.

Inside of it, there were about 30-35 people cramped in, and all of them wore white body suits.

Fergus stood in front of them.

"I'm not going to say this twice. Answer my questions, and, maybe, just maybe you can live."

The people tried to move closer to the wall.

One of them cowered forward.

"P-please, just l-let us go."

"Hm, maybe I will. What were you doing here?"

"It was all him. The old man in white, Sirius. He was the one behind it all. He was testing something. Some water that could change a person. That's all we know."

"What water?"

"It's this brown liquid that can change the body of any organism."

"Who did he use it on?"

"At first it was on animals, rats, wolves, dogs, then we started testing it on humans. In adults, the success rate was quite low. So, we started testing it on small children."

"3 years ago, was there anyone who escaped?"

"Yes, there was. It was a girl. The experiment was a success, at least until she ran away."

The wolf's eyes gleamed when it heard that.

"How do you stop, this, this water?"

"It's not just water. It permanently changes the body, it's mostly irreversible."

"What do you mean, mostly?"

"Sirius brought a new type of water this time, he said that this one could cure most diseases, and maybe even, cure the test subjects. We were about to test it when, Sirius went away 4 months ago, he hasn't come back since."

"Where is this, new water?"

"It's in deep storage."

Fergus went quiet as he thought about something.

"For now, you live."

Fergus and the wolf went out, after locking them all inside.

"I am human?! That is just nonsense. That's stupid!"

"I can't say anything about that. At least we know that there is a cure for this."

The wolf was thinking about something.

"I ...want to try it."

"What, are you stupid?! There's no guarantee that what they said was true. And the new water has a very big 'maybe' attached with it. Maybe it won't cure you. Maybe it will make you worse. Maybe, you will die!"

"I don't care. And Sirius still lives. I shall hunt him down after curing myself. It's a chance I'm willing to take."

"But, still-"

"You don't understand! You're no longer a wolf. I still am."

Fergus kept quiet, he knew this feeling better than anyone.

"Fine."

Fergus went inside the room again.

"If you want to live, you have to do one last thing."