Inside the compound the buildings were lined up in a long row at the southern end with parking and machinery at the front near the gate. Guards manned the entrance and patrols walked around the inside and outside perimeter of the fence. There were no dogs with the guards, but from what I smelled they didn’t need any. All the scents from the people were of werewolf, probably to keep in line with Lance’s werewolf-centered world and better protect the area.
My final verdict on the situation was a big uh-oh. The place crawled with guards, sometimes literally with those who were transformed, and I couldn’t see any weakness through which to penetrate the area.
“Are we to walk in through the front gate?” Stevens quipped, evidently noticing the heavy amount of guards.
Luke’s eyes scanned the area and I saw them stop at the rear of the compound. I followed his gaze and noticed a small metal shed fifty yards outside the southern part of the fence. Nothing suspicious about that except-well, everything. “What’s that?” I whispered.
“Possibly our entrance into the facility,” Luke replied.
“If it is then Lance has gift-wrapped it for us in metal,” I commented.
“What a thoughtful sibling,” Stevens quipped.
Luke slunk past us and southward toward the shed, all the while transforming into a wolf. “Follow me,” he instructed us.
Stevens and I reluctantly followed Luke in form and feet, and he led us along the edge of the forest to the shed which, conveniently, stood on the edge of the forest. There were no patrols around and no cameras in sight. Not even a guard skunk or lookout squirrel. It was all so easy, and yet the hairs on the back of my-well, everything were hackled. They waited for something to jump out and surprise us, and it wasn’t even my birthday.
We reached the shed without incident and Luke tested the handle. The door swung open and revealed a set of stairs and the smell of my old friend, the sewers. By the time we were done with this adventure I would know more about the sewer system of the werewolf regions than the people. I nearly gagged when Luke sniffed the air inside the shed while Stevens kept a lookout for the guards.
“Don’t dawdle for long or you will doom us all,” Stevens hissed.
“No patrols down here. Let’s go,” Luke commanded us.
Luke trotted down the stairs with me close behind and Stevens taking up the rear. The stairs led forty feet below the ground and finally leveled off in a large, concrete tube. A concrete, elevated walkway kept our paws from the muck that flowed down the tube and into the distance far beyond the compound. In my infinite, stupid curiosity I crept up to the edge of the goof and took a deep sniff. My nose was bombarded with a million different smells, all of which resembled hell mixed with a skunk and three-week old rotting garbage.
I coughed and gagged, and somehow kept my food down. “What the hell is this stuff?” I asked the others.
“The refuge from the experiments, and judging by the direction of the pipe I would say the outlet lays in the Manutia region,” Luke guessed.
Stevens growled. “Those damn fools are dumping their contaminated waste in my region.”
“We can slap them with environmental crimes after we ensure the survival and freedom of our race,” Luke scolded him.
Luke led us up the stream of goop. After sixty yards we came to the head of the tunnel and another flight of stairs. The goop spilled down through a half dozen thick, plastic tubes that came from the ceiling above us.
“We don’t know where these stairs will lead us in the facility, so be ready for a fight,” Luke advised us. We crept up the steps and came to a short landing with a plain white door at the end. Luke pressed his cute, fluffy ears against the door and listened for a moment. “I don’t hear anything, but if we find trouble don’t retrace your steps. They could easily block off both ends of this tunnel. Search for the nearest window or door and make your escape through there.
My muscles were tense, my radar ears twitched and moved, and my sniffer frantically twitched as Luke tried the door. Again, it was unlocked. My mind thought what we were all thinking: this was way too easy, and that made it a trap, but one that while we knew it existed, we had no idea how to escape. We were the ones in enemy territory, and thus at the disadvantage. Luke opened the door wide enough to stick his head out. The tip of his tail in front of my face alternated between twitching and stiffness. Luke slunk through the door and I could do nothing but follow with Stevens close behind me. This conga line of werewolves would have looked hilarious if we weren’t expecting to die at any moment.
The door led us out into an intersection of white, sterilized hallways. The scent of medicine hung in the air, that too-clean scent that told you people wore gloves and inhaled way too much cleaning fluids and sprays. There was no one around, but I noticed cameras positioned in the corners above us. I nudged Luke and nodded up at the surveillance, but he only nodded. Nothing we could do to stop that many cameras.
Luke put his nose to the ground as did Stevens. “What are we looking for?” I whispered.
“I don’t-” Luke froze, as did Stevens.
They both whipped their heads up and stared at each other. “Stacy!” Stevens hissed.
“Stacy?” I repeated.
“She’s here, but we need to remain calm,” Luke whispered to Stevens. “We’ll follow her scent and see where it leads.”
With their sniffers combined they led me down the hall. I kept watch and listened for any sign of clopping boots or idle chat from people wearing lab coats. Nothing. It was like we were in the facility version of a ghost town, but with the cameras and their red blinking lights watching our every move. Every door was closed and I would have bet my fur coat that they were all locked so we weren’t distracted from our planned route. The bad feeling at the end of my hairs told me this was a bad idea, and fate was soon to prove me right.
6
The boys’ sniffers led us down one hallway after another until I began to doubt which way was up and which was down. We arrived at an intersection of four hallways. Stevens kept moving forward following Stacy’s scent, but Luke snatched his tail and pulled him back. “We can’t go any farther. Not without knowing more of the layout of this facility,” he told the old wolf.
Stevens turned and glared at him. “I won’t waste time when my daughter may be in danger.”
“She may already be captured,” Luke argued.
We all froze when the crackling noise of an intercom came from overhead. “You’re quite right, brother, but you can’t blame Stevens for worrying about his daughter.”
Luke tensed and his lips curled back in a snarl. “Lance,” he growled.
“How very obvious of you to point that out, but we don’t need any reintroductions. Keep on the path you were walking and don’t dawdle. Your friends are waiting.” The intercom signed off.
Stevens’ eyes were wide, but in a moment his sharp teeth clenched together. He turned and rushed down the hallway down which Lance beckoned us. “Stevens, wait!” Luke cried out, but the old wolf only sprinted faster.
We raced after him and the doors on either side became fewer and built like bank vaults with thick door frames and bar-like handles that I could barely fit my hands around. The lights above us, those long, fluorescent ones with the flickering tubes, glared down at our little group as we rushed after our crazy team member. There ceased to be intersecting hallways and ahead of us lay a single open door. The lights were off inside the room, but I could see the vague outlines of tables, chairs, and hulking equipment.
Luke jumped Stevens five yards short of the door, but their momentum carried them inside. They crashed into one of the shadowy tables and I hurried inside after them. The door nearly shut on my tail and I glanced behind it to see a man standing there with a gun slung over his shoulder and yellow eyes glaring down at me. I tucked my tail between my legs and backed up, but growled at him to show I wasn’t completely wet-my-pants terrified of him.
The lights above us flickered on and I saw we were in a large, white room filled with lab equipment. There were the long tables of glass vials and beakers, shelves of samples on all the walls, and no windows. There was also Stacy, Alistair, and Baker. They stood in front of one of the long, metal tables facing us. My face lit up at the sight of them until I saw their hands were bound behind their backs by ropes covered in silver and their mouths were filled with a delicacy of handkerchief. Behind each of them stood a werewolf guard like the one at the door with pistols in holsters at their sides, and to the side at the left of the group stood Lance. He grinned like the cat who just caught the canary, and I had a sudden craving for bird seed. Beside Lance was Mullen. He looked as nervous as I felt.
“Good evening, brother,” he greeted Luke.
Luke pushed aside the table and climbed off Stevens, and reverted back to his human form. I followed suit and was glad my suit wasn’t my birthday suit because most of my clothing had survived under my fur. Stevens also joined us in the skin of a human.
“Whatever you’re planning, Lance, it will only lead to ruin for our kind,” Luke told him.
Lance laughed and shook his head. “What a very heroic thing to say, brother, but isn’t it a little cliched? I mean, I think what I’m doing is the right path, and you believe what you’re doing is the right path. The only way we’re going to know who’s wrong is if we take a chance on both ideas. We’ve tried hiding from the humans for centuries and what do we get? They encroach on our lands and threaten our existence. Now it’s time to fight back, and to do that we’ve developed some very interesting chemicals.”