Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Alexis

Vince was breathing hoarsely, covered head to toe in blood. The rest of the pack members that had gone on the hunting party with him were in similar condition.

“Oh, God, what happened?” I asked. I had been asleep beside Will just a few minutes ago. It wasn’t until the hunting party had returned and raised a ruckus outside that I woke up to see what all the noise was about.

“We killed ‘em. More than two hundred soldiers had sought shelter inside that building. They meant to create a remote base of operations there. We never gave them a fighting chance. All the wolves ambushed them, killing them before they even had a chance to fight. And those that remained, they died right in front of our eyes, on their own. It was like they were poisoned or something,” Vince said.

Will had come up behind me a few moments earlier. He had been listening intently to what Vince had to say.

“And what about our casualties? Did any werewolf die?” Will asked, stepping forward.

“No one died. No one got injured. We even managed to close the tunnel without using any explosives. I can assure you, no one’s ever going to use that tunnel again. It’s jammed,” Vince said.

“Why are all of you covered in so much blood?” Will asked.

“Yeah. Y’all look like you’ve been in a Tarantino movie,” I said.

“Those soldiers, the ones that died on their own, exploded this time around, spraying blood everywhere. It was the most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen,” Morgan said. “I might be getting too old for this.”

“They exploded?” Will asked incredulously.

“Yeah, but not as if they were wearing suicide bomber vests or anything like that. It was as if their entire body somehow just gave up at once and refused to hold itself together,” Vince said.

“That must be the latest iteration of Blair’s experiments. They were dying before, but now they’re fucking exploding,” Will said slowly. “Regardless, all of you did a great job. Hopefully, for now, the town can sleep in peace, knowing that there aren’t any soldiers in the vicinity. Good work, men.”

Once the hunting party had dispersed, I turned my attention to Will. He seemed to be doing better as far as his injuries were concerned. He was no longer standing in a stiff posture as he had been doing earlier today.

“What’s the plan, then?” I asked.

“I was actually hoping to rely on your instincts this time,” Will said, rotating his shoulder joint. “By the way, I do feel better. It’s like…the sex…the sleep…I don’t know what it was exactly, but my body doesn’t hurt as much anymore.”

“Will. The hunting party did say that they left no traces of soldiers, but my gut says that there are bound to be a few stragglers left. We have to check the tower out. And if we can, we should grab one alive soldier.”

“Vincent will come with us,” Will said.

“For real? He’s dead tired.”

“He’s going to be the next Alpha. Tiredness should be the least of his concerns. Back when I had captained the ship from Germany to America, I had been awake for days on end. That’s what an alpha does. That’s what I expect of him,” Will said. There was just a little hint of sternness in his voice that conveyed how serious he was.

“In that case, let’s regroup in an hour. I have one more person I need to call,” I said. This whole operation was going to be impossible without Maliha. It was her bio-hacking skills we needed right now. And as much as I valued her life, this had to be done with her present in the same room. She had to get the samples from the soldier when he was alive.

“Maliha?” Will asked.

“You’re damn right,” I grinned.

***

“Well, isn’t this one odd bunch of people? Three werewolves and one normal-sized human. I am in great company. Oh, am I talking a lot? I kind of do that when I’m scared out of my wits!” Maliha had been incessantly talking ever since we’d picked her up. Vince had been quiet, ruminating over the events of the day while recuperating his strength. Will, on the other hand, was just as excited as Maliha. The two of them were on the same wavelength.

Me? I was feeling tired, just like Vincent.

“Maliha. How is your life going since you discovered this whole dimension of supernatural creatures exists?” Will asked, enthusiastically driving his Jeep down the deserted town road. Beckett Pharma’s abandoned tower was getting nearer. My anticipation was only growing stronger. Even though Vincent and the hunting party claimed they had wiped out everyone in that building, something within me said there were survivors. We just needed one.

“Will, now that I know you’re a werewolf, I’m honest to God scared of you,” Maliha said. “But since you haven’t eaten me yet or harmed me, I know you’re one of the good guys. Isn’t that right? I mean, you never did invite me to the engagement party, but you are my best friend’s fiancé.”

“I am sorry about that,” Will said. “We will surely invite you to the wedding now that you’re in the inner circle.”

“Ooh, inner circle, I like it,” Maliha said.

“Guys, focus,” I said, cutting their conversation short. We were finally at the abandoned tower. The hunting party had done a good job of keeping things discrete. There was no sign of violence outside of the building. There was no telling what it looked like inside.

As our group got out of the Jeep and headed into the building, we turned our flashlights on and shone them in the dark and haunted corridors of the building, looking for any signs of life. In some rooms, there were piles of corpses that the hunting party had left in their wake.

“We’ll be cleaning up this mess in the morning,” Vince said, addressing Will.

“It doesn’t matter,” Will said. “This building is abandoned, and it gives off a very spectral vibe. I don’t think anyone’s going to come inside any time soon. Though, it would be the responsible thing to do. Make sure you dump the bodies somewhere no one can discover them.”

“Roger that, boss,” Vincent said.

“Vince, you know, the way that Will has been delegating a lot of his responsibility to you, he’s doing it to ensure that you’re ready for the role of being the Alpha,” I said quietly.

“Oh. Is that so?” Vince said, looking surprised.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t know,” I said.

“Some part of me knew. I just didn’t know it was that official. Is that why Will has been riding me so hard lately?”

“You bet,” I said, patting him on the shoulder.

“Shh!” Will whispered from above. There was movement in the corridor ahead. It was a guttural sound, followed by screeching and dragging. It did not look like whoever was ahead was alive.

“What the fuck is that?” Maliha gasped, pointing her flashlight at the silhouette at the far end of the corridor.

It was alive, moving, and grunting. I raced ahead of the group to see what it was. It was a soldier, barely holding onto life, dragging his broken body behind him.

“How in the fuck is he still alive?” Vincent called out from behind.

“It’s not uncommon,” Will said, grabbing that half-dead, half-alive soldier from the collar. “Hurry, Vince.”

Vince went over to the soldier and pried his jaw open with his fingers. The soldier tried to struggle, but Vince prevailed and only stopped when he had taken the cyanide capsule tooth out of the soldier’s mouth, preventing him from committing suicide.

“What’s not uncommon?” Maliha squealed. “This entire place, this fucking body, it’s giving me the heebie-jeebies!”

“Focus!” I whispered. “He’s still alive. We have to get his blood and tissue samples. Can you do it?”

I watched as Maliha opened her backpack and took her sampling kit out. She inserted a syringe into the squirming body of the soldier and extracted blood. Then, she took a scalpel and tore off bruised flesh from his skin. The soldier writhed in pain and screamed at the top of his voice.

“Are we done?” Will asked.

I looked at Maliha, who nodded. It was as if Will was waiting for the signal. As soon as Maliha was done, Will stomped his foot on the soldier’s head and crushed it into a pulp of blood, brain, and bones.

“Fuck!” Maliha yelled in disgust.

“What? It had to be done. He was of no use to us. Besides, he was in pain. I only gave him mercy,” Will said. “Ah, and to answer your question, when soldiers kill other soldiers in war, it’s not uncommon for one or two defeated soldiers to barely survive. He may have feigned death earlier in hopes that he’d live. But unlucky for him, we were thorough.”

“I’m sorry, Will. I should have paid more attention,” Vince said.

“Don’t beat yourself up. He would have died anyways,” Will said, placing his hand on Vince’s shoulder.

On the other hand, I was entirely focused on what Maliha was doing. Her fingers were hovering and tapping on her laptop as she plugged in the sampler and ran her tests. Everything depended upon her right now.

We stayed put in that abandoned building, seeking shelter in one of the rooms while Maliha tapped away on her keyboard. The air stank of dead bodies and stale blood. The moonlight shone through the broken windows, creating a haunting scene reminiscent of every horror movie I’d ever seen.

“I don’t like this,” Maliha said after almost an hour. She looked up from her laptop, staring at the three of us. “Guys, this soldier…there’s more to him than just the bodily mutations. He’s got this neural link in his system that connects him to every other soldier. Nano-particles. Quantum computing. It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen before!”

“What does it mean?” Will asked.

“Okay, so it’s like a hive mind. These soldiers are controlled by one source. They have no soul of their own. It’s like they’re zombies. They don’t feel pain or remorse or any of the feelings we feel. They are controlled through a neural device. I’m guessing that’s Blair’s doing?”

“Holy fuck,” Vincent whispered, his fingers running through his hair.

I was at a loss for words. I had known that Blair was up to something menacing, but I had no idea that it would be this devastating.

“Hive mind?” Will asked.

“Yes. Someone is controlling all the soldiers through wireless signals that are caught by the neural antennas in each of these soldiers. Look. There are traces of Nano-devices within their bloodstream,” Maliha said, showing me the screen.

“An army of mindless, mass-controlled, mutated soldiers,” Will said, his hand covering his mouth.

“Will,” I said, suddenly getting up upon hearing the rumbling sound booming from right beneath us. “We’re not alone.”

It was too late when we all noticed it.

The floor burst with an explosion, and a hundred soldiers poured through from every direction, their red, maddened eyes visible from behind the visors of their helmets. They held guns in their hands, but from the sounds that they were making, I knew that these soldiers were no more than pawns controlled by Blair.

Barely a second after they had invaded the building, the soldiers leaped upon us in perfect coordination, proving Maliha’s theory about them being controlled through a hive mind.

I immediately shifted into my wolf form and saw from the corners of my eyes as Will and Vincent did the same. We formed a semi-circle in front of Maliha, defending her from the incoming onslaught of rabid, mindless mercenaries.