Tatum and Henry

We sit in our trees for two days, watching and listening to the conversations going on. From what we hear, they are definitely on Alpha Andre’s side, talking about race and pure wolves. We watch as cars come and go- bringing in ordinary things in like food and water, but from what I can see, this camp doesn’t have any fighters in it. Not any good ones anyway.

I’ve had enough of this recon and want to pull out. There’s not much to see and we’re running low on rations.

“Sully, I’m under attack,” Clayton calls through the mike.

“Pull out,” I order.

“I’m trying,” he says, panicking. We can hear the van being shaken in the background. Shit, I think. We were told to stay here until further notice, but I can’t stay put if a teammate is under attack.

“Jen, Jude, go. Holly, Julie, stay here,” I order. I take another look down at the campsite. They look the same, like they have no idea their side is attacking us. I climb down from my tree and begin running the way we came.

I see two wolves speed ahead of me, and I know that it’s Jude and Jennine. I follow their tracks, jumping over downed trees and around bushes until I get to the edge of the forest and the road.

“Fuck!” I breathe. I see Jude and Jennine’s wolves, but they’re outnumbered, three to one, with another three at the van. I unsheathe my arrows and fire away, hitting each of my targets in the neck. The attacking wolves drop when I hear a snarl behind me. I turn just in time to see a wolf jump up at me.

I stumble backwards while taking my katana out, and with both hands on the handle I swing the blade forty-five degrees upwards, cutting across the wolves’ wrists and sending his paws in the opposite direction of its body. The wolf squeals as it halts its attack, and I swing my katana up and swing the blade horizontally across the animal’s neck- blood spraying on my face and upper torso.

As quickly as I’m done, I kneel and turn towards the van. Another two wolves have joined the fight, not on my side, and I quickly take out my knives and throw them at the direction of these new attackers, before running forward towards the van.

“Argh,” I cry out as I feel something large land on me, growling as a wolf’s mouth snarls at my ear. I feel the wolf pull off me and turn to see Jude attacking the wolf. Getting up I stumble towards the van.

“Clayton,” I call out, banging on the door. Clayton opens up and I see him standing in the van, the screens and wires around him hanging off their mounts.

“Tatum?” he asks.

“I’m good,” I reply. I turn and see Jude and Jennine in their wolves standing around the carcasses of dead wolves.

“Call Holly and Julie out, lets clean up,” I say, putting my katana back in its bokken.

We begin by pulling the dead wolves off the road and into the forest. I pull out my arrows from the dead bodies, counting them as I collect them. By the time we’re done Holly and Julie are back.

“Everything good?” I ask the girls as they arrive.

“Yeah,” they say, stunned, looking around at the massacre left behind.

“Is the van able to work?” I ask Clayton. He shakes his head.

“Then we walk,” I say, looking at him. He nods. It took us just over three hours to get here, it will take us thrice as long to walk back.

“Can we radio it in?” Jude then asks. Clayton nods and gets back to the computer, re-hooking wires and putting things back the way they were.

“What happened?” Holly then asks, going up to us and checking for injuries. I have some bruises on my left arm from where I was jumped on, and some grazes on my right, but most of the blood on my body is not mine.

“I’ve never killed anyone before,” I say as Holly inspects me. Holly gives me a thin smile.

“If it wasn’t for you,” she says,” we would have lost Jude and Jennine, maybe even Clay,” she continues, wiping ointment in my grazes.

“hmmm,” I reply.

“You took down eight wolves Tate,” Jude says, “thank you,” he adds. I nod. I could have lost half my team.

“They’re sending cars,” Clayton says after a bit. I nod.

“I’m hungry, I hope they have food,” I say. I had left my bag in my tree, as had Jennine and Jude.

“Here,” Clayton says, throwing each of us a packet of rations from his bag. We look at him and he shrugs.

“I still had the junk food to eat,” he explains.

Three cars come and collect us about half an hour later. Wolves. Two deltas stayed behind to destroy the bodies and we were shuffled into the back of the cars. We were separated and I was put in the same car as Julie.

We get taken to a smaller tent town, Julie falling asleep on my shoulder, but I’m on high alert. I can’t sleep and when we pull up to the army station, I see high-linked fences and guards patrolling the area, it is a much more secured area than the one we had been watching for two days.

“We’ll take you to your racks, and you can shower if you want to,” one of the deltas says. I look over at Jennine and Jude, who are both wearing shorts and a shirt, the clothes too big for Jennine.

“And a fresh change of clothes,” I state.

“Yes ma’am,” the delta says.

The room we are put in has six beds, or racks as the delta called them, and Julie, Holly and Clayton stripped into their singlets and crawled under the covers straight away. Jude, Jennine and I waited patiently for the delta to come back with fresh clothes and toiletries for us.

We don’t end up joining our team in sleep until an hour later. I stood in the shower and let the blood wash over me and down the drain. I could see bruises appear where I was attacked, and some not so deep claw bruises down my left arm. I was comforted in knowing that the wolf hadn’t stripped the material and sunk his claws into my skin, but it still hurt.

Because of the amount of blood I had on me, I spent longer in the shower, shampooing my hair three times until the soap bubbles rolling down my skin was white, not red. The bar of soap I had been given now has a red tinge, but I feel too tired to cleanse the colour off.

I sink into a mattress after two nights sleeping in the hard branches of a tree, sleeping in a fitful sleep. You’re doing this for Jed and Rhiannon, I remind myself before I fall asleep.

\\//\\//\\//

My team and I called into a very angry Major’s office the following morning. I stand there and fold my arms, looking at him.

“What the hell happened?” he growls, scanning at us.

“Clayton told us through the earpiece that he was under attack, I sent Jude and Jennine to assist and I went to help,” I state, boring holes into his head. He’s a delta wolf and tries to look intimidating, but I stand my ground.

“Who sent you to do recon there,” the Major then asks, slumping down in his seat.

“Captain Johnson under direct orders from General Erstad,” I state. He nods slightly.

“I want all six of you to write an account of what happened, then return to me,” Major dickwad then states, handing me six pads and pens to write on.

“Sully,” the major then says. I turn around and look at him.

“General Erstad may want to speak to you personally. If he does, he will be much harder on you than I have been,” he states, trying to sound authoritative. I snort.

“General Erstad can read. I will speak to him if I want to, and I don’t want to,” I say, turning around and walking out of the room.

I follow my team mates to our tent and close the flap behind me.

“What did Major Dickerson want?” Holly asks as I sit on my rack.

“He said that General Erstad may want to speak to me after we put in our report,” I state, snorting.

“The only reason General Erstad would want to speak to you is if he finds out who you are,” Jude comments.

“Yup. So, you will all address me as Sully, understand? General Erstad can’t know I’m here,” I order.

“Why?” Julie asks. I look at her.

“Let’s just say I was someone important to him,” I comment, leaving it to that.

“Do you need something to mask your scent?” Holly smiles.

“I would love that,” I agree.

I get Jude to hand in our reports and then we join the rest of the soldiers for drills. I don’t see Henry amongst the trainers, but Holly has given me some more scent-blocking vials, and I’ve taken one of them already.

//\\//\\//\\

We spend a few weeks at the new base, and I end up training the other soldiers to refine their skills in knife throwing and archery. Even those with training in weapons use, like those from Genesis pack, are put in my training classes. What I really want to learn though, is how to use a trident like the fay from Syreni. I enjoy watching them fight with their weapon, and I can already see each fay’s strengths and weaknesses.

At four o’clock I call Margot to speak to Jed and Rhiannon. Saxon and the twins have been sent to join the fight, but as Margot is a nurse, she is allowed to stay behind.

“Hi little man, how are you going?” I ask Jed when he answers the phone.

“I’m good. School hasn’t stopped, so that sucks,” he says. I laugh.

“Are you helping Aunty Margot?” I ask him.

“Yeah. We look after Zoe and the twins sometimes; Zoe and Anna are really naughty when they get together.”

“Really? What have they been doing?” I ask.

“Well, Zoe got into Margot’s makeup and filmed herself putting makeup on Rhiannon like she was a youtuber,” Jed laughs. I join him.

“Can I speak to my little model please?” I ask.

“Yeah, hold on,” he says, putting his phone down. I hear some talking and laughter in the background, and then some singing, which I know is my daughter.

“Hello, mummy?” her sweet little voice asks.

“Hello baby, how are you? Have you been a good girl?” I ask her.

“I’s good,” she says, making me smile. I get her to tell me what she’s been doing, and she sings me a little poem before Margot takes over the phone. We talk and catch up on everything that’s been going on. Vas and her mate Beta Adrian have joined in the war and are in the same battalion as Saxon, which I’m happy to hear. I thank her for looking after my family, again, before we say our goodbyes.

I’m smiling, singing Rhiannon’s rendition of incy wincey spider in my head as I walk to the Mess Hall for dinner. I look up and notice people running back to the training grounds.

“What’s going on?” I ask one of the soldiers as they run past me.

“General Erstad is here and has called everyone in for a meeting,” he says, running off. I turn and follow him towards to the crowd.