Wunderhein Academy: Book 1- Awakening

“Nine million and a Thousand and nine hundred and …”

“Do you really have to count the trees?” Kitten could almost hear Aleksei’s eyes rolling at the question as they made their way through the forest.

“Well, I have to know how to get home.” She replied. “Awe man, you made me lose count.”

“You have a compass.” Aleksei pointed out. “If you get lost, just use that.”

Kitten felt her face heat up as Dmitri snickered. She had forgotten she had the object even though it was tucked away in her pants.

“Stupid Lexie. Why we going hunting anyway-Hey.” She yelled bumping into a solid wall-like object, her arms flailing as she began to fall.

She closed her eyes, expecting to hit the ground but felt a hard pull on her arm instead.

She opened one eye slowly and found Ivan, still holding onto her arm, was scowling at her.

“Sorry, Ivan.” She attempted to give him a huge smile. He shook his head in warning before letting go of her. She waited until he looked away before rubbing her arm. It felt like he had pulled the thing out of its socket.

“You ok?” Boris whispered.

She nodded before looking at him, noting his worried face. It hit her that he wasn’t just worried about her nearly falling but about the events from earlier. Usually, they talked about everything but so far it didn’t seem to be a topic one of them dared bring up.

“I’m fine.” She threw him a smile. For a moment he seemed relieved.

“If you two are done flirting.” Aleksei’s voice interrupted them. “I’d like to start the exercise.”

Kitten threw Aleksei a glare which he pointedly seemed to be ignoring. Instead, he had his head up, sniffing the air.

She heard sniffing next to her and noticed Boris copying their leader. Kitten watched him for a moment before trying to imitate her friend.

She didn’t know why he was doing it. The place smelt like wood, leaves, and soil. In a word, everything smelt the same.

“The rules are simple.” Aleksei drew Kitten’s focus back to him. “Be back here before dark. The last one here forfeits his catch. The best catch will get a pass from punishment duties for a week.”

“You mean we won’t have to do it?” She heard the happiness in Boris’s voice.

“You mean we have to hunt?” Disbelief covered her own.

“Don’t worry. This is a mild hunt.” Aleksei smiled. “The most dangerous thing out here is a fox.”

“Or a squirrel.” Boris shivered. “I was bitten by one once.”

“A squirrel?” Kitten repeated dumbly. “I have to catch a squirrel?”

“You have to catch something. This is survival training.” Aleksei flicked her forehead. “Try using this and you’ll be fine.”

“Ow.” Kitten frowned, her hand flying up. “That’s not fair.”

“Survival isn’t fair.” Aleksei took a step back. “Everyone ready?”

Everyone nodded except Kitten. “Wait, how do you hunt?”

“Go.” Aleksei yelled, ignoring her question. Like lightning, the boys scattered in a different direction before she could stop any of them.

Frustrated she clenched her hands before letting out a loud yell, scattering the few birds that had been hiding in the trees.

It felt good. It didn’t fix that Aleksei was still an ass but at least that had made her feel a bit better, she thought to herself grimly.

She ran a hand through her hair before stopping. Something smelt different. Like not wood and everything different.

She looked at the place Aleksei had run to and stuck out her tongue.

“Stupid Lexie, I’ll show you.” She began, heading off in the opposite direction after the scent. “I’ll win that prize and you won’t be able to give me punishment for a week.

She kept trying to track the smell, stopping to wipe her mouth every now and then. If she had to take a guess it was around lunchtime now and she was starving. Whatever she was tracking would make a great meal once she caught it. Just the smell of that tender meat soaking in fresh blood was making her stomach grumble in protest.

She smelt it again. It seemed to be closer.

“Ooh.” She licked her lips, grinning as she ready to pounce on the waiting meal. “I won.”

She jumped out of the bushes, trying to grab it in her hands.

“Awe. You’re so cute!” She lifted the bunny up and held it to her face, rubbing her nose against it before starting to lick its neck. “I can’t eat you. I bet you’d make a great pet. Boris would love you.”

She felt a hard nip on her finger, surprising her. She meowed in mortification as she dropped the creature and landed on its feet before hopping away as quickly as possible.

“That was not cool.” She hissed, sucking on the bite. “I wasn’t going to eat you, dumb rabbit.”

A loud bang rang out, breaking the silence of the forest. Gun, the words hissed violently through her mind as she covered her ears. Pain.

A fresh metallic smell hit the air, harder this time than before.

She felt something solid and slimy hit her. She opened her eyes and found a trail of blood down her body. The rabbit she had been holding now lay dead at her feet. A hole was in its body.

Kitten couldn’t believe it. She had heard rumours of the dangers from the weapons the Grunts carried. She had never seen many results from them. Shaking she bent down to retrieve the dead animal.

“You really are pathetic.”

Kitten looked up. A woman with a slight sneer on her perfect looking face was watching her. She was wearing an army uniform with the exception of being in a skirt instead of pants, something Kitten had never seen before. She wore the same perfect shoes the nurses did back at the school did. Her brown hair was tied back in one of those neat styles the nurses wore. On the nurses, it looked pretty, on this woman it made her look meaner even with her small petite face. She had a hand on her hip, studying Kitten while being studied herself. She smelt wrong. It was almost as if she didn’t have a smell at all except for the Medical scent that came off her like perfume.

Behind her stood two uniform men. Grunts by the look of their bulk and size. Both carried guns.

Kitten held onto the rabbit as she slipped into a defensive stance.

“Who are you?” She asked, her eyes narrowing. The woman laughed in an unpleasant manner that made the hair on Kitten’s neck stand on end.

“At least you learnt how to do that.” She pointed to Kitten’s stance. “Even if you are off-balance.”

“I asked who you were.”

“I am Major Bartok.” The woman’s face darkened. “Major Catai Bartok.”

Kitten felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her. “How…?”

She looked at the woman again in disbelief. That was her hair when she first came to the school, before it started changing to ginger. It was her eyes before they had begun turning the green shade they were now.

What was it Lexie had said about this place changing you? Had she really never noticed it?

“You can’t be,” Kitten whispered. “I’m Catai Bartok.”

“You are a useless waste of time.” The woman stepped forward leaving the men where they were. Kitten gave a warning hiss the nearer she came but the older woman ignored it.

Kitten took a step back as the woman reached out, finding herself backing into a third grunt. Without a word he reached out and grabbed her by her arms, forcing her to drop the rabbit.

“Hey, let me go.” Kitten yelled, trying to wiggle out of his grip. It was a useless exercise. He ignored her, looking past her as if she wasn’t even there.

“I told them not to send you.” Kitten tried to pull her face away as the woman reached out to touch it. Major Bartok touched her birthmark before digging her fingers into the offensive patch of coloured skin, making Kitten cry out. “You shouldn’t have had this. You weren’t perfect.”

Kitten wanted to protest but was hit by a head rush as images began flickering across her memory.

The children in her old home, refusing to play with her and calling her a freak. Because she had hurt them.

The villagers calling her mark evil. They had been calling her evil.

Her mother keeping house for the doctor. One that looked like Mad Doc Bartok, her father.

The people she had stayed with because she had no home. They had taken her away blaming her father as a bad influence with his strange science.

She remembered now. There had been no social worker bringing her to the island. It had been some nurse in the medic ward, smiling as she fetched her.

Father had taken her from those people and they had left the village.

She had been older. The son of the teacher had been a pain and she had stabbed his hand with a pencil. The next day Father had been there offering her a choice of bordering school. She had wanted to go with him and his mad science.

A thunderous noise broke into Kitten’s thoughts. All around them the sound of animals began filling the air, each fighting to be louder than the other.

“Looks like she’s done it.” The woman looked up, smiling in pure delight. “You’re replacement has managed to complete the project.”

“My replacement?” Kitten found she was blabbering. Tears were streaking down her face. She tried to remind herself to be strong. Alpha’s didn’t cave so easily. “What are you talking about? You can’t replace me.”

“Oh, don’t be a stupid girl. Of course we can.” The woman turned back to Kitten with a bitter look. “You’re absolutely useless. I knew you would be the moment you came out with that birth-mark but father insisted that we try you out. After all, we couldn’t waste the first one to survive the cloning process.”

“Cloning,” Kitten whispered. “What do you mean cloning?”

“You really are an embarrassment, do you know that? You’re a clone of me. One that shouldn’t have been allowed to even to step foot from the floor.” The woman hissed before reaching out to strike Kitten. “Your skills were useless, to begin with, you’re features are flawed and you failed to activate the prime experiment or show any signs of your own being active.”

“No,” Kitten hissed back. “No, you’re wrong. I’m a person, not some stupid experiment.”

“Why else do you think father would allow a girl amongst all these boys?” The woman scoffed, with a toss of her head. “Really, you did turn out more pathetic then I thought. You were meant to control them. Not that it matters. We have a better version now.” She glanced back towards the school, looking like a proud parent as she listened to the noise. “A better Queen that just activated everyone. Once she has them under control, we’ll take the creatures to war and Russia will be the rulers of the world.”

“Wait you can’t do that.” Kitten yelled. “People will die!”

“You don’t understand. You have no say. In fact, if it was up to me, I would get rid of you right now.” The woman looked disgusted at Kitten, patting the side of her hip for emphasis. Now Kitten knew who had shot the Rabbit. She felt sick. “You’re lucky father has other plans. You’re being shipped off to a school in America.”

“But they’re our enemy.” Kitten found her knees give in. It hit Kitten that if it hadn’t been for the grunt holding her up, she would have fallen onto the ground in the red mess made by the dead bunny. It made her want to start laughing and crying at the same time.

“Exactly. Try and be useful and at least kill some Americans before you die.” Major Bartok ordered before snapping her fingers. “I’d hate to think a part of me was a traitor besides being so useless to our country.”

The Grunt holding Kitten began to move.

“No.” Kitten yelled, trying to break free before attempting to kick her capture in his knee-cap.

Nothing worked with the brute carrying her.

“I said you’re not taking me!” She turned her face as she forced her arm up slightly before biting the Grunt, digging her small fang-like teeth as deep as possible into his hand.

He jerked his hands off her. Snarling, he tried to grab for her again but she nimbly danced out of his reach.

“Come back here.” He growled.

“If you say so.” She grinned, placing her feet comfortably on the ground as she waited for him to charge her. When he did, she grabbed him and threw him over her shoulder with the technique Aleksei had taught her.

“I have to thank Lexie for that one later.” She told herself before turning away from the figure on the ground trying to get up. She began to run when a shot ran out. She felt a sting in her shoulder. Her body felt warm. Kitten tried to get her legs to move but fell to the ground.

“If you want something done right.” Major Bartok’s voice was getting louder until it was above Kitten. “You have to do it yourself.”

“Alpha…” Kitten called out weakly, trying to open her eyes.

She failed.