Superiority Chapter 1
#2 of Superiority
Superiority
Chapter 1
Three of them.
One of them has radiation sickness, he won't last long, thought David, as he loaded two sedation darts. He looked down the scope and brought them into a clearer view. One had pre war police riot armor on.
I'll have to hit him in the neck, thought David. Suddenly, with some luck the unarmored one walked up to the front. With a silent hit the dart found it's home in the neck of the armored one. He fell to the ground with a thud. As the unarmored one turned around, he too, was struck.
Now, what's he gonna do? He thought to himself, watching the third crawling on the ground violently throwing up. David layed his dart gun beside him, and unstrapped his .223 from his back.
I can't save him, thought David, as he peered down the scope. And with a loud bang from the unusually large powder charge of a .223 round, the third human lay dead on the ground.
David radioed in a collection team from the base. "Quickly, I only gave them enough sedative for an hour", said David as he tried not to think of the fate of the two unconscious humans laying on the ground.
"I hope they pass", he said quietly to himself as he packed up his gear.
David was an officer for the Human Refugee Testing, and Extermination Agency. He collected the humans who decided not to show up for testing.
Which was illegal of course, testing is mandatory.
The test was designed to determine whether, or not a human was suitable to be transformed into a wolf, by testing their mentality, and intelligence.
The Extermination part, was for the humans who didn't pass.
The two men he had just sedated were members of the American-Human rebellion. Which pretty much sealed their fate. Being branded a terrorist loses you ten testing points. Out of a possible fifty. You need forty-five to pass.
The test mandate was enacted immediately after the Lupinus-American War of 2057, and even six years later, there were still plenty of humans who resisted Lupine rule. David watched as he saw the collection helicopter rise up from the wasteland horizon. He was standing in what used to be Colorado. Before the war destroyed this half of America. David hopped down from the ledge he was perched on. Base had just radioed in that they detected a heat signature three kilometers to the east. The quickest way was through two rock pillars leaning precariously close to each other, David was careful to tread lightly, he'd heard horror stories of wolves crushed to death by unstable rock formations left after the bombing. Fortunately enough for him his geiger-counter started jumping around, there must be a radiation source somewhere inside. "I guess I'll have to go around", thought David, unable to stop himself from wondering if this was where the third human got sick. Unlikely, considering they looked very travel worn, but it still sent a shiver down his spine. As he got to the edge of the rock formation he peeked around the side. They were huge. "This is gonna take hours", he thought. Forsaking walking, he began to pull his climbing gear out of his bag. It only took him about twelve minutes to ascend to the top. Thankfully they were wide, not tall. He pulled out his binoculars to see if he could spot his next targets. He saw smoke rising from a river bank not far away. "They're not very intelligent", he thought to himself. The fire was like a beacon to him, and there was an easily hidden path through a dry riverbed to his right.
He quickly descended the other side of the rock formation, and began slowly walking through the riverbed. After about fifteen minutes he began to smell them. Four distinctly different scents. "Four? I'm going to need backup for this", he thought to himself and he slumped down into the the riverbed and pulled out his radio. "Yeah, the heat signature you gave me has four targets", he radioed in, "I'm gonna need backup, Is there anyone in the area?" "Officer 422 is one kilometer to the south of your location, currently unoccupied. You want me to send her?" Was the reply. "Sure", he answered annoyed that she was the only officer in the area. "After she helps me we can go our separate ways", he told himself. He had an uncomfortable history with her. She used to be a human before he captured her, and she hated him for it.
With what seemed to be unnatural speed she suddenly jumped over the overgrown brush behind him. "Put that away", she said, referring to the knife he drew before he recognized her.
"You're lucky I wasn't busy", she told him. "Can't handle four of them?" She said, with a smirk.
"I could", was his reply. "But I didn't want any of them to get away".
"Sure", she said. "Let's just get this over with".
"Okay". Was his reply. "They were stupid enough to light a fire, they're only about a kilometer to the east of here. We can follow this riverbed to get within range". She nodded quickly as they started walking.
Nine minutes later they were only about one hundred meters away. He pulled his sedation gun, and his binoculars from his bag, and took a better look. Three of them were sick. "Well shit! If I knew three were sick, I wouldn't have needed you", he said. "Well you sedate the healthy one, and I'll take out the three sick ones". She said pulling out a silenced .50 cal from her bag. "What's the matter can't shoot good enough to hit em' with a .223? You have to use a big .50 cal?" he said, happy to have a comeback to her earlier remark. "Shut up", she barked back at him. "I just want to make sure they die when I hit them. I have sympathy for them. I used to be one."
"Whatever, just make sure sympathy doesn't hinder your work. Let's do this."
In the span of eight seconds, all four men were on the ground. They quickly moved in to extinguish the fire, and radio in the collection. "At least he isn't Rebellion", said David. Even though he knew he probably wouldn't pass, considering he was stupid enough to light a fire at dusk. David was lucky, he never had to test. He was one of the first wolves to be born by a natural birth, from parents who had passed the test.
From in the distance, they saw the silhouette of the collection chopper on it's way to their position.
"Well I guess I'll be on my way", said David. But he was cut short when he suddenly heard crying from within the humans makeshift tent. He opened the flap to reveal a toddler, sick with advanced radiation sickness. "You're not seriously about to do that are you"? Asked Cheyanne. When she saw him pull his .45 out of it's holster. "You don't get rid of radiation sickness, you and I both know that." was his reply. He turned his head after lining up the sights.
Bang.
This was the part of his job that he hated. But it had to be done, there was no way the child would have survived.
"You bastards make me sick." said Cheyanne, holding back tears as she tried to divert her gaze from the grizzly scene.
"It had to be done", was his reply.
"Not if you sick freaks hadn't nuked this place!" "He would have had an ordinary life otherwise!"
He had no rebuttal, it was true.
But such was the nature of war, as his father always told him.