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Hidden: Chapter 19

Good Boy

The halls were clear on the way to Dr. Ruse's lab. The pack of smart werewolves were following, but never got close. My sense were improving, I could smell them, I could hear them breathing, they smelled afraid, submissive. The smell was intoxicating, made me feel powerful. I looked down at the hand that went through the man's chest. The blood was drying and matting my fur. I was actually covered in his blood, my uniform was red and brown from the drying and crusted blood. My paw had gone right through his heart, all of the arteries had just poor their contents on to me.

"One last time." I said to myself as I clenched the bloody pay. "Just one more time to finish all of this, then it will all be over." All that raw power felt nice, but I didn't like the price I paid to get it. When I let the animal take control, I lost a small part of myself, the part that was Commander Anderson, and it was replaced by something feral. I would kill Dr. Ruse once I got everything I needed from him and then what?

I thought about what would happen afterwards. "Crane." I whispered. I would try to save him. I couldn't save him on the Eurasia, but I had another chance to fix that. He was my brother from another mother. I chuckled, that was something Crane would have said. IT would be nice to have a good chat with him.

I approached the locked door to Dr. Ruse's lab. I had picked up a side arm along the way. It was a basic, standard issue pistol. It would do the job just fine. I took the key card from my pocket. It looked like a normal card. There was a barcode and had "Emergency Lab Card" on it. There was a scanner on the wall and I raised the card to it. It beeped. Words appeared on its screen.

-Authenticating

-Verified. Waiting secondary input. Please Standby.

The 'Standby' blinked for a few seconds. I began to worry that the doctor wasn't going to let me in. How stupid was I, of course he wouldn't let me in. Why would he? I was here to kill him.

"Idiot." I smacked myself on the side of my head. "Stupid idiot." I began to turn around to go back to the control room. Maybe there was a way to get in fromt there.

*Bing*

I turned around and looked at the scanner.

-Secondary input detected.

-Authenticating.

-Verified. Please stand back.

I couldn't believe it, maybe he was an idiot. Smart, but no common sense. The door opened and there stood Dr. Ruse on the other side. He was in a lab coat. He had a blue tie on and some 'old man' slip on shoes made of leather. He looked at me and I raised my gun.

"Back up." I barked and he complied. He walked into the room and sat down on a stool that was behind a small desk.

"Take a seat captain." Dr. Ruse motioned to the chair that sat across from his desk. His lab was simple and efficient. There were a few lab tables with various beakers and chemicals on them and a stack of journals was clustered neatly into a pile directly in front of the doctor on his own desk. My nose quivered as the smell of disinfectant burned it. Strange to find that after all the time it took for me to get here, he didn't take the opportunity to run. I had just about torn the entire facility down getting here.

Dr. Ruse waited patiently for me with no look of worry etched anywhere on his face. He was rather comfortable sitting on a lab stool watching my every move. He was dangerous despite his age, I would have to tread carefully if I wanted to get out of this. I walked over to the chair slowly and lowered myself onto it, keeping my gun trained at him at all times. He wouldn't be able to jump me. The silence was unnerving as well.

"Well, Dr. Ruse, you've led me on quite the chase, haven't you." Although my tone was casual, I took special care in ensuring he saw my canines. I had learned a few things back on the Eurasia amidst the chaos, an angry dog barring his teeth was intimidating. "Why don't we have a nice chat before I kill you?" I waved the gun a bit and his eyes followed the barrel. "I have a few curiosities that need to be satisfied." That sounded wrong to me.

He raised his arms into shrug. "I don't seem to have much of a choice." He wasn't worried. Why wasn't he worried? I had a god damn gun pointed at him and let him know that my intention was to kill him. Things were not going to go right, I already knew that, but I needed my answers.

"First, tell me this doctor." I leaned forward into the table a bit and letting my ears drop down somewhat. "Why are you doing this to people?" I said while motioning down at my own canine body. My fur was matted and dirty. Bits of blood and grime was clinging in random clumps all over my body. The feeling of it was uncomfortable under my clothes. "What did anyone have to gain from changing them, us into..." How would I explain myself? Was I a monster? I didn't have a word to describe the feelings I had. "From changing us into these beings." It would have to do.

The look he gave me was one of surprise. "You don't know?" He pointed his old bony finger at me. "All this time and you still don't understand?" He laughed in my confused face. "Well then, let me explain." He reached over for the stack of journals on his desk but paused as soon as I raised the gun a bit.

"No funny business." I would shoot him if he tried anything. I was done with his shenanigans and games. Too many had already died because of how he played us all.

"No funny business." He repeated and slowly grabbed the top book and opened it up to a random page. It was filled with equations and scientific notes. I spied a drawing of a Rottweiler and a human with more notes surrounding them. "Before I was became I scientist, I wanted to be a historian. I studied everything about human history, but I soon became disgusted with it. All history is filled with is human stupidity and stubbornness and that leads to war and death." He squeezed the open journal. The old pages wrinkled under the abuse. He quickly stopped and began to smooth out the pages. "I left history behind and decided that I wanted to help make the world a better place, so I thought that medicine was a good place. Cure diseases and help the sick. I began to read up on human behavior and was again reminded of our flawed ways. I continued my studies and found an interest in how receptive dogs were to commands when trained. They were loyal and rarely complained.

"How is this relevant?" I didn't want to hear his life story.

He frowned at me. "Do you want to hear this or not?" I didn't answer and he took it as a sign to continue. "I began to collect every single research journal about everything that had to do with behavior. I got a job at J&H and in a few years, had their full support." He set the book down and picked up another. "I found these in an old abandoned research facility. Was hell to get in, just ended up blowing down the door." He chuckled. "I don't know exactly what went on in there, but these journals were the first breakthrough. Information regarding the integration of canine aspects into human anatomy, everything I needed to get started."

"Is it possible that the creator of this journal is still alive?" I feared the thought of another Dr. Ruse still running around.

"No..." He said slowly. "These are old, very old. Sometime in the twenty first century. Lucky they were in this good of shape." He opened the second book to the front page, looking down at it seeing more scientific jargon that I didn't understand. "It was enough to jump start my research. I began to work on creating a compound that would forcibly introduce very specific parts of the canine DNA into the human body." The book closed and was set aside. "It was difficult work, failure after failure and the years went by with very little progress, until you that is." His eyes met mine for a moment. I looked away, he gave me the creeps.

'Just kill him.' The voice was getting annoyed and so was I. I had come this far and I needed to know what the point of all of this was.

"I assure you, that the Eurasia was not intentional, but many discoveries aren't. Many aspects of my research are entirely useless if the subject isn't fully in control of their body. A dog is supposed to listen to its master, but how can it listen..."" He grabbed a journal and threw it at the wall. I jerked a bit at the loud slap sound it made when it hit the wall. A few pages fluttered out of it and the entire thing fell to the ground. He calmed down a bit and finished his sentence. "if it doesn't have a mind? Now you have a mind, your entire mind, unlike poor Crane. He's only partly there. I've kept him around because he is showing signs of improvement. Maybe he will come back eventually and he can join your little club."

Bingo, one of my major questions had been answered. There was a chance to save Crane. Now I just needed to know what the doctor was planning.

"I need you Anderson." He said to me as if he was proposing. It scared me and I stood up, backing up towards the door. I tried to shoot, just to end it, but I couldn't "Something about you is different and I need to know why." He got up and began to walk towards me. "A good dog never bites the hand of those who fee..."

I gave one final roar and fired the gun. I put all of my will into getting past whatever was holding me back. I watched and waited for something to happen. Nothing did.

The hole in the wall was behind the doctor. A few more inches to the left and his head would have been shot off. "My my," he smirked. "That was close. We can't have that happening again, so...." His look combined with a grin that stretched across his face made my blood run cold. The next words he said just made it worse.

"Be a good boy Jay, and put the gun down." My muscles all tensed up at once. I was forced out of my body, and could only watch as I set the gun down on the floor. I had no control. As far as I could tell, I was just a passenger in my own body with the doctor at the wheel. It was just like in the control room.

"That there was why those journals are so great." He giggled, it sounded odd coming from an old man. "Filled with truly marvelous information, like how to force obedience with just words. Once I have what I need from you, I will finally be able to finish my research and rescue the human race from itself." He was insane, there was just no other explanation. I should have just shot him when I had the chance. "I will release it here on Mars first and use that data to prepare for Earth. The center of humanity. Now that NATO is gone, there is nothing left to stop me."

"Don't plan on it." The voice came from behind me. I recognized it immediately, it was Crane.

"Where did you come from dog?" The giddiness in Dr. Crane's voice vanished, replaced with malice. He scowled looking behind me. "Crane, be a goo..."

"Don't, just don't doc." Crane interrupted. "I'm too stubborn for that kind of thing to work on me."

"Fine, so be it. You were always the flawed of the two. Part there before and now too arrogant to listen to your superiors." The doctor picked up the gun I had set down and put it back into my paw. He smiled at me. "No big deal, I just need the commander." I tried to fight, but I just stood there as he pressed the gun into my paw and wrapped my fingers around it. I felt the cold metal handle in my paw.

"Cap, shoot the bastard. I can't, you're in the way." He yelled out.

"Be a good boy Jay" I was screaming on the inside trying to block out his next words. "and shoot Crane." Right on command, my body slowly began to turn and the gun was raised. I saw Crane, he had a rifle pointed at me, but it wasn't steady. His left arm was in a sling made from a shirt forcing him to hold the rifle with one hand. He stared at me wide eyed. How ironic I thought, our places were nearly switched now, except my body had the intention of shooting him.

"Cap, he cried out, fight it. I did, why can't you?" Why couldn't I? I was trying and failing. Resisting uselessly against the will of the doctor.

'Let me in control.' The voice was back. Whispering and goading me. 'You want to save him, then let me in control. The weak doctor controls you, the human, not me the animal.' I didn't want to. I was scared of what would happen. 'Don't fight, time is running out.' It was. I looked at Crane, we both had our guns pointing at each other.

"I said shoot him." The voice of Dr. Crane distracted me long enough for the voice to shatter my metal defenses.

My body turned around and faced the horrified doctor. He started to walk backwards and I followed until he was pressed up against the wall. He held up one of the journals in a futile attempt to stop my advanced. A wave of the paw and it, along with his hands were gone. He crumpled down on the ground, silently staring at his handless arms. With a growl, my hands grabbed him by the head and lifted him up to eye level. His feet were barely touching the ground, kicking frantically to try and support his weight. He pleaded and cried. I heard none of it over the rumbling in my chest that slowly grew louder. His tears were moistening the blood on my paws, causing large red streaks to form on his face. The rumble grew and ended with one large snarl. My hands squeezed together and it was done. His head didn't pop and explode, there was just a loud crack and he went limp. The body dropped down to the ground. The voice in my head released control of me and I turned around.

"Cap?" It was Crane. It was always Crane and I was glad that it was.

"It's over Crane... It's finally over." I walked out of the room.

Crane stood there, looking at the body and then he too left and followed.