Chapter 11: Cracked and Weathered Spires

Rebeca was in front of me a moment later, fussing over my wounds that we both knew would be gone in a matter of moments. English stood just out of reach, he wasn't so worse for wear as he'd only had his own weight to deal with, I'd landed two people.

He commented offhandedly, "Well, mate, we've made it." He said it as though it were no big deal.

It took a few heartbeats before I could speak, a few more until I felt my shoulder pop back into place with a wet sucking sound. "Now what?" I reached awkwardly, and painfully, for the map in my backpack. Thankfully, it, like my journal, was in a waterproof bag.

I looked at the thin Japanese paper for a moment before it sunk in.

"English!" I threw the balled-up wad at him, not caring if we could ever flatten it out again.

"What?" I must have startled him with my outburst, his accent slipped - for just a moment. "What is it, mate?" He gingerly lifted the map from the ground before his feet. Rebeca peered over his shoulder as he stared at it, puzzled.

They couldn't figure it out.

"The map just leads us here - Edmonton. That's it."

"So?" Rebeca looked up at me.

"There's a whole city out there! We don't even know what we're looking for. Your frigging map left us to search through the rubble of an entire city for something we might not even recognize if we found it."

I turned and walked away from them, looking towards the dim gray shapes the peppered the horizon. A moment later Rebeca was beside me, matching my stride step for step.

"Isn't that why we came here to begin with, Wolfy? To get lost?" Her voice was low, she was so close to me I could feel the warmth off her body through my still damp fur. "Did you ever really expect to find anything?"

"No... yes... I don't know, okay?" I hadn't turned to see her face yet. "All I wanted was to get away from the city, from the madness. Then we find nothing but chaos paving the whole way here. I didn't want anything, but now... we can't go back empty handed."

I finally glanced over at her, she was still soaked, but smiling ear to ear. "You know, Wolfy, the fact we got here is enough for me. Six months ago I thought I was stuck in V-town for the rest of my life - now we're here."

"I don't know, Babe." I let some of the tension slip from me. "It just looks like a bunch of abandoned buildings to me. If that's all you wanted, we could have just vacationed in North Vancouver."

She laughed.

I took a quick glance behind me. English followed us, a good ten paces back. His ears were fallen and tail dragging along the ground.

It took us what remained of the day to make it into town, the buildings slowly growing around us. We continued to head straight north, never wavering. Even as the highway dug into the city, it never bent.

It wasn't until we met a wide, muddy river that I had to call a halt to our progress. There was a bridge before us, but it was long collapsed and I didn't want to try fording the swift current with the night soon to come upon us.

None of us really knew where we were going, the only map we had put Edmonton as little more than an 'X' on the globe, so we turned left, west, and trudged on until we found some buildings that seemed to have survived the years better than most.

Up until now there hadn't been a single sign of any occupation in the whole of the city, not a hint of a trail of smoke in the sky. Yet, these buildings looked like they had seen repairs sometime in the recent past.

My suspicions were confirmed a few moments later in an unexpected way. A truck. A jeep, 4x4, or something like that, I didn't know enough about them to say more. All I knew for certain was although it had been here a while, it wasn't a relic just yet. The rubber of the tires hadn't even the time to rot.

English had barely said a word since I'd confronted him back when we'd last reviewed the map. Now he shot ahead of us in a sprint.

"Mate, Mate! We've hit the jackpot!" He yanked open the unlocked door of the vehicle, "It's even got the key in the ignition! Gods, Tommy, we've got a truck of our very own!"

I jumped back a moment later as the engine sprang to life, it rolled over a few times before catching. The thing rumbled like an earthquake coming down towards me.

"Ah, English?" I tried to make myself heard over the roar as he revved the engine, "Don't you think it belongs to someone?"

"Nah, mate," He stuck his head out of the window as it rolled down obediently for him. "It must have been here for weeks, it's got to be abandoned!" He revved the engine again and put the monster into gear, it lurched forward a few meters with a sicking jolt. "It's even canary yellow, mate, it's even smegging canary yellow!" His voice sounded just short of hysterical now, as though he were a kid on Christmas day, and Santa had checked off every item on his list and more.

Rebeca and I left him to gush over his new toy, he hardly even seemed to notice us leave. Every so often I could still hear him cry out "Mate, its got..." and the obligatory "You've got to see this!" I ignored him steadfastly.

Not far away we found the camp of the vehicle's owners, it was in the lee of a half collapsed concrete slab. English had been right, they were long gone - though they'd never packed up. I felt a shiver work its way up my spine.

And they'd been in for the long haul, too. At least a half dozen bed rolls and sleeping bags were to be found. Wait... sleeping bags? The only people I knew who used sleeping bags were humans, or close to humans like Max. But that was the case, every bed roll was accounted for with a sleeping bag, and personal items such as the occasional razor. That left no question to the species of their owners.

There was more to find here than just some half decomposed nick-nacks. Off to one side lay a line of crates, covered over in thick canvas. Gasoline, medical supplies, and what looked like weather beaten electronic equipment was hidden beneath, only to be uncovered as we tore through the ropes restraining it.

What was going on here? What had they been doing?

I tried to lay my nose to the ground, tried to track them, find any trace of their scents, trails. Nothing. It had been far to long, whatever had happened was long ago, weeks at least. Their scents had been whisked away, reclaimed by nature well before we got here.

"So, Tommy, what do we do now?" Rebeca looked over at me while she tried to pry open the top of one crate that might just hold provisions. A moment later the moldy wood splintered and the wretched stench of spoiled meat spilled out.

"First thing, Babe, we need to find some of our own food."

I'd spoken prophetically, what few previsions we'd carried with us were soaked beyond use by our little swim not so long ago. I almost cried when I saw my sugar supplies had been ruined - and before I could even open them!

We finally pried English away from his new baby, with the claim that he was wasting precious gasoline, and I headed off hunting.

There was something different about these woods, almost untouched. We'd walked through thousands of kilometers of near virgin landscape, but this felt different. Everywhere else we'd been, someone had been not that long before. First we'd followed the highway, then Calgary, even Red Deer had its population to hunt the wilds. There had been no one here. The animals almost treated me as though they'd never seen anything that walked on two feet.

The sun had set about an hour ago, and I was loping through the trees when I heard it. A wolf's howl. It shouldn't have been anything to me, I've heard a thousand howls before and sung at least my own share of them, but this wasn't... right. It was a wolf's howl. A real one.

I'd never actually seen a real wolf before, nothing closer than a stuffed one at a taxidermist's shop. It sent shivers up my spine. There hadn't been wolves around V-town since long before I was born. They'd been pushed out, possibly to extinction, long ago - nature favors the more efficient predator and all that.

I froze in my tracks the moment that simple sound pelled across the wind. Something deep down made me want to run, to hide, to cower under my covers and huddle around the fire back at camp. But, deeper yet, I wanted to join in, to sing in return.

The urge came from somewhere I could only just barely register, someplace I couldn't touch, couldn't see. It dragged me forward, towards the chorus, step by step as my own mussel raised to return the ancient call. My response was ragged and malformed, even to my own ears.

Their singing cut off the moment I joined in. They knew something was wrong. That I wasn't right, wasn't normal. I tried to turn around, tried to fall to my knees, yet my feet kept pulling me forward, one halting step after another.

They weren't far away, only a ten minute walk. As I neared, I could smell them. If their song had awoken something in my brain, their scent left me spinning. I couldn't even try to fight as I moved forward, on all fours now.

They were in a clearing when I came upon them, a small pack, six. The alpha pair, the betas, and two young cubs. Three male and three female. Somehow, in the back of my mind, I wanted to call them men and women. I couldn't quite do it.

Even at a distance, I could see the fear in their bodies as I broke from the trees. I was running on autopilot now, no more than an observer in my own body.

Slowly, they came towards me as I sat there on my haunches. I had to suppress a shiver, I wasn't sure if it was revulsion or fascination, as I could see and smell them more clearly.

They were pure wolf, there was no doubt of that. Not a hint of humanity, not a sliver of domestication marred their perfect lines. No trace of civilization touched their eyes as they approached me.

I could feel myself trembling, shaking like a leaf as the alpha male came within sniffing distance of me. The others hung back, huddled behind the alpha female's icy brown eyes.

He was the largest among them, the alpha male, but yet he was no more than half my size. He lowered his nose to my front paw, I could see his tail curling tightly between his legs.

His yellow eyes raised to mine for just an instant before falling. I could smell the sharp stab of urine as he defiled himself before me.

Wait... what?

I tried to wrench my mind back, tried to control my own thoughts. Yet the alien, but so comfortingly familiar, impulses continued unabated. He had just submitted to me, without a fight.

I glanced over at the other five, they averted their eyes down. The alpha... yes, damnit, he was still the alpha, not me, hadn't moved from where he stood cowering before me. If I looked close, I could see him trembling, ever so slightly.

I took a step towards them, I could feel their scents wash over me in the still air, it was intoxicating. The next thing I knew I was following them out of the clearing. I was still walking on all fours.

My eyes fell on the two pups, the first thought that ran through my mind was 'cute kids'. The next was too bad they need to die.

I stopped dead in my tracks, falling back on my haunches as I cradled my head in my hands. What was I doing? Did I just think that? What was happening to me?

The voice came again, undeterred. They're not yours. You're the alpha, you're the king. You are the only one to mate. They have to die. That's simply the way of it.

A strangled protest fought its way to my lips, but never made it out. It felt like I'd just dashed my head against the rocks, like it was laying split open on the ground. I couldn't think, couldn't focus. Everywhere I went the voice was already there waiting for me.

It wasn't speaking english, it wasn't speaking any language at all - I just knew it. It was part of me, like I was having a conversation with myself.

That's the way of nature. I'm a wolf, and now I have a pack.

I pried my eyes open, hoping to banish the voice, trying anything I could, vainly, to recover control of my own mind. I was greeted with a half dozen sets of eyes, now openly staring at me.

They no longer averted their gaze from me now, but stared straight out, not even bothering to try and hide their fear. The alpha was in front, and the pups hidden far in the back, away from me. For a moment I breathed a sigh of relief.

It only lasted a moment, They defy me? I'll have to teach them not to do that again. I felt my lips peel up. Despite the alpha's fierce show before me, his tail curled down again.

The moment I saw him, no, smelt him fall back into submission, I had just the barest of moments where my mind had returned to power. The other had fallen back, satisfied, if just for a split second.

I turned and ran.

I ran with everything I had, didn't look back, didn't even care where I was going. I just ran to get away from them before I did something terrible.

I ran until I fell, lifeless, to the ground, my breath weaving between my cracked lips. I could see specks of blood flying from my mouth. I'd run a wide circle, placing English and Rebeca between me and... them.

It took me a long time for me to stand on my unsteady feet again. I spent the pause searching the nooks and corners of my mind, all the dusty and best forgotten places where it could be hiding. There was nothing there but my own familiar self. No beast leaked within me, at least no more than on any other average day. I shivered and wrapped my arms around my chest. I wanted Rebeca next to me, I wanted my... I'd never thought of it that way, I wanted my humanity.

But first I had to hunt.

I stalked the moon lit forests, trees pushing up where the skeletons of buildings had been so long ago. A half dozen times I must have found the scent of prey, but I kept losing it. I couldn't concentrate, every moment I thought I might see one of them, or worse yet one of the pups, rounding a bend, melting from the shadows.

They never did come, and in the end I only found a single scrawny rabbit.

I brought it back to camp, never was I so happy to see my two friends, and the fire that wavered between them. I tossed the rabbit's body to English as I, without breaking stride, lifted Rebeca from the ground and into my arms.

"Tommy," She had to squirm to see my face, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Babe, nothing at all." I buried my head in her hair and huffed in a deep breath. "I love you." I held her tighter, she made me feel like a man.

"What was going on out there, mate?" I could hear English's voice behind me, between the wet sounds of him skinning the rabbit. Soon after, I began to hear parts falling into a bowl. "It sounded like you were singing opera out there. What were you, howling in three part harmony with yourself?"

"No." I couldn't bring myself to let Rebeca go as I faced him.

"So, what... there's other people out here? You found someone?" He sounded dubious.

Rebeca finally squeezed from my grasp, planting a light kiss on my nose before settling back on the dirt. "You know, Wolfy, I don't think I've ever heard you say that before."

"Say what, Babe?" I sat down beside her, laying an arm across her shoulders, not quite willing to let her go just yet.

"The 'L' word," She leaned into me, "I don't think I've ever heard you say it. Are you sure nothing happened out there?"

I suppressed a quick shutter and stared into the fire. "I found some wolves."

I heard a loud rip from the carcase English was working on, then some swearing. "So there are people out here!"

"No," I shook my head as I watched the dancing embers. "Wolves, real ones. Not like me."

"Real wolves?" Rebeca buried deeper into my side. "I thought they were gone."

I heard a howl again, not far off. English bristled, and Rebeca clutched handfuls of my fur as she trembled. I'm not sure if she noticed, but I shook too.

"I'm sure we'll be fine." She sounded like she was saying it more to herself than anyone else.

"You will be, Babe, you will be." I held her tight.

"What happened out there, Tommy?" She looked up at me.

"I... we... It's okay, Babe, we'll be safe here."

I woke at some point in the night, Rebeca still sleeping deeply beside me. I let my hand stroke the curve of her face, her flawless skin all but glowing in the moonlight. My own fur covered hand, tipped with black claws looked so vulgar, so base, in comparison. We'd spent every waking moment after dinner proving to myself, if nobody else, that I was, in some corner, human. And that she could bring it out in me. Heh, we'd made enough noise that English had been shouting at us to keep it down - it's got to be high praise to get that from a lion of all people.

I was about to lay back to sleep when I smelt it, the scent tickling up my nose, alighting in the dark parts of my brain, bringing them back to crystal clarity. They had been here.

The wolves, they had been here. They had tracked through every corner of the camp, but yet touched nothing. I looked back at Rebeca.

Her face had changed... but yet it hadn't. It was still exactly as I'd seen it but a moment ago, yet it was nowhere near so flawless now.

Her features that had so recently seemed perfect were now foreign, alien. With the scents of the true wolves around me, I could see her face was too flat, skin hairless and sickly pale. Everything about her was wrong, yet somehow I knew I still wanted her.

I buried my face again in her hair, blocking out the alien scents around me. Stretching, instead, for the equally alien body that lay next to me, breathing softly. Her arms curled about me as I pulled her closer.

Gods. It wasn't working. No matter what I did, the scents of the wolves continued to invade my mind, tickling parts of my brain that sent me into a cold shiver.

I pushed her away gently as I got up to sit by the dying embers of the camp fire. Behind me, I could hear her murmur in her sleep, one arm questing for my warm body.

By the little light that remained, I fished my journal from the nearby pack. Holding it in my malformed hands that were not wolven, but not quite human either. The scent of the leather binding alone worked to help banish the dark parts of my mind little by little. They wouldn't disappear, but they did fall into a grudging retreat as I cracked open the small book.

For a moment I stared at my previous scrawls, my mind wouldn't quite click in. They were nothing more to me than simple lines on a paper, no meaning, no message behind them.

I had to thumb through, a cold sweat breaking out on me, to an entry that I remembered. It was one from Horseshoe Bay, when I'd been looking after Rebeca.

The squiggles on the page stayed aggressively passive. It wasn't until I dredged up the memory of what I knew they represented that they began to have meaning, began to be writing again.

Even such a simple action as reading a single entry left me drained. I safely hid the book back in my pack again before rejoining Rebeca. Her flawless beauty was evident once more. With some effort, I was able to block out the beasts that were still somewhere out in the woods, not to mention the one within me.

The next morning came. The summer was warm, but a dry chill still stood on the wind, one we never would have felt on the coast. The scent of the wolves still lay about us, hardly dulled by time, I clutched Rebeca closer.

English, himself, seemed slightly off, like he could smell the animals, but couldn't place them in his mind. He walked throughout camp, scraping up dirt with his feet and rubbing his head on everything he could reach, including the jeep. Especially the jeep.

Rebeca watched him, turning every so often to meet my eyes. Wisely, she didn't say anything as she went to relight the fire. I followed her about like a lost puppy, never letting her more than an arm's length from me, never letting her scent fade.

It took time, but between our scuttling about, and the smell of Rebeca's cooking rabbit, the scent of the wolves slowly faded enough that I could let her go. Something was still squirming at the edges of my mind, but at least I didn't have to fear that I was about to go feral.

English and I sat patiently as Rebeca cooked her food, frying it up on a skillet over the fire. It sizzled as the thin, gamey meat slowly faded from a bright red. This was a ritual we were long used to. Our portions set separate, well away from the flames. It wasn't much, a rabbit didn't go far over two meals split three ways, especially when two of those were for a lion and a wolf, but we made due.

At long last she was done, and the three of us dug in together. As always, English and I were done well before her. I didn't bother to hide my stare as I watched her eat.

"What?" She looked at me, speaking over a full mouth, "You look like a dog begging for scraps." Beside me, English laughed.

"It's just... I've been thinking how different we are." I couldn't put it into words, the ghost scents of the wolves still hung in me, making every word, every human thought, an effort.

"The two of you didn't seem to be complaining about that last night, mate." English slapped my back as he huffed to his feet. "Next time I'm going to have to set my bedroll up further away. Like Sussex."

Rebeca looked back at me, wordlessly asking what was wrong.

I pushed myself to my feet and moved to put out the fire. "Come on, we'd better start exploring. We've found this place, now we need to figure out why we're here so we can go home."

English caught me just as I stepped away from camp, snagging an elbow and dragging me off. His eyes were hard, almost unblinking. For a moment I thought he was going to ask me about the wolves - I didn't want to try and have to explain it to him.

"Mate... Tommy," His voice was low, "I want you to know I'm sorry. I really am."

"What?" For a moment I almost expected he had led Al-Sedexterous here on our tails.

"I didn't want to bring you here. I never would have pulled you from the coast, from the bay, if Sayer hadn't made me."

I laid my hand on his shoulder, he sat his bulk down on a fallen tree. The log creaked, almost splintering under his weight.

"You didn't make me come here, English. I came because I wanted to."

"Thanks, mate. You don't know how much that means to me." He paused for a moment, looking out into the forests around us, the fresh green leaves starting to rustle in the wind. "I don't want to lose you, Tommy. You're the closest thing to family I have."

I sat down beside him, staring out into the same green foliage, not really seeing anything.

"That's high praise, coming from you... I think." My mind flashed back to how he'd described his own family, far away in Africa. "Especially as I've known you for what, less than a year?"

He grinned, a soft and easy one this time. "I've trusted my life to people I've known far less. Sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn't." He brushed an invisible speck of dust from his leg. "After all this, after all the way here, do you really think we'll find anything? Or did I just lead you on a good old chase of our own tails, like a well-behaved puppet of Sayer's?"

"Well-behaved, you?" I shot him a disgusted glance, "I'll believe that when I see it. Anyway," I cocked my head as I heard a bird song off in the distance, "Who knows? I certainly haven't seen anything like those worlds back there. Something has to cause them, right?" I stretched my arms out before me. "We might as well see if we can find what it is. Who knows, we could go home heroes. Or at least we'll arrive back at V-town no worse off than when we left."

With the full daylight above us, we were able to make better sense of where we were. From what few signs remained, we were in the University, or, more to the point, the 'University of Alberta Main Campus'.

The place must have been a maze before things fell apart, buildings and streets seemed to run at random, no sense or grid work to the plan. Every time I thought we had come to the edge, another park or building or statue always seemed to creep out of the trees just before I called it done.

We had circled around the campsite and were heading back when we, quite literally, stumbled upon an entrance.

The concrete stairwell seemed to spring up straight from the ground, no buildings or structures nearby. Nothing to indicate its existence until I all but ran into it, covered in a dense thicket of leaves as it was.

The heavy metal doors had been pried open, they lay bent and shattered on either side, resting at odd angles, supported by what few hinges still held their weight. The space inside was darker than a moonless night, and it stank. Not of mold and decay, but just of age. That dusty, itchy smell of time, the one that makes you think of libraries and tombs.

"You were looking for something, Tommy? Well, I think you found it. I'd bet you my last match that our wayward campers went in there." Rebeca wrapped her arms around herself as she spoke, a cold draft blew from the shadowed entrance.

"Anyone got a lamp?"

"Heh. Always prepared, mate, always prepared." English tossed us both flashlights and flicked one of his own on. Bright yellow beams struck into the earth. "And by the by, mate, their called torches, eh?"

We made our way in, slowly, single file. The meager beams were a help, don't get me wrong, but they didn't do much to parlay the feeling that there was always something just out of sight, just avoiding the light.

The steps were slippery, the beginning of slime starting to form on them. Yet, it wasn't until we reached the bottom that we encountered the real water. All the rain that had cascaded down the steps gathered here, and the cool air meant that it never had to evaporate.

Thankfully, our forbearing friends had dealt with this too. Along one wall a rickety bridge of discarded wood panels lay bobbing in the turgid lake. They hadn't aged well.

The lumber was old and rotten, covered with a green moss that seemed to permeate the entire structure. I set my foot on the first and almost recoiled in horror - it was soft and spongy. I could feel the moss squish between my toes, weeping cloudy water onto my foot.

There was no other way to it though, I gritted my teeth and slowly edged forward. The bridge shifted under my weight, but held none the less. For once in my life, I wished I was wearing boots like Rebeca.

We made it across, though English managed to snap a few planks under his weight, and found ourselves in a slowly upwards slanting corridor. The smooth concrete floor here was so slick with goo that it was almost impossible to move up the subtle incline.

English and I very nearly had to reach down and dig the claws of our hands in to the unyielding floor. Rebeca looked on idly as her boots got just enough traction for her to make it unassisted.

Another door barred our way next, this one hadn't been ripped off its hinges. A chain lay limply from one handle, a padlock hanging open on its links. Someone wanted to keep people out of here - but it seemed they had gone within and hadn't ever come out. This time it wasn't just Rebeca who shivered.

Now that we were inside, with the rain and wind safely locked away, I could track those who had come before us by scent. They were human, no doubt about it, but they didn't smell of any human stock I'd ever encountered. As the V-town humans smelt different than those of Red Deer, these were unique from either. I had no idea where they had come from.

We worked our way through warrens of rooms, up and down stairwells, mostly down. We must have been at least half a dozen stories under the earth by now, and descending. The hallways around us were looking no better for it, they seemed to sag under the weight of the earth above, the ceilings bent in a 'U' shape, and the floors felt mushy where pools of water had collected in the low spots. Off in the distance I could hear the slow but constant drip of water. In the end, water wins. It's slow, it's methodical, and in the end it always wins.

With the bad shape of the hallways, we'd been forced to spread out. First me, then Rebeca, finally English's bulk bringing up the rear. I plodded through yet another puddle of water, felt the soft mush of gritty concrete beneath my paws, I didn't think much of it.

I heard a small 'eep' from Rebeca's lips. I turned around. At first it was nothing. She smiled at me sheepishly as she tried to pull her boot free from a soft patch of floor that had swallowed it. Then she was sinking.

It was imperceptible at first, I doubt even she noticed, but it quickened faster than I could ever have imagined. One moment she was tugging at her boot, the next she was through the floor to her knees. I ran to her, seeing her slip away before my very eyes. I missed her outstretched hands by the breadth of a hair.

Then English was somehow behind me, pulling me back. I lashed out at him. What was he doing!? Rebeca was down there somewhere. She was alone, she could be hurt... I couldn't see her.

I heard him growl as I reached back blindly, slashing towards his face. The next thing I knew I could feel his massive muscles flexing beneath me, then we were airborne. A second later we hit the concrete wall a dozen meters down the hall. The impact threw the breath from me.

"English! Let me go! She's down there... somewhere..." My voice was weak as it wheezed from between my lips. A moment later I heard something crack in the ceiling.

A chunk of water stained concrete collapsed from the above us, tearing away like soaked velvet, almost sounding like flesh ripping. It disintegrated in the air as it fell, the single multi-ton block falling into dozens of smaller deadly spears as they impacted where Rebeca had last been.

They tore through the small hole she had made, ripped the floor to shreds, sending ripples across what was left. The waves met us, it felt like were riding out another tsunami.

"Rebeca!" I could feel blood pour from my split tongue as I crawled to the edge of the now massive hole. She was there - somewhere down in the darkness.

English kept a firm grip on my tail, refusing to come any closer that he already was. I hardly noticed.

"Rebeca!" My voice echoed hollow off the stones, sounding pale in the massive void that was now open below me. Every so often I could hear the rocks grinding together as they settled in the blackness.

"Tommy?" I could just make it out. Her voice was strong, but muffled. Like it came from a great distance.

She was alive.

The relief washed over me, sent me seeing stars and smelling roses. She was alive! My muscles very nearly turned to water, I would have pitched forward into the hole if not for English holding me back.

"I'm coming, don't move!"

"Not a problem, Wolfy." I could almost hear her laugh. "I'm trapped in a side hallway. I'm not going anywhere."

Oh gods... oh gods... oh gods... she was down there, alone. She was alive, I just had to keep telling myself that, it was the only thing that held me from a complete panic.

You're not going to make it, you know. She's going to die down there and it's all your fault. The voice ticked from the back of my mind, from the same place that had held the wolves. I pushed it away with a snarl.

Behind me, English stepped back as I whipped around, lunging for the nearest stairwell.

"Mate-" He tried to reach for me, but I raced faster than he could move. All he could do was chase behind me.

I took the stairs four at a time, claws skittering on the stone, paying them no heed. The only thought in my mind, replaying over and over again, was that of Rebeca laying trapped under the stones, bleeding like I had left her back at Storm Front.

It was three more flights before we made it level with the rubble, likely the deepest one could go. I raced out into the chaos of jumbled rocks and shattered building materials.

I cried her name again, and, somewhere in the darkness, she answered. I couldn't find her, the images in my head were fighting with what was really before me, and the nightmares were winning.

I felt English lay a hand on my shoulder, I almost snapped my jaws before I saw him pointing towards a pile of rubble.

"There, mate, she's behind there."

We ran to the stones, I pressed up against them, almost embracing the rubble. "Babe?" My voice was quiet, I almost couldn't bring myself to believe she was alive behind this mess.

"What took you so long, Wolfy?" I could have howled in joy. Between the rocks, I just made out the glimmer of a flashlight.

I felt worse than useless as I watched English ply his strength to move the stones, it seemed to take forever. Eventually, at long last, I could just make her out through the debris.

"Hey, Tommy." She smiled at me, face streaked with dirt, and just a touch of blood.

I reached through the small hole to take her hand. I never wanted to let go.

"Uh, mate? You're going to have to move if you want these rocks out of the way."

A few moments later she was free. I wanted to leave this dark, wretched place, but we were all too tired to try and make the long climb to the surface without a rest.

Backtracking away a few doors led us to a small antechamber that seemed to have survived the collapse without too much damage. I'd barely gotten the chance to set my tail on the cold floor before my nose began twitching.

Well, looks like we'd stumbled upon the trail of our friends again. I didn't really want to bother tracking them anymore, but I couldn't put it out of my mind until I checked behind just one more door.

With a hesitant hand, I gently pushed the door open. Thankfully, It swung open with nay a creek. The smell of long rotted flesh slid out like a welcome.

It wasn't overpowering, but it was more than enough to put my already frayed nerves on edge. I swung my flashlight beam across the room, the bodies layed racks upon racks of equipment, more metal and circuitry than since we'd left Kicking Horse Pass.

They were spread out across the floor, a dozen of them at first count. Something was wrong here though... none of the bodies were human. Before me lay the corpses of cats and dogs, even a lizard or two. Odd... I'd been tracking the scent of humans all the way here, but they were nowhere to be seen.

English and Rebeca were beside me in the door frame a few moments later, Rebeca had raised a cloth to cover her nose.

"Any idea what's going on, English?" I looked over at him.

"Not a clue, mate," He took a few steps forward, nudging the exposed femur of a dog with his toe, "But it doesn't look like they passed away happily." He nudged the bone again, it shifted slightly under his flashlight beam. The leg was deformed and twisted, like putty that had hardened while only half shaped.

I stepped gingerly around the bodies, walking deeper into the racks of machinery that loomed up around us. The room was big, huge, it must have been at least a hundred meters to a side, twice as long as it was wide, and packed to overfilling with rows upon rows of metal boxes.

I'd missed it at first, but I could just make out a cold green glow from the other side of the room. It blinked periodically, slower than my racing heart.

Coming closer, I could see a screen with green letters on a black background, and a body sprawled dead beside it.

I had to screw up my face to read the glass in the darkness, my eyes didn't want to focus on the bright letters, it almost hurt to try.

[email protected]/* <![CDATA[/!function(t,e,r,n,c,a,p){try{t=document.currentScript||function(){for(t=document.getElementsByTagName('script'),e=t.length;e--;)if(t[e].getAttribute('data-cfhash'))return t[e]}();if(t&&(c=t.previousSibling)){p=t.parentNode;if(a=c.getAttribute('data-cfemail')){for(e='',r='0x'+a.substr(0,2)|0,n=2;a.length-n;n+=2)e+='%'+('0'+('0x'+a.substr(n,2)^r).toString(16)).slice(-2);p.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(decodeURIComponent(e)),c)}p.removeChild(t)}}catch(u){}}()/ ]]> */:/usr/bin/AlconFactor#

[email protected]/* <![CDATA[/!function(t,e,r,n,c,a,p){try{t=document.currentScript||function(){for(t=document.getElementsByTagName('script'),e=t.length;e--;)if(t[e].getAttribute('data-cfhash'))return t[e]}();if(t&&(c=t.previousSibling)){p=t.parentNode;if(a=c.getAttribute('data-cfemail')){for(e='',r='0x'+a.substr(0,2)|0,n=2;a.length-n;n+=2)e+='%'+('0'+('0x'+a.substr(n,2)^r).toString(16)).slice(-2);p.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(decodeURIComponent(e)),c)}p.removeChild(t)}}catch(u){}}()/ ]]> */:/usr/bin/AlconFactor#./runFullFactor 10%

...master online

...Additional computing nodes online (128)

...beginning factor

...

......

.........

warning: nodes off-line (error: power lost) cluster at 75%

warning: nodes off-line (error: power lost) cluster at 50%

warning: nodes off-line (error: power lost) cluster at 25%

warning: nodes off-line (error: power lost) cluster at 1%

error: unable to complete factor (error: all nodes off-line)

factor incomplete - resetting

please run again without failure conditions or try a lower setting

[email protected]/* <![CDATA[/!function(t,e,r,n,c,a,p){try{t=document.currentScript||function(){for(t=document.getElementsByTagName('script'),e=t.length;e--;)if(t[e].getAttribute('data-cfhash'))return t[e]}();if(t&&(c=t.previousSibling)){p=t.parentNode;if(a=c.getAttribute('data-cfemail')){for(e='',r='0x'+a.substr(0,2)|0,n=2;a.length-n;n+=2)e+='%'+('0'+('0x'+a.substr(n,2)^r).toString(16)).slice(-2);p.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(decodeURIComponent(e)),c)}p.removeChild(t)}}catch(u){}}()/ ]]> */:/usr/bin/AlconFactor#_

The small underscore at the end blinked unceasingly at me, as though waiting for something. I almost jumped when Rebeca appeared out of the shadows, laying a hand on my elbow.

"Did you find something, Wolfy?" She looked over my shoulder.

"I guess so, Babe. Though I haven't the slightest what it is."

I went back to searching the room as she studied the screen, I doubt it meant any more to her than it did me.

A few steps away I found a rat's nest of cables leading into the back of the machine I'd just been looking at. Attached to it was a collection of modules, each one about the size of a small steamer case, covered with a reflective black cladding, and a small button with the word 'Charge Test' written on it.

I went through three or four of those cases, every time I pressed the button, all I got was a little red light in the darkness, until a small screen lit up on one. It read 'Charge: 12%', another read 14%. Out of about two dozen batteries, they were the only ones that seemed to have any life left in them.

"English?" I shouted it over the impenetrable racks that lay between us, "I think I know what's going on... kinda." A moment later he was beside me. "No clue why they're lying stiff down there, but it looks like they were trying to bring this stuff back on-line."

"Why, mate? What is it?" He walked to one of the batteries, trying to lift it with a grunt, "These things weigh a ton."

"Search me, man." I walked to the other side and gave it a yank. "But I'm thinking we want to get one up these into the sunlight where we can see it."

It felt like it took forever, my fur was slicked down with sweat by the time we got it up. There was no way we could ever have gotten them back out the way we came, the sinkhole would eat us alive, not to mention the bridge over the lake of slime by the entrance. Thankfully, a bit of searching found us another way up, a shorter one too.

We made a discovery almost as soon as the battery saw daylight. The cladding on the top was a solar panel. The moment it got even the faintest glimmer through the trees, it lit up like a children's toy. Screens and lights began to glow, and I could see its little charge meter slowly begin to count up.

Neither of us really wanted to, but we brought up the rest of the lead weights, I almost thought my back was going to give out by the time we were done. At long last we had them all above ground, except for the ones that still seemed to have a charge. We'd even found an extra half dozen that hadn't been plugged in.

Above me, a bird hopped from branch to branch, but my focus was closer to earth, Rebeca was beside me in the dirt. We just lay there and enjoyed the summer day as the behemoths slowly charged.

The night began to fall around us, our sunbath at an end. I really didn't want to go, but my thoughts were segwaying into food more and more often, and the rabbit I'd caught yesterday was long gone.

I kissed Rebeca before I left, holding her close until it felt my lungs might explode. When I did, I made sure to drink in her scent like a drowning man gasping for air. It was out there, and all I could do was hope to escape it tonight.

I left heading purposefully away from where I'd last seen the wolf pack, but despite the lack of hunters in this city, in the center of the vortex, there seemed to be no large prey. It must be because of the wolves, I suppose. They had long ago brought down anything that didn't breed quick enough to keep up, leaving only rabbits, squirrels, and birds.

The squirrels were too small to even consider - all that effort for something that wouldn't even equal a chocolate bar was out of the question. The birds were no better, unless I happened across one that hadn't heard me coming, they would always escape easily. And anyway, they were little larger than a squirrel in most cases.

So, that left me with the rabbits and hares. Wonderful.

Half an hour later I had one between my teeth, I'd had to chase it through a bramble, and was likely missing half the fur from my face, but I had it. I was about to turn back to camp when I smelt something waft over the scent of blood.

I turned my head, and there she was. For a moment I almost though it was Al-Sedexterous, the witch from the south, but it wasn't. It was her, the female alpha wolf.

She hovered on the edge of the clearing, seemingly unsure if she was brave enough to take the single step forward onto the grass. I could just make out her deep, warm brown eyes in the final rays of the sun. She kept them to the ground before me, but every so often they flicked up for a split second to take in my face.

I'd been standing up, the rabbit still warm in my mouth, but the moment I saw her I dropped to all fours, almost as if an invisible hand gently pushed down on my back.

There was something about her tonight that I didn't see in her yesterday, but I couldn't quite put my claw on it. My nose twitched.

She's come to you. The voice in the back of my mind whispered again, quietly sliding forward, She knows who's strongest, who's most powerful. The male submitted to you yesterday, and she follows, tonight.

I shook my head, something was clouding my thoughts. Even as she took a step forward, the edges of the world began to blur.

My nose began to burn. I tried to lick it, but the rabbit held in my jaws was in the way. Then I froze.

That scent. I knew that scent... almost. She was in heat.

Oh, gods.

Okay, this was wrong on way too many levels. Way to many levels. I'm not an animal, I shouldn't even be thinking these thoughts - and anyway, I've got Rebeca waiting for me back at camp.

She took another step forward. Suddenly, she was right next to me. I never even remembered her crossing the intervening distance. I could make out every hair on her body, every ripple of her taught muscles beneath. The world around us was in a milky fog, but I could see her in blinding crystal clarity.

She touched up against me, her side brushing mine. I could of reached out and stroked her with a finger, she seemed too small, so delicate. Everything about her was perfect, tuned to the world, without sin or malice.

She raised her head to look at me and, perhaps without realizing, exposed her throat. The sight captivated me, I couldn't explain why. On Rebeca it had no special meaning, but here it held me surer than chains of iron.

I dropped the rabbit in my jaws to lay before her feet. She lowered her head to sniff it. Her tail brushed back and forth for a moment. She accepted.

She brushed against me again, this time leaning heavier as she walked forward. I had a wondrous view of her hindquarters now.

What... wait. No. No, no, no. I could feel my body reacting to her, and that scared me more than my fall from the mountains.

I pulled myself away, a single step. I couldn't do this. I wouldn't. I'm not a beast. I'm not an animal. I'm a wolf... but not like this.

My body... my body may be what it is, and it may react as it will, but not my mind. My mind is human - isn't it? Isn't that what matters? My mind is still human, and this was wrong.

I pulled, pitting what little self-control I had against what my treacherous body so recently decided it desperately craved. My head turned away as I took a few stumbling steps.

Behind me, I heard a small sound, almost a whine. I turned to see her. She was silhouetted by the moon, her face in perfect shadow, except the eyes. Her ears were down, and her tail so low as to rest on the ground. I could almost hear her ask me why.

I ran. She didn't follow me, for that I would thank a thousand gods. The the rabbit still lay at her feet.

I had to hunt again. It took me ages, but I was thankful for the distraction. I plunged my head in the river before I returned to camp, to try and wash the scent of her from my mind.

I didn't bother to even eat anything when I got back to Rebeca. All I did was hold her tight, that was it, and I wouldn't tell her why.