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Hidden: Chapter 18

Bloody Halls

The red hall flashed, illuminating everything for a split second. The glowing eyes in front of me fell with a thump and skidded a few feet before coming to a complete stop. It took about 15 shots before I had finally hit it. I cursed under my breath, like the last few werewolves I had run across, this one had gotten too close for comfort. Just a few more seconds and it would have been on me. I walked over to the dead werewolf. It was scrawny looked sick, just like the other ones. They weren't nearly as dangerous as the ones on the Eurasia, just as vicious, but slower and less organized. For once I was grateful for the cruelty of man, if this one was healthy, I would have had to beat it off with the gun.

*Zzzzp*

The sound of another X-A301 came from farther down the hall followed by the shouts of people. The barking had never stopped, it just kept going and going, echoing constantly. I would have to rely purely on sight. I noticed weeks before that my sense of smell was only barely better than a human's. I could smell the werewolves, but only when they were in a group and close, other than that, my nose was useless.

I would need help and the personnel had orders from the admiral to help me. I didn't have a map of the area and a guide or some guards to accompany me would help a lot. I moved off towards the sound of fighting, keeping alert for more werewolves that may come out of the darkness. The red emergency lights barely worked, only letting me see about 10 yards out. Luckily those eyes glowed at about 30 yards, letting me take them out.

The sound of gunfire was getting closer, I could see the flashing around the next corner. The sound of the werewolves was also becoming louder. How many did they keep in the facility? Sounded horrible.

I peaked around the corner and say that some guards had barricaded themselves inside one if the labs and were firing out of the narrow door. The werewolves weren't just rushing in mindlessly like any other. These ones were on the side of the door, barking and howling, but not moving in. They were thinking, planning. These ones weren't just mindless beasts, they acted more like a wolf pack on the hunt. That scared me. How far had Dr. Ruse gotten in his research and what was the final product going to be like.

One of them looked up and saw me. I quickly pulled back hoping that it didn't get a good look. "Shit." I mumbled. Of course it did. If I could see it, then I could see me. I peaked back around the corner and they were gone. The barking was still there, close, but it was impossible to tell exactly where. I should have just shot them when I had the chance. Even with my bad aim, I would have gotten a few. Now they were stuck in here with me.

I gulped and stepped around the corner. Random gunfire was still coming out of the door and I called out, trying to get them to stop. "Hey." I cupped my paw over my mouth to make myself louder. "Cease fire, this is Commander Anderson. Cease fire." I continued to yell the order and the bullets stopped spraying out of the door way.

"Are they gone?" A yell came out of the room. I pressed my back against the side of the door, just out of sight of them. "I can still hear them."

"They're gone for now." I answered. "I'm coming in don't shoot." I waited for an answer.

"Ok, we won't shoot." I heard some movement from the other side and I slowly put my arm out first and when it was still there a second later I moved around the frame and into view. There were three guards, each had a gun trained on me, but lowered them a moment later. There was no one else in the room. They had stockpiled a few guns. I saw a shotgun, a few SMG's and the X-A301's they had. One had a bad cut across the right side of his face which forced him to keep that eye closed. It would need some medical attention soon.

"Damn he really is a German shepherd." A young looking sergeant spoke up with a smile. "I didn't believe it when I heard the admiral." The mention of the admiral brought back the memory of the gunshot. I pushed it away. Like on the Eurasia, there was a time for mourning and that was later. I had a mission to complete.

"What's the situation?" I looked at the guard with a cut on his face. The pins on his chest showed that he was a Lieutenant, the highest ranking man of the three. "I've been wandering the halls for some time and don't know where everything is."

The lieutenant stepped towards me and saluted. I returned it. "Lieutenant Jones reporting that a large explosion on the reactor level crippled many of the security systems in the facility. This allowed the terrorists to let out the subjects. Radio reports from other sections indicated a prison riot is underway as well." He stood straight up. I was actually expecting a bit more shock from my sight. I shouldn't have been surprised, the personnel on the prison level treated my professionally, why not these people?

"Thank you Lieutenant Jones." He nodded and I stepped past him to the others.

"Sergeant Werner." The young sergeant saluted.

"Petty Officer Bry." The other man, who looked more around my age saluted.

I returned their salutes. "I need to find Dr. Ruse." I didn't tell the why. The less they knew, the better.

"He's probably locked up in his lab." The lieutenant walked around me and stood by the other two. "We'll need to get to the control room to gain access to it. It needs two keycards to get into. He has one and a spare is in the control room." The cut on his face was leaking a pinkish fluid. I could see that it hurt for him to even talk, the way he moved his mouth with every word as if he had just eaten something really spicy.

"I assume the control room has a med kit."

The lieutenant reached up and touched the cut on his face lightly. "Yes sir." He flinched a bit when he spoke with his had still on his face. He reached back down and set his hand back on his rifle. "We should go now sir, before those things get back."

"Alright then." I turned around and looked back out in the hall. They were smarter and would hunt us, no doubt about it. If we moved fast, we could avoid a confrontation. I didn't want to get caught out in the open with them. "Let's go." I stepped out.

It was nearly instant. As soon as I was out, I saw them in the corner of my eye. They had returned to their original position just outside of the door and waited for us. I began to bring up my gun, but it was no good. The first one leapt and hit me in the chest. I fell back with a yell. The others who were right behind me frozen in place, the lieutenant the only one moving as he brought his rifle up to his shoulder.

I wasn't able to bring up my rifle to my chest, but the barrel was still pointed in the right direction. As I hit the ground with the man sized poodle? on my chest, I fired into it. I rolled to the side, the body sliding off of me and I was on my feet again and ready.

The lieutenant and the other guards were still in the room, but some had gotten in. Couldn't see if they were okay, I was pushed off to the side with my own problems. Another werewolf, this one a Shiba Inu ran at me with its already plush fur poofed out more. I fired point blank into its face which disintegrated under the steady fire. I had the advantage here. I was in a narrow corridor, gun ready and no hostiles behind me.

They must have known that they wouldn't get to me and turned and ran. I finally got a good look at how many there were. I saw about another dozen flee into the darkness. I rushed to the room where the lieutenant was and it was bloody. Two stood, the lieutenant and the petty officer. They were looking down at the body of the sergeant, who had part of his head gone. He laid slumped against the wall where he died, a trail of blood running up to a splatter that had bits of brain matter and hair on it. There were another three dead werewolves here. One was nearly cut in half and I saw that the petty officer had that shotgun and he was painted in blood. It was like the Eurasia all over again. Fighting for our lives against savage beasts.

"Got to him before we had time to get it." The lieutenant knelt down and closed the sergeant's one remaining eye. "Let's finish this." He got back up and walked out. The petty officer was pretty green and was glad to leave the grisly scene behind. I took one last look and left.

At this point, much of the baking had stopped and the sound of gunfire was becoming more prominent. That was good, it meant that the level was being cleared out. We passed several areas where it looked like there was some heavy fighting. I even paused when I saw the gray uniform of a Spec Enforcer. He must have been sent here with Dr. Ruse to watch over him. He was sprawled in the middle of the hall way surrounded by dead werewolves. There were no human bodies other than him, suggesting he fought alone. He held a large bayonet in his bloody hands, bits of fur clung to him where there was blood. His gun was discarded off to the side, a red light blinking on it signifying that it was out of ammunition. The Spec Enforcer was torn up and was bleeding everywhere. It was impossible to tell if he died fighting or won then died of blood loss.

"Damn." The petty officer spoke up. "Those Spec Enforcers sure are something. He must have taken out two dozen." We continued to walk by. I hoped that his body would be recovered in time when this was all over.

We reached a large room. It was the size of a basketball court with a small room in the center that was the control room. The ground was littered with bodies, both human and not. This must have been where the heaviest fighting was. I could still hear some fighting taking place elsewhere, but not close by.

"Stop right there dog." The voice came from the control room. I couldn't see who it was, the room was dark but there were four others in there. "Don't move or we will shoot you like how we shot the admiral." My heart started beating faster. "Damn old man got away and thought he could stop us with his heroic little message, all it did was force us to do this." A hand waved horizontally at all of the bodies in the room.

"What now." I yelled across the room. "You're in there and I'm out here. Not much you can do." The lieutenant and the petty officer looked confused, but stayed off to the side.

"What you're going to do is put down your gun and come in here." They hadn't seen the other two. I was the first to step into the room and they had been about to as well until the man started speaking. "Now."

I put my gun down slowly. The lieutenant and the petty officer remained where they were. "Stay here." I whispered so only they could here me." The lieutenant nodded. I began to walk over to the control room. When I got closer I saw that it was the guards who went with the admiral. I remember five, but there were only four of them in the room. The door going into the room was knocked down and I slowly walked in.

I saw the admiral's body first. He was sitting in a chair and was slumped over a table that had the intercom controls on it.

'He's dead. Doesn't that make you mad?' It did, made me furious. 'They look tired. Wouldn't be hard to kill them. Let me do the honor.' I ignored it, but didn't push away the voice.

"Damn fool, shot Charlie before running off." A very large black man came up to me. "Don't you dare try anything or I'll break your legs. We only need you alive." He shoved me into the center of the room. The others glared at me. One was trying to get a computer that had been shot working. He was on his knees with the front of the machine opened up and wires spilling out. He cursed every couple of seconds and a shock got him to back up.

"Fucking hell." The computer man said. "I can't fix it, it's too damaged." He smacked the side of the computer.

"Well then, we'll need to get to the doc. Now that we have his prize." The same man who talked to pointed at me without even looking. They were all just big walking muscles, hired to look intimidating. Other than he black man, they didn't pay me any attention. They were hardly professionals, all muscle no brains. Sometimes I forgot how stupid the everyday man could be at times. They probably didn't know how to really fight.

I looked over at the admiral. "Sorry." I whispered.

"What's that mutt?" The computer man walked over to me and grabbed me by the scruff. It hurt and I yelped a bit. He held me close to his face. "What did you say?"

"You shouldn't look a dog in the eyes. It's considered a challenge." I growled.

"Oh, the big bad dog going to do something about it?" He laughed and the others joined in.

'Let me take control.' I didn't resist.

I took a back seat to everything. I was now looking out of my eyes, I could feel everything, just not control it. My mouth opened and I moved a bit forward, enough to snap down on the man's nose. The crunch of cartilage was faint, but satisfying. The man let me go and fell onto his ass holding the hole where his nose was.

The black man tried to grab onto my tail, but I quickly turned around and glared at him. He had enough time to scream before I was on him. It didn't knock him over. I had feet dug into his side, the claws digging trenches as I held onto his head with my claws. He scrambled and tried to pull me off, which only dug my claws deeper into his side and head. He yelled and the others were pulling their guns out. I pulled back with all of my strength and the black man plowed forward into another man who had his side arm half out of its holster. I let go of the black man and latched onto the other man who he just plowed into.

I took a single swipe into the man's wide eyed faced and it was replaced with a gash that left only an empty sockets looking at me. He fell over holding onto his face. I fell off and landed on my feet. There was only one left who wasn't writhing on the ground. He had a gun drawn and was aiming at me. Snot was coming from his nose and his entire face was scrunched up to hold back tears.

"Get the fuck away, you animal." The gun wavered a bit as he spoke. My body sprung at the opening. A shot echoed, but he was shaking too much and it missed and cracked into the computer which sparked. I didn't go for the face like I did the others, his chest was right there. I punched out with and open hand, claws ready and it went into his chest. The rips snapped to make way for my claws and my hand went through, all of the way. The edges of my claws were sticking out the man's back and he looked down at me. He dropped the gun and it clattered. He coughed once, a bit of blood landing on my face and then he slid off my paw. He crumpled like a sack of potatoes, the gaping hole in his chest pooling blood.

I turned around, the others were still on the ground trying to crawl away from me. It would have been easy to end them, they couldn't do anything.

I regained control and felt as if I was going to vomit. I knelt over and just focused on breathing. I had my eyes closed when the lieutenant and the petty officer came over, hearing the noise and screaming.

"The hell." It was all he said. The three surviving guards crawled towards them begging to be saved. The called me an animal, beast, feral and I ignored them. I felt tired, not strong like after the fight with Crane.

I got up and looked over. The lieutenant was looking over at me with his one good eye, unsure. The petty officer had gotten the med kit and was wrapping around the head of the man with no eyes.

"Lieutenant, I need the key card." The lieutenant walked over to a counter and picked up a card and handed it to me. He still looked unsure, as if he was looking at some monster. I was a monster, I had let it take over moments ago and it was a price to pay to finish the job. That was the duty I had, to finish." I looked over at the map and saw a highlighted area with the name Dr. Ruse written on it. "You two stay here and tend to them. I'm going alone." Neither said anything.

I walked over to the admiral's body, resting a bloody paw on it. "Sorry admiral, couldn't keep my promise." I turned and left the rest and walked back into the dark halls, my prey was nearly in my claws.