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Revealed: Chapter 5

"W... Wait just a second." I pulled away from Crane who let go of me without resistance. "You're telling me that these werewolves are actually the same people who served with us back on the Eurasia?" I looked at each of the werewolves in front of me. I remember them clearly, how they ambushed me and a few other facility security guards, nearly killing us all. What was different now?

"Yes and no." Crane offered. "They're more like me, unable to control themselves at first, but given time, their old selves will slowly emerge."

I eyed the werewolves suspiciously. I still had my doubts, but I trusted Crane enough that I was going to let him give them a chance. "How do you know all of this?" I asked.

He raised a finger. "When I was back at the British base, I began to get these flashes from when I was still under Dr. Ruse's control." He tapped the side of his head. "I remember him talking about how given time, he believed that these," Crane pointed at the werewolves who were still patiently standing behind him, "newer versions, is what he called them, would regain identity."

"Are you sure that they are Squad Four?" I personally had no way to tell. To me, they looked just like any of the other werewolves that I had fought. Now that I was looking at them closely I saw that they resembled wolves more than domestic breeds. They were larger, much larger than most of the werewolves I had seen minus a few. They had the familiar grey and white patterns of the now extremely rare Timber Wolf that had inhabited Earth. I highly doubted I would be able to stop them if they decided to take us by surprise.

"Positive." Crane answered back without a second of hesitation.

"Alright." I was going to have to take his word for it. I walked next to him and looked at the largest of the werewolves, whom I presumed to be Krauss. Captain Krauss was a large man before, imposing in both stature and attitude which made him an ideal officer when paired up with someone like me who is capable of planning efficiently. Colonel Mathews and many other commanding officers knew this and as a result I had worked with Krauss for many years. I would have easily considered him a friend and ally, but it was hard to think of him that way anymore.

The wolf looked back at me unnervingly. I did what I could do to stop myself from showing any signs of fear, my tail was twitching and the muscles that controlled my ears were beginning to ache as I willed them to keep the ears up. I tried to look at the eyes, the feral werewolves always had a look in their eyes that gave them away; those eyes weren't 'human.' The wolves' eyes were different, they were still very animal like, but not filled with the pure animalistic nature that I had seen up close too many times.

"How much of their old self have they gotten back?" I leaned over to Crane. Krauss was supposed to be very vocal and commanding, this staring contest I was having was very unlike him.

"A good amount, but not as much as you or me. I wouldn't know exactly how much, but enough to not tear us to shreds." He elbowed me in the side and laughed a little. That was Crane, always trying to keep up a good attitude. "My guess is that if we give them time, they'll get better."

"Yeah." I agreed heartily. "It's a bit unnerving just having them stand there staring." I contemplated on trying to talk to them, but I imagined that they would just keep on staring. Best to let them make the first move in that category.

"How did you convince NATO to let you go? Last I saw you, you were some sort of prisoner."

"Long story." I said not wanting to go over everything that had just happened.

"How so?" He prodded. I wasn't going to get away with a simple excuse.

"Now isn't the best time, we should probably get going anyways. I'll tell you later." He crossed his arms and tapped his foot. I swear that we acted just like a couple sometimes. "I promise." I added.

"Ok." We walked over to the wolf I believed was Krauss. "Let's see if we can get them to go inside the elevator. It took me forever to get them here. It was like trying to lead a bunch of blind babies. The large wolf looked down at him unamused and snorted a bit before walking over to the elevator. The others followed him and waited for us.

I smiled at the slightly bemused corgi. "I guess they are getting better. If Krauss remembers all of this when he back fully, he's going to give you an earful about this one." I slapped him on the back and began to walk over to the elevator.

"Sure. Let's get out of here. This place stinks." He pinched his nose and waved the air. The smell here wasn't that bad, but I could only imagine what the areas with large amounts of bodies smelled like. A lot of people died here, with the radiation and the NATO remnants too small to do anything, chances are this place would become a tomb.

"How far into the facility did you go to find Krauss and his men?" I asked wondering how the facility was faring.

"Not very far and not because I found them quickly, that took a while." He looked over at me and I stopped just outside of the elevator entrance. "As a dog, I can smell a lot better. I could smell just how many people died and are now rotting. That's why I'm here, when the British did send down that first team to get survivors, they cleaned this area out. I'm sure you can smell it to."

"Yeah I can. Come on, let's get out of here, it brings back too many memories." He nodded and stepped into the elevator. I pressed the button to bring us back up to surface. It had less than an hour, Francis probably wasn't expecting us back for another couple of hours. Oh, how surprised he would be when he saw I was bringing extra guests.

'These ones are different." Dog hijacked some of my senses, but nothing close to a total takeover. It caught me off guard as he used my nose to smell the air. 'They smell much like you do.' It was creepy that he could do that.

'Hey.' I scolded him... me? It was still a strange thing to wrap my head around. 'Don't do that. Now I smell them too clearly.' It wasn't a pleasant smell. In the facility, I didn't get a good whiff of them, but being in a small enclosed space was different. Odors clung to fur tightly and even a good wash wouldn't get strong smells out. They smelled like... well... everything. Blood, feces, rot, even some ham strangely enough. It hadn't been nearly long enough for the food in the cafeteria to run out. I just hoped they had been feeding on the dead bodies. That broke every taboo I could think of.

'No, I don't think they ate the dead either, not when there is better food.' I felt his disgust at the mention of carrion.

'Good, I don't want you going off and getting me to eat anything strange if you ever get control again.' Dog didn't care for my remark. The way we talked with each other, we were like two entirely different people and yet he was supposed to be me. A shrink would tell me I had multiple personality disorder. I guess that isn't too far from the truth.

'You keep thinking to yourself as if I'm not here.' He barged his way into my private thoughts. 'That's something you'll have to learn to forget about. I'm here to stay.' I wanted to just ignore him for the time being. He was very overbearing and even mentally taxing to continuously deal with him. I knew he wasn't going anywhere, I had accepted that as much as I could for the time being.

'I know, stop reminding me.' I gave him my full attention much to his delight. 'What is it about these others that has you so interested? You're not going to try and have me smell their buts are you?' I was actually genuinely worried he might ask or even try to force it, he was my animal side and I was supposed to be part dog.

'Don't worry.' He reassured me. 'I will not do such a thing, your mind is still very much human and has effects on myself as I have effects on you.' I felt him recollect himself, I imagined a dog at a desk shuffling through papers. 'Very funny.' He mused at the thought.

"I can't help, whenever you try something, I feel it and the only way I can describe it is by trying to imagine what you're doing up there. '

'We're getting off topic again.' He was right, whenever my mind wandered or veered a bit away from what was being discussed Dog had no choice and got dragged along. The image of him being dragged behind a horse came up, but I quickly threw it out when I felt his angering presence spike.

'Sorry.'

'Ok then. As I was trying to explain...' Why did he have to explain when he was part of me. Shit. I was doing it again. I stopped thinking and he continued without bringing up my interruption. 'These new ones are more like you and Crane, they are more human than the feral ones, but not completely.'

'I'm not sure I understand.' I didn't have to voice it, Dog knew that I was confused. Which brought me back to why he had to explain things, shouldn't I know things that he knew.

'I am you, but in such a way that you can only hear me when I am actively..." He searched for the right word. 'Moving about. I know that they are different because they simply are, its instinct. How does an ant know another ant isn't from the same colony or how does a dog tell a pack member from a stranger?"

It was obvious. 'Smells.'

'Yes, I can do much more with smells that you can. Think of me as you sixth sense for these kind of things, I process the information and I'll inform you of what I get from it, even if you can't yourself.' That was a bit better, but I was still a bit confused.

'I guess that's the best I'm going to get.'

'It's the best way I can explain it to you.'

'Okay, I'll work with that.' Yet, somehow we had deviated away from Krauss again. 'Now let's try to finish the conversation with Krauss before I get hungry, then we'll never finish.' I shouldn't have thought of food. I put a paw on my stomach and willed any thoughts of food away.

'Yes, you're trying very hard.' Dog remarked sarcastically. 'Anyway, these others are more human than the ferals, but not as human as you. I can tell that they still possess very animal like qualities. I warn you, they may end up keeping many of the qualities that you are familiar with, but there will be new qualities, more animal qualities.'

'Like what?' I was concerned.

'Not now.' Dog forced me to look up, we were close to the surface. I was going to ask more, but he retreated back into my mind like some hermit.

"Sir." Crane spoke up next to me. "You've been awfully quiet, anything wrong?"

"No." I answered looking down at the short dog next to me. "Just having a chat with the animal that's living in my head. He understood immediately.

"You give him a name?"

"In fact I did. Dog."

"Dog!?" He sneered, probably to stop himself from just laughing in my face. "Not very creative sir."

"Hey now. What did you expect me to name him? Fido? Rex? Dog's supposed to be part of me and since I'm part dog now, it seemed reasonable."

"Okay, whatever you say." He wasn't convinced. Sure, I could think of creative ways to finish a mission, but if you wanted anything else from me, there was little luck.

The elevator began to decelerate. There was no point in explaining that radiation, Crane knew about it and Krauss had shown that he wasn't just a dumb animal. I was sure he would get the sense of urgency quick enough. It wasn't far from the elevator to the ship, just needed to move quickly enough that the radiation didn't have enough to soak in.

"Ready?" I asked, knowing that he was.

"Yep."

With that old iconic *ding* the doors opened.

"What the fuck, there's six of them now." A Louisiana called out from outside. "Boss said there would only be two. What should be do?" I saw the source of the voice. There were three people in full armored radiations suits and they were armed as well. Francis' ship was still there, but there was also another ship right next to it.

"Well then." One of the suited gunmen stepped out in front of the others. "I guess we just need to kill the extras." They all raised their guns at us. "Come on out and surrender and you won't be hurt Mr. Anderson and Mr. Crane. After we kill you friends, we'll be taking you..."

"Like hell." A thunderous voice roared from behind and a large grey blur flew past me. The fight was on.