 
#  Table of Contents

Table of Contents 1

 10

 11

 28

 28

 28

 28

 28

 28

 28

 28

 28

 28

 28

 28

 28

 28

 28

 28

 28

 28

 29

 33

Dick 33

 40

Abandoned 40

 46

 58

 59

 59

Sacrifice 59

 62

 62

 63

Selfish 63

 66

Rejection 66

 88

 99

 99

 99

 123

 123

 123

 123

 123

 157

Outbreak: Day Six 157

 194

Prologue

The true story of how the world came to be this way has been lost to time.

I hear tall tales of how people used to be able to communicate with each other across the planet in less than a second, that there were many countries, and that most of them spoke a different language.

The few books that remain tell us of a wondrous place where it was easy to get food, that there was magic that would light up rooms, or even entire cities, and that you could fly across the planet and see of all its wonders.

But best of all, most people lived in peace and safety.

Now beasts roam the planet and we live in constant fear; it's suicide to leave our encampment.

But one thing in this world is for sure:

They will come for us; it's just a matter of when.

Just how did this all happen?

Before they come again I just wish I knew how it all began, and what happened to destroy our apparently once beautiful planet...

The Beginning

It was a clear night; the sky was a dark blue canvas waiting to be painted on. Not even the moon painted itself this night.

Below, slowly shuffling through the ocean was a sole boat. It was a medium sized boat, something a small family would use for a vacation; it was brown in colour, looking to be recently painted as it gave off a new finish. The only sounds that could be heard were the motors of the boat struggling to send the boat floating across the calm sea.

From the boats rear double glass doors appeared a woman. She was tall with pale skin and had long shimmering red hair; it was swept at the front revealing only half a fringe. She was wearing a black sexy nightie and holding a glass of red wine in one hand and a cigarette in the other. She walked down the small deck of the boat, rested her arms on the railings and looked out into the darkened sea.

Claudia Deblonge, you're getting too old for these adventures she thought to herself it's only the second date and you have gone on his boat for a 'romantic cruise', and these are just not helping...

She tipped the wine from her glass into the ocean, the cigarette following soon after, but not before taking two large drags.

"Claudia, are you okay out there?" A male voice shouted.

Ugh, cute but so damn young and stupid .

Claudia herself was only 29 but had lead the life of someone double her age and had more relationships than if she doubled her age.

She turned and shouted back "I'll be in soon, you just stay inside"

She turned back out to the ocean. She wanted a few more solitary moments. She doesn't get to be alone very often. In the distance she could see a boat; if she didn't know better she would have thought it was a pirate boat.

_But you don't get pirates around the oceans of Russia..._ she said to herself, hoping to believe what she had said.

But we have been out to sea for 3 hours going straight...

She picked up the nearby white binoculars and peered through them, the boat was large, black and dark. It was eerie; like something you would see in a horror movie. On the large deck was what seemed to be a crowd of people.

"Oh my god" Gasped Claudia as her vision became more focused.

On the middle of the boats deck were four peopled tied up; two male and two female, with four other men standing around them. Claudia could not make out too well who they were but if she was to hazard a guess she would say the people tied up were tourists, as they appeared to be Asian, and obviously not Russian.

The four men on the ship appeared hunched over and deformed but it was hard to tell from the distance.

The flamed haired woman could not believe what happened next.

The four deformed men started punching and kicking the male tourists without restraint. The shortest of the deformed men went berserk on one of the tourist and appeared to beat him to death with entirely intended lethal blows as his body quickly drained of life, slumping to the floor.

"This is why tourists should stay in their own countries" she muttered to herself, while continuing to look at the onslaught. After a few moments she decided that:

This needs to be seen by more people .

She quickly ran back into the boat and grabbed her mobile phone off the nearby small table. The room was large and of a very high quality, it had pictures of Swedish rulers from over the past 100 years scattered across the walls and the furniture was of expensive tastes. On the sofa sat a man in a pair of black boxer shorts, he was of medium build and had a ripped physique, he had blonde hair and blue eyes, a typical swede Claudia had thought to herself when they first met in a hotel bar just a week prior. Claudia did not pay him any attention as she grabbed her phone.

"What's wrong, my little red candy floss?" He said to her in a romantic cheesy manner, with a grin to match.

"Shut up!" Demanded Claudia, then she ran back outside while opening the camera on her phone.

"Damn it!" grunted Claudia, "Typical! No signal" She thought that a live stream would have made this so much more believable, but a video would have to do.

What she saw next and what followed should never be seen by, or happen to anyone in their lifetime.

The still alive second male tourist was bleeding badly; his face was pure blood red. A sword then sliced across his neck, his head flying off his shoulders and on to the deck; it looked like a small brown and yellow football to Claudia.

The women screamed in deathly unison so loudly even Claudia could hear it from where she was viewing the horrible ordeal. Suddenly, something glinted in the view on her mobile phone which made her look up towards the top of the boat. It was another deformed man high up a pole with a pair of binoculars, both him and Claudia traded views and her heart sank faster than a weighted bag of lively kittens.

"Fuck" She said.

The man looked down at his fellow crew while shouting and pointing towards Claudia's current position.

She turned around and the blonde man was behind her.

"Axel, quick we need to get out of here" Claudia said.

"But why babe, what's wrong? Am I not pleasing you just right, just the way you like it? You sounded quite pleased 10 minutes ago"

"Silence you little shit, I don't have time for your cheesy romantic bullshit; we just need to get out of here and back home right now"

The 'pirate boat' began turning to face Claudia's boat and began speeding up. A big light shined straight over the bickering couple, the glow making Axel look almost like a ghost.

"Wha-what's happening?" Squealed Axel, His confident exterior peeled away to reveal a very submissive interior.

"These fucking pirates are going to cut your head off unless you get us back to Russia NOW" Shouted Claudia in a very stern manner.

"Righ-right!" stammered Axel.

The pair ran back into the boat, through the extravagant room then into the main control room. It was a small room and not elegantly decorated like the rest of the boat; it just housed a few small tables in corners of the room and filling cabinets by the main control section which had a vast array of buttons and controls. But the main concern for Claudia and Axel right now was the steering wheel and the acceleration control.

Axel started to slowly push the acceleration lever up but impatient Claudia also frantically grabbed it, sinking her pristine red nails deep into his skin, and pushed it up to full speed. "This is no time to be messing about, this is life or death, did your daddy not teach you how to use this boat to escape from pirates?!" demanded Claudia

"No! Stop Claudia!" screamed Axel. The boat jolted and stopped. "You can't just up the speed like that or the boat stalls!"

"Ugh, useless, you said your father was rich and had one of the best boats in Sweden." Said Claudia in a vile tone "When we are both in hell headless, tell him 'Thanks' for the useless boat"

"This is not my father's fau-"Axel started to defend himself but Claudia sharply interrupted.

"Just shut up with your excuses and get us moving again" She looked out the side window as she said this and could see the pirate boat coming much closer to them; she could now hear the deformed shouts and cheers of the crew on the boat...they knew they were going to catch their prey, and Claudia knew this too.

The boat again jumped to life and started to gradually pick up speed "Hurry up Axel! I quite like my head, quite a lot actually" Claudia Snarled.

"It's only a leisure boat, it's not designed for chases" explained Axel. His whole body was now visibly shaking. Claudia was disgusted.

The boat finally ascended to its full speed but the pirate's boat was much faster, catching up to them at a surprising rate considering the size difference. The cheers got louder and louder as the chase continued and the further the gap lessened.

Claudia thought about how she got herself into this situation, how she had lied to herself about not going on anymore dates with rich good looking guys as it rarely ever lasted and they were mostly immature and received their fortunes from a parents death. She too was guilty of this but she had deserved every penny of it. She had promised her Father that she would find a nice man to settle down with, but she could not resist the rich younger men. She couldn't bear dating a peasant for starters.

"Where are all the police boats!?" Claudia demanded as she stared at Axel. "God damn the Russian police"

"We probably travelled too far out, this is my first time using the boat, I just wanted to treat you, and I don't know my way around these seas" Axel said while looking away from Claudia.

"Well thanks a lot, best date ever, don't expect a third one if we make it out of this"

The boat then suddenly shook violently as the pirate's boat bashed into the back of them, the collision so violent that Claudia felt a sharp pain as she lost her balance and tumbled into a nearby cabinet. She could hear Axel's muffled words as her vision slowly fought to get back into focus.

"Are you ok!?" Axel repeated as he left the wheel to attend to her.

"You idiot, you don't leave the wheel unattended, I'm fine" barked Claudia as she held her hand to her head while slowly starting to get back to her feet, blood beginning to form from the wound.

Her attempts to recover were hindered as the pirates continued rough contact with their boat making her fall down to the floor, her balance and vision not yet fully restored.

"There is an island in the distance; maybe we can find help on there!" Axel said with a hopeful look on his face as he gazed back at Claudia.

Claudia nodded dozily as she continued her ascent. The collisions ceased for a few moments and then a thud was heard from the deck of the boat.

"They are on the boat!" Axel's body was now shaking even more violently than before.

Claudia got back to her feet and stumbled to the cabin door, slammed it shut, locked it and held her fragile body strongly against it.

"We're almost at the island!" whimpered Axel, his eyes full of thick liquid "About one minute away"

In the distance approaching rapidly was a large island, it was like a deserted island you would see in movies where the main protagonist would shipwreck and sit waiting around for help for weeks and weeks; but the duo had to hope that this island was different and had help to offer them.

Claudia turned her head and peeked through the small circular glass window on the cabin door: A big deformed man was approaching rather swiftly considering his towering height; he must have been at least 7ft.

His appearance was completely sickening up close and in the vibrant lighting of the boat. His eyes were asymmetrical; one drooped close to his nose, the other was too far to the left of his face. His skin looked like rough, cheap leather; the kind poor people wear who want to appear wealthier than they really are.

He began banging on the door. Only one hand was needed to cause Claudia's body to bounce off the door with each singular blow.

"Shit! He's going to get through" Screamed Claudia "I can't hold it much longer! He's too strong!" The blood from her wound was now racing down the side of her face, matching her vibrant hair. Suddenly the pirate boat levelled up with their boat. A small deformed man was standing on the deck, his face was infested with boils and scars, his eyes were not visible due to them being so clustered together, and he was wearing brown ragged clothes. He stared intently at Claudia while licking his lips when he pulled a small old fashioned handgun from his holster and aimed it at Axel.

"Axel, watch out!" Claudia shouted in a hiccupping kind of fashion, as her body was continually flipping off of the door. Axel was oblivious to his surroundings, his panic stricken body hindering his senses.

A shot was fired. It pierced the glass of the cabin then hit Axel in his shoulder; he recoiled in pain and fell back while he still had his grip on the wheel, causing it to turn, moving the boat from the location of the island.

"No!" Claudia got up fast, barely thinking, and flew past Axel and grabbed the wheel to set it back on course when suddenly the door burst open and the big ugly man barged into the room; he was very muscular and could probably snap Claudia and Axel in two with such little effort. He was dressed exactly the same as the smaller deformed man except he had a large Japanese style sword in one hand.

The mangled faced man, without hesitation, charged at the duo with a surprising amount of speed.

He took a strong horizontal swipe at Axel who swiftly ducked to avoid it; the sword swing from the deformed man was so intense that he slightly lost his balance after the avoided attack.

The man stumbled into a small filing cabinet next to Claudia who was still trying to steer the boat back onto the path of the island, which was now very close. Claudia remained unfazed by the deformed man's nearby assault, focussing hard on getting the boat to the island.

Axel regained his form after evading the attack when another shot was fired which caught him in his leg. He fell to the floor clutching the aching wound, letting out small cries as he rolled around the floor. Claudia looking back to witness this and her keen instinct of understanding when to abandon ship, released her hold on the handle and made an attempt to run for the window on the opposite side of where the pirate boat currently was.

The large man, with now unsurprising agility, reached his long arm and halted Claudia's escape by grabbing her tender shoulder and giving her a severe backhand across her face which sent her flying to the floor, her hand holding her now painful jaw. The blow was so powerful that her mouth was pouring with blood. She felt that a few of her pearly white teeth had become dislodged.

The horrific man loomed over Claudia; he had a creepy grin on his face, like he had just caught his prey and is now about to enjoy the spoils, then kneeled down over Claudia, ripped her nightie at the bottom revealing her bright white knickers then moved his horrible, rough hands all over her body, caressing her soft pale skin while drool dripped from his mouth. Each drop of bile was like acid to her delicate skin. This was a scene she was familiar with from her past.

She tried her hardest to push him away by kicking and scratching but his skin and body were so impenetrable that he felt none of the abuse. He ungracefully slammed his full body weight over Claudia, squashing her slender frame and pulled down his pants with one hand. Claudia let out a whimper and closed her eyes, unsure what to do next.

All of a sudden the boat shook violently and the man tumbled off of her; his pants down by his ankles aided this collapse. The boat had crashed into a large rock in the sea just before the island which had caused a hole in the boat to rapidly fill with water.

The pumping adrenaline in Claudia's body caused her to jump to her feet and instantly put behind her what may have just happened to her; she looked at Axel writhing in pain on the floor and then back towards the deformed man getting back to his feet.

"Claudia...help me..." muttered a weakening Axel as he reached his hand out towards her.

Claudia, without looking back towards Axel, said in a breathless manner "I have a business to run" followed by her jumping out of the window of the boat; the glass shattered and pierced her skin as she dived into the sea below.

The deformed man, dissatisfied that he had lost his ultimate prey turned his attention to Axel. Axel attempted to throw a punch but the man grabbed his fist with his hand which was almost three times larger, and then snapped the Swedish man's wrist.

He followed this up by using his Japanese sword to slice off his arm.

The boat slowly started to submerge. The deformed man ran back onto the deck to reunite with his fellow deformed men.

Claudia emerged from the water and witnessed the boat sinking. She knew Axel was dead; If only he had bought a better boat then this would never have happened. She then noticed the moon reflecting off of the surface of the water...but it was far too bright to be the moon. She looked towards the pirate boat and noticed they were using a spotlight to find her in the water; she used all her strength to swim to the nearby island, preparing to duck under the veil of water if the light came close to her.

"Come on Claudia, you can't let these ugly bastards get the better of you! You're strong, beautiful and intelligent!" she repeated as she swam for what felt like an eternity.

She eventually reached the beach of the island; it was filthy and unkempt with lots of junk washed up upon it. It then dawned on her that she is not going to find any help on this island and it may even be home to these ugly freaks.

In the near distance she heard shouts and jeers and looked to find the pirate boat docked not far away and four deformed men racing towards her with their weapons in the air like an angry mob in a racist village; she did not hesitate to run into the nearby forest; she knew it was in vain but she was determined to not let these people easily rape and kill her.

They would work for their fine feast.

She continued to run through the tangled forest, the floor was filled with large tree roots ready to trip up any unprepared guests but Claudia managed to avoid these traps of nature and found a small cabin; It looked old, dirty and rundown but she could hear whimpering coming from inside; perhaps it is more survivors, or as Claudia believed, more baggage to weigh her down.

But she decided to look inside the cabin out of curiosity.

She walked up the old small steps of the cabin, some planks were snapped and rotten, each second her mind battled with whether or not she should proceed. She carefully edged the door open and took a few steps inside, the door behind her quietly closing. The sight she witnessed next is one she will never lose the image of.

The room was barren of anything except 20 tables, and on 10 of these tables were women chained to them; their arms were red with blood and soars from where they had struggled to free themselves from their binds for who knows how long. Their legs were forcefully spread apart by some makeshift metallic leg braces and their ankles had been broken so badly that they flopped around the table like a dying fish out of water as the women tried to excite themselves at Claudia's presence.

They tried to beg Claudia for help but their tongues had been removed so all that came out were sad saliva drenched whimpers. There were drips attached to each of the women which seemed to supply them with basic liquid food and water. Some of the women appeared heavily pregnant and some just looked worn out and ready to give up. Claudia assumed that some of the remaining tables were for her and the two Asian tourists. Claudia did not want to become like these pathetic women used only for their wombs; she was a strong woman who would not become like this.

She slowly backed herself towards the door to exit the room, ignoring the symphony of cries from the women. She exited the room, closing the door firmly behind her, and descended the wooden steps. As she raised her head at the bottom of the steps she was greeted by the four deformed men who had been pursuing her. Amongst them was the small man, the large man and two medium sized men. They were grinning and laughing while they slowly approached Claudia. She did not dither for long before deciding to run away and nor did they not wait to give chase.

The chase was a close one, with the deformed men being extremely close behind. Claudia knew inside that this was the end, they lived here, they knew this area, and she was running around in darkness not knowing where she was going. Suddenly Claudia tripped and fell down the side of a large slope. She rolled down for a few seconds that felt like minutes; the pain all over her body was horrendous.

When she reached the bottom she felt an excruciating pain in her right arm and let out a howling scream; it had landed in the open mouth of a wolf statue. The statue was dirty and old and looked like it had been there for many years, perhaps even hundreds and its placement appeared random; it was just at the bottom of a slope.

Whoever placed it here did not want it being seen by many.

A small thought went through Claudia's mind about how much it would be worth and how she could sell it in one of her shops; even in the most serious of situation, she was all about business. Claudia's arm started to bleed and blood dripped into the mouth of the statue.

She quickly pulled her hand from the statue when her leg was grabbed by the large deformed man; she kicked and screamed but he had her firmly in his grasp with his friends right beside him. He started to pull Claudia along with him. This was the end, the prey had been caught and she was going to be like those pathetic birth machines back inside that cabin.

She barely had time to have strong feelings about this because as she looked behind her she noticed the wolf statue starting to shed its stone. It quickly shined a bright light, the stone shards dissolving, to reveal a large silver wolf; it had extremely spiked fur, like a wolf that had just recently had a bath, with a ferocious look on its face.

It adjusted its vision on Claudia, and then moved on to the men walking away with her being dragged behind. It pounced on the large thug sending him towering to the ground and the other three men turned to see what had happened when the wolf jumped at the little deformed man and tore out his jugular; the small man held his throat as his bled out and fell to the floor. Dead.

The two other men ran at the wolf with their axes armed when it reared its back up, its fur hardening and turning to face them, and shot two spikes off of its fur, hitting them in the throat. They fell to the floor. The large man rose back to his feet when the wolf shot another one at him, hitting him in the forehead. During this Claudia had taken the opportunity to crawl away and began running aimlessly through the forest. The spiked silver wolf had noticed her running yet decided to ignore her. It instead ran off in the opposite direction.

Claudia continued her run through the forest when she saw yet another cabin. This one appeared to be in better condition than the other disgusting cabin and she did not even think about what she may find in this one. She ran inside without hesitation and slammed the door shut fast behind her.

Inside the building was a medium sized room and at the back was an open door which appeared to lead to a bedroom. The room was littered with a large variety of furniture that you would not expect to find inside a cabin in the woods. Most of it appeared inconsistent; it was probably stolen from people they had captured and boats they had plundered. Some were very exquisite works such as a dining table fit for a queen while some were basic wood carvings which a poor hillbilly family would most likely own.

Suddenly from the outside of the cabin she heard howling, as if a pack of wolves were residing outside. Claudia approached the window and to her shock witnessed 3 wolves sitting outside looking up at her growling.

She was not allowed to leave this cabin it appears.

On the other side of the island the great silver spiked wolf jumped into the ocean and began swimming in the direction of Russia.

#

#

Outbreak: Day One

The Beginning

Of The End

The sky was clear as the clouds had hastily departed. The sun was shining its warm rays all over, causing a blindingly stunning reflection upon the surface of the clear ocean. Sailing steadily on the ocean front was a fishing ship. It was of a huge structure, it was pure white at the top and dark blue at the bottom half, this colour swept all the way around it. It glided effortlessly across the top of the ocean despite its immense size and weight.

On the back of the ship was a massive crane which was used to attach nets so it could easily catch large batches of smaller fish; the net was currently filled to the rim with them. At the front of the boat was the captain's area where the ships navigation was performed. All around the ship were various ways to get to the lower cabins where the crew spent most of their time between stops to catch fish, or trade at different stops around the world.

Inside one of the lower cabins slowly awakening from her restless slumber was a young beautiful woman; she had long blonde hair, sparkling blue eyes and voluptuous lips that many a man would give their right hand to steal a kiss from. Some would say she is wasted on a fishing ship and would be better suited to Hollywood.

The cabin she was in was only small and simple, it contained a small single bed, a hand basin, a wardrobe and a small table, all of which was made of oak and was of high quality. Its appearance did not match well with the rugged exterior of the boat.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door "Are you up, Angela?" Said the voice beyond the door. "Yeah, I'm up...just, come in" She replied in a sleepy, yawning tone.

A man entered the room; he was a well-built middle aged man with short grey hair. He was wearing a brown fisherman's hat and a blue turtleneck jumper with blue trousers.

"Did you sleep okay?" He asked as he entered the room.

"Not really, I couldn't help thinking about those gun shots we heard last night" She said as she put her eyes to the floor "I really think we should have done something, they sounded so close"

"Angela, Dear" Said the old man as he sat down on the edge of her bed, Angela was now sat up "We couldn't interfere. The seas around that area are home to pirates, we leave them alone, and they leave us alone. We need that route"

"But Winston they could have been people in troub-"

"Enough! Angela" Winston slammed his hand down on her bed, Angela recoiled in shock "this is only your second week on the job; you do as you're told. I've been sailing these seas for 30 years and one thing you never do is get involved in other people's business. It's the law of the ocean, if you cannot accept that then maybe this job isn't for you. Maybe you're missing your family too much?"

"No, please. I need this job; I have two children to feed" Pleaded Angela as she pushed herself forward.

"I just worry that being away from your family one week per month may start to affect you, but we will see how it goes. Just remember to forget anything you heard or saw last night, okay?" He said in a gentler, more understanding tone as he started to ascend to his feet.

"Yeah, okay. Sorry." Angela said softly as she removed the duvet from over her body and started to leave her bed. She was wearing a white basic dressing gown; it was down to her knees in length, obviously meant for a shorter girl.

"Get yourself ready we will be docking soon, you did great work this week. Your family will be glad to see you" Winston praised as he left the room.

Angela wished she would be able to go see her family but her second job as a waitress starts as soon as this one finishes. She would not be able to see her children until the evening.

Angela stood on her feet, stretched her arms in the air and arched her back while letting out a loud yawn. She thought about how much she hated this job and the people on this boat, but she had no choice, her husband had recently lost his job and money was tight. The job means one week away from her family a month, which she finds very difficult but she knows it has to be done or they will lose their home.

She then approached her wardrobe and opened it. Inside were clothes similar to Winston's. They were clothes she wore during her week's work as a fisherwoman, apart from them was one ordinary outfit, it was a long colourful summer dress, she grabbed this, a towel and a bag off the top of the wardrobe and began to leave her Cabin room.

"Aww, did poor little Angela get told off?" A male voice said in a childish tone.

Angela looked in fear at the man standing in the doorway, he was tall and stocky and was dressed the same as Winston but without the hat. He had long blonde hair down to his shoulders.

Angela said nothing and backed up a little.

"I hope you realise I don't want to see your face here next time?" The man said, as he slowly entered the room, his face was scowling, as if he had pure hatred for the woman.

"Please, stop this; I need this job for my family." Angela pleaded, her hands clutched together tightly.

"What have I told you? This is not a woman's job, men rule the mighty seas, and you women belong in the kitchens at home cooking the food we work hard to catch. You should be at home bringing up your children" He walked closer towards Angela, his face becoming redder as he spoke with a passionate rage.

"I'm not leaving this job no matter what you say; your sexist remarks will not stop me" Angela backed herself up as the man continued the slow walk towards her, his fists now clenched.

"I had a mother like you. She would always be out late working and I would never see her. She never knew her place, cooking me my meals; she was scum, just like you are! You have no right being here, your kids would be better off if you were dead" He was now shouting, as if he did not even care if anyone heard him...as if no one would care about what he is doing.

"That's enough!" Angela's voice boomed. She dropped the items she was holding and slapped the man hard across the face; it made a loud sound and the man recoiled slightly, as if shocked.

"I've had enough of you bullying me! Every day you are making sexist remarks and insulting me! I have enough right as you men to be here, this is 2017, not 1940! And it's not my fault your mother was useless"

"Oh, you stupid bitch" The man spewed. While holding his face with his left hand, he very quickly and suddenly smacked the back of his other hand against Angela's face; she stumbled low, placing one hand on the floor to stop herself from falling over completely.

Angela looked up at the man while holding her face; her mouth bleeding from one side. The boat had now finished its journey; it had reached the docks in Saint Petersburg.

"People like you disgust me" He approached Angela and pushed her shoulder, forcing her to the floor. "You don't deserve children" He began kicking Angela hard in her stomach multiple times.

Angela tried to block the kicks with her hands but the blows were so hard they were smashing her fingers. She tried to shout out for help but could not catch her breath to do so, when suddenly there was a lot of shouting and screaming on the deck of the boat. The man froze and halted his assault, then looked up to listen.

Angela squirmed on the floor in agony.

The shouts and screams continued and a voice was heard against all the commotion "It was amongst all the fish in the net!" Gunshots were fired. The man, without even looking at Angela, sprinted out of the room to join his comrades on the deck.

Transformation

Angela, still in pain from the beating, slowly pushed herself to her feet. The screaming from above continued but it felt like there was slowly becoming less of it; it could mean the threat is being vanquished or the threat is vanquishing the fishermen.

Angela, holding her stomach, walked towards the door of the cabin to see what was going on. She knew it was a bad idea to go and look and that she should just lock herself away in the wardrobe until it all hopefully blows over but her curiosity got the better of her so she walked out of the room into the hallway.

The hallway was thin and metallic, a far cry from the interior of her cabin. On the ceiling was a thin strobe light which span the entire hallway; it omitted a weak light which barely lit the hallway. There were six rooms on this hall, and four cabin areas in total on the ship. It would be a struggle for two people to pass down the hallway due to its size and would be a nightmare for a claustrophobic person.

Angela was terrified of what she might witness when she gets on the surface; terrorists, or maybe those pirates from last night. However, those thoughts ceased when she heard growling; like a beast, and as the screams became clearer it sounded as like the screams of people being tortured.

As Angela continued her slow walk down the cold hallway, her body shivering, she got near the turn at the end, which leads to some steps to the main deck when, shockingly, Winston tumbled down the stairs, his face and hands covered in blood, a trail of which was left down the steps. He landed in a seated position with his back against the wall and his legs up the stairs. Angela ran to him without hesitation.

"Winston! What's happening? You're bleeding! What's that in your neck?!" There was a large needle wedged in his neck, it was about one inch thick. This was causing all the bleeding.

Winston, struggling to talk, let out a few words before pushing Angela away "Run...now...hide..." As he muttered these words the sound of wolves could be heard from above, amongst the fading screams. Angela paid no attention to this as she was focused entirely on Winston.

"I can't leave you here!" Angel screamed, tears starting to form in her light blue eyes. Winston's neck was starting to pulsate, and then soon after he started to scream in pain "Just go!" he yelled and pushed Angela away even harder.

Angela said nothing, turned her back and began her emotional walk back to her cabin room. She thought about how Winston had offered her this job as he knew of her struggling finances since the twins were born. She may hate everyone on this boat for their sexist old fashioned ways but Winston was always there for her. These thoughts made Angela tear off the bottom of her dressing gown and return to Winston to tend to his wounds.

As she approached him again, something happened, something that would have been the last thing she would ever have expected to happen.

Winston began to scream at the top of his lungs as if he was in the worst pain imaginable. His face began to distort, bubble and stretch. His chest began to expand and his legs began to shrink and change shape. Hair started to form over his face and arms; the sound of his bones cracking and changing shape made Angela almost sick. She slowly began to retreat towards her room. Winston was transforming into some kind of monster and Angela did not want to be around for when this monster was born.

Angela briefly contemplated running up the stairs Winston had fallen from but she quickly concluded that it would be suicide as what ever caught Winston, would also catch her.

She decided it was best to take Winston's advice and hide. She clumsily started back to her cabin room but slipped, banging her knee on the cold metal flooring. She barely felt the pain and jumped back to her feet. She arrived back in her room and slammed the door behind her.

She scanned her options for hiding and decided that hiding in her wardrobe behind the clothes would be the best option. She was short and the clothes inside were made for the average male height; she would be unseen behind them she hoped. She slipped into the dark wardrobe and closed the door behind her.

Winston's screams continued. He sounded like he was being tortured, like he was having all his fingers and toes removed one by one whilst also being set on fire. The even more worrying part was that Winston's scream was only accompanied by a remaining few, and along with this now could heard the howling of wolves. Was Winston going to transform into a wolf? Angela did not want to comprehend the thought but she could not deny what she had just witnessed. The sound of wolves above just made it that much more easily comprehendible.

Winston's painful shouts went on and showed no signs of ceasing, when he suddenly he let out one final squeal and...silence. No noise from the wolves, no screaming. She questioned if it was it all a dream? A nightmare? Had she been knocked unconscious during the physical abuse? Was that even real? Was she still in her peaceful slumber?

This naïve hope was shattered as her adrenaline lowered and the pain from her assault and the fall on her knee came back all at once to attack her senses. She lowered herself down in a ball in the corner of her haven as the agony began to overwhelm her. And to top it all off; the screams and growls did continue, but further away, into the city...

Angela closed her eyes and attempted to sleep away the physical and mental pain of what had happened but she had a thought, a strong vivid one, of her kids. She couldn't just sit here feeling sorry for herself; her two kids were at home and by now her husband would be at work so all that was protecting these children was a young babysitter only just out of high school.

Angela wanted to just sit in the closet and cry it all away and hope that help arrives. But she knew she had to get to her home before the wolves did and get her children as far away as possible.

She stood up and changed into her colourful summer dress, she anticipated that it would enable her to move more freely. She thought about how many of those things were pouncing around outside and all it would take was for one of them to get on top of her and she would be dead within seconds.

She exited the wardrobe and hurried to open the cabin door when it hit her; outside the room was Winston, but not the Winston she once knew and respected. This Winston would most likely kill her, or even worse turn her into one of those creatures. Angela contemplated going back into her safe haven; the thought was very tempting and she could feel her body willing her towards it. But the thought of her children was much stronger, but what use would she be to her children if the creature outside was to kill her? She doesn't even know what manner of creature is outside.

She cursed herself for always hiding from her problems. It had ruined so many chances in life.

Not this time.

Angela placed her ear to the door to listen; she hoped that the beast had gone with its friends to attack the city...but that hope was soon dashed as she heard footsteps outside the room. It sounded like a monster on four legs, it was walking up and down the hallway, and apart from the sound of its footsteps hitting the steel floor...it was completely, eerily silent.

She scanned the room for any weapons to defend herself; she didn't want to make too much noise because of alerting the beast to her location, so she scavenged as quietly and quickly as possible throughout all the drawers in the room. She found nothing that could be used as a weapon; she was just going to have to make a run for it.

She started to plan her escape in her head: There were two doors in the hallway which lead to the deck of the boat. The one Winston had fallen down was closer but he had left behind a trial of blood which could be a slipping hazard, and if she was to fall it would mean certain death. She could not predict what it would be like on the deck or what would be there, but she knew it would not be a pretty sight.

She put her ear against the door again and waited for the wolf to pass her room once more. The adrenaline in her body started to kick in again and the pain she was feeling vanished. Her hands were steady. She could not let nerves get in the way, like they usually did in her life. As soon as the wolf had passed she waited five seconds, took a deep breath, opened the door slowly and darted out of the room through a tiny gap.

She took a quick glance to her right and noticed that the animal appeared to be, unsurprisingly, a wolf; its fur was dark brown and spiky; the spikes resembled the spike that was lodged in Winston's throat. The wolf heard Angela open her door and became immediately alerted by it. It quickly turned around, let out of low growl, and gave chase. She sped down the hallway as fast as she possibly could; her heart was pounding so hard she thought it might explode.

As she got to the end of the hallway the wolf pounced at her; it was a fierce, large pounce. Angela quickly grabbed the railing leading up the stairs and turned to run up them, when suddenly she tripped. No time to panic. One hand was still holding on to the railing and she landed sitting down on the third step up. The great pounce the wolf had performed had left it at a disadvantage as it smashed its head into the metal wall just as Angela had turned. The collision had left the beasts' dazed head near to Angela's feet. She took this opportunity and quickly ran up the stairs; she ran up them like a child would and used both her hands and feet on each step, being sure to avoid the blood trail. The wolf regained its form and gave chase yet again.

Angela grabbed the bar on the large metal door and pushed it; the door was similar to that of a fire escape door. The large metal door opened and Angela slammed it shut behind her, pressing both her hands against it. The wolf reached the door and slammed itself against the door, but the door was too heavy for it to open, yet this did not stop it continuing its fruitless assault on the door.

Sweat pouring down her face, Angela placed her back against the door, put her hands on her chest and tried to regain her breath and calm her heart rate down. But the sight she saw did anything but calm her down.

Bloodbath

While the walls and floor of the deck were smothered in blood, there were only two bodies on the deck; their throats have been torn out. More alarming than this was the sheer amount of ripped clothes scattered around. This made Angela's heart sink as she knew this meant that the amount of wolves that are currently attacking the city would be a tremendous number as the amount of crew that is usually on the deck is upwards of twenty to thirty. Angela spotted the torn fishing net that was now only housing a few deceased fish. She remembered the voice shouting 'it was amongst the fish!' They must of captured a wolf in the net the night before and it was biding its time in the net, waiting for them to dock.

The screams from the city were getting worse and sounding less like panicked screams and more like Winston's screams. Angela's time was running out to get to her children before the wolves did, the longer she takes the more wolves that will be rampaging throughout the city making the journey even more impossible.

The wolf trapped in the lower cabins was still crashing itself against the metal door, growling after each failed attempt. Angela was confident that the door would hold the wolf but she did not want to chance having the wolf break out and attack her. She ran off the boat and onto the docks; it was a small, yet long, old fashioned wooden dock. It was mostly used be fishing boats. Currently Angela's boat was the only docked boat; she could imagine that the main dock of the city would be filled to the rim with private boats and cruise liners.

The sky was still bright blue and clear. The sun was still beaming its strong rays. It would have been a perfect day under different circumstances.

She jogged down the wooden dock; some planks were missing so she had to watch her step. She approached a small wooden building as she reached the end of the docks; it was where a security guard is usually stationed. She noticed the window was smashed and blood was on the remaining shards. She resisted her curiosity and carried on past the small building and onto the large car park: Here is where the fishermen usually parked their cars before venturing out to sea. Next to the car park was a huge warehouse where the fish were usually processed before being sent out to various shops around the town.

She continued her journey throughout the car park; it was full, and surprisingly, the cars were untouched apart from the odd car having small red footprints on their bonnets, most likely from the wolves stampeding through the area eager to get to their next victims in the city and broaden their army.

Passing swiftly through the car park, Angela came to a large dual carriage way. She put her hands over her mouth and gasped in shock at the scene in front of her; it was like something out of an disastrous action movie. Cars had collided causing a massive pile-up, some were completely crushed between other cars and some people were trapped in their vehicles screaming for help.

Some people were limping amongst the wreckage holding their wounds where they had been most likely impaled by one of the wolves' spiked needles. Angela recognised this from Winston when he was 'dying' and she came to the conclusion that the needles must infect people and turn them into wolves so she didn't have long before these people transformed. She was going to need to run through the city centre; using a vehicle right now would get her nowhere.

No wolves were in the immediate area, but screams, cries and shouts could be heard from both ways up and down the dual carriage way, Angela began her jog through the maze of immobile vehicles.

"Help us, please!" The desperate plea came from a woman trapped in the passenger's seat of her red BMW. The backseat was occupied by, presumably, her two daughters. In the driver's seat was an unconscious male. The car was trapped between a lorry and a bus; the back of the car was completely flattened by the lorry which had mounted it. Angela without even thinking ran up to the car to try to help any way she could.

Even though deep down she knew it was futile Angela could never leave a person in need. The woman had a large slab of metal impaled into her stomach from the bus and Angela gasped when she noticed that the two girls in the back were dead; their faces had been smashed into the back of their parent's seats crushing their skulls; killing them instantly.

When Angela got to the woman's side door the man in the car started screaming, then she noticed a spike in his arm...he had been infected.

"Please, save my children! Please" The woman screamed.

She placed her hand so strongly on the glass that Angela thought it was going to break through and hit her. The pain on her red bloated face was that of extreme mental anguish.

A strong orchestra of screaming nearby filled Angela ears with dread, alerting her to the people amongst the other nearby wreckages as their bodies began to transform. She shook her head and whispered an extremely heart felt "Sorry" to the woman and ran as fast as she could through the rest of the wreckages with thick tears racing down her face. She kept her head down as far as possible to the ground; she didn't want to see the agony on any more faces, nor be assaulted by visions of ravaged corpses.

If she got through this alive she promised herself she would never forget leaving that family in that situation; but she also knew she had her own children to think about.

At the side of the road were a small set of blood splattered dark stairs which lead to an underground passage that lead directly into the city centre. She paused for the moment thinking about what it would be like there. It was a Saturday, so it would be filled with people at this time of the morning especially with the weather being so vibrant.

She knew the scene would be a bloodbath, she was not far behind the wolves now at all, and they would still be in the city centre, ravaging their prey and infecting those they deem worthy of joining their army. She knew she had to get ahead of them and to do that she needed to go through them. Stopping was not an option.

Angela cursed herself for yet again overthinking the situation, took a deep breath and ran down the subway. Inside it was dark and smelt of urine and sex. Lights were flickering which gave off brief glimpses of people slumped against the walls holding various parts of their bodies in agony; it was like a war shelter from the old war films on television after a large battle with all the mutters and screams with people tending each other's wounds.

Angela ran through with her eyes to the floor ignoring all pleas for help, until one man grabbed her by the arm. He held on tight.

Without looking at him Angela tried her hardest to free herself. The man was trying to speak to Angela but his words sounded 'wet' and garbled. She tried to pry his hands from her arm but his grip was cold and clamped onto her like a vice.

She began screaming for help herself but everybody else was busy with their own life or death situation. No one came to aid her. The world already wasn't how she remembered it.

She looked at the horrifying face of the man. A spike had penetrated directly through his mouth and had stuck fast into the wall behind him. He couldn't move. He wanted Angela to free him.

Angela didn't know her body could produce so many tears but they continued to pour. With one quick thought of her family she grabbed the spike with her free hand and stuck it further into the man's face. She let out a bellowing scream as the man's grip weakened and his eyes became lifeless. She continued down the deathly hallway.

She ascended the steps on the other side without any hesitation and arrived right in the epicentre of the chaos.

A police car raced towards her. Angela starred at it in frozen shock; as much as she tried she could not move her body. The driver of the car had a needle in his forehead and looked to be in intense pain. He had one hand on the wheel and one hand trying desperately to remove the spike.

The car suddenly turned, skidded and flipped over Angela barely missing her head; she could feel the police siren brush against the top of her hair. This all seemed slow motion to her. It crash landed behind her barely missing her. She stood still in shock as she took in the recent event and the scene lay out before her.

The city centre was in chaos; smashed shop windows, people penetrated with spikes. Corpses; both wolf and human, scattered all over. The sound of sirens, gunshots, screams, howls and growls were overwhelming Angela's senses.

Each direction she looked had the same trail of corpses and people holding their wounds. Some injured people were even taking advantage of the situation by looting shop windows that the wolves had smashed open. Angela was disgusted at such behaviour but knew that they would not be around long to enjoy their spoils.

It seemed like the wolves had spread out to attack the city in every direction; nowhere was untouched and it had not yet been twenty minutes since the outbreak on the boat.

She knew a fast route home but by foot it would take at least twenty minutes. The wolves were moving much faster than she anticipated. It would not take them long to reach her neighbourhood at this rate. She heard grows from behind her; they were from the underpass; the fresh wolves from the dual carriageway were making their way.

She ran down a few streets, the roads were scattered with police cars. Paramedics in their ambulances were arriving to tend to the wounded people but had trouble getting far because the roads were blocked with cars. Angela thought about stopping to tell them about the transformation but they would not believe her.

It's something that needs to be witnessed to be believed.

Even though the city was in turmoil a majority of the people that had been infected were banding together helping each other, tending to each other's injuries and giving grieving people a shoulder to cry on. It was a sweet scene but one that would worsen very soon.

Angela was passing by a park when she heard a familiar voice shout her name.

Friends Amongst Foes

"Angherlaaah" Squealed a female voice.

It was Silly Sally in her wheelchair; one wheel of her chair had fallen in a small groove in the pavement, resulting in her being stuck. Somehow she had avoided being attacked. Angela wanted to just run past her but she had known Sally since she was just a baby when she was abandoned by her family for being born with down syndrome.

She ran up to Sally, grabbed the back of her wheelchair and began to push it forward without using much technique, and because of the high amounts of adrenaline gushing through her body, she used too much force. This caused the wheelchair to flip over and Sally landed on her face with the wheelchair crushing her.

"Angherlah what is googing on her" Sally spluttered with her terrible grammar. She was a big girl, at least twenty stone. She was wearing a large pink dress and was bald. She would be hard to get back into position.

"Oh no" Angela said "I'm so sorry" Angela started to panic; There was nothing she could now do to save Sally. Growls from behind came closer.

"You have to help me push yourself up Sally, please hurry"

Sally with all her might began to push herself and the wheelchair back up. Angela grabbed hold of her and helped push her. Sally had exceptional strength considering her weight and syndrome. They managed to get Sally back upright and sally let out a small cheer and clapped her hands.

"We need to go Sally!"

"Oh nice doggy!"

Angela turned around to see a wolf pounce towards her; she swiftly moved out of the way but lost her balance and fell off the curb of the pavement, landing on her buttocks.

The wolf landed on Sally and began to chew her face. The wolf looked exactly the same as the one Winston turned into; could it be him, was he hunting down Angela, was she his bounty?

"Oh, my god!" Angela screamed.

"Bad doggy" Sally yelled before dying.

The wolf finished devouring Sally's face; she was now unrecognisable; Her eyes were hanging out of their sockets and her chin was in the mouth of the wolf, which it promptly swallowed then turned its attention to Angela.

It leapt off of Sally and landed in front of Angela, it reared it's back up; it's fur shot up like a cat that been cornered by a ferocious barking dog and aimed towards Angela. Suddenly a loud revving sound then a motorbike smashed into the wolf, dragging it along the floor and ripping its body in half, its organs all flying out over the street.

The bike reversed and returned to Angela.

"Quick, get on! We need to get out of here" Said the man on the motorbike; He was wearing a full black and blue leather biking outfit and had a helmet on which covered his face.

Angela would normally hesitate at getting on a motorbike with even her most trusted friend but when she noticed the horde of wolves fast approaching behind her she hopped to her feet and jumped on the back of the motorbike.

The motorbike sped off with the wolves being left unable to catch up.

"Thanks so much for helping me" Angela said sincerely, her heart beating dangerously fast.

"It is okay" Said the man in a deep voice. He sounded quite old. "This is no place for a pretty woman"

"I need to get back to my family, I have two kids at home and I am terrified the wolves will get to them. Can you please take me there?"

"Sure, no problem, I can never turn down a damsel in distress"

Angela beamed a smile; something she thought was long lost. She grabbed onto his hips and rested her head on his back while looking at the disaster they were passing in the street.

As they got further into the city where people were allowed to drive their cars, the scene turned eerily familiar to the one on the dual carriageway. Cars were crashed, people were trapped. Angela's smile soon faded as she realised this would not end here, it would be like this in every city in the country, maybe even the world very soon If something was not done.

The motorbike was smooth and slim and made a beautiful engine sound, it was obviously treated with great care by its owner; it glided through the carnage of the wreckages with ease.

After another minute of driving they caught up with the main pack of the wolves and witnessed first-hand the horror that they were causing.

Wolves were jumping through shop windows attacking the unsuspecting people inside, killing people in the street and shooting spikes at the ones they felt like infecting.

All the wolves looked extremely similar to wolf Winston; some were slightly different sizes and had different colour shades of coats, but they all had the similar strong, healthy, well-fed appearance.

One of the wolves at the head of the pack was a large silver wolf; it looked much fiercer and larger than the other ones.

Angela's concentration was knocked when a short middle aged woman jumped onto Angela's back.

"Get off me! You'll make us crash" Angela screamed

The woman screamed some angry foreign language at Angela; it sounded like Chinese. She grabbed Angela's hair and tried to loosen her grip on the man's hips; she was trying to get her off the bike.

As this went on the wolves shot spikes at the fast moving trio, barely missing their bodies.

"Stop it!" Shouted the man.

The man began to swerve as the added weight and the conflict between the two women began to make it hard to balance the motorbike.

Angela thought of her children and swung her head backwards hard and fast right in the woman's face. The woman's grip did not falter so Angela repeated the same action again, and again; when she felt the woman's grip lessen she swung her whole body backwards and the woman flung off the back of the bike. She landed smashing her head on the concrete floor. Her body was quickly devoured, like it had landed in a lake full of piranha.

"You okay back there? That was insane" said the man in a concerned voice.

"Yeah, I'm...okay" Panted Angela.

A quick whooshing sound passed into her ears and before she could comprehend it a large silver spike hit the man in his back piercing through the centre of his body. He let out a large scream while keeping both of his hands on the steering of the motorbike.

"No!" screamed Angela "No!"

Just when she thought things were looking up.

The man continued to drive through the pain insisting he was okay but Angela knew what would happen and starred at the silver spike, wondering what it would do to him. They passed the pack of wolves finally and managed to drive off down a quiet road; this area had not been affected yet as the people were walking around without a care in the world, just slightly concerned with the noise they have been hearing.

The pain eventually overwhelmed the man and the bike lost its balance crushing Angela's leg as it fell to the floor and cut her left arm peeling away the skin on the entire upper half of her arm as it slid across the rough ground. She let go of the man and him and the bike continued to slide across the floor.

He was demolished by the motorbike.

She lay on the floor dazed by what had happened, but she had to push herself; she couldn't afford to fall unconscious, not now.

Some people ran up to Angela to help her. She brushed off their advances and muttered to them to run far away but they thought it was delirious talk of an injured woman. They ignored her warnings. Some of them got out their phones to ring for an ambulance, but they found all of the lines were busy.

Angela noticed a sewer entrance under one of the curbs near to her; she was currently unable to walk so she had to hide, and the sewer was the only place possible.

Her face was red with determination as she used all of her strength to crawl through the pain to the sewer entrance.

"What are you doing lady? Stop! You don't want to go down there!" Said a man's voice.

Angela took no notice.

Everyone watched stunned as she crawled to the sewer and rolled down the edge and landed inside.

The floor was about 15ft drop and Angela landed on her badly injured arm; causing even more pain. She let out a scream as the agony overwhelmed her.

The sewer was like a small street but instead of a road in the middle it was a river of muck. It stretched into darkness on both sides.

She heard the people talking about her from above when the screams began...the wolves had caught up to them. She was no longer the hot topic.

Angela noticed a man approach her in the sewer. He was middle aged with a long scraggy beard. He was wearing dirty clothes and had a serious, cold look on his face. Angela couldn't move to get away as he walked towards her.

'What is he going to do to me?'

Angela's mind thought of all the possibilities. They probably don't get many women down here, Angela thought, the man probably thinks this is a treat for him to enjoy.

The man bent down and picked her up causing great distress all over her body and placed her over his shoulder and began to walk away.

The torment was extreme and Angela wished the man would just put her out of her misery or that a wolf would come down to the sewer and tear out her throat giving her a quick, painless death.

She had no energy to scream or fight back. Not that screaming would cause any help to arrive.

The pain was too much. She had failed her children.

She fell unconscious to the buzzing sound of helicopters above ground.

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

Ming and Moo

There was a lot of hustle and bustle in the bright humid airport. The sun glared down through the large window ceiling, the heat making the gigantic room that much more of an oven than what it already was, people were everywhere, coming and going, all on a journey either just starting, just finishing, or continuing. From the 'arrivals' section came two young Japanese girls, jumping around excitedly as they entered the buzzing central part of the airport.

"I'm so excited! This is my first timey in China!" Squealed Ming. She had a strong Japanese appearance; she had her hair in long pigtails which reached down to her shoulders, she wore a traditional school girl outfit, black and red in colour.

"Mine too! I cannot wait to get started on our television show!" Oozed Moo, she was a little bit shorter than Ming and had more of a western look to her, due mostly to her mother being from England, although she still very much looked Japanese. She had long dark hair, it's silky appearance stretching all the way down her back. She was wearing the same outfit as Ming but coloured blue and white.

Both girls clasped hands and skipped through the airport without a care in the world. They had come to San Paolo from Tokyo to film their new television programme. They were massive lovers of anything horror and heard of a legendary haunted house in the wilderness near the outskirts of the city and felt the urge to go there and film the location.

"Our cameraman should be somewhere nearby! Why did he have to come on an earlier flighty?!" Sighed Ming.

"It was something about not wanting to be stuck on a flight with the both of us! The nerve, am I right?" Replied Moo while giving a massive grin.

"Right! indeedy" Agreed Ming.

The girls excited skipping was cut short when they reached a huge crowd looking at a large television monitor.

"Do you thinky they are watching our television show?!" Giggled Ming.

"Oh I wish-oh look there's Trimple!"

The girls ignored the murmuring crowd and instead ran off to a very short bald young Asian man who was carrying a large black camera bag.

He placed his hand on his hip and walked lavishly towards the girls.

"You two finally made it" He had a very high pitched voice that rivalled that of the two girls.

"Our flighty was slightly delayed! No needy to worry!" chuckled Ming.

"Yes some silly person had tried to kill themselves in the toilet on our flight" Laughed Moo.

Trimple looked at both of the girls, said nothing and gestured for them to follow him; both girls obliged, their excitement building that they will get to see more of the city.

They collected their luggage from the carousel. Both girls travelled with big suitcases which were almost the same size as them.

A smooth woman's voice came on the tannoy:

"Attention, attention, did any passengers leave a young brown spiked puppy on flight AT782 from St. Petersburg? Please come to customer services as soon as possible."

Ming and Moo looked at each other, placed their fingers on the corners of their mouths and pulled exaggerated upset faces to each other, then both together they announced, loudly, "Let's go see it!" and ran off before Trimple could even turn around.

The girls got to the counter in a short amount of time but already there was a crowd of people hoping to catch a glimpse of the fragile puppy. A woman who looked like a vet appeared from a door behind the counter and carried the dog in her hand, it was extremely small and looked like it was only just a few days old, the sight of it fitting in one hand of the woman was enough to make Ming and Moo both melt on the inside, and they expressed this feeling very much on the outside for all to see, but all eyes were on the puppy.

"Is the owner present? The vet lady asked in a stern manner, her blue piercing eyes scanning over the crowd of people.

No reply came but there were a lot of requests to hold the puppy. Many people had their camera out ready to snap pictures of themselves with the small hound.

"You would think no one has ever seen a puppy before!" complained Trimple, who had now joined the girls at the back of the small crowd.

The vet carefully passed the dog to people in the crowd, while giving strict instructions on what to do and what not to do, she repeated it to each people even enough everyone was in earshot every time she had said it. They all enjoyed stroking and petting it. She passed the dog to a male bodybuilder who appeared to be in his late 30s; he cupped the dog in his large hand and used his other hand to give the puppy a vigorous rubbing on his back, moving his hand up and down through its fur.

The man let out a small scream and swiftly moved his hand from the dog's fur, noticing that blood was now smothered on the back of the dog. The crowd gasped and all backed away, Moo moved in closer to inspect the blood stained coat of the dog, finding it both amusing and fascinating.

The man looked at his hand and noticed it was covered in blood with tiny dark needles stuck firmly in his hand; the vet removed the dog from his hand and ushered him into the room from where she had first appeared from, the crowd muttered talk of concern, more for the dog than the man, and quickly dispersed, leaving just Ming, Moo and Trimple standing at the desk.

"Well that was surely disappointedly disappointing!" Sighed Ming while swaying her head around in an annoyed motion.

"Did you see that man's hand? How did that happen? It was so cool!" Mused Moo as she stared at the door that they had gone through, looking at it so strongly one could easily come to the conclusion that she fully expected to will herself to look right through it.

"Guys, guys, guys! Totally had enough now! I've waited here for five hours and I am totally sweating everywhere" Trimple placed his hands on his crotch and his buttocks and walked off.

The girls faked gagging, but followed him; their vigour had slightly departed as they had not gotten the chance to hold the puppy.

The trio moved outside of the steaming, sweat filled airport and into the greater heat of the outdoors, into the courtyard. It was still just as busy was it was inside and the ramped up temperature did not help; but the humidity had dropped quite a few degrees making everyone look and feel less like they are slowly being suffocated. Trimple quickly hailed down a cab by jumping up and down waving his arms around. They took a drive to the heart of Sao Paolo.

It felt like a long hot drive to their destination. Along the way the girls sang a lot of songs to pass the time. Trimple despised being in small confines with these girls but he desperately needed the work and these girls were going to make it big as their unique blend of extravert personalities currently had a huge following in Japan and would soon spread even to the western world.

Trimple was a fellow student at a drama school with both of the girls and they had been placed in many classes together. Unfortunately he had to leave the school after one year because of his sister being taken extremely ill and the medication needed to enable her to live a good standard of living required high amounts of money and his parents were both disabled from a nuclear reactor exploding at the power plant where they had worked and they had spent their entire compensation on Trimple obtaining a place in drama school.

He was their hope; he had to make it big to give them a better life. He noticed Ming and Moo had very eccentric personalities and had listened in to their, often very dark, conversations many times. Their results at school were poor and they were wasting their time there so he offered them the idea of them doing a show where they go around obscure, hopefully real, haunted locations.

The girls did not hesitate with the idea and so far they have created three episodes which were hosted online and all have received upwards of 100 million views which had generated huge amounts of wealth for them.

It was Trimples job to find the locations to film the girls in action; he had heard of a grand, abandoned mansion in the wilderness of Brazil which had seen a lot of mysterious deaths over the years. The local villagers had deemed the house cursed by Satan.

They eventually arrived at the gleaming hot epicentre of San Paolo. The girls enjoyed the day frolicking around the centre taking in all of the beautiful sights, eating gourmet foods and asking many questions about the Mansion. A lot of people had no idea what the girls were speaking of while some gave cryptic warnings to leave the place alone, urging the girls to return from where they had come from.

Ming had quickly gathered that talking about the place was taboo and disrespectful, but Moo had been very insistent on asking as many people possible, sometimes even going as far as ordering Trimple to film the negative reactions.

After their enjoyable time in the city had come to an end they ventured off to a small airfield on the outskirts of the city. The small private jet had been arranged for by Trimple. The village they were visiting deep in the wilderness of Brazil near to no airports or links to public transportation and because of this the place was not used to receiving visitors.

They flew in the evening when the light was beginning to fade.

Ming and Moo fell quickly asleep after their long day of adventuring in new territory.

Trimple found it hard to sleep, as he did most days.

#

#  Dick

Angela slowly opened her eyes. Her vision was blurry but she still felt the pain all over her body; however, it was much less intense. Once her vision focused she realised she was in the sewers still.

She was lying on dirty old layers of cardboard with a filthy no longer white t-shirt covering her. The smell was overwhelming her senses.

"Good to see you're awake, I was worried you might never wake up" Said a mysterious, yet familiar voice

Angela looked to her right to spot an old man sitting opposite her on a three legged stool. It was the same man as before.

"Richards the name, but you can call me Dick."

"Where am I?" Questioned Angela

"In the sewers. I was very surprised when I saw you fall down into here like that. At first I was confused why someone would do that but then I heard the commotion from above on the streets and it all made sense"

Richard stood up and continued.

"You were in a right state. I tried to tend to your wounds as well as I could but as you can see we don't have much down here."

"Thank you...Oh my god how long have I been unconscious?!"

Angela pushed herself out of the cardboard bed and onto her feet but the one that was injured by the motorbike gave way slightly making Angela scream out.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down girl, you're in no state to be jumping around like that just yet"

"How long have I been unconscious?" Angela repeated in a frustrated manner. "Please tell me"

"About 12 hours. I think its 11pm. It's really calmed down up there now." The man's face dropped. "There was a lot of screaming, shouting and gunshots for a long time"

"NO!" Angela yelled. "I'm too late, I failed them..."

"Failed who, girly?"

"My children" Her eyes began to glimmer and shine "The city is infested with wolves and I was trying to get back home before the wolves arrived in my neighbourhood."

"Infested with wolves? ha-ha are you crazy?" chuckled Dick.

"It's true damn it" Angela shouted; Tears rolling down her face, dripping onto the cold slimy floor beneath her "That's what all the screaming has been about"

Dick remained silent, unsure what to think of what he was being told. He sees and hears a lot of things living in the sewers but this just seemed insane.

"Listen, Dick, I really need to get back home, maybe my children are safe" Angela said in a much calmer, relaxed tone. "Thank you for all your help but I must go"

Angela began to limp down the dark dank sewer when Dick shouted to her.

"Well Girly, you won't find them going that way, tell me where you live and I'll take you the sewer route, it may be disgusting but it's safe and I know some great shortcuts"

Dick held his hand out to Angela.

She limped back to him and grabbed his hand; he put her arm over his shoulder to assist her with her walking.

"Thanks, Dick" Angela let out a small, forced smile.

Angela explained where she lived and they made their way around the sewer tunnels. Everywhere looked the same; it would be very easy to get lost.

Eventually after walking for what felt like hours and Angela feeling more and more agitated by the minute, they arrived under her street.

"Just climb this ladder Girly and remove the lid, you'll be in the middle of your street" Explained Dick.

"Thank you for all your help, I won't forget it" Said Angela, she felt slightly guilty for having those bad thoughts about him when she first saw him

"No problem, good luck with your children. I would come but I belong down here"

They shook hands and Angela grabbed the ladder with her hands; the bars were cold and rusty and the pain in her arm was making it a hard climb, but she made it to the top and paused.

'This is it'

She thought about what she might find when she exits this sewer. Part of her believed her kids were gone and she might be better off staying down here, but she couldn't live with that uncertainty.

All the people who have helped her along the way did it so she could save her children and there is hope they could be safely barricaded in their house.

Angela let go of the ladder, pushed up the metal cover and began to climb onto the street.

"Good luck" Shouted Dick.

Family Reunion

Angela arrived on the street she had lived on for the past 15 years. It had been where she gave birth to her two beautiful children. It was a nice, peaceful street. The houses were all detached, white and large with a garage on the side. In the sky was a helicopter patrolling, shining its spot light around the area. Angela stayed low, not wanting to be spotted or rescued until she had seen for herself if her children were at home. It would plague her for the rest of her life if she didn't know.

The street was quiet; too quiet. Angela limped across the street towards her house trying to make as little noise as possible in case any beasts were patrolling the area. She noticed a lot of the houses were boarded up with not an ounce of light appearing through the cracks. This gave her hope as it showed that people had managed to be notified in time to protect themselves from the approaching horde. She wondered if the babysitter was a fan of watching the news; it could decide the fate of her offspring.

A voice boomed in the air which took Angela by surprise and she wondered if she had been seen.

"Everyone please stay in your homes, it is not safe on the streets. I repeat. It is not safe on the streets. We will inform you when the issue is resolved. This is not a rescue."

It sounded like it was quite far away but still very clear and comprehensible.

Angela, after slowly crouching near bushes, arrived at her house. Her heart sank when she noticed that it was not barricaded and the large front window had been smashed. Part of her wanted to turn back to the sewer. However, she pushed forward and entered the house; the door was unlocked.

The living room was slightly lighted only by the street lights shining into the darkened room. She could tell that it had been trashed; the glass table had been smashed, the bookshelf was toppled over and there was blood over the floor of the living room. She wasn't religious but she prayed it wasn't her children's. She decided to leave the light off to not attract any attention.

She slowly limped through the room.

"Argh" Angela quickly placed her hand over her mouth and shouted obscenities into her hand.

She had stepped on a large shard of glass. The piece had pierced through the middle of her foot.

Without even thinking, Angela tore the shard out of her foot and threw it against the wall, letting out an unwomanly grunt. Blood decorated the floor whenever her foot hovered.

She entered the kitchen.

It appeared untouched. The large table in the centre was still standing with its four wooden chairs surrounding it. Maybe they had caught her children in the living room and had no reason to go any further. Angela thought maybe she was wrong and the children were hiding upstairs.

She went to the kitchen sink and placed her bloody hand on the tap and turned it. She panted as she pondered what to do next.

Something then caught Angela's eye outside through the small kitchen window; she noticed some clothes in the garden. She pushed through the door leading outside, ran down the small set of steps like a zombie and approached the clothes; her heart pounding and her eyes glistening.

It was a large garden with a circular clothes line in the corner and various children's toys scattered around the area. Around the border of the garden were large assorted flowers which decorated all the way around the edges of the garden.

She knelt down and examined the clothes; they were her children's; both set of clothes were right next to each other. They must have been infected at the same time and both transformed besides each other she thought. They must have been playing outside together when the wolves attacked the area. She let out a loud scream and began slapping the floor.

"Angela! Get away quick" Shouted a male voice.

"Studley get back in here!" Shouted a female voice

"But its Angela" Replied the male voice.

"I don't care!" Screamed the woman.

It was a blonde haired, young slim man; he was standing in the doorway of the house next door; there was just a small waist high fence dividing the two gardens. He was wearing a yellow t-shirt with light blue jeans.

Angela looked up to spot two wolves approaching her, but these weren't like the wolves before; they were smaller; they were her children.

Angela stood up and starred at them. Tears water-falling down her face. She walked towards them.

"Angela!" Studley shouted.

Angela paid no attention and walked towards her children "Please, take me with you, let me become one of you." Angela held out her arms wide "Let us be together, forever."

Studley stepped further out of his house and bellowed "Angelaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

The wolves ran towards Angela and pounced on her, forcing her to the floor

"What are you doing!?"

The adolescent beasts started to tear into Angela's flesh

She wondered why her children had decided to kill her. Was she such a terrible mother?

Blood squirted everywhere as the wolves tore into her skin all over her body. They appeared to do it just for sport as they weren't hitting any vital organs, as if by purpose.

Angela did not even scream.

"No!" Studley shouted.

One of the wolves spotted Studley and fired a spike at him which caught him in his shoulder. He quickly ran back inside holding his arm.

As Angela was eaten alive she pondered her failure as a mother; she had done everything she possibly could for her children...her vision ended with her remembering the birth of her children, then...darkness came.

Angela was dead.

"Oh my god, Studley I told you not to go outside!"

Studley's arm was now bleeding and blood was running down his arms, dripping onto the kitchen floor.

"Lisa, Angela is dead!" Studley Whelped.

Lisa was an overweight 18 year old girl with long dark hair. She had a pretty face. She was wearing a baggy hooded jacket and track suit bottoms.

Lisa was rummaging through the kitchen cabinet for a cloth to tend to the wound, not listening to Studley.

"I can't live without Angela! Kill me!"

Lisa stopped her search and turned around to Studley.

"I can't do that! How can you ask me to kill my own brother?" Lisa shouted passionately as her eyes sparkled.

"Angelaaaa!!!"

"I can't do it Studley, I'm sorry." Lisa said as she looked at the floor while wiping her arm across her eyes.

Studley gave an annoyed look, headed for the kitchen draw, grabbed a large kitchen blade and held it to his wrist

"Studley, no!"

Just as Studley went to slice his wrist he felt a weird sensation and fell to the floor, he starred at the ceiling as his vision entered a black void.

Outbreak: Day Two

# 

#  Abandoned

The first evening has gone fast; Claudia was exhausted from all of the loving, running, jumping and fighting she had endured. It had been more exercise than she had ever done in her life so she fell asleep easily on the rough wooden floor. The second day had gone slow because she had sat around the shack fully expecting someone to come and rescue her. Now, on her third day, Claudia started to think it was soon time to act. No one was coming for her.

"10% battery left, great" sighed Claudia as she glanced at her mobile phone; it was a small pink touch screen phone with a symbol of a fox on the top; the screen was small yet sharp; the large symbol in the top right corner of the screen was flashing red with a '10%' next to it.

"Seven thousand Euros, Seven bloody thousand Euros and the bastard thing is already running out of battery!" Claudia shouted in a small tantrum, slamming the phone on the nearby table, causing the plates and other assorted objects to shake and shudder in the impact.

Claudia had gotten the phone off of the internet; it had promised to be the best phone currently available with five hundred hours of battery life and was not set to be beat in at least the next five years.

Claudia has always wanted to be the best and have the best things; when she heard a better phone was out she just had to have it, no matter the costs. Sometimes she is in such a panic to have the best things that she buys into scams and half-truths, the phone has in fact only lasted her 126 hours before it is warning her of low battery. Claudia had counted.

Claudia was sick of being in this shack; it was cold, dark and lonely. She was running out of candles to light and her phone was bleeping. But what annoyed her most was her bobby orange, or body odour to most people. Bobby orange was the insult she and her gang of friends used against the poor, smelly kids at school. She had not been able to shower, nor change her clothes since she departed on her boat ride with the handsome, yet naive, Swedish guy and it was killing her.

Suddenly, through the window of the shack came a lump of meat in the shape of a leg. Claudia approached the leg of meat without hesitation and picked it up and looked at it.

It appeared to be yet another human leg; it had a shackle around the ankle which looked to have caused some considerable pain to the person the leg was formally attached to as it had dug deep into the skin; so deep in fact it would take a closer inspection to even notice it was even there.

Claudia threw the leg into the corner of the room, which added onto the already existing pile of human limbs that were situated there. She has been in this shack for two days and refused to eat any of the human limbs that had been flung into the room by the wolves outside but she knew that soon she might have to if she wanted to live. She was lucky that the shack had a working tap that deposited seemingly clean water, which she had also used to wash the dirt and mud off of her skin.

A group of howls came from outside of the shack, further attacking Claudia's eardrums. Why did they howl so often and so loudly; what were they trying to tell Claudia? That they were still there and if she left the shack they would eat her alive? Why did they need to keep her here? They could have easily jumped through the window and ravaged her.

Claudia wanted to desperately escape from here but she had tried pulling every book from the bookcase and no hidden passage emerged. Her new phone had neither reception nor internet connection and she sensed that no help would naturally arrive because most of the body parts that the wolves had thrown in had been around for a long time. Some however, she noticed were fairly recent and still dripping of blood; she could tell from the shape and build that those parts belonged to the women who were chained to the tabled with their legs spread in the shack not too far away.

Insanity would soon overtake her with no social interaction or food to eat. There was no way she could eat the limbs of a fallen, especially those of inferior beings who were chained to tables and used as sex slaves to breed more of those hideous, freakish beings that chased her to this forsaken island. She had always been in a well-bred family and would not let such low income, easily abused scum infect her veins. This she was determined of, no matter the circumstances.

The room was starting to smell of rotting flesh from the parts that had occupied the corner of the room. Claudia had tried throwing them back out of the windows but the wolves simply threw it back in, no matter the condition it was in. Soon the smell would be unbearable.

Claudia questioned why they have kept her trapped here. They have insisted on not only refusing to attack her, but they also want to feed her. What purpose does she possess to the wolves? Why are they keeping her alive? She had asked these questions to herself a lot over the past days but there was never an answer to be found, just speculations.

Rescue was looking bleak.

Claudia had kept herself near the windows of the shack in the hopes that a young strapping man would pass by and see the beautiful damsel in distress and risk his life trying to save her from her confinement. But Claudia had come to the conclusion that this was now unlikely to happen.

Everyone at her business was constantly informed she would be away for the weekend with her new handsome man.

As for her friends...

Claudia believes that most of the friends that she had ever had have just been jealous of her, jealous of her looks and wealth, jealous that she was the one with the best looking boyfriend, but said boyfriends could never deal with being with someone so pretty, someone that was always being checked out by the opposite sex in the street or in a bar. The paranoia would destroy the relationship. It's tough being better than everyone. But Claudia had learnt to deal with it and focus on her business.

Her fantastic appearance and her incredibly successful business were not going to save her from this situation.

She slowly approached the window of the shack and peered outside. The sky was darkening; it was almost the end of her third day. The three wolves were still sitting outside, motionless. She contemplated making a run for it but she had no idea where to go, or what the wolves would do to her if they were to capture her upon her escape.

Would they still want to keep her alive? Claudia knew that it wasn't worth the risk, not yet. But another day without food or showering and she might have no choice.

All this thinking would soon tip her over the edge; she was used to always being busy. She backed away from the window and approached a black, metal candle holder on the large table in the centre of the room; it was full of wax where other candles had been melted down. She picked it up and walked over to the cabinet on the opposite wall and opened it up. Inside were two candles, Claudia grabbed one and placed it in the metal candle holder.

Next to the remaining candle was a cheap looking yellow lighter. Claudia picked it up, held it against the wick of the candle she was holding and attempted to light the candle; however no flame appeared from the lighter.

"Fuck!" Claudia exclaimed as she shook the lighter and reattempted to light the candle. The lighter yet again failed to ignite the candle, she tried five more times frantically but no flame emerged. She thought about the old saying 'up shit creek without a paddle' and that's exactly how she felt now.

Claudia began to panic, it was getting dark and she had no means of light or heat and the smell from the corpse pieces was becoming even more potent. She looked towards the door leading out of the shack and decided that it was time to make a run for it into the wild; her sanity would not last locked in this shack in the pitch darkness with only the sounds of the wolves breathing and the smell of the rotting flesh to keep her company. She loosened her grip and released the candle and lighter from her hand.

She walked towards the table to obtain her mobile phone before making her escape. The candle she had dropped rolled with her as she walked; the shack was poorly built and had a slight slant to it. She reached the table and grabbed her mobile phone when she noticed the candle moving below her; she watched it reach the end of rug underneath the table when it fell through a gap in the floor.

She tapped the screen on her phone to check the remaining battery; she thought that it would be a good idea to turn on the phones light on so she at least had some light to help find her way through the tangled maze she would be soon entering.

She then heard the candle land, it had taken a few seconds for its impact and the sound was faint. She got on her hands and knees and peered through the gap in the floor but it was just darkness. She placed the light shining from her phone over the gap in the floorboard to see if it would reveal anything; but still all she saw was darkness.

She guessed something was below the shack, be it just a small room or a prison filled with corpses. She stood up and grabbed the table and slid it from on top on the rug; the plates and assorted items mounted on top of the table fell and clashed on the floor. She then grabbed the dirty, ragged brown rug off of the floor and flung it over the pile of rotting limbs.

Below the rug, to Claudia's delight, was what appeared to be a door built into the floor of the shack, it would have visibly merged in with the rest of the wooden floorboards had it not had a circular handle which she assumed, when pulled, would cause the door to open.

However, her delight was crushed when she noticed that a padlock had been attached to the circular handle which bound it to the plank it was attached to.

Claudia frantically grabbed at the padlock, attempting to pull wrench it from the floor; but it would not budge; it was well fitted and seemed to have been recently inserted.

"Damn it!" Claudia grunted as she smashed her hand on the door in the floor. She sat up and looked around the room; the shadows were further creeping over the room, attempting to engulf her in darkness. She was determined to get the door open. She did not have long before the shadows would completely overtake her surroundings, making the task even less likely; leaving her no choice but to brace the wilds and try her chance at escaping through the front door.

The room she was in was full of various high quality items; high quality even to Claudia's standards. But despite their glamorous visage, they had posed no use to her besides giving her something to admire during her first few hours trapped here. But now she was looking at them in a different light; she needed something to help her smash the padlock off of the door.

With a clear goal in her mind Claudia quickly sprang to her feet and began searching the room for any large object which could assist her in finding her way through the padlocked door.

She rummaged through the single dresser in the room but all she found was extremely expensive looking jewellery. The rest of the room was full of larger, more valuable items, such as vases, opera masks, boats in bottles, assorted animal heads and much more expensive antiques; but they were flimsy and would break upon touching the padlock.

A thief plundering the building in search of riches would feel like he had hit the jackpot and could live the rest of his life without a day's work, but in Claudia's predicament they held no value.

She placed her arms over her head and let out a low annoyed scream; her face turned to the same shade of red as her hair. She was frustrated at the fact that she had been sitting in the shack for all this time without even noticing the door right below her. She questioned what she had been doing the past few days, was she so used to having servants and people working for her that she just assumed everything would be okay? She felt her body heat up as the annoyance she felt for herself, and the door, bubbled to the surface.

She grabbed the deer's head which was perched onto the wall, approached the padlock and flung it down at the door on the floor; the collision caused a loud bang and the deer head cracked and smashed open. She was breathing heavily, adrenaline was pouring through her body; she had to make the most of this situation with this surge of energy.

She ran around the room like in a wild lion that had just spotted an injured zebra after not eating for three days and used her arms to lunge at the items and fling them at the padlock, they smashed, bounced, and cracked as they collided with the floor and the small escape preventing object. Not even small items such as diamonds and emeralds evaded her grasp as even they were thrown to their demise. She shouted and grunted as the objects were released from her hands; she did not care if the wolves heard the commotion and jumped through the window to inspect, she just felt rage, and nothing else.

Part of her enjoyed this feeling; she felt powerful as if nothing could stop her. If anything in her life usually bothers her she has other people to sort it out for her. But now she was like a cornered rat that felt threatened for its life and had lunged for its opponent's jugular, and it felt good.

This rampage continued until all the items in the shack had been thrown. When she had finally calmed down, sweat pouring all over her body, she was almost breathless and panting, trying to catch her breath.

She stood in the corner of the room and looked over the disaster before her, an antique dealer would have had a heart attack; pieces of exquisite items and jewellery were scattered all over the floor of the room, smashed and ruined, their value completely depleted. She did not care; all she cared about was the condition of the padlock.

She carefully walked over to the padlock and knelt down. To her horror it was still attached to the door; still standing in her way of freedom. All that her rampage had accomplished was a few dents in the floor. It was all for nothing. She let out a heavy sigh and lowered her head into her shoulders.

She wished she had never laid eyes on the door, or the padlock. If she had not seen the candle fall through the floor and attempted her escape when it was lighter, she could have made a clean getaway, but now it was even darker and her phones battery even lower, her chances of survival in the wilds were reduced even further.

She had become dehydrated from her tantrum, her lips were cracked and looked like those of a woman twice her age, that she decided to treat herself to a drink from the sink in the second room. She still had no idea whether the water was clean, but it was refreshing.

She slowly raised to her feet and entered backroom of the shack, it was small and stunk like a toilet, yet there was no toilet in sight, just a sink; it had been one of the only items in the shack which helped Claudia retain her mentality as it enabled her to wash herself .She had entered the shack in a filthy state from her chase through the woods and she would of ended it all had she had to be in that condition for so long. But just like in the main room, she is looking at items differently now her situation had suddenly changed.

Claudia began pulling at the sink; she intended that this would be the item that would get her out of the shack. This was her final stand, she wasn't giving up.

"Come on, damn it!" she grunted as she continued to pull at the sink. It wouldn't take much more effort to remove it from its binding to the wall as it was already loosened from its poor implementation, but Claudia was weak from the lack of sleep, food and the recent outburst. Her arms were burning; like they had been smothered in oil then a lit cigar had been placed just near them. What would have been an easy task for anyone well fed and slept was an excruciating task for Claudia.

Claudia remembered when she was a child and had sat on the sink in her father's private bathroom. She had gotten excited at disobeying her father yet again that she jumped up on and down on it, but she had been bit too excited and the sink had fallen off, smashing through the floor and almost killing one of the butlers in the kitchen below. Even then she never felt guilty for almost killing someone, he was easily replaceable.

She then sat on the sink and began jumping up and down on it with all her weight when she heard a snapping sound and felt herself nearing the floor when she quickly collided with it. The sink was resting on her back. She pushed herself up and rolled it off. She turned around and noticed a gap in the wall where the sink had been; she crawled around the sink, which was now lying on its side, and peered through the gap.

It lead on to the back of the shack and what she saw made her feel even more uneasy than she did before; outside were a pack of wolves, it was almost pitch black but she could see their shining eyes looking back at her, there must of been at least ten wolves; at least twenty eyes. 'Where had they come from?' When she entered the shack there was merely three or four guarding her, she never knew there were so many around her.

Making a run would have been beyond futile.

She quickly got to her feet and bent down to pick up the sink; she remembered being told about bending her knees if she was ever in the unlikely event of needing to pick up a heavy object, so she bent her knees and lifted the sink. It was heavier than it looked but even in her weakened state she managed to lift it just past her stomach and slowly totted into the first room. She approached the door on the floor; if this did not work then she was out of options.

She stood on top of the wooden door and pulled the sink higher up, as high as she could possibly manage, then she, with her all might behind it, slammed the sink onto the padlock; it made a massive sound and the sink bounced in the air; almost smashing Claudia in the face, then landed back down on the door, barely missing her bare feet.

She let out a desperate squeal and tried it again, the same thing happened. The strain of throwing such a heavy object was taking its toll on the remaining energy in her body, she felt as if she was going to faint if she continued and a part of her wanted to stop wasting energy on more pathetic attempts at breaking the lock. She bent down to pick up the sink again; she knew that this attempt would be her last, if she could even mange one more attempt.

She managed to lift the sink again; the pain in her arms was almost unbearable at this point, but she had more strength and determination than she gave herself credit for, and slammed the sink on the floor.

Nothing happened. The door and padlock still remained. She was trapped here and there was no way out. There was more wolves outside than she could of ever imagined and worst of all, her greatest fear was mere minutes away from consuming her; darkness.

She collapsed to the floor; she was spent, and the lack of food and sleep had finally claimed her. She never thought it would end in such disgusting surroundings; she was dying a death like those street rats that eat out of bins and work for minimum wage. She closed her eyes, she was tired, too tired. Darkness consumed her vision.

Suddenly the floor began to make creaking sounds. This alerted the unconscious Claudia and her head popped up like a meerkat. The door below her had received enough punishment and decided it was time to give way; the door broke open under Claudia's weight plunging her into the darkness below.

#

Food And Pills

It was a full moon. It had been five hours since the wolves first trampled through the streets. The neighbourhood below this shining beacon stood motionless. It would be silent if not for the intense groaning sounds of a man sounding like his insides were attempting to escape their confines.

"Studley, please, you have to be quiet!" A woman's voice softly whispered.

Studley writhed, turned, and rolled in the Victorian styled king sized bed, his sister, Lisa, holding him down but too weak for his strength which seemed to fluctuate at alarming rates whenever the fever decided to attack him.

The room they were in resided in the second floor bedroom of their house, the two small windows on either side of the room were obscured by two large wardrobes.

Studley paid no attention to her and continued to wail in agony. His veins looked like they would pop out of his arms and neck at any moment.

Lisa backed off and sprinted into the en-suite bathroom, the light flickering, smothering the room in darkness every two seconds, and approached the cabinet on the wall. There was a mirror attached to the side of it causing Lisa to catch a glimpse of herself; her hair was dark, greasy and long like it had not been washed in far too long, her eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep which also caused the big dark bags under her eyes. She had never been one to care for her weight or appearance but the image gave her a twinge of sadness and disgust.

She threw open the door and rummaged around the various pill bottles, throwing the empty ones on the floor as she desperately searched for some medication to help Studley with the pain. Within moments there were no more bottles to search through and the small bathroom floor was covered in empty bottles.

Their mother had gone through painkiller addiction before her death, leaving behind countless bottles of powerful pills which would sooth the pain of ten gunshot wounds. She would constantly sneak out of the house to meet at the darkest of night to meet her dealers to fuel her potent addiction. Although they killed her mother, Lisa was thankful she had kept the pills around as Studley would never have survived the past few hours without their effects.

The night so far had been chaotic. The beasts came almost unannounced. Lisa was watching her favourite food channel when the news abruptly interrupted her viewing. At first she had almost thrown her tub of ice cream at the television but soon calmed down when she saw the chaos that was being displayed.

A growing horde of wolves were running rampant through the centre of city and spreading out quickly in every direction; they were shooting people with fur from their body as they travelled, and soon after those people would painfully transform into wolves.

Lisa had taken the news reports advice and unhesitatingly boarded the windows and doors to the house up. She had noticed other people in the other houses doing the same thing.

When the wolves arrived it had ended just as quickly as it had begun. It seemed like they were in a rush and went for the houses that were the least defended. She heard the bangs, screams and cries from the house next door. Lisa wept for the poor children.

It had gone peaceful again until that Angela woman returned home, causing Studley to foolishly leave the house. Lisa hated the woman for the pain she was currently causing her brother.

After being shot by one of the wolves in the garden Lisa was sure that Studley would turn into one of those beasts and deep down she knew that she should kill him before that happens. The news reports had said that the transformations happen within minutes of being stabbed by one of the wolves' spikes but Studley had just lain there, breathing heavy, but showing no signs of turning.

She had decided to take him to the bedroom and let him rest, and then a few times an hour he would break out in a fever which would cause him to spasm and foam at the mouth, as if suffering from rabies. When it happened the first few times she would arm herself with her father's baseball bat, however, she knew that she would not want to live in this world without her big brother and would take her own life soon after.

Over the hours there would be loud megaphone announcements that they were patrolling the area to take people to a safe place nearby, followed by deafening screams and gunfire. This had only happened twice then she had heard nothing but the rustle of bushes.

The radio and TV had gone eerily quiet not long after the initial broadcast.

But either way, Studley was in no condition to be rescued. She was all he needed and they would not take him away from her.

She went and grabbed a towel and took it to the sink, drenched it in water then returned to Studley, placing it on his throbbing forehead.

He stopped squirming but still breathing heavily and looked at her.

"My shoulder feels like a bad booboo is on it." He spoke with a childish voice, his lips quivering.

Lisa cracked a smile; a slight pain tore through her dry, brittle lips. It's the first time he has spoken since the incident "It's ok Studley, I'm here for you and I always will be"

"I know what happens to peoples who are shot by the wolfies, they turn hairy and kill other peoples" His eyes looked bewildered and lost, his body still covered in sweat, he looked 10 pounds lighter than when he was first placed in this bed.

Lisa hugged him hard, "You're Okay, promise" Studley closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, Lisa remained hugging him and dozed off soon after, whispering the words "I will always protect you"

As they slept, hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives.

Daylight came and despite the chaos, the birds still remained singing their choirs as if it was a normal beautiful day.

In the bedroom it was still like night time, only slight rays of light peeking through the cracks in the barricaded windows.

Lisa was asleep in the sweat stained bed, her thoughts currently creating the perfect story in her head of her being on a beach made out of ice cream and being served ice cream sundae's by muscular men made out of sugar. She was in bliss, currently far away from the reality of life.

Studley however was back to reality; he had left the bed for the first time in 10 hours and decided to see if all that had happened was simply just one of his chaotic dreams. He was in the living room, no longer was there a stunning display of items bought and won by his parents but now it was looking like the aftermath of an earthquake, items had been tipped over everywhere, there sole use now to block up every single entry point into the house.

Tears soared down his cheeks. He thought he would never see his home in this state before, he hadn't known much in his life but this was one thing he had always believed would remain forever.

He peeked through one of miniscule gaps in the curtains; the bright daylight lightly searing his eye, it recently too used to the darkness. He recoiled, childishly rubbed his eyes, then approached slowly and looked again.

Out on the streets it appeared as if it was just another normal Sunday morning, he was tempted to go outside and get fresh air and perhaps even check on how Angela was doing after being attacked.

He moved from the living room to the hallway and approached the heavily barricaded front door of the house and slid aside the stacks of chairs that had been placed there. They were heavy and made the wound in his shoulder flare up, causing him to whimper out a small cry of pain. He ignored it and made a gap just big enough for him to slide through.

Heart Break Again

Outside the air was good. It felt like it had been so long since he had been outside. He walked down the porch steps, onto the grass and looked up and down the street. There was absolutely no sign of life, neither human nor beast. Studley honestly questioned the legitimacy of his memories, the only thing consistent was how some of the houses were boarded up, but he was never one to look at other houses anyway, nor was he one to leave the house much. He would rather stroke his favourite toys.

He looked to the house to his left, Angela's house. Was she really torn apart or was that just a rogue memory? Not something unheard of for Studley. He walked up to the house and peered through the broken window that bordered the living room. It was more of a mess than his own but he still had to find out what happened to Angela.

He walked back down the steps and opened the large brown gate leading to the garden. As he walked down the path he noticed all of the flowers had withered and died, the rest had been furiously dug up and lay sprawled out across the path.

He carried on down the path and turned into the garden. He fell to his knees.

Blood. Everywhere. The garden was covered in blood and limbs. What he saw was no dream. Angela really was torn to pieces. He let out a loud cry, tears completely obscuring his view. This was not right; he wanted to believe he was still asleep. He began slapping himself across the face. Not enough. Harder and faster he slapped and slapped and slapped some more with a few pinches added in, all whilst screaming Angela's name.

Two hands tightly grabbed at his forearms.

"Studley stop this nonsense, we have to get inside, now!" whispered Lisa, as loud as she could, her eyes still half closed from just waking up.

Studley appeared to not even acknowledge her and continued to scream Angela's name, eyes closed, face turning a dark red.

"Studley, please it's not safe out here, Angela is gone!" Lisa pleaded; her face looking like it will burst into tears at any moment.

Studley stopped his tantrum and looked at Lisa, his eyes full of tears while green liquid ran from both of his nostrils.

"But she was my best friend" he peered around at the body parts, still sniffing his runny nose.

Annoyance suddenly swept across Lisa's tired face.

"No, studley, I am your best friend, I always have been and I always will be." Her voice was very stern, spoken as if she was talking to a naughty child.

Studley ignored her sentiments and grabbed a bloody severed hand off of the floor and held it against his chest.

Looking Angier now, Lisa slapped his hand as hard as she could, making Studley drop the limb to the ground.

"Stop it!" She growled.

Angela was indeed Studleys best friend. Apart from Lisa she was the only person who ever treated him like a normal human being, other people he met used to dislike him instantly after he had spoken due to his voice sounding 'dumb', as some cruel people at school would put it. Often he would forget what he was doing or would not realise the effects of his actions. He was like a child in a man's body, yet, Angela accepted him for who he was.

Lisa had never liked the attention Angela gave him, ever since her and Studley were young she had always been the one to protect him and it would always be her shoulder that his tears would land upon after another day of being bullied. Their mother was always out partying and their father was always too busy with work to ever give Studley the attention he required, then they moved to this neighbourhood and Angela treated him just like Lisa, perhaps better, and she did not like the competition.

Lisa had lost a lot of friends over the years because of Studley by choosing to stay in to console him after a long abusive day causing her to lose touch with friends and be considered 'boring', and siding with him when he claimed her friends had insulted him. She had made a lot of sacrifices and hated that another person was taking him away from her.

While Lisa was shocked to initially see her limbs scattered around the blood stained garden, sorrow was not an emotion that seeped into her brain.

Suddenly a loud voice boomed in the distance, "To any remaining survivors, please give us a sign that you are still alive"

Studley's head shot-up like an alerted rabbits.

"Studley, no" Lisa grabbed his head to her chest

"This will be the last time that we patrol this area, if there are any survivors please give us some kind of a sign you are alive" With each word the voice was nearing their location.

The patrol tank had patrolled the area twice since the attack had begun, looking for survivors. They made promises of a safe haven not too far away and they will provide transport and to protect everyone. The vehicle they drove looked like a tank but only smaller and a lot louder. The armour was dented and covered in dark spikes. During the night patrol it had a large vibrant light that they would beam against every house.

Every time they had called there were sounds of screams and gunfire. Lisa wondered if they were killing more people than they were saving.

They both sat there, quiet as possible listening as the car drove closer and closer; Lisa could feel Studley getting more and more excited and she knew she could not stop him from running to it. When younger it was impossible to stop him rushing to the ice cream van even if he had no money to spend.

Studley broke free of Lisa and ran surprisingly giddily back down the garden path and into the main road, Lisa sighed and gave chase. She knew this was going to happen.

He stood on the pavement, raised one arm and waved; it was a wave not to gain their attention but to simply say 'hello' and expecting them to drive on by, but this of course was not their intention.

The small tank came to a dramatically slow halt. On top of the tank, half of his body in view, the rest hiding in the area below, was a man who looked to be in his mid-60s. He was completely bald and wearing something that looked like a gas mask; it almost totally obscured his face, but left the back of his head exposed except for a thick black strap which held the mask in place.

The man's face immediately turned to Studley in a very robotic manner, and then the attention turned to Lisa as she slowly walked from the garden walkway and into the bright street.

Silent Aggression

"Identify yourselves!" the man's voice was raspy and haggard, obviously a big smoker. Lisa wondered how he had lived to the age he was.

"I am Studley mister sir!" Studleys' intention was to salute but instead put one finger across his upper lip. The man frowned at this, half tempted to tell the driver below to carry on with their final round.

"You think you're funny, son?" The man said. Studley dropped his arms to his sides, with a puzzled look on his face. "Millions of people are dead and even more are dying, and you're making jokes?! The government doesn't care about you. We are doing these patrols voluntarily and we have lost so many people doing these runs. We were told to stop it, but I was determined to do one more, to try to save a few more lives."

It grew incredibly silent.

"Well?! Do you think you're funny now?" the man demanded some kind of response.

"N-No sir!" Studley looked at ground, body as stiff as a board.

Lisa walked in between the dispute and waved her arms, signalling for everyone to calm down.

She explained to the sergeant about Studley's condition and how they had been trapped inside their house.

"We have had people pass through multiple times since last night, why didn't you respond to us?"

Lisa didn't know what to say.

His eyes, now suspiciously scanning the pair, focused on the wound that was visible through Studleys torn t-shirt.

"You two wait here a moment"

He retreated back down into the tank.

Lisa faced Studley and whispered "Did you see the way he looked at your shoulder? He knows something happened."

Studley remained silent.

A few long minutes passed, Lisa's eyes constantly scanning the area, she was sure that Studley's screams would have attracted the attention of some nearby wolves but nothing had approached them, eventually the man reappeared from the top of the tank.

"You need to come with us, both of you"

He spun his body around and opened another hatch at the back of the tank.

Lisa knew that she couldn't let Studley go with them; they would use him as some test subject and perform horrific experiments. She would not allow that.

"No" she replied, while backing off with one arm wrapped around Studley's arm, "We are fine here"

"Listen little lady, my superiors need to see this young man here." He placed his rifle on his back and he climbed out of the tank, handcuffs were dangling from his belt.

"Just leave us alone!" She pulled at Studley and they both moved back towards their house, Studley followed aimlessly, not really sure who to follow or why.

The man reached and grabbed hold of Studley's other arm and pulled him towards him; despite his age he had a lot of strength and easily pulled the siblings towards him.

"It was not a requ-" Before he could finish his sentence Lisa threw her hand at his face, nails first, attempting to scratch him.

The man had great reflexes, catching the arm while saying words to try to calm her down. But she was not listening, adamant to cause harm to him.

"Mick, I could use some help out here" He said it in a calm tone.

A door popped open on the other side of the tank and a man walked out, he was completely covered in brown camouflage army gear, no skin at all was visible, but he was of a bigger build to the older man.

He approached the struggling trio and grabbed hold of Lisa's attacking arm, followed by dragging her away from Studley and the officer; her grip instantly released from Studley. The man had an extremely strong grasp, like a vice that had been tightened all of the way.

The old officer placed a handcuff on his wrist and placed the other on Studley.

"It's for your own good, boy" Said the old officer.

A floating hissing sound and out of nowhere; a brown spike lodged in the veteran's throat making him fall to the floor whilst grabbing at it, attempting to pull it out. Studley was taken to his knees as the hefty man fell down. He watched on, unsure what to do.

On the other side of the tank the other officer was still dragging Lisa away as she kicked and punched at him but his armour protected him from every single blow. She was heavily sweating at this point, each blow getting softer and softer.

He noticed her fatigue, released her and walked around the other side of the tank. Lisa was panting, with a defeated look on her face.

"What the fuck!"

The officer dropped to the older officer and immediately pulled the spike out of his neck; it caused blood to gush like a fountain, covering him and Studley in dark sticky fluid. He placed both of his hands on the veteran's neck to attempt to halt the bleeding, but it would not prolong his life.

A female scream pierced everyone's ears. Studley awoke from his shock and ran to where he heard Lisa scream, dragging the dying man with him, the other officers grip lost on the man's neck, causing his head to bounce on the cold, hard pavement multiple times, blood spraying everywhere like a hose that was on full power and the negligent owner had let go of it.

Mike was going to give chase but suddenly felt a few pinches in his armour and looked over his shoulder.

He noticed three brown spikes sticking out of his upper back; he spun around fully to see three adult wolves charging towards him, all looking and sounding extremely aggressive. He pulled out a sidearm, a military standard handgun, and shot three at the oncoming threats.

Two wolves went down from his precision head shots but one wolf managed to deny Mike his hat trick of shots. The surviving wolf jumped on him, pinning him down to the rough ground.

The gnarly teeth of the wolf continuously snapped at the face of Mike. To avoid having his face gnawed off he had to tilt his face from the left and to the right, to the rhyme of the wolves dripping jaws. The weight of the wolf must have been at least two hundred pounds. The wolf had lay his body on top of his, planting Mike's left hand and both his legs in place, preventing him from kicking the beast off of him, giving him one free hand to keep the jaws at bay.

As this was happening Studley had just gotten to Lisa, she had her back pressed against the tank as he saw two wolves sprinting towards her. What he did next was an incredible feat of strength.

He let out a high shriek worthy of a banshee queen and with just his handcuffed arm he lifted it and flung the old, dying officer around and smashed his body into that of the approaching wolves, causing them to be flung on to the pavement. Both wolves fell onto their sides, momentarily dazing them.

Lisa was almost hyperventilating, positive that what she just witnessed was an hallucination. She put it to the back of her mind and struggled her way to Studley, who was standing completely still like a statue, watching the wolves as they struggled to regain composure.

"Studley! Studley! We have to get back inside the house!" Lisa's voice was low and there was a long, exhausted breath between each word.

They started back towards their house when they heard a grinding sound... the face of the now dead officer being dragged across the floor; his face had been the body part to collide first with the wolves, being decimated to the point of being unrecognisable; His face was full of wolf spikes, piercing him like shards of glass,. His face mask had done nothing to protect him and they had gone right through his eyes, blood obscuring his facial features.

"He will turn into wolfie soon?" questioned Studley as he looked down nervously at the ruined body.

"Let's get back to the house then sort it out" Lisa grabbed the officer's legs and they both continued their run back home.

The Enjoyable Journey

The flight lasted eight hours and the sky was gradually changing from navy to red as dawn approached the night.

A compact, blue, Mercedes car waited for them at the small airstrip that they landed on. It was quite a squeeze for the three of them and their luggage but they had managed to all fit. Trimple showed absolutely no signs of delight.

The village would be another day by car. Ming hoped that the journey was worth the distance and discomfort they have had to endure this far.

Ming and Trimple took turns driving the car. The drive was going to be long and would require the team to sleep at a hotel along the way. The heat made everyone drowsy, they had no concept of time and the two not driving would constantly drift in and out of sleep, woken up periodically by their heads banging against the car windows. After a few hours they had left the main roads and gone into the back roads. The driving became extremely perilous and they had soon wished to be back in the messy, uncoordinated, savage main roads. One bright point for Trimple was that the ear piercing singing had ceased the moment the journey became less stable.

Along the way they passed many small villages which had started off very friendly, offering the team food, water and directions, but the further they advanced into the wilderness they acted less and less hospitable. At their first night stay in a small rundown village, they slept in their sleeping bags in a small shed which had a pungent toilet small; it was so small that their three sleeping bags had taken up all of the available floor space. The only place to spread your waste was in a small hole just meters away from where they were sleeping.

The girls hadn't realised that there would be no internet in the wild lands of Brazil. They so desperately wanted to show off peace-sign selfies via social media to their millions of fans, but no signal was to be found.

Ming had expected the work of a television celebrity to be much more glamorous; she assumed she would be walking on red carpets drinking overpriced champagne, not sleeping in small ghastly shacks in the middle of nowhere. She had wanted nothing more than to turn back but knew that Moo and Trimple were very determined and had their own reasons for being here. Ming had to repeatedly console herself, reminding herself that she would make it big and this was just a bump in the red carpet.

When they arrived the villagers had all but ignored them until Moo had walked around fanning herself with large amounts of cash notes. It was a stupid thing to do, Ming thought, and she was terrified that she would receive a spear through her chest at any time. Sleep found it difficult to claim her that night, the noises of the forest, people talking, and a surprising amount of cars passing through, combined with thoughts of death were too much for her brain to relax.

She decided to turn on the nearby radio, hoping to sleep to some mellow Brazilian tunes when the emergency broadcast frequency activated and boomed out of the radio, waking Trimple and Moo.

"Emergency, emergency, this is not a drill; there has been a viral outbreak situation at San Paolo airport which is rapidly spreading in and around the city itself. We do not know how far it will travel before we can stop it, so we strongly recommend that all residents of Brazil please keep indoors at all times until the situation is resolved" The woman's voice repeated over and over.

"How exciting!" beamed Moo "I wonder what has happened? I kind of wish we never left the city so soon."

"Im glady we left when we did! I would rather dealy with these unfriendly savages than dealy with a viral outbreak" Ming finally felt a bit more at ease being where she was.

"Well ladies, we cannot stay out here forever so we will have to return eventually"

"I look forward to it!" screamed Moo, letting out a maniacal laugh.

They hadn't realised that the broadcast had been repeating since soon after they had left the Sao Paolo airfield the day earlier.

Despite this, they all slept surprisingly well.

#

#

#

#  Sacrifice

As they reached the pavement they turned, while still moving, to see Mike still fighting with the wolf on top of him. Studley wanted nothing more than to help the man but he knew in situations like this that he must always listen to Lisa and do exactly what she says as everything that was happening was far beyond his comprehension. When he concentrates really hard in moments like this, Studley can think like a normal rational person, but a lot of the time he fails to understand situations and makes bad judgements without realising the consequences. Most of those times he doesn't realise he is doing it and the only thing his brain tells him to do right now is listen to Lisa.

"Keep going, we can't waste any time!" Lisa shouted, breathing heavier than she ever has before. She wanted nothing more than to just sit down and eat as soon as possible.

They climbed back up the steps, Lisa slid through the open door back into the house, her protruding stomach making the action a few seconds slower as it got slightly stuck between the door and the doorframe. As she entered she dropped her part of the officers body, this made Studley instantly feel the entire weight of the corpse, it almost dragging him to the floor.

The two dazed wolves climbed back onto their four spiked furry feet and jolted towards Studley. Lisa yelled at Studley to hurry up and get into the house and yanked at his shoulder.

He backed into the house and she slammed the door shut as soon as his body was inside, forgetting about the body attached to him. The door slammed on the officer's body over and over as she relentlessly tried to close the door, hoping that it would magically happen. But all that it accomplished was crushing the man's ribs and chest bones, the snapping sound louder than the door itself.

In a rapid motion she bent down and flung the mangled body into the house and banged the door shut, barricading it for good measure.

As they saw the door shut the wolves stopped their advance and looked towards Mike; three wolves would soon become four.

"Please get him off me!" Studley squealed. Lisa was forever surprised by Studleys constant range of emotions, he had just gone from fighting off two deadly wolves to now being extremely close to breaking out in hysterics over a dead man attached to his arm.

Lisa instructed Studley to follow her into the kitchen, and he obliged. The room was dark; the light in the room had broken so the only light that was emitted was the light from the hallway and through the small cracks in the large barricaded window. Lisa made a beeline for a draw in the corner of the room and pulled the draw completely out of its hole, causing the entirety of the cutlery to swarm onto the floor. She bent down and pulled out a large kitchen knife from the pile of silverware; the knife edge was blurred from how rapidly her hand was shaking.

Studley dragged the body to the centre of the room, a trail of dark blood following the corpse wherever it was pulled, and they both placed it on the large rectangle table; the body fit the width and height perfectly, as if made for this occasion.

Lisa had the knife in two hands to ease the shaking yet the blade was still not steady, she had never done anything like this before, even the sight of the man's mangled, beaten body was making her want to run to her bedroom, eat some ice cream and hide under the covers. Her entire body was covered in sweat. Her usually bright pink t-shirt was now a completely different, darker shade.

Studley stood in silence as she pulled the man's sleeve up to reveal his fleshy arm. It had turned a pale white already due to the incredible amount of blood that the withering body had expelled.

She took deep breaths to calm herself followed by placing one hand on the man's wrist whilst raising the knife in the air.

Thump...thump.

A pulse.

He wasn't dead.

Lisa dropped the knife in disbelief. Sawing off a dead man's arm was one thing but not when he was alive, his body feeling every single chop of the knife. She backed away, turned, and stood over the sink, sweat dripping into the half-filled bowl. She took deeper breaths to calm her nerves; if she was any older she would have had at least five strokes by now.

"Lisa!!" A rattling sound came from behind her.

She swiftly turned to see the man's body beginning to convulse on the table. He was going to transform into one of the furry fiends.

"We need to get him outside!" Lisa announced.

She rushed to the table, ordering Studley to stand next to her; she still felt that she could not strike the blows that would tear this man's arms from his body so she had to think fast.

She offered the shaking knife to Studley.

"I-I've never hurt anyone before" Studley looked in shock at the spasming body.

But this wasn't true. Lisa remembered the many times he would lash out at school and deal devastating attacks to his bully peers, leaving them most of the time with large black eyes and missing teeth, all with just one outraged blow. The head teacher at the school would always take pity on him and let him remain in the school no matter the amount of times it happened.

"Listen, if this man transforms he will kill both of us, do you really think that this man who has served our motherland all this time would want to slaughter two young people?"

She used his admiration of the military to take advantage of the situation.

Studley said nothing and reached for the knife from Lisa, her eyes filled to the brim with tears. The guilt of passing this task onto her brother will forever haunt her dreams. She stepped back, both hands held against her chest.

The man's body began to go through the changing process as his limbs began to snap and change. The pain now causing him to scream; his voice was extremely hoarse from the wounds to his neck.

Studley raised his arm and let out his trademark scream and slashed the knife at his own wrist, stunning Lisa into absolute stillness.

He chopped and chopped while his battle cry became higher and higher in pitch. As he pierced the skin the noise changed to a deeper, grounded sound as the knife reached the bone, beginning to work its way through the solid mass. The screams of both Studley and the man, accompanied by Lisa's loud murmuring sounded like a symphony of death.

He missed his attacks several times causing deep wounds to appear all over his forearm like a suicidal teenager. Eventually after what seemed to them both like hours, his arm was only connected to his hand by a few strands of bone, which he used the other arm to pull apart, causing an even worse sound that caused Lisa recoil, cringe and vomit all over her pink shirt. His now free hand hung from the Kitchen table, dropping of blood, bone hanging freely from the large gaping wound.

Lisa, unable to comprehend what Studley had just done to himself, ran to the table and grabbed the man by his legs, one was still human while the other was changing shape while in her hands, getting hairier by the second. She looked up at Studley assuming he would instantly grab the man's arms but he just stood there, his now handless arm dripping of blood.

She shouted to him multiple times but no reaction at all was to be found. She knew she had to act now so she ran to the kitchen door and opened it. This door was never barricaded because it was made of thick metal and had no glass in it.

She ran back and grabbed the man's body and dragged it off of the table and noticed it was surprisingly getting much lighter; where was the extra weight going to? She pulled it past Studley and threw it through the door and into the garden, finishing with a loud grunt, and then slapped her hands together as if she had just thrown out a rowdy drunk from the pub.

She shoulder barged the door shut then pushed her back against it. She slowly slid herself down the door while watching Studley; He was just standing there, blood oozing from his stump.

#

#

#

Outbreak: Day Three

#  Selfish

Claudia opened her eyes. She wondered if they were really opened; she instantly assumed she had gone blind from the fall. Panic assaulted her as she could see nothing but darkness. She held her arms out fully attempting to reach out and feel for anything in her surroundings; she had half expected to feel the fur of a wolf on her finger tips, but all she felt was a wall.

It was rough and felt like rocks on a mountain side. She had no idea where she was or any idea how to get out. She looked up, the direction she had entered from, and could see a faint blip of moonlight light from the hole she had fallen through. Relief is what she felt when she realised she wasn't blind, but now it was a different kind of panic; a trapped like a rat in a trap kind of panic.

She dragged her hands against the rough wall and followed it all the way around; she was in a small circular cave, or prison Claudia thought. She had taken herself out of one prison and placed herself in one even worse, one with cellmates who want to take advantage of you; darkness.

She knelt down on the floor and spread her hands over it to feel for anything which may help her out of this circular lockup.

She felt the broken wood from the door with the padlock still attached; Claudia gave a little smile at how determined that padlock was to do its job. She also felt small sharp pieces which were likely broken ornaments from the shack above.

Delight soon entered her as she felt something very familiar; her mobile phone. She quickly grabbed it and picked it up. She tapped the screen, praying it would have some battery remaining, and it did.

The screen lit up and Claudia's face shined in the aura it reflected upon her. She had never felt such relief in her life as she did then. The remaining battery was now at a mere four percent, but it was enough for Claudia to turn the light on; she knew she would not have long so she had to act fast.

She scanned the room with the light and what she saw was not very surprising, it looked exactly as it felt. She examined the floor and she saw nothing of use, but in the corner of her eye she noticed a small lower part of the room much darker than the rest and of different texture; it was a small hole in the wall.

She did not wait a moment, she crouched down and peered inside and shined the light of her phone into the hole, but it was all pure blackness as far as she could see. She decided to not even waste time thinking about it; it was going to be a dirty ride but it was either that or starve to death in her own piss and shit like a prisoner. She turned off the phone and lay flat on her stomach, the dirt on her body making her feel unpleasant, and began to crawl through the gap. She could just about make it through; she felt the ceiling of the tunnel just above her, barely touching her hair, and her arms scraped the sides as she pulled her way through. She thought about how screwed she would have been if she had let herself go, like many of her old friends, and become an obese mess.

Her friend Janine for example used to be her only rival for the affection of the males at university, she was Claudia's only competition with the boys and she may have even gotten more stares than Claudia, although she would never admit it. But she had soon made the mistake of getting married to the first boy she fell for and a mere two years later she was six stone heavier and looked a disgusting fat mess; Claudia had no reason to socialise with her after that and the pair had never spoken since. There are just some things you do not have in your circle of friends, and that is one of them. Claudia had cringed many a times about how the girl must look now, 6 years later.

Claudia crawled for what felt like hours, but was more like mere minutes; bugs and assorted little critters slithered over her body making it feel like a marathon rather than a short sprint.

After a few more minutes of traversing the dark, silent tunnel she eventually began to hear whimpering; it was a woman's voice. As she continued to crawl the crying got louder and louder and Claudia could see a faint light ahead of her; the exit was close.

As she got closer to the light she noticed it had a netted appearance, from this distance Claudia thought nothing of it but as she closed in on it she noticed that it was a small metal vent blocking her way out.

An annoyance boiled deep inside her as she felt yet again that she had placed herself in yet another prison, this one not only with darkness to keep her company, but also all of gods disgusting critters. She punched the fence in a small fit of rage and to her happy surprise, the vent fell off the wall and made a clanging sound; it was not screwed into the wall, it was simply placed there.

She emerged out of the tunnel, stood up and inspected her new, much brighter surroundings. Claudia was in a small corridor the walls were made of fine brickwork and was of high quality, but were aged. On the wall were torches that were lit and there was just enough spread out for the whole area to be lit without even a sprinkle of darkness; it felt more like a castle dungeon than an underground hideout. To her left the corridor went further down and took a right turn, down there she could hear murmuring which while faint, sounded like the murmurs of more of those retards.

To her right was a room, inside was where the crying was coming from was.

Claudia peered inside and noticed that it was a prison; there was a table and a chair in the centre, a large door directly opposite to Claudia, and on the right hand wall were three prison cells and inside one was a couple; a man and a woman.

They appeared to be around the same age as Claudia but they seemed to have been here for much longer than her, as they were extremely underweight and looked filthy. The woman had long dark, knotted hair and the man had bushy brown hair and a large beard. They both seemed to have been unwashed for some time. The man was comforting the woman as she continued to cry.

Claudia slowly stepped into the room, hoping that they would not see her as she made her way to the other door. She did not want to be involved with these people, and she was not here to help anyone but was simply here to get herself out of this situation.

"Oh thank the gods!" the woman jumped out of the man's arms and ran towards the cell bars.

"I thought no one would ever come to save us" the woman's tears dried up and a smile appeared on her gaunt face.

"I'm only passing through; I'm not here to save anyone." Claudia explained bluntly, continuing her walk to the door.

"But you can't just leave us here!" The woman's voice rose as she pleaded.

Claudia stopped "But I don't know who you are, I mean, look at the state of you! Would you trust yourself looking like that?"

The man joined the woman at the cell door. "We have been here for weeks, they feed us once a day with a bowl of excretion and make us work long shifts, how do you expect us to look?!"

"Look, I don't really care-"Claudia was interrupted mid-sentence by the male, now talking in a much softer voice.

"Listen, just flip that switch on the wall and our cell door will open, and then you won't have to see us again"

"So you can both attack me and steal my clothes and phone? Now if you'll excuse me I have an escape to make." Replied Claudia, in a smug way that would annoy the most placid of people.

The woman placed her head between the bars and shouted "Yea, go on, I hope they rip you apart you red headed selfish bitch!"

Claudia stopped and turned back towards the couple "excuse me, bitch, who are you to talk to me like that? You ugly piece of shit"

Claudia walked towards the bars "Oh, touch a nerve did I?" said the woman in her own smug way that rivalled Claudia's.

Suddenly Claudia grabbed the woman's hair through the bars and tugged at it. "I hope they tie you to a table and make you spit out one child after another"

The woman screamed at the top of her lungs "Guards! There's an intruder in the prison cells!"

Claudia quickly released her grip from the woman, intending to make a jolt for the door when the man quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the cell.

"No, get off me!" Claudia screamed, her face suddenly full of fear as she heard the sound of footsteps approach the room.

"You're in for it now!" Laughed the woman in a crazed hysterical manner, she then spat on Claudia's face and continued laughing.

A large man then entered the room carrying a fire axe; he resembled the men she had encountered earlier. His face was full of disgusting warts and boils.

He stopped and looked towards the struggling trio. He drooled on the floor then readied his axe.

Claudia continued to attempt fiercely to release herself from the man's grasp as the large man ran towards her with his axe lifted above his head. He let out a large battle cry.

Using all of her might, desire, dreams and hatred Claudia pulled herself away from the impending impact of the axe, pulling the man's along with her, his face squeezing tightly between the bars. The rough texture of the metal caused his face to bleed at both sides.

The man let out a howl as the fire axe made contact with his small, frail arm. It tore his whole forearm straight off with a clean cut. He fell to the cell floor holding the stub of his arm, the woman followed and tore off some of her cloth to try and tend to the wound.

Claudia lost her balance after escaping the clutches of the now disabled man, but she wasn't done. Pure energy was still pumping through her body. She instantly regained her balance and made a run for the door. The large man gave chase, screaming incoherent phrases.

Claudia ran down a seemingly endless hallway full of prison cells; full of prisoners far too weak to ask for her help, far too weak to even cry.

At the end of the hallway was a door. The large man was so close behind Claudia that she had no time to think about which way it opened or whether it was open or closed.

Claudia rammed her shoulder hard into the door; she felt a large bludgeoning pain and rebounded dartingly off of it, landing hard onto the stone floor. She sharply looked up to see the large man holding the axe above his head, ready for the execution.

He bore the axe hard down upon Claudia; she reacted instinctively and flopped back a few feet; the axe went between her legs and missed; the axe shattered as it made impact with the floor, shards of the axe slashed at Claudia's arms and chin.

She tried to quickly shuffle under the man's large legs but he reached down and grabbed her head with one arm and lifted her high into the air, effortlessly.

Claudia kicked at his and scratched hard at his large hand but he seemingly felt no pain.

He tightened his grip on her head, intending to crush her head until she died.

Her vision began to fade as she felt her skull slowly crush inwards, it would eventually snap and her brain would be destroyed.

The man's face was one of intense joy as he saw the life slowly fade out of his victims face.

As Claudia began to black out; a similar feeling after drinking one too many, a strange voice called from the back and the large man slightly released his grip.

The last thing she saw before losing her consciousness was two other men of a similar size approaching them.

#

#  Rejection

The third day in Brazil came and they left the small dirty village. The air was much cooler and rain made a much needed appearance a few times throughout the day, sometimes extremely heavy and sometimes just light showers. It made the road harder to navigate and sometimes made it feel like they were stuck in the mud but it made everything else much more bearable, and the girls mood was increased which resulted in the singing being resumed, much to the dismay of Trimple.

Trimple adjusted the dials on the radio, hoping to find better sounds to pollute his ears with.

The previous night's emergency broadcast played on each station, still on its endless loop. Trimple had a very bad feeling. The girls felt it too. The singing had stopped. They all placed it to the back of their minds and focused on the mission ahead.

The car was quiet for a while and the drive was uneventful as the road became slightly more civilized. When the sun set and the sky turned a light shade of red they reached their destination; the small village of Waksando.

Waksando was much nicer than all of the other villages combined and people looked and acted more like proper human beings, the houses were small and were made out of brick, unlike the other villages which were wooden. The village was so small that every building was visible from the entrance of the village. The entire town was surrounded by thick dense forest and surprisingly there was quite a large amount of people in the town; judging by the amount of cars parked all over, it appears that a lot of guests had recently arrived.

The first task of the team was finding a place to stay, they tried the local hotel but it was currently fully booked due to the recent influx. Moo tried to wave her money around but these people seemed less impressed with her act.

The three of them stood in the cool outdoors; they wanted to visit the mansion tonight while their enthusiasm was at its peak.

"I was not expecting it to be so busy, we need to find a place where we can shoot our episode" Moo walked up and down the thin walkway with her hand on her chin, thinking hard.

"Seeing as the hotely is full maybe we could ask one of the residents to let us stayey?" Ming posed the question towards Moo, excitement in her eyes.

"These people are totally not going to let us stay in their house Ming, we will just have to wrap up the shoot as quickly as we can and then get on outta here, perhaps even sleep in the car" Trimple was always the one who was realistic with his approach.

As the team discussed their options many of the cars that had arrived just before them were all beginning to leave the area, most likely due to their being no place to stay. Moo wondered if it was to do with what they had heard on the radio; she was more excited to return to the city than explore the haunted mansion.

"Guys" squealed Moo in a frantic high pitched wail, "We will just have film the introduction in the street, check out the Mansion, then drive straight back to the city! Maybe we can catch footage of whatever is happening back there as well.

Trimple sighed and went to collect his camera from the car. While he did this the girls went into the hotel with their make-up bags and toiletries, the owner had said that for a price they may use their facilities, but the girls could feel that he really resented letting them in.

As Trimple pulled his camera from the car a woman who appeared to be in her sixties wearing a long black dress walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You cannot use that here"

She had a raspy voice; she sounded like a woman who had smoked for twenty more years than her age.

"We are only filming a television show"

"I do not care" The woman's hand wrapped tighter around Trimples shoulder, he felt blood escape his skin.

"Listen lady, we don't want any trouble here, we will be filming at the old mansion, and your village will not be in any of our footage"

The woman released her grip and backed off.

"You are NOT to go anywhere near that place"

She lunged for the camera in Trimples hand tackling him to the ground; he fell sharply onto the back of his head as she swiftly mounted on top of him and pulled at the camera. She was taller than him by a few inches and of a bigger build, probably from years of performing manual work in her village. Trimple pushed at the woman with his free hand but she would swat it away with her stronger hand, each strike felt like it could break a finger.

A man walking through the street with a torch, lighting the oil staffs that would light up the village as it grew darker; the only light that would appear in this ageless village without electricity, noticed the commotion and skipped over.

"Grandma!" the man grabbed the woman off of Trimple, her hand still attached to the camera, he was strong enough to pull both of them of them to their feet. His body was extremely muscular; he was covered in tribal wolf tattoos. Neither person released their grip on the camera.

"Look! they have the machinery of the devil! They must be cast out of this place immediately!" She aimed at clawed hand at Trimple's face but missed. The man grabbed the woman's hand causing her to weaken her grip on the camera, one finger at a time, as if playing the 'this little piggy went to market' game.

"You need to leave" The man's voice was so cold that Trimple felt a chill.

"We are totally harmless people, we will not cause you any harm"

"You already have! That device you carry has caused nothing but trouble to our sacred village, it is the reason that you outsiders began coming here, and today alone we have seen and sent off over 50 of you! You are not welcome here, not you nor your money"

"But the hotel..." Began Trimple, his voice quaking, but the woman interrupted him "The hotel is for guests of our people only, that owner is just a greedy piece of filth"

She turned to the younger man.

"We will need to make the roads more dangerous, my grandson" The woman stroked the man's biceps, out of admiration if anything.

Trimple took back his initial impression of everyone seeming more civilized here. They were even worse than the previous villages; at least their tolerance could be bought with currency.

"Girl power! We are so ready to haunt some mansion! Woo hoo"

Moo jumped down the steps from the hotel, kicking and punching the air, followed by Ming. They were now wearing matching Kimonos; Ming's was bright blue, while Moo's was a dark shade of red. They straight away noticed the look of confrontation in Trimple's face and eyes.

"I assume these dirty girls are with you" snapped the woman, eyeing up the two girls.

"Whoa that was a bit harshy, we barely know you!" gasped Ming, putting her hands to her mouth, acting shocked.

Moo noticed the blood on Trimple's shirt then saw the scratch marks on his face.

"Oh Trimple, did this old lady make you bleed?" She smirked, and then turned to the old woman. "So what is your problem?"

The old woman and the man repeated almost word for word what they had said to Trimple. Ming and Moo tried to argue their case but could not restrain from giggling at the woman at every opportunity when she spoke, her deep voice tickling their sense of humour. As they spoke Trimple noticed that in all of the windows of the houses there people looking outside, the faces he could see clearly all had terrified expressions on them, this prompted him to make his decision:

"Let's leave" He sounded defeated.

"I did not comey all this way and sleepy in a dirty old shed to just turn back empty handed Trimpley!" Ming's voice did not change pitch; shouting was never one of her strongest talents.

"Things will get violent if you are not gone within ten minutes" The man turned his back to the girls and casually continued his work of lighting the staffs. The man's voice still lacked any emotion.

The old woman faced Trimple, he slightly recoiled at this, and then she spat on the floor near to his feet and walked off. Trimple placed the camera back in the car.

"Get in girls"

Moo got into the car without any hesitation.

"Moo, what are you doing?" Ming placed her head inside the car.

"They said we must leave the village, so we will. But they never said anything about not going to the mansion" Moo gave another of her big smirks.

Trimple said nothing but knew that was not true. They all got into the car and drove off out of the village. The place was now completely silent, the only sound was the burning embers which chased around the staffs that gave the village it's only light.

Death By Disobedience

After turning the corner outside of the village Moo ordered Trimple to stop the car. He parked in a layby under dark trees which rendered the car invisible to anything other than a cat.

The team gathered all of items they would require for filming, turned on their flashlights and walked off into the dense, dark, seemingly endless forest, their lights barely making a dent in the darkness that surrounded them.

Trimple pulled out a map of the forest from his pocket and passed it to Moo. He had found it on the internet, it was the only map of the area that seemed to exist, everything about the village itself was a mystery but there was there some news stories about the mansion; he had heard that it was built by a wealthy Chinese businessman back in the 1930s. He had built it as a secret getaway but he and his family were slaughtered in there by an unknown butcher. The house was a secret for many years after but five years ago it was found by a couple who went adventuring in the Brazilian wilderness; the man claimed that his wife was killed by the ghost of a butcher and he was lucky to survive, other users on a massive internet message board topic had claimed they would search for the mansion themselves but no one ever returned to tell their story.

Was it all a hoax? Trimple pondered this many times but if it was real then this location would easily make the girls television programme soar to the highest cloud in the sky, making him a rich little man.

"We can start filming here" Announced Moo.

Both girls stood side by side, quietly waiting for Trimple to begin filming, he always treasured these short, blissful moments, because when the camera rolls, the intensity is turned up to maximum.

"Ok, filming in 3, 2, 1...GO"

The blinding flashlight of the camera overwhelmed the darkness and the girls looked like angels basked in holy favour.

"Hello! I'm Ming!!"

"And I'm Moo!!"

"What's it to you!?"

Both girls let out boisterous laughter, stamped their feet and hugged each other, Trimple signalled them to keep it down a little; they did not want the village to hear them.

Moo calmed herself by taking exaggerated big breaths and performed the opening speech for the episode.

"Welcome to the fourth! yes fourth! episode of Ming and Moo's haunted adventures! Today we are deep in the wild lands of Brazil! it really is a savage place out here and the people just make it even more brutal! We are now currently just on the outside of the village of Waksando! We were not welcome in the racist village but that does not stop Ming and Moo from doing what they do! we are here to find a legendary haunted mansion..."

Moo explained the story while Ming excitedly nodded throughout, looking frequently at the camera then back at Ming.

Moo continued, "We will now film every second of our adventure; nothing will be edited so you will all see everything that we experience, let's do it Ming!"

The girls let out a shrieking battle cry and performed a high five to each other.

They turned around and ventured deeper into the thick blackness, Ming felt fearful from the moment they walked into the forest, but having to maintain a preppy attitude for the audience.

The girls constantly chatted to each other, and the camera, while traversing the woods. This was to keep the viewer constantly engaged, Moo would be the leader of the conversations, usually mentioning potential horrific events that could happen to them at any moment, or quickly acting surprised as if she had seen something in the darkness around her.

One of her favourite actions was to scare Ming, she knew the girl was easily scared so would relentlessly make her jump or say something to make her skin crawl. The audience loved it and garnered her great feedback.

"Oh this mappy is so hard to read Moo Moo! Everything looks the samey same!" Ming jumped up and down like she was throwing a childish tantrum; she was struggling to fathom how to read the map; it was never one of her talents, that is why she was given the role of navigator, people always found her confusion extremely humorous.

"Give it to me, Ming" Moo reached in her pocket and pulled out a small silver compass while taking the map from Moo. She stared intently at both items for a few long moments then began to trudge off; Ming and Trimple followed. "It's about 10 minutes this way"

They continued their walk, dodging small rabbit holes in the floor, while keeping up their frantic acting. No matter how far they walked the scenery never seemed to change, they could have been walking around the same part of the forest repeatedly and would have no idea they were doing so.

"Quiet!" Trimple whispered as loud as a whisper would let him. He shut off the light to his camera, placing them in a complete black void, the only light radiating from the moon which could be seen shyly through a small gap in the roof of the tree beds.

The girls immediately ceased their movement, their eyes followed the direction of where Trimple's out stretched finger was aiming, his eyes stuck firmly on the small screen on his camera, the girls, unable to see a thing, shuffled besides him and looked at what he was seeing through the grimy night vision on the camera.

In the distance they could make out two seemingly male figures. They both had one hand each on the legs of another figure behind them, it was a woman; the faint cries gave that much away.

"I hope you're catching all of this!" Moo said, while keeping her eyes on the live footage.

Ming felt fear bubbling inside of her, slowly rising within her body. She never expected anything to actually be happening in the area, she always assumed that the places they went to were never truly dangerous and were purely used for easy footage. She expected this to just be a simple, small village with nothing eventful happening.

The men quickly went out of sight. Trimple suggested that the girls use their flashlights from now on and he will record in night vision, this would hopefully keep them incognito to whoever was out in the abyss.

"That was so totally awesome" Moo looked at the camera in absolute delight, so ecstatic with the footage they just captured.

"Moo, this looks pretty serious, maybe we should-" Trimple's concerns were quickly shut down by Moo who gestured 'not a chance in hell'.

They continued on, now being slower and quieter than they have ever been in any of their episodes when they finally pushed past a large bush and what came into view was something they were expecting but also not quite expecting either.

The mansion they were seeking was definitely real but they had no idea that it would be this gigantic. It was massive, nearer to a castle than a mansion; it had two huge towers, one on each corner of the front, and both looked fit to house Rapunzel. It had small windows everywhere, separated by even larger windows that would peer into more important, larger rooms, but everything was boarded up, obscuring any views inside. The building itself showed it's age, it would have been white back in its prime years but now maintained a dark grimy green appearance, brick showing underneath, like a person who has pieces of their skin missing, showing the flesh within.

The team were in awe at what they were seeing. Moo quickly ran up the large steps, each step was four times bigger than a normal step, requiring her to almost leap from one to the other. She tried to open the door but it was large and thick, and expectedly, locked. She peered her flashlight into the crack in the door and noticed it was barricaded from the other side.

"We need to find another way in" She ran around to the side of the mansion and found a small window that was barricaded, however, it looked loose; she placed her two hands around the edges, then slammed one leg on the wall and pulled. The wood began to bend like a spoon being pulled from both edges, but her strength alone was not sufficient.

Trimple placed his camera on the ground and ran to help her; the four hands pulled at the wood; whoever had placed them here had not wanted anyone to easily enter the premises. Eventually they heard a snap followed by the boards coming flying off, the force at which they detached from the window caused the plank to smash Trimple in the face, causing a tooth to leave its burrow and land onto the floor, never to be found in the darkness.

Ming ran over to Trimple and checked that he was not severely injured; he was just shaken, his mouth red from where the tooth had been forced out.

Moo however did not wait to see if he was in good health and smashed the window open with a brick laying nearby and climbed inside, without even looking inside first.

Ming, holding her breath, watched Moo vanish into the darkness of the interior, the wait for any signs from Moo seemed to last an eternity.

The Mansion Of The Moon

"Guys, get in here!" Ming let out a huge gasp of air at the sound of Moo's voice. She helped Trimple to his feet then followed Moo through the small window, avoiding the small sharp pieces of glass which still decorated the rims.

Trimple arrived inside just behind Ming and aimed his camera around the room, the flash now back in usage. It was a large kitchen, in the centre was an elegant workplace and around the corners of the room were drawers and cupboards that were covered in dirt and filth, and...

"Oh my god" It was said by Trimple but inside Ming it echoed even louder, but she could not find the voice to express it.

The walls and everything were covered in blood. Blood of various shapes and sizes, from hand prints, to long thick smudges, to shapes that looked as if a human body had been smashed against it.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Screamed Ming, but a quick hand from Moo ceased it from continuing.

"This is exactly what we came to see!" Excitedly exclaimed Moo, she then walked over to Ming and grabbed her hand.

"But, but, looky at the place, this is too muchy for us to handely" She was now visibly shaking, as if she was in a middle of a city shattering earthquake.

"Look it will be okay, the place is abandoned, you saw all of the barricades, we will look around then leave" She had no intention of leaving for a good while but needed Ming to remain calm, she released her hold on Ming's arm moving towards the broken window entrance she had made and attempted to push a large wardrobe like structure in front of it. It was too heavy for her to manage by herself so she aimed a glance towards Trimple. He felt just like Ming and knew this place was trouble but quick thoughts of his family made him agree to stay and he helped Moo block the window.

"Now no one will know that we entered, let us explore this wondrous place in peace!" She spread her arms out and beamed a grin towards the camera after just reminding herself that she is here to record a television program. She looked and sounded like a child in a sweet shop.

They walked through the kitchen then into the adjoined hallway; the place was like a maze with lots of small rooms everywhere. The hallway was surprisingly thin, it would be easy to get lost inside here. The walls were still smothered in blood, a long trail on the wall that looked like a hand being dragged across it made tears fill in Ming's eyes.

Moo led the way, followed by Ming in extremely close proximity while Trimple kept his distance to keep clear footage of the girls.

The plan in Moo's head was to check every single room and every single drawer, she wanted to know exactly what had happened in this place and would not leave until doing so, the blood soaked rooms phased her not at all.

Each room had a very similar appearance; a portrait of a wolf was always hanging over the entrance to every room. Wallpaper was scarce to be seen, and that which was, was either torn or hanging off of the walls. The carpets were old and sticky, the gangs feet stuck for a split second every time they attempted to make a new step and concluded with a sloppy wet sound. There was very little furniture to be seen and the rooms that were furnished by wardrobes and drawers were mostly empty. As they continued to look in each and every room, Moo began to feel slightly disappointed.

They approached a pair of large double doors. The quality of the door was grander than that of anything they had seen so far. Moo pushed the large doors open and inside was something like a treasure trove.

It was full of antiques, drawers and wardrobes and various other gadgets from many eras. The girls scanned their flashlights around the room like mini spot lights zooming around the walls. Ming, now feeling slightly more at ease, distanced herself slightly from Moo and explored the opposite side. She truly had forgotten that all of the other rooms were caked in blood and was fascinated by what she was seeing; she loved old antiques and when younger would often visit antique shops with her parents and this room she was in felt to her like the greatest antique room ever.

Moo was not so quick to forget where she. She moved over to a corner which contained a large circular table; on the table were lots of different camera's. They were cameras that varied in age and technology, she picked up the ones with a LED screen hoping to view any footage within, but there was no signs of life in any of them. Trimple, an expert on cameras, noticed something on the table and moved past Moo. He picked up a small red camera and examined it through his camera.

"Oh no..." he gasped and dropped the red camera to the floor.

"What's the issue?" Moo looked confused at the sudden terror that appeared on his face.

"This cam-this camera was created and released in Japan just two months ago, that means that this room has been used at least once since then, and why would that camera be sitting here? it's worth thousands"

The implications of what he said dawned on Moo before he even finished his sentence

"Ming?! Ming?!" She bounced her flashlight over the large room hoping to see Ming but all she heard was her shriek.

Ming approached a large, majestic wardrobe with golden handles, she knew it would hold upwards of 100 petite dresses. She removed the loose, open padlock on the handles and pulled them wide open, part of her hoping that it would accommodate a portal leading her back to her home in Tokyo.

Inside were bodies: Bodies missing limbs, bodies with disfigured faces, bodies which looked like they had been drained of most of their blood, causing their skin to sag. They had been maintained in plastic bags to preserve their skin from rotting. The suddenness of Ming opening the door caused the bodies to lurch towards her as if attacking. Crushing her.

As the bodies piled on top of her she felt all manners of fleshy body parts, from sagging breasts, to flaccid penis'; No matter where she pressed her hands, there was something to remind her that she was being flattened by dead corpses.

Trimple and Moo ran towards the sound of the commotion, tripping and crashing into all of the obstacles that were in their way; no pain was felt as the urge to reach the point of collision was the only thought in their minds.

They reached the piles of bodies, cuts and bruises now covering the lower parts of their bodies.

Ming was nowhere to be seen.

"Ming where are you?!" Moo shouted as loud as she could, but the question was instantly answered as she heard a whimpering sound ushering up from beneath the pile of bagged bodies. She pushed the bodies on top aside and Ming sprung up from within, hands first, like someone performing a dive.

"I can't do this anymore!" Ming screamed, the fear constantly swelling inside of her had now reached boiling point; irrational insanity had now made itself comfortable inside of her head. Her face looked distorted and red, her eyes bulged with tears and she was panting heavily. She looked towards the large doors they entered through and fled the scene.

"Don't you god damn ruin this for me!" Moo shouted as Ming vanished from view.

"Trimple don't forget to get footage of the bodies, get in close then catch us up" She followed in pursuit of Ming.

Ritual

Ming ran through the blood soaked hallway keeping her eyes to the ground; not wanting to see the cruelty which surrounded her, not wanting to see the blood and put a face to it. She had no idea where she was moving to; she just had a childish inner hope that running would solve all of the problems and she would run around a corner and be back in her home, with her family, safe, looking forward to eating dinner and joking with her parents about her day.

She ran and ran, turning corner after corner, her feet no longer feeling the slight resistance of the blood stained carpets. Her sprint was cut short from a small hole in the floor which her tiny foot clasped hold of like In a vice, causing her to crash hard into the floor, her face firmly placed into the carpet she so detested to be near; causing vomit to expel itself from within her.

"Ming, what's gotten into you!?" Moo caught up with her, kneeling besides beside her on the floor, she turned her around and propped her up against her thigh.

"I'm not like you Moo Moo, I don't like all this scary wary stuff, I only did all of this for famey and fortuney, not for the lovey of horror." Tears and snot ran down her face, merging together with the vomit on her chin, then dripping down onto her Kimono.

"I know you did silly, but the contrast in our personalities is what makes us so good at this, I would never let any harm come to you, nor would Trimple" Moo's voice was softer than it usually was, losing it's slightly rough edge. She wiped the sick from around Ming's face.

Both girls smiled at each other, then tightly hugged, their Kimono's merging together, the blue and red uniting. The silence brought on by this caused a sound that was always there, but unheard of over their small heart to heart.

"Chains" Moo whispered "It sounds like chains..."

A short distance away, chains could be heard rattling beneath them. Trimple came up behind them, his boots making the sloppy sound on the carpet. Moo put her finger to her mouth, causing him to cease his movement, making him also hear the same sound that caused the girls to be in complete stillness.

"We need to check it out" Moo's voice was still a whisper.

"No please, no" Ming grabbed at Moo's collar, pleading with her

"What if it is a person trapped down there and we could help them live? wouldn't you want that, Ming?" Moo knew how to appeal to Ming's sense of right, she knew this would give Ming the power to continue on and not force them to leave this place she still deemed fascinating.

Ming nodded, her body too afraid to say the words that would cause them to delve deeper into this mansion of blood.

The girls climbed to their feet, Ming stumbling slightly, her ankle twisted from the fall. She placed her arm around Moo and they slowly walked to the sound of the chains, it getting louder every step they took.

"We need to find the door which leads to the basement" Moo now keeping her voice at an absolute minimal volume, causing Trimple to edge in closer to enable the camera to pick up her vocals.

They rounded more turns, left, then right, then left again, pushing open door after door, but seeing the same old looking rooms. The team felt like they were in a labyrinth, playing someone's game and getting lost, amusing the person who had created the twisted hallway infested location.

After ten more minutes of playing the game they concluded it by opening a small metal door; it was completely unlike the other doors and contained a chain around its handle. Ahead of them were steep steps leading downwards; at the bottom faint light could be seen which flickered and stirred against the darkness.

"Do you hear that?" Ming stumbled with the words, the fear still taking control of her body.

It was the sound of faint chanting, now mixed in with the sounds of the chains.

Moo instructed Ming to remain at the top of the stairs, and then she and Trimple made their way downstairs, the camera now back in nightvision mode. The steps were thin causing the pair to place their feet sideways as they descended. At the bottom of the stairs was a small landing which lead to more steps leading right.

Moo placed her back to the wall and peered around the corner, looking down.

It was an immensely large dungeon, there were torches alight in the centre in a circular pattern, all on sticks similar to the ones seen on the streets in the village; but the room was so large that the room was still in vast darkness, the circle of flames looking like a flaming ring in the darkness of space.

In the centre of the circle of fires were ten men dressed like wolves; they were half naked only in their underwear and wore a head garment and cloak combination which gave their heads the appearance of a wolf, which stretched all of the way down their back. They were in a circle chanting words that Moo and Trimple had no comprehension of. Moonlight pierced through a large hole in the ceiling which emitted a bright light in the centre of the men.

"This is some messed up shit" Moo whispered towards the camera, which was now behind her catching all of the bizarre footage.

Below the steps in an overhang Moo would see where the sounds of the chains were coming from. It was the woman they had seen being dragged through the forest; she was naked and looked bruised, dirty and weak, now only able to barely shake the chains which bound her to the wall, it would've been unheard by the team at this volume.

One of the men nearest to them raised his head, turned around and approached the girl. She tried to mutter some words to him but her mouth had been filled with what looked like wood, so sharp that it pierced her skin from the inside and poked itself through to the outside world.

He unchained her from her bind causing her body to slump to the floor; her body too weak from the constant fighting to free herself. She had given up and accepted her fate to these wolf men.

With just one hand he dragged her to the centre of the room, her flesh being torn on the rough stone ground, then threw her onto the edge of the moonlight. She sat up and looked towards the bright heavenly light. She thought of her family, her friends, her beloved husband who had been captured with her but was nowhere to be seen.

She hoped for someone to just jump in at the last moment and save her.

It was done. Her head detached itself from her body and landed directly in the centre of the light; her eyes were wide open with tears staining her face. Her body remained in the position it was in. It too, like Moo, was in complete shock and could not move.

Moo's eyes met the woman's gaze. The celestial light beamed directly onto her cold, motionless retinas, causing two bright beacons to shine directly towards Moo; she looked like a phantom. For a moment Moo felt a strong pain within her chest, an inner sting she had never felt before and hoped to never feel again; empathy.

Her body finally caught up with what had occurred and collapsed, blood forming like a pool around her body; slowly slithering away as if trying to escape, hoping to find a new host.

The man behind her casually walked off into the darkness with his shining sword, the cut had been so clean that the sword required no wiping.

Eight of the men remained chanting while another picked up the young woman's head, holding it in the air; chanting louder, different sentences than the other cultists.

This went on for minutes. Moo and Trimple were too startled and amazed to move or even think of what they should do next. But the next step was decided for them when a voice came from behind them.

"Did you know that wolves can see in the dark?"

A Psychotic Love

The power in the neighbourhood had gone out.

In the corner of the room faintly lit by candlelight was a red eyed Studley, his quaking mouth bound by a dirty cloth rag.

The stump of his arm had ceased its bleeding but still caused him immense pain; it had been like a nightmare to him.

His arms and legs were tied.

Lisa, with huge dark circles under her eyes, rocked back and forth on the king-sized bed, while munching on a chocolate bar, in and out of the glow of the candle, humming to herself gentle tunes, hoping to lull Studley off to sleep.

The light detection of infection stung at Studley's handless arm. He cried out through the soaked rag.

Lisa's eyes grew wide and appeared as dark as a rat in the dim flickering light.

"Don't make a sound, shhh, we mustn't let anyone hear you" She whispered like a mad woman talking to one of her cats, one finger repeatedly bouncing off her lips. "You know the rules, shhh"

Studley tightly pushed his lips together and made the 'shhh' sound to himself.

There had not been a single sound in the streets since the two police officers had died; even the birds had given up all hope for this place.

Lisa had not known what to do when Studley dismembered himself. She had spent the previous day in complete mind numbing shock.

Studley had used most of his time crying. He didn't understand why he was in so much pain or why he had to be so quiet.

"They won't take you from me Studley" She stared hard to him "No they won't"

She had bound and gagged him to ensure his own safety. The military and the wolves both wanted his body. He is so sought after but he is hers and only hers.

Nothing was going to make them leave this place.

NOTHING.

The Wolves And The Wolf Men

The pair swiftly spun around to see the cultist with the sword, his hands around the face of Ming, tears flowing from her eyes down his large, hairy hands.

He used Ming as an offensive shield forcing them down the stairs to the other cultists. They bound the trio's hands using barbed wire; it dug into their skin causing small holes of blood to appear, sliding around their arms like a red bracelet decorating the tangled wire.

All of the cultists were impossible to distinguish from the other; their bodies and faces were dark, rough and covered in tattoos; the same tattoos of wolves, wolves howling to the moon, and wolves feeding on corpses; men, buffalos, lions. The list went on.

"You three should not have come here" said one of the cultists, his voice deep and low, it sounded like he was trying his hardest to manipulate this voice; but his face showed no signs of effort to talk.

"You have posed a problem, we only need to sacrifice one limb from one human being once a month..." Said another man.

"And we will not waste resources keeping three of you alive over a period of four months; we already have another sacrifice in storage" Added one of the others.

"Why are you doing this!?" Ming asked, her face now completely wet from sweat and tears.

"That is of no concern for you ignorant outsiders, you come here with your toys, sticking your face where it is not required. For years you fools looking for a story come here. You all think you're doing something different but we have encountered many of your kind over the years and none have left to tell the story. This time will be no different. Kill them"

The man with the sword unsheathed it from its holster on his back.

"No limbs to worry about brother; just have some fun" Said one of the men.

Ming, Moo and Trimple all separated and ran in different directions.

The man noticed Ming struggled to make any speed, like a deer trying to hop around with a broken leg, so instead charged towards Trimple who had fled into the darkness of the dungeon.

The man was as swift as a wolf; he ran circles around Trimple, even though he was in darkness the man felt like a shadow constantly floating around Trimple, periodically poking the sword into various points on Trimple's body; causing small spikes of pain to be felt all over.

Trimple had no idea where to feel pain; it was constant, continuous, everywhere. A stab to his thigh, then a stab to his arms, then a stab to his stomach. He wasn't sure how deep it was breaching but he felt the warm fluid gushing onto his flesh.

The wolfman was playing with its meal.

Moo reached the far wall of the dungeon hopelessly slapping her bound hands against the hard stone wall; she found a door but it was completely solid; she pulled at the handle but it did not even quiver for a brief moment; the barbed bracer causing each pull to sting at her skin.

She turned around and ran back towards Ming who had given up her run just towards the edge of darkness. She forced her up and the women charged to the stairs which was blocked by one of the cultists; a massive grin formed on his face showing his dirty, black, gapped teeth.

They ran into him; it was like a gazelle attempting to charge down a rhinoceros; futile.

The man effortlessly pushed the girls to the ground, their wired arms merging together, ripping flesh from both of their supple wrists.

Moo, dazed from the fall, looked out past the cultists and into the darkness, holding a light pathetic hope that Trimple had bested his pursuer and would valiantly emerge from the void wielding the sword and banish all of these madmen; but it was an insane hope as she knew Trimple was even physically weaker than she was.

Suddenly a small dark figure elegantly dropped from the moonlight, landing almost without a sound.

The cultists all turned in astonishment at the arrival of this sacred beast.

It was an unnaturally large wolf. It bathed in the moonlight giving it an unholy appearance, it's fur was brown, thick and looked sharp enough to cut glass. It was motionless.

It peered around the room, deciding which target was worthy of joining the ranks, and those who were deemed merely food, or rather, something to play with.

The cultists all gathered around it, linked their arms and began a new chant.

It fired. The spike penetrated through the stomach of one of the men, coming through the other side; he fell backwards and the hard spike kept his body hovering at an angle.

The men did not cease their chant. The man with the sword appeared and joined in the circle.

One of the men lost their nerve at this point and started to run, but the wolf did not allow this; it jumped on his back, dug its teeth deep and ripped out the entirety of the man's spine; the body instantly collapsed, the man's face in his own crotch. This caused another man to feel an urgency to escape, the movement just made the wolf pick them as its target.

Running prey is always the first to go.

"Brothers, this is our dest-" another wolf dropped down and placed a spike directly through the swordsman's mouth, cutting his sentence short and bloody.

The girls, close to the now unguarded stairs, chose this as their moment to escape; they rose to their feet and crept their way up the thin steps; Moo taking a brief moment to pick up Trimple's camera which had been left there by the cultists.

At the top of the first flight of stairs Moo stopped and aimed the camera at the carnage that was taking place, amazed at the footage she was obtaining. While she may have been in utter shock, her body was begging for nothing more than to run away, but her mind's desire to witness something as incredibly brutal as this kept her in place; if only she knew that by now this had already been seen first-hand by millions of people; soon to be billions.

Ming tugged at Moo's arm; it was like trying to move a two hundred pounds statue. She was stuck admiring what she was witnessing. But the time to make an exit did arrive as two more wolves landed through the hole in the ceiling making the killing and spike tossing a much faster event.

One wolf spotted Moo's peeking head and leapt towards her; the girls ran up the steep stepped hill, skipping three steps at a time, and slammed the door behind them.

The girls planted their backs against the sturdy door but the sheer strength of the large beast caused it to smash the door open with ease, sending both girls tumbling along the corridor. Moo recovered instantly to her feet, her immediate instinct was to grab Ming and drag her along with her.

Moo felt that this was what her life was always leading towards. She always fantasised about being in a situation such as this, fighting for her life, constantly seconds and inches away from death. No matter how hard her heart pushed through her chest, her mind thrived on this, she had played similar scenarios out time after time. She loved the rush.

The girls ran around the corners of the stretching hallways; it was almost pitch black except for the odd bits of moonlight that came through the open doors in the hallway. The amount of corners they turned gave them an advantage over the wolf as it needed to stop and reposition itself after every turn; it's agility was very mechanical, it was much more suited to the sprawling outdoors.

They approached a dead end with only wooden steps leading upstairs; turning back was not an option. Moo pictured in her mind how she would sway and dodge around the wolf but in reality she knew this is not how it would play out.

The duo sprinted up the old stairs, each landing foot causing the boards to creak and crack. A few more steps upon them would surely cause them to snap and fall from their cradle.

The wolf took a galloping leap onto the stairs; its jaw latched onto the tail end of Ming's kimono, keeping her pinned to the stairs. Her fear choked throat let out a nasally squeal. The wolf gently pulled at the kimono not wanting to tear it but wanting to keep the girl in place for its brothers and sisters to help finish the hunt.

A Lifetime Regret

As Ming frantically tried to untie the kimono from around herself with trembling hands, Moo slid to the side of her and continually kicked the wolf's face, taking delight in each blow; the wolf snarled loudly, bile dripping from the side of its mouth. Yet the wolf did not detach itself.

From around the corner another wolf appeared and instantly leapt, landing on the steps next to the other wolf; the combined weight of these beasts caused the steps to finally give up the task they were created to perform such a long time ago and fell to the floor below, ripping part of the kimono off in the process, revealing the yellow flesh of Ming's legs.

The girls, on the sheer edge of the still stable steps, ran into the nearest room to them and slammed the door behind them. Moo hurriedly forced all of furniture she could find in front of the door. It would keep the wolves at bay for a short time.

Both girls sat down with their backs against the blockade. Ming's face was dripping wet with sweat, her body was shivering and she was panting loudly, finding it a task to breathe efficiently.

Moo, still feeling the high from the chase, leant in and kissed Ming on her soaking lips, Ming instantly reciprocated the action and both girls embraced; tongue's fighting in each other's mouths. Moo placed a hand through the hole in Ming's kimono and slid her hand up towards the central pleasure point, causing Ming to exhale in pleasure.

Ming grabbed at the left breast of Moo and placed her nipple between two fingers, lightly twisting and pulling, feeling it erect with each motion.

A loud thundering sound came from the door behind them, shaking both of the girls as the blockade rumbled; provoking Moo to pull back slightly.

She pulled up the camera to her face and ejected the video tape from inside and placed it inside a pocket in her Kimono, then faced Ming.

"You know how much I love you despite our differences Ming?"

"I love you too Moo Moo, forever and a dayie"

Moo stood up and pulled Ming up with her.

"As we once promised, it is better for one of us to live than two to die" Said Moo.

She moved the furniture to the side.

"Moo, what are you doingy?!" fear swelled her face as realisation set in.

Moo grabbed her arms from both sides.

"You were a great friend and I will miss you"

She threw the door wide open, enabling full access to the dark, wolf infested hallway, and without looking she shoved Ming out into the wolves den, hastily shutting the door behind her.

Moo, not wanting to hear the howls of death, charged towards the small barricaded window, hands in front of her face, and jumped straight through it; the impact of the strong wood snapped the fragile bones in one of her hands.

She landed outside on the cold hard grass with a painful bone crunching thump.

#

Sex Slave

The pain in her head was so incredible, like the morning after a night of drinking at least two large bottles of vodka.

Claudia opened her eyes but her vision was still unsteady; she could just about make out two figures on the table next to her, she could not comprehend the sounds as they were all muffled. She tried to move her arms but they felt heavy and restricted.

She wondered what had happened the night before and how she had managed to let herself get this drunk again. She had sworn this would never happen again.

Her brain then clicked into motion and she remembered exactly the situation she was in. She tried to jolt up but her arms were bound to a small table and her feet just about dangled off the end.

She peered back to the other two figures and could now very clearly see them; it was one of those large freaks having sex with a woman; against her own will.

She was crying and facing Claudia, but with her eyes tightly closed, her face soaked in tears.

The man was being extremely rough with her, showing her no respect and not caring one bit if she was enjoying the moment. He constantly slapped his hand against her face, blood spraying after each hit.

The woman must have been in her fifties; with long brown hair. She was completely naked.

Claudia glanced around the room and noticed there was another woman being sexually assaulted in the far corner. The other tables in the room were full of unconscious, bruised, bleeding women.

The door to the room swung open and small deformed man quickly approached Claudia, he licked his lips as he scanned her up and down.

"No! Get the hell off me!" Shouted Claudia as the man grabbed at her legs.

She tried to kick him away with all of her remaining power but he had quick hands and a strong grasp. He spread her legs apart effortlessly and put them in locks at either edge of the table; they snapped shut hard, Claudia felt that her legs would have shattered if the man had misplaced them; perhaps that is what happened to the other women. She was now stuck in a very vulnerable position and would have no way to stop the man doing whatever he wished.

The man mounted the table on all fours, covering Claudia from view from anyone behind him. All she could do in retaliation was to spit at him until her mouth ran dry and her lips began to crack. The man didn't wait for that and put his hand over her face. She tried to bite his hand but he had far too much force pressed onto her face.

She could not move any part of her body.

She closed her eyes and tears began to fall down her cheeks. Then, she felt a weird thick fluid gush onto her neck and slither down her torso.

The man's grip on her face loosened and he got off the table in haste. Claudia opened her eyes and saw that the man was struggling with something behind his back, something he couldn't reach with his arms.

She looked down at her body and noticed that she was covered in blood, then she noticed a wolf on the back of the man's neck and it was tearing deeply into his flesh.

Around the room were more wolves; at least 4. They must have followed her through the door in the cabin. They were attacking everything in the room, man and woman. The deaths were so quick that no one in the room had time to utter sounds of intense pain.

The guy that was on top of Claudia had fallen to the floor, his body given up from the ferocious abuse. The wolf that had felled him stood on his body and stared at Claudia, an indifferent look in his eyes. The wolf had soft grey fur but contained the eyes of a young puppy; it looked completely innocent.

Claudia starred back, completely dumbfounded and with no idea what to think of the situation, her mind had for the first time in her life, drawn a blank.

Another wolf jumped on the table and began chewing and stamping at the chains that bound Claudia, two more soon joined in to help.

They appeared to not care for their own wellbeing, despite the pain it must have been causing them, and continued to slowly grind down the chains.

When her arms had eventually been freed Claudia just lay there, still starring back at the wolf that had conquered her 'attacker'.

Her legs were then also freed and Claudia's brain finally decided to awaken from its shock. She timidly began to move and lower herself from the table.

The room was in a complete mess, the bodies of the women had been ravaged to the point where they were unrecognisable, and in the corner near to Claudia was a massive pile of human bodies, mostly women who had given up the fight. What caught her attention the most was the body of one of the men that the wolves had attacked; it was convulsing and the man began to howl in such intense pain, a sound of pain Claudia had never come close to experiencing.

Claudia first hand experienced the excruciatingly painful transformation from man to wolf. The newly born wolf just sat up, proudly, completely covered in blood; it seemed to not have a care in the world. She could not believe what she was seeing; she had only ever seen such things in late night horror shows on television.

She wished that she was truly hung over from an extreme binge drinking night and she was purely hallucinating.

Suddenly she slapped herself hard across the face; hard enough to make herself stumble backwards. "Snap out of it!" she said angrily to herself, annoyed at letting herself get overwhelmed by the predicament.

She stopped and looked around; there was at least 10 wolves all sitting, starring at her, not moving a muscle.

She quickly walked to the open door, the wolves' dark black eyes following her, and walked down the bleak, quiet corridor; hoping to find some sort of exit to get off this island. She didn't want to think about deeply about the events that had just transpired.

The corridor was much narrower than the other corridors she had been in and there was very little light; there was one torch every 200 meters lighting up small parts of the corridor, which was slowly turning into more like a tunnel.

She could hear the patter of many feet behind her, no doubt the horde of her wolf worshippers. She knew she was extremely alluring, so alluring that she could get any man she desired, and she has never failed in that endeavour, but not that alluring that she could even attract the affections of wild beasts.

She no longer knew if she should feel scared or not, if she were to be attacked again by these 'pirates' then the wolves would no doubt protect her and disable her attackers, but was there anything else to fear or had the wolves completely wiped out the rest of the threat?

Either way, Claudia had no sense of direction, she did not know where the men had taken her after she blacked out, but the way was going was a one way street; she had no choice but to keep on going ahead.

After getting further through the gradually darkening tunnel, with her hope also gradually darkening, she emerged in a large cave; it appeared to be a small dock. It was full of small boxes stacked on top of each other and in the water were a large collection of boats; both old and new. She also noticed a very familiar site which began this whole nightmare; the large pirate ship.

This was her perfect chance to escape, she had to get on one of these boats and ride it out of here, but finding one that works and she could start was another task.

All of her life she has been used to other people doing these things, at first it was her father, and then after he passed it was her butlers and maids, aided by the addition all the men she had seduced later in her life. But for the first time in her life she was going to have to do something by herself.

She exited the tunnel and walked through the maze of stacked boxes; she would need to take but one guess to know the contents.

There was no sign of any life around the docks nor was there any blood stains, Claudia pondered where the remaining people could have been.

She approached the edge of the docks and at all of the boats that were scattered carelessly around in the water, her only chance of using one was if they had left the keys somewhere on the boat, preferably in the ignition.

She started by climbing down into the boat that was nearest to her which was a small white speed boat. The climb down was uneventful; Claudia was expecting the frail rope ladder to snap at any moment.

She jumped from the rope into the speedboat, landing in a squatted position, and euphoria built immediately inside of her when she noticed that that the boat still had the key in its ignition.

She hastily jumped into the seat and grabbed onto the small circular key, its edges slightly rusted and age worn, and attempted to turn it. It moved around slowly in a dramatic fashion but eventually caused the boats engine to splutter to life.

Claudia slammed one hand on the steering wheel and performed a fist pump with the other hand after releasing it from the key. She put her foot on the pedal and the boat began to slide across the smooth, brown water. She looked back towards the cave entrance and was relieved to see that nothing was following her.

It was a challenge navigating the boat through the maze of other abandoned vessels, causing the journey to take an excruciating amount of time. With one hand still on the wheel she grabbed a long stick from the back of the boat and used it to edge the other vehicles out of her path.

As she was nearing the exit she heard a door swing open. She looked towards the left of the docks and witnessed three of the cannibals burst through the now open door. Panic welled up in her body, starting from her feet and ending in her fingers and the surge of energy caused her to shove the stick too hard into the next boat causing it to shatter. "Fuck, fuck!" she shouted as the cannibals jumped with agile movements from boat to boat. Moving through the field of boats was now a time consuming endeavour.

She acted quick and spun her boat into the one next to her that a cannibal had just landed on, causing him to lose his balance and fall into the water; the splash he made was a big one as the amount of water that flew over Claudia was no small quantity. The water tasted filthy and made Claudia gag hard. The other two cannibals halted their advance as they thought of a different way to approach. She placed the boat back on its previous course and continued her frantic journey past the final few boats to the tunnel leading to salvation.

Just as she made it past the final boat she felt something land in the boat behind her; it was one of the wolves, she recognised this one as the one that saved her from cannibal on the table. Woman and beast both stared into the eyes of each other, one waiting for the other to make some sort of move "They don't want me to leave this island..." thought Claudia in a defeated, deflated tone...and she knew at this point she was truly trapped so she turned back around and continued ahead until someone tried to stop her.

And someone did. A huge hand came out of the water and grabbed Claudia's head attempting to drag her into the depths. Luckily she had her hands firmly on the steering wheel but the rest of her body was half way over the side of the boat. She tried biting but the hand was too far above her mouth. The other hand then rose out of the water and grabbed at her torso and she felt as if her arms were going to be ripped off of her body due to the extreme sheer strength the arms possessed.

The wolf on the boat reacted to this event, charging towards Claudia, and tore at the large hulking hands straddling her. The hands released just as Claudia's grip waned on the wheel and they sank back down into the water.

She regained her composter and looked around to see that there were no cannibals left in sight. The other two had vanished. She switched her view to the wolf, now sitting on the passenger seat next to her, blood dripping from its mouth as it stared out towards the tunnel leading to daylight. Claudia beamed a smile and stroked its soft fur with one hand. She didn't understand why, but she finally realised these wolves wanted her alive but they weren't restricting her to the island.

Two fresh wolves watched from dry land as the woman and the wolf exited through the mouth of the tunnel and into the early morning daylight.

A Hope For Redemption

Moo, broken, battered and barely conscious, crawled across the sharp wet grass. It had been gently raining since their time in the house had begun.

She could hear the sound of agile feet running and jumping all around her, shaking the wet grass with each step.

Moo's head banged, not only from the fall but from also the forced sacrifice she made Ming perform.

She clawed herself across the ground until she reached the black forest from which three souls entered; only one re-entered.

She sat up against the side of a tree; her body obscured by dark shadows.

Through her head were thoughts of how she wanted this to end. She wouldn't die a coward. She would go out taking down some of the beasts with her. However, in her head the story never played out with her being so badly damaged.

She lost consciousness before she could perform her final act.

She woke some hours later, the sky even darker than it was before; the rain had stopped its descent.

The guilt raged within her body like a knife cutting through her from the inside out. The rush of the chase had made her do something she thought never possible.

Moo slowly stood up, using the tree for leverage, and walked through the pitch black forest aimlessly, wishing only to hear whiny words of complaint from Ming.

The forest was quiet. The wolves had quickly arrived and finished their job. Part of Moo wanted to encounter one of the beasts. To fight it, to die by it. To avenge, to be punished.

Just before she could see it, she heard the faint sound of burning; she was back at the village.

She emerged from the bushy jungle to a place that looked like time had stopped still there.

The village looked no different. There was no blood to be seen and the fire staffs were all still burning brightly; setting a patchy glow across the silent village, pieces of darkness evading the light.

Moo stumbled towards the centre of the village, looking all around her as she went. As she reached the central point of the city she heard a low rumbling sound come from the side of her.

She turned to the see a silhouette of a wolf approaching her from the shadows of one of the torches. Its body turning brown to black as it walked in and out of the light.

Moo was shocked to see the wolf was covered in blood from its face all the way down to the tip of its tail. She was even more shocked to see that it had a large piece of fabric wrapped around its torso. It was bright blue; Mings.

She couldn't fathom how this wolf had managed to get Ming's kimono around its waist.

"Ming?" The word quivered from her lips as she began taking steps towards the wolf.

The wolf raised its fur in defence of this.

A shot. The wolf fell down. Brains departed it's skull as it fell to the ground.

"You stupid girl! Get over here!" It was a deep womanly voice. Moo looked with crystallized eyes towards the sound; it was the strange woman who had told them to leave the village, she had a smoking gun held up to her face.

More growls from behind. The shot had alerted the other wolves.

Moo, much like a penguin, wobbled her way to the woman's house. Small brown pieces of hard fur rocketed past her body.

She ran up to a small flight of weak red stairs. Moo noticed that each step had brown spikes aggressively rammed into each of the steps. She was not the first one to be chased up these steps.

The woman took shots, quickly and professionally reloading her gun when necessary as Moo ascended.

"I told you to leave you silly girl!" She shouted, giving Moo a slap around her head as she entered the door behind her. Moo would not forget that.

The woman slammed the door behind her. The house was one medium sized room; it had a small kitchen area with a sink and one cupboard, a living room area with a sad looking sofa and an area with a small bed with a table next to it displaying a brown stained white lamp.

It stank.

"What's going on!?" Moo demanded, she put her hands on both of her hips.

"They are aliens! They are body snatchers! The woman spat with each word, the liquid escaping through the gaps of all her missing teeth.

"You mean, that wolf outside really was my friend?"

"If she was infected by one of the wolves then yes, most likely, everyone in the village is either dead or turned."

Moo paced around the room, finding it hard to believe.

"What about the crazy cultists in the old house?" Moo was genuinely interested in what they were up to.

"They offer sacrifices to the god of the wolf planet, hoping one day to receive his blessing. It's a legend that has been passed down to ours and the surrounding villages." The woman's face was intense and focused. She was being entirely honest.

"Well he blessed them all with death and they deserved it!" Moo felt anger building within.

"Perhaps" The woman lowered her head; her long tatty grey hair fell around her shoulders.

"But there is a way to stop and reverse what has happened" The woman raised her head to Moo.

"If you are willing to risk your life"

Moo wanted to believe that it was all nonsense. But she had seen the woman beheaded followed by a horde of wolves jumping down around it. She had seen a wolf wearing Ming's kimono, but it didn't confirm that it was her.

Moo was one to never turn down an adventure and if this could reverse everything that has happened, reverse this terrible night, then she would have her friend back. The friend she didn't know she cherished so much until she ended her life.

"I'll do it, whatever it is" Moo stood up straight, showing her confidence despite the pain still coursing through her body.

"I can cast an incantation that will unlock a portal within this very room that can transport you to the planet of the wolves. There you must kill the person who started all of this" The woman began making a lot of shapes and signs using her hands. Moo was bewildered.

The lady walked to a cupboard under the kitchen sink, gathered some items then immediately began chanting.

A loud thump at the door, followed by scratching then more thumping.

"They are trying to get in" Moo protested.

The woman continued her chanting.

"Do you even care?" Moo sighed.

Moo ran to the small windows in the room. Outside they appeared to be surrounded by the beasts. Moo could not see many due to the darkness, but she could see then moving in and out of the shadows of the fire staffs.

Spikes instantly shattered the glass into Moos face, cutting her skin whilst also adding another cut into the recently fresh cuts on her face; she hadn't seen them approach. The spikes velocity was so high that they managed to pierce straight through the ceiling and into whatever was above.

Moo quickly backed away from the windows and armed herself with the woman's gun. It was a heavy rifle that she had no idea how to use.

The chanting. The howling, The scratching. The thumping. The sounds all became louder and more frequent. Moo felt like her sanity would eventually collapse on her.

At this point she felt like she had gotten more than she had wished for from this adventure.

Moo turned around to see the woman's eyes glowing a bright white. She had drawn symbols on the floor. Her chanting rose to a rapid pace, words began merging together.

The symbols turned to different colours at an incredible rate; from blue to red to orange to black to purple. Moo felt like she was going to endure an epileptic fit if she stared at them for too long.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a bright blue portal appeared.

Two wolves jumped through the windows behind Moo. Two more burst through the main door of the house.

She looked back at them. She didn't hesitate with her decision; She ran towards the portal. She would see Ming again.

A voice boomed from the woman's possessed mouth; her voice deeper and darker than before

"You must kill the red haired woman. She must die for all to return to the way it was once"

Moo vanished into the pure blue portal as the woman was mauled by the gang of hungry wolves. Moo felt like she was being pulled through a dreamy beautiful blue ocean as the woman was washed in a river of her own dark thick blood.

The hunt would soon begin for the red haired woman.

Starvation

Her face was dripping, almost melting, with perspiration.

Food.

Where was the food? She thought she had at least a month's supply; how had it all gone in less than two days?

Lisa could barely think as she grunted and growled while she ransacked the house not paying any attention to the noise she was making.

She couldn't tell if it was day or night time but she didn't care. She needed food or she wouldn't make it another day.

She ran back to the bedroom and stared angrily at a bound Studley.

"What have you done with all of the food?!" She held herself like a strict teacher. "

Studley could not have answered through his gagged mouth even if he had wanted to.

"I've put up with you as much as any human possibly could and I have loved you since the day I was born but this is too much" She kicked empty packets of food as she let out a howl.

Lisa grabbed at the cloth that bound Studleys arms and legs and tore at them, slowly ripping them apart.

Studley cried out as his increasingly infected stump was repeatedly bashed into Lisa's large breasts.

"Oh, behave" Grunted Lisa.

She eventually tore him free of his shackles.

"We are getting in that patrol tank outside and going to find some food." She put her large, sweating face close to his. It looked like an evil grotesque witch in the low light. "Understood?"

Studley nodded. All he understood was the word 'food'.

Lisa halted. She placed a finger to his mouth and listened towards the barricaded window.

She could hear it. The chewing. Her full stomach growled.

She ran downstairs, a candle in one hand and Studley's stump in the other.

She followed the sound of chewing into the living room. She scanned the room and homed in on the sound. It came from behind the television; she knew it had been some little rodent that had stolen all of her goodies.

She smashed the television on to the ground and prepared to lung at whatever critter had taken her stock.

It wasn't a rodent and it wasn't small.

Multiple wolf heads were halfway into the room through the expanding gap in the wall. They were biting at the wooden frame of the house, rapidly making more room for their entire bodies to fit through.

Outside of the house the wolves had heard the woman's hungry rant and decided to sneakily chew at the wooden frames, hoping to silently enter for a surprise attack.

They didn't realise one of the residents residing inside had attuned hearing to the sound of eating.

Lisa panicked and snapped out of her food induced frenzy. She dropped the candle in her panic; it quickly caught fire to the drapes obscuring the boarded windows.

She ran for the kitchen. The basement would be the only way out. She grabbed the officer's car keys from the table as she passed it.

She looked behind. Studley was staring at the monsters as they entered through the hole into the glowing inferno.

"Studley!" Lisa Cried. "This way!"

He snapped back into the real world and jogged towards the sound of her voice.

They ran down the stairs into the abyss.

They raced through the basement tripping and kicking objects and shelves that tried to block their passage. Lisa was like a bull in a china shop as she charged through. Nothing was strong enough to stop the girl's large destructive frame. She barged into the two steel doors that locked the basement away, easily smashing it open and emerging outside just as the last wolf entered through the chewed hole into the house.

The street was luckily brightly lit by the flames that licked and thrashed from their quickly devoured abode.

The siblings quickly glanced at their family home for one last time before rushing into the patrol tank and driving off through streets of blood, corpses and destroyed homes.

#

#

#

Outbreak: Day Four

The Red Haired Angel

The smell of death a beautiful aroma to his nose, the taste of flesh a five star delicacy to his taste buds, the sound of screams like a grand orchestral melody in his mind. All of these were the senses that the great silver wolf felt almost constantly since being freed from his stony tomb.

He stamped through the towns, villages and cities passing judgement upon judgement on the residents. Weak, unhealthy, old and slow? Death. Food.

Young, Strong, agile or intelligent? You are forcefully invited to join the pack.

These discriminations were made almost instantly. Hardly any hesitations were permitted. The great silver spiked wolf knew his fur may be as tough as diamonds but it was certainly not impenetrable.

The wolves that join the pack's DNA is programmed like a computer AI, given algorithms on how to react in certain situations. These commands are transferred almost immediately when the penetration causing infection takes place.

These humans. They lose all sense of their life; family, friends, likes, dislikes, fears; but their knowledge remains; it reveals itself to the great wolf when the time for it is required.

His vision soared through darkness, thousands of duos of small white lights revealed to him what each and every follower was witnessing. He swiftly scanned the sockets. Two pregnant women arguing with a man. Kill. A village of old, decrepit people. Kill. The fat, ugly unhealthy woman and a mentally ill man in a heavily armoured travelling around all of the food shops they come across. The man's immunity to the infection intrigued the great wolf. Observe. Do not kill; Yet.

He continued scanning. Found her. The woman with shimmering long red hair. She must live; the wolf knew this, every wolf knew this, she is priority. Her death means death for all, but she was an anomaly. She could not be controlled. Her movements, her thoughts, her desires. This was all unknown to the wolf, he could not plan what she would do next; he had to have a physical pair of eyes on her at all time.

She is in a white boat soaring across the sea. Good; it appears she has begun to trust the wolves. She is safe where she is. For now.

The great wolf's vision returned to his own dark soulless eyes. Doing this left him vulnerable. This he knew was his great weakness, but to maintain and control the minds of thousands, soon millions of savage beasts, required great concentration.

Below him by three hundred feet was a place where many humans like to gather and spend the earnings they work so hard for. They spend it on frivolous items then complain they cannot afford to live properly. This was what the knowledge he possessed told him, constantly growing every second.

The silver wolf without any need for momentum leaped from the building, crashed through the glass ceiling and landed on the hard concrete floor; his sheer size and weight causing a tremor to emit itself from his landing location. One paw landed on the head of a large obese woman, crushing her head into hundreds of smaller pieces. No loss. Big meal later.

Screams immediately began. No time for games. Two young children sat quivering by a bench. Young, agile. He instantly shot two speeding small needles into the chests of both.

The pack now joined in, setting off on their pre-programmed journey to judge and control.

A short, fat man with a face resembling a troll, tears sprinkling down his cratered face. Related to the new young recruits. The wolf swung his large razor sharp tail. The man now fell down; Headless; Rejected.

This continued on for a long time. It had to be done. These humans were nothing but a tool in the grander scheme of things.

The army in their green appearance approached. Guns firing. Not much of a threat; wolves knew the approximate amount of the average clip size. Wait. Dodge. Attack.

An explosion. Many wolf casualties. Need to access situation.

No concern for their own people. Buildings, lives and potential followers destroyed.

The wolf jumped from wall to wall to obtain a vantage point.

Large vehicle on tires like a conveyer belt. Large long dangerous weapon on the front. Yet to have witnessed such a thing.

The wolf stared for a time while the tank continued thinning the packs population. He waited for one of the soldiers to be infected.

It came to him like a syringe being slowly injected into his mind; the knowledge of its weakness; A small hatch at the rear of the machine; a small entrance to the inside sanctuary.

The command was sent, and then quickly programmed into the DNA. These would no longer pose a threat.

Shortly thereafter the tank ground to a halt. Lifeless. Defeated. The souls inside no more. The wolves pressed on into the rest of the city.

The wolf knew that this place known as Paris would soon fall. Time to move on. The wolf army would grow. The time to take revenge on his people approaching ever closer.

An Uncelebrated Homecoming

She did not know how many hours it had taken for her to see land since her escape, but the sky had not been given the chance to cycle itself back into darkness again. The sky was currently in a state of being auroral; the dawn of a new day just approaching.

A weak speedboat chugged hard as it approached the stony, boat riddled docks of Saint Petersburg. The place was solemn with silence, it was a majestic Saturday with a fine breeze in the air with the gleaming sun to accompany it's inconsistent appearance. Any other day and the place would have been hustling and bustling with life and sound.

But not this, nor any other day to come.

The speedboat angrily pushed past the smaller boats it encountered on its ending voyage, swerving those it knew were too much a challenge; much like a cat knowing wisely which battles to fight or flee.

The boat halted as close as possible to the old, rarely used rickety wooden pier; it was easier to navigate to as no boats would dock there out of fear of it collapsing.

Claudia was literally starving; her stomach had been making grotesque noises through all of her journey back to land and this sound had distracted her every single time it clawed at her eardrums.

The smell of her body shadowed this annoyance, it growing stronger and thrashing at her delicate senses every time the wind blew in another direction, or when she moved her thinning arms to a higher location.

During her journey she had fully expected a ship full of men to spy her followed by them swiftly coming to her aid, showering her in food, sympathies and compliments; but this never happened. She then was confident that men working at docks would jump into the water to come and help her. But this has also not happened.

She knew the reason for this and It made her think of how her life would be if she was one of the many peasants that plagued the world; always with a horrid stench or with stomachs growling like unruly beasts. It confirmed to her that her judgement was always correct in not affiliating herself with these kinds of people, and she finally understood why the suicide rate was so high.

The large wolf was still with her, sat in absolute silence the whole of the journey, not making a sound, nor making a move except for the times it seemingly beamed wondrously at Claudia, sometimes for minutes at a time. Claudia did not object to this visual praising.

She stepped onto the edge of the boat to give herself leverage to reach the dock edge above her and tumbled slightly; the wolf was quick to put his dry black nose under her raised back foot giving her the boost she needed to reach the platform. With the mighty force of the wolf in her heel, she was easily able to pull herself up and over.

The great beast jumped effortlessly and stood next to Claudia. Its head reached up to her chest, it's body was twice as thick as her.

Food. She needed proper food. It had been four days since she had eaten a decent meal, not just mouldy scraps from an island infested with cannibals.

As she hastily set off into the city she never questioned the silence all around her, nor the blood and torn clothes scattered densely around. She had no idea of the slaughter and carnage that had forsaken not only the city, but maybe even the entire world. It was not something that her brain could think possible; the only thing on her mind right now was herself.

There was a small supermarket at the entrance to the docks. She made no delays in pushing through the automatic doors, and charging directly for the food isle...

Only to find it was in an abysmal state; food packets were everywhere, torn apart into miniscule pieces. Even food cans were not spared this atrocity as they had apparently been torn open wildly with the food extracted.

She crashed to her hands and knees, scanning the debris for any small pieces of food she could find to prevent her ravenous stomach from eating anymore of her wasting body to sustain itself.

Her dirty blackening hands managed to find odd pieces of foods such as crisps, crackers, and bits of chocolate bars. Claudia did not delay in shoving the food into her mouth; food which was now stale from being left out of it's packaging for days, but this did not bother her, for the moment.

As the food slithered and pushed itself down her throat, most of it barely chewed, she instantly began to feel much more herself and was already beginning to feel disgusted at her actions; much like when experiencing an orgasm after having sexual intercourse with someone far below your standards. The self-disgust was almost unbearable for her.

She swiftly got up from her scavenging position while brushing herself down. This made no difference as most of the filth was stuck to her clothes and had been that way far too long.

Claudia looked around shyly expecting eyes to be gawping at her in shock at not only her actions but her unsightly appearance. But there was no one around. Not a sound could be heard. The supermarket was in a state of total devastation; the shelves were all knocked over and food, clothes and toiletries were all over the shop floor. The place looked like an earthquake had ravaged the foundations.

As she mulled over this her wolf companion scanned the floor and gobbled up the remaining food.

Her first instinct was that a war had broken out and everyone had rushed to grab all of the food items; but this didn't add up. It looked as if all of the food had been torn open and eaten straight away; none of it was taken. Another clue for Claudia was that the soft drink fridges had not been touched and were in perfect condition. This reminded her that she was still extremely thirsty.

She quickly drank a bottle of water and took another for the journey ahead; but felt as if water was going to be one of the lesser issues of what was to come. She knew where she had to go. Her business needed her. She had not worked hard all of her life to lose it now.

Claudia and her wolf companion, that she had yet to name, left the supermarket and headed out into the city itself. They passed wrecked cars and dead bodies at every turn; the streets, including side streets, were completely blocked with these vehicles and corpses. The entire city was in complete chaos; but whatever had happened, had passed.

The bodies looked like they had been mauled to death as there were teeth marks all over the bodies with most of them having missing limbs; she could barely notice if these people were humans at all. She looked towards the silent wolf, remembering the things it had done to protect her on the island, but "no" she said to herself out loud "not possible". She made herself believe an airstrike had struck the city, ignoring the fact that all of the buildings were still standing; she didn't notice, or ignored, the large amount of brown spikes lodged into the buildings.

As she continued her journey through the city part of her began to enjoy the soothing nature of the silence. There was no one to get in her way when walking down the street and no one to make her move out of the way, because that was one of the things that pissed her off the most was having uneducated idiots just pushing into her and not moving out of the way. She took most of the collisions as the other person simply being jealous after even a slight look at Claudia and this being the only way to make themselves feel better. Pathetic is how Claudia saw it.

However, one massive issue was the ever intensifying stench the dead bodies were leaving behind and as Claudia ventured further and further into the epicentre the worse the odour became; it was beginning to become unbearable. Food she recently ate would soon be coming back up to greet her.

She found her way to a metro station and came to the conclusion that if the entire city was evacuated or dead then the metro lines would also have stopped. Her business was situated in a great location next to a metro stop as well. The decision to have the company started there was one she always admired her father for; it made it extremely easy for clients to reach the premises.

Claudia, with her hands firmly clasping her nose shut, jogged down the blood drenched steps leading into the flickering lights of the underground.

A Metro Sickness

She hastily navigated past the bodies that furnished the dim hallways, swooped under the barriers that would usually require money and ran down the long escalator hoping she would not faint, and found her way to the platform.

The smell here was not as bad so Claudia released her nose and breathed in the air hard. Not perfect and largely smelt of fumes, but it didn't make her feel sick She actually had always enjoyed the smell of petrol and would stuck her head outside of her father's limousine as a child and sniff as hard as possible, usually ending up feeling slightly high.

As the metro was something Claudia's upbringing never required her to take, she had to consult the map on the edge of the platform. luckily the electricity in the city was still fully functioning so the small lamp above the map was illuminated and perfectly easy to read.

The trains here were not automated, but she was optimistic that the train drivers had all been slaughtered or had crashed somewhere along the tracks. With this hopeful thought in her head she jumped onto the train tracks and followed them into the darkness which was barely lit by small orange bulbs high up on the walls. Her wolf friend jumped down behind her, still following her every move.

Her hand might as well have been heavily magnetised against the wall as she paced herself down the seemingly endless hall that felt as if each step she embarked upon sang the tune to her approaching calamity for she could not see where she was placing her naked feet.

The walk down the tunnels was uneventful but slow as she carefully traversed the dark, abandoned underground tracks, being sure not to step on the live tracks or any manner of broken objects which have found their way down here. On her way past the numerous stops not a single sound was heard; not even from her wolf friend.

As she neared the station that she was looking for she noticed a large train blocking the rest of her passage; it had heavily tilted to the side enough to block passage from either side of it; the wheels were resting against the wall blocking out all light from the orange bulbs. The only light to be found was the lights peeking around the train from the well-lit station ahead.

There was naught but a small gap around the bottom of the train, where the roof would be, but this would require Claudia being in an almost crawling position for an unspecified distance as she didn't know how many carriages she would need to pass under. She instantly decided against that route and approached the rear of the train.

The back door of the train was ajar but jammed in that position needing Claudia to squeeze between it. The gap was small but the weight she had lost recently aided her in this small quest and she fit through it painlessly. The door slammed shut behind her causing a loud echoing bang and her to instantly regret taking the supposed easy route.

The train carriage was only lightly illuminated yet it was enough for Claudia to see the pile of bodies that filled it from side to side; the train must have been attacked during peak hours, Claudia guessed, but she had never used the metro before but had heard terrifying stories of how crowded they can get.

As the door behind her had closed tight there was nowhere for the smell of decaying bodies to escape. It began to rapidly build up like an invisible storm, making her feel like she was going to faint right there and then. She covered her nose with one hand and ran, jumped and skipped her way through and over the sea of bodies; which had all fallen into the centre of the train due to its tilted position. There was no time for mistakes. The door at the end of the carriage was halfway open; easy enough for her to slip through without losing any precious time.

Each carriage she passed through told the same story. The bodies completely covered the floor making her have to use them as sort of stepping stones; she always knew people should lie down before her but this she found a bit too much.

"God DAMN it" she wanted to shout as she made it to the front of the train, but she was unable to open her mouth to let anymore of the decay into her system.

The train driver's door was completely jammed shut, disallowing her to escape. The exit door on her left was low to the group and covered in bodies which she would not have the strength in her to move them even on a good day. The door on her right was too high for her to reach.

Out of sheer desperation she released her hand from her nose and smashed hard on the main door as hard as she possibly could manage but the smell caught hold of her after only allowing her four strikes against the metal behemoth.

Vomit projected from her mouth without giving her any warning signs. It blasted against the door and reflected back against her face resulting in even more undigested food and liquid to expel itself from within.

The pain she felt inside her stomach and throat was so severe that she fell hard onto her hands and knees clutching her abdomen, her body still somehow managing to conjure up fluids and food; more than she had eaten. She wished and shouted for it to stop but the incredible odour surrounding her was too much for her body to handle. At this point she almost wished she had lived a peasant life as this smell would have been normal to her.

As she lay in her own pool of vomit, her hair tangled in the stale food she had only recently eaten off of the supermarket floor, she heard a bang above her, followed by a tap, tap, tap. She craned her neck and looked up to see the wolf at the small window at the door above her; it was bashing its paws seemingly trying to break the glass.

This gave Claudia's body just a few seconds distraction before the vomit pains came again, but this time nothing was coming out but painful yellow fluid. Her body had given all that it could and soon it would force her body to go into shock and eventually cause her brain to shut down.

The glass broke but she was too busy straining her delicate face to defend herself from the crystalized assault as small glass shards fell all around her.

The wolf landed just behind Claudia and nudged his nose against her face but she was too preoccupied to pay attention.

The wolf positioned itself firmly against the wall in front of Claudia and howled as loudly as it could. This majestic sound grabbed her attention and her brain instantly knew what the wolf wanted her to do.

She rose to her feet and planted both of them on the back of the wolf; its fur was surprisingly soft, tickling her, making her want to giggle despite the dire situation she was in. She pressed one hand against the wall to balance herself and used the other one to reach up and smack the button. The door opened and the ledge was easy enough for her to effortlessly climb out by using the thick buttons as leverage.

She looked back down at the wolf that had saved her life as it backed itself up on the pile of bodies; it pushed from its large strong back legs and sprang up towards the open door, falling just short and hanging on with its two paws; it could not support its own weight and began to fall back down; until two hands came and wrapped themselves around each of its failing paws giving him the extra power he needed to pull himself up.

Claudia hugged the wolf and it licked her face, however this slightly disgusted her considering the amount of her own vomit that had just sprayed all over her. This would be the last time they would embrace, that was for sure.

She turned around and saw what had caused the train to have blocked her path; it had collided with another train that must have been waiting at the station. She carefully climbed down from the train and slid in between both trains, finding herself on the platform edge.

She quickly ran through the metro station which was in exactly the same situation as the one she first entered and found herself back onto the main, chaotic streets; she felt like she had entered a picture as there were absolutely no movements.

Tragedy

She turned to her left and there she stood in front of the legacy that she had raised even further than it already once was when her Father had left it to her. A big sign standing proudly read out the words "Deblonge International Corporation" stamped its mark on one of the tallest buildings in the city. The sign alone took up one third of the building front, each word placed above that of the other. She remembered the day the sign was first put in place; it was the first week she had taken over from her father and she had decided she wanted to have a big sign to show the superiority of the company and felt that the current, small sign did not show the ideas she had to make the company a huge success; she had to visualise it for the people.

There were many complaints from her employees who complained that they now had no view outside of their windows, but this never bothered Claudia. They should be focused on their work not looking out of the window at other buildings.

Ten people were fired that day.

Claudia ran up the large, wide steps that lead the way to her building; the steps were immense and the only way to take one step at a time was by jogging, or by being a wolf, judging by how easily the hound hopped up them. The steps were very steep, the advantage to this was that it allowed Claudia, even in her weakened state, to kick down the bodies that littered her steps as she passed each one of them; they tumbled down the steps just like lemmings. Just because the town had fallen to disgust doesn't mean she had to also.

She ran up to the large glass doors with pristine golden rims; their design was influenced by that of American five star hotels. It was done to make the customers feel like royalty.

Although at this moment in time the glass was missing and had been replaced by sturdy cardboard. This pissed off Claudia immensely, the heat from her anger warming up her chilled body.

"If anyone is inside you better open this goddamn door" She screamed; surely loud enough to be heard miles away in this stillness.

No reply. She bashed a fist against the cardboard. There was no chance she was knocking through this material. This calmed her down slightly because after all, she does only purchase the best.

Just as she began to think of another way into the building she heard the sound of boards being moved, then soon after the door slowly edged open. Out peeked a small, meek face. It was Felicity the company receptionist.

Claudia did not wait for an invitation into her own palace and pushed her way through the small gap, shocking the girl and forcing her back into the building before she even could comprehend what was even outside.

"Felicity, what the fuck took you so long? what if I was dying out there and those seconds you wasted being a scared little bitch had cost me my life?"

Claudia's glare and angry red face made Felicity shiver, unable to answer.

Felicity was a shy looking girl with long brown curled hair down to her shoulders. She wore glasses and never wore anything but long out dated dresses. Today she was wearing an outrageous yellow dress with white dots. Horrendous was the first word that entered Claudia's mind.

"Pathetic as always I see" Claudia then turned and let out a loud gasp as she saw the demolition that had taken place.

"What have you done to my beautiful business?!" She turned back to Felicity as tears began to fill up her eyes.

She let out a small grunt and curled her hands into fists "What have you done to my beautiful baby?! I leave you for one weekend and this is how you thank me for the years of employment? You would have been sucking off old grandpas in some sweaty strip bar if it wasn't for ME!"

"I'm so sorry, so sorry, so sorry, sorry lady Claudia" Felicity spat the words out at an alarming rate, almost incomprehensibly while keeping her eyes fixed to the floor.

The place was a nothing like it was before Claudia left on her date that changed everything. There was a chandelier hanging proud. There were bottles of champagne on golden stools. the walls, made with the finest quality wood pine imported directly from Canada, were immaculate and cleaned three times a day. The circular reception area gave customers the option of where they wished to stand when signing into the building. The balconies on either side that was home to statues of her father.

Destroyed.

The chandelier was on the floor, obliterated. The bottles of champagne were smashed and the golden stools nowhere to be seen. The walls were smeared in blood. The reception area was no longer the reception area; it had been completely demolished to the point where it was no longer the perfect customer entry point for clients and customers. The statues now lay in pieces on the floor near to her feet.

Claudia felt sick. She did not want to see the rest of the building. She only needed one room in this now violated place. The war room which was in the basement; it was home to at least twenty years' worth of food and water supplies and had all the entertainment one person could possibly need. Only her eyes could open the 10 meter thick door and it was going to remain as her sanctuary while she planned her future movements.

"It wasn't her fault! it was nobody's fault!" A dark skinned man entered the room.

"Then who's fault was it?" Claudia demanded.

"Look at this."

The man passed Claudia a small 8 inch tablet; the quality felt cheap in Claudia's hand.

"It's an American news report I recorded from last night. Since then there has been no signal on the television."

The man tapped the screen and footage began to play.

A news reporter blipped onto the screen; she was wearing a red jacket and she had short blonde hair. Her stunning appearance made Claudia feel vile.

"This is news report fifteen since the wolf disaster began, coming straight to you from New York"

"So far we Americans have managed to keep the wolf threat at bay but each attempt they make at penetrating our defences they appear to edge a little closer to breaching our country. And as you all know too well, once this thing spreads, it spreads thick and fast and there seems to be no stopping it"

"We have completely shut off of borders from Canada and Mexico as these countries have had reports of wolf transformations. Flights and boats are still shot on sight so please refrain from using these to enter or leave the country"

She paused, turned a page in her small notebook and carried on.

"We can report that today we lost contact with the Spanish government; the last country holding out against the plague within Europe." She began to cry, pausing briefly to compose herself.

"There has still been no word from any Asian countries since the first day"

"Social media from many countries is still active but the posts are becoming fewer and are sounding more and more desperate. Because of this the president has demanded that a block be placed on all major social media websites as he says it is far too traumatic for us to be reading and does not help us cope with the situation."

"Remember everybody if you see a wolf you must try to kill it. You cannot outrun it. Avoid those spikes and go straight for the face. If anyone is infected then kill them immediately as the transformation is almost instant"

"This is Candy Blaine, hoping you all a wolf free day."

The video paused and the tablet slipped from Claudia's now limp hands.

"Could this super power of a country not defend itself against an animal?!" Claudia stomped her foot onto the tablet, smashing it's fragile screen.

"And could YOU, my main security personnel, not defend my precious livelihood from a mere animal?" She pointed her finger so hard that it looked like it might pop out of its socket.

"What is all the commotion in here! we're trying to sleep! have some respect when you're on watch- Oh...Claudia"

Two men and women sleepily walked in from the small office.

"Oh, even more losers who could not protect this place!" Claudia sneered, saliva flicking out through her now slightly yellowing teeth.

"Look" said one of the women. Claudia knew this woman was one of the cleaners. She was supposed to keep the walls clean. All day. Every day. "We only barely survived ourselves"

"Oh shut up you dirt faced whore" Claudia blasted.

"You had one job and look at the state of my precious Canadian pine walls. Look at them!!" She ran up to the wall and dramatically waved her hands in front of it.

"too busy sleeping huh? well it won't do you any good. you'll still be an ugly bitch no matter how much sleep you get" The veins in her neck appeared as if they were ready to abandon ship and find a new home.

The dark skinned man grabbed at Claudia to calm her down; she wriggled free and backed herself against the wood in the entrance doors.

"You never respected me. You only did this for the money and you still did a terrible job. I'm done with you all!"

She slowly pushed open one of the doors.

"No! don't go out there. we're sorry!" one of the women at the back announced.

The young tan skinned woman ran forward to prevent Claudia from leaving but halted her advance when she saw the head of a wolf reveal itself through the open door.

"I have no further use of you." Claudia said. Emotionless. She slammed the door shut behind the wolf.

A Business Between Woman

And Wolf

The dark skinned man went to pull his pistol from his belt but he was too late. The wolf was in the room and had already fired a spike into his chest. He fell to the floor.

Felicity made a run for the doors but Claudia blocked her way, spreading her arms out wide. She turned around and met her end as the wolves razor sharp tail sliced her head from her body. Her corpse continued walking for a few moments until it released it had died.

The two men and women at the back of the room split up running away into different rooms. The wolf gave chase.

"Oh well, what's a little more mess if it's for a good cause?" Claudia giggled to herself.

The dark skinned man began his transformation from man to wolf and Claudia watched every second of it. When it was complete the wolf walked to her side and sat beside her staring ahead into the distance.

"Perfect" Claudia said to herself "Now I have two wolves" She smirked to herself and exited the room, away from where her employees ran.

Now was the time to relax. As Claudia made her way to the underground bunker she could hear no sounds. She worried slightly that the workers had overpowered her companion and would initiate a counter attack; these thoughts spurred on her sluggish, tired movement and she hurried along the long glass corridors.

The rooms she passed were all see through. Claudia wanted to be able to see what her employees were doing whenever she wanted; the entire place held no secrets. She could see into every room without needing to open a door or look at a camera. Every room was filled with various torn clothing items and splatters of blood. Some rooms were so filled with torn clothes that it was not possible to see the once immaculate gem encrusted floor beneath.

The glass in the hallways was not shattered but much of it was pierced with razor sharp pieces of, apparently, wood. But she knew it was the fur of wolves.

Each inch of the golden rimmed corridor and rooms passed made Claudia feel more and more sadness at what had happened in her building. All the times she had held business meetings that had earned her millions. All the times she had her staff members begging for another chance. That legacy that her father started and untrusted to her was now at an end; all her staff members, no matter how much she looked down upon them, did have uses, but were dead. It was time to move on.

She approached a line of four elevators and pushed the white button on the wall. This caused a deep mechanical sound to ring throughout the hallways and shortly after, one of the elevator doors opened. She quickly moved. Just before the doors had chance to close, a paw wedged itself through the gap, causing the doors to momentarily swing open.

It was Claudia's companion.

Claudia couldn't help releasing a small smile that the creature had not failed her, and a part of her, that she would never admit, was glad to see it was completely unharmed.

After riding up the elevator to floor sixty, which was also the top floor, she arrived at a small hallway and at the end was a room that was the only room in the building to not be completely made out of glass; her office.

She placed her hand on the scanner and the heavy, thick door slowly opened for her.

A man's voice came through from one of the speakers in the room.

"Looking beautiful as always today Miss Claudia" But she didn't feel beautiful right now.

Her room was untouched by the savage outside world and has been ever since she claimed the room as her abode the day she took over as rightful owner.

The room was of a large size housing many trophies and pictures scattered all along the left and right sides of the room. The pictures were mostly from award ceremonies and parties she had attended; she would have a picture taken with any person she deemed worthy, usually celebrities or people as rich as she was. She wanted to remember these people as she was usually surrounded by people far beneath her she believed. The far corner housed a large life size golden statue of Claudia; she would regularly polish it to keep it shining and today it was still shining bright.

She passed the trophies stroking each one of them with one finger as she slowly passed by; the awards were ones she had won from since she was a child; they ranged from beauty pageants to cheerleading trophies. When she passed a large silver trophy with a small blue and white ribbon attached to the rim she paused and had a vibrant memory of the evening she had achieved it.

The constant camera flashes assaulted her gleaming face; her perfectly aligned teeth reflecting the light back causing a mesmerising chain reaction to all those who had attended. Her long red hair swayed as she elegantly walked through the aisle, flawlessly shaking her hips from left to right, all eyes on her admiring every step she took. Her long silk red dress complimented her curvy figure, the bottom slightly touching the tips of each step she took as she climbed her way to her prize.

On the stage she spoke soft yet confidently as she explained why she deserved this award so much and how she had yearned to help the less fortunate people.

The bottom of the trophy read 'Community Figure Of The Year 2014'.

Because that is what she was, or that was how she appeared. Most of her staff were either incredibly poor and desperate, dumb or people with criminal records.

Only a handful of her staff were actually qualified to do the work. This gave her two benefits; she could rule over her staff with an iron fist as she knew that without the job she had given them they would never get another job because of their history. She had always promised them a terrible reference.

Also it gave her publicity which made other companies more likely to want to be associated with her. The pay was low and the staff worked hard for it; mostly out of fear.

The window of the room spanned the entire of the back wall giving her a view of the entirety of St Petersburg. She placed both of her hands firmly against the glass and scanned the view from left to right.

"One day I was going to rule all of this" She looked down at the wolf as if speaking to it; Sadness began to take hold of her tired face.

"America will have to do."

In many of the streets below, so small yet so large at the same time, she could see small brown dots scurrying around; the wolves. There were still many of them and she was surprised how she had never seen any on her travel throughout the city.

She was glad they were on her side. She turned around and faced her desk; on it were modelling pictures of herself, but also one of the person she respected most in the world; her father.

She pulled open one of the desks drawers and emptied its contents onto the floor. At the bottom of the draw was another scanner which required her hand print; she obliged and pressed her palm against it. The centre of the wall on the right hand side of the room began to smoothly turn, barely making a sound.

Behind it was another elevator. Before moving towards the elevator Claudia's eye caught notice of something on the floor sparkling in the light of the city; a red spiked collar on the floor. Memories swept over her thoughts, penetrating her view.

The memory was of her in her back garden as a young teenager. It was by her side; a large Siberian husky. Loyal, strong, dependable. That day was the day that snapped Claudia.

Another memory locked away hidden behind drunken nights and missions of powerful success.

A young boy. A special boy. A knife. A Slice. A stab. A game to someone whose brain knew no better. A bleeding dog. A broken young girl. Father murdered then best friend murdered too soon after.

The collar had belonged to the dog that her twin Brother had killed. Less than a year after her father was murdered. Her two favourite people gone in a year. Taken by other people.

Rare thoughts. Claudia couldn't help shaking her head to rid herself of the memory, and the pain.

Claudia slightly squatted down to be face to face with her wolf friend. He reminded her a lot of her dog, Hilisky. She rubbed it's ears then placed the soft collar around its neck. It did not seem to mind this.

"Good boy, Hilisky" She patted it's head.

Claudia slowly approached the elevator, Hilisky by her side, and placed her eye towards a small red bulb; a blue light shot out into Claudia's right eye making a satisfying bleeping noise.

The elevator doors slid open.

She took one long forlorn look at a room she had spent so much time in making so many decisions affecting the lives of so many people, but ultimately she concluded, it was all for nothing.

She entered the elevator and pushed the small red button on the wall. The elevator descended below the basement level and opened out into a dimly lit corridor.

Relaxation

At the end was the large, thick iron door which hid behind it the room in which Claudia planned to spend a lot of time reenergizing, thinking and strategizing.

She again placed her eye to a red bulb and the gigantic door slowly opened itself to her. She walked inside, her wolf companion still besides her, and the door closed tightly behind them.

The moment she entered the room the ceiling lit ablaze as power from the lightly humming generator from below the room automatically turned on all of the lights and lamps in the room. She raised her right hand and shielded her eyes from the sudden assault of illumination, while cursing the person who thought this was a good idea.

This was the first time she had ever entered this domain. She designed it and planned it to the finest detail but never thought it would ever be used. She was impressed with what she saw; it was all a person would ever need.

The room spanned the length of a football field and was filled with many still wrapped luxurious items; large leather sofas, a large king-sized bed, pinball machines, arcade machines, chandeliers and many more items which were still unseen due to being overshadowed by other larger items.

Claudia walked further in the room. She had no idea where to begin as there was no order to how items had been placed; the entire room looked like a warehouse.

Hilisky quickly decided to make a long beautiful red sofa his current bed, laying his head on his arms while watching Claudia.

On the left wall of the room was a large display of monitors which were showing live footage of the entire building. There was enough monitors to see each and every inch of the building, even the outside. Claudia stopped and looked at a monitor that caught her attention. She saw a pack of wolves skulking around floor seven with their noses firmly stuck to the floor; they were hunting prey. She saw on the next monitor that nearby there more of her staff members hiding. This annoyed her; while she was starving to death outside, all of her workers were cowering indoors selfishly helping themselves.

She willed on the wolves to find their prey.

And they did very soon after. Now the building was being patrolled by even more wolves.

One of the monitors was turned off, causing Claudia to see her appearance staring back at her. She immediately ran into one the room at the back of her football field bunker and the sound of a shower head pouring streams of water was heard soon after.

The water felt good as it fell against her face and down her aching shoulders and back; she did not have to fiddle with the dials on the shower unit to find the perfect water warmth.

She tore off the now wet dress she had been wearing for four days, making an echoing slapping sound as it hit the floor, and let her entire body feel the force of the rejuvenating waters as she repeatedly spun around and around, embracing the cleansing nature.

The floor around her feet was black with filth as the dirt, blood and sick fell from her body. She rubbed hard against her skin repeatedly using a small red sponge; she made sure to cover every inch.

Her mind blanked out the ordeals and horrors of the previous days as she felt an intense feeling of euphoria come all over her, causing her body to tingle so fierce that she had to hug herself so intently, her knees almost buckling under the pleasure, and let out small gasps of sensual relief.

She remained in the shower for one hour before the feeling wore off and she noticed how pruned her hands had turned; she immediately turned off the shower, grabbed a large blue towel from the side, not needing to move a centimetre to acquire it, and dried herself down, slowly.

The bathroom was surprisingly small considering how grand the main room of the bunker was. It contained a simple shower, a toilet imported from Japan which could squirt water to clean hard to reach places and a life sized mirrored cabinet; which inside had over six dozen toothbrushes, toothpastes, mouthwashes and an unnecessarily large range of cosmetics which took up over 80% of the space; all still in their original packaging.

After satisfying that craving Claudia decided now was the time to feast, and feast she did. Her curves were what made her feel powerful, she could feel superior to girls who were thin and shapeless, while also making large girls feel inferior every time she, purposely closely, walked past them flaunting her shape.

The room next to the bathroom was the food storage room which was mostly made up of shelves and large freezers full of food. The canned food consisted mainly of baked beans, meatballs, spaghetti, tuna, fruit cans and all day breakfasts. No fresh food was available nor food with shelf dates shorter than 2 years. She had requested to the builders to ensure all kinds of food was available as she always tends to have varying craving. The food would last years but after it's inevitable diminishment, there were thousands of packets of powdered food which would last one person's lifetime.

In the excessively large freezers there were mainly salads, mixed vegetables and fruits. This food would not last as long as the canned food and was replenished only every six months, the last restock being luckily one month ago.

She sat down at the small circle table with her meal; she had decided to eat tuna, vegetables and some bananas cooked the food on a small portable hob. As she began to eat she looked through the open door and witnessed Hilisky sitting down motionless in the same position he had chosen when he entered the room.

She wanted to know why she cared so much but without much thinking she stopped her meal, grabbed some meat from the freezer and threw it out for the beast to eat. It jumped down from the sofa and began chomping.

Her meal did not last long but left her now smaller stomach as full as it would like to be.

Although she now wanted nothing more than to sleep on her prestigious king sized bed she felt the sudden desire to gossip. She had been without true social interaction for so long but she wondered if her best friend would still be alive after all that happened.

She returned to the monitors, now displaying an abundant amount more wolves than before, and picked up the nearby phone, carefully tapping the small numbers with her now smooth fingers. As the phone made a grizzled ringing tone she sat, back, crossed her legs and braced herself to present a monologue of the weekend from hell that she had just endured, and proudly, survived.

After several rings the phone was answered from a supple sweet voice.

Amy

"Hello? who is this?" the voice quizzed, making it appear that a phone call was the last thing they were expecting.

"Amy. it's me! your idol, Claudia" She sat even further back in her chair, the bend at the bottom looking set to snap.

"Oh my god! I thought you were dead!"

"No way, not me! but you need to get over here and see me! I'm in my underground bunker it's so perfect, it's so me."

"Do you not know what is going on? My parents are dead, I'm barricaded up inside my house and the whole city is infested with killer wolves who shoot you and turn you into one of them!"

"Oh I know, they are so intelligent they know to admire me, they follow me around and protect me as if I am their queen. it's incredible!"

"Oh you lie!" Her voice rose with excitement.

"Oh I do not!" Claudia snapped, leaping forward in her seat almost smashing her knees against the hard aluminium table.

The conversation went on like this for a time until Claudia jumped into a monologue full of great detail about her adventure barely leaving space in between for Amy to have her say. The story was true but exaggerated in many parts, one part in particular had Claudia jumping from a high platform while wielding a dagger and plunging it straight through the cannibal's brain. Certain parts such eating food off the floor and vomiting all over herself were mentioned nowhere.

As she was nearing the end of her story Amy interrupted, panic suddenly began to rise within her voice.

"Oh my god I've been too loud! Someone is trying to break in" A series of loud bangs could be heard in the background.

"Wait, I need to tell you the rest of my story" Claudia sighed, trying to remember where she was.

"Claudia this is serious..." She was now whispering and the banging became quieter.

"It will be okay I think they like attractive people that's why they love me. Maybe they will love you too? just go put on some make-up and let me finish my story"

A loud sound like wood breaking echoed through the phone. Amy then spoke in a soft whisper while sniffling her nose;

"I still remember the day when I first attended a cheerleader try-out Claudia, even though it was fifteen years ago I will never forget the way you insulted my dress sense and made me drink toilet water. It was slow progress but you made me into a better person by teaching me to always think myself as better than everyone else. I know I was the only person you truly changed this way and I'm so happy you chose me as that person to take under your wing. I was so weak until I found you."

Claudia also remembered that. Amy was just an experiment to see if Claudia could change someone from being a complete life failure into someone worthy but it was never a success. Claudia mainly kept her as a friend because the girl worshipped Claudia and loved listening to everything that came out of her mouth, truth or lie.

She always wanted a friend like that. But she knew deep inside that it was just like all that others, that Amy was jealous of her and one day this would become an overwhelming emotion causing her to attempt to destroy Claudia. A bonus however was that she made Claudia look even more attractive so she was also the perfect wing woman, which is why Amy was one of her favourite people to go out with to get guys.

"Yeah, I made you a slightly better person" Claudia concluded.

Amy then let out a bellowing scream which caused Claudia to wince and place a hand to her ear. The scream was then mixed in with the sound of loud growling; the song of death yet again played its tune to Claudia's ears. A tune she was becoming too familiar with.

Claudia said nothing and placed the phone back on its holder and returned to viewing the monitors with a sinking disappointment that she will never get to recite the ending of her story.

She walked towards her bedroom to sleep off the sadness.

#

# 

#

#

#

Outbreak: Day Five

A Plan

It was her first full day in the underground bunker and already Claudia had begun to feel lonely and wasted; across the other side of the world was the last country standing strong, full of hundreds of millions of people, and here she was in a dying country. No people to cherish her, no people for her to boss around, no one to listen to her stories.

She had spent a small part of the day mainly playing arcade games, looking at social media and blogging websites. She had no idea why she ordered so many arcade machines as she never really enjoyed playing video games because she would usually lose at them; and losing was not something she called fun.

Hilisky spent most of the time sitting on his Sofa watching Claudia. She fed him three times a day with generous meals and sat with him when she watched films. He was very soft to cuddle up to and really bought back memories of her times with her dad and her dog.

The internet was what she spent most of her time and used the majority of her time reading all the glorious details she had missed while being away. The epidemic had started in St Petersburg's harbour and quickly spread to neighbouring countries. It had reached Brazil via a plane from Japan which had a short connecting flight in St Petersburg, and then it spread to every other country in South America.

It took only four days for the majority of the world to be consumed.

She noted the date and time on a video that a person had taken at the start of it all and noticed it was around the time that she was on that horrid hell of an island.

She had then remembered the first day she was on the cannibal island and recalls a large wolf statue breaking apart to reveal a large silver grey wolf; for the majority of the time afterwards she had assumed it was just an hallucination from such a traumatic experience, but now she was sure that was the start of this whole wolf apocalypse thing; but how and why did it awaken and choose her as it's queen? Were the wolves all under its command? is their command simply just to keep her alive and kill everyone or transform them?

Or was it all because they truly saw her as beautiful?

As much as she loved being revered and protected by the mindless mutts, she loved more being worshipped by human beings.

She had checked more websites but traffic had become less and less frequent, there are still people posting updates and surviving in places, even military outposts exist, but it is all looking grim as supplies are running out. Leaving to go out into the open usually ends in people being annihilated, and it appears that the wolves seem to learn how to tackle military armaments very efficiently.

Claudia being outside though did not spell her demise. She needed to get to America and she can roam freely around the desolate world.

She spent the majority of the evening planning how she was going to travel over 4000 miles across the world without flights, boats or trains.

She had written down an elaborate plan which involved her driving a car through the broken streets and stealing a plane from the air base just outside of town. She had not long drifted off to sleep with these thoughts when a faint rumbling sound crept over the border from Belarus to Russia. Unmonitored Camera's in various dead outposts noticed large amounts of variously sized transport helicopters and aeroplanes soaring across the skies.

Inside these planes were soldiers heavily armed and very ready for combat.

Outbreak: Day Six

The American Dream

The constantly growing rumbling sounds from all over the city quickly woke Claudia who rushed to the monitors.

Early morning sunlight gleamed off the elite heavily armoured troops who had surrounded the building. Tanks were in the distance scanning the area with their long range dangerous weapons of mass destruction.

Claudia sat in disbelief. This was it, they had come for her. The American army had somehow found out where she was and have come to take her to America. It must be like in the films, Claudia thought, where they have a list of the world's most important people and send out mass amounts of troops and resources to find and rescue them.

Four soldiers climbed the steps to the main door, while others were curiously scanning the ground, and begin breaking their way inside the building, while this happened Claudia noticed her own army of wolves making hasty movement towards the sounds the soldiers were making.

"NO!" Claudia shouted towards the array of monitors showing wolves scurrying at an alarming speed from one screen to the next, Claudia's eyes following along with their movement.

Claudia pounced from her seat and sprinted for the large entrance door and pulled on the large bronze lever next to it; it made a sound like a floorboard would make when an obese person had placed their full weight on top of it.

She tapped her foot impatiently as the door slowly slid open wide enough for her to slide through; at this moment it didn't matter to her that she was wearing nothing more than a blue tank top and black tight leggings.

She reached the elevator and pressed her eye against the scanner causing the elevator to spring into vibrant life, colouring the otherwise dark, cold hallway.

Just before she stepped into the elevator a large explosion from behind and above shook the room she was in so violently that she fell against the wall almost cracking her skull against it if not for her fast hand movements to block the collision.

She ran back into her bunker, the door now fully opened, and noticed a hole had formed in the ceiling above the door leading to the shower, large pieces of rubble and stone had landed just meters away from where she was sitting.

Two small slick ropes drooped down through the hole ending just before reaching the floor. Two soldiers covered in large black metallic armour from head to toe followed instantly and landed with a large crashing sound as they unlatched themselves from the rope; the shockwaves from the landing made Claudia's legs tremble.

The men paused all movement and looked straight at Claudia, the bright flashlight on their round, undetailed helmet obscuring her vision. Claudia raised one arm in front of glow to help her sight.

"Claudia Deblonge?" Said one of the men, his voice sounded like a robots, perfectly matching his look.

"Who wants to know?" Claudia didn't want to come across as too eager to be rescued.

Claudia's eyes glanced up at the gap they had made as sounds of gunfire came from above; the wolves must have found the soldiers

"We are U.S military and we require that you come with us right now, this is not an option." The two men took an intimidating step forward.

"Why do you need me to go with you? I have everything I need right here." Claudia's unease caused her body to react by taking small steps backwards, like someone being pushed along the plank by a pirate jabbing a sword into them.

"No more questions. We will take you by force if necessary" The men now began walking towards her, their bulky armour causing them to move slowly, the large amount of furniture in the room not making it any faster.

That undiplomatic last line didn't sound good to Claudia's. She couldn't think what to do next. If they wanted to shoot her then they would have done it by now.

The walking armour reached for Claudia arm's, grabbing it with a closed vice-like grip.

"Unhand me this instant!" Claudia demanded. She didn't even try to pull free. This always worked on Russian police officers once they realised her monetary power.

The man ignored her. He raised his other arm to his mouth and spoke into the inbuilt radio.

"Acquired Subject."

"Subject?" Claudia spat. "Subject??" That word describing her made her feel appalled.

She began to pull away from the man but his grip was iron tight. His body did not move once millimetre as Claudia supplied her full force. The other man began patrolling the room.

"Do not make me break your arm" His emotionless robotic threat shivered through Claudia.

Claudia felt the man begin to turn his wrist the more she pulled.

"You will bow down before me before the end of this day, you don't know who you're threatening!" She shouted, her face reddening.

As the other man's exploration led into the food room the door slammed shut behind him. Hilisky was holding the handle of the door in his mouth.

The man restraining Claudia pulled out a handgun and fired shots towards Hilisky who dodged the pellets with ease.

"Stop that!" Claudia used her free hand to slap the gun in his hand, impeding his aim.

During this distraction Hilisky had managed to make ground. The man stumbled slightly as the wolf's tail smashed into his helmet. Claudia felt the pure force of the attack shockwave through his body.

The wolf moved around him too quickly. He couldn't turn fast enough, Claudia's struggling making it even harder.

He released his hold of Claudia, then, using parsley any force, knocked her away. The magnitude of the blow sent her feet hobbling back into the hallway she came from.

Wolf and man began their duel. Punches were dodged and spikes were deflected. Blows were endured from both sides; the wolf coming off worse each time.

Claudia stood watching the event, eager to see her furry friend end the life of this man.

The food room door burst open as the other soldier emerged from the dust.

A spike shot immediately from the wolf into the wall next to Claudia.

'Run' is the message it sent.

The man saw this, noticing the open elevator behind his prised subject; this capture would for sure guarantee his promotion.

Claudia turned, ran, pounced into the elevator and punched on the button.

As the door closed the last thing she saw were the two gigantic robotic-like men surrounding the loyal beast.

A Fight For The Future

The elevator ride felt longer than the last time. Claudia felt a pain inside of her; a faint, old inner familiar pain which she promptly locked away just as the doors slid open.

She was back in the room she thought she would never be in again. She looked out of the large window, curious as to what was happening.

Outside, the explosion had called hordes of wolves to its location. They descended onto the outer premises in no time and the fight with the army commenced.

The wolves shot their spikes, chomped their teeth and slammed their tails into the armour of the soldiers as they manically jumped around, managing only to achieve causing minor dents in the metallic shell; like the damage a car would receive after smashing into a small child at just over the speed limit.

The soldiers retaliated with gunfire from their small machine guns. Wolves fell by the dozens as the rounds penetrated their lightly naturally armoured coats, sinking into the skin beneath.

As one wolf fell, another would almost instantly take its place; to the soldiers it was like shovelling water out of a sinking ship.

Claudia witnessed the swarming from her office window; it looked like ants crawling over small pieces of sweet food that had been left outside for too long.

She did not have time to observe who was winning the fight as a large black figure obscured her view from the outside; it was a helicopter. On the side was an armoured man with a large gatling gun aimed in her direction.

"Holy shit" she muttered as she slowly backed up, weighing up her options but ultimately not having enough time to make it to either elevator.

The gatling gun began to spin into bullet hailing life as streams of needles quickly appeared from both sides of the outside of the room, bombarding the helicopter with countless pressure; it looked like two large thickening pieces of wood had attached from the building to the helicopter.

A large pack of wolves were a few floors beneath Claudia; she was not the target.

The helicopter began to spiral out of control as the once fully black metallic bird was now completely brown on one side.

Claudia did not make the choice of not staying around to see the explosion, because she would have loved nothing more than to have seen it fall to the ground in a fiery eruption for seemingly trying to take her life; the helicopter's descent was aimed in the direction of her office and was going to make itself at home very shortly. She ran and jumped as if she was performing the triple jump towards the elevator, the now detached blades from the helicopter just missing her supple hair.

The flying behemoth barely reached half way into her office. She did not see this and never will, as she was inside the elevator before it could even stop moving.

She punched in floor four on the elevator. She knew of a fire escape ladder on this floor which would lead her into the back alley of the building, a place where homeless scum would like to sleep sometimes, relishing the heat given off by the buildings constant blazing central heating, that was until she hired bodyguards to purely patrol that area at night; putting a stop to this happening.

The journey down the elevator had never felt so slow, the sounds of growling and gunfire growing ever louder and somehow more frequent.

As the elevator opened on the fourth floor she noticed a quick blur of wolves running past; She expected that they wouldn't be running from danger, but to it. She quickly navigated her way through the bloody glass hallway. She did not stop to check for any potential soldiers patrolling the floor or hiding around any corners.

She arrived at the fire escape; it was a large window with glass that was easily broken by using the small red hammer which was placed just next to it. Claudia used this, enjoying it more than she thought she would, to smash open the window, the harmless glass dropping to the floor beneath her expensive blue trainers after just one blow.

She passed through the window and immediately the sounds of the fight were deafeningly loud causing her to grimace at the eardrum assault. She walked to the end of the small metal catwalk. There was a small metal lever; Claudia kicked this causing it to make a satisfying snapping sound and suddenly the ladder grew longer legs as it fell stopping perfectly at the floor, not even making a sound.

Before descending the ladder she looked down below at the dark alleyway. The end of the alley looking like a scene from a movie where the bright light leads to another world; before the radiant light she browsed for any signs of life; but all she could see were dumpsters and black bags full of rubbish; mostly from the building adjacent to hers.

She carefully climbed down the ladder, putting both feet on each step as she went down, turning her head around to peek down every step in case anybody was waiting at the bottom.

She ran towards the light, which was also in the opposite direction of the fighting, and bolted as fast as she could, away from the place she loved most in the world. Never to return.

She charged down the cluttered main street, taking great care to not trip on any of the corpses, tangle her feet in clothing or ram into any of the hastily parked cars.

At current she did not have much of a plan; her plan to go to America was obviously now off. She found it hard to think while running at full speed whilst also avoiding so many obstacles. Her body had never received such a workout.

Her instinct was to get to a place where she would once again be worshipped and admired. She knew there must be a place where a lot of millionaires are hiding out and she knew they would accept her with open arms. She decided that she must find an airbase and take a plane and check out all of the islands. She made this decision without even actively thinking about it.

After she turned down street after street, suddenly at the end of a large, lifelessly busy street a huge wave of wolves appeared and were running towards her, their eyes completely blank and fixed in the same direction, the hundreds of clawed feet making almost no sound. As they came closer it would appear it would be impossible for her to run through them unharmed. She placed both of her arms over her face to embrace the impact.

As she braced for the painful impact, Claudia could feel nothing but a gentle breeze as the wolves parted for her like the sea parted for Moses, their feet around her as silent as a cat hunting a bird.

Claudia, in slight shock, lowered the pink guards from around her eyes and sheepishly looked around herself. It was like was she surrounded by an invisible orb that the wolves couldn't penetrate even if they wanted to. To her it looked like a moving wall of mud was shimmering past her as they moved around her with such precision and confidence that she had no doubt in her mind that they wouldn't touch her.

Her vision of what was ahead while inside traversing the seemingly endless sea of wolves was limited, but she could make out where objects would be as the wolves would be jumping and hopping all over the place to avoid colliding with them themselves. A noise above the relentless wave of wolves disrupted the strangely tranquil moment.

A helicopter began to buzz in the clear sky, hoping to quell as many of the beastly army as possible. The machine started to rain bullets down on the horde of brown sharp fur. Wolves fell by the dozen as it was impossible for even a blind gunner to miss his targets, however, it did not stop the wolves from firing back with their own unlimited weapon supply, but the helicopter was too out of reach; the needles losing velocity and striking back down to the earth like a twig in the wind.

The bombardment of bullets surrounded Claudia. The wolves to her left and right fell down in soundless death, some would jump in her way and fall down soon after. At this point Claudia had to sway and dodge as the wolves corpses would fall erratically, depending on where the bullet had struck them. This scene of mass sacrifice to enable her to continue on was the moment, unbeknown to Claudia herself currently, that she fully embraced what she would become. At first she held some resentment for the wolves for keeping her in that cabin, then resented them for destroying her business, but she had never seen or felt such loyalty in all of her life and decided that now would she take her place upon the throne of wolves and assist them in destroying the world. This world was jealous of her and wanted her dead; she would not allow this to go unpunished. But before fulfilling this role and fully understanding these feelings; she had one last dream to chase.

As Claudia finally came upon the end of the parade of wolves, the wall of brown around her thinned, revealing her again to the damaged streets, the sounds of gunfire and barking becoming more distant the further she travelled. She stopped, turned around, and admired the tidal wave of wolves; they were now jumping on top of each over to assist their efforts in taking down the airborne American machine.

Claudia took one last longing look at the building that had shaped her to be the amazing person she was today. She pictured the large ghostly face of her father looming over the building, his face beaming full of pride. She was also impressed at the great distance she had covered in a short time. She was proud of herself for picking such great energetic, nutritious and delicious food. But it did not prevent her from almost keeling over.

After a small break drinking some fresh coffee on the street in front of a blood stained cafe, corpse both human and wolf under and near her feet, Claudia decided it was time to leave the city once and for all. As she got up to leave, she heard a tiny pair of feet shuffle through the shredded clothes behind her; Hilisky.

She was certain he had died in her bunker, once again saving her life. She couldn't help releasing a smile, something she rarely does unless it benefits her.

Woman and wolf walked in silence as they followed the road out of the broken city.

An Unwanted Reunion

She was on the main road just on the outside of the city. Each way she looked the road's length was further than her eyes would show her, it was completely empty, not a car nor a body in sight. The mission now was to get to the airbase and find a plane. Her father had a worrying amount of love for aircrafts and had taken her there to fly in his own personal airplane many times as a child. It never had interested her, but she did it because it seemed to make him extremely happy, especially after the divorce. Her memory was fuzzy but Claudia was sure she could remember where it was without the aid of her phone.

Four hours Claudia had walked down the long road in a single direction, ignoring every side road along her way, hoping that a sign detailing the distance to the airbase would appear before her; but nothing offered itself. She was thankful for the nice weather, usually it would be extremely cold, but on this fine day she felt comfortable in her tank top, showing off her smooth skin. She wouldn't be able to bare this search in any other conditions.

Claudia was beginning to get used to spending time without human interaction, usually she would be spending time in meetings, sorting out her incompetent staff, or going to bars and parties with Amy, and this solitude is something she would need to get used to if destiny has her way and makes her the sole survivor on earth. Her journey to the airbase was her last chance at living the life she had been accustomed to and felt she had every right to be a part of.

Hilisky had been his usual quiet self, walking slightly behind Claudia. She would occasionally turn back and the wolf would look into her eyes, her reflection appearing on his black eyes, prompting her to often alter her appearance in the dark mirror.

Along the way she had passed many abandoned petrol & service stations. They all told the same story; abandoned, destroyed cars, blood and torn clothes, but they were bountiful with food and water. She had found a small red backpack and crammed in as much as she could.

Claudia constantly kept her eyes over the large mountains to the west. At times, when in the naked open, she would be easy prey for anymore American helicopters searching for company.

An hour later Claudia was surprised to see a vehicle in the distance; it looked like it was coming down the road towards her. It would be the first car she has seen in a while that wasn't either crashed or had its wheels impaled and flattened. At first glance its army-like appearance had triggered her survival instincts and she made movements to hide behind the petrol pumps at the station she was at, but as it became clearer it seemed to be that of a Russian army patrol truck. She sharply ran out of her hiding place, waving her arms to grab its attention as she wandered over to the roadside. Hilisky ran off into the opposite direction, avoiding detection.

The car edged itself along the wide road into Claudia's direction, beginning to sway erratically the closer it came. The truck skidded across the rough, broken road past Claudia and almost into the nearby petrol pumps.

Claudia followed its action and watched as the engine of the car stopped buzzing.

A hand sloppily fumbled to open the driver's side door of the vehicle; it shook flimsily in the wind. This went on for about thirty seconds until the truck door finally shuddered open, Claudia had fully expected a man in full Russian army attire to emerge, but it did not. What did exit was a young, sweaty, chubby girl who appeared to be in her mid-twenties. Claudia knew exactly who it was.

"Lisa...you" Claudia's mouth dropped as the young girl finished appearing from the truck.

"Claudia, it's been a long time" The youngster replied.

The two women intensely stared at each in silence for what seemed like hours, not quite knowing what to say to each other, but in the normal flow of time, was merely thirty seconds. The silence was broken when the young girl decided, her hair now visibly soaking wet with sweat, to share her thoughts with the flame haired business owner.

"Of all the vile trash I expected to encounter, I never expected it to be you!" Lisa's plump cheeks wobbled with each word she flung out of her mouth.

"Then why did you stop and get out of your car? I've been through enough the past few days without having to encounter your multiple flabby chins" Claudia let out a little chuckle, clearly impressed with her insult.

"Predictable insults from you" The youngster let out a sigh and flicked her wet hair over her shoulder, causing drops of sweat to splash against the window of the jeep. "I couldn't see that it was you until it was too late, otherwise I would have ran you down"

"Unlike you, I'm not a mammoth; I could have easily dived out of the way. It's much faster than rolling. Maybe try it once you've lost 10 stone" Claudia let out a louder chuckle at this one.

"Same jokes even 10 years later" Lisa turned her back towards Claudia and walked towards the Jeep. "It's a long walk to wherever you're going, good luck with that"

Claudia lunged towards Lisa, grabbed her shoulder and harshly, with some instant regret to Claudia, turned her towards her.

"Uh, I don't think so" Claudia stepped back to distance herself from the grotesque girl "I'll be taking that vehicle, I have a destiny to achieve, it's obviously why you stopped here, it's actually probably why you were born. Mission accomplished, now go kill yourself"

Claudia began to sassily walk past Lisa but the girl, visibly extremely annoyed, used both of her large hands to shove Claudia back, the force taking her by surprise, requiring her to maintain her balance or otherwise tumble to the floor.

"So you're also still a narcissistic, deluded, self-entitled young lady I see" A smile formed on her face as she saw how much the push affected the receiver.

"You're not getting this car"

Claudia's face rapidly changed from a light shade of white to an alarming shade of red.

"You fat bitch, don't you ever touch me like that ever again, or it'll be the last thing--"

The retort was interrupted by the sound of a car door slamming; both girls looked to where the sound came from.

"Twin sister!!" An excited man-child voice boomed out of Studley as he quickly campily stepped his way towards Claudia "Big hug!"

Lisa eye's bulged and widened as Studley approached Claudia with his arms out wide. If her eyes were capable of turning a vibrant shade of green, they would have at this point.

Claudia noticed his disgusting, infected, oozing handless stump and placed her arm out as straight as she possibly could planting it against his chest, keeping him as far away as she could.

"How the hell did this complete retard survive in the apocalypse?" Claudia spat.

Lisa raised a lecturing finger "It's called autism you ignorant creature, and despite how you've always treated him, he some reason seems to...tolerate you"

"Because he's retarded, and it's all your slutty mother's fault"

"She was not a slut and she was your mother too"

"No, the day she decided to drop her piss stained underwear to sleep with your pathetic, ugly, poor excuse of a father; she was no longer my mother" Claudia reached her free hand in the direction of Lisa and clicked her fingers like a black girl who believes she had just given the best comeback line she will ever give.

Claudia, feeling like she was on a roll, turned back to Studley, her eyes stern.

"And don't you think I've forgotten what you did to my dog all those years ago, you psychotic fuck up" She scowled hard then glanced at his stump "I just wish I could met the beast that tore off your hand and shake it's paw"

Two dozen packs of crows flew above the warring party, heading towards the smell of a fresh new meal, the winding sweeping the scent into their nostrils.

Lisa now with a red face of her own took a large booming step towards Claudia and slapped her arm down, releasing it from the chest of Studley; he however did not advance any closer to Claudia.

"What did I tell you about--" A sudden slap across the face from Lisa made Claudia cut her sentence short.

Lisa followed up the surprise slap with another large shove to her shoulders, this time it sent Claudia to the floor and she landed on a hard rock; her derriere feeling the brunt of it.

Claudia snappily tried to return up to her feet but Lisa was on her before she knew what was happening, pushing her face close to hers while tugging hard at her hair; Claudia felt each and every hair strand scream in pain. "You've been asking for this for a long time"

And she meant it. Until his death, Claudia's father would force her, and himself, with his own reluctance, to go to each of Studleys birthday parties. And the same scene would play out each time; Claudia would make snide remarks about Lisa's ever increasing weight, and make comments about the way Studleys acts and reacts to situations. But what annoyed Lisa the most was the way Claudia would speak to their mother, as if she was just a piece of gum beneath her feet. Lisa had wanted to do this for a long time, and each pull of the hair felt fantastic to her.

Claudia let out a scream and released the blunt edge of her elbow into the side of Lisa's head. The girl did not release her grip, but pulled harder. Claudia thought of her beautiful hair being pulled out of its sockets and slammed even harder two more times into her attackers head and this time the girl let out a sharp whine and released her grasp.

Claudia picked herself off of the floor, one of her hands now formed into a fist containing many grains of sand.

Claudia waited for for the moment Lisa would remove her hand from her aching head, then threw the sand directly into her eyes, causing Lisa to bend over and place both of her hands to her eyes, hoping to pry each piece out and regain her vision.

"You little shit, you may have 10 stone on me, but I've got more years on you" This remark was followed up by a knee to the head.

"Think again before ever touching me again you greasy mongrel"

Claudia thought of pulling the girl's hair but the thought alone gave just enough of the feeling of nausea to not even attempt it. She didn't feel the need to beat Lisa any further, not only did she always have other people to fight her battles, she also liked seeing Lisa roll around on the floor in agony; it was more satisfaction than seeing her lifeless body slumped upon the ground. And she knew leaving her here would eventually result in one of her wolves obliterating her.

She ran towards the jeep, stopping at the door as she turned sideways to Studley, he was simply standing still as she passed him.

"Don't you ever touch me again either, freak. Having Hilisky around at the time of father's death would have helped with the pain so much, but you took him away from me" Claudia's voice showed clear signs of sadness as she spoke to the statue of a man.

"I haven't seen you since you killed my best friend, 16 years ago, and I wish to never see you again after this moment"

Studley remained in the exact position he was in, saying nothing nor showing any signs of remorse.

"Retard"

Claudia opened the door wide, jumped inside, slamming the door behind her.

The key, coloured like army camouflage, had been left in the ignition; Claudia simply turned it and the engine roared into life.

Claudia didn't bother to look around her; she didn't care who she hit. As she was mere moments away from her foot touching the accelerator a large bang was heard; Lisa had slammed her entire body onto the bonnet of the car, causing the back of the truck to slightly rise in the air.

"You evil woman! you would leave your own twin brother out here to die!"

"He's nothing more than a part of me that my mother stained me with"

Claudia licked her lips in delight as she slammed her foot down on the accelerator, but at the exact same time that she did this a fist smashed through the window, causing pieces of glass and flesh to fly towards her. She was quick in placing her face in a defensive position, but the car was already in undirected motion.

The car spun away from Claudia's originally planned direction ploughing directly into one of the oil pumps at the petrol station Claudia had just scavenged; the blow would have surely caused Claudia's head to have smashed off of the steering wheel if not for a big white airbag revealing itself, softly but quickly cushioning her skull from the deadly blow.

An Unplanned Vacation

Lisa flew off of the bonnet of the car, landing on many pieces of large metal debris which had flung off of the car and the oil pump; they pierced her body in many locations, she yelled out in severe pain as each piece dug deeper and deeper into her body as she tried to move herself, blood expelling itself from five regions upon her body; her cheek, her stomach, her legs, and her left arm. It looked as if she was crucified to the ground.

In the large, soft, white mushroom lay Claudia's head, in perfect condition, yet her body was in slight shock from the sudden and violent crash.

Studleys stood in the exact same position that he was in since Claudia's arm was removed from him, his eyes now were fixed on the vehicle that carried his beloved twin sister. No matter how much she hated him, the natural bond twins possess filled his mind with nothing but love and respect for the woman, no matter her outlook on him. Yet his body would not move him. The love was instinct, but the mind did not comprehend the feelings.

Claudia slowly removed herself from the jeep with one hand on her head helping her balance while fighting the dizzy feeling she was momentarily experiencing.

Once she regained her bearings she noticed that the jeep had smashed through the oil pump and crashed into the large thin concrete slab behind it, if not for that wall the crash could have been a lot worse, giving the car more time to gather speed.

Oil was spraying high out of the pump in one direction, which happened to be where the young Lisa lay squirming, sprawled on the floor, blood and oil merging into one. Claudia giggled to herself as she made a crude joke about golden shower in her head.

Claudia knew that staying around here was dangerous and her second priority was to act upon this fear and leave, but first she felt an itch that desperately needed to be scratched and she set straight to scratching it; she walked up to the agonising teenager with a big grin on her face.

Lisa strained her head and with bloodshot eyes and looked at the approaching flamed haired silhouette, her details blacked out by the high sun behind her.

"It's such a shame it's too late for you to learn from your lesson" Claudia squatted down slowly while speaking, being sure to avoid the still raining drops of petrol "But never ever, pull the hair of Claudia Deblonge"

Lisa, unable to open her mouth due to her face being drenched in cold, strongly scented fluid, simply looked in the opposite direction while trying to deal with the intense pain and blood loss; her body quivering and spasming more each second. Her only thought was that she hoped Studley was okay and someone decent would take care of him.

Claudia returned to a standing position and turned away to continue her journey to the airbase, but not before twisting one of her feet on the metal pieces sticking into Lisa's leg; the girl let out a loud scream which enabled petrol to slip down her throat causing her to splutter, choke and cough.

Claudia walked away from the scene, chuffed with the results, being sure first to reclaim her backpack on the way, not giving a second thought for her relations. She barely made it beyond the jeep when she felt a painless prick in the back of her neck.

The colours of her scenery began to blur and shake rapidly, her head felt heavy and sweat began to hastily accompany these feelings. Then nothing. She fell to the floor, lifeless.

The very moment her body touched the ground two soldiers in the same large black armour she had encountered before appeared from behind the building, rifles at the ready.

The two soldiers held a brief discussion when they turned over her body.

"Is this her?" quizzed one of the soldiers.

"She matches the pictures and description perfectly." The man held his arm, a picture of Claudia was displayed on a flickering LCD screen. "It is a shame there is no ID, but it has to be her." Replied the other.

"Going at it incognito was much smarter than what the original plan was, but we had no idea there would be that many wolves, we have had a lot of casualties" The soldier placed a hand to Claudia's neck

"She's breathing fine let's radio for pick-up and get the hell out of here"

"What about the other two? I think they might match descriptions of her blood relations"

"We will take them, I'll call for a medic to arrive with the transport, go see to the man and I'll check out the girl!

One of the soldiers picked out a radio from his small pocket and began calling for assistance while walking towards Lisa whilst the other soldier approached Studley. The man was unresponsive to all of the soldiers questions; his eyes still fixed solely on Claudia.

The soldier put his arm around Studley and walked him to his sister.

It only took ten minutes for a large people transporter helicopter to arrive and park besides the building.

The medic quickly removed a large red stretcher from the helicopter which Lisa was soon placed on.

One of the soldiers picked up Claudia with both arms and carried her to the helicopter; Studley was led close behind, his eyes still fixed on Claudia.

"Take us back to the lab, stat" Said the medic to the driver, and the helicopter began its flight.

As the helicopter took to the air, over on the peak of a nearby hill were a pack of wolves, all looking up towards the departing helicopter, carrying their queen.

But they knew where she was going and that she was in no immediate danger, and it was a gamble they were willing to take to assist them in taking over the last safe piece of land on earth.

America.

Outbreak: Days two to Four

Solve the mystery,

Or else

The night was a deep shade of venomous black with no stars to guide weary travellers. But on this long open road was merely one single black van which had quickly made the journey from city life to the wilderness and knew exactly where it was going. Voices could be heard from within.

Inside the van was a young woman wearing a long white lab jacket, tied with a white belt around the waist, which reached down to her ankles. Opposite her were two men in black suits wearing black sunglasses. Everyone was seated, swaying gently as the van sped down the road.

"Why am I being shipped off to some out of the way lab? I could be doing so much more back in the city" Said the young scientist, her hair was tied up in a small blonde bun, the bun swinging from side to side as her head shook as she spoke.

"I don't consider being dragged from my workplace telling me my daughter has been slaughtered and you will take me to see her body a choice, but a deception"

"You must understand, time is short and we needed to act as soon as possible"

"You could have asked, it was a sick lie to concoct. What makes you think I will help you now?" The woman folded her arms, her face scowling at the two men.

"The world needs you Ms. Blight. You have heard of the wolf crisis that began recently in eastern Europe I am sure, but it is much more severe than the government is revealing to people" Said one of the men.

The intensity on her face began to calm, but her guard was not yet lowered. "Then why did you not just ask me?

"No one can know about where you are going, this work is important and needs as few people involved as possible, we apologise for the deceit but we had to ensure you would come"

The other man added more.

"We needed the best America could offer as well, we heard about your research breakthroughs relating to animal cells. There are two other scientists also being recruited as we speak"

"Recruited huh? or deceived." The woman's face returned to its scowled form.

"You will save a lot of lives, when we soon reach the lab you will understand."

They sat in silence for the rest of the rocky journey.

Jessica was now too busy thinking about what awaited her at this lab, she had seen some news reports of violent wolf attacks in europe but not enough to make her think it was world threatening.

The men had approached her showing her their government badges when they showed up at the lab she works at in California, they acted normal enough if a little bit too serious, but considering the news they had for her it made sense. The news had caused her to break down in more tears then she thought she could give when they had announced that her daughter had been killed by two knife wielding men just hours ago. She did not hesitant to go with them.

To find out it was all a lie is a relief, but at the same time it's left her feeling disgusted that such a lie was created by government officials. She wants to never feel that way again that they made her feel. If what they say is true she will help however she can, but she will not support any selfish projects that just benefit the rich and greedy.

The ride went on for another twelve hours. Jessica and one of the men had fallen asleep during this time. The deceived woman would periodically awaken, her body on automatic alert, an inner fear of being assaulted, but would soon drift off again when her mind took over and reminded her body that if they meant any harm, it would have happened by now.

A Look Into The Future

When Jessica awoke from her dreamless sleep she immediately felt her body was more moist than it would normally be at this time of the year and hour of the day. She rubbed two fingers together, noticing the humidity. She placed another hand onto her forehead, noticing it was clammy, not yet satisfied with her examination, she raised both of her arms in the air, checking how much her clothes were sticking to her body. One of the men noticed her curiously checking her sweaty parts and put her curious scientific mind at ease.

"We probably should have mentioned that the lab is very secluded, and by very secluded we mean in the desert"

Jessica sighed and lay her head back down.

"Can we just...get this over with now"

"First we need to blindfold you" The man approached her with a small silk white piece of cloth. "You cannot know where this place is located. It has many different uses"

"Fine" Jessica sat up and let the man place the cloth around her eyes.

The back doors of the van opened outwards and immediately Jessica felt the rush of hot air slither across her face; the fresh heat made more sweat expel itself from her already drenched pores.

Her anxiety did not help her situation as she was afraid of not only the darkness but she still did not fully trust these men. However, She was an intelligent woman and knew when she was in a situation where she had to just go with the flow.

One of the men constantly kept a firm grip on her arm, leading her at a brisk pace to their destination, so firm that she was sure a bruise would soon appear; she was easy to bruise, once her daughter has thrown a brick of lego in one of her many tantrums at her foot and by the next morning it had caused it to show a large bruise and caused an even larger amount of pain to walk on.

The walk in the desert was an uncomfortable one; she would often stumble or trip on small rocks or her foot would sink into small pockets of deep sand, then she would be dragged forward by the man before she was able to lift her foot back out. Wind would randomly decide to swoosh past the walking trio picking up sand along the way which would always find its way into her mouth; it tended to blow in her direction every time she opened her mouth even for the smallest amount of breath.

After approximately a ten minute walk they finally came to a complete and sudden halt. The man released his hand from her arm. She heard him reach into his pocket and pull something out.

A sound of a small metal lid sliding up was followed by multiple bleeping sounds in quick succession; Jessica knew that this was a number pad being tapped. In her office back in California she would have to tap in her code to enter almost every single door, she could have dementia in twenty years and that code would never be forgotten from her mind; it had been burnt into her mind over the past five years.

The moment the last digit was entered a loud rumbling sound echoed throughout the quiet, lonely desert landscape, the sound seemed to get louder and louder as the seconds passed and she wondered;

Why would they so through so much effort to keep the place secret then have THIS sound when you want to enter the darn place? not very subtle.

After twenty seconds the grinding sound returned to being a quiet secretive silence. The men lead her a few meters forward and stopped still, Jessica could hear a lot of familiar sounds around her, security cameras, lasers and machine turrets. The thought of all these things watching her made an anxious feel charge over her body, more sweat began to form, even though it was much cooler inside the mountain. A few moments later she knew she was now moving in an elevator; a surprisingly smooth ride considering the ruckus that was just made upon entering.

When the elevator reached its destination which Jessica's calculation was about 100 meters deep, her blindfold was carefully removed; the dim light of the elevator saving her eyes from being burnt by the sudden array of lights that surely lit up the lab. Moments later the doors opened treating her to something her childhood self would phrase as 'dreams coming true'.

The lab was magnificent and everything she thought impossible. She was in a long hallway and to each side of it were large glass walls, behind this was darkness, but behind the darkness she could see all of the extremely hi-tech equipment. It looked as if it could be straight from a science fiction movie. As she walked down she passed huge, thick, metallic doors which slid open surprisingly fast upon them knowing someone was within walking distance.

Each new area she walked into was immediately in complete darkness but would light up instantly as the trio entered the area and shut off just as quick as they left it.

For a secret lab it was surprisingly open, she would see directly into each and every room they passed, not an inch of it was unseen or at all private.

It could mean they either trust their scientists without question, or did not trust them at all.

After walking around many corners that looked exactly the same, Jessica began to lose her orientation and worried how she would find her way around this huge place, which surely had many other floors to it also.

"Finally!" Jessica let slip, dazzled by the long walk as they reached a corridor that was already lit and voices could be heard nearby.

The two men lead her into large room which resembled a university lecture hall and the voices heard now also had faces to them; there were two other scientists that looked as uncomfortable as Jessica felt and a man in front of them who looked like a man with much authority.

"Ah, I see our third potential saviour has arrived!" The man clapped his hands together, his old skin sounding like two pieces of old leather being slapped together.

Finding The Origin

Jessica sheepishly walked into the room holding both of her hands low in front of her, and down the steps towards the three people. The two security officers were already out of the room before she even reached the bottom of the steps.

The man with authority noticed her looking back at now closed door and said towards her in a very serious tone "Not even they are allowed to know what words are spoken within these walls"

He walked backwards towards the wall and took a deep breath.

"I wish there were more time for pleasantries but time truly is important" His long brown jacket ruffled with every exaggerated hand action he created.

"You three have been bought here because you are the best in your fields, Jessica you are the absolute best in animal cell research and have made some remarkable achievements for such a young age of 27" He now turned away from her and faced towards the woman next to her, she was short than Jessica, maybe 5'6 and had short black hair which came to her ears.

"Ah Kathy Bremer; renowned throughout the science community all over the world. You have been winning awards and solving so many scientific conundrums for over thirty years, you are what we call the jack of all science trades" His face truly shone brighter with each second he was talking to the grey haired lady, who would surely be stunning back in her heyday, but apparently still got older men hot under the collar. Jessica wondered if she truly was such a great scientist, as she has never heard of her, or was she here purely because of her appearance.

He finally tore his eyes away from the elderly woman and lifted them high to the tower of a man who was the third and final scientist.

"Ah, Tom, your work on animal genetics has been fascinating, you have captivated millions of people with your theories and work on hybrid animals and you will synchronise with this crew delightfully well"

Jessica had a sudden twinge of anger she couldn't control as the man seemingly droned on. "This is all very nice but you said time was short and you lied about my daughter being dead to get me here, how about we move on?" She surprised herself with how powerful it came out.

Kathy, giving Jessica a stern nod before turning to the authoritative man, added "Indeed. I was told my grandchildren had been abducted and that I was needed as a ransom for their safe return."

Tom added nothing but frequent nods of approval towards his peers as they spoke their words.

"Ok, I understand some bold strategies may have been used to get you here but you now need to understand how important this all is."

Everyone remained quiet, eager to learn what was about to change their lives.

The man went on to explain about the wolf epidemic, showing them pictures and news cut-outs with details of the events that have taken place over the past two days.

"This is all hardly known to the American public at this time, news slipped about the wolf attacks in Russia but they have little knowledge about how far this has all spread, were looking already at over one billion wolves patrolling the earth and it has been only two days"

The man's eyes were mostly fixated towards Kathy, who awkwardly moved her eyes away after they met his for a few seconds too long.

"So this is why social media was promptly blocked in every single American state without much news" Kathy spoke with folded arms, one hand touching her chin as she spoke.

"Yes" he nodded "We did not need the public panicking, it is looking like we are the last safe place on earth, but our forces are struggling to keep the outbreak at bay."

"So" Jessica added "You deceived the American public into not knowing how much harm is potentially around the corner and have now refused them the right to prepare themselves? I'm stuck here while my family is in real danger!" She strongly folded her arms, her face beginning to turn red from the anger which swelled from the deception.

"It's all for their own safety but please, you have all been brought here to help us tackle this; you are the three greatest science minds with relation to animals, you will stay here for as long as it is needed and conduct research using all of the state of the art technology we have here, most of it unseen outside of these walls." The man's eyes now proudly scanned over the trio as he spoke his words.

Tom finally spoke his soft words "What if we don't want to stay?"

The answer came fast and hard:

"There is no choice in this" A heavy atmosphere came over the room, the three scientists suddenly feeling like they had been entered into a situation they can never win.

Exact details of what work they would be undertaking was explained in as much detail as he could fit in as many small sentences as possible, then the two men were called back into the room and the trio of great minds were ushered to their own personal labs which were all next door to each other. When the mention of bedrooms came up, the subject of no sleep came up in return.

Jessica was now all alone in what should be her dream location, but it was all ruined by ruthless deception and false pretensions, she was surrounded by such technology that she should be in her most happiest zone. But she felt empty.

The large glass wall made her feel uneasy. She knew there were cameras watching her but she was used to that invasion of privacy in her own lab, but the entire wall being made out of glass made her feel paranoid that she would turn around and there would be dark figures watching her, making sure she was working as fast as possible.

On the desk spanning the opposite wall was a small computer; it looked as if the wall had developed a large mouth and attempted to devour the terminal but got it stuck halfway in.

What, were they scared of me running off with it?

She was told that this terminal is where she would record all her progress and be able to read messages from the other two scientists; _why weren't we allowed to be in the same room?_

Before she could further mope on her emotions the door to her lab slid up and entering at an alarming speed was a trolley with the bloodied corpse of a wolf displayed on it; the man that pushed in the trolley did not say a word leaving as quickly as he had arrived, his head constantly facing the wall, his face making no contact with hers. Jessica worried he was going to crash into wall as he scurried out of the room as if she was some monster he was trying to escape from.

The man had informed her, or rather the wall, that she needed to find out as much as possible about the wolf through any means necessary. Next to the corpse was a small pink envelope. She tore it open and inside was a small letter.

It read: This wolf is an Alaskan wolf, it is not one of savage wolves but this is all we have available right now, research what you can about it and see if there are any abnormalities. More will be on the way. DO whatever it takes. You have all the tools needed.

The tools available; scalpels, razors, knives, a drill...

Working with animal cells was one thing, but having to dissect and analyse a perfectly normal looking wolf was not something Jessica studied all of her life for.

The Wolf Genes

Since being a child she had always wondered how animals functioned and evolved, how they came to be and what motivated them to do the things they do. This had always fascinated her and is the core reason she spent most of her time through university studying and not partying and sleeping around. But this is what it has come to.

She would not resort to this right now, so she buried her head in the sand and instead took small blood samples and placed them under the impressive microscope which gave her an almost perfect picture of every single cell. It truly was amazing.

She placed the cells onto a small plastic rectangular slide and placed it into the cell analysis machine that was connected to the terminal. The terminal made beeping and bopping sounds whilst many boxes flashed on and off on the screen.

The result was as she expected: it was simply a normal wolf, no abnormalities, nothing; it was a perfectly healthy animal before being slaughtered. She sat down at the terminal and began to relax herself, but before she could take even three slow breaths a loud voice came into the room from the camera: it was the authoritative man who would not give his name.

"Ms. Blight you weren't brought into this exquisite lab in the middle of the desert to simply take a few blood samples and take a break. You have surely seen the tools available to you in this room. You must do whatever it takes to get the results we need. We brought you here for your intellect and your inspirational hard working nature. Remember, no one is leaving here until results are found.

The anxious sweat began to yet again form as she realised she was under constant supervision. If she ever wanted to see her beautiful family again she had to indeed do whatever it takes.

She began by picking up the scalpel and hesitantly staring at the corpse which had died by gunshot to the head, and started penetrating the stomach and sliding the small silver blade the full length of its stomach; it felt like she was cutting through a piece of steak.

This made the contents of the beasts entire torso spill outwards to the side, causing Jessica to have to turn away and gag into her hands, the feeling of vomit reaching the back of her mouth leaving a bitter taste as it returned to where it would surely come from again. Blood flowed over the table, sliding over the edge of the table. Not one bit of white could be seen any more on the once pristine table top..

Now she had all these wolf organs scattered across her work table, so many she had no idea where to begin. It was like being in a butcher shop.

She looked at all of the machines around the room. She had seen them before in magazines as prototypes but never believed they had actually been built and who knows how long for. She quickly fathomed what the machines functions were and began tearing open hearts and livers down to the smallest pieces, blood spraying as she diced away against various organs; her white jacket she had received on the day she had received her master's degree was no longer a white jacket, and never would be again.

Vomit would slither its way up her digestive track again and again as she would perform these tasks but as the hours went by and the amount of dead wolves that had entered her lab increased considerably, she felt less and less disgusted and it became more like routine.

Her room now began to look like a wolf morgue, they would bring in more wolves but never take the ones that had been tested upon. The place would smell putrid if not for the excellent air conditioning which would sweep the approaching smell away before it could ever reach Jessica's nostrils. She would have been sick many times if the her sense of smell was able to join with her sense of touch and vision.

Jessica began to feel tired from the constant work. Every result was the same, these wolves were all perfectly normal down to the smallest details, but every time she would stop for a rest the voice would yet again jump from the speaker and remind her of how important her work is with subtle veiled threats to her family soon following.

She wondered how Kathy and Tom were doing with their research. She was concerned for Kathy considering her age but then she smiled and thought that maybe she was with the man behind the speaker performing all sorts of...acts.

Tom, she did not know much about but he looked young and healthy so this work would be of no problem for him.

She spared some thoughts for her family, she wondered what little Veronica was up to, she would be wondering where her mummy was, why didn't she come home last night? why wasn't her face shaped toast ready and waiting for her on the breakfast table? She wondered how her husband Byron would explain it to her; they had rushed her away so fast she has had no contact with anybody. What has this...corporation said to people?

She didn't have much time to mull over these thoughts as the awkward man soon rushed into the room again with another trolley, this one was much different to the other wolves that came before, this one looked like something out of a dark fantasy film.

It was large and very dark, it's fur looked like it would be sharp enough to penetrate flesh without much encouragement, it's eyes were dark and small.

Jessica had been shown shaky camera footage of the wolves attacking people but she never quite expected them to be this large or this grotesque looking. The normal wolves just looked like slightly bigger dogs but this thing is clearly on another level.

The man rushed out the room even faster than usual, this time slamming half of his body into the wall on the way out. Jessica was too stunned by what was lying on the table in front of her. She didn't know what to think.

She didn't ponder for long as the voice of authority came to her yet again.

"This is one of the beasts that has ravaged almost half of the world already, we killed it trying to approach the country via the Canadian border. You must be careful not to touch the fur on its back, it is imperative that you heed this as we do not know if the transformation agent inside the wolf's fur is still active after death."

Jessica, without having moved her eyes off of the deceased monster, wondered how best to approach this situation, she needed to obtain samples like with all of the other wolves but this one required such precision she was unsure if she was capable; one mistake could cost her life.

Revelation

Now that she has seen this monstrosity first hand she knew how much trouble the world is in, and if Canada and south America were compromised then it meant that this threat was close to her and her family; Jessica gained a new perspective, she no longer felt like a prisoner but felt like a saviour and the feeling of honour swept over her, Endorphins circulated her brain.

She began the procedure almost immediately, but carefully. She jabbed the scalpel into the stomach of the spiked wolf but to her shock it snapped on impact and not a single dent was left in the stomach of the beast. She quickly checked for how it had met it's end and noticed countless bullet wounds around the spine of the beast, it looks like at least 10 shots had been fired into its back; but the most amazing thing was that most of bullets were still visible through the skin: only one or two had managed to find a weak spot and hit vital organs.

It was time to get serious she thought, so she reached and picked up a large electric drill off of her table of many tools, at first using only one hand yet this almost resulted in her arm being pulled down to the floor; the other hand was quickly ushered in for back-up.

As she held the trigger the drill vibrated with life, to her it felt like having her hands resting on a blender that was spinning at full power, impossible to control.

She stabbed erratically at the stomach with her electric weapon, finding it hard to aim even with her two hands firmly holding it, her face squinting like she was facing a roaring sun. After some missed attempts stabbing the air and the table, she was able to slightly enter the belly of the beast by a few centimetres. Even the screw that was being spun a thousand times a second struggled to tear open the flesh. She slowly dragged the drill down the curved belly, the drill pausing and making horrible churning sounds as it went, feeling as if it may explode at any moment. She held her face back at angle, thinking it would help if any parts of the drill were to shoot in her direction.

Eventually the now all too familiar job was done. Jessica was able to properly examine the insides of the beast, and amazingly it all seemed to resemble any normal wolves, the only obvious difference was that the skin was extremely durable and thick, it was at least three times as thick as a basic wolf.

She performed the usual tests on the wolves organs. No matches were found on the international database, all blood tests confirmed the insides as being one hundred percent wolf. What caused Jessica to become dumbstruck was that it was seemingly a new species of wolf, there existed no records of any such beast with and it fostered no connections to any other wolf breed.

To save her family and the world she needed to find out the source of the wolves but if there were no matches to any of the tests performed then what could she do? A hopeless feeling fell over her as she thought of her family being mauled by one of the beasts, maybe it had already happened while she was down here, failing at what she has always wanted to do since being a young girl. Tears began to slide down her grimy feeling face, a face that had not been washed in almost a day.

Then she had an idea. The wolves caused humans to transform into more wolves, which would mean that...

She spoke her thoughts to the man over the speaker and requested access to the international database of every single person in the world, she knew that if this man had access to all of this laboratory then he must be able to grant this access.

And he did, instantly, her computer desktop showed the icon to the database appear almost as soon as the man had finished confirming her request.

She quickly opened up the database and started by checking the blood DNA results against a worldwide search, thousands of names whizzed past her eyes, names of from many countries across many different languages. She felt as if she was looking at every single registered person in the world. Then it stopped on a name, a young female from Russia.

Claudia Deblonge.

There was an extensive bio about the woman. Jessica never knew such information existed about every single person in the world, she almost got side-tracked and searched herself but her anxiety stopped her from doing this, she knew it would possible make her spiral into depression having to read over her mistakes in life.

This Claudia woman though, business woman from Saint Petersburg, a business she inherited from her father after his death. She has a twin brother named Studley who suffers from an extreme case of autism; he also lives in the same city but they live apart, he lives with his mother who was divorced from the father because of her having an affair fifteen years ago. The detail of the database was truly staggering, but why was this woman showing up when searching with the wolves DNA? it was a perfect match.

Jessica had some hunches but the most immediate, logical as possible explanation was that this poor soul less than two days ago was a human, and this woman with her business and her looks was now laying torn open and shot to death on her operating table. Jessica shed a few tears after the heart breaking thought of such a waste of life.

She reported what she knew to the authoritative man and he agreed with her hypothesis. The next few hours went by slowly and quietly, no more normal wolves were brought in to be mutilated but nor was she allowed to leave the room. While the computer had access to more information than anyone would ever need, it was severely limited and the temptation to search up friends and family was all too great a temptation, so she managed to keep herself away from it and spent the time merely thinking about the wolf, the flame haired woman, and what was happening to the world above ground.

Eventually the awkward man yet again returned and as expected, had with him another of the large mysterious wolves. This one was from the Canadian border.

Jessica was excited. She felt like how a detective must feel when he is on the verge of cracking a case. She never knew she would be excited to tear open the corpse of a wolf, this one killed by a bayonet right through the skull. Seems to be a weak spot.

She wasted no time in repeating the same routine as before, this time the drill managed to snap while ripping open the beast's stomach, yet this did not faze her, not now she was in her element and on the edge of success. This side of Jessica knew no anxiety or hesitation. She powered up the razor sharp blade which looked like a pizza cutter and tore through the rest of the way, not even caring about the blood splatting her face any longer.

She hopped to the computer to see what results she came up with.

Claudia Deblonge showed up, again.

Two wolves from two different locations, many many miles apart, both with DNA matching this woman from Russia, in the same exact location where the outbreak was first reported to begin. This case was almost solved, the only thing now was to experiment on this woman. It was the key to solving everything, Jessica knew this.

Jessica quickly passed all of this information onto the voice at the end of the speaker and he sounded extremely pleased with the news.

He informed Jessica that she was now able to leave her lab and rest for a while, but if she was to leave the complex she would be killed. Bluntly put. Jessica agreed to the terms and she left her lab when one of the men who brought her here showed up to escort her. Now her mood was in a completely different state. She wanted to stay here and continue the work she at first dreaded to perform. She wanted to know more about this Claudia.

The man ceased his conversation with Jessica and turned to the woman lying on the lavish bed next to his desk.

"I was worried her anxiety would get the better of her when I met her, but looks like she managed to get to get us results, I'm glad you weren't needed after all."

"I think keeping you calm and relaxed was more important, don't you?" Kathy winked and giggled like a woman half of her age.

"And you did a great job at that, I've always admired you and I couldn't have you shut away in a lab while being in the same building...some things are more important than the world."

The man's charisma oozed off of him so vibrantly that Kathy immediately felt gushes of pleasure enter her nether regions, letting out a small moan as she slowly reached her climax for the third time in short space of time.

He beamed a smile and picked up the handle on his large vintage phone "I need information on a certain Russian citizen, this is top priority, look for any recent phone calls from her address or mobile phone, it is of the utmost importance that this woman is captured, alive preferably. We need to know her most current location"

He spoke on the phone for a further time, Kathy's eyes on him every single second, listening to every single word, his voice giving her pleasure she has never felt from verbal echoes before.

The man turned back to Kathy. "Seems the last time this woman used her mobile phone was on a small island off of Saint Petersburg a day before any of this began, another team is being sent to her company headquarters."

Kathy smiled and replied "I love a man who gets things done"

The man's face turned stern and he reached into his pocket.

"Is it time for round...5? 6? big boy?" Kathy removed the covers from over her naked body, her legs spread as wide as possible, her bones creaking with each inch moved, her aging skin hanging over her genitalia.

"No, the only round you're getting is to the head."

And she was dead.

##

##  Outbreak: Day Six

A Nuisance Prisoner

There was a gust of wind that would swim across the peak of her head with a consistent time gap in between each wave lightly combing her hair. She didn't know where she was and she had a slight feeling of nausea. Her vision had been blurred for the best part of an unknown span of time and she could hear muffled voices; it sounded like men at a bar, joking and laughing. The other sounds were like those of a muffled dog whimpering in pain after being beaten in a fight over a bitch.

Occasionally the voices would come closer and she would feel a painless thud to the side of her head; she felt no pain, was it meant to hurt? she couldn't understand what she was thinking.

After some more time passed the area she was in went from a dim artificial light, to a beaming new-dawn red then to that of an average afternoon. It was when that this light began to fade and the need for the artificial light was called upon that Claudia felt that she was back into her own mind.

For a brief moment she wished she hadn't.

She was in a medium sized transport helicopter, but to her it felt like a small size helicopter. Sat directly across from her, his back up as straight as possible against the wall was Studley. Luckily he was sleeping so he could not give her that stare that he always gives her when in her presence, that besotted stare that follows her every move. However, it wasn't a perfect solution as thick wet drool was slithering out of the side of his mouth; his torn yellow T-shirt had wet patches all over it.

Next to that disgrace was an even bigger one; Lisa. She was sleeping while making horrible whining sounds, it looked like she was having a dream and this one didn't have any cakes in it. Claudia smiled to herself at the thought of this, and then the smile emerged even bigger when she remembered why she appeared to be in such pain; she was now bound in blood and bandaged up where the pieces of metal had impaled her; the job was so hasty completed that blood was slowly seeping out of the sides.

She looked to her left and saw two people sitting in the pilot seats, they were chatting away at such a fast speed that Claudia could not understand their thick accents. She thought they sounded uneducated and dumb, but she expected nothing less from American soldiers.

Claudia went to look to her right, slow measured movements as her neck was stiff from and sore from being almost comatose in the same position for many unknown hours, but before she could complete the manoeuvre a hard slap came across her face.

"You murdering bitch! You killed so many of my friends out there!" Said the man who had crossed his palm across her face. She couldn't see his face through the helmet. She wanted to know who it was.

"Excuse me you fucking redneck hillbilly, you're the ones who came into MY property and destroyed my ceiling and took me out of my beautiful war bunker, oh then you shot me with some hard-core drugs and kidnapped me!" Claudia spun her head around vigorously, if her arm's weren't chained behind her back then she would be flying at this man no matter how much bigger than her he was.

"You have destroyed the planet and killed billions of people, you make me feel sick you Russian scum" If he had showed his dislike by spitting on her then it would have made no difference as saliva would escape through the gaps in his teeth every two words.

"I have done nothing to no one, I was just relaxing after having a weekend break with a male friend, not my fault you and your friends decided to pick a fight with a pack of wolves" Claudia let out an exaggerated obnoxious laugh, the fury in the man's face was clearly visible.

The man uttered and mumbled many offensive and racist words as he clenched his first and launched it towards Claudia's face. Before it could get even half way towards her face, another arm approached and stopped the man's assault.

The other man spoke with a much softer, educated voice. "Stop. we don't know for sure she is the cause of all this, plus she was requested to be captured in as pristine a state as possible for research purposes, do you want to sabotage any chances of saving our country?"

The brutish simple man removed his fist from the other man's hand and walked to the other side of the helicopter, out of view.

Claudia beamed a smile and flashed her eyes at the man who rescued her face from being turned a shade of black and blue. He returned the smile with one of his own. Claudia knew that this man had saved her because he was already in love with her, and if flirting meant that her face remained the picture of perfection, then flirt she would, but she could see more of his face than the other man and wish she had not been able to, there was no chance that the flirting would lead to anything further, no chance at all.

A cough came from nearby "Should have let him smack her smug face" Lisa's voice was cracked and hoarse, pain could be heard with every word she released from her blood stained face.

"Shut up pig, don't you have some wounds to attend to?" Claudia slid her back against the floor and stabbed with her bare toes at the dressing on Lisa's left and right legs, this made Lisa squeal out a sharp whinge.

Claudia looked up and giggled at the unattractive man as she did this; it seemed to grant her the reaction she wanted as he was too busy staring into her hazelnut eyes to stop her from causing pain to Lisa.

"What is going on back here?" The man firmly brushed the back of his hand against Claudia's cruel legs and looked up at the unattractive man.

"Sergeant Stone, why are you letting this happen? You are meant to keep the prisoners safe and under control until they are back at the lab" his medic bag swung side to side in the gentle wind that still swept through the cabin.

Claudia seductively bit her bottom lip, gaining the attention of Stone while he spoke.

"Sorry sir, I haven't been sleeping well and must have zoned out" He fought his vision away from Claudia slowly as he spoke.

"Well zone back in and move the package further away from the patient while I attend to her"

"You what? I'm considered a package and she a patient? I was drugged and assaulted!" Claudia was shocked that Lisa was more of a concern than her.

"You just be quiet and enjoy the ride, you're going to be quite the lab rat soon"

Stone unshackled Claudia's hands from the small pipe trailing behind her and grabbed her up by her arm then began walking her to the other side of the helicopter, he ensured that his hand rubbed against her firm breast all along the slowly walked journey.

The words of the medic would have worried Claudia but this man was going to be her ticket out of this situation, she was sure he would release her at some point if he even faintly believed that Claudia would drop her pants to her ankles and bend over for him.

The Guinea Pig Arrives

The rest of the journey was solemn; filled with longing looks from Claudia aimed directly towards Stone but other than some banter between the medic and pilot, all else was quiet.

When the helicopter reached its destination the man in the pilot seat picked up his bleeping radio and signalled for the landing pad to be opened.

At this point Stone approached Claudia, reached into his pocket and pulled out a small piece of black silk, he placed it around her head, covering her eyes, then released her hands yet again from the wall and placed them into basic handcuffs.

"Oh, you're into kink, oh this I like" Claudia let out an exaggerated gasp of air that made the man feel his penis fill with blood.

On the rocky desert landscape below, the sand and stones began to quake and shiver as the ground beneath them parted, some sand and stone would slip through this ever expanding gap, but landed on a large square white pad that zoomed up like an elevator. stopping in line with where the earth used to be.

The helicopter began it's descent, landing perfectly on the white square that reflected the light beamed from the sun which was almost hidden behind the mountains in the distance.

Once the full weight of the helicopter was felt and the blades had begun to slow their violent spin, the white platform edged down slowly, the earth above swallowed it whole and no longer would anyone notice anything unusual or out of place about this desolate location.

When the lift reached the bottom of the platform it emerged into a large room that resembled a warehouse more than a heliport , there were shelves upon shelves of boxes that looked to contain many kinds of medicines and scientific equipment, the amount so plentiful that it was impossible to see one end of the shelf to the other end. Near to where the white square landed were two more helicopters; these were just normal sized ones.

The door to the dark transport helicopter flipped open and touched the ground, revealing a staircase on its inner side.

First, the two pilots descended the steps carrying Lisa on her stretcher, who had fallen unconscious soon after her toe attack from Claudia. Stone and the medic lead a bewildered and amazed looking Studley down next, his head looking around the warehouse in shock and awe.

Claudia had the pleasure of being escorted by her favourite army personnel; the guy with hillbilly teeth. Her currently blind eye's didn't know this but she knew straight away when he had a firm grip around her arm; sure to leave a bruise. He used his other hand to push her along and down the steps, not giving her enough time to find her footing, his grip conveniently loosened at this exact moment, causing her to slide down the steps face first, grinding her arms and legs against either side as she flew down like a sled on a winter race course.

Before Clauda could even pick herself up the man was already down the stairs dragging her to her feet. Studley turned around, witnessing the whole ordeal, but did nothing to protect his twin sister from being rough handled by this man, he loved his hateful sister but these people were the men from his dreams, he always wanted to be a part of the army but never knew why he couldn't join. Now he feels like he is where he belongs and will do his best to fight for his country.

The trio were lead through the soulless warehouse and into the bright lab, Claudia could feel the brightness penetrate her blindfold as they entered each new section.

The long silence, only accompanied by echoed footsteps, was broken when Claudia heard a familiar, yet irritating voice.

"Bye bye, Claudia see you later" Shouted Studley, Claudia knew he only spoke like that when he was very happy and knew that he probably thought he was here on some top secret mission to fight against an alien hoard.

Lisa and Studley were taken down a different path to Claudia. She was taken further down the way they had been walking the entire time. After light had entered and exited her shielded eyes four more times, she was lead into a room, her blindfold loosened and the door slammed behind her, no longer was the sharp grip of the unattractive man snapped around her now aching arm.

When the blindfold slipped off of her face and delicately onto the cold grey floor, she knew that she was in a small interrogation room. She was alone.

In the centre of the room was a small table and a single chair, she decided to sit herself down; she felt no need to wait for an invitation.

A Worthy Opponent

After a short time a voice came from behind the mirror that decorated the entirety of the wall facing Claudia.

"I'm so glad you've come to see me" Said the voice from a man who Claudia would describe as someone who is in a lot of power.

"Not as if I had much choice, you kidnapped me from an extremely comfortable, luxurious location" Claudia attempted to hold her arms but they were still chained behind her back.

"Oh don't worry, this will all be over soon if you cooperate with me. Life will be very uncomfortable for you if you don't"

Claudia sat up in her chair and leaned over the table.

"Do you know who I am? how dare you speak to me like that"

"Inherit some property from daddy, run it into the ground with terrible business decisions and think you're someone special?" The smugness of the man's voice irritated Claudia's skin. "Sweetheart, you're nothing, and I don't have time for a princess with an ego"

"I want to know how these wolves came to be and how you are connected to this disaster" His voice was quickly going from that of authority to that of impatience.

Claudia now sat back coolly in the chair after quickly realizing how much this man needed her "I really have no idea what you're talking about officer sir".

This young woman reminded him of a spoilt brat, a person who had their whole lives handed to them on a plate, and this person in particular is highly likely to be the cause of much devastation, and she is sitting right in front of him without a care in the world. This made anger build inside him, something he never usually shows in his professional life.

"Listen girl, millions of people are dying every day and I know you are somehow connected. A small team of my men went to the small island where your phone was last located and saw all the chaos that went on there; The women chained to tables, the corpses of the large men that looked like they had been ripped apart by beasts, and all of the boats that had been plundered by these men" As the sentence ran on, his voice became softer and softer in an attempt to try a different approach "It must have been quite the ordeal"

"I was simply on a weekend date with a young strapping rich man, then I went home and got attacked by your ugly crew" She added after a small pause "I must stress how ugly they are, Americans on TV are shown to be so attractive as well"

There was a pause in the conversation for a few minutes, silence filled the empty room and she wondered what had happened, she just instantly assumed she had won the debate, then the door behind Claudia swung open wide, the hinges creaking as the door hid its maximum width.

A man in armour, it looked to be twice as thick as the armour that was worn when her bunker was raided, pushed in a large trolley that had a large white drape around it, restricting Claudia from seeing what was beneath. The man clicked a small piece of metal with his foot under the trolley, making it stay in place, then quickly left the room.

"Do you know what is under the covers?" He didn't give time for an answer "It's one of the beasts that has ravaged the world and is currently getting closer and closer to invading the last known free country on earth"

Claudia said nothing but continued looking at the trolley, she wondered if this wolf would worship her like the others had, or did wolves from different countries each have different queens. She expected she would soon find out, but deep down she knew this wolf would be her ticket to escaping.

"Let's see how it reacts to your presence..."

A small beeping sound was heard then the drape around the trolley began to expand as the frame below opened out, releasing the wolf from its imprisonment.

The wolf shuffled its way under the drape which had landed on top of it. To Claudia it looked like someone was crawling under there with 50 knives sticking out of their back.

The large wolf head slowly emerged its head out of its white silky cape. First, it's long ruffled ears popped out, then it's dry furiously sniffing nose, followed by its dark mirror eyes. Then as it slowly revealed its face and neck Claudia's heart skipped a beat as she immediately noticed the red spiked collar around the neck of the wolf.

Hilisky.

The wolf walked up to the seated woman and without any warning, snapped his large jaws around the handcuffs that bound her hand, releasing her, then sat down tall besides her.

"Good boy" whispered Claudia "Now shoot some of your spikes into that mirror" She repeatedly pointed towards the double sided mirror.

The beast seemed to understand every word and action she presented to it as it reared up its back and flung countless spikes into the mirror; They were shot at such a velocity that they managed to stick into the glass, penetrating it about half way.

After 20 seconds of this, Claudia grew impatient, picked up her chair and slammed it against spikes that were wedged into the glass, smashing the chair in the process but making no further progress.

"So it seems you are one with the wolves, how interesting, and it appears there is no way you will cooperate with us, so be it. Release the gas"

Claudia flipped around as the room began to turn a dark shade of yellow and before she could even shout obscenities at the voice behind the mirror, she was feeling extremely tired and heavy like a dark force was pulling her head down. She tried to fight it but ultimately after a small thirty seconds of exposure the room turned a complete shade of yellow, Claudia nothing but a faint black silhouette beneath the acidic glow, then she was asleep on the cold grey floor. The wolf joined her thirty seconds later, his assault of spikes slowing each second the cloudy glass entered his mind.

The Human Trials

Claudia awoke. Her arms, neck and legs feeling tight, her vision glued looking at the ceiling above and no matter how hard she tried she could not move her head.

Jessica entered the large, extremely illuminated room, it was almost blinding to her the moment she entered; The hallway behind her was as bright as a good summers day. She saw the young red haired woman tied down to the table, her long hair spilling out from either side of her hanging over the sides of the chair she was bound to. She looked exactly like the photograph on the computer database. She was fighting with her restraints and desperately trying to look around the room.

Jessica had been ordered to examine the girl and do whatever it takes to find out her connection to the wolves. She had never performed any kinds of tests or experiments on humans and never did she want to, this woman on the table who looked around the same age was she was, appeared scared and lost, dragged away from her home and family just like Jessica was.

But then Jessica thought of the situation and fought back the strong emotions she was feeling, ceasing the sound of her heart; this girl could have all of the answers that she seeks, and all it might take it a sample of blood to figure this out. She wasn't used to lying to herself. This girl could also be innocent.

She approached Claudia, picking up a needle as she circled the chair.

"This will sting just a little, please remain still" Jessica spoke in a gentle voice as if she was speaking to her daughter just before nursing a wound on her leg.

"Get away from me you psycho bitch" Claudia tilted her head slightly and attempted to spit at Jessica with dry lips but nothing came out as she had been given no liquids since her capture.

Jessica noticed the momentary defeat in Claudia's face and swiftly jabbed the small needle into her arm, pushing the plastic top down as far as it would go.

Claudia felt a small stabbing pain as it penetrated her soft skin, she had always had skin that was easy to damage, she would constantly be cutting herself as a child on nearly every household object.

The needle slowly syphoned blood until the syringe was completely crammed full. She delicately released the metallic spike from Claudia's arm and walked away from the chair.

Jessica checked the sample of blood on the computer, the computer that is so advanced that it could never be wrong in its calculation. The results came as expected; the DNA was a one hundred percent match to the two wolves that she had operated on.

Jessica had hoped they wouldn't be a match but she knew the outcome was inevitable. She now wondered what she would try next. She tried a futile approach.

"Please tell me what you know about your connection with the wolves, I really do not want to go any further with this" Jessica placed her face directly over Claudia's, her eyes genuine with concern for the Russians welfare.

"All I know is that they will save me, I am their queen" Claudia really believed what she was saying, the wolves had saved her life countless times since they had begun worshipping her and she had no doubt that they needed her alive for some important reason.

"I didn't want to do this" Jessica moved her head away from Claudia's, put on a sturdy pair of gloves and walked to a plastic bag on a nearby table. She pulled out a large spike, about 5 inches long and 3 inches thick that had belonged to one of the wolves. She handled it carefully not wanting to risk stabbing herself with the poisonous blade.

Claudia listened to movements and wondered what was happening next, what other tests could they perform on her? She felt helpless, she felt like she did when the cannibal had his entire body weight on her, almost crushing her. She hated feeling helpless. She is always in control. One thing she would never do is beg.

Jessica, without warning, stabbed the large, thick spike directly into the bicep of Claudia. Claudia squirmed in her restraints, the sharp pain resembling that of a burning pain, but much longer and deeper. The air in the room grew thicker as she found her breath harder to catch.

Jessica felt instant remorse for her actions, she felt like she was torturing this woman, she had to constantly remind herself why she was doing it every step of the way, sometimes even out loud.

While Claudia was distracted with the pain in her right arm, Jessica jabbed a cable that was connected to a small machine which displayed a monitor with many different values, into Claudia's left arm. This was to read any immediate changes in her body composition. Jessica made to reach into her pocket for a cloth to wipe the mounting sweat from the woman's forehead, but stopped herself from doing so.

Jessica studied the device closely yet nothing was changing; Claudia's body was not reacting to the spike at all besides the initial insertion pain increase.

Claudia felt calmer that the pain was over for now, her arms just felt numb and sore but she never wanted to feel such pain again. She wanted to shout abuse at this woman that was destroying her body, but felt too weak to do so, so she occupied her mind with thoughts of how she was doing to get her revenge. Stabbing her in the face with this very spike, then ramming two of her fingers far into her eye sockets until blood crawled out of the sides, then she would grab her by the hair and slam it multiple times into the side of a sharp table until her head was as dented as a fence after a car had crashed into it at a speed far over the limit. In reality she knew she would just let the wolves rip her apart, leaving her to admire the view, but the thoughts caused the pain to further subside.

The next stage Jessica was not looking forward to in the least. The next step was to extract bone marrow from Claudia's hips. She was well aware this was an extremely painful procedure as her now deceased son had to receive transplants on a yearly basis; the pain he went through was described as horrific and often wished himself to be where he was now.

Jessica left the spike dug into Claudia's arm, she felt that the girl would feel a lot more pain once the thing was removed and leaving it in was the kindest thing she could do for her.

Claudia's sweet thoughts of revenge were overshadowed by the sound of a high-powered drill coming ever closer to her heart raced faster with each inch it edged towards her numbing body, growing ever louder. She hated the fear that she felt. She felt weak. She wasn't used to this feeling. Not even when the filthy cannibals were after her body.

Jessica hesitated with the drill by Claudia's hips, constantly looking back at the open book on the table next to her, informing her of how to perform the extraction. She had only ever seen it done and had never even thought of ever doing it on somebody else; her confidence in what she was doing was extremely low. She tightly grabbed at Claudia's leg, briskly tearing a piece of her black tight leggings, being sure that no veins were present to kill the girl if they had an encounter with the small powerful orange drill that was almost causing her whole body to tremble.

She aimed gently, praying the Russian woman would stay still. She broke the skin and in the drill went, the sound of the drill cracking and breaking the bone made Jessica release vomit from her body, the high sound of the drill making no sound be heard as it splattered on the floor below.

Claudia felt huge pain in her hip. Pain, like no other. So painful she couldn't even let out a scream. Her vision shifted and shook as she felt hot liquid running down her legs, she hoped it was blood but it felt so warm that it may have been urine; she let herself believe it was blood. Her body tensed so hard that she feared her limbs were going to tear apart from her body. Claudia never truly knew how long it lasted.

The extraction was finished and Jessica swiftly removed the long drill needle from Claudia's thigh. She never knew that such a small device could cause so much noise, and in this case, so much damage. Jessica released the drill head from the device and noticed what inside was not the bone marrow that she expecting: she had simply extracted bone that may not even further her studies. She kept this to herself; she was not drilling through this girl again.

She gave herself a breather and cleaned the blood from Claudia's leg, the wound was small but more than enough blood had expelled itself from her. As she wiped and bandaged the hole she noticed that the woman's leggings were wet around the crotch area; the girl had been in so much pain that her bladder had failed her.

"Oh you poor thing."

The woman had also apparently fainted. Her blank face prompted Jessica to rush to feel for a pulse, questionably torturing someone was one thing but murder was a completely different matter.

Jessica walked to the exit the room and pushed on the intercom:

"This lady has had enough for today, take her back to her cell." Jessica removed her gloves and lent over the sink, almost feeling sick again, ashamed to even look around at the handy work she had performed.

She wasn't able to relax long before the door slipped opened and an angry looking man stormed in.

A Vicious Intervention

"She's had enough for one day you say?!" The man walked close to Jessica, so close he must surely smell her sickly breath.

Jessica knew the voice, it was the first time seeing him in the flesh but the voice she had heard so many times since her time being here.

Jessica, still leaning over the sink, turned slightly to face the man.

"Yes. she's been injected, stabbed and drilled. all without anaesthetic. Do you have something against pain relief, Mr. Badger?" Jessica hoped that using his name would gain a little bit more respect from the man, she had found it out by asking around once she was released from her lab. He is the man in charge of the security of the U.S.A. A man with a staggering amount of power. If he doesn't like you he could wipe out your entire family, even if they were scattered across the globe.

"And you women wonder why men rule the world and you lot always sit at home baking cakes." He let out a huge sigh after his sexist comment and continued with his explanation.

"We need the results from this specimen to be as accurate as possible and the use of any pain relief could tamper with any output we receive"

Jessica scrunched her face up; the dislike for this man just went up to another level.

"But sir, if she is dead then what results will you get? her blood will coagulate too rapidly for any meaningful results to be obtained"

Badger slapped the back of his hand against Jessica's face, pushing her over further into the sink.

"Don't talk to me like I am some idiot. You get some degree and think you're someone special. You're not. You're here to do as I ask and so far you are being nothing but a disappointment. But we have no time to find someone else. Your file never said you were so pathetic." Said the man with true disgust in his voice.

"If you're not happy with my work then what about getting Tom to do it? or what about Kathy? or I guess she is too busy laying in your bed?" Jessica pulled herself away from the sink and faced the man, standing tall but still around 7 inches smaller.

"Tom is no longer with us, he was even more unsuitable than you. As for Kathy, she had her uses and performed them to an adequate level."

"What have you done with them?" Jessica spoke with a slight lisp now that her mouth was slightly on fire.

"Oh shut up, woman, I'll do it myself" He barked.

Badger pushed past her, purposefully slamming his shoulder hard into her, sending her back directly into the hard edges of the sink.

"It can't be that hard can it? You were using this drill just before you stopped I assume" Said in such a confident manner.

Jessica, her ribs aching from the shove, rushed to grab the drill from his hand, the two people of very different sizes were now locked in a back and forth tug of war with the drill. Jessica's determination and guilt fighting equally with the strength and self-belief of badger.

The man released one hand from the drill while still able to maintain a stalemate, then delivered yet another back handed slap to Jessica, his long arms easy to reach her effortlessly. The recoil from the slap had one foot of Jessica land in the vomit pool on the floor, sending her off on a slide. She released her hands from the drill in an effort to cushion her fall but she was too slow, smashing her head hard as she landed. Her grip on the drill finally now released, the man powered it up and aimed it towards an unconscious Claudia.

"Sir?" A rough accented voice came from the doorway

The drill powered down.

"What is it, Stone?" Badger's voice was high and angry, it sent shivers down Stones spine.

Stone's eyes fixed onto the lifeless looking body in the operating Chair. She had been so nice to him and merely an hour ago was smiling and flirting with him. Now here she was with torn clothes, blood stained, a strange object sticking out of her, a pale ill looking complexion, and one of the men who he respects most in the world leaning over her with a drill. The lovely woman who had spoken to him about her child was also on the floor, holding her head, looking slightly dizzy.

"Well, what is it Stone? Do not piss me off, not today, and especially not now" His voice somehow rose even higher.

He yanked his eyes away from Claudia and placed them onto badger.

"S-Sir, there's been an important call from HQ, you really need to take it, they say there had been developments and they need to speak to you right now" He felt sweat clam up under his headgear.

"Fine!" Badger slammed the drill down hard on the table, leaving it dented. He looked down at a defeated Jessica. "You have your way for now, woman, give the girl a short break, analyse what you have extracted so far, then get back to performing more experiments"

Jessica said nothing and slowly returned to her feet while the large man walked off, his feet making loud banging sounds as each step thumped down hard on the floor.

"Stone" Jessica placed her hands on the table to steady herself "Please take this woman to be with her friends, I'll call for her when I am ready to continue"

"Sure thing Doctor Jessica" The man walked past her, giving her bruised face a sorrowful glance.

"Wait" Said in urgent manner. "I need to release this spike from her body"

Stone watched as Jessica carefully removed the large spike from Claudia's rag doll body.

After Jessica had finished he released the binds that bound Claudia, picked her up then walked her out of the room.

Bad Cop

She was now getting used to opening her eyes and not being sure where she will be when she awakens.

This time she was in a very cold room, however, her body instantly ignited as the pain she felt all over her body kicked in, she really felt like she was on fire, and before she could fully take in her surroundings the pain would cause her to curl up into a small ball, hoping that holding herself tight would somehow calm the constant throbbing pain: It didn't. It was the first time in years that she wished that her father was literally by her side to comfort her; she felt as if she was really in over her head this time and the hope of a last minute save was running slim.

Shivering from pain rather than the cold, she peeked her head over her knees and scanned her new surroundings; instantly mental pain was felt alongside her physical pain as she felt she was having a nightmarish moment of deja vu.

Inside the room, which was reminiscent of a slightly wide hallway, were Lisa and Studley, both currently sleeping. Claudia noted that Lisa was still lying on her lazy fat backside, while Studley was still situated like a statue with his back against the wall. Claudia looked down the dimly lit room with contempt, she was stuck in a hell with two of the devil's finest children.

The silence of the outside world was worse than any loud noises. The only sound that kept Claudia company were those of Lisa's slow, long snores and Studleys odd twitches and moans as he probably dreamt about chasing some dog around and around the garden, then stabbing it.

The sounds echoed and overlapped each other, and soon Claudia found herself noticing the pattern both of them made and soon they were just noises merging together. She felt like this place would send her insane. It had only been five minutes since she had regained consciousness.

However it was something to focus on, making her pain fade slightly into the background as she focused more and more on the timings of the sounds. Eventually the ball she had formed out of her body fell to the side and she entered into a painless sleep.

"Wake up!" A man's voice, a familiar voice, a dreaded voice "Wake the hell up I said!"

Claudia woke up for the second time in the same dim cold room. She had thought that waking up the last time was like being in hell, this time it made it seem more preferable however depressing it was.

She awoke to Badger bent over her, pushing her with his hands and brushing his feet against her body, his face was close to hers and his breath was heavy, making her find it hard to catch her own breath, and felt for a very small moment that she was going to suffocate.

Now that her eyes were open Badger was quick to announce to her why he wanted her awake and paying him full attention.

"No time for games now you murderous bitch, tell me how to stop these wolves!" He pushed harder and harder with each breath that passed his lips.

Claudia moved her head away from his to give herself room to breathe, followed by giving her first genuinely honest, modest answer.

"I have no idea..." And that was all. She didn't want any more pain but she didn't know what else to say, she had the snarky rude responses in her head but this man was in power, he reminded her of her father when he was mad; she knew when to back down from certain people. Not many of them were in the world, but this was one of them.

"The tests we took did not help us in the slightest, we could not find any links between you and the wolves that aided our efforts to stop them" He didn't stop to catch his breath "Right now the American army is facing a huge army of wolves and it's not looking good" His voice grew larger, sending further shivers down her spine, adding onto the layers of fire and ice that already plagued her flesh.

Claudia kept her head facing the ground, she knew she was involved with the wolves and somehow she was responsible for them, but she didn't know how to stop them and she wouldn't even if she knew how; they were all she had left, the only power, respect and future she had. She needed to rebuild herself and somehow survive. The American dream was no more, but seeing it fall to ruins might be the next best thing.

Badger released a sharp kick into Claudia's stomach; she felt the foot dig deep, the man really put a lot of effort into it.

A slight squeal of delight came from Lisa, a smug grin appearing on her otherwise pained face. The man paid her no attention and continued sticking his boot into Claudia.

Once that got boring he dragged Claudia up by her sweat ruined hair and slammed her back hard against the wall.

"Tell me what I need to know, I saw you control that wolf in the interrogation room! God damn it woman haven't enough people died?!" He grunted.

He released a few punches into the exact location where his boots had recently been, the agony caused Claudia to expel air from her mouth; She couldn't release a sound but kept her head up towards the ceiling. She thought that her ribs were going to soon break.

After a few more well placed punches and repeated threats, the man threw her to the ground, watching as she crawled away into the nearby corner.

Badger knew that further assaulting the girl was going to get him nowhere, so he stood up and faced Studley. The young man was giving him a look of admiration. He had never met anyone with such an extreme case of autism before, he found himself despising the guy. Why wasn't he leaping to his twin sisters defence? He wondered that maybe he was one of those homosexuals. He wondered if his twin would have the same lack of empathy.

"If you won't reveal how it all ends, maybe your twin brother will instead?"

Badger cracked his knuckles before smashing them strongly against Studley's jaw. Studley's face swung to the left while the rest of his body remained exactly like a statue.

Studley returned his head to where it was and remained looking at the man. It was a test. This man was giving him a test. He had to take this punishment and show the man that he is capable of joining the army.

Claudia watched on from her corner, sat on her side like at the beach.

"Oh my god! please stop it, not my lovely brother" Claudia tried her best to sound like a concerned sister, her wounded body helping her deliver the lines perfectly.

Lisa looked at Claudia with absolute disgust, she knew exactly what game she was playing. How could she use her mentally ill brother as a shield to absorb pain for her?

The man believed Claudia's pained cries for her brother and continued to pummel the young man's face. Teeth loosened in his mouth as badgers heavily ringed hands collided with the special man's face in many different areas.

Studley was physically in intense pain, his body however showing no signs of it. His mind was focused on impressing this man with his prowess. He did not understand the situation at all.

Claudia continued to plead and beg for fake mercy for her brother, being sure to stop when the man would face her. Lisa wanted to do her own begging and pleading but Claudia's voice was louder, meaning she wouldn't have any impact

The man moved onto to using his knees, adding in many blows to Studley's ribs. Cracks could be heard echoing throughout the room as ribs were smashed.

Lisa, unable to see her big brother take anymore abuse, decided that it was time to teach this big bully a lesson. She painfully picked herself up and threw her entire body onto the back of Badgers. He may have been 6'3 and weighed sixteen stone, but this young overweight girl packed a lot of weight herself, it felt like he was back in the African jungle carrying a thirty stone rock on his back for charity.

Lisa stuck her teeth into Badgers neck, used her hands to scratch his face and used her feet to latch onto the inside of his crotch; she had a complete firm hold over him. Badger spun around as he tried to release himself.

Claudia, seizing the moment, ignoring all of the pain she felt, ran up to the large man and, without even a second thought, plunged her fingers deep into both of his eye sockets. It felt to her like she had pushed her fingers into the centre of two boiled eggs. Badger screamed as his vision turned completely black. The pain he felt caused an extreme amount of adrenaline to rush through his entire body, giving him almost bear like strength. As Claudia stepped back he reached behind and grabbed Lisa's head with a single hand, effortlessly pulled her over his head and slammed her directly onto the ground in front of him. She fell hard onto the floor, a bone crushing sound being heard as her right arm was crushed beneath her weight. She let out a soundless scream as she writhed.

Studley looked on through swollen eyes, still wondering if he had passed his test.

As Badger grabbed at his eyes and swung wildly around the room, a voice came through the radio that was latched onto his belt, it calmed him down slightly as he paused to listen:

The Truth Revealed

"Sir, there has been a development with the test results. Ms Blight has found a link between the cells of the wolves and of those of the woman. She has found that when the woman's cells die, the ones of the wolves weaken; they seem to react with each other. In other words: If you kill the woman it is likely the wolves will die with her. It's not a guarantee but we have our backs against the wall"

Badger, still full of rage over his loss of sight, stayed completely still, relying solely on his senses to locate his prey.

Claudia heard the message loud and clear, she knew that this was it, she had nothing else to fall back on. She had to escape or die. She noticed the key card hanging from his belt on a small keychain, all she would need to do was release it and she could escape from the room, and the rest she would make up as she went along.

He was ready for her. She thought she was fast but he was faster, he heard her the moment she moved in closer, grabbing her directly around the throat with both of his large strong hands. She scratched hard at his hands, digging her nails as deep as they would go, breaking the skin and drawing blood.

He slammed her into the nearby wall, as hard as his current bear strength let him. Claudia felt all of the air escape from her body; she felt limp and faint. His hands tightened, Claudia instantly felt life drain from her body as she struggled to regain the lost air. She stared directly into his dark blood stained eyes, the pulsing purple veins covered up the majority of the white making him looked like a hybrid human zombie; alive, but so dead in the eyes. She was unsure if he was able to look into her terrified dying eyes, but she was too weak to hide it.

Lisa, still feeling pain all over her body from the explosion, and now with a broken arm added to it, forced herself onto her knees, and using a trick she learnt from a friend in school and quickly unlatched the keycard from Badgers waist. He paid her no attention, too focused on draining the life out of Claudia.

Lisa spared a glance for what was happening right next to her. She would love to see the death of the bane of her life, but right now her instinct forced her to save what she cared about: Herself and her step-brother.

She limped over to Studley, barely able to hold herself up, and shook him by the shoulders.

"We need to get out of here, right now Studley!" She found it hard to express how urgent this was.

Studley looked at her with those innocent eyes and said "I need to see who wins" then he turned back to the man strangling his sister.

"I will get help, I promise, I love you" She whispered it in a low voice while she stroked his face, but before she could begin to act on her promise, a familiar noise was heard from behind her, a noise she never wanted to hear again, a noise that has disrupted her sleep since her first time hearing it.

The man began to cough uncontrollably, releasing his grip on Claudia as he fell to his knees. Then the screaming began. Claudia knew it all too well. Her destiny was not to die here. A big smile developed on her face as she knew the threat was over.

She was back in control, back where she belonged.

True Power

The large man began the transformation: he felt excruciating pain as his knees snapped back upon themselves. He felt the big muscles in his biceps explode as they popped and shrank, like air releasing rapidly from a balloon. His felt his insides twist and turn as they moved location and changed shape.

Lisa could not bear to witness this again, if she did then sleep would never claim her. She limped as fast as she could towards the door, and then quickly swiped the key card against the small red monitor. The door slid open but before she could enjoy this small victory she was faced with yet another blockade; Stone was standing directly in the doorway.

He slammed the butt of his rifle into her face, smashing her nose. As the large woman dropped out of his vision he could see what was happening at the back of the room. He had seen the videos. He knew exactly what was happening. He positioned himself and rested his rifle on his shoulder. He aimed at his target.

Her beautiful eyes, her smile, her sexy accent, her luscious hair. Brief false images of her sitting on the edge of his truck, naked, with her legs spread. Him with his penis hard and ready to penetrate his target, her lips as soft as ice cream on his rough damaged lips. The chemistry igniting both of their passions.

This hesitation cost him. The transforming Badger flung a premature needle towards stone, it was softer and shorter than a normal spiked wolf needle but it had enough velocity and sharpness to pierce deep into his unprotected forehead. Blood dripped down his face as he slumped to the floor. He then began having a seizure.

Lisa, now with a bloodied face and a broken nose added to her injuries, slowly crawled across the floor, too weak to even stand anymore. She didn't even have the strength to crawl over the twitching body of Stone.

"I guess it was me that turned mister angry into one of my many servants" Claudia's voice had lost all of the fear and agony that blemished it just moments ago. It was back to being filled with arrogant smugness.

"I think you'll make a wonderfully fat lazy servant" Claudia squatted down over Lisa as she futilely tried to crawl out of the room.

Claudia softly placed her hands around the big girls neck, then stuck all of her nails just deep enough to penetrate her skin, ending the ritual by dragging them around the until her nails reached the roots of Lisa's hair.

Claudia stood tall and proud as she turned around slowly in three hundred and sixty degrees, admiring the work she had performed, the screams from Lisa and Stone rung beautifully in her ears even though she knew the sound was worse than that of a pack of cats having a fight in the middle of the night. She wished she had known she was able to do this long ago, it would have made dealing with certain people so much easier. Just one single scratch could have saved her a whole heap of misery, but she was grateful she at least got a free ride to America.

Once she had soaked herself in her own glory, lavishing every single second of it, she turned to Studley, wondering what she should do with him. He was nothing but an empty shell to her, she felt nothing for him.

For now she decided to keep him around. He listens to her, although she never speaks to him, plus he made a great punching bag for her. She knew that could come in useful again.

When the screaming ceased, Claudia put on a voice she had not used in a long time, she named it the 'loving sister voice' "Studley darling, it's time to go" It was the voice she had used when they had lived together before their parents divorced. She would use Studley to impress her friends in the neighbourhood by making him indulge in silly, cruel pranks that left him looking humiliated, leaving Claudia looking hilarious.

Claudia remembers these as the only good times involving Studley; the rest was him lashing out at everyone or breaking all of Claudia's toys because he believed a demon possessed them as she played with them, then one day his brain completely broke down and he became the statue that assists Claudia on the greatest and most defining moment in her life.

Studley lurched to his feet, looking as if he had felt no pain from the punishment he received. Claudia did feel some admiration for that, but silently thanked her father for it, he was always such a resilient man.

The three wolves surrounded Claudia, giving her an unprecedented sense of protection, the last time she felt this way was when she was deep inside her bunker, but it wasn't real protection. She was quick to leave the wolves behind and attempt to carry on alone but now she knew she needed them as much as they needed her, and she understood exactly why they needed her. If she dies, they die. However, this deal worked just fine for her: she rules the world, they get to live.

Before she was allowed to be satisfied with the safety she felt, an electronic alarm echoed throughout the hallways with a man's voice that carried with it the sense of utmost urgency.

"All guards to containment block C. Kill all targets on sight. Do not hesitate."

Claudia suspected that this was containment block C.

The First Taste

Of Blood

The two humans and three wolves delayed no longer and ran down the bright hall. Two wolves ran in tandem with Claudia, slowing their speed down to match her injured run pace, as one followed just slightly behind them.

Soldiers popped out of doorway after doorway, yet each time they did, as if the wolf could predict it, they would receive a spike to their throat just as they appeared. The screams behind the pack would echo throughout the hallways, drawing the guards behind into that direction.

As they reached an intersection things became extremely tricky. Armed armoured guards, the same armour used when they raided Claudia's business, ran towards them from all four directions. There was at least three of each per hallway. Each wolf ran off into a separate direction to face their foes, leaping from wall to wall, shooting as rapidly as their strong bodies would let them while dodging bullets and smashing gun's out of stiff, heavy arms.

Claudia thought one of the hallways had been left undefended until a wolf crashed through the grated ceiling, crushing one of the guards underneath the netted grill, the wolves weight adding enough kilograms to instantly squeeze the life out of the guard.

While Studley looked on, mesmerized, Claudia slipped into a nearby room as the fighting went on, no longer were her good looks and charms a boon to her, everyone in this building knew she had to die, she couldn't take bullets like the wolves could, or run at 40 miles per hour. No, she had to use her wits and keep out of the line of fire.

She slammed the door shut behind her, quickly ensuring it stayed that way for a while by sliding the nearby cabinet over the door. In her frenzied rush she had failed to look at who or what was in the room. It turned out that a familiar face was in here, a familiar face that needed to suffer.

"You!" Claudia shouted, before she even finished fully turning around.

"I have been hating myself since I found out." Jessica pushed herself off of her small bed, her eyes red and black, stained with tears. "If only I would of let Badger kill you, this would have all been over"

Claudia reached behind her and grabbed the vase on waist high cabinet she had moved, smashed the edge of it on the side to make it into a sharp weapon and looked towards Jessica, directly into her eyes.

"You know, the only thing that kept me going during those torturous moments was seeing your face smashed in" A confident smile merged onto her face. She stepped closer.

"It was all in the name of science, and as god is my witness, I wish I had never gone so easy on you, I could have ended it so easy. All those lives that are currently being lost are all my..." Jessica's speech was cut short as Claudia flung the broken vase directly into Jessica face; it smashed on impact, glass shards stabbing into her thin cheeks. Jessica flew back onto her bed, blood now dripping from the deep wounds, staining the once crystal white sheets.

Both women were hardly adept at fighting. Both had led relatively physical combat free lives. Claudia had fought a lot with children when she was younger but it was mostly her pulling at their hair in a surprise attack. When she was older she had other people to fight her battles.

"You do not deserve to become one of my minions!" Claudia jumped on the woman as she lay trying frantically to pick the large shards out of her face.

Claudia was on her too fast. She used her fingers and pushed the glass further into her face, this caused her fingers to bleed and burn, yet she knew the woman on the other end was feeling much worse.

Jessica thrashed out a knee to Claudia's stomach, igniting the dull pain from Badgers abuse into a fierce one that made her writhe on the edge of the bed.

Jessica sat up and screamed as she yanked out the pieces of glass, one at a time in quick succession. She tried her best to ignore the stinging sensation that felt like her face had been slashed with a large thick piece of paper then dabbed with a fresh shot of vinegar.

Outside the room the fighting was still in full fury. Gunshots were heard for small amounts at a time; they came in short bursts, seeming to stop just as quick as they started.

Jessica ran to the blocked door and heavily placed her hands on the cabinet, her shaking hands making it harder to push the cabinet out of the way than she thought they would. Claudia was on her again, up quicker than Jessica anticipated, catching her off guard. She grabbed her golden bun of hair hard from behind then smashed her forehead into the edge of the cabinet. Jessica's vision went blank for a few seconds as her brain crashed against the front of her skull.

Claudia was putting her full effort into each and every attack. If she wasn't in an injured state then Jessica would have surely been knocked unconscious after the first attack.

Again Claudia smashed her head down, then once again, each blow weakening Jessica, lessening her chances of escaping, and each one giving Claudia a satisfying bone crushing sound.

"Please...Stop...." Jessica pleaded through bloody tears.

Claudia stopped to let her speak, but only so could rest her aching arms to ensure the next blows deliver more impact. She was still so furious at this woman who had caused her so much pain and suffering.

"I have a daughter and a family... I need to see them, please"

After a few seconds longer of resting, paying no attention to the pleads of the seriously injured woman, Claudia slammed down Jessica's head for the final few times, until the young scientists head went limp in her hands.

Just before Jessica's life drained away her heart broke into tiny pieces as she thought of her small, innocent daughter growing up without a mother, probably in years to come even forgetting what she sounded and looked like.

But what Jessica did not know is that at this very precise moment her home estate had been over-run by the large pack of wolves that had managed to bypass the American borders armed forces.

Mother and daughter both died at the exact same time.

Claudia released her grip from the lifeless head, the blonde hair now slowly turning a rusty red as the blood ran down many directions from the gaping hole in Jessica head that revealed part of her brain. The body fell onto the cabinet then slid off and cracked onto the floor.

The murderer looked at her bloody hands knowing she should feel something. This was her first time, the first time she had ever taken a person's life. She had wished many people dead on almost a daily basis but never even thought of acting out her feelings.

She felt nothing, no remorse, no empathy. This woman caused her more pain than anyone in her life and she deserved all she got. Claudia now saw herself as more important than ever before, the fate of a whole species depended on her life. This is how she justified it. It worked for her.

On the outside of the room she could still hear gunfire, yet it was much further in the distance than before. She waited for a small amount of time, each second that passed making the puddle of thick blood around Jessica grow ever bigger.

When the sea of blood had completely surrounded the corpse, the gunfire had completely stopped. Claudia knew that it was now the time to go. She was tired of waiting around.

She pushed the cabinet aside, ensuring she didn't place her hands on the area where Jessica's brain was smashed apart, then slowly exited the room, this time making sure she peered out before fully dedicating herself.

Deeper Into The Core

The hallway was quiet but she knew it was safe as to her amazement Studley was standing exactly where she had left him. He was completely unharmed.

"This game is really good" Said Studley in a monotone, lacking any sort of enthusiasm.

"Yes, the game" Claudia didn't even try to understand his thought process and walked right past him. He followed.

She pondered which way to go. She wanted to escape but had no idea where she was. She looked down each hallway, they were as expected and littered with torn army clothing. This was good; each piece of clothing meant one less enemy and one more ally.

Before she decided which way to go a wolf came trotting casually from the direction she was facing. It came close and gently placed its jaw around her hand, pulling her in the direction it had come from.

Claudia did not find her hand being in the wolf's mouth a disgrace like she would a few days ago. She happily let the wolf lead her away at a slight jogging pace; after all, she couldn't risk being alone anymore.

After being led down many hallways which all looked the same as the last, each only differentiated by the amount of cloths that decorated it, they eventually ended up at an elevator. The wolf jumped up and firmly tapped the operating button with its paw. After a few moments the lift door opened and the trio walked into the large dusty lift.

Claudia noticed at the bottom of the dial pad that a key was slinging side to side in a slot that had a red glowing sign above it that said "TOP SECRET". She wondered if the wolves had inserted this key.

The wolf slammed his soft paw onto the key. The key pushed further into the keyhole making the entire lift glow with a vibrant red hue. Then lift then descended. Claudia noted that the lift was already on the lowest floor possible just as the lift further descended. She wasn't going outside just yet.

The journey took about two minutes, Claudia quizzed about just how far down the lab stretched?

When the elevator stopped and the doors swung open Claudia found herself in an amazing place. A place on that makes the previous lab look like a children's chemistry set. She was on a small walkway looking down:

She was in a huge open spaced lab. It must have spanned the length of at least four football pitches. Inside were more tools and futuristic looking gadgets to even begin to mention. She couldn't even guess what even five percent of it was. She wondered how much it would cost to power the place. The amount of lights alone was staggering.

The wolf lead her onto a small platform but this time Claudia pushed the button for herself. The lift lowered slowly down. Claudia noted all the wolves running around the large lab, they seemed like they were looking for something as they were jumping in and out of all the cabling and large machinery.

From above the space looked humongous, yet being down amongst it did not feel it as there was so much stuff that it was hard to move. There were things that looked like robots out of sci-fi films; they came in all sorts of sizes, some were even as big as ones seen in crazy Japanese animated shows. There was large rockets, yet shaped different to rockets Claudia was used to seeing. There were screens everywhere displaying data and coding that she couldn't even guess the name of.

She was unsure what to think of the place. It was so alien to her and she was confused as to why she was here. She felt uncomfortable and beginning to feel that she was yet again not in control of the situation. She had hoped that the wolf was leading her to a helicopter, perhaps she could have gone to the white house and made a deal of becoming president and sparing the lives of the Americans if they agreed to obey her rule.

The wolf lead her around the complicated maze of machinery to a place that actually looked familiar to Claudia and made her feel slightly more comfortable; a simple desk with a laptop computer on it and a basic computer swivel chair.

She placed herself on the seat and let out a big sigh of relief that she could finally relax. She noticed Studley standing just to the side of her; she had completely forgotten he was even with her.

She booted up the laptop, curious to see how the world above ground was faring since she had been captured.

Achieving A Dream

She found out that America had indeed been breached by the wolves and was currently in a mass state of panic as each state was slowly being destroyed, not only by the wolves but also by mass looting and a complete collapse of the justice system. But what shocked her most was that on every news site, even on the home page of Google, was a big picture of Claudia informing everyone and anyone who comes across her to kill on sight no questions asked. The reward offered was going down as the hero of the survival of the human race.

"Oh so that's how they want to be, wanting me dead?" She thought to herself. "Forget the plan to rule America. Let my beasts destroy it!".

Claudia browsed for a time as the wolves continued to search the room for whatever it was they were looking for. She read countless stories about herself from the perspective of the American audience.

As she read the stories a wolf would place a plate of food on the table next to her. It was only cold food but with not being fed since being captured back in Russia, she was grateful for anything to eat, and this time they weren't trying to feed her with human limbs like back on the island. It wouldn't be able to stay this way however, this food was not food fit for a queen.

The articles talked of her business, of how she had caused its profits to vastly fall since inheriting it from her father. These lies angered Claudia. They posted fake facts and figures showing her she had crashed down the FTSE as fast as a prostitute falls on a rich man's penis.

They talked of her family, of her retarded brother, of her filthy whore of a mother. She was fine with this, they meant nothing to her. But certain articles spoke of her father, calling him the devil for creating such a spawn as Claudia, how did he raise such an evil bitch, why didn't he abort her when he saw how ugly she was, and so on. This man was better than any of them and they would all pay for saying such things about him, and her.

They used Photoshop to put her face in various situations that the other readers found hilarious. One picture had her giving oral sex to a transsexual ogre with two penises. She hoped that a large spike sliced through their skulls as soon as that picture was created.

People truly hated the power that she possessed. It was the same in Russia and it's exactly the same on this side of the world. People were jealous that it isn't them that commands an army of bloodthirsty, loyal wolves.

People envy that they don't have the charisma and eloquent aura that even animals cannot resist.

She slammed the lid of the laptop down, tired of reading such things about herself. As a child she wanted her name to be in bright lights and her face to be the one that everyone wanted to have themselves, but just as these thoughts turned negative, words from the past came to her, words that changed everything:

Her father told her when younger 'Be prepared for people to envy you at every turn, you're going to grow up to be the most amazing person in the world and there will be people who hate you for this and you cannot avoid it' but she didn't know he meant it quite so literally. She knew these people truly wanted to be her, and they knew she was beautiful. She knew guys were masturbating over her picture at this very moment and women were sitting in their mirrors attempting to emulate her look. Every celebrity has their haters, and the haters are the most vocal. It all came to her now.

She felt a sense of fulfilment come over her as she realised it. The words of her father had delivered it to her. She had reached her dream, the world was talking about her, her name and face was on every news website worth anything. She was trending on Twitter and Facebook. She was on everyone's lips everywhere and would remain as the last huge piece of world news. She knew this day would come. She placed her head on her folded arms, smiled, then rested her eyes. It had been a long day and she wasn't sure how long she would feel this level of safety for. She would dream of many things while she slept, many good things.

Claudia awoke from the best sleep she had encountered in a long time, no longer did she feel the aches and pains throughout her body, she stretched without a single ounce of the past abuse attacking her senses . She woke up with a fresh perspective on life, having one's dream achieved really does wonders for that person's mood. She was eager to return to her laptop and read all of the new stories that she would encounter and she secretly hoped her wolves didn't kill everybody too soon.

The World's Two Powers

She lifted the laptop lid and noticed a video of a girl giving make-up tips about how to achieve the perfect Claudia appearance, the girl in the thumbnail actually looked attractive so Claudia felt relieved to receive confirmation that her only fans were not only fat ugly computer nerds.

As she hovered the mouse cursor over the video thumbnail, in preparation to double tap the little black touch pad beneath her hand, she saw something bright and silver in the corner of her eye. She immediately looked to her left and saw something that would still be engraved in her memory fifty years from now when she reflected back upon her life: It was the great silver wolf.

It stood strong and tall, almost twice as big as the other wolves, and gave a presence that Claudia knew too well; the aura of a leader. A slim glow from beast reflected onto the wolves near to it.

For a creature so terrifying and pretentious it gave off such warm, gentle vibes. Claudia was internally puzzled by what to feel.

It gracefully walked to Claudia; it's face bowed down low to Claudia's seated position, and stroked it's head against her bruised arm, and despite it's extremely spiked skin, felt wonderfully smooth against her cold skin.

She looked beyond the silver wolf, noticing the room was now completely full to the brim with wolves; the entirety of the floor spaced was covered with spiked fur.

She looked back to the wolf, its eyes at the same level as hers in her computer chair' if she was to stand up then the beast would surely come to her shoulder length. She slowly raised one hand, brushing it through its long hair. The wolf showed it enjoyed this by raising its head into the air, much like a cat does when it is having its chin rubbed by its owner.

A splutter and a burp came from the other side of the table in front of Claudia; it was Studley. She again forgot that he existed.

"What's for food breakfast? me so hungary" Studley picked his nose, wiping the abundance of green slime that came out down onto the crystal white table he was seated at.

"Gross" Claudia said out loud. "Fucking. Gross"

The silver wolf walked away from Claudia, it's eyes fixated on Studley; as it walked towards him it seemed to eye the young man up and down multiple times.

When the wolf reached Studly it gave him a long sniff; it particularly seemed interested in sniffing his right shoulder, the shoulder which was impaled.

"Aww bootiful shiny puppy hehe" Studley rubbed his hand vigorously around the face of the wolf while giggling like a happy child.

The wolf raised its large spike edged metallic looking tail in the air, then, without warning, stabbed the tail hard into Studley's shoulder, where the barely healed would was, piercing it so it almost came out of the other side.

The quickness of the action caused Claudia to jump back, startled in her seat, almost tipping it backwards; the wolves behind her jumping to provide her with the balance she needed.

Studley stood up, his face looking like that of a child who had just been told off by his teacher, looking down into the eyes of the wolf as he did so.

"Claudia, it really hurts" He sniffed his nose as tears crawled down his slim face.

The great wolf tensed it's face. Studley's body shot up straight like a surfboard, his hair standing on edge as far as it would go up, almost ripping itself from the root.

He felt as if he was being constantly jolted with small surges of electricity that rendered him unable to move his body even a centimetre. His pupils disappeared leaving just pure whiteness in his eyes, the tears he was shredding completely evaporated.

The wolf's body shook as its face intensified, its leg quivering beneath its hulking body. It looked as if it's legs were ready to snap.

The tail released itself from Studley. He collapsed onto the floor. The great silver wolf walked off and stood in line with the rest of the wolves as if nothing had just happened.

Claudia looked on baffled, unsure what to make of the events that just happened. She looked at the silver wolf, noticing it had now lost its leadership aura.

"Studley you retarded bastard, what have you done?!" She shouted and cursed as she walked around the table to get a look at him.

As she reached his side of the table he shot up and looked Claudia in the face, he placed one hand on the table and put his face close to hers.

"Oh I always wondered how it felt to have these limbs you call arms" Said Studley in the most normal tone of voice ever heard, looking all over his body as if examining it. "it's good to finally be able to talk to you"

"It's a shame about the missing hand, but I'm sure I can fix that"

The Wolf's Voice

Claudia didn't respond. She had never heard her brother talk like this. Ever since he learnt to talk at the age of five he has never spoken a proper sentence, he either cuts them short or pronounces the words completely wrong. Her face showed his confusion with her mouth being ajar.

"Ah, I see you are confused. Let me explain" Studley walked past Claudia, clumsily at first but soon straightening up, placing himself between her and the horde of wolves.

"In this human body I have placed my soul, and my spirit."

"Who are you?!" Claudia responded sharply almost interrupting him.

"I am the great silver wolf, the one you freed from imprisonment, and for that I am eternally grateful." He slowly bowed to her, taking it only halfway down, before pulling himself slowly back up "You can call me Reinwolse"

"Wait, you placed yourself in the body of my retarded brother?" Claudia smirked and folded her arms "Great choice."

"His mind may have been broken beyond repair, but his physical unit is in fantastic condition"

Claudia could not deny that, he was her twin, she looked good, so he had to look good, to deny this would be like insulting herself, her father passed on some fantastic DNA, she had to assume that the DNA from her vile mother had destroyed the brain of Studley.

"And what do you mean, I freed you?" Claudia quizzed.

"Ah, on that island with the thuggish ugly men" He placed a hand on his chin and looked thoughtfully towards the ceiling "Do you remember cutting yourself on a statue? Your blood made contact with it, causing me to be freed from the stone prison I was encased within"

Claudia remembered. She remembered the sharp pain as she rolled down that hill fearing for her life, the agony as she collided with the strangely placed statue at the bottom, the bright light came, and then her assailants were killed.

Since then she has been followed and protected by wolves. It all made sense.

"I remember. After that, my life was saved many times by the wolves. It was nice to have someone understand how important I am"

"Yes. I couldn't have you dying. As you now know, if you die, me and my creations all die with you" He walked back and forth in a small routine.

"What do you mean by your creations? how do they function?"

"Simply put, they are like blank states. I send my thoughts to them and they act them out. They are like blank canvases and I use my thoughts to paint on them"

"Incredible" Claudia responded. She didn't know what else to say, she wasn't really taking it all in, it was like something from a cheap sci-fi film "But the important question is: Why?"

"For war" The wolf Studley stopped in place, his face turned to that of a doctor about to diagnose some bad news.

"I was banished from my home world for attempting to overthrow the current ruler"

Again with the planet talk, Claudia thought. A week ago she would have taken this for mad talk from a resident at a mental institute, but this being inside her brother, it spoke with such confidence and believability, and after all that she has been through...she couldn't not believe it.

"I was amazed myself when I saw that my spikes could transform your fellow humans into my mindless drones. It was incredible and I instantly knew what I had to do." He paused, taking note of how intently Claudia was listening, he knew this would interest her so. "I had to create an army. I wanted my revenge, I killed those of your people I deemed too weak and feeble, and transformed those who I felt would be strong allies"

"Makes sense, but how do you get back to your planet, with millions of wolves in tow?" Claudia sounded truly interested. This creature was amazing. She admired how he set out to do something, and has accomplished just that. He reminded her of herself, determined and always getting what she wants.

"In this lab, there is incredible equipment, the most incredible you can find anywhere on your world, or maybe any other" He began walking, signalling Claudia to follow him. She did not even have to think about it. She followed him closely.

"There is a transporter here. It is so advanced by your species known standards that hardly anyone knows it exists." As he walked, the wolves blocking the way moved instinctively out of the way, like flame receding when water courses through it.

"I will use that device to transport myself and my army to my planet, and enact my revenge" He stopped and looked at Claudia.

"And you are wondering how I can do this, I will explain it simply" He leaned in close to Claudia, as if whispering a secret to her. "Whenever I kill one of your kind, I obtain all of their thoughts, memories and knowledge, it has given me unlimited insight into the human life. Every time I transformed a scientist the clues slowly built up, but I couldn't quite find it until you were sent here"

He waved his right arm out wide, as if acting out the role of a presenter on an old TV show revealing a wonderful prize to the contestants.

Claudia's eyes followed his arm and saw the gigantic machine before her, it was a large circular dish flat on the ground. Around it were four large pylons with large balls on top of them. They were all linked by a series of hundreds, if not thousands of cables, so thick in number that they could pass for one incredibly large cable.

He clasped her hands gently within his, bringing them close to his hard chest "We both know you're too good to be just a queen for one planet, come with me and rule my planet as well, with me" He spoke with more charisma than Claudia has ever seen before, with a confident grin that spoke more to Claudia than any words could.

She looked into deeply into his eyes as he spoke the words, she had never noticed that her brother had such beautiful blue eyes.

She excitedly spoke her answer "I'll do it"

"Wonderful, and do not worry about food, I have had the pack gather plenty of food to last us a lifetime and my planet also has a large variety of foods that grow in the wild."

Two wolves pushed through the crowd with a single metal bar in between their mouths, behind them they were pulled a large trailer that contained hundreds of bags of food.

"I need some time to give myself a new hand, and prepare the device. Give me a few hours and it will be ready." He looked at his hands "These phenomenon's make all this possible"

"Can we return here?" Claudia asked.

"I'm positive we can. I got here myself after all" Replied Studley, with such confidence that could not be doubted, even if it were a lie.

The next few hours passed at a brisk pace. Claudia continued her ego boost by viewing the increasing amount of articles and posts about herself. She decided an even better boost would be to post videos showing her amongst the wolves and how they were like putty in her hands. These videos collected millions of views within an hour of her posting them, but as the hours went by, the views dwindled as did the news articles and posts. The internet started to become a shell of its former glory. The wolves were demolishing the American population.

She was so into her narcissistic adventure that she never heard the loud bangs of electricity that would often invade the room as Reinwolse continued testing the transporter.

Eventually, Claudia was satisfied that she has left the world with her mark truly imprinted on it forever. She looked at Reinwolse as he tapped away on various computer terminals, eternally grateful that he had entered her life. More hours passed.

#

Outbreak: Day Seven

To A New World

"Claudia, it's ready" Shouted a voice. A voice that would normally send a grim shiver down her spine, a voice that would embarrass and shame her. Now the voice sent the right kinds of shiver down her spine. She looked at large picture of herself on the main page of Google, the one with the caption below it begging for someone to end her life, smiled to herself that the most popular website of all time would forever show her face, then closed the lid of the laptop for the final time.

She walked over to Reinwolse; his new prosthetic hand was so lifelike that she forgot which hand had been removed, who was standing by the transporter that was now buzzing with life. The four pylons were no longer just connected by cables, but now electrifying light as well. If she was to set her pupils directly upon them for more than a second then it would have burned out her retinas with ease.

The room flashed from illuminating brightness to gloomy darkness then back again as even the titanic power generators struggled to power the mighty futuristic machine. The floor beneath Claudia's feet would shake and shimmer as each surge of power reached the pylons.

The pack of wolves began walking two at a time into the transporter. As they set their entire body on the circular plate they turned into blue outlines of themselves, like simple drawings on an artist's sketchbook, flying up into the sky through the ceiling of the lab.

Reinwolse looked at Claudia and gave her a big, sexy smile. Claudia felt her heart jump.

"It's time to go." He held out his hand to her, retaining that sexy smile on his chiselled face.

She never thought she would see her brother in this way, not in a million years, but this being inside of him made her see him as a different, vastly improved person. She put her hand within his, looked all around the room she was in, glancing one last time at the laptop.

The two human beings placed both of their feet onto the circular pad, their bodies tingling as their mass was converted into light energy, their vision turning to pure non-blinding whiteness, Claudia's body shaking and stiffening with anxiety of the unknown, tightening her grip on Renwolse as she felt her body lighten.

Their bodies floated up, out and away into the atmosphere of earth as they beamed away to a whole new world.

The Planet Of The Wolves

Claudia felt herself stop. She felt the ground beneath her. It felt like she was still asleep, combined with the feeling of being not long from waking up.

This feeling persisted for thirty more seconds when a sudden burst of red light covered her vision, then as if everything had happened instantly, she was fully aware of her surroundings and where she was and she never remembered the feelings she felt when her astral body was catching up to her physical one.

Claudia immediately felt the humidity cling to her flesh. It felt good to her. Russia was always such a cold country. The lab she was taken prisoner in was no warmer either.

She looked around herself. She was in a forest; the trees were tall and slim like palm trees, yet these were much taller. There was not a single hint of a breeze to make the trees sway in any particular direction; they were as still as a picture.

The sky was a shade of light red, a stark contrast to that of the blue sky that surrounded earth, but here it had much more of an effect as everything had a tint of red hue to it; the trees, the ground, the mountains in the far distance. She felt as if she was stuck in at the moment dawn appears during an early morning.

The ground was smooth and crack-free like a brand new pavement. It was light brown and there was not a leaf on the ground in sight.

Claudia's thoughts and observations were interrupted when wolves emerging from the teleporter gently shoved into her back.

Reinwolse placed his arm around her, gently leading her away from the portal entrance.

There were a lot of wolves already here. They were all standing around the large trolley full of supplies.

"What do you think? I guess it's really not that different to your home world" Reinwolse asked.

"I love the heat, and there are no people around to get in my way. But enough about that, when are we going to war?" Claudia gave Reinwolse a seductive grin, ending with her gently biting her top lip.

"You're eager" Laughed Reinwolse, then his face turned serious, the red glow of the planet giving him a deadly look. "But you're right, we need to strike soon. The wolves I need to destroy live in this forested part of the planet, the wolves that helped me to overtake the ruler previously were all banished to the harsh, barren mountainous side of the planet"

"What's the plan?" Claudia quizzed.

"I have packed a lot of explosives with our supplies. I will scout out the elder wolves village and plant bombs in locations that will give us massive tactical advantage during combat. Having the knowledge of world-class spies and military personnel will make this easy work."

Claudia felt a twinge between her legs the more Reinwolse talked of his plan, her right knee buckled slightly as the words "tactical advantage" confidently spun out of his mouth.

Reinwolse walked towards the trolley, grabbed two long bags out of it and turned to Claudia.

"You need to wear this"

He handed her one of the bags.

"It's a special suit prototype I found in that lab. It was made hastily to provide protection from the wolves spikes. I've tested it with my wolves and it resisted every spike they fired at it. However, be warned that the wolves native to this planet are much stronger than the wolves I created"

Claudia unzipped the bag revealing a long one-piece black skin-tight jumpsuit with attached hood.

"Ugh, really? it's looks just vile. It will cause havoc with my hair." She played around with her hair as she spoke with displeasure. "By the way, how does my hair look on this red planet, is it too much?"

Reinwolse walked closer to her and fondled the side of her hair that she wasn't fussing with.

"It magnifies it's beauty by an unprecedented amount, you truly are a magnificent being" He spoke with such charisma that it would take a woman being interested in the other team for it to have no effect.

Claudia smiled at Reinwolse through strands of hair, shyly kicking the floor with her foot.

"Also, take this with you. Hopefully you won't need it" Reinwolse handed Claudia a small pistol, but instead of having a small circular hole at the end for a bullet to exit out from, it had a wide rectangular hole.

After some persuasion Claudia decided to wear the suit. She was completely covered in black, only her little face and a handful of hair hanging out was visible. She pictured how awful female swimmers looked with those tight hats on and would not allow herself to appear that way, she had to make a good impression on a new planet.

Reinwolse also wore a suit for protection. He didn't care for any hair showing, deciding to make extra effort to ensure none was peeking through any gaps.

"I need to scout out this side of the planet alone. My wolves will lead you to my last known location of my wolf friends; do not fear them" He placed both hands on either of her shoulders, and then looked deeply into her face.

"You will know it is them by the red tribal marking on their body. If you see any wolves with white markings, known as volves, run west, run fast and do not look back. Once you are out of the wilderness and into the mountains you should be clear; The volf tend to stay away."

He released himself from her and walked towards the trolley.

"Ok, I understand, don't worry about me, I've survived some terrible situations this past week, I'm a true survivor."

The ever expanding pack of wolves began walking west through the dense forest, yet despite how dense it was visibility was not impaired, the trees were so thin and the branches so high that it was like looking through prison cell bars.

"Good luck Reinwolse" Then the smile faded, her serious tone returning after an absence "Don't you dare die and leave me alone on a planet with a bunch of mindless wolves" Claudia turned away and followed behind the trolley that was being pulled by four wolves at the front; it barely fit through the gaps between each tree and Claudia could see ahead that some manoeuvring would need to be done. She hoped they were smart enough to figure it out themselves.

Reinwolse smiled and shouted towards a departing Claudia's back. "You too. But remember: if you die, this is all for nothing."

The Spring Of Pleasure

The walk through the forest was long and uneventful. Everything looked the same to Claudia. The trees never changed shape or size; they had obviously been left untouched for many, many years.

There was no sounds except those of footsteps made by the horde of wolves that surrounded Claudia, but although being so large in number, were relatively quiet, it was like a constant low humming sound of a generator to Claudia's ears, a sound that irritated her for a while but soon faded away.

There were no birds to be heard, no cars in the distance, no sounds of mobile phones beeping and booping, no voices of people arguing about mundane things. It was all so serene and new to Claudia. She had never before been in a place so quiet and void of life. She liked it. No way to get in her way. No one to piss her off.

Along the way she saw a small pathway leading through a circular pack of trees that had all grown so close together that it was impossible to see through them. Claudia wanted to know what was inside, so much that she didn't think of the fact that the volves native to the planet could be anywhere close by. She followed the small pathway; a few hundred wolves followed her in, so closely that they had trouble squeezing past each other. It was only a short walk to the epicentre. As she neared the opening it became darker and darker.

Inside was like something truly fit for a queen, Claudia knew that nature created this place just for her; she was surely the first person to ever set foot in this place, giving her ego yet another deserved boost.

It was a small clearing; in the centre of it was a small lake with water that looked so pure and untainted. Through the gaps at the top of the trees came small strips of red light breaking through leaving faint red spots on the ground around the water, like spotlights on a darkened stage.

The water glowed with super natural light. It sparkled and glimmered all on its own as if powered by the planet itself.

Claudia slowly walked up to the lake, completely mesmerised by its illuminated beauty.

She wanted nothing more than to strip off her suit, fully submerge herself into the water and relax until the end of time.

She unzipped one of her hands free from her suit. She bent down at the side of the lake and slowly lowered one hand into the water to test its temperature.

She dipped two fingers into the water; it felt amazing. The walk had made her body feel clammy and sweaty but this water made her entire body feel so cool and refreshed.

She slowly stripped off her suit revealing her naked body. She looked over her shoulders at the large crowd of wolves watching her.

"I bet you've never seen so much beauty in one place before" She smirked.

One of the wolves approached Claudia. It grabbed its mouth softly around her hand and pulled her back towards the entrance.

"What are you doing? This perfect specimen is for humans only" She grunted.

She placed her free hand on the wolves head and harshly pushed the wolves face away from her, it releasing it grip as its head bounced backwards.

She dropped herself into the shimmering lake, the light so intensely vibrant and bright, yet painless to her eyes.

The water gave her body sensations she had never felt before. Sensations she wanted to feel forever. Her body quivered and shook. She let out loud satisfied sounds and crossed her legs tightly the more intense the feelings became. She bit her lip so hard it began to bleed.

The aches and pains in her body all faded instantly, as if they had never been there in the first place. It felt like she had ten sets of top grade masseur hands all over her body all reaching and grabbing every inch of her skin with such finesse and grace. She could feel each finger and thumb work it's magic, touching all of the right places.

She arched her back the more amazing the feelings became; it was like there was no limit, when she reached one peak of pleasure then soon it would begin reaching another peak; like climbing a mountain and thinking you're close to the top, but you only find out that you just reached another ledge and the summit is possibly at the next stop.

She arched her back again as she let out a large scream of delight. The sound echoed and escaped the confinements of the clearing, flying outwards in every direction throughout the silent forest. Even Reinwolse caught the remnants of the pleasureful squeal in his location many miles away as he rode fast on the back of the silver wolf, his mind completely focused on his mission.

She arched again. She gripped her hands hard into the ground surrounding her pleasure pool; she twisted and tensed her body as she kept reaching new heights.

She arched again. This time she let out a low squeal of pain. Her body started to cramp as she stretched far beyond her flexible limits. She always loved working out when she had the time but always neglected her stretching at the ends of a workout. This made her regret those lazy decisions.

She arched once more but fluid poured out of her eyes this time as more of her body cramped. She couldn't feel her legs. Her fingers started to bleed from how strongly she held onto the dirt. She was terrified of letting go; the invisible wonderful hands didn't stop. Part of Claudia wanted nothing more than to release herself completely into the waters. The other, rational part of her knew she would be unable to keep afloat as she floated helplessly in pleasure, eventually drowning in a combination of her own fluids, and fluids that have given her the best feelings of her life.

Cramp attacked one of her arms; her release faltered from the dirt. One arm fell into the water, the invisible arms quick to smother it with love and affection, treating it as if it was the most important limb in the universe. Claudia reacted to this with further moans and groans. She didn't know what to feel. She was losing her breath from all of the vocal reactions she gave. She panted like a woman who was giving birth to triplets.

Her second arm lost its grip. She slipped into the water below, fully submerged into a beautiful tomb. Everything around her was an alluring shade of blue, a shade she has never seen before; a shade that would become her least favourite colour. The hands entered through her open mouth, she felt them crawl their way down her throat, tickling it all the way down into her stomach. It felt like hand upon hand was gathering inside of her stomach, lying on top of each other, all fighting amongst themselves to reach something to caress.

As a black border around her vision began to creep over the beauty of the blue lake, a familiar face approached Claudia in the waters. A face that has been her rescuer many times.

A wolf. It swam towards her grabbing her cramped arm in it's mouth; it tore her skin slightly as it found her body heavy to move in the waters. Another wolf jumped in, grabbing her other arm in its steely jaw. Another followed in soon after, then another and another. They swam beneath Claudia and shoved their faces into the arch of her back, assisting her to float to the top of the water.

Her nipples were the first part of her body to be poked out of the top of the lake, followed by her flat stomach, her knees, and then finally her face. She was making sounds as if she was gargling water, like after taking a shot of mouthwash before bed.

More wolves entered the water to drag her to safety. They got her to dry land as quickly as possible.

She was like a fish out of water the way she flipped and flopped on the chilled floor and her face was as blue as a homeless russian peasant in winter; she couldn't breathe. Her body inside and out, was still feeling euphoria even though it was fighting for air.

One of the wolves, powered by Reinwolses instincts flowing through it, jumped on top of Claudia, pinning her naked body onto the ground; she was unable to move no matter how much her body wanted her to.

While she was immobilized with the hulking wolf pinning her shoulders down, another wolf hovered over her face and pressed both of it's paws on her chest, tickling her breasts with the spiked fur on its wrist.

He hung his paws above her then pressed down once. Then again.

The pack, bathed in a celestial glow, watched on, unaware that this could be their last moment of existence.

It pressed its paws together and performed one hefty blow to the chest. Claudia coughed hard; water flying out her mouth into the face of the wolf that had her resuscitated her. The wolf shook its head then returned to observe with the pack.

"What the fuck?" She shouted towards the wolf still on top of her, with her now hoarse voice "Get off of me you're crushing my god damned body!"

The wolf did as she demanded. Claudia, eyes wide with shock as she looked around while she was regaining control of her mind, pondered why her body was fully exposed and naked on the ground surrounded by as many wolves as possible that could fit through the small pathway.

Her memory of what happened was hazy and clouded; She remembered dipping her fingers into the water but the rest was slideshow of feelings of pain, pleasure and breathlessness. She crawled across the floor on all fours towards her clothing and got herself dressed. She was happy she had such a fine figure or she would of felt so ashamed of herself.

The lights breaking through the ceiling of the clearing was beginning to fade; night was approaching and she didn't want to be in this forest when darkness fell. She didn't like that didn't know how long the darkness lasted.

She crawled herself to the large wolf that had pinned her down, it was by far the biggest of the wolves that were in the room and she knew it had pure strength.

She placed both of her hands onto its spiked back and jumped onto it with all of her weight. It looked as if it felt nothing as she landed hard and sloppily on its spine.

"We need to get to the banished wolves village" She said, still catching her breath "Take me there quickly before darkness falls."

She wasn't sure why she didn't ride the wolves in the first place.

Blood Lust

The wolf charged off; Claudia had to react quickly by grabbing onto a tuft of its thick neck fur before she was swung off the back of it. The fresh blood on her finger tips gave the brown hair a rusted look.

The wolf travelled through the wilderness with such agile finesse. It evaded the static trees with precision dodging, as if it knew the entire layout of the forest off by heart.

Claudia slowly bumped up and down as the wolf jumped over small roots that lay sprawled on the ground; she felt like she was a child on a seesaw, except it was back in the good times with her father, not a wolf running at 60 miles per hour.

She quickly grew irritated by the thick lock of hair which crept out of the hood of her protective suit; it kept repeatedly smacking her in the face as it flew around erratically in the wind, but her body would not let her release even a single grip from the canine. She cursed the price of beauty.

Behind the galloping wolf were hundreds of other wolves. The rest stayed back to pull the heavy trolley and defend the entrance of the teleporter.

Two more hours passed, it was still daylight but dimming at a slow pace. The strong wolf's legs showing no signs of weakness, the speed kept at a consistent pace for the entire journey.

Claudia did pass more landmarks that looked intriguing. She noticed some caves that went vertically into the ground, and she saw bright floating lights in the distance that projected a deep calling inside of her. She saw more trees that circled around a small area like before. As curious as she was, she had no desire to go snooping around like before, not without Reinwolse at least.

She learnt her lesson that she is no longer in the comforts like she was at home. There are no rules here, things are unexplored and dangers are unknown. She felt helpless thinking this way but her life is more important now than it ever was before. If she dies then earth will slowly rebuild and recover without her; all of her suffering would be for nothing.

She spent most of the journey enthralled by the mesmerising blur of trees. Then it struck her, physically. She went flying off of the back of the wolf at a crushing speed.

She was winded by the fall but she felt no physical pain. When she looked down at her torso she noticed that a huge spike was sticking out of it, penetrating the suit by a mere centimetre, a spike that was much larger than any she has seen before; The suit had saved her life.

She saw it near the peak of the trees. It moved fast like a blur jumping from tree to tree. Again a spike flew at Claudia at the speed of light. Again it failed to penetrate the suit but sent her flying further back.

The wolves began firing up into the trees but the volf was too large. It fired spikes back in retaliation, each one hitting its targets. One spike is all it took for the wolves to fall down dead, Instantly. It turned out there was two of them.

Claudia knew it was time to run, her legs now well rested and ready. Before she could even move the volves jumped down in front of her, blocking her escape.

The volf was gigantic; it was even bigger than the silver wolf that Reinwolse resided within. It had the white tribal marks all over its body that Reinwolse mentioned. These volves were from the tribe that banished him from the planet.

Claudia turned to run in another direction but its head was fast, it clasped its mouth tightly around her arms with such a determined grip. The suit prevented it from breaking through to her skin. She could feel the terrifying force behind the bite.

Wolves ran to aid Claudia but as they got close the other tribal wolf would shoot them down, never missing a shot.

The white striped wolf flung Claudia around left and right like a dog does his chew toy.

"Get off me" Claudia screamed.

The volf released the grip on Claudia and she fell to the floor.

"How can I understand you?" The volf replied.

"Because I will soon rule you" Claudia replied with a bitter tone.

Claudia was as surprised as he was that they could understand each other, but she had to say something to distract it.

More wolves arrived; hundreds more. They pounced on the bewildered striped volf while its guard was down. Hundreds of pairs of teeth tore at the flesh. It did not go down without a gruelling fight; its large claw effortlessly crushed a wolf's skull without any effort. It eventually gave up the fight but not without taking thirty wolves down with it.

The other wolves continued shooting spikes at the other volf in the trees. More blurs in the trees arrived.

Claudia did not want to hang around to be thrown around anymore; she only let certain, privileged guys do that. She quickly jumped onto a wolf that was firing into the trees, commanded it to continue riding, and it did so. A large pack of her wolves followed her. Thousands more of her wolves soon arrived to aid in the battle, and more would come as more of earth's population is continually converted.

She knew she had to do as Reinwolse told her and clear the trees. They had too much of an advantage and she had no idea that her wolves were so weak and pathetic. It made her truly realise just how weak the people of earth had been to be demolished by them in a mere week.

Two volves gave chase amongst the trees. They were fast; they jumped from one tree to another with their paws barely even touching the tree they were bouncing off of.

The wolves running with Claudia continued to fire at them as they ran, both parties aims were severely limited while moving, so no causalities were being added to the death counter.

Claudia lay flat on the wolf driver. She could take only so many blows from those wolves before either the suit would break or she would obtain a concussion.

Twenty more minutes she was chased for. It was probably the most uncomfortable, adrenaline filled twenty minutes of her life. She couldn't see what was happening but she could hear the pinging and swooshing of spikes whizzing past her, she could hear the sound of breaking wood as the wolves aggressively jumped above her. Eventually the trees began to thin. The amount of wolves behind Claudia ever growing; she now had the upper hand.

The two tribal volves jumped down to chase on foot, knocking the small wolves out of the way like a monster truck riding down a congested main road.

One of the volves jumped far at Claudia, its front paw landing on the back of the wolf she was riding; breaking its back legs in half.

Claudia jumped from the broken wolf before it could topple over and crush her. She landed safely; she was finally getting used to falling over.

The large volf approached her.

"Your kind not welcome here" It spoke in slow broken gritty English.

It moved closer. It licked its lips knowing she was unable to escape. It cherished these moments.

Claudia backed up slowly, the large volf's one step equalling five of her steps.

The usual last-minute save wasn't happening. The other wolves were being fought off by the other large volf.

Claudia could smell its breath.

"How you taste? Mmmm" as it spoke it reached its long, wet tongue out towards her.

Claudia suddenly remembered the gun that Reinwolse had given to her; she reached for the small pouch on the side of her suit and aimed it at the wolf.

Claudia's hands were shaking in front of the beast that was almost four times larger than her. The gun looked pathetic in comparison. She might as well have been swaying a stick in its face.

"Nice toy. Let play" The wolf made a deep grinding sound as it laughed.

Claudia had never shot a gun before. She held out the gun in front her, close to her chest, clasping it tightly with both hands. She held her finger on the trigger.

The gun began to vibrate in her hand, softly at first then quickly shaking with intense violence; it began getting hotter.

The volf felt nothing. The laser went directly through its skull.

The gun emitted a thick red laser that reached about six feet; it looked like a large fiery sword, the edges sparkling like a chainsaw does when it is cutting through metal. The laser pierced effortlessly through the wolf's skull. Claudia aimed the gun towards the floor, the laser followed, slicing the volf completely in half. Its organs fell out one by one, followed by the two pieces of its furry empty shell caving in. Claudia released the trigger, causing the beam to vanish.

She had never felt so badass.

The other volf witnessed this. It began jumping from tree to tree. It wanted to warn the rest of its pack of the weapon that the small white creature had bought to the planet.

Claudia used the laser gun like a normal gun, tapping on the trigger. Small thick red discs fired from the mouth of the gun. They initially missed the volf but instead sliced through the tree he was attempting to jump to; the gun cut through the tree like butter, making the top half of it fall fast to the ground. The wolf landed delicately on the floor.

It turned quickly to plan a new route through the trees but before it could even make the first move it lost its tail. Then it lost both its front feet. Its face fell to the floor, resting on the naked floor. Its back legs scratched futilely against the earth, unable to move its hulking body.

Claudia walked up to the face of the large beast.

"What you are?" The wolf's voice sounded muffled as its jaw struggled to support the weight of its skull. It wanted to say more, but lacked the strength.

"The eradication of your species" Claudia spoke coldly.

She kicked the helpless wolf in the face multiple times. An army of her wolves gathered around in silence, watching their queen humiliate her opponent.

She held the gun to the face of the wolf. Its dark eyes followed the gun as she raised it. She held down the trigger.

The beam obliterated the brain of the wolf. Not a single speck of the flesh remained. It's memories, its instincts, it's love of the hunt. All gone in an instant.

Claudia grinned to herself. She was so utterly impressed at the hole she had made through her target's head. She looked back at the volf sliced in half with even bigger pride. On earth she had gained fame and stardom and the envy of all. On this new planet she had floated to a new level. She was powerful. She would be feared. She had the taste for death and she wanted more of it. She wanted more of the large beasts to appear. She wanted to slice them into tiny pieces.

She got on the back of the closest wolf to her and rode off through the shrinking trees.

The Mountains Of Spike

As she reached the edge of the forest the trees slowly shrank to a size smaller than her. She guessed it must be something to do with this side of the planet as she also noticed it became a lot colder.

The forest finally ended as it reached a large stream of water. The current of the water was so still that not a single ripple emerged on the top of the liquid.

The stream led into what looked like the ocean of the planet. The water was a dark blue now that night was nearly here.

There were mountains on the other side of the water; they were intimidatingly large looking, dark and rigid; if not for her suit then Claudia would not even attempt to travel through them as she could be torn apart each step she took.

The gap was large and Claudia did not want to enter the water for fear of what happened previously. She did not know if that lake had unique properties or the water on this planet was like a powerful drug. But soon she would need to drink.

She told the wolf to jump over the stream. She would never have thought a wolf could jump the length of a football field, but now she has seen just how agile they can be, she had no doubt.

The wolf backed up. The horde of wolves behind did the same. It ran forward gaining speed faster than a top tier motorbike. At the very last moment with its front paws half way off the edge of land it leapt effortlessly over. Claudia felt like she experiencing everything in slow motion as she glided over the sparkling waters below. She felt air cushion across her face. She looked over at the now darkened sun of the planet, it's once bright red edges now a dark blue; yet bright enough to keep Claudia from being unable to see anything.

As she reached the height of the jump she could experience just how vast the mountains were. They looked like thick mutated spikes on the back of a hedgehog.

Then she was back in real time as the wolf landed on the other side. The landing was so smooth, Claudia felt as if she just landed in an airplane that had a ten out of ten landing sequence, but with the extravagant airlines she flew with, she was more than used to smooth landings.

The other wolves followed behind, all landing perfectly behind Claudia without barely a sound. Not a single wolf collided with another.

Claudia decided to remain on the back of the wolf as they approached the mountains. They were enormous; each spike of earth was as large as the largest building in the largest of cities. Claudia felt small.

She told the wolf to continue on. It walked at a cautious steady pace as the floor began to look like it was covered in brown broken glass. It reminded her of the time that a young man who fancied her, almost obsessively, smashed a bottle of alcohol into a face of a girl who was attempting to attack her one time in a nightclub, leaving the floor covered in brown shards with a red tint.

If Claudia was to go on foot then it would surely tear through her feet, leaving her stranded as she slowly bled to death while her pack look helplessly on. The wolf did not appear affected.

There looked to be many entrances into the mountains as a large gap was in between each gigantic spike; the wolf simply went through the one that was opposite them as they landed.

The passageway was large enough for 20 wolves to walk side by side. Claudia was in the centre of the line. The blue light faded as they walked further into the crumbling abyss. Each spike of earth blocking the blue sun from sharing its rays to the area; complete darkness was all that was allowed in this structure of earth.

Claudia held her new favourite toy to her chest; the heat from the gun was still potent enough to be felt like a soft tingle through her suit. She was ready for combat at any moment, her head constantly turning to look at each sound that the giant crucible created, her finger constantly pressed to the trigger. She was ready for an aerial assault. She kind of even wanted it. She wanted to shoot off the legs of more wolves. A small part of her had an urge to shoot off the legs of even her own wolves that were walking with her. She never knew if the urge was real as her vision was too impaired to see the floor. All she could see was the top halves of the spiked spires; even they were soaked in a dark blue light.

Nothing happened. The mountain was just seemingly endless corridors of varying widths. Some required a number of wolves in the line to back up and form a second line behind, whereas some were so large that even 40 wolves could walk side by side.

Time went by slowly in these silent, echoed caverns.

In the distance Claudia could see light; Vibrant light. It seemed to have come out of nowhere.

Blinding light assaulted her eyes. The large passageway she was in lit up like a house ignited by vicious flames.

On the walls above were large bulbs clinging to rocks in the walls like small octopus binding a helpless target.

Her eyes adjusted. On a ledge at the end of the corridor Claudia could see the silhouette of a beast. It was smaller than the volves that she just killed, but larger than her low tier wolves.

The Banished Wolf Village

"Who goes there?" Said a husky, dark voice.

Claudia's vision adjusted even more, it as if she was in the most perfect of summer sunlight.

The wolf looked more rugged than the other volves. It's spiked fur was dark, ruffled and messy, it looked like a contemporary stylist had gone through its fur with cheap hair gel from the supermarket, trying to create something beautifully unique, but only managing to create a unique mess.

Its face was scarred. Its body was covered in red painted markings similar to the other volves, but more numerous.

It was the bolf.

Claudia aimed her gun towards the talking animal.

"How about you tell me 'who goes there'" Claudia said.

"I am Burrock, but what manner of creature are you?! How do you speak our tongue?!" The wolf's heavy voice lightened as confusion surrounded its words.

Claudia's pack of wolves continued to edge forward.

"Let's just say that I am soon to be the ruler of your people and you better learn to speak to me with some respect. How would you cope with two legs?" Claudia spoke with a confident tone topped with a sprinkle of sadism.

Two more similar looking bolves joined the husky wolf at his perch.

"We don't want any trouble, why not just turn around and go back to where you came from" Spoke one of the bolves, his voice much gentler than the other bolf.

"How do you expect to win a war with attitudes like that? No wonder you were banished you pathetic creatures." Claudia scowled at the sight of the beasts as they whimpered. She wasn't going to win any war if all of the banished wolves were of this quality. Her finger was so close to pressing the trigger of her gun.

"What war?" Spoke Burrock.

"With the other wolves of the island, of course. Reinwolse sent me here while he prepared some surprises for them. He will be here soon." Claudia explained.

The wolves head's all jumped up upon hearing the name of Reinwolse.

"You should have said that at first strange creature! Come in, come in" Said Burrock excitedly. The other two bolves jumped down to lead Claudia and her wolves into their camp.

The camp was no camp; it was more like a city and lit as bright as a fun ground fair at peak hours during the night. Claudia wondered how she could not see the light from outside the mountain.

There were small building everywhere, all made out of stone, and placed in no particular order. They reminded her of the buildings in an old cartoon she used to watch with her father that was set during prehistoric times.

Bolves of all shapes and sizes stared at Claudia; their black eyes followed her every movement. Families of bolves would leave their small houses to look at the strange being that was like something out of children's stories.

Claudia walked without an ounce of self-consciousness. She was used to having eyes following her. She had it every day of her life since she was of legal age, but probably much longer than that, yet she doesn't like to think of people looking at her in her tender years.

Burrock lead Claudia to a large house at what she assumed was the back of the city; it was a large simple building that was merged into the side of the mountain. It had no shape; it was just a large piece of rock with a few holes for a door and windows. This must be where the king of this city resides. Claudia was unimpressed. Every moment she spent on this planet was making her regret coming here. She was fit to rule places of a much higher calibre.

They walked up the small slope to the building. Burrock stopped her at the top by placing his strong solid tail in front of her legs.

"I don't know what is going on but all of those wolves cannot fit into this city, look behind you strange one" Burrock said, whilst pointing a furry paw towards the sea of wolves walking through his usually quiet city. He turned his head to the wolf at Claudia's side and opened his mouth to talk to it.

Claudia kicked his tail to the side and aimed her gun at his head.

"They are my wolves. They do as I wish and I wish to have them here. If you have a problem with that then just say so."

Burrock did not want a fight. His tribe had been through enough problems since being exiled 15 years ago; including harsh weather and unfavourable living conditions. This mountain was nothing but empty dark corridors until he lead his fellow exiles into making it a home. He did not know what this woman wanted but she knew Reinwolse. He would wait to speak to him before acting.

"Please, follow me inside" Said Burrock, turning his body sharply around and entering the small door at the mouth of the large building.

Claudia followed, having to crouch to fit inside the door.

The interior of the building was just as unappealing as the outside. It was just a series of small caves which lead to even smaller caves where the bolves slept. Completely unremarkable was the words that pierced through Claudia's mind.

Claudia wanted to sit near the top of the building to look out over the peasants of the city yet the house had no stairs, just slopes and slants that the bolves pounced up effortlessly. She stayed by a window on the ground floor and waited.

A wolf that looked shabby and grey with age approached Claudia and began speaking to her. He told her of the history of Reinwolse. How fifteen years ago he had started an uprising that would see him turned to stone by an ancient spell while the rest of the wolves that stood with him were forced to live on the once uninhabitable island.

That wolf was still living in that lush prosperous city, filled with beautiful food, amazing weather and a large amount of volves who fear and resent him, too scared to speak up in fear of being removed to the cold outer limits of the planet.

They were once all volves but the banished wolves had decided to rebrand themselves as bolves.

Claudia was barely paying attention until the adjectives prosperous, beautiful and amazing were used. This raised her hopes that maybe the planet wasn't a massive mistake. She prayed that she had not left a planet where she was worshipped for one where there is nothing to offer her.

It took Reinwolse twelve hours for him to appear within the city.

Talk Of War

Reinwolse came in riding the great silver wolf. The bolves instantly ran to the wolf, hugging it and cheering, not realising that Reinwolse was now in the body of a human. The wolf they hugged showed them absolutely no emotion or response.

When he first spoke in his human form everybody was sceptical what to believe; were these beings liars? Where had they come from and what did they want with this simple way of life?

These doubts were soon vanquished as he spoke. He spoke with that same energy, passion and power that he did all those years ago.

He spoke of his plan to overthrow the wolf lord Howta once and for all. Everybody cheered, howling hard into the bright night sky.

Reinwolse entered the large house.

"You took your time. I've been so bored here" Claudia whined.

"I had to ensure that I had gathered every bit of Intel possible for our assault to be as flawless as possible." Reinwolse spoke with such certainty.

He sat down besides Claudia.

"How was your journey here?" Reinwolse asked.

"Well" Claudia leaned forward "Your wolves were pretty useless, I had protect myself from countless gigantic volves, it only due to my smarts and quick reflexes that I made it here alive"

Reinwolse let out a small laugh.

"What about the pool?" Reinwolse winked then grinned like a hyperactive hyena.

Claudia's face turned into the same shade red as her hair as she leaned back.

"You...you saw that?"

"I see everything my wolves see, remember?"

"Well I thought that I deserved a break after all that I have been through" Claudia snapped, ashamed of herself for feeling embarrassment.

"It's no problem, just be more careful around here, and it brings me onto my next point"

Reinwolse stood up to speak.

"I and an enormous group of wolves and bolves will leave tomorrow. I know it is soon but we need to strike now before they have a chance to figure out what is happening. I will be briefing everybody soon. I will leave enough wolves here to keep you protected."

Claudia's mouth stood open in shock. Unbelievable.

"I'm not being left here, no way" She barked, loud enough for it to echo multiple times through the now bustling and cheerful city.

"You know that your life is too important. I can't lose you and the army of wolves"

"I have this suit and I know you have more weapons, and only I can use them, and oh how I want to use them so much" Claudia spoke through a grinning mouth while stroking her throbbing gun.

"Let me think about it, I need to tell everybody the war plan" Studley said was he He started to walk out of the building.

"And hey, about the pool, I'm sorry I couldn't be there to save you but I know my wolves would do anything in their power to keep you alive and..." He paused.

"I really wish I could of been the one to resuscitate you" He smiled, sheepishly.

"Oh, I'm positive you would have loved that" Replied Claudia as she swung her hair over her shoulder.

Reinwolse gathered everybody in the centre of the village; it was nothing more than a few stones placed in a circular pattern. The entire village was filled from wall to wall. Wolves were standing on top of other wolves just to be able to see Reinwolse.

He spoke loud and powerful of his plan of attack, he spoke in such immense detail that not many wolves fully comprehended his words, but they understood his precise hand actions. He went into every minor detail; he told everyone what team they were in, he told them where and when they would attack. He explained with such perfection. Claudia admired that he had everyone solely paying attention to him, not a single creature was looking the other way, even Claudia herself found herself mesmerised by his speech; she felt a surge of adrenaline as he spoke of his war plans. He was that good. She was pumped. She always wanted to meet hitler, and this was the closest she got to that dream.

Later that night Reinwolse approached Claudia in a brightly lit corner of the city. The city was full of life as bolves walked around discussing their excitement. She was checking all of the weapons in the cart, imaging how destructive they could be, feeling a buzz just thinking of the limbs of the volves being blown apart. Her mood had improved dramatically.

"Here, let me show you how to use that" Reinwolse sniggered and placed his hands on the pulse rocket launcher, two fingers landed on Claudia's hand and they shared a longer than normal glance.

It was a bulky small weapon. He showed Claudia what buttons to press on the small LCD screen to make it cause chaos and destruction.

"I know how to use a touch screen" Sighed Claudia.

She tapped two small icons on the screen as she reached to grab the gun off of Reinwolse. A bright blue ball of energy surged out of the small mouth of the deceptively sized weapon. The ball skimmed past the Reinwolse's face; he felt all of the hairs on his body stand on edge, so much that he thought each of his hairs were going to be plucked instantly from his body.

The sphere of energy exploded in the dark blue sky; at its peak the explosion looked to be the size of the moon. It lit up the entire village as smaller balls of energy floated through the sky like a swarm of fireflies.

Bolves of all shapes and sizes stared up to look at the beautiful illumination.

Reinwose, now with his hair spiked up like many of the wolves around him, looked at Claudia, his face full of concern.

"Oops, I guess" Claudia grinned, not even feeling a pinch of guilt for her dangerous actions.

"Claudia, I want you to come somewhere with me, just the two of us" He gently grabbed her by the hand and walked with her through the village, the bolves stared at them as they walked past.

Claudia pulled a face like a schoolgirl who had just been told off for being naughty when she swears that she is innocent, yet she followed without a fight. She sensed importance in his voice; any other man who grabbed her by the arm would have felt the wrath of her venomous tongue, at the least.

He lead her through a small passageway at the back of the village.

Strange Romance

The passageway was dark and an extremely tight squeeze. Each step Claudia worried that she was going to graze herself on the edges of the jagged walls.

She felt so vulnerable not wearing her suit. She was wearing a peach jumper and black jeans, clothes Reinwolse had packed for her on the wagon; probably clothes that belonged to the female scientist she murdered.

The dark passageway went upwards, at some points very steeply. In some places she lost her footing but Reinwolse was quick to place his hand on her, preventing her from falling even an inch.

Claudia wanted to moan but the climb was draining her energy too much to be bothered to.

They climbed for 15 minutes until they came out onto a large slab that stuck solitarily out of the side of the mountain. It was like a large splinter sticking out of a finger.

"Why did you bring me here?" Claudia enquired. She slightly jogged on the spot to ease the aching pain from the climb.

Reinwolse walked towards the edge of the protruding cliff and looked longingly into the blue sky.

"I used to come here when I was a young wolf. It was a thrill because we were not allowed to enter this forbidden mountain. I used to sit here and watch the sun change from its dull blue to its crimson pink" He let out a big involuntary nostalgic smile as he spoke his memories.

"This was before my race was split in two by a leader who said the lush side of the planet was not sustainable for so many of us. It caused havoc as people questioned each other's importance."

He turned around to Claudia and grasped both of her hands in his. She didn't know what to say. She didn't really care about his speech, she never understood people's desire to ramble on about the past.

"I wanted you to see this beauty before we go to war" He smiled at her.

Behind Reinwolse the blue sky slowly began to change to a shade of vibrant red. The transition was a beautiful aurora of shifting colours as the red and blue mixed to make colours Claudia wasn't sure she had ever seen before.

Claudia was hypnotised; It truly was a beautiful sight. She had never seen anything like this. She was a city woman through and through. Nature was never her thing.

The outline of Reinwolse glowed. He looked like an angel sent to reward Claudia for her progression in life. Claudia felt a warmth as the red side of the sun overtook the blue, like it was being chased away.

"You mean the world to me, and I don't just mean that because your life is my life."

He leaned in and kissed a jaw dropped Claudia.

She returned the sentiment. The two embraced as the red hue of the planet slowly resumed its place. The planet was in a strange transition of the battling colours.

Reinwolse began to remove Claudia's top. His penis grew strong and erect. This feeling was new and exciting, he knew of the sensation but he had never felt it.

Claudia hesitated. This man kissing her was perfection. He was strong, charismatic, he worshipped her, he was smart but he was in the body of her twin brother. However, she never quite realised just how beautiful he was; he could have been a stud if he hadn't been born retarded. With that thought in mind, she let Reinwolse remove her clothes. She returned the favour to him.

They embraced. Pecs touched breasts. Genitalia rubbed together. The heat from the sun felt good against their pale skins as arms stroked wildly around both bodies.

Claudia lay her back on the surprisingly smooth cliff floor. She looked into the eyes of Reinwolse. Beautiful blue eyes, much like her own. His body was firm, not an ounce of fat to be found. His arse cheeks were firm and tight, feeling magnificent to grip.

Reinwolse entered his penis into Claudia. He felt and heard the wetness as his edged in and out of her vagina.

It started gentle. But requests from Claudia for 'harder, faster' urged him to thrust with much more force.

As he pounded her slim physique, her body edged closer and closer towards the edge of the cliff. She panted. He panted. She screamed. He moaned.

Claudia's head hung off of the edge of the cliff but she didn't care. This was the best sex she had ever had. His large thick penis filled her up perfectly. Russian men were prone to having small genitalia, but her family DNA had not let him down in this department.

She opened her eyes and enjoyed the breath-taking view as she felt the most breath-taking sex she had ever felt before. She didn't have much breath left to give.

Reinwolse Climaxed. He had never felt such a rush of pleasure in his entire wolf and human existence. Sex as a wolf was awkward and never truly felt satisfying, but this gave him even more determination to not die during the war to come.

Claudia and Reinwolse sat naked and in silence at the edge of the cliff, she rested her shoulder on his broad shoulder, watching the sky complete its transformation. Sweat ran down both of their backs, forming a small puddle behind the pair.

Claudia wanted to keep this man. She waited all of her life for someone who could match her on an attractive, intellectual and powerful level.

After some time, Claudia stood up and dressed herself. She turned around to a still naked Reinwolse who was peering out over the red horizon.

"I'm still fighting today. This changes nothing."

She turned and began to walk away. She hoped the walk down would be a lot easier than the way up.

Reinwolse's voice called from behind her.

"We leave in twelve hours. Get some rest."

Claudia smiled and descended the slim passageway back to the village.

Outbreak: Day Eight

The City Of The Volves

The twelve hours passed. Claudia spent most of the time analysing the advanced weaponry, the rest she spent sleeping. She dreamt of her time with Reinwolse.

Rewolse spent his time not resting but planning. This was a one attempt attack. If they failed then the wolves would come to the village and wipe everyone out. Before the banishment there was serious talk of obliteration instead of banishment.

The volves were stronger and better trained as they had access to better food and better grounds for hunting and training. The traps he had set had to make the difference that he hoped they would. Everyone had to play their part to perfection, except Claudia; he really didn't want her to go but he knew he couldn't stop her but he hoped their moment last night made her be more careful; give her more reason to want to live.

The time arrived. The wolves all gathered outside of the mountain, by the river that split the treacherous mountain from the luscious, bountiful land.

Hordes of wolves and bolves of all varying sizes gathered. If seen from above then the area would look like a billion hedgehogs had gathered together; not a single piece of the ground was visible beneath.

Reinwolse was position at the head of the pack, saddling his former vessel; the great silver fox. Next to him was his oldest friend, Burrock. Claudia sat in the metallic trailer surrounded by an abundance sci-fi level of weaponry; She was so excited she felt twinges throughout her body.

The Claudia back on earth would have sat in her office barking orders, this Claudia was ready to get her hands dirty; and she couldn't wait.

Reinwolse gave a rousing speech. A speech of treachery, pain, loss, and most importantly, revenge.

They set off. The wolves cleared the river and ran through the thickening forest.

On the way they encountered the white striped wolves. They fell fast and hard as hundreds of thousands of wolves poured through the forest, followed closely behind by hundreds of bolves. They didn't stand a chance. They were not allowed even a second to warn of the approaching attack.

As they neared the city the trees started to become lusher and visually alluring; Claudia thought it was fantastic and everything she wanted. The trees were thicker and healthier with green and red bushy tops and were full of splendor as they radiated in the red light, yellow particles flew and twisted in the soft breeze, gently caressing her face, the grass sprouted flowers of every colour possible; Claudia's vicinity was bombarded with a vast array of scintillating petals. She was thankful that she didn't suffer from epilepsy or she would be shaking whilst foaming from the mouth, unable to relish the moment.

Reinwolse raised a fist in the air; the stampeding packs immediately stopped near a large vibrant hill. He dismounted his wolf then motioned for Burrock to follow him up the hill, and the old bolf obliged.

Claudia didn't want to look insignificant to the beings she will soon rule; she jumped out of her trailer to follow the pair.

A white female bolf approached Claudia through the furry crowd.

"Excuse me but you really must leave Reinwolse and my husband to talk" Her voice was reminiscent of a woman who had been smoking for at least sixty years.

Claudia looked strongly at the bolf.

"Excuse me, but I will have millions of wolves tear your face off if you speak to me again"

Claudia sauntered through the crowd not caring where her feet landed, then walked up the hill.

At the top, Burrock and Reinwolse were close, discussing battle tactics.

As she angrily approached them, they parted to reveal the immense city in the distance.

The city was like something out of a fairy tale. Claudia Instantly knew she wanted all of it and her resolve to destroy these volves grew, now not just with the pleasure of the kill, but with the addition of gluttony. She walked to the edge of the hill to get a better view.

The city was the complete opposite of the filthy one occupied by the bolves. This one was secured behind a humongous glimmering white brick wall.

The city sprawled for what seemed like miles in every direction.

Behind the wall were tall dark grey slim buildings, their appearance was like a dark fantasy; they raised up in a twisted spiral. The buildings tilted and bent like a witch's hat and were embedded with many various coloured gems that shone bright in the tropical light. There were so many of them, all standing effortlessly; some grew high into the sky, while many matched the height of earth's buildings. The city became a lighter grey as it came closer to the centre which is where Claudia spotted their target; a gargantuan spiked wolf face shaped building, slightly obscured from the buildings in front of it.

That was where the king volf resided. He was the target. He must die.

Reinwolse had studied the city on his quick journey here after arriving with Claudia. It had not changed much in appearance since he was banished. The city had been created on magically raised earth which gave it a perfect vantage point to see the entire area for many miles.

He wasn't sure he could win, but he had the skills and knowledge of the earth's best that intellectually far surpassed the volves best. This would have to do. This is all he could do.

Reinwolse pulled a small dark device out of his pocket, it had a bright green light emitting from the top of it, he squeezed the trigger on the side, turning the light to a dark yellow, and then held it high into the sky.

"This is it my people, we have waited so many years for this moment" Burrock barked, his voice loud, rough and full of emotion.

"When you hear the explosions, you charge the city and fight with everything"

Reinwolse looked towards Claudia and smiled.

"You best get back to the trailer before this begins and grab yourself some toys"

Claudia returned the smile then licked her lips

"Don't die. I don't want to be forced to turn to beastiality"

Reinwolse was leaning in towards her face when he was distracted by what his peripheral vision revealed to him.

Shades of brown swept up from the city in every direction possible, like a sand storm brewing and spreading. Spikes.

War

They had been noticed.

He had spent too long on the hill. He was supposed to be the attacker, not the retaliator.

He had wolves approach and surround the city from every direction. He felt like punching his arrogant self for not thinking they would be spotted.

Reinwolse grabbed Claudia, releasing the device in the process, turning the light red, then ran down the hill with her.

Explosions happened immediately; he had rigged the exterior of the city with bombs. Each explosion caused a chain reaction; it spread around the entire perimeter, leaving gaping entry holes.

The clouds of brown spikes flew over Claudia as their velocity managed to reach for miles ahead, towards the end of the pack. She could barely see the red sky above. Many of the spikes started their descent early while many carried on their flight.

Reinwolse mounted the great silver wolf as Claudia jumped into her trailer.

Wolves from every direct around the city all leapt, bound, galloped and charged towards the majestic metropolis. Claudia silently prayed they did not destroy too much more of it's gem encrusted architecture.

The spiked rain poured down all around, large shards heavily falling. Claudia placed her face to the metal floor.

Reinwolse commanded his wolves to fire back towards the approaching spikes, hoping to knock as many as possible out of the air.

Mass amounts of wolves lay instantly deceased as the large spikes easily pierced their strong armoured coats, slicing their organs in half and pinning them to the ground.

Wolves continually sacrificed themselves for Claudia and the horde of bolves that accompanied them. Reinwolse directed his wolves to save anyone who wasn't another wolf, no matter the cost. It was just a mere dent in the millions strong, and continually growing as American's were infected, army that was backed up miles into the forest and across the planet.

Reinwolse was confident his armour would protect him from the onslaught but commanded the great silver wolf to shield him with his tail, which deflected each and every arrow; the beast was undamaged. He held back from his wolves firing more spikes than he deemed necessary, he held onto the belief that a vast majority of the residents were merely there out of fear, and not for the love of the king. He wanted to save anyone he could.

The spikes eventually stopped as they arrived at the damaged walls, now full of spikes as well as massive holes.

Reinwolse rode through the rubble of the broken wall, surrounded by hundreds of wolves. Many hench volves, hopping from wall to wall in a flash, jumped at him.

Collision. Wolf among volf; tearing, slashing, snarling and growling. Blood sprayed across the grey walls of the city streets.

Reinwolse dismounted and charged towards the volves with a large samurai sword. He slashed and dodged with ease. The volves no matter how hard they tried couldn't grab him in their mouths or between their claws.

Claudia looked at the guns strewn across the floor of her trailer, she grabbed a large, thick gun that had a red scope and a thin long barrel at the front.

She placed the gun on her shoulder and aimed through the hole into the city. She held the trigger and a green light shot out of the gun in an almost invisible beam. A massive sphere of green electrical energy burst out of the impact area. The wolves and volves inside the sphere began reacting by clawing at their own flesh as if having a bad reaction to a shampoo. One volf stuck its claws as far into his eyes as possible, ripping his brain apart in the process. Another tore off both of his arms with his mouth then used his dismembered arms to stab himself through the stomach. They were killing themselves.

Claudia fired more blasts into city, feeling a warm tingle pass through her arms as she watched the animals all mass suicide as painfully as possible.

The bolves fighting outside of the city were terrified to enter in fear of being in the sights of Claudia's power-mad phase.

Reinwolse looked behind him and saw the green chaos and wanted to tell Claudia to resist killing as many volves as possible. He knew that most of them would stop as soon as the king was dead, but he had no time; it was a relentless attack. The city's population was in the hundreds of thousands and one of the volves could take down at least twenty wolves before succumbing to death.

Around him the volves were tearing earth wolves apart with just their teeth; organs flew around the battlefield like confetti at a wedding.

He sliced off limbs and heads with ease as he gracefully danced forward, needing to utilise all of the mastered skills his mind possessed to stay alive.

He ran further into the city, sliding in and around side streets, using the darkness of his sleek armour to hide in the shadows. The streets were mostly bare of obstacles but each building was so close together that shadows were a plenty.

A large white volf spotted Claudia with her toy and pounced from one of the taller building towards her as his landing destination. He rammed into her trailer sending her and the weapons sprawling in every direction possible. A small crater was left where the wolf had landed.

Claudia's wolves were quick to jump to her defence, even those in mid-combat. They swarmed the wolf and it's glaring white fur was soon turned to the same colour as it's red stripes; this left their guard down as the volves made quick work of them.

More wolves jumped in on these feasting volves, and the cycle continued.

A volf jumped onto a grounded Claudia and began snapping it's jaws and ponding its paws at her body. She dodged each attack by rolling in each direction on auto-pilot. It's attacks were delayed as it had to swat wolves off of its back occasionally. She began to time the wolves attacks and felt herself predicting the next one. She reached into her pocket and slammed a blue metallic ball into its large jaws. It bit on the ball and an arctic explosion erupted within the wolf. It's body instantly turned to ice. It exploded; large shards of ice shot out around it.

A large shard of ice went directly through the mouth of an attacking striped volf, exiting through its anus. The shard was visible from both entry and exit points. It stood like a statue; motionless.

Reinwolse was making good progress towards the wolf castle. He found himself in the town square and could clearly see the large wolf head building. The place had not changed much in the past fifteen years. A volf landed behind him in the small alleyway, it's breath was heavy and dull. Reinwolse recognised him; it was his brother.

"Furrwarl!" Reinwolse shouted, causing the oncoming claw to halt its ascent.

"Who are you to speak my name?" Demanded the heavily scarred volf, it's stripes and scars almost indistinguishable

"It's me, your brother, Reinwolse!" Reinwolse lowered his weapon to show his sincerity.

"Even if that was true, my brother is a traitor and deserves death" As soon as the volf finished its sentence it flung another claw towards Reinwolse. He dodged to the right of the volf then quickly stuck a small dagger through the soft skull of the beast; it was like stabbing a knife through a fresh pumpkin. The volf fell to the floor, lifeless. Reinwolse had no time to mourn and continued on through the shadows.

Claudia had found it hard to get involved in the fight again. Constant streams of wolves were gushing past her into the city barely giving her space to move and the majority of her weapons had been scattered across the battlefield.

She managed to collect a few and ran into the city, hoping to get herself some easy targets but felt ultimately deflated that most of her arsenal was out of reach. A few hundred wolves followed behind her, ready to blindly sacrifice themselves in a moment's notice.

More striped volves came to meet the fragile human plaything. Claudia hung back letting her wolves run ahead of her. She pulled a small cannon off of her back and aimed down the sights towards the group of wolves now locked in deadly battle.

She licked her lips then pulled the thick trigger; a large volcanic looking fireball forced itself out of the head of the cannon, pausing or a few moments at the peak, and flew towards the battling crowd; a large fiery explosion erupted around the wolves but nothing immediately happened. Claudia was immediately disappointed and began the action to throw the weapon to the ground but then it happened, the wolves and volves suddenly burst into flame, their flesh melted and dripped to the floor as they jumped around in a panicked state attempting to gather enough wind to put out the inferno that was stuck to their bodies.

Claudia's wolves were not as alarmed by the condition, even though their flesh was almost entirely incinerated from their bodies, and the flaming wolves ran effortlessly on to the next targets; Claudia ran alongside the flaming herd feeling the rush of death fill up her euphoria. She was in the zone.

Burrock, not sure if to be amazed or disgusted, instructed his bolves to the other side of the city. This woman did not have their safety in mind.

The flaming wolves clashed with further approaching volves and to Claudia's glee the fire spread contagiously amongst them; it was like every wolf was smothered in oil and the flames were attracted without any coaxing.

Claudia looked at the chaos all around her and without having to think twice about, fired off a few more volcanic blasts. Each blast sent her back a few feet from the intense recoil.

Flaming wolves now dominated one side of the city, from a distance it would look like one entire side was on fire was spreading as rapidly as a forest fire. The volves retreated to the epicentre of the city. Claudia let out a howling laugh; her eyes were fierce with crazed pleasure, her face a shining beacon.

The fighting went on for some time, the city showing the devastation brought upon it by being completely covered in blood and showing dark scorch marks combined with organs and oozing bubbling flesh. Claudia imagined that the city would smell much like it does down in hell, not that she believed in all of that nonsense.

The grand wolf head shaped palace was now completely surrounded by wolves on all sides. The city was now overtaken by Claudia and her wolves. She loved every moment of the carnage.

Female and child volves hid in their homes cowering in small furry bundles in the corners of their once peaceful adobes, listening on as their family and friends were slaughtered, torn and burnt alive, never to return home with news of the day's events ever again.

Many of the wolves had surrendered yet Claudia was eager to finish them off regardless, but Reinwolse had commanded his wolves to leave them alive. Claudia felt anger at this. She felt like they were her wolves and their entire purpose in life was to serve her. It was at this moment she began to feel the light feeling of regret for coming to the planet and that she may have made a mistake.

Reinwolse stood at the foot of the many large brown stone steps leading to the entrance to the palace. This is the place where his entire life changed. This is the place where he was turned to stone and flung millions of miles away. He began to feel hot, so hot he wanted to remove his tight clothing. All the years of anger and hatred came to him all at once in a sudden burst of energy. He charged up the steps, his blood stained sword gripped with both hands. He sliced a hole through the immense wooden doors and slipped through.

There were hundreds of volves standing outside, scared to move an inch or feel the wrath of the millions of wolves that stood around them, watching them. Claudia watched Reinwolse slip into the palace then turned her attention to the surrendered volves.

She approached one of the nervous looking beasts, its eye dark, looking towards the ground, its charcoal striped fur swayed in the light breeze. Claudia took out a small silver handle from her pocket and held it near to the wolves head.

She clicked a button causing a small blue laser to thrust out of the small tip of the handle; it was like an intensely focused flame. She passed the blue flame through the wolf's left ear. It fell to the ground. A clean cut; a cut as smooth as a autumn breeze in the early morning.

"Papa, No!" an adolescent gravelly voice shouted.

A young whited striped volf pup was leaning over an open window behind him, his dark eyes, shimmering with tears. The pup whilst young was almost at the size of one of the earth wolves.

"Sherwole, be quiet and go back to your mother" Replied the one eared wolf as blood slithered down his blue face.

Claudia smirked out of the side of her mouth, showing a few of her sparkling teeth.

"You'll never hear that voice again" She whispered, knowing it would be hard for him to hear it.

She swung her arm around again, slicing the right ear off of the wolf, he let out a pained cry and shook his head around vigorously in pain as blood splattered on the wolves around him. His hearing went completely silent; the world around him suddenly became very dull. He wanted to slaughter this red haired demon. He expected she was going to kill his family anyway but he had to at least remain calm in the vain hope she doesn't.

She slapped him. Then slapped him again. Then slapped him a third time. Harder and harder each time. She enjoyed the agony in his face, not just the physical pain, but the pain of being helpless. She gently rubbed the blue flame across his face multiple times, slicing thin pieces of flesh off his face like pieces of ham off a pig.

"Stop it, you disgusting bitch!" A husky female voice shouted from further away in the sea of wolves.

Claudia stopped and looked towards the female. She was only three times the size of the earth wolves and had a coat that was so covered in blood that it was impossible to tell her original colour.

Claudia quickly plunged the knife through the skull of the blue wolf while keeping her eyes fixed sharply on the female. The blue wolf fell to the ground in a dead heap of fur. Screams could be heard within the house in which he once called home.

Claudia walked towards the female, her wolves parted elegantly so she could effortlessly walk through them.

The female hissed, her spikes on her back raises as high as they would go. She looked like a porcupine.

She fired a red spike through the air aimed directly at Claudia's face, blood dripped off the spike as it flew fast. An earth wolf intercepted the spike and it drove straight through his entire stomach. The velocity of the spear made the wolf fling backwards barely missing Claudia. It fell down in a dead mess.

Claudia's minions jumped on the female, chewing at her flesh like cannibals on a young white female in her prime. Claudia walked up to the wolf as it lay bleeding, teeth marks obscuring half of her face, one eyeball hung out near to her mouth.

"Don't ever call me a bitch." Claudia spat at her decaying face.

"Bitch" The sassy female replied.

Claudia's face grew with anger. She stamped on her face repeatedly. The wolf made no sound as the abuse went on. Bones crunched as the face was brutalised. The wolf was unable to be recognised as it lay dead and bloody.

"Anyone else want to chat shit to me?" Claudia shouted loud, it echoed through full streets. All of the volves placed their heads towards the ground.

She looked around for her next target. Burrock and the banished wolves shared glances but said nothing, then climbed the steps and hopped through the gap that Reinwolse had made in the door. Claudia noticed them go through and decided it was time to follow. She had forgotten the reason this entire war had started and wanted to see the big confrontation. The torture can wait until later.

"If they move an inch, kill them" Claudia said to one of her wolves knowing that the message would reach every single one before disappearing into the same door Reinwolse and the bolves had entered.

The King Volf

Reinwolse walked through the unguarded dark halls of the palace. The walls were dark and adorned with thorn like patterns, the lights on the walls were like those at the banished camp; small orbs of light stuck to the wall. He knew his way to the throne room but he had expected some resistance.

The doors to the room were wide open. It was a long, large room. The ceiling was high and the glass roof let all of the natural red light beam down on the room bathing it in a surreal glow. Reinwolse walked on the blue beaded carpet that lead to the throne, which seated someone he had waited to meet for the past fifteen years; the king.

"Ah, you have a new look Reinwolse." The king announced. He was a big volf, six times bigger than earth wolves. His fur was white and long. His coat was very straight and smooth; a small female wolf in chains was combing his fur with a small brown stick in her mouth.

"I'd know that stench anywhere" Spat the king.

"I've come to put an end to your rule, Howta" Reinwolse shouted as he continued the long walk down the empty room. No time for small talk.

The king rose up on all four of his legs, he towered over the entire room with his large presence. He fired a large spike the size of a harpoon towards Reinwolse who effortlessly moved his body out of the way as if knowing exactly where it was going to hit him then used this momentum to run towards Howta with such speed that the king was taken by surprise.

He swung his blade down upon the wolf; it managed to slice a portion of his flesh from his side.

He attacked again towards the king's face, hoping for a quick victory.

The king slammed his tail against the approaching sword, knocking it out of Reinwolse's hand.

"This form you use surprises me: that will not happen again"

Reinwolse quickly pulled another blade from off of his back and slashed again. The king jumped back and fired another spike; Reinwolse knew it was coming before it even left the fur and performed a backflip so perfectly measured that his body was a mere millimetre over the projectile.

As he was mid flip he flung the blade towards the King, lodging it deep within his shoulder, blood spitting from the gaping wound.

"Ah, your treachery betrays me yet again" Shouted the now snarling wolf, his voice deep and hollow.

Howta used his mouth to rip the blade clean from his shoulder and flung it far, leaving Reinwolse weapon less.

"Impressive. You may have been able to best me had this fight continued any further, but you remember this, don't you?" From beneath the thick fur around the king's neck was a large round stone that was connected to a strong gold chain that hung tight to him; he allowed it to loosen to reveal itself to Reinwolse.

"Such magic will not work on me again!" Reinwolse squealed. He ran forward in an attempt to snatch the necklace.

"Kahblaya"

A field of electric blue energy appeared around Howta so fierce that Reinwolse was sent flying back into a large pillar.

"Fifteen years is a long time. You forget the power I possess. The power passed down through generations of my family. The power you tried to steal from me"

The skills absorbed from world-class veterans instantly informed him of his options. He could not delay. He knew the king was a slow thinker.

"The years have turned you into a lazy fighter." Reinwolse jabbed.

Claudia and fifty of the banished wolves entered the large room. Howta looked towards the crowd.

"Ah, I see your help has arrived." He grinned and continued "The stone tells me that the one with red hair has a deep connection with you, a connection brimming with life energy. I know what that means"

The king began to chant another incantation.

"Claudia, get out of here!" Reinwolse shouted down the echoing hall, but by the time the message had reached her ears a large scorching fireball was blasted in her direction; her body froze at the sight of the ball of fiery energy.

Claudia could feel the immense heat as the as the slow moving fireball approached; she was sweating like she was in a sauna with the dial set to maximum.

Her mind and body shut down, unable to act or think.

"Make sure he wins goddess" Said Furbaa towards the stunned Claudia, knowing it would feed her unhealthy ego. He leapt into the oncoming ball of volcanic inferno.

It exploded, instantly disintegrating the large bolf, the shock wave from the blast sent the other wolves and Claudia back towards the entrance of the room.

The king ran towards Claudia but a swift Reinwolse grabbed onto his fur and straddled him, trying hard to steer him like a horse. They entered the smoke of the blast and their vision was compromised for a few brief moments.

The king swatted his body around randomly and Reinwolse was hanging on like a cowpoke at a rodeo.

The sound of tearing. Howta's fur tore from his flesh and Reinwolse fell off with it, again landing against another pillar, this time he felt bones break.

The banished wolves began firing their own artillery at the king.

He muttered another spell. The spikes stopped mid-air, turned around, and then flew back to where they had come from. The wolves were quick to move but some were impaled by their own weapon as it travelled twice as fast.

Claudia looked on in amazement. But she wasn't as surprised as she should be. She had seen so much surreal stuff over the past week. She went along with most of it not questioning it as much as she should have. But this, this was something else. Was she in control of anything?

Howta looked over the thinning army of bolves.

"Ah, I recognise some of you!" The volf announced with a proud voice. "You're the ones I banished along with Reinwolse, albeit a less harsh banishment, for trying to kill me and take my power, the power I only ever used for good."

"You know why we did it" Growled Burrock "You had all this power but barely tapped into any of it; you could have been doing so much more!"

"All these years and you still feel that way, I gave you all a chance to live, to hopefully see the errors of your ways, to see how we would live if I was to abuse the gift I was given. But you'll never see, and now you have brought an army to my walls and slain thousands of my clan; people you used to call friends"

The king's fur began to rise as if a surge of electricity had entered his body. A violet ball of energy appeared above his head and began to swirl around in a circle creating an even bigger ball of pure energy.

"This time you don't get the chance to atone."

The violet energy whizzed around high up into the room then a loud sound of energy crackling was emitted through the room. Claudia followed the orbs smooth movements as if mesmerised by its dangerous beauty.

The ball split into many smaller beams and shot fast towards the wolves and Claudia.

Instant death. There was no time for any sounds to be heard. Claudia was in the middle of it all. The violet streams of light obscured every wolf surrounding her then obliterated them immediately. Claudia felt like she was in a purple tornado. The bolves jumped, trying to escape but the beams struck them down with pinpoint accuracy; they vanished and left no trace behind, their bodies simply faded away.

After the energy cleared, there were only three beings left in the grandiose room; Claudia, Reinwolse and Howta.

Howta slowly approached Claudia.

"You. You are nothing but a pawn in all of this. You understand nothing." The king said softly.

The beast had huge presence, every step he took caused the ground beneath Claudia to shake slightly. She couldn't move; it was the feeling like being a rabbit in the headlights of a fast approaching car.

"I understand that humans were turned into wolves and now they follow my every move" As she spoke she thought of things people used to say to her about standing up to an animal to scare it off, her words rose as she spoke and thought of this.

"It was an unfortunate side effect of my spell and I apologise. I did not realise your kind's blood would break the banishment spell and give the recipient the power to turn your kind into mindless beings of war"

He turned towards a broken Reinwolse. "This is why I wanted to only use the magic for good!" His voice boomed back towards a shattered Reinwolse whose armour had not been strong enough to protect him from the force of the fall.

"I also apologise for the fireball. I wasn't thinking straight, but it's not too late to return things to the way they were, to have your life back. You can save your race" The king spoke with genuine sincerity and Claudia felt less threatened by his presence. He had a good heart.

"You mean you can turn all of the wolves back into humans!?" Claudia spat it out more shocked as she has ever sounded, her face shooting forward like a cartoon character.

"Yes, even the ones not currently on this planet. Their souls are still inside the beasts that follow you. It is as if they are sleeping. I can bring them back and send them home, but i need your consent to perform the spell on you or it won't work."

Possession Of

Great Power

Small snapping sounds could be heard as Reinwolse sneakily placed broken bones back into place.

"You can't be considering this, Claudia please..." Reinwolse pleaded through broken ribs, each word causing horrific pain. Claudia looked at him then back towards the white beast.

"Silence, traitor, I'll be dealing with you shortly" The king's voice once again flared up, sending shivers through Claudia's body.

When the king turned back around to face Claudia Reinwolse pounced towards the king and hacked a small blade at the chain around his neck.

Claudia didn't even consider accepting the offer. She couldn't go back to earth alone, without her protection, she is a wanted woman and that would never change.

But most of all, she didn't want to. She loved the thought that human souls were still in the beasts that followed her, she didn't want to go back to earth as a broken, helpless woman.

When she eventually returns to earth she wants to go back as a ruler and gather up as many slaves as possible. Being on his planet had given her the gift of blood lust and there was no going back.

As Howta faced towards a floored Reinwolse, ready to stamp a large paw on his fragile body, Claudia, acting purely on instinct, grabbed the stone pendant as it fell to the floor and held it tight in her hand.

"You fool!" Howta Shouted. He pounced.

Claudia looked at the stone. It was the size of a jumbo cookie and felt like it had the same texture but with cracks in it. Time seemed to slow as the stone began to pulsate in her hand; Howta was knocked back, hard.

A dark, black spiralling energy seeped out of the cracks in the stone that looked like dark tangled hair. It entered into Claudia, her body becoming incredibly light, her mouth opened and it felt like something had entered her, she was feeling full like an invisible force was taking residence inside of her, filling up every inch of space free within her.

Reinwolse looked on in disbelief. This was the power he had sought for so long.

A dark thick pastel textured aura formed around her as she floated a few feet above the ground. Her arms were held out to her sides with her fingers pointing out as far as they could possibly go without being pulled from her hand. Her hair and eyes turned as black as a starless night while streaks of energy swung and snapped around her like whips.

The air in the room became thin; Reinwolse found it hard to catch his breath. The world around him became duller.

"This is why a dark heart was never allowed to wield the stone!" Howta shrieked over the loud buzzing snapping sounds of energy.

Claudia's head shot back, her face looking up through the glass ceiling and out into the deep bloomed red sky. She opened her mouth wide and a putrid beam of violent black energy erupted from her mouth high into the sky.

The gigantic army of wolves and all of the residents of the city stared at the energy beam spiralling out from the roof of the great wolf palace. Families looked on through their small wooden framed windows, momentarily forgetting the threat surrounding them outside.

Grey musky clouds flew across the red sky, slowly overtaking the beautiful shade and replacing it with pure darkness; darker than an eclipse. Green lightning bolts fired down from the sky in rapid succession shocking the landscape in the distance and offering the only source of light. The grass on the ground of the entire planet turned to a deathly shade; the trees withered and shrank, looking like they were hanging their head in sadness as they keeled over into a slumped position.

Light green acidic rain dropped from the sky in amounts that would cause a city to be flooded within an hour if it were to be normal water.

The volves outside began to melt and evaporate under the intense downpour. Fur fell to the ground in large clumps. Faces became the doppelgangers of skeletons. Bone was burnt away into nothingness. Every volf and bolf attempted to run inside homes to shield themselves resulting in houses becoming too packed with beasts that many were unlucky to be left outside to find alternative cover or feel the pain. Friend and foe merged into one surviving species sharing the same cover.

Millions of earth's wolves across the planet felt the full fury of the rain. Without Reinwolse commanding them they didn't know what to do. Within thirty seconds there was nothing left of them; as if they had never existed.

Claudia couldn't control what was happening. Her heart pumped loud and fast, she thought it was going to explode. She felt the intense energy zooming in and around her, her blood bubbled and shook. She was merely a conduit for the stone to unleash its trapped, once tamed energy. She was faced towards a stunned looking Howta and Reinwolse.

"My ancestors harnessed you a million years ago and it was passed down through the generations. I will not let today be the end of this legacy!!!" Howta growled, loud enough to be heard outside on top of the death and destruction.

Howta charged towards the floating black angel of death; he was evaporated into a cloud of dust as he got close.

Reinwolse knew he had to act but his knowledge was thinning as the earth wolves outside perished; great dormant minds were being destroyed. He wasn't sure if an answer was to be found even if he had every ounce of knowledge available.

He walked towards Claudia as one dark heart to another. The wailing whips clapped around him.

He walked through the energy surrounding her; it was deafeningly loud as he got closer to the core. He felt as if he was going to disappear at any moment. His heart bounced and his skin wept.

Claudia lowered to the floor and faced him, black ooze was pouring from her eyes and mouth. He placed his hands within hers.

Claudia wanted to tell him to make it stop right now but the words would not exit through the heavy force keeping them locked away, however, involuntary words did come out:

"This vessel can be controlled but it is too weak. It will succumb to my power in too short a time. I feel it crumbling already. I will return to the stone and serve you if you make use of it like you did on earth. I added the ability for you to turn other species into your kind as a last second adjustment; it took all I had to do it. I waited millennia for a dark art to be performed."

Claudia took a few steps towards Reinwolse, her face full of malicious fury.

"I ask; conquer the universe. I know your dark heart desires it. Spread and share my torment"

The voice sounded like Claudia but echoed angry and loud throughout the room.

"I will do it" Reinwolse eagerly replied.

The dark presence leaned close to him and whispered in his ear, so quietly not even Claudia herself heard what was said.

Reinwolse nodded. Everything stopped. In an instant everything was like it was before Claudia had been possessed. The sky was red, the grass was green.

However, the lives taken did not return. The stone had claimed them.

Claudia was in his arms feeling as if she had just woken up from the greatest sleep ever, and looked deeply into Reinwolse's eyes.

"We won" she said as a big victorious smile appeared.

Reinwolse smiled back and kissed her hard.

Outbreak: Day One hundred and Eighty-Two

Punishment

The sky beamed a virtuous shade of red down upon Claudia, who was sat comfortably in a large majestically spiked throne. She was in the throne room where the epic battle had taken place six months prior; now it was slightly different.

Each side of the long room had wolves sitting from length to length while at the bottom of the steps to her throne were 10 wolves; all sat incredibly obediently still, like royal palace guards.

The doors to the grand room creaked open when two wolves walked in dragging a chained up volf across the throne room towards her.

"What crime has this beast committed?" Asked Claudia in a bored fashion to an old grey volf sat in front of her.

"My glorious lady" He nodded towards her "This foul creature thought it would be humorous to urinate in the fountain outside of the palace"

Claudia looked to the chained beast as it approached her throne.

"Why did you think this was a good idea?"

The volf, large, black and fierce looking, glanced up at Claudia, saying nothing but revealing a small smirk on its face.

Claudia, feeling anger at this disrespect, stamped her clenched fist on the side of her throne, barely missing a large spike.

"I sentence him to death" She said as she looked towards her advisor "Make an example of him to everyone, outside, right now"

Her advisor, obeying without a second thought, had already begun walking towards the bound hound before she could finish her sentence.

"Yes, my glorious lady" Replied the old grey volf.

The black volf looked around erratically as wolves from the sides of the room surrounded him.

"No, you cannot do this, I didn't hurt anybody!" The dark beast screamed.

"You hurt me, you selfish mutt" Snarled Claudia.

"It was just a joke" Growled the beast.

"Then consider this the punch line"

Claudia followed behind as her wolves dragged and pushed the helpless volf outside of the palace.

Volves gathered in their hundreds as the criminal was thrown down the steps of the palace landing near a stump of wood that lay near the large grand fountain that he had desecrated; there was a big statue of Reinwolse and Claudia facing away from each other whilst spitting water out of their pristine mouths in the middle.

Claudia circled the gleaming plaza in her new attire; she adorned herself with a long white dress that showed off curves and plenty of cleavage, she wore diamond dazzling necklaces and tiaras full of sapphires, rubies and emeralds; she sparkled in the red light of the planet with her head held high. Volves lowered their eyes to the floor as she entered their proximity; She was terrifying and she loved it.

The constrained volf's head was slammed onto the wooden stump where two wolves held it still,

Claudia walked to her advisor, raised a quick hand into the air, causing his fur to harden, and then pulled a large spike from his underbelly.

She wielded the sharp weapon with two hands as she approached

She held justice servicing device high in the air then spoke towards the crowds around her.

"This is what will happen to anybody else that breaks any of my laws" Her voice sounded harder and more jaded than it used to.

She brought down the spike upon the neck of the volf. It cut a third of the way into his thick throat, blood spraying out of the wound. The pack of beasts all gasped and shook in terror and disbelief.

"Do you want this to happen to your friends and families?" She shouted aggressively as she kicked the animal hard in the face, his loose head swaying like a pendulum, blood dripping on his dark coat.

She swung down again.

The head held attached to the body like an exhausted explorer hanging off the edge of a cliff.

"I've had enough of your disrespectful shit" She wailed, face full of pent up anger and frustration.

She lay down the final blow, the severed head landing on the grey, cobbled floor, bathing in red liquid.

She turned around and stormed back into her wolf head shaped palace as cries of anguish filled the once peaceful city.

The citizens of the city had not seen such brutality from Claudia since the day of the battle. They had all heard stories but had not seen it for themselves.

They lived in constant fear and paranoia. The months for them had gone quick since that day that changed everything. And each day after, they wished that their lives could go by three times as fast.

The months however, had gone by slowly for Claudia.

Six Months

Reinwolse spent most of it studying to understand the magical stone. Incantations needed to be learnt: It was like learning a whole new language without anybody to teach it to him.

During these days Claudia spent a majority them enjoying the tropical weather of the planet. The days were hot and the nights nice and cool. By day she would sit on the beach a few miles from the city, the cool air felt good on her skin as the beams of heat sprayed over her once pale skin; she had never been tanned before and loved how it made her look and feel, she just wished she had more males to show herself off to.

The volves and bolves of the planet put their differences aside and decided there was no longer a need for them to hold separate names and all united under the proud volf name. And while they all managed to live in harmony after what happened; there life was anything but harmonic.

The volves did not forget the war and they never would; They all saw the brutally she caused. Her alluring beautiful exterior did not lull them into a sense of security. There was no way any of them would ever forget the black rain of death that came pouring down with her scent all over it.

Reinwolse had announced that Claudia was the queen of the planet soon after the war, demanding that everyone must respect and obey her commands. And they did, her earth wolves patrolled the city in hordes relentlessly and Reinwolse would be made aware of any foul plotting immediately; but not many ever dare even mutter a word against him or the queen.

She enjoyed the terror that emitted from the volves as she passed them on the street. Their dark eyes would shimmer and shake, afraid that she would send them to their deaths at any moment.

By night things became much darker. The blood lust that had entered her body after her first kill had only become a bigger appetite to feed; It was like an addiction that wouldn't go away, yet she found herself not trying very hard to fight it. Four nights a week she would dispel herself of her visage of beauty and dress in dark outfits and slink through the quiet streets choosing a wolf that was brave enough to be out so late after curfew. She would capture him and take him to a room in the castle she had equipped with various tools of torture. She loved the fear in their voice, their pleading words, and the pain they attempted to scream through gagged mouths. Each time satisfaction would build giving her the power every day to sprout out new orders and create absurd laws.

Torture

On this particular cool night Claudia dressed herself in her long black dress, as she usually did, and left the palace through the front entrance. She took her six favourite earth wolves with her and they would follow her in the same formation as always; two in front, two behind and two to the side.

She waited by the fountain that had been earlier seen the execution of the rude creature. She sat with her legs crossed and waited for some time. It was like this most nights. She would sit under the dark blue sky, look up into the sky, and think about how empty she was beginning to feel.

Sometimes she felt like she could see earth in the far distance of space.

The atmosphere of the city at night made her think of earth; the lights beaming from windows and the sound of chatter coming from family homes. Not because she missed any of those things, she just missed the position of power she had. She missed ruling over pathetic humans. She missed her business and surprisingly, the peasant scum that she employed. She was bored of torturing and dismembering wolves; it always felt the same. She was bored of having robotic followers who answered her every call. She could stab them a thousand times and they would not make a sound.

She missed the days of walking through the streets of St Petersburg being stared at by every man, woman and child; although she detested women who looked at her too long.

She found them all foul abominations, just like her father had, and she needed to be in keep them in line. They would suffer for killing him.

She knew that there were still millions of survivors back on earth in small settlements. She wanted to go back. She had the power to subdue anybody she wanted. Reinwolse had told her that the teleporter had broken but he was working on a spell to enable her to teleport back and rule the planet, but nothing had come of it. Mindless wolves were keeping humans in constant terror and she wanted nothing more than to be the one doing it.

She had set a curfew for the entire city but someone always broke the rules; always. And these ones would be her targets. In some strange way, she felt this justified what she was doing; it made her feel less crazy.

This night was like any other; out of the corner of her eyes she saw a dark brown volf exit a building; he kept low and tight to the shadows. Claudia walked after the volf following at a short distance.

As the wolf neared the city gates Claudia made herself known.

"Where do you think you're going?" Claudia said in a seductive tone as she approached in a model fashion, stroking one arm across the back of the beast.

"Oh, Queen Claudia, i didn't see you there!" The volf stammered with his words as he kept his head close to the ground, as if bowing to her.

"You do realise you're breaking the rules I set that no one must leave their homes after dark, correct?" Claudia continued as she walked closer. "You do realise volves have been going missing at night and it's all been for your own safety?" She squatted down in front of the volves face and stroked his head and long fur, careful not to stab herself on his spikes.

"Yes, my queen, I just needed some fresh air" He looked at her directly in the eyes and saw the anger in them.

"Oh for god sake, I'm just not feeling this anymore, take him back to the disobedience room right now." She motioned with one hand as she walked back towards the palace ,her wolves snapped their teeth around each limb of the wolf, one had his mouth bound in theirs as to not allow tim to make a sound, then followed Claudia back.

The disobedience room was a surprisingly well lit room with beautiful furnishings. There was a glimmering chandelier hanging from the ceiling in the centre of the room and gleaming white couches with the softest leather Claudia had ever felt. She had beautiful painting over the wall and tables full of artefacts that she had never seen before but loved the look of.

The earth wolves adhered the wolf to the floor using chains that rose from the ground in the centre of the room. The chandelier gently swung overhead as the wolf nervously fought to get out of his binding.

She approached a white golden rimmed cabinet in the corner of the room and pulled the doors open far and wide revealing a large arsenal of weapons and tools. She looked over the weapons and let out a long sigh; she wished that the thing bound in chains was another human, someone she could relate to, someone whose pain she could feed off of and understand. Beyond their strong family ties, she didn't understand much of anything about the volves. She could only use physical pain to achieve maximum pleasure.

There was so many ways to crush a human.

She pulled out an item she had never used before. It was a long silver pipe with a small plastic trigger handle. The end of it was shaped like a thin dinosaur claw that that made a full range scratching motion when the plastic trigger was pulled.

Two wolves snapped the trapped volfs head in their jaws to keep it as still as a statue, blood crept down his face as their teeth penetrated his flesh.

Claudia walked closer to the whimpering creature and placed one hand on its head just between the pair of wolf jaws. She used her other hand to guide the sharp object through the wet nose of the wolf.

"Please stop, I have a family to take care--" His tearful plea was cut short by an abrupt Claudia.

"Oh shut up you furry piece of filth, I've heard it all before!" Her tanned face tried to turn a shade of red, her eyes glimmered wild with annoyance.

She forced the object further up, penetrating a squidgy object as it travelled further into his skull.

The face of the volf began to spasm as his eyes twitched and jerked.

"Hmm, interesting" Claudia muttered. She pulled the lever.

The volf's face began to make more seizures faces as his brain was slowly scrambled by the metallic grabbing claw. Claudia couldn't help but laugh heartily at the expressions, causing her to click the trigger at a faster rate while edging the thin pipe ever further up his nostril.

Blood gushed through his eyes mixing with the tears that clouded his vision. He began to forget who he was, who he had loved, who he had fought for. Slowly he lost himself as his brain was turned to mush.

Claudia licked her lips and wiggled the pipe left and right. The volves tongue fell out of his mouth and fell limp to the right. His face melted on one side as if he had suffered a severe stroke.

"Oh well that was actually fun" Claudia squealed. "I wonder what would happen if I did this on a human" she pondered.

This thought instantly brought down her mood and she punched the pipe hard up the into the volf. The other end pierced through the back of his skull, then his lifeless body hung in the mouths of the mind-numb beings. She walked back to her closet and returned with a small rusted axe. She forced the axe down upon the quivering corpse of the wolf, blood sprayed all over her and the nearby lupines.

Reinwolse was studying in the next room. He rarely left his room and did not see much of Claudia except for when they would lay together most nights and enjoy energetic sex, and as the months went by he noticed her straddling of him to become more and more ferocious. But he knew what she was doing and he could hear the screams most nights. He could never forget his volf roots, was this going to the the price of his power?

"Clean up this mess, boys" Claudia spoke with confidence and grace. The wolves began to eat the corpse, making sure to leave nothing behind. Not even the bones.

Claudia stripped naked and walked into the shower room that was through a slim shining golden door. She peered into the large mirror and admired her blood smeared body. She ran her hands all over her body, smothering the blood all over her breasts and buttocks. She licked her fingers and pulled at her hair hard. She told herself what a bad girl she had been and slapped her face. The slap left a bloody handprint, and she loved it. She wanted a man to call her naughty and smack her face and spit on her. Reinwolse wasn't man enough for her. He had the looks and the brains but his soul will always be a volf. She always felt she was having sex with an inexperienced young boy. She walked into the open shower and turned the nozzle. Deliriously satisfying water dripped through a hole in the ceiling. The water ran down her body mixing with the blood and falling through the hole in the floor. She touched herself with her blood stained fingers until she was satisfied.

She went to bed by herself. She only slept with Reinwolse when it included sexual intercourse, and there was beginning to be less and less of that.

A Return In Time

She woke the next morning. Red light shot through the glass ceiling. Yet another beautiful warm day to visit the beach. Renwolse said he would visit her later but she didn't believe it.

The beach was only a twenty minute ride from the city and the view along the way was breath-taking. Beautiful misty valleys, crevices filled with flowers of every colour possible. There was so much green that a naturist would have a heart attack.

Now it was boring.

She rode in a small white carriage with no roof and kept her eyes closed along the way. Three wolves pulled her along at a gentle pace creating a soft breeze that accompanied the sensual heat.

The beach was big and wide and appeared suddenly from the thick forestry that covered the winding path.

Claudia always chose to be near the water. The tide never came in on this planet, so there was no fear of being pulled away into the seemingly endless sea.

She removed her thin black robe and lay on a long plank of smooth wood in a small white bikini; she didn't know why she wore it. Old habits learnt from her old life still lingered here. Two wolves stood at either side of her and slowly swatted two large pieces of leaf. Another held a small plate of fruit. She was bored of fruit. Once the food taken from earth had run out all she could eat was the food generated by the planet; fruit. She missed meat, she missed lobster, she missed sitting in restaurants refusing to tip waiters who gave her extra special service, expecting to make more money out of her.

She shook her head to dispel these thoughts when she saw a figure walking towards her. At first she assumed it was Reinwolse but it looked feminine and quite short.

She sat up and watched the figure come closer. It was a Japanese girl, she had tattered long black hair. Her face was smooth and young. She was wearing a heavily stained kimono.

She pulled two blades out of her pocket and threw them at the two wolves cooling Claudia down. They fell dead instantly as the blades pierced their fragile skulls.

"Who are you?!" Claudia demanded. She was extremely intrigued. Were there humans on this planet? People to make suffer? To rule over? She had so many mixed emotions of fear and excitement.

"I'm here to make things right". The girl spoke as she threw another blade.

Claudia rolled back and ducked behind her seat. The blade sunk hard into the wood. The girl had strength despite her scrawny exterior.

The girl ran and jumped on the wooden plank. Claudia stood and karate chopped her feet sending her to the sand. The girl recovered by flipping back onto her feet.

"You need to die" The girl said, with absolute finality.

Claudia's blood bubbled at this and she charged at the girl. The blood rage overtook her reasoning to run and get help.

The girl was quick, quicker than Claudia. She punched Claudia in the throat before she could even swing her arm then quickly spun behind her and grabbed her in a hold. She had both her arms tight around Claudia's throat with a blade in one hand. Claudia attempted to push the bladed hand away as best she could but the girl was pushing hard. The blade crept ever closer to her neck.

"Stop this!" Shouted Reinwolse. He had been alerted of the girls presence by wolf scouts. He was accompanied by ten other wolves. His heart beat fast; If the girl managed to kill Claudia then everything would be for nothing.

"Get this slant eyed bitch off me!" Claudia whimpered.

"I want my sister back and this is the only way! I've trained a long time for this moment" She spat on Claudia's hair as she shouted. Claudia could smell her putrid breath.

So it was this girl who had been killing volves. Claudia knew she hadn't killed so many, yet each day more names would be announced missing.

She whispered into Claudia's ear. "You must listen to me" Desperation filled her voice "If I kill you then everything returns to how it was before any of this happened."

"You mean if I die, time returns to before the wolves attacked earth?" Claudia spoke louder than she should have and Reinwolse heard every word.

"Yes" Ming replied.

Reinwolse held up the stone amulet that was bound around his neck. It began to sparkle.

Claudia thought about this as quickly as possible: If she died she could go back to her old life; her old position of power that she could work on expanding. She felt empty here. Life was going nowhere. She had experienced so many strange things in the past six months that she was willing to believe this girl. She loosened her grip and the blade dug into her neck.

"No!" Reinwolse growled. The wolves all shot hasty arrows, barely missing Claudia and clashing hard into Ming, she flew back onto the floor, her face splattered with arrows.

Reinwolse ran to a bleeding Claudia, pressing his hand to her neck.

"You let her do this?!" Reinwolse asked shocked and appalled. After all they had been through.

"I'm goddamn tired of wolves" Claudia said weakly, and then her vision turned to black as calmness entered her body.

Outbreak: Day Zero

Home

Birds chirped nearby while the sound of traffic filled the air as car's beeped, roared and skidded.

Claudia's head jumped forward just before her eyes sprang open, as if waking from a terrible nightmare. She held her hands around her neck, expecting there to be a gashing wound squirting blood. She looked around with wild eyes and immediately they filled with tears as the realisation set in; she was home, back in her deluxe studio apartment in the heart of St. Petersburg. She slowly slid out of her four poster king sized bed while still scanning her surroundings and walked bare foot on the sleek pine flooring.

It was one large elegant room. It had everything that Claudia needed when she wasn't working. It was in pristine condition; everything looked new and untouched.

Claudia opened a set of doors that led onto a balcony. The sound of vehicles increased as she slid it open; a sound almost forgotten.

She looked over the city. Small snowflakes were dropping from the sky, gently stroking against her once again pale skin.

She stood there for some time, looking at the world around her; the cars rushing around the busy streets, people swarming in their usual unstylish, drab clothing.

The sky was dull, dark and cloudy. A scathing contrast to the world she had just exodus from, but she was happy to be back in it.

She went to her kitchen and ate. It had been months since she had eaten any of her favourite foods. She indulged in more than she should have and felt slightly guilty afterwards; she couldn't afford to get fat, she needed to be in power to do the things she wanted to do now, and to be in power she needed her looks.

A phone bleeped on the counter. Claudia opened the phone and saw that she had a text message.

Axel.

She looked at the corner of the phone and saw the date. Today was the day she was due to go on her small adventure with the handsome Swede. She closed the phone and threw it inside the empty rubbish bin.

She had to go see her business.

Claudia showered and dressed herself; she wore a black top with black leggings with a small slim fitting dull gold jacket. It felt good to have her own clothes back and be able to wash herself with her expensive products. Her hair hadn't felt so good in months.

As she approached the door of her apartment it opened and in walked a small middle aged brown faced woman.

"Miss Claudia" Said the woman in a hard to understand accent.

It was her maid. She didn't really need her but she liked telling people that she had someone clean her apartment every day.

"Um, excuse me but what do you think you're doing?" Claudia barked. "What if I was walking around naked when you walked in? How dare you"

"I'm so sorry Miss Claudia, but you are usually at work at-" The woman's voice crawled to a whisper.

"Just stop! I cannot understand a word you are saying"

She stared at the leather faced woman, her head aimed to the ground. This woman who could barely speak Russian, with hardly any friends or family; Claudia wondered how hard she would beg for her life. She looked at her neck and wanted to know how much blood would gush out if she reached over and jabbed a pair of scissors into the throbbing vein. The urge became stronger the longer she looked, her hands almost involuntarily reaching for a nearby weapon.

Claudia stopped herself. She didn't want to get blood on these clothes. She walked past the woman, through the door and slammed it hard behind her. She let out a loud breath. She felt perspiration build up all over all body: how long could she hold these feeling at bay?

She rode the elevator down to the ground level and approached the large main set of glass doors. Next to them was a young valet talking to a middle aged woman. Claudia waited a few steps away from the door and began gently swinging her hips. The man noticed Claudia then quickly dashed to open the doors for her.

"My apologies miss Claudia" Said the blushing man.

"That's more like it" Claudia giggled. She walked through the open doors and onto the busy main street.

She strode down the large steps onto the main street. Dirty people everywhere. She pondered getting into a taxi but for this day, she wanted to walk.

She strutted along the pavement, head held high. Her glamour and grace stood out like jewels in a rusty crown. Heads turned. Cars almost crashed. Men wolf whistled. Children looked at her, mouths open wide in awe. Women gave their significant others deathly glares knowing all too well that Claudia could steal them away at a moment's notice.

She loved it. She had missed this attention, this power. The influence over the beasts felt too fake. But this she had earned.

She arrived at her business. Hundreds of people were coming and going up the grand steps. It had felt like a lifetime since she was here. Her last image of this place was that of sickening negligence from her staff.

She walked up the steps, nodding, smiling and giving half waves to those people of importance. Her staff members knew better than to talk to her.

Her heart pumped slightly as she walked through the open door into her favourite place in the universe.

It was exactly how she remembered it.

The chandelier was swinging smoothly. The Canadian pine walls were beautifully shining, currently in the process of being cleaned by an old fat Indian woman. The statue of her father stood proudly on the balcony.

She walked through the foyer. It was a hive of activity. Felicity was on the reception, her body turning stiff as Claudia rounded the circular table.

"Go-go-good morning Miss Claudia" Felicity stammered.

Claudia let out a smile as she remembered her last memory of the girl; her being diced by a wolf. Felicity was surprised by this smile and gave a bigger one back. Claudia scowled. Felicity turned her face away.

She continued further into the building, down one of the many hallways of offices with glass walls. Her presence was like a darkness descending upon every worker, once it struck one person it became like a chain reaction and each one felt it enter them. Claudia stood and stared. She loved how tense their bodies would be the longer her gaze lingered. She saw sweat appear under armpits and on foreheads. She didn't want to lose this again. She ruled the world in one timeline, achieving a dream, and she will do it again in this one, achieving a new dream.

A serious looking woman in a grey business suit hastily approached Claudia.

"Miss Claudia, Victor is here to see you; he is waiting in your office"

The woman walked off just as fast as she had come.

"Victor?" Claudia said, befuddled.

She walked to the elevator and pressed the button to her office in almost a daze; she wasn't sure what to think of this. Her heart pounded in her chest the closer she came to the top floor.

The doors to her office opened in a slow dramatic fashion. A suited grey haired man was by her desk looking out of the window. Claudia edged into the room, her heart beating faster than it did even during the war on the wolf planet.

The man turned around, causing Claudia to burst out into loud tears. She ran towards the man with her arms stretched wide.

"Daddy!!" She screamed as she placed her arms around him. "I've missed you so much"

"For what do I owe this pleasure?" Victor laughed and stroked Claudia's hair "I've only been gone three days"

"You're not dead?" Claudia looked up to him and sniffled.

"What disgusting individual told you that? You know I travel a lot"

"It doesn't matter, you're here now" Claudia beamed a large smile, revealing all of her teeth, and then rested her head on his chest. "I have so much to tell you"

Clauda had never felt such happiness in her life. She never dreamed she would ever see her father again. She knew she was blessed and she knew she was going to have a fantastic new life. She wanted this moment to last forever.

But it didn't.

Claudia felt a rumbling all around her; she looked up and saw the world around her shaking and shimmering. She glanced up to see the face of her father now replaced with a black empty crawling void. Her scenery slowly changed as pieces of the fabric around her twisted and lifted up into an endless whiteness. She let out a squeal as she strongly gripped the fading figure of her father; it felt like she was losing him again.

Claudia was alone, surrounded by soundless white. She fell to her knees, her face smothered in runny mascara.

After a few moments, the dream dissolved.

Outbreak: Day One hundred and eighty-three

A Fitting End

Claudia felt dizzy. She felt the mental anguish she experienced in the dream still linger on. However, physically she had never been better: she felt energetic and full of life.

Yet...

She couldn't move her arms.

She couldn't move her legs

She opened her eyes.

Standing in front of her was Reinwolse; A smile on his face.

Claudia assumed she was underground. She was in a small room; the walls, the ceiling and the floor were all made of mud and dirt. She couldn't move. She was wearing a large sparkling white dress.

"It was a close call there Claudia" chuckled Reinwolse "Almost lost you."

"Where am I? I shouldn't be here!" Claudia snapped.

Reinwolse paced back and forth in front of Claudia.

She was held tight against a glowing wall of dirt and earth. Vines and roots bound her arms and legs. A large piece of a tree trunk was halfway out of the wall above her head.

"You know I can't let you die, but I also can't let you run free any longer" Reinwolse spoke with determination. He truly felt he had no choice but to do what he was doing.

"All those months you did not see much of me was because I was creating this thing you are now, and forever, bound to." He walked up close to her face. Claudia looked at him with a gobsmacked expression.

"I knew living on this planet would not satisfy you for long, but I thought we had longer. I really enjoyed the rough sex." He licked her face and she grimaced. She began to see him like she did her brother.

"Let me go, you can't be serious!" Claudia said, both dramatically and sarcastically. She held back because deep down believed she would get out of this. She had an army of wolves who would come and save her. She knew this. She had been saved in so many deadly situations that she didn't feel fear any longer.

"No, I cannot let you go." He replied bluntly "While you were possessed by the evil of the stone, it whispered to me what I must do to have a long future as a ruler of this planet, and perhaps the entire universe. I cannot let you go, ever."

"My beasts will come for me" She said with a snarl.

"No, they will not" He said mockingly "They follow my rule and my rule only. It was my command that they listen to you. You have been nothing but a pawn since the beginning."

"You bastard!" She spat on his face.

"You bitch!" He lunged at her, grabbing and squeezing her face hard in his hand "You were willing to die knowing full well it would mean the end of me and everything I had worked for; everything!"

"I wanted to go home" A few sprinkles of tears chased down one after another down her soft cheeks as she remembered parts of her dream, stopping at Reinwolse's firm unmoving fingers.

"You were never going home" He released his grip off of her face.

"The teleporter was never broken. I still have billions of wolves on Earth. I plan to let the human race rebuild so I can then mutate them all again, leading me to having an infinite amount of wolf followers"

"Your race will live in constant fear for the rest of time" his face turned dark, then he turned around began walking to the cave entrance.

"Get back here you fuck!" Claudia shouted as she tried her hardest to pull her hands and feet from the vines "i will refuse to eat or drink!"

Reinwolse turned his head around and grinned wide.

"Oh, no need to worry about that. This tree you're merged with will instantly give you all of the nutrition you will ever need. You won't need to ever eat or drink a single thing ever again. Nor will you have the pleasure of it" He howled with laughter as he walked out.

Claudia shouted every obscenity she could think of as he disappeared up the earthy slope that lead to the outside world. A vine wrapped around her neck and head, holding it in place. She could only move her fingers and feet. She wondered why she deserved such a cruel fate, and if she would ever see anybody ever again as she cried herself to sleep.

She did see someone again. Reinwolse came back an unknown amount of time later but no words were shared between the two. He came in and the vines lowered Claudia body closer to the ground. He ripped her dress at the groin and penetrated her there and then; he never once looked into her eyes as she shouted for it to stop. She couldn't move a muscle as the vines dictated how far her legs spread. He would leave straight after he finished.

He came back like this many times over a period of unspecified time. These later times she didn't speak or scream, or feel anything. She just accepted what was happening.

She spent her days staring at the brown muddy walls. She never had an urge to drink or eat but was always full of energy. At first she thought of ways she could get out of this situation, but as the vines kept their immovable grasp just as stoic no matter how much time passed or how hard she tried she eventually gave up the fight. Her mind began to go blank, days would merge into weeks. She ran out of things to think about.

As months went by she felt something growing inside of her; a child.

More months passed by and a child was born. It was a painless birth. It just popped out. It cried and it felt good to her dulled ears. But before she could lay an eye on it; it was gone.

Time passed again and the cycle of sex and birth continued. She gave birth four times then it stopped. He stopped. Time fortunately did not stop. She felt herself age. She felt her body sag and her skin wrinkle. She felt every line appear as her mind had nothing else to focus on during the long endless days. There was no night and day. There were no weekdays and weekends. There was just time. She slept but it was difficult as she never felt tired and she had no idea how long she would drift off for.

In the early years, sometimes years apart, she would think of her life. Her childhood, of her father, of the things she had said and done, of things she wished she had done and of the things she missed. But as her hair became a dull grey these thoughts faded and she remembered things differently, she carved in her mind a completely different life. She sometimes believed she had only just come here. She became delirious. Demented. Quietly insane.

After that... she just stopped thinking.

Seventy years passed when the door to her soiled prison finally opened.

In walked Reinwolse, not looking a day older than when he was last here, and he was with a beautiful red haired woman with a stern expression. She held a knife in her hand.

Claudia looked at the girl and felt like she knew her. Like she had seen her some place before many years ago. She was striking. Her hair was thick and long and full of life, her eyes a piercing blue and her body hard and voluptuous.

"Long time no see, Claudia" Said Reinwolse as if talking to an old friend.

"She's absolutely disgusting" Said the girl as she winced and turned to look away.

"This, my darling granddaughter, is why you must replace her. She does not have much life left in her, and you must take it. You have been prepared for this from birth. It is your destiny and birth right." Reinwolse spoke calmly as he placed a hand on her soft shoulder.

"I understand grandfather, let us continue" The girl maintained a serious face as the pair approached Claudia.

She looked at them with empty, weak white eyes. Her face was old and failing. Her hair had mostly fallen out.

"Ah Claudia, I'm afraid the tree cannot stop time from destroying the body. I was so hoping I could have left you here forever." He looked at her with a forlorn expression. A small part of him felt a twinge of guilt. He had tried to erase her from his mind over the long years.

The tree released Claudia from its grasp. She fell flat to the floor. Her body had completely forgotten how to use its limbs.

"It's time for your journey to end, and our beautiful granddaughters to begin." Reinwolse nodded at the young flame haired girl and she knelt down to a floored Claudia.

The girl lifted Claudia's face to her.

"Your journey is now my journey" The girl whispered with her eyes closed tight. She slid the knife across Claudia's throat, piercing the skin and drawing blood. Claudia's arms began remembering how to function as they reached for her own gushing throat.

The girl cupped her hands under Claudia's throat, gathering as much blood as possible in her palms then raised her hands to her mouth and drank it without any hesitation, blood melting over her lower face and chest, like a vampire feasting.

Reinwolse quickly led the young girl to the hungry vines while Claudia looked at her younger doppelganger as the great tentacles grasped her in the same position as they did her, many many years ago. The girl looked happy and proud to be in the situation.

Claudia's body was rapidly draining of life. Reinwolse grabbed her by the legs and dragged her towards the exit of her seventy year long prison. A trail of blood soaked the ground behind her.

Pulses of red light scorched into her vision framed by wolf silhouettes as he pulled her up the muddy incline. Flashes of her early life appeared quickly before her eyes. She smiled as her vision turned black for the very last time.
Epilogue

It's speculated that it's been five hundred years since the outbreak, but nobody knows for sure.

I was three years old when the last culling occurred. My father was taken and my mother eaten, her half-rotten corpse left in the streets with the rest.

That was twenty-five years ago.

Sometimes they come every one hundred years, sometimes fifty years.

Each time they come they destroy every advancement we've made, while taking the knowledge with them by killing or infecting our most intelligent people.

The beasts constantly roam the wilderness outside of our encampment and leaving is always a risk. Seeing the rest of our world is just a mere dream for each and every one of us.

I'm tired of living in a civilization that just sits around in fear waiting for them to come.

I know there is nothing I can do against them other than take my own life. I'm clever, like my scientific father, and they will want me and my knowledge.

Well they can't have me.

This is my last diary entry which I'm sure will be lost to time.

\- Jodie.

Words from the author

First off, thank you for purchasing The Spiked Wolf and making it all the way to the end!

This novel was created over a period of six years. I started it when I was twenty-four and finished when I was thirty.

It mainly started out as a joke and I would show friends some of the things I had written and we would laugh about it, but then it became more serious when I found myself really enjoying writing it and the ideas for the future of the story came to me.

Pretty much every aspect of the book was influenced heavily by B-horror movies and video games.

The book was created completely by me. There were no editors or proofreaders and maybe this was a mistake but this book was purely just made for fun and not to make money or become a well-known author.

I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

Will there be a sequel? Maybe!

When writing the book I entirely planned it so the entire story would end in one book. I wanted it so there were not many questions remaining or end so ambiguously like many horror novels do. I wanted a clear, complete ending.

However, I decided to add in an epilogue, and perhaps there will be a sequel that focuses on the far future of the world dominated by wolves.

But if there is... it won't be for quite some time.
