Dominant Species Ch. 12-16

"Everybody FREEZE." She moved the pistol between the two beds, making sure nobody tried to attack.

"Abigail, what are you doing? No one wants to harm you." Rachel looked at her, confusion on her face as everything had been fine when they went to bed.

Abigail pointed the gun at Mary. "You're a werewolf, aren't you." She pointed the pistol at Rachel then back to Tom. "You're all werewolves, right?"

Tom looked at her. "What the hell are you talking about? Werewolves aren't real."

Abigail moved the muzzle slightly to the left and squeezed the trigger. The sound of the pistol was deafening in the small space, the flash of the powder lit the room as the bullet was fired. It hit some canned beans on the shelf, exploding them over the bed and covering Tom and Mary with brown sugar sauce. "DON'T FUCKING LIE TO ME." She waved the pistol in the direction of the children, two heads were poking out of the covers and they were shivering in fright. "I watched the black one change from a girl to a wolf. You're werewolves. Now, all of you change back before I start shooting again."

Rachel held her hands up. "All right. Nobody wants to hurt anyone here. Michael, Raven, change back."

Abigail watched as little dog muzzles were replaced by human faces. The two hugged each other as they sat in the bed, they could smell the fear in the room. She looked back to Tom's bed, as the large wolf was replaced by a naked woman.

She sat up and grabbed a T-shirt from the bedside table and pulled it on. Mary looked at the two, her eyes were sad. "I'm sorry we scared you. We just are better able to protect ourselves in wolf form, and you and your daughter were unknowns. We weren't out to hurt you. When the sun goes down, you are free to go."

"Forgive me if I don't believe a bunch of animals." She ignored the low growls. "Let us out now." She pointed the gun at Tom. "Open the hatch and move back to the bed. If you try anything, I'll shoot the women first."

Tom raised his hands and slowly got up, clad only in his boxers he walked across the room. "All right, we will let you out. Please, just point that thing away from them, nobody wants to die today." He went up the ladder, removing the dogs that held it closed then he pushed it up and out of the way. Light streamed in, after all it was two in the afternoon. He came back down the ladder and moved back to the bed, sitting next to his wife and hugging her to his side.

Abigail moved back to where Autumn was sitting, her eyes never leaving the five of them on the beds as she did so. "Autumn, open your eyes, honey."

She did, they were wet with tears because she had been frightened by the gunshot. "Mommy, what is going on?" She looked around and pointed to the boy and girl sitting in her bed. "And who are they?"

"Don't worry about it, honey. I want you to climb up that ladder and wait for me upstairs." She pulled her to her feet and nudged her towards the ladder.

Rachel looked at them with worry. "Abigail, think for a moment. It isn't safe up there, sundown isn't for another six hours. You'll hurt your daughter, maybe even kill her before you can find shelter."

"I can't stay with a bunch of demons, I'll take my chances up there." She waved the pistol as she watched her daughter disappear out the hatch. "Now, none of you try to follow me. I'll shoot you where you stand."

"You're making a big mistake, Abigail." Mary was pleading with her, but to no effect.

"All of you turn around and put your hands on the wall. Don't move or I'll shoot you." She waited for them to follow her directions, then moved to the ladder. She kept the pistol in her right hand, using her wrist on the ladder rungs as she climbed up while still keeping an eye on the people. With one last look, she moved up and slammed the hatch back down.

A few moments later, there was a thump, followed shortly by the scream of a young girl. Everyone in the shelter was looking at the ladder as the hatch was thrown open and the little girl climbed back down, she was sobbing loudly as she did so. "HE HURT MOMMY!"

--

Josi woke to the smell of cinnamon and oatmeal. The smell reminded her of home, and as she pushed the black hair out of her face and sat up she felt tears forming.

She was safe, but she had no idea if her family was.

She got out of the bed and moved to the line for the bathroom. "All these people and only one toilet?"

The girls in line ahead of her giggled. "Well, we could wolf out and head to the treeline but Alpha says no one out until sundown. I'm Morgan, this is Kim. We were going to introduce ourselves last night but you guys were a bit busy. Are the girls getting better?" She looked back to where Britney and Bethany were still sleeping.

"Britney woke up last night, but we lost her to her 'mate' soon after. Bethany hasn't woken yet." She looked around. "Are you two mated?"

They giggled before Kim replied. "No, we're too young. The scent of your mate doesn't come to you until you are 16 or so. I do have my eye on a few prospects though."

Morgan elbowed her, then looked over at Travis. "That hot one is mine, though. Keep your mitts off him, another year and he'll pay attention to me."

"So Morgan, don't you find it weird that there's just one guy out there for you? Don't you want to date, have fun, maybe get a little experience?"

She shook her head before Kim got her turn in the bathroom. "No, not really. Did someone explain how it is for male werewolves?" Josi nodded. "Well, it's the same for us. Scent of the mate is hard wired to our subconscious, our wolves and our arousal. I am around a lot of hot guys, but none of them... excite me, if you know what I mean. I hope I find him quick, though. I don't want to be one of the unlucky ones."

When she saw Josi's face, she continued. "Finding a mate is celebrated because it doesn't always happen. One of the reasons the werewolf population is so low is because it is so hard to find that one person. If you never come across each other, if one dies... you die alone. Most of the pack is that way. That's why everyone is so happy for the Becker twins. Finding your mates that young, even if they have to be turned, it's special."

Josi looked at her feet. "I think you guys are lucky. You at least know when you've found the ONE. I spend my time trying to figure out if a guy cares about me or is just trying to get in my pants. Not that I'd let him." They passed the rest of the time with small talk, sharing breakfast with her new friends.

She was about done eating when Alpha Calvin came to the front and got everyone's attention. "Listen up, North Fork. It's going to be busy for the next few nights. In addition to caring for those who are our guests and are being changed, we have to make plans for an extended time underground." There were murmurs but he held up his hand. "Doc says that the intense ultraviolet and solar radiation could go on for months. We have no way to measure it, so we're going to avoid it by sleeping down here during the day. So, our priorities are water, food and security."

"Security, Alpha?" One of the fathers pulled his children to him.

"Yes, we don't know what is going on out there or how it will affect us. So, we're going to keep patrols out each night. Those good people we find and can help, we will; bad people we will keep away. Any questions?" He smiled. "All right then, the Betas will be giving out your assignments for tonight, sundown is in another 30 minutes so we have some time."

As Alpha Calvin was walking away, Marcus pulled him aside. "Alpha, I have to get back home."

He shook his head. "Doc, I've got two girls who are mates to my Pack members who are still recovering, plus all the humans from this town I've changed. I've got a lot going on here, I need you around."

"I'm sorry, Alpha, but I have my own family and Pack to consider. Your Pack can handle this, I need to go."

"I'm sorry, I don't have any extra security to send with you since the twins are no longer available. Give me a few days, and I'll see what I can do."

Marcus went to say something, but Josi came up and put her hand on his chest first. "I'll go with him." They both looked at her like she was crazy. "Look, I need to get going too. My family is, well, I don't know how they are but I have to get back to them. Salmon is on the way. He can go wolf and I'll ride shotgun for him, just like the way here. Just give me some guns so I can defend myself."

"Josi, are you sure? What about Willow and Cheyenne?"

"Marcus, they'll be fine here for a few days. I talked to them already and they don't want to leave until they are sure the Killer B's are all right. All our families are in the same neighborhood, so we agreed I should try to get a message to them so they don't worry." She looked at the Alpha. "I can take care of myself, and it is a second pair of eyes for him."

Calvin thought about it, then moved to a locked cabinet by the entryway. Opening it up, he stepped aside so she could see the racks of rifles and shotguns and the shelves full of pistols. "You can shoot, right?"

She snorted. "I'm from Idaho, of course I can."

Looking in the cabinet, she removed an AR-15 with a collapsible stock and single point sling. "Trijicon nightsight, sweet." Looking in, she could see the illuminated reticle still worked as it didn't need a battery. "One minute of angle dot, four power scope, this is sweet. Zero at 100 yards?"

Calvin shook his head no. "Zero at 200 yards, so it will be on at 50 yards, two inches high at a hundred and a foot low at 300. We set all our rifles that way so it doesn't matter which one you are issued." He reached in and removed a vest, in the many pockets were six thirty-round magazines of 5.56mm NATO ammunition. "You can't have enough money, horsepower or ammunition, I always say."

Josi pulled it on and adjusted it to fit, then looked in the shelves and selected a Glock 19 with night sights and two extra magazines. She stashed those in the jeans she had borrowed from one of the girls, then threaded the holster onto her belt so it sat just behind her right hip. "Ready."

Marcus held her shoulder and looked in her eyes. "You sure you are up for this? It could get bad."

"I've got you, Doc. I'll keep you safe, you just keep an eye on the road. Oh shit, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that." She started to laugh as he snorted, so he tossed her his backpack.

"Come on, we need to move upstairs so I can shift and get my wolf leg on."

Ten minutes later, they were in the street and Josi was climbing on. She waved at her friends, old and new, as they set out at a gentle pace down the road. Within an hour, the sunlight was gone and she was having a tough time seeing anything in the starlight, since the moon wasn't out yet. "Can you see, Doc?"

He didn't break stride as he nodded his head up and down. She leaned forward, resting her hands above his shoulders and letting her legs hang down below his chest as they moved along an empty Highway 93. As they traveled along, she started to notice things that weren't there. Things like animal noises, birds, and movement. When the moon rose up a few hours later, she could tell why.

Dead birds lay under the now useless power lines, and in the ditch she occasionally saw a dead animal like a rabbit, racoon or even deer. "I guess all that affected more than just humans, huh?" He nodded. "Do you think they went blind too?" Nod again. "Isn't it annoying to have to communicate like this?" Another nod.

The silence started to get to her, so she started to talk to him as he moved them along down the road. She told him about her family, her school, and her friends. She told stories about trouble they got in for playing jokes on people, and how she always seemed to find a way to get them back out of trouble. She told him of her dreams for college, and then stopped. "I guess that doesn't really matter now, does it." He nodded again.

The realization that things would never, ever be as they were hit her hard. She laid down on him, resting her head by his neck as her tears started to flow. He chuffed gently but kept moving, he had a destination and they had to get there before daylight.

It was well after midnight when he suddenly stopped, his head high and ears pointed forward. She sat up, trying to see what was wrong but her senses didn't catch anything. He raised his nose high, deeply sniffing the air until he shook his head.

He turned off the road, making his way through the ditch and up the mountain on the west side of the road. She stayed alert as he climbed silently up and around, she had figured out it must have been ahead and he was bypassing whatever it was. Ten minutes later, they reached the top of a cliff face that was overlooking the road and river below.

Marcus stopped and lowered himself down to the ground. Josi got the idea and quietly moved herself off. He then looked at her and put his paw up in front of his mouth, then pointed it towards the edge. "Quiet, got it," she whispered. They both crawled silently to the cliff edge and looked down, and what they saw had Marcus growling deep in his chest.

There was an old Cadillac convertible on the road below, a real classic car in its day. Since it was before the days of fuel injection and engine computers, the electromagnetic pulse hadn't knocked it out of commission and it was still running.

The driver's side door was open, and a man's body was face down on the pavement by it. Marcus could smell the blood as it pooled under his head. In the back seat, a young boy was holding on to his baby sister, begging for Daddy to get up. And on the hood, a woman was face down, her hands tied behind her back as a man raped her while two others waited their turn, their pistols and rifles at their sides.

They watched for about thirty seconds. Josi used her rifle scope to check the area around the car for others. When Marcus crawled back and went to the treeline, she followed him. He shook his artificial leg at her, so she undid the Velcro as quietly as she could and then he shifted back to human form.

She ignored his naked state as she leaned in to whisper in his ear. "I got three bad guys, two pistols and one hunting rifle. What did you see?"

"The same. I can't sense any others." He paused and looked in her eyes. "We don't have to do this; we can just keep going. Taking on these guys we could get hurt or killed. Could you live with that?"

Josi looked back at the cliff edge. "No." She looked in his eye. "I'd never forgive myself if I left those people at their mercy. Plus, what happens if we bypass them and they head back to North Fork, or down to Salmon? We have to take them out."

Marcus put his hand on her shoulder. "I've done this stuff before, shooting a person is a whole different thing than a target. It's something you can never take back. Can you handle this?"

She gave him a quick hug. "We're wasting time. Shift back and get down there. I'll take up a position up here."

"Nothing fancy. I'll take out the guy with her, when I make my move you take out the others. No matter what happens, you shoot until they are down. If it doesn't work, you head back into the woods and find a place to hide, got me?"

"Yep. Good luck, Doc."

He shifted back and she refastened his leg, then he moved back the way they had come from. Josi crawled back to the edge of the cliff; looking down, she estimated the range at fifty yards with a fifty foot drop. Doing a quick calculation, she figured she would be shooting a couple inches high, so she set her aim point at just below the chest. She moved the scope from one target to the other; a new guy was now raping the woman, while another sat on the edge of the road and a third was using a lighter to look at what they were carrying in the expansive trunk. Them using lights was a good thing, it would ruin their night vision and make it easier for her to pick them up.

She worked her scope up the road until she saw movement; she watched and smiled as she saw Marcus picking his way silently through the ditch on the far side of the road. It seemed like it had taken forever, even though it was only a few minutes. When he was about ten yards in front of the car, he looked directly at her and nodded his head.

It was on.

Shifting her aim point to the guy by the side of the road, she took up the travel in the rifle's trigger and took a deep breath, then let half of it out. She kept the red dot at center of mass on his back, paused, then fired.