Endangered Species Ch. 01-08

I did a quick circuit of the basement level, except the room where we'd piled the dead, and verified nothing had changed. There were restrooms but no running water. The smell wasn't pleasant, but I used it anyway. "You didn't wake me up," Mike said.

"You need sleep, and we can't do anything until after dark," I replied. "Still four millirem an hour down here, despite the basement and the concrete floors above us."

"So what's the plan?"

"Breakfast." The vending machine food I'd gathered earlier went well with the leftover MREs. Over powdered sugar donuts and warm Mountain Dew, we went over everything we'd learned last night. Everything was fair game, from the people we found dead to the last word of our only survivor.

We spent an hour arguing whether "Werewolves" was literal or figurative. My mind wanted to think it was the nickname of the attackers, like "Wolverines" in "Red Dawn." Whoever they were, they were good. Werewolves were creatures of the night, able to take down highly trained Marines without being spotted. Werewolves ran in packs, able to take down strong prey and overcome defenses. They were wild animals on a rampage killing everyone, fighter or not. A team name was the logical explanation of a rational mind.

Werewolves were fictional creatures, present only in teen television shows and lurid writer imaginations.

Except.

The 'except' was the evidence pointing to animal attacks. We saw men with their throats torn out, and not by knives. One man's throat was missing, while others had bite wounds on their arms. "Those were dog bites," Mike said with conviction. "BIG fucking dogs."

"They could have had dogs with them," I countered. "That could help them find people and get around in the dark."

"If they had dogs, he would have said that. He said werewolves, right?" I nodded. "Stupid fucking last word if it's not true."

"He was dying of blood loss. His mind could be anywhere."

Mike shook his head. "Yet everything before that made sense, didn't it?"

"Yeah." It was too much to believe, though. "Whoever they are, they might still be on base or nearby. If there were survivors in this building, there are others. This base has miles of underground bunkers and tunnels for the ballistic missiles. They could have everyone else on base hiding inside storage bunkers with nuclear-grade security."

"Or they could all be dead, and these guys were the last holdouts. Hell, we could be walking right into an ambush, and we'd never know it. Plus, you have the only gun."

"And it's a pistol against rifles or more." Yeah, it didn't sound good. "

We still had our orders to get a message from the Commanding Officer of the USS Maine to the National Command Authority. It didn't matter what the odds were.

Mike was still carrying the message, but I'd memorized it. It wasn't like we had a Xerox machine working. "This is only one of the commands here. I have to check the others to see if anyone is there to receive them."

"Where to?"

That was a good question. "The briefing room has a map." We moved into the conference room. I removed the map from the frame and set it on the table, illuminating it with my flashlight. "This is a base with multiple commands. We're in the main building where Submarine Group Five headquarters. They're gone. There are two ballistic missile squadrons, SUBRON 17 and 19 for Ohio-class ballistic missile and guided missile submarines, and SUBDEVRON 5 for Seawolf-class submarines. Then you have the Naval Station Kitsap, Submarine Readiness Squadron 31, Marine Corps Security Force Battalion- Bangor, and the Strategic Weapons Facility- Pacific command for the missile support. I've got a lot of places to check out." Naturally, each command had at least one building on the map.

"Well, ANY surviving officer outranks us," Mike replied. "We better be able to find someone to report to."

I nodded, then pointed back at the map. "It's not worth checking the housing and base offices near the Trident gate. If they don't have basements, they wouldn't have survived."

"What about the hospital?"

"Branch clinic. I don't even know if it has a basement." It was a hell of a lot of ground to cover at night, with potential threats everywhere. "We have to split up."

"No way! We can back each other up; it's safer that way."

I rolled my eyes. "If a trained Marine is an easy target, an unarmed Youngster is nothing," I replied. "I want you to head down to the docks and get back in the kayak. Take both backpacks with you and stow them. Stay far enough offshore to be out of rifle range and head for the weapons loading docks here."

"I remember those from the way here."

I pointed to a spot just south of them. "Put in here, then head for this building. Check here for the Marine command. From there, head up the road and check the missile bunkers. If you don't find anything, get back in the kayak and wait for me where you started."

"I can do that. Where are you going?"

"I get to run down here and check these commands."

"What if you get caught?"

"Don't come after me. These people don't fuck around, so I'm dead or captured. The mission means more than me." It was a hard lesson to learn, but that was part of being an officer. Sometimes people die carrying out your orders. "If I'm not down there by four, find a place to hide for the day. At nightfall, paddle south of the base, then go overland to Bremerton. See if anyone there is still alive to give the message to."

Mike patted the message in the waterproof packet inside his overalls. "I won't let you down."

"I know you won't. Let's see if we can find anything else we need, then get packed. I want extra food and water with us, just in case."

"Yes, Ma'am."

We were bags packed and ready when the sun went down. With no electricity and the mountains, it got dark fast. "Ready to go?" He nodded. "Good luck, Midshipman Newman. Stay quiet and stay safe. I'll see you at the water."

"As long as you're there by four. Good luck, Midshipman Summers."

I led the way upstairs, keeping my flashlight off once we reached the main floor. There was just enough light left to see the opening from the busted-open entry doors. I kept my pistol at low-ready as we moved across the bloodstained floor. I handed him my backpack after checking outside; everything was quiet. I gave him the thumbs-up, then moved down the stairs and to the left. He would follow me thirty seconds later, heading down towards the docks.

I'd almost reached my first target building when I heard the gunshot. I spun and crouched, pointing my pistol towards the inky darkness. It had come from the area near the docks.

"Drop the pistol, bitch," I heard from behind me. I froze.

"Don't make one of us shoot you," I heard another voice say from my right.

"Yeah, you're prime breeding stock. It would be a shame if you died first," a voice said from my left.

I didn't have a choice. I dropped the pistol. "The Alpha will be pleased," the first man said.

Something hit my head, and it was blackness.

I woke up in the darkness, draped over a sweaty male who hadn't bathed recently. They'd stripped my clothes off, so my naked hips bounced around on his shoulder as he walked. I couldn't move my hands; I could feel the rope tying them together behind my back. My ankles were bound too. I started to wiggle, stopping when a large hand smacked the hell out of my bare ass. "Don't make me knock you out again, breeder."

"That's Midshipman First Class Angela Summers," I said with as much pride as I could muster. Inside, I was panicking; they'd killed Mike and planned to rape the other women and me.

"You'd do well to learn to keep your mouth shut, Breeder. The Alpha doesn't take kindly to disrespect."

"What Alpha is that?"

"You'll know soon enough. Now shut up and relax. If I drop you, you might get hurt, and it won't change your fate."

What else could I do? I forced myself to relax and pay attention to my surroundings. I had to plan my escape.

I had to finish my mission.

Ch. 8

Talking wouldn't accomplish anything, so I paid attention to where we were going and who was around. It was telling that my captor was perfectly comfortable wandering the streets of a critical Navy base naked, unarmed, and alone.

My transportation was a big guy, about the same size as one of the starting Navy linebackers in my company. I knew Vance went six-two and two hundred and thirty pounds, and this guy's muscles had more size and definition. How could I tell in the dark? I could feel his muscles as I bounced against him while he walked. I went five-ten and a hundred and thirty pounds, long and lean, but he carried me like the proverbial sack of potatoes. In ten minutes of walking, he never shifted me to the other shoulder or stopped to rest.

He didn't have a flashlight, yet had no trouble finding his way around in the inky blackness. The conditions made it impossible to know where we were going. That would complicate things if I ever got free. We weren't going up or downhill to any noticeable amount, so we must be paralleling the water. I heard military trucks in the distance and saw a flash of headlights, which surprised me. I didn't think anything still worked.

"Found a straggler, Nate?" The voice ahead of me was female. I couldn't see anything around Nate's big, hairy ass after he stopped.

"First of the night, Delta Betty. Strong and fertile, though." I didn't like that comment, especially when my given title was 'breeder.' If one of these bastards tried to rape me, I'd bite his dick off. He picked me off his shoulder and set me down on my bare feet. I stumbled slightly, unable to move my feet apart. His hands on my shoulders steadied me as he turned me around.

The woman approached to touch my face, then my shoulders and waist. She was older, with gray hair and eyes. "She's completely undamaged! The Alpha will be pleased. Where did you find her?"

"Wandering around the base with a Beretta M9 and a working flashlight. I thought we'd cleaned the place out last night, but we found her before the guys headed into town. Her male was no issue for us." He bent down and untied my feet. I spread them out a bit as he did the same to my hands. "I'm heading back on patrol. Have fun with this one. She's got some spirit to her."

"Good luck." An instant later, the big man was gone.

In his place stood a grey wolf with shoulders at my chest height. "WHAT THE FUCK," I yelled as I started to back away from the beast. I didn't get far. Betty grabbed my arm and yanked me towards her before I got a step. She caught me before I fell and forced me to my knees. The wolf didn't stop her; he turned around and ran off. "He's a werewolf!"

"Everyone here is a werewolf or a breeder, honey. The rest are dead."

"No!"

She smacked the back of my head enough to make my eyes water. "That's your only warning. Keep your fucking mouth shut unless asked a direct question, and then it should be 'Yes, Ma'am,' or 'No, Ma'am.' Do you understand me?"

I stared into her eyes, refusing to answer. I knew wild wolves didn't like it when you stared them down; one would back down, or there would be a fight. It turned out werewolves didn't like it either. She grabbed my neck with one hand, hauling me off my knees and suspending me off the ground. I felt her nails extend, the sharp points puncturing my neck as she cut off my windpipe. I tried to get away, but she grabbed my right hand and bent my fingers back. She held me there as blood dripped down my neck, her face emotionless.

I quickly realized I was not the dominant one here.

I lowered my eyes.

She dropped me and turned around to walk away. "If you run, I will shift into MY wolf. I will catch you and kill you within seconds. You have value as a female if you behave, so do what you're FUCKING TOLD without complaint. Follow me."

I followed her, catching my breath as I held my hand over the wounds on my neck. I had to stay close, as I couldn't see six feet in front of me. She opened a gate and waited for me to go through before closing and locking it with a padlock. We walked fifty-eight more steps until we arrived at a building. The door opened for her as we arrived.

A younger female holding a green glow stick was waiting. Her nose sniffed me as I approached, and she looked at my bleeding neck as I walked inside. "Did she give you trouble?"

"She will learn," Betty replied. "Get her processed and put her to work."

"Yes, Delta." The new woman took my arm and led me through the dark corridors. We reached a stairway and descended three floors. It opened into a tunnel that was thirty feet in diameter.

There was a bright light at the end of the tunnel. It took me one hundred and twenty-two steps to reach it. We walked through an open blast door that must have been two feet thick.

The cavernous space before me stretched at least a hundred yards ahead and just as much on each side. Forklifts were unloading semi-trucks and military vehicles, leaving pallets of material in areas marked on the floor. I kept following my guide, sneaking glances at the activity around me. I saw massive stocks of canned foods, dry foods, bottled water, clothing, weapons, ammunition, and electronics. There were others, but we entered a hallway off the left side of the warehouse area

I could smell food. We walked into a dining hall capable of seating a few hundred people at once. It was half full of women eating breakfast, yet none were talking. Most were dressed in scrubs and canvas shoes, while the rest were naked like I was. A few female overseers stood against the wall, carrying cattle prods on their belts. My guide brought me to the buffet line, which was depleted by now. "Eat quickly, or you'll eat nothing." She walked back out of the room.

I took a tray, filling it with scrambled eggs, sawmill gravy, and two biscuits. There was a milk machine and glasses, so I got that and found a place to sit. "Hi, I'm Angela," I said to the other women.

"NO TALKING," one of the guards said. Plebe summer had taught me to eat fast, and I practically inhaled the food. It was good, better than machine food, and light-years better than MREs. I noticed numbers about an inch high tattooed on the back of the right hands of many women. That wasn't a good sign; they did something like that to the Jews in concentration camps.

I'd barely finished when my guide returned to the room, clipboard in hand, and sat at a table near the exit. "New arrivals, line up along this wall." I joined two dozen other women in the line. One was freaking out, and I knew that wouldn't go well. I took her hand, leaning my head against hers. I couldn't talk, but I could help her calm down. I used a breathing exercise to calm the woman while we waited for our turn standing at the table.

It started like a job interview with education, experience, and training. Then it got personal; age, sexual history, use of birth control. I said I'd had three sexual partners and used Depro-Provera; it lasted three months, so maybe that would disqualify me as a breeder? One of the guards zapped me with the cattle prod. FUCK! It felt like every muscle in my body was in pain. I fell to the ground, twitching as my body tried to remember what connected to what. "We can smell when you lie to us, so don't do it again. How many sexual partners, and what, if any, birth control?"

"Three, and I'm not on birth control." My last relationship ended last summer, and I'd stopped the injections shortly after.

"Give this to the man. Your name is now Breeder 287. Use of any other name, or refusal to answer to this name, will be severely punished."

It would be easy to remember. It was tattooed in black on the back of my right hand five minutes later.

The rest of the morning was a military-style in-processing with less paperwork and noise. I got a shower, brushed my teeth, and made up my assigned bunk with a sheet and blanket. I stored two extra pairs of scrubs, panties, and socks in a box underneath. They had me write my new name on the front and back of them and the outside of my shoes. It was nothing new for me; "B287" had replaced my Alpha code at the Academy. It finished with an orientation with the Warehouse Supervisor, a female werewolf named Christine.

The operation here was about the long-term survival of an isolated population. Christine explained that we were safe here in the deep underground, but fire and decay would soon ruin the lands above. The warehouse team needed exact counts of materials on hand, so the scavenging teams knew what to bring in next. The information was computerized and updated as we unloaded and inventoried each arriving truck. "Walmarts are still out there, but the WalMart distribution system isn't. Our Alpha charged me with getting a five-year supply of food and goods; we can't waste a moment. Your work now means you and your children will have food in the future. We may never get another chance to collect these items."

My mind was reeling at this. The submarine carried a ninety-day food supply, and we wanted five years? I kept my mouth shut as we prepared for lunch. The werewolves would eat first while we brought food to the tables and kept their drinks full.

"New breeders, line up against the wall," one of the guards commanded before the doors opened. "Stand still and do not react, no matter what happens."

Easier said than done. I took my spot in line as the doors opened and the werewolves started to file into the room. The females and about half the males went to their tables, talking and laughing as they sat down.

The other males walked past us, sniffing each person's neck before going to the next person.

Thirty-two had smelled me and moved on before I saw him. He was HUGE, easily six-foot-ten, with three hundred pounds of muscle on him. He had the face of a God and the confidence of a born King. He was also buck naked, well-endowed, and didn't give a fuck that anyone saw it. He was laughing with one of the other men when he froze.

Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing, and those near us backed away slowly, keeping their eyes down.

The big male approached, his eyes locking with mine. For some reason, though my rational mind screamed at me to look down before he killed me, I didn't. I stared into those sky-blue eyes as he moved in front of me, then leaned down and smelled my neck.

His hands gripped my shoulders, sending pleasurable tingles down my body. He took deep breaths, shaking as he tried to maintain control.

He stood back up, and his hardening cock bumped against my stomach.