Rejected Mate and Following Fate - Awakening Book
Chapter 34: The Building

I sit watching from my safe distance and secluded peeking spot at the large singular buildingnestled in an unnatural clearing, surrounded by ten feet of barbed wire fencing that stretches all theway around, save for a set of very large gates at the far side. All closed and locked tight and lookingdeserted. There are dirt tracks showing signs of infrequent visits from off road vehicles leading up toit, coming from the south, and I'm perched here for watching for signs of life for an hour now, as Itry to figure out if it's safe to get closer.

It took the rest of the day to get here, following an imaginary line from my previous camp spot, inthe general direction and sticking to hyper speed for most. I'm tired, my back agony from keepingon trekking at an hour I've grown accustomed to being the settling down and making camp stage.Sweating, breathless, hot, and sticky, and currently sat on my backpack as I try to figure out howstupid I would be if I went and further investigated.

There's no signs of life, no new tracks, or lingering scents of anyone being around the perimeterfrom this distance. It seems silent, but then it's a large white windowless building, with a rough castof fine white stone, and looks exceptionally clean for being out here in the middle of no man’s land.It has an aura of mystery and my gut is telling me to be wary, even if it's also urging me toinvestigate.

The mast on top is a huge metallic construction, like the Eiffel tower almost, and sits on the roof ofit's a custom platform, stretching some thirty feet upwards. I thought at first it was a telecom mast,or maybe power, but there's nothing connecting to what looks like a radio antenna coming from thetop of it. There's a generator steel box, almost half the size of the building, within the compound,yet sat apart from it, and it's humming on low within its own encasement, suggesting this buildinghas constant power.

There's something off, even if on the surface it looks how I imagine an unmanned power plantsubstation would look, and despite that, my inner weird voice that kept pushing me east, it's tellingme to get closer. My own mind and instincts battling with what to do and its why I've sat herestaring at it for so long. The sensible part is screaming danger, the less logical me is telling me howharmless this looks and that there are no signs of life at all. The weak part of me is aching for somesort of connection to civilization, and a longing to touch something real and man made after somany weeks alone. It just reminds me that despite doing better, I've been crushingly lonely still.

I can't see any way in from this angle so the door must face those giant gates, which means it onlyhas one entrance and nothing else. Not exactly a layout for any kind of worrying military base, Imean, it's not even that big. At most you could park two of the Santo trucks inside, so I doubt ithomes any more than some power grid equipment for maybe some of the further rural homes.Maybe it's a radio station with sporadic visits or something. I don't have a clue, as it's hardly my areaof expertise. It's not big enough to be anything much else.

The point is after an hour sat here, I haven't gotten any signs of life, or any reason to not go andhave a closer look, and the only thing stopping me is my own terrified level of suspicion. I'm beingoverly cautious, my feeble side wading in, and even the wind blowing this way is picking up on nohuman scent in any way. It seems completely deserted.

I can see cameras at the corners of the building on this side and they probably have them at thefront too, but they are all pointing down at the ground within the fences, so I can at least get thatclose without being caught on them. I guess they're to pick up on wildlife getting in, or something. Imight see more if I go around the other side and figure out what it is. It might have signs, or maybehazard warnings, if it is just a power plant. If I know for sure, then I can stop tiptoeing around andrelax.

I exhale heavily, wiping the rolling beads of moisture from my brow and look up at the fading lightin the greying sky. I should replace a place to make camp and stop wasting what daylight I have left.Come back in the morning, but that means trekking further, as this is the first clearing I've comeacross in hours. There's nothing nearby that looks like a good place to set up, so maybe I mighthave to sacrifice a comfy night and roll up in the bear fur right here. I can’t think of anything else todo.

It's either go check this out and then walk on when I know what it is, and if I can salvage anything,or camp and look at it in the new day. I'm exhausted, really need to eat and I don't have the energyto do much of anything.

I get up, mind in two halves, and pull my backpack up with me, lugging its heavy weight as I try tomake a decision. I don't want to be out in the open when darkness falls, as despite not picking upon any creatures of the night, I can’t be sure there aren't any lurking in caves, or undergroundtunnels of which I have come across many these past days. I remember the stories, that theVampires came out of the ground during the war. I would just prefer to stick to my usual plan ofpicking a site and staying there until dawn.

I don't wander far, realizing it's wall to wall close knit trees in all directions but one, moving towardsthe building. It really is the only part here that has space to even lay down and I'm not about tosleep in the clearing near it.

I doubt any passing big cat, bear, or such, spends much time walking its perimeter so I make thedecision to pick a tree with great leaf cover and climb one. It's better than being a sitting duck onthe forest floor, and I doubt I'll get any real sleep when I haven't found a good place to hide out. Upa tree I can tie myself to the trunk and at least dose off and on through the night and wait toinvestigate this in the morning. It'll give me a little security, and at least up high, I can defend myselfif needs be.

I end up walking a full circle and replaceing the right kind of trees nearer the main gates of thebuilding. One's with wide bases, multiple branches from mid-way up, with extra amounts of foliageand twisting crisscrossing boughs for platforms. I squeeze between two that are close together,about twenty feet up their branches merge, and curl, to make an extra wide landing place, and haveto haul myself up with my backpack on, replaceing it a little more labor intensive than normal.

When I get up there, I manage to replace a flat enough spot that with one of my pelts rolled out Isnuggle into a dip between two parallel boughs and can properly lay down, without having toanchor myself to anything. I hang my backpack on a broken stump on the trunk and lay out on topof my makeshift bed, stretching and wriggling to see how comfy I can get, satisfied that this isn'ttoo bad as long as it doesn't get windy or rain tonight. I don't want to unroll pelts that could slideoff if I roll in my sleep and draw attention to lurking wildlife. I won't have a fire to keep some of thenatural creatures at bay up here, so I have to make do with cold meat, a bumpy bed, and therustling and swaying of the trees to lull me into slumber. Not that I think it'll be an issue, as now I'mup here, my eyes are heavy and my brain cloudy with fatigue. It's been a long day.

I sit and watch the building through the foliage for a while, sat at my safe distance, watching as theshadows lengthen and become part of the dark surroundings as light fades fast. I'm alreadyexhausted from my extended trekking, so settling down and beginning to drift off is easier thanusual. Not the usual spew of weighty things on my mind to keep me awake, and it feels like onlyseconds of blinking and drowsiness before I zone out.

I wake with a start, jumping slightly, and sitting up fast, banging my head on rough wood andsilently yelping as I properly come to. I must have drifted into a deeper sleep so fast, because it wasa second ago, I could still see my hand in front of me and now I'm in utter pitch darkness and canteven make out what I'm sitting on. Disorientated at first until I remember where I am and how I gothere and my belly rumbles because I didn't eat. I woke with a fright for sure, and my heart isthundering through my chest as my nocturnal eyesight kicks into touch, clawing the area around mefrantically into focus.

I'm not sure exactly what woke me yet and I slowly sit up, sliding my legs up, my knees touching mychest as I rub my now bruised, lumpy, forehead, while scanning my surroundings for a cause. Takingdeep breaths to calm down and center myself, letting my senses take over, rather than my scaredbrain.

It doesn't take me long to see what brought me around once I settle down and actually look.There's a shiny black truck parked in the undergrowth beside the fence, nearer the back of thebuilding where I first stood. It's about ten feet further down the makeshift road. They must have justpulled up, maybe the noise, and headlights, are what roused me to alert and I watch with heldbreath as someone slides out and makes their way around the fence to replace the entrance. An eerysolitary figure, shrouded in darkness. It's both a joy to see another person, but also a massivealarming worry, that I'm seeing another person

They, much like the truck, are all in black, wearing a hood pulled over their head so I can't see theirface at all, but I can tell it's male. Tall, stocky, and as he moves around the gate with his focus on histask, eerily quiet on his feet. The wind picks up gently and blows this way, guiding his scent towardsme and I recoil in utter shock, like someone tasered my ass.

He's wolf... like me. There's no denying that very specific scent we all carry and it red alerts me andwakes up my brain immediately.

I have no idea why the hell a lycanthrope would be manning a power plant in the middle of theforest. I mean, maybe it's not that big a deal, some packs live and work in the human world andhave regular jobs as they try to pass off as one of them. This could be a guy who works for thepower company and for some reason, likes to frequent his unmanned building in the middle of thenight. I'm sure that's probably a normal thing, for unconventional hours, or maybe if he has a specialtask at this time of night.

Probably not likely, and it's too weird that all the way out here, alone for weeks on end, the firstperson I come in contact with is one of my kind. It's a little too coincidental, especially as I camehere after following some deeper gut feeling, and stupid dreams of Sierra Santo.

I watch, squinting through the foliage as I try to see his progress and get a better look, but thegates are obscured from my angle, and he disappears behind trees that sit between us, and out ofsight. I don’t want to lose track of him in case he somehow heads in here without me seeing andshows up at the foot of my tree. I doubt I would be a welcome discovery.

I don't hesitate. I slide off my perch, silently climb down the tree, and crawl closer until I can see himagain from another angle, ducking down behind a rock and keeping low. My senses are on majorhigh alert, and I'm taking comfort in the fact the wind is blowing this way, so he won't smell me theway I did him. I'm relatively safe from this distance if he doesn't see me moving around

I have to creep on all fours, keeping still, and wedging in behind a fallen log to get a better look as Itrack him. By the time I figure out where he is, eyes scanning the fence and truck, he’s already insidethe compound and up against the door. He moves fast, and it just conforms that he’s one of mykind.

I hear a beep, a click, like he opened something, or had some sort of key, and the door slides to theside in front of him. It doesn’t open out like I expected, but more like something of an elevatordoor, that slides out of sight, back on itself, which is weird for a low-tech building.

From here I can see inside though, and there doesn’t seem to be anything at all in the doorway,making it all even weirder. It looks like an empty concrete box, and no big inside room, or controlpanels, or anything from what I can peer into. That just makes the sliding door stranger if it'sconcealing nothing. I move a little closer still, not convinced I'm getting a full picture, hitting the lastline of trees before the clearing, and stand tall to side slide behind one and peek around. I know it'sstupid getting this near to him, but I can't see, and this place has me so confused as to what itspurpose is, or what its importance is to my instincts

He walks inside, turns, and faces something to the left, just behind where the door is. He leans in,ducking slightly so his face comes level with an out of sight panel.

“It's me, I'm back, bring me down.” A low growl to his masculine tone, most definitely a wolf. I canjust tell

He stands tall and turns to face the open front door, my heart rate escalating as nerves consumeme, and my body begins to tremble. I swear, for a second, I think he looks right at me and I diveback, flattening my back to the bark and close my eyes, as though somehow that'll make meinvisible. I'm not sure though, as he didn’t seem to react at all, and I'm probably being paranoidbecause I'm scared. There's a crunching noise, the humming of the generator revs up in ferocity,and the whole building emits a long grunting moan.

I peek back, holding my breath to steady my shaking self, quick enough to see the door beginningto slide shut as he slowly lowers down below the level he's standing on. It clicks instantly that thefloor is moving, and he's going down. Like some sort of elevator for sure, and it explains why, on thesurface, there's no sign of life and the building is small. It's deceptive, and the sliding door, itconceals a car sized transport to a lower level. That means whatever is down there is big enough toaccommodate vehicles should they need to be taken down, and that makes my blood run cold.

I don't think it's any kind of power plant, and I shouldn't be here at all. It obviously has more goingon below, and now I know a wolf is manning this station, then I have absolutely no chance ofreplaceing anything worthy of stealing and getting away without a trace. Not that I want to anymore.Everything inside of me is telling me this is a bad idea, and I need to get far away from this place assoon as humanly possible. 0000000000000000