Rejected Mate and Following Fate - Awakening Book
Chapter 35: What Is This Place?

When the door fully closes, I walk out in front of the tree where I've been hiding and peer over atwhere he left his truck, wondering if he maybe left anything of value there. If I'm cutting my losses,and running, then he might have something. He didn't lock it, and he was alone. Maybe a medipack,food, clothes, or something that I can use.He obviously isn't coming out right away, and I should make the most of his absence before hedoes come back. He might not stay and judging by the fact abandoned his truck and never broughtit into the compound, I don't think he is. I have to be quick and go.I run along the tree line keeping to the inner side and within its shadow and make a dash for histruck, using hyper speed to get to it fast and peek inside when I slide up against the door on the farside from the building. It's an off road four by four, covered in mud, and debris, and obviously theperfect vehicle for moving around this terrain. I can tell right away there's nothing in it at all. Noteven general trash, or even anything in view that I would want. It's clean and free of anythingworthwhile. Not what I would expect for a truck with frequent use, so it makes this even weirder. Heobviously doesn't use it all too much to come and go. One last fleeting run over with my eyes,convinced he has nothing of worth.I dash back to the closest border of brush and start making my way back to my own temporarycamp without looking back, this time keeping behind the trees by two rows. My breathing laboredwith the heavy weight of mounting panic growing inside of me like a warning signal. Heartbeatpounding in my ears as it batters my rib cage and adds to my terror. I don't feel safe this closeanymore and I should never have ventured to replace this building. I don't know what I was thinking,and the last thing I need are complications from wolves, and James Bond type buildings in themiddle of forests. This has spy movie all over it, and I'm in no mood to be dangled headfirst over avat of sharks for information I don't have.When the noise of the building cranks up again, I don’t know if it's the floor moving up again toreset, or if he's coming back. It stops me in my tracks and I instinctively drop to the dirt and turnaround. I crouch where I am, and watch, waiting with held breath, peering through the trunks andbushes to see the door, until the moaning cranking noise of heavy innards moving comes to a halt.Yet the door doesn't open. Nothing happens at all, except the return to a previous hum. I don’tthink it was him, I think maybe the floor comes up again when they reach a destination, and I relax alittle, blowing out my air with relief, moving again from this tree base to the next to make my wayback to my perch.I almost make it all the way in when another loud thumping noise pauses me in my tracks andmakes me look back nervously, so jumpy and on edge, with all my senses kicking into a highermode of efficiency. This time the noises are less intense, less mechanical, and more like regularpeople noises.The building appears to be coming to life as it increase, the doors make swooshing noise, butnothing seems to open. There's a bang, sliding of maybe bolts, I can't tell. A beep, a woosh, like thenoise a piston makes, and then I can make out the swing of a heavy metal door and gravel rollingand sliding from it.Lights flick on all around me, so suddenly from concealed posts further out in the trees it makes mejump, my heart misses a beat and frozen ice flairs in my veins, and I replace myself illuminated in thepreviously dark space. Blinded by the sudden solar strength, blazing pain that hits me in theeyeballs. I start blinking, shielding my eyes as my nocturnal vision craps out and gives me an instantheadache, like a rabbit caught in the headlights.I wasn't expecting this entire area to be brightened up like standing under a sun lamp at close rangeand pull my wits back around me. I dart as fast as I can for the nearest sign of darkness and hopethey didn't see me. The lights must be extended above the canopy on masts further out that I didn'tsee, as everything around me is brighter than daylight, and I have no one direction to go to that willget me out of it faster. The entire space is bright as hell. I run, heading towards my mountain in thefar distance, and concentrate on nothing else except escape. Screw my backpack and furs, I don'tneed them right now.I sprint, dodging, jumping, clearing fallen logs as twigs and leaves scratch my face and hands, andrip at my skin in passing. Breathing labored and loud, panting. I aim for the shadows, not lookingback, in case this is because of me, that maybe he did see me out there and whatever this place is,no one is meant to know. I put my head down and hyper speed the best to my ability, only justmake it to a skidding halt into darker bushes when an alarming piercing noise fills the air aroundme. It has a horrible effect on my body and senses, rattling my brain inside my skull, as my physicalself crunches up, instantly immobile and I grab my ears.It's a siren, honking hard and loud, in a pitch that causes me physical pain with its sheer volume,echoing in the air and making the surroundings shudder in trembling response. My heart elevates,until I think my chest is going to explode, my body straining to turn to wolf to get away faster, but Idon't let it. I need to keep these clothes, more than ever now, and I need to get back to my tree tograb my stuff and go at some point too.My gut tells me to abandon it all, forget about the clothes issue for now, and just run, but my logicis telling me to calm down, and halt, and rationalize about this, and stop reacting. That they couldn'thave seen me, as the cameras point down, and I didn’t venture near the fences. That he maybe justlooked my way, but I saw no sign of reaction or recognition that someone was out here.This could just be coincidence and something they do, even without someone like me lurkingnearby. They couldn't know I was there if there even was a “they’, and what really would they reactlike this for? What could they possibly be hiding that a young girl like me posed a threat against?That wolf, he might have been solitary, although he did talk to someone on whatever that intercomthing was, so maybe there's only two of them and this is still a power grid of some sort. I know a lotof that contradicts what the other parts of my brain are telling me, but self-preservation has a funnyway of trying to shake you into being less manic. Lying to myself can help abate the fear and get memoving, instead of freaking out.I try to take some calming breaths as it all filters through my head, and I keep on telling myself I'moverreacting. This is just a drill, or a thing, or normal. I'm fine.... I'm sure I am.The whizzing whistle of air that skids past my left ear and physically inflicts a searing pain with thehigh pitch velocity it passes me with, makes me jump sideways and crash into bushes as I run atspeed. I almost swallow my own tongue and my stomach lurches, about jumps out of my body withthe scare. It gives me a near heart attack, and I scramble in stinging, scratching bushes to fight myway back out. I get caught up in thorn heavy vines and trip back over my own muddled legs.The fall makes me tumble and roll into hedge way, knocking my shoulder on rocks and stops myscrambling for a second. I take a moment to look back at the surging sunlit bright area I left behind,gasping as I see the pouring of black dressed men coming from some ground level hatch near themain door, like a concealed lid lifted from the gravel, and four maybe five bodies appear on theground above. There are already two outside the gates and both are facing this way, lookingintensely into the wood where I ran, and pointing big ass guns with sights trained in here.I don't know what flew past me, I don't think I want to know, and my doubt that I wasn't in any kindof danger, dies an instant death. The blood draining from my body so I turn cold and statue like asit sinks in, they are definitely looking for me. I don't stop to wait for even a blink longer, terror onceagain ripping through me at speed and activating my run like shit button. They all face this way andcome thundering after me as soon as they see the rustle of the bushes I dart from.Gifts that are remarkable or not, I can smell them from here, wolves, and they are all armed. A littlepatrol of male wolves in black uniforms and they're clearly coming at me. I don't care who you are,what story you're in, that never bodes well in any situation and I don't think they're trying to inviteme in for coffee and cake. I've obviously stumbled across something I shouldn't have.Pure instinct takes over and the urge to turn is almost killing me with the rate my human body ispounding itself to shreds with sheer adrenalin. I run, I trip, I fall, and I know that human form is onlyslowing me down and making it more likely they catch up with me. I know only too well that wolveswill not be kind and show me mercy at being caught in their lands. I have one set of clothes... andthat's it.I need to think about survival now, even if that means ending up naked, and backpack less, milesfurther into the undergrowth. I just need to replace another way to gather the things I need later andcurse myself stupid for ever venturing this way, near this dammed building. It's obviously not aninconspicuous power station. Those men were guards, and whatever they're guarding, is importantenough to carry weapons and stay in the multiples.I'm so god damn stupid. Fuck you, Sierra, and your damn dreams and pushing me East. Fuck thefates. Fuck Colton for making me leave the mountain and fuck Juan for being the root of all mywoes and how shitty my life has been for a decade. This is all his fault!I turn. My inner wolf almost howling with an intense release, glad to be free finally. Head down,clothes shredding pitifully as I leave the last of my worldly possessions in the dirt and run like thewind. Nothing else that I can do about it now, and they are in fast pursuit.I fall, wedging between trees that are too close to get through and break free noisily with sheerstrength and will power. Wood splintering, branches crackling, but being silent is no longer myconcern as the noise of their pursuit out sounds mine. I can feel them coming, hear them, smellthem, I can even feel their heart beats synching with mine as scent follows me close on my heels.Panic spreads through my veins and I hope that angry numb I gained with the bear, kicks in soon, orelse I'm screwed. I can't even stop to try and use any sort of gift right now, when I don't even knowhow. The last few days of trying to conjure it up proved futile. I'm scared right now, not angry, and Ihave no hope in hell of conjuring any other feeling.Something else whizzes over my head, like a small shooting tunnel of air that makes my hair tingleand pull in its passing. It shoots directly into the tree several feet in front of me, and stabs viciouslyinto the trunk, standing proud and straight when it comes to an instant halt. I only catch sight of itfor a split second, a clear tube, filled with watery liquid, a red feather tail, embedded deeply in therough wooden skin of the poor tree. It catches me eye, draws my attention, and before I can runpast it while still trying to figure out what it is, something fires into my spine insanely stab-like, rightbetween my shoulder blades with a stinging pain so intense it makes me howl involuntarily. A loudwailing noise that hurts my own ears.The impact is hard, the pain unexpected, and the combination makes me trip and crash face firstinto the branches and rocks on the ground I'm crossing at speed. I roll, hitting the rough floor of theforest like a dead weight and skid ungracefully, pulling debris and dried leaves with me, kicking up acloud of dust and choking on it, across a tiny clearing knocking whatever was sticking in my back offas I do so. I feel it being yanked out with a stomach-churning tug.I land on my face, legs sprawled as my body betrays me and turns back to human form without mysay so, and my eyes focus on the tiny thing only feet on front of me. Dazed, trying to catch mybreath as this unearthly warm and strange sensation pours through me from the connect spot in thecenter of my back.It's the same as what hit the tree. A clear tube, only empty this time, with a red brush tail, only now Ican see the tip and its long, silver, extremely pointy, and looks a lot like a dart for taking largeanimals down. I've seen them on African game reserve documentaries. The needle is thick and huge,so no wonder it felt like something stabbed me with a big pointy object; they literally did... at bulletspeed. I let out a groan and try to roll and move, aware that an empty tube suggests the contentsare inside of me.I attempt to get up, but my limbs give out like useless heavy weights of flesh with no control, andmy vision begins to spin. My head turning woozy as everything around me sways crazily, like I justgot on the deck of a boat amid a rolling storm.I don't like this, and I can feel the thundering of feet fast approaching me as wolves’ growls turn tohuman voices. I can make them out ever so slightly, coming at me on the gentle breeze of therustling trees as silence begins to take over. My hearing and head fading out despite trying to fightit.“I hit her... she’s to the left. Split up and spread out in case we need to double dose her.”I can't grasp anything as my hands claw at the dirty muck strewn ground below me, desperate tokeep trying to run. As futile as I know it is, something in me is refusing to give up the fight andurging me to get to my feet. Like a tiny warm voice in my mind, softly calling out to me.I swear, I hear Sierra drifting my way in the wind as she reminds me of the same thing she has beensaying all along, yet it somehow means something else in my drugged stupor."Save us"I reach out to it in my oncoming delirium with weak grasping fingers, sure I see her face in thecanopy above as my eyesight obscures.“I can't. I'm not strong enough.” It's a pathetic whisper at no one, as my eyes blur with tears at myown failure, and my heart aches that somehow, I let her down, even if it makes no sense. Maybe it'sthe pain of failing myself. Weeks of running, hiding, and I can’t do anything about what I've gottenmyself into. I was stupid to think I was special.I can feel them so close now, and as I try to lift my head and shoulders up from the soggy earth inone last ditch attempt to save myself, my vision blanks our completely and I lose consciousness.000000000000o000