“You’re not privy to those answers,” the man snapped. Every human in these visions seemed out of focus, and sometimesthey were featureless shadows like this guy. “You’re to report to sector R by twenty-one hundred.”
Austin swallowed hard before squeaking out a, “Yes, sir.” When the man disappeared, the werewolf ran to the bathroom before vomiting into the sink.
“I can’t do that again. I won’t do that again,” he whispered to himself, his eyes wide and shaky. “I gotta find my pack.”
Day quickly turned to night, and Austin dashed from wall-to-wall, staying out of sight as he moved to an area guarded by two shades in fatigues holding M4s. He took in several rapid, shaky breaths before sneaking by, leaping high over a wall packed with curled razor wire, then disappeared on the other side.
I phased through and followed until he leaned up against the side of a large building, careful to stay out of sight as two men in yellow suits exited, one holding something that reflected a bit of the blue halogen lighting surrounding the yard.
They didn’t say anything, and one of the men pushed up his mask, appearing to stare at the things in his hand. As with the other humans, his face lacked any features as he dropped what he held into a nearby trash can.
“That was fucked up,” he said, turning away.
The other man pointed to the discarded mask. “We need to get to decontamination.”
The tone was somber as they slowly walked out of sight. After a few minutes, Austin dashed over to the garbage can and slowly pulled the tangled chains from the bin. The all-too-familiar thousand yard stare returned as he dropped his arms, still clutching the discarded dog tags.
He let out a worried whine and ran to the building the men emerged from, trying desperately to pull open the door, but it was locked and solid. Upon hearing commotion return to the yard, he disappeared, leaping over the wall.
The scene turned to a black room with Austin standing alone, staring at the dogtags in his hand. He didn’t cry, move, or blink. It was almost as though time had frozen for him. I grabbed a tuft of fur on my chest, squeezing as I slowly approached. His dark orange eyes faded to blue as I stood in front of him, and his ears folded back.
“Austin?”
He didn’t respond.
“Please talk to me.”
“You gotta tell me what to do,” he said in the robotic tone I’d become accustomed to over the last week. “Tell me what to do. Please.”
“No,” I choked out. “This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be.”
He didn’t respond. Instead, a long sword-like blade appeared in my hand. I held it up, and that’s when the tears began to soak his face.
“What is this?”
“I can’t do it myself. Everything goes back to the way it was,” he whispered. “Maybe it’ll work if you do it.”
“Do what?”
“Kill me.”
I stepped back, the blade falling with a metallic clank to the black floor as I lost what composure I had. My stomach turned as I tried to find any sign of the Austin I’d seen when he was with his pack, but there was no emotion, just tears filling empty, blue eyes.
“I won’t.”
“Please,” he repeated, this time his voice went from monotone to bursting with anguish. “It hurts so much to live. You can make it stop.”
I fell into him, wrapping my arms around his waist and crying into the thicker fur on his chest.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
“Why am I still here?” he asked. I remembered him saying that as a limping little teenage boy sitting under the oak tree. How many times had he asked himself that while all alone?
“So we could have this moment.” I pulled back just as his eyes faded to their usual orange. “So you could find a family.”
“No!” he shouted. “Don’t say that. You’ll all die, just like them.” He gripped my upper arms, his claws sinking into my flesh. “You have to hate me!”
“I only hated you because that’s what I thought you wanted! I know you don’t want that! You never wanted anyone to hate you.”
