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Hunter reached the river and walked alongside it. Even though he couldn’t see much in the gloom, he could smell the pollution drifting off the surface. He walked for about a mile, just breathing deeply and trying to find calm in his torrid mind.

The sound of falling water drew him along, and he turned a corner and was met with a rock face, water pouring down from the top.

He checked his radiation monitor, which still glowed a healthy green, and then continued to the base of the waterfall.

Hunter peered beneath the curtain of water and saw a wide rocky shelf behind it. He slid behind the water, careful of the slippery surface. Spray dampened his clothing and hair, but he continued on. This could be a great place to hide when he needed a break from the stench and noise of being in an all-male barracks.

He grunted to himself. Maybe he had gotten soft. Working alongside Cleo was certainly no hardship, and she always smelled so damn good, and enjoyed coffee breaks with a side order of cake.

Hunter stopped as his foot hit something. He bent and picked it up. It was some kind of animal bone. He glanced around, tuning into the smells. There had better not be some giant cave dwelling bastard in here that ate Apexians for dinner.

He walked another few steps, then stopped when he spotted a metal panel attached to the rock face. Wires ran off it and around a bend.

Hunter studied the panel for a minute, and his heart sped up. He’d seen this technology before. It belonged to the Siblet.

He inched around the corner and came face-to-face with a metal door.

“You have got to be kidding me,” he whispered. “The fucking Siblet are on this planet too?”

He went back to the panel, ripped out the wiring, and overrode the locking device. Then he returned to the doors and forced them open.

If the Siblet were on Rowick, then nothing good was happening behind these doors. He planned to find out what they were up to and stop it.

Hunter strode along a wide corridor carved out of the rock. He walked for ten minutes before finding passageways leading off in three directions. This place was freaking huge.

He picked the left corridor and swiftly discovered numerous smaller rooms. Everything he saw pointed to the Siblet being established here for a while. There were rooms full of storage crates, and most of them contained food, clothing, or medical supplies.

Hunter ducked into a small room as footsteps approached, and he waited. His eyes narrowed as two Siblet in military uniforms walked past.

Yep, there was one hell of an operation going on down here. Plenty of supplies, a military presence, and evidence this place had been occupied for months. The sneaky bastards were using the chaos of the conflict above ground to conceal their work. Hell, maybe this was even their main base of operations. From the potential size of it, this was no temporary base.

Hunter slid out of the room and hurried along the corridor. The smell of antiseptic flooded his nose, and he scowled. It was a medical stink no one enjoyed.

He poked his head into the next room and found it empty of Siblet, so headed inside.

Mingled with the smell of antiseptic was the unpleasantly sweet smell of rot.

Hunter turned the corner and stopped. There were rows of cages in front of him, and in each cage was either a dead or dying animal.

He cursed under his breath as he looked in each cage. Most of the animals had been dead for weeks and their carcasses left to rot. He found a few bodies of tullaps and a pantha.

Hunter stopped by the cage of a small, shivering, rodent-like creature with silver gray fur and big ears. Patches of its skin were red, there were scars around its paws, and one eye was swollen shut.

“What the hell did they do to you?”

The creature shivered and closed its one working eye.

The easiest and kindest thing would be to put this creature out of its misery, but Hunter couldn’t do it.

He grunted and unlocked the cage. Being around humans had softened him to animals, but he’d always enjoyed their company. One of his old friends owned a farm, and he’d spent a summer there when he was younger, working alongside the beasts. All the animals had unique personalities and quirks. They liked to fool around with their buddies, kick up the dirt, and run just for the hell of it. No animal was dumb or deserved to suffer.

The rodent whimpered and backed into the corner, its body one big shiver as Hunter reached for it.

“I won’t hurt you.” The creature went limp when he picked it up, unzipped his uniform, and tucked it inside. “No biting or making a mess. And if you take a leak on me, I’m sending you the dry-cleaning bill.”

The rodent blinked up at him, and then snuggled down, closing its one working eye tight, its little paws clasping onto the fabric of Hunter’s undershirt.

“I’ll get us out of here. Just as soon as I’ve done with figuring out just how big this Siblet operation is.” Hunter continued to look around, checking out the equipment and more medical supplies.