TJ glanced around the room, realizing his father had had the gift of sight. As he focused on different objects, visions flashed through his mind. He could see the moment these items first came into his father’s possession. They shot forward in his mind as if you were fast forwarding a movie and would stop somewhere in the future. In TJ’s mind, the book that sat on the desk in his father’s office was on a shelf in a house. He realized he could see where that object would end up during the last moments of TJ’s life.
TJ looked down at his father and pushed away the visions from his mind. He bent down, slowly carried his father, and began walking towards the back door. The house, which could be described more accurately as a mansion, had been built on one hundred acres nearly a hundred years before TJ was born. At the back was a cemetery where each wolf in the family had a plot.
It was there, under the October full moon, where TJ would lay his father to rest with generations of wolves before him. The sounds of the zombies in the city echoed through TJ’s ears. He shut everything out while he prepared the ground to accept his father’s corpse. There was no longer any doubt in what TJ had to do. Revenge surged through his veins like nothing he had felt before. And after burying his father, TJ let his wolf out and sat singing a song of howl's that cleared his soul of pain.
In the distance, the stranger who had killed his father stood shivering in the cold. The sound of a wolf’s cry left her feeling more than uneasy.
Chapter 2: Scars And Battles
TJ spent the entire night sitting as his wolf by his father’s grave. There was nothing that could be done that evening, and it was tradition to sit with the dead during a full moon. As a wolf, he felt some comfort in knowing that his human mind was suppressed and that he wouldn’t drive himself crazy thinking of everything that had happened. The next morning, however, when he awoke, laying in the dirt naked as his human form, all the emotions that his wolf disregarded came flooding to him. It had been a long time since he had allowed the transformation and struggled to gain his footing as a human.
The wolf took everything out of the human part of TJ. He limped his way back to the mansion where he showered and sat at his father’s desk as he ate breakfast. There were papers everywhere, so he got things organized a bit before getting started. He knew that he needed to do some research about this “Dr. Gutierrez” a bit more before devising a plan of attack. The words “He has her…” played over and over in TJ’s mind.
The notes on his father’s desk spoke of a doctor who was a renowned scientist before the war. His specialty was in cancer research but he also dabbled in the reversal of chemical warfare. Early into the war, based on what the newspaper clippings stated, the doctor lost his wife to the Z-Virus which is what changed everyone into the zombies that now plagued the city. TJ flipped the pages until he saw a picture of Dr. Gutierrez and who was said to be his daughter, Yasenia. She was small with long brown hair and highly resembled the girl TJ had come in contact with the night before. It seemed like Yasenia was immune to the virus and was last known to still be alive.
This was a good start, but TJ knew that to get the full extent of what connected the doctor and these girls, he would have to start at the place he found the bodies. Maybe these young girls could do one more thing, making their deaths not entirely in vain. Their bodies could hold the secrets to what was going on at the compound the doctor still resided in now. There were so many pieces missing but from the looks of it, TJ knew that his father had finally connected the dots.
After breakfast, TJ had gotten most of his strength back. He decided to drive out to the clearing and walk from there to conserve his energy. Once he was in the woods, he took off his shoes and left them in the nearby bush. The bottom of his feet had wolf-like sensations which guided him through the mud and leaves. Clothes weren’t really TJ’s thing, and everything about him wanted to run naked through the woods. He changed his mind as he thought that was probably frowned upon. He made his way towards the area where the bodies were piled, stopping short of where he had left the girl and looking around in frustration. Everything had been burned.
He had smelled the smoke but he figured it had been from the nearby town, not from someone burning the evidence. He walked carefully through the debris, understanding that his human form could easily be injured. There were several charred remains, but they were so far gone. All the evidence had burned with them. TJ bent down where he had left the young girl the night before and sighed heavily, feeling the pain and loss of the humans whose remains would sink back into the earth as nothing more than ash. Suddenly, he caught the scent of the woman from the night before. He crouched down, turning in a circle, looking for any sign of her.
All of a sudden, from behind the bush, the small woman leapt forward, her bright yellow and black suit moving with her as if it were part of her body. She collided with TJ, and they rolled backwards across the ground, TJ struggling to get the upper hand. This woman was too fast to be a human. She was incredibly strong and her moves were reminiscent of his own. She seemed to have the same teachings as he did, except she wasn’t a wolf.
TJ kicked her off him and she flew backwards, grabbing onto a branch and landing on her feet. They ran towards each other once again, meeting in the middle and testing each other’s strength. TJ looked at her as they stood pushing against each other, their arms interlocked in front of their chests. Her eyes were the color of emeralds. She smirked as he studied her face. His eyes fell to her neck where scars covered her from just above the neck of the suit. She realized he had seen her marks. TJ took that moment of distraction to sweep her legs from underneath her.
In one fluid motion, he pounced on top of the woman and pinned her legs down. He used a nearby branch to push over her shoulders and against her throat. She struggled underneath him, flailing her arms until he began to push further, cutting off her supply of air. She grabbed on to the branch and looked up at TJ with anger.
“Who are you?” he yelled. She ignored him, so he pushed harder. “Who are you?!”
“Ya… Yasenia,” she gasped.
“You’re the doctor’s daughter!” he replied. “Why did you kill my father?”
“He knew too much,” she said, choking and gasping at this point. TJ let up just enough to allow some air to pass through her throat.
“Too much of what? What is your father doing?!” TJ yelled, threatening to push on the stick again.
“He’s trying to cure the zombies…” she answered, her eyes rolling back in her head.
TJ let the stick loose but kept her arms pinned to the ground. His wolf sense began to clamber inside as he looked down at Yasenia who had just caught her breath. She had killed his father, and while his human side told him to go easy, the wolf wanted to tear her to shreds. TJ could tell that Yasenia could see the anger in his eyes. She smiled condescendingly, further igniting his rage.
Without thinking, TJ extended his arm in the air, ready to strike down hard and kill the woman where she lay. When he did this, she instantly swung over on her back, bucking TJ off like a bull. He flew hard into a tree and as he landed on his knees, he watched as Yasenia took off through the woods. He took a deep breath, mustered his strength, and began to chase after her. At this point, his human form had not yet recovered from his transformation. As he rounded the corner of the woods, he thought he had lost her. He paused, putting his hands on his knees, and catching his breath.
TJ’s eyes caught a reflection. He looked up at the giant building in front of him. It seemed like a military compound, but he knew there was no more military left. The gate which surrounded it was topped with barbed wire fencing. He walked around the front and peered through the front entrance, knowing that they could see him. There were guards at the front door, and all the windows were dark except for one. He stared up at the lit window. A young girl was staring back at him. She was frail with light gray eyes similar to those of the infected, but she wasn’t a zombie.
She pressed her hand against the window
as if she could see him. TJ realized that she was the girl his father was talking about. With all the recent killings, she had to be the last girl left in the city. As the two stared at each other from afar, TJ watched as the girl jumped and turned around in a hurry. Her arms flew up in the air and her head frantically shook. Yasenia appeared in the window. She grabbed the girl and pulled her away from the window. TJ could hear the girl’s screams echo through the compound. He grabbed on to the gate, the metal bending slightly in his grasp.
Anger flew through TJ. The face of that girl was now burned into his mind. He had to get to her; he had to save her. His father had died trying to get to her, and now it was TJ’s responsibility to finish the job. They were running experiments on these girls, and if there was any chance of the human race surviving, it was up to TJ to stop the doctor.
A strong wind whipped across the gates. TJ let out a growl from his chest. He vowed to come back, and when he did, there would be hell to pay.
Chapter 3: The Human
It had been three days since TJ had seen the girl in the window of the compound. He hadn’t slept a wink. Spread out across the floor in front of him were documents, maps, and drawings of the compound itself. Dr. Gutierrez didn’t always practice out of this building. In fact, it seemed like the doctor had turned into a crazy mad scientist since the Z-Virus was released. Before that, he had acquired numerous accolades for his research and findings in medicine.
TJ rubbed his eyes in frustration, knowing he would need to start doing more stakeouts and less reading of old newspaper and government clippings. The compound was heavily guarded and, unlike his chase there the other night, he didn’t want them to discover that he was scoping out the area. He knew that Dr. Gutierrez and his daughter would be on high alert, watching for any sign of him. He had to be discreet. He was baffled at why Yasenia hadn’t been back to the house, knowing he would be a sitting duck. Either way, there was no chance he was going to go running head first into the compound without a little reconnaissance first.
The compound the doctor was using was an old army stronghold where the officers sought refuge during the war. After the Z-Virus wiped out the city, the army fled, or at least what was left of them. The building was far enough out of town that the zombies really didn’t venture there. It provided the perfect cover for his secret experiments. The buildings stretched across fifty acres. One of TJ’s plans was to find out where the central location was, though he had a strong feeling it was where the girl was being held.
He set the map down and took a deep breath, stretching his muscles to try to relieve the tension. Sleep was the next step in his plan. With the sun already setting, he knew he should get a good night’s sleep and start tomorrow with surveillance. TJ gathered his things, rolled them up, and stuck them in a vault on the wall which couldn’t be opened without the swipe of his fingertips. He knew that if they came looking for him, they would destroy whatever they found. He didn’t want to be stuck at square one.
TJ dragged himself up to the spare bedroom and fell onto the king-sized bed. Sleep immediately took over before he could even remember his head hitting the pillow. His dreams belonged to his wolf that night. He was taken back to his younger days when he would run carefree through the woods with his father. The dream was so real that when TJ woke up, he checked to make sure he was still clothed and that there weren’t any paw prints leading in and out of the room. The bright yellow orb in the sky was shining through the uncovered window. For a moment, the weight of the day ahead was lifted from his chest.
For the next three days, TJ spent his days planning out routes for surveillance. His nights consisted of sneaking around the compound walls and taking mental pictures of what was going on further down the road. He attempted to use his new talent of sight, but it simply showed fire where the compound was. He had remembered talking to his father about the gift of sight. He had always said it was relatively useless since the future changes on a constant basis, and that every little decision you make alters your ultimate ending. The fact that the building was on fire in TJ’s visions was no big surprise since uprisings had occurred for decades. Not many humans were left in these parts, though.
By the end of day three, which also happened to be Christmas Eve, TJ knew exactly where the experiments were taking place. He now had a general idea of the schedule of the girl. He hadn’t seen her in the window in a couple of days, but his senses still picked up her scent. It was something he had managed to pick up the first night he saw her. Also, there had not been any sign of Yasenia or the doctor. Anyhow, he didn’t expect them to be standing in the middle of the field waiting for him.
TJ decided to take Christmas off and relax a bit before heading in for the charge. It was important that he was well-rested since he figured he would have to fight both guards and Yasenia when he made his entrance. He went to bed for a bit when he got home, and woke with the sun just a few hours later. The ground was covered in snow at this point. He sat at the large dining table alone, a turkey and all the fixings laid out before him. He liked to cook and the feeling of family, even though he was alone, was comforting during this time.
The hours passed. TJ was beginning to become restless, so he grabbed a shirt and boots and decided to go for a walk. The city was quiet, with the only jubilant ones being the zombies that had found their evening meals. He walked and walked, not paying attention to where he was going until he found himself back outside the compound. He caught the girl’s scent immediately and looked into the courtyard where she was standing in the snow, surrounded by several guards. It looked as if she was training for something. Her movements were reminiscent of the zombies in the city, except more controlled. She was fast and could jump very high. Her eyes had turned completely gray. TJ wondered if she had also been infected by the Z-Virus. He moved quickly to the side when her head snapped towards him, alerting the guards.
TJ stood there momentarily until the guards went back to their stations. He peered around the large columns until his eyes met with the young girl’s. He strained hard and used his sight to see bits and pieces of her past. Before the guards were alerted again, he nodded to the girl and started his walk back to the house. He had seen her before she had been affected by whatever it was Dr. Gutierrez did. It gave him a clearer picture of who he had to be looking for in his research.
Once home, TJ studied everything he could about the girl. Since the fall, very few humans used the internet. TJ was about to give up when he came across a post on one of the human help forums. It featured a picture of the girl. Her name was Denise Jacobs, the last surviving human girl in the city. Though she had changed a bit since the picture was taken, TJ could tell from her smile, her long brown hair, and her short but poignant posture that it was her. In that instant, TJ felt an absolute connection with Denise. He needed to get her out of there before she ended up in another ash pile in the woods. Tomorrow was going to be the deciding factor of the future of humans in this city, and TJ was determined to set her free.
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Chapter 4: An Upward Climb
TJ woke up early the next morning, adrenaline pumping through his body. Tonight was the night he would test out his plan and attempt to free Denise from the clutches of Dr. Gutierrez and his daughter Yasenia. There was no turning back at this point. TJ was more than ready to fight, and possibly die, to save this girl’s life or whatever was left of it.
He started the day with a jog around the property, stopping momentarily to share a moment at his parents’ grave site. The snow was still heavy on the ground. TJ’s wolf kept him warm, leaving sweat on his brow by the time he had returned to the house. He had breakfast and then settled into his father’s office chair, studying the layout for the evening’s events. Before he did anything, he wanted to make sure there was nothing unexpected going on. He pulled on a hoodie and some sweatpants and headed out to the compound.
Slowly, he jogged past the gates, keeping his head
down as he went. As usual, Denise was stationed by her window. There didn’t seem to be any activity that was out of the ordinary. As TJ made his way around the side, he noticed that Denise was watching him. She had a blank expression on her face. He could see that whatever was going on in that lab had destroyed the girl he had seen in his visions. Thinking that the doctor would succeed in stripping away her humanity made TJ all the more ready to get her out of the compound.
It was early evening by the time TJ got back to the house. He took a shower and began to prepare for the mission. He pulled on a pair of black pants and a tight black shirt that should help him from being seen in the night. There was a storm brewing, so the moon wasn’t expected to cast much light down on the compound. Once he had gotten dressed, he went down and pulled out some Christmas leftovers from the fridge. He ate silently in the dining room. Food wasn’t very appetizing at the moment. He pushed the chicken and potatoes around on his plate while he watched the hands on the clock move slowly.
Void Beast Box Set Page 2