by Mel Todd
Think it through. You weren’t a virgin. He didn’t take that from you. You can’t get pregnant, your forethought has removed that danger. You can get tested for disease as soon as you get the kids out. And if you get the chance, you can kill him, and enjoy it.
The thoughts repeated, and she centered in on herself. TEC couldn’t touch her, and the only thing that mattered right now were the kids. If they had given her a choice of being lashed or the kids, she would have made the same choice.
It was the right choice. But you’ve wallowed long enough. Time to go reassure the kids.
The water had started to grow cold, and she shut it off. Drying off with the towel, she brushed her teeth quickly, glad he hadn’t kissed her. Not biting his tongue off might have been more temptation than she could have handled. A quick comb through her hair to get out the worst of the tangles, and she was ready to go back to her job. The only job that mattered.
The underwear stayed off, she couldn’t stand putting wet clothes back on. Pulling on the undershirt and pants, she pulled open the door to six animals in a semi-circle staring at her.
The smile almost felt real. “See, told you I was fine. I just needed a shower. Now let's go see what was in the boxes?”
Her words calmed most of them as she moved to the boxes and found hygiene supplies, another change of clothes for her, with three pair of underwear, more food for the kids, and a new training packet.
The rest of the kids played while she went through things, but Charley wouldn’t leave her side, his body laying next her as she went over the training. At his urging she gave in and petted him. The action seemed to relax him as much as it soothed the jagged edges in her soul.
Chapter 35 - Chance
In an interesting change in criminal statistics violent crimes against strangers has dropped by at least 30% across the board in America. Other countries are reporting lower instances of rape and mugging. Domestic abuse has not had a similar drop, and crimes with guns have gone up. Right now, the speculation among law enforcement is that it is similar to the drops in crime rates in places with mandatory gun ownership. As one sheriff in Kansas stated—“You don’t tend to mug a small female when you know there is a chance she could turn into a big cat and rip your throat out. But while that is just speculation on my part, I’m happy that rapes have dropped over 75% in my jurisdiction.” While we don’t know if that is case everywhere, I don’t think anyone is upset to hear about such a drastic drop in stranger crimes. ~ KWAK News Editorial
The new training had more commands for all of them to learn, and complicated routines, but what would have been time consuming for animals, the kids learned quickly. Charley still remained clingy, but McKenna didn’t complain, enjoying his presence. Her biggest issue ended up keeping them busy and interested. Luckily, they tended to need more sleep, but she still chaffed at all of it. If there was a way out, she couldn’t see it.
The next afternoon TEC came again. Gary watching with no comment. She didn’t protest, going along with his demands, occupying herself as he raped her by trying to figure out how she could use this against them. Done, he pulled out and nodded at the boxes.
“There’s more crap there for you. Grab it, then get in there.” He seemed more rushed than last time, but she noted their attention seemed sloppier, as if they didn’t really expect her to do anything.
[They are becoming complacent.]
The thought flashed through her, and she almost stumbled, she knew that hadn’t been her thought. Forcing down the hysterical fear that bubbled up in her, she grabbed the boxes and moved through the open door.
It’s happening, I’m going crazy too. Oh please, don’t let me lose it before I get these kids safe back home with their families.
Nothing answered her thought, and she fought back the tears.
The kids all looked at her, Charley all but attached to her, his tail tight against his body.
“No worries, guys. I just got us more stuff. Let me go to the bathroom and I’ll be right back.” They didn’t look reassured, and she didn’t want to know what they had thought about what she did out there. Or worse, if they knew.
McKenna didn’t bother with the shower, just washing herself as she sat on the toilet trying not to think about all the things going wrong in her life right now.
Suck it up, Kenna. The kids.
She pulled on the clean unworn underwear washed out the other and walked out to start the training again, pretending with voice and body that nothing bothered her. Her dreams attacked her at night, but she didn’t let herself scream or cry even in sleep.
The days fell into a routine of rape, training, sleep, and repeat. Her menstrual cycle didn’t come, but the amount of stress she dealt with probably influenced that. She couldn’t let herself think that she might be pregnant. To keep her sanity, she latched onto the kids even harder, doing anything to keep them occupied. Too wound up in the evenings to fall asleep immediately, they curled around her and she told them stories. Some were TV shows, some books she had read, others old fairy tales, and most of them blended together stealing one from another.
The stress caused more weight to fall off of her, but her biggest fear centered on the kids who were acting more like animals every day.
She hated it, but the rape had become routine, even TEC seemed to be getting bored. Gary sat on the stairs barely watching them, his gun pointed loosely in their direction, but not casual enough, that she thought she had a chance.
“Okay, Charley. Искать cocaine.” The wolf bounded away from her, but rather than the normal under 45 seconds, he pointed at three wrong places before he found it. McKenna chewed on her lip. Since day one, none of them had made a mistake or taken that long.
Oh, please don’t let them be regressing into animals.
A snort of derison in the back of her mind, caused her to flinch. She pushed it away, instead calling out the next one. “Jessi, nej pot.”
One of the cats, tail lashing, slinked out and went around the room. Both of the cats found things fast, with little patience for the action, wanting more to play. But the cat took five full minutes, then finally gave the signal after multiple pauses at other locations.
Other locations where she had hidden them before.
And idea sparked, and she played with it in her head as she called the kids to her.
“Let’s end early today guys. How about dinner, with jerky as treats, and I’ll tell you a longer story?”
They all looked at her with quizzical expressions, but heads nodded down as she led them to the kitchen. She’d found that they still had a locked in focus on food. For herself most of it just tasted like ashes in her mouth, so she only ate what she had to. Once they were busy eating, she walked over and lifted her head up, mostly to identify she was talking to the people watching.
“Excuse me, sir” she kept her voice quiet and meek, tossing in the honorific to stroke his ego. Outside of TEC and Gary, there hadn’t been any conversations over the speakers. Even their wake-up calls were just an alarm over the speakers.
The silence stretched long enough to make her wonder if they didn't listen anymore. Then a click and the Smiling man's voice.
"Yes, Miss Largo?"
McKenna noted that he'd dropped the officer title. She decided to take that as a positive, maybe it meant they didn't think of her as a threat anymore. The problem existed that it might mean they considered her disposable. Either way it didn't matter, she could feel time slipping through her fingers. She closed her eyes for a minute, thinking how terrified the parents were. How terrified Toni was. Those thoughts helped steel her spine.
"I am running into an issue with making the training effective."
Put the blame on yourself, keep the kids safe and out of this discussion.
Thoughts jumbled together, and she broke out in a cold sweat trying to ignore the voice.
"And what would that be?" Interest? Boredom? She couldn't tell anything from his comment.
"The pac
kages you provided, have been hidden in so many places, their scent has saturated the area. The scent is no longer distinct enough to find in this area. If you would like to make them stretch their abilities, they need a new environment, one with competing scents and unknown hiding places. I'd like to suggest to you an outside test, controlled of course, to have the packets hidden so they can search them out." She kept her voice diffident, trying to make it sound like his idea.
McKenna had rolled the words around in her head over and over as she prepared the food, this had to work. She needed one chance to get them out of here.
"Hmm, I see that this might be an issue. I had not considered that scents would saturate an area. Though from what I've seen in the tapes I've reviewed, you've done a decent job training them. They don't seem to be chafing much against their orders. But I can see that in an area that small, there might be a lack of challenge. I will consider it." The speaker clicked, and the voice shut off.
He isn't watching everything real time.
She nodded her head, trying to seem meek and subservient. Anything to help make them think the risk was low. But she couldn't assume this guy would think she was stupid. Assume he'd think this was all a trick, what might he ask?
Trying to keep things close to normal, she cleaned and thought of something to keep the kids busy. While she struggled to come up with plans to deal with any contingency.
As long as he doesn't hurt the kids. If I shift I can get out of most bonds I think.
She closed her eyes and forced back tears, the stress of trying to stay cheerful and think of a way out, beating at her.
It has to work, it has to.
The day passed, and she created an Eye Spy game with the kids to keep them busy, but with foreign words, since one of the things provided had been some dictionaries to try to get them more fluent. That ate up more time than she would have thought.
The night passed endlessly, with her having a hard time sleeping. Trying to decide if she should even get their hopes up about going outside. In the end she decided no and slept restlessly as she tried to think of another option if this was denied.
By morning, she had only come up with one last ditch effort, but the consequences of failure would be all of their lives, and she didn’t know if she could make that choice.
The banging at the door as she cleaned up the breakfast dishes took her by surprise. No one had ever come this early.
“McKenna,” Smiling Man’s voice came through the door. “Keep the animals back.”
“Come here guys,” she called them to her even as her heart leapt, she had to grab the tracker. Moving she squatted putting away a dish as she opened the door grabbing the tracker from the shoe and put it in her pocket. If she could just get it outside. She had to have faith that she did it fast enough that no one noticed.
She continued with the dishes even as the small object burned in her pocket.
Please don’t let the battery have died, oh please.
With shaking hands, that she tried to stop, she dried them as she turned to face the men in the door way. There were three, not counting Smiling Man and TEC. She didn’t see Gary and had no idea if that was good or bad.
“If you are ready to pay attention now?” The question held more than a hint of annoyance, and she ducked her shoulders, trying to look small.
“Sorry, I didn’t want the dishes to sit. The place is too small and holds the odors.”
“Hmph. Well I decided to use this as a chance to do a presentation. But as I am sure you expected there will be rules.” He stood up a bit straighter, and she fought to look cowed. She’d never done that look very well.
“Thank you. I’m sure the kids will follow the rules.”
“Oh, I’m sure they will. Here they are. My men are hiding the various objects outside right now, all within a 500 meter radius. We will go upstairs, and I will give them the commands. They have five minutes to find each object I call out. And there are various of each hidden. If they fail I shoot them. If they attack anyone, I shoot them. If you create any trouble, I shoot them. And McKenna,” he oozed out they syllables of her name and she thought she might never be able to stand to hear it again. “If I have to shoot them, I’ll shoot you too.”
“They’ll do good. I promise.”
“They’d better. Your life is counting on these animals having learned everything correctly.” He backed up. “Not that I don’t trust your or anything, but you will stay there until we are up the stairs, and then I will call for you. If anyone rushes up the stairs, I’ll assume they are escaping and shoot them.” His calm tone never varied as he turned and ascended the stairs. TEC waited until he was almost at the top, then started to climb them backwards.
McKenna knelt gathering the kids around her, letting her hands drift out and pet each one. Her voice so low she could barely hear it.
“Do your best, but if you hear me yell ‘run’, take off don’t look back, don’t come for me, get out of there, hide. Even if they shoot you, run.”
She put every bit of fear and command she could into her voice and they glanced at her, their heads dipping, except Charley. But there wasn’t any time to try to convince him.
“Come up now. Slowly.”
Standing feeling hope and fear tearing her stomach and heart apart, she climbed the stairs to the only chance she had.
Chapter 36 - Roll the Dice
My Baby Changed in the Womb! "My baby tried to eat his way out of me!" proclaims grief-stricken mother as she views the remains of her once human child. Read more about this horrifying experience on Page 8 ~ local tabloid headlines
The youngest change currently on record has been a few six-year-olds. There are now reports of children who did not change during the first few days of The Calling, only a few weeks ago, that are now changing. All of them are older than five. While any information about infants changing or very young toddlers is still being sought, the consensus is a minimum age is required. The big game changer about this is it means that there may be more children as time goes on, and new ones are born that may have this ability, even if they weren't alive during The Calling. The long-term effects of what this might mean on our society, on our world are still up for debate, and the current 2 percent of people shifting, might change. Who knows, people who can't shift might one day be the minority. ~ TNN Talking Head
Even though where they had been kept was equipped with decent lighting, the brightness of the day outside took her by surprise. McKenna squinted as she stared out onto a cloudless day. The sun hung in the sky and it already had passed eighty degrees. It looked to be midmorning, so maybe they had kept to normal days.
McKenna counted in her head how many days they had been there.
Ten days, at least.
The number made her nauseous. She knew they would still be looking for them, but at this point they’d be expecting bodies. Every fiber of her being focused on the small device laying in her pocket, innocent and the manifestation of all her hope.
She stood at the entrance of their prison taking everything in as fast as she could, and it she still couldn’t take it all in or make plans before Smiling Man spoke.
“Over here.” He pointed at a location off to the left of the entrance. “You will stand here, and a gun will be kept on you at all times. The animals will go to the line over there.” He pointed to a rough line dragged through the ground out in front.
To her relief Charley moved first, moving over to the line, the other kids following him at a quick pace. They all took their places, apparently unconcerned by anything going on. But she could see the tenseness in their bodies, and their sharp tail slashes. It both terrified her and made her feel better. McKenna stood where instructed, her bare feet hurting on the ground.
Don’t think about it, follow your instincts, and trust that JD would never quit looking for you.
TEC stood next her, sunglasses on his face hiding his expression. He held his gun out but not pointed at her, which made her smile inter
nally. At least someone didn’t regard her as a threat anymore. At this point anything she could get, she’d take.
Smiling Man glanced at her and dismissed her as he walked over to the kids all at the line. She watched his body language carefully, relieved at the arrogance and unconcern he saw there. Not having them practice attacking on anything might make all of them underestimate just how deadly these kids could be. Closing her eyes, she listened carefully, but all she could hear were the men shifting back and forth, the leaves on the trees rustling, and maybe in the distance water rushing over water. Even the air didn’t carry any scent of cars or city.
McKenna swallowed a sigh and ducked her head, not having to pretend the dejection this time.
No traffic, so who knows how far away the road is, or how long it might take them to get there. It’s all on me.
“I am sure you heard my instructions. I will make the assumption you can understand them. So rather than wasting my time, let’s see how your skills are coming.” He glanced at one of his men, who had his cell phone up in front of him. “Ready to start filming? I want to make sure this is recorded so we can show it to buyers.”
“Got it, all right here. Once you view it and we edit it, we can upload it to your cloud storage.”
“Good. And if not, I suppose we might be able to charge for a snuff film.” Smiling Man shot her a glance as he said it, a smirk clear on his face.
The callous remark sent a shiver through her body that she couldn’t completely repress, and TEC sneered at her. “Don’t worry pussy cat, I’ll keep you around for a while. You’re too much fun to give up that easily.”
McKenna ducked her head looking at the ground to prevent him from seeing the snarl that flashed across her face. As soon as she thought she had her expression back under control, she looked up to watch the kids. Her ears straining for any sound, praying to hear sirens. She would wait as long as she could, then she’d risk everything, because otherwise they were lost.