Chapter 1, The Cage (Remastered)

(Abigail's Perspective)

Running. I was running. I didn't know what from, I just knew I was rapidly sprinting through the forest, the large pines on either side of me a mere blur at the speed I was moving at. I knew I was being chased, I felt it, I could hear the following footsteps behind me. I picked up my pace, pushing my legs to move as fast as they could. There was a clearing not too far ahead, I might be able to get a glance at what's chasing me in the short amount of time. I leap over the bush and into the clearing, I turn my head to see what it is and…Nothing. There's nothing there. I immediately stop. I look all around me, taking in all of my surroundings, but I can't see anything that would chasing me, the only thing threatening is the massiveness of the tress I'm surrounded by, shadowing over me like I'm but a mere insect to them.

This can't be right, I heard something right behind me, I'm sure I did.

I carefully start treading back the way I came, being sure to keep a steady but silent pace, my eyes scanning left from right every few seconds, and occasionally checking behind me as well. My heart was pounding, not just from running, but from fear as well. Fear from what? As I continued the way I was, I started to feel weaker. My legs started to shake and my heart rate increased. It's there, somewhere, but where is it?

All of a sudden, I freeze. I can hear the breath of something behind me, and I hold my own, to hear it more clearly. Sure enough, the sound of an exhale repeats itself from behind me.

I then hear the sound of it leaping, and I immediately brace for impact, expecting to have my throat ripped open or my spine snapped.

The creature lands on me, but surprisingly softly, almost like it was taking care not to hurt me. Softly or not, it had me pinned under its weight. I was turned over, and greeted by a large grey wolf.

It was Grey

"Got ya!"

Immediately relief falls over me, and I can't help but laugh at the grey wolfs joyous exclamation

"Damnit Grey you scared the hell out of me!"

"I can tell" he had a grin on "You were like, sleep walking of sorts, all around the den, your eyes were closed but you were still walking around as if you had just woken up"

"Sleep walking? Well, I guess it wouldn't be the first time"

I recalled all the times my mother would wake me up from a form of sleep walk, telling me how worried I had her, walking so close to the cliff with my eyes closed.

Grey then shifted himself off of me, allowing me to stand.

I stretched out my back, it being slightly sore from the impact.

"Lay off the caribou Grey"

I heard a brief chuckle from the wolf behind me as he made his way to one side of the cage.

That's really all this is isn't it, one big cage? I jumped up on the rock in the center of this cage, and observed my surroundings again, looking for nothing in particular, just taking it all in, as I had been the past seven days I've been here. The fence that surrounded us was rather tall, too high to climb over, and it jutted out at an angle the opposite way, and on top was wire that spiraled through the whole top part of the fence. Upon questioning Grey at that, he said it was there so humans wouldn't jump the fence to get in, and that the curled wire was full of barbs so it'd feel like being stung by bees upon trying to hop over it. For a cage, this was indeed quite large, from one side of the fence to the other, it was around a quarter mile across or so, according to Grey, he claimed he overheard the humans mention the size of it, it being one of the largest habitats in this "zoo" as he calls it. There were trees around us, but not pines, they were baby evergreens that hadn't yet grown to their towering heights, and amongst us were various rocks and bushes and what not, and even a small stream that ran through the habitat diagonally, splitting the cage into two sections, with one side having a synthetic cave, and the other being where we get food and where I assumed I was pushed in from. This whole cage thing wasn't that bad, but if I were given the chance to leave, I'd take it. I hate this, sitting around, waiting for the metallic sound of metal sliding against metal, signaling food. Grey had said the reason as to why he was the only one here was that the zoo was rather new, and had not yet opened, therefore I was to expect future denmates.

I often sat by the stream, staring at my rippling reflection as it stared back, thinking about Humphrey, about Kate. I hope they wouldn't come looking for me. They'd just end up in here. While it's not that bad, nothing beats being free. Nothing. I guess Grey doesn't think the same way, as he is completely fine with being in here all his life, he said he had been in here for a few months, not knowing the exact amount. Grey was, quite something. He was such a big wolf, almost twice the size of me. But god was he dreamy. The way his Grey fur so excellently shined from the sun, the size of his muscles. His personality was exquisite, a little too cocky, and sometimes kinda dorky, but all around, a dream. Except, for this feeling. It was small but jabbing, the feeling that Grey wasn't all there.

It was then that I realized, Grey was no longer around.

I tilted my head up, to get a better view, searching everything in my immediate field of view before sitting up to check behind me. I didn't see him, anywhere. I made my way to the large rock in the center of the cage and jumped on top of it to get a better view, and sure enough, Grey was still nowhere to be found.

"Grey?!" I called out, no answer.

"Damnit where is that wolf" I thought out loud.

As I finished my sentence, I heard the metallic scraping, the tell-tale sign that there was an opening in the cage somewhere.

I looked in the direction of the sound and sure enough, Grey hopped back in, and shook his fur as if he had just been given a bath, but he was completely dry.

"Where'd you go?" I asked Grey upon approaching him.

"Oh me? I um, had to get a bath" He said very obviously trying to hide the truth.

"You're pretty dry for just having a bath" I snarked "So where did you really go?"

Grey sighed, and murmured to himself under his breath, something about having to tell me eventually anyway.

"I had to get my shots."

I froze. "Shots? Like, gunshots?" I asked, with an overwhelming sense of panic in my voice.

He shook his head "No like, shots to make sure you don't get sick"

"Oh" the overwhelming sense of panic was immediately replaced by relief

"So how do they give it to you?" I asked curiously

"Well you see…" Grey hesitated, and I shook my head, egging him on

"They have to stick this needle into you, and they inject you with this kind of medicine"

My relief was swept away like a dead leaf in Fall, blown away by the wind and taken to some far corner of the Earth, where it obsolete and irrelevant.

"A needle?" I flashed back, to the needle that had been shot into my flank but a week ago, with the feathery red plume protruding from the silver capsule.

"No" I said "they're not going to stick anymore needles into me then they already had"

I recalled the immense headache the needle had left me with, and the nauseous that came with it

"Abigail it's mandatory, you don't have a choice."

"I don't care they're not doing it to me I won't let them!"

I turned and ran to the metallic entrance Grey had appeared from, and began clawing at it, barking angrily, waiting for it to be opened, but I knew it wouldn't be.

"Let me out!"

"Abigail stop" Grey was behind me now

"Let me out!"

"Abigail its useless stop"

I started slamming my body weight against the door

"Let me the hell out of here!"

Instantaneously, I was on the ground, pinned under Grey's weight

"Abigail if you don't knock it off, they'll think you're feral and kill you!"

My eyes widened "Kill me?! You said they take care of us here!"

"Not if you act like a wild goose!" Grey snarled at me

"There's no way we can get out of here without being caught Abby! Trust me, I've tried every way!"

I shook my head frantically "No, I don't believe it there's got to be a way, there's always a way!"

"Not this time Abby" Grey got off of me as he sighed depressingly "not this time"

With his head hanging low and his ears and tails drooped, Grey turned and headed towards the synthetic cave.

I closed my eyes "There's always a way" remembering my mother always telling me that when I was younger, so much so that it would annoy me. Anytime I'd say something was impossible, or too hard, she'd always tell me "There's always a way Abigail."

I shut my eyes harder, trying to hold back tears "Mum" I said to myself "I miss you"

That night I could barely sleep.

It was abnormally cold and all I could think about was my mother for some reason. Remembering her soft smile, her cherry red fur similar to mine, her stunning green eyes. I missed her, more than I knew. I tried my best to forget about the pack, about everything that happened, and it worked for quite a while, but learning today how bad my situation really was had resurfaced old memories, and old love. Old memories of my brother and sister, and old love of my mother, and father, and old hatred for Heather. I want to rip her throat out and watch her twitch as the last of her life essence drains from here. I want to hear her beg me to let her live. Everything about last night was just horrible. The cold, the nightmares, Grey, who I couldn't sleep with in fear of annoying him even further.

I was quite glad to finally be awakened with the warm sun at my back, and the tranquil sounds of the stream running through the small pebbles at the bottom and edges of it. And quite contradictory to that, the sound that woke me up. The sound of a large metallic crash, like two cars hitting each other. I recognized the sound as the small door that was opened to feed us, however it was way louder, meaning it was a bigger door.

In the corner of my eye I saw Grey approaching me. I turned to face him, curious if he had heard the same sound as I.

"Did you hear that?" Grey asked

I nodded my head "What do you think it is?"

Grey exhaled "I think we have a new denmate.

I hope everyone enjoys the remaster of this chapter, I was trying to fill in all the details I was lacking in the original copy of this chapter. When I had originally wrote Chapter 1, there were a lot of details I was just too lazy to fill in, so this remaster is essentially the way I had originally imagined it. I also felt like the early chapters in this story really bring down the overall quality of the whole story because of how bad they are due to my laziness and lack of motivation. Note this will not be my only remaster, and I do plan on remastering all the chapters that I feel like need to be remastered (basically every chapter to chapter 6) so that they will get the love they deserve, and be written in the way I had actually imagined. Thank you all for you time, and thank you for supporting this story

-Artist 13