The leopard growled from within the crate that it was being held in as we waited for Mitch and the others to come get me and Jamie. I laid beside the crate next to the roaring fire as my daughter nuzzled up close to me and latched onto a tit and began to drink.
"Have you thought of a name for her yet?" Jamie asked me. I looked around the room and my eyes laid onto a book. I barked at it and Jamie got up and grabbed it. She laid it in front of me and opened it up to a random page. I scanned the page and pointed my nail to a letter barking when I needed her to turn the page. "M—I—C—H—E—L—L—E—L—U—N—A. Michelle Luna. That's beautiful, Callana." The old man came back into the room and sat down on the couch and looked into the crate and Jamie turned her attention back to the leopard. "My friends are coming to get us. You have a very important job to do." The man spoke Inuttitut in joy. "You know, they are going to write books about you, the man who saved the leopard who saved the world. I'm going to make sure that they're translated."
"Nawok." The man laughed, getting up from the couch.
"Nawok? That's. . . uh, rope?" The man walked out the front door and closed it behind him. The leopard began to growl even more now. "Hey. What is it?" A bear roared as the front door busted open and the old man stumbled in and fell to the ground, bleeding out from claw marks on his torso. Jamie gasped and backed away from the body. I jumped to my paws, Michelle whining. Jamie rushed to the door and closed it before the pack of wolves outside could get in. The leopard growled from inside the crate. Jamie grabbed the rope on top of the crate and I went behind it and pushed as she pulled the crate to the basement steps. She pushed it down the steps and the crate broke open at the bottom of the steps, freeing the leopard. I picked Michelle up by the scruff and ran down the steps with Jamie behind me, making sure that she closed the basement door behind her.
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Jamie grabbed some rope that was in the basement and tied it around the leopard's neck and tied the other end to a post. Jamie walked over to me and reached out to take Michelle from me. I growled at her and bared my teeth at her while I backed up.
"Callana, she'll be safe here with the leopard." Jamie reassured me. "The others will find the leopard and they'll also find Michelle. I promise." I thought about it for second and then slowly dropped Michelle in front of Jamie's feet. She picked her up and placed her under a red crate so Michelle couldn't go anywhere. "Go ahead and lead the animals away. I'll be right behind you. Whatever you do, don't turn back." Jamie opened one of the basement windows for me and I hopped up, pulling myself through the tight space. I didn't waste any time. I took off in a run through the crowd animals that was trying to get into the house. I howled and barked at them and they started to chase me as I ran into the woods. Growling and barking sounded behind me as the pack of wolves chased me. I pushed myself to the limits, the trees a blur around me. For a second, I forgot about the wolves chasing me and focused on how good it felt to finally be running free. While I was in my own little world, I was paying attention to what was in front of me. I tripped over a root and began rolling down a hill. My side slammed into a tree and I fell into a hole. I looked through the opening and saw the pack of wolves race by me. When I was sure that they were gone, I poked my head out and looked in the direction that I came from, waiting for Jamie to appear. A few moments passed and there still was no sign of her. I climbed out of the hole and looked in the direction that would take me back to the United States. I looked over my shoulder one more time for Jamie before I started walking away.
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For more days than I could count, I walked and walked and walked and walked, never stopping. Only sleeping when I passed out and only eating and drinking when I came across something. My paws kept me propelling forward as they had a mind of own. They were pulling me in a direction only my heart and instincts knew. My only thought of the past was that I hoped the others got the leopard and Michelle and my only thought of the future was a future with Mitch and Michelle. And Jamie. . . I hope she made it out okay. I crossed the border a couple nights ago. The wind blew at my face and I raised my nose into the air and inhaled a sweet, intoxicating scent. A scent that I would never forget. Mitch. My legs shook with lack of energy as I pushed them through the remaining trees of the woods and into an open field. In the middle of the field was a small airport with a large plane on the platform with the back door opened. I ran to the opening and peered up into it. Before I could get a good visual, a gun cocked to my left and I turned to see a Hispanic woman with black hair aiming a gun at me. I crouched low to the ground in fear and she stared at me in shock. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe my nose was playing tricks on me.
"Dariela?" A man's voice came from the other side of the plane. A couple seconds later, Jackson appeared. I raised my head slightly in joy but quickly lowered it when I remembered the woman with the gun. "Dariela, what are you doing?"
"It's a wolf. Probably strayed off from a nearby pack. We need to get moving before the rest of its pack gets here." Jackson turned and gazed at me before his eyes got wide with realization.
"Dariela, put your gun down. She won't do you any harm."
"And how do you know that?" Jackson crouched down in front of me and slowly extended his hand to me and scratched the side of my face.
"She's a friend and Mitch will need to see her as soon as possible. Stay right here, Callana." Jackson got up and walked up the ramp to the vehicle bay and grabbed a blanket from a cabinet and walked back down to me. He held the blanket up like a curtain and I sat up. I closed my eyes and searched deeper than what I did before for my human side. Once I found it, I grabbed onto it and began to phase back into my human form. Once I was fully shifted, Jackson wrapped the blanket around to cover myself.
"Jackson, what the hell is going on?"
"I'll explain everything soon." My legs shook as Jackson took my hand and helped me up the ramp of the plane. I needed Jackson's help because my legs were weak not only for not being able to eat anything for several days but also because I haven't walked on these legs for several months. He guided me through a door and down a small hallway that opened up to a very large laboratory. There were two medical tables in the center with one of them occupied. What looked to be a man had a disformed face and lacerations all over his body with half of his left arm missing and the bone sticking out. I pulled my eyes away from it and found his back to us, staring at a computer screen. "Hey, Mitch, you want to see what I found? Or rather what Dariela found."
"Not really." Mitch sighed.
"Oh, I'm pretty sure that you're gonna wanna see this one." Mitch's shoulders sagged as he sighed and turned around in his seat. Seeing his face broke my heart. His brown eyes were so hard and dead and he had bags under his eyes. As soon as his eyes laid on me, I could see him stop breathing.
"Callana?" Tears burned my eyes as I nodded and he got up from his seat and rushed over to me. He picked me up in his arms and I was glad he did. My legs were about to give out on me. I gripped onto him and buried my nose into his shirt, inhaling his scent and feeling the warmth of him. "How did you get here?" I pulled away from him and swallowed my sob.
"It's been a long journey." I rasped, my throat dry and scratchy was the lack of liquids my body had. He pulled me into his embrace again.
"I thought I lost you." I closed my eyes and supported myself against him.
"I will always find my way back to you, Mitchell."
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I sat on the edge of the other medical table listening to the raspy panting of the creature next to me. I felt a lot better after getting hellos and hugs from everybody on the team and welcoming me back.
"His arm looks like it was bitten off." Jackson said. Mitch came over to me and handed me a mug of hot chocolate.
"Drink." Mitch ordered as he took my blood pressure. "More like it was gnawed. Whatever happened, it wasn't fast. It was clean. It probably hurt like hell."
"Is anyone going to tell me what's going on?" I asked, my voice sounding clearer.
"Well, probably because we don't know what's going on ourselves. All we know is that this guy has what they call a phase two mutation and we're studying him."
"Okay, and who's this Dariela chick?"
"She's a ranger."
"And Michelle?" Mitch looked up from his work at me at the mention of his daughter's name.
"She's fine. She's perfectly healthy." I sighed in relief.
"Can I see her?"
"She's not here. She's with Clementine at a safe zone in Maine."
"But is she still—"
"A wolf? No, she phased about a day after we got her and the leopard."
"Will she ever—"
"Turn back into a wolf like you? I don't know, Calla. All that matters is that she's safe."
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I didn't know I was pregnant."
"You're fine, Calla."
"Son of a bitch." Dariela snapped as she walked into the lab with Abraham behind her. "Why is this thing still alive?"
"Okay, so I got a hit on his fingerprints." Chloe said walking in. "He's a doctor from Hungary working with the Red Cross. Janos Kovacs."
"Kovacs?"
"Do you know him?" Abraham inquired.
"Yeah. I—I mean, not well, but we worked the same refugee camp in Egypt a few years back."
"According to his visa, he arrived five weeks ago." Chloe informed us Was headed for a village in Argentina called Ydermo."
"Well, then that's where we start." Jackson said.
"Don't bother." Dariela said. "My team was there two days ago. Everybody's dead. Massacred by this things Kovacs turned into."
"Well, it's our only lead."
"You all are insane. What if there are more like him out there?"
"She has a point." Abraham agreed. "We don't know what we're walking into. We should wait until Mitch has finished his tests, so we know more about this new mutation."
"Why am I not surprised you want to stay on the plane?" Mitch snapped at Abraham and I flinched at the waves of hostility rolling off of Mitch.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me. You know, sometimes what's out there is worth the risk. But if you want to hang back, take a bubble bath, that's cool with me. Just stay out of my way, okay?"
"Bubble bath?"
"Yes."
"This is how, out of anger, you'd characterize me—as a man that has been taking bubble baths since we've begun this?"
"Metaphorically—speaking, yeah, I'm comfortable with that characterization." I held up a hand to silence both of them.
"Okay, I don't know what's going on with you two," I spoke and then turned to glare at Mitch. "I'll find out later," I looked back at Abraham. "But you two need to put it aside for right now and hash it out later."
"We need to find the animal responsible for transferring the mutation." Chloe said. "Lieutenant Marzan, you'll take Jackson and Abe to Ydermo."
"Is that an order?" Dariela barked at her. "Cause I don't see stripes on your sleeve." I buried my head in my hands.
"Oh, my God, too much hostility." I muttered, shaking my head.
"I don't need stripes." Chloe said. "I have a plane. The quicker we get what we need, the quicker you get back to Sao Paulo." Dariela didn't argue with that.
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"So you don't know where Jamie is?" Mitch asked me as he inserted an IV in me to help liquids get into my system faster. I shook my head.
"She said that she would be right behind me but she wasn't." I said. Mitch ran his hands down my side and stopping where my rib cage protruded my body. He lifted up my shirt where you could clearly see each one of my ribs.
"You must have lost like thirty pounds." I looked him directly in the eye.
"You don't know what I've been through to get back to you." He was quiet for a moment before he moved down to my legs and began to move them back and forth, stretching the muscles.
"You're right, I don't."
"So, what's going on between you and Abe?" Mitch sighed before he placed a clip on my finger to take my heart rate.
"He forced me to leave you and Jamie behind in New Brunswick."
"Mitch, that place was overrun by animals. Abraham was right to put you on the helicopter."
"I could have found both of you and then you wouldn't have gone through what you did."
"And you have been killed in the process."
"It would have been worth it."
"Not for me it wouldn't be. I'd rather die than for you to die.
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"So the plan is to stimulate the neocortex." Mitch explained to Chloe and me. "That's the most evolved part of the brain."
"That's the part of the brain responsible for speech?" Chloe asked.
"More precisely, the part that makes us human. Language, social structure, self-control, empathy. Putting the toilet seat down. All the things we know we should do to be productive members of society. All thanks to the neocortex."
"Will it hurt him?"
"No, he'll be fine. Just a small electronic pulse, kind of like a static shock." Mitch stared hard at Chloe for a moment while she stared intently at Kovacs. She looked up at him.
"What?"
"Is there something you're not telling me?" She hesitated before she answered.
"Kovacs proves that the mutation has spread to humans. Finding a new cure is more important than ever." Kovacs began groaning.
"Isabel. . . bella." Kovacs groaned as black substances started coming out of his eyes.
"What is that?"
"I think he's. . . crying." Mitch said. Kovacs started to choke as the same black stuff spewed from his mouth and the monitor beeped and Kovacs began to convulse. "He's crashing."
"What did you do?"
"I didn't even start the test yet."
"What's happening?"
"We've got to cut him loose." I hopped off my medical table and ran to Mitch's side to help him.
"We can't lose him."
"Turn him over his side. He's going to choke." I grunted as I rolled him over towards Mitch as Kovacs gasped. His fist shot out catching Mitch in the shoulder and knocking him over. I was on the other side of the table in a heartbeat, placing myself between Kovacs and Mitch while Chloe pulled out her gun and shot at Kovacs scaring him off to somewhere else on the plane.
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"Trotter?" Chloe called to the pilot through the com. "Trotter, if you can hear me, stay in the cockpit. Lock the door."
"Screw this." Mitch said. "I think we should go check the bar."
"Why?"
"Well, I don't know, wasn't alcohol invented for times like this?"
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I slowly crept along the dark, keeping low to the ground, my eyes shifting from left to right for any signs of Kovacs. Something jumped down behind me and I took off in a run. I ran around the spiral staircase, my paws slipping out from underneath me as I tried to take the corner to the lab. My nails clicked and slid against the tile as I got my hind legs back underneath me and pushed myself forward. Kovacs growled behind me as I raced through the lab and towards a metal cage on the other side of it. I threw my hind legs underneath me more to help me make the turn and as Kovacs passed in front of the cage, Mitch came out of hiding and threw his body into Kovacs' side to knock him into the cage.
"Get out!" Chloe yelled at Mitch as he scrambled out of the cage before Kovacs get him. As soon as Mitch was out, Chloe slammed the cage door shut and Mitch locked it. I shifted and pulled a blanket around me.
"Next time you're the bait." I said, playfully shoving Mitch as he panted for breath.
"You're welcome." He said as Kovacs growled from within the cage.
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"There were bodies everywhere." Abraham informed us once they got back onto the plane and Trotter took off. "Stacked like firewood. Never before have I seen a wake this large descend from above the clouds." I rubbed my right shoulder and wincing at the soreness.
"What were they doing up there?" Jackson asked.
"I think they were responsible for the blood rain that drove the villagers away."
"How is that possible?" Chloe inquired.
"Mitch, can you look at my shoulder please?" I asked and he immediately dropped what he was doing and walked over to me. He took my right arm gingerly in his hands. He had one hand on top of my shoulder and the other rotating my arm around.
"As much as I hate to admit it. . . he's right." Mitch said, crossing my arm across my chest and I cried out in pain as a heat pain flashed against my arm. I clenched my teeth and growled at him. "Sorry, Calla. You just have a separated shoulder." Mitch walked over to the medicine cabinet and scrambled through it. "Ran some tests on the rain while I was waiting for the results on that, uh, elephant blood you brought back." Mitch came back with an arm sling.
"You expect me to wear that?"
"You expect it to get better by not wearing this?" I growled and held out my arm to him as he slipped it into the sling. "God, you're so stubborn." I glared at him.
"Coming from the King of all Stubbornness."
"So the vultures are responsible for the rain?" Chloe asked, interrupting our spat.
"This blood rain is highly acidic, and the protein structure matches the corrosive bile that vultures have in their digestive tract." Mitch explained.
"How did the bile get into the rain?" Jackson inquired.
"The frozen feather." Abraham said. "It's cold at forty thousand feet."
"The vultures feed, they fly above the cloud cover." Mitch said. "And that high up, they can seed the clouds with acidic bile."
"But they were stockpiling human bodies." Chloe reminded him. "So you're saying that—"
"The red color? It's blood. Human blood."
"So not only did they feed on the villagers, but they poisoned their water supply, destroyed their crops." Jackson said. "This is a whole new level of aberrant and aggressive behavior. Well, how about the elephant blood that I brought back in?"
"Unremarkable. We've seen plenty of animals with the same mutation, right? If there was something special about the elephant, I could attribute that mutation transfer to that, but it's—"
"But it isn't about the elephant." Abraham said.
"It's about the man."
"So, you're saying that there's something specific about Kovacs' genetic makeup that made it possible for the mutation to occur in him." Jackson said.
"Yeah, that's what it looks like. Now, I think it's gonna have a little time to figure out what that is exactly."
"Fine." Chloe snapped. "Then you run more tests. We have him, we have a chance. We can study him and maybe learn how to reverse it." The door to the lab opened and Dariela stormed in.
"You let that thing loose again?" Dariela snapped.
"Dariela, now is not the time." Abraham said but Dariela ignored him and stormed over to Chloe.
"Instead of putting it down, you let it loose again—"
"I'm sorry about your friends, but they died in the line of duty." Chloe said. "And right now, there's only one person that matters. Janos Kovacs."
"Stop saying that. That's not him."
"Yes, it is. He's still in there!" Dariela walked over to the cage where Janos was and pulled out her gun and pointed it at his head.
"No, he's not." She pulled the trigger and the shot rang throughout the lab and Janos dropped to the ground.