The Wolf's Pup
BY: Asura136

CHAPTER 6: Joyful Terror

On the roof of a building, a young woman with raven hair is perched. Her head resting on knees as arms encircle her legs. The gentle draft of the wind lifting her hair as it went by. The scent of leaves engulfing the city as it began to be dyed the color of autumn. The sound of pedestrians and machines combine to form a symphony of restless hours and rush. Yet, Chain remains calm, as the world around her became incredibly loud.

*Chain's POV*

A few weeks went by and before I knew it, it was Autumn. The scent of winter always makes me feel calm. Giving a feeling of warmth. Waking up this morning, I smelled a hint of the winter breeze and once getting dressed, decided to go out and observe the city from a view. I waited till it got brighter, wasting my time before heading to Libra. From a certain height, the city almost seems harmless. My phone rings interrupting me from my thoughts. I reach into my right pocket, it was Steven calling.

"This is Chain."

"Chain, would you mind going over to a location before coming to Libra? I'll send you location."

"I'll head there right now."

"Thank you." He hangs up and a text arrives.

That's peculiar. The location of the place is in a quiet part of the city. Not the neighborhoods, but a business district. Shady stuff goes down there, but nothing that can't be handled. To see this means something has gone wrong. Memorizing the address, I put my phone away and being towards the location.

Arriving I see a building with the sign, Supernatural Chemicals. Very original. It looks normal enough. Phasing myself a little to be not be seen by anyone, I take a seat on the opposite building, probably an apartment complex. Taking in every detail of the building from the view provided to me before I head in and scout the place. For a few hours, nothing happened. I was beginning to get bored and about to head in when an unknown car sped up to the place. It looked similar to the one I spotted last month. Two men, a blonde and a brunette, same haircut, glasses, and uniform stepped out and knocked on the door. Getting no response they barged in, the neighborhood not being bothered by the commotion.

Coming out of the building the brunette was carrying a black briefcase. It seems no one was in the building, to begin with. Once getting in the car, they drive off. Still phased, I jump down in front of the broken entrance. The scent of both men still lingering in the place. Stepping in, it looks like a regular small-time office. An entrance to my left, with a room filled with five desks. In front of me a staircase leading to a metal door that was forced open. I decided to head up the staircase and towards the door. Making sure my steps are light with no sound, with each step. I pull out my gun before reaching the entrance.

With the first step, I made a scan of the area. Two doors on my left and three on my right, all made of metal and forced open. The floor beneath was made of wood with a metal first layer. I walk into the hall taking a quick look in the first room that comes on my right. A laboratory, glass was everywhere and a few chemical as well. I keep going and the second room to approach was on my left. Another laboratory, but his one seems to have some specimens on the ground, looking more like organs. This hall seems more like a zig-zag path with how the doors are arranged. The third was on my right, another laboratory filled with specimens, the fourth on the left another one filled with more chemicals. Lastly, the one on my right was an office. I step in and hold out my gun as I make a quick survey of the room.

Papers were littered everywhere and books flobbed open on the floor. A chair was laying on its back, glass scattered around the desk. File cabinets empty except for the pile of papers surrounding it. Lowering my gun after making sure no threats were present I make my way towards the desk first, taking a seat on the one chair still standing, laying my gun in front of me and begin to look through the drawers. I came across two ripped pages of a newspaper, Mysterious Chemicals Spilled in London, England. The next one was just as curious, Mysterious Illness After Chemical Incident Infects Five Residents. Reading a bit into it, I find the symptoms don't correlate with any known illness or disorder, yet five out of those symptoms display a similarly with the common cold. Folding the papers I put them into my left pocket and head towards the pile of papers hugging the file cabinet. Grabbing two, I find that it's mainly a file full of vacation pictures. What kind of idiot puts those in here?

Took a while after going through many files, but I found three that display actual information. One on finance, the second on chemicals, viruses and antidotes, the third on locations and schematics. I hear footsteps and a gasp, I look out through the window next to the desk, showing an alleyway and the main street. There, an old woman is looking at the main entrance to the building with horror and begins to take out a phone, no doubt to call the police. Lucky she didn't see me. I grab my gun and phase away, heading towards Libra.

Making my entrance I step on the low-life monkey, walking towards Steven with the files and newspaper clippings. He stops typing on his keyboard and turns his attention to me. He gives a smile.

"Ah, Chain. I assume it went well?"

I hand him the files. "These are the files I found."

He grabs them. "Did you run into any trouble?"

"No, but two men forced their way into the building and took off with a suitcase."

"You don't say."

I reach into my pocket and hand him the folded newspaper clippings.

"Read these. I have a feeling it has to do with whatever was in the suitcase."

"Thanks."

"You might also receive a call from Daniel Law."

"Why?"

"An old woman saw the entrance and took out her phone to dial the police."

"Was anyone hurt?"

"The building was empty."

"I see, thank you. Take a rest while you're here."

He goes back to his typing out reports, as I being to walk away towards the couch. Taking my seat and relaxing a little before my next task. The silver shit is still on the floor, groaning. Leo is nowhere to be seen and neither is Zed, the two are probably off on some assignment. Klaus was at his desk, typing away on documents or probably playing prosfair on his computer. I assume Gilbert is with Phillip doing some paperwork or in the kitchen, as neither are present in the main room. As I'm about to pull out my phone, in walks K.K. looking a little bit pissed.

"I'm never going back there."

Klaus responds to her statement. "K.K., what happened?"

"Ran into a bunch of pricks, luckily they had information we wanted. I had to beat it out of them."

"Were you hurt by any chance?" Klaus, ever so the gentlemen.

"Klausie, at least you care and aren't cold-blooded." Directed at Steven. "I'm fine, thank you for asking."

She goes to take a seat next to me as Klaus goes back to seeing his screen. She then turns her full attention to me.

"Good morning, K.K. I see you've had quite a bit of a difficulty."

"Glad to see you relaxed for a change."

"What makes you think I wasn't before?"

"It might have been your aura, but I'm not sure."

"Aura?"

"It seemed-" She was interrupted before she could even finish her sentence.

The doors burst open by Zed, Leo, and Sonic. The piece of trash got up as soon as he saw them. They were breathing heavily, meaning they ran a long distance and for quite a while at such a fast speed. They must have been running form some gang or a mob. Leo was the first to recover and though still looking like he was out of breath, he spoke.

"We've found something you guys might want to hear."

"What is it?" Steven made his way over to the crowd.

"There's a warehouse on the other side of town." He took a breather before continuing. "It was full of tubes filled with humanoids."

Klaus stepped up to Leo and Zed.

"What do you mean by filled 'humanoids'?"

"I'm not sure if the creatures inside the tubes were people or not, but they looked human."

"Steven."

"On it."

He goes grab his phone from his desk and call some members of Libra. They might be doing a sweep and confiscate of the building before the HLPD arrive. I'm certain now that it has something to do with whatever was in that briefcase. At best, my guess is that it was the same chemical that was spilled in London. I'm about to get up and head out when K.K. pulled me back down.

"You aren't going anywhere. We'll let Steven and Klaus deal with the first part, for now, you need to rest, as we prepare what we need."

I look to see Klaus and Steven leave with Gilbert. Zed and Zapp follow them out of the office, leaving Leo, K.K. and I in the main room, awaiting further instructions. Leo takes a seat opposite of me on the couch chair. K.K. removes her hands from my shoulders and turns to Leo.

"Leo, exactly what is it you saw?"

He looks up at K.K. "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure."

He took a breath before continuing. "I am certain that, whatever was being grown and maintained in those tubes weren't human."

"The Eyes of the All-Seeing Gods?"

He nods. Seeing him struggle to answer the question I ask him one instead, hopefully, it'll be less difficult for him. He looks a bit shaken.

"Do you know which area of town it was located in?"

"Yes, the quiet part of the city."

"Did you see anyone else present in the building?"

"Now that you mention it, yes there was. A man with silver hair and green eyes with sharp facial features. Two bodyguards and another man wearing a lab coat, holding a briefcase." The briefcase!

"Was the briefcase opened?"

"It was."

"What was it they took out?"

"A container holding what glowing faint green. I assume it was some chemical."

"One last question. What were they doing with the container?"

"They placed it in some machine and it was distributed to the tubes containing the creatures."

I get up from where I was sitting and took a seat on Klaus' chair and searched for the news report on the chemical spill in London. K.K. went and stood to my left as Leo stood to my right. After typing in the words, a bunch of results came up, I clicked and went back, looking for any connections, but the majority contained the same information. A couple of minutes passed until I finally found one that had what I was looking for. "CEO of Walton Industries addressed the chemical spill in London, England." I strolled through the report, reading every detail and came upon an image of the man I spotted earlier. I heard Leo gasp and Sonic howl.

"That's him!"

I continued going through the report. The five patients that were infected went missing two weeks after the incident when cleaners hired by Walton Industries were issued to wipe up the incident. The company was accused of kidnapping but no proof was ever found to prove that, six weeks later the bodies of the missing were found in random locations with shots to their heads and skin in a strange color. Overall they were described as looking dead but alive. It took a while to piece it together, but I now know what they are planning to do and if it failed with those five patients, then what's in those tubes is bound to fail too.

I grab my phone from my pocket and call Steven.

"Steven here."

In the background, I could hear Daniel Law yelling at him.

"Whatever you do don't go in that building. Close off any exits and entrances."

"Chain?"

"Quarantine the building. If you can burn it down, then please do it. Nothing in can come out."

"Got it." He doesn't hang up as I can hear him shout to Daniel Law what to do.

Law was stubborn and refused to listen, the sound of troops marching in echoed through the call. I heard screams and the call went silent. K.K. spoke first.

"What was that?" A hint of worry laced her voice.

"Chain?" Leo sounds the same.

I put my phone away and get up from the chair. I head towards the window and stop before I head out, turning to face them. Worry painted on their face.

"Don't come out of the building unless you get instructions."

K.K. spoke for the both of them. "What is that we heard?"

I remained silent for a minute or two before answering in what I hoped didn't sound impossible, but it has happened before.

"The living dead were brought to Hellsalem's Lot."

I see her smirk. "I see, in that case, I'll get into position and have my weapon ready."

Leo looked at me, before speaking. "I'll stay here and do what I can."

I look away from them both and head towards the location given to me earlier by Steven. The sky now darken and hoping I arrive in time and not see as many dead roaming about.

Arriving at the location I see that the dead were already roaming the streets, the buildings evacuated, and roads closed off. Blockades set up along those closures, with troops and machine firing away at the dead. I pick up the scent of Klaus and follow it to the main blockade that leads to the heart of the city. Along my way there, corpses of the dead and some troops littered the streets, holes in their heads. I jump down behind the blockade next to Klaus and Leo?

I turn to Leo first.

"We were called in and I figured I might be more helpful here than back at HQ."

"Don't get yourself killed."

"Promise."

I rotate my head back to Klaus on my left. "Did no one listen to the warning?"

He pointed to Law shouting orders, while I don't have reason to hate him, he can be a pain to work with at times.

"Is there anything I can do?"

"If you can go to the building in which you found the files. See if there is any way to cure them."

I nod and see in the distance a zombie getting shot in the head, no doubt K.K.'s work. I jump from lamppost to building roof, making sure not to linger long. Below me the heads of the undead roaming to exit the area. Reaching the building I materialize into the office I was in earlier today. My gun pulled out, I move to close the door as I do I see the eyes of a corpse behind the door, lung for me. I jump back as it gets up from the floor, my gun pointed at the creature. It moves and I shoot it as it was within arms reach of me. The bullet hitting it square in the head, dropping unmovable to the floor in front of me. The shot, causing my ears to ring and a gaze of surprise to appear in my face. With my right hand covering one ear, I look to see out the window.

I saw none, but the scent of many more linger. With my ears ringing I take a seat at the desk. Thinking of where it might be. It's not in the file cabinet, as I went through all of them today so that leaves the desk. I missed something, there's a hidden compartment I missed. How can I be so stupid to not check for that? I lay my gun in front of me and open the drawers, knocking for any compartment of course with my ears ringing, I had to feel the vibration. Opening the last one, I felt a hollow response, I phase myself and pray open the cover. In it was a journal, with the word "Cures" scribbled on the front. The one heading this research surely must be an idiot, no doubt.

I caught the scent of many more dead walking into the building. Grabbing my gun and the journal I head back to Klaus and the others. As I leap out the window, phased as it was closed, I could hear the door being knocked down. I was lucky to have escaped in time, I don't wish to deal with them or the stains on my clothing later.

I rushed in there with such speed that I never had done before, I would be lying if I said I wasn't tired. Something I still find strange, though I can contribute it to lack of rest. This is very much over time. The HLPD has a lot of explaining to do for their rushed decision and I'm sure they can contribute to the funds for rebuilding this area.

I arrived at the blockade and saw more corpses lying paralyzed on the ground. The attacks by the HLPD and Libra becoming more frequent and I could tell, they were getting tired. I landed next to Klaus and showed him the journal.

"Good. Take it to , she's been working on a cure." Even though my ears were still ringing, I am able to read lips and understood what Klaus said.

I made my over to Bradbury Central Hospital. The dead still not having taken down any blockade made it easy for the rest of the city to continue normal function. Landing right in the entrance, I ran into one of her clones.

"Chain! Glad you're here." She looked at my hand. "That must be what Klaus mentioned follow me."

I followed her into a laboratory located in the basement of the hospital. It seems not even the hospital can keep some normality in this chaos of a city, then again I have become accustomed to the nonsense.

She extends her arm and her hand does a grab motion. I hand her the journal, flipping through it with such speed until she found what she was looking for. I don't think I've ever seen her work this fast before, I'm fully aware she's a hard worker.

"Here it is!"

She puts down the journal down on the table next to her right and turns around to grab a baker with a blue liquid. She grabs an orange liquid in a smaller and pours into the blue. It changes color like a rainbow before settling into a faint glowing blue. She then goes to pour the liquid in a container and hands it back to me.

"Take it to Patrick. He has the final component for the cure. I'll hand the journal back to Klaus once we've gotten all cures mixed in case of an emergency. Don't worry we top-notch security, it'll be safe here." I grab it from her hand and nod.

Making my way out of the hospital and heading towards Patrick's weapons shop. I rush my way there, with each leap making me feel tired. When this over, if Steven or K.K. don't kill Law, I'm going to. Looking at the time, I should be at home now, getting ready for bed.

I phase myself to make it go faster and appeared inside the shop, Patrick and Neyka were running around the shop, looking frantic as they went to grab any weapons they had at their disposal. Neyka and Patrick stopped once they saw me, the container in my right hand. Patrick spoke first, a smile on his face.

"I'm hearing a drinking party after this."

Neyka nods before responding. "I agree, do you think the HLPD will pay?"

Her head turning to face Patrick and vice versa.

"From what I hear, it's their fault so I say 'yes'." He then turns his attention to me.

"You got the container, good." The ringing has subsided a little and I am able to hear what he said.

He goes to the back of his desk and pulls out what appears to be a bomb. The color was grayish-green, a cylinder in shape with both ends dented in, wires strapped around it and a dial pad connecting it all together. I walk towards his desk.

"Can you hand me the container you're holding?" I hand it to him.

He opens the container and puts it down next to him. Moving to open one side of the bomb and make it face the wall vertically. Proceeding to pour the rest of the liquid down until there was none left, closing the bomb and making sure it was sealed tight.

"I won't explain how to set the timer or set the bomb up as you already know, but there is one thing I will say. It must be located where it will reach the most population infected and it can vary on location."

Neyka joins in. "You look tired. Might want to get a few days off after this."

I shake my head and grab the bomb. Phasing through the door and heading back to the blockade, hopefully, it hasn't broken down yet.

I land on a lamppost near the blockade and see it still standing, everyone looking tired. I'm still phased so I won't be seen and having that advantage I take out my gun and point it at one the waves of walking corpses. I shoot and managed to get on in the chest, another in the leg, one in the head, two in the neck, and three in the shoulder. While I did only kill one, it provided some relief for the others. I feel the cool metal of the bomb with my left hand and I put away my gun and head towards the main building that contained the creatures. That is the center for this area infected with the walking dead.

I arrive in record time and keep myself invisible to not be seen or touched. I smell no dead here or hear any footsteps. I step into the main laboratory that Leo and Zed must have seen earlier today. I see a big machine and run towards it. This must have been what infected those people and it will be what cures them.

I strap the bomb onto the machine and as begin programming I hear footsteps and a scent made its way to me. I leap onto one of the support beams and look down. To the far left, I see four shadows sluggishly move. One drops unmovable to the ground as the other three continue and I see it begin to decay to a skeleton with what lighting was available. I pull my gun out and refill it with bullets. I leap down, making no noise and go back to programming the bomb.

There were far away, but the dial pad keeping making 'beeping' sounds, attracting their attention. Their footsteps getting closer to my location. I only had the time left, I knew the others were exhausted from all the combat done into the night, so I set it to one minute. By then I could tell the corpses were blocking my exit and closing in on me. I saw the window and leaped on the beams once more and materialized through the window. Putting as much distance between myself and that building. Whoever they were, they're still going to die and I do feel sorry for them, but it was their decision to go there when there was no one to attack. After a minute passed, I felt the rumble of the ground shaking a 'boom' was heard. The bomb went off and released a blue gas, which I assume is the cure. It began to spread quickly and I made my way back to the others.

Upon arriving and materialized next to Klaus I saw, everyone looked relieved and happy. The corpse were returning to normal, at least those that survived, and the blockades were being taken down as the gas was engulfing buildings, basements and the whole district. K.K. even managed to join us down in the celebration of another victory. Another crisis averted.

K.K. was giving Law and good lecture about 'listening and following orders.' Klaus was trying to calm her with the assistance of Steven, though given the relationship between them, I can see it wasn't working. K.K. ignored Steven and focused on Law, assuring Klaus before ranting on again. Zed, Zapp, and Leo were talking and messing around with Sonic messing with the S.S.'s hair. I stood away from both groups, holding myself straight with hands behind my back, having put away my gun once arriving here. I feel someone come up beside me to my right.

"It seems you got the job done, well done ." I turn to see Gilbert smiling at me before looking back to K.K. lecturing Law.

"I merely did what I was told."

"You took the risk."

"I do that every day."

"You took the risk to grab the journal when you could have just gone to the Hospital and help do trial and error."

"I wanted to get the job done and fast."

"Whatever your reason may be, I appreciate your hard work. I'll talk to the young master and see if I can get you any vacation days."

"Gilbert, you can't."

"I must, you've worked hard and you do look tired."

"What about the Werewolf Bureau?"

"I'll contact them. From what I hear they were the ones who set up the blockades and arrested the CEO of Walton Industries."

"I see. Thank you, Gilbert." I turn to leave and stopped. "Good night."

"Good night, Chain."

Once home, I took a quick warm shower to wash the chemicals and scent of the corpses. Getting into my pajamas, washing my face and brushing my teeth. I put my phone to charge. Crawling under the cover so of my bed and resting my head on the fluffy pillow. I feel my muscles sore with all the movement I've done today. I wonder if that can be contributed to the stress from this case?

I'm sure tomorrow we're going to track down the owner of that small-time chemical company. No doubt it will be assigned to the Werewolf Bureau. On the bright side, that's one mystery solved and another case closed. Somehow, I still don't think we're done with this. If that was just the beginning, then there's a bigger threat coming to Hell Salem's Lot. Leaving one case still open.

Either way, I feel relaxed now and feeling tired, I let myself close my eyes. I'll deal with any reckon on this case tomorrow, right now it's 'me' time. Yet, if the HLPD does through a party as a sorry to Libra I must decline. I don't feel like drinking in the slightest or being around idiots that caused this issue in the first place.