You never liked the fact that the adults and elders keep secrets from their pups. By this point in your life, you've spent a great deal of your youth searching for answers to hidden truths through circuitous questions and painstaking research, but the answer to this particular puzzle always danced just outside your grasp.
Was it worth it to learn the truth? You no longer know for sure….
You're panting, leg muscles burning with exertion by the time you reach the base of the bridge. From here, the old concrete pillars rise, elevating the asphalt surface of the road in an elegant arc, eventually leveling out as it crosses to the other side.
Once there was a lower bridge that spanned the length of water, but it was lost during the Purge before you were born. Humans call the span The Q, and though none of the wolves in the pack know where the strange moniker comes from, it stuck, and The Q is the de facto endpoint to the pack's domain.
Arriving at the base of the bridge first, Lapu pauses and sniffs the air, a low whine rumbling in his throat.
A great wall was built in front of the bridge sometime after Haven fell, and access to and from the pack's home is limited to a small walkway, barely wide enough for two wolves to pass abreast. A pair of great black monoliths stand at either side of the pathway, and they emit a subtle hum barely audible even to your superior hearing as electricity flows through them.
"They weren't on when we came in!" Lapu groans as he paces back and forth, looking for another way onto the bridge.
"Maybe we should just run through?" Dena says, staring up at the dual standing stones, neck craned back to take in all twenty feet of their bleak uniformity.
Tiva sniffs and digs a furrow in the loose asphalt with her hind-paws. "I heard my pa talking about these one night when he thought I was asleep. The pillars ID each wolf as they come through. It lets the humans know who's moving through the checkpoint. If we just run through, they'll know we were here for sure."
Before you can decide how to get around the obstruction and onto the bridge, you hear the sound of shuffling feet approaching from a nearby cross street. Tiva hears it, too, and her ears flatten along the back of her skull.
"We've got company coming," she says, nervously clicking her claws together. "We're running out of time."
I signal Lapu and Tiva to the other side of the road while Dena comes with me. We'll ambush the patrol with a pincer attack!
We need to hide! We'll take cover quickly before the patrol arrives!
Better to risk identification than to be captured. I run through the checkpoint and onto the bridge, avoiding the patrol.
Next
You can't allow the humans to capture you, but the last thing you want is to get drawn into a battle to the death with gun-toting soldiers. You dash through the sensors, sure that being identified will be less of a concern than getting into a fight.
Lapu looks back toward the sound of incoming soldiers, a whine caught in his throat before he throws himself through the checkpoint, his arms over his face as though he could somehow fool the machine's ability to read his serial ID. Tiva follows right behind him, leaving only Dena on the other side, shivering with fear.
"They'll know!" Dena says, placing padded palms just beyond the reach of the sensor.
"It can't be any worse than actually confronting an entire patrol of soldiers!" Lapu calls back, eager to be on his way across the bridge.
Dena, always the academic and seldom the adventurer, stands back, shaking as though trying to wake up from a bad dream.
Anger wars with guilt in your mind. Dena's going to get you all caught at this rate. You need to make a decision quickly.
I reach out and pull Dena through the barrier.
Dena's right to be afraid and I can't force anyone through the checkpoint. These soldiers have forced my hand. I must attack!
Dena's right to be afraid and I can't force anyone through the checkpoint. I return through the gate and rush Dena into hiding quickly!
Next
A nearby building provides adequate cover, and you point it out to your companions, rushing into hiding without a moment to spare as the soldiers near the bridge. You hear the patrol walk past you, their footsteps measured and precise. As they approach the bridge, you risk a peek out from an empty window, its glass long since shattered and swept away. The soldiers fan out, searching through the nearby buildings for any sign of intruders.
"We've got to get out of here!" Lapu squeaks, and Tiva puts a finger to her lips to shush him.
Confrontation should always be a last resort. I spent years exploring and hiding throughout Haven as a pup; I know how to keep hidden until it's safe to emerge.
I might be able to fool the soldiers into thinking we're adults who are allowed to be here. Humans can barely tell werewolves apart in wolf form.
They've left me no choice. I won't huddle in this hole like prey. I decide to employ lethal tactics against my human enemies.
They've left me no choice. I won't huddle in this hole like prey, but I refuse to give in to my urges and become a merciless killer. Nonlethal and scare tactics only.
Next
You burst forth with a feral roar, drawing the soldiers' attention as Lapu and Tiva close in from behind. You reach the men first, slicing cleanly into the nearest human's neck with your claws, pirouetting into a crouch as you sweep another's legs out from under him.
You feel the air ripple by your ear as a bullet narrowly misses you, the soldiers panicking now, their shots hurried and off-center. By the time Lapu and Tiva join in, the humans have turned to run, only to be confronted by two more pairs of snapping fangs and lashing claws.
After that, it's all over quickly, and you silence the gurgling whimper of the last soldier with a twist of your crimson-stained claw.
Lapu stares at you as though he's never seen you before, his jaw slack as he pants with the exertion of the kill. Tiva simply smirks and cleans her claws on a soldier's uniform. From behind you, you hear a choking sound, quickly followed by the wafting stench of vomit. Dena stalks past you coldly, studiously avoiding looking at the fallen patrol.
"Way to help out, Dena!" Lapu chides halfheartedly, the grin swiftly fading from his face as he looks down at himself and realizes that his golden fur is saturated with gore. He covers his mouth, narrowly avoiding a repeat of Dena's performance.
Tiva gestures at the checkpoint as Dena walks through it, dazed and seemingly uncaring. "Looks like a few of the bullets hit one of the scanners," she says, loping over to catch up with Dena. "The system is down. We should cross while we can!"
Next