Chapter 22
Lying perfectly still, hearts thundering, beneath the debris they were hiding under, Two, Four, and Five shared a silent look, before they readied their weapons and prepared to come out firing.
While all this was going on, Frenzy, Savage and their teams all rushed up to stand with weapons drawn, behind and around the area Rance and his people had located. They encircled the entire patch of ground Rance and his shifters were already standing in a half-circle around.
The ground they focused on seemed to roil, decaying leaves, broken branches and dirt shifting and falling to the side as three males sat up seemingly out of the ground, dirt and clay clinging to them, aiming their own weapons at Rance and the other shifters.
“Unh, unh, unnuuhhh! I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Frenzy said from behind them. “Unless you’d like to take bets on which one I’ll shoot in the back first. But then, maybe don’t take that bet, because I’ve got enough of our kind around you, that we’ll just shoot you all at the same time.”
Two’s eyes quickly scanned the group of people in front and to the sides of them, his nose telling him that most of them were Lion shifters, his gaze telling him that just as many were males like him.
Two considered his options, knowing full well that Four and Five would do whatever he chose to do.
He sighed resignedly, then slowly moved his hands out to his sides, tossed his weapon to the ground, closer to Rance than to himself, then held his hands up higher in the air.
Four and Five did exactly the same, less the sigh.
“Pat ‘em down,” Savage ordered.
Grim and Harsh moved forward quickly to do just that, then backed off just as quickly.
“What’s your number?” Feral barked out.
“Two,” he answered immediately.
“And your team?” Feral demanded.
“Four, Five,” Two answered.
“Where’s the rest of your team, One, and Three?” Feral asked.
“Three is dead. There are no One’s anymore.”
“Explain!” Savage demanded.
“One’s are too strong. All One’s are eliminated upon delivery,” Two said.
“Ain’t that some shit?” Frenzy said. “Two, clasp your hands behind your head and turn around to me, slowly.”
“I’ve activated Hail and Valid. They’ve started your way,” Valor said in Frenzy’s ear piece.
“Cars are on their way,” Frenzy said.
Two did as he was told, finally focusing on Frenzy and looking him defiantly in the eye.
“You are free. We are taking you to decompress, and then you can do whatever you choose to do.”
Two stood his ground, he said nothing. Only the slight wrinkling of his forehead gave the indication that he was confused.
Frenzy decided the best explanation for him would be to establish a commonality. “I am Frenzy, I was Three.”
Feral picked up on it and continued with the explanation Frenzy started. “I am Feral, I was Two.”
“I am Savage, I was One.”
“I am Fierce, I was Two.”
“I am Grim, I was Four.”
“I am Menace, I was Two.”
“I am Rage, I was Three.”
“I am Harsh, I was Five.”
“I am Storm, I was Two.”
Two watched, listening to their words and claims until Storm introduced herself. When she gave her name and her former number, his brows bunched up as he regarded her.
“Yes, there were female teams. So far, we’ve only be able to save one of them, though we’ve saved hundreds of male teams, and almost fifty rewards,” Frenzy said.
“Saved?” Two asked.
“Yes. Until two minutes ago, you were still captive. We are not. We’re free.
As are all that we’ve rescued. The only males that are still captive are those in privately held hands, or those still in the facilities they were trained in that we have not yet located,” Frenzy said.
“And we are all glad to meet you. You are now free, just like we are,” Frenzy said.
He reconsidered his words. “Or you will be as soon as you tell our people what you know so that we can track down the rest of this fucked up situation.”
“You are hunting us. Are you not owned by this shifter Pride?” Two asked, still thoroughly confused.
“We’re not owned by anyone. And we’re not here to hunt you for any other reason than revenge.”
“We have not harmed you,” Two said defensively.
“You wiped out an entire shifter Pride. That alone deserves death,” Rance growled from behind Two.
“Our objective was to carry out the attack! Orders are not questioned!” Two answered angrily.
“By who?” Steve demanded.
Two scoffed. “Do you think they’d let themselves be identified? All we know is it was retribution. It was ordered. They deserved it.”
“Really? And the women and children? What did they do to deserve to be slaughtered?” Steve shouted.
Two didn’t answer right away. Finally, he met Frenzy’s eyes again, looking to the male for an understanding of some type.
“It is kill, or be killed. There are no others like us still alive. We are always being watched, tested for shortcomings. If we are found to be defective we are eliminated. We do not question orders!” he said angrily.
“Yeah, I remember orders like that. We all had them, but we didn’t wipe out women and children.
And newsflash! We’re others, we’re alive!
What do you mean there are no others? We counted at least nineteen sets of boot prints you left behind.
And what the hell is up with that? Were you not taught to cover your damn tracks?
Leave no evidence behind? If you want to blow something up, blow it the fuck up, but leave no evidence of yourself!
Surely you were trained better than that! ” Frenzy demanded.
Two’s demeanor shifted into defensive and defiant. He didn’t like the insults being hurled so casually at him. “If you are going to kill us, be done with it,” Two said.
“If we wanted you dead, you’d be dead, and you wouldn’t have seen it coming, you’d just be fucking gone,” Feral snapped.
Frenzy nodded. “Yep. What he said. So, here’s what’s going to happen boys and girls.
You’re going to behave yourselves and we won’t have to shoot you, because what was that you said?
Kill or be killed? Yeah, we’re not going to be killed.
And we’d rather not kill you, but if you push us, all kinds of fun things can happen.
But I digress because I’m about over this shit.
Let me take a step back and start again all professional and shit.
” He plastered one of his most unnerving smiles across his heavily freckled face.
“We’re taking you back to where we live.
It’s a real nice place with hundreds of people just like you.
Some females that have chosen not to return to their families because ironically enough, they feel safer with us than the world as a whole.
Some people that work there to make our lives easier, and the General who found out about us and led the mission to save us.
We got pools, places to eat whatever you want, whenever you want, game rooms, beer, dancing, movies, jobs if you want them, and more to come.
You are free, my friends. You’ll have your own home, your own things from the clothes you wear to the furniture in your house and no one will take it from you.
You will never have to do another damn thing you don’t want to do.
No more teams, no more military drills, no more threats on your life, or torture and punishment. ”
“Unless you want it,” Savage said, “the military teams, that is. We use the skills they taught us and the training they drilled into us, to hunt those that made us this way. We use the skills they gave us against them. And when we find them, we kill them. Unless we think they’re in a position to help us locate more of our kind, then after we get what we need from them we kill them.
We do want revenge, but we want to free all those like us even more than we want revenge. ”
Four vehicles, pulled up on the highway and came to a stop. “Like I said, we’re taking you to Alliance. You’re free. If you give us any trouble on the way home, you’ll be shot. You may die, you may not, it depends on who gets tired of dealing with you first,” Frenzy said.
“The rest of our kind that are with us…” Four said.
“If you can tell us how to find them, we’ll free them. If you don’t, we’ll free them anyway, it will just take a little longer to locate them,” Frenzy said.
“Let’s wrap this up. I don’t like standing here in the open,” Savage said.
“Same,” Frenzy said. “Let’s go, people. Our chariots await.”
Without hesitation Four stepped forward and started walking past them all. “Which vehicle?” he asked, very willingly and happily walking away from everyone, not the least bit worried about the weapons still pointing at him. They’d said he was free, and free sounded good to him.
Fierce and Storm fell in behind him to make sure the only place he went was the vehicle.
Frenzy tapped his ear piece. “Valid, get out and let these males see which car you’re driving.”
“Tell Valid to get in the car with Hail, we’ll take one car with two from this team, the other can ride with you and your team back to Alliance,” Savage said.
“Fierce! Storm! Take Four to our car,” Frenzy called out.
“You coming? Or do we put you down right here?” Feral asked the other two males.
Five and Two looked at each other. “We’re coming,” Two said.
“But you have to rescue the others or they’ll be tortured, possibly killed, because we didn’t return,” Five said.
“How long do you have until you’re supposed to report back?” Frenzy asked.
“Dawn tomorrow,” Two said.
“Better get your ass in gear and tell us where to locate the others like you, then, huh?” Feral said. “Let’s move, people.”
As the two remaining males were escorted to the waiting vehicles by Frenzy and the rest of the Variant, Rance and the shifters finished searching the field. When they were done, they walked over to the vehicles, too.
“Nothing?” Frenzy asked, as he held his phone to his ear, obviously waiting for someone to answer his call.