Chapter 1: The Mission

-Serena-

*I run through the woods. My bare feet barely feeling the cold. I remember my mother’s voice. *

*"Run!" she tells me. *

I need to run, so I do. I run as far as I can, and I don’t look back. Just like she told me. She didn’t come with me, though. She didn’t run beside me, and still, I know I cannot stop. I am not allowed to stop. Only when my lungs burn and my legs can’t carry me anymore, do I finally let myself breathe. I stop and look around me, but I am all alone in the dark forest.

“Mom?”

Of course, she isn’t behind me as I hoped. My dad isn’t either. Both of them stayed behind. They prepared me for this. They had always told me should anything happen, I just had to run. If anything, one day came for them, I couldn’t look back. I could only run, but I didn’t realize what it truly meant until tonight. Until my mother had burst into my bedroom, pulling me from my bed and making me run out of the backdoor. My father had said something about them being here, but I didn’t know who he was talking about. He just let my mother send me on my way, while he went to the front door, a gun in his hand. I looked behind me and saw him look over his shoulder, giving me a small smile, but I didn’t know what happened to him afterwards.

My mother opened the door and just told me to run. Now I had run. I had run as fast as I could, so what do I do now? I look around myself, hoping someone will come find me. Hoping my parents won’t be far behind, but no one appears. I sit down on the ground, not knowing what to do with myself now. I pull my legs close and wrap my arms around them. I feel the tears run down my cheeks, but I am not sure why I am crying. I don’t feel sad, just scared, as I wait and listen… No sounds… then suddenly…

A branch snaps and I look right ahead. My heart starts to pound in my chest, but I can’t see anything.

“Hello?” I call softly.

I have nothing to defend myself with. I’m just sitting here in my pajamas, all alone. I know if some dangerous animal has found me, then I will not be able to fight back. I cannot run anymore. My legs are shaking, even as I sit down.

“Hello?” I call again.

Then suddenly, in a bush nearby, I see glowing yellow eyes. I stare at them, shocked, not sure what to do. I just sit there looking into them. What is it? I can’t tell.

“Are you here to hurt me?” I ask.

Why do I ask that? Who or what, am I even asking?

“Who are you?” I whisper.

The eyes just keep staring at me, and the longer they look at me, the calmer I feel.

“Who are you?” I ask again.

I don’t know why I feel the need to ask, but it doesn’t feel like when an animal looks at you. It feels like a person is looking at me, but who can have such yellow eyes? I am about to say something again when I hear shouting in the distance. I look over my shoulder, seeing lights further out in the forest. Had someone come for me? I looked in front of me again, a smile now on my lips, but the yellow eyes are gone.

Who are you?

The words rang in my head as I opened my eyes, looking right into a boring grey wall. I sighed, closing them again as I turned, but soon opened them again, just staring up into a boring ceiling now. I threw one of my arms over my head, not ready to get up. That stupid dream had haunted me since I was a kid. I could never forget the yellow glowing eyes. The feeling of someone watching me. I knew there was a good chance nothing had been there that night. Our memories often changed to make sense of the world around us. We all saw the world in a different way, even if we couldn’t possibly think our own memories could betray us, we would be surprised. The mind was both a powerful and a dangerous thing. We should never underestimate the power of it.

I knew I couldn’t lie here though, and when a small beep came from my ID watch, I knew I was needed. I reached over my head on the small nightstand behind me and took the watch, seeing the message I had received. I was needed in the meeting room. I sighed and sat up before I threw my legs over the side. I looked around the little room where I lived. All hunters had their own, but I wasn’t just any hunter. I had worked hard, and I had finally earned the title as Commander. I had my own group now to order around and keep safe. It was a serious job you had as a Commander, because if someone didn’t come home from the mission you were sent on, then that was on you.

I got off the bed and went to shower quickly, brush my teeth, and get dressed. Then I put on my watch and took my jacket with my number on. We all had numbers. Mine was 110. Our names were rarely used. We couldn’t risk anyone knowing who we really were and tracking us down. Not all hunters worked in the field, though. Some settled down, moved into their own houses, and became part of the real world, but some, like me, threw themselves into their job as a hunter. It was all I had, after all.

I left my room, closed my door, which locked automatically and could only be opened by my fingerprint, and then I started to walk down the long white hallways while I put on my jacket. I came across a few hunters on my way, who nodded at me and sometimes said "Commander". I always nodded back, and there was a clear sign of respect in their eyes as they looked at me.

I quickly found the meeting room a level lower. Our whole base was underground, and we only really left it when we were sent on missions.

“Ah 110, come in,” the high general said.

It was the highest rank you could get. I respected the high general more than anything. She found me that night that my parents had been killed, and she had pretty much taken care of me since then. Her brown hair had turned whiter but was still long and braided. She smiled at me as she invited me to sit down at the other end of the table between us. I went to sit down, looking around at the other generals, a mix of older men and women all loyal to our cause of ridding ourselves of the creatures who were responsible for so much death, and who had killed my parents.

“I'v got a mission for you,” the High General said.

“I’m ready,” I just said, making her smile.

“You always are.”

That made us both smile.

“It isn’t so simple this time,” she told me, looking more serious.

I tilted my head a little to the side, looking at her, confused. I had never lost a member of my group, even if I hadn’t been Commander for long, nor had I ever failed a mission. I had become one of the top hunters in our society, and I had been the number one back when I was just a trainee.

“We want to strike them hard this time,” the High General said, her green eyes locking with my light blue ones. “And this time we got them right where we want them.”

I looked at her more intrigued now.

“An alpha who has been a plague to us for a very long time has finally decided he is ready to settle down.”

“How do you know this?” I asked.

“Remember the little dogs we sent into their packs?” she asked me.

I nodded. Last year, instead of killing the werewolves we haunted, we kidnapped some and got them onto our side. It was brutal what we put them through, but we did it for the cause and the safety of humanity. These people were pretty much animals, and they loved the taste of human blood. We couldn’t risk them killing all of us. So far, we had kept them at bay and not long ago we even believed we had eliminated all of them, but they were like cockroaches, always somehow surviving whatever they were put through. They had all gathered behind an alpha stronger than we had ever encountered, and he was smart too. He had fought back, and struck us hard, taking down one of our biggest bases and making us lose so many of us… including my parents. We hadn’t seen it coming, and it had cost us.

“They have reported back to me, and it seems like Rogan is finally going to be vulnerable enough for us to get to him. There will be a meeting between him and the family whose daughter is tying herself to him. We cannot let this union happen, though. They are part of the two biggest packs, and if they get to combine themselves, it might just be the end of us,” she said.

I nodded, understanding the severity of the situation.

“I need you to kill him,” she said.

“I will,” I told her.

“I’m sending you and your group out, but 110, you have to make sure he is killed. This might be our only chance.”

I nodded again, looking her right in the eyes.

“I will make sure he is eliminated. I won’t come back unless he is dead,” I promised.

I always had one prepared, ready to be sent on missions whenever I was needed. I would not fail, though. Rogan Cane was a dead man.

Thank you for reading this story. I hope you will enjoy it!