The Wolf, Tiger, and Wolf pup

Chapter 6

The young pup felt the car's vibrations on his seat as he went to one of the C.H.A.N.G.E facilities; his heart had been beating rapidly since leaving the village, and he was scared about what the people were like.

"I hope Alex is doing okay. He must be feeling depressed after what happened," thought Lucas. "I also wonder what Mrs. Álvarez would say since I might not show up tomorrow."

Over at the front of the car, the two men from earlier were chatting about their daily lives. Lucas would sometimes listen to their chats and hear what they were saying.

The man in front of the pup was Greg; he was married to a female hippo and had a stepdaughter named Haily. The man beside Greg was Hubert.

Lucas looked ahead and saw a large fence spread around like a circle on the outside; in front of them was a heavily guarded gate with four security guards standing.

Two of them were German shepherds, and the other were humans.

The car stopped outside the gate, and one of the German shepherds walked over.

"Hiya Mike, great day for it, isn't it?" said Greg.

"Yeah, it's a pretty good day out. Do you have another child to take in?" asked Mike as he glanced over to look at the pup.

"Yeah, another victim, by the looks of it. Have him sorted out once we bring him in," said Greg.

Mike removed a radio from his waist and ordered the person from the other end to open the gate.

Greg thanked Mike and drove towards the gate, and the pup looked at the outside with sadness as he went through the gate. On the inside, Lucas could see a town resembling Hydrangea, but it felt more organized and artificial.

The people and animals looked normal enough, and the kids with them seemed happy enough, but something didn't sit well with the pup, and he couldn't figure out why.

The car drove up to the giant circular building in the town center; it was made of glass on the outside and had the C.H.A.N.G.E logo.

Here, we believe in REAL change.

The car parked outside of the building, and Lucas walked by the two men into the building; the pup held on tight to his plush tiger as he went inside, having a sense of dread from within.

Lucas sat on one of the red chairs in the white-marbled reception area as the two men talked to the woman behind the desk. The young pup looked around the room and saw pictures of advertisements from C.H.A.N.G.E, and most of them consisted of children doing schoolwork and being around traditional families.

Looking at those posters made Lucas feel homesick as he was already starting to miss being at home with his dad, making breakfast together in the morning, and learning to speak Spanish. Thinking about breakfast made Lucas's stomach growl; he had forgotten that he had skipped it and was hoping to get something to eat sooner.

The growl was so loud that it caught their attention; the big man felt sorry for the pup as he did with the other children who were taken away from their families.

Hubert had been working for C.H.A.N.G.E for seven years. He had seen many cases with children and teens ranging from being taken away unfairly to being saved from abusive families, and he understood that C.H.A.N.G.E was corrupted deep down. Still, when they helped children from poorer families, it worked perfectly.

Hubert remembered having a small breakfast bar he kept in his pocket for when working late shifts. He looked at the hungry pup and decided to give the bar to him.