Permission to escape - The Rogue Pack

Chapter 32 - Finale part 1

Inside the tunnel, Sam raised the trap door as slowly as she could, praying that the hinges were well oiled. Thankfully it made no noise as it slid upward. She paused when the gap was large enough to peer through, and she glanced around. She was in the middle of a white corridor. The air smelt of chemicals, and it stung Sam's nose, making her sniff. The flickering bulbs above were extremely bright, burning themselves into her retinas, creating an almost unbearable brightness after the darkness of the tunnels. The walls of the corridor were blank and unadorned, barren of art or furniture.

Not hearing any movement in the corridor, and not spotting any cameras, Sam pushed the door further up, slipping through the gap. Turning she lowered the floor behind her, letting it softly settle back into place. The corridors were permeated with a low whine, that along with the brightness and the smell, made the place almost unbearable to her wolf senses. She assumed that this was part of the design, for wolves to be continuously tortured by the environment as well as the DIR's experiments.

She suppressed her animalistic instincts as much as possible, trying to ignore her distracted senses. Unfortunately, as she did, she also lost some of her advantage over the enemy, no longer able to sense them as acutely. Feeling slightly blind in the corridor, Sam set off, walking down the corridor. She had memorised the blueprints of the building, and new every room and corridor to perfection. But she had surfaced in the middle of the compound, with no reference point. So she needed to find something that would allow her to locate herself. According to the blueprint, the compound was arranged around a main corridor that formed a circle. On either side of the circular corridor, doors led to different rooms. There was no basement in this compound. The circular corridor was connected to a nearby horse ranch. According to the maps, the pens had been reinforced, and Sam could only guess what they were doing there.

She walked past several unmarked doors along the corridor. She hoped that eventually she would come across the corridors' intersection, where the circular corridor connected to four external corridors, meaning that she would then be able to work out where every room was.

A sudden noise up ahead surprised her, and she mistakenly heightened her senses. The light assaulted her all over again, making her head pound and eyes burn. She pinched her nose, hoping to quell the stinging smell. Despite the ringing in her ears, she could just about identify that the noise was approaching footsteps, at least three pairs. Left without a choice, Sam slipped through the nearest door.

Despite the pain in her head, she forced herself to use her werewolf senses to scan the room, but luckily it seemed empty. Rows of tanks sat on benches in front of her. Within each tank floated the strangest of creatures. At least Sam thought they were creatures, she honestly couldn't tell.

Turning from the disturbing sight, Sam pressed her head against the door, trying to listen through to the other corridor. She heard the footsteps grow louder, accompanied by voices. Definitely three people. They then gradually receded as they rounded the corridor, moving away from the room where she was hidden.

Sam sank to the floor against the door, pressing her hands against her head, desperately trying to stop the unbearable assault on her senses. She couldn't concentrate, her mind was overwhelmed by its awareness of her environment, and she couldn't bring herself to think. Knowing that if she did nothing, she would eventually be discovered, she brought herself to her knees crawling towards the far wall of the room. As she crawled, her head was at the same height as the curious tanks, and her curiosity drew her eyes to their contents. A strange spherical globe with a piercing red dot on it. An uneven, slightly bumpy, flesh-coloured chunk. A long, lined stick with a sharp black stone protruding out of the end. Suddenly Sam realised what she was looking at.

They were body parts. Wolf parts preserved in tanks of isopropyl. She felt bile rise in her throat as the realisation sunk in, but she forced herself to hold it together. She forced her limbs to move again, yet this time she couldn't drag her eyes away from the contents of the tanks. Eyes stared at her as she advanced. Red, blue, amber... She couldn't look away. Suddenly the bumpy chunk was a tongue, the stick was a finger, from the tip of which protruded a thick black claw...