Escaping Duty

Chapter 37

"You're foolish and reckless, and an insult to the hunters and what we stand for. Yet you question us and your own parents?" She said evenly, but her voice mine as well have been yelling.

"Oh save it, everyone seems to have some kind of bad past with wolves and that's their excuse for committing genocide. There's a healthier way to deal with trauma than murder," Roland said finally getting Alana's attention.

She turned her body towards him attempting to raise the shotgun again, but Roaldn shot at her hands, causing her to drop the gun, and pull her hands away. Roland stepped forward, gun trained on the hunter making her step back until he could kick the gun away from her reach. Valentina bent low to pick up the shotgun taking note of its weight and ran around the woman.

"Valentina!" Roland called after her but she kept going.

There was no more time. Yes, she could be dumb or had the chance to make better decisions but that didn't erase her intentions. Running up to the small group of hunters she pressed the trigger the same way she saw Alana do. There were 3 men and 1 woman gathered around the machine and now they looked at her wide-eyed and backing up frantically.

"How'd you get around her?" An Asian man with glasses asked her stepping forward.

Valentina shot the gun at the ground in front of his feet, wincing at the weapons kickback and trying her best not to drop the gun. She needed to look in control. Looking at the hunters she saw them take a few steps back, they were weaponless. It's not so hard pulling a trigger Valentina thought.

"Shut off the weapon." She warned, attempting to sound as intimidating as possible.

"You're Lara and David's daughter, right? How about you put down the gun and we find you a way to rejoin the hunters?" The man asked eyes darting around.

In the distance, Valentina heard a wolfs howl and if possible it felt like more adrenaline flooded her veins, making her feel a little bolder. She was usually someone who ran from a fight, but this time she wasn't fighting for herself. She lifted the shotgun a little higher and pressed the trigger putting on foot back to handle the kickback, but didn't have as much luck holding the gun steady. She ended up shooting the man's foot and he fell to the grab grabbing it and screaming shrilly.

"Justin!" A brown-haired woman called moving towards the man But Valentina moved the shotgun to stop them all from moving.

"I may not know how to use this, but that only makes me more unpredictable. Now stop the machine," she repeated.

"You don't understand what you're-," another hunter spoke up.

Valentina turned in their direction, pulling the trigger and hitting a hunter in their knee. She didn't think it'd cause much damage but the hunter fell screaming to the ground, clutching his knee. Two down and two to go.

"Okay, okay stop shooting," the other man said raising his hands.

"We can't stop what's already been released. Even if the machines off their will still be a gas out there," the woman explained.

"Then make it less potent, or recede, or something!" Valentina yelled trembling.

She didn't know if she couldn't stop shaking because of the adrenaline or because she had shot two people now. Hearing another howl in the forest she moved another bullet into the chamber, heart pounding wildly.

The woman nodded going behind the machine and Valentina never moved her eyes from her. She couldn't tell if the woman was fixing the problem or not, but she hoped she was. The flickering lights on the machine turned off, and Valentina hoped that meant the machine had actually powered down.

"You've done all this for nothing, the gas will still exist and as the wind blows it will spread through town making it uninhabitable for the wolves. Even if they don't die they'll never be able to step foot back in town without dying," she explained sneering at Valentina.

Anger coursed through Valentina making her shaking stop for a moment and her body warm in the cold air. Lifting the shotgun Valentina kept pulling the trigger until all the casings were emptied into the machine. It wouldn't fix anything but it felt a whole lot better taking her anger out on the thing that'll cause Mason to never be able to return to town.

She had told him to leave but she had also thought at some point he could come back. Now he never could. The woman had jumped away watching Valentina with wide eyes. When the shotgun was empty, Valentina continued pulling the trigger. She was aware her eyes were blurry with tears and her yells sounded more like sobs of frustration.

"What are y-," the hunter began but Valentina turned, swinging the shotgun and managing to hit the woman in the head. The force of it sent her falling to the ground unconscious.

There was still another hunter there but when Valentina turned to him he raised his hands turning to run in the opposite direction. He was a coward but she didn't care.

"Valentina are you alright? I heard a lot of gunshots and I came-," Roland said trailing off and looking around, seeing the mess. When his eyes landed back on her he saw that she was crying and moved to her concerned.

"Are you injured? Did they hurt you?" He asked checking her all over.

Valentina shook her head leaning her head on his chest, she suddenly felt exhausted considering everything she had done that day and the adrenaline leaving her body.

"I had wanted to do more, to help him but I couldn't do anything. The wolves can't ever come back to town," she said sobs wracking her body.

She felt weak and pathetic compared to someone like Yasmin or even her parents. The capability to be like them was in her but she didn't have one shred of it. Roland didn't say anything but put a hand on her back.

"You're only human Valentina, you did what you could," he said looking off into the trees, eyebrows pulled together.

Deciding that sitting there crying wouldn't do her any good Valentina wiped her face off and pulled away from Roland looking to where he had come from.

"What happened to Alana?"

"I tied her up with some cuffs. Valentina we should get going, the rest is up to Mason. There's nothing else you can do," he said putting a hand on her shoulder.

Valentina looked into Roland's face seeing a few features of his nephew in there. Had she really done enough? It felt like all she had done was stop something from getting worse but not causing much of an effect. She looked into the trees thinking the poisonous gas to wolves only looked like a sweet-smelling fog to a human. Humans could survive going inside of it. Looking down at her arms Valentina saw them shaking as Roland guided her up to her feet by her elbows.

"Valentina let's go," Roland gestured away from to forest to the open road in front of them.

Valentina looked at the road, then back at Roland, then down to the gun he had on his waist in a holster. It's dumb Valentina what could you do? You just did all you can and you're human you can't help them. She let Roland guide her away but why did she feel so wrong leaving?

"You're kinda of scaring me with the silence. Are you in shock?" Roland asked her and she met his eyes.

He looked beyond tired and by the way, his eyes were slightly squinted and he held his left side awkwardly she could tell he had been injured. Wolf blood had healed him earlier, but she didn't know how long that lasted.

"Thank you again for coming back, Roland. Thank you for everything," she said pulling him in for a hug, surprising him.

He was stiff and grunted confirming her belief that he was injured. Valentina might've been human but so was he, and while he was a cop with training, deep down she was a hunter herself. Just before Roland could wrap his arms around her to return the hug Valentina reached towards his holster and grabbed his pistol. Startled he attempted grabbing it back, but she shoved him in his injured side. Wincing he pulled away giving her enough time to turn back towards the forest and run.

"Valentina!" Roland yelled after her.

Ignoring him she continued running and ignored the pain her ankle was giving her, and the stinging wound on her shoulder. She wasn't done just yet, there was still something she could do to help Mason.