Kirsten jumped when she heard the cellar doors clang shut. The underground safe house she'd set up many months ago was empty now, devoid of life. There was only her and Eric Bradley left, and the only reason that he was here, she suspected, was because he didn't know where else to go.
From what he'd told her, once the riot police showed up and gassed the place people had scattered. Some had been unlucky enough to get arrested, and for a wolf that meant something more than jail, they knew. In all the chaos they'd lost Stephanie. They'd lost everyone.
Eric hadn't said much of anything since it had all gone down, and it wasn't just because he was in physical pain. Kirsten just didn't know where to go from here. They had no one, they had nothing, and the world was being turned on its head as they spoke. It was utter anarchy.
So when she heard the cellar doors, she fought the flight response that was telling her to run and hide. Despite losing everyone, there were only certain people who knew about this place. She just hoped it was one of them that were coming down into the basement-level building.
Eric had stiffened beside her, eyes pinned on the door. When it opened and three people stepped through, Kirsten could have kissed someone.
"Kirsten?" Daniel asked uncertainly, casting his eyes about the abandoned room. "Where is everyone?"
She got to her feet, knees a little weak. "I don't know who's left or... or what happened to anyone."
Diana was the last to stride into the room. She stood back, shoulders hunched, arms crossed. Daniel's grey eyes were deep with anguish.
"And- Stephanie?" he asked.
"We don't know. We lost her too. Like Kirsten said: everyone," Eric replied.
"Well how are we going to find them then? What are we going to do?" Daniel asked.
His voice was frantic, as if he was already searching for an answer that he wouldn't be able to find. Eric shook his head. Kirsten felt his temper flaring. She was too late to stop it from erupting.
"We don't know!" Eric yelled. "Jesus Christ don't you think we've thought that ourselves since we've been sitting here? Unlike you we were actually here. There's no way to magically find them if anyone's even still alive and free."
Daniel surged forward, matching Eric in anger. "Don't pretend like you're the only one who knows anything here, we're all trying – and it's not like you have to deal with the repercussions of this, you're a goddamn human!"
"Hey!" Kirsten snapped, stepping between them. "Come down off your high horses the both of you."
"We've got to get out of the city," Caroline interjected. There was an edge of panic in her voice. "This is the worst place to be, we've got to get out of here."
Diana stood; face impassive, by the door.
"You know what? Fuck you for thinking that you're somehow making it up to her or something by deciding to care now," Eric bit out. "You don't get to take back what you did to her just because the guilt ate at you for long enough."
Daniel snorted. "What? And you threatening to kill her did any good? You don't get to be an innocent party in all of this."
"I said knock it off!" Kirsten repeated.
"I sent her away from Vermont, I didn't send her to her death," Eric retorted.
"I know that!" Daniel snarled. "I know what I did and it was wrong and I will say that I am sorry every day for as long as I live, and I am sorry, but I can't take it back." He took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. The tension bled out of his muscles. "I'm trying, okay? I know we're all just trying, but I need to make it right, somehow."
Eric stared at him but didn't say a word. Kirsten counted that as a blessing.
"If you're all done with your freak-outs," Diana drawled. "Caroline's right, we can't stay here, not anymore."
"But what are we going to do?" Kirsten asked.
"You're delusional if you think they're going to let wolves walk free another day after what happened last night. We have to get out of the city and figure out what we're going to do after that."
Kirsten looked at Eric, apprehensive. What were they going to do?
"You don't have to come, of course," Daniel said softly. "Like I said, you guys are human; you'll be fine if you stay here."
Eric shook his head. "No, I'm coming."
Then they were all looking at Kirsten. She sighed.
"Obviously I'm in, against my better judgment."
"Alright," Diana said. "We'll leave tonight."
***
There was a different energy in the air the day that Laura Armstrong arrived at the West Texas compound. They didn't have access to communication outside the walls of the facility, but the droves of people being transported in every day gave the residents an idea of what they were dealing with.
Brennan was standing outside in the heat when she arrived. The ache is his leg was a constant presence now, and his medication didn't put a dent in it in the slightest. He kneaded at the muscle just above his knee and grimaced. People had been gathering for a while by the time the gates opened. Brennan hadn't wanted to believe that it was true: that the youngest Armstrong had been pronounced dead, killed by another werewolf in the riot.
No one had heard what had become of Stephanie and Liam Hall, but there were rumours of course.
Laura Armstrong walked in alone. She looked different in person than she had on TV in past years. Though her shoulders were still held proudly straight, she looked defeated in the eyes, even from the distance that Brennan was standing at. People were openly staring, but as she walked past him, quiet and insubstantial as a ghost, Brennan averted his eyes.
Her eyes were still red and puffy like she'd been crying for days and her wrists were thin, much like the rest of her. There were dark circles under her eyes and she had aged since her last airtime appearance before it all went to hell.
Then again, Brennan himself felt more like he was forty than twenty-five years old.
The yelling started soon after. People demanding what she was going to do about this. Why she hadn't stopped them from building these places. How had she failed so miserably and raised a murderer. Why wouldn't she help them?
There was nothing behind Laura Armstrong's eyes. No reaction. Brennan shook his head and turned away as they jeered at the grieving woman, enraged and hysterical and afraid. Always afraid.
There was nothing but fear hiding in between these walls. Sometimes Brennan was glad that he could feel nothing beyond the pain in his leg. He wasn't sure he could bear to face this new reality.
***
"Miss Hart?"
Lea looked up from packing her few things into her bag. She was finally being discharged from the hospital a few days after the riot had gone down. Truthfully, she didn't know what she was going to do. Liam had disappeared and Laura was nowhere to be found. Lea didn't even want to think about what had happened to poor, sweet Alexei. It was sickening.
Two men stepped into the room. They were both wearing crisply pressed, dark suits. Lea straightened up, eyeing them with suspicion.
"Can I help you?" she asked.
"We're going to ask you to come with us."
"I'm sorry?" she said. "Go with you where? And why, exactly?"
One of them stepped forward and she immediately reacted by backing up. Her eyebrows pinched together and she held her hands up to ward them off. The one that had advanced on her sighed and back off a bit.
"It's for your own safety, Miss Hart, because of your involvement with all of this werewolf business."
"My involvement is my business. What does it have to do with you?"
In tandem, they both pulled out near-identical FBI badges. Lea peered at them uncertainly, heart picking up its pace in her ribcage.
"We'll ask you again to come with us quietly."
"I- no. I'm not going to just come with you."
One of them closed his eyes, giving a long-suffering exhale. He then gestured to his colleague who came forward and snapped handcuffs over one of her wrists.
"Hey!" she yelped.
He turned her around to secure her second wrist behind her.
"Lea Hart you are under arrest for the concealment of a serious offence."
"You can't be serious, is that even a real charge? What do you think you're doing? You can't do this."
"We're hereby relocating you to a high security facility-"
"This is total bullshit and you know it! Where are you taking me?"
They stopped dragging her along the corridor at that. The agent not restraining her turned to face her, his expression impassive.
"You are being taken to the West Texas compound, where you belong, Miss Hart. You may not be one of those dogs but you're sure close enough the way you've been associating with them."
Lea looked back over her shoulder at her cell phone on the table beside her newly-vacated hospital bed. It hadn't rung since before the riot, but she'd been waiting and waiting for news of what had happened to Liam. She didn't know if he was alive or okay or dead at the side of the road somewhere and no one'd told her. It was ringing now; the buzz of it vibrating against the counter taunted her as they pulled her away. Lea just wanted to hear Liam's voice. She wanted to know that he was okay.
Unanswered, the phone rang on.
-----
Epilogue? So soon? Yes, but you know what that means. We still have too much unanswered for the story to end here, so 'Survival' and 'Instinct' are going to be extended into a trilogy with the third installment being called 'Rogue'. I can't tell how long it's going to be before anything is up, but what I do know is that I am very busy with uni and everything that goes with having to be an adult now (ew), so it may not be for a while. I would like to have the majority, if not all, of Rogue written before I start posting so we don't have two month silences like we did in this one.
I love all of you guys for reading, voting, commenting and adding this story and Survival to your reading lists. It really does mean the world to me to see people enjoying the story! Until next time :) Hope you enjoyed the ride.