(Author's Note: I'm really really sorry that I haven't updated in so long. I've had track practice, track meets, homework, and writers block. This is literally the third time I've written this chapter up to 1000 words. Lets see if this one works *crosses fingers*) -Bri*
Chapter 21: Suffer
Britt's POV: (Three months later):
"So, anger makes it tick worse than sadness?" The scientist, Dr. Susan Crane, confirms. I shift in my seat out of discomfort. She had pulled me in here in the middle of Sim training and I didn't bother to change clothes first.
"Well, an overwhelming sadness can effect it, but no, not near as bad as anger." I reply.
"Okay, have you ever been able to fully control it?" She asks, her thick Britain accent coming through.
"Um, once I think. If I've ever done it more than that I can't remember." I reply, wondering how many questions she will ask. We've been in this quiet office for an hour now.
"Would you say it's more of a physical challenge over a mental challenge to do so? Or vise versa?" She asks.
"I'd say it's more of a mental challenge. If my Wolf doesn't help me, then I can't do it on my own." I reply.
She sighs in what seems like disappointment and writes something down on a piece of paper.
"What is it?" I ask.
"Just by these answers, with all due respect, I don't think your mothers hypothesis is correct. This virus is just so genetically strong that it's too big of a risk. A lot of us here, including myself, are not Werewolves. I just don't think there's a way. Over the past few months, I've been studying the blood sample I took from you and.." She leans back in her chair in defeat. I could tell my mother had put a lot of hope into this, into Dr. Crane, and it put the weight of the world, literally, onto her shoulders.
"Dr. Crane, it's alright. I didn't exactly have much faith in it, I knew it was strong." I try to comfort her some. Yeah, not my best ability.
She just shakes her head, twisting her lips in thought.
"I'll speak to Nora about it. You can go." She tosses her pen on the desk and stands quickly.
I nod and see my way out by myself.
"Brittany! Get over here for another run!" Smith shouts as I walk past the Sim station. I jog over to him and I reply, "I don't know, it's been a long day Smith, and I told Talon I'd talk to him later tod-"
"This run is important. We're going to mentally challenge you; had one specially created just for you." He states as he pulls a file on the control panel's computer. This is where you input the scene you want.
"I'm not so sure about this, Smith." My voice wavers as I hold my sim weapon. I was really looking forward to getting back to my dorm to see Talon and get something to eat.
"It'll be alright, you know it's not real." He says as he continues to type on the computer.
"Yeah, but- You're not going to put me in that scene are you?!" I stare at the screen. It has a huge dark room, blood all over the floor, with Talon, my mother, Keith, Jenny, everyone laying there, mauled.
"I was. We need to find out what makes that virus of yours tick." He says.
"I'll tell you right now that it's anger, not sadness!" I growl, not wanting to go into that.
"Yes, but this will create anger. You haven't seen the whole scene." He says casually.
"Look, you know it's anger so why does this matter?" I ask, trying to worm my way out of doing this.
"Alright, we'll switch it to that. Your next training goal is to be able to overcome that virus on command. So to do that, we need to 'activate' it." He says and shoves me inside the simulator with him.
"No, Smith! I won't do that scene! Stop this!" I yell when I start to see the scenery change.
"Alright! Alright!" He hits the button on his suit, something only his and a few choice men's suits have, and things begin to go back to normal.
"A**." I growl and shove the gun in his arms, leaving. He doesn't realize how bad this virus is. I said no! That means no! I guess I'm just in a bad mood or something but that kind of pissed me off.
Deciding to go see Talon like I promised, I head for his dorm room.
Just as I'm about twenty feet from the elevator to take me up to the dorms, a loud alarm blares and I cover my ears. Red lights flash and Soldiers grab weapons from the emergency slots in the walls. Before I can even stop someone to question what's going on, gunfire rings and I watch an entire group of people fall to the ground. I watch in shock as civilians scream and run for their lives; we're being overrun.
I turn around and haul myself towards the stairs, deciding it would be too much of a risk to run the rest of the way to the elevator, bolting up three flights in record time.
Just as I'm one flight from the right floor, Smith rounds the corner. How did he get up here so quickly? Whatever, it doesn't matter right now.
"Smith, what going o-" I let out a short yelp when he hits me in the nose and I fall backwards. With pure instinct I kick him in the knee and he buckles forward enough for me to grab him by the head and pull him to the ground with me.
"What the hell, Smith?!" I yell as I jump up, kicking his searching hand away, and run up the stairs. From what I saw, he has no guns.
Six steps up and he grabs me by the shoulders. We go tumbling back down the stairs and he ends up on top. He wraps his hands around my throat and tightens them. My nails dig into his hands and I try to think quickly. I hit him in his face, but in my position it's not hard enough. I get an idea and decide to use it since I have no other option. I grab him in his crotch and twist as hard as I can.
"Ah!" He shouts and his hands loosen. I reach up and shove them off and turn us over. I get up halfway and grab him by the collar of his suit, pulling him up. Since he's still holding himself, I slam his head into the door frame.
Once he's unconscious, I take off running again.
When I get to the right floor, I swing the door open and run into the hallway.
"Oh God.." I gasp and begin to hyperventilate when I see that the white walls are painted with blood and the floor is scattered with the bodies of civilian residents, but one unconscious body in particular stood out.
"Ashton, hey!" I fall on my knees next to him, lightly slapping his face.
"Ashton, please! Come on, don't do this to me!" I growl and shake his lifeless shoulders. "Ashton!" I scream, praying for an answer.
"Brittany! The commander has fallen!" A Soldier yells from down the hallway.
"He's gone, Britt." Talon, who came out of nowhere, lays a hand on my shoulder and try's to pull me up. I focus in on the gunfire and the mass explosions outside of the dorm halls. I listen to the shouts and commands of Sargent's. I feel the hurt from the fall of my brother and my mother. My body and the walls vibrate when another explosion sounds from beneath.
For once in my life, I summon the monster in me. I surrender as I feel my veins pulse and my vision tint colors.
I swing my body around roughly and slap his hand off of me. He backs up and I put my head down. I lay my hand on Ashton's chest; the absence of a heart beat breaks the last dam inside of me.
My body shapes, my teeth push farther through my gums, and my claws dig into the floor. My body itself hadn't shifted fully, but my features had. My Wolf joins me as I try to hold on to the mentally sane side of me.
His troops will suffer for this. His followers. I'll destroy his weapons. I'll maul him alive.
He will suffer.
"Call it! Stop this!" I hear Talon scream, but it's not the one behind me that once had his hand on my shoulder.
The halls fade away and leave me in a large room with black walls and a black pixeled ceiling. Talon and Ashton come running with two Soldiers tailing them angrily. I didn't know I was in the simulator. Smith must have mad a fake call and kept it running when he forced me in.
I fall on my knees and I shake, clenching my head as my nails dig into my scalp. The overwhelming stress of what I thought was real was too much to handle.
"You should have told her it wasn't real!" Talon shouts at a perfectly unharmed Smith and pushes him.
"It wouldn't have been as effective!" He shouts back in defense.
"The virus is taking her over!" Ashton yells warily.
Physically, I was fine, but mentally, I was torn to pieces. The stress powered the virus and I couldn't stop it now. I'd already let it past the one barrier I had. My self-control.
Talon tries to calm me, but that doesn't do any good. I feel tingling all throughout me and my body shifts.
"She was meant to stay in the sim, you dumb f***! You shouldn't have opened it!" Smith yells.
"She's not a d*** weapon!" Talon shouts and squares Smith in the nose. Talon hardly ever swears...
Two other Soldiers aim automatics at me, but Ashton tackles one, and Talon picks up Smith's automatic. He grips the barrel tightly with both hands and uses it like a baseball bat to hit the second Soldier in the head.
A red alarm blares and my mother comes running through the door, "What is going- Oh my Go- What happened?! Britt!"
She must not have known about this.
My body cracks and finishes shifting completely.
My wolf-like body doesn't move like I had expected it to, no, it stays still. My eyes scan every face in the room. They stop when they get to Smith.
I feel it; the anger. The unbearable, unreasonable mass amount of anger directed towards him. My body shakes as he stands.
His eyes connect with mine, and only then does he realize what he was messing with. I let out a feral growl and my body stands up on it's hind legs, something that I didn't know that it could do, and takes a step towards Smith, making him fall backwards in fear.
"Britt! It's okay, please!" I hear my mom yell.
I hear everyone yell something, trying to calm me down. I grab him by the throat, my claws digging in and drawing blood.
"No, Britt, please," He coughs, his body making a ceasing motion when I lift him from the ground, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry-"
He's interrupted when I throw him, his body flying across the room. His back ends up hitting the door frame of the large exit, a loud cracking noise sounding with a scream following.
Something hits me in the back, a needle prick feeling, and the feel of hot lava shoots through me. Surprisingly, the tranquilizer works and my body falls.
-----
"Ah!" I yelp and jump up, taking in huge gulps of air.
My surprise awakening startles Talon so much that he falls off of the edge of the bed that I was laying in. I grip the sheets and see that I'm in my dorm.
"Hey, hey, you're fine." He quickly stands and carefully sits back down on the bed. He places his hand on my upper arm out of comfort, but it makes my skin crawl. Not because of him, but because of what happened.
I scoot away from him and upwards into the bed, backing myself into the corner of the wall since my bed is placed against it.
"Hey, what's wrong?" He asks, a little glint of hurt in his eyes.
"Is he alive? I didn't kill him did I?" I ask fearfully.
"Yes, he's alive but.." He trails off.
"But what?" I demand.
"When he got thrown he hit his back. It snapped it in half completely. He's paralyzed from the waist down." He hesitantly gives me the news.
I let out a forced breath and bow my head, laying it in my hands. I shake my head, tears overflowing at the thought of what I did.
"Hey-" I interrupt him by twisting my body and throwing my fist into the wall, causing the skin on my knuckles to bust. I do it again with a short yell and Talon quickly grabs my fist.
"Let me go!" I growl and try to push him off, but it doesn't work. I keep wrestling until eventually he has to crawl on top of me and hold down both of my arms and legs.
"Stop it, Britt." He demands calmly.
"I took a mans freedom Talon! He'll never walk again because of me! I could have killed him!" I scream in his face.
"It was his fault." He claims in a still voice.
"He just made a mistake! A bad decision; he didn't know what he was up against! He's only human!" I yell.
I take a few deep breaths before snapping at him again, "How am I supposed to help fight Caleb if I can't even control myself from killing my own kind?!"
He doesn't say anything.
"Huh?!" I push.
He says nothing.
"Tell me!" I snap.
"I don't know!" He finally yells back. My anger begins to diffuse at his final answer and I lay my head back and go limp in his grip.
He leans his forehead on mine and we stay like that for a good thirty seconds.
"I don't know if this counts for anything..." He hesitates, "But no matter what you do, or what happens.. I'm here. That's all I can promise."
I look up, in his eyes, and my Wolf rises in my chest.
"I'll never leave.." He repeats, then picks his words wisely for his next sentence,"I love you too much to leave."
(Author's note: FINALLY! IT WORKED! I thought this was kind of an odd ending for this chapter, considering the mood at the beginning, but I think the beginning of the next chapter will make up for it. Thank you for being patient:) -Bri*