Chapter Thirty-Eight

When Teddy and Steve rolled up the driveway to Special handling they both had mixed emotions.

Teddy had spent much of the last six months on the property and had been re-born into his new life here. For all the horrible things that had occurred, it was also this place where he had finally broke through his own emotional barriers. Even though he had only come to absolution though torture, he was there all the same.

Steve, on the other hand, hadn’t been to the old nursery since before dying and before becoming a werewolf. He hadn’t seen Clint in as long as he could remember. He wasn’t quite sure how an abrupt meeting would go. He was supposed to be dead, and everyone knew that. It would make the meeting unusually tense.

It was Steve’s job to kill Clint. Darwin had handed over a knife, the same kind he had used to kill Evita Gagnon with. It was a simple steak knife from his mother’s dinnerware which had been stored in a wooden box under the china cabinet. Darwin had all the silver in town removed and sold off early on, but he had forgotten about these.

Swiping the security card Darwin had given them, the city vehicle drove right up to the main house. Like a matter of routine, Clint ran outside to greet the visitor whom he expected would be Darwin.

“Darwin!” he hollered as he made his way down to the driveway. On the landing he saw it wasn’t Darwin but another recognizable face. The vehicle stopped and two men exited. Clint said nothing.

“Hey Clint,” was all Steve could muster to break the ice. “Where is everybody?”

“Business is slow; had to let go most of the guards.” Clint hadn’t even noticed Teddy standing closer. His eyes were transfixed on the person he knew was dead. “This is wild.”

“What can I say…I’m back from the dead!” Steve smiled. “The place looks different; you’ve really cleaned it up, looks good.”

“We had an accident last December. A lot of this has been rebuilt,” he said in shock. “You died?”

Steve laughed, “yes I did, but I’m back!”

“Well, fuck me blind! Steve is back! Does Darwin know?” Clint asked, growing excited.

Steve walked over and put out his arms to Clint, which was accepted as a hug right away. The knife slid down Steve’s cuff and he put himself in position to end his friend.

“Darwin knows. He brought me back,” he whispered. “I started this whole thing—and now I have to end it.” Steve shoved the knife into Clint’s back and gave it a quarter twist.

Clint pulled back, briefly reaching for the knife but quickly surrendering. He looked at Steve in disbelief and collapsed.

“Pretty heartless, man,” Teddy said in disbelief. “Is killing that easy for you?”

“I’ll take him inside,” Steve said, avoiding the question. “If there’s any blood, can you clean it up?”

Teddy watched Steve hoist the body over his shoulder and marched up the stairs to the house. He kicked the door open and a second later they were gone. The reluctant participant looked around but found no evidence of the crime that had just occurred. He waited for Steve to return, unsure of what to do next.

Teddy looked around, finding nothing familiar. He had been brought to this place in the dark of night and never saw much of the facility. He was under ground only for a short while before he was requested by name. When he came out of the mine, he was escorted directly to the building numbered Ten. It was there he spent the rest of his time sequestered from the rest.

Standing as one of them, the place seemed harmless.

“Okay, Teddy; let’s roll!” Steve jabbed as he flew down the stairs. “The women are in sector B, we enter the mine through the main entrance and a few hundred feet down we hang a right.”

“I thought you weren’t involved in this place?” Teddy questioned now, wondering how he could know the layout of the mine.

“I use to work here, long before the lycanthropy. I know the underground; it’s where Clint had his marijuana growing,” Steve said, surprised Teddy didn’t know. “After you and I had…after the incident Darwin and I turned to alcohol. Clint found us trying to lift some at the store. He stopped us and made a deal we couldn’t refuse. He bought us liquor and we worked the nursery. Eventually, he brought us in to the drug operation and soon we were getting weed as well as booze.”

“Was it really that bad?” Teddy asked with genuine concern plastered across his face.

Steve stopped short of the mine entrance and looked Teddy in the eye. “It wasn’t what you did Teddy; it only started with you. Yes, you did and said awful things, but when you walked away it didn’t end. Someone else would pick up where you left off. Texting, social media, it came at us from every direction, usually faceless and anonymous, but it never ended. We turned to substances because we needed to escape it, if only for awhile.”

“I’ll make things right, one way or another,” he said.

“We have our whole lives to say we’re sorry. If you want to put things right, then we have to do one more dark crime. I’m not sure how this will work or if we can even we control ourselves. If you feel like you’re starting to lose your cool, just leave the room. If it comes to it we might have to eat to tie us over. This is gonna suck balls, Teddy.”

“Which part? The killing of unborn children or working at an all you can eat buffet and be starving while you’re doing it?”

“Honestly, the buffet part,” was all Steve could say as his own stomach began to rumble.

The breeding program was too kind a term to describe what existed in sector B. In the cool dark coal shaft was a hundred or more woman who all appeared to be in one stage of pregnancy or another. The eyes were sunken along with their cheeks but that was barely noticeable compared to the rib cages where every bone was obvious.

Subjects of the inhumane program stumbled to their feet like a pack of dogs that heard the can opener, only they moved like the walking dead. The occasional woman was clothed, but most paraded around in the nude.

“Who wants to go?” Steve asked, attempting to remain civil, new to the traditions of Special Handling.

A young girl staggered her way forward volunteering. She looked no older than fourteen and through the magic of malnourishment she may have been much older. Steve put his arm around the frail frame and brought her in close, rushing her down the tunnel away from prying eyes.

“We’ll get you some place warm, something to eat and maybe a hot bath? Does that sound like a good start?” Steve asked softly as he stroked the child’s face.

Like a vicious dog the girl clamped down on Steve’s hand and tussled, tearing away his skin. She growled and snapped more animal than either Teddy or Steve had; her actions catching them both off-guard. The searing pain from her bite finally forced Steve into action and allowing gravity to pull her off, as he swung his arm.

The girl landed a few feet away and grinned with blood trickling down her lips. She smirked and gulped with satisfaction.

“I’m like you now,” she said in delight.

“Fuck!” Steve yelled. “Teddy kill her!” he demanded, passing him the knife.

“What about the babies?” he asked, holding the dagger with a quake.

“Gotta be sure, gut her and terminate whatever she carries,” Steve instructed as he watched his hand heal.

Teddy poised himself with the knife in hand ready to kill. He could already see the girl was looking healthier than before but she still had a crazed look in her eye. He jostled to the left and then back to the right hoping to keep her distracted. She watched as the novice hesitated and with each second he waited her body became more lycan and her ability to resist increased.

“Do it Teddy!”

“I’m sorry,” he said as he lunged underhand sliding the silver blade into her bulbous belly. Teddy found the girl clawing at his face, struggling against the assault; yet, even she seemed surprised. Teddy kept his eyes on her the entire time as he watched her life spark out of existence. Instinctively, he had forced the knife through her womb underneath her rib cage into her heart. He did it as a natural move with perfection.

“Okay, this might be harder than I thought. They’re no good to us if they infect themselves! We must come up with a plan so they can’t keep doing that.” Steve looked down at the three chunks of material falling out from the girl.

“Are you going to eat that?” Teddy asked with some slobber leaking from the crux of his mouth.

“We probably shouldn’t, the babies could be lycan and at the very least she may be toxic from the silver. We might have to try that magic now. They’re frail enough I think we can handle it,” Steve said as a bead of sweat traversed his face.

A half hour later, Steve and Teddy returned to the women, this time dressed up in military wares with proper padding and shielding. The duo looked like members of an elite emergency response team wearing all black with helmets, slick leather boots with the pants tucked into the top. On their arms and legs were shields of hard plastic that could have easily been intended for a lacrosse player. Ready for battle, they re-entered the arena without their blood lust.

The change in approach was noticed immediately when the killers returned. No one could be certain what had happened to the last girl but they were smart enough to know the pleasantries were over.

“Stick to the plan…slash ’em and move on to the next. When it’s done…we’ll get what need. Ready?” Steve whispered.

Teddy shook his head. “Is this right?”

Steve looked at him with the most callus look and chose not to respond. Steve ran up to the first woman and began his decent into Hell. For a moment Teddy hesitated then eventually sided with the plan, no matter how barbaric it was.