Dominant Species Ch 51 54

"Mom, I think Mitch passed out." Zach was turned halfway around in the passenger seat of the convertible, looking back at where the blood had completely soaked through the shirt over his shoulder. He had stopped moaning in pain a little bit ago, and he was worried.

Silvia checked the rear-view mirror, she couldn't see or do much. She was already driving too fast for what her vision could make out, so she was trusting no tree or animal had moved onto it since they drove through. She knew she was about ten miles away from North Fork, but that seemed like a longer distance with the twists and turns of the mountain roads. "Just keep an eye on him, Zach, I'm going as fast as I can. How is Michelle doing?"

Zach checked his baby sister, she was sleeping in the car seat, sucking on her pacifier occasionally. "She's still sleeping." He sat back in his seat, putting his belt back on. "What are we going to do now, Mom?"

"I don't know, baby. We need to get Mitch to Doctor Marcus, then we'll worry about the rest. What do you want to do?"

"I heard what Donald said, I want to find Grandma and Grandpa but I like it in North Fork too. If we move, can we still visit?" He looked sad, she knew he had made several friends in each Pack while they were playing.

Silvia thought about it, Donald was in the back of her mind and wouldn't be pushed away. Even if she wasn't over losing her husband, knowing it was too fast, she couldn't close the door on him. "Yes, I'm sure we'll find a way."

"Good." He went back to watching the road, and it wasn't long before he spotted something. "Look mom, a wolf!" She could see the black wolf that came down the hill and started running alongside the car, sniffing the air. It stopped and let out a piercing howl, then ran forward to catch up. "What was that?"

Silvia looked in the mirror, more wolves were joining the chase, but they weren't a threat, they were more like an escort. "I think they smell the blood, baby, they know someone is hurt and they are warning the others." A minute later they rounded the bend and the town was ahead of them, and a group of people were waiting in front of the motel for them. Silvia pulled to a stop in front of the Alpha as the wolves that had followed them went back to the northern road. "Mitch was shot, we have to get him to Marcus."

Alpha Calvin went to her while Luna Kelly went to check on Mitch. He opened the driver's door and offered his hand. "Come on, you can fill me in on what happened. Tom is here, he can take him back to Salmon if you'll let him take your car." She nodded, and Pack members helped get Michelle's car seat out. Abigail was there, she took Zach's hand and led him off.

"I'm going with, he's lost a lot of blood and I need to keep pressure on this." Kelly jumped in the back seat, placing her palm on the wound. "Come on, Tom, let's go." Tom jumped in the car and adjusted the seat, then they tore off out of the lot and continued south.

Calvin led them back to the park, where Zach ran off to play while his remaining Betas gathered with them at a picnic table. "So, what happened out there?"

"First," Silvia said, "I agreed to let Mitch come along. I never thought you'd send Donald out there too. I thought I made it clear that I didn't want him around." She thought she could make Calvin look guilty, but he didn't.

"He's your mate, Silvia. We couldn't keep him from being out there, protecting you, even if you didn't know. It's how he's wired." The other people nodded, it was just part of being a mate, you were protective.

"Well, it's a good thing." She talked about how they had almost gotten through the mountains when they were attacked by the two men, and described how she and Donald had fought them off. "I'm afraid I put Donald in an impossible position. He wanted me to bring Mitch to the Doc, but I wouldn't give up on finding our families. He agreed to try and find them if I got Mitch to help, and so he's still out there." She looked up the road. "He won't come back without an answer, I made him promise me."

"You poor dear," said Beta Candice as she gathered her into her arms. "I'm sorry you had to go through that again, I bet it dragged up bad memories for you."

Silvia relaxed into the older woman, letting some of her control slip. "It was different this time." She started to cry onto her shirt, taking comfort in her embrace. "I wasn't going to let them hurt me this time. When Mitch got shot, I kind of lost it. I got my kids out of there and grabbed my gun." No one interrupted as she cried for a little more. "I've used guns before, but I've never killed anything. I refused to hunt. But this guy?" She sat up and looked at the people around her. "Fuck him. Bastard was going to hurt me and my family, I blew him to little bits and... I don't regret a damn thing."

Alpha Calvin placed his hand on her shoulder as he knelt next to her. "And you shouldn't. You did what you had to do, you got your family out of there, you saved Mitch. I'm proud of you." The others all lent their support as she worked her way through her emotions. "Now, how is Zach handling all this?"

"He hasn't reacted much, really." She looked out at the park where he was playing with other kids, some in wolf form. "It will happen sometime, though."

Calvin nodded. "It may catch up to him tonight." Linking quickly with Kelly, he smiled. "Kelly suggests we put him with some of the other kids tonight, kind of like a sleepover. It's a pack thing, when one member is hurting, the others will support him by surrounding him. I'm sure we can find some volunteers for a puppy pile."

Silvia snickered, thinking of what that would look like. "That would be nice." She looked off to the north again, thinking to herself that she would like Donald to be comforting her tonight but she had sent him off. Her face gave away some of what she was thinking.

Abigail reached over the table and took her hand. "How about if Autumn and I stay with you guys as well? The beds are big enough, and with Autumn done with her fever now, I want her around other people in case she starts to change."

Silvia smiled. "I'd like that."

Meanwhile, Tom was pulling in to the Salmon Clinic emergency entrance. Having already alerted Marcus when they were within range, he was waiting with several assistants and a gurney. Mitch was quickly transferred from Kelly's care and whisked inside to the operating room. Kelly sat back, carefully avoiding the blood pooled on the seat, and closed her eyes, all the time wishing she was close enough to talk to her mate. "Welcome to Salmon, Luna Kelly." She looked up to see Reggie standing next to her door, a pair of scrubs in hand. "They mentioned you could use a shower and change, come on. I've got a few people coming to help clean up this mess."

She smiled and took his hand as he helped her out of the car. "You still have running water?"

"We've managed to get a few things up and running. One of them was a diesel driven well pump, we run it at sundown and just before sunrise to fill the tower. As long as people conserve water, it works well and it gives us a clean supply. Electric power is more difficult, almost everything was fried. We still have some flashlights and other stuff that made it, mainly because it was underground and in metal ammo cans for storage. We've also gone through the town looking for any forms of transportation that still work. We found two old cars, some tractors, ATV's, motorcycles- basically if it has a carburetor we tried to get it running."

"How is the town reacting to you?"

"Well, after the shootings it took a while, but when Marcus bit and saved over a hundred of them, it went a long way. Most of them have now changed, and of the humans left in town, almost all have asked for the change now. This town will be all werewolf in four more days."

She was shocked, that would make their pack about two hundred and fifty members. It would be one of the largest in the country, and would have a huge majority of new wolves. "The newly turned, how are they doing? Are they fitting in?"

"So far we haven't had serious problems. We expected to have some issues with dominance, and we have." Just like wild Packs and dogs, there was a dominance hierarchy. When a new member was added, that person had to figure out where he sat, who was dominant to him and who he was dominant over. Most of it was figured out with their wolves and non-verbal cues and posturing, but some things had to be settled- and for wolves, that meant a fight. "There have been dozens of dominance fights, nothing serious for injuries." He chuckled. "We also had some wolves who immediately found their mates. The lucky ones, like Tammy Cordoba, found her mate with a human or another unmated wolf. Mrs. Johnson was not so lucky. When she and her husband got their wolves, she discovered David wasn't her mate, his brother Bob was."

"Oh shit." She started to laugh as they reached the locker room of the clinic. "That must have been interesting."

"Yep, especially since Bob had always flirted with her. Overall, it's been very positive for us and the town. I don't see how else this town would survive, you need the structure and leadership of a Pack to keep everything going well." He handed her the bag with the scrubs in it. "There are towels, soaps and other stuff outside the showers. I'd warn you about conserving water, but there is no water heater so that's kind of self-correcting." He handed her the small battery powered lantern he had been using. She thanked him and went through the door.

An hour later, Marcus came out of the surgery room. "Alphas... Mitch will be fine. I removed the bullet and repaired the damage as best I could, his werewolf healing should take over from there. He did lose a lot of blood, but I had enough volunteers for transfusions that he is doing fine."

"Thank you, Doc. You get some sleep, all right?" Reggie shook his brother-in-law's hand, his pride in his skills evident.

"Sure, Alpha. I just need to check on those still with the fever, including Josi."

"We went through a few minutes ago, there are only a half dozen townsfolk left who haven't gotten past the fever, and all of them were damn near dead when you bit them. You've done a good thing here, Marcus."

"I think so too, Reggie. There would only be a few dozen humans left right now if we didn't." He walked off, stripping off his surgical gown and tossing it in a garbage as he headed for the locker room.

Reggie and Kelly went to Josi's room; she was still feverish, but improving. "Luna, I think it is too late to get you back home before sunrise. If you want, we can bring you back to the Pack houses and you can stay there."

She looked around. "No, there are plenty of beds and couches here. I want to talk to Josi before I leave. She was ours before she became yours, and her friends are still up in my Pack. I need to tell them how she is doing." She saw he was crawling in and cuddling his mate, she smiled as she saw the love and care he had for her. Taking the other bed in the room, she laid down and covered herself up.

Tomorrow would be a better day, they both thought. -- Donald woke first, and he moved silently around the cave without disturbing the others. After relieving himself outside the cave entrance, he went back in and started building the fire back up again for breakfast. The smell of meat roasting was enough to wake the rest; Barry, Brian and Terry soon joined him around the fire. They ate a big meal of steak, canned vegetables and canned fruits, knowing that they might not eat for a while today.

"What do you guys know about Corvallis," Donald asked as he sat back.

"Not much, really," said Barry. "We don't get south of Missoula. We didn't see any fires, that's a good thing."

Terry leaned in. "There aren't any Packs here in the south valley, so there wasn't any reason for us to come down here. I came once while in high school, our basketball team played theirs. It's a nice town, about a thousand people, just up the hill from the river."

"How well do you think they came through? Are there a lot of stone houses, basements, that kind of thing?"

"I'm not sure. Downtown has some solid stone buildings, but most of the town was built with lumber. I don't remember seeing much in the way of basements, probably too rocky for most." He tossed a stick into the fire. "I guess we'll find out."

Barry looked out the cave entrance, noting the sun was going to be down soon, then back to Donald. "So what's the plan? Look for your kin and then what?"

"Change them if they want and bring them back to North Fork." He saw the shocked faces. "That's what we did back home. The humans who survived the initial event, we changed them all, but by the time we decided to we could only save eleven. Down in Salmon, they've saved over a hundred by biting them and the rest of the town will be changing next."

"But... you can't do that! It's against the Council laws, it's punishable by death!" Barry looked at Donald like he had three heads, their whole lives they had been warned against letting humans know of them and the consequences of changing a human without permission, which was rarely given except for mates.

Donald laughed. "Geez, Barry, get with the times. That thinking is SO last week." He gestured to the cave entrance. "Ninety percent of the living things out there died that first day, the only ones who survived had gone underground or had some protection from the radiation. Cattle, deer, birds- all dead. No electricity, no electronics. No running water, no refrigerators or freezers, no medical care, no manufacturing. It's all gone. They are all doomed, even ones who made it through the night were dying rapidly. We found out that biting a human allowed the person to fight off the radiation sickness and recover. These were our friends, neighbors and coworkers... we couldn't just let them die." He saw Terry nod in agreement. "It's a whole new world now. Werewolves are better able to survive than humans, we can function better at night and we stick together as a Pack. Humans are devolving, they might hang on in pockets but very few will make it through this winter without us."

The three looked at each other, obviously talking through the bond. Finally, Barry spoke up. "So your plan is to change everyone?"

"Only the ones who have a chance of becoming good pack members. I also can only change those I can take care of and get back to North Fork; without an Alpha to help after the change, they could go feral and I can't risk that. It's too far to walk them back in a night, so unless we get some transportation we will be limited to those we can carry on our backs. So no... I don't know what exactly I'll do yet, but I need to find Silvia's family first. Their house is just north of downtown, she said."

They took a few minutes to smother the fire and gather the gear as sundown approached. They divided the gear among their bags so they could carry them in wolf form. They put clothes on top as they knew they would be talking to humans. As the sun dipped below the mountains, Donald addressed them with the plan. "We're going to circle to the north of town and leave our gear there. We'll change back and dress, then make our way to the house. Try to avoid humans and follow my lead." With that, they shifted and moved out of the mountains and over the flat land of the valley.

An hour later they had shifted and dressed. The town was quiet, and the smell of death and decay was heavy in the air. As they moved through the small housing developments, they could see why. The houses were all built on slabs or crawlspaces, and were wooden in construction. Basically, they were huge coffins that provide no protection to them. They breathed through their mouths to avoid the smell as they worked their way to the address Donald had been given.

The ranch house was quiet; they worked their way around the outside, using their sensitive hearing they didn't sense anyone inside. Donald had them keep watch while he went in. He had a small flashlight that still worked; it didn't look like anyone had been home. He found some orange juice in the fridge, taking that he went back outside and gathered the guys around. They passed the drink around as he recapped what he did and didn't see.

The break was nearly over when the sound of a truck came from the north. They spread out, finding places to hide as the lights approached. It was a big Army Reserve truck, the kind with a canvas back, and it was headed straight for downtown. As it came closer, they could make out the driver, and he was wearing the outfit of a prisoner. "Bad guys," Barry said just loud enough for them all to hear. They stayed in their hides as the truck passed, they could see three guys in the cab and one in the back, and all were armed with rifles.

When they had passed, the guys got back together. "What do we do about this shit?" Brian looked at the truck disappearing in the distance. "Those guys are bad news."

Donald nodded. "They are headed for downtown, let's follow them and see what is going on. Shift to wolf form and follow my lead." Taking their clothes off and packing them in their bags, they soon were moving quickly along the dark streets. The houses got older and larger as they got closer, including some beautiful Victorians, but there was still no sign of life.

As they approached downtown, they could hear shouting, gunshots and screaming from the bank building. The wolves moved instinctively to surround the threat while staying out of sight. The scene before them mad their wolves rage for blood.

The bank had evidently been the shelter for a number of townspeople, who were now being herded out by the men with rifles. They could see two men lying dead on the steps, rifles in hand, one with a young woman crying over him. The people gathered together on the sidewalk, clutching each other in fear. They watched for a while longer as men were forced to carry loads out to the truck. One by one, they tossed the bags of cash onto the army truck.

Donald motioned for them to fall back, and when out of sight they shifted so they could all talk. The boys were distraught. "Donald, what do we do?"

Donald laughed. "They're idiots." The boys looked at him in shock. "Did you see what they are going around collecting? Cash." He waved his hand at the sky. "Do you know what those bills are worth now?"

"I don't know, they had to have a few hundred grand there." Terry said.

"It makes sucky toilet paper. If they were hoarding that, they'd be smart. That, canned food, liquid propane canisters, medical supplies. That's what you need now, not cash or jewelry. It could be decades before that stuff is worth having." He looked at them all. "We can't let them continue terrorizing these people. Are you guys in?"

The three nodded. "All right, we don't have weapons like they do, so we have to do this in wolf form. Terry, you'll be with me. We're going to work our way to the front of the truck while they are inside, and hide underneath. Barry, Brian, you're going to loop around behind the building and make your way to the front corners. We wait until at least two of the bad guys are at the truck, then Terry and I will take them out." He stared the three down. "Nothing fancy, go right for the throats and tear them out. We don't want them to warn the others. Barry, Brian, when we move you do too. If there are more guys outside, you take them. If the two are inside, you wait by the doors for them to come out."

"What about the people," Brian said.

"Keep out of their sight, but when we've taken the four bad guys out, shift." Their jaws dropped. "It's all right, they are going to be frightened of the wolves that kill the guys, better to shift and let the confusion stop them for a moment. Plus, we are going to reveal ourselves anyway, so what better time than when the bad guys are dead?" They nodded in agreement, and after a few more questions the four of them shifted into their wolves and moved off.