Haken: A Capacity for Violence Part 3

This story features forge master Haken and takes place between the events of 'Werewolves: Haven Rising' and 'Werewolves 3: Evolution's End.' 

[If you haven't read part 2, click on the Collections tab and select 'Werewolves' to find the previous installment of this story.]

"I assume you didn't find any others on the shoreline?" Haken asked as the two werewolves trekked through the dense forest of evergreens. For once he was grateful to be in human form—the pine needles and branches would have played havoc with his fur. They'd been walking for half an hour now and there still wasn't any sign of civilization. Normally that would have suited him just fine, but the boy was right about one thing—he needed proper rest eventually, but he'd be damned before he'd admit weakness to a coward and traitor. 

"I was following two wolves when I dove into the water," Haken continued. "Damn sure one of them was Williams–ugly, roided-up body and all, but I didn't get a good look at the other one. Might have been his kid." He could barely believe that Williams was still alive. Maybe there really was something to that experimental formula after all, but he doubted that going bat-shit insane was a price worth paying for increased survivability. Better to go out on his own terms, mind clear with the heart of a warrior. 

"I was hoping more of us would escape," Lapu said. "But they were the only other wolves I saw." He was craning his head in all directions as he walked, looking for something. "It scared the shit out of me! No one told me Williams was still alive! I sure as hell wasn't going to offer him a meal and safe passage."

"Can't blame you, there," Haken said. "What are you looking for, anyway?"

"The road. I parked my car somewhere out here, but I think I got turned around."

Haken sniffed the air and turned to his right, pointing the path out. "This way."

"How do you know?"

"You call yourself a wolf but you can't even follow the scent of a roadway? Gas fumes? Sunbaked concrete? All this time I thought you were shying away from the road and aiming for a building or camp. You'd make a shitty tracker."

Lapu paused for a moment to get his bearings. "You're right," he groaned. "But you can't really blame me for that, though. I didn't grow up in the woods like you did. All I ever knew was Haven–making my way through the forest isn't exactly second nature to me."

"All I'm hearing are excuses," Haken said. "Follow me. I'll get us to the road and you can find the car." He was starting to get a bad feeling about his situation. Why would this 'Maker' send a boy with no tracking experience to pick up escaping wolves? How had she even known that Rivera's prison cells would be opening up on their own, anyway? If Lapu was right and Maker worked for General Rivera, she may have staged the breakout herself–but the whole thing felt so half-assed. It didn't pass the smell-test. 

"Your new owner set this all up, did she?" Haken asked. The trees were thinning now and he could feel the rumbling of a truck engine sending minute tremors through the earth. Only a few more minutes until they hit the road. "Garbage strategy unless she was only looking for me. Or wanted you dead."

"She's not my owner," Lapu said, flashing a wounded look in Haken's direction. "And if she wanted me dead, I'm sure she could have managed it days ago. I don't know if she arranged the breakout or not—I'm not in a place to be asking too many questions. I've done what I had to do to survive."

"Not exactly a comforting sentiment, coming from you." 

Lapu shrugged. "I can't blame you for saying that."

"Gods damned right." He cocked his head to the side, scanning the bushes and undergrowth. "Thought I heard something. Must have been my imagination–I swear there's still water in my ears from my dunk in the river."

The boy rushed over to the suspicious area and gave it a once-over. "There's nothing here. I'm pretty sure we left those soldiers in the dust a while ago. They never tracked you past the river."

Haken chewed his lip nervously. "That's some shoddy work on their part. Almost like they wanted to lose us."

"You're not giving me much credit for helping you out," Lapu said. "But you're at least partially right. They weren't really looking for you, at least you weren't their priority."

"Rivera's got a bit of a hard-on for Williams, eh?"

"Not the way I would have put it," the boy replied with a grimace of distaste, "but yeah, basically. Soon as they noticed him getting out of the water, they left you behind like a bad habit."

Haken sniffed. "Story of my damn life, but for once being invisible has its advantages."

"Invisible?" Lapu said. "Are you kidding me? You know all the pups in Haven were terrified of you, right?"

"That so?"

The boy nodded. "Yup. When I was little, my dad used to tell me that if I didn't go to sleep, he'd march me right to the forge and have you put me to work until I collapsed. It always seemed like you were a hundred feet tall. Wolf mountain. Nothing could stand up to you. That's why it felt so weird pulling your butt out of danger–I guess no one's invincible, after all. Talk about your rude awakenings."

"Enough." Haken gave a dismissive wave of his hand. "We're almost to the road. Think you'll be able to find that car of yours or was your usefulness a one-time deal?"

"Hurtful," Lapu muttered as the two of them came out of the woods onto the side of a single-width dirt road.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Lapu pointed down the road toward a beat up old sedan that could have been a junker just as easily as it could run. 

Haken stopped dead in his tracks. "That's it? That shitbox is so small I'm not sure if I can even fit inside. I thought this 'Maker' person had government funding?"

"I also said she's branching out on her own. You can't put an operation like this on the government's tab."

Haken grunted and got moving toward the parked car. "Yer right about that, but she could have done better than this." Something was bothering him. "You never actually said what she wanted from us."

"Huh?"

"This Maker lady. You said she was rescuing wolves from her bosses in the military but you never said why."

Lapu was quiet for several seconds. "She never told me," he admitted with an embarrassed shrug. "I never really thought about it. All I knew was that she wanted to put one over on the government and she rescued me from the other humans who wanted to use me as a science experiment."

"Gods above, save me from this imbecile…" Haken groaned. "How do you know she's any better?"

"Umm…she gave me this car?"

Haken pulled the driver's side door open and scanned the inside. "Not a point in her favor, far as I'm concerned." He hunched himself over awkwardly and sat down. "Keys." He held out his hand.

"Would you mind if I drive?" Lapu asked.

"Yeah, I would." He gestured at Lapu's pants pocket. "Give me the keys so we can get the hell out of here."

"But you don't know where we're going!"

Haken shook his head. "Doesn't matter where you came from–we're not going back."

Lapu blinked and nearly fumbled the car keys to the ground as he handed them over. "We're not?"

"You said yourself you don't know what Maker's motivations are and I'm not in a trusting mood, especially for government scientists, rogue or otherwise." He snatched the keys from the boy's hand and slid them into the ignition.

"But she's on our side!"

Haken turned the keys to start the car, but nothing happened. "Not the first time you've trusted someone you shouldn't have." He punched the dashboard hard enough to crack the plastic and got out. "It's dead."

"What?" Lapu asked. "It was fine just the other day!"

"Good enough for a one-way ticket." He took a breath. "Wait. Someone's here…waiting for us. Lapu, you little piece of shit!"

"It wasn't me!" the boy yipped as three men in mottled green and brown camo sprang up from behind the trees at the side of the road. "I've never seen them before!"

The soldiers didn't bother with words. They aimed their rifles and fired, pelting Haken's exposed human skin with a volley of blunt projectiles driven hard enough to leave deep red welts. It felt like he was being beaten by a dozen hammers all at once. He stumbled and fell, but the humans kept firing. He tried desperately to will the change—to rid himself of his pathetic human form and rise against the attackers, wreaking vengeance—but he was too tired and undernourished. Being honest with himself, it had been nothing short of a miracle that he made it this far at all. Maybe there was some comfort in that, he thought as the world slowly turned black around him. 

A small twitch of a smile came to his lips when he saw Lapu fall beside him, face wrinkled with pain. So, Lapu hadn't played him for a fool after all. Rivera's soldiers must have caught up with them, maybe got a whiff of the campfire or spotted the car and disabled it. Just dumb luck, was all. Like everything else in his life, his fate had been entirely left in the cruel hands of chance.