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Raven Wolf - The Wilds - Chapter Two

Eva once again stands in the room on the other side of the one sided glass window, she watching a recording on a monitor within the room that had been taken earlier that day, the same black wolf being asked the same tiring question that he had been asked every day of his life since being taken into the project over three hundred years ago.

"Did you have any strange dreams?"

The black wolf nods his head yes. "I saw a woman, a white wolf with the mark of a black bird on her chest."

The scientist's ears perk as he lifts his head, he looking to having just been jolted from a dream. "You actually saw-!? What? Explain!"

The black wolf with white eyes begins to explain further. "There was more than just her... there were a lot of people... a lot of men that all wore the same thing and bore the same brand." He looks to the patch of the government military that is on his clothes. "The same brand that's on my clothing."

He looks back to the scientist in front of him. "They stood across from a group of other people... strange looking ones decorated with paint and feathers their faces hidden behind masks that look like bird skulls, all of them with the mark of the black bird on their chest. At the center of all the people two figures talked... one was a large jackal in an important uniform with many emblems on it, the other wears a large headdress that looks like the skull of a bird on his head... you can't see his face or what he is... but I think he's a wolf, because everyone else on his side are."

"A decision is made between the two men, and two people from either side step forward to be exchanged. The men in uniform send a younger boy over... he can't be very old at all... maybe twelve...he's from mountain lion decent it looks like. In return the wolves send over the woman... the white wolf with the mark of the bird on her chest."

"One of the men standing in the crowds on the uniformed side raises a weapon he is holding and points it towards the young boy, there is a loud noise and the boy falls down. Everyone begins to panic, the men in uniform blame the wolves for the boy's death even though it was one of their men that had raised their weapon. They attack the wolves, and the wolves fight back."

"The man that wears the skull of the large bird is strong... very strong, he destroys everything in his path... the weapons and the large machines the uniformed men had brought with them do little to stop him, and they run away because he is too strong, and they take the white wolf with the marking upon her chest with them." He lowers his head. "And... that was it... I woke up after that..."

The black wolf looks back to the man he was speaking to. "I don't understand... I've never had a dream like this before... it was like nothing I had ever seen... it came out of nowhere..."

The recording is paused, Eve looking over to her boss. "What... was all that about...? I mean... even if he did see something different... that... doesn't sound like the end of the world by any means. In fact it doesn't even sound very possible, one of the things that he described was one person being able to destroy military machines and cause an army to retreat! Just how plausible do you think that is? Maybe for once he just happened to have a dream."

A deep and gruff voice interrupts them. "Where is the subject that had this dream?"

The three scientists that were gathered around the monitor turn back towards the doorway, a large uniformed man of jackal decent standing there with a freshly printed file in his hands.

Eve stares at him, he reminding her of the person that the black wolf had depicted from his dream. "A large jackal in uniform..."

Her boss approaches the jackal. "General Mort. So you got the report then. It must be significant if you've come here about it so soon. I must have finished entering that no more than fifteen minutes ago." He becomes nervous when he sees the cold glare on the jackal's face. "Yes, you must be referring to subject #1502. Mr. Conner's returned him to his room already."

Mort points to the room the one sided window peered into. "Have him prepared for questioning immediately." He looks over to Eve. "Are you Prof. Cadrey?"

Eve nods her head. "Yes."

Mort points down to the files he held. "It says here that of the three they've got talking to him you're the one he responds the most favourably to."

Eve seems a little perplexed. "I... don't believe that he responds to me any differently than Mr. Philip or Keith... I mean he always says the same thing to any of us... and it wasn't me that he told this dream to."

Her boss looks over to her, explaining to her why he had written that in the report. "When you were first introduced to him he took to you immediately and answered the questions you presented him. Usually when we bring a new scientist in he's cautious and won't say anything to them for weeks until he finally starts answering the question."

Mort walks over to her handing her a folder despite Eve's ramblings. "Ask him the questions I've written down. They're not ones he'll be used to hearing, but are questions that we need immediate answers for. So having the person he responds the most favourably to is a priority."

Eve stares down at the folder in her hands. "Yes... I suppose that I can do that..." She walks past him leaving the room and entering the small white room that the single sided glass looks into, she staring over at the glass for a moment, well aware of just how many eyes were watching her, she turning away from it and taking her usual seat at the table. "He responds the most favourably to me... even if that is true why are they so afraid that he's not going to answer the questions if someone else asks him?"

She thinks back trying to remember how he could have possibly acted more favourably to her, she had been doing this job for five years now and every day seemed exactly the same. Every third day she would ask him the same question she had the day before, and he would always answer her in the same way. Even if he did speak to her without trouble when they were first introduced like her boss had said the conversation was always exactly the same as it was with anyone else.

After a few minutes the door to the small white room opens and the grey wolf that worked for the military leads the black wolf with the white eyes inside, the subject stopping as he stares over at Eve for a moment a little surprised to see her, this not part of the usual schedule at all. "I'm not supposed to see you until tomorrow."

The grey wolf grins at the black wolf. "Well you said some pretty extraordinary things this morning didn't you Yula? So this is to be expected."

Eve nods her head as she watches the perplexed wolf take his seat. "Yes, Mr. Conner is correct, some important matters have come up in regards to that so called vision of yours. You had that dream last night didn't you? The one you told to Keith this morning?"

The wolf stares at her. "Did you want to hear about it too?"

Eve shakes her head no. "No, I've already heard about it. I just have some questions concerning it that's all." She opens the folder in front of her, reading the first question that had been written down on it. "In your dream you said that one of the uniformed men acted out of line, raised his weapon and kill the boy that was being exchanged from their side. Do you know the name of this man?" She narrows her eyes at the wording, the idea of an exchange being made and the question itself being strange.

The black wolf shakes his head no. "No... how would I know his name?" Eve is about to continue on with the next question but is stopped when the black wolf continues. "None of them had names on their uniforms, they only have numbers. I can't remember exactly what his was... but it had the number thirteen in it three times, I also know what he looked like, he was a skunk."

Eve stares at him for a moment. "How... could you have possibly remembered a detail as small as a number on a uniform from your dream?"

The black wolf holds his ears against his head as if he done something wrong. "I don't know... I mean... I just... it felt like it was important... so I made myself try to memorize it... I didn't end up remembering the whole number though like I had tried..."

Eve continues to stare at him. "I see..." She looks back down at her paper of questions. "When you talk about your dream, you focus a lot on someone you describe was 'the white wolf with the mark of a black bird on her chest.' Why out of the many people you described to have seen was she so important?"

The black wolf seems confused on how he should go about explaining that answer. "Well... I don't know how to explain it... this dream and everything that happened in it... it was all about her. Like... the purpose of the dream was to focus on her because she was important... or something... I don't know if I can explain it any better than that."

Eve looks back to her list, there not many questions on it at all. "Don't worry about it, you explained it in the best way that you could." She pauses when reads the second last question. "Do you recognize this man?" What did a question like that have to do with a dream?

The black wolf looks confused. "What man? There's no one else here..." He looks back to the door of the room. "Do you mean Teddy? If that's who you mean then yeah... he's been my guard for seven years now."

Eve shakes her head no. "No... not him." She lifts the sheet of paper that she had been reading off of, revealing a picture that had been placed in the folder with her questions. She picks it up looking it over for a moment. There were several people in the photo and it had been taken from someone that had been far away, no faces could be seen as everyone was turned away, possibly completely unaware that a photo of them had been taken. The quality was terrible and it looked to be very old considering the blurred details and quality that even the normal priced cameras of today could easy pick up, not to mention both the location and the clothing of those in it looked very old. She places the picture upon the table passing it to the black wolf, she unable to see the significance in it. "Umm... I guess... the man in this picture...?"

The wolf's white eyes quickly glance over the image, there being so many people in it. "Which one-" His eyes widen as he quickly places his hand upon the picture pointing one of the figures out. "That's him! That's the powerful guy that destroyed everything!"

Eve looks to the figure that the wolf is pointing it, the person looking exactly as the figure he had described in his dream, his face masked by the skull of a large bird. "This is the man you saw in your dream?"

The black wolf pauses for a moment staring at the figure he was pointing out. "Or... no... wait... I guess it isn't... This guy looks a lot bigger than the guy in my dream, and this guy has light grey fur while the one in my dream hate a coat as white as snow." He looks back to Eve. "But he was defiantly wearing the same thing as this guy."

Eve looks back to her paper, reading the note above the last question 'only ask if he shows recognition towards the photo' She looks back to him, he had indeed shown recognition, not complete recognition of course but there were some things that he did recognize. "Alright then, last question." She pauses for a moment to give her co-workers a chance to contact her through her ear piece just in case the recognition he had towards the photo was not enough, no one giving her the signal to stop. She looks back to the black wolf asking him the last question that to her, sounded very odd. "In which direction did the man in the skull mask run? Do you know where he went?"

The black wolf looks more confused than ever. "Where he went...? I don't know..." He thinks back trying to recall. "The men in uniform were the ones that left first... but now that you mention it the wolves didn't give chase... something must have stopped them... but I really don't remember them leaving, The dream was over before I could see anything like that." His black ears again lower against his head. "I'm sorry I couldn't answer your questions any better than that..."

Eve smiles back at him. "Don't look so upset you did a good job, they're not questions that you're normally asked so I was afraid that you might panic." She looks over towards the door. "The two of us are finished for the day, so Mr. Conner will escort you back to your room now."

The black wolf nods his head in understanding as he gets up from his chair and leaves the room, joining the grey wolf that proceeds to see him back to his quarters. Eva gathering the photo and placing it back in the folder before getting up and leaving the room herself heading back to the room the others were in, she immediately turning to General Mort and holding the file out to him. "What was the meaning to this? Why are we asking my subject such strange questions!?"

Mort takes the folder from her. "As I just finished explaining to your superior, the incident the subject saw was in fact an event that happened that night. We intended to capture the leader, but in the end ended up with the female instead. The leader we were targeting ended up escaping and now, search as we might, we cannot locate him or any other members of the Raven Wolf tribe."

Eve frowns at the information, it was indeed common knowledge that the government military was actively dealing with the many tribes of wilds -groups of individuals that did not give into the domestication process and chose to continue living in the wild- that lived outside the city. "Raven Wolf? This is all about a pack of wilds? How does a tribe of wilds relate to the end of the world?"

Mort glares down at her. "At this point we don't know, but I think that it's in our best interest to find out!"

Eve stares at the jackal for a moment longer, she now beginning to question him about the event that her subject had apparently seen. "What exactly happened last night...? From the way that the subject described what he saw... it sounds as if this was an arranged meeting between the two parties, but then something went terribly wrong."

Mort crosses his arms. "It was a mock peace treaty, meant to trap and capture the leader of Raven Wolf."

Eve seems confused. "Why would you need to think up such a scenario? How hard can it be for the military to catch a few wilds?"

Mort narrows his eyes turning away from her and leaving the room, he obviously very insulted by the comment, Eve watching him leave not entirely sure of what she had said wrong. She looks back to her co-workers, they simply shrugging their shoulders at her, not knowing anything about it either.

Eve's boss speaks up. "While you were questioning the subject we received new orders regarding him. They need him moved to another facility, we can't keep him here anymore."

Eve looks a little confused. "Why? I mean... it's not that big of a deal I guess... this is a really high security facility and it seems kind of excessive to keep him here, I mean I honestly don't believe he's capable of even hurting a fly, but of all times to decide to move him why now?"

"Do you really want to know what the military is thinking? I'd rather just follow the orders given then get into all that complicated stuff. The only thing that's concerning me is that the facility they want to transfer him to is an hour drive from my house, and that's not including rush hour traffic. Do you have any idea of how much earlier I'm going to have to wake?" He lets out a sigh. "I just moved to an apartment near here too so that I wouldn't have to drive more than five minutes to work. The irony of this situation is killing me."

Eve stares at her co-worker, although she was interested in what was going on both him and her boss looked like they could care less. The subject had finally seen something, perhaps not what they wanted but it was indeed something. Something like this should be perused and questioned! Not let left alone like some mundane everyday occurrence!

Eve leaves the room looking down the hall she knew lead to the quarters that their subject was staying in, she beginning to walk down them.

Before long she finds the room she is looking for, the grey wolf that always escorted her test subject to his room now sitting on a chair outside the room. He looking over to her a little surprised to see her. "You need Yula again so soon? Did you forget something?"

Eve stares at the grey wolf a little confused. "Yu-la...?"

The wolf nods his head. "Yeah... you know... you guys question him every day, he lives in this room here. You know... Yula." He stares at her a little surprised. "That's his name... you know that right?"

Eve flushes, she holding her hand to her face to hide her embarrassed expression. For the five years she had been working here she had never bothered to ask or even learn her subject's name. "Oh I... of course... Yula..."

The wolf frowns at her. "You didn't care enough to bother with his name, just like everyone else on the project."

Eve stares at him not sure of what to say, an announcement playing over the buildings intercom breaking the awkward silence. "All available security personal please make your way to the north hallway on the fifth floor."

Eve frowns back at him, it was true that she had not known Yula's name, but that really wasn't her fault, no one else she had worked with had ever carried to mention it to her, in fact neither of them probably knew it either. She was there to do her job regarding the subject nothing more than that. "Look, I'm just here to do my job, it's not that I didn't care I just... I don't know... I mean I'm here to work... and learning his name just never came up." She shakes her head looking back to Mr. Conner, not letting him side track her. "Look that's not why I came here! What the subject saw wasn't a dream, he witnessed something that happened last night. Did you let him out? Did he escape? How did he see all of this happening?"

The grey wolf looks insulted by what Eve is saying. "Look here missy, I've been Yula's military guard for seven years now and not a single time have I let him out or allowed him to escape! I do my job and I do it well. He had a legitimate vision, he saw this all in the dream he had." He looks back to the room Yula is in. "Sure I don't keep him in the room all day, he's gotta wander around or he'd probably go crazy, but he's never left this facility and when he's out of his quarters I'm always by his side."

Eve places her hands on her hips. "Alright than Mr. Military Guard, what triggered this dream of his then? You telling him stories of being in the military? Maybe you were there when it happened and relayed the information to him."

The grey wolf gets up from his chair he now annoyed. "You listen to me and you listen well, I don't work out on the field anymore, my job is to stay here and make sure nothing happens to your precious test subject! Sure maybe I get bored and tell him a few things, think about it neither of us have anything better to do, but nothing I ever said to him before triggered even the smallest dream. As for the event that happened last night, I wasn't there or here, my shift is over at seven, Anderson takes care of the night shift not me, and he wouldn't even think about letting Yula out."

Eve stares at him with arms crossed, she finding that hard to believe. She didn't for once believe that the test subject could actually have visions of things that were happening, even less did she believe that he would actually be able to see the future.

The black wolf approaches the door of the room he is in, he looking over to the grey wolf and speaking up to get his attention. "Come on Teddy, Don't get angry just because she's rubbing your fur the wrong way. She's just doing her job, checking out all the possibilities. Just like the soldiers that came before her."

Eve frowns at the information. "Soldiers already came to speak with you about this?"

The grey wolf looks back to her. "Yeah... you're not the only one that thinks I let him out against my orders."

Yula looks out the window of the door of his room, his eyes moving towards Eve. "You must excuse Teddy, he's going through a rough time right now. You see after going through the drill with his superiors he was told that I would be moving to another facility. Teddy doesn't get to come though, he has to stay here because they need him to keep working at this location. I'm going to be getting a new guard when I arrive there."

Eve looks back to the grey wolf. "Teddy...? That's your name?"

Teddy nods his head. "Yeah."

Eve laughs under her breath turning away from him. "It's so cute! I never would have though a member of the military to have a name like that."

Teddy growls in annoyance. "Do you actually have a legitimate reason for being here or did you just come here to harass me!? Honestly what did I ever do to annoy you? We've never even talked to one another before now!"

Yula laughs at Teddy's reaction. "Take it easy Teddy, I'm sure Professor Cadrey didn't mean any harm." He looks back to Eve. "Look... about that dream I had that everyone is talking about. It wasn't anything I had seen or even something anyone's told me. It was just a dream I had last night, nothing more complicated than that."

Eve sighs to herself as she stares back at Yula, it defiantly a lot more complicated than he realized it to be.

*******

It is much later in the day, Eve sitting at her work computer staring at the screen in front of her as she read over the files of Conner and Anderson, the two guards responsible for looking after her subject. She summing up the information she had read to herself. "Anderson's been working here for thirty five years now, and has a spotless record. He's always worked the same job, so he wouldn't have any interesting military stories that he could possibly tell the subject." She takes a mug off of her desk drinking some hot tea. "Conner on the other hand... he's been in the military for nine years, two years he worked out one the field... but he ended up getting injured while on deity, these injuries preventing him from continuing that field of work. Since then he's been stuck playing guard dog at the facility."

She rests her head in her left hand as she taps a pen she is holding against a photo of Teddy her computer monitor was displaying. "If anyone let my subject out to see this event it would more likely be Conner than Anderson... but Anderson is the one that works the nightshift not Conner."

She sighs to herself turning her chair away from the computer. "Why is this bugging me so much!? I'm sure the military is already riding everyone involved so the culprit isn't going to be unknown for very long at all." She sighs to herself, she had to admit she was pretty excited about her subject possibly finally seeing something so learning that was possibly nothing but a farce was pretty disappointing to her, and she wanted more than anything to find the person responsible.

Eve turns her chair back around facing the monitor once again, even after trying to convince herself to do so she still couldn't drop the subject. "Ok, so even if one of them did let the subject out, it's not like he would have been able to leave the building, this place is an extremely high security facility, he probably wouldn't have even made it down the hall." She frowns, everything still pointing to the unbelievable. "Could he really have seen all of this in a dream...?"

Eve's boss enters the room speaking up to get her attention. "Miss. Cadrey, the military is ready to begin moving subject #1502. Your attendance is required."

Eve nods her head, closing the windows she had opened on her computer and getting up to leave. "I'll be right there."