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Scared, paired walking soldiers

We're all wounded anyway

In our respective ways

The walking wounded- Bayside

Still pondering about the mysterious stranger who had slaved us, I dragged myself over to the rest of the group, huddling together against the cold that had crept back after the heat of battle faded, the cache was as still intact, but glancing at Otto and his steel hand I had an idea, "Otto, could you do anything with the lock on this crate." He glanced over from where he had been gnawing at one of the bodies; "yes, I could unlock it" he said and drew a key from some deep recess in his ragged uniform, "you had the key all along! Why didn't you tell us" we all shouted. "Smiling at us, he replied "you never asked." And before we could fall upon him he sped to the lock and inserted the key.

Otto raised the lid and looked in, his face slackened and he turned to us, Its empty, sae for an axe, a first aid kit and a note, he picked it up, and read aloud "this is supposed to be a test of endurance and initiative." In the background I heard Erik moaning and the laboured breathing of Adam and James as they shivered in there sparse uniform. We had to do something or we would just lie down and die, so someone suggested that I try and find some game while the others tended to our wounded, Otto volunteered but I told him he was needed here in case of another attack, and we all carefully didn't say that his current mental state would probably cause anything within a mile of him to start running for the horizon, us included, so I left the clearing and headed south.

Around twenty minutes in I felt curiously close to the wolf inside me, that it was becoming easier to accept I was him rather than before, back when it was a case of me and it and it was a hunger to be fed, no wonder James mentioned blood on my hands when he met me, I left a trail of bodies behind me, remembering that Otto once mentioned that everyone here had pasts I couldn't help wonder what the others were. This line of thinking was halted suddenly by a smell in the air, it smelt foreign but I knew one thing, hitting me between the eyes with a million years of instinct, there was prey!

After I drew closer to the tantalizing smell I began thinking, how am I going to get it back to the others, it was several miles to the grove and pulling a deer would make it unbearable in any weather, but I didn't see any other choice so, letting my instinct drive me, I began heading towards the back of the herd, I spotted a buck hobbling on a rear leg, that was the one, my backbrain told me, charge for this one, so I charged, and only thought afterwards about why wolves hunt in packs.

I lunged out of the dead undergrowth and charged at my target, the herd scattered, and my prey was running, but too slowly and after hot pursuit I sunk my fangs into its neck. Much to my surprise, it didn't go down, but first kicked me in the chest, I shot backwards and only when I reached it again had it succumbed to its wounds, I gasped with pain, I knew I could heal but I would need to change back, and in this temperature I couldn't risk it , so after tearing off the head and feasting on it, I grabbed the carcase and began the slow haul back to our impromptu camp.

Hour after hour I pulled, growing weaker from the broken ribs and the effort of pulling a fully grown reindeer through the forest. I began to shut down, my thoughts growing slow and jumbled until I collapsed, I realised I could hear the others, "how typical" I thought as my limbs began to grow cold, to fail at the final hurdle, and in failing damn the rest." I began to drown in my morose thoughts but just as I resolved to lie here and freeze a voice came to me, "please hurry" I heard echo faintly in my head, having seen him earlier after he issued his psychic S.O.S., thought about what that message had cost him, and so, I rose up using the brain implants to whip my body into use, drawing on the strength that my body was not meant to bear, I trudged on through the trees, until at last, I reached the edge of the grove, "honey, I'm home." I called, and then collapsed into the cold embrace of the ground, smiling madly, and wondering if this is what Otto felt like all the time.

I rose from the depths of sleep, still haunted by our encounter, and opened my eyes. The gloom of the night was being held back by a fire, occasionally fed by Lucy. I looked around, and spotted Markus lying on a bet of wood. I shuffled over to him and whispered "thanks", I looked into the fire, accepted the proffered spit of reindeer and settled.

After a few minutes I asked Lucy the only one of us save from me who wasn't sleeping or the otherwise unavailable. "What happened while I was gone?" I said to her "well, that axe certainly proved useful, if you look over there" she pointed to a cone of wood and tightly packed snow, around 5 meters from the fire" you'll see the thing preventing us from freezing to death tonight, the fires just to keep away animals and Markus warm, we tried to put him in the shelter but the close proximity to the nightmares flying around in people's heads after the attack, made him scream and cry and it got a bit intense in there, so now he's out here with me, I'm out here because there's not enough room when I'm like this", gesturing to her huge ursine body" and as most of our fatigues have been used to bind that bed together and into traces so we can drag it, I'm not going in there as human, so get in there, if you don't want bits of you to fall off tomorrow." "What about you" I replied, "do you think this furs a fashion accessory, please remember that I've been through the upgrades, same as you, but you don't have the bulk to stand it all night, so get in there now and be grateful its dark in there." And with that she looked at me pointedly, and I decided if chivalry was requiring I freeze my balls off in a Siberian winter it could get stuffed, and crawled through the entrance, and amongst the body heat of my five fellow sufferers fell into a deep haunted sleep.

The next morning I rose to the sound of mutual groaning, we slowly forced our limbs out into the clearing, gratefully they had slept changed, which meant that we could either leave slowly, one at a time, or try and force ourselves through, collapsing the shelter over our heads. Eventually we were all blinking in the cold light of dawn and we began preparing for the long trek south, Markus was still in a psychic coma so we strapped him and Erik, whose wounds from the old one would not regenerate, was wrapped in bandages and strapped in alongside him, the sled was strapped to Lucy, me, and James and we set out into the endless forest, following Corvus as he strode forwards with our map in his hand, Otto walked aside the sled and stared into the trees for threats and Adam, the cold already chilling his reptilian blood brought up the rear, axe in hand and looking pissed off enough to keep us walking at a steady pace.

Marching through the forest, I fell into the monotony of putting step in front of step, not allowing me to think of the finish. By the time the sun had sunk we had reached the outskirts of the forest. Deciding to stop, keeping to the shelter of the trees, after some axework we were able to set up camp. As we sat around the campfire in the twilight, Markus had recovered and had joined us as the fire, I probably should have noticed this before I began to wonder about what the others had done to be here, mine was just an occult and much more bloody version of any addict's story, started, tried to stop, failed, living with it the best you could (except in this case every time I succumbed there were bodies around in the morning). Markus turned from huddling around the fire and looked at me, "that was interesting, but could you save the maudlin for later, its giving me a headache, if you really want to know, ask" " What was that?" asked Adam, "Wolfie here is wondering why we're all here, his is a touch and contains a bit more innocent bloodshed than is palatable, but overall a bit mundane." Markus said teasingly. "Well, if you want to know, mine was a result a frankly brilliant piece of blackmail, I acquired some very interesting photos of a dynasty matriarch, incest is so tacky nowadays, so I bargained on her willing to pay the slightly extortionate fee to make the photos disappear, instead she found me and gave me an ultimatum, enlist and disappear or be stuffed and mounted on her bedroom wall. I would have been rich, rich, rich" Adam said wistfully. "now what's your story, Markus" he said pointedly "mine was a case of some quite nasty coincidences, the worst of them happened in a very underfunded orphanage where they covered up a suicide some years before I arrived there, then they allotted me the poor bastards room. The result of combining a psychic with the residual emotions of a suicide resulted in me being sectioned for around two years before some idiot forgot to give me my meds and I ended up driving the rest of the ward completely insane. Next thing I knew, well aside from the screaming and the singing lemons, I was on an operating table being told I'd been enlisted, tried to read the little creep's mind, and he took great pleasure pointed out that I'd had a limiter installed in my brain and if I tried to use it my gift when it was, my head would become a thin red paste ditto if someone tries to remove it.". "Oh, is it story time over there"

"Shut up, Corvus, your only here because that rather prudish young aristo found out about your ménage a trois with his sister... and his younger brother and you volunteered at sword point, I made a fortune selling that story to the tabloids" Adam riposted.

"Out of curiosity, what's a lovely lady like you doing here" Corvus said suavely at Lucy. "Shut up you greasy bastard, I volunteered"

"And you Otto, what did you do to end up this little piece of hell with us" I asked him "Ask James" he said blithely and turned away. We made good time and eventually, a few hours from the deadline reached a blockhouse standing alone in the wastes, we entered and chalked onto the floor was a pentagram and another note, It read ' we never said we were bringing you back.' But scrawled quickly on the back was 5 words, 'remember his gift- sgt M.

Scrabbling through the rags my fatigues had become on the long trek south I found the dagger that the masked stranger had tossed me before he vanished, Corvus immediately snatched it and his face lit up," why didn't you show me this earlier! It's our key back, and if you'd shown me it four days ago we would've been back by evening. Now all of you, occupy yourself for a few hours while I work and we'll be home and slightly wet before you know it!" with that he almost skipped off into a corner of the blockhouse and began his work.